Not only am I sickened by what occurred for a "debate," like a JERK I stayed up too late in order to watch it and the feckless commentary on it. I tried to look for bloggers whose comments were savvy about the hard-to-watch slog. Last night's stupidity, ignorance and mendacity of those who, if they win, will usher in a melding of church and state (god forbid.)
I am HOPING those smart ones I know who are out there will carry the day against this Republican joke of a Party gone off the ledge to the extreme right wing abyss.
Yes, they ALL hate the nuclear Deal with Iran and want to bomb that country. Unfortunately, they want to take with them the rest of us who have a semblance of political understanding and humane thought. We know based on our past suicides that we cannot lose or become expensively quagmired in another eternal war which we are certain to do if we psychotically bomb Iran. The war lovers will not lose their blood nor their children but the military corporations will continue to wade in bucks they deliver.
ALL these Repuglican candidates believe god is on their side. Are they delusional? YES, indeed, they are! Three comments I thought were on point especially the last one from a highschooler:
Gail Wilhem:
Trump said one thing that will reverberate thru Congress. When Trump was asked why he contributed to Democrats as well as Republicans he said because they will do what I ask them to do. Then he said he had contributed to everyone on the stage with him. And there you have it in a nutshell. Contributions from rich guys to buy something from an elected official, in other words, his contributions are bribes, pure and simple.
Allister Woods:
Trump won before the debate started when he didn't raise his hand saying he would blindly support whomever was nominated regardless of who they were just because they were a Republican. Everyone on that stage knew full well when he didn't raise his hand that he was sending a strong message he is in control right now and is in it to win with or without the Republican nomination. Unless something happens and Trump plummets in the poles and a new Republican skyrockets, Trump is the one they are chasing while he calls the shots. Like it or not, even if you are a Republican that hates him you know full well that if Trump doesn't get the nomination the Republicans don't stand a chance if Trump switches to an Independent dividing the Republican vote. The Republicans are going to need every vote they can get, including Trump's to win, they can't afford a divided Party and a divided vote.
[In my opinion the best post worthy of a Bravo!] David Wohlind -- St. Thomas Aquinas High School
Lost count of the bald-faced lies, the attacks on our government and the number of times they uttered the phrase--"this country can be great again" (as if it weren't already) while refusing to acknowledge how Obama's administration brought the hope and change that pulled our country from the brink of world disgrace and a financial disaster left by the last Republican President.
Obama's vision and progressive way of doing things is the reason this country, booming stock market, affordable medical insurance and all, can claim to be on the rise again, after Bush and Cheney did their level best to completely wreck things. ... the Republicans want to take credit for our country's good tidings, after not lifting a finger to help fighting this administration every step of the way.
AFTER WATCHING THE INSANITY IF ONE DOES NOT BELIEVE REPUBLICANS MUST BE STOPPED THEN ONE BELIEVES IN SUICIDE. GET THE VOTES OUT FOR DEMOCRATS AND WORK FAST TO DO IT.
Friday, August 07, 2015
Thursday, August 06, 2015
ACCEPT THE DEAL
Republicans want a better deal but they do not say what it is. To not support this Deal is NUTS! Republicans are trying to bang the drum beat for war with Iran. Same time same channel as these war mongering chicken hawks beat the same drum for war with Iraq. DO NOT LET THEM DO IT BY REJECTING THE DEAL. WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN/WOMAN and tell them to SUPPORT this Deal.
Israel SHOULD want it. Without it, Iran will keep doing what it is doing enriching uranium and ultimately Iran will get the bomb in short order. Congress will concoct a reason to attack especially if there is a Republican (God forbid) president in office after Obama. It's called the "Bush Doctrine" -- Preemptive War.
You want another Middle East war with a power twice the size of Iraq and with a much more savvy military plus powers lined up against us? Well, that is what you will get -- ENDLESS WAR that like all other post WWII wars in which we engage, we will lose.
This is crazy for the US, crazy for Israel and crazy for the world which is why the P5+1 all support it. No one wants WWIII. Pakistan already has nukes.
With the Deal, Iran WILL be monitored. DO NOT LET REPUBLICANS DUPE YOU YET AGAIN. NO MORE MIDDLE EAST WARS SHEDDING OUR BLOOD AND TREASURE for nothing -- Iraq II!!!!
ACCEPT THE DEAL WITH IRAN AND TELL MEMBERS IN CONGRESS TO DO SO AS WELL! THEN ENSURE THERE IS A DEMOCRAT IN THE PRESIDENCY AND TAKE BACK THE CONGRESS!
Natalie Rosen
A Jewish woman FOR the Deal with Iran
Israel SHOULD want it. Without it, Iran will keep doing what it is doing enriching uranium and ultimately Iran will get the bomb in short order. Congress will concoct a reason to attack especially if there is a Republican (God forbid) president in office after Obama. It's called the "Bush Doctrine" -- Preemptive War.
You want another Middle East war with a power twice the size of Iraq and with a much more savvy military plus powers lined up against us? Well, that is what you will get -- ENDLESS WAR that like all other post WWII wars in which we engage, we will lose.
This is crazy for the US, crazy for Israel and crazy for the world which is why the P5+1 all support it. No one wants WWIII. Pakistan already has nukes.
With the Deal, Iran WILL be monitored. DO NOT LET REPUBLICANS DUPE YOU YET AGAIN. NO MORE MIDDLE EAST WARS SHEDDING OUR BLOOD AND TREASURE for nothing -- Iraq II!!!!
ACCEPT THE DEAL WITH IRAN AND TELL MEMBERS IN CONGRESS TO DO SO AS WELL! THEN ENSURE THERE IS A DEMOCRAT IN THE PRESIDENCY AND TAKE BACK THE CONGRESS!
Natalie Rosen
A Jewish woman FOR the Deal with Iran
Tuesday, August 04, 2015
America the Beautiful
Climate change deniers are killing this nation. From sea to shining sea there are weather catastrophes every day ad nauseam. If it is not drought it is multiple fires from drought; if it is not fire it is flood; if it is not flood it is devastating multiple tornadoes throughout the entire Midwest; if it is not tornadoes it is tropical-like storms; if it is not storms it is devastating winters with their accompanying Everest-like mountains of snow that does not entirely melt until July. Fire from environmentally devastating gas fracking is pouring out of people’s faucets giving new meaning to the drinking of firewater.
The costs to our environment and the health costs of all of this are staggering and yet the carbon emissions from factory smokestacks belch on with no end in sight and a science denying Republican Congress that refuses to see the forest through the trees -- at least the trees that are left -- is our brave new world. Climate change stands between us and extinction.
There is enough regurgitation of carbon to proverbially choke a horse. Nearly 100% of scientists who have studied climate change have agreed now for decades there is no doubt the planet is warming and that climate change, in no understated part, has man’s signature on it. This is not conjecture or hypothesis it is fact. Man is committing suicide. Moreover, blood is on his hands for the eventual murder of his own progeny whom he claims to care about so much.
Our rivers, streams and vast parts of the ocean are rife with polluted filth and human sewage. The condition of the waters is so desperate that the summer Olympic Games in Brazil are at risk because of fear from deadly viruses that swim with the dead fish in the ocean – the same ocean athletes will use to compete in the Games.
The BP Gulf oil spill, the largest in this nation's history, is still wreaking havoc in the once-pristine Louisiana ecosystem and its attendant shores. The chemical Corexit used to clean up the massive spill did not correct it but rather added to the toxicity. It still can be found in food deemed ready for consumption by those who love the words “cover up” lest money be lost. What do a few cancer deaths from it matter?
The Fukushima meltdown of Japan’s nuclear power reactors from its Richter Scale 9 massive earthquake and its sidecar tsunami devastated that nation and still leaves its legacy. Vast living space is still deemed radiation-soaked uninhabitable and will remain so for decades. The refuse of it, I might add, we see on America’s shores as we all live in a globally connected world.
