Time to Open the Doors to Cuba

Undoubtedly in an election year, this will not happen. Castro has been an authoritarian dictator there. But he replaced many American imposed ones, e.g. Batista:

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

Two positive things were, however, done by Castro for the Cubans -- he inspired universal literacy and provided universal medical care:

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

http://www.bicyclingcuba.com/bikecuba/education.htm

If we want to open the doors wider in Cuba, it is long time waiting for us to allow families to rejoin there and Americans to visit and make their own critical judgments. Americans now have free access to far more repressive regimes, e.g. Saudi Arabia from which the vast majority of those who did the 9/11 horror emanated:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijackers_in_the_September_11_attacks

We have been blocked from interaction in the past by the many who fled the Cuban revolution, but they are being replaced by many others who now want to go home to visit friends and family.

It is time to end our guilt regarding our treatment of Cuba in the past which inspired Castro's revolution.

Lest we forget:

"Cuba and the United States of America have had an interest in one another since well before either of their independence movements. Plans for purchase of the nearby island from the Spanish Empire were put forward at various times in the United States. As the Spanish influence waned in the Caribbean, the United States gradually gained a position of economic and political dominance over the island, with the vast majority of foreign investment holdings, the bulk of imports and exports in its hands, and a strong influence on Cuban political affairs."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba_%E2%80%93_United_States_relations
--
"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]

Afghanistan -- Damned If We Do . . .

The major human rights concern that we face if we leave Afghanistan is the treatment of women and others by the Taliban. I see no easy answer to this. We can try to shame them, give sanctuary elsewhere to as many as possible before we depart. But the dilemma is that between the killing we are doing and suffering there versus their presumed abuses of women and other victims.

Pretty obviously we cannot control all of Afghanistan with much less than a half million troops. Our impulse is to make it a democratic nation, but this is scarcely its tradition and our so-called leader, Karsai, can barely control Kabul, let alone the rest of the country. He looks to be keeping us there so that he (and family) can control the inflow of wealth from the U.S. and from selling heroine.

This is a hopeless game, as was Vietnam, and as there, is also corrupted by our propaganda. Supposedly allowing Vietnam to slip out of our control was to unleash Communism throughout the region. It did not. Facts such as the animosity between the Soviet and Chinese regimes were disregarded, much as Wikileaks has disclosed the split in Pakistan which sends our monies and arms to the Taliban to use against our troops.

Pakistan needs Afghanistan as a support against its own nuclear threat -- India:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan%E2%80%93India_relations

We are over our heads in sorting out these conflicts. We are just increasingly resented for our killing games there -- another colonialist nation pursuing its own interests and not those we are afflicting.
--
"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]

Winning a 'War' in Afghanistan? No Way!

The opportunity to win the support of the Afghans was blown when Bush/Cheney diverted our troops and monies to Iraq -- leaving the Afghans stranded. This has never been a nation. Karsai, his relatives, and government have been corrupt and it is foolish to think he will get things together by 1014 -- his latest nonsense.

Obama should stick to his schedule and get our guys out of there ASAP and, perhaps seek a deal with some of the scattered heads of villages, etc. to help them financially. But Pakistan is our real worry and where we should put our attention. Just a glance at the mountains and numbers make it clear that there is no way we can defeat the Taliban -- from Pakistan's largest tribal grouping -- a dozen or more tribes with the Pashtuns from which the Taliban stem being the largest:

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

This has never been a 'nation' nor can we make it one. The Pakistanis will have to work out their own destinies. We can't do it for them.

All we are doing now is letting our guys get killed and wounded and doing the same for too many Afghans. This is not a war to be won. It is a slaughter of innocent people.

None of the rationales that I heard variously this a.m. for 'winning' a war there are plausible. Our problem now is how to get out with minimum harms -- including loss of our credibility.

And so it goes as this country obsesses with military rather than global economic problems.
--
"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]

Republican Fall Election Plan

It looks as though the Republicans will focus on 3 things while running
for office this fall:

1) Blaming Obama for the economic crisis that they have created under Bush/Cheney -- including the jobs which our corporations have been shipping overseas.

