The Time Has Come Today

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the US Congress this week. President Obama gave a major speech regarding the Middle East and also addressed AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee). Netanyahu rejected Obama's suggestion to abide by UN Resolution 242. Congressional leadership and the President should have clearly conveyed that the time has come for Israeli intransigence against peaceful resolution to the Palestinian crisis be ended once and for all. Sadly, they did not.

Why? Because we have been indoctrinated with a singular History of the Jews In Palestine; that Palestine is the Jews' rightful home. We have learned by rote and repetition, that Israel, as the region's sole democracy, is beset by 22 hostile Arab states with cultures of death to infidels. We do not protest, even in these harsh economic times, when $3 Billion of our tax dollars (not counting back-channel and black ops expenditures which some estimate as high as an additional $6 Billion) per year, are funneled to Israel, that money used to build illegal settlements in the West Bank and to repress Palestinians daily. We completely understand the clear difference of Hamas "terrorism" (firing small, ineffective rockets into Israel accounting for 16 deaths from 2001 to 2008) and the "defensive" Israeli assaults on civilian populations; for example, Operation Cast Lead which, in just three weeks, resulted in 1400 Palestinian people killed, most of them women and children, or Operation Peace for Galilee which resulted in the destruction of Beirut and 18,000 civilian deaths in just the first days of the 1982 Lebanon invasion. We never think to question Israel's use of state-of-the-art weaponry/tools of repression (courtesy of the US) to commit daily acts of murder, humiliation and illegal occupation of the Palestinian people. Nor do we wonder at the pre-emptive invasions of sovereign nations that Israel carries out at will and whim.

We all believe that Israel is acting in self-defense. That notion is fiction. In fact, Israel is guilty of crimes against humanity. A crime of gigantic proportions perpetrated upon some ten million human beings.

Historical truth: Jews claim that Israel/Palestine is their rightful home. Yet, the Semitic peoples whom were to become the Jews, originally came to Palestine as invaders. The only time in 4000 years of history that the Jews actually ruled in the region was under King David and son Solomon, again under the Maccabbees and currently under the Israeli government; a span of time constituting less than 4 percent of the region's history. There is no evidence that Jews ever comprised a majority in Palestine.

Palestinian Arabs' roots go back thousands of years, generation upon generation operating under tribal laws despite whatever absent authority claimed to have control there. These Palestinians have lived upon the land of Palestine, as nomads, as tillers of its soil, all having harvested its bounty for most of Palestine's existence.

And then came Zionism. Theodor Herzl's plan to have Jews from all over the world return to Zion and build a state. The first wave of illegal Jewish immigration (First Aliyah, 1882 - 1903) found a Palestine with less than 25,000 Jews living there, mostly in Jerusalem; constituting less than 5 percent of the population. The second wave of illegal immigration (Second Aliyah, 1904 – 1914) brought the number of Jews in Palestine to 85,000 or just 10.6 percent of the population.

We often hear how the Mandatory for Palestine, Great Britain, "promised" Eastern European Jews by way of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the whole of Palestine as the home of Jews. That view is clearly refuted by the Churchill White Paper of 1922 which maintained that the Balfour Declaration did not mean "the imposition of a Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole." Nor did it mean that Palestine, "as a whole should be converted into a Jewish National Home, but that such a Home should be found in Palestine." It should also be understood that the Balfour Declaration stated, "it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine."

The Mandate document (Council of the League of Nations, 24 July 1922) outlined the responsibilities of the Mandatory. Great Britain was to guarantee that Zionist immigration would be allowed only "under suitable conditions" (Article 6) and that the Arab majority's civil and religious rights would be protected (Article 2). Further, Article 17 of the British Mandate document prohibited armed defense groups ― like the Zionist underground group Ha-Shomer started in 1907 which burgeoned into Haganah in 1920 which split into Irgun, LEHI, and the Stern Gang ― unless such groups operated under the "supervision of the Mandatory." Despite this proscription these groups operated on their own perpetrating terrorist acts until Israel was proclaimed a State in 1948.

The illegal immigration of Eastern European Jews continued unabated until, at the close of the Third Aliyah (1919 – 1923), Jews comprised 18.7 percent of the population in Palestine.

Numerous pronouncements from Zionist leaders (Herzl, Jabotinsky, Ben-Gurion, etc) made clear that Zionists wanted all of Palestine (Eretz Yisrael). More and more land was confiscated from Arab Palestinians until in 1936 an Arab revolt erupted. Outlawed Jewish terrorist organizations indiscriminately murdered thousands of Arab Palestinians. As the British cracked down on the illegal immigration and fought the Jewish terrorists, the various illegal armed groups targeted the British military. A protracted round of murderous terrorism convinced the Brits to turn the Mandate over to the United Nations. In 1947, a special committee was convened (UNSCOP) to study the situation. Its recommendation was to divide Palestine into two separate states. At this juncture, Zionists comprised 33 percent of the population yet were offered 55 percent of Biblical Palestine. Of course, the Arab Palestinians refused the offer, much as any humans would if their home had been thieved and then offered only the attic and basement in which to live.

Then, in 1948, Israel self-declared statehood and conducted the Nakba (Catastrophe) which was the forceful expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. All that was left behind was confiscated by the nascent nation of Israel; "80 percent of the entire land area of Israel is land abandoned by the Arab Refugees. Nearly a quarter of all the standing buildings in Israel had been occupied by those Arabs. Ten thousand shops, stores and other firms inside new Israel had been Arab. Half of all the citrus fruit holdings in the new State had belonged to the Arabs now made refugees. By 1954, more than one-third of the entire Jewish population of Israel was living on 'absentee property' ― most of it now 'absorbed' into the Israeli economy, and unilaterally sequestered by Israeli legislation against a 'global' compensation offer." [The Other Exodus; Erskine Childers; The Spectator Limited; 12 May 1961]. Those refugees are still refugees. In fact, one third of the world's refugees are Palestinian.

Israel started the 1956 Suez war and confiscated the entire Sinai. Israel proceeded to start the "Six Days War" (1967) and grabbed more land, Gaza and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). The UN passed a Resolution (242) demanding Israel return the occupied territories. Israel has refused ever since.

Today: Israel is in daily violation of article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids population transfer into territory occupied in war. Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, such population transfer is also a war crime. The illegality of the settlements was reaffirmed by the International Court of Justice in July 2004. Israel's "Wall of Separation" was determined to be illegal by the International Court. Israel continues to build that wall and continues to send religious zealots into the territories to make "facts on the ground" nullify any two-state agreement.

Israel points its finger at Iran as to nuclear proliferation although Israel has engaged in its own illegal (non-signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) nuclear weapons program with missile delivery capability of warheads and has done so without joining the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency; Iran has). The United States supports this criminality and, in fact, champions sanctions against Iran for merely enriching uranium for its peaceful nuclear energy program but says nothing about Israel's 200 plus weapons of mass destruction.

The current situation in Israel is one of apartheid, of brutal repression of an entire people. Days ago, 12 Palestinians commemorating the Nakba were shot and killed by Israeli Occupation Forces, another two dozen wounded. Imagine the worldwide outcry and rush to action if Jews commemorating the Holocaust were indiscriminately murdered.

Amidst democratic aspirations of the "Arab Spring" and 63 years of ruthless Israeli tactics to deny the Palestinians their own rightful home, the President of the United States should have stood up to Israel and issued an ultimatum: Justice for the Palestinian people (a two-state solution along the lines of the 2003 Arab Peace Initiative and UN Resolution 242: A Palestinian state based upon pre-1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital) or Israel loses its "special relationship" with the US, including the end of weapons transfers and billions in foreign aid. President Obama chose not to so. That act of choice makes America complicit in Israel's continuing crimes against humanity; a complicity for which Americans shall surely pay.

Sheeple

Sheeple: People being herded along, believing in the preposterous and bleating it ad infinitum thereby indoctrinating others in an ever-expanding sphere of ignorant influence.

Republican/Tea Party shepherds have launched an assault on unionism. Americans are being told that unionized workers are the cause of states' indebtedness. We're being told that public sector retirement costs are too much to bear; that health plans for public workers are costing too much. Americans are being told that there is an imbalance between private sector unions (only 6.9% of the workforce) and public sector union workers (9%) that needs to be remedied by eliminating all unionization. Americans are being sold a fiction. Again and again, Republicans/Tea Partiers are not telling the truth in order to scare enough people into acting against their own best interests.

First, let's identify just who these "public sector" employees are: firemen, police officers, teachers, emergency response personnel, government nurses, highway workers, snow plow drivers, etc etc. Also known as the middle class, or simpler yet, the American working class of which 90 plus percent are nonunionized.

Despite the fact that benefits (like retirement, health insurance etc) are in lieu of higher salary (deferred compensation) such benefits are being portrayed as unmerited "bonuses" which workers do not deserve. Americans have forgotten that Ronald Reagan, in his final years as President, urged raising teachers' salaries to entice the best and brightest into the profession. At that time, teachers in New York with nearly 15 years experience were making what the proposed salary for starting teachers were to be paid. It has been the states' and federal government's responsibility to make good on setting aside the necessary funds to abide by the contracts entered into. But, rather than raise taxes, they cut taxes. Rather than lockbox the retirement funds (Social Security at the federal level) they spent it on give-aways to businesses in order to create jobs. However, as two separate NYS Comptroller studies illustrated, less than 20 percent of the jobs promised by companies given those tax breaks actually ever appeared. Nationwide we have unemployment levels unseen since the Great Depression.