The cancer rate from the combination of all these man made catastrophes continues to rise. What will it take for this nation to place caps on fossil fuel emissions, impose strict limitation on drilling for filthy oil in pristine parts of the globe like the Arctic as well as negating permanently the huge Canadian oil pipeline running through the middle of our nation with no way to stem leaks that most definitely will erupt from it. What will it take to develop post haste alternative nonpolluting sources of energy?
I know what it WON'T take – a Republican science-denying majority in Congress and Senator Inhofe Chairman of the Environment Committee melting snowballs to prove global warming is a hoax. This is knee slapping laughable if it were not so serious and sad.
The corporatist oligarchs of the 1% pay to play with their Congresspersons who keep them blindingly rich but care nothing about the preponderance of suffering in this nation because of their fossil fuel and other dangerous energy cargo. One might think they, too, cared nothing for their own children or even for themselves.
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
We might remember the lyrics of “America the Beautiful” because, unless we act to reverse man-made climate change the contextual meaning of those lyrics is faster-than-we-know, sadly, becoming obsolete.
THIS MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE MEANS A REPUBLICAN CAN NEVER BE ELECTED TO OUR NATION'S HIGHEST OFFICE AND MEANS THAT DEMOCRATS MUST SEEK TO ELECTORALLY OVERTHROW REPUBLICAN MAJORITIES IN CONGRESS AND IN THE STATES.
The costs to our environment and the health costs of all of this are staggering and yet the carbon emissions from factory smokestacks belch on with no end in sight and a science denying Republican Congress that refuses to see the forest through the trees -- at least the trees that are left -- is our brave new world. Climate change stands between us and extinction.
There is enough regurgitation of carbon to proverbially choke a horse. Nearly 100% of scientists who have studied climate change have agreed now for decades there is no doubt the planet is warming and that climate change, in no understated part, has man’s signature on it. This is not conjecture or hypothesis it is fact. Man is committing suicide. Moreover, blood is on his hands for the eventual murder of his own progeny whom he claims to care about so much.
Our rivers, streams and vast parts of the ocean are rife with polluted filth and human sewage. The condition of the waters is so desperate that the summer Olympic Games in Brazil are at risk because of fear from deadly viruses that swim with the dead fish in the ocean – the same ocean athletes will use to compete in the Games.
The BP Gulf oil spill, the largest in this nation's history, is still wreaking havoc in the once-pristine Louisiana ecosystem and its attendant shores. The chemical Corexit used to clean up the massive spill did not correct it but rather added to the toxicity. It still can be found in food deemed ready for consumption by those who love the words “cover up” lest money be lost. What do a few cancer deaths from it matter?
The Fukushima meltdown of Japan’s nuclear power reactors from its Richter Scale 9 massive earthquake and its sidecar tsunami devastated that nation and still leaves its legacy. Vast living space is still deemed radiation-soaked uninhabitable and will remain so for decades. The refuse of it, I might add, we see on America’s shores as we all live in a globally connected world.
The cancer rate from the combination of all these man made catastrophes continues to rise. What will it take for this nation to place caps on fossil fuel emissions, impose strict limitation on drilling for filthy oil in pristine parts of the globe like the Arctic as well as negating permanently the huge Canadian oil pipeline running through the middle of our nation with no way to stem leaks that most definitely will erupt from it. What will it take to develop post haste alternative nonpolluting sources of energy?
I know what it WON'T take – a Republican science-denying majority in Congress and Senator Inhofe Chairman of the Environment Committee melting snowballs to prove global warming is a hoax. This is knee slapping laughable if it were not so serious and sad.
The corporatist oligarchs of the 1% pay to play with their Congresspersons who keep them blindingly rich but care nothing about the preponderance of suffering in this nation because of their fossil fuel and other dangerous energy cargo. One might think they, too, cared nothing for their own children or even for themselves.
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
We might remember the lyrics of “America the Beautiful” because, unless we act to reverse man-made climate change the contextual meaning of those lyrics is faster-than-we-know, sadly, becoming obsolete.
THIS MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE MEANS A REPUBLICAN CAN NEVER BE ELECTED TO OUR NATION'S HIGHEST OFFICE AND MEANS THAT DEMOCRATS MUST SEEK TO ELECTORALLY OVERTHROW REPUBLICAN MAJORITIES IN CONGRESS AND IN THE STATES.
Monday, August 03, 2015
INSANITY THY NAME IS HUMAN--TODAY SHOW INTERVIEW OF WOMAN BIG GAME KILLER
The Today Show segment interviewing a woman who takes pride in the killing of big game in pertinent part – a magnificent giraffe – and showing off her many wares, nauseated me. She takes pride in the kill and uses as an excuse that she had troubling things go on in her own life so she derived satisfaction from the big game hunt. How about if she had tough things happen in her life she see a psychiatrist, target practice with a gun or shoot a target with a bow and arrow. Maybe she could even go bowling, pretend the pins are animal heads, while leaving those gorgeous big game sentient beings, who did NOTHING to her, alone.
I think she should be investigated rigorously to make sure nothing illegal was done. Extradition, if possible, to Zimbabwe should be honored by the US for both her and the brutal dentist Dr. Palmer who killed Cecil the majestic lion so they can stand trial, be found guilty and, hopefully, end up in a Zimbabwe jail. Then they will know what inhumanity feels like.
The interview of that woman who brought down the gorgeous giraffe and proudly showed her other kills was one of the most DISGUSTING segments I have ever witnessed on the Today Show. SHAME, too, on the Today Show's often frivolous broadcasters who sat mute at the table listening to that ugly story without uttering a word of uncomfortableness about it.
I want these humanoid beasts who poach and kill big game to answer for their immoral acts. An animal has no voice and rely on us who have at least a minimal amount of heart to speak for them in their defense.
What did that beautiful giraffe ever do to that woman that it deserved the fate she delivered? She says she identifies with those animals she kills. NO SHE DOES NOT because she is not dead and they are by her own hand and our ever-so-violent milieu that lauds killing and the guns that perpetrate heinous crimes.
Insanity thy name is human!
YOU MUST SEE HOW INHUMAN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS AS TRUMP LAUDS BIG GAME SHOOT HIS SONS PERPETRATE. AGAIN, POLLS ARE SHOWING POOR PERCENTAGES FOR REPUBLICANS IN THE HISPANIC COMMUNITY. WE NEED TO CAPITALIZED ON THAT AND GET OUT THEIR AND OTHER PROGRESSIVE VOTES FOR WHOMEVER IS THE DEMOCRATIC CHOICE.
I think she should be investigated rigorously to make sure nothing illegal was done. Extradition, if possible, to Zimbabwe should be honored by the US for both her and the brutal dentist Dr. Palmer who killed Cecil the majestic lion so they can stand trial, be found guilty and, hopefully, end up in a Zimbabwe jail. Then they will know what inhumanity feels like.
The interview of that woman who brought down the gorgeous giraffe and proudly showed her other kills was one of the most DISGUSTING segments I have ever witnessed on the Today Show. SHAME, too, on the Today Show's often frivolous broadcasters who sat mute at the table listening to that ugly story without uttering a word of uncomfortableness about it.
I want these humanoid beasts who poach and kill big game to answer for their immoral acts. An animal has no voice and rely on us who have at least a minimal amount of heart to speak for them in their defense.
What did that beautiful giraffe ever do to that woman that it deserved the fate she delivered? She says she identifies with those animals she kills. NO SHE DOES NOT because she is not dead and they are by her own hand and our ever-so-violent milieu that lauds killing and the guns that perpetrate heinous crimes.
Insanity thy name is human!
YOU MUST SEE HOW INHUMAN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS AS TRUMP LAUDS BIG GAME SHOOT HIS SONS PERPETRATE. AGAIN, POLLS ARE SHOWING POOR PERCENTAGES FOR REPUBLICANS IN THE HISPANIC COMMUNITY. WE NEED TO CAPITALIZED ON THAT AND GET OUT THEIR AND OTHER PROGRESSIVE VOTES FOR WHOMEVER IS THE DEMOCRATIC CHOICE.