2) Cutting taxes for the super rich upper 2% which would largely cover our budget deficits, e.g. the WalMart estate alone would do the extension of unemployment benefits.

3) None too covertly playing the racist game of blaming the shortage of jobs on Latinos and African Americans -- those who are actually suffering the most from our weak economy!

So far as their own solutions to these problems, one will hear little or nothing from Republicans. Theirs is the attack mode which Obama has faced constantly while trying to unify the nation in the face of real threats -- economics, terrorists, and a couple of nations intimating nuclear attacks on us and ours -- North Korea and Iran. A nation so divided is an easy target for hostile support from here, there and elsewhere.

I could document all of the above extensively. Unhappily the really cruel facts are rarely covered by the major sources of information for most busy Americans -- TV and radio chains largely owned and operated by our super rich. The recent attack on Shirley Sherrod was manifestly racist and launched by a known to be right wing lying political hack -- and jumped on by our media which should have sought facts rather than ratings as their goal. I appreciate CNN spending much time setting the record straight. But I suspect we shall see more of this sort of stuff. People tend to believe what they see on TV and racism is easy to promote.

And so it will go. Can the Democrats take on this c--p and get the message out to the general public how they are being had and the risks to them of Republican victories? Remember, the Supreme Court has authorized corporations to spend whatever they want on candidates and they are the ones with the big money and greedy profit motives.
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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 [blind copies]

Helping Elderly NYC Neighbors With the Heat

They say that cooling shelters are being provided for elderly and others disabled. I am a bit of both, but I have three adult children to keep me going. But I fear that many may have lost a spouse, friends with family out of reach get them to a cool place which might require a wheelchair for them to travel. Public transportation is undependable and car services which we have used are not that cheap, if safer and more dependable than yellow cabs. We use New Family, a Latino co-op which gets us there and back safely and at a reasonable rate. Cars are owned by drivers, so are kept in good shape. They usually arrive in a very few minutes. You can reach them at 212-749-7777. Try to have street numbers cross streets where you are and where you want to go.

Also one can get locations of cooling centers and minimal travel expenses -- same as public transportation ($2.25) --- by calling the NYC info number -- 311-- and being insistent until you get the info you need.

Global warming is really murdering us and even with some good air conditioners, it is hard to keep our apartment cool. I can imagine what people are going through with the high heat and humidity. I am waiting to hear of deaths from dehydration etc.

Probably some religious and community organizations can help, too.
--
"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]

Rangel 's Troubles

House Panel Will Try Rangel in Ethics Cases
By ERIC LIPTON and DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI

"The details of the violations have not yet been disclosed, but the finding means the Harlem Democrat must face a public trial before the House ethics committee."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/nyregion/23rangel.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

I am so sorry to see such an end to an otherwise distinguished political career.

I came to know Charlie when he was first running for office as an honest politician among a number of others invited by J. Raymond Jones, "the Harlem Fox," to get Harlem politicians "off the plantation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Raymond_Jones

"J. "The Fox" Raymond Jones, (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, 1899 - June 9, 1991 New York) African American New York politician. He moved to New York City in 1918. He challenged Tammany Hall leader Carmine DeSapio twice. After a failed campaign seeking support to his candidature in 1958, Jones succeeded in becoming the first black leader of Tammany in 1964. In 1961 Jones supported the election of Robert F. Wagner Jr. as New York mayor, again in contrast to Carmine DeSapio. Jones served as mentor to several younger black politicians who later became prominent in New York politics. This group, known as the "Harlem Clubhouse", included David Dinkins, Basil Paterson, Charles Rangel and Percy Sutton, among others."

Charlie was a decent guy and I was in Ray's office (working for him that summer between grad school and my first teaching job at Vassar), when Charlie stormed in terribly upset by a scandalous smear document directed against his opponent. I recall Ray saying to him, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." Neither Ray nor obviously Charlie had drafted the smear.

Ray's major point was that we had to choose pragmatically between the less evil of two candidates, if that was all that was available. In this sense he reminds me a bit of Obama. Ray at the time was being terribly smeared by the downtown liberals and media (e.g. NY Times) as the uptown replacement of Carmine DeSapio, a notorious political hack who had been dominating NYC politics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_DeSapio

I guess the moral of this sad tale is the power corrupts -- sometimes even the best.
--
"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 Jewish?