Republican/Tea Party spokespersons claim that public sector union workers (including benefits) make 42 percent more than comparable private sector union workers. Not true, but that's what the American public is being saturated with (paid for by Karl Rove's "Crossroads GPS" and the arch conservative "Club for Growth"). The only studies that went into enough detail to be able to truly compare apples to apples, demonstrated that public sector union members were 70 percent college graduates while private sector union workers were only 25 percent college graduates. Therefore, based upon education attainments, the public sector is underpaid, making less than the private sector.

Yet, what are we hearing from the American media? Propaganda paid for by the monied likes of the Koch brothers (tied for 18^th richest people in the WORLD) and Republicans Dick "Grass Roots" Armey and Karl "Sleaze Job" Rove. What we're hearing is that the public sector is bleeding the country dry. It's a direct assault on workers, in general, and unionism in particular. Republicans/Tea Partiers understand that unions have always stood on the side of labor, against unfair wages and unsafe conditions in the workplace. Republicans/Tea Partiers understand that many union members died confronting the unfair working conditions in America; men and women murdered to save the paymaster money. But, most importantly, Republicans/Tea Partiers understand that unionists usually vote Democrat seeing as Republicans do not value labor.

It's a no-brainer then. Using the financial crisis created by a greedy, criminal Wall Street, newly elected Republicans/Tea Partiers are attempting to punish Democratic supporters; creating conditions that will make it more difficult for them to vote (e.g., not allowing same day registration/vote, requiring specific photo IDs, etc). These Republican/Tea Party "mavericks" are hell-bent on crushing unions for the monied elite they serve. With 65 percent of the fantastic gains made this past decade going to the top one percent, need you wonder who the elite are? They're the ones holding back trillions of dollars from investing to create jobs in order to break the American worker down to serfdom levels where they will be woefully undercompensated, but at least working and, therefore surviving, even as their safety while doing so is diminished.

Governor Scott Walker (Wisconsin) came into office and immediately delivered a $118 million tax cut to businesses. One week later he claimed the state had a "fiscal crisis" with a deficit of $132 million. He demanded concessions from public sector workers. The unions agreed to give-backs that balanced the budget. But, Walker wasn't satisfied. He demanded an end to collective bargaining (exempting those unionized workers that voted in large blocks for him: Police and Firemen). Democratic state Senators left Wisconsin in order to create a situation such that a vote could not go forward as there wasn't a quorum. The Republicans then defied an advance notification statute, finagled the law regarding quorum saying that because they removed all "fiscal items" from the bill (a budget relief bill, mind you) they could vote without a quorum and did so. Governor Walker has signed the bill into law even as it has been legally challenged and is currently under judicial stay.

In Michigan, the newly elected Republican/Tea Party Governor Rick Snyder created a bill that passed into law giving him complete authority to appoint a person that can eliminate any elected public official of whom he does not approve. Elected officials. Replaced at the whim of a single person. Democracy? Constitutional? Moral?

And it doesn't stop there. Twenty states have already introduced bills that, if voted into law, will prohibit or severely restrict collective bargaining. Even worse, there's a bill being introduced on Capitol Hill by Republicans/Tea Partiers that will allow states to declare bankruptcy in order to nullify their existing contracts with public sector workers. That means retirement, health insurance, etc will not be honored. People doing their jobs well for thirty-five years are now being told, "Yes, we underpaid you throughout your career. Yes, we promised we'd make it up to you with health care and retirement. But, we failed to do what needed to be done— paying as we went —and instead relied on the fantasy sold by Republicans that we could reduce revenues by cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations then borrow our way to prosperity, at which time we'd pay up." Of course, that never happened as 'Trickle down' has been a dismal failure for 90 percent of the population and most certainly emptied governmental coffers!

Currently, several polls have been conducted regarding Governor Walker's assault on collective bargaining. One poll has it at 66 percent against, the other has 70 percent against. Americans intimately understand the concerns of the working class. However, if you listen to the media one would think that Americans are all for crushing the unions, that "America's" message is not that all workers should be pulled up to a living wage, but rather, that all workers should be pulled down to non-sustenance wages without benefits.

What remains to be seen is if we, the People, resist or remain sheeple being prodded to slaughter.

Fuzzy Logic

If we are to believe Congressional Republicans, their three largest concerns are the same as held by the "public" as supposedly expressed via the overwhelming victory by Republicans and Tea Party candidates. These concerns are: 1) The Debt. 2) Unemployment. 3) Shrinking Government.

Being that the Republican Party is the "fiscally responsible" party, it logically follows that the American voters went that way in order to alleviate their main concerns.

Or so conventional "wisdom" has maintained since November. However, as so often happens with the American electorate, they've been bamboozled into believing the opposite of what is true.

Take the GOP-as-fiscally-responsible-party cliché. Bogus! In the period between 1978 – 2009 the Republican Administrations have outspent by a third and added debt at a rate nine times that of the Democrat Administrations. Yet, America believes, without a doubt, that the GOP is the fiscally responsible party.

Conservative icon Ronald Reagan was a cheerleader for "Supplyside Economics" (characterized by his own Vice President as "voodoo economics") which maintained that cutting taxes on the wealthy and spending taxpayer money on givebacks to big business would manifest itself manyfold times in the pockets of middle class Americans by way of "trickle down." There would be jobs a-plenty and it would forever be "Morning in America."

Middle class Americans have been paying the price ever since for such fuzzy logic. Their incomes (adjusted for inflation) have not grown for thirty years, jobs have vanished at an alarming rate and consequently unemployment has grown to just under 10 percent (20 percent if you count those discouraged from looking for jobs that aren't there).

As demonstrated by the "official" Republican response to the latest Presidential State of the Union address, Paul Ryan (R-WI) put forth the "new" Republican program: Repeal the Health Care Reform Act. Raise taxes on those making between $20,000 and $200,000 while cutting by half the taxes of those making more than $200,000. Raise the retirement age to 70 years old and cut Social Security benefits. Deregulate for increased growth. Cut the Corporate tax rate.

New? Let's examine the proposals more closely:

• Are we to believe Ryan doesn't know that 2/3 of our corporations don't pay any income taxes? As clearly shown, the typical scenario is something like this: During a three year period (2001-2003) just 275 of the Fortune 500 corporations earned $1.1 Trillion (which should have resulted in $370 Billion coming into the US Government coffers) but only reported $557 Billion to the IRS. "Instead of a 35 percent tax rate, the companies as a group paid a three-year effective tax rate of only 18.4 percent." To make matters worse, these companies garnered "$175.2 Billion in tax breaks over the three years." Therefore, our Corporate neighbors stiffed the American People $345 Billion. That's a trillion every 3 years for 30 years. Pretty much our current debt load.
  
  
• Deregulation? Deregulation greased the skids for the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression even as it made conditions ripe for the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill debacle.
  
  
• The Republican/Tea Partiers demand cutting Social Security, already too meager to live on, rather than requiring all income over $106,800 be taxed at the same rate workers' income is withheld, which would fully fund Social Security.

• By raising the retirement age, Americans will be required to work until 70 years old. Along with Tea Party calls for diminishment of the Minimum Wage, Americans should be ready to work for poverty wages all their life until death.

• Cutting taxes for the wealthy has been an ongoing crusade by Republicans since Reagan. The premise is that such tax reduction stimulates the economy and produces jobs. Americans should be wondering: When will those jobs finally materialize? After all, it's been thirty years and there still aren't employment opportunities for all that want a decent job with benefits and a living wage. Of course, the b part of this strategy is to raise taxes on the middle class.

• Repealing the Healthcare Reform Act. Even though the Congressional Budget Office crunched the numbers and said repeal would add an additional $230 Billion to the debt, Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH), dismisses such a figure as "just their opinion." Understand that the CBO has been the official nonpartisan number cruncher of record since its inception in 1974, with both parties adhering to the facts as provided by the CBO. Now the Repubs and Tea Partiers simply dismiss any such limitations of reality and factual information by claiming it's mere opinion. And just what does Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winner in economics have to say about this? "We are, I believe, witnessing something new in American politics. Last year, looking at claims that we can cut taxes, avoid cuts to any popular program and still balance the budget, I observed that Republicans seemed to have lost interest in the war on terror and shifted focus to the war on arithmetic. But now the G.O.P. has moved on to an even bigger project: the war on logic." Krugman goes on to dismantle the GOP arguments as so many "three-card monte tricks" and "childish logical fallacies." He further maintains the Repubs' obsession with repeal is due to one single factor – coverage for the uninsured. Why? "…the modern G.O.P. has been taken over by an ideology in which the suffering of the unfortunate isn't a proper concern of government, and alleviating that suffering at taxpayer expense is immoral, never mind how little it costs."

So, there you have it. The "new" Republican/Tea Party coalition plans on doing what the old-guard has been doing since 1980: Increase the debt. Increase taxes on middle class. Decrease taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Dismantle government "entitlement" programs for the People while enhancing the "entitlement" programs for corporate America/Big Business at taxpayer expense.

