The Myth that we are "Drowning in Debt"

There are certain myths which I guess, if you did a man on the street interview about you would find the average American amazingly ignorant of.  For instance most people don’t know that the federal deficit on only just over a third of what it was the final year of the Bush administration.  And if you asked them about the value of the American dollar they’d say it’s going down all the time with respect to other currencies.  Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth.  The American dollar has risen steadily in value against other international currencies.  This gives American bonds and other debt instruments- - more of a “real yield” than they’d ever have in this country and creates a strong incentive for other foreign powers to finance us.  The average person may remember one agency lowered our bond rating once from triple A to double A plus or something, and panicked.  It was just weeks after this however that the value of debt instruments in this country rose.  Since more people were buying these debt instruments, the interest rates on them was cut further.  If you are a foreign power, once again, the increasing value of the dollar would increase the “Real” yields on these instruments.   I’ve at times wondered about how they compute these calculations saying the average American citizen owes over a hundred thousand or maybe it’s 65,000 on the national debt.  Is it on the taxes that you actually owe or your “legal share” or is it just the whole National Debt sliced and diced up into equal pieces.  Believe it or not, if this is the case the rich would really “Owe” more on that debt than the working class would.  But we as a people are programmed to panic.  We’ve been told that debt “monetization” would either bankrupt us or send us into out of control Wymar Republic style inflation spiral. (referring to post WW I Germany) Clearly even Glen Beck can see that this did not happen.  The average American citizen should know that when the stock market crashed in 1929 it was not in any way based on “debt”.   Judy is obsessed with “debt” - - other people’s debt, that is - - not her own, assuming she has any.  We need to get over this debt phobia.  After all public debt is really money we owe to ourselves and represents private savings, which ironically is a good thing.  Now private debt- - debt to “the man” be it a landlord or a banker, has no such silver lining and private debt far exceeds public debt in this country.  I bet you didn’t know that, either.

Mitt Romney is the first guy to jump out of the clown car.  We wondered in that “who will bite the bullet” conference in Utah, whether Jeb Bush or Mittens would get out of the race, and it turned out to be Mitt, and I believe it’s for the best, at least for the health of the Republican party.  Of course “God told Mitt he would be President” when he was a teenager, so Mittens is giving God the slip on this one.  Romney says in a phone call the reason why he withdrew is NOT because he didn’t think he could win, because he’s convinced that he could and can.   He says “It’s time for one of the other nominees who is just getting started- to emerge as the Presidential nominee.  Is that Scott Walker?  But it’s kind of a racket with these politicians.  Because nowadays being a candidate isn’t nine months of rail trips and staying at bad hotels and crapy food.  No, no.   How you get luxury suites in the finest hotels and raise a whole boatload of money that you get to keep even if you decide not to run.  Sarah Palin knows all about this political posturing. 

Now the caller is talking about “Eco-cide”, which is a new term just coined by the caller.  It could well be that we should stop ALL petrol drilling.  But at least let’s skip the trans-Canadian pipeline.   From the point of view of the earth, it would be if someone were pummeling you with their fists one after the other and the question is, “Do you want me to slow down or do you want me to stop”?  World Population was considered a major problem in 1968 and not to rain on your parade but if it was a major problem in 1968, what do you think it is now with the world's population nearly double what it was then?  It's just one of those facts people don't like to think about.  But some solutions present themselves.  Giving women of the world more power and away from things like Sheria Law which I imagine forbids taking birth control- - would go a long way towards women themselves choosing to have fewer children.  Switching from planes to trains in high population corridors is also logical.  Not to go Lisa Simpson on you, but if we were to wean outselves off of meats- - we would see an amazing drop in our energy needs since we invest an awful lot of land and energy both feeding not people- - but animals for those people to eat.  Taking up bike riding wouldn't be a bad idea either, and many are doing that.  I do not favor ripping our your grass lawns and putting in a rock garden.  Rocks conduct heat and would drive up your air conditioning bills something fierce.  An increase of ergonomic archetecture would help, too- - -  contouring the building for factors such as heat absorbson and choosing roofing substances and blending in with the land and not a glass "box", like a lot of our high rises are. 

Attempts to normalize relation with Cuba have hit a major snag as of today when the White House press secretary announced that we would NOT close Guantanamo Bay prison as a prerequisite to normalization of relations with Cuba.  I always thought it was primarily the Cubans who were pushing for this normalization rather than the United States.  Therefore the only question is ‘How badly do the Cubans want it?”  They are in economic dire straits, and we are here to offer help, but we don’t want it to be a case of biting the hand that’s feeding you.  We of course have our Naval Base on Guantanamo Bay, and we won’t be closing that down. 

