Attacks on Obama Endanger All of Us!

Theoretically at least each person who answered 'yes' to killing the president (per the report below) has committed a felony -- the VP is okay to threaten. I wonder whether the authorities will carry through with this? Possibly those who posted the questions may be guilty as collaborators? There is a limit to free speech when it risks serious harms.

Obviously masses of people are not coming up with attacking characterizations of Obama all by themselves (e.g. Nazi). There are some pretty ugly groups out there and they are moving ever closer to dangerous things with threats against lives of the president and/or others with whom they disagree politically. I notice Republicans moving beyond simply lying and distorting facts towards hate-inducing stuff. I think we need to be calling them down hard and fast. Certainly it is a violation of both our religious and American values that particularly religious leaders and pols engage in such which can stimulate nut cases into extreme acts. There is already too much physical abuse directed at gays, women, minority groups, and others who are vulnerable.

As I recall, similar ugliness was inspired during the Depression by such as Father Charles Coughlin -- hate radio priest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin

It is possible that the current economic anxieties that people are experiencing are also inducing support of equivalents among current leaders? I am hearing echoes of the Caughlin's anti-Semitism as well as anti-minority biases (e.g. aliens) based on the patterns of the Nazis and fascists whom Coughlin also adopted. I don't mean to be a fear monger here, but such people and movements can be extremely dangerous. There were many other players with these extremist right wing movements prior to Pearl Harbor such as Prescott Bush, father and grandfather of presidents 41 and 43, who did business with the Nazis. Bush was a nice, if not particularly intelligent, Senator by the end of WW2, but it took Pearl Harbor and the declarations of war against us by Japan and Germany to clear the way for Roosevelt to assist the British under air attack from the widespread resistance to helping them here up until that point when national loyalty finally trumped national sellout. The denial of the Holocaust back then was a lingering echo. Holocaust denial is not a recent invention. I hope we are not seeing a similar pattern now, but I cringe each time I see Obama exposed to potential sharp shooters who can hit targets from far distances.

The stuff being directed at Obama by the uglies and most of the Republicans these days are inviting this kind of attack -- and not just on Obama alone. We are all as much threatened by our own homegrown right wing terrorists such as Mcveigh as Muslim ones. Much of the vile conduct of Bush officials (e.g. torture, 'rendering, etc.) was a direct borrowing from the Nazis and Stalinists. And one could make a strong case that our attack on Iraq was as vicious as was Hitler's on Poland. Fortunately Obama came into the picture just in time to halt more of the same, but he has a number of messes now to clean up in the face of the momentum set in motion towards killing as the way for nations to control others (e.g. Afghanistan).

Read what follows as a cautionary note on America today!

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"Secret Service probing Facebook poll on assassinating Obama --The poll asked respondents, 'should Obama be killed?' 28 Sep 2009 The U.S. Secret Service is investigating an online survey that asked whether people thought President Barack Obama should be assassinated, officials said Monday. The poll, posted Saturday on Facebook, was taken off the popular social networking site quickly after company officials were alerted to its existence. But, like any threat against the president, Secret Service agents are taking no chances. The poll asked respondents "Should Obama be killed?" The choices: No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts my health care."

article: Secret Service probing Facebook poll on assassinating Obama
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

A Military Solution for Afghanistan?

Gen. Stanley McChrystal was a very winning figure during his appearance last night on 60 Minutes. He is obviously a knowledgeable military man. But his understanding of Afghanistan looked particularly frail from some of his side comments, e.g. we need merely establish a 400,000 Afghan army and then we can exit. How such an army is to be created in a country governed by the elders of some 50,000 disunited and constantly competing/conflicting villages and war lords is a large question indeed -- the stuff of civil war is built into that suggestion. No one has ever conquered or unified Afghanistan from without. And I doubt very much that the Afghans want to be ruled by an army constructed by us. By all reports Karzai's governing figures are totally corrupt. We are going to make them virtuous? If you believe that, we have a very nice bridge to sell you here in NYC.

Yes, we should stop killing innocent Afghans from on high. But one can scarcely see how even hundreds of thousands of additional American troops would be able to occupy and subdue the complex geography of this country with its hiding places and escape roots for enemies legion and our capacity to distinguish friends from enemies there virtually nil. Karzai is manifestly a fraud with a brother allegedly heavily into the opium trade. He is not exactly a beloved and admired ruler who may or may not have been elected, depending on which ballots one chooses to take seriously. What an ally who, incidentally, is an admirer along with Hugo Chavez of Iran's Ahmadinejad! I doubt that the typical Afghan sees him as anything more than our appointed stooge.

I hope that Obama will not let our good generals push him into a military commitment which will manifestly not work for this disparate people traditionally rebellious against illegitimate authorities. Enough good people have been killed there already -- ours and theirs.

What do you think?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Ahmadinejad and Iran's Nuclear Weapon Capacity?

I listened to Mohaoud Ahmadinejad's diatribe at the UN with the sense that this academic is a psychopathic nut case -- a dangerous (if clever) one at that. He is suppressing his critics in Iran and the latest disclosure of a buried nuclear site is grounds for a legitimate supposition that he may be plotting some sort of Holocaust for Israel sometime in the future -- those rockets as well a nuclear bomb capacity. I don't believe in assassinations, but there is an exception to most general moral and legal rules in instances of extreme danger. A nuclear explosion in the middle East would kill and sicken millions of people there and wherever the winds carried the nuclear fallout.

Summarily, this is a man to get rid of rather than driving Israel to attempt to destroy Iran's nuclear capacity which it may not have the weapons to achieve anyway. I would urge the decent nations of the world to issue an ultimatum to Ahmadinejad and his government that unless Iran opens its borders to complete inspection by the end of this year, a devastating attack on their nuclear facilities from the rest of us will ensue. I dread such an event because it would also cause the slaughter of innumerable innocent Iranians. What I am intimating here is that the Iranians themselves should one way or another get rid of this nut who is so endangering them as well as others. How sad in that he is in a position to make a strong impact on the Israelis -- inducing serious peace efforts with the Palestinians. Netenyahu and Israel's Avigdor Lieberman are vicious men -- Lieberman has called for expelling Israel's non Jews, is Netanyahu's principal support in devious sabotage of any serious peace efforts with the Palestinians.

Obama has to walk softly and carry a big stick, but the rest of us following this latest mess should speak out loudly and clearly as I am doing here. Ahmadinejad is not a figure to be dismissed lightly. He is an extremely clever and canny guy. He has been busy establishing links and ties around the world which would make economic sanctions hard to enforce. He makes his appeal to poverty rather than wealth -- even if his economic efforts have not been going well in Iran. His main opposition there seems to lie with its students. His admirers range from Chavez in Venezuela to Karzai in Afghanistan. I strongly recommend this biographical study from Wiki to get a full sense of this complicated individual. My concern about his misuse of nuclear capacities remains. He could become the world's most devastating suicide bomber if pressed by resistance at home or from abroad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Afghanistan - Time to Get Out?

In his NY Times column today David Brooks claims: "Only 6 percent of Afghans want a Taliban return, while NATO is viewed with surprising favor. This is not Vietnam or even Iraq."

Also today the sad news is that yet another 5 of our troops have been killed in Afghanistan, heading us towards perhaps yet another record month of American lives lost (51 in August). The push pull here is obvious. How can we best help the Afghans restore some order to the life of their country without sacrificing our own best interests. Obviously there are two ways to go: 1) we can expand our military and try to pursue elusive enemies who seem better organized and ready to harm us than we are to expel them from their scattered locales -- in a country with geographical features and mixed cultures far different than those of Vietnam (people fighting for independence from our interference) and Iraq (with far fewer internal conflicts) from which we are now pulling out to let them make or break it on their own.

