Israel, Gaza, and Iran

If I ran Iran, what I would most want right now, would be a diversion that occupied Israel to such a point that my nuclear research would slip past them unnoticed.

Particularly since the US didn’t back down over my bluff over uranium talks.

I, as an Iranian, would think that having missiles reigning down from the sky, might be enough of a distraction to now do what I had to do in the open, in order to get this thing finally done.

Just sayin’. It might be a good time to take a look again just to make sure this episode, is just a minor inconvenience, and not the preliminary feint for a major move being made while all eyes are focused elsewhere…

Just sayin’.

Hey Romney! Walk Like An Egyptian….

As usual… when you tie a cow bone to a string, and a string to a used broom handle, and then, dangle that string before an American Reporter…  they jump up and down like Pomeranians…. “yip, yip, yip”…  hind leg dance…. “yip, yip, yip”.

99.0% of American news media coverage is focused on Romney the man.   And with an election approaching it is probably safe to attribute that to human nature…  Even I was  sucked in for a while.  But being an election year, that makes it rather hard for our government (yes it is still intact) to rectify its newest foreign relations problem, the  Arab Inflammation as it is now beginning to be called….

Since the more intelligent of our species tend to browse these pages, lets investigate the history, and delve into both short and long term solutions.   This may be long.

No matter what the crises,  and no matter at what level, there are some elements of truth that remain consistent.  Lack of communication always creates problems; it never solves anything.  Are you divorced?  Could be perhaps that better communication might  have prevented it?  Are you fired?  Could be perhaps that better communication might  have prevented it?  Are you in competition at work over something?  Gee, wouldn’t all being on the same team working together be much better?

In fact, most wars are started over misunderstandings.  The only truly reasonable excuse for starting a war, is…. “you have something I want, and I’m taking it by force”; and the other side’s response is… “over my dead body….”

That is one,  boiled-down reason for starting a war.

Every other excuse is superfluous.  It doesn’t  mean we don’t sometimes go to war for superfluous reasons…  But all those silly reasons can somehow be twisted back to that maxim mentioned above:   “You have something I want, (___________), and you won’t give it up unless I force you, It.. is.. on….”

There is one more thing to keep in mind.  A lot, a lot, a lot of people make a lot of money when there is fighting going on…  Therefore even in very peaceful times, you will hear made-up reasons as to why we should go to war…   They are created around boardroom tables,  they are fed to gullible people, then those people are whipped up by whips, and the leaders have no choice but attend to their follower’s needs or get replaced….   Some of those:

Pride, Prestige, Patriotism, Patrimony, Alliances, Reputation, Religion,  and Idiocy, all get exploited to further the economic gains of those few involved in producing war’s items.

This movie now at the epicenter of global outrage is a case in point.  Have you ever noticed how these hate religions now popping up in the USA preaching  hate, and have no sense of decency (as in protesting at military funerals) are always boasting they were founded by “former Marines”?  Steve Klein who produced this latest clip, is no exception.  Whether true or not, he is definitely boasting it.

Now, we all know someone who is a man of the cloth.  Some of us  are lucky enough to know many from across a very wide religious spectrum.  Not just the European religions, but those also spread across other continents and yes, sub-continents.  No matter what the name of the God is, to which they pay reverence, in every form of a religion there are consistently two types of preachers.  Those who are there for themselves; versus those who are there to help others.  No religion is immune; no religion just has only one side.

Therefore, something like this hate group, which only does have one side, fails the test of all religion.  How does or will it’s philosophy make all people better?   How could any religion that you know,  show sodomy of young children? Really?  How could any religion that you know, show cunnilingus?  Really?  As a religious person, you might at some point in your life have to allude to it, but actually show it?  It goes against your own core.   Even if you were using those scenes to put down someone else or describe evil,  as long as you had any religious bone in your body, you couldn’t do that.  Just couldn’t.  You would be worried about your own life in the hereafter.

So who could?

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice that all the acts portrayed in this movie were the exact same ones used at Abu Ghraib  in Iraq by our counter-intelligence staff as forms of torture?   Women’s periods, homosexuality, child molestation, cunnilingus, sexual arousal, falsifying  the Prophet…. Someone from that environment has a history of knowing exactly what hot buttons these are to Islam’s believers.  And I bet, they could even rank them in order of effect.  Someone from that environment who has perfected that technique upon individuals,  who has crafted the technique to elicit the desired responses, has now for whatever reason, chosen to use a broader medium, Youtube,  to foist that  knowledge upon 1/7 th of the world’s population.

It is pretty obvious to all, that this film’s raison d’etre comes from some intelligence or military network, and the easiest way to mask those origins is the time-honored way of using the untraceable networks in religion.

And from those of us who know people, (you know, like that sixth sense of when you walk into your home, and something has been done, you know who did it because you know they are the only one whose framework is wired as such that they could think of it?)  the one place on earth where you are guaranteed to find people who would see no qualms with using anything in this film to achieve their end, and who also would profit from a holy war involving West versus East,  is Arlington, Fairfax County, Virginia.  Incidentally (for those of you outside the Beltway) that is the home of the Pentagon and the headquarters of what a really good man, Eisenhower, once called the ” growing military-industrial complex.”  That is where the focal point of finding who is behind this, by the investigations of the fourth estate,  by he next wave of investigative hard copies for sale at Barnes & Noble, should be aimed.   Weird, fake, made-up  religious groups are just the patsy. They don’t make a penny if we suddenly go to war.

