REALLY DUMB! AN ISRAELI-USA DEFENSE PACT

PRESIDENT TRUMP FLOATS IDEA OF ISRAELI-USA DEFENSE PACT

This is really dumb stuff.   Hands off Israeli elections! 

President Trump has truly been a great ally to Mr. Netanyahu.  It is not clear if he is equally as good for the Israeli people or for the prospect of peace and prosperity in  the Middle East.  He has made a few big blunders in the past—like involving himself in the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem and in accepting the annexation  of the Golan Heights  which is Syrian territory and which Israel has illegally occupied since 1967.  Perhaps they were good short term political gains for President Trump and PM Netanyahu.  Recently, President Trump continuing to keep his thumb on the scale for Mr. Netanyahu in the PMs upcoming elections on Tuesday has proposed an Israeli-USA defense pact.   This blatant and transparent short term political interference in the elections of Israel is wrong both for Israelis and for the USA.   

Mr. Trump seems to have forgotten or ignored his promise to get the US out of the Middle East quagmire and focus on needs of Americana at home.  Furthermore, our nation has suffered from the threat of foreign intervention claims in our own 2016 elections.  We are continuing to struggle through the ramifications of that crisis.  We know how disturbing such interventions can be,   One would think that our President would be more sensitive to making it so plain that he is bumbling his way into Israeli elections to impose his own interests on the outcome.  As friends and allies we must let the Israelis decide on whether they want Mr. Netanyahu back in power or not. 

Furthermore, our ties with Israel are as tight as a tick now.  Any further bonds, such as dangerous (for both parties)  entanglements that would force us into a military conflict or other actions that we may not want to be involved in is — beyond dumb. 

Keep your hands off the scale Mr. Trump.  Leave the Israelis to decide without foreign interference —who they want to lead them.  

DUMB STUFF IN SAUDI ARBIA (AND DC)

HALF OF SAUDI OIL PRODUCTION KNOCKED OUT BY HOUTHIS DRONE ATTACKS

On Saturday (September 14, 2019) a fiery drone attack by Yemeni rebel forces knocked out 50% of Saudi Arabian (SA) oil production.  The Saudis produce each day about 10% (@10 million bbls) of the world’s oil.  The resulting short-fall will result in a steep rise of world oil prices.  With global production of petroleum at what is called “peak oil”( i.e. production has reached its maximum extraction rate) and production of oil is just about equal to its global demand.    This means that with this delicate balance between production and consumption even small changes in supply are reflected in large price fluctuations.  In the present crisis, due to a loss of 5% SA oil, the global supply is now down by that amount and oil prices will likely climb steeply—at least for the short term, until the Saudis snuff out the fires and repair damaged infrastructure.  However, of even more concern is the damage to investor confidence in the stability of the world’s oil supply.  If producers have to include the possibility of substantial loss (as by drone attacks) into their calculation prices could remain high.   The SA oil fields could be brought back on line but it is the confidence of oil producers and investors that is not as easily repaired.

The surprisingly sophisticated and coordinated Houthis attack, by armed drones, underscored another fact—that in the modern age of computerized military technology,  it may not be as easy as it was in the past to protect vital global infrastructure.  That uncertainty is disturbing.  The awful and deadly stealth-technology of armed drones —developed by the USA—and used, perhaps too much and too carelessly around the Middle East —has been copied and reproduced for indiscriminate mass sale  by many nations.  Drones are now even sold as toys by Walmart!  It is no big technological challenge for even those in poor nations to buy these devices then enlarge and arm them.  

But there is another truism here to critique.  It is “dumb stuff” for national leaders to delude themselves and their constituents into thinking that they can use massive military casually and escape  — with complete impunity.   Newton’s Third Law of physics applies here in diplomacy and foreign policy  as well as in science—“for every action their there is a reaction of opposite and equal force”.   Massive military expenditures, expensive foreign bases, millions of men in uniform  and a high tech Air Force can not always fully protect a foolishly aggressive nation, too eager to throw its military weight around, from terroristic reprisal.  The Saudis bombed Yemen mercilessly, the Yemenis have managed to point out to the SA royals that those actions were costly and will remain so in the future.