Thom Hartman wants the facts well reviewed when it comes to Afghanistan.  As you will remember after 9 – 11 Afghanistan came to us and offered to deliver up Bin Laden to a third party state to be tried on whatever charges we had plausible evidence for.  And George Bush said, “No- - we’d rather bomb the hell out of the whole area”.   Apparently President Bush had surpressed the spending figures (that exceed the DNP of Afghanistan) on strengthening their military and police and still it’s been a disaster.  The American people can’t even know how much we have spent- - down a rat hole.  Meanwhile our goal in Iraq among other things- - perhaps Thee major goal- - was to destroy – not Saddam Hussein- - both the Bathist party government, because fifty percent of the Iraqi economy was “socialized” meaning the government controlled half of the economy.  There is no need of a fortune teller to tell you that if half the economy is wiped out- - and all of the infrastructure- - the country of Iraq as a whole will become a basket case.  Of course we disbanded the Republican Army, and I mean the one in the country of Iraq - - not in Iowa.  Thom Hartman continues to say that the term “Homeland” has racial implications as though it’s all in favor of a mother land, and a mother race, and that somehow there is an “American race” all the “good people” can identify with.  It’s a term that came out of Zionism, that strangely was picked up by the German people.  I think we need to make a new movie on the whole life of George Bush- - and it should run four or five hours with a break.  Even at that squeezing all the truly damning stuff about George W Bush will be a real challenge.  What’s Michael Moore been doing these days, anyhow?

Ralph Reid, long term Christian evangelist- - warns Republicans that they shouldn’t be so dominated by the wishes of the Koch Brothers as to lose sight of the social and cultural issues such as abortion and keeping marriages heterosexual.  In this he and I are in agreement.  But then again anything from my point of view, that instills fear and trepidation among the Republican ranks, I am all for.  I would run as a social conservative if I were president on matters of conscience alone.  I would be for freedom of expression of religion – ALL religion, and I would work against these assisted suicide laws- - and seek to get the federal courts completely OUT of the gay marriage question and leave that decision entirely in the hands of the states, and ditto for the abortion issue.  The people have expressed their voice rather emphatically in that they are against the widespread polliferation of gay marriages.  But apparently the Koch Brothers don’t really care about these “Larry Elder” type issues- - in other words, what used to be moral issues.

 Right now it’s a trip down memory lane with Democracy Now and the Black Panther Party.  Of course initially and perhaps for much of its carrier, it was an anti police brutality and abuse party.  Members of the Black Panther party would take advantage of California’s open gun carry laws back then to point guns at the police while they were arresting a subject, to insure that there was no misbehavior on the part of the cops.  The leader of the Chicago Black Panthers was shot in his bed while he slept in late 1969, and of course J Edger Hoover wanted to wipe the party out.  This has never been a secret.  I personally remember that issue with the free Mississippi delegation at the democratic convention and how Johnson – and probably Dick Daily - - maneuvered for the all white deligation to get sole power and many SNCC members were disillusioned.  Apparently it was right after this that Stokley Carmichal did the “Black Power” salute for the first time.

Based on astrological considerations, I have deemed it ill advised to say anything about either the Super Bowl or some of the other items I had it in mind to talk about today.  This computer is in precarious shape and it takes it forever to "warm up" and get up to speed.   My family situation is a big unknown these days and I won't speculate here.  Hopefully all of my dental work is behind me.  We had a residents council meeting around here today, and some of the things discussed, I'm puzzled as to just what the problem is. 

US Senate Approves Keystone XL Pipeline

Well now the other shoe has dropped.  The US Senate today made the three fifths hurtle on votes and voted cloture for the Keystone XL Pipeline bill.  The democrats tried to offer a number of amendments and each and every one was voted down by the republicans.  We said ‘Well we’ll build it but since it’s going over US land, shouldn’t the United States be guaranteed a portion of the oil?  The Republicans said NO.   Well, shouldn’t the pipeline be built with US Steel to bolster more jobs in this country, since the Republicans like to talk about jobs?  Again the answer was NO.  Well shouldn’t Canada pay into some special emergency fund in case the pipeline ruptures?  As far as I know the Canadians have saddled ALL of the liability in case of an oil spill on Americans for clean up expences and damages.   From start to finish the Republicans got everything they wanted.   Just keep in mind the oil price is dropping, and East Coast oil, when it comes on line (first) will drive the price of oil down further.   Lisa Marcauski and Mitch Mc Connell were the spokesmen for the Republicans.  Shuck Schumer and two women spoke for the democrats.  It’s true that on technical grounds the Nebraska supreme court by a negative plurality of one vote (the vote was 3 for the pipeline and 4 against) – another strange example of Al Gore math - - the Nebraska supreme court gave thumbs up.  I’ve heard there were now new permit renewal questions in South Dakota.   But as you know - - this administrations resistence to the Pipeline has been at best minimal.  All of the relevant departments gave this Pipeline a thumbs up as having minimal risk to the environment, something absurd on its face.  They are still cleaning up from a Pipeline spill in Kalamazoo, Michigan.   This bill is clearly cronisum at its worse.  It waves every environmental regulation and “fast tracks” all permits.  As Barbra Boxer says, it is favoritism that no United States legislative body has every extended a foreign corporation.  Even if you favor domestic energy development to combat the OPEC cartel, this is not the way to go.  Every year Solar power and electric cars are growing by leaps and bounds.  There is an increasingly unlikely chance that crude oil prices ever again will see the levels seen in 2012 when everybody was so hot to approve this Keystone Pipeline.  As such this pipeline STILL may never be build due to the utter economic infeasibility of the project.  It’s the Koch Brothers and a few Canadian businessmen making a sweet heart deal to get this oil to China, as if the pollution there weren’t bad enough already.  The Republicans are saying ‘How come China doesn’t have to abide by pollution limitations now?”   This would have been a good opportunity to prove the Republicans were interested in being “fair” and putting limitations on ALL countries.   But this Republican congress has never had either fairness or “Common Sense” at the top of their agenda.  And it’s not a foregone conclusion that the President will veto this bill.  President Obama has been far from being “a man of his word” on just about anything.  And if the President vetoes this bill, the Republicans will just haul off and tack the Pipeline on to some other piece of energy legislation, a move I think should be illegal, but it’s just a political reality.