As for the claim that the wealthiest few percent pay the lion's share of income taxes, since our system of taxation is based upon value (income/net wealth) of course those holding the lion's share of income and net wealth will pay larger portions of the revenue total. But, as we've seen, trillions of dollars that should have been coming into governmental coffers have never arrived even as the tax rates have been steadily reduced for corporations and the wealthiest few percent. Corporations paid 25 percent of federal outlays in the 1950s, now they contribute but 7 percent of the revenue collected.

And, further, as jobs are concerned, how is it that Americans do not see the stark disconnect between Republican rhetoric and the reality of a capitalist society? Capitalists are afforded all sorts of tax breaks to create jobs yet whenever there's an unemployment problem, the People scream at government? Why? It is the private sector's responsibility to create the jobs necessary for prosperity. That is why it receives all those tax breaks.

Grover Norquist, Republican activist and former speech writer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, clearly articulated the plan for shrinking government: Republicans "…simply want to reduce it to the size where (we) can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

Save government by killing it? Fuzzy logic.

Our Uncivil Discourse

Desiring civility in political discourse isn't merely about manners. Such civility is required if we are to have a functioning democracy where ideas are debated upon their merits and not from which side of the aisle the ideas arise. Sadly, the political discourse has become more and more uncivil during the last several decades and especially the past two years.

How many of you remember Ronald Reagan, arch Conservative, sustained his Presidency on divisive rhetoric? He constantly harassed Democrats as being Liberal and he created a storyline that laid all blame for America's problems at the feet of "liberals." From the tearing apart of the family, to the lack of backbone in supporting armed interventions, to the restrictive regulations placed upon businesses, to taxation being too high.

Such rhetoric was drummed into America's subconscious by the status quo biased mainstream media. However, the "reality" created by Reagan's fictions were anything but real: The breakdown of family (by every measureable standard) was largely the result of financial hardship due to joblessness or inadequate pay and federal diminishment of safety net outlays. Reagan used a contrived "exceptional exemplar" of the welfare queen driving around in a Cadillac to create a push to end the "welfare state" as America was being described by the rightwing media even as corporate CEOs were making obscene salaries and bonuses, even as corporate America continued to whittle away at the tax code to such an extent that a majority began to pay zero taxes (currently two-thirds of American corporations pay no income taxes.)

"Liberal" was a charge levied against those opposed to Reagan's Contra war against the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, a popular movement fighting an oppressive, murderous regime (Somoza); this "war," a pure terrorist endeavor initiated and funded by the Reagan Administration in defiance of United States law.

Reagan's manipulation of the word "Liberal" created a hostile atmosphere/context which extended to the financial and business sectors as well by removing from debate all those whom protested deregulation and wholesale giveaways to the monied class. Reagan single-handedly sought to break American unions. He lowered federal income tax rates which directly led to large local increases in school taxes.

Reagan won two terms with such patently absurd rhetorical onslaught.

Bush, Sr., Reagan's Vice-President, when he ran for the Presidency kept hammering Mike Dukakis with "card carrying ACLU member" to great effect. Yes, the American Civil Liberties Union, a bastion of defense against governmental abuse and assuring our civil liberties posited by the US Constitution's Bill of Rights, was portrayed as un-American. Bush won.

Bush's son, George Jr., also twice won his Presidential bids using his father's methodology of railing against "the Left" and conflating that segment's misgivings about America's direction as being "haters of America."

But, all of that pales in comparison to the past two years since a black man— Obama —moved into the White House. The Tea Party devotees conducted scurrilous media campaigns. Their use of terms like "evil," "Marxist," "Socialist," "Communist," coupled with their rally signage depicting racist commentary and imagery unsuited for political discourse not to mention their open display of firearms at many of the Tea Party events, was anything but helpful in forwarding the debate of principles and future policy direction of our nation. What it did was fan embers of hatred and create "enemies" of their fellow Americans.

As began with Ronald Reagan, patron saint of Conservatives, the right seeks to continually deride ideas not their own, denigrating science and facts along the way, via labeling any/all who disagree with their "vision" of America with a single pejorative in order to turn a dumbed down American populace away from consideration of the reality facing them.

After all, if you're a "Marxist/Socialist/Communist/ Liberal/Democrat", etc, then there's no need to listen to you; you have no place at the table. Of course, the Republicans using such disreputable tactics know exactly what they're doing, creating a fictive narrative to get what they want.

And, just what is it that Republicans want? They want government of, by and for the people to die and be replaced with only enough government for channeling what little middle class wealth remains to the coffers of the top few percent. Republicans want to destroy the middle class so that a vast new pool of cheap labor can be exploited. Republicans want only enough government to safeguard their interests at home and abroad.

Remember Sharron Angle (Arizona) speaking about lowering the minimum wage in order to spur job creation? In nearly the same breath she spoke to eliminating social security and of the sense of "entitlement" unemployed citizens have. Tea Party sweetheart Angle thinks American citizens should work at less than $8.00 an hour and save for their own retirement. Of course, such earnings amount to a poverty wage even if both adult members of a household can find such work. There is no disposable income to save. Angle was also the woman who kept repeating her "Second Amendment remedies" solution to anything other than total victory for the Tea Party electoral candidates.

Sarah Palin used "cross hair" imagery (as used in gun sights) to "target" opponents and when questioned about the appropriateness of such imagery stated to her supporters that now isn't the time to back down but to "reload" and "take back our country."

Republican leaders of both houses issued repeated and dire warnings against the "move to Socialism" under Obama creating an atmosphere of fear and loathing which resulted in Republicans refusing to participate in governance— no compromising with enemies, remember —and instead agitated via outlandish claims in hopes of winning midterm elections.

It all worked. And, then, in Arizona, there was a tragedy of monumental proportion; a sitting Congresswoman, a Democrat, was shot by a deranged gunman as were 19 others, six of them dying.

We immediately hear the Tea Party and Republican rightwing saying it's not their fault, that you cannot draw exact parallels to the deranged gunman and the deranged violence-engendered statements issued by the Tea Partiers and Republicans.

Republican leaders should have denounced such dangerous rhetoric but chose to use it to their advantage. Now that the piper needs to be paid, they cop out by crying crocodile tears and refusing to take personal responsibility. Palin immediately blames the "lame stream media" for a "blood libel" against her; she, not even stateswoman enough to understand using such a weighted term is totally inappropriate. Sharron Angle refuses to answer the pertinent question: "Does such a shooting conform to her Second Amendment remedies solution?" Tea Partiers, in general, now claim at every opportunity that they didn't hate, they just voted—regardless of party—for those whom would make good decisions for America.

So, that's why they voted to reinstate the party that has been decimating the American middle class for thirty years? Running up the national debt to the detriment of future generations? The party that has bankrupted America and murdered the American Dream?

Republicans, especially the Tea Party variety, must stop with the lies, the distortions, the baseless charges and begin to discuss the problems this country faces with a commitment to rectifying the damage their Free Market ideology and deregulation efforts have wrought.

Oh, 'bama

After the "shellacking" this past election, Republicans regained the majority in the House of Representatives. Republicans, remember, since 1980 have continuously undermined the American middle class until it is now in its death throes. Earnings for the middle class have been stagnant for thirty years while the top few percent of Americans have reaped huge dividends. As a percent of wealth, (generally defined as what a person/family owns minus all debt) the top one percent holds 34.6 percent of all wealth while the bottom 80 percent (wage and salary earners) share just 15 percent of America's wealth. In terms of financial wealth, (defined as "net worth minus net equity in owner-occupied housing" ) the top 1 percent holds 42.7 percent of all wealth in America while the bottom 80 percent share 8.7 percent. Yet, it was largely the middle class (albeit the older, whiter, racist, ignorant, fervently religious variety) that ran roughshod over common sense and put the Repubs back in power after that party has single-handedly transferred trillions of dollars from the middle class to the top one percent; the same party that refused to regulate the financial industry which has resulted in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

It would seem to be a no-brainer that Democrats needed to fight the good fight against an obvious Plutocratic takeover of America. But, the Obama Administration sought to reach "compromise" via bipartisanship. The Obama method of negotiation was to give in to the demands of the Plutocrats BEFORE sitting at the negotiation table. With every sellout, the Republican media spin machine spewed more and more mis- and dis- information, lies, deliberate distortion and outright fabrications intended to paint the middle-of-the-road Obama Administration as being radical Socialists/Marxists. Absurd. But, effective. Because a majority of Americans are truly vapid, uneducated, ignorant and blinded by false sense of patriotism, they bought the fiction of Republican spin-meisters and voted the criminals back into office.

Now, just how much bipartisan cooperation did Obama obtain with that strategy? None…For those of you whom will object by way of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" bipartisan legislation repeal, the courts had already made the issue moot; either repeal it or the courts will do it for them. As for bipartisan support for the Bush Tax Cut extension, it only came when Obama agreed to increase the national debt by another trillion dollars going to the top 2 percent so that 2 million unemployed would continue to get their meager checks. Health care? No bipartisan support for a watered down bill that, while helping to ameliorate some of the problems, in no way alters the fundamental problem of a profit-bloated insurance-driven industry. In fact, it isn't exactly news that the 111^th Congress was basically rendered null-and-void for the better part of two years by the No-ist Republicans that closed their ears to appeals of doing the business of the American People and simply folded their arms in defiance; using the time to create a new reality that all the faults of government and economic decline were the fault of Democrats, in general, Obama, in particular.