It is also clear that conducting a brutal air war of choice  attempting regime change in Yemen—is dumb stuff.  Unhappy with the successful revolt of the Houthis who replaced a pro-SA government in neighboring Yemen the Saudi Prince engaged in dumb stuff.  The SA campaign has killed tens of thousands of civilians by aerial bombing.  They have enforcied a shipping embargo which resulted in famine and outbreaks of cholera which have killed 50,000 or more in this poorest of the poor desert country of 13 million which historically suffers from chronic food shortages.  SA has been pilloried by world leaders for the brutality of its aerial campaign.  The US Senate, aghast at the carnage and suffering in Yemen, has passed a bill aimed at halting US involvement in aiding the Saudis.  But to no avail.   Dumb stuff continues.   The Saudis air war campaign has generated a reaction—in the form of this latest attack on their oil fields.  The air war has come back to bite them in their white-linen draped behinds.  Unfortunately, the dumb stuff of the Saudis and those in DC who support them—will be felt all around the globe in higher oil prices and long term investor jitters.

Perhaps in the future wiser leaders will be more circumspect about using military might casually and unnecessarily—thinking always that there will be the inevitable  “third law” reaction to their aggression. Ultimately they will have to answer: Was the military effort worth the inevitable response?

The Saudi leadership with their backsides draped in  bloodied white linen skirts must realize now that  in this case of Yemen it would have been wiser to permit the Yemenis to decide on their own  who governs them..

CLIMATE CHANGE HYSTERIA AND HYPOCRISY

It seems what ever and whomever you read the cause is “climate change”. That is what this author calls “climate hysteria and hypocrisy”.

Yes we are experiencing MAN MADE CLIMATE CHANGE!  I am no a climate denier.  But a scientist well aware of our global environmental  problems.  Also well aware that the causes are not confined to one nation but will require a global response.  But to ascribe each and every one  of our problems to only one cause—climate change— is hypocrisy and hysteria.

Our unique and beautiful blue planet—perhaps the only one in creation— has been despoiled by man in many ways.  Perhaps the one problem that receives the most attention is: climate change.  That is really two problems: unfettered deforestation coupled with massive transfers of buried carbon (coal and oil) onto the surface where it is burned for fuel.   In the process of burning fossil fuels we dump some 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.  Our human actions are a form of feedback loop since as we dump CO2 into the atmosphere we are simultaneously (and unwisely) cutting down our global forests which are the natural sinks which absorb carbon.  As a result of increased production of waste carbon dioxide  coupled with decreased areas with forest cover which absorb carbon—the global heating gas carbon dioxide  has been gradually increasing in concentration in the atmosphere since the beginning of the Industrial Age.   This gas blankets the earth’s surface trapping heat by preventing excess heat from escaping into space.

 But that is only two of our problems.  We are also undergoing massive urban and suburban expansion, extermination of our native fauna and flora, uncontrolled human population growth,  the chemical poisoning of the planet with thousands of tons of pesticides and herbicides we spray on our lands each year, and as these poisons drain into the oceans the despoliation of our global ocean as well .  (Think of it—-Japan just recently, September 9, 2019, has reported that it is planning to dump the radio-nuclide laced stored cooling water from its destroyed nuclear Fukushima power plants into the Pacific Ocean—and pollute an entire ocean with nuclear waste).  Not as harmful but among our other sins —there is the  ten millions of tons of indestructible plastics we dump in the oceans each year.

And let us not forget that we have exported our exploitative economic system to other less well developed nations —China and India— with huge populations (over 2 billion people) who now aspire to emulate our wasteful pollution generating despoiling ways.  The ecological and economic policies of these nations will have to be controlled to make any headway in our fight against global destruction.

So let us not blame all our problems on climate change.  To do we we ignore the others.  Yes it is there.  But we have other just as pressing problems of deforestation and habitat destruction which will destroy the planet’s entire ecosystem.  We must control the reckless and unnecessary use persistent chemical herbicides and pesticides.   We must control runaway human population growth.  We have to begin to think of our role as managers and preservers of the environment —not exploiters.

No need for hysteria....this is a long term problem and will require not the hysterical focus on only one aspect of our problem.  It will education and evolutionary change in our behavior and thinking.  Or the result:  we snuff our species out on this once blue and green and life giving planet.