As one looks to the future one sees an era I believe with a multi tiered internet where if you have a lot of money you can get faster service than others who don't have money.  In terms of one man one vote - - nothing will be done on Electoral College reform because is 2000 ever happens again, the Republicans will profit by it again as the democrats are four and zero as far as being on the receiving end of the electoral shaft.  But nothing will be done.  Also by saying that money is "political speech" you have de-humanized human beings and are basically saying that a rich person's oppinion is worth a million times as much as a poor persons.  This is anti democratic and contrary to what Thomas Paine, or Thomas Jefferson or any of our founding fathers envisioned.   One area where I believe we should take action but won't is the nation's rail system.  Rail is a whole lot more energy efficient than are planes and use a whole lot less fuel.  If you over-book a railroad it's a simple matter of adding on more cars.  You don't have trains stacked up circling the city waiting to land.  Trains don't crash is there is upper air storm turbulance.  You can actually see more of America first hand from a train than you'll ever see from an air plane.  Trains are less vulnerable than planes for sure as far as being hijacked because they have to stay on the same track till their destination.  You wouldn't need as much pre boarding hanging around with a railroad.  But still railroads are uniquely villified by the right wing.  Judy says that "trains are the most inefficient mode of transportation possible".   She says busses are better than trains and of course individual cars are the best of all.  Judy and I suspect other right wingers are too, suspicious of "urban corridors" which they fear will happen and middle America will be depopulated.  Of course that's where all of the red state voters are.  In terms of the Tea Party and all- - the Red States are over-represented in the US Senate and also by way of inference, in the electoral college where our next President will be chosen.  I see nothing in our future capable of combating all these reactionary forces arrayed against us.  The right wing is anti democratic, as we've noted.  They are systematically robbing minorities of the Vote every day.  If they could these Billionaires would bypass the democratic process completely.  Someone once called in to a liberal talk show and said "The United States is not Fasciest because we still have democracy, and the leaders can be voted out at any time".  It's just a matter of time I believe, when this no longer will be true.  I think I know these people well enough to know they'll find a way to do it somehow.  Many church pastors say "I can be voted out at any time" and the ones who say this end up becoming the most Despotic ones ad somehow like Vladimir Putin, they put in measures that weaken and weaken the democratic vote, untill they have destroyed it.

You know ‘Matthew Harrison Brady’  said in “Inheret the Wind”,  when Spencer Tracy brought up the Biblical story of the talking ass.  “I believe in a god who can make a human being and who can also make an ass and make both do what he chooses.   This is like the soap opera.  Today was “Day Tripper” day.  I hate day trippers.  These are people who you are sure are going to do one thing and end up doing completely the opposite, usually after you have made some sort of investment in them.   That tipster who told Nicole about Serina being not at all what she seemed - - - sounded completely credible.  If he had gone on talking about “being off his meds” or “getting back to his little blue bird” or all the Marie Curie bit- - - Nicole would have known.  But when he comes to the door to substantiate his charges - - - Nicole has this worst possible nightmare of going to the exact WRONG file on a computer base where this co worker is off in loonie land.  Nicole is left holding the bag, and it may well cost her relation with Daniel.   We got the idea that Chad was going to break up with Jordan- - and they were as good as “a thing of the past” already when Chad and Stephano talked about how there was no future in the relation.  But then despite everything Jordan did to drive him away, Chad protests his undying love and goes on an Obama style “apology tour”.    But some may say to me “Well people are unpredictable and maybe you have trouble dealing with that reality”.   I will consider that point.  But authors can make characters do whatev er they want to, which is fine for a cartoon, but less amusing when the plot is supposed to represent reality.  But take the story of the passion of Christ and how the crowd turned on a dime against Jesus in four days.  It is very unlikely that they would do so but it “Tells a good story” so you have to accept that it happened and not to question anything.   Certain soap opera developments in the plot are clearly determined by things other than sheer logic or “natural progression of events”.  Samantha and EJ Di Mira were on the road to getting back together and then all of a sudden both of the parents as well as Johnny, Alley and Sydney are out of the script- - on the most flimsy of likelihood.   It’s what Annie Wilks calls “Cheating with characters” and we know that certain people - “Just don’t like people who cheat”.  They are “dirty birdies” and dire things begin happening.

