My Russian reader must have been on vacation. 21 reads today from Russia. Where, oh where is my Ukrainian reader. I hope he/she is not in harms way fighting the KGB in Donetsk.
Anyway, my only muse of the day is that when you are retired you need to fight the urge to be on this damn laptop all day following the news everywhere when I could be reading a good book about what Afghanistan used to be like. I failed today, hitting on whatever links and playing much to much electronic card games. I am still a world class competitor in achieving fewest moves in winning solitaire games.
Tomorrow, no laptop as I have an early tee time and then I will work on my last course in Financial Planning. I can kick this addictive habit and just need to plan my trip to Colorado and, more importantly, back without being stopped by the law, so I can resume my old habit that I stopped 31 years ago. I am sure I would be more productive smoking weed than I am pounding this key board.
As for Israel in Gaza, I hold no sympathy for terrorists and Hamas is a terrorist organization. But Israel is supposed to be the responsible party and not be pumping artillery shells into UN buildings holding refugees. To Israel, blow up the tunnels, kill a few terrorists, and get the f**k out. You are losing the global publicity battle even though you are in the right. A billion people out there root for the underdog no matter how in the wrong the underdog is. Only the U.S., Russia and China can defend themselves from a billion people hating them.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Monday, July 28, 2014
David Grossman on the Need for Israel to Reach Deeper
A thoughtful essay is quoted below or can be read by clicking on the link.
Link to Column
Link to Column
JERUSALEM — Israelis and Palestinians are imprisoned in what seems increasingly like a hermetically sealed bubble. Over the years, inside this bubble, each side has evolved sophisticated justifications for every act it commits.
Israel can rightly claim that no country in the world would abstain from responding to incessant attacks like those ofHamas, or to the threat posed by the tunnels dug from theGaza Strip into Israel. Hamas, conversely, justifies its attacks on Israel by arguing that the Palestinians are still under occupation and that residents of Gaza are withering away under the blockade enforced by Israel.
Inside the bubble, who can fault Israelis for expecting their government to do everything it can to save children on the Nahal Oz kibbutz, or any of the other communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip, from a Hamas unit that might emerge from a hole in the ground? And what is the response to Gazans who say that the tunnels and rockets are their only remaining weapons against a powerful Israel? In this cruel and desperate bubble, both sides are right. They both obey the law of the bubble — the law of violence and war, revenge and hatred.
But the big question, as war rages on, is not about the horrors occurring every day inside the bubble, but rather it is this: How on earth can it be that we have been suffocating together inside this bubble for over a century? This question, for me, is the crux of the latest bloody cycle.
Since I cannot ask Hamas, nor do I purport to understand its way of thinking, I ask the leaders of my own country, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his predecessors: How could you have wasted the years since the last conflict without initiating dialogue, without even making the slightest gesture toward dialogue with Hamas, without attempting to change our explosive reality? Why, for these past few years, has Israel avoided judicious negotiations with the moderate and more conversable sectors of the Palestinian people — an act that could also have served to pressure Hamas? Why have you ignored, for 12 years, the Arab League initiative that could have enlisted moderate Arab states with the power to impose, perhaps, a compromise on Hamas? In other words: Why is it that Israeli governments have been incapable, for decades, of thinking outside the bubble?
And yet the current round between Israel and Gaza is somehow different. Beyond the pugnacity of a few politicians fanning the flames of war, behind the great show of “unity” — in part authentic, mostly manipulative — something about this war is managing, I think, to direct many Israelis’ attention toward the mechanism that lies at the foundation of the vain and deadly repetitive “situation.” Many Israelis who have refused to acknowledge the state of affairs are now looking into the futile cycle of violence, revenge and counter-revenge, and they are seeing our reflection: a clear, unadorned image of Israel as a brilliantly creative, inventive, audacious state that for over a century has been circling the grindstone of a conflict that could have been resolved years ago.
If we put aside for a moment the rationales we use to buttress ourselves against simple human compassion toward the multitude of Palestinians whose lives have been shattered in this war, perhaps we will be able to see them, too, as they trudge around the grindstone right beside us, in tandem, in endless blind circles, in numbing despair.
I do not know what the Palestinians, including Gazans, really think at this moment. But I do have a sense that Israel is growing up. Sadly, painfully, gnashing its teeth, but nonetheless maturing — or, rather, being forced to. Despite the belligerent declarations of hotheaded politicians and pundits, beyond the violent onslaught of right-wing thugs against anyone whose opinion differs from theirs, the main artery of the Israeli public is gaining sobriety.
The left is increasingly aware of the potent hatred against Israel — a hatred that arises not just from the occupation — and of the Islamic fundamentalist volcano that threatens the country. It also recognizes the fragility of any agreement that might be reached here. More people on the left understand now that the right wing’s fears are not mere paranoia, that they address a real and crucial threat.
I would hope that on the right, too, there is now greater recognition — even if it is accompanied by anger and frustration — of the limits of force; of the fact that even a powerful country like ours cannot simply act as it wishes; and that in the age we live in there are no unequivocal victories, only an illusory “image of victory” through which we can easily see the truth: that in war there are only losers. There is no military solution to the real anguish of the Palestinian people, and as long as the suffocation felt in Gaza is not alleviated, we in Israel will not be able to breathe freely either.
Israelis have known this for decades, and for decades we have refused to truly comprehend it. But perhaps this time we understand a little better; perhaps we have caught a glimpse of the reality of our lives from a slightly different angle. It is a painful understanding, and a threatening one, certainly, but it is an understanding that could be the start of a shift. It might bring home for Israelis how critical and urgent peace with the Palestinians is, and how it can also be a basis for peace with the other Arab states. It may portray peace — such a disparaged concept here these days — as the best option, and the most secure one, available to Israel.
Will a similar comprehension emerge on the other side, in Hamas? I have no way of knowing. But the Palestinian majority, represented by Mahmoud Abbas, has already decided in favor of negotiation and against terrorism. Will the government of Israel, after this bloody war, after losing so many young and beloved people, continue to avoid at least trying this option? Will it continue to ignore Mr. Abbas as an essential component to any resolution? Will it keep dismissing the possibility that an agreement withWest Bank Palestinians might gradually lead to an improved relationship with the 1.8 million residents of Gaza?
Here in Israel, as soon as the war is over, we must begin the process of creating a new partnership, an internal alliance that will alter the array of narrow interest groups that controls us. An alliance of those who comprehend the fatal risk of continuing to circle the grindstone; those who understand that our borderlines no longer separate Jews from Arabs, but people who long to live in peace from those who feed, ideologically and emotionally, on continued violence.
I believe that Israel still contains a critical mass of people, both left-wing and right-wing, religious and secular, Jews and Arabs, who are capable of uniting — with sobriety, with no illusions — around a few points of agreement to resolve the conflict with our neighbors.
There are many who still “remember the future” (an odd phrase, but an accurate one in this context) — the future they want for Israel, and for Palestine. There are still — but who knows for how much longer — people in Israel who understand that if we sink into apathy again we will be leaving the arena to those who would drag us fervently into the next war, igniting every possible locus of conflict in Israeli society as they go.
If we do not do this, we will all — Israelis and Palestinians, blindfolded, our heads bowed in stupor, collaborating with hopelessness — continue to turn the grindstone of this conflict, which crushes and erodes our lives, our hopes and our humanity.
I'm Glad George Will Said It, He Didn't Go Far Enough
Although if President Obama followed though on it, the Democrats would lose the Senate and possibly the White House in 2016.
What George Will said is that we should welcome these Central American children, teach them English and whatever else is age appropriate and help them find jobs when they are 18. There would be 20 kids per county if spread across the U.S. evenly by county and the U.S. has certainly successfully absorbed more immigrants than this at one time going back to the hey day of Ellis Island.
He went on to say the best foreign policy we have is Free Trade, NAFTA was a great thing and we should do something similar for Central American. He also said we need to curb the consumption of drugs that is fueling the gang warfare that the Central American kids are fleeing.
The War on Drugs was started during the Nixon Administration. That was 46 years ago. The consumers of drugs have changed through the years as the people age. Drug consumption is mostly done by people in their 20's, so 5 10 year generations have supported this drug trafficking. Do you think that after 46 years, people would recognize that the War on Drugs is a complete abject failure? Do you think that after 46 years of failure, there would at least be a serious discussion of possible legalization being a more effective means to dealing with the problem?
Anyway, I want the Democrats to control the Senate and I want a Democrat to win the Presidency in 2016, so I know President Obama needs to send those children home. They didn't come here legally and they aren't victims of sex trafficking, which is the whole purpose of the law they are seeking to take advantage of.
Meanwhile, a willingly self-deported family of Hondurans started a business, refuse to pay for protection and the father was killed by the gang he wouldn't pay protection to. All the 16 year son can do is pray he finds a way back to the U.S.
Between the Tea Party and the populist Democrats, you couldn't pass a free trade bill today for Central America. And you certainly are not going to get a rational national discussion of how to manage the drug business.
So all I can say to that unfortunate 16 year old boy trying to run that family business, is either pay the gang for protection or try to sell the business and move to Mexico City, or try to enter the U.S. legally.
What George Will said is that we should welcome these Central American children, teach them English and whatever else is age appropriate and help them find jobs when they are 18. There would be 20 kids per county if spread across the U.S. evenly by county and the U.S. has certainly successfully absorbed more immigrants than this at one time going back to the hey day of Ellis Island.
He went on to say the best foreign policy we have is Free Trade, NAFTA was a great thing and we should do something similar for Central American. He also said we need to curb the consumption of drugs that is fueling the gang warfare that the Central American kids are fleeing.