 

DUMB STUFF IN AFGHANISTAN

ITS TIME FOR AN END TO THE CARNAGE!

It was sad to learn that the possible “secret negotiations” that the President has been carrying on with the Taliban has fallen through.  The proximate cause was a recent bombing in which a US soldier was killed.  As usual the MSM (and FOX news too)  do not tell us the whole story.  The truth is the sticking point is that the Taliban want the USA out —but the war hawks in the GOP are insisting on a military presence there.  (See: Le Monde: 9-9-19 “Afghanistan; recit du pari diplomatique rate de Donald Trump”)  

It is well known that the US policy in the run up to the negotiations was a standard old formulation of  war hawks: “ you gotta appear strong before going to the negotiation table”. (See Economist: “Afghan peace talks break down” 9-9-19)    It seems apparent now that President Trump (who as a deal maker should know better) let the hard liners have their way during this critical period.  These folks—not your ardent seekers of peace— actually pressed for increased bombing, interdiction, and night raids on Taliban positions during the negotiations for the peace plan.  The Taliban responded in kind.  As a result—more carnage—on both sides.  We suffered  two recent car bombings which killed two of our brave men.  Their deaths were unnecessary—as were so many others—in the 18 years of this our longest war ever.  But the real sticking point was the foolish insistence of the USA to leave a permanent residual force in Afghanistan (of about 4,000 troops).  The Taliban rejected this idea.  Perhaps the car bombings were a message as to why this is a bad idea.

So it comes down to this: keep a small vulnerable force of troops tied down in Afghanistan as potential targets for lethal attacks on soft targets —or face the reality that our near two decades of carnage, blood letting and death in Afghanistan should end cleanly with us admitting our error and going home.  The truth is hard to face up to.  

The Taliban are not international terrorists...They are not ISIS.  They are fighting to regain control of their country from foreign invaders—-that is all! .  They are no threat to our nation or our interests. They are essentially a  religious-political group with little interest beyond the borders of their nation.  If we leave them alone they will leave us alone.    The American people are sick and tried of the carnage, the waste, the expense, the death and maiming of our youth, and the —dumb stuff—stupidity—of our leaders who started this war— as well as those who are too timid to end it.   

The President is attempting to fulfill his election promise of ending the Afghanistan carnage.   He is an experienced deal maker.  He knows that in any deal—you have to give up somethings to gain other things.  You must compromise.  There is no winner takes all.  

All we have to do is call for a cease fire, then sit down to negotiate a peaceful withdrawal of all our troops.  We face no threats from Afghanistan. We have (or should have) no interests there that require a military presence.  We are a nation which claims to espouse “self determination” for ourselves and presumably for others as well.  The Afghans do not want us—alien Americans— to decide how they should live, govern themselves, worship, or treat their women and children.  Let’s get out of there and permit them to find their own way.

Let’s end the dumb stuff. 

POPULISM—NOT A BAD WORD

The President of the European Union recently warned about “the rise of populism” like it was some kind of infectious disease we had to be alert to avoid.  Populism is being used as a political insult or disparaging epithet by the left who suggest that the practitioners (of populism) are somehow related to the likes of Mussolini or that other mid-twentyith-century dictator.  Frequently, the MSM attempt to class  Mr. Trump as a “populist”.

Populism is defined as: a political stance that emphasizes the needs of “the people”, the term often referrs to  the average Joe and Jane working-class taxpayer.  “Populism” often juxtaposes the needs and desires of these “people” with those of the “elites” or the “establishment”.

What is wrong with that?  Populism seems to me a return to what democracy should be...the rule of the “demos” or the people.  That is a government which attempts to meet the needs and concerns of the majority of the people. It  seems to this author that the “elites” may have forgotten that.  They keep referring to populism as a “THREAT” to democracy.  No,  they are the threat to democracy.  what they prefer is a form of oligarchy.

