The Obama administration recently ruffled a lot of feathers by failing to veto a UN resolution in the Security Council that condemns Israel’s growing number of settlements in Eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank. A lot of people are questioning why the Obama Administration would do such a thing now, when we have a new administration coming into office in just a few weeks that is showing signs of being the most pro-Israeli administration in history. That’s a fairly good question as it turns out; Why now?
The answer is probably a combination of several different factors. First off, there is a lot of pressure of US allies to solve this issue as it is not a static problem. It’s worth taking a look at the nations on the UN council that voted for the resolution. These countries did not abstain and allow the resolution to pass they voted for it and adamantly and completely support it. Britain, China, Russia, France, Egypt, Japan, Uruguay, Spain, Ukraine, and New Zealand all voted for the measure. In other words, three of our most powerful allies voted for the resolution. I don’t think anyone would suggest that Britain, France, China, and Russia are all conspiring to punish Israel for ideological reasons as the last two are pretty much ideological opposites of the first two. In other words, almost all of the rest of the civilized world believes that continuing to build settlements in areas that no one including Israel believes they own is a thoroughly bad idea.
The fact is that Israel has built settlements for some 600,000 Israeli settlers in these two areas WHILE they were under constant condemnation of the rest of the civilized world to stop doing so. There have been well over 100,000 Israelis installed in settlements where the rightful owners were forcefully displaced since the Obama Administration came into office. Israel has so far been found to be in direct violation of UN Security Council Resolutions over this same issue no less than 28 times. Israel does not own East Jerusalem nor the West Bank. They are legally lands under direct UN control at the moment but everyone agrees and has agreed that they are not Israeli property since the very beginning of Israel’s existence.
Israel controls the West Bank and East Jerusalem and is illegally dispossessing the legal owners of property, demolishing the existing homes in both locations forcefully and then building settlements for Israeli citizens. They have been doing this for a very long time. Meanwhile, the legal owners of the land in the West Bank are denied citizenship in Israel, voting rights, freedom to conduct business, and freedom to move about.
The resolution also strongly condemns acts of terror against innocent civilians and inflammatory rhetoric on both sides as it aims towards building a consensus for a permanent solution to the continuing problems in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, president elect Donald Trump is attempting to work on policy decisions before he is installed in office by directly calling other UN members and urging them to drop this resolution before it was brought forth. Trump has appointed David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer and open advocate of Israel, as his new ambassador to Israel. Trump has also promised to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem in Israel which is a blatant violation of existing UN doctrine that the US helped put in place when Israel was recognized as an independent nation. The fact that Jerusalem does not belong to Israel is one that is unquestioned in international law nor anywhere else except perhaps in the narrow little brains of Donald Trump and David Friedman. Friedman has also publicly supported increased Israeli settlements in both areas mentioned in the UN resolution just passed. He is widely known to be considerably more hawkish and further to right than even the most right wing leaders in Israel itself. It remains to be seen just how foolish Trump and Friedman statements will become in the future but judging from what they have said so far he may very well touch off a war in Israel and the middle-east if he keeps going down the present path over what is completely settled international law according to every other nation in the world.
To get back to the question of why now I suppose there are a lot of possible answers. However, the most important one in my opinion and one that we should be demanding an answer to is why we didn’t do this long before now. I would suggest that instead of a weak kneed abstention from voting for this resolution, why have we not demanded that Israel stop building these settlements long ago? Everyone else in the world understands that this land does not belong to Israel, that they have no legal right to it, and that they are forcefully bulldozing the houses and businesses of the people it does belong to so that they can install Israeli citizens in their place. This is not a new thing. It has been going on for many, many years under the singular protection of the US Government whose veto power on the Security Council has protected Israel for many years.
Why has the US government itself not demanded that Israel cease and desist this activity? We have given the Israeli government over 130 Billion dollars in aid since 1949. We have averaged giving them 3.6 Billion dollars a year since 2001; WHILE they have continuously carried out this illegal and contemptible policy. WHY?