I am not a Jew, but my grandfather, a noted Biblical scholar, did extensive studies of Judaism, opened university doors to Jewish students previously excluded, and our family has fought anti-Semitism constantly.

I was startled to learn this a.m. through an npr program that the ultra orthodox rabbis in Israel determine who is and who is not Jewish and deny marriage to those not meeting their standards which includes about 400,000 migrants from the former Soviet Union among others. Yet another case was reported today of a woman being denied the right to marry by the chief ultra orthodox rabbi. And here is yet another weird case reported by Google:

http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/6533/u-s-orthodox-convert-denied-israel-marriage-by-chief-rabbi/

I can see why so many of my students greatly enjoyed a year of study in Israel, but why so few stayed there.

The irony in all this is that our right wing Christians who support the full restoration of Israel expect all 'Jews' to convert to Christianity -- or else -- with coming of the apocalypse.

I graphically remember the grim pictures or the Jews left in the Nazi death camps and sympathized with the Zionist desire to have a safe homeland.

But I am horrified at what that homeland has become -- its cruelty to those whom it continues to displace. I also suspect that many other Americans feel the same way which really scares me. I fear some future second Holocaust in Israel proper with the constant threat of weapons of mass destruction now haunting us all.
--
"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]

American Racism on the Increase?

I suspect that the NAACP has it right when it suggest that the Tea Party movement is racist -- as least so far as its presentations to the world are concerned. How many thousands of those ugly racist posters fronting Tea Party events have been circulated to our public, mainly informed by what they see on TV?

Lest we forget Brown v. the Board of Education which formally ended separate racial education:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education

was unpopular with a considerable majority of Americans at the time.

And recent events are sadly enhancing segregated education once again by such facts as the isolation of poor minorities by geography. Most children of prosperous and middle income Americans learn their English at home from their parents. Minorities in ghettoized areas -- particularly large cities such as NYC -- need special education to bring them up to par. But it is precisely such education that is being slashed by hard pressed budgets. Such kids are unlikely to catch up without this educational assistance. We have a small minority area in NYC where the police stops are astronomical and reflect racist attitudes and also demoralize these communities:

http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice_prisoners-rights_drug-law-reform_immigrants-rights/nyclu-says-new-nypd-stop-and-frisk

As this also reports, privacy is also becoming something long gone, despite William O. Douglas's efforts to base in on a variety of constitution provisions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut

I recall in my childhood reports of job ads indicating that Jews, Italians, Irish and Poles need not apply. African American women worked as household help. African American men were relegated to shinning shoes except by one decent firm where I worked one summer in Hartford, Connecticut -- Suisman and Blumenthal -- which not only gave jobs to such men but also assisted some in attending college -- something unheard of in the northern U.S. They were at that time the major scrap metal company in the NE U.S.

http://www.macraesbluebook.com/search/company.cfm?company=331567

I was just interrupted, speaking of privacy, by one of the typical and almost daily survey callers who wanted to know about my job and health situations -- will call another day, she says.

Back to my subject heading -- with the stresses of making a living and job situation, it looks to me as though our white majority is targeting minorities -- Latino and African in particular -- who are easier to blame than our general economic disaster generated by the Bush/Cheney moves -- wars, lack of restrictions on banks and other profit obsessed corporations, etc. Sadly enough many may be conned to bring back the Republicans who have made these messes in the first place. Scared people are prey to false easy answers -- particularly when they are being drummed into their heads by the big money guys who control most of our TV and radio chains.

It is easy to promote sloganeered, simplistic lies, and Obama is at a disadvantage telling things as they really are -- more complex than simplistic slogans. Cut taxes? Not of the super rich who can afford to pay their share rather than hiding it away in Swiss banks.

We shall see how much our public has been conned in a few months time.
--
"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]

Bank Robberies

Bank robberies used to be a news item. Now we all know that it is the banks that are robbing us.

I am with you on being protected from being a Viagra seller per my email (See comment from friend below). The ads that really get to me are those that abuse little kids -- he gets a real pony and you get a pony doll, etc. What makes the advertisers think that such child abuse wins product support?

