Republican Madness?

Frank Rich's report (below) that some Republicans are now praising the guy who flew his plane into an IRS office building, burned down his home, leaving his family without either home or support, makes one wonder what is happening to this party. I recall a time when it was filled with honest and decent people such as Robert A. Taft:

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

It now seems to be permeated with liars, smearers, and as this suicide incident indicates, nut cases.

If Obama is given the opportunity, he will presumably call this junk for what it is. But our media too often only gives us fragments that distort the facts or play lies as though they were valid 'opinions'.

As one trained in philosophy who taught it for my lifetime of work, I am appalled. There are many ways to make big bucks. I looked at those and concluded that they were not for me -- save us from the greedies who would destroy their own families to make a dishonest buck.

Humanity, I guess, is divided between our psychopaths and those who care for others -- with a mix between the two extremes. I hope that the former do not take us over and destroy our democracy and the lives but all except the super rich in the process.

This country is in very precarious shape, thanks to the Republican dominance of things since the time of Reagan.

Where we are headed next is a damned scary business!

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

The Axis of the Obsessed and Deranged
By FRANK RICH
Violent invective, once largely confined to blogs and talk
radio, is now spreading among Republicans in public office
or aspiring to it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/opinion/28rich.html?th&emc=th

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

--
"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 [blind copies]

J. Raymond Jones, the "Harlem Fox"

One of the rare privileges in my life was when I worked as administrative assistant to J. Raymond Jones, known as "the Harlem Fox." Ray was at that time NYC's most powerful politician. Bobby Kennedy came to him to ask his support for his brother's presidency.

Because he had replaced a corrupt NYC head pol, Carmine DeSapio, who ended up serving time, Ray was assumed to be similarly corrupt. By chance that we were living in a housing project on 125th St. while graduate students, Lyn and I became involved with Ray and his political club, George Washington Carver on 145th St. Lyn and I were the other white couple connected with the club -- the first being a money lender. We were held suspect for several years until people realized that we really cared about Harlem and its people. What downtown 'reformers' did not realize was that Ray was a reformer. His motto was that Harlem should "get off the plantation." Most of its pols until Ray had been sell outs to the highest bidders downtown. Such as the NY Times were completely misinformed about Harlem, Ray, etc. and smeared his efforts whenever, but he managed to bring into office there and later some of our leading African American pols -- David Paterson's father, Basil Paterson, David Dinkins, Charlie Rangel and others (how sad to see Charlie in trouble at this late day in his career).

While we were there, Lyn was supported and elected as our Democratic Committee representative. Ray bailed me out with the administrative assistant job the summer between graduate fellowship support and my first teaching job at Vassar.

As such I saw him at work reforming things, saw the misrepresentations of so-called down down reformers (one turned out to be a drug dealer), the lousy media coverage, etc.

One big gaff on my part was that I was among other things supervising some young girls working as volunteers in the office. They loved to sing together while they worked. One day I told them to stop so that I could concentrate -- Ugh!

Ray continued on in office and I greatly regretted missing his funeral where he was finally honored properly.

This period was a fascinating part of our life along the way and brought us close ties to Harlem where Lyn contributed greatly until her untimely death last summer. I recommend an impassioned comment on her shortly after her death by our good friend, Michael Adams:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-henry-adams/recalling-carolyn-kent-of_b_266730.html
--

"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 [blind copies]

"Step by Step" Republican Health Reform Nonsense!

I listened carefully to the exchanges between Obama, Dems, and Republicans on health care reform.

Obama and others made it manifestly clear that the oft repeated "step by step" approach of the Republicans simply would continue the injustices and waste of the current system -- which costs twice as much as our nearest democratic rivals which provide health care for all. There are some complexities involved in putting together a coherent health system which provides health care for all and saves us a bundle in waste costs, e.g. phony applications for Medicare coverage, bureaucratic (all those employees sometimes paid to deny us legitimate coverage for which we have paid), plans too expensive for workers to afford, 70% of bankruptcies caused by health costs people have no way to cover, people dying for absence of coverage.

It was quite an education and demonstrated that the Dems and Obama have thought things through and that the Republicans don't give a damn for any but the financially well off and the drug and for-profit medical insurance companies that put them in office.

Sadly one only had fragments of important points presented by the TV media if one did not have time to listened throughout which I could do as a retiree.

For the record the Obama plan increases coverage for the elderly (Medicare) -- not reduces it (one of the many Republican lies). The exchanges were more or less polite. McCain made a fool of himself by trying to rerun the election on which he was called by Obama.

Let us hope that at long last we can have a fair and affordable system passed by our pols.