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Sunday, December 25, 2016
After Careful Consideration
It's been an interesting year. Politically speaking I learned how little real integrity we have in our political system. The conservative right sold their soul in support of a candidate who has neither conservative political principles nor the personal integrity they like to suggest is at the core of their belief system. Much of the liberal left did the same thing by supporting a deeply flawed candidate in bed with Wall Street in opposition to one impeccably honest who has spent his whole career supporting the positions they profess to support.
In the general election much of the rest of the nation found themselves supporting a candidate they didn't really like in opposition to one they found intolerable. It's a sad commentary on our system as a whole that we nominated both Clinton and Trump as the best candidate either party could come up with. The one thing it proves is how disenfranchised by both parties that moderates in this country find themselves to be.
The core Trump supporters, the ones who were with him from the start, are ecstatic of course. Against all odds they elected someone who managed to aggravate a lot of the people they are most angry with. He is brash, coarse, and seemingly without either intellect or tact in equal measures. He has made a lot of money conning people, cheating people out of their wages, and taking advantage of every legal loophole that most of America finds offensive about both our business system and our tax system. To those supporters I say congratulations; you elected the worst candidate in modern history. The oft repeated, let's try something different refrain has come to fruition. We have elected someone with zero political experience to the highest office in the land. All we can do now is wait and see if the nation can survive the experiment. I would have suspected that most Americans would inherently understand that there are limits to what is reasonable when it comes to trying something different.
For example, we seem to have a lot of automobile accidents on our highways every year despite all efforts to control them with careful licensing and traffic laws. Perhaps we should start insisting that only people who have never driven a car be allowed to drive from this point on. We could do the same thing with airline pilots, bus drivers, doctors, and all manner of skilled trades at the same time. Obviously, the less experience we have according to Trump supporters; the better you will be at doing things.
I never suspected that what we need to clean up a crooked economic system is one of the crooks that has managed to take advantage of it for his whole life. He will do us proud as a nation with his continous stream of childish rants against anyone who dares point out the idiocy or base repulsiveness of his actions. The idea that a mysogynistic, narcissistic, blowhard of a man who openly brags that his power allows him to sexually assault women will make America great again is one that I wouldn't have considered to be plausible. I also wouldn't have considered it plausible that even a small minority of Americans would think this is true, but that just goes to show how wrong I have been in my judgments.
For all of those who voted for Trump because they hated Hillary worse, I hope we can survive the error of your judgment. For all of those who voted for Trump because you like him or think he was the best person for the job, please read a book or try to get some information from a source outside of Facebook or Fox news. Your ignorance is so deep as to be something that is endangering our survival as a nation. Most of all for all of those who don't vote and continue to suffer because you don't feel like your vote will make a difference, please join those of us who believe in government of the people and by the people in actually making our nation one that you want to live in.
In the general election much of the rest of the nation found themselves supporting a candidate they didn't really like in opposition to one they found intolerable. It's a sad commentary on our system as a whole that we nominated both Clinton and Trump as the best candidate either party could come up with. The one thing it proves is how disenfranchised by both parties that moderates in this country find themselves to be.
The core Trump supporters, the ones who were with him from the start, are ecstatic of course. Against all odds they elected someone who managed to aggravate a lot of the people they are most angry with. He is brash, coarse, and seemingly without either intellect or tact in equal measures. He has made a lot of money conning people, cheating people out of their wages, and taking advantage of every legal loophole that most of America finds offensive about both our business system and our tax system. To those supporters I say congratulations; you elected the worst candidate in modern history. The oft repeated, let's try something different refrain has come to fruition. We have elected someone with zero political experience to the highest office in the land. All we can do now is wait and see if the nation can survive the experiment. I would have suspected that most Americans would inherently understand that there are limits to what is reasonable when it comes to trying something different.
For example, we seem to have a lot of automobile accidents on our highways every year despite all efforts to control them with careful licensing and traffic laws. Perhaps we should start insisting that only people who have never driven a car be allowed to drive from this point on. We could do the same thing with airline pilots, bus drivers, doctors, and all manner of skilled trades at the same time. Obviously, the less experience we have according to Trump supporters; the better you will be at doing things.