Sunday, August 02, 2015
On Our Watch In Our Time
We must use what we learned supporting the president who had one of the best political machines working across the nation. Whoever the Democratic nominee is it matters not. In our time a line in the sand has been drawn between Republicans and Democrats. The two Parties are no longer allies within a similar cause – the good of the nation –, but adversaries disagreeing entirely on nearly every issue from social issues to the economic ones and to foreign policy issues of war and peace.
If, by not voting as Democrats we allow Republicans to gain power again we will not enjoy what happens to those of us who can least afford it. We will be the first ones to suffer economic hardship, the first to die in wars and the first to be excluded from the electoral process. There will be more Newtowns and Coloradoes, more roundup of the undocumented shipping millions back from where they came. There will be useless expensive walls built (NOT, as suggested by the Trumpet, paid for by Mexico) and assaults on the powerless here who cannot afford to fight it.
Our infrastructure is failing, our roads are decrepit, our bridges are dangerously crumbling, our electrical grid is obsolete and our public education is disastrously under funded. Republicans want government to fail and they want to privatize everything except the military because, in truth, Republicans love war and want to return to the glory days of WWII. Those days are long gone but Republican affection for war never dies as long as they take a rich man’s pass and do not have to fight in those wars themselves.
In case you have not noticed, and one would have to be comatose not to, California is burning – literally. It is smothering in smoke, fire and drought with its three figure heat that adds to the explosiveness. Even a year’s worth of rain would not cure the drought. As much as the know-nothing Republicans want to deny it – as they did decades ago about the dangers of tobacco – they lie when they say they do not know if climate change is man-made. Science says it is and it is an undeniable indisputable fact. The gorgeous state of California is burning out of control. A Republican will keep saying it is not oil and fossil fuel man-made related but the Democrat, Al Gore, told us years ago the inconvenient truth. It is. Republicans will do nothing about climate change because their super pac Koch Brother benefactors pay them not to as glaciers melt, California burns and as Washington and other major cities like NY and Boston sink, ultimately, into the polluted abyss.
The moral of this horror story is get out the Hispanic, persons of color, the young, women, the disabled and others to vote in their own Democratic interests. Our nation is dying and Republicans want to take the spoils of it and run leaving us to wade in the waste.
We must not allow Republicans -- any Republican -- to gain power and must fight them making sure the Republican Trojan Horse racist Party of fundamentalist religion and white supremacy does not win on our watch.
If, by not voting as Democrats we allow Republicans to gain power again we will not enjoy what happens to those of us who can least afford it. We will be the first ones to suffer economic hardship, the first to die in wars and the first to be excluded from the electoral process. There will be more Newtowns and Coloradoes, more roundup of the undocumented shipping millions back from where they came. There will be useless expensive walls built (NOT, as suggested by the Trumpet, paid for by Mexico) and assaults on the powerless here who cannot afford to fight it.
Our infrastructure is failing, our roads are decrepit, our bridges are dangerously crumbling, our electrical grid is obsolete and our public education is disastrously under funded. Republicans want government to fail and they want to privatize everything except the military because, in truth, Republicans love war and want to return to the glory days of WWII. Those days are long gone but Republican affection for war never dies as long as they take a rich man’s pass and do not have to fight in those wars themselves.
In case you have not noticed, and one would have to be comatose not to, California is burning – literally. It is smothering in smoke, fire and drought with its three figure heat that adds to the explosiveness. Even a year’s worth of rain would not cure the drought. As much as the know-nothing Republicans want to deny it – as they did decades ago about the dangers of tobacco – they lie when they say they do not know if climate change is man-made. Science says it is and it is an undeniable indisputable fact. The gorgeous state of California is burning out of control. A Republican will keep saying it is not oil and fossil fuel man-made related but the Democrat, Al Gore, told us years ago the inconvenient truth. It is. Republicans will do nothing about climate change because their super pac Koch Brother benefactors pay them not to as glaciers melt, California burns and as Washington and other major cities like NY and Boston sink, ultimately, into the polluted abyss.
The moral of this horror story is get out the Hispanic, persons of color, the young, women, the disabled and others to vote in their own Democratic interests. Our nation is dying and Republicans want to take the spoils of it and run leaving us to wade in the waste.
We must not allow Republicans -- any Republican -- to gain power and must fight them making sure the Republican Trojan Horse racist Party of fundamentalist religion and white supremacy does not win on our watch.
Saturday, August 01, 2015
GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE
I do not have time to compose a masterpiece so I thought I would write quick thoughts down now before Republicans HOPEFULLY kill themselves on Thursday at their "debate."
If they do not kill themselves or IF god forbid Trump ends up appealing more, the one BIG thing we as Democrats MUST MUST MUST do and that is reach out to people of color, Hispanics, Millennials, the poor and the elderly (as Republicans try to roll back Medicare, Social Security and every other social program that works to help someone other than the 1% richest.)
If Hillary is our nominee, and I believe she will be as Sanders has lost some traction with his less than judicious comment about whose life matters, then Hillary MUST step up her enthusiasm quotient and make sure Democrats in the field are scrupulously organized to GET PERSONS OF COLOR OUT TO VOTE IF WE HAVE TO PROVIDE A FLYING MACHINE TO DO IT. We know Republicans cheat and in states where they could make it harder for persons of color to vote they did. The president won because he appealed to these groups.
White Republican anyone appeals to white men and white women as Romney got that vote. There are still plenty of whites who will vote for Hillary and we HOPE women will as well but the key to the 2016 election is our organization in the field in states like Ohio, Florida, etc., and a 50 state strategy so that our people inclined to vote Democrat DO!
Moreover, I believe Hillary later after she is nominated needs to pick a person of color or Hispanic as VP -- Julian Castro comes to mind and so does Corey Booker. There are others of course.
I formulated this emergency email because I watched Melissa Harris Perry which is my habit on weekends and what she was saying and others on her show were saying was similar to what I say here.
Pass this around to anyone you choose. Everything is at stake: Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, rights for gays, rights for women and everything this administration has worked so hard to promote and maintain.
WE MUST TAKE BACK THE SENATE AS WELL AS WIN THE PRESIDENCY. WE CAN DO IT BUT IT CAN ONLY BE DONE IF WE EARN THE SUPPORT OF ALL THE CONSTITUENCIES THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEEDS.
Friday, July 31, 2015
I could not have said it better myself
THE TRUE TRUMP TAKEAWAY
By Michael Golden -- Huffington Post
He's ridin' high in the polls. He's maintained altitude longer than most of the pundits predicted he could or would. And the media is compelled to cover (smother) him as long as his numbers hold. But set aside the circus and prognostications for a moment -- could Donald Trump actually govern effectively as a U.S. president?
If you ask New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the answer is an unequivocal "no." Why? Because his skill set is not Transferable to a government setting.
We should stipulate that Christie, along with more than a dozen other Republican presidential candidates and their strategists, are laying awake at night trying to devise new ways to steal some of the spotlight away from Trump (witness Mike Huckabee's Holocaust reference and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz calling his Majority Leader a liar right on the Senate floor). But in Christie's elaboration of his claim, we hear a line of logic that's been sorely lacking from the Trump coverage:
"Donald would tell Speaker Boehner, 'I want this bill and I want it on my desk because this is what's best for America.' And Speaker Boehner is going to say, "Yeah? Well I don't have the votes for that, so I can't give it to you.' He can't look at him and say 'Speaker Boehner, you're fired.' You can't do that. You can do it on a reality TV show, but you cannot fire the Speaker of the House, or the Senate Majority Leader, because you don't get what you want."