--

"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 [blind copies]

Losing One's Friends One by One -- Dan

At my age (just turned 77 last month) one of the sad phenomena is the loss of old friends -- sometimes a shock as one is checking for an address on Google or such.

Particularly one that I want to share here is Dan Huden. Dan and I met when we were respectively 12 and 13 at a co-op Y camp -- Billings on Lake Farlee in Vermont.
The occasion of our meeting was our mutual interest in a lovely young thing which nearly had us coming to blows in our shared camp tent site when spontaneously both of us burst out with laughter at the humor of the situation. From that moment on as our lives progressed and became busier, we got together on occasions, but looked forward to the time when we would both retire and be able to continue our conversations at length. There was a note of sadness in Dan's life in that his mother and older brother died when an electric cable fell on their car in the midst of a storm. But his great joy was the discovery of his wife, Gudrun, daughter of a noted scholar whom he met while doing military service in Germany. Their lives together were both extremely effective in various types of public service.

Sadly, shortly after Dan's formal retirement, he died of a sudden heart attack.
And so went our hopeful years catching up in conversations -- with a memorial service instead. Gudy and I are good friends, but now we share the sadness of our loss.

Corporate Greedies Ship U.S. Jobs Overseas!

In the snippet below of his piece, "Whirlpool Bites Hands of American Taxpayers That Feed It," Dave Johnson points the direction and cause of losses of American jobs. We live now in a global economy. Many a nation can produce goods cheaply by minimal pay to workers and no benefits -- medical or retirement.

Prior to Reagan's radical modifications in our financial system, corporations and workers stood on even ground in determining fair profits for the former and fair compensation for the latter.

The current deep recession is the outcome of reductions in the restrictions on corporate conduct in place since the time of Teddy Roosevelt, e.g.anti-trust and his other progressive reforms:

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

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

Whirlpool Bites Hands Of American Taxpayers That Feed It

By Dave Johnson
Campaign for America's Future
February 19, 2010

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010020719/whirlpool-bites-american-taxpayers-feed-it

"Whirlpool, recipient of federal stimulus "smart grid" dollars, is closing an Evansville, Indiana freezer-topped refrigerator and icemaker production plant and moving the 1,100 jobs to Mexico."

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

We no longer can expect our corporations and other profit-obsessed institutions to
make jobs available to American workers -- particularly those protected by union contract agreements.

If one checks out our foreign competitors who have been moving in on our national economy, one will also discover that the great bulk are being situated in the south and other locations where unions have become a thing of the past.

The Republicans will presumably be now well funded by these greedy corporations -- both ours and those from overseas -- in minimizing jobs available to working Americans. Such are being conned now by Tea Party and other Republican-based outfits funded by their corporate sponsors.

One sees hard times ahead for us lower and middle income Americans. Only the super wealthy can afford all those homes here and abroad. They constitute somewhere between 1 and 5% of us.

Let us hope that Obama and other caring people can blow the cover -- lies and slanders -- of our greedies, now sabotaging American Democracy!

Ed Kent (blind copies)

Ethnic Divisions -- Then and Now?

Until about 8th grade I attended the Noah Wallace School in Farmington, CT. I was very fortunate with my teachers until my last year there when my dreaming in class managed to antagonize my homeroom teacher who was about to elope with one of my favorite (married) teachers who taught shop and many ways to maintain a home thereafter. Her negative report scared my parents into sending me to a private day school in West Hartford, CT where I was generally miserable. I only really enjoyed a private school when I had an exchange scholarship in a British one where all Americans were high status in those days -- Did I have a girlfriend? Did I use drugs, etc. We Americans could then do nothing wrong.

But my concern here is the peculiar ethnic divisions in Farmington -- an outer suburb from Hartford.

We had one Jewish family -- that of a grocery and liquor store owner in Oakland Gardens -- a poor collection of houses en route to Farmington. There were no African Americans -- only one couple working for a family in a nearby town.

Farmington, itself, was divided by Main St. Uphill to the east lived the Prods -- and their two churches: Congregational and Episcopal. Downhill from Main to the river were the latest arrivals -- Italian and Irish and the Catholic church. We met in school, but few of us had any social relationships. Sadly I was drawn to Nancy B.from below Main, but we had no social contacts.

Happily my super first teacher was Miss Loretti who became Mrs. Batista half way though the 3 years I spent in her classes. She really got me started as a student -- I had had one of the dread childhood diseases before I entered first grade and the nurse who cared for me for 3 restricted months had started me on reading and numbers which put me a bit ahead of my classmates.

Frankly my first experience with 'segregation' was not something I liked. I broke some of the barriers and I think that early experience prepared me for the civil rights developments later.