Let is not forget that when governments get so large and so distant from their constituents, the representatives  (such as in DC or Brussels) are apt to make decisions which they find satisfactory to their personal agenda, often underplaying  and ignoring  the needs and wishes of those who sent them into office.  Big governments, corrupted with corporate money, shot-through with nepotism, plagued with an entrenched bureaucracy, and led by a cadre of entrenched, networking, revolving -door-official elites is too often incapable and uninterested in serving the “people”.  These deep-state government elements become —in their minds. ”the government” and begin self-replicating and self-serving behaviors which they rationalize as “best for the people” as they feather their own nests.  In the modern state, too often an elite minority have sidelined the people they are supposed to serve and for all intents and purposes serve themselves.  These bureaucrats feel beholden to none other than their own.  Political threats of change from reformers or “swamp drainers” are viewed as an existential threat to their cushy jobs and the nepotism, emoluments and corruption which characterizes their tenure. This corruption of the goal of government for the people and by the people inevitably leads to dissatisfaction and popular revolt—that some would call as a “rise of populism”.  Yes populism is a fearful specter to the corrupt elites in DC and Brussels...but it is a refreshing breeze of change toward democracy to the decent people in the heartland.

Populism is good thing!

SOME THOUGHTS ON LABOR DAY 2019

When I was a high school student —long ago—in the middle of the last century, Labor Day was a big and important holiday.  We recognized it as a day to celebrate the working man.  Yes, it was mostly men.  But in those days, women were highly respected as homemakers, mothers and wives.   Family structures were more stable and durable.  Men worked  at well paying jobs in manufacturing, construction trades, in retail and wholesale.    In those times nearly 66% of the work-force was employed.  Jobs paid well enough so that husbands could adequately support his wife and children.   A woman could remain in the home and devote herself to raising her family—if she wanted to.  On my block there were few one-parent families.  But there was one example I knew... my childhood friend  Butch.  His father was killed in the Normandy landing in WWII, and his mother raised him and his sister alone.  She was the only female head-of-household on our street in those days.

Most of my friends and classmates went on to full time work after high school. Some became policemen, others worked in Manhattan offices, others went into the building trades.  Some worked for their parents in a family business or retail store.   Only about 10% of my class went to college. Most of them sought preparation for the professions—medicine, law, government, academia.  But if you were ambitious and motivated there were many well-paying jobs for those with a good high school education.  On my block,  in a working class Brooklyn neighborhood, everyone of the men who headed households (and one woman) worked.  I could see them every morning walking off to the train station, and in the evening coming home at night.  So on this day—Labor Day—in those days gone by—we rightly honored the dignity and importance of these men—and women—and their essential contributions to our lives and community.  

And another difference too was that most of these men and women were union members...like my own dad.  The national statistics for those days indicate that about 1/3 of the work force were union members.  Like my own father, they were almost all staunch Democrat too.  The Democrat party was the party of the working man in those days.  I knew of only one Republican on my block —he was our next door neighbor—-a newspaperman- who worked in the front office for the Brooklyn Eagle.  

Today’s Labor Day in 2019 seems less a celebration of the great contributions of laboring men and women and more as an excuse for a long three day “last-of-summer-weekend” before the grind of —modern more uncertain and frenetic work week begins anew.  Parents, both moms and dads—go back to work tomorrow and kids go off to school.  There will be  no lines of men trudging off to the train station here.  Mom and dad both roll off to their jobs in their shiny leased automobiles, often before dawn. Many will not be home until well after late-summer sunset.  Many must have more than one part-time job to “make ends meet”.  Their labor is uncertain and until recently their wages were static for a decade or more.

Over the last decades our laboring middle class and heartland communities have suffered decline and decay.  All through the nation’s belts of former prosperous manufacturing communities one can smell the scent of rotting wood, and see the weathered boards on store windows, empty parking lots and boarded up factories. Main streets are desolate thoroughfares.   When factories close, and well-paying jobs are lost, communities that were supported by those industries die.   The value of the laboring man and woman to his/her family and community evaporates.  These folks lose respect for themselves. .  Where men and women have no work economic and social decay seep in like a disease.  In these  communities fewer young people marry, few attempt to raise families and buy homes. Populations age and decline.  Schools close.  What flourishes is crime, drug addiction , obesity and depression.

Why?  What happened?   Decades ago the Democrat and Republican  elites in Washington fell victim to the greed of the CEOs of or corporate giants and ignored the needs of the working man and focus on maximizing profits for big companies.  The theorists decided that we didn’t need manufacturing jobs any longer women and permit( encourage) the  good-paying blue collar jobs to be exported to China, South Korea, and Mexico.  As a result of the outsourcing of work to Asia and Mexico up until very recently salaries have remained static for working class men and women over the last decades. Some maintain two jobs.   Few or them are union members.  Union membership has plummeted to barely one in ten workers. Society suffers when men (and women) have no work. Families break up.   Fewer people marry and settle down to have a family buy a home and raise their children in one place.  There are many single parent —-households.  The cause?  