I never suspected that what we need to clean up a crooked economic system is one of the crooks that has managed to take advantage of it for his whole life. He will do us proud as a nation with his continous stream of childish rants against anyone who dares point out the idiocy or base repulsiveness of his actions. The idea that a mysogynistic, narcissistic, blowhard of a man who openly brags that his power allows him to sexually assault women will make America great again is one that I wouldn't have considered to be plausible. I also wouldn't have considered it plausible that even a small minority of Americans would think this is true, but that just goes to show how wrong I have been in my judgments.
For all of those who voted for Trump because they hated Hillary worse, I hope we can survive the error of your judgment. For all of those who voted for Trump because you like him or think he was the best person for the job, please read a book or try to get some information from a source outside of Facebook or Fox news. Your ignorance is so deep as to be something that is endangering our survival as a nation. Most of all for all of those who don't vote and continue to suffer because you don't feel like your vote will make a difference, please join those of us who believe in government of the people and by the people in actually making our nation one that you want to live in.
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Russian Hackers
We seem to be stuck in a never ending news cycle concerning Russian hackers trying to influence the recent presidential election. Not only were the Democratic National Committee's server and the Clinton campaign chair's emails hacked but the resultant hacked emails were then modified and redacted to be even more damaging than they actually were. There is little doubt in the opinion of intelligence experts that Russia was heavily involved in these actions at a very high level. We can never know for certain how much effect these hacks had on the actual outcome but there it seems pretty obvious that they occurred.
I would be surprised if US intelligence agencies don't do similar things in elections in other countries that have a bearing on US policy efforts. In other words, it seems obvious to me that this is not something new; or even something that is unusual when powerful nations with interests directly affected by such elections become concerned about changes in national leadership that directly affects their national agenda. I also believe that unless the election returns or voting machines were directly hacked it isn't something that we can do much about changing. The world can be a harsh and inherently unfair place; especially when large amounts of wealth and power hang in the balance of public elections.
What I do find interesting about this particular situation is that so few people seem to be questioning why Russia would prefer a Trump presidency to a Clinton presidency. After all, Trump campaigned as an ultra-conservative "winner" who was going to improve our world standing by increasing both our economic and military might. Surely this is not something that a Putin led regime bent on increasing Russian power and influence back to its former strength as the USSR would find appealing. Trump and many of his supporters railed against Clinton/Obama policies that they saw as weak and dissembling; increasing world disdain for US power.
The one thing we know for certain about Putin as a leader in Russia is that he is not in favor of a stronger US economy, nor a stronger US military to stand up to his pushes for land and power in Ukraine and Syria. Why then, would he favor Donald Trump over Hilary Clinton as the US president? I suppose some would say that Trump's open admiration for Putin's strength and iron fisted style might have caused Putin to decide he simply liked Trump better than Clinton. To suggest that Putin might make such a momentous decision of Trump over Clinton because of some sort of mutual admiration society between himself and Trump is to ignore the indisputable fact that Putin is a hard nosed ex-KGB realist who cares little for what anyone except Putin perceives to be his own best interest.
Two things I have read in intelligence leaks supposedly from the US intelligence community do make sense however. The first is that Putin sees Trump as something of a buffoon that can be easily bought off with insider business deals for Trump and his cronies. Trump has very publicly tried to do real estate deals in Russia for quite some time and since Putin and his oligarch cronies who basically took over the Russian economy as a private way of enriching themselves quite a few years ago, he is obviously aware of these efforts. Perhaps Putin assumes that a few such sweetheart deals will put Trump in his indebtedness enough to turn a blind eye to some other things that Putin wants to accomplish both in Russia and the rest of the world. Since Trump has already made a lot of statements about not honoring our NATO agreements without financial renumeration from some of the member states this doesn't seem like much of a stretch to suppose the Putin is licking his chops to test this theory out.