To get back with other things, we have a decent small bank -- Banco Popular. In a poll last night I gave it generally 9 out of 10 point ratings. However, we all know that the big banks have brought us nothing but grief of various kinds including the sub prime mortgage disaster. I could name the names of some of the worst with which we have had occasional dealings -- credit cards and such which we have canceled.

I do have one gripe, however, with my local Banco Popular branch. The heads of it will not repair an elevator necessary to access our safe deposit boxes, requiring us elders to use precarious stairs to get there and back. I told one of the officers that I would blog this in hopes of halting this discrimination against us elders. The bank is located at Broadway and 111th St. in Morningside Heights. I not only send this out as a blog, but widely to neighbors and others.

gradu2005pj@msn.com wrote:
> I wish I could block those viagra
> Ads.

> Our City University of NY spam system works pretty well -- but not
> perfectly, so that I have to approve some blocked things sent to my Yahoo groups.
> I am relieved, however, that CUNY does can the sale of Viagra posted under
> my email adddress. Best, Ed
--
"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]

Criminal (?) Columbia Studies Halted at Brain Lab for Impure Injections into Mentally Ill

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/health/17columbia.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

I am appalled to learn that Columbia (where I earned my Ph.D.) has been injecting mental patients with dangerous drugs as 'research'. To quote key segments of the article:

"The F.D.A.’s latest investigation, which took place from Jan. 5 to Jan. 21, listed six categories of violations. It found that since 2007, “at least 10 batches” of drugs had been “released and injected into human subjects” with impurities that exceeded the level the lab had agreed to set. At least four injections “had impurity masses that more than doubled the maximum limit implemented.”

"Agency investigators also found a forged document, a hard copy record that had been altered to hide a drug impurity that showed up clearly in the computer records."

A lesson here is that not only drug companies, but some universities will stop at nothing to generate profits -- one of the major scandals involved with such research.

Columbia needs money. It has a relatively small endowment and has been spending far too much of that buying up land in Manhattanville (lower West Harlem).

We were once sued by the Columbia trustees during one of our economic collapses when my employer, CUNY, had to skip a salary payment. All those to whom we owed payments such as Macy's bore with us. We owed Columbia $150.00 as a final loan repayment for which it sued. Their suit was thrown out of court by a disgusted judge.
--
"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]

U.S. dominance of lesser nations

[This old piece popped up as I was closing down. Reading it again, I think it is worth reposting. Ed]

If one looks into the history of U.S. dominance of lesser nations during
the 19th and 20th centuries -- particularly in Latin America, but also
in other scattered areas where rich resources are to be discovered (the
Middle East and African oil-producing countries particularly) one finds
a pattern of 'democracy' in which wealthy elites dominated and
controlled resources in conjunction with their U.S. patrons.

I recall particularly meeting the children of such elites in my American
(and British) prep schools. One particularly unattractive crew derived
from Batista's Cuba before his overthrow by Castro. Sugar was the
primary resource down there, I guess. These guys were (as most teen
males in isolation from females) obsessed with sex. They invited some
Americans home with them during a vacation to Cuba and these returned
all atwitter -- a kindly Cuban uncle had staked them to their first
sexual encounter in a Cuban whore house with 'virgin' thirteen-year-olds
(before Castro Cuba was beset with great poverty, illiteracy, minimal
medical care and education apart from what might be provided by the
Catholic church to the poor).

Had these guys left things at that, this would be only a Cuban story,
but they proceeded to con our single parent school telephone operator
into introducing them to local high school girls whom they proceeded to
date rape -- the school was a sanctuary from local police authorities
who were minimal in a small town anyway. When word of these doings got
out, our poor telephone operator (with whom I worked as a scholarship
student) -- not the Cubans -- was expelled. This was my first encounter
with the ravages of American capitalism south of the border -- to which
my junior year history teacher had also alerted us.