If it is, indeed, the case that the Taliban are not wanted by the vast majority of Afghans, then our target should be the search for ways to help them rid themselves of this scourge. I don't see how more U.S. troops can achieve this end. We are not fighting a war against a nation as we were with Vietnam and killing Afghans indiscriminately because we cannot distinguish friends from enemies is not the way to win anything but increased resentment. The NATO nations are one by one showing us the way to go with their announced intentions to withdraw.

In my humble opinion, then, we ought to be giving the Afghans timelines just as we did the Iraqis. It is their country and it is up to them to determine where they want it to evolve. We don't need troops to chase the Taliban -- we can't catch them anyway as they slip back across the border into Pakistan. If we are going to spend monies, it should be with offers to help with basic construction -- roads, schools, hospitals and other essentials much needed there. If we cannot protect our own with the troops we currently have there, even sizable increases in numbers are not going to help -- no way we can occupy the whole country.

Summarily, then, I am with those who are suggesting that it is time for us to start ending this 'war' -- by setting the deadlines for our exit. What these exactly should be I leave to others to determine, but announcing our intention to leave is the starting point. It is David Brooks in the remainder of his column who is living with "illusions." More of the same is just that -- more of the mess that we have already gotten ourselves into there -- unhappily because we diverted our attention to Iraq at precisely the time when a Brooks solution might have worked. We made a vast mistake with that move, but now it is time to correct it.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Beware Billing Errors - Health Related Particularly!

I have recently taken over our family bill paying operation -- yuk! I am 76 going on 77 and having once taught a course in geriatric psychology, I am aware that as we grow into these years we are slower to recollect details that once were fresh in mind.

What has bothered me particularly is the discovery of more than half a dozen erroneous billings amounting to a number of thousands of dollars. One batch particularly was being pursued by a collection agency which was harassing us with phone calls at all hours of all days. I was finally able to pry loose the source of these charges and discovered that there were none such -- our medical services are covered by Medicare and a secondary insurance that completes the payment. What had obviously happened was that the original service -- one of our local hospitals had failed to notify the bill collecting agency that we owed nothing. The same hospital had made another error as well of hundreds of dollars. And another medical service had charged for covered things for which the insurance had not yet arrived. I paid the first of these and doubt that I will see the repayment that I requested.

I mention all of this because I fear that spouses and estates are being cheated out there. There were so many errors with us that there must be a pattern of errors at work as the bill collecting departments mess things up. This was certainly true when we had to battle again and again to get our medical insurance companies to pay what we were owed.

Health reform of such operations we certainly need -- particularly for those of us who are aging and have more bills with which to contend. I have found something of the same problem with medications -- not our national agencies, but local pharmacies that charge vastly different amounts for the same medication.

Beware!
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Are "Black"and "White" Inherently Racist Terms?

They have always struck me as being such, given their histories and the overtones associated with them - both cultural and inherent. White generally means good and black something bad.

For myself I use geographical identity terms -- African American, European, Asian American or national identity ones, e.g. Canadian, French Canadian, German, Irish -- some of which can be combined, e.g. Irish American.

"Black Man" has all sorts of negative connotations that I need not spell out here and people act on these -- not just police discriminating against individuals or groups. I always knew that my chances were to get better treatment because I was "white," e.g. when stopped for speeding did I rarely get a ticket.

I know that many people use "black" and "white" without intending any predudicial connotations. But they are there, nevertheless. Our statistics of employment, imprisonment, and many other such manifest the prejudices or privileges of those so identified. It is hard to escape the historic roots of terms. We no longer use the 'n' words, but let's not forget their roots in the color terms.

What do you think?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Obama and Reforms?

Obama has been telling it as it is. Without health care reform Americans in general will be in increasing difficulty with costs rising above their already inflated levels. He will be well placed to continue on with the message whatever our pols do in the near future. Time and tide -- and the public in general -- are on his side while the Republicans are in disarray and manifesting maximum nastiness towards any who question their nonsense.

He has plenty of time to continue telling things as they really are. We are not living in the world of the Clintons who were exploited by the Republicans at a very different time and in vastly different economic circumstances. The failure to control big capital has brought us a recession about as severe as the Depression induced by a comparable lack of governmental controls to guide our economic system.

The same may well be true of the situation in Afghanistan. The easy Republican answer to terrorists has been to throw ever greater military forces against enemies indistinguishable from potential allies who are being alienated by our killing games from on high.

I will be watching with interest where Obama leads us in these and a number of other critical areas. He is one of the smartest and best informed leaders we have had in quite some time. Those who are counting him out prematurely may be in for a surprise -- particularly the right wingers who are presenting themselves as our American uglies.

What do you think?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Afghanistan Is NOT Iraq!

McCain's solution to the violence breaking out in Iraq was to send in more troops. Fortunately at the same time General David H. Petraeus began to bribe the Sunnis who were feeling left out in the distribution of economic goodies and resentful of their loss of dominance under the Hussein regime. Probably Petraeus' move was the more effective one in reducing violence. It has now begun to escalate once again and my casual observation is that it is the Shiites that are taking the brunt of the civilian killings. Could be that the Sunnis are feeling excluded again?

Iraq is a far simpler package to manipulate than Afghanistan. It consists of only 3 major groups -- the Kurds who are happily doing their own thing in the north. The Shiites who are largely running the show. The Sunnis who only make up about 20% of the population, have no direct access to oil wealth, and who have been displaced from their home locations and/or are emigrating to escape persecution in Iraq.

Afghanistan for its part has no such neat and tidy divisions to which we can appeal. It is a melange of hundreds of tribes or clans and subdivisions of these down to the village level. It is spread out over hard to reach let alone dominate land areas -- all those mountains and valleys that offer shelter and escape routes for attackers.

Summarily, I don't see how Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's call for yet more troops is going to do much more than provide more body bag materials for our brave troops -- 51 died in August alone. To dominate Afghanistan we would have to send in virtually our entire army -- it is such a large territory spread widely and with so many hiding places and escape routes as noted. Looks to me like this guy is giving us the conventional military answer -- send me more army and I can do it!

Rather what we need in Afghanistan and what I suspect is what Obama is searching for is something like the Petraeus effort. However, I don't know whether we have the knowhow to do this. Our boy Karzai is despised as our puppet. Where else can we go after a spoiled election? Maybe it is time to pack up and get out to let the Afghans do their own thing?
Yes, I know the Taliban are nasty people, but so do most of the Afghans.

What do you think?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Can We Avert Yet Another Super Rich Induced Disaster?

If the NRA had full sway, it might well argue that we should abolish our police forces and simply arm each citizen with self-defense weapons. We might even go further back to the origins of our Republic and do away with our military and similarly arm private groups to take its place -- we have in fact been doing a good bit of that of late (Blackwater, etc.)

The catch in both instances is that we would as individuals and a nation be left largely defenseless against more powerful and well organized enemies.

Analogously the crash last year happened because we had so weakened our regulatory defenses that our corporations could run amuck, exploiting any and all and leaving not only our nation, but the globe as a whole in one hell of an economic mess.

The lesson to be learned here and so obvious is that we need our governments to protect us from dangerous individuals and institutions. They certainly aren't going to police themselves from all our recent experiences. We are rapidly becoming an oligarchy, i.e. a nation owned and operated by our large corporations which have one aim in life -- to maximize their profits -- not to implement the public interest.

One of Obama's biggest challenges will be to cut through the anti-government propaganda of these large financial institutions being promoted by the Republicans to rescue us from what would most likely turn into the greatest depression that our nation has ever experienced.

Our financial institutions are now running wild again just as they did prior to 1929 which produced that financial disaster that lingered on until we were bailed out by WW2.

Can Obama and our caring Democrats break the stranglehold of our lying media and rescue us from more disasters to come?

What do you think?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Israel and Anti-Semitism?