Some scientific developments could be used for positive developments, or else horribly negative ones.  They can now read brain waves so well from various parts of certain lobes- - - they can tell what you INTEND to do before you DO it.  Certain things show up in diagrams and certain portions of the brain light up when certain types of activity occur such as - - contemplating motor activity before you move a muscle.  It seems they have already made some use of this in prosthetic devices.  DNA research is good if it means restoring a cell to what God intended.  But humans are not content with that.  Now we may hold a valuable tool in crime fighting mankind has prayed for since the dawn of time.  Hopefully they'll at least give "fair warning" as to what we, the criminal element now face".   So thought crimes could soon become a reality.  It could be argued that "It was so slow back in the old days when we had to wait for arsonists to actually set a fire before we arrested them".   Clearly it could be used in questioning suspects and making certain deals with them, wondering if they would be true to their word.   Would the person, for instance, jump bail?   But a despot could clearly make malignent use of this tool to have protestors thrown in jail before their movement ever got off the ground.  

Koch Brothers Have Candidates down to "The Final Four"

Today is Thomas Payne's birthday and he wrote on the subject of inherent human rights, and how people have to be fair minded and respect the rights of others in order even to have civil dialog.  And if your nature is to be a Tyrant then you can't be reasoned with.  And he spoke highly of atheists who aren't swayed by scriptural arguments from the Bible because the Bible was written by violent men.   Thom Hartman also talked about the Boston tea party and how that was the overthrowing of oligarks, who wanted to throw local tea vendors out of business.   There was a "free market" price of tea, but the British East India company sought to undercut that and drive all the local vendors out of business.  This is what convinced Thomas Jefferson to support the American Revolution because in 1772 Jefferson had written a pamflet on "Being a good British citizen".   Of course Thomas Payne's writings and humanist philosophy sort of fell out of favor once we actually won our independence, and this is sad, because we need more thinkers like Thomas Payne, whose birthday we celebrate today.

Right now I have the John Mc Cain pentagon hearings on the ravages of funding cut back due to the 2011 sequestration deal - - on the defense department.   They've had one military expert after another testifying about how their branch of the military will be irreperably harmed by a continued drying up of funds, and I am inclined to agree with them.  The sequester at this point isn't good for anybody- including the military.  There was a breakthrough in “deflate gate” yesterday when some kind of a ball boy took the whole thing of footballs to be used in the game, into the locker room where he was “alone and uninterrupted” for period of ninety seconds, which isn’t long to deflate eleven balls.  Yesterday was Auschuitz liberation day when the Russian army liberated this major concentration camp.  

The Republican Primary this election is being held in Palm Springs, California.  Norman Goldman states that four Republicans have made it into the “Final Four” that were deemed worthy to be interviewed by the Koch Brothers in Palm Springs over this past weekend.  Marco Rubio was their number one choice, and Scott Walker was the one whom Norman Goldman most thinks will make it as the eventual nominee.  Norman says that Rand Paul is too sly to be trusted and he’s more dangerous than he looks.  Norman isn’t worried about Ted Cruise, though, the only guy who made it ere from Iowa.  “People hear Ted Cruz and they’ll know he’s nuts, so he doesn’t bother me.”   I had already formed the conclusion that Marco Rubio was the odds on favorite.  Stephanie Miller and Chris Le Boy were accused of falsely stating that Scott Walker was a union buster who went after people’s pensions.  That’s just what he did.  He may have garnered votes by pitting some union workers against other union workers – gambling correctly that people are pretty dumb.  There is no doubt in my mind that if Scott Walker had his way he would eliminate all unions and all pension funds.  Like Dr Levy he has no conception of someone keeping their word on a matter.  Sean Hannity’s only criticism of Scott Walker “a man with a lot of potential” is that he’s not furvent (hysterical) enough, and needs to hone his demagogic skills to whip those right wing crowds into a fevered frenzy.   But it is the “Final Four” held two months early.  The Republican selection for standard barrer will be one of these four.

Today is the deadline that ISIS set for executing that captured Jordanian pilot- - at “sunset in Iraq”, which has come and gone.  Of course ISIS wants Jordan to release one of the most dangerous attempted suicide bombers of all time.  This woman is unhappy her bombs didn’t go off and she would have taken sixty people with her to the next life has she been successful.  And the Jordanians are hoping to make it a two per one deal because they’d like that other Japanese journalist guy released by ISIS at the same time.   ISIS shouldn’t be able to get away with keeping the western media on pins and needles all the time, deathly afraid of what they’re going to do next.   Too bad there isn't some way we could just extermanate all of them at once - - like in the old days when you could wipe out a whole city with one Atomic Bomb.   I think our foreign policy planners need to think long and hard about what will work and "get the job done" and what measures are completely futile.   The Tom Bodet clone says “We’ll leave the right wing on for you”.   And “We give you more Bengazi at the same price”.   Of course I’m on the 2^nd floor of the west wing.  That’s common knowledge.