As the election proved, such a strategy worked to perfection.

In response, Obama is shaking up his staff. It seems apparent that he'll offer the job of Chief of Staff to William Daley, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive and former U.S. Commerce secretary, in order to "repair relations with the business community after coming under fire from industry groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The nation's biggest business lobbying group opposed Obama's health-care and financial-regulatory overhauls and committed $75 million to political ads in the midterm congressional elections, mainly directed against Democrats." Get that? Obama now believes he needs to play nice with the scoundrels that gambled outrageously and lost causing a worldwide near-depression and then took a multi-trillion dollar bailout from the American people even as they were busy laying off tens of thousands of workers and still haven't begun to create the atmosphere for increased lending in order to grow jobs that have been promised since Reagan but never seem to appear. This is the same William Daley that wrote a December 2009 op-ed piece in the Washington Post in which he suggested that Democrats, "plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come."

One would think such an electoral beating would bring clarity to the mind of Obama and his advisors. Sadly, Obama has stated that the new reality of a Republican majority in Congress requires MORE compromise, MORE movement to the "center" in order to regain strength.

All the above must be considered in context of the incoming class of Republicans being Tea Party devotees; people so far right that only five years ago they were seen as lunatics; a fringe element so outside the mainstream that they were laughable; a strain of stupid that started with Ronald Reagan and has grown ever since until now becoming middle-of-the-road centrist.

Thus, our brave agent of change, with the audacity of hope to strengthen him, with a majority of Americans behind him and with a majority in both houses of Congress, squandered that opportunity. Obama now plans to sell completely out to the fractious factions of brutal Plutocrats and Rightwing-nuts. Having given away so much for the benefit of so few, having decided to give-in rather than fight, embracing one-way compromise as the operative strategy for future, there is no hope to be had. Incoming Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who will chair the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, plans on conducting hundreds of "investigations" into everything from the "radicalization of Muslims in America," to "climategate," to "corruption in the Obama Administration" (which he termed the "most corrupt President in modern times" even though there isn't any evidence to remotely suggest any corruption whatsoever), to the "Obamacare" Healthcare Reform Bill passed into law and which Issa wants to see repealed, to the "black panthers" voter intimidation allegations (prompted by a video of two black men hanging outside of a voting place even as voters entered and left without any interfacing at all), to revisiting the alleged ACORN improprieties, as well as Obama's response to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill (notice Issa isn't about to investigate BP, Halliburton or Transocean). Darrell Issa is the Congressman who sent a letter out to 150 businesses and business groups asking what regulations they would like to see overturned in order to prompt job creation. In fact, Rep. Issa plans on holding seven new hearings a week for the next two years (a mammoth fishing expedition funded by US taxpayers for the sole purpose of creating a storm-cloud of controversy in hopes of sweeping Obama out of office in 2012).

Yeah, Barack…sounds like you'll have a lot of luck with that new strategy of utter capitulation. Really appears that the Repubs are up for compromise. I guess you have forgotten that when you came into office and there were bona fide war crimes to investigate (with nearly 2 million dead Iraqis as a result of Bush's initiation of a war that was predicated on pure backroom PNAC bullshit, not to mention the tortures or massive private contractor fraud, etc etc) you stated the country needed to move forward so you conducted ZERO investigations.

See how you're to be repaid? Not with bipartisanship, but rather, with witch hunts and the devastation of your Presidency. In two years, the American people will surely understand you let the Republicans rule when in the minority even as they rule when in the majority. Which should lead the electorate to wonder: Why bother vote for Democrats?

There was so much promise with your election. Now? Thanks for nothin'…

Vote To Save America

November 2^nd is perhaps the single most important voting day we have experienced over the past thirty years. All polls seem to suggest that the Tea Party crowd along with rightwing Republicans are poised to take back the majority in the US Congress and perhaps even the Senate. If this happens, the American middle class is doomed. There will be a steady diminution of decent paying jobs, health coverage, retirement benefits. What are the American public thinking? After thirty years of running this country for the benefit of the top few percent, we are mired in unemployment, debt, two wars of convenience being waged, education on the decline. We are seeing the results of the Chicago School of economics (Milton Friedman) theft of trillions of dollars taken from the middle class and transferred to the top few percent always with the promise of more and better paying jobs that never appeared.

We are at a place in history where Republican-backed tax breaks are offered to corporations to better facilitate the off-shoring of manufacturing jobs and the American people want to reinstitute a Republican majority even as they claim to be upset over the joblessness. [This constitutes hundreds of billions of tax payers' dollars.]

We are at a place in history where Republican-backed efforts to fight two contrived wars by borrowing the necessary funding and hiring subcontractors to do the bulk of work historically done by military personnel has cost $3 Trillion dollars yet Americans are poised to re-elect a Republican majority. [The reason for these wars had nothing whatsoever to do with WMDs or Saddam or installing a democracy; the real reasons, as have become obvious, reduces to oil as regards Iraq and rare earth mineral resources as regards Afghanistan]

Republicans have decimated the welfare system for the People even as they have increased same for corporations; now some 10 times what is spent on the safety net for the People, and the electorate seems determined to put Republicans back into the majority.

Republicans are against the minimum wage-- working at minimum wage keeps one in poverty; eliminating the minimum wage is the slippery slope that slides the entire scale of remuneration downward for EVERYONE --and worker/voters want more Republicans in office.

Republicans put front and center their complaints that the Obama Administration's "Economic Stimulus Bill" has been a complete failure even as Reuters just reports that the Stimulus Bill "…boosted real GDP in the (3^rd) quarter by between 1.7 percent and 4.5 percent, adding at least $200 billion in economic activity…It raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs during the second quarter of this year, CBO estimated. Measured another way, CBO said the stimulus increased the number of full-time equivalent jobs by up to 4.8 million, as part-time workers shifted to full-time work or employers offered more overtime work." This on top of the 8 million jobs saved; more than all the jobs created during the two Bush terms. Yet, Americans are ready to put Republicans back in the majority.

Republicans are against "pork" (a.k.a. earmarks) costing—in total, for each and every Congressperson and Senator combined --$50 billion (funds which are used back home in members' states for worthy causes; except the occasional boondoggle like Alaska's "Bridge To Nowhere") even as Republicans are in favor of extending tax cuts to the richest two percent at a cost of $782 billion, yet, the voting public seem determined to put Republicans back into a majority position to wreak more havoc.

Republicans are against "Obama's health care" which, at the very least, guarantees you won't lose your coverage when you need it most, and people are ready to vote in Republicans pledging to repeal "Obamacare." [Never mind that the President would OBVIOUSLY veto any attempt to do so, therefore the Repubs run on a plank that cannot become reality. Further, never mind that while initially costing money, ultimately the enacted health care reform will save trillions of dollars.]

Republicans want to eliminate Social Security, that necessary financial assistance which was promised for generations (and paid for by the People/workers via payroll taxes), yet these primary beneficiaries seem ready to vote in Republicans. [Rather than agitate for the wealthy paying the same percentage on all earned income as do working people, which would render Social Security solvent. Baby boomers getting the double whammy having had to pony up for the current retirees-- because Congress spent the dough --then having to pony up even more for their own security even as they are now being told not to expect anything out of it.]

Republicans charge Obama with being socialist when it has been Republicans socializing (viz., forcing the American tax payers to pay) the cost of the financial meltdowns (let's not forget the S&L crisis under the first Bush reign) while profits and bonuses continue to accrue to that same financial sector, yet Americans want Republicans back in the majority.

Republicans decry the cost of retirement benefits as a hindrance to new unfettered growth thereby reneging on the promises of benefits later for less salary today which has been in place since coming out of the great depression, and the American public rally behind Republicans. [And, just how do Americans think they'll make it after their productive work years (20 – 50 years old) end?]

Republicans' big election year motto is "Had Enough?" suggesting all the problems have been caused by the Obama Administration over the past 2 years when in actuality they were caused by the elitist agenda of the Republican party over the past thirty years. Americans seem to be answering "Yes" to that question, which can only mean they've actually had enough of Republicanism, yet they are poised to re-elect Republicans/TeaBaggers to constitute a majority ruling class to enact legislation on behalf of the plutocracy for which they labor.

Republicans/TeaBaggers want to "take our country back" when everyone in the world knows that to succeed in the future, nations need to progress, not go back. [And, from what or whom do the Repubs/TeaParty bunch want to "Take our country back?" The answer, a Socialist Obama Administration and a country that elects black folk to positions of power thereby demonstrating that Americans have absolutely no clue what they are talking about as Obama is in no way Socialist. Ahh, but he is black! Racism and ignorance the motivating factor in this year's election.]

Republicans/TeaBaggers want to revoke abortion rights even in the case of incest, rape or risking the health of the mother. Never mind the intrusion of big government into a woman's body by way of having the final say over her reproductive activities. Yet, polls show American women leaning towards voting Republican/TeaBagger.