It's a bit ironic that this rational, common sense diagnosis of what a Trump presidency might look like comes from a candidate and governor who himself has publicly called reporters "idiots" and told them to "shut up." At the same time, reporters are not Christie's government colleagues in the same way members of the legislature are. This is why for the most part, even when we hear our candidates and elected leaders disagree with each other, we usually don't hear personal slurs. It happens now and again. But Joe Wilson's "You lie" accusation at the President in a televised joint session of Congress was huge news because of just how rare it was as a public show of bombastic, personal animosity.
But for Trump, so far, it has been the norm: "They're rapists." "He (U.S. Senator John McCain) was a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured." He "graduated last in his class at Annapolis - dummy." "He (Governor Rick Perry) should be forced to take an IQ test before being allowed to enter the GOP debate." Trump's "not a fan of Jeb Bush." Trump calls U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham an "idiot" and a "lightweight."
Of Trump's thumps, Governor Bush responded: "The problem with Mr. Trump's language is it's divisive, it's ugly, it's mean-spirited." Governor Perry similarly returned serve: "He offers a barking carnival act that can best be described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery and mean-spiritedness and nonsense." A bit more irony there, as some would level the same charge at some of Perry's past comments (think: Texas secession). Still, while these observations will resonate with a ton of Americans who aren't part of the 15-25 percent of Republicans polled who support Trump, they still don't get to the larger question about his candidacy -- and by extension -- our system.
In the United States, every single president we've elected had prior government service. Most were either vice presidents or governors before serving in the White House. Barack Obama was only the third U.S. Senator to directly advance to the presidency from that body over the last century.
By most objective standards, Donald Trump is a highly skilled businessman -- a billionaire proficient at building profit and attracting attention through grandiose behavior. In his case those two traits have been mutually beneficial, and time will tell whether his nascent presidential campaign is only part of that larger profit imperative. But whether the campaign is real or not, it's a genuine teachable moment, and Christie's comment is at the root of the lesson.
For many, it's a comforting thought to believe that if only we had a successful, bold CEO in the White House, our government would work with an efficiency approaching the level of a highly profitable corporation. But even folks with a hazy memory of grade school civics will come to realize that this is not a realistic notion in our democracy. Christie just spells it out clearly and succinctly. An individual elected governor or president is afforded a great degree of power, either by respective state or U.S. Constitution. At the same time, and by very intentional design, our heads of state are constrained by the constitutional imperative to work with a legislative branch that also possesses great powers -- if not always exercised.
Trump may be aware of this on some level, but his public comments show no evidence of it. Conversely, most of the other candidates are aware of it from actual personal experience, either as legislators or governors (excepting former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Dr. Ben Carson). The tone and substance of all of these candidates are in contrast to Trump. This is not to say that their public comments do not offend on occasion, but most of them seem to realize that whatever they do say on the record, they will need to live with those remarks if actually elected. Words matter. In politics and government, they matter a great deal. Mature elected leaders know this, and most of them understand the consequences of the scorched-earth tactics.
Trump insists he'll build a wall along our southwestern border and force Mexico to pay for it. Trump says he would love a trade war with China. Trump says he'll put Sarah Palin in his cabinet. Like any of these ideas? Whether you do or you don't, our U.S. president does not have unilateral power to make them realities. In our country we have something called the U.S. Congress. It is designated as the "first branch" of our federal government, and sits right up front in Article I of the U.S. Constitution.
Like it or not (and record low numbers of Americans express confidence in Congress), our president is required by law to work with the U.S. House and Senate to pass legislation. This is no easy task, even when the chambers are controlled by the same party that occupies the White House. This is the way it's supposed to be.
But the problems in Congress make it exponentially harder to move the country forward than at any time in recent memory. Earlier this week former Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole (R-KS) returned to the Capitol to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (passed overwhelmingly in both houses). Dole explained to Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank why bipartisanship used to work: "We were D's and R's, but beyond that we were friends. We worked together because it was the right thing to do."
So is it just the personalities in Congress that are different? Don't fall for it. Americans have geographically self-sorted themselves regionally over the last few decades -- that's a fact. But there are structural reasons for the breakdown, too. The flood of money washing through the system, the most rigged U.S. House races in modern history, and the rules in the Senate that have allowed for a record-breaking level of obstruction tactics. Even if Dole is right that our elected leaders today are more lacking in leadership, the rules make it even harder. We ignore these real impediments at our peril.
Right now, and for the next 15 months, the media will focus its political coverage for the most part on the presidential horse race as opposed to the defective legislative branch that any winner will have to negotiate with for at least four years. The narrative of presidential politics is easier to convey and more entertaining to consume.
If American history is any guide, Donald Trump will not be elected president. This is not to say it's impossible. But beyond ruminating over the odds of his success, or being amused by the sideshow that Trump's been able to bump up onto the main stage, sooner or later we'll need to come to agreement about the structural defects that are severely damaging the congressional product we're all paying for. That's the lesson that lies underneath the carnival show. No matter whom we elect president, that person alone cannot repair a busted government -- and that person will be called upon to work with both houses of Congress that have their own internal dysfunction. Ultimately, only the American electorate has the power change this dynamic by learning about that dysfunction's core causes, and harnessing that knowledge to reform the rules, and restore the system.
My 2 cents: IF YOU EVER THOUGHT IT WAS THE CORRECT TIME NOW TO ENSURE DEMOCRATS TAKE OVER THE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENCY YOU ARE RIGHT. THE NATION'S LIFE, YOUR LIFE, YOUR CHILDREN'S LIVES AND MY OWN ARE AT STAKE! REMEMBER: REPUBLICANS NEVER MET A WAR THEY DID NOT LIKE!
By Michael Golden -- Huffington Post
He's ridin' high in the polls. He's maintained altitude longer than most of the pundits predicted he could or would. And the media is compelled to cover (smother) him as long as his numbers hold. But set aside the circus and prognostications for a moment -- could Donald Trump actually govern effectively as a U.S. president?
If you ask New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the answer is an unequivocal "no." Why? Because his skill set is not Transferable to a government setting.
We should stipulate that Christie, along with more than a dozen other Republican presidential candidates and their strategists, are laying awake at night trying to devise new ways to steal some of the spotlight away from Trump (witness Mike Huckabee's Holocaust reference and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz calling his Majority Leader a liar right on the Senate floor). But in Christie's elaboration of his claim, we hear a line of logic that's been sorely lacking from the Trump coverage:
"Donald would tell Speaker Boehner, 'I want this bill and I want it on my desk because this is what's best for America.' And Speaker Boehner is going to say, "Yeah? Well I don't have the votes for that, so I can't give it to you.' He can't look at him and say 'Speaker Boehner, you're fired.' You can't do that. You can do it on a reality TV show, but you cannot fire the Speaker of the House, or the Senate Majority Leader, because you don't get what you want."
It's a bit ironic that this rational, common sense diagnosis of what a Trump presidency might look like comes from a candidate and governor who himself has publicly called reporters "idiots" and told them to "shut up." At the same time, reporters are not Christie's government colleagues in the same way members of the legislature are. This is why for the most part, even when we hear our candidates and elected leaders disagree with each other, we usually don't hear personal slurs. It happens now and again. But Joe Wilson's "You lie" accusation at the President in a televised joint session of Congress was huge news because of just how rare it was as a public show of bombastic, personal animosity.
But for Trump, so far, it has been the norm: "They're rapists." "He (U.S. Senator John McCain) was a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured." He "graduated last in his class at Annapolis - dummy." "He (Governor Rick Perry) should be forced to take an IQ test before being allowed to enter the GOP debate." Trump's "not a fan of Jeb Bush." Trump calls U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham an "idiot" and a "lightweight."
Of Trump's thumps, Governor Bush responded: "The problem with Mr. Trump's language is it's divisive, it's ugly, it's mean-spirited." Governor Perry similarly returned serve: "He offers a barking carnival act that can best be described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery and mean-spiritedness and nonsense." A bit more irony there, as some would level the same charge at some of Perry's past comments (think: Texas secession). Still, while these observations will resonate with a ton of Americans who aren't part of the 15-25 percent of Republicans polled who support Trump, they still don't get to the larger question about his candidacy -- and by extension -- our system.