That ringed planet is two hundred times the size of Saturn, which would make a hell of a scene in the night sky with minimal optical aids around here.  Maybe the whole planet is a hoax as part of a frizbee commercial for the super bowl.   “Go Daddy” is pulling an add involving a lost puppie where the lady only wants him found so she can sell him.  Apparently that ad didn’t market test well.  The atmosphere on Mars is exceedingly thin.   It’s probably more than one percent but designing a drone helicopter to fly around and scout out places form the Mars rover to investigate and putter around in- - - this drone would be an engineering feat with a really high speed motor and only runs for two and a half minutes at a shot.  I guess it spends the rest of the time charging up the solar batteries, from reduced power of the Sun on Mars.   Some have a question about how “We don’t see things in the sky transversing space at the speed of light”.  When you look at the heavens through Hubble or anywhere else- - all of the galaxies and such appear content to stay pretty much put.  You don’t see fleets of galaxies streaking across the sky at speeds approaching light.  We are talking about transverse travel- - which would be picked up more easily than something just receding into the background, which occurs in a universally expending universe.  Such an expanding universe- - scientists would say- - would not be limited by the speed of light.   Not to overly complicate my point- - I am talking about objects in the heavens traveling transverse to other objects- - and perhaps suddenly appearing and disappearing altogether, - - as they crossed the event horizon.    (See other material)

At some point in this blog I plan to say more on the subject of Romula cloaking technology.   Let's do it now- shortly before nine o clock in the morning.   People wonder why Romulan cloaking technology would give space craft the ability to accelerate almost effortlessly with none of the G effects on passengers you'd experiance in any other environment.   This is because the SPACE said passengers are accelerating through is not the SAME space where they are residing.  So it's almost as though THEY in their altered molicules- - aren't traveling at all.  As such their "weight" remains at zero regardless of how much or quickly they are accelerated.   Where the Star Trek show blew it was dragging the whole "space-time" thing into it.   This process of "warping" space has nothing to do with Time.   Another question you may have is "Is it the space that is warped or the molicules in matter itself that is being warped?    Basically it's a space "field" but the saying is also true that "It doesn't matter- - because the nature of the Space around an object is determined by the melicular make-up of that object".    Others may ask "Well you still fire rockets to accelerate and navigate and such don't you- - can't these flames be seen?"   You're absolutely right.  Therefore Romulans try and plan it so that they can "chart a course" much as our own NASA people do with sattelites- - with a minimum of rocket firings.   Another question you may have is "How can Romulans walk around in our space and still breathe?  Wouldn't they soon sufficate without their own air supply with them"   The thing is that gasses as such are exempt from Romulan space warping.  For the same reason you just don't sink into the ground because like with a swimming pool you are bowied up by these gases.    Some would then say "Well- - when you DO fire these rockets then- - - you are NOT traveling through warped space".   That is correct.     You are traveling through ordenary space.    We have spoken much of baryons.    The term "Baryon" for Romulans means something slightly different- - than the term on earth does refering to a large extent to nuclear particles of neutrons and protons.  These fundamental particles are said to be made up of "Hadrons" with Romulans.   What Romulans there say are "Hadrons" we refer to as Baryons.    

It's the "Tell the People What They Want To Hear" Game

Many people have complained about Movie scripts, probably from the dawn of time.  "American Sniper" is a scenario dreamed up by "Warped, frustrated old men" and it's been done many times in history.  Many say Shekesphere was under pressure to write the play "King Richard III" a certain way because "It's what the people wanted to hear and see".   And many have suspected Colonel Tom Parker of goosing up the movie "Jail House Rock" with a lot of barbed imuendos against the star of the movie with little "dog whistles in the script" designed to "get to him".   But this "Tell the people what they want to hear" game has gone far enough, because it's really "Tell the people what prejudices you want to convey without the recipient being even aware he is being "force fed" the knowledge.   So today we are turning our gun sights from Israel to America herself, and shining a light on the Truth.

Ross Caputi, a former marine who participated in the US’s second siege of Fallujah, writes that the reason the American Sniper book and film have been so successful is that they “tell us exactly what we want to hear”: that US America is “benevolent” and “righteous”.  That, he says, is why the book and film are so popular; their popularity speaks volumes about US society, and signals more danger ahead for the rest of the world.

The killings for which Chris Kyle is idolized, Caputi notes, were perpetrated during his participation in the second US siege of Fallujah, which Caputi, from firsthand knowledge, calls an “atrocity”.

Specifically of the siege, Caputi notes:

• “All military aged males were forced to stay within the city limits of Fallujah” [while women and children were warned to flee through the desert on foot]

• “…an estimated 50,000 civilians were trapped in [Fallujah] during this month long siege without water” [since the US had cut off water and electricity to the city]

• “…almost no effort was taken to make a distinction between civilian men and combatants. In fact, in many instances civilians and combatants were deliberately conflated.”