One of the horrors of my coming to appreciate human rights as a teenager was the anti-Semitism that still pervaded American culture prior to and during WW2. The Holocaust somewhat moderated dislike of Jews and began to open doors of the numerous institutions previously closed to Jewish membership, a ghettoization almost as restricting as that confining African Americans. My pre-teen years were spent growing up in an outer suburb of Hartford, Connecticut and summers in the North East Kingdom of Vermont. In both places Jews were rarities. We had one Jewish family -- a grocery and liquor store owner -- in one of our poor communities in the former and virtually none in our summer vacation location in Vermont. Vermonters were generally tolerant of people in those days and respected them as individuals and not as members of particular ethnic groups or religions. It was just that there were no Jews in residence and the arrival of one Jewish family for a summer vacation was a major happening.

I am worried now that the identity of Israel as a Jewish state -- particularly being pressed by Netanyahu of late -- and the mistreatment of Palestinians which most criticize with varying degrees of intensity -- will spill over into generalized anti-Semitism of which we are beginning to see some signs here and there. G-d forbid that we slip back anywhere near the patterns of persecution to which Jews were subjected for two millennia -- particularly by Christians who resented Jewish resistance to conversion. Need we cite the pogroms that preceded the ultimate horror of the Holocaust?

What I fear is more likely something paralleling the covert African American racism which shows it ugly head when people are feeling pressured as many are with our current deep recession. Need it be pointed out that caring Jews are as distressed by Israel's mistreatment of the Palestinians as the rest of us. They, as the rest of us should, also point to the murderous reactions of Palestinian terrorists and the anti Semitic attacks on Jews in nations as far removed as Argentina. Synagogues today with the advent of Rosh Hashanah are particularly on guard against attacks by potential killers. Ahmadinejad certainly knows that the Holocaust was no fiction. His denial of it is an extreme way of condemning the displacement of Palestinians by Israel which some saw as compensation for the mass Nazi murders of Jews. Injustices were involved with its creation and continue today. The accumulated resentments there make the likelihood of a real peace most dim. But let us not forget that Israel was formed with the consent of the Western nations who had little regard then for the Palestinians to be displaced.

But to return to my primary point, whatever Israel does that is a violation of humans and their rights (e.g. Gaza) is no justification for anti-Semitism in general. Some of my own mentors and finest teachers were Jewish as are the fathers of some of my nieces and nephews. A good number of my best and most respected friends are Jewish. There is no excuse for condemning people en masse any more than it would have been to so treat Germans, Italians, and Japanese after WW2. Their nations did some pretty horrible things -- such is the way with runaway governments. But people are individuals and must be respected and cared for as such.

What do you think?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Perversion of American Protestantism

During the Civil War a number of Protestant denominations divided into northern and southern entities -- such as the Southern Baptists originally founded in 1845. The Southern Baptists have remained conservatives on most issues. They are the largest U.S. Protestant body with some 16 million members and 42,000 churches.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Baptist_Convention

Last night in an interview with an expert on the Christian right, Rachel Maddow reported:

"Public Policy Polling released results from its new poll of residents of the great state of New Jersey. The poll found that 18 percent of New Jersey conservatives say they are sure that President Obama is the anti-Christ. No questions asked. Another 17 percent of New Jersey self-identified conservatives say they just aren‘t sure, but they‘re not willing to rule it out."

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/politics/142730/rachel_maddow%3A_why_do_1_3_of_new_jersey_conservatives_think_obama_might_be_the_anti-christ

In the late 1950s I spent 3 years earning a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in NYC where I recall one of my noted teachers, Reinhold Niebuhr, warning us that Protestantism was moving away from its concerns with social justice and care for the poor towards conservative interests having nothing to do with the Gospels or Jesus of Nazareth. In so many words my teachers warned us of what was coming which sent me out of organized religion and into a career in social/political/legal philosophy where I could be sure that I would find and could teach basic social justice values to my students.

More and more I have watched the right wing religionists taking over previously balanced institutions such as the Republican Party and using religion as the primary authority for their attacks on people and the institutions of liberal democracy which had made the U.S. a model to be emulated and a place to migrate if one could gain entry and escape from tyrannies elsewhere.

I am startled to learn from Rachel's statistical report that a northern state, too, is threatened by increased numbers of residents who believe that our president may be a disciple of the devil rather than a reformer. Sarah Palin, I suppose, is a prime instance of this right wing perversion of Christianity which she has claimed as her authority for all sorts of self-seeking nonsense.

Where this will all end I do not know. But I am saddened to see Protestantism being perverted by anti Christian activists. Established Protestant churches are fighting hard for survival against these heretics -- witness the massive stadium operations that promise personal wealth in return for belief in them -- and generous donations to same.

Incidentally, this perversion of American religion is noted around the globe as yet another instance of the hypocrisy of our claim to be the model form of government for others to emulate.

What do you think?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

More on American Racism

We have come part way in ending off the worst aspects of American racism -- whites can no longer murder African Americans with impunity. We still, however, use the racist terms, black and white. And one would guess that far fewer that half of our African American population has made it into our middle class. Obama received the votes of a minority of whites -- 43%. At least 25% of the unemployed in NYC are African American -- more if one considers that our official figures only count those still trying to find work. The treatment of African Americans by our typical police (particularly men) is totally different (biased). A near majority of those two million plus now in our prisons are African Americans where they are likely to serve longer terms than others:

"The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate,[3][4] and total documented prison population in the world.[3][5][6] As of year-end 2007, a record 7.2 million people were behind bars, on probation or on parole. Of the total, 2.3 million were incarcerated.[7] More than 1 in 100 American adults were incarcerated at the start of 2008. The People's Republic of China ranks second with 1.5 million, while having four times the population, thus having only about 18% of the US incarceration rate."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

African American men are considered dangerous and, thus, all are subject to an endless list of prejudices including, but not limited to those above. My wife and I lived for a time in Harlem. One night we were driving home after a late night event and were pursued and stopped by a police car. When the officer saw that we were not African Americans, he said, "Sorry, Sir." and sent us on our way. I assume some sort of ticket would have been our punishment otherwise.

When Carter says that racism is being brought to bear on Obama, there is probably some truth in the assertion. Earlier I had suggested that our racists had probably not voted for him in the first place. But panic over our economy is setting in with many who fear for their jobs and who are otherwise facing personal economic hardship such as the banks and credit card operations now freely playing with us to pry loose more income. So perhaps there is some truth to the assertion with those fearful that Obama as an African American cannot save us from such things.

What do you think?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Afghanistan Again

My recent (pessimistic) blog on Afghanistan has produced informative responses from people more knowledgeable about the situation than am I.
One of these is:

*Carlo Cristofori was Secretary of the International Committee for
Solidarity with the Afghan Resistance, set up by members of the European
Parliament following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. In that
capacity, he worked closely with a number of Afghan resistance organizations, becoming personally familiar with many Afghan political figures. He has analyzed Afghan politics for thirty years. *
*

He points out:

"It is the fundamental compact of allegiance between the tribes and the
central government that needs to be reestablished. Such a compact is not a pipe dream, but something that actually existed as the historical basis of the Afghan state, and which, under the monarchy, afforded Afghanistan generations of progress and peace."

Karzai, he maintains, is a puppet figure with which we replaced a royal family adept at putting together coalitions among the thousands of sub entities that constitute Afghanistan's identity -- a system with which we seem totally unfamiliar and unable to establish cooperative links. The (corrupt) Karzai election is at best more of the same. He is seen as our appointed puppet and carries no weight with the population -- explaining the weakness of the governmental structures he tried to set up.

Where we go from here, I do not know. But it certainly looks as though no possible (financially feasible) expansion of our troops there can do more than provide cannon fodder for those seeking to expel them -- 51 were killed in August alone. Six Italian troops were killed yesterday, leading to a call for Italy to get out.

Does not look good for us from any perspective. What do you think?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Can Afghanistan Become a Nation?

Afghanistan since before the time of Mohammed has never been a nation in the usual sense of that word -- a state governed by some sort of central authority -- democratic of otherwise. Rather it has consisted of a multitude of clans or tribes always shifting in their allegiances, conflicting or cooperating as their self interests and or ruling authorities dictate.

A Google check of Afghan clans will leave the general reader lost amidst the multitude of these clans and their sub-divisions. Karzai of the Populzai tribe is currently the head of the Pashtuns, but his main opposition candidate for the presidency claims Pashtun identity as well and the most rebellious section against central authority -- the south -- is also the heart of Pashtun origins and current roots -- possibly a bit less fierce against Karzai than the foreign troops which are now generally despised for their killings and other abuses felt by the typical Afghan.

Karzai's notorious governmental corruption is most likely little more than a manifestation of the various competing clans grabbing what they can.

It is not that this clan identity is unknown to U.S. political and military leaders. An excellent article was written on it in June, 2004:

Key to governing Afghans: the clans
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0624/p01s04-wosc.html

The following excerpts from the article illustrate the general tribal chaos and confusion that defeats American efforts to produce a democratic Afghan nation:

"But in southern Afghanistan, where the tribal system has primacy, power is much less concentrated. Within the two larger tribes there are numerous sub-tribes, conflicting claims to leadership, and small scale militias. Each village has a tribal chief, and these chiefs choose from among their own ranks leaders who will represent the tribe in Kabul. Most tribes, however, have a number of factions claiming to represent the whole tribe, leading to rivalries and chaos. While the multilayered and fractious nature of tribal authority can be exploited by outsiders, those same traits make it a perilously complex game.

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"Yet American efforts to work with the tribal system have been spotty at best, US officials and academics say. The biggest hindrance is the practice of cycling American diplomats and soldiers in and out of Afghanistan on one-year assignments. Many US intelligence officers serve even less time. This makes it difficult for American diplomats - most of whom are already restricted to the heavily fortified US embassy - to establish the personal bonds of trust necessary in a tribal system.

"The British learned this lesson of tribal relations a long time ago," says Thomas Barfield, a sociologist at Boston University with extensive experience in Afghanistan. "They also learned the importance of keeping people on the ground for long periods of time as political agents so they could learn the system and try to manipulate it."

******************************************

And so it seems most unlikely that the U.S. and its allies stand much chance of winning a 'war' in Afghanistan. Better to leave things to the clans who manifest not much in the way of support for the terrorists actually threatening us -- Osama bin Laden, too, is an alien figure to the Afghans who are concerned with their own interests, not waging a religious war against the West.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Carter Has Not Got It Quite Right

I am sure that Jimmy Carter has it right that much racism lingers in the South (and elsewhere, but these people probably did not vote for Obama in the first place. Obama has been under vicious attack by the Republicans (some of whom probably are the racists of which Carter speaks) and the media have time and time again cut off reports of his excellent speeches with trivia -- some of it Republican generated (the liar comment) and other stuff by Democrats (e.g. the focus on reprimanding Wilson).

Those who actually listen to Obama's speeches are impressed, but they are probably mainly those who agree with him in the first place. The problem which both Obama and the Democrats have is breaking through the media smoke clouds to get the facts to the general public that affect them vitally. They need not be listed in detail as they are pretty obvious ranging from our Republican generated economic crisis which needs reform to health care, let alone figuring out how to end our 'wars' in the Middle East which are costly both in money and lives.

Where we go from here, I honestly don't know. But Obama is a sharp guy and perhaps he can figure a way to break through to the public consciousness. We shall see. I hope for the best and he has time and public support to do so.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

But the Children?

[The following was sent on by the CPT (Christian Peace Teams) which tries to moderate conflicts in various parts of the world. Israel and Palestine have both now been condemned for their violations of human rights -- the excess of killings by Israel in Gaza and the rockets fired blindly by the Palestinians into Israel. One cannot help but despair over the traumatization of children on both sides caused by such violence. I was a child of WW2, but the threat of violence did not strike us directly -- only the loss of loved ones involved in that war.

Do these people have not concern for what they are doing to the next generations so affected who can only be frightened of or enraged against their (next) generation of enemies? One can understand no greater imperative than that for serious peace-making. We ended WW2 quickly, if we suffered great losses of lives on both sides. The trauma was not a never ending one.

One also wonders what we are doing in Afghanistan to kids there? It cannot be much better. At one point we exploded a massive air dropped bomb that destroyed everything within about a quarter of a mile radius. We did not use that again, but are doing the same more or less with our anonymous rockets from on high. We, in other words, are no more innocent than the Israelis and Palestinians -- only in a position to silence critics. Read the following for a first hand account. Ed Kent]

REFLECTION
At Tuwani: Childhood in Palestine
By Jan Benvie
September 2009

A few days ago, while I was sitting on the hillside watching the shepherds and their sheep, some young girls from the village brought me flowers. Their kind act brought back memories of when my daughter was young. She too used to love gathering wild flowers (more often than not flowering weeds) and giving them as gifts.

I found myself musing about my own children – now young adults. I thought about how safe and comfortable their childhoods had been compared to that of my young friends.

My children walked to and from school without threat of attack. My
greatest worry was their safety as they crossed the road, hoping they
would cross with the friendly person at the school crossing point.

Palestinian children walking to and from school in At-Tuwani are often
attacked and threatened by armed Israeli settlers. Israeli soldiers – the
same soldiers who invade their villages or chase their fathers and
brothers off their grazing land - escort them to and from school in
At-Tuwani. The escort soldiers often shout at the children or make them
run. On numerous occasions I have heard Israeli escort soldiers refer to the children as ‘terrorists’.

My children grew up strong and healthy. They turned on a tap and fresh,
clean water ran out of it. I was able to provide them with a healthy diet.

A few weeks ago I spoke with a doctor at the village clinic (only staffed for a few hours, one day a week). She told me that most of the children in the area suffer from iron deficiency due to their poor diet. Forty-two years of Israeli occupation has severely damaged the Palestinian economy and the unemployment rate is over 20%. Israelis have stolen valuable Palestinian agricultural land to build their illegal settlements and outposts. Palestinian access to land for raising crops and grazing livestock is severely restricted by the presence of armed Israeli settlers who, in collusion with the Israeli military, regularly chase the villagers from their land.

The various illegal Israeli settlements and outposts in the area are
supplied with electricity and water, yet none of the Palestinian villages have such basic infrastructure. Tuwani and the neighbouring villages are not without water and electricity because they are situated in remote, inaccessible locations, but because of the political will of the occupying Israeli regime.*

The fate of my children was not in the hands of politicians with their
incessant and meaningless prattle, and their peace was not simply a
‘process’. For now, the lives of Palestinian children continue to be
blighted by the merciless Israeli occupation.

*At-Tuwani and surrounding villages are in Area C according to the Oslo
Accords, placing them under Israeli military and civilian control.
However, Israel does not fulfill its obligation to the Palestinian
civilian population in the region.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Schools as Important as Health Care?

I know that medical reform is necessary to save lives, but as a retired educator I am as worried about the gutting of American education by our current economic crisis. Education ultimately saves lives as well -- those who most need it if deprived are likely to end up criminals and jailbirds whose lives are as much destroying and destroyed as those without adequate medical care.

When our children were young our local public schools were more or less disaster areas. Neighbors who tried to send their children to them found then not getting educated and too often brutalized by students of different economic and ethnic backgrounds, so our family made considerable personal and economic sacrifices to send our children to the best private institutions at all levels where they thrived with some scholarship assistance and lasting loan obligations that I am still trying to pay off.

The report today about the cutbacks in NYC school budgets:

A New Meaning for Cutting Classes
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
The recession is coming home for administrators, teachers
and students in New York City's public schools.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/education/15cuts.html?th&emc=th

is undoubtedly echoed across the nation and does not bode well for our future. A badly educated nation cannot compete in the modern world simply by throwing its military might around -- where we are also wasting funds to our "military industrial complex" and world cop fixation.

Where this is all going to end, I do not know. But formerly third world countries are now doing education better -- we used to be the world's leader in sending our students on to higher education -- no longer so. And if we are forced to cut our education budgets even further, we will fall deeper into the cesspools of ignorance and poorly functioning democracy which requires a well educated public to thrive. Much of the current political hate stuff is the outcome of the anxieties (being exploited by political con artists) about unemployment and loss of basic housing amidst our current economic travails.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Will Israel's Conflicting Factions Make Peace Impossible?

Today's NY Times suggests that probably settlers committed to the restoration of the original Israel will not use violence to achieve their aims:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/world/middleeast/14settlers.html?th&emc=th

However, let us not forget that Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated for his serious peace-making efforts in 1995. The head of one of Israel's major parties with constituents mainly from the former Soviet Union has proposed expelling Palestinian residents from Israel. Some of Israel's peace-makers have argued converting Israel/Palestine into a single democratic state rather than a Jewish one as demanded by the current government in power.

One is hard pressed to see how peace can be achieved, given the Israeli resistance to it for so many decades. More likely we shall see things dragging on with more and more Israelis moving into the West Bank. It is a good financial deal apparently to move there.

And then there is the powerful Israeli military with nuclear weapons that has been subsidized by the U.S. at more than two billion dollars per year since the peace negotiated with Egypt. A Palestinian 'state' -- if one wants to call it such with no military, no self-rule assured -- does not look to be a deal acceptable to the Palestinians who are frustrated already by the inequities of Israeli justice applied to them and the denial of a Palestinian right of return in the face of any and all Jews being welcomed. It is no surprise that many prefer to visit Israel, but live elsewhere. It looks like a bad situation for any and all there.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

How NOT to Cope with a Robber

Some years ago two residents in our neighborhood were needlessly killed when they made wrong moves in dealing with their robbers.

One was a father in our baby-sitting pool. A robber came to the door of his apartment, but fled when his young daughter opened the door, saw a gun and screamed. The father chased the robber who shot and killed him.

A Columbia graduate student made a sarcastic remark to a robber after he had been held up -- "You missed a dollar." The robber turned back and shot and killed him.

It may seem odd, but when one is being robbed, one as victim must take charge of the situation and keep things cool. No amount of money is worth one's life. One noted woman scholar made a sarcastic remark to her robber as he was fleeing. He turned back and raped her. She told us this at an academic meeting as a warning as to how NOT to cope.

I realize that few of us are not startled when someone is holding one up. I have been there and felt the shock. One of the mildest incidents was a pickpocket on a crowded bus who was trying to pry loose my billfold. I thought about it for a moment. Took his measure and said to be heard that a pickpocket was working the bus. He got off at the next stop. I had not tried to identify him personally or stop him. Once gone, he was no risk to any and was probably not armed with more than a knife, but could have used such to escape if trapped.

I pass along this information in hopes that it may save a life or two of some who have read it or to whom they have passed along this bit of street wisdom.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Have They No Shame?

I saw no mention of it during our commemoration yesterday of the horror of 9/11 and the grim loss of lives that day that touched nearly all of us living in the vicinity of NYC. But apparently an organization called the FreedomWorks Foundation, Chaired by a former Republican House Majority leader, plans to exploit our loss by running a protest today (more people can travel on Saturday than Friday) in the Nation's Capital attacking our nation with the slew of lying slanders that the right wing Republicans have been circulating this past few months:

http://912dc.org/

http://www.freedomworks.org/about/board-of-directors

I can think of nothing more obscene than using our human tragedies as a stage to attack our nation's best values and most humane leaders -- political and others.

Lest people forget, 9/11 _was_ a nightmare. That morning my wife had headed off to a meeting near the World Trade Center. Only hours later was she able to reach me and report that she had escaped unharmed -- she had been leaving the subway with a friend when one of the buildings was hit and they were able to walk north to safety. A few days later when our Brooklyn College classes had resumed, I stupidly asked my first class whether any had lost a relative or friend. Six hands went up.

For months thereafter many of us cringed whenever we heard a plane passing overhead. We all gave our support to the Bush administration to respond to the terrorists. In this instance only 20 -- mainly Saudis carrying box cutters -- had done enormous damage to so many -- those killed horribly and their friends and loved ones.

We had no assurance that some similar small group could not do something comparable. A bipartisan commission had warned Bush when he came into office that a major attack was imminent. Stopping such things plotted by small groups is a near impossibility -- say another Timothy McVeigh. Our primary protection against Muslim attacks of this kind is, of course, American Muslims who migrated to this country as have so many others to share its decency and real freedom.

I have had it personally with these "tea party" types who look to be racists under the skin with a hate message that cannot even respect the many Americans who have lost their lives both through horrors such as 9/11 and wars where they gave their lives.

Were FreedomWorks marching to praise our heroes rather than to slander the government which does its best to protect us from the haters, they would be engaged in a worthy event. But apparently this group is obsessed with cutting the taxes of the well off and thereby putting our country in even greater jeopardy.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Super Rich Buy Political Offices?

Michael Bloomberg and Silvio Brelusconi share in common the fact that they have bought control of their respective city/country with their extreme wealth. Each in effect controls the media and the pols surrounding them. One cannot watch TV today without encountering yet another Bloomberg ad. Berlusconi owns and operates the Italian media as well as his country:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi


Is this the wave of the future? Already our U.S. corporations look to be on the verge of a Supreme Court decision which will allow them to pour monies directly into the political campaigns of those of whom they approve and presumably expect to do their bidding -- thus overturning a century old prohibition against such by labor or corporations. During the past half century labor Unions have diminished in both numbers and powers. Union free employment is the name of the game these days and those who lobby for unionization are likely to lose their jobs amidst our current employment crisis. As a number have pointed out, not a few of our corporations are controlled by foreign interests. Can one imagine China getting an active say through one of its corporate interests as to whom to elect here?

The U.S. is in financial trouble and is being sold off bit by bit to alien interests. Ironic that some want to expel undocumented aliens while giving alien interests the power to choose our pols? The Court has not announced its decision about corporate free speech rights yet, but 5 of the nine justices look to be ready to endorse this horror.

So it goes in what was once an American democracy.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
--

My Three Robberies, etc

One of the outrageous claims of the gun nuts is that carrying a concealed weapon is the way to protect oneself from robberies and such. Nothing could be further from the truth. One can be killed or injured before one gets one's weapon in hand. The gun can be snatched away and used against the owner by the perp. One's kids can get them.

Living in NYC we are always at risk of robberies -- any time, any place.
Of the three that come to mind of my own -- I have probably forgotten some or near ones, none would have been helped with a gun by me which could well have injured others, too:

1) The least threatening happened on a train out of NYC. I was jostled by one guy while his partner grabbed my billfold. They had departed before I realized had happened. My good luck was that it was an old billfold with only a few dollars in it. I had taken out my credit card to buy something on the train. Reported what had happened to put them out of business and saw one of them later. No way to prove him guilty apart from my recollection that he had bumped into me.

2) In another case when we had our front door open one hot summer day and I was on my back repairing the bottom of a table, I saw a guy tiptoeing out our front door. On checking I found that he had taken my wife's purse and my billfold from where we had left them on a chest near the entrance. I rushed out a back door to our building and saw the perp heading up the street. Just around a corner I found my billfold stripped of cash (not much) and followed him down the next street where police were guarding the residence of our then district attorney. I started yelling and the police chased the guy over a wall into Riverside Park and eventually found him down by the Hudson -- he had by that time hidden my wife's purse between some rocks where a nice lady found it some weeks later and returned it to us. The police arrested the guy, but I could not claim that he was the one who had robbed us, as I had never seen his face nor seen him drop my billfold. In court he greeted me like an old friend, but I had to honestly testify that I could not be sure he was the robber. A few months later I happened to sit down next to him at a local lunch counter. We recognized each other and he departed rapidly.

3) My most dangerous robbery was on a subway when a guy demanded my money and said he had a gun in his pocket. I pretended that I had not understand him and he shouted a repeat. Everyone on the half filled subway car looked the other way. He grabbed the $20 that I handed him and ducked out of the car as the doors were closing. I stopped the train. The cops asked if I wanted to ride around searching for him. I said I could not possibly identify him as I had been watching the pocket where the gun was supposed to be, not his face.

4) There were now I remember several other instances along these lines -- but enough for now. We New Yorkers get used to such things and take them in our stride.

The main point here is that a gun would have been no help to me, would only have endangered me or others in the vicinity. I grew up with all sorts of guns, knew how to shoot them, etc. My father kept locked away a handgun which he said had been given to him by a policeman who said it has been used to murder someone. I am glad that he kept it in a locked safe, as either I or my kid brother would most likely have wanted to see and play with it as young kids.

And so the NRA types continue to endanger us all by spreading guns around where any -- criminal, crazy, or otherwise -- can readily obtain them!

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Enrollments in Public Colleges Rapidly Expanding

An article from the NY Post reporting the large numbers of students now choosing to attend CUNY (and other public colleges) costing far less than the privates, reminded me what a joy it was for me teaching philosophy at Brooklyn College to such able students from all over the world as well as NYC. Brooklyn was a 'port of entry' college that drew new arrivals to this country as well as NYC residents whose families had only come here a few generations ago.

One of my most brilliant students, son of a Nigerian police officer, moved on from us to become a distinguished doctor. We have a number of excellent honors programs that bring able students together. Many of our students go on to first order graduate and professional programs. Our tuition just went up to about $5,000 annually which is a tremendous saving over private colleges with far less to offer. And we have drawn a good number of internationally recognized scholars who like living in NYC and our students so eager to learn.

I really recommend to students and their families trying to obtain the best possible education that they check out their local public colleges. They, too, vary in quality, but some have rich resources to offer that will not be found elsewhere. We live now increasingly in an interconnected world and direct experience and friendships with fellow students from all over can be real assets. Many of our student marriages are also marriages between different cultures. America is becoming a nation of such people -- not simply the Western Europeans to which we were earlier restricted by our bigoted immigration codes.

Come and visit on days which are set aside for public viewing and see for yourself what you might most profitably encounter with us.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Why the Hate Stuff?

I can understand why people are anxious about their financial situations amidst our economic problems, possible loss of jobs, uncertainly about sufficiency of retirement funds, and resentments of people better off. But I cannot comprehend the bitter hate things that are being circulated by Republicans and others. When I was a college student Republicans were honest and decent people. There is a public housing project in NYC named after Robert A. Taft, presidential candidate, who had realized that adequate housing for the lowest economic strata would only be possible if built and paid for by government. The Taft family had tried to do such with family funds of their own and found that private funding simply could not do the job.

Today one can scarcely read a paper, listen to radio, or watch TV without encountering cruel and lying slanders of others. We are barely removed from the suicide bombings and killings by the mad fringe of Islam which has persuaded so many (most likely depressed ones) to sacrifice their lives to commit mass murders. The U.S. is at the fringe of such conduct with its bombings of innocents in Afghanistan and elsewhere -- blind bombing from on high all too often. What qualitative difference is there in such killing practices apart from the fact that the Islamist ones are generally carried out by persons whereas ours are anonymous. Decent people of both these religions are protesting such killing, but their voices are drowned out by the explosions that win the news coverage and that have almost become a form of public entertainment -- more ads sold by killing than by healing or care for others.

I imagine that most of us are aware that there is a spectrum of attitudes among us humans ranging from compassion and care for others at one end and murderous psychopathy at the other. The broad middle range can unfortunately be tipped one way or the other by what they encounter in the way of experience and news coverage that praises killing of 'enemies'. It is this broad middle that really is frightening in that it can be influenced by the haters who put forth the vicious materials that we are watching spread here in the U.S. The Nazis among others played this game of the 'big lie' repeated endlessly until it had captured the public opinion of Germans and too many others as well.

How can we possibly break through once again to decency and sanity among our publics?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

The REAL Number Out of Work in the U.S.!

I mentioned in a recent blog the contrast between other nations that report the real numbers out of work and our reporting only those who have been searching for jobs recently. This discrepancy completely distorts any comparison in the progress of national economies.

The NY Times article is a heart breaker with stress placed on elderly workers:

Out of Work, Too Down to Search On, and Uncounted
By MICHAEL LUO
Millions of hidden casualties of the Great Recession are not counted in the unemployment rate because they have
stopped looking for work. A look at four of the uncounted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/us/07worker.html?th&emc=th

The article does not mention the step down effects of older workers retaining their jobs as long as possible (to keep medical coverage and to build up retirement benefits) upon younger and other job seekers -- about 25% of our teens and about the same percentage of minorities are jobless as well. Particularly joblessness of teens leads to further troubles -- crime, vandalism, abuse of people of different backgrounds seen as potential jobs competitors, i.e. racism.

One's heart goes out to people struggling to find work. The impact on them and their families is disastrous, producing depression and other illnesses that kill people and can destroy the families affected.

Let us hope that things in the job domain improve. I have heard that jobs are one of the last recovery items in recessions and we certainly are trapped in a major one now.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Bill Moyers Says It Right!

As a social/political/legal philosopher, I am repeatedly appalled by the morally criminal practices that now characterize the U.S. To call the U.S. a model for democracies and other nations evolving around the world is an obscene joke. We have been almost totally corrupted by powerful vested interests. Our labor unions are a pale shadow of what they were half a century ago. Corporations serve those who run them -- not even their stock holders. A small cabal of the super rich are running our country with no apparent end in sight. If they cannot get Obama killed, they will use any and all propaganda means to drive him out of office.

I happened to stumble on one voice who says all of this better than I can -- Bill Moyers:

FOCUS | Bill Moyers: Uncivil Discourse
http://messenger.truthout.org/ss/link.php?M=84566&N=233&C=f014e619a7e924789f8829889d0d2ad8&L=2179
Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal: "Bill Maher asked me on his show last week if America is still a great nation. I should have said it's the greatest show on earth. Forget what you learned in civics about the Founding Fathers - we're the children of Barnum and Bailey, our founding con men. Their freak show was the forerunner of today's talk radio."

How right he is. Read and weep. Barnum and Bailey, by the way, were not that bad. They were merely selling circus tickets -- not destroying our nation out of pure unmitigated greed.

Read him and see what you think. He is one of the rare honest voices still available to us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Moyers
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Wall Street's Latest Scam?

I was startled to have a young woman call me (illegally -- unsolicited business calls not allowed) to try to sell me life insurance at my age -- 76. We gave that up years ago when my pension had assured us of sufficient living income. Now it becomes apparent that such life insurance for the elderly will replace the shaky home mortgage game that busted up our economy most recently. Needless to say only those selling such will make a guaranteed profit per today's NY Times article:

Wall Street Pursues Profit in Bundles of Life Insurance
By JENNY ANDERSON
Wall Street bankers plan to buy life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash and package
hundreds or thousands of them together into bonds.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/business/06insurance.html?th&emc=th

..................

According to the article these bonds will be sold to such as (unwary) pension systems which got hard hit already by the recession. Will this scam be permitted to operate or will our legislators nip it in the bud -- the bonds business -- before it ensnares too many gullible ones?

I personally had the good fortune to have an honest investment counselor father who alerted me to such games being played back when I was a teen. The Depression deterred most of my generation from going anywhere near Wall Street for a career. But it has once again drawn many a naive one who is now job hunting with the numerous layoffs there.

Do you think our pols will do something to halt this latest trick and snatch?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Dominance by the Greedy Power Interests?

When I began my graduate studies first in theology and then legal philosophy in the late 1950s and early 1960s a reasonable balance existed between management, labor, and governmental powers. Our established churches were focused on social justice -- civil rights and poverty reform. And good things emerged ranging from civil rights legislation to Medicare. Since that time we have been seeing a downhill slide both with increased dominance by the greedy powers and a shift in in our Christian churches too frequently to the pursuit of wealth and/or policies that do far more harm than good for people.

As I have commented earlier, one can scarcely trust the major media outlets of TV and radio which are routinely deceiving people as to the best interests of themselves and others. The health care 'war' is a perfect example of this tendency. We should have adopted single payer funding of medicine during the Truman years when the Western European nations did so. Only greed blocked that move then as it is doing now.

Given my graduate school training, I am appalled by what I am seeing.
A number of my teachers back then, including Reinhold Niebuhr, one of our leading theologians, warned of this future and he and others persuaded me to move on to philosophy rather than trying to fight a losing battle against the greedy who were already moving in on our churches -- good friends found themselves being ousted from their clergy roles by bankers running the churches as trustees unwilling to put up with reform oriented sermons.

How do we reverse this trend I do not know. Obama is a smart guy, but he cannot do it all by himself. And a number is being done on him personally by the greedies who see him as an impediment to their interests.

And so it goes. What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

MSNBC on Crime and Punishment?

About 10 years ago I had cataract surgery on one of my eyes which aborted and which two corrective surgeries failed to heal so that I was left with only totally distorted vision in that eye. Needless to say I delayed a second operation on my remaining eye with apprehension that I might lose vision entirely. Finally I had to give in several months ago when even enlarged type of the computer was not accessible and so far so good. I can see normally again. In the interim I had resorted to the internet where I have a vast number of reliable information sources and TV and radio (npr which is also trustworthy) for information. The contrast between the distortions and opinions presented on most of our TV and radio channels is shocking -- the materials to which most Americans are exposed there and upon which they base their judgments is simply a mixture of misinformation, half truths, trivia such as the latest child kidnapping, gross murders, and outright lies.

MSNBC on the weekends seemed to be following this pattern with a focus on crime and punishment presumably designed to attract viewers obsessed with such grim stuff. Today, however, I decided to look in during the ad breaks in the U.S. Open tennis coverage. What I discovered despite presumed editorial restrictions by prison authorities was a graphic picture of what we are doing to our some two million prisoners -- a majority of whom are by stats and visually minority group members. The guards in contrast are not. One has to assume that racism between guards and prisoners is rife -- particularly when not under scrutiny. We saw what happened in our war territory prisons along these lines where Muslims were subject to horrendous abuse.

One has to see such things to realize that the U.S. with our 2 million citizens in jail is treating them in ways that we would not allow for animals in a zoo.

Not so long ago prisoners in some Southern prisons were simply murdered and buried anonymously in prison grave yards. Other Democratic nations do not do such things. We are the barbaric one.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

American Racism Lingers on?

When I first started teaching in the mid l960s the number of African American and Latino students in my various colleges -- Vassar, CCNY, Hunter -- could be counted on the fingers of one hand. One of the two at Vassar told me that a Vassar interviewer had told her she would not be happy there -- she was the daughter of a prominent civil rights figure. She was not happy because she was so isolated with only one other African American among some 1,700 Vassar students. The same was the case with the two CUNY (City University of NY) colleges cited. In all my classes I had one African American -- a male nurse -- and two Latinos -- one from a wealthy Latin American family.

All this changed when CUNY opened its doors in 1970 to minorities who until then had been routinely told by high school advisors that they were not college material and should look for jobs such as pushing wagons around the garment district.

That year of opening happened to be my first of many rich years for me at Brooklyn College. Teaching was what I loved and I was good at it and prepared to assist our minority students, as I had lived and worked in West Harlem -- one of the few whites doing so. Brooklyn at that time had two African Americans working in other than physical labor jobs -- an assistant dean and our philosophy department secretary, Frances Morton, who had a B.A. degree herself. When a hundred or more apprehensive African American students arrived at the college that year, she became their primary advisor and a sort of mother figure. Within two or three years these students had gained the confidence to go it alone, but Frances was a key bridge to self-confidence for many of them.

Over the years I had students from every conceivable part of the globe as well as our own diverse ones -- Brooklyn was what was known as a point of entry college. It made for incredibly rich classes in my special fields -- social/political/legal philosophy -- and my own interests in foreign affairs -- a career that I had considered but rejected.

However, certainly until I retired in 2007 my African American male students reported both their difficulties in obtaining jobs for which they were qualified and the frequent harassment that they experienced from our NYPD officers whenever they were out after dark, e.g. returning home from an evening class. There had been some gain, as police were no longer routinely shooting African Americans who offended them as had been the case when we had been living in Harlem in the early 1960s. A typical tactic would be to shoot some teen and then throw down a gun by the body and claim self-defense. Such only happens rarely now. Most of our police are not residents of NYC proper and so come to us as an alien force somewhat like our soldiers today in Afghanistan.

We now frequently see successful minorities both as elected representatives and TV interviewers and commentators and such. I fear that these success stories as much as anything antagonize whites who fear that they are being left out and replaced by minorities. Such must be a part of the explanation of the resentment of Obama.

Also lost from sight are the many minority people living in poverty with little hope of escaping it who end up committing crimes as teens that get them jailed -- sometimes for life. Our jails are populated by a majority of minorities and we have the highest percentage of jailed persons of any of our comparable democracies -- a massive number costing each far more annually than a year of studies in one of our most expensive colleges. What a waste! It is those who are invisible victims of racism that bother me most personally. Our general public simply is not aware of these people being lost in our cruel economy and defeated by our lingering racism.

What do you think?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Sabotaging Medical Reform

Medical reform under Truman was sabotaged by the American Medical Assn. But the AMA then was a voluntary organization made up mainly of doctors determined to protect their incomes from government restrictions. My authority for this statement was Dave Rogers with whom I shared a summer cooperative camp and who was variously dean of two medical schools, head of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a university professor (the highest titled rank held ordinarily by one outstanding faulty member), and our AIDS 'Tzar' until his death.

Since that time greedy doctors have been joined by comparably greedy drug and profit-making medical insurance programs. We pay far more than we should for our medicines -- including their advertising expenses daily and large sized bureaucracies which make up 30-40% of the costs of standard medical insurance programs -- profit-making or other.

Millions of dollars are now being expended to pull the Harry and Louise trick or treat game once again -- scare the public out of demanding what is in its best interests -- a public option which would offer an alternative to the current profit makers, strict rules forbidding excuses for not paying for such as the disclosure of pre-existing conditions (e.g. some heart damage), loss of coverage along with one's employment, dodging and weaving when medical expenses are presented for payment, under coverage which one discovers only too late to avoid massive expenses.

As a beneficiary now of Medicare backed up by GHI for the remaining expenses which was arranged from City University of New York retirees, I can speak of the relief we felt in the face of increased medical expenses as we aged.

Anyone in his right mind and well informed would opt for universal single payer medicine paid out of our taxes which should be raised fairly to cover same. If we can lay out a trillion dollars this year for military expenses, we can do the same for medicine for which we are in effect being taxed by the private profit makers -- this wealthiest of all our economic money-making operations!

Let us hope that sanity wins out this time. We are nearly a century behind our competitor nations who devised their own plans after WW2 -- now doing better and costing half as much as ours
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

NRA Menace?

It is a rare day when we do not hear of a gun murder or suicide -- and few of these are widely publicized. Of the liberal democracies to my knowledge only Switzerland allows citizens to possess weapons routinely and that tradition goes back centuries when it was devised to protect it from invasion.