In the United States, every single president we've elected had prior government service. Most were either vice presidents or governors before serving in the White House. Barack Obama was only the third U.S. Senator to directly advance to the presidency from that body over the last century.
By most objective standards, Donald Trump is a highly skilled businessman -- a billionaire proficient at building profit and attracting attention through grandiose behavior. In his case those two traits have been mutually beneficial, and time will tell whether his nascent presidential campaign is only part of that larger profit imperative. But whether the campaign is real or not, it's a genuine teachable moment, and Christie's comment is at the root of the lesson.
For many, it's a comforting thought to believe that if only we had a successful, bold CEO in the White House, our government would work with an efficiency approaching the level of a highly profitable corporation. But even folks with a hazy memory of grade school civics will come to realize that this is not a realistic notion in our democracy. Christie just spells it out clearly and succinctly. An individual elected governor or president is afforded a great degree of power, either by respective state or U.S. Constitution. At the same time, and by very intentional design, our heads of state are constrained by the constitutional imperative to work with a legislative branch that also possesses great powers -- if not always exercised.
Trump may be aware of this on some level, but his public comments show no evidence of it. Conversely, most of the other candidates are aware of it from actual personal experience, either as legislators or governors (excepting former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Dr. Ben Carson). The tone and substance of all of these candidates are in contrast to Trump. This is not to say that their public comments do not offend on occasion, but most of them seem to realize that whatever they do say on the record, they will need to live with those remarks if actually elected. Words matter. In politics and government, they matter a great deal. Mature elected leaders know this, and most of them understand the consequences of the scorched-earth tactics.
Trump insists he'll build a wall along our southwestern border and force Mexico to pay for it. Trump says he would love a trade war with China. Trump says he'll put Sarah Palin in his cabinet. Like any of these ideas? Whether you do or you don't, our U.S. president does not have unilateral power to make them realities. In our country we have something called the U.S. Congress. It is designated as the "first branch" of our federal government, and sits right up front in Article I of the U.S. Constitution.
Like it or not (and record low numbers of Americans express confidence in Congress), our president is required by law to work with the U.S. House and Senate to pass legislation. This is no easy task, even when the chambers are controlled by the same party that occupies the White House. This is the way it's supposed to be.
But the problems in Congress make it exponentially harder to move the country forward than at any time in recent memory. Earlier this week former Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole (R-KS) returned to the Capitol to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (passed overwhelmingly in both houses). Dole explained to Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank why bipartisanship used to work: "We were D's and R's, but beyond that we were friends. We worked together because it was the right thing to do."
So is it just the personalities in Congress that are different? Don't fall for it. Americans have geographically self-sorted themselves regionally over the last few decades -- that's a fact. But there are structural reasons for the breakdown, too. The flood of money washing through the system, the most rigged U.S. House races in modern history, and the rules in the Senate that have allowed for a record-breaking level of obstruction tactics. Even if Dole is right that our elected leaders today are more lacking in leadership, the rules make it even harder. We ignore these real impediments at our peril.
Right now, and for the next 15 months, the media will focus its political coverage for the most part on the presidential horse race as opposed to the defective legislative branch that any winner will have to negotiate with for at least four years. The narrative of presidential politics is easier to convey and more entertaining to consume.
If American history is any guide, Donald Trump will not be elected president. This is not to say it's impossible. But beyond ruminating over the odds of his success, or being amused by the sideshow that Trump's been able to bump up onto the main stage, sooner or later we'll need to come to agreement about the structural defects that are severely damaging the congressional product we're all paying for. That's the lesson that lies underneath the carnival show. No matter whom we elect president, that person alone cannot repair a busted government -- and that person will be called upon to work with both houses of Congress that have their own internal dysfunction. Ultimately, only the American electorate has the power change this dynamic by learning about that dysfunction's core causes, and harnessing that knowledge to reform the rules, and restore the system.
My 2 cents: IF YOU EVER THOUGHT IT WAS THE CORRECT TIME NOW TO ENSURE DEMOCRATS TAKE OVER THE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENCY YOU ARE RIGHT. THE NATION'S LIFE, YOUR LIFE, YOUR CHILDREN'S LIVES AND MY OWN ARE AT STAKE! REMEMBER: REPUBLICANS NEVER MET A WAR THEY DID NOT LIKE!
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
My relative: Jon Finer (my mother's maiden name.) How proud of him are we? VERY!!
My relative: Jon Finer (my mother's maiden name.) 
Such a Deal
What I sent to Congress about the Deal:
I am a white Jewish woman and I support 100% the expertly crafted nuclear Deal with Iran. The alternative would mean a probable war with Iran and not in the distant future. It is an impossibility for the US to endure yet another huge Middle East quagmire costing double the Iraq War in blood and treasure. It is more than unacceptable. It is impossible and wrong.
No deal means Iran would continue its stepped up enriched uranium process (and its search for plutonium) to build a bomb doing it soon within the most fractured and volatile region of the world we helped create.
We are talking about the surety of war with Iran and eventually a possible nuclear one at that. The Israelis should be proclaiming the virtues of this Deal some of their own scientists support because it delays Iranian enrichment for over a decade and in some cases more. If Iran fails to accept inspections the business-as-usual sanctions will continue. None of the other P5 plus 1 nations will continue bone crushing sanctions against Iran without trying the negotiated Deal first. The US 's MIT nuclear expert, Ernst Moniz, President Obama’s Energy Secretary led the complicated crafting of this Deal. Moreover, we should accept what the other P5 plus 1 nations want, nuclear experts want and the world wants because the stakes for not accepting it are so unnecessary and so high.
Either one accepts nuclear scientists – including some in Israel – or one does not. Our science denying corporatist owned Republican Congress are a joke to the rest of the world but the Deal Republicans cavalierly renounce is serious. Those who unfathomably reject this Deal will, hopefully, lose this fight.
In evolutionary terms the fittest survive and science deniers will not be among them at least not for long. I do not want know-nothings dragging those of us who accept science and its truth into an explosive catastrophe because of those who do not. Scientists support this Deal because they know it is the best one we could get to avoid war for decades so no war will happen now. Another US monstrous intervention against Iran costing blood and treasure in the trillions inflating our debt even more – something Republicans say they loathe – is unacceptable.
Republicans never saw a war they did not like but know nothing about adding the nuclear equation to the mix with its calculus of losing certainty. The P5 plus 1 is led by an academically gifted group of nuclear experts. They have with the other P5 plus 1 nations created a masterpiece most accept except our know-nothing Republican Congress. To the world we are a joke but to the academically inclined the game is deadly serious.
Howard Zinn always told me with respect to war ask the question who does it benefit and why. In addition to those questions with corporate answers I ask do you want your children to live. It's that simple.
SUPPORT the nuclear deal with Iran, bring Iran into the family nations and avert the slaughter of generations. Such a deal my Jewish grandmother would say. I say to the Congress approve it!
NO NEED TO TELL YOU THE IMPORTANCE OF ELECTING DEMOCRATS. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE. WORK TO KEEP THE PRESIDENCY AND TAKE THE SENATE BACK!
I am a white Jewish woman and I support 100% the expertly crafted nuclear Deal with Iran. The alternative would mean a probable war with Iran and not in the distant future. It is an impossibility for the US to endure yet another huge Middle East quagmire costing double the Iraq War in blood and treasure. It is more than unacceptable. It is impossible and wrong.
No deal means Iran would continue its stepped up enriched uranium process (and its search for plutonium) to build a bomb doing it soon within the most fractured and volatile region of the world we helped create.