The War on Drugs was started during the Nixon Administration. That was 46 years ago. The consumers of drugs have changed through the years as the people age. Drug consumption is mostly done by people in their 20's, so 5 10 year generations have supported this drug trafficking. Do you think that after 46 years, people would recognize that the War on Drugs is a complete abject failure? Do you think that after 46 years of failure, there would at least be a serious discussion of possible legalization being a more effective means to dealing with the problem?
Anyway, I want the Democrats to control the Senate and I want a Democrat to win the Presidency in 2016, so I know President Obama needs to send those children home. They didn't come here legally and they aren't victims of sex trafficking, which is the whole purpose of the law they are seeking to take advantage of.
Meanwhile, a willingly self-deported family of Hondurans started a business, refuse to pay for protection and the father was killed by the gang he wouldn't pay protection to. All the 16 year son can do is pray he finds a way back to the U.S.
Between the Tea Party and the populist Democrats, you couldn't pass a free trade bill today for Central America. And you certainly are not going to get a rational national discussion of how to manage the drug business.
So all I can say to that unfortunate 16 year old boy trying to run that family business, is either pay the gang for protection or try to sell the business and move to Mexico City, or try to enter the U.S. legally.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Hope My Russian & Ukrainian Readers Are OK
They have not been clicking on my posts since the Russian trained Ukrainian separatists graduated from thugs to terrorists using Russian supplied high altitude missiles. Perhaps they have fled so another country or this blog is being blocked by the Russian security apparatus. That would be the ultimate honor for me.
As the Economist said this week, "The West should face the uncomfortable truth that Mr. Putin's Russia is fundamentally antagonistic."
That means the shareholders of companies which have invested billions in Russia will have to suffer for their mistake believing that Russia was becoming a normal country after the collapse of communism. When 80% of Russians think the Malaysian 777 was not shot down by Russian equipment and that the Ukrainian government is somehow a fascist body politic, they are not dealing with reality nor open to amends. And Russia continues to provide active military support to the separatists who are "not Ukrainian separatists, but Russian citizens who are, or were, members of the intelligence services", by firing artillery over the border at the Ukrainian army.
The only appropriate response is to help the EU cut its consumption of Russian supplied energy by exporting gas from the wherever. And to help the Ukraine get off its Gazprom reliance. All it would take is cutting EU purchase of Russian energy by 10% to 20% to harm the Current Account and flow of funds to Gazprom and the government. The U.S. should do whatever it can to facilitate that.
And just how does Putin's 28 year old daughter who has never worked afford a $2,000,000 condo in the Netherlands?
As the Economist writes: "The doublespeak (from the Russian government) recalls the days of the Soviet Union when Pravda claimed to tell the truth. (They hope) This mendacity will end in the same way as that one did: the lies will eventually unravel, especially as it becomes obvious how much money Putin and his friends have stolen from the Russian people."
As the Economist said this week, "The West should face the uncomfortable truth that Mr. Putin's Russia is fundamentally antagonistic."
That means the shareholders of companies which have invested billions in Russia will have to suffer for their mistake believing that Russia was becoming a normal country after the collapse of communism. When 80% of Russians think the Malaysian 777 was not shot down by Russian equipment and that the Ukrainian government is somehow a fascist body politic, they are not dealing with reality nor open to amends. And Russia continues to provide active military support to the separatists who are "not Ukrainian separatists, but Russian citizens who are, or were, members of the intelligence services", by firing artillery over the border at the Ukrainian army.
The only appropriate response is to help the EU cut its consumption of Russian supplied energy by exporting gas from the wherever. And to help the Ukraine get off its Gazprom reliance. All it would take is cutting EU purchase of Russian energy by 10% to 20% to harm the Current Account and flow of funds to Gazprom and the government. The U.S. should do whatever it can to facilitate that.
And just how does Putin's 28 year old daughter who has never worked afford a $2,000,000 condo in the Netherlands?
As the Economist writes: "The doublespeak (from the Russian government) recalls the days of the Soviet Union when Pravda claimed to tell the truth. (They hope) This mendacity will end in the same way as that one did: the lies will eventually unravel, especially as it becomes obvious how much money Putin and his friends have stolen from the Russian people."
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Note to Democratic Candidates: Income Inequality is the key campaign point
The key election result this fall is the outcome for control of the Senate and the key to Democratic performance is voter turnout.
Democratic voters, I think, get depressed when things don't go their way, and stay home. Republican voters get angry and turn out to vote. The key is to get Democratic voters angry not depressed.
If you focus on the front pages of the newspaper (oh, I am sorry, I am now in the 5% of voters who still read newspapers) or rather the 30 second blurbs on television, you will think that the courts are about to kill ObamaCare and it is a done deal that the Republicans will win the Senate and force President Bush to cut taxes for the wealthy, maintain corporate welfare and balance the budget on the backs of the poor, in order to keep the government running.
But that is the key. Income inequality is complicated, as well as being a natural part of the economic scenery. What is unnatural is how much income inequality has increased. What is unnatural is how the GOP cannot see that without a thriving middle class, the U.S. will not have sufficient domestic demand for new things that generate economic growth. What is unnatural is how the GOP does not see that income inequality is a crisis for the middle class. Trickle down economics has failed.
Creating hope for the middle class is equally complicated but can be boiled down to a few points: there is no chance of raising up your children's circumstance without good healthcare and good education and there is no chance of reducing income inequality without a thriving middle class.
Turning around the effects of globalization and technology based improvements in productivity on the middle class without reducing the benefits that globalization and technology based improvements in productivity have brought for the economy as a whole is complicated and almost beyond my comprehension. And if it is beyond the comprehension of a University of Chicago M.B.A., it is beyond the comprehension of the masses. But that is what Congressional hearings are about, listening to really smart people of all political persuasions who focus on this stuff and have ideas. Out of that will come ideas.
But I suspect the key is tax reform. Simplifying tax returns by eliminating tax deductions and reducing tax rates. However, in doing so, the recharacterization of earned income as carried interest, and therefore a capital gain, must be eliminated. This is one of the greatest sources of influence that is creating income inequality. Beyond hedge fund and private equity guys who earn carried interest, there are all the highest paid employees of the corporate America who get most of their compensation in forms of stock that get capital gains treatment. All of this is taxed at 20%, not the top marginal rate of 39%. Now, you might want to still give capital gains some tax break, but it might be means tested like the GOP ideas for fixing entitlements (which by the way I agree with).
People who don't understand globalization do understand access to health insurance and a fair tax system that is aimed at reducing income inequality. Perhaps, corporations should get a lower tax rate, if they employ a higher percentage of their workforce in the United States. Say, there is a base corporate tax rate, with limited tax exemptions, of 25%. For every 10% of workers >50% employed in the U.S., you get a 1% reduction in your marginal tax rate to a lowest rate of 20%.
Combine that with a "Going to the Moon" focus on fixing our infrastructure and you have a plan for rebuilding the middle class.
Let me review the program.
People need access to affordable health insurance and good education.
The tax system must be fair and the current abuse of tax schemes is not fair and encourages companies to re-domicile abroad. Tax reform could encourage the maintenance and return of jobs from abroad.
People want good roads, functioning water and sewage systems. These need maintenance and replacement on a good schedule.
Democratic voters, I think, get depressed when things don't go their way, and stay home. Republican voters get angry and turn out to vote. The key is to get Democratic voters angry not depressed.
If you focus on the front pages of the newspaper (oh, I am sorry, I am now in the 5% of voters who still read newspapers) or rather the 30 second blurbs on television, you will think that the courts are about to kill ObamaCare and it is a done deal that the Republicans will win the Senate and force President Bush to cut taxes for the wealthy, maintain corporate welfare and balance the budget on the backs of the poor, in order to keep the government running.
But that is the key. Income inequality is complicated, as well as being a natural part of the economic scenery. What is unnatural is how much income inequality has increased. What is unnatural is how the GOP cannot see that without a thriving middle class, the U.S. will not have sufficient domestic demand for new things that generate economic growth. What is unnatural is how the GOP does not see that income inequality is a crisis for the middle class. Trickle down economics has failed.
Creating hope for the middle class is equally complicated but can be boiled down to a few points: there is no chance of raising up your children's circumstance without good healthcare and good education and there is no chance of reducing income inequality without a thriving middle class.
Turning around the effects of globalization and technology based improvements in productivity on the middle class without reducing the benefits that globalization and technology based improvements in productivity have brought for the economy as a whole is complicated and almost beyond my comprehension. And if it is beyond the comprehension of a University of Chicago M.B.A., it is beyond the comprehension of the masses. But that is what Congressional hearings are about, listening to really smart people of all political persuasions who focus on this stuff and have ideas. Out of that will come ideas.
But I suspect the key is tax reform. Simplifying tax returns by eliminating tax deductions and reducing tax rates. However, in doing so, the recharacterization of earned income as carried interest, and therefore a capital gain, must be eliminated. This is one of the greatest sources of influence that is creating income inequality. Beyond hedge fund and private equity guys who earn carried interest, there are all the highest paid employees of the corporate America who get most of their compensation in forms of stock that get capital gains treatment. All of this is taxed at 20%, not the top marginal rate of 39%. Now, you might want to still give capital gains some tax break, but it might be means tested like the GOP ideas for fixing entitlements (which by the way I agree with).
People who don't understand globalization do understand access to health insurance and a fair tax system that is aimed at reducing income inequality. Perhaps, corporations should get a lower tax rate, if they employ a higher percentage of their workforce in the United States. Say, there is a base corporate tax rate, with limited tax exemptions, of 25%. For every 10% of workers >50% employed in the U.S., you get a 1% reduction in your marginal tax rate to a lowest rate of 20%.
Combine that with a "Going to the Moon" focus on fixing our infrastructure and you have a plan for rebuilding the middle class.
Let me review the program.
People need access to affordable health insurance and good education.
The tax system must be fair and the current abuse of tax schemes is not fair and encourages companies to re-domicile abroad. Tax reform could encourage the maintenance and return of jobs from abroad.
People want good roads, functioning water and sewage systems. These need maintenance and replacement on a good schedule.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
The Society of Me'ism
This is all quoted from a Twitter link. It was written by a Steven Sanders in Texas and I think it puts a finger right on the basis for some of our basic political problems.
"Government gets blamed way too much for things that are just flowing down from citizens and voters. We have changed as a society. The actions of the collective have taken a backseat to the individual. Taxes versus tolls is just the tip of the iceberg. Our declining infrastructure and failing public education is symbolic of our failing culture and society - - we see everything through a fiscal lens and ignore the more important societal shifts. We no longer think in terms of the collective. From health care to highways we have become a nation with a very dangerous view of the world - - me first. What do I get out of it? How can I maximize my collective benefit with minimal input? We hate the idea of helping the needy in terms of health care and love the idea of paying a toll so we can get to work faster than our neighbors. We love our private schools and do nothing to help support and change our public systems. We love the military and our wars - - as long as my kid isn't involved and has no risk of coming home in a body bag."
"Tolling is the most visible example of we get the kind of government we want and deserve. It all is coming down to me and not us. Pooling resources for our collective benefit is becoming a distant memory."
"Government gets blamed way too much for things that are just flowing down from citizens and voters. We have changed as a society. The actions of the collective have taken a backseat to the individual. Taxes versus tolls is just the tip of the iceberg. Our declining infrastructure and failing public education is symbolic of our failing culture and society - - we see everything through a fiscal lens and ignore the more important societal shifts. We no longer think in terms of the collective. From health care to highways we have become a nation with a very dangerous view of the world - - me first. What do I get out of it? How can I maximize my collective benefit with minimal input? We hate the idea of helping the needy in terms of health care and love the idea of paying a toll so we can get to work faster than our neighbors. We love our private schools and do nothing to help support and change our public systems. We love the military and our wars - - as long as my kid isn't involved and has no risk of coming home in a body bag."
"Tolling is the most visible example of we get the kind of government we want and deserve. It all is coming down to me and not us. Pooling resources for our collective benefit is becoming a distant memory."
Rob Portman is Right and Wrong
Senator Portman (R-Ohio) can be a reasonable person at times. In his WSJ op-ed today, he discusses the need for Entitlement Reform. On this point, he is absolutely correct. His prescription includes adjusting retirement ages for both Social Security and Medicare, means testing Social Security and Medicare, and supporting patient-controlled health care.
This is all well and good if you campaign on all this and get a mandate from the voters to make such changes. But instead both the Democrats and the Republicans campaign on the basis the other party is suggesting making changes that harm social security and medicare. You still have GOP candidates blasting ObamaCare for damaging Medicare, when the changes made were part and parcel of the Paul Ryan budget, with the aim of assisting the long term sustainability of Medicare. And such changes would be part of any Rob Portman entitlement reform.
But fair entitlement reform is going to have be a little of this and a little of that to achieve the sustainability desired by all. So the politicians are going to have take on the AARP, which sends me regular emails protesting any discussion of the need to change the inflation reference in Social Security from a measure that includes Labor Productivity to one based solely on prices. This is worth, if I recall correctly, about 10% of what is needed for long term sustainability. The AARP protests that this is reducing benefits for current retirees. But it is only reducing the rate at which current benefits will increase. And why shouldn't current retirees contribute a little towards a long term fix for sustainability.
And means testing will have to still leave wealthy retirees with a benefit. They pay in and are just as entitled to a benefit as anyone else. One of the critical political support foundations for Social Security is every one participates in paying in and everyone gets a benefit. It is not welfare. And circumstances change. Someone who is wealthy this year, may spend down and not be wealthy in 10 years.
You can't raise the Medicare eligibility age without something like ObamaCare. People who retire before the Medicare eligibility age are in the individual health insurance market. And that market was dysfunctional before ObamaCare and would return to being dysfunctional if ObamaCare were repealed at Senator Portman suggests. The reality is that corporate America does not like to keep people over 55 on their payroll and actively works to shed those people. And people over 55 run into age discrimination routinely when they go out and seek new employment. That is reality and why so many people over 55 have left the labor force since 2009. They need access to affordable health insurance until they reach Medicare. Or they will go broke paying for the health insurance and end up on Medicaid. The GOP can protest this all they want, but at the end of the day, even the GOP has compassion and does not want homeless people dying in gutters. We need and already had a form of Universal Health Insurance before ObamaCare, it was simply ineffective at controlling costs and providing routine care because it was built around emergency rooms and required poverty.
Senator Portman also is correct on the need for tax reform. But he needs look no further than his fellow Ohioan, the House Majority Leader John Boehner who stuffed Dave Camps (R-Michigan) thoughtful plan for reducing tax rates and eliminating corporate and personal tax deductions. This is what Congress should be working on instead of trying to make President Obama a failed president.
I see Senator Schumer (D-NY) wants to make the California open primary, with the top 2 candidates from either party being in the final election, a national standard. I see the benefits of this but wonder if it wouldn't increase the craziness factor from states that are prone to extreme left or extreme right views. Perhaps we need more time to see what happens in California congressional districts over time. After all, Darrel Issa is a product of this system. And the most amazing thing about him, is how could an individual of such low intellect, become filthy rich and elected to Congress. This just proves I don't understand politics as well as I thought I did.
This is all well and good if you campaign on all this and get a mandate from the voters to make such changes. But instead both the Democrats and the Republicans campaign on the basis the other party is suggesting making changes that harm social security and medicare. You still have GOP candidates blasting ObamaCare for damaging Medicare, when the changes made were part and parcel of the Paul Ryan budget, with the aim of assisting the long term sustainability of Medicare. And such changes would be part of any Rob Portman entitlement reform.
But fair entitlement reform is going to have be a little of this and a little of that to achieve the sustainability desired by all. So the politicians are going to have take on the AARP, which sends me regular emails protesting any discussion of the need to change the inflation reference in Social Security from a measure that includes Labor Productivity to one based solely on prices. This is worth, if I recall correctly, about 10% of what is needed for long term sustainability. The AARP protests that this is reducing benefits for current retirees. But it is only reducing the rate at which current benefits will increase. And why shouldn't current retirees contribute a little towards a long term fix for sustainability.
And means testing will have to still leave wealthy retirees with a benefit. They pay in and are just as entitled to a benefit as anyone else. One of the critical political support foundations for Social Security is every one participates in paying in and everyone gets a benefit. It is not welfare. And circumstances change. Someone who is wealthy this year, may spend down and not be wealthy in 10 years.
You can't raise the Medicare eligibility age without something like ObamaCare. People who retire before the Medicare eligibility age are in the individual health insurance market. And that market was dysfunctional before ObamaCare and would return to being dysfunctional if ObamaCare were repealed at Senator Portman suggests. The reality is that corporate America does not like to keep people over 55 on their payroll and actively works to shed those people. And people over 55 run into age discrimination routinely when they go out and seek new employment. That is reality and why so many people over 55 have left the labor force since 2009. They need access to affordable health insurance until they reach Medicare. Or they will go broke paying for the health insurance and end up on Medicaid. The GOP can protest this all they want, but at the end of the day, even the GOP has compassion and does not want homeless people dying in gutters. We need and already had a form of Universal Health Insurance before ObamaCare, it was simply ineffective at controlling costs and providing routine care because it was built around emergency rooms and required poverty.
Senator Portman also is correct on the need for tax reform. But he needs look no further than his fellow Ohioan, the House Majority Leader John Boehner who stuffed Dave Camps (R-Michigan) thoughtful plan for reducing tax rates and eliminating corporate and personal tax deductions. This is what Congress should be working on instead of trying to make President Obama a failed president.
I see Senator Schumer (D-NY) wants to make the California open primary, with the top 2 candidates from either party being in the final election, a national standard. I see the benefits of this but wonder if it wouldn't increase the craziness factor from states that are prone to extreme left or extreme right views. Perhaps we need more time to see what happens in California congressional districts over time. After all, Darrel Issa is a product of this system. And the most amazing thing about him, is how could an individual of such low intellect, become filthy rich and elected to Congress. This just proves I don't understand politics as well as I thought I did.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Words of Wisdom
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Expedia, and alumnus of the Hackley School spoke the following words at this year's commencement. Dara, who was born in Tehran, and whose family fled when the Ayatollah's took over, is a humble, but accomplished, individual. I thought the following excerpt from his commencement speech was worth repeating.
"Instead of looking to make YOUR mark on the world, look for ways the world can make its mark on YOU. Look for ways it can reach into your soul. Look for opportunities to find your true self. Look for ways to be proven wrong in your thinking. Every time you change your mind, every time you discover, every time you realize you make the wrong assumption, or came to the wrong conclusion, you grow and learn, on your terms and no one else's. You change. You evolve. You improve."
What an excellent charge to the new graduates and something we should all remember as we move through life. That is why my next book is Scalia. I will see if he has something for me to learn.