Republicans/TeaBaggers want to be able to stuff the Supreme Court with more conservative activist judges (the Citizens' United ruling a case study in judicial activism via overturning decades of case law precedents to reach their deluded conclusion that corporations are "people" and therefore deserve First Amendment rights without restriction thereby allowing for unlimited funding of election campaigns even by foreign sources which can only corrupt the very core of democracy here at home; no longer the People but corporations deciding who shall govern and on whose behalf they shall govern) and the US citizenry seem poised to vote Republican.

Republicans are anti-immigrant supposedly because "those people" cost US tax payers money and jobs when all data demonstrates that illegal immigrants actually contribute more to the system than they receive and that the jobs they take pay so badly no Americans are willing to do them. [Of course, the solution is simple but Republicans refuse to opt in: Exact heavy fines from any businesses that hire illegal immigrants. Do that and the "immigrant problem" goes away; no work, no lure to relocate.]

Republicans/TeaBaggers push for term limits, which is an obvious subterfuge for having a never-ending merry-go-round of people ignorant of due process and incapable of running government [Google Christine O'Donnell], so that government is no longer able to function. Republicans/TeaBaggers remember, hate government. And the American people want to vote the Republicans/TeaBaggers into office.

This is madness. Never has America been so ignorant of what has been transpiring. Never has America been so brainwashed by imbecilic babble [Google Sarah Palin] that passes for profundity and/or "The change we need." Whatever your views, if you care about the America we were all taught to believe in-- where one and all are guaranteed freedom, liberty, justice, equal treatment under the law, where we can be assured that our government operates in righteous manner --then listen up: YOU'D BETTER VOTE DEMOCRAT ALL ACROSS THE BALLOT OR YOU SHALL REAP WHAT YE HAVE SOWN!

Spread this rant far and wide

The Final Solution

Worldwide, Jews shiver at any mention of the phrase Final Solution. They intimately understand what it means for a government to exterminate a people based upon ignorant stereotyping and hatred. That is why Israelis are so good at it. They have been usurping Palestinian land for over a hundred and twenty years; in earnest after Nazism flourished. In order to "justify" such thievery a fiction was developed summed up in the now famous phrase, "A land with no people for a people with no land." Also nurtured during that time has been a brooding hatred of Arabs for fighting back against the theft of their homeland. Now, the push is on to take it all; to rid Palestine of Palestinians. Israelis see Arab Palestinians as mere placeholders on a land bequeathed to "God's Chosen." Extreme fundamentalists are settling Judea and Samaria. These are some of the most radicalized religionists in the world, operating on the imprimatur of a Jewish theocracy. These "devout" Jews have no doubts that the land is theirs. Never mind that many, if not most, of these Jews are recent transplants from Brooklyn and other parts of America. When questioned as to how they could possibly feel Palestine is theirs, when they had never lived there a day in their lives, they reply that the Arabs were simply taking care of the Jewish land and now it is time for them to move on and let the rightful owners take over. The rightful owners being American and European Jews; not the Palestinians who have lived uninterrupted on those lands for thousands of years.

What most Americans do not understand is that the "inherent right" to Palestine claimed by Jews is not based upon reality but a fiction of Zionist creation. You see, Palestine/Canaan was not the Jews' region of origin. Jews invaded Palestine. They then wrote the Pentateuch (first five books of the Old Testament; Torah) after returning from their Babylonian Captivity. Thus was the Old Testament compiled and personalized by once-exiled Judeans who no doubt maintained a great sense of resentment at having been so unceremoniously expulsed and dispersed and, therefore possessed not only the modus operandi (scholarship/political awareness) and the opportunity (time and wherewithal), but also a motive to ensure the Old Testament contained Yahweh's proclamation that Palestine belonged to the Israelites.

In short, the claim that Jews have a "special" relationship with Palestine is by way of Jews writing a book that states a god of their own conjuring gives the land of Palestine (that Jews invaded but never wholly conquered and never populated a majority) to Jews. Convenient isn't it? That Jews only controlled Palestine under David and Solomon for a period of 125 years out of the 6010 years since creation (dated 4000 BCE according to Old Testament) means Jews premise their claim on partially controlling a region for less than 4 percent of its existence while Palestinians have lived there for 100 percent of the time.

To review: It is upon this above mentioned substrate of God's "promise" and a minute percentage of so-called sovereignty (so-called because even during the reign of David, the Kingdom of Israel was a contentious, multi-faceted, sectarian conglomeration of tribes that had banded together primarily to defeat the Philistines) that present-day Zionists build their arguments of justification.

Just days ago, as the whole world was watching with hope for a true peace process to get underway, Israelis lifted the settlement moratorium. Notice, in the preceding blog, the reference to the Bedouin village that had all its buildings destroyed by the Israeli military claiming said buildings were "illegal." That the Arab inhabitants of Palestine lived uninterrupted on the land for thousands of years means nothing. Israelis, yet again, attempted to claim the high moral ground by claiming they were not being prejudicial against Arabs, per se, but rather, upholding the rule of law that states a governing entity has authority to demand residential development proceed via permit. What Israel doesn't do, however, is issue building permits to Arabs that want to build residential housing. Once again, convenient, yes? This semantic game-playing is reminiscent of the Gaza Flotilla Massacre incident when Israeli military executed nine peaceniks while in International waters and then claimed these unarmed peace lovers were brutal thugs against which Israeli troops had to defend themselves.

Even though the entire world knows for a fact that Israelis have thieved Palestine, even though the United Nations has time and again denounced Israeli confiscation and occupation of Palestine to be illegal under International Law, Israel claims the moral high-ground. As they currently are even though the lifting of the settlement "freeze" has put a hold on peace talks and could very likely force the Palestinian contingent to break off talks until the settlements stop. This action by Israel is just another in a long, long line of such actions meant to destroy any chance for peace, for a two-state solution. Here's an IDF Official's view of such peaceful solution, "We must define our position and lay down basic principles for a settlement. Our demands should be moderate and balanced, and appear to be reasonable. But in fact they must involve such conditions as to ensure that the enemy rejects them. Then we should maneuver and allow him to define his own position, and reject a settlement on the basis of a compromise solution. We should then publish his demands as embodying unreasonable extremism." [General Yehoshafat Harkabi, chief of military intelligence, as quoted in Ma'ariv, 2 November 1973.]

Thirty years later, as detailed in Jimmy Carter's book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" [Appendix 7] Israelis were hailed as peacemakers because they "accepted" the International Quartet's [Russia, United Nations, European Union, United States] Roadmap for Peace of 2003. In reality, however, the Israelis issued a 14-point "caveat" that effectively placed intolerable preconditions on the process. For instance, with the very first "caveat" the Palestinians would be required to end ALL acts of violence and/or provocation, dismantle ALL groups opposed to Israeli occupation, disarm ALL Palestinians, even as Israel would be exempt from the same condition: "…the Roadmap will not state that Israel must cease violence and incitement against the Palestinians." The second "caveat" states, "Full performance will be a condition for progress between phases and for progress within phrases." Meaning, ANY violation by Palestinians would render the agreement null and void. However, should Israelis continue to confiscate Palestinian lands and further provoke via expanding or creating new settlements, should settlers continue to harass, beat, humiliate and/or murder Palestinian men, women and children, the peace process would remain on track. The Israelis then went on to demand that Palestinians elect leaders that were acceptable to Israel, that whatever land may constitute Palestine would be discussed at some indeterminate future date (as would the all-important water rights issue). Further, the Israelis demanded that once a Palestinian state was established, Israel would control all points of entrance and exit by persons and/or cargo, would station IDF troops along both the Jordanian and Israeli borders, would not allow an armed Palestine and would control "its airspace and electromagnetic spectrum." Also, the final settlement could not include reparations (for the tens of billions of dollars worth of land and buildings confiscated by Israel since 1948) nor would Israel allow for the "right of return" by nearly a million Palestinians expulsed from their homes during 1948 Nakba.

But, surely Israelis are appalled at members of their Knesset currently offering up resolutions to expel all Arab citizens from Israel proper (pre-1967 borders). Nope. For the majority of Israelis are in favor of "getting rid of" Arabs. Thus, with Israel's lifting of the settlement freeze, once again it demonstrates there is no intention of peaceful resolution, complying with UN Resolutions 242 and 338 in any of their parts, treating Arabs with anything but animosity and asymmetric brutality. Though Arab Palestinians have the right under International Law to fight for their occupied homeland, even Palestinians peacefully protesting the occupation are now determined to be too "provocative" and therefore requiring more violence and brutality at the hands of the IDF. And, of course, there is repeated the ever present untruth that Israel cannot find a "peace partner."

The peace talks are on hold because Israel has resumed building more housing units in the occupied territories, yet Israel chastises the Palestinians for having "wasted" nine months of the ten month freeze. As it stands, unless Israel agrees to remove the settlers (leaving the settlements as reparations) from the occupied territories of West Bank and Gaza, agrees to a fair agreement of water rights (which exist primarily in the Palestinian West Bank), agrees to dismantling the wall deemed illegal by the World Court, cedes the entire West Bank and Gaza vis-à-vis pre-1967 borders, there will be no solution. Israelis understand that to allow for a one state solution will be to end their dream of a theocratic Jewish nation. Which begs the question: How can a Jewish theocracy be democratic UNLESS there are no Arab Palestinians within its borders?