I wonder, however, if some some of the Tea Party stuff is a carry of of the same sort of barriers that I experienced and saw influence my peers then and which may still be operating today?
--

"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 [blind copies]

Cutting Deficits, Taxes -- or Jobs?

A prime example of the Republican con operations are their inconsistencies and lies connected with their cries to cut taxes and deficits while at the same time creating jobs. These three demands are completely incompatible. The Obama administration has cut the taxes of 95% of Americans. What the Republicans are fighting are the restoration of taxes for the super rich enacted by Bush which caused the the bulk of the deficits about which the Republicans are complaining. To make jobs available to Americans it is obvious that they must be funded and the super rich are not going to do that -- they have been shipping jobs overseas to the Chinese and others who produce cheaper goods by cheating their workers.

If we want to produce jobs now for the bulk of our own workers we must fund them from our wealth taxes for the massive reconstruction needs of the country such as schools, bridges and sewers. The WPA did this under Roosevelt in our last depression and it worked! This pattern of protecting the richest 1 to 5% is built into our current tax systems -- of many of our states as well as those of the nation as a whole. Pataki did this to us in NY and his current replacement has not caught on but is rather slashing essential services -- education and medicine.

Nearly half of Americans are struggling now to keep food on the table, keep their homes, and pay for medical expenses which are major profit makers for our medical insurance corporations -- see those ads constantly trying to sell you on one of them. WE are paying for those ads through increased medical costs and wildly rising rates.

What really gets to me are the constant personal attacks on those of us who are trying to tell things as they are. My previous blog was entitled: "Coping with [Republican] Smears and Lies!"

I have touched here only on a few of the totally inconsistent slogans with which we are assailed. As I have noted before big lies repeated enough times tend to deceive people into believing them.

Beware the con artists and listen to those who care about people and not just their profits!

-- "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 [blind copies]

Coping with Smears and Lies?

There is no greater challenge in contemporary America than coping with oft repeated smears and lies. Hitler and many others recognized that people could be conned by this tactic and he used it most effectively first in Germany and then in the countries that he occupied. I am not sure that he could have gotten away with the Holocaust, had he not used smears and lies both to discredit Jews everywhere and to deny that he was slaughtering them. When the Danes disclosed his tactic dramatically by getting most of their Jewish population to safe nations before his invasion, the truth was dramatically exposed. Those Jews left behind were sent to a 'safe' concentration camp with Danish eyes on their treatment and they survived unlike those murdered silently elsewhere.

As probably most readers can anticipate, I am drawing a parallel here with the Republican smears and lies about Obama. Scarcely a day passes when they do not promote yet another such and sadly all too many people are conned into believing this trash. Our typical TV media where most people get their political information are set up for just this sort of thing. An ugly Republican attack gets replayed over and over for several days -- with scarce opportunities to answer what are usually complex matters. Think of all the Republican slogans that have been given by them the equivalent of constitutional standing. Anyone who knows history cringes and finds that he/she is now labeled one of those Ivy League snobs who care not at all for the welfare of their fellow Americans.

With the Supreme Court decision to allow corporations (those that control most of our wealth) to campaign freely for their supporters, we are in deep trouble. We can expect to see the smear and lie tactic now multiplied many times over. We shall get as our representatives what these wealth interests have paid for.

The parallels with our WW2 enemies are truly terrifying. How ironic that the Tea Party types are accusing our caring representatives of being exactly what they, themselves, are!

Let us hope that Obama and our decent representatives can counter this horror. But the money odds will be against them. We are seeing writ large what was done by the guy who burned down his own home and that of his wife and child and then suicided by flying his plane into an IRS office which had denied him the claim that his home should be considered a tax exempt church!

There is madness running wild in our nation. May it not destroy us as a democratic people!
--
"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 [blind copies]

Who Is the Real NY Governor?

I have been wondering who Paterson's advisors are? Apparently from this NY Times article the primary one is David W. Johnson. From the Times account Johnson started his connection with Paterson as an intern and then his driver. There is no mention of education. He has an early record of some minor crimes as a teen which can be forgiven. But more recently there are several cases mentioned of abuses of women -- he stands nearly six and a half feet.

Particularly bothersome about Paterson has been the coldness of his budget cuts -- medicine and education. One is left to wonder who really is our NY governor in fact. I guess, despite extensive warm ties with Harlem, that I am not an enthusiast about his re-election.

And then there is that woman abuse factor. Paterson announced when he was moved to the governor's role that he had cheated on his wife.

Cuomo as the most likely alternative to Paterson strikes one as a cold fish compared to his father, but at least we would know who was the real governor and who to hold accountable for messing things up. As one who is both partially disabled and also a minority figure, I fear that Paterson gets softer treatment than he deserves. The Times article is the first really critical one and it does so indirectly.