The second possibility that I have read in such public musings about why Putin would favor Trump is that he has some rather explicit and embarrassing video of Trump in compromising positions in previous visits to Russia when he was seeking to make real estate deals there. Frankly, Trump's own admitted sexual philandering in the past makes it pretty obvious to me that this would not be hard to arrange were I Putin or any of his cronies. I don't have any proof that this is what has already happened but from what we know of Trump's past with women I see no reason to suspect that someone determined to obtain such blackmail information would have a hard time doing so; more especially and ex-KGB group in Russia when Trump was visiting Russia to make business deals. Trump is neither smart enough to avoid such a trap nor morally inclined to keep from falling into it because he thinks it is wrong. If there is one thing we know for certain about Trump it is that his ego is so huge that it wouldn't be hard to pull the wool over his eyes about why an attractive female or two might fall into his bed in Russia. If the man didn't have enough sense to keep from trying to force himself on unwilling women here in the states does anyone doubt that a willing woman in Russia couldn't get him in a bed with KGB hidden cameras all around?
All of this is supposition based upon innuendo at this point on my part. What isn't supposition is that Putin and a lot of high officials in Russia seem to have attempted to help Trump get elected as President of the United States. We owe it to ourselves to at least ask the question of ourselves as to why they would do this. If we are lucky enough to find out why quickly we will undoubtedly be better off than if we have to learn it the hard way after Putin has his way with US foreign policy for a long enough period to do great damage to us as a nation. After all, we do know quite a bit about the nature of Putin and Trump as men of character and I don't think anyone in their right mind wants our well being as a nation to depend on either of these men's moral nature.
I would be surprised if US intelligence agencies don't do similar things in elections in other countries that have a bearing on US policy efforts. In other words, it seems obvious to me that this is not something new; or even something that is unusual when powerful nations with interests directly affected by such elections become concerned about changes in national leadership that directly affects their national agenda. I also believe that unless the election returns or voting machines were directly hacked it isn't something that we can do much about changing. The world can be a harsh and inherently unfair place; especially when large amounts of wealth and power hang in the balance of public elections.
What I do find interesting about this particular situation is that so few people seem to be questioning why Russia would prefer a Trump presidency to a Clinton presidency. After all, Trump campaigned as an ultra-conservative "winner" who was going to improve our world standing by increasing both our economic and military might. Surely this is not something that a Putin led regime bent on increasing Russian power and influence back to its former strength as the USSR would find appealing. Trump and many of his supporters railed against Clinton/Obama policies that they saw as weak and dissembling; increasing world disdain for US power.
The one thing we know for certain about Putin as a leader in Russia is that he is not in favor of a stronger US economy, nor a stronger US military to stand up to his pushes for land and power in Ukraine and Syria. Why then, would he favor Donald Trump over Hilary Clinton as the US president? I suppose some would say that Trump's open admiration for Putin's strength and iron fisted style might have caused Putin to decide he simply liked Trump better than Clinton. To suggest that Putin might make such a momentous decision of Trump over Clinton because of some sort of mutual admiration society between himself and Trump is to ignore the indisputable fact that Putin is a hard nosed ex-KGB realist who cares little for what anyone except Putin perceives to be his own best interest.
Two things I have read in intelligence leaks supposedly from the US intelligence community do make sense however. The first is that Putin sees Trump as something of a buffoon that can be easily bought off with insider business deals for Trump and his cronies. Trump has very publicly tried to do real estate deals in Russia for quite some time and since Putin and his oligarch cronies who basically took over the Russian economy as a private way of enriching themselves quite a few years ago, he is obviously aware of these efforts. Perhaps Putin assumes that a few such sweetheart deals will put Trump in his indebtedness enough to turn a blind eye to some other things that Putin wants to accomplish both in Russia and the rest of the world. Since Trump has already made a lot of statements about not honoring our NATO agreements without financial renumeration from some of the member states this doesn't seem like much of a stretch to suppose the Putin is licking his chops to test this theory out.
The second possibility that I have read in such public musings about why Putin would favor Trump is that he has some rather explicit and embarrassing video of Trump in compromising positions in previous visits to Russia when he was seeking to make real estate deals there. Frankly, Trump's own admitted sexual philandering in the past makes it pretty obvious to me that this would not be hard to arrange were I Putin or any of his cronies. I don't have any proof that this is what has already happened but from what we know of Trump's past with women I see no reason to suspect that someone determined to obtain such blackmail information would have a hard time doing so; more especially and ex-KGB group in Russia when Trump was visiting Russia to make business deals. Trump is neither smart enough to avoid such a trap nor morally inclined to keep from falling into it because he thinks it is wrong. If there is one thing we know for certain about Trump it is that his ego is so huge that it wouldn't be hard to pull the wool over his eyes about why an attractive female or two might fall into his bed in Russia. If the man didn't have enough sense to keep from trying to force himself on unwilling women here in the states does anyone doubt that a willing woman in Russia couldn't get him in a bed with KGB hidden cameras all around?