Our NRA has garnered sufficient (paranoid) support to permit people to carry weapons of war, concealed weapons, etc. There are virtually no controls to prevent anyone from obtaining a deadly weapon without much effort.

I worry personally that some nut or extremist (of which we have organized groups) will attempt assassination of Obama. The hate campaign being directed against him now encourages such. Even our current Supreme Court seems to favor free gun access. The Second Amendment is ambiguous in its language and was devised at a time when citizens rather than a standing military provided our only national defense.

Personally I would like to see some victim or family of same bring charges against the NRA as a collaborator in murder. How much longer must we be haunted by this menace?

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Afghanistan = Vietnam?

Our engagement in Afghanistan is beginning to look more and more like the mess we got ourselves into in Vietnam. The question now is not whether we can disengage, but how soon we can do so in good order.

I have previously summarized the faltering elements -- too many killings and a corrupt government which is antagonizing the Afghans and for which we are being held responsible. August saw more American soldiers killed there than in any previous month. Al Qaeda simply weaves and dodges and can in no way be trapped by our military. The brutal ones there are not loved by their own people who must learn how to hold them in check -- we cannot do so.

There seem to be several viable options for us. We can move our military off shore from where we can launch attacks on our true enemies. We can try to win support by substituting funding for rebuilding rather than random killing, here, there, and everywhere.

There are some reasonable and honest Afghans -- certainly not the probable winner of the current corrupt election who looks to be garnering as much wealth as he can from our contributions before taking off for points elsewhere.

Bush blew our opportunities there. Obama must not allow us to be sucked into the failed Bush strategies -- 'shoot first and ask questions later'.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Time for Obama to Quit Playing Tag with the Republicans?

Obama has made every possible effort to reestablish non partisan approaches to major problems facing the U.S. The consequence has been radical attacks on him personally based ordinarily upon the usual Republican type lies plus some new horrors such as the claim that his health care system would call for killing elderly people. Elderly people are certainly dying prematurely compared with those in other nations on our level -- but because they cannot afford and/or are denied health care supported by private insurance plans. Who has not had to battle to get them to pay up on benefits specified in their plans. It almost looks as though they are appointing staff for their abilities to con subscribers. Certainly for the elderly who are struggling with thinking problems anyway this is an easy, if horrendously ugly game.

It looks to me as though Obama had best start dominating the headlines by giving it to the Republicans with all the anti snake venom he can muster. He has made the effort to reestablish the old way of doing things -- with respect for those as persons with whom one may disagree on policies. "NO WAY!" has this been the Republican response again and again. Watching these people boldly lie in interviews and interrupting TV responses speaks to techniques developed by regimes with which we were at war in WW2 and suggests that they have consciously been adopting them as the way to sabotage the national interest in favor of their greedy corporate sponsors. There is a touch of racism, too, on the part of the Southern ones who seek to frighten their constituents with the notion that whites will soon be dominated by other racial and religious groups. This is NOT the way of modern democracies to say the least. It smacks of something out of Iran or others of the more tyrannical regimes.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Eisenhower's Warning Against the "Military Industrial Complex"

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html

In a major speech delivered 3 days before he left the presidency, Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of our military heroes of WW2 as its leading general, warned of the excess misdirection of our national resources to military production. We spent one trillion dollars on military expenditures in 2009:

post-edit.g?blogID=9702868&postID=7586532953885170993

This misdirection has not only continued but expanded over the decades to the point at which military spending has diverted major funds from our most vital public services. A massive lobbying operation protects those who produce this military hardware and the jobs connected with same.

Obama has pointed out and sought to remove from our budget such military toys as a new generation of aircraft designed to fight cold war battles among the many items totally not needed. The role of world cop has now become our greatest international deficit as we antagonize those threatened by our military forces used as our primary tool where negotiations and agreements where possible should have been our strategy.

What do you think? How can we end this excess resort to weapons which is costing us so dearly in monies and respect by the rest of the world?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

"Cut Your Taxes"?

The bulk of our competitor nations are in far better economic shape than the U.S. Their medical systems both work better and cost far less than ours. Many have high speed rail systems that are faster and more efficient than auto travel and sometimes even flying. Most are recovering from the economic disaster that we induced globally. They are more energy efficient. They waste minimal monies on military budgets, while ours outweigh the totals of the rest of the world. Job loss is not the major problem that it is here. Their pols are not bought and sold to the highest bidders. Corporations are held in check both from exploiting us and dodging paying taxes. Tax liability is spread fairly among citizens -- not favoring the super rich whose taxes Bush cut in the midst of his expensive wars.

In a few words -- our nation has been traumatized by a host of misleading slogans devised by Republicans since the Reagan era: governmental regulation is an enemy of economic progress; governmental programs are far more costly than private profit-making ones. Governmental bureaucracies are far more costly than private ones such as those that gobble up a good percentage of the fees we pay for medical care. All of these fictions are, of course, lies belied by the basic facts. But our public is deceived by the same tactics used by the totalitarian regimes of the past -- devise big lies and repeat them endlessly.

Sadly most of our public is presented with smidgens of information by their major information sources -- TV and radio. How many listen to npr to obtain the real facts or have access to honestly informed sources -- obviously and sadly only a relatively limited minority.

As a philosopher trained to pursue the truth, I am constantly amazed at the lies that are passed on as truths to the bulk of our population. The current attack on health care reform is a prime example. Most of us feel exploited and at risk with our present system which overpays drug and insurance companies -- not infrequently for stuff that endangers rather than enhances health -- see the billions in fines just imposed on one of the most profitable of these -- Pfizer -- for dangerous sales for profit.

My title question here is how long -- if ever -- will it take Americans to realize that there is no free lunch, that as our competitors, we must have a fair tax system that pays for the basic protections and services that any democracy needs to function? Of course expanded budget deficits will not do it, will do us in eventually. So much for this Republican slogan -- only one of the many that is trashing American democracy.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

Charlie Rangel

I am deeply saddened by the report of tax evasion by Congressman Rangel.

I came to know Charlie when he first ran for political office under the sponsorship of J. Raymond Jones (the "Harlem Fox"). Ray was at that time NYC's most powerful politician. Bobby Kennedy had come to him to ask support for his brother's presidential campaign.

Ray was an enigmatic figure to most media and politicians of that day. Only those close to him knew him to be the primary reformer of what had been a corrupt Harlem political cabal, ready to sell out to the highest bidder from downtown. Charlie was one of Ray's early choices to bring honest politics to Harlem.

I happened during the summer of 1963 to be preparing for my first teaching position and Ray had kindly given me a job as his assistant to tide us over between the ending of graduate fellowship support and a paycheck.

I remember Charlie storming into Ray's office once to protest some scurrilous literature attacking his campaign opponent. Charlie, a veteran who had been wounded in WW2, was horrified. I recall Ray saying to him, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." It was not clear who had put out the literature -- I don't believe that either Charlie or Ray was involved. Rangel did not need such support as an honored war veteran and Ray's candidate.

I guess that money can corrupt almost any. Certainly Charlie did not need to build a fortune with his Congressional pay and benefits. If he and not some personal financial manager was responsible, then he surely should resign to allow an honest person to replace him. How sad after such an otherwise positive and constructive political career.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

An Alternative Afghanistan Strategy?

It looks as though we are engaged in a hopeless 'war' in Afghanistan. Some move is in the works to substitute civilian support for killing. But what might be the consequence if we went all the way by pulling out our troops and promising the funds now spent on them for rebuilding the country -- so long as it ceased its abuses of its people there?

Such a program might not work, but it certainly would signal the shift in American policy around the world from its role as 'big cop' to supporter of human rights and the rights of nations to rule themselves -- with assistance to those who treated their own peoples decently. Some nations would undoubtedly continue their leadership abuses, but economic and other pressures could be mobilized against them for so doing.

Too frequently our tactics are determined by particular cases rather than valid international strategies.

What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]