We are talking about the surety of war with Iran and eventually a possible nuclear one at that. The Israelis should be proclaiming the virtues of this Deal some of their own scientists support because it delays Iranian enrichment for over a decade and in some cases more. If Iran fails to accept inspections the business-as-usual sanctions will continue. None of the other P5 plus 1 nations will continue bone crushing sanctions against Iran without trying the negotiated Deal first. The US 's MIT nuclear expert, Ernst Moniz, President Obama’s Energy Secretary led the complicated crafting of this Deal. Moreover, we should accept what the other P5 plus 1 nations want, nuclear experts want and the world wants because the stakes for not accepting it are so unnecessary and so high.
Either one accepts nuclear scientists – including some in Israel – or one does not. Our science denying corporatist owned Republican Congress are a joke to the rest of the world but the Deal Republicans cavalierly renounce is serious. Those who unfathomably reject this Deal will, hopefully, lose this fight.
In evolutionary terms the fittest survive and science deniers will not be among them at least not for long. I do not want know-nothings dragging those of us who accept science and its truth into an explosive catastrophe because of those who do not. Scientists support this Deal because they know it is the best one we could get to avoid war for decades so no war will happen now. Another US monstrous intervention against Iran costing blood and treasure in the trillions inflating our debt even more – something Republicans say they loathe – is unacceptable.
Republicans never saw a war they did not like but know nothing about adding the nuclear equation to the mix with its calculus of losing certainty. The P5 plus 1 is led by an academically gifted group of nuclear experts. They have with the other P5 plus 1 nations created a masterpiece most accept except our know-nothing Republican Congress. To the world we are a joke but to the academically inclined the game is deadly serious.
Howard Zinn always told me with respect to war ask the question who does it benefit and why. In addition to those questions with corporate answers I ask do you want your children to live. It's that simple.
SUPPORT the nuclear deal with Iran, bring Iran into the family nations and avert the slaughter of generations. Such a deal my Jewish grandmother would say. I say to the Congress approve it!
NO NEED TO TELL YOU THE IMPORTANCE OF ELECTING DEMOCRATS. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE. WORK TO KEEP THE PRESIDENCY AND TAKE THE SENATE BACK!
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
The Only Thing Greater than Ourselves -- the Universe
The
only thing greater than ourselves and Neil DeGrasse Tyson tells you
what it is. LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED this 60 minutes segment
Neil deGrasse Tyson doesn't think like the rest of us. Here's a glimpse into what excites an astrophysicist
cbsnews.com
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Get it Right
One day the NTY reports a possible criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails and then the next day says, oh well, it's not a criminal investigation of emails and it may not be about Clinton. The story about Secretary Clinton's emails, as was true in the Judith Miller's untrue stories about Iraq, is false. Again, the NYT disappoints our nation by getting important stories wrong. Sometimes, as in the Miller story it costs hundreds of thousands of lives and a Middle East quagmire from which this nation still cannot extricate itself.
The stories in the NYT that are in error are not small town newspaper stories that are unimportant in the larger context. They are stories that are hugely important not only to the nation but to the world.
The latest faux pas egg all over the NYT's face is the anything-for-a-buck story trying to impugn the reputation of hopefully the next president and first woman president of the United States. The Times cannot nor should not throw a poison dart at an important national figure without the proper sourcing of its story. Hillary Clinton has experienced more than once Republican attempts to destroy her. She is well seasoned to refute those scurrilous attacks.
Does one think for one millisecond this seasoned politician and brilliant woman who knew she might one day seek the presidency would be so naive as to do anything nefarious that could besmirch her efforts?
We know many things reported by various news media in this nation are written with one hand shaking the corporatist hand while penning stories with the other. To impugn the possible future president Hillary Clinton with yet another false story about making headlines to sell papers should be beneath this allegedly prestigious news source.
I urge the NYT to research well its stories before it prints anything, get it right or do not print it at all.
The stories in the NYT that are in error are not small town newspaper stories that are unimportant in the larger context. They are stories that are hugely important not only to the nation but to the world.
The latest faux pas egg all over the NYT's face is the anything-for-a-buck story trying to impugn the reputation of hopefully the next president and first woman president of the United States. The Times cannot nor should not throw a poison dart at an important national figure without the proper sourcing of its story. Hillary Clinton has experienced more than once Republican attempts to destroy her. She is well seasoned to refute those scurrilous attacks.
Does one think for one millisecond this seasoned politician and brilliant woman who knew she might one day seek the presidency would be so naive as to do anything nefarious that could besmirch her efforts?
We know many things reported by various news media in this nation are written with one hand shaking the corporatist hand while penning stories with the other. To impugn the possible future president Hillary Clinton with yet another false story about making headlines to sell papers should be beneath this allegedly prestigious news source.
I urge the NYT to research well its stories before it prints anything, get it right or do not print it at all.
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Billionaire Businessman -- the Essence of Trump
Trump has been skewered (and
rightfully so) for his injudicious comments about Senator and former
Vietnam War prisoner John McCain. If you do not know by now what Trump said then you must have been hiding under a rock. The
media thinks it died and went to heaven as Trump provides much
entertainment and Americans love entertainment just ask John Stewart. Trump, of course, impugned Senator McCain as-less-than-a-hero because he was captured in Vietnam. No matter how many times Trump tries to finesse those statements he cannot. The 21st century uses the handy dandy proof of video tape.
Trump is about one thing success. He did not choose his words artfully because Trump suffers from foot-in-mouth disease as he is repeatedly prone. His blabbering morphs into a grand mal verbal faux pas seizure as he shoots himself in the foot first, while asking questions later. Trump’s algorithm for success in war (or for that matter anything) is to win. In war it is to capture or kill the other guy first while you avoid that fate. Success
in the world according to Trump means ending up on your feet at any
cost while the other guy ends up on his posterior feet first out the
door. Trump is about winning and nothing else. Objectively, if a soldier gets captured or killed he is not improving his odds of winning the war. Trump’s
heroes, as he perceives it, are those who like General MacArthur or
Patton win by hardening themselves in war against the softness of
feeling. Trump is about hardness
and the objectivity to do whatever it takes to win the game and one does
not win the war by getting captured or killed.
Unfortunately, a man who had four military deferments and another deferment for a foot bone spur loses cred in the arena of war. Odd
how he cannot remember which foot had the bone spur. It turns out he
had them in both feet – a memorable malady one would think. I digress.
Trump cannot see that luck in war plays a part as to whether one ends up captured, tortured or killed succumbing to the laws of physics or whether one ends up on one’s feet the winner. Sometimes it is simply a roll of the Game of Risk dice. The heroes, I think, he was saying, are those who outsmart the enemy and end up on their feet. Such is Trump's brain. Great title for a book: “Trump’s Brain.” It could outsell “Bush’s Brain” doncha think?
There is little room for empathy in Trump world. He
does not care that many of the so called illegals have families, are
trying to make a living, risking their lives to get here or if their
mother has cancer and they need money to pay for her and support their family. Trump is NOT about that. He is about Trump and making sure he wins by exploiting an issue which will help him do just that.
Progressives, generally, are not simply about that. They are about compassion, empathy and understanding for the little guy who tries but cannot overcome his fate. I
want the greatest number to win even if they happen to come from Mexico
and my heart is broken if they die in the desert trying. Liberalism cares about the inequities of life while Trump cares solely about himself and winning life’s war. The
inequities of life and its unfairness do not play a part in Trump’s
repertoire or if they do they play a part it is only how he can exploit them to his advantage and win.
Billionaire businessman success and nothing else but success is the essence of Trump.
DEMOCRATS
MUST WIN THE WHITE HOUSE AND CONGRESS BECAUSE WE CARE ABOUT THE LITTLE
GUY WHEN NO ONE ELSE DOES! GET OUT THE 2016 DEMOCRATIC VOTE!
Another Oscar Schindler--a Rightous Gentile--Leica and the Jews of Europe
Sent to me by a friend to be forwarded to any you choose. He should be listed among the righteous Gentiles. My friend states:
This is quite a story. They always made good cameras, but I never knew about this part of the
Leica history.
