September 1, 2014, Hong Kong (HK) police spray demonstrators with pepper spray, to disperse an unruly crowd. What is this? Rowdy demonstrations in staid Hong Kong? The cause? A Chinese official visiting HK, the great financial hub of Asia, is heckled and shouted down by protesters who are demonstrating for free elections and the right to choose the candidates for their elections.
(A few facts: Hong Kong (HK) is the third most important world financial center after London and New York City. HK is a former British colony with an area of only 1,100 sq km (@ 426 sq mile, or very close in size to New York City) located on the coast of China with a deep natural harbor which provides access to the South China Sea and by that means to all of Asia. It has a population of more than 8 million (about that of NY City). The HK people are well-to-do, with averageTHE incomes (ranking 7th in the world) or just slightly higher than those of the USA. It It has one of the highest population densities recorded in the world. For such a tiny political entity, (ranking 179th in size) it is inordinately wealthy, being 7th in the world, with a GDP of more than 400 billion in US dollars annually. (while NYC is nominally @ $1.3 trillion). It is governed by a Legislative Council and a Chief Executive which have been (up to 2014) "democratically" elected. Though not a "classical democracy", (but who can cast a stone ?), it has been described as a "semi authoritarian regime", controlled by a small cadre of elites (See Wikipedia, Hong Kong) . Does that sound familiar to us in the USA? Hong Kong's chief executive is chosen by an Election Committee of 1200 (or sometimes fewer) members. It largest and only 'city' is Kowloon. Hong Kong was a British colony from 1842 to 1997. Since 1997 it has been a "Special Administrative Region" (SAR) of the PR of C, with the motto "one country two systems". But now the China's Politburo would like to eliminate the "two systems" part.)
Based on that report from the New York Times on September 1, 2014, it now appears that China seems bent on rescinding the 1997 agreement that country concluded with the British government, which provided for free and democratic elections in Hong Kong for another 33 years-- to 2047.
Back to the circumstances of the event: At that meeting in HK a Communist Chinese official was explaining in his quiet and logical way that everything in HK will be the same, after the new Chinese Politbureau rules are instituted.The people will still have their elections, just as before. The only difference will be that the Chinese Politbureau will pick the candidates! Then, the people of HK can have their election. Everybody will be happy. The Chinese will be certain that the new legislators will be compliant to China's wishes. That is how they see the election. But to the citizenry of HK that part is vital too. For as we all know---- the really important part of any election is the part that deals with vetting the candidates that the people will choose from. It is clear even to the Chinese that if you can control the candidates presented for election, you are really in control of the election.
When I read this , it made me think. I asked myself, "What is the big difference between our 'semi democratic regime' here in the US and that in Hong Kong?" In some ways, we are very similar...They too have nice "democratic" elections .
But, as in HK, we don't really pick our candidates either. Do we? Instead of the Politbureau picking our candidates, we have another just as powerful entity, the Moneybags Bureau (ATT, Koch Industries, Exxon, Comcast, Northrup-Grumman, Goldman Sachs, etc., etc., etc.) who support the candidates of their choice with bags of cash. The cash flow dictates which candidates can run. So as in HK we are presented with a slate of candidates ---yes selected for us--. The Moneybags Bureau dictate to the electorate the candidates of their choice.Then we all have a jolly good time electing one of these "picked" candidates.
So circumstances of power politics are much the same all around the world.
Would not it be so much better if we all understood these sad facts better---perhaps then we could work for change and not wallow so in our own misperceived exceptionalism.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
PHOTOS SUGGEST STONEHENGE A "GAPING OPEN" CIRCLE?
I read today that Stonehenge, may have been a complete circle. At present, the ring is incomplete. Some British archaeologists have argued that was its original design. Others have assumed that it was circular, but the stones were removed and used elsewhere ---a common occurrence in antiquity.
The discovery relating to its circularity, was made by a groundsman tasked with maintaining the lawn by watering the site. This perceptive fellow noticed that during the recent (August 2014) drought, patches of brown were appearing in the normally verdant lawns. The effect was enhanced since the area where the circle was incomplete lay too far away from the short hosepipe he had for watering. As this observant man made plans to irrigate the dry and brown patches, he realized that these seemed to be located in places where stones should have stood were the circle complete. He brought in the professionals who immediately ordered aerial photos to be taken.
The Guardian published one of the pictures. (The Guardian, Sept 1, 2014, Dry spell at Stonehenge reveals secret that has alluded archaeologists. By Steven Morris.) The dry spots do seem to indicate a curving line of patches which would crudely tend to complete the circle.
On closer examination, however, I observed something that reminded me of a feature I once encountered in studying post hole patterns of a house structure in the sub-soil at a prehistoric Native American site. The post hole pattern in that case gaped away from the circular to provide an entrance way. The pattern of brown patches at Stonehenge seem to suggest a similar type of pattern. The patches on the bottom right of the published picture seem to fall away from (have a longer radius from the center than) those on the left. That "gape" were it actual, would have provided a wide and graceful entry point, perhaps adapted for ceremonial purposes.
Thus I suggest that Stonehenge may not have been a complete circle, but one with part of its outer stone erections arranged with a greater radius from the center to form an entranceway. The British archaeologists should investigate this "gaping circle" hypothesis . Based only upon the revealing photos, I suspect that upon closer examination of the photos and further subsurface analysis they may well confirm this "open" pattern.
(The Guardian, Sept 1, 2014, Dry spell at Stonehenge reveals secret that has alluded archaeologists. By Steven Morris)
The discovery relating to its circularity, was made by a groundsman tasked with maintaining the lawn by watering the site. This perceptive fellow noticed that during the recent (August 2014) drought, patches of brown were appearing in the normally verdant lawns. The effect was enhanced since the area where the circle was incomplete lay too far away from the short hosepipe he had for watering. As this observant man made plans to irrigate the dry and brown patches, he realized that these seemed to be located in places where stones should have stood were the circle complete. He brought in the professionals who immediately ordered aerial photos to be taken.
The Guardian published one of the pictures. (The Guardian, Sept 1, 2014, Dry spell at Stonehenge reveals secret that has alluded archaeologists. By Steven Morris.) The dry spots do seem to indicate a curving line of patches which would crudely tend to complete the circle.
On closer examination, however, I observed something that reminded me of a feature I once encountered in studying post hole patterns of a house structure in the sub-soil at a prehistoric Native American site. The post hole pattern in that case gaped away from the circular to provide an entrance way. The pattern of brown patches at Stonehenge seem to suggest a similar type of pattern. The patches on the bottom right of the published picture seem to fall away from (have a longer radius from the center than) those on the left. That "gape" were it actual, would have provided a wide and graceful entry point, perhaps adapted for ceremonial purposes.
Thus I suggest that Stonehenge may not have been a complete circle, but one with part of its outer stone erections arranged with a greater radius from the center to form an entranceway. The British archaeologists should investigate this "gaping circle" hypothesis . Based only upon the revealing photos, I suspect that upon closer examination of the photos and further subsurface analysis they may well confirm this "open" pattern.
(The Guardian, Sept 1, 2014, Dry spell at Stonehenge reveals secret that has alluded archaeologists. By Steven Morris)
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
HILLARY, STUPID STUFF AND BIBBI'S HAIRY LEGS
HILLARY, BIBBI'S HAIRY LEGS AND STUPID STUFF
In a revealing interview for the Atlantic, this last week, (Jeffrey Goldberg, August 10, 2014) Mrs. Hillary Clinton, attacked her erstwhile friend and former boss, President Obama, by dissing his careful foreign policy approach ("don't do stupid stuff"). She also pointed a crooked Clintonian finger at the President, claiming that it is Obama's fault that Islamic State (or ISIS) arose in western Syria and expanded into the seeming formidable force now raging through northern Iraq. The hutzpah, and gracelessness of the attack as well as the fact that she had earlier been quoted widely as "fully on board" with Obama's Syria policy make it all the more disturbing and distressing to observe in a likely presidential candidate. But then again this is a "Clinton" we are talking about, past masters of deception, opportunism and calculation.
Equally distressing was her "beyond the pale" remarks on the gruesome and disproportionate attack by Israel on Gaza where Israeli bombardment has killed more than 1800 Palestinians mostly civilians, trapped in what is essentially an outdoor prison camp. Apparently Mrs. Clinton....like her husband...will say or do anything for a buck. In this case she is vying for the bucks of wealthy Americans whose favor she is attempting to curry with her far-out statements of support for the Israeli extreme right...such as the one-issue Sheldon Adelsons of this nation.
On Gaza, Mrs Clinton got so far into bed with with the dour and blood-stained Mr. Netanyahu and his far right Likudnics that--were her husband,Bubba, not so deeply involved with his string of regular squeezes--her bed-jumping might be a cause for jealous spousal rage. In her Gaza remarks Hillary snuggled so close to the Israeli extremists she left no space for a flea, between her and Bibbi's hairy legs. Talk of Hillary being to the right, but these comments put her in the category of Dick Cheney and George Bush. One worry for her supporters might be that she has gone so far into Israeli territory with this interview (she voiced full and vociferous support for every far out Israeli propaganda position, even claiming that the Israelis did not bomb that UN school where so many children were killed....but only its "annex") that she seems better positioned to run for a seat in the Knesset, rather than for US President . I would also add that were I one of her targeted monied supporters, I would be mighty suspect about her sincerity and actual beliefs. She has famously made numerous 180 degree turns...on many issues and has a "complex relationship to the truth" (a well turned phrase attributed to C.C.W. Cooke of National Review). But I guess that is all part of being in the money making racket, and "beneficiaries" of the $200 million dollar Clinton Foundation. We should all recall that as the First Couple, Hill and Bill went into business for themselves by selling sleep-overs in the White House Lincoln bedroom to the highest bidder. Now they have risen to the level where they (and even daughter Chelsea) pull in $200,000 for a short speaking engagement. Not counting the Clinton Foundation coffers, stuffed with hundreds of millions of donation money, their personal wealth has soared into hundreds of millions of dollars.
If Ms Clinton's strategy in this interview was to clearly demarcate herself from the careful and considered FP approach of Mr. Obama..to facilitate her ever-present and overarching goal--a Presidential run..she has over-shot her mark and will lose a vast number of America voters who are tired of the jangling of rowel spurs, and the bulging six-gun in a low-slung-holster-approach to foreign policy. She made the same error in 2002, when as a Senator she positioned herself with Bush and Cheney on the Iraq War Resolution attempting to establish with voters that she was not only smart, but was a street tough too. But street toughs don't solve problems--they do "stupid stuff" that gets them into trouble. That's what she and 77 other US Senators did to push the country into a financial and military disaster. That was then. Our nation is now tired of attempting to solve our problems doing stupid stuff, and wiser too. We learned our lesson. Mrs. Clinton seems still unfazed, mired in the past, unable to see how our perceptions of Israel and old style tough guy foreign policy concepts have changed since the Great Recession, and as smart as she thinks she is, she hasn't learned that elementary lesson from so long ago.
In a revealing interview for the Atlantic, this last week, (Jeffrey Goldberg, August 10, 2014) Mrs. Hillary Clinton, attacked her erstwhile friend and former boss, President Obama, by dissing his careful foreign policy approach ("don't do stupid stuff"). She also pointed a crooked Clintonian finger at the President, claiming that it is Obama's fault that Islamic State (or ISIS) arose in western Syria and expanded into the seeming formidable force now raging through northern Iraq. The hutzpah, and gracelessness of the attack as well as the fact that she had earlier been quoted widely as "fully on board" with Obama's Syria policy make it all the more disturbing and distressing to observe in a likely presidential candidate. But then again this is a "Clinton" we are talking about, past masters of deception, opportunism and calculation.
Equally distressing was her "beyond the pale" remarks on the gruesome and disproportionate attack by Israel on Gaza where Israeli bombardment has killed more than 1800 Palestinians mostly civilians, trapped in what is essentially an outdoor prison camp. Apparently Mrs. Clinton....like her husband...will say or do anything for a buck. In this case she is vying for the bucks of wealthy Americans whose favor she is attempting to curry with her far-out statements of support for the Israeli extreme right...such as the one-issue Sheldon Adelsons of this nation.
On Gaza, Mrs Clinton got so far into bed with with the dour and blood-stained Mr. Netanyahu and his far right Likudnics that--were her husband,Bubba, not so deeply involved with his string of regular squeezes--her bed-jumping might be a cause for jealous spousal rage. In her Gaza remarks Hillary snuggled so close to the Israeli extremists she left no space for a flea, between her and Bibbi's hairy legs. Talk of Hillary being to the right, but these comments put her in the category of Dick Cheney and George Bush. One worry for her supporters might be that she has gone so far into Israeli territory with this interview (she voiced full and vociferous support for every far out Israeli propaganda position, even claiming that the Israelis did not bomb that UN school where so many children were killed....but only its "annex") that she seems better positioned to run for a seat in the Knesset, rather than for US President . I would also add that were I one of her targeted monied supporters, I would be mighty suspect about her sincerity and actual beliefs. She has famously made numerous 180 degree turns...on many issues and has a "complex relationship to the truth" (a well turned phrase attributed to C.C.W. Cooke of National Review). But I guess that is all part of being in the money making racket, and "beneficiaries" of the $200 million dollar Clinton Foundation. We should all recall that as the First Couple, Hill and Bill went into business for themselves by selling sleep-overs in the White House Lincoln bedroom to the highest bidder. Now they have risen to the level where they (and even daughter Chelsea) pull in $200,000 for a short speaking engagement. Not counting the Clinton Foundation coffers, stuffed with hundreds of millions of donation money, their personal wealth has soared into hundreds of millions of dollars.
If Ms Clinton's strategy in this interview was to clearly demarcate herself from the careful and considered FP approach of Mr. Obama..to facilitate her ever-present and overarching goal--a Presidential run..she has over-shot her mark and will lose a vast number of America voters who are tired of the jangling of rowel spurs, and the bulging six-gun in a low-slung-holster-approach to foreign policy. She made the same error in 2002, when as a Senator she positioned herself with Bush and Cheney on the Iraq War Resolution attempting to establish with voters that she was not only smart, but was a street tough too. But street toughs don't solve problems--they do "stupid stuff" that gets them into trouble. That's what she and 77 other US Senators did to push the country into a financial and military disaster. That was then. Our nation is now tired of attempting to solve our problems doing stupid stuff, and wiser too. We learned our lesson. Mrs. Clinton seems still unfazed, mired in the past, unable to see how our perceptions of Israel and old style tough guy foreign policy concepts have changed since the Great Recession, and as smart as she thinks she is, she hasn't learned that elementary lesson from so long ago.
Saturday, August 9, 2014
NEEDED FOR PEACE---BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL
In this last round of brutal, disproportionate attacks on Gaza, Israel has clearly revealed its long term strategy. They give lip service to peace negotiations, but have no incentive to actually make any concessions, that could led to peace. Would you? The have the top hand. Superior military power, control of the levers of opinion and funding, and the protection of America, which supports their policies no matter how far they go astray. The US would actually find some reason to support Israeli polices were they to descend to ethnic cleansing and genocide. Or have they done so already? The latest Gaza round has caused the deaths of more than 1800, Palestinians....almost all civilians...and mostly women, children and the elderly. More than 9,000 were wounded. Mr. Obama's response to this massacre was "Israel has the right to defend itself."
They have the political agenda sewed up. Don't bother writing to your representative or senator, all our politicians are shivering in their boots when it comes to Israel----afraid of being labeled "anti Semites" even if they simply question Israeli propaganda. Our media are also manacled. So there will be no succor from that quarter. There appears to be no recourse for those who would see a more peaceful a more just world...
With the deck stacked against those who seek peace....the only possible means of eliciting change in Israeli leadership is for each of us to use the economic lever we all have at hand in our pocketbooks. We can simply refuse to buy Israeli products. Israel has a vibrant economy almost exclusively based on selling products abroad. They are dependent upon YOU to buy those products. But if we disagree with their policies we can make a choice for a more peaceful, just world. That is a BOYCOTT. Why should we financially support a government which flaunts international law, refuses to negotiate in good faith, engages in creeping confiscation of lands illegally, and periodically descends into military adventures which brutalize and kill innocent civilians and children seemingly without compunction?
If we were all to simply stop purchasing Israeli made products, services, and attending Israeli sponsored events...the global impact would be astounding.
Support peace, demilitarization, and global welfare by simply boycotting Israeli goods, products and services. That would get their attention almost immediately.
They have the political agenda sewed up. Don't bother writing to your representative or senator, all our politicians are shivering in their boots when it comes to Israel----afraid of being labeled "anti Semites" even if they simply question Israeli propaganda. Our media are also manacled. So there will be no succor from that quarter. There appears to be no recourse for those who would see a more peaceful a more just world...
With the deck stacked against those who seek peace....the only possible means of eliciting change in Israeli leadership is for each of us to use the economic lever we all have at hand in our pocketbooks. We can simply refuse to buy Israeli products. Israel has a vibrant economy almost exclusively based on selling products abroad. They are dependent upon YOU to buy those products. But if we disagree with their policies we can make a choice for a more peaceful, just world. That is a BOYCOTT. Why should we financially support a government which flaunts international law, refuses to negotiate in good faith, engages in creeping confiscation of lands illegally, and periodically descends into military adventures which brutalize and kill innocent civilians and children seemingly without compunction?
If we were all to simply stop purchasing Israeli made products, services, and attending Israeli sponsored events...the global impact would be astounding.
Support peace, demilitarization, and global welfare by simply boycotting Israeli goods, products and services. That would get their attention almost immediately.
Friday, August 8, 2014
IRAK REDUX MORE WASHINGTON STUPIDY
MORE STUPIDITY REDUX FROM WASHINGTON REGARDING IRAQ
President Obama has just OK'd bombing missions in northern and western Iraq to support Iraqi and Presmerga (Kurdish) troops which are fleeing from the onslaught of the Islamic State forces.
So many lives could have been saved if President Obama and his neoconservative-holdover advisors from the Bush Administration (as well as his former and failed Secretary of State, who never saw a conflict she didn't want to send some other person's sons and daughters to fight in-- Ms Clinton) had been a bit less gleefully eager to support the fanatic rebels in Syria in their attempt to overthrow Mr. Assad. Mr. Assad who still holds sway in all of western Syria, was weakened and undermined by US INTERVENTIONISM, CIA covert activities, US logistic aid, money, and weapons supplied foolishly by the USA and other state actors urged on by Obama on Syria's eastern border. These narrow and short sighted efforts prolonged the war, and weakened the Assad Regime. The result of this foolish attempt at "regime change" by the USA helped create just another disaster zone, next to the previous disaster zones we created in the Middle East. The geographic result of US interference in Syria and foreign aid to Assad's (and it now turns out our) enemies was the formation of a no-mans land in eastern Syria where the forces of the Islamic State, using US-supplied weapons coalesced and grew into a powerful military force. These IS forces were the same rebel elements some Washington Senators ( John McCain among them) were very recently bellowing for President Obama to support more forcefully with more aid and even more powerful weapons.
But after establishing eastern Syria as their base, the IS, with goals of a regional Islamic Caliphate, moved outward to the east and south into a weakened and fragmented Iraq. Recall that that unfortunate nation was left in a parlous state by the aggression, missteps, lies and foolish polices of a previous US administration, led by an unsophisticated and inexperienced President. Iraq's newly (and less than effectively) USA-trained forces were no match for the well-armed, focused and determined, religious fanaticism of the IS. The IS troops plowed through northern Iraq...gathering up territory, towns, resources, money, abandoned US military materiel, as well as disaffected Sunni soldiers and former Bathist army officers.
So in reality the President is now fighting on the side of Mr. Assad, the man who he was attempting to overthrow and, in the process of that misguided attempt, helped to generate the mess we are now experiencing in that part of the world. But it is unlikely that he would be willing to admit to that.
Do you understand how stupid this all is? Only the militarists, military pundits, and the arms manufacturers are happy---they are all making big profits. The long-suffering American taxpayer, who now lives in a nation with a sick economy and crumbling infrastructure is reluctantly footing the bill, our US airmen are putting their lives in danger on these flights, and the Iraqi and Kurdish people are again suffering horribly. For this disaster we can thank all those US interventionists: G W Bush, Cheney, McCain, Clinton and now Obama too , who think we can solve the world's problems using the muzzle end of a smoking gun. Let us not forget that. They did it! Let us remind them of their stupidity on a regular basis.
It seems whatever the neocons and their supporters touch abroad gets screwed up-----and sadly lots of people die.
Please President Obama, stand up to this scourge of mankind and give us all a break.
.
President Obama has just OK'd bombing missions in northern and western Iraq to support Iraqi and Presmerga (Kurdish) troops which are fleeing from the onslaught of the Islamic State forces.
So many lives could have been saved if President Obama and his neoconservative-holdover advisors from the Bush Administration (as well as his former and failed Secretary of State, who never saw a conflict she didn't want to send some other person's sons and daughters to fight in-- Ms Clinton) had been a bit less gleefully eager to support the fanatic rebels in Syria in their attempt to overthrow Mr. Assad. Mr. Assad who still holds sway in all of western Syria, was weakened and undermined by US INTERVENTIONISM, CIA covert activities, US logistic aid, money, and weapons supplied foolishly by the USA and other state actors urged on by Obama on Syria's eastern border. These narrow and short sighted efforts prolonged the war, and weakened the Assad Regime. The result of this foolish attempt at "regime change" by the USA helped create just another disaster zone, next to the previous disaster zones we created in the Middle East. The geographic result of US interference in Syria and foreign aid to Assad's (and it now turns out our) enemies was the formation of a no-mans land in eastern Syria where the forces of the Islamic State, using US-supplied weapons coalesced and grew into a powerful military force. These IS forces were the same rebel elements some Washington Senators ( John McCain among them) were very recently bellowing for President Obama to support more forcefully with more aid and even more powerful weapons.
But after establishing eastern Syria as their base, the IS, with goals of a regional Islamic Caliphate, moved outward to the east and south into a weakened and fragmented Iraq. Recall that that unfortunate nation was left in a parlous state by the aggression, missteps, lies and foolish polices of a previous US administration, led by an unsophisticated and inexperienced President. Iraq's newly (and less than effectively) USA-trained forces were no match for the well-armed, focused and determined, religious fanaticism of the IS. The IS troops plowed through northern Iraq...gathering up territory, towns, resources, money, abandoned US military materiel, as well as disaffected Sunni soldiers and former Bathist army officers.
So in reality the President is now fighting on the side of Mr. Assad, the man who he was attempting to overthrow and, in the process of that misguided attempt, helped to generate the mess we are now experiencing in that part of the world. But it is unlikely that he would be willing to admit to that.
Do you understand how stupid this all is? Only the militarists, military pundits, and the arms manufacturers are happy---they are all making big profits. The long-suffering American taxpayer, who now lives in a nation with a sick economy and crumbling infrastructure is reluctantly footing the bill, our US airmen are putting their lives in danger on these flights, and the Iraqi and Kurdish people are again suffering horribly. For this disaster we can thank all those US interventionists: G W Bush, Cheney, McCain, Clinton and now Obama too , who think we can solve the world's problems using the muzzle end of a smoking gun. Let us not forget that. They did it! Let us remind them of their stupidity on a regular basis.
It seems whatever the neocons and their supporters touch abroad gets screwed up-----and sadly lots of people die.
Please President Obama, stand up to this scourge of mankind and give us all a break.
.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
GAZA : REPLAY OF WARSAW GHETTO?
THE WARSAW GHETTO MASSACRE REPLAYED IN GAZA
Israel has stepped over the red line demarcating the humane from the brutish and bloodthirsty in its attack on Gaza. I will not take up the argument of the Hamas rocket fire and the tunnels. You have heard all that. Let me concentrate on the part of the story you do not hear or read about. Sadly, the events in Gaza reminds me of the 1943 brutal massacre of innocent Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. The world mostly sat back and let that tragedy happen, unable or unwilling to help. More than 7,000 Jews were killed and the rest deported to concentration camps where many or most died. As I write this today, wondering as I write, how and why we as a people either forget our history or simply are unaware of it, and thus keep repeating past mistakes and atrocities. As of today I read that more than one-thousand Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. And as in the Warsaw uprising, the world's nations just sit by doing nothing.
The Israeli Army--considered perhaps one of the top-five best-equipped and run militaries in the world--was unleashed by Mr. Netanyahu two weeks ago against the poor, urbanized, densely populated enclave of Gaza --a 141 square mile sea-side Mediterranean ghetto (about six miles wide and twenty-five miles long) located between Israel and Egypt. Like the Warsaw ghetto the Israelis have sealed up the borders. The Israeli forces plowed through the chain link fencing and barbed wire of the 300 meter wide no-mans land at the Gaza-Israeli boundary with tanks, heavy artillery, and armored troop carriers. Israeli navy ships used heavy guns to bombard the Gaza shore. Its Air Force made devastating bombing runs over densely populated areas collapsing high rise apartments and burying residents in rubble. Even "off target" humanitarian UN schools and facilities were bombed, more than once, causing heavy fatalities.
The Netanyahu-assigned kill-zone where the Israeli "Defense" Force ( IDF) is now operating is an outdoor, urbanized prison where 1.8 million Palestinians live cheek by jowl in an area the size of six Manhattan Islands. Even on Manhattan island-- one can readily leave by roads, bridges, and ferries, but in Gaza the Israeli barbed wire and machine gun nests have sealed off the enclave tightly since 2007. Its inhabitants have no possibility of escape. The IDF has been literally assigned by its political leaders to shoot "fish in a barrel". As the dead pile up in the streets, one wonders how the proud IDF...professional soldiers all--can stomach being ordered to target buildings and structures they know are filled with unarmed children, women and old people. The body count is now ( July 30) well over 1000 dead...largely women and children, and as as many seven thousands wounded of all ages. The Palestinian body count belies the Israeli propaganda machine which claims "pin point" strikes and "restrained" action on Hamas tunnels. Sadly these exaggerations and untruths are routinely parroted by US media. It makes one gasp with incredulity upon hearing these statements, first put forth (perhaps understandably) by professional defenders and representatives of the Israeli government, but then repeated verbatim by so-called US "journalists". As the propaganda is repeated in the American press and on air, one can sit there and view other pictures and commentators on the internet which tell a completely different story. That story is one of the illegal and disproportionate use of force by one heavily armed and militarized people brutishly visited on another group trapped and almost wholly unarmed populace. One wonders do these Israelis remember their own heroic history of resistance to the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943? Can they no longer empathize with suffering that they or their grandparents may have experienced. There is an embarrassing and disturbing parallel here.
The world rightly erupted in agonized and angry resentment at the outbreak of the Israeli attack against Gaza..and Israel's disproportionate and inhumane attack on essentially unprotected, unarmed civilians being punished as a community only because they are Palestinians and who as children are innocent of any wrong doing--- and can not escape. Massive, demonstrations against Israel's actions took place in the UK, France, Australia, Canada, Germany and many other nations. But here at home in the US, there was little anger or resentment....only bland statements by President Obama offering Mr. Netanyahu cover for his brutal actions by claiming Israel had the "right to protect itself". Left unsaid by the American media were the underlying facts of the illegal occupation, the unending expansionism of settlements, the daily humiliations, beatings, killings and attacks on Palestinians. Most importantly, what has been ignored here in the US were the provocations by Mr. Netanyahu, who, Bush-Cheney-like used the abductions and brutal murder of three Israeli boys as a pretext for war. Mr. Netanyahu was quick to blame Hamas for the abductions (without any proof or evidence to support his claim) and used this causus belli to run rough shod over Palestinian communities in the West Bank, breaking into homes, killing and brutalizing innocents in his quest to "find and return the boys to their parents". Though he well-knew at the time that the abducted youths were already dead. The three were killed almost immediately as one of the teenagers tried fruitlessly to make a covert call to the police. Mr. Netanyahu hid this fact and continued to claim, without proof, that Hamas was to blame for the abductions, and to stir up his nation to acts of hatred, violence, and support for war. His obvious goal in all this brutality was to undermine Hamas, and somehow abrogate the recent unpalatable agreement between Hamas and Fatah to form a joint government. Unsaid also was that Hamas had kept to its 2012 agreement with Israel regarding restraining rocket fire, but during that same period Israel had not modified its policy of keeping Gaza's borders sealed and limiting inflow of goods and supplies into the Gaza ghetto. So here at home, the citizenry of the nation which claims to lead the free world and prides itself on its penchant for protecting the downtrodden, and righting injustice remains ignorant of the whole story. Our government, its hands tied by a complacent and /or ignorant populace looks on and either ignores this unprecedented act of perfidy and brutality and/or encourages the perpetrators and instigators of violence. The US news reports in our papers and on the air focus on other stories--like the Ukraine-- and the streets here--unlike in the rest of the world--were essentially quiet.
The oft claimed myth that American Jews control the US press and other media might be offered as an explanation for the paltry (and where it occurred, misleading) coverage. But in this I agree with Abe Foxman of the AIPAC. The Jews who support Israel do not control the media. The US media actually police themselves. Out of habit or fear of reprisal they simply conform to the story-line handed to them by the Israeli propaganda machine.There are very few examples of journalists in the US media who step out of line. For US journalists there is no "positive" outcome in writing stories which criticize Israel. The result is, with few exceptions...they simply avoid the topic. This leaves the American public with only one view--a biased and inaccurate one. Why expose oneself to the calumny of an angry and powerful minority, and be unfairly branded as "anti-Semites" or as Jews, as facilitators of anti-Semites, in the process?
Better to focus on writing about the Russians and the Ukraine.
But perhaps when these journalists do write about the Ukraine, they might ask themselves this question--just so they can continue to call themselves "journalistssts". If Mr. Putin is "responsible" (as our government spokespersons repeat over and over again) for the acts of the
Think of that....or at least just THINK.
rjk
Israel has stepped over the red line demarcating the humane from the brutish and bloodthirsty in its attack on Gaza. I will not take up the argument of the Hamas rocket fire and the tunnels. You have heard all that. Let me concentrate on the part of the story you do not hear or read about. Sadly, the events in Gaza reminds me of the 1943 brutal massacre of innocent Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. The world mostly sat back and let that tragedy happen, unable or unwilling to help. More than 7,000 Jews were killed and the rest deported to concentration camps where many or most died. As I write this today, wondering as I write, how and why we as a people either forget our history or simply are unaware of it, and thus keep repeating past mistakes and atrocities. As of today I read that more than one-thousand Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. And as in the Warsaw uprising, the world's nations just sit by doing nothing.
The Israeli Army--considered perhaps one of the top-five best-equipped and run militaries in the world--was unleashed by Mr. Netanyahu two weeks ago against the poor, urbanized, densely populated enclave of Gaza --a 141 square mile sea-side Mediterranean ghetto (about six miles wide and twenty-five miles long) located between Israel and Egypt. Like the Warsaw ghetto the Israelis have sealed up the borders. The Israeli forces plowed through the chain link fencing and barbed wire of the 300 meter wide no-mans land at the Gaza-Israeli boundary with tanks, heavy artillery, and armored troop carriers. Israeli navy ships used heavy guns to bombard the Gaza shore. Its Air Force made devastating bombing runs over densely populated areas collapsing high rise apartments and burying residents in rubble. Even "off target" humanitarian UN schools and facilities were bombed, more than once, causing heavy fatalities.
The Netanyahu-assigned kill-zone where the Israeli "Defense" Force ( IDF) is now operating is an outdoor, urbanized prison where 1.8 million Palestinians live cheek by jowl in an area the size of six Manhattan Islands. Even on Manhattan island-- one can readily leave by roads, bridges, and ferries, but in Gaza the Israeli barbed wire and machine gun nests have sealed off the enclave tightly since 2007. Its inhabitants have no possibility of escape. The IDF has been literally assigned by its political leaders to shoot "fish in a barrel". As the dead pile up in the streets, one wonders how the proud IDF...professional soldiers all--can stomach being ordered to target buildings and structures they know are filled with unarmed children, women and old people. The body count is now ( July 30) well over 1000 dead...largely women and children, and as as many seven thousands wounded of all ages. The Palestinian body count belies the Israeli propaganda machine which claims "pin point" strikes and "restrained" action on Hamas tunnels. Sadly these exaggerations and untruths are routinely parroted by US media. It makes one gasp with incredulity upon hearing these statements, first put forth (perhaps understandably) by professional defenders and representatives of the Israeli government, but then repeated verbatim by so-called US "journalists". As the propaganda is repeated in the American press and on air, one can sit there and view other pictures and commentators on the internet which tell a completely different story. That story is one of the illegal and disproportionate use of force by one heavily armed and militarized people brutishly visited on another group trapped and almost wholly unarmed populace. One wonders do these Israelis remember their own heroic history of resistance to the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943? Can they no longer empathize with suffering that they or their grandparents may have experienced. There is an embarrassing and disturbing parallel here.
The world rightly erupted in agonized and angry resentment at the outbreak of the Israeli attack against Gaza..and Israel's disproportionate and inhumane attack on essentially unprotected, unarmed civilians being punished as a community only because they are Palestinians and who as children are innocent of any wrong doing--- and can not escape. Massive, demonstrations against Israel's actions took place in the UK, France, Australia, Canada, Germany and many other nations. But here at home in the US, there was little anger or resentment....only bland statements by President Obama offering Mr. Netanyahu cover for his brutal actions by claiming Israel had the "right to protect itself". Left unsaid by the American media were the underlying facts of the illegal occupation, the unending expansionism of settlements, the daily humiliations, beatings, killings and attacks on Palestinians. Most importantly, what has been ignored here in the US were the provocations by Mr. Netanyahu, who, Bush-Cheney-like used the abductions and brutal murder of three Israeli boys as a pretext for war. Mr. Netanyahu was quick to blame Hamas for the abductions (without any proof or evidence to support his claim) and used this causus belli to run rough shod over Palestinian communities in the West Bank, breaking into homes, killing and brutalizing innocents in his quest to "find and return the boys to their parents". Though he well-knew at the time that the abducted youths were already dead. The three were killed almost immediately as one of the teenagers tried fruitlessly to make a covert call to the police. Mr. Netanyahu hid this fact and continued to claim, without proof, that Hamas was to blame for the abductions, and to stir up his nation to acts of hatred, violence, and support for war. His obvious goal in all this brutality was to undermine Hamas, and somehow abrogate the recent unpalatable agreement between Hamas and Fatah to form a joint government. Unsaid also was that Hamas had kept to its 2012 agreement with Israel regarding restraining rocket fire, but during that same period Israel had not modified its policy of keeping Gaza's borders sealed and limiting inflow of goods and supplies into the Gaza ghetto. So here at home, the citizenry of the nation which claims to lead the free world and prides itself on its penchant for protecting the downtrodden, and righting injustice remains ignorant of the whole story. Our government, its hands tied by a complacent and /or ignorant populace looks on and either ignores this unprecedented act of perfidy and brutality and/or encourages the perpetrators and instigators of violence. The US news reports in our papers and on the air focus on other stories--like the Ukraine-- and the streets here--unlike in the rest of the world--were essentially quiet.
The oft claimed myth that American Jews control the US press and other media might be offered as an explanation for the paltry (and where it occurred, misleading) coverage. But in this I agree with Abe Foxman of the AIPAC. The Jews who support Israel do not control the media. The US media actually police themselves. Out of habit or fear of reprisal they simply conform to the story-line handed to them by the Israeli propaganda machine.There are very few examples of journalists in the US media who step out of line. For US journalists there is no "positive" outcome in writing stories which criticize Israel. The result is, with few exceptions...they simply avoid the topic. This leaves the American public with only one view--a biased and inaccurate one. Why expose oneself to the calumny of an angry and powerful minority, and be unfairly branded as "anti-Semites" or as Jews, as facilitators of anti-Semites, in the process?
Better to focus on writing about the Russians and the Ukraine.
But perhaps when these journalists do write about the Ukraine, they might ask themselves this question--just so they can continue to call themselves "journalistssts". If Mr. Putin is "responsible" (as our government spokespersons repeat over and over again) for the acts of the
Think of that....or at least just THINK.
rjk
Monday, June 16, 2014
POACHING OF ELEPHANTS MUST STOP! USE THE ECONOMIC LEVER
WE NEED AN ECONOMIC BAN ON THE IVORY TRADERS
The poaching of African elephants has reached a terrible crescendo. Thirty thousand of these magnificent, intelligent beasts were slaughtered in Africa in the last year just for their tusks. Their bodies are left to rot. The ivory is surreptitiously purchased by the newly wealthy classes in Vietnam and China. Our dollars, euros, and pounds are supporting them in their new found wealth. We must dissuade them from their madness. We must stop this crazy ignorant slaughter which will exterminate these wonderful creatures within a decade.
I am proposing a world ban on products from those countries found to be trafficking in ivory. The economic button is the only way and the best way to get the attention of the leaders of those countries who have the means to stop the illegal trade but turn a blind eye to the activities of their wealthy countrymen and women. They must actively stop ivory imports and sales. It's illegal already you say. But the legal constraint is not effective.
When massive numbers of people around the world agree to turn away from manufactured products or other goods of those countries which ignore and flaunt the ivory laws...their leaders will wake up and begin the necessary and effective crack down.
Let's do it !
Send emails, texts, twitters...Stop the elephant slaughter!
The poaching of African elephants has reached a terrible crescendo. Thirty thousand of these magnificent, intelligent beasts were slaughtered in Africa in the last year just for their tusks. Their bodies are left to rot. The ivory is surreptitiously purchased by the newly wealthy classes in Vietnam and China. Our dollars, euros, and pounds are supporting them in their new found wealth. We must dissuade them from their madness. We must stop this crazy ignorant slaughter which will exterminate these wonderful creatures within a decade.
I am proposing a world ban on products from those countries found to be trafficking in ivory. The economic button is the only way and the best way to get the attention of the leaders of those countries who have the means to stop the illegal trade but turn a blind eye to the activities of their wealthy countrymen and women. They must actively stop ivory imports and sales. It's illegal already you say. But the legal constraint is not effective.
When massive numbers of people around the world agree to turn away from manufactured products or other goods of those countries which ignore and flaunt the ivory laws...their leaders will wake up and begin the necessary and effective crack down.
Let's do it !
Send emails, texts, twitters...Stop the elephant slaughter!
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