That the Obama Administration could only manage to utter its "disappointment" over Israel's latest example of intransigence, is a condemnation of its sense of fairness even as it is an affirmation of its shared criminality. The United States allows Zionism to continue its crime against millions of human beings. Any attempt by America to otherwise excise itself from the crime is futile. Granted, the Israeli government is fully behind efforts to propagandize the world with its fictive narrative and most Americans have bought the lie lock, stock and barrel. True, the AIPAC lobby along with all major media have nurtured the perception of Israel as the victim; always the victim and never the brutalizers. True, Americans don't hear about how MOSSAD [Israeli equivalent to the CIA] is spying on citizens here in the United States. True, not many citizens even know that our US Central Command commander, General David Patraeus, made a case in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee for Israel ending the Palestinian conflict via two-state solution as "Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the AOR (Area Of Responsibility) and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support. The conflict also gives Iran influence in the Arab world through its clients, Lebanese Hizballah and Hamas."

President Obama needs to put Israel's feet to the fire and demand that the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative be accepted in all its parts by Israel or the United States will stop all aid/funding/weapons transfers to Israel (as it's American funding that goes to building settlements). It is time Americans see Zionist Israel for what it is and has always been: a liar, a thief, a murderer, a psychopath that cares nothing of the lives of "goyim" only of Jews.

Rest assured, there will be no Final Solution until justice is served and Palestinians get their due: To live with human rights in their own homeland. If that does not happen, however, there will be a final reckoning.

R 'n' R

Rock 'n' Roll? No, that garbage gets kicked to the curb some other day. Talkin' about, Rest 'n' Relaxation. 'Tis the season, after all, isn't it?

Here in the United States' Northeast we've been mired 'midst the "dog days" of summer since the final week of June. Disgustingly hot, humid days and sleepless, clammy-skinned nights. Work and/or familial frustrations easily kindled into explosive outbursts. Traffic always at a stand-still while finger-waves of extreme pavement heat ripple like sheets of distortion in the air. Ozone buildup makes it difficult to breathe deeply. Time drags at the job, flies by at home. Weekends seem like only the briefest respite and nowhere near two full days long. Americans (those with jobs, that is) are having to work longer and produce more than ever for diminishing real-time wages. Personal indebtedness is soaring. Job security is a thing of the past. Retirement now seems to coincide with death. The financial crisis is still claiming victims among the innocent while the "criminals" deposit more and more money into their bulging accounts. Congressional Republicans continue to play the "No-ist" role of handcuffing any/all meaningful legislation while perpetrating the lie that such intransigence is in the Peoples' interest, meant to keep the Federal debt from escalating. We watch calamitous oil spills fouling our waters, our lands for over a hundred days and then, once the problem well has been capped, we hear that 200 million gallons of the toxic stuff plus millions more of applied dispersants are almost all gone with the remaining quarter of it not to be a bother. We hear of new techniques (hydraulic fracturing developed by Halliburton) for natural gas extraction that can foul entire aquifers; drinking water for millions; state watchdog agencies saying it's no problem await industry marching orders as to what regulatory regime will be put into place. [Insert laugh here_____.] We read of more of our food being contaminated with shit (literally) and other undesirable additives. Killer heat waves. Gas prices rise. Oil prices begin to climb in time for winter. And, that's just on the hemispherical home front.

Abroad, America continues to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan; in the first instance, because a cabal of delusional Cold Warriors (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Abrams, Wolfowitz – PNAC mainstays) executed a particularly odious assault vis-à-vis American Exceptionalism in the guise of "keeping America safe from terrorists;" and, in the second instance, well, there seems to be only one reason even though the same pronouncements about "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here" are uttered. Israel is poised to launch an attack on Iran, which, if that happens, expect oil/fuel to escalate in price by at least 50 percent upon first Israeli bombing sorties, and more if Iran mounts a serious response. Palestinians are still being tortured, murdered, humiliated daily by Israelis; some of these Palestinians, residents of Israel proper for generations, thousands of years longer than any Israelis. Both of the foregoing events aided and abetted by the American government, with the continuing "approval" of a majority of Americans; such callousness the driving force behind extremist Jihadists. The American government still turns a blind eye to the continuing evidence of widespread long-term impacts of Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam, refusing to send that government money to deal with that tragic legacy. Rain forests are being clear-cut at alarming rate. Entire species being exterminated daily. Huge, devastating storms and deadly floods wreaking havoc.

But, the above thoughts—if ever existing at all in the minds of Americans —are now lost to thoughts about getting some Rest 'n' Relaxation. After all, this is the time to get away, to take a vacation, to linger a week or two on an ocean beach or mountain lake shore, slugging back Margaritas and/or Lime Coronas, maybe do some swimming, fishing, seeing the sights, buying fetish consumerist products of non-utilitarian nature before heading out to local eateries to partake in sumptuous meals. In general, the idea is to become immersed in mindless ennui to achieve body/mind revitalization.

Wait a minute. "Mindless ennui?" Isn't that a typical American's day-to-day state of mind? Or, rather, their state of perpetual mindlessness? You know, vacant of knowledge yet full of opinions. Filled with dreams of becoming rich, or being a "star," yet having no talent and no idea of how those conditions may be attained. So sure that a Socialist plot is afoot that evidence is not required. Not to worry. Americans are special; held in highest esteem, by ourselves at least. And, that is all that matters. We are, all of us, destined to be exceptional. After all, we are Americans.

Please excuse this writer. [Off to vomit.] [Now cleaning and freshening up.] Thanks, that's better.

The good news is that multi-billionaires are pledging to "give back" half their fortunes. In America, 400 of just such wealthy are being asked to pledge $600 Billion via donation to charity of choice. Which means they're worth over $1.2 Trillion; or, to put it in perspective, worth more than the combined GDPs of Mexico and the Caribbean (22 nations); or equal to that of Brazil; or all of South East Asia; or that of all of Africa (52 nations); or just a few hundred Billion less than the entire Middle East consisting of the GDPs for Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bahrain, Israel, Jordon, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Syria, United Arab emirates, West Bank and Yemen United, COMBINED (notice these include the "oil rich" Arab states). GDP defined as the value of all products and services created/performed in a nation during one year; this includes all income earned.

Who among you would like to wager that such an act of "kindness" among the wealthiest of wealthy will go a long way towards helping Americans to be dissuaded from any inspection of Capitalism as worthwhile worldwide economic system. God forefend we should question a system that has produced such wealth for so few at the expense of so many. That would be "class war" talk and totally indicative of a Socialist or Communist talking-point that it would then have to be immediately swept clean from the discussion table with the table itself disinfected. Although, with mid-term elections upon us, you'll be hearing the Republicans chanting this "class war" charge very soon and often as they direct their verbal attacks at the "Socialist" Obama Administration, in particular and Democrats, in general. You see, the only time "class war" can be brought up for discussion is when Republican representatives of the moneyed class do so in order to rage against the envious have-nots; against those whom deserve their poverty and hopelessness and complete lack of opportunity; admonishing the system-rejects for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps (if only these poor people HAD boots upon which to tug). The above mentioned "give back" by the way, will certainly qualify for tax deductions on the billions earned this year thereby helping to replenish the coffers.

The intention of this writer is not to disparage Americans' work ethic nor put forth the proposition that a "break" from drudgery isn't required to recharge the batteries. But, in the context of the dismal lives so many human beings are experiencing primarily because of the Capitalist few-and-many paradigm, will any Americans be concerned enough to educate themselves to what's really transpiring around them? Perhaps pondering how much of the developed world allows for more than a full month PAID vacation/holiday time while Americans are lucky to get an unpaid week or two. Or, maybe reading in-depth analysis of financial news in order to suss out how the Wall Street pigs still feed at the trough of wealth-producing American labor? Will they be educating themselves to lifestyle changes that MUST be embraced if humanity is to survive? Will they be educating themselves to the realities of everyday life as opposed to fiction and celebrity scandals? Will they be educating themselves to the complexities of international issues like Palestinian sovereignty in an attempt to actually know what they're talking about when supporting, say, a criminal Israel?

The answer is, "No." Given this time, Americans will feed their faces, spend their money on nothing of import and lay about in a comatose state of smug satisfaction. While Americans so often excuse themselves from getting involved because of the time constraints they face (e.g., work, commuting, familial obligations), will they now, during their down-time vacations, educate themselves in order to contribute to our democracy via intelligent analysis of issues of import based upon facts and not just their "gut" feelings? Again, the answer is surely, "No!"

So, as Americans laid upon pristine ocean beach sands, in another sandy location, the Negev desert, 45 homes were razed by American made bulldozers. The Bedouin town of al-Araqib was leveled, destroyed by 1500 Israeli border guards, riot squad personnel, armed police and busloads of High Schoolers getting additional credit for removing the furniture and personal belongings of the villagers while mocking and taunting those hapless victims of Israeli policy of spreading misery to Arabs; in this instance on the pretext of making way for a national Jewish forest preserve. That these lands have been tended and lived upon for thousands of years, that these same people are actual citizens of Israel, means nothing. They are Arabs. And, therefore, in the eyes of Israelis they are less than animals and deserving of nothing but brutality. Yet, a major talking point on America's resort beaches, in the restaurants, on radio talk shows, television news, was the anger at the decision to allow a Muslim mosque to be built two blocks from Ground Zero.