All of this is supposition based upon innuendo at this point on my part. What isn't supposition is that Putin and a lot of high officials in Russia seem to have attempted to help Trump get elected as President of the United States. We owe it to ourselves to at least ask the question of ourselves as to why they would do this. If we are lucky enough to find out why quickly we will undoubtedly be better off than if we have to learn it the hard way after Putin has his way with US foreign policy for a long enough period to do great damage to us as a nation. After all, we do know quite a bit about the nature of Putin and Trump as men of character and I don't think anyone in their right mind wants our well being as a nation to depend on either of these men's moral nature.
Friday, December 9, 2016
Idiot or Fraud?
Donald Trump is either an idiot or a fraud. He just built an election campaign around the supposition that he is going to solve the illegal immigration problem. Never mind that he has made extensive use of hiring illegals on his own projects down through the years on numerous occasions; he sold the idea to a lot of angry Americans that he is going to solve the issue that he and others just like him created by hiring illegal workers on a large scale.
Now, he has picked a man as his Secretary of Labor, Andy Puzdner, who is on tape laughing about the fact that his business would lose a large percentage of its middle managers every time US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement announced a raid on his restaurants. He goes on in this tape to brag about the work ethic of the illegals he hires; explaining they are just glad to have a job. Never mind that he pays dirt wages and refuses to pay overtime; they should be happy to work for him and make him even richer as CEO of Hardees and Carl Jr's. restaurants. Being afraid of being picked up and deported tends to make workers less prone to complaining about being cheated out of their pay by unscrupulous owners. This is important if the business you run has been found of guilty of doing this on numerous occasions in the past. Of course when Mr. Puzdner gets put in charge of the Labor Department that will probably not happen anymore; especially not in the restaurants he runs.
He continues on this same tape to explain that his industry NEEDS the US government to stop all the illegal immigration talk and give the illegals who are already here amnesty. How else is he going to find an unlimited amount of cheap labor to staff his businesses?
Here is a link to the tape, made some 3 years ago at an American Enterprise Institute gathering. Fast forward to the 11:18 minute on the tape to see this slimeball in action.
https://www.aei.org/events/essential-workers-less-skilled-immigrants-and-the-changing-us-economy/
Puzdner and others like him are the very reason we have an illegal immigration problem. They simply don't understand how they are going to continue to enrich themselves so dramatically while holding all their workers well below the poverty line without the continous supply of cheap labor that illegal immigration provides.
Either Trump has been lying the whole time about wanting to solve this issue or he is completely ignorant of the views of the guy he just picked to be his Secretary of Labor. The fact that information was readily available before the elections that Trump himself has made ample use of illegal immigrants on numerous occasions in his own business tends to support the first conclusion; which makes most of the people who voted for him because of this issue the real idiots.
Now, he has picked a man as his Secretary of Labor, Andy Puzdner, who is on tape laughing about the fact that his business would lose a large percentage of its middle managers every time US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement announced a raid on his restaurants. He goes on in this tape to brag about the work ethic of the illegals he hires; explaining they are just glad to have a job. Never mind that he pays dirt wages and refuses to pay overtime; they should be happy to work for him and make him even richer as CEO of Hardees and Carl Jr's. restaurants. Being afraid of being picked up and deported tends to make workers less prone to complaining about being cheated out of their pay by unscrupulous owners. This is important if the business you run has been found of guilty of doing this on numerous occasions in the past. Of course when Mr. Puzdner gets put in charge of the Labor Department that will probably not happen anymore; especially not in the restaurants he runs.
He continues on this same tape to explain that his industry NEEDS the US government to stop all the illegal immigration talk and give the illegals who are already here amnesty. How else is he going to find an unlimited amount of cheap labor to staff his businesses?