• “The US did not treat military action [against Fallujah] as a last resort. The peace negotiations with the leadership in Fallujah were canceled by the US.”

• “[The US] killed between 4,000 to 6,000 civilians, displaced 200,000, and may have created an epidemic of birth defects and cancers“

• “[The siege was] conducted with indiscriminate tactics and weapons, like the use of reconnaissance-by-fire, white phosphorous, and the bombing of residential neighborhoods. The main hospital was also treated as a military target.”

In modest conformity with international law originally flowing from the Nuremberg tribunal, he says that neither he or Kyle should receive any “praise or recognition” for their actions against Iraq.

Further, he notes that Clint Eastwood, director of the American Sniper movie, made many changes to Kyle’s accounts of what happened.  For one, Kyle, in his autobiography, recounts shooting a woman who was taking the legal action of throwing a grenade at invading forces.  Eastwood changes this so that the woman gives the grenade to her child to throw at the invaders.  “Did Clint Eastwood think that this is a more representative portrayal of the Iraqi resistance?” Caputi asks. “It’s not.”  (Caputi gives Eastwood the benefit of our lack of knowledge of his thought process; he could have asked if Eastwood did this to try to dehumanize Iraqi mothers or Iraqis in general, or whip up US American xenophobic hatred of foreigners, a not-so-difficult feat which Eastwood accomplished with flying colors.  See The Guardian’s “American Sniper: Anti-Muslim Threats Skyrocket in Wake of Film’s Release“; many who see the film “emerge from theatres desperate to communicate a kind of murderous desire.”)

The US invasion of Iraq, Caputi concludes, was “the imposition of a political and economic project against the will of the majority of Iraqis. … We had no right to invade a sovereign nation, occupy it against the will of the majority of its citizens, and patrol their streets.”

Caputi “holds an MA in Linguistics and … is working on an MA in English Studies at Fitchburg State University.”

Also see Professor of International Affairs Sophia A. McClennan’s piece, where she says the American Sniper movie is “a terrifying glimpse” of a “mind-set that couples delusion with violence”.

Posted in General, Politics / World News | 19 Comments

Economic Doom and Gloom Predicted Even By "Optimists"

I confess to some confusion when hearing the economic forecast by this administration.  The whole “meme” has always been that yes, this year will be passable, but after that things will be getting worse again in terms of both deficets and inflation, and the amount the United States pays on debt interest.  Unless you are of the Glen Beck or Thom Hartmann school of economics predicting a crash - - in the absence of that- - why shouldn’t the economy continue to improve this year, the next year, and the year after that?  Stocks were down over two hundred DJI points today.  Many people still believe in that proverbial "turn of the page" and that good times are just around the corner.  In other words why shouldn’t the federal deficit continue to come down year after year?  Perhaps it’s an increase in the Medicare costs due to the retirement of so many baby boomers, including myself.   I am also confused by those who maintain that our Social Security payments situation is doomer.  Some of the obsurd alternatives are to cut payments because the old people are getting so rich on Social Security payments.  Some even dare to say that the boomer generation is spoiled.  This is despite the fact when our generation went to work withholding rates were jacked up into the stratosphere running up a big surplus in the social security fund.  Any implication that our generation didn’t collectively earn that money – is downright insulting.  Others say “What we need are ten percent interest rates so savings will be worth something”.   This too is madness.  Also madness is the idea that we have th - - RAISE the inflation rate up to - - TWO percent, as if it already isn’t five or six percent inflation per year.  Some of these analysts are off in la la land.  Others say “We CAN’T raise the withholding taxes on people earning over $250,000 because there aren’t that many of them”.   Well, what about a flat rate up TO $250,000 and there are a lot more of those.  If you look at the economic statistics, the “middle class” hasn’t shrunken nearly as much as the liberals have been saying.   One blog says “Getting more in revenue from rising salaries won’t work, either”.  Why not?  If you raise salaries - - by hiking minimum wage, tax incentives to bring industry back to this country - - AND to strengthen labor unions- - then FICA revenues will go through the roof- - problem solved, just like that.   But I’m also honest enough to admit there may be economic factors to somehow bolster this rather gloomy prediction from our own people that “2015 is as good as you’ll ever see economic statistics get- - and it’s down hill from here on out”.    That forecast would depress anybody, particularly after what we’ve been through the past seven years.  And if people turn to the stock market to “get in on a good thing” the golden goose will quit laying those gold nuggets.  She’ll go on strike, and a lot of people will lose their shirts.