As vacationers imbibe spirits and engage other like-minded folk in conversation, how many will actually know what they're talking about? My guess is precious few. How many will still maintain that the current financial meltdown was caused by sub-prime mortgages? How many will still blame Muslim terrorist acts on Islam? How many will side with Republicans on absolutely no addition to the Federal Debt, thereby agreeing that $34 billion for extended Unemployment Benefits shouldn't be spent, that $26 billion for keeping police, fire fighters, sanitation workers, teachers on the job shouldn't be spent; that the Health Care Bill passed into law should be repealed; that all "ear-marks" should be eliminated; that Financial Reform shouldn't have been passed; that an environmental reform bill including cap-and-trade provisions shouldn't be even brought up for discussion; that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent should be extended since not doing so would hinder economic recovery; that American should agree with the near-unanimous Congressional resolution to support Israel vis-à-vis its actions against the Gaza Flotilla; that "special interests" such as unionism should go the way of the Dodo bird? That government is the problem not the solution?

All the above are current Republican talking points. They are all wrong, misconstructions of reality. Charlatan-esque in that Republicans agitate on behalf of the top couple of percent while convincing the American people that such actions are in the interests of common folk. Outrageous. Republicans actually lie in the faces of their constituencies and those people buy it lock, stock and barrel. Why? Because the "masses" aren't sophisticated (read: educated) enough to know better. Most believe that their Republican representatives wouldn't lie to them. Oh, the President would (because he's black and/or Socialist). But, not the likes of Boehner, McConnell, Kyl, nor pundits Gingrich, Palin, Beck, O'Reilly.

However, the FACTS are these:

• The current financial crisis is totally the responsibility of irresponsible financial instruments (credit default swaps) that were, in many ,if not most, cases piggy-backed on subprime mortgages. It wasn't the subprime mortgage holders that were at fault. It wasn't Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae. It was Wall Street and the Bush Administration's insistence that the financial industry would be self-regulating; it was the Clinton Administration's repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act; it was Clinton's successful push for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 that essentially made it illegal to regulate the very financial products that caused the financial crisis.
• The Muslim extremists perpetrating the 9/11 atrocity did so because of Israel's continued illegal occupation of Palestine; because of America's support of Israeli brutality and illegality, because of Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982; because of American collusion in propping up brutal regimes in order to secure cheap oil.
• Republicans have repeatedly voted against allowing the extension of unemployment benefits and against allowing monies to aid state/city workers so they can stay on the job and provide public service; the claim of not doing so due to the fact of adding to the debt is a lie as both these expenditures would be paid for by closing loopholes that allowed huge corporations to off-shore jobs and have the government pay them for doing so and by raising taxes on the top 2 percent.
• "Earmarks" or "pork" is money that comes back to the People, for neighborhoods. It costs $55 Billion. The Republicans assail this expenditure while chanting in unison that the $672 Billion dollar Bush tax cut for the top 2 percent is no problem; that it will stimulate the economy. However, every Republican Administration since Reagan has increased the national debt. Clinton raised taxes on the top two percent and the best economic period of growth in history ensued; creating 22 million jobs; reducing the debt until a half Trillion dollar surplus was projected. These facts fly in the face of Republican rhetoric.
• The Congressional resolution in support of Israel in defiance of international law gave a perfect picture of how Israel gets away with atrocity after atrocity; taking a boat by force in international waters, murdering nine people aboard, tampering with evidence (confiscated video) in order to create a video of edited information (creating a fiction of victimization of Israeli troops); refusing to allow independent investigation; all with approval of the American government.
• Unionism is the American workers' only hope of gaining a living wage and safe working conditions; the rightwing-nuts continuing to bash unions to improve corporate America's bottom-line; apparently a ratio of 364 to one as to CEO earnings compared to average worker isn't enough.
  

So, every time you hear someone talking, why not question them about their views? Why not ask them to substantiate even one fact upon which their "gut feelings" are premised? Just because one's stance on some issue seems right in one's heart/gut, doesn't make it so. Core beliefs and knowledge seem so strong only because they are familiar, unchanging, repeated from parent to child again and again. Such familiarity, however doesn't make them correct. So, next time you hear someone spewing their opinion, jump in. I know, that uncomfortable feeling in the pit of your stomach is the stress of confrontation. Instead of letting that put you off, consider that discomfort compared with the daily brutality of Palestinians (3 million human beings) or the victims of American savage capitalism on billions of humans, and then question those that spew lies, or misinformation, or prejudice. Because, people, if you do not, as we're seeing with the TeaParty folk, such opinions catch on like wildfire and spread becoming a majority opinion that those in power use to further the status quo. To allow this to continue without challenge, makes one accessory to murder and mayhem; guilty, in a word.

Silence is complicity. Speak up. Challenge the status quo. Challenge the mindless spewers of ignorance or there will be no innocents come the next terrorist attack here in America.

Maybe R 'n' R should be less about Rest 'n' Relaxation and more about RESPONSIBILITIES that go hand-in-hand with Rights.

The Law

Hunhh…Good God! What's it good for?
Absolutely nuthin'…Say it again, y'all…

[With apologies to Edwin Starr vis-à-vis his 70s anthem: "War"]

Lately, the Law seems lacking. Certainly Justice has gone askance. Though, truth be told, Justice has been a long, long time deviating along that unfortuitous route. Now, the Law (whether you're talking local codes, or statewide legislation, or federal policy, or international standards of legal conduct) not only doesn't live up to the false notion of America's Founding Fathers' great moral courage to champion such "Justice for all" philosophy, but the Law is being shown as it truly is, bared of such presentiments which are pure poppycock; as they were even then. We, the People, are not supposed to notice those phrases in the Declaration of Independence ("We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness") and in the Constitution of the United States of America ("We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice…promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves, and our posterity,") that demonstrated cowardice, for in reality, they were lies. At the founding of this great republic, more than half the population were exempted (women and men of color) from liberty, justice, the pursuit of happiness and égalité.

The majority. Denied rights guaranteed to the minority elites. America's initial premise, bogus, hypocritical on its face. But, woe unto ye who says so.

In fact, as even a skeptical reading of "An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States of America" by Professor Charles Beard will convey, America's Founding Fathers is a virtual Who's Who of well-heeled capitalist land owners (thieved from indigenous populations) conspiring to preserve, nay improve, the value of their money/assets. That and nothing more. All their hype about democracy of, by and for the People, was to bolster support for the enactment of such institutional inequality. The single biggest factor in the Founding Fathers' plan was to create a central bank in order to assure their loans/investments would be repaid either in gold or gold-backed currency. You see, when the various states began to issue their own paper currency, the big lenders would get reimbursed with currency that only had currency in the state of issuance. Inconvenience big money? Exact a tax on big money? But, of course, a revolution was required.

From such roots does present-day America blossom. TeaBaggers and "No-ists" and demagogues, Oh, my! The same hypocrisy is in evidence [McConnell turning down unemployment extension bill because it would add $30B to the debt even though George W. Bush Republican Administration ran up a 2 Trillion debt load with McConnell's help and silence on the matter]. The same lies [Arizona's race-based anti-immigration law of which Governor Brewer and Senatorial hopeful Sharron Angle claim Mexicans will not be targeted and will be treated as equals even though anyone with brown skin will be seen as suspect]. The same deaf-dumb-blind being led by self-serving, finger-pointing charlatans and criminals [Sarah Palin and Oliver North speaking at a Tea Party event in Norfolk, VA].

The inebriating agents used are also the same as back when: Appeals to blind patriotism, to xenophobia, to ancient prejudices, to American exceptionalism and, last but certainly not least, to God Almighty. Unless you glorify Uncle Sodomy's anal rape of Latin America (from the Monroe Doctrine onward), or Truman's "courage" (dropping atomic bombs on civilians), or the Republican mantra of "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" which translates into "Exploit, Baby, Exploit" you are looked at as a traitor. To want to regulate in order to preserve the bounty of America from being utterly destroyed so that future generations may luxuriate in that natural bounty, to desire regulating safeguards against the few getting more and more while the many pay for it again and again, is somehow seen as being "liberal" which translates, prima facie, to being wrong and un-American.

But isn't the Law supposed to be a positive force in society? Without the Law won't we shortly devolve back into a way of life where the strong devour the weak? Won't we become a nation where a few with power/money can exact servitude from the many in order to further fatten their already plentiful larders. Are we there yet?

Actually, been there, done that. Round robin. Back to the Future. Here we go again. The same pulling of wool over the eyes of the masses; agitating with outlandish claims of peril and doom so that those whom are exploited will relish their exploitation even as they lash out at those whom attempt to end such exploitative practices as non-living minimum wage level, not enough jobs to go around, no single-payer health care, no guaranteed pensions, no guaranteed acceptable minimum standard for housing, fighting "terrorists" over there so we won't have to fight them here.

The TeaBaggers have been shown to be largely white, Christian, bigoted, racist, right-wing, intolerant, uninformed, illogical and lousy spellers. These people are the fodder that feeds the mindlessness surrounding us. There is little, if any, thought process involved in arriving at their positions. The Republican rightwing has so ensconced itself into the Republican party's mainstream (or, perhaps more aptly described, to borrow Sarah's reference, "lamestream") that their minority status and fringe viewpoints are dictating the parameters of debate among the party's so-called centrists. In other words, the Republican party has moved so far rightward, that their center has been yanked to the proximity of Pluto.