Here is a link to the tape, made some 3 years ago at an American Enterprise Institute gathering. Fast forward to the 11:18 minute on the tape to see this slimeball in action.
https://www.aei.org/events/essential-workers-less-skilled-immigrants-and-the-changing-us-economy/
Puzdner and others like him are the very reason we have an illegal immigration problem. They simply don't understand how they are going to continue to enrich themselves so dramatically while holding all their workers well below the poverty line without the continous supply of cheap labor that illegal immigration provides.
Either Trump has been lying the whole time about wanting to solve this issue or he is completely ignorant of the views of the guy he just picked to be his Secretary of Labor. The fact that information was readily available before the elections that Trump himself has made ample use of illegal immigrants on numerous occasions in his own business tends to support the first conclusion; which makes most of the people who voted for him because of this issue the real idiots.
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Foxes and Henhouses
Just in case anyone doesn't get it yet, the Trump administration is going to make a mockery of every facet of government. Here is just one example.
News today suggests that Andrew Puzder will be appointed the Secretary of Labor. The Labor Department is specifically charged with looking after the interests of US laborers; that is the reason for its existence. Here is the mission statement taken directly from the official website for the US Department of Labor:
Our Mission
To foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work related benefits and rights.
Puzder, a prominent CEO of several fast food chain restaurant entities, has repeatedly spoken out against efforts to increase minimum wage, and especially to enforce overtime benefits for restaurant workers and management.
Here is one excerpt from a recent speech he made:
Government needs to get out of the way of entrepeneurs and allow economic growth to happen without the restrictions of Obamacare and mandating minimum wages and overtime, among other things. If employers are competing for the best employees, they will pay more. You can't order businesses to be profitable, or place restrictions on them and expect them to grow.
It would be impossible to find anyone with a stated mandate more opposite to the written mission that the Department of Labor is charged with than Mr. Puzder. The Department of Labor is not the Department of Business Owners and it is not supposed to concern itself with making businesses profitable. As a matter of fact, Mr. Puzder and his stated goals are exactly and directly opposite of the function of the government department he is being considered to head up.
You simply can't make this stuff up. I would suggest that maybe the first thing Trump should do is read the mandates of the Departments he is appointing leaders to. Of course that would assume that he cares one iota about actually doing the job he was elected to do instead of conducting a fire sale of every governmental principle we have spent 240 years putting into place to the highest bidder. You simply could not find a better definition of putting a fox in charge of a henhouse than putting Puzder in charge of the Department of Labor. It is absolutely perfect.
News today suggests that Andrew Puzder will be appointed the Secretary of Labor. The Labor Department is specifically charged with looking after the interests of US laborers; that is the reason for its existence. Here is the mission statement taken directly from the official website for the US Department of Labor:
Our Mission
To foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work related benefits and rights.
Puzder, a prominent CEO of several fast food chain restaurant entities, has repeatedly spoken out against efforts to increase minimum wage, and especially to enforce overtime benefits for restaurant workers and management.
Here is one excerpt from a recent speech he made:
Government needs to get out of the way of entrepeneurs and allow economic growth to happen without the restrictions of Obamacare and mandating minimum wages and overtime, among other things. If employers are competing for the best employees, they will pay more. You can't order businesses to be profitable, or place restrictions on them and expect them to grow.
It would be impossible to find anyone with a stated mandate more opposite to the written mission that the Department of Labor is charged with than Mr. Puzder. The Department of Labor is not the Department of Business Owners and it is not supposed to concern itself with making businesses profitable. As a matter of fact, Mr. Puzder and his stated goals are exactly and directly opposite of the function of the government department he is being considered to head up.
You simply can't make this stuff up. I would suggest that maybe the first thing Trump should do is read the mandates of the Departments he is appointing leaders to. Of course that would assume that he cares one iota about actually doing the job he was elected to do instead of conducting a fire sale of every governmental principle we have spent 240 years putting into place to the highest bidder. You simply could not find a better definition of putting a fox in charge of a henhouse than putting Puzder in charge of the Department of Labor. It is absolutely perfect.
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