This Republican congress is still a bit of a blank slate because we don’t know how many bills will be passed and the president signs- for whatever reasons.   Today we learn that a long standing complaint of the Republican party will be dealt with.  We’ve heard the cry from late August of 2008 of “Drill, baby drill”.    President Obama, we learn, was considering extending oil leases off the east coast of the United States before the horrendous BP gulf spill.  Now years later it seems the President had thought about it and decided he will begin granting leases off the east coast from Virginia to Florida.  But I stand by my allegation that there was and is some sort of politics in his decision to shut down Alaska oil.   Some say “He giveth and he taketh away” from both the environmentalists and big oil.  But I’m wondering whether he’s harboring hopes that perhaps some of these states like Florida and North Carolina could be persuaded to go republican in the 2016 election if there is oil being pumped off the shores of these states.  What I do not know is just how open the leadership of these states are to opening sites up for drilling permits.  I’ve heard rumblings that the environmentalists in these states are all against it.

The concencus at this point is that this time will be different from all other elections in that the candidate leading four years before the election year, will be the candidate who wins in a landslide.  Hillary Clinton, contrary to rumor, continues to be supported by a majority of those who call themselves "progressives".  This doesn't bode at all well for the Republican's chances with their fifteen candidates, all bloodying each other up.  Now Donald Trump wants to add his name to the same tired list of political retreads.  There seems to be an ardent dislike of candidates Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush.  If there is a split in the Republican party over this- - all the victories of 2014 may soon be a thing of the past as candidate after candidate on the rights wants to "make his or her point" on this topic.  I refer to Sarah Palin's "word salads", proving that she still has the nack of making a total baffoon of herself.

President Obama still believes in whoring himself out to Mideast countries such as today's Presidential trip to Sauti Arabia.  Back in the 'eighties there were those on the right who said that we needed to "keep a dialog going" with South Africa and engage in "quiet persuasion" to bend them to our way.  President Bush spoke of doing the same thing with China of giving them "most favored nation status" all the while "dialoging with them" to sway them more twords democracy and human rights.  That didn't happen.  But of course we didn't care what South Africa thought because after all they didn't have "Oil".  Norman Goldman said today "National leaders ought to come right out and admit that as Nations we don't have "friends" but only "common interests".   Everything is the carrot and the stick.  Now we see all these beheadings and dismemberments in Saudi Arabia going on on a regular basis, and we give it a wink and a nod.  If I were President I'd change all of this, and no matter what I thought of the ecology of it, I'd do everything I could to prove to the Saudis that we didn't need their oil because we've got plenty of our own.  In other words I would give the Presidency an "attitude adjustment" and stop morally compromising with people who under any other circumstance, we would not cross the street to say Hello to.

The United States Supreme Court issued a blow to labor unions today when they disallowed “life time pensions” to workers at some unionized chemical company.  It seems that they are arguing whether the expression of “receiving pensions when you retire” means “life time pensions” or pensions for a limited time.  My understanding of the word “pensions” is that it is for life, and lower courts agree that “pensions” are to be received for life.  But now you have some legalists splitting hairs over this.  But let’s draw a parrellel example.  The Constitution states that Supreme Court justices receive salaries for life that cannot be diminished.  If this is the case, what about a justice that receives a heart transplant, or a liver transplant, or has hip replacement surgery.  It could be argued that the founders of the Constitution only envisioned that a person would have “all his own parts that he was born with” when he got those salaries promised to him.   I said it was an absurd argument, but some nit picking legalist might make it.  Since this was a nine to nothing decision- - the democrats all jumped ship.  It further disturbes me that justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion.  That’s a little scarey right there.

 On the soap opera the snow is turning Clyde’s body into a “Clyde-cycle”.   Victor just says “leave it”.   But Nicole is not so careful and got caught – again – by Serina- - again.  Who would know that the file access times are readily available and that Serina checks these past access times every time she turns on the computer?  I sure don’t.   I certainly would not check every file access time on every category of file I own.  This morning I played “Street View” and “Friends and Neighbors” or whatever in Power Point, just for a diversion.  This Japanese baseball player is so guilt ridden about not “coming out” for Sonny, that he says he’d trade in all of his baseball fame just to have sonny in his life now.   Even for a gay man- - this is more than anyone would ever ask.

Some may come out and ask me "Do you believe in the Big Bang and in the expanding universe?"   There is a logical problem here because - - geometrically given an expanding universe there has to be some sort of "edge' to it somewhere.  But keep in mind the "space" that said universe is "expanding into" isn't really space because at the time of the inception of the Big Bang there were no gravitons or Higgs bozons or what have you - - that denote space and time and gravity.  You have the same logical problem is you say that "God created time" and then go on to speculate what God was doing BEFORE he created Time.   Of course we also view as all of the stars as moving incredibly slowly given their distance away from us.  Indeed an amoeba is a lot swifter moving relative to its size, than is the expansion of the Universe, at least what we can see.  And yet I have postulated that there could be and no doubt ARE - - vast areas of the Universe beyond our Event Horizon where at super light speeds, groups of stars and galaxies travel in a group with respect to each other.  The one thing wrong with this theory is "How come we don't see these fast moving galaxies with our telescopes?"   It's kind of the UFO argument, where you can talk all you want to about the existance of UFO's but if there are never any scientifically documented case, how can you mount proof of something with no evidence that would be deemed acceptable in any court of our land?   