Check out the record of U.S. exploitation of South American countries
and you will find that we trained the military juntas that 'disappeared'
thousands down there in our School of the Americas:

http://pangaea.org/street_children/latin/soa.htm

We systematically drove out democratically elected leaders -- Salvador
Allende in Chile, Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala among the most disastrous
-- to replace them with murderous junta leaders such as Pinochet in
Chile who has just died before he could be finally tried for the
thousands that he tortured and killed. Guatemala has seen hundreds of
thousands murdered in a small country since the Arbenz expulsion under
Eisenhower.

Our CIA/corporate approach now well publicized has been to use three
tactics to get rid of democracy to enable corporate grabs of indigenous
resources:

1) destabilization of a government by covert intrusion and/or
economic manipulation.

2) assassination of leaders if #1 does not work,

3) direct military intervention as a last resort.

We have done this more than a hundred times -- sometimes many times over
to the same resistant country (e.g. Haiti, Cuba). Here are some of the
listings for Latin America:

http://www2.truman.edu/~marc/resources/interventions.html

Currently Shell oil and the people of Nigeria are at war with each
other. Nigeria was barely liberated from British colonial status before
our oil companies moved in to support a long, brutal series of military
juntas. Ken Saro-Wiwa was the victim who might have rescued Nigeria
from such exploitation, but he was executed by the junta in 1995:

http://africanhistory.about.com/od/countrieswest/a/SaroWiwa.htm

Currently the people in his region are attacking Shell oil facilities in
hopes of expelling this corporate monster which is polluting their land,
extracting their resources, and leaving them in desperate poverty.

One could go on at great length. But two concluding comments:

1) What we are seeing in Latin America is the spreading rebellion
at last against American corporate exploitation of any and all resources
there, ranging from natural gas and oil to basic food products (sugar,
bananas) for which American corporations have been willing to kill
people and sabotage democratic governments to maintain their
exploitative dominance.

2) The Bush family notion of democracy for 'THEM' is not majority
rule and the rule of law. It is domination by American corporate
interests. Let us not forget that grand daddy Bush (Prescott), whom I
met while he was our Connecticut Senator, was playing footsie with the
Nazi corporate interests prior to WW2. Prescott was also a glad-handing
wannabe charmer type, none too bright either.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1312540,00.html

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1006-08.htm

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

The above are a few of the web sites that spell out U.S. conniving on
behalf of fascist/Nazi corporate interests.

Back to my prep school days -- I went to school with U.S. types who also
hoped to join this corporate world of exploitation of the world's
resources to the detriment of the vast numbers of poor people yearning
for better things. The whole anti-communist routine was exploited by
our corporate crooks on the march -- a good number of whom had been in
their earlier years "America Firsters," i.e. supporters of the Nazis:

http://libraryautomation.com/nymas/americafirst.html

One subsequent president of Yale had been one in his college days.

My British public school experience exposed me to a more benign version
of capitalist exploitation. Some of my classmates were specialists in
the classics (there were 3 areas of specialized study that one selected
at about age 12: science and math, modern languages and history, the
classics). Those heading for the British foreign service took the third
for its training in Greek and Roman modes of imperialism. A few years
later when I returned for studies at Oxford, I met one of my friends who
was in a state of shock in that the Brits were rapidly discarding the
empire which he had planned to serve as a colonial administrator -- so
it goes. I mention this because it is pretty clear that Blair had high
hopes of reestablishing the empire once again in the Middle East -- as
the little brother of Bush's endeavor.

The one good thing that has come out of this late empire building fiasco
is that it has liberated dominated ones elsewhere, e.g. in Latin America
and parts of Africa such as Nigeria now rising up against the
corporations! Let us not leave out Papa Bush who among other things took
over Panama with U.S. troops and the deaths of hundreds there:

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

Noriega, also once our guy, still sits in an American jail in Florida --
a precedent for the treatment of those who resist American capitalistic
ventures -- Guantanamo and all that? Guess he is fortunate compared
with Hussein.

Those who do not know this history are bound to be conned by those who
know it all too well. Hopefully both Americans and Brits are now
awakening from this latter day Iraq colonial nightmare. And may the
Israelis wake up, too, before it is too late! They are now entangled
with us!

I must admit that the foreign service was once a career that I
contemplated. But I learned of the above fortunately in time to avoid
what for me would have been an impossible role to play -- as hired gun
in diplomatic guise for my nation.