Karl Marx (in 1848) had something relevant to say about today's TeaBaggers, those disenfranchised, disgruntled, simple masses, "...all of these fight against the bourgeoisie*, to save from extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history…" And what of this "'dangerous class', the social scum, that passively rotting mass…?" Marx says "its conditions of life, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue." Counter-revolutionists, in a word. The Republicans lost power and this insanity called Tea Partiers, the Palin worshipping, the "No-ist" strategy on Capitol Hill, Senatorial hopefuls espousing "second amendment remedies" is the result; an effort to disrupt and dislodge the victorious Democrats. Notice, such a reactionary counter-offensive speaks nothing of doing right by Americans and/or America. Rather, it speaks to the greed for mo' money and mo' power for the few. Back to our roots, if you will.

At local levels, too often the Law gets applied according to who appears before a permitting board. Long time local gets the benefit of a streamlined (read: inappropriately truncated) process; the newcomer unknown to the politically appointed board members (whom generally are of a pro-growth bent for the jobs-jobs-jobs), gets the full-monty as to stringency of review (as this newcomer is a potential competitor vis-à-vis one or other old time interest). To hell with SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) even though the Law demands it. Many local Planning Boards and Zoning Boards of Appeal simply do not know what they are doing as per requirements of the Law. They simply wing it and hope for the best. So, if you're wondering how the hell that pig farm (owned and operated by a local yokel) was ever allowed next to a tourist-oriented restaurant (owned and operated by a new family of city transplants) thereby putting the latter business out of business, now you know why.

At both the local and national levels, the Law is warped by promises of jobs that never appear, of promises (rather than proofs) that there will be no negative impacts, of corners cut, process fudged in favor of the business applicant. So, while the business entity gains tax breaks galore and saves on initial start-up costs and never delivers anywhere near the number of jobs promised and has the process skewed such that safeguards against potential negative impacts are not demanded, therefore delivering a nice return to stockholders/investors (the ownership class), once the project goes into production and there's a problem (noise, dust, unhealthful fumes, oil spill of billions of gallons, leaking carcinogenic chemicals, etc) suddenly "the process" stops working and the impacted/harmed person is left to defend a prohibitively expensive legal process that, because of the great cost of pursuing same, always favors the perpetrator that lied and the regulating board that didn't do the job the Law requires it to do. Ironic, is it not, that the Supreme Court has ruled corporations answering ONLY to their shareholders, with vast sums of money to safeguard their interests, are considered persons. In the eyes of the Law, BP and any of the many victims of BP's callous cost-cutting measures, are equal. Well, except when it comes to paying the victims their due. Then the Law favors BP with its army of attorneys and privileged information restrictions due to the fact that BP is a private corporation and doesn't have to release such internal data. A protracted legal process can last decades victims getting paid only a meager sum. Or, as is more likely the scenario, a corporation goes into bankruptcy to avoid paying on those damage claims only to come out the other side with a new name, logo and no liability. In order to avoid such an outcome President Obama appealed directly to BP. Obama's subsequent "shake down" of BP as characterized by the "No-ists" is nothing of the sort. "The 'escrow account' in 2010 is not $20 billion dollars. BP will put in $3 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2010 (ending September 30) and another $2 billion in the fourth quarter (ending December 31). Thereafter, it will have to make installments of $1.25 billion each quarter for the next three years. This means that the necessary money will not be available to pay the tens of billions in losses that are real and immediate. It also means that people and businesses will have to get in line. The real number for the escrow account in 2010 is $5 billion—six months from now at the earliest. To put this in perspective, BP has been bringing in between $26 billion and $36 billion annually in profits on revenue of $250 billion, and pays out more than $10 billion in dividends yearly. According to a report in Forbes, BP could absorb $35 billion in spill costs before it would have a 'material impact' on its operations. But instead, it will be allowed a paltry $5 billion a year, in an installment plan over four years. Another measure of perspective can be had by comparison of this $5 billion per year voluntary set-aside to the accumulated potential fines and penalties under the Clean Water Act. BP can be fined $4,300 per barrel of oil spilled as a consequence of gross negligence. With the recent acknowledgment that the spill volume is 60,000 barrels per day, that is a potential penalty of over $250 million per day. Put another way, every 60 days accumulates a potential $15 billion fine under the Act. The voluntary arrangement to set aside $5 billion per year is meager in comparison."

In fact, the recent judicial decision to disallow the federal government's six-month moratorium on all new and as yet off-line deep water oil facilities is another example of the Law not working. Judge Martin L.C. Feldman (himself heavily invested in oil production) nitpicked the fact that while the Obama Administration via Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, made a good case for problems at 1000-plus feet (as DEMONSTRATED DAILY by BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe) the actual request for the moratorium used a greater than 500 feet figure. Judge Feldman said there was no reason whatsoever for this figure to be used; even as he mentioned the precise reason that figure was used: The Shallow Water Energy Security Coalition—itself an industry funded group –uses that figure because the Law (in this case the law of physics that determines a "standard" which) demands that over 500 feet depth, floating rig systems be used; precisely the systems that require further study. Convoluted? Absolutely. Justice served? Absolutely not. So, as provided by the Law, the Administration appealed. Also as provided by the Law, guess who heard the appeal? That's right, Justice Feldman. Now, this case is headed to the Supreme Court unless the Obama Administration decides to implement Section 12c of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and declares a national emergency in order to stop all facilities from continued operation: "12(c) All leases issued under this Act, and leases, the maintenance and operation of which are authorized under this Act, shall contain or be construed to contain a provision whereby authority is vested in the Secretary, upon a recommendation of the Secretary of Defense, during a state of war or national emergency declared by the Congress or the President of the United States after the effective date of this Act, to suspend operations under any lease; and all such leases shall contain or be construed to contain provisions for the payment of just compensation to the lessee whose operations are thus suspended." Notice how, should the President need to declare such a state of emergency, the United States taxpayers must pay BP for its daily losses. Outrageous, huh? But, that's the Law.

And then there's a most egregious breach of the Law to consider. Israel's interception of a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid ship in international waters, Israel's use of special forces to sniper/murder at least four unarmed civilians on that ship before any Israeli dropped aboard, its confiscation of all recorded media from the civilians, its disabling of the ships propellers, its towing of the boat into an Israeli port, its subsequent charging the civilians (hijacked against their will) with illegal entry into Israel, its subsequent editing of the recorded media to reconstruct (fabricate) the scenario so that the armed Israeli commandos became the victims; a video created that played worldwide as truth. By the end of the brutal assault, nine civilians were dead; the rest held and questioned by Israeli authorities. Now, ask yourself this: "Had ANY OTHER NATION IN THE WORLD done the same, having murdered an American in cold blood after illegally boarding a ship in international waters, would America be as silent as it has been?" In fact, ask yourself, "If another theocratic regime, say, IRAN!!! had done the same thing, would the Obama Administration be quiet as a church mouse? Would America be so willing to look the other way and do NOTHING after such a regime—this one replete with illegal nuclear program with 200-400 actual nuclear warheads and missile capability to launch them –murdered the innocent?! Would America allow the perpetrator of such indecent acts to investigate itself as to find cause/blame? Well, even though the United Nations has called for an international panel to investigate the incident, Israel refuses and America supports them in their intransigence. Utterly despicable! Unconscionable! Sick!

Of course, as their ancestors have for thousands of years, Israeli Jews claim victimhood. Israel maintains it has the Law on their side. How so? The Israeli position is that under international law they have the right to detain any ship attempting to violate a blockade in order to assure there are no weapons aboard. Of course, what never seems to come out in various pro-Israeli media is the FACT that international law allows for such actions ONLY if the combatants are nations at war. Obviously, Gaza isn't a nation; a point Israel has reinforced time and again since Zionism began over a hundred and twenty years ago. So Israel then claims that because it's fighting Hamas, the International Armed Conflict (IAC) provisions of San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflict at Sea and the 1909 Declaration Concerning the Laws of Navel War (London Declaration) apply. But that brings Israel full circle, back to having to accept Gaza as being occupied which would immediately render their land blockade of same illegal via the Fourth Geneva Convention. So, no matter how Israel tries to justify their brutal illegal hijacking and murdering of civilians, they are guilty by virtue of the Law. Some consolation to the dead. This type of perverted mental gymnastics to allow continued occupation and usurpation of Palestine has been used without censure from Israel's biggest supporter, America, for more than a century with Palestinians being humiliated, tortured, disenfranchised from their homelands and murdered, on a daily basis, for generations.

Which gives rise to another feature of the Law, any law. Laws are written by elite entities that attempt to have the words written mean what they want them to mean to serve their own purposes. Too many times laws are written in language that is unclear at best and confusing/contradictory at worst. While legal experts engage in a battle of wits, real battles with human loss are waged on and on with great consequence; no, not for the scholars, jurists, attorneys, etc. But, for the people in whose name these laws have been written.

The Law…What's it good for? Hunh…Absolutely nuthin'…

*According to Marx in the Communist Manifesto: "The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his "natural superiors", and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous "cash payment". It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom – Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation."