WHAT WOULD BEAU DO?
GO FOR IT JOE!
Your son, the late Beau Biden was right. We can't let the Clintons get back into the White House. Joe, we know you are devastated by your son's passing. But, thanks to Maureen Dowd, we now know what he expressed to you in his last words. His wishes have struck a chord though the Nation. You must run. Your fellow countrymen and women need your experience, your stability, your values and your common sense. Beau knew all this. Don't let his expression for the welfare of the Nation go unheeded.
Think of our choices without you. First take a look at the Republican field of candidates. The GOP has offered up a group of non-entities, freshly elected, wild-eyed Senators who will shut down the government at the drop of a pin, puppets who repeat scripts handed out to them by their big donors like the Koch brothers and Adelsons, one verified snake oil salesman, an Afro American non-politician book salesman (this has become a traditional candidate-category of the GOP) , a female former CEO with no experience in elected office (her only experience being a candidacy rejected by the voters), governors who have run their states into the ground legislating as right-wing ideologues so as to prepare themselves for the Tea Party dominated primaries. We also have another Bush. This one, eschews his surname and calls himself "JEB"....for perfectly good and obvious reasons. This Bush seems to be running because his Pappy said he had to do it. He is not so fast mentally and his foot seems to be lodged in his mouth much too frequently. His demeanor recalls the look of a scared deer in headlights, on the stump and in the debate. Then, we have the entertaining circus performer and loose-cannon Donald Trump who, right now, far and away leads the GOP pack in the opinion polls. His popularity is a good measure of what the American people really think of the GOP field. But who knows what he really stands for?
Our only other choice (beside sincere, honest, nice guy, Bernie, a Socialist-Independent from Vermont) is Mrs. Clinton, the former First Lady. Hillary, thinks the Nation owes this job to her just for sticking around with Bill. Upon exiting the White House, she was handed a safe Senate seat, foisting her self on New York where she did little but prepare for her Presidential bid. That easy election was her first and only experience as an elected official. She lost the nomination in 2008, and as consolation prize was again presented with a plum job, that of Secretary of State where she did little but rack up thousands of air miles. This candidate will not hold press conferences, does not reveal her positions on key legislation and is again enmeshed in self-inflicted scandals. She is tied to a husband who sells influence abroad and at home for large sums of money. She is such a divisive figure most pundits believe that with her "negatives" she could not win the general election. The Republicans will hammer her in 2016.
Clinton touts herself as the "most experienced candidate". But that credit would end the minute you enter the race. She can not hold a candle to your long and fruitful 45 years of government experience. Almost no one in memory has come to the job with your long years and diverse preparation. I only remind you so as to jog your memory (and those of my readers) that you served as Senator from Delaware for 36 years. Then as Chairman of the Foreign relations Committee, and, finally, as a much beloved Vice President for soon to be eight years. Who can measure up to that record? This record is what gives Clinton and her minions the shivers of fear. Her recent bluff and phony claims that she has the delegates all tied up is only an attempt to scare you off. She does not know you that well.
We suffered through eight years of Clinton and her husband's scandals, once, that was too much. If Hillary were actually to win the general election, it is questionable if she could govern effectively...challenged as she is with her own sketchy value system, the poor judgment she has clearly demonstrated in this last campaign, her husband's tangled financial arrangements, intrigues and bimbo eruptions and the divisiveness which clings to her like glue. We can not put our Nation again through another bout of Clintonism and the attendant waste of energy and effort spent on scandals and government investigations.
If you run the people will flock to YOU, Joe.
Do it for Beau...that's what he would have wanted. Your race and your presidency would be a fitting tribute to his memory.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
JAPAN APOLGIZES FOR WW II, USA FOR DESTABILIZED MIDDLE EAST
U.S. NEEDS TO APOLOGIZE FOR IRAQ AND REFUGEES
It saddens me to read of the horrible plight of Middle East refugees and the costly and growing European refugee crisis. Yesterday fifty dead bodies, of men, women and children were found in a locked refrigerator truck on an Austrian roadside (Daily Mirror, UK, August 26, 2015) . This awful tragedy was apparently the end-result of some failed attempt by Syrian or Yemeni refugees to reach a safe place to live . These people were attempting to escape the end result of the destruction that the Bush and Obama administration's have wrought over the last decade in the Middle East. The present refugee crisis is the end result of our military adventures our invasions, attempts at colonization and exploitation, our penchant for regime change, misplaced support for vicious tyrants, our drone warfare, and haughty belief that we could remake the world in our own image at the end of a Colt, M-4 carbine. My deep dolor is not only for the waste of life and human suffering, but for my poor nation which seems set to continue making grievous errors because it can not or will not face its own mistakes or consign blame and punish those who led it into error.
On August 14, 2915,8 the New York Times ran a piece entitled "Japan Apologizes for World War II". Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered his regret (as have past PMs of Japan) for "inflicting immeasurable damage and suffering " on "innocent people" . During the war remembrance ceremony Abe promised the world that his nation would never again resort to "aggression" and "colonial rule". But Abe's obsequies were not the full blown apology that other Japanese leaders had offered during the 1950 and 1960. Abe's expressions of remorse were not obsequious enough for the Gray Lady of New York, who made clear that she hoped he would have been more forthright in expressing his apologies for Japan's aggression, militarism, and harsh colonial rule. Sadly the Times conveniently ignored the fact that in the very same edition, and in many earlier ones, one could read numerous reports of the tragic results of OUR OWN, USA aggression, our colonial adventures and destabilizing occupation in the heart of the Middle East under the Bush and Obama administrations. Is it just a NYT journalistic rule to limit US self-criticism? Or are we so fixated in the belief of our national purity of intention and exceptionalism, that our top journalists can ignore the elephant in the room as they point a finger of blame at the Japanese and totally ignore our own very recent transgressions? That is what is so bothersome about our situation.
Our news media are rife with reports of pitiful refugees from Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen who clog up the refugee compounds in Greece, Italy, Germany and the Baltics. These people, if lucky, land in frail craft on the rocky shores of Italy and Greece, then in pitiful streams of suffering humanity stagger in hordes along byways and country roads through Macedonia and Serbia in an attempt to reach a nation which might be humane and wealthy enough to give them succor. No one here in the USA has expressed any regrets for these massive streams of refugees, or acknowledged even an inkling of US blame. No one here has had the guts to put the cause of this tragedy at the door step of the misguided policies of Bush and Cheney...Obama and Clinton (Libya). No one here has been charged with war crimes, or even had their reputations sullied. All the culprits are still active in business and politics and continue unremorsefully continuing to make more mischief in the Middle East. No effort was made to face the facts of our monumental mistake in invading Iraq and attempting to colonize that nation, the destabilizing event which initiated the ME tragedy.
The Japanese and the Germans have faced their ugly war-history, and have made attempted to correct the evil which drove them to awful and horrible acts in the last Great War. The comparison of our crimes in the Middle East can not be equated with scope and duration of events of World War II, where millions upon millions died. But the sad truth is that a nation that can not face the truth about its misdeeds, can not change, can not correct its erroneous course. Are we consigned to repeat our mistakes, as Winston Churchill stated, because we are unable or unwilling to known our true history?
The American people deserve to hear the truth. To face up to the fact that their leaders made mistakes. Yes, our leaders probably committed war crimes. We too killed innocents. We made attempts at brutal colonization. The U.S. initiated the last major destabilizing event in the Middle East, in a major way we are now directly responsible for all those refugees streaming out of the nations George Bush vowed he would reduce to the "Stone Age" . We are and our British allies are responsible for the floating dead in the Mediterranean, and the masses pressing against the bulging chain link fences on European borders.
It is time we faced our own mud stained history like Japan and Germany.
It saddens me to read of the horrible plight of Middle East refugees and the costly and growing European refugee crisis. Yesterday fifty dead bodies, of men, women and children were found in a locked refrigerator truck on an Austrian roadside (Daily Mirror, UK, August 26, 2015) . This awful tragedy was apparently the end-result of some failed attempt by Syrian or Yemeni refugees to reach a safe place to live . These people were attempting to escape the end result of the destruction that the Bush and Obama administration's have wrought over the last decade in the Middle East. The present refugee crisis is the end result of our military adventures our invasions, attempts at colonization and exploitation, our penchant for regime change, misplaced support for vicious tyrants, our drone warfare, and haughty belief that we could remake the world in our own image at the end of a Colt, M-4 carbine. My deep dolor is not only for the waste of life and human suffering, but for my poor nation which seems set to continue making grievous errors because it can not or will not face its own mistakes or consign blame and punish those who led it into error.
On August 14, 2915,8 the New York Times ran a piece entitled "Japan Apologizes for World War II". Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered his regret (as have past PMs of Japan) for "inflicting immeasurable damage and suffering " on "innocent people" . During the war remembrance ceremony Abe promised the world that his nation would never again resort to "aggression" and "colonial rule". But Abe's obsequies were not the full blown apology that other Japanese leaders had offered during the 1950 and 1960. Abe's expressions of remorse were not obsequious enough for the Gray Lady of New York, who made clear that she hoped he would have been more forthright in expressing his apologies for Japan's aggression, militarism, and harsh colonial rule. Sadly the Times conveniently ignored the fact that in the very same edition, and in many earlier ones, one could read numerous reports of the tragic results of OUR OWN, USA aggression, our colonial adventures and destabilizing occupation in the heart of the Middle East under the Bush and Obama administrations. Is it just a NYT journalistic rule to limit US self-criticism? Or are we so fixated in the belief of our national purity of intention and exceptionalism, that our top journalists can ignore the elephant in the room as they point a finger of blame at the Japanese and totally ignore our own very recent transgressions? That is what is so bothersome about our situation.
Our news media are rife with reports of pitiful refugees from Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen who clog up the refugee compounds in Greece, Italy, Germany and the Baltics. These people, if lucky, land in frail craft on the rocky shores of Italy and Greece, then in pitiful streams of suffering humanity stagger in hordes along byways and country roads through Macedonia and Serbia in an attempt to reach a nation which might be humane and wealthy enough to give them succor. No one here in the USA has expressed any regrets for these massive streams of refugees, or acknowledged even an inkling of US blame. No one here has had the guts to put the cause of this tragedy at the door step of the misguided policies of Bush and Cheney...Obama and Clinton (Libya). No one here has been charged with war crimes, or even had their reputations sullied. All the culprits are still active in business and politics and continue unremorsefully continuing to make more mischief in the Middle East. No effort was made to face the facts of our monumental mistake in invading Iraq and attempting to colonize that nation, the destabilizing event which initiated the ME tragedy.
The Japanese and the Germans have faced their ugly war-history, and have made attempted to correct the evil which drove them to awful and horrible acts in the last Great War. The comparison of our crimes in the Middle East can not be equated with scope and duration of events of World War II, where millions upon millions died. But the sad truth is that a nation that can not face the truth about its misdeeds, can not change, can not correct its erroneous course. Are we consigned to repeat our mistakes, as Winston Churchill stated, because we are unable or unwilling to known our true history?
The American people deserve to hear the truth. To face up to the fact that their leaders made mistakes. Yes, our leaders probably committed war crimes. We too killed innocents. We made attempts at brutal colonization. The U.S. initiated the last major destabilizing event in the Middle East, in a major way we are now directly responsible for all those refugees streaming out of the nations George Bush vowed he would reduce to the "Stone Age" . We are and our British allies are responsible for the floating dead in the Mediterranean, and the masses pressing against the bulging chain link fences on European borders.
It is time we faced our own mud stained history like Japan and Germany.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
CLINTON A FLAWED CANDIDATE
The Clinton campaign for President is faltering. Bernie Sanders is drawing huge crowds to her sewing circle sized meetings. Bernie is beating her by substantial margins in New Hampshire polls. Undeclared candidate VP Joe Biden tops her in match up polls against various Republican candidates. Recent national polls suggest that 61% of the electorate view her as untrustworthy. The poor management of her most recent email scandal and her campaign response to the revelations bring into question her judgment and her suitability for the Presidency.
In the past, as a much traveled but do nothing, Secretary of State Mrs. Clinton exhibited poor judgement when she devised a plan to use a private email and home based server. She compounded that mistake with additional judgmental errors while first ignoring then mismanaging the political fall out when this matter came to public knowledge. In addition, she is burdened with a mass of past controversies and scandals. Why pull down her Party, loose the election and drag the nation through a messy and unsuccessful candidacy? Perhaps it is time for Mrs. Clinton to step aside for another candidate, while there is still time. In this instance she can finally out-perform her husband, former President Clinton, who should have stepped down for the good of the nation from office in favor of his competent and upstanding VP, Al Gore, when the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. A Nixon-like departure would have saved the nation the trauma of the Presidential impeachment and the bitterness of the ensuing years. Mrs Clinton should retire her campaign now and throw her support to another viable candidate perhaps, Joe Biden, or Elizabeth Warren before it too late.
Yesterday (August 26) the political odd couple Mary Matalin and James Carville appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to review the progress made in New Orleans in the last decade since Katrina. During the segment Carville a former Clinton political advisor was queried about Mrs. Clinton's email scandal. Carville a super loyal Clintonista snarled back a characteristic, rapid-fire defensive reply to the effect that "there are no scandals...all the scandals are manufactured by the Republicans".
Loyalty like that is commendable. But is it honest, or does it only serve the Clinton insiders, their advisors, and ignores the welfare of the nation? Whether the "scandals" are manufactured by her enemies or are ( as I believe) mostly self-generated makes no real difference in how a candidate or office holder must operate. Regardless of the source of the scandals...her need to respond, forces Mrs. Clinton to consume energy and effort on issues which take her from the business of the people or the campaign into a defense mode. Both make her a less effective leader. They are distractions from her campaign. It is almost certain given the Clinton's penchant for impropriety, sleazy self serving business deals, etc. one can be sure there will be more messy scandals were the Clintons to reenter the White House. The fact that Mrs Clinton is again mired in scandal or controversy just underscores again the awful Clinton years, when the nation and the government was too often distracted and side tracked by Clinton scandals. Real or manufactured we all had to wade through scandals like Whitewater, a suicide, numerous bimbo eruptions, rental for profit of the Lincoln bedroom, stripping valuables from the White House, and more. Then while Clinton was Secretary of State..more scandals followed her. There was the Clinton Slush Fund, Bill's speaking fees, and "pay for play" " donations" and speaking fees for access to Hillary as Secretary of State, questionable "donations" in the millions of dollars to the "Clinton Foundation" by foreign agents and ally nations, Hilary's speaking fees, Chelsea's speaking fees, claims of being bankrupt, and the general appearance of impropriety and slippery behavior, etc., etc., etc.
But let us move beyond the scandals problem to the exhibition of poor judgement by this candidate for high office. A campaign often reveals how a man or woman will manage the levers of power when they govern. Since Hillary Clinton launched her campaign she has been plagued by questions which relate to her ability to make sound decisions. The revelations concerning her private email account brought out the need for clear unvarnished explanations. She was unable to state or clarify an honest purpose for her behavior. Her first mistake was to claim that her reason for this illegality and anomalous behavior was only for "convenience". She made the bogus claim that she simply didn't want to carry two instruments. Other revelations soon followed. She exhibited poor judgement in formulating the secret plan to use a private account, and then compounded that mistake by housing her private server in the unsecured basement of her Chappaqua home. She added to those errors by clinging to her private and government emails for two years, compromising their security and status as official government documents. And adding to those woes she finally set her staff (who knows what kind of security clearance they had) to separate out her "personal emails" from the "government's emails". Finally she made the worst mistake of all by having the server wiped clean. She stalled and stonewalled until faced with an FBI investigation and court order to hand over the server. The composite of errors here all add up to monumental poor judgment. This is the same person who would like to have us believe that she is the most qualified candidate to lead a highly militarized and industrialized nation of nearly 350 million people...as she exhibits continuing judgment flaws in managing her campaign.
Democrats must face the facts...Clinton is a flawed candidate who if nominate probably can not win. If elected she would not be able to govern. Oh the Clintons will prosper in office.....the rest of us will not fare so well.
In the past, as a much traveled but do nothing, Secretary of State Mrs. Clinton exhibited poor judgement when she devised a plan to use a private email and home based server. She compounded that mistake with additional judgmental errors while first ignoring then mismanaging the political fall out when this matter came to public knowledge. In addition, she is burdened with a mass of past controversies and scandals. Why pull down her Party, loose the election and drag the nation through a messy and unsuccessful candidacy? Perhaps it is time for Mrs. Clinton to step aside for another candidate, while there is still time. In this instance she can finally out-perform her husband, former President Clinton, who should have stepped down for the good of the nation from office in favor of his competent and upstanding VP, Al Gore, when the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. A Nixon-like departure would have saved the nation the trauma of the Presidential impeachment and the bitterness of the ensuing years. Mrs Clinton should retire her campaign now and throw her support to another viable candidate perhaps, Joe Biden, or Elizabeth Warren before it too late.
Yesterday (August 26) the political odd couple Mary Matalin and James Carville appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to review the progress made in New Orleans in the last decade since Katrina. During the segment Carville a former Clinton political advisor was queried about Mrs. Clinton's email scandal. Carville a super loyal Clintonista snarled back a characteristic, rapid-fire defensive reply to the effect that "there are no scandals...all the scandals are manufactured by the Republicans".
Loyalty like that is commendable. But is it honest, or does it only serve the Clinton insiders, their advisors, and ignores the welfare of the nation? Whether the "scandals" are manufactured by her enemies or are ( as I believe) mostly self-generated makes no real difference in how a candidate or office holder must operate. Regardless of the source of the scandals...her need to respond, forces Mrs. Clinton to consume energy and effort on issues which take her from the business of the people or the campaign into a defense mode. Both make her a less effective leader. They are distractions from her campaign. It is almost certain given the Clinton's penchant for impropriety, sleazy self serving business deals, etc. one can be sure there will be more messy scandals were the Clintons to reenter the White House. The fact that Mrs Clinton is again mired in scandal or controversy just underscores again the awful Clinton years, when the nation and the government was too often distracted and side tracked by Clinton scandals. Real or manufactured we all had to wade through scandals like Whitewater, a suicide, numerous bimbo eruptions, rental for profit of the Lincoln bedroom, stripping valuables from the White House, and more. Then while Clinton was Secretary of State..more scandals followed her. There was the Clinton Slush Fund, Bill's speaking fees, and "pay for play" " donations" and speaking fees for access to Hillary as Secretary of State, questionable "donations" in the millions of dollars to the "Clinton Foundation" by foreign agents and ally nations, Hilary's speaking fees, Chelsea's speaking fees, claims of being bankrupt, and the general appearance of impropriety and slippery behavior, etc., etc., etc.
But let us move beyond the scandals problem to the exhibition of poor judgement by this candidate for high office. A campaign often reveals how a man or woman will manage the levers of power when they govern. Since Hillary Clinton launched her campaign she has been plagued by questions which relate to her ability to make sound decisions. The revelations concerning her private email account brought out the need for clear unvarnished explanations. She was unable to state or clarify an honest purpose for her behavior. Her first mistake was to claim that her reason for this illegality and anomalous behavior was only for "convenience". She made the bogus claim that she simply didn't want to carry two instruments. Other revelations soon followed. She exhibited poor judgement in formulating the secret plan to use a private account, and then compounded that mistake by housing her private server in the unsecured basement of her Chappaqua home. She added to those errors by clinging to her private and government emails for two years, compromising their security and status as official government documents. And adding to those woes she finally set her staff (who knows what kind of security clearance they had) to separate out her "personal emails" from the "government's emails". Finally she made the worst mistake of all by having the server wiped clean. She stalled and stonewalled until faced with an FBI investigation and court order to hand over the server. The composite of errors here all add up to monumental poor judgment. This is the same person who would like to have us believe that she is the most qualified candidate to lead a highly militarized and industrialized nation of nearly 350 million people...as she exhibits continuing judgment flaws in managing her campaign.
Democrats must face the facts...Clinton is a flawed candidate who if nominate probably can not win. If elected she would not be able to govern. Oh the Clintons will prosper in office.....the rest of us will not fare so well.
ISRAEL'S TRUE OBJECTIVES: WAR
ISRAEL OPPOSES A PROSPEROUS, PEACEFUL IRAN
The neocons Likudniks, and their unwitting GOP supporters here in the U.S.A are lobbying hard to kill the President's nuclear deal with Iran. The nation has been bombarded by news reports, adverts and TV spots, supported by those Americans who too often put the interests of some small foreign ME nation before the best interests of their own homeland. (I am thinking here of shameful Senator Schumer of New York...who made it all too obvious that his first allegiance was not to his constituents or his nation but elsewhere on this critical agreement.) The weak U.S. media and right wing radio hosts have not effectively informed the citizenry on this issue. Too often they let zealots of the right. hog the limelight, spout total fabrications and make no effort to correct the lies their guests are spreading to the public.
Mr. Netanyahu and his minions here in the USA have made it crystal clear now....they are trying to upend the Iran Nuclear Agreement and in the process are generating circumstances which can only end in WAR. They claim the agreement is "not good enough". Though even the Israeli defense establishment agrees the accord effectively ends Iran's ability to pursue bomb grade enriched uranium. The objections to the nuclear deal are purported to be based on its weaknesses. "Kerry and Obama did not press the Iranians hard enough". "The U.S. could get a better deal." "The inspections regime is not rigorous enough."
However these arguments are only a red herring, designed to obfuscate and continue to befuddle the uninformed and those poorly served by our timid and controlled mass media. The truth is that the Iran Nuclear Agreement (INA) effectively and efficiently CLOSES THE DOOR to a NUCLEAR ARMED IRAN for the foreseeable future. But sadly that excellent and desirable outcome does not satisfy the Israeli leadership and the neocons and knee-jerk Israeli supporters here in the U.S. However, the INA was not designed for and does NOT prevent Iran from achieving a non nuclear future of economic growth and potential prosperity.
THE POSSIBILITY OF A PEACEFUL AND PROSPEROUS IRAN IS WHAT ISRAEL OBJECTS TO. It is not the nuclear part of the deal, which irks the Israelis. It is the potential for PEACE and regional prosperity that does not fit well with the Likud leadership's plan for regional domination. After all, Israel has an enormous nuclear arsenal, why would it concern itself with a nation which may have rudimentary nuclear knowledge, but has no nuclear stock pile, and no nuclear weapons and will be closed out of further nuclear enrichment for at least fifteen years? Iran's nuclear "knowledge" is no threat to the world or to massively nuclear and conventionally armed Israel.
Unlike the other Arab states in the region, Iran has a well-educated, vibrant, innovative and ambitions population, which, if released from onerous sanctions, could potentially grow economically. In a better-led world such a nation may even partner effectively with the intellectual and economic dynamo in the region...Israel. But it is this---a peaceful and economically vibrant Persian nation in its midst which Israel's reactionary Likud leaders fear. They fear Iran as a state released from sanctions which may garner significant economic power. Israel's reactionary leadership sees that kind of Iran as a threat to its own dominance in the region. With such neighbors Israel might even have to stop stonewalling and honestly seek a peaceful solution with the Palestinians whose people it oppresses and whose territory it continues to occupy. For these reasons Netanyahu, and his Likud right-wingers want to maintain their absolute military hegemony AS WELL AS COMPLETE ECONOMIC DOMINANCE in the region. They prefer war to peace. Even a peaceful, disarmed Iran is seen as a threat to them. Their goal is to see Iran, another failed state, bombed back to the Stone Age...like Iraq and Syria. The USA as a true friend and ally to Israel, and in the position of peace-seeking world leader can not be led into war to satisfy Israeli desires for regional economic dominance.
We can not continue to support an Israel which thumbs its nose at our President, brazenly abandons protocol to sneak behind the President and take sides in our internal political deliberations, refuses to abide by UN resolutions, refuses to sign the nuclear non proliferation agreement, stockpiles hundreds of nuclear weapons, thumbs its nose at the entreaties for peace from the rest of the world, brutally subjugates a native population, and now when our President is seeking an agreement to advance peace and nuclear security, it seeks to lobby our government's internal deliberations with a massive effort to undermine those objectives and generate conditions which may lead to another costly and bloody war in the Middle East.
Do not let the forces of ignorance, misperception, evil, and chaos win out over peace, prosperity and security for all peoples of the Middle East--Persians, Jews and Moslems. The Iran Nuclear Deal is the first step toward a better, safer, more prosperous world.
The neocons Likudniks, and their unwitting GOP supporters here in the U.S.A are lobbying hard to kill the President's nuclear deal with Iran. The nation has been bombarded by news reports, adverts and TV spots, supported by those Americans who too often put the interests of some small foreign ME nation before the best interests of their own homeland. (I am thinking here of shameful Senator Schumer of New York...who made it all too obvious that his first allegiance was not to his constituents or his nation but elsewhere on this critical agreement.) The weak U.S. media and right wing radio hosts have not effectively informed the citizenry on this issue. Too often they let zealots of the right. hog the limelight, spout total fabrications and make no effort to correct the lies their guests are spreading to the public.
Mr. Netanyahu and his minions here in the USA have made it crystal clear now....they are trying to upend the Iran Nuclear Agreement and in the process are generating circumstances which can only end in WAR. They claim the agreement is "not good enough". Though even the Israeli defense establishment agrees the accord effectively ends Iran's ability to pursue bomb grade enriched uranium. The objections to the nuclear deal are purported to be based on its weaknesses. "Kerry and Obama did not press the Iranians hard enough". "The U.S. could get a better deal." "The inspections regime is not rigorous enough."
However these arguments are only a red herring, designed to obfuscate and continue to befuddle the uninformed and those poorly served by our timid and controlled mass media. The truth is that the Iran Nuclear Agreement (INA) effectively and efficiently CLOSES THE DOOR to a NUCLEAR ARMED IRAN for the foreseeable future. But sadly that excellent and desirable outcome does not satisfy the Israeli leadership and the neocons and knee-jerk Israeli supporters here in the U.S. However, the INA was not designed for and does NOT prevent Iran from achieving a non nuclear future of economic growth and potential prosperity.
THE POSSIBILITY OF A PEACEFUL AND PROSPEROUS IRAN IS WHAT ISRAEL OBJECTS TO. It is not the nuclear part of the deal, which irks the Israelis. It is the potential for PEACE and regional prosperity that does not fit well with the Likud leadership's plan for regional domination. After all, Israel has an enormous nuclear arsenal, why would it concern itself with a nation which may have rudimentary nuclear knowledge, but has no nuclear stock pile, and no nuclear weapons and will be closed out of further nuclear enrichment for at least fifteen years? Iran's nuclear "knowledge" is no threat to the world or to massively nuclear and conventionally armed Israel.
Unlike the other Arab states in the region, Iran has a well-educated, vibrant, innovative and ambitions population, which, if released from onerous sanctions, could potentially grow economically. In a better-led world such a nation may even partner effectively with the intellectual and economic dynamo in the region...Israel. But it is this---a peaceful and economically vibrant Persian nation in its midst which Israel's reactionary Likud leaders fear. They fear Iran as a state released from sanctions which may garner significant economic power. Israel's reactionary leadership sees that kind of Iran as a threat to its own dominance in the region. With such neighbors Israel might even have to stop stonewalling and honestly seek a peaceful solution with the Palestinians whose people it oppresses and whose territory it continues to occupy. For these reasons Netanyahu, and his Likud right-wingers want to maintain their absolute military hegemony AS WELL AS COMPLETE ECONOMIC DOMINANCE in the region. They prefer war to peace. Even a peaceful, disarmed Iran is seen as a threat to them. Their goal is to see Iran, another failed state, bombed back to the Stone Age...like Iraq and Syria. The USA as a true friend and ally to Israel, and in the position of peace-seeking world leader can not be led into war to satisfy Israeli desires for regional economic dominance.
We can not continue to support an Israel which thumbs its nose at our President, brazenly abandons protocol to sneak behind the President and take sides in our internal political deliberations, refuses to abide by UN resolutions, refuses to sign the nuclear non proliferation agreement, stockpiles hundreds of nuclear weapons, thumbs its nose at the entreaties for peace from the rest of the world, brutally subjugates a native population, and now when our President is seeking an agreement to advance peace and nuclear security, it seeks to lobby our government's internal deliberations with a massive effort to undermine those objectives and generate conditions which may lead to another costly and bloody war in the Middle East.
Do not let the forces of ignorance, misperception, evil, and chaos win out over peace, prosperity and security for all peoples of the Middle East--Persians, Jews and Moslems. The Iran Nuclear Deal is the first step toward a better, safer, more prosperous world.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
DR. BEN CARSON--CHARMING, DEAD WRONG
BEN CARSON...VICTIM BLAMER
Charming Carson..Unpalatable Message
Ben Carson, charming black man, author, non-politician, avuncular retired neurosurgeon, and hopeful presidential (or more likely vice-presidential) candidate has experienced a meteoric rise in the polls. In many state and national polls Dr. Ben, the brain surgeon, comes in second place, just behind Donald Trump, the GOPs most phenomenally popular recent candidate. In these polls Carson beats out well-heeled, super-connected, deep,pocketed, "presidential looking", bespectacled "JEB" Bush, by twenty or more points. He blows away sitting U.S. Senators Cruz and Rubio, and right wing ideologues and well-seasoned GOP governors like Walker, Christie and Kasich. During the first (August 6) debate Dr. Ben appeared on the Fox stage looking befuddled and out of place. His responses indicated he was poorly informed about most issues. How could he have risen so far and so fast in the polls?
The answer is victim blaming. We have seen this same phenomena of the meteoric rise of the black GOP candidate in past elections. This position of victim blamer has become a veritable cottage industry for Afro-Americans of a certain stripe. Recall the entertaining Mr. Herman Cain, book hawker, radio host, columnist, and Tea Party activist from Georgia of the 2012 election. Mr. Cain and Dr. Carson are of the same ilk. They operate to take advantage of a niche in the Republican Party election circus. The GOP needs one black candidate. These candidates are required to assuage the uncomfortable taint of racism, the total whiteness of the GOP party and its platform. The Carsons and Cains are there to repeat shibboleths the GOP faithful love to hear. In the case of Dr. Carson they suck up his admittedly alluring personal story concerning HIS rise to affluence. Carson takes pains to suggest how HIS case "proves" that America is "post racial". He underscores again and again how he "pulled himself up by his bootstraps". He claims that other African Americans can so too. In his paid speeches he promotes "self reliance" for blacks and opposes social welfarism as an evil "dependency". He claims to oppose government programs which target the poor and downtrodden because they deprive their target population of "choice". He opposes government programs as evils which sap the will of Afro-Americans to succeed. However, Carson's actual target audience is not a black one...his claims are designed to tickle the hearts and minds of rich white folks who abhor government spending because it may mean that for them to live in America they might have to share a tiny fraction of their wealth by paying a slightly higher tax rate.
So Carson, is really directing his message to a white, political fringe GOP audience. These are the Americans who find his "message" appealing and who pump up his poll numbers. He seems personally a pleasant gentleman, it is his message that makes him unpalatable. The Carson message is best described as "victim blaming", the retorical shifting of blame for some crime or social ill from the perpetrator to the victim. The method is as old as politics itself. This form of messaging is used by the right of all stripes, often by those who ascribe to the "just world hypothesis". For these folks the world is safe for the just...and the chosen. They believe that people "get what they deserve". These sorts are apt to claim that the rape victim, was "asking for it" when she dressed so provocatively or walked home alone after dark. They see the unemployed as lazy folk who simply don't want to work. They see the ill as careless about their hygiene. They identify the unarmed, barefoot Palestinians, confined in sandy ghettos, as the violent aggressors...while the Israelis who kill them in droves with U.S. supplied tanks and F16 jet fighters are the victims.
Carson, is good at this argument. His schtick is to the BLAME our Afro-American citizens for the crimes the state committed against THEM. Blame them for the fact that their family structure was shattered by slavery. For him it is the Afro-American women and children's fault that their provider men-folk are imprisoned. He blames the poor living in ghettos for the decay of their communities and the lack of job opportunity. It is their fault that their potential for education or economic advancement is only a small fraction of what a white person would experience. Unfortunately, Carson's sucessful medical career and his ability to successfully separate conjoined twins, has not prepared him for political,office. He lacks insight into social problems and their solutions. Sadly with his message of victim blaming he vacates the key clause of the Hippocratic oath he took as a physician: "to do no harm".
Perhaps Dr. Ben might have an epiphany about racism in America if he were he to spend some time in Fergerson, Missouri. There, he would have to keep his head bowed and wipe that silly smile off his face when he was accosted by a white policeman. He would have to show deference for the so called justice system, or get a steep fine or worse. He might be dragged in to the Precinct for some minor infraction, like a broken auto tail light. He would have to be sure to keep his car parked on the right side of the street to avoid a ticket. And he could not forget his garbage pail out there on the street too long after the dustman passed by....that would be a court fine offense for black folks in Fergerson, MO. Fergerson is one of those places (unlike Detroit, where Carson grew up) where the ideologues that Carson supports have achieved their goal. In that city, the rich folks have shrunk the city government to the point that vital services have been cut or have been extinguished. The affluent who control the government do not want to pay higher taxes for infrastructure and services (that they imagine they do not need). Funds for the absolutely necessary services, like police salaries, must be collected by squeezing fines and court fees out of the poor black citizenry of Fergerson by a corrupt police department. Perhaps a stint for Carson in Fergerson, would give him a different take on how to pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps.
Charming Carson..Unpalatable Message
Ben Carson, charming black man, author, non-politician, avuncular retired neurosurgeon, and hopeful presidential (or more likely vice-presidential) candidate has experienced a meteoric rise in the polls. In many state and national polls Dr. Ben, the brain surgeon, comes in second place, just behind Donald Trump, the GOPs most phenomenally popular recent candidate. In these polls Carson beats out well-heeled, super-connected, deep,pocketed, "presidential looking", bespectacled "JEB" Bush, by twenty or more points. He blows away sitting U.S. Senators Cruz and Rubio, and right wing ideologues and well-seasoned GOP governors like Walker, Christie and Kasich. During the first (August 6) debate Dr. Ben appeared on the Fox stage looking befuddled and out of place. His responses indicated he was poorly informed about most issues. How could he have risen so far and so fast in the polls?
The answer is victim blaming. We have seen this same phenomena of the meteoric rise of the black GOP candidate in past elections. This position of victim blamer has become a veritable cottage industry for Afro-Americans of a certain stripe. Recall the entertaining Mr. Herman Cain, book hawker, radio host, columnist, and Tea Party activist from Georgia of the 2012 election. Mr. Cain and Dr. Carson are of the same ilk. They operate to take advantage of a niche in the Republican Party election circus. The GOP needs one black candidate. These candidates are required to assuage the uncomfortable taint of racism, the total whiteness of the GOP party and its platform. The Carsons and Cains are there to repeat shibboleths the GOP faithful love to hear. In the case of Dr. Carson they suck up his admittedly alluring personal story concerning HIS rise to affluence. Carson takes pains to suggest how HIS case "proves" that America is "post racial". He underscores again and again how he "pulled himself up by his bootstraps". He claims that other African Americans can so too. In his paid speeches he promotes "self reliance" for blacks and opposes social welfarism as an evil "dependency". He claims to oppose government programs which target the poor and downtrodden because they deprive their target population of "choice". He opposes government programs as evils which sap the will of Afro-Americans to succeed. However, Carson's actual target audience is not a black one...his claims are designed to tickle the hearts and minds of rich white folks who abhor government spending because it may mean that for them to live in America they might have to share a tiny fraction of their wealth by paying a slightly higher tax rate.
So Carson, is really directing his message to a white, political fringe GOP audience. These are the Americans who find his "message" appealing and who pump up his poll numbers. He seems personally a pleasant gentleman, it is his message that makes him unpalatable. The Carson message is best described as "victim blaming", the retorical shifting of blame for some crime or social ill from the perpetrator to the victim. The method is as old as politics itself. This form of messaging is used by the right of all stripes, often by those who ascribe to the "just world hypothesis". For these folks the world is safe for the just...and the chosen. They believe that people "get what they deserve". These sorts are apt to claim that the rape victim, was "asking for it" when she dressed so provocatively or walked home alone after dark. They see the unemployed as lazy folk who simply don't want to work. They see the ill as careless about their hygiene. They identify the unarmed, barefoot Palestinians, confined in sandy ghettos, as the violent aggressors...while the Israelis who kill them in droves with U.S. supplied tanks and F16 jet fighters are the victims.
Carson, is good at this argument. His schtick is to the BLAME our Afro-American citizens for the crimes the state committed against THEM. Blame them for the fact that their family structure was shattered by slavery. For him it is the Afro-American women and children's fault that their provider men-folk are imprisoned. He blames the poor living in ghettos for the decay of their communities and the lack of job opportunity. It is their fault that their potential for education or economic advancement is only a small fraction of what a white person would experience. Unfortunately, Carson's sucessful medical career and his ability to successfully separate conjoined twins, has not prepared him for political,office. He lacks insight into social problems and their solutions. Sadly with his message of victim blaming he vacates the key clause of the Hippocratic oath he took as a physician: "to do no harm".
Perhaps Dr. Ben might have an epiphany about racism in America if he were he to spend some time in Fergerson, Missouri. There, he would have to keep his head bowed and wipe that silly smile off his face when he was accosted by a white policeman. He would have to show deference for the so called justice system, or get a steep fine or worse. He might be dragged in to the Precinct for some minor infraction, like a broken auto tail light. He would have to be sure to keep his car parked on the right side of the street to avoid a ticket. And he could not forget his garbage pail out there on the street too long after the dustman passed by....that would be a court fine offense for black folks in Fergerson, MO. Fergerson is one of those places (unlike Detroit, where Carson grew up) where the ideologues that Carson supports have achieved their goal. In that city, the rich folks have shrunk the city government to the point that vital services have been cut or have been extinguished. The affluent who control the government do not want to pay higher taxes for infrastructure and services (that they imagine they do not need). Funds for the absolutely necessary services, like police salaries, must be collected by squeezing fines and court fees out of the poor black citizenry of Fergerson by a corrupt police department. Perhaps a stint for Carson in Fergerson, would give him a different take on how to pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
ISRAEL FOR WAR, IRAN FOR OLIVE LEAF?
Can it be true? In recent days it appears that Israel our long time ally seeks war, and it is Iran, our long term enemy, which has taken up the olive leaf by signing on to the Iran P5+1 Nuclear Deal. in the last few days hordes of AIPAC lobbyists descended on Washington, clamoring to upend the Obama proposed agreement. They flooded Congressional offices with demands which seem to make it clear that Israel will only be satisfied with WAR. After the debacle of Iraq, and resulting rise of ISiS we can not let them do it to us again.
How the world has turned topsy-turfy. How we are fooled by smoke and mirrors. We have been misled into thinking that a nation which we assumed was our ally, who has taken our beneficence, and broken bread in friendship, would join us in the pursuit of peace and nuclear security. But no that nation reveals itself to be strongly opposed to our good will and intentions. It is clear by the recent actions of Israel and her American puppets that that nation, under the leadership of Netanyahu, will only be satisfied with a new, American-led-and financed war in the Middle East. It seems a paradox but true that now, it is Iran, under the "evil" Ayatollah, which seeks a peaceful solution.
Unlike the other Arab states in the region, Iran has a well-educated, vibrant, innovative and ambitions middle class, which, if released from onerous sanctions, could have the potential to grow the nation's economy. Such a nation may even partner effectively with the intellectual and economic dynamo in the region...Israel. But it is this---a peaceful and economically vibrant Persian nation which Israel's Likud leaders fear. They fear Iran as a state released from sanctions which may garner significant economic power. Israel's reactionary leadership sees that kind of Iran as a threat to its own dominance in the region. With such neighbors Israel might even have to stop stonewalling and honestly seek a peaceful solution with the Palestinians whose territory it continue to occupy. For these reasons Netanyahu, and his Likud right-wingers want to maintain their absolute military hegemony AS WELL AS ECONOMIC DOMINANCE in the region. They prefer war to peace. Even a peaceful, disarmed Iran is seen as a threat to them. Their goal is to make Iran, a failed state, bombed back to the Stone Age...like Iraq and Syria. The USA as a true friend and ally to Israel, and in the position of peace-seeking world leader can not be led into war for these reasons.
We can not continue to support an Israel which thumbs its nose at our President, brazenly abandons protocol to sneak behind the President and take sides in our internal political deliberations, refuses to abide by UN resolutions, stockpiles hundreds of nuclear weapons, thumbs its nose at the entreaties for peace from the rest of the world, brutally subjugates a native population, and now when our President is seeking an agreement to advance peace and nuclear security, it seeks to lobby our government's internal deliberations with a mssive effort ro undermine those objectives and generate conditions which may lead to another costly and bloody war in the Middle East.
Do not let the forces of ignorance, misperception, evil, and chaos win out over peace, prosperity and security for all peoples of the Middle East--Persians, Jews and Moslems. The Iran Nuclear Deal is the first step toward a better, safer, more prosperous world.
Saturday, August 8, 2015
GOP CHOICE: PUPPET OR PUPPETEER?
I watched the GOP Fox debate last night (Thursday, August 6, 2015) with relish. It was the best "debate" in my long memory of these events. Fox crew members mischieviously and effectively probed the weaknesses and foibles of the ten men who claim they want to represent us as President. The goal of the Fox team obviously was to skewer the present front runner, the non-politician, unpredictable, bombastic, Donald Trump, businessman, and real-estate tycoon from New York. They tried hard, but in my view failed. "The Donald" trumped them all. He acted like himself. He was refreshingly genuine. The Foxy questioners did however manage to upend and hurt the chances of the "puppet candidates" who are the choices of the GOP monied interests and elite GOP power. Perhaps that was not their intention, but that was what happened.
"Jeb" (John E Bush) who represents the powerful interests of the wealthy "country club" GOP and the uppity Bush family was perhaps mortally wounded Thursday night. JEB (he shuns and rejects the "Bush" moniker) has the most money, and the most powerful and connected friends in high places. This third-in-line Bush, son and brother of former Presidents had the look of a scared deer in headlights all through the event. His body language and answers were wobbly and his voice quavered. He did not help his cause and those of his powerful supporters.
Scott Walker, the darling of the secretive, sinister-appearing multibillionare Koch brothers and their powerful union hating friends appeared to be and acted the part of a balding, minor town official. His brief, stattaco, over-rehearsed, stock answers only gave support to the impression that someone up above (like the Pinochio wood carver Geppetto) was pulling his strings. He may have been reelected "three times" (an exaggeration) in a blue state, with the massive financial support of the Koch brothers, but even all their money could not help him appear "presidential" (or even worthy of the town clerk job) exposed to probing questions as he was on the Fox debate stage. Scott Walker with all his Koch money is mush.
Chris Christe, reminded us how he could beat up on the small guy, as he stomped the skinny and high-C-voiced Senator Rand Paul who had the temerity to attempt to protect our Constitutional rights from intrusive spying. I guess domestic spying is just fine with tough guy Christie who genuflects meekly in front of the Adelsons and Kochs who tell him what to say. These two candidates did not impress either. Dr.Carson, an obviously charming and nice man, appeared to be an itinerant physician who just happened to walk in on the debate right off the street. Gov Kasich, of Ohio, on home turf, looked a little scruffy, like he had been mugged just before he arrived. He was the GOP exception who gave the most humane response to questions about gay rights and immigration. Ex-governor Huckabee seemed to be there solely to advance the sale of his snake oil remedy.
But the best line of the night was that of Mr. Trump, who when asked about his past support for Democrat candidates...a question meant to give him a mortal political wound, responded with an answer that revealed the great, embarrassing truth and naked corruption of American politics. His response: HE GIVES MONEY TO GET FAVORS.
"I give to everybody. When they call I give. And you know what? When I need something from them...I call them. THEY ARE THERE FOR ME. And that's a broken system." He went on to describe how after he gave to Hillary Clinton's campaign, when he asked her to come to his wedding...she came. "SHE HAD NO CHOICE. BECAUSE I GAVE."
So what we must decide in this election is who do we want to lead us, a puppet or a puppeteer? Who is pulling the strings of the candidates? Who controls them like Trump controlled Clinton? Who is giving money to get favors in return? Do we want a Pinoochio or a Gippetto?
Perhaps we can find a candidate with no strings attached, a man or woman who answers only to the electorate? Perhaps the polls which show Trump in the lead are just that...the electorate seeking a non-puppet candidate?
"Jeb" (John E Bush) who represents the powerful interests of the wealthy "country club" GOP and the uppity Bush family was perhaps mortally wounded Thursday night. JEB (he shuns and rejects the "Bush" moniker) has the most money, and the most powerful and connected friends in high places. This third-in-line Bush, son and brother of former Presidents had the look of a scared deer in headlights all through the event. His body language and answers were wobbly and his voice quavered. He did not help his cause and those of his powerful supporters.
Scott Walker, the darling of the secretive, sinister-appearing multibillionare Koch brothers and their powerful union hating friends appeared to be and acted the part of a balding, minor town official. His brief, stattaco, over-rehearsed, stock answers only gave support to the impression that someone up above (like the Pinochio wood carver Geppetto) was pulling his strings. He may have been reelected "three times" (an exaggeration) in a blue state, with the massive financial support of the Koch brothers, but even all their money could not help him appear "presidential" (or even worthy of the town clerk job) exposed to probing questions as he was on the Fox debate stage. Scott Walker with all his Koch money is mush.
Chris Christe, reminded us how he could beat up on the small guy, as he stomped the skinny and high-C-voiced Senator Rand Paul who had the temerity to attempt to protect our Constitutional rights from intrusive spying. I guess domestic spying is just fine with tough guy Christie who genuflects meekly in front of the Adelsons and Kochs who tell him what to say. These two candidates did not impress either. Dr.Carson, an obviously charming and nice man, appeared to be an itinerant physician who just happened to walk in on the debate right off the street. Gov Kasich, of Ohio, on home turf, looked a little scruffy, like he had been mugged just before he arrived. He was the GOP exception who gave the most humane response to questions about gay rights and immigration. Ex-governor Huckabee seemed to be there solely to advance the sale of his snake oil remedy.
But the best line of the night was that of Mr. Trump, who when asked about his past support for Democrat candidates...a question meant to give him a mortal political wound, responded with an answer that revealed the great, embarrassing truth and naked corruption of American politics. His response: HE GIVES MONEY TO GET FAVORS.
"I give to everybody. When they call I give. And you know what? When I need something from them...I call them. THEY ARE THERE FOR ME. And that's a broken system." He went on to describe how after he gave to Hillary Clinton's campaign, when he asked her to come to his wedding...she came. "SHE HAD NO CHOICE. BECAUSE I GAVE."
So what we must decide in this election is who do we want to lead us, a puppet or a puppeteer? Who is pulling the strings of the candidates? Who controls them like Trump controlled Clinton? Who is giving money to get favors in return? Do we want a Pinoochio or a Gippetto?
Perhaps we can find a candidate with no strings attached, a man or woman who answers only to the electorate? Perhaps the polls which show Trump in the lead are just that...the electorate seeking a non-puppet candidate?
Friday, August 7, 2015
SHAME ON SCHUMER --DIVIDED LOYALTIES
SHAME ON SCHUMER
Senator Chuck Schumer, who backed George Bush's Iraq war, who supported Bibi Netanyahu in his campaign against the President's foreign policy initiatives, and stabbed the President in the back regarding the Affordable Care Act, just embarrassed himself again, and his co-religionists, when he made it known yesterday that he would oppose the Iran Nuclear Deal and vote to override the President's veto. Schumer revealed his mis guided intentions (during the hoopla of the first Republican 2016 Debate) very early in the sixty-day review process. His timing was sinister as well. It gives his "nay" position a six-week-long powerful impact on other "fence-sitting" Senators, and seems designed to do the most damage to the President's campaign to avoid war in the ME. Schumer's (mis-perceived and wrong-headed) vote puts the interests of foreign citizens and the supposed welfare of a foreign power before the best interests of his USA constituency, his own Party, his President, his Government and his Nation. This Senator has helped revive that whispered slur of the distant past that some our citizens have "divided loyalties" which makes them "unreliable Americans". Schumer who cravenly failed to withstand the pressure of a small but vocal part of his NY constituency has placed the perceived welfare of Israel ahead of the USA on this critical, watershed agreement, which, if not implemented could lead us again into a bloody, devastating conflict in the Middle East.
Chuck Schumer should perhaps move east to a small nation on the Mediterranean...there as a member of the Knesset he will avoid the conflicts of interest he seems to be plagued with here in the USA as an American Senator.
As I have noted elsewhere in this blog, Senator Schumer's behavior in the past, on foreign policy, has been suspect, and in this critical issue makes Schumer an unworthy candidate for Senate Democrat leader of the U.S. Senate.
Senator Chuck Schumer, who backed George Bush's Iraq war, who supported Bibi Netanyahu in his campaign against the President's foreign policy initiatives, and stabbed the President in the back regarding the Affordable Care Act, just embarrassed himself again, and his co-religionists, when he made it known yesterday that he would oppose the Iran Nuclear Deal and vote to override the President's veto. Schumer revealed his mis guided intentions (during the hoopla of the first Republican 2016 Debate) very early in the sixty-day review process. His timing was sinister as well. It gives his "nay" position a six-week-long powerful impact on other "fence-sitting" Senators, and seems designed to do the most damage to the President's campaign to avoid war in the ME. Schumer's (mis-perceived and wrong-headed) vote puts the interests of foreign citizens and the supposed welfare of a foreign power before the best interests of his USA constituency, his own Party, his President, his Government and his Nation. This Senator has helped revive that whispered slur of the distant past that some our citizens have "divided loyalties" which makes them "unreliable Americans". Schumer who cravenly failed to withstand the pressure of a small but vocal part of his NY constituency has placed the perceived welfare of Israel ahead of the USA on this critical, watershed agreement, which, if not implemented could lead us again into a bloody, devastating conflict in the Middle East.
Chuck Schumer should perhaps move east to a small nation on the Mediterranean...there as a member of the Knesset he will avoid the conflicts of interest he seems to be plagued with here in the USA as an American Senator.
As I have noted elsewhere in this blog, Senator Schumer's behavior in the past, on foreign policy, has been suspect, and in this critical issue makes Schumer an unworthy candidate for Senate Democrat leader of the U.S. Senate.
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