Israel Likes to Make Up It's Own History

This is kind of a review of "Just the facts, Mam".   People need to be reminded of these facts often though, because the media as we know it in America does everything they can to give us their version of Israeli history.  I only wish Washington's Blog's next assignment would be to go after the Christian Church, and I'd aim particularly from the period from about 200 AD to about 320 AD - - to find out how "The Universal Church" (another word for Catholic) has done very much the same thing.   Here's a mental exercise.  If they sell us a Jewish messiah based on the Jewish system of prophecy and litergy- - and yet they themselves hate everything about the Jews, could it just be also truth that a Religion that claims to prize "Forgiveness" above else is also a lie because "Forgiveness" is the LAST thing they want, in terms of any of them having to do it.  Neil Savedra last Sunday gave a little talk on "The blame game" as though nobody who was a Christian would attach blame to anything or any one.  Of course- - all these TV Evangelists do is to play the Blame Game.  To say that Evangelical Christiany does not attach personal blame- - is one of the most oxy moronic statements of our time.  And now here is the low-down on the 1967 Israeli War.

In 1967, Israel, which had been founded on terrorism and ethnic cleansing against civilians, waged another war of aggression and absorbed more of the land specifically reserved by the United Nations for Palestinians.  The highest Israeli militant leaders had, since long before Israel was established, vowed to wipe Palestine off the map by conquering all of it, and more.

As a society where speech is heavily censored by the government and military, interviews with Israeli soldiers after the ’67 war of aggression (the “six day war”) were locked away, until now, when they can be viewed to some extent in the documentary “Censored Voices”.

However, “Israel forbids the filmmakers to reveal how much they were forced to change, and the military censor’s office refused to discuss it.”  The military is said to have “heavily edited” the footage.

Still, the film exhibits soldiers talking about how it was a “myth” that they cared so deeply about the territory they were conquering.  A soldier says he had forgotten it (the Old City) existed until he and his fellow troops were ordered to march through and conquer it.

Another soldier reveals his belief, common in Israel, that the Arabs were “animals”, “not human beings”.  Indeed, Israelis famously referred to Arabs as “monkeys” (and continue today to use racist terms to dehumanize their victims).  Though this soldier does not refer to his own side as sub-human, he does admit the behavior of the Israeli army was “filthy”.

Orders from terrorists from the top of the Israeli chain of command were to “kill as many as possible” and “‘show no mercy”.  Foot soldiers discuss how they didn’t think twice about murdering civilians, and chose to “kill everyone” they saw, admitting that the Israeli forces were all “murderers”.

The film delves into the Israeli army’s execution of prisoners and massacres of civilians in the process of conquering more of the land.

Prof. Norman Finkelstein, who wrote his political science doctoral dissertation at Princeton on Israel and has since studied the Israeli conquest of Palestine for decades, notes of the 1967 war that, while Israel of course whipped up existential fear in its public, US and Israeli intelligence independently determined and confirmed with each other that Egypt was not going to attack Israel, and that even if three neighboring countries all attacked Israel at the same time, Israel would “whip the Hell out of them” (Johnson administration) in seven to ten days.

Israel thus, as Zeev Maoz, former Israeli professor of military strategy, notes, waged a “war of choice”, or “deliberate Israeli aggressive design” (a terrorist operation), and fulfilled its long-time, stated goal of colonizing more legally reserved Palestinian territory, refusing through today to follow the democratic global consensus and decolonize the conquered lands.

After the war, the UN General Assembly held an emergency session, and “not one country in the world” (apart from Israel) said Israel had acted in self defense.

However, as Finkelstein notes, even if we turn history on its head and pretend 1967 was an Israeli war of defense, nothing changes.  International law forbids acquisition of territory by war of any kind, and Israel would still be required to decolonize Palestine and return to its 1967 borders.

Every year, the UN General Assembly votes about 165 to 2 (the two being US/Israel, sometimes joined by a few US or Western European colonies) for Israel to decolonize Palestine and return to its June, 1967 borders.  The legal necessity of Israel returning to its 1967 borders is affirmed by virtually every group in the world, including all major human rights organizations, as well as the highest court in the world, the International Court of Justice, in which all fifteen judges, including the US judge, agreed that Israel’s absorption and colonization of land through war in 1967 is illegal.

Israel is able to maintain its illegal colonial apartheid state beyond its borders only through regular acts of mass terror against Palestinian civilians (what Israel refers to in terms such as  “mowing the lawn”) and US sponsorship.

(Note author has not viewed documentary, which recently premiered at Sundance.  Above information about and quotes from film are from trailers, clips, and referenced NYT review, which author of the review admits was written to serve the Israeli propaganda version of the initiation of the 1967 war.)

Robert Barsocchini is an internationally published researcher and writer who focuses on global force dynamics and writes professionally for the film industry.  He is a regular contributor to  Washington’s Blog.  Follow Robert and his UK-based colleague, Dean Robinson, on Twitter.

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