--
"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]

English Is Made Up of Many Languages

I am constantly amazed by the misuses of English by otherwise educated people and with this misuse also factual nonsense. For example, it takes taxes to fund governments -- without taxes governments dwindle away.

I had the good fortune to pick up along the way at least in part 5 languages that are essential to understanding English -- Latin and French in high school, German and Greek while studying several years in Britain. And finally a smattering of Spanish tutored for 3 semesters so that I could at least pronounce my students' names properly.

Imagine our soldiers stumbling around the Middle East with only candy bars with which to communicate with the kids. No wonder we are being blown away and ourselves are killing innocent people.

There is no such thing as a language in isolation -- check out the English variations in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

One would be lost trying to manage all the variations in Chinese dialects. The Swiss are fortunate to have 3 national languages which connect them with other nearby nations. They have been exempted from wars.

Farsi is the language of Iran -- not Arabic.

Help!
--
"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]

Beware False Medical Charges

I recall my beloved wife spending hours on the phone collecting literally many thousands of dollars owed by medical insurance companies that were denying our claims.

I was tempted to use the word "fraudulent" in the subject heading of this comment, but skip it to avoid fraudulent law suits from some of these defrauding people innocent about medical billing. My heart goes out to the widows who simply pay up what they do not owe.

What are games played here:

1) one of mine is denying that they deal with my particular insurance provider. We who retired from CUNY have our 20% after Medicaid covered by Blue Cross for hospitals and GHI for doctors. They are slower to pay than Medicaid so that bills are sent to collectors who neglect to mention that the 20% has been paid when they try to collect it twice.

2) Then with Medicaid we are all billed for procedures not needed or even carried out -- about 10% fraudulent costs paid by the rest of us. I heard today that several hundred doctors and nurses have just been picked up for same. To keep Medicaid going we need to go after these medical crooks. Read the numerous reports from Google on same:

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=nw&ned=us&q=#hl=en&source=hp&q=Medicaid+fraud+arrests+today&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=Medicaid+fraud+arrests+today&gs_rfai=Cdp_nk7xATIzTNYvMzgSJ3pmbCgAAAKoEBU_Qc3q0&fp=57d9c86769d1bf04

I have not mentioned the drug company scams promoted by Bush and Co.

The list goes on.

Obama has just got us started with this mess. Thank G-d our family has a trusted primary doctor who can steer 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 [blind copies]

Republicns Now Tell It as They Want It

Krugman tells it as it is again in his column today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/opinion/16krugman.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Emboldened by the prospect of election gains, the 'Tea Party' Republicans -- most of them are that now -- are as usual blocking support for those in need (e.g. extended unemployment benefits keeping people alive) and demanding tax cuts for the rich. As I have stated previously, these guys want to convert us from a just democracy to a corrupt oligarchy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy

I gather that our six major TV and radio outlets are owned and operated by our Republican oligarchs bent on conning people into voting for them. With out media in their hands, they may just succeed, at least in part.

Obama has done what he can in the reform department. He may in the future be forced to veto Republican corruption which abounds all around us. He was stuck with Cheney/Bush governmental operatives which it takes time to replace and the Republicans are blocking these reform efforts with full force -- delays and lies and attacks on any with expertise in such areas.

I worry desperately for our children -- many hungry now and others having their education budgets slashed.

As I have suggested previously, we are now engaged in a global economic war -- not the military threats of the past. The Republicans will surely lose this new war for 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 [blind copies]

"Settler arrested on suspicion of killing Palestinian youth"

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/settler-arrested-on-suspicion-of-killing-palestinian-youth-1.301272

I have a number of email friends in Israel and a list which reports pros and cons of events there: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine

The recent cordial meeting between Obama and Netanyahu:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38101443/ns/politics-white_house/

probably reflects what both know about that once Zionist state -- that it is made up of sometimes violently conflicting constituencies ranging from peace groups to those who kill Palestinians for no good reason as the subject headline here from today's Haaretz (liberal Israeli paper) implies.

I don't see how such a divided nation can possibly make peace with the Palestinians whom it has continuously abused since it was founded out of Western guilt about the Holocaust.