People have been suggesting that Paterson take himself out of the race. I hope he will do so.

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

Paterson Aide's Quick Rise Draws Scrutiny
By DANNY HAKIM and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
David W. Johnson is described as Gov. David A. Paterson's closest confidante, despite arrests in the aide's past and
disputes with women that drew the police.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/nyregion/17aide.html?th&emc=th

No Way to Deter New Major Al Qaeda Attack?

Gary Hart and Warren Rudman headed a bi-partisan Defense Department commission which presented its warning of a major Al Qaeda attack pending in January, 2001, as Bush assumed the presidency.

The report here citing the warning also mentions why it is almost impossible to deter such attacks:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/terrorism/july-dec02/senators_10-31.html

"Among the most vulnerable areas: Shipping containers, seaports and border crossings; energy distribution facilities like power plants, pumping stations and pipeline compressor stations; food and water supplies; state and local law enforcement agencies lacking intelligence information, equipment and training; and a public health system unable to quickly detect, contain and respond to chemical or biological attacks."

The Bush administration set aside the commission recommendations:

http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/09/12/bush/

"But on Wednesday, two former senators, the bipartisan co-chairs of a Defense Department-chartered commission on national security, spoke with something between frustration and regret about how White House officials failed to embrace any of the recommendations to prevent acts of domestic terrorism delivered earlier this year."

9/11 followed thereafter.

Today the NY Times reports that our top security official predicts another major attack on us shortly:

Senators Warned of Terrorist Attack on U.S. by July
By MARK MAZZETTI
America's top intelligence official said he was "highly
certain" that Al Qaeda or one of its affiliates would
attempt a large-scale attack on American soil within the
next six months.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/us/politics/03intel.html?th&emc=th

Connecting the dots here, there is probably no way to deter such an attack -- we may hope for good luck, say, of someone informing us what is coming so we can block it. But we can't expect good luck always to do so.

Be prepared!
--
"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 [blind copies]

Depressing News

Just about all the news these days is bad:

The Taliban in Afghanistan have figured how to avoid harm from our troops and are gaining strength there.

The job market is unlikely to improve very much because our competitors pay far less to their workers and we have lost jobs overseas to them.

Obama is talking deficits now and our economy (and Republican opposition) leave little room for reform or improvement of things that desperately need it -- health care, education, rebuilding deteriorating infrastructures -- bridges, sewer systems, roads, high speed travel, etc.

Our Western religions are degenerating and focused on killing enemies.

Iran and North Korea are playing nuclear games.

Israel may panic and attack Iran which can then cut off oil supplies from the several nations that must send them past its shores. The expenses for oil, gasoline would go beyond imaginable limits.

We are also losing out to Western Europe where most of our problems were solved in the last century. They have learned that there are no free lunches and set tax rates where they can provide basic needs to their people.

Our main business enterprise is producing weapons which we sell to any and all -- more than the rest of the world combined. Many of these then are used against us.

Some quarter of our children are sexually abused.

This list could go on indefinitely. New horrors are almost daily reported. Most of our news media rarely inform us about what we need to know and give us mainly things that build their ratings -- sex and violence.

Such things are leaving people depressed and many are suffering from PTSD -- particularly our returning military worn out with too many wars.

Where is our national shrink?
--
"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 [blind copies]

DO CATHOLIC COLLEGES CHANGE STUDENTS?

One could argue that secular colleges undermine religious faith, but per the studies on which this article reports, Catholic students in Catholic colleges are largely similarly affected by higher education.

As one who has been saddened by the failure of the Catholic Church to reform itself, honest reporting will hopefully shake loose some of the Benedict XVI abuses. This guy schemed his way into the Papacy and is without doubt a sort of devil incarnate, destroying the institution and greatly harming millions -- particularly those women in poor countries giving birth to millions of children who cannot be fed or given medical care because of this Church's constant warfare against contraception. Unfortunately the truth about this ex-Hitler youth is rarely told:

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

There are brilliant and caring Catholic scholars who have been silenced by Benedict's Vatican 'tea party' such as Hans Küng:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_K%C3%BCng

Other Catholic scholars have been forced to move from Catholic to non-Catholic academic positions. But if the analysis below is correct, American Catholic students -- as those in Europe already -- may be departing from at least some of Benedict's dangerous violations of human well-being:

DO CATHOLIC COLLEGES CHANGE STUDENTS?
New research counters widely publicized studies about institutions leading the faithful "astray."

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/02/01/catholic
--
"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 [blind copies]