Leica's Jews
German camera inventor helpedJews escape at shudder speed during the Holocaust
The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. It is a German product - precise, minimalist, and utterly efficient.Behind its worldwide acceptance as a creative tool was a family-owned, socially-oriented firm that, during the Nazi era, acted with uncommon grace, generosity and modesty. E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer of Germany's most famous photographic product, saved its Jews.And Ernst Leitz II, the steely-eyed Protestant patriarch, who headed the closely held firm as the Holocaust loomed across Europe, acted in such a way as to earn the title, "the photography industry's Schindler".As soon as Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, Ernst Leitz II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking for his help in getting them and their families out of the country. As Christians, Leitz and his family were immune to Nazi Germany's Nuremberg laws, which restricted the movement of Jews and limited their professional activities.To help his Jewish workers and colleagues, Leitz quietly established what has become known among historians of the Holocaust as "the Leica Freedom Train", a covert means of allowing Jews to leave Germany in the guise of Leitz employees being assigned overseas. Employees, retailers, family members, even friends of family members were "assigned" to Leitz sales offices in France, Britain, Hong Kong, and the United States; Leitz's activities intensified after the Kristallnacht of November 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish shops were burned across Germany.Before long, German "employees" were disembarking from the ocean liner Bremenat a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office of Leitz, Inc., where executives quickly found them jobs in the photographic industry.Each new arrival had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom - a new Leica camera. The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of this migration came designers, repair technicians, salespeople, marketers, and writers for the photographic press.Keeping the story quiet, The "Leica Freedom Train" was at its height in 1938 and early 1939, delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders.By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America, thanks to the Leitzes' efforts. How did Ernst Leitz II and his staff get away with it?Leitz, Inc. was an internationally recognized brand that reflected credit on the newly resurgent Reich. The company produced cameras, range-finders, and other optical systems for the German military. Also, the Nazi government desperately needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz's single biggest market for optical goods was the United States.Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good works. A top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help Jews and freed only after the payment of a large bribe.Leitz's daughter, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo after she was caught at the border, helping Jewish women cross into Switzerland. She eventually was freed but endured rough treatment in the course of questioning. She also fell under suspicion when she attempted to improve the living conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave laborers, all of them women, who had been assigned to work in the plant during the 1940s. (After the war, Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her humanitarian efforts, among them the Officer d'honneur des Palms Academic from France in 1965 and the Aristide Briand Medal from the European Academy in the 1970s.)Why has no one told this story until now?According to the late Norman Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no publicity for its heroic efforts.Only after the last member of the Leitz family was dead did the "Leica Freedom Train" finally come to light. It is now the subject of a book, "The Greatest Invention of the Leitz Family:
The Leica Freedom Train,"by Frank Dabba Smith, a California-born Rabbi currently living in England.Thank you for reading the above, and if you feel inclined as I did to pass it along to others, please do so. Memories of the righteous should live on.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
The Difference Between Left and Right
The National Review magazine
founded by the multi-millionaire William F. Buckley and pride of right
wing conservatives proves its ignorance by name calling Bernie Sanders a
Nazi.
It would be nice if a magazine that calls itself a "conservative" political entity understood the political concept of left and right. The extreme left is Communist and extreme right is their arch enemy Nazi (National Socialist) which means that National Review is more Nazi like than Bernie Sanders surely is. As a matter of fact Sanders calls himself a Socialist i.e. on the LEFT side of the political spectrum -- NOT to be confused with "National Socialist" which is Nazism.
The political right walks hand in hand with capitalist oligarchs which is why capitalists often run to their side. Communists and Socialists do the opposite. They impugn corporatists as Sanders does all the time for humanitarian purposes.
The National Review calling someone like Sanders a Nazi proves that the right wing is politically brain dead and does not know the difference between left and right!
National Review Says Bernie Sanders is a Nazi. Link here http://www.vox.com/2015/7/20/9007815/bernie-sanders-national-socialist
NO NEED TO SAY REPUBLICANS MUST BE POLITICALLY CRUSHED. SIGN UP DEMOCRATS ALL OVER THE NATION AND MAKE SURE THEY VOTE!
It would be nice if a magazine that calls itself a "conservative" political entity understood the political concept of left and right. The extreme left is Communist and extreme right is their arch enemy Nazi (National Socialist) which means that National Review is more Nazi like than Bernie Sanders surely is. As a matter of fact Sanders calls himself a Socialist i.e. on the LEFT side of the political spectrum -- NOT to be confused with "National Socialist" which is Nazism.
The political right walks hand in hand with capitalist oligarchs which is why capitalists often run to their side. Communists and Socialists do the opposite. They impugn corporatists as Sanders does all the time for humanitarian purposes.
The National Review calling someone like Sanders a Nazi proves that the right wing is politically brain dead and does not know the difference between left and right!
National Review Says Bernie Sanders is a Nazi. Link here http://www.vox.com/2015/7/20/9007815/bernie-sanders-national-socialist
NO NEED TO SAY REPUBLICANS MUST BE POLITICALLY CRUSHED. SIGN UP DEMOCRATS ALL OVER THE NATION AND MAKE SURE THEY VOTE!
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Can I Get Fooled Again?
Did I get my position wrong again? I supported, dare I say, right after 911, the Iraq War because I THOUGHT the Republican administration nincompoops knew what they were doing and possessed information I did not and could not possess. I thought on matters of war they would not lie. I have paid for my own personal humiliation and the naïveté of what I thought then ever since. Subsequently, after much observation of the explosively wretched conditions in Iraq after the US invasion and after much examination of what was being done in our name, I learned what the mendacious Republican Bush administration was really doing.
Now, again, I support President Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran but the immovable and all powerful Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran delivers a Bushian speech that spews the same old belligerent rhetoric that all religious and political extremists spew sometimes backing up their words with hostile actions ultimately killing thousands of innocents. They say it is about their belief system and culture which is, of course, the only right belief one can hold. We, in reality, know it is about leaderships' own power sold to a gullible, non-thinking, religiously uncritical and frightened public.
You can get fooled once as one so called US "president" said, but you can't get fooled again. Can I get fooled again? Say it ain't so and our negotiators know what they are doing because the stakes of this nuclear agreement are high. They are the stakes of war and peace. Innocent lives are held in the balance -- yours, mine, our nation's and the world's. Read the link here or below of the Ayatollah Khamenei’s speech and say I am not getting fooled again!
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iran-nuclear-talks/irans-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-vows-opposition-u-s-despite-nuke-n394326
WHATEVER THE OUTCOME OF THE DEAL REPUBLICANS MUST BE KICKED OUT OF OFFICE AND NEVER LET THROUGH THE HALLS OF POWER AGAIN. MOBILIZE MILLIONS OF DEMOCRATS, PROGRESSIVES, AND OTHERS THROUGHOUT THE LAND TO MAKE SURE THE RANCID RACISTS NEVER COMMIT CRIMES IN OUR NAME YET ANOTHER TIME. VOTE DEMOCRAT AND ENSURE THE REST OF THE NATION DOES AS WELL!
Now, again, I support President Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran but the immovable and all powerful Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran delivers a Bushian speech that spews the same old belligerent rhetoric that all religious and political extremists spew sometimes backing up their words with hostile actions ultimately killing thousands of innocents. They say it is about their belief system and culture which is, of course, the only right belief one can hold. We, in reality, know it is about leaderships' own power sold to a gullible, non-thinking, religiously uncritical and frightened public.
You can get fooled once as one so called US "president" said, but you can't get fooled again. Can I get fooled again? Say it ain't so and our negotiators know what they are doing because the stakes of this nuclear agreement are high. They are the stakes of war and peace. Innocent lives are held in the balance -- yours, mine, our nation's and the world's. Read the link here or below of the Ayatollah Khamenei’s speech and say I am not getting fooled again!