I don't see how the extremists on either side can be pacified -- homemade rockets into Israel and settler domination of the West Bank (44% of it I saw somewhere this week). Each of these are the worst enemies of their own people.

One fears that someone will get access to weapons of mass destruction and use them on the other side -- with retaliation for same forthcoming.

Were I am Israeli or had I relatives there, I would get them out before the inevitable disaster occurs. How very sad for all involved.
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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 [blind copies]

Guns and Crimes

The Supreme Court decision removing local and state restrictions on the possession of hand guns has opened the door to G-d knows what crimes, accidental deaths, suicides. During the past week we have had two serious assaults in our ordinarily crime free Riverside Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. With the addition of easy access to guns in our city, who knows what increases in deadly crimes we may be facing. Some decades ago crime was a common phenomenon in our neighborhood. Then police and other efforts virtually eliminated it here in Morningside Heights and West Harlem.

Manifestly the current Court dominated by 5 conservatives cares not a whit for our other organs of government and their efforts to protect us.

Since Reagan cut back regulations of institutions by our governing bodies, the Republicans have been continuing their themes of no taxes and no government supported by them to protect us from crime and personal economic emergencies. Our children will suffer in the future -- not because of the costs of Social Security and Medicare which are easily funded, but because American education for them is being gutted and other nations are pulling ahead of us. Where are the jobs -- they have been exported to our economic competitors by our corporations -- particularly to China which is now prospering at our cost.

We can no longer dominate the world with our vastly expensive military -- we are locked in economic wars now, not military ones.

Obama has talked of ways of getting out of this mess, but can he do it in the face of economic interests bent on saving jobs in their domains such as producing pointless military stuff fit for the long gone Cold War.

With our Supreme Court and too many legislators bent on playing killing games with pointless weapons, we may be seeing the ending of the U.S. as a major world power -- sad for those of us who care for the next generations.

Let us not forget that one of our presidential candidates, Adlai Stevenson, killed a playmate with a gun kept in his home. I expect that we shall see many more of these in the future -- how to get rid of a wife or husband, too, with the claim that one heard an intruder in one's home -- beyond a "reasonable doubt" is a classic murder defense. With the current economy stressing us all out, how can we expect better.
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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 [blind copies]

American Tyranny Today?

I find Paul Krugman's op-eds most instructive amidst the garbage that is largely circulated to the public by TV, their main source of information. His column today, "Myths of Austerity" says it all again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/opinion/02krugman.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

We obviously need to stimulate our economy to create jobs. Cutting budgets and with them jobs runs in exactly the wrong direction as did FDR back when.

Living in the prosperous upper West Side of Manhattan we see great wealth around us. Our NYC mayor is the richest person in town who bought his third term. We also see here the struggle of those being driven out by a variety of 'legal' games with housing leases and those of small businesses. We are in a sense a microcosm of what is turning America from a democracy to an oligarchy of the rich and powerful. These have been around for a long time. Read and weep at the parallels to olden times: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy "Oligarchies have been tyrannical throughout history, being completely reliant on public servitude to exist."

The Tea Party movement is an archetypal instance of the sort of trap that leads people to this state of tyranny. May the next election not compound the horror!
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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 [blind copies]

Ending Uneployment Insurence?!

I can imagine no greater cruelty than the Republican block on extending unemployment insurance to millions of Americans desperate for jobs. At the very least one cannot travel to a potential job interview with no money! How many more children will go hungry, be driven from their homes.

This move discloses the Republicans for what they are -- greedy bastards! Pardon the expression, but is the mildest that fits this pattern developing in American of increasing wealth at the cost of the poor and now the middle income hit by job cutbacks.

Also having done blue collar jobs as a student, I know that backs and other injuries block workers from continuing jobs. To delay social security to 67 hits them hard. I worked as an academic until I was 74 -- no physical strain. Lawyers and doctors do the same as presumably CEOs etc.

American democracy is rapidly fading away to be replaced by oligarchy -- rule and benefits by and for the rich. Sadly the dream of winning the lottery pulls along a number who are the victims of this system -- the Tea Party gimmick.

Hopefully this latest Republican move and others will reveal their true intent before it is too late to recover American democracy
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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 [blind copies]