"Instead of looking to make YOUR mark on the world, look for ways the world can make its mark on YOU. Look for ways it can reach into your soul. Look for opportunities to find your true self. Look for ways to be proven wrong in your thinking. Every time you change your mind, every time you discover, every time you realize you make the wrong assumption, or came to the wrong conclusion, you grow and learn, on your terms and no one else's. You change. You evolve. You improve."
What an excellent charge to the new graduates and something we should all remember as we move through life. That is why my next book is Scalia. I will see if he has something for me to learn.
Friday, July 18, 2014
Blood on Putin's Hands
Every time I have written about Russia since I wrote my farewell to Emerging Markets investing pieces has been more and more incredulous about what Putin is trying to do.
My first comment was that Democracy was going no where in Russia until the Rule of Law was followed and Oligarchy was discouraged, small business enterprise encouraged, and the political process opened up. At that time, 6 short months ago, the only people harmed were Russian citizens.
Then Putin went on some geo-policital rampage so he could have the illusion of controlling the Ukraine again. (the Ukraine should find a way to pay off their Gazprom bill so they can be free of that choking Russian leverage).
Now his thugs have shot down a civilian 777 with 298 innocent people on board: grandparents, young adults, babies, business people of all ages. All traveling to Kuala Lumbor or beyond for an exotic holiday. They had no geo political interest at this time, other then perhaps personal safety when they got where they were going.
Putin can deny all he wants but there was a now deleted Facebook post on a thug's page claiming responsibility for shooting down a military plane at that point in time, there is Ukrainian Intelligence that intercepted a cell phone call from a thug to another thug stating they had shot down a plane with their big missile and there is the reality that only the thugs are trying to shoot down air planes with missiles. The thugs don't have an air force so why would the Ukrainians shoot at anything in the sky?
And apparently, analysis of commercial airliner radar records can determine where the missile came from.
As for the black boxes, we will see if the thugs ever turn them over to responsible authorities. I bet they do not and we will never know what those poor pilots final words were. Not to mention the other innocent people on board.
As for Putin, you supply thugs with big military weapons, you have to realize unfortunate things are going to happen and you are responsible. I doubt you have a conscience, but you should feel enormous guilt about this. Perhaps, you will start to be responsible and cut off all support for these thugs. Your geo-political game has no good outcome and has spun out-of-control. And if you don't see it as out-of-control, you are no better than Stalin.
My first comment was that Democracy was going no where in Russia until the Rule of Law was followed and Oligarchy was discouraged, small business enterprise encouraged, and the political process opened up. At that time, 6 short months ago, the only people harmed were Russian citizens.
Then Putin went on some geo-policital rampage so he could have the illusion of controlling the Ukraine again. (the Ukraine should find a way to pay off their Gazprom bill so they can be free of that choking Russian leverage).
Now his thugs have shot down a civilian 777 with 298 innocent people on board: grandparents, young adults, babies, business people of all ages. All traveling to Kuala Lumbor or beyond for an exotic holiday. They had no geo political interest at this time, other then perhaps personal safety when they got where they were going.
Putin can deny all he wants but there was a now deleted Facebook post on a thug's page claiming responsibility for shooting down a military plane at that point in time, there is Ukrainian Intelligence that intercepted a cell phone call from a thug to another thug stating they had shot down a plane with their big missile and there is the reality that only the thugs are trying to shoot down air planes with missiles. The thugs don't have an air force so why would the Ukrainians shoot at anything in the sky?
And apparently, analysis of commercial airliner radar records can determine where the missile came from.
As for the black boxes, we will see if the thugs ever turn them over to responsible authorities. I bet they do not and we will never know what those poor pilots final words were. Not to mention the other innocent people on board.
As for Putin, you supply thugs with big military weapons, you have to realize unfortunate things are going to happen and you are responsible. I doubt you have a conscience, but you should feel enormous guilt about this. Perhaps, you will start to be responsible and cut off all support for these thugs. Your geo-political game has no good outcome and has spun out-of-control. And if you don't see it as out-of-control, you are no better than Stalin.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
More on Technology Messing Up Neo-conservative View of the World
I say Neo-conservative view of the world because one of the basic tenants of their view is that Israel can do no wrong. But as Thomas Friedman discusses, beyond demographic reality, Israel's military cannot really defeat Hamas who is mastering new technology. Hamas cannot win either because that is beyond the technology. But it does lead to a stalemate that is horrible and needs moderate leadership and economic growth to bring about peace.
I have personally wanting the Israeli's to put an end to the Rockets by sending in the ground troops. But others have pointed out that this would result in a lots of civilian casualties and Israeli troop casualities. Of course, bombs also result in civilian casualties. But if you send in the troops, you can find the missiles (hopefully) and being them out with you. But that will not lead to peace.
As we have found out in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, you cannot blast your way with gun powder to economic growth and moderate politics.
As usual, Thomas Friedman explains all this more lucidly than I do.
Link to Friedman column
I have personally wanting the Israeli's to put an end to the Rockets by sending in the ground troops. But others have pointed out that this would result in a lots of civilian casualties and Israeli troop casualities. Of course, bombs also result in civilian casualties. But if you send in the troops, you can find the missiles (hopefully) and being them out with you. But that will not lead to peace.
As we have found out in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, you cannot blast your way with gun powder to economic growth and moderate politics.
As usual, Thomas Friedman explains all this more lucidly than I do.
Link to Friedman column
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
The Poor Saga of Debra Harrell, the Nanny Police state, and McDonalds
A news article crossed my Twitter account today. It appears that a 49 year old mother in South Carolina has been arrested for letting her 9 year old play in a park (with lots of other kids and parents) alone while she was at work in a McDonalds about a mile away.
Until a few days ago, the minimum wage mother was letting her daughter come to the McDonalds and play on a laptop. But recently, her home was broken into and the laptop stolen. Being a minimum wage worker, spare cash for a replacement laptop was not exactly just sitting around.
So the mother and daughter agreed she could hang out in the park, play and call her with a cell phone that the mother left with the daughter.
But when a parent asked the girl where her mother was and received a truthful answer, the parent called the police who took the girl away to social services because she had been abandoned and the police arrested the mother for bad parenting.
This is outrageous. Hanging out in the neighborhood with other kids while parents worked is all kids of my age did every summer. We didn't check in every hour. We weren't supervised constantly. In fact, some of us risked life and limb doing stupid things from which we learned how to assess risk and potential harm.
I suppose I am cynical about all this helicopter parenting because my grandmother, when I was 6, let me ride my bicycle one mile into the nearest town to buy an ice cream. Then I rode home another way and played in a big creek. When I got home, I played in a small creek. All anyone knew, is that if my bicycle was gone, I was out and about, and if it was there, I was down by the creek.
Now this poor mother is in jail, her daughter is who knows where in what type of condition, and the mother has probably lost her job, but maybe her manager will be kind to her. She is clearly a conscientious person and the people who need their head examined are the police and social services people responsible for this outrage. Not to mention the nosey parents at the playground who see this as something to call the police about.
7/23 update: McDonald's did fire the mom. Now she will collect unemployment and probably end up on welfare. What a Shame
Until a few days ago, the minimum wage mother was letting her daughter come to the McDonalds and play on a laptop. But recently, her home was broken into and the laptop stolen. Being a minimum wage worker, spare cash for a replacement laptop was not exactly just sitting around.
So the mother and daughter agreed she could hang out in the park, play and call her with a cell phone that the mother left with the daughter.
But when a parent asked the girl where her mother was and received a truthful answer, the parent called the police who took the girl away to social services because she had been abandoned and the police arrested the mother for bad parenting.
This is outrageous. Hanging out in the neighborhood with other kids while parents worked is all kids of my age did every summer. We didn't check in every hour. We weren't supervised constantly. In fact, some of us risked life and limb doing stupid things from which we learned how to assess risk and potential harm.
I suppose I am cynical about all this helicopter parenting because my grandmother, when I was 6, let me ride my bicycle one mile into the nearest town to buy an ice cream. Then I rode home another way and played in a big creek. When I got home, I played in a small creek. All anyone knew, is that if my bicycle was gone, I was out and about, and if it was there, I was down by the creek.
Now this poor mother is in jail, her daughter is who knows where in what type of condition, and the mother has probably lost her job, but maybe her manager will be kind to her. She is clearly a conscientious person and the people who need their head examined are the police and social services people responsible for this outrage. Not to mention the nosey parents at the playground who see this as something to call the police about.
7/23 update: McDonald's did fire the mom. Now she will collect unemployment and probably end up on welfare. What a Shame
GOP Tries to Kill Economic Recovery
The only good news is that the economy is virtually too big for any single Congress (the 2 years between House elections) to do too much damage.
But here is the bad news.
The Tea Party wants to wind down the U.S. Export Import Bank. The Export Import Bank has been around since 1934. It helps finance the export of U.S. manufactured products which creates manufacturing jobs in the U.S. It helps businesses of all sizes. For big firms, the primary thing it does is create a level playing field with companies located in other countries with export import banks that support their competitor's exports. But make no mistake, if the U.S. big companies did not have access to the U.S. Ex-Im Bank, they would lose U.S. sales and cut U.S. production and U.S. employment. For small firms, the U.S. Ex-Im Bank is crucial to their being successful at exporting because they have no ability to assess the creditworthiness of their potential customers. Ex-Im does a good job assessing creditworthiness, its default rate is only 21 bps and it produces $400 mm a year in net profits for the U.S. taxpayer. Why does the Tea Party want to shut down a part of the government that produces profits to pay for other parts of the government? And, at the same time, the Tea Party does not want the loss producing U.S. Post Office to close rural Post Offices, require central post boxes where it makes sense (like condo developments) and end Saturday delivery.
Ever since the Eisenhower Administration started the inter-state highway system, Federal & State gasoline taxes have paid for Highway maintenance and repair. But Congress has refused to raise the gasoline tax for over 20 years. Now the Highway fund is running out of money and Congress cannot find a solution to keep it running mostly because the Tea Party doesn't want to raise the gasoline tax or impose a mileage tax that would help spread the burden to more efficient fuel consumption vehicles. If I owned a Hybrid, I would not want the latter because I would be getting a free lunch. But there aren't many hybrid owners in Tea Party land, so you would think they would support ending this free lunch. Anyway, if you work in road construction, I hope you have been saving for a rainy day because you are about to be laid off when the funding runs out and I would not count on a long term solution because the Congress is to dysfunctional it cannot even run itself.
I have pointed out the idiocy of some of our corporate tax policies. But even more companies are running to change their incorporation to tax havens because it is becoming a huge source of competitive disadvantage. Dave Camp, the out-going GOP Chairman of Ways and Means, has developed a tax reform to address this, but John Boehner called it Dead on Arrival, so it has gone no where. Tax Policy starts in the House Ways & Means Committee. That is in the Constitution or someplace equally rigid. If the House of Representatives will not address improving the way the country works, the country will not improve and that will mean employment will be lower than it would be otherwise, no matter what the Federal Reserve does. Fiscal and Tax Policies effect employment. Fiscal and Tax Policies effect the revenue the country has for everything including National Defense.
I can barely read the newspaper these days, but I struggle on. There is so little progress these days on any issue in the world, it is very discouraging.
The Economist had an interesting article on Pakistan/Afghanistan. A U.S. General once remarked, "We can't defeat an enemy with a free home base in a country we can't go into." He was referring to the Taliban hiding unmolested in Pakistan. Now Pakistan is upset that the Taliban they are going after in the lawless territory are using Afghanistan to hide from them and complaining the Afghan are doing nothing. Perhaps both will realize that if you don't impose law & order everywhere in your country, you lose control over your country.
This is something the Ukrainians understand and I hope they are successful at eliminating the Russian thugs in Eastern Ukraine who seek to sow violence. Why Putin would think this is a good idea baffles me because he already has a Chechnya problem and you would think he understood chaos within your borders is not something that you can allow.
And as for these kids on our border. I love our immigrants and believe they add greatly to our vitality as a country. But there can be no mass migration and, in particular, minors who need education cannot be allowed to enter without parents. They will not contribute to society until they are educated and they will be wards of the state until they are educated. Their parents at home are irresponsible for allowing or forcing them to take the treacherous journey to the U.S. We should just be sending them home, but Congress needs to change the 2008 law that Bush II signed to allow that. Congress agrees to that, but as usual, they cannot pass even a bill they all agree on.
I hate Congress. I hate the Tea Party.
I need a good movie to go to.
But here is the bad news.
The Tea Party wants to wind down the U.S. Export Import Bank. The Export Import Bank has been around since 1934. It helps finance the export of U.S. manufactured products which creates manufacturing jobs in the U.S. It helps businesses of all sizes. For big firms, the primary thing it does is create a level playing field with companies located in other countries with export import banks that support their competitor's exports. But make no mistake, if the U.S. big companies did not have access to the U.S. Ex-Im Bank, they would lose U.S. sales and cut U.S. production and U.S. employment. For small firms, the U.S. Ex-Im Bank is crucial to their being successful at exporting because they have no ability to assess the creditworthiness of their potential customers. Ex-Im does a good job assessing creditworthiness, its default rate is only 21 bps and it produces $400 mm a year in net profits for the U.S. taxpayer. Why does the Tea Party want to shut down a part of the government that produces profits to pay for other parts of the government? And, at the same time, the Tea Party does not want the loss producing U.S. Post Office to close rural Post Offices, require central post boxes where it makes sense (like condo developments) and end Saturday delivery.
Ever since the Eisenhower Administration started the inter-state highway system, Federal & State gasoline taxes have paid for Highway maintenance and repair. But Congress has refused to raise the gasoline tax for over 20 years. Now the Highway fund is running out of money and Congress cannot find a solution to keep it running mostly because the Tea Party doesn't want to raise the gasoline tax or impose a mileage tax that would help spread the burden to more efficient fuel consumption vehicles. If I owned a Hybrid, I would not want the latter because I would be getting a free lunch. But there aren't many hybrid owners in Tea Party land, so you would think they would support ending this free lunch. Anyway, if you work in road construction, I hope you have been saving for a rainy day because you are about to be laid off when the funding runs out and I would not count on a long term solution because the Congress is to dysfunctional it cannot even run itself.
I have pointed out the idiocy of some of our corporate tax policies. But even more companies are running to change their incorporation to tax havens because it is becoming a huge source of competitive disadvantage. Dave Camp, the out-going GOP Chairman of Ways and Means, has developed a tax reform to address this, but John Boehner called it Dead on Arrival, so it has gone no where. Tax Policy starts in the House Ways & Means Committee. That is in the Constitution or someplace equally rigid. If the House of Representatives will not address improving the way the country works, the country will not improve and that will mean employment will be lower than it would be otherwise, no matter what the Federal Reserve does. Fiscal and Tax Policies effect employment. Fiscal and Tax Policies effect the revenue the country has for everything including National Defense.
I can barely read the newspaper these days, but I struggle on. There is so little progress these days on any issue in the world, it is very discouraging.
The Economist had an interesting article on Pakistan/Afghanistan. A U.S. General once remarked, "We can't defeat an enemy with a free home base in a country we can't go into." He was referring to the Taliban hiding unmolested in Pakistan. Now Pakistan is upset that the Taliban they are going after in the lawless territory are using Afghanistan to hide from them and complaining the Afghan are doing nothing. Perhaps both will realize that if you don't impose law & order everywhere in your country, you lose control over your country.
This is something the Ukrainians understand and I hope they are successful at eliminating the Russian thugs in Eastern Ukraine who seek to sow violence. Why Putin would think this is a good idea baffles me because he already has a Chechnya problem and you would think he understood chaos within your borders is not something that you can allow.
And as for these kids on our border. I love our immigrants and believe they add greatly to our vitality as a country. But there can be no mass migration and, in particular, minors who need education cannot be allowed to enter without parents. They will not contribute to society until they are educated and they will be wards of the state until they are educated. Their parents at home are irresponsible for allowing or forcing them to take the treacherous journey to the U.S. We should just be sending them home, but Congress needs to change the 2008 law that Bush II signed to allow that. Congress agrees to that, but as usual, they cannot pass even a bill they all agree on.
I hate Congress. I hate the Tea Party.
I need a good movie to go to.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Climate Change & Technology are Messing Up Neo-Con Politics
Neo-conservative foreign affairs policies are built upon the principal that what won us the Cold War will work again. The one basic assumption underlying Neo-Con politics is that the U.S. can use military force to combat whatever enemy it has and leave behind a stable democratic country that is a U.S. ally, without leaving behind a U.S. military presence forever. This last point is critical because unlike Germany and South Korea, where we have had a more or less permanent military presence, but our soldiers can relax and live with their families enjoying the foreign culture, these newer countries we march into don't want a peaceful U.S. presence. They have people who want to kill Americans and the U.S. population will not support putting the military in harms way forever. So for the Neo-Con view to have any support, there has to be an exit strategy.
I know of no more expert a person on the complexities of the Middle East than Thomas Friedman. He lived in Lebanon and Israel for a number of years and travels there regularly to speak with this numerous contacts there.
People revolt when they cannot afford food to eat or there is simply not enough food. The U.S. cannot afford to pay for food for all the underfed countries of the world where political chaos might exist. So it is best that we not put our military in such places.
"Without the Cold War system to prop them up, it is not so easy anymore for weak states to provide the minimums of security, jobs, health and welfare. And thanks to rapid advances in the market (globalization), Mother Nature (climate change plus ecological destruction) and Moore’s Law (computing power), some states are just blowing up under the pressure."
I know of no more expert a person on the complexities of the Middle East than Thomas Friedman. He lived in Lebanon and Israel for a number of years and travels there regularly to speak with this numerous contacts there.
People revolt when they cannot afford food to eat or there is simply not enough food. The U.S. cannot afford to pay for food for all the underfed countries of the world where political chaos might exist. So it is best that we not put our military in such places.
"Without the Cold War system to prop them up, it is not so easy anymore for weak states to provide the minimums of security, jobs, health and welfare. And thanks to rapid advances in the market (globalization), Mother Nature (climate change plus ecological destruction) and Moore’s Law (computing power), some states are just blowing up under the pressure."
"Yes, we blew up Iraq, but you can’t understand the uprising in Syria unless you understand how a horrendous four-year drought there, coupled with a demographic explosion, undermined its economy."
"You can’t understand Egypt’s uprising without linking it to the 2010 global wheat crisis and soaring bread prices, which inspired the anti-Hosni Mubarak chant: “Bread, Freedom, Dignity.” You also can’t understand Egypt’s stress without understanding the challenge that China’s huge labor pool poses in a globalized world to every other low-wage country. Go into a souvenir shop in Cairo, buy a Pyramids ashtray and turn it over. I’ll bet it says, “Made in China.” Today’s globalization system rewards countries that make their workers and markets efficient enough to take part in global supply chains of goods and services faster than ever — and punishes those who don’t more harshly than ever."
"You can’t understand the spread of ISIS or the Arab Spring without the relentless advance in computing and telecom — Moore’s Law — creating so many cheap command-and-control Internet tools that superempower small groups to recruit adherents, challenge existing states and erase borders. In a flat world, people can see faster than ever how far behind they are and organize faster than ever to protest. When technology penetrates more quickly than wealth and opportunity, watch out."
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Poverty is a Circumstance, Not a Value Judgement
Something to remember when we are considering the the appropriate breadth of the safety net.
Link to What I learned being poor column
Meanwhile, the House Ways & Means Committee is considering a renewal of the Highway Trust Fund. To pay for it, they are going to allow underfunded pension plans to put off working the deficit so they will pay more in taxes for having higher income from not have the pension expense item from funding the pension. How is that prudent for the workers of those firms? And they are shifting money from from a fund that cleans up dirty ground from buried leaky oil & gasoline tanks. So they are working funding potholes while leaving mini-superfund sites underfunded. How is that a good idea?
I am glad they are working on the Highway Trust Fund but wouldn't raising the gasoline tax be a better idea.
Link to What I learned being poor column
Meanwhile, the House Ways & Means Committee is considering a renewal of the Highway Trust Fund. To pay for it, they are going to allow underfunded pension plans to put off working the deficit so they will pay more in taxes for having higher income from not have the pension expense item from funding the pension. How is that prudent for the workers of those firms? And they are shifting money from from a fund that cleans up dirty ground from buried leaky oil & gasoline tanks. So they are working funding potholes while leaving mini-superfund sites underfunded. How is that a good idea?
I am glad they are working on the Highway Trust Fund but wouldn't raising the gasoline tax be a better idea.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Depressing Middle East Sunday Musings
The Economist defines "Rats Nest"
"Why Arab countries have so miserably failed to create democracy, happiness, or (aside from the windfall of oil) wealth for their 350 mm people is one of the great questions of our time. What makes Arab society susceptible to vile regimes and fanatics bent on destroying (and their perceived allies in the West)? No one suggests that Arabs as a people lack talent or suffer from a pathological antipathy to democracy. But for the Arabs to wake from their nightmare, and for the world to feel safe, a great deal needs to change."
..........................
"But religious extremism is a conduit for misery, not its fundamental cause."
...................
"Economic stagnation bred dissatisfaction."
........................
"But only the Arabs can reverse their civilizational decline."
....................
"Pluralism, education, open markets: these were once Arab values." and the key to a better future.
The Economist also states this is not present in the current environment and will require secular Sunni's to lead any improvement.
Palestine could be a source of such leadership as they are traditionally the most secular and educated Arabs. But Israel is more hell bent on establishing settlements and shrinking the land that is available to any Palestinian state than in fostering a civil Palestinian culture. The current situation of kidnapping and murdering teenagers is reprehensible on both sides, but is perhaps the logical outcome of hatred fed by 65 years of having no political power and being beaten down on by Israeli security forces on the part of Palestinians and zealotry on the part of conservative Jews in believing they are the chosen ones to live on that land they are seizing. War's have been fought for thousands of years over land.
I have defended Israel's right to defend itself against outside forces and terrorists since I became aware of their reality when the '68 war erupted and I was 15. But Israel also has always represented hope for a civil society. I may not be Jewish in practice, but I was taught that the Jewish people are people of faith, education and achievement with respect for all other mankind. I am well aware that Hitler would have sent me to a gas chamber because of my birth heritage and believe that the Jewish people need a homeland.
But Israel needs to represent civil society. When Israeli defense forces behave as thugs they denigrate our heritage and do not represent a civil democracy. Beating a 15 year old boy who is handcuffed and hooded is also reprehensible. Never mind that he is screaming, if conscious, that he is an American citizen, it would be equally bad if the person was just an innocent Palestinian.
The only lesson of the Sunni Shia conflict is radicalism breeds more radicalism until one side wins. I cannot fathom fathom the Jewish people inflicting a holocaust upon Palestinians, which is what it will take for them to win with force. I am shamed that Israeli Defense Forces beat a handcuffed and hooded American citizen. I will be even more shamed if somehow a 2 State Solution is not found and mass death is the only Israeli solution to their Arab problem which I see as a Ultra-conservative Jewish problem combined with an Arab problem. How Israel will ever live in peace without a 2 State solution is impossible for me to see. I don't understand how Israeli's cannot see it.
"Why Arab countries have so miserably failed to create democracy, happiness, or (aside from the windfall of oil) wealth for their 350 mm people is one of the great questions of our time. What makes Arab society susceptible to vile regimes and fanatics bent on destroying (and their perceived allies in the West)? No one suggests that Arabs as a people lack talent or suffer from a pathological antipathy to democracy. But for the Arabs to wake from their nightmare, and for the world to feel safe, a great deal needs to change."
..........................
"But religious extremism is a conduit for misery, not its fundamental cause."
...................
"Economic stagnation bred dissatisfaction."
........................
"But only the Arabs can reverse their civilizational decline."
....................
"Pluralism, education, open markets: these were once Arab values." and the key to a better future.
The Economist also states this is not present in the current environment and will require secular Sunni's to lead any improvement.
Palestine could be a source of such leadership as they are traditionally the most secular and educated Arabs. But Israel is more hell bent on establishing settlements and shrinking the land that is available to any Palestinian state than in fostering a civil Palestinian culture. The current situation of kidnapping and murdering teenagers is reprehensible on both sides, but is perhaps the logical outcome of hatred fed by 65 years of having no political power and being beaten down on by Israeli security forces on the part of Palestinians and zealotry on the part of conservative Jews in believing they are the chosen ones to live on that land they are seizing. War's have been fought for thousands of years over land.
I have defended Israel's right to defend itself against outside forces and terrorists since I became aware of their reality when the '68 war erupted and I was 15. But Israel also has always represented hope for a civil society. I may not be Jewish in practice, but I was taught that the Jewish people are people of faith, education and achievement with respect for all other mankind. I am well aware that Hitler would have sent me to a gas chamber because of my birth heritage and believe that the Jewish people need a homeland.
But Israel needs to represent civil society. When Israeli defense forces behave as thugs they denigrate our heritage and do not represent a civil democracy. Beating a 15 year old boy who is handcuffed and hooded is also reprehensible. Never mind that he is screaming, if conscious, that he is an American citizen, it would be equally bad if the person was just an innocent Palestinian.
Friday, July 4, 2014
A liberal's letter to people who hate President Obama
I found this is in the Daily KOS, a liberal assemblage of the news each day. It is letter to Obama haters, who pretend he was born in Kenya and is simultaneously a weak leader devoid of vision in foreign affairs and an autocratic domestic leader implementing a socialist vision in domestic affairs.
Now if anything, President Obama governs as a conservative Democrat would, but that does not stop the GOP from wanting to destroy his Presidency. How is a failed Presidency good for this country? How is that patriotic?
Although I find the letter a bit extreme, there is much that strikes me as being the truth, which is a sad commentary on the state of the GOP, which at one time I voted for more candidates than I did Democrats. Now I cannot even contemplate voting for a GOP candidate, even if the Democrat is a crazy tax and spender like de Blasio, because the GOP person I would be voting for would represent what is portrayed below.
Everything below this was written by someone else, who goes by the moniker MinistryofTruth.
You like war. You like torture. You like Jesus. I don't know how in the hell any of that is compatible, but no one ever accused you haters of being over-committed to ideological consistency. You like people who look like you or at least hate most of the things that you hate. You hate everything else.
Now if anything, President Obama governs as a conservative Democrat would, but that does not stop the GOP from wanting to destroy his Presidency. How is a failed Presidency good for this country? How is that patriotic?
Although I find the letter a bit extreme, there is much that strikes me as being the truth, which is a sad commentary on the state of the GOP, which at one time I voted for more candidates than I did Democrats. Now I cannot even contemplate voting for a GOP candidate, even if the Democrat is a crazy tax and spender like de Blasio, because the GOP person I would be voting for would represent what is portrayed below.
Everything below this was written by someone else, who goes by the moniker MinistryofTruth.
I meet you all the time. You hate Obama. You hate gay people. You hate black people, immigrants, Muslims, labor unions, women who want the right to make choices concerning their bodies, you hate em all. You hate being called racist. You hate being called a bigot. Maybe if you talked about creating jobs more than you talk about why you hate gay people we wouldn't call you bigots. Maybe if you talked about black people without automatically assuming they are on food stamps while demanding their birth certificates we wouldn't call you racist. You hate socialism and social justice. You hate regulations and taxes and spending and the Government. You hate.
You like war. You like torture. You like Jesus. I don't know how in the hell any of that is compatible, but no one ever accused you haters of being over-committed to ideological consistency. You like people who look like you or at least hate most of the things that you hate. You hate everything else.
Now, I know you profess to love our country and the founding fathers (unless you are reminded that they believed in the separation of church and state), but I need to remind you that America is NOT what Fox News says it is. America is a melting pot, it always has been. We are a multi-cultural amalgamation of all kinds of people, and yet you still demonize everyone who is not a rich, white, heterosexual christian male or his submissive and obedient wife.
You hate liberals, moderates, hell, anyone who disagrees with Conservative dogma as espoused by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. You hate em.
Well, here are the facts, Jack. If you hate the Government then you are unqualified to manage it. If you hate gay people more than you love America than you should take your own advice and get the hell out. There are several countries that are openly hostile to gay people, but they are full of brown people and you don't like them much either from what I understand. It looks like you are screwed, but that's not what I am here to tell you.
More rant below the fold . . .
Now that you have thrown everything and the kitchen sink at President Obama and it still hasn't worked you are panicking. Obama's approval ratings are still near 50% despite your best efforts to undermine the economy and America's recovery at every step you can. You tried to hold the American economy hostage to force America into default on its' debts, debts that YOU rang up under Bush, so you could blame it on Obama and it failed. You've used the filibuster more than any other Congress ever, going so far as to vote against providing health care access to 9/11 first responders. You remember 9/11, don't you, it's that thing you used to lie us into a war in Iraq, and then when Obama killed Bin Laden and ended the war in Iraq you told people that he hates America and wants the troops to fail. You monsters. You hate Obama with a passion, despite the fact that he is a tax cutting, deficit reducing war President who undermines civil rights and delivers corporate friendly watered down reforms that benefit special interests just like a Republican. You call him a Kenyan. You call him a socialist. You dance with your hatred singing it proudly in the rain like it was a 1950's musical.
Your hatred nauseates me. Your bigotry offends me. Your racism revolts me.
Dear haters, I am openly questioning your patriotism.
I think you hate gays, Obama, black people, poor people, all of us, women, atheists and agnostics, Latinos, Muslims, Liberals, all of us, I think you hate every one who isn't exactly like you, and I think you hate us more than you love your country.
I think you hate gay soldiers more than you want America to win its wars.
I don't even think you want America to win wars, you just want America to have wars, never ending wars and the war profiteering it generates. You love that kind of spending, you love spending on faith based initiatives and abstinence based sex education (George Carlin would have loved that one), you love spending on subsidies for profitable oil corporations, you spend like drunken sailors when you are in the White House, but if it is a Democrat then suddenly you cheer when America doesn't get the Olympics because it might make the black President look bad. But oooh you love your country, you say, and you want it back. Well listen here skippy, it isn't your country, you don't own it, it is our country, and America is NOT the religiously extremist Foxbots who hate science, elitist professors and having a vibrant and meaningful sex life with someone we love if Rick Santorum doesn't approve of it. Rick Santorum isn't running for America's fucking high school dance chaperone, he should probably just shut the hell up about sex, but he can't because he has nothing else to run on.
Republicans can NOT win on the issues. They've got NOTHING. All they have is a divide and conquer class war that pits ignorant racist and bigoted people against the rest of us in a meaningless battle of wedge issues and the already proven to fail George W. Bush agenda again of tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, privatization and war profiteering and nothing else, so all they can do is blame black people, gays the government, anybody and everyone else for their own failings. The party of personal responsibility, my ass.
But they love multi-national corporations, just ask a gay hating and racist religious extremist if they think Corporations are people and they will gladly agree, but if you ask them if gay people are people they aren't so sure.
Dear haters, you are the cruel, heartless misinformed assholes who would sell America out to Haliburton in a heartbeat, you would rather pay ZERO taxes than you would see a newly born baby get access to quality health care, you cheer when we discuss denying health care to young people with preventable diseases, and you boo when we discuss the First Ladies plan to cut back on childhood obesity. You are a cross to carry and a flag to wrap yourself in away from being the people who Sinclair Lewis warned us about, but I guarantee that if Fox News told you to dress that way you would, because you are the same blind, ignorant and closed minded dunces who drove this country into a civil war years ago because you are bound to the notion that some men are more equal than others. In short, the reason I proudly wear my union army hat is because of seditious sell outs like you who constantly fuck over working class Americans so a foreign entrepreneur like Rupert Murdoch can get a bigger tax break. If corporations are people, they are neither American patriots nor capable of love. Just like you.
So stop wearing your hate with pride. Stop celebrating your anti-science, anti-math ignorance. Stop using code words to mask your bigotry like "family values", especially when you hate my family and when you stand on the same stage as a guy who has had three marriages or if you share a seat in the Senate with a guy who cheated on his wife with hookers while wearing diapers. You should be ashamed. I know that you are just doing this to motivate your misinformed hate cult base because if they actually knew that your ideas will make them poorer than they are now, they would never vote for you. You are doing your best to impoverish your countrymen so rich people can get bigger tax breaks and you can keep on delivering corporate welfare to the special interests who have bribed you, and I am disgusted by the way you gleefully parade your hatred with aplomb. I don't think you do love America. At least, not as much as you hate everyone in America who isn't exactly like you.
You should think about that, and maybe get some help.
And for the record, I do not hate you. I am embarrassed by you and nauseated by your cruel and thoughtless behavior and your all consuming greed, but I do not hate you. I forgive you and I hope you can change someday, but I don't hate you. You have enough hate in you for the rest of us as it is.
Declaration of Independents
Who by definition don't get to vote in primaries unless, like Mississippi, they have an open primary.
Just some quick summary points and a link to Tom Egan's column.
The greatest source of anger towards Congress by most people is the gridlock, partisanship, and failure to act upon the needs of the country.
They disagree vehemently with the Tea Party and now are unrepresented by the Republican's who are slavishly adhering to Tea Party advocacy's to avoid and win primary challenges. But the Democrats have swung to the left on certain issues (notably a willingness to address the solvency of entitlements).
There is no exact correct policy solution for any of the issues I laid out above. That is why a legislature meets every year, to makes adjustments and improve policies that need improvement. And that is why issues need to be debated. Not buried in disagreement.
Link to Tom Egan column
Just some quick summary points and a link to Tom Egan's column.
The greatest source of anger towards Congress by most people is the gridlock, partisanship, and failure to act upon the needs of the country.
- A livable wage creates both consumers and takes workers out of world of the government safety net. No one should work 60 hours and a week and have insufficient income for the basics of life.
- Immigration is an issue in need of a change in policies which have not been working for decades.
- Healthcare is an issue that still needs refinement, but not a return to the good old days when health care spending was rising at an unsustainable rate while the uninsured went untreated.
- Our infrastructure needs maintenance and replacement, the funding does not exist.
- Climate change needs to be addressed. A failure to do so will lead to unknown circumstances which may occur anyway, but we need to try.
- Entitlement funds will run out of money at various times and need to be stabilized, not privatized, and that needs to be debated and sold to the American people by both parties.
- The budget deficit needs a path to a surplus at full employment.
- And fraud in Social Security Disability, Medicare, Medicaid, and Taxes needs to be ferreted out. I don't for a minute believe that all these new found political organizations on the left and the right are not evading the tax law in some cases.
- The ability to obtain guns and certain types of guns need some effective controls such as background checks, a limit to automatic weapons, and a cessation of purchases flowing from easy states to more difficult states.
They disagree vehemently with the Tea Party and now are unrepresented by the Republican's who are slavishly adhering to Tea Party advocacy's to avoid and win primary challenges. But the Democrats have swung to the left on certain issues (notably a willingness to address the solvency of entitlements).
There is no exact correct policy solution for any of the issues I laid out above. That is why a legislature meets every year, to makes adjustments and improve policies that need improvement. And that is why issues need to be debated. Not buried in disagreement.
Link to Tom Egan column
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Business & Religion Should Not Mix Legally
When you form a corporation you are forming a legal entity that is distinct from that of any employee and any owner in terms of liability. There is every reason to believe that legal distinction should also pertain to religion. In other words, a corporation should not have a religious identity.
Why? The reason is that in any lawsuit the court now has the burden of separating real religious belief's from pretend religious belief's that are aimed at taking advantage of some perceived economic benefit.
This introduces religion into the legal process, somewhere it has never been before except as a protected social process that is outside the legal process and protected by the legal process. Now the courts will have to develop standards about sincerity of belief or otherwise protected processes under the ACA will be subject to discrimination by people pretending to believers.
The courts are suddenly in the business of measuring religious sincerity. That is no where a court should be and the reason corporations should not have religious beliefs.
Not to mention, if you are hiring employees of all faiths and have customers of all faiths, why would you want to offend them.
Why? The reason is that in any lawsuit the court now has the burden of separating real religious belief's from pretend religious belief's that are aimed at taking advantage of some perceived economic benefit.
This introduces religion into the legal process, somewhere it has never been before except as a protected social process that is outside the legal process and protected by the legal process. Now the courts will have to develop standards about sincerity of belief or otherwise protected processes under the ACA will be subject to discrimination by people pretending to believers.
The courts are suddenly in the business of measuring religious sincerity. That is no where a court should be and the reason corporations should not have religious beliefs.
Not to mention, if you are hiring employees of all faiths and have customers of all faiths, why would you want to offend them.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Bobby Jindal & the NRA
So, Louisiana passed in May 2014 and Governor Jindal signed a law allowing people to pack whatever weapons they want into a bar.
Now, in New Orleans, home to one of drinkingist cultures there is and absolutely a great city to be a tourist in for a long weekend because of the foodies and drinking culture, does not need encouragement for violence.
New Orleans already has a high culture of gun violence, just not in the bars with tourists previously. And Louisiana has the highest rates of death by gun per capita in the country. You would think keeping guns out of places with tourists would be good idea.
But not Governor Jindal. In his own words: "The gun laws I have signed are celebrating our heritage as a Sportsman's Paradise and American values."
Why is the ultimate American value the right to carry a gun wherever one pleases? I thought the ultimate American values was Freedom of Speech, Religion, and Economic Opportunity. Not the right to be shot by some drunk at 2:00 a.m. in tourist bar.
What brings this tirade to print here is at 2:45 a.m. one recent morning, 2 of Louisiana's fine sportsman got into a disagreement at a bar on Bourbon Street while both were packing heat. They get into a gun fight with each other, manage not to hit each other and send a shower of bullets in all directions. Unlike most cities, Bourbon Street in New Orleans is well populated at 2:45 a.m.
9 tourists were shot, 2 are in critical condition and the Lt. Governor says he doesn't think one isolated incident will keep tourists away. Well wait until it happens again and again and again. Eventually, tourists will decide it is safer in SF or NYC or Chicago.
The NRA is insane, hunters rights are hardly being infringed upon if automatic weapons are prohibited, background checks are conducted and people are not allowed to carry and conceal anywhere. If am having a fun time on Bourbon Street, I don't want to be worried that some drunk is going to start blasting away for whatever reason strikes him.
Now, in New Orleans, home to one of drinkingist cultures there is and absolutely a great city to be a tourist in for a long weekend because of the foodies and drinking culture, does not need encouragement for violence.
New Orleans already has a high culture of gun violence, just not in the bars with tourists previously. And Louisiana has the highest rates of death by gun per capita in the country. You would think keeping guns out of places with tourists would be good idea.
But not Governor Jindal. In his own words: "The gun laws I have signed are celebrating our heritage as a Sportsman's Paradise and American values."
Why is the ultimate American value the right to carry a gun wherever one pleases? I thought the ultimate American values was Freedom of Speech, Religion, and Economic Opportunity. Not the right to be shot by some drunk at 2:00 a.m. in tourist bar.
What brings this tirade to print here is at 2:45 a.m. one recent morning, 2 of Louisiana's fine sportsman got into a disagreement at a bar on Bourbon Street while both were packing heat. They get into a gun fight with each other, manage not to hit each other and send a shower of bullets in all directions. Unlike most cities, Bourbon Street in New Orleans is well populated at 2:45 a.m.
9 tourists were shot, 2 are in critical condition and the Lt. Governor says he doesn't think one isolated incident will keep tourists away. Well wait until it happens again and again and again. Eventually, tourists will decide it is safer in SF or NYC or Chicago.
The NRA is insane, hunters rights are hardly being infringed upon if automatic weapons are prohibited, background checks are conducted and people are not allowed to carry and conceal anywhere. If am having a fun time on Bourbon Street, I don't want to be worried that some drunk is going to start blasting away for whatever reason strikes him.
Hobby Lobby
I have no idea what is in these stores as they have none in Westchester.
I also don't have strong feelings about Drug Insurance covering Contraception, but it would seem like an inexpensive solution to unwanted pregnancies and lower the cost curve which is what every one should be working on. So I am for it.
But I do have concerns about where Freedom of Religion is going and a writer with far better use of words than I has written a Huffington Post column that I will quote and link to below.
Link to Column
I also don't have strong feelings about Drug Insurance covering Contraception, but it would seem like an inexpensive solution to unwanted pregnancies and lower the cost curve which is what every one should be working on. So I am for it.
But I do have concerns about where Freedom of Religion is going and a writer with far better use of words than I has written a Huffington Post column that I will quote and link to below.
Link to Column
"To give you an idea of why this is such a terrible precedent, allow me to present myself. I am a married mother of three. An accomplished crafter. An SAIC-educated artist. A DIYer. I am exactly who Hobby Lobby wants shopping at their store. And I am also who they want to work for them."
"Most of the people behind the anti-abortion movement consider themselves religious. And the anti-abortion movement and the anti-contraception movement are closely linked. It seems like madness, but it's true. Because in both of these cases, the philosophical center of the debate is women daring to have sex for pleasure. If they get pregnant and need an abortion, they're evil, selfish, sinning harlots. If they don't get pregnant because they successfully use contraception, they're evil, selfish, sinning harlots."
"Now Hobby Lobby, who claims deep religious beliefs, says it's an infringement on their freedom of religion to support those evil, selfish, sinning harlots if it provides them with a third party insurance plan that includes birth control."
"The fact is that about 99% of women in the U.S. have used contraceptives. Married women are among the most reliable users of the pill. Working women rely on the pill."
"Hobby Lobby, who says its deep religious beliefs are behind this legal action, wants to make sure women follow its Christian values. But I don't have Christian values. In fact, as a Jew, it is essential to me that I take contraception."
"The most important law in all of Judaism is to do what you must "in order to preserve life." You can eat any non-kosher food, break the Sabbath, anything -- IF it preserves life. For me, contraceptives preserve life."
"Now that Hobby Lobby has the right to deny me my legal protections because of their religion, I might be fired for taking off Jewish holidays. Or if I skipped shul and went to work on Yom Kippur, I could be fired for refusing to take my lunch break, what with my fasting and all."
"Now Hobby Lobby has opened a door that MUST be closed: the elevation of one religion over another."
"Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that Hobby Lobby has the right to ignore federal laws under the guise of religious persecution, it's open season on non-Christians in the workplace."
There is no War on Christian's in this country. It is certain elements of practitioners of Christianity in this country that are waging a War on the Rights of Others (of all other religions and beliefs) to have equal protection under the law. As another proof point, a Catholic GOP County Chairman in Kansas has called for the excommunication of the Catholic Democratic candidate for Congress because she is pro-choice. If that is an issue for any party, it is her pastor and his parishioner. Not an outsider.
I just don't understand what has happened to religion in this country. When I was growing up in my small town, those who cared went to the church of their choice and didn't broadcast it because it was their private act. Those who didn't go to church didn't broadcast it, they just went about their business because it was their private act. Politics were focused on economic issues and protecting civil rights. Not persecuting people of other beliefs.
I just don't understand what has happened to religion in this country. When I was growing up in my small town, those who cared went to the church of their choice and didn't broadcast it because it was their private act. Those who didn't go to church didn't broadcast it, they just went about their business because it was their private act. Politics were focused on economic issues and protecting civil rights. Not persecuting people of other beliefs.
And the scary thing is that it was just sanctioned by the Supreme Court.
The Neo-Con's Just Don't Get It
or maybe their ego just can't be out of the spot light.
I thought enough had been said about the situation in Iraq except now we have "advisors" and "drones" in there helping al-Malicki. That sort of seems like the right thing to do, but the Russians are there (and aren't we opposing them in the Ukraine) and the Iranians are there (meanwhile some GOP members of the Congress want to pass a law forbidding any nuclear negotiation with the Iranians) and you just wonder how we have been drawn into a situation where our enemies are our allies except when they are our enemies while our allies are funding our new enemies.
Why should we expend any government funds (which are borrowed and increasing the budget deficit as they are incremental marginal government spending not paid for with any revenue increase)?
Then I find an article on the front page of the NYT today explaining the Iraqi troops were ready to fight to defend wherever, but the generals didn't support them (i.e. they ran out of water in the desert), so they fled. Why did we ever think this Army could succeed? They fled when we retook Kuwait. They fled when we invaded Iraq. 2/3's of the country is being persecuted by the other 1/3 (those are geographical %'s not ethnic composition) and the country is incoherent politically with a shoot first mentality.
Iraq was never a country where the U.S. was going to be successful at nation building because once the Shiite had a vote, they decided to persecute the Sunni's who were used to being in charge and will fight for their land. (not unlike the Viet Cong) When there is a Civil War, there is little the U.S. can do except make our troops targets with no possibility of success.
But as Maureen Dowd writes this a.m., that is not stopping Dick Cheney from running off at the mouth and showing how out of touch with the American population he is.
I thought enough had been said about the situation in Iraq except now we have "advisors" and "drones" in there helping al-Malicki. That sort of seems like the right thing to do, but the Russians are there (and aren't we opposing them in the Ukraine) and the Iranians are there (meanwhile some GOP members of the Congress want to pass a law forbidding any nuclear negotiation with the Iranians) and you just wonder how we have been drawn into a situation where our enemies are our allies except when they are our enemies while our allies are funding our new enemies.
Why should we expend any government funds (which are borrowed and increasing the budget deficit as they are incremental marginal government spending not paid for with any revenue increase)?
Then I find an article on the front page of the NYT today explaining the Iraqi troops were ready to fight to defend wherever, but the generals didn't support them (i.e. they ran out of water in the desert), so they fled. Why did we ever think this Army could succeed? They fled when we retook Kuwait. They fled when we invaded Iraq. 2/3's of the country is being persecuted by the other 1/3 (those are geographical %'s not ethnic composition) and the country is incoherent politically with a shoot first mentality.
Iraq was never a country where the U.S. was going to be successful at nation building because once the Shiite had a vote, they decided to persecute the Sunni's who were used to being in charge and will fight for their land. (not unlike the Viet Cong) When there is a Civil War, there is little the U.S. can do except make our troops targets with no possibility of success.
But as Maureen Dowd writes this a.m., that is not stopping Dick Cheney from running off at the mouth and showing how out of touch with the American population he is.
"But, then, they did always create their own reality spun from grandiosity."
"They are shamefully showcased on cable TV, which has so much airtime to fill that it doesn’t care if it’s hot air. They are once more pounding on the fear button and warning that America needs to attack or risk being emasculated by Middle Eastern terrorists. Doesn’t Vice know that most Americans, especially the Bushes, cannot stand his demented scaremongering anymore? Even Fox News anchors are now pressing him with skeptical questions about the war."
"Asked by Fox’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck if he thought we “could be on track for something worse than 9/11,” Cheney replied, “I think that’s a possibility.”
"He’s always busy predicting another 9/11. Too bad he and W. ignored warnings about the first one. Cheney is not only responsible for Iraq melting down and Afghanistan being mucked up. He can also claim credit for so exhausting John Wayne’s America that a skeptic on military intervention, Rand Paul, is a credible candidate for the G.O.P. nomination."
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