Both parties,  Republicans and Democrats, in Washington over the last four decades supported policies which devastated the stability of American communities and middle class life.  Between 1980 and 2010 nearly 4 million good paying US manufacturing jobs were purposely sent off to China to satisfy the greed of big corporations and their executives.  The situation was aggravated  and sustained by US politicians who became too cozy and too dependent upon the financial “donations for reelection” of these businesses.  Also during those decades and up to the present time...our leaders in DC expanded a policy of open borders with our southern neighbors permitting millions of illegal immigrants entry to take up other jobs and fill other positions formerly occupied by American workers.  These circumstances resulted in the sell off and give away  of huge industries and their technology to China for short-short term protfits and access to the 1.3 billion consumers in that populous nation.  

So today our Labor Day is a solem affair.  A day to remember the past and for sorrow at the plight of our middle class families who suffer in poverty, our children suffer, our communities which suffer, and our national economy suffers.    

DEMOCRATS MORPH INTO SOCIALISTS WHEN ATTACK FORMAL RELIGIONS

As if the modern Democrats haven’t made their fringe left restricted constituency small enough—a few days ago in San Francisco (August 24, 2019) at the DNC’s national platform meeting they pulled the tent pegs of their shrinking “national tent” even tighter-in, now shunning those who espouse or practice a formal religion.  Thus, besides the hard-left promises of the Democrat Presidential field such as: a Green New Deal, open borders, abolition of ICE, end of Electoral College, reparations for slavery, free college, cancellation of student debt, Medicare for all, banning private health insurance, and a near-confiscatory income tax of 70%—the Dems are now even banning religion, just as other radicals leftists did in failed states such as the former Communist USSR and modern China.

The socialist-like aversion to religion was apparent even at the 2012 Democrat Convention where the Democrat attendees most infamously “booed” the Protestant minister, while during his solemn invocation  he had the temerity to mention “God”.  God was booed by democrats  in the 2012 Democrat Convention.

The Democrats have now formalized their aversion to religion and to those of faith. In their published minutes of the August 24, 2019  convention meeting they state: “Whereas the “religiously unaffiliated” (read: agnostics, atheists, secularists, etc. ) represent 25% of the overall American population’.... and are “the largest demographic in the Democrat Party” and “overwhelmingly share Democrat Party values”. “Now therefore be it resolved that the religiously unaffiliated”......”should be heard and represented”...by the Party”.

The Democrats have closed the entrance to their former “big tent” to a large swath of Americans: They ignore, shun and even deride the masses of hard working Americans, those who live in the nation’s heartland, who want well paying jobs, who pay taxes, support their local communities, see their sons and daughters off to protect our. Nation, and want to raise their families in stable, prosperous  communities—and go to a house of worship regularly.  These good folks they openly  disparage as “untermench”, a “basket of deplorables”, rabble, racists and worse.

Ignoring the needs and concerns of the vast mass of Americans—the Democrats, in their desperation for votes,  have stitched together a fragile constituency of fringe elements:  wealthy left wing donors, coastal urbanites, academic media and government elites,  radical feminists, supporters of late term abortion, illegal immigrants, socialist sympathizers, the LBGTQQ “community”, and  welcome with open arms atheists, secularists and the godless, as they shun and deride those  who claim allegiance to faith as a Protestant, Catholic, Jew or Moslem.

Sadly, for a nation saddled with a “two party system” and thus one which depends on a “loyal opposition”to function effectively  the  Democrats have become (with their  media supporters and facilitators) an ineffectual fringe resistance group,  engorged with religious fervor, convinced of their righteousness and the immorality of anyone opposes their dictates.   Rather than a loyal opposition, they are political terrorists lurking in the dark corners of our polity  making hit and run attacks aimed at bringing down the present government at all costs.

The once “big tent” of the Democrats of the 1950s has now become more umbrella-sized with a prominent hammer and sickle banner fluttering at its peak..