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iran-nuclear-talks/irans-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-vows-opposition-u-s-despite-nuke-n394326
WHATEVER THE OUTCOME OF THE DEAL REPUBLICANS MUST BE KICKED OUT OF OFFICE AND NEVER LET THROUGH THE HALLS OF POWER AGAIN. MOBILIZE MILLIONS OF DEMOCRATS, PROGRESSIVES, AND OTHERS THROUGHOUT THE LAND TO MAKE SURE THE RANCID RACISTS NEVER COMMIT CRIMES IN OUR NAME YET ANOTHER TIME. VOTE DEMOCRAT AND ENSURE THE REST OF THE NATION DOES AS WELL!
Thursday, July 16, 2015
FRONTLINE: ISIS treatment of women
Listen to and watch this Frontline episode here or http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ if you can. It is about ISIS treatment of women they steal from their families.
This is what George Bush's Neo Con adventure has wrought. ISIS formed because Bush did not know the Iraqi army he disbanded needed to be utilized. Al Qaeda is a shell of its former self and ISIS has taken over. It is spreading and it is spreading fast.
THIS is why the Gordian Knot MUST be broken and why Iran must assume a place of power to break it. It's good for us, it's good for Iran and no matter what Netanyahu says it is good for Israel. I am hoping!
The Best Deal "Cutting the Gordian Knot"
George W. Bush through his utterly failed Iraq War handed Iran the keys to the kingdoms of power in the Middle East. Now we live with that as a new reality. The Iran nuclear agreement the president and his team created is making sure Iran does not turn those kingdom keys into a nuclear bomb!
Eternal US war in that region is IMPOSSIBLE. We have neither the will nor the money nor even the enormous man power it would ultimately take for an all out full blown war with Iran in an already mind numbingly complex region to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb and the ultimate power a nuclear bomb would bring them.
We would fail and our president knows that. Our president is razor sharp in his analysis and WILL avert WWIII through his brilliant ability to negotiate this important Iran nuclear deal. It saves Israel's posterior as well except lovers of war refuse to see it. They want war that they themselves do not want to fight. The cowards are perfectly happy to see other young men and women do the fighting -- and dying -- while they take off on their yachts. Those who oppose this important agreement are nothing short of despicable! Write, call, shout or smoke signal those in power to support the President's deal with Iran. It is the best deal for ALL of us. [See Scott Ritter's editorial "Cutting the Gordian Knot" here and below]
AND THEN WORK SO THAT A REPUBLICAN NEVER SETS FOOT INTO THE OVAL OFFICE AND WORK TO GET AN IMMORAL REPUBLICAN PARTY OUT OF CONGRESS AND ANYWHERE ELSE THEY EXIST SPREADING THEIR RUINOUS POISON TO AN UNKNOWING ELECTORATE WHO DOES NOT REALIZE WHAT THEY DO!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-ritter/cutting-the-gordian-knot_b_7801566.html
Eternal US war in that region is IMPOSSIBLE. We have neither the will nor the money nor even the enormous man power it would ultimately take for an all out full blown war with Iran in an already mind numbingly complex region to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb and the ultimate power a nuclear bomb would bring them.
We would fail and our president knows that. Our president is razor sharp in his analysis and WILL avert WWIII through his brilliant ability to negotiate this important Iran nuclear deal. It saves Israel's posterior as well except lovers of war refuse to see it. They want war that they themselves do not want to fight. The cowards are perfectly happy to see other young men and women do the fighting -- and dying -- while they take off on their yachts. Those who oppose this important agreement are nothing short of despicable! Write, call, shout or smoke signal those in power to support the President's deal with Iran. It is the best deal for ALL of us. [See Scott Ritter's editorial "Cutting the Gordian Knot" here and below]
AND THEN WORK SO THAT A REPUBLICAN NEVER SETS FOOT INTO THE OVAL OFFICE AND WORK TO GET AN IMMORAL REPUBLICAN PARTY OUT OF CONGRESS AND ANYWHERE ELSE THEY EXIST SPREADING THEIR RUINOUS POISON TO AN UNKNOWING ELECTORATE WHO DOES NOT REALIZE WHAT THEY DO!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-ritter/cutting-the-gordian-knot_b_7801566.html
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Congratulations, Mr. President
Congratulations, Mr. President, your last term in office has cemented your legacy and it will be a great one because you are a great man. I knew that when you first ran for president although, admittedly, some doubts lingered. I know now why I came to love you and still do.
The nuclear deal with Iran will go down in history as one of the greatest foreign policy achievements not only of this time but of all time and not only because of this nation but also because of the UK, France, Russia, China, Germany and, of course, Iran that were a part of it.
Prediction: If Republicans obstruct this historic nuclear agreement with Iran, like they have obstructed everything else the president has wanted for the nation to dig us out of the Republican ditch, it will be the last big thing they obstruct. They will be a fractured dead party ruined by yesterday's failed policies and they will never enter the White House. To emphasize how bad Republicans truly are Donald Trump is now leading the bellicose Republican primary pack .
The Republican Party of white, old racist obstructionists is a cancer on the nation's body politic and will kill us IF we let it . A science denying Republican nation of fear, hate, aggression and war will cost us much in blood and treasure it has already cost. It gained nothing but more war and a fractured-beyond-recognition Middle East. We handed Iran the keys to the kingdom of power because of Bush's Iraq War and now we must deal with those political realities.
The nuclear deal with Iran is historically great. You should support it letting Congress and anyone else who will listen know you do!
It is again why a Democrat must occupy the oval office and why DEMOCRATS must take over Congress. Get out the Democratic vote to make sure Hispanics, persons of color, the disabled, the elderly, veterans, women and progressives vote and do so for Democrats the only party that has our interests at heart.
The nuclear deal with Iran will go down in history as one of the greatest foreign policy achievements not only of this time but of all time and not only because of this nation but also because of the UK, France, Russia, China, Germany and, of course, Iran that were a part of it.
Prediction: If Republicans obstruct this historic nuclear agreement with Iran, like they have obstructed everything else the president has wanted for the nation to dig us out of the Republican ditch, it will be the last big thing they obstruct. They will be a fractured dead party ruined by yesterday's failed policies and they will never enter the White House. To emphasize how bad Republicans truly are Donald Trump is now leading the bellicose Republican primary pack .
The Republican Party of white, old racist obstructionists is a cancer on the nation's body politic and will kill us IF we let it . A science denying Republican nation of fear, hate, aggression and war will cost us much in blood and treasure it has already cost. It gained nothing but more war and a fractured-beyond-recognition Middle East. We handed Iran the keys to the kingdom of power because of Bush's Iraq War and now we must deal with those political realities.
The nuclear deal with Iran is historically great. You should support it letting Congress and anyone else who will listen know you do!
It is again why a Democrat must occupy the oval office and why DEMOCRATS must take over Congress. Get out the Democratic vote to make sure Hispanics, persons of color, the disabled, the elderly, veterans, women and progressives vote and do so for Democrats the only party that has our interests at heart.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
MATH
Blogger: Below
is satire but it easily could be real in a country where a large
segment of the population believes the earth is only 6000 years old,
evolution is a myth, Ted Nugent is talented, Sarah Palin is qualified to
be President, FOX News is fair and balanced, Duck Dynasty is
educational TV and President Obama is a Muslim illegal immigrant from
Kenya who plans to wage war on Texas among other things.
Here or
https://www.facebook.com/1047wzzk/videos/10153501184904992/
WHY IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER BEFORE IN VIEW OF REPUBLICAN STUPIDITY AND WAR MONGERING PROCLIVITY THAT A DEMOCRAT OCCUPY THE PRESIDENCY AND IF POSSIBLE THE CONGRESS!
Here or
https://www.facebook.com/1047wzzk/videos/10153501184904992/
WHY IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER BEFORE IN VIEW OF REPUBLICAN STUPIDITY AND WAR MONGERING PROCLIVITY THAT A DEMOCRAT OCCUPY THE PRESIDENCY AND IF POSSIBLE THE CONGRESS!
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