But to return the focus,  why the Arab violence over some really dumb film made by someone supposedly in California that surfaced and we didn’t even know about it,…  create such a fracas?  And can any of it be blamed upon any administration?

To understand the answer, there is one important thing you have to understand about Arab governments.  They killed all the liberals off a long time ago.  As autocratic powers,  anyone who challenged their religious government or was thought to one day possibly have the future presumption to challenge the religious government in the future, was made to disappear.   There are no liberals to provide a balance in Arab populations.   To even imagine what that is like as an intellectual exercise, imagine a society where there were no Democrats to say, “hey, that is not right!”  Imagine an America ruled by only Republicans headed by the Tea Party.  Give all the money to the wealthy?  No problem.  Take all the money from the middle class?  No Problem.  Instigate wars and draft and send the middle class out to fight them?  No problem.  Cut your benefits because you don’t worship our God?  No Problem.

Arab countries have what we consider as our center, anchoring the left end, and the caliphate anchoring the right.  In that environment it is easy to see, that the middle, is one who conforms with the caliphate, but provides a little balance against them by nuancing the edges.

Both Ronald Reagan and Romney would be too liberal to govern Egypt today.  Paul Ryan would be about right in the center.

Against this, no leader can go against the Caliphate.  It will take the development of a large cadre of liberals to rebalanced the power structure of every Arab nation, in order to deal with them in a rational and secular method….

It is to that development that the American foreign policy needs to point.   The very fact that America itself  has as large liberal population, speaks solidly that a free environment, wisdom tends to flourish and rise to the top.

The easiest and simplest method to accomplish this task, is to figure how to combine these liberal aspects and marry those to Islamic principals.  After all, how can the Caliphate denounce Islamic principals?  When we stress a policy we believe will help the Egyptian people become stronger,  we need to provide the Muslim framework coupled to it so they see it as part of their religion.  Failure to do so,  makes all our good ideas appear to be nothing but a method of control…  We laugh at that over here, but in our history, whenever someone tried to control how our money was spent, how our possessions belonged to us, whenever someone “far away” tried to control our life, we rebelled.  (A lot to think over in that sentence).

That is human nature.

Another prime factor that pushes Arabs to embrace the caliphate, is shame.  Yes, shame.  It is unspoken to foreigners and one has to deeply know someone who Arab before he is let in on a secret.  There is shame at being an Arab.  When one looks across the spectrum of the Muslim world, who are the successes?  Turkey.  Iran. Indonesia. Malaysia.  None of these are Arab.  Compare those successes  to Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Qatar, Ali Dubya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and of course, now Syria?

There appears something to be really wrong with being an Arab… Really wrong. “Why can’t we get it right” is on every Arabs mind twenty-four seven.

Of course the four success stories have outside influence.  Turkey has tried hard to win EU status.  The changes it had to undergo to get there are what has propelled it forward.  Iran is Persian and as a former US satellite under the Shah, had enormous gains in infrastructure, and has been able to maintain and grow it primarily because it did keep its intelligent liberal and social force intact. The two eastern Asian countries have embraced democracy and are flourishing as a result.

Turkey is the player in Palestine.  Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, and Iran, are concerned about what Turkey does.   Iran is challenging the USA.   Palestine, Saudi, the Gulf Region, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, are day to day, concerned about what Iran is doing.   Indonesia has economic clout. China, India, and Australia keep tabs on it.

Against this.  Egypt can’t control what happens on the Sinai Peninsula.

The creators of the concept of  empire-building 7000 years ago,  a brave wonderful people who ruled the entire known world at that time , now, can’t control what happens on the Sinai Peninsula.   It hurts.   Just like it would hurt us to go to China in fifty years (5 if Romney gets elected) with hat in hand, asking for money to buy some food for our citizens.  Yes, we will have to do it so we can live… and yes, we will be grateful for our politicians who brought back the goods, but yes, it will hurt our pride still the same.

This feeling is exploited by the Caliphate.  ”Join us and be great again.  As Mohamed hath declared, we will be feared.”  or something along those lines.   So set fire to a few cars, and whoa….  television crews pop up all over your city. You are important.  Set a few more and the leader of the entire world, the most powerful person in humanity, the President of the United States, is asking to meet your feeble countries leader.. He’s asking you (for a change), not the other way around, remember?  Where you had to take a number, and then do your best to convince him to put you on his busy schedule?

Suddenly you are powerful again.  It feels good.

How does or can the US combat that influence?

Ahh ha, the trillion dollar question with no yet known answer.  But here is what not to do.

One, go to war.  That solidifies resentment, and even upon a total USA victory, you did nothing but simply reinforce the root of the problem.  They are still ashamed of how weak and non-influential they are.  And all you did, was just shove that in their face one more time again.

Two, use shame.  It too solidifies resentment.  It too, builds resolve against us.

Three,  isolation.  It proves the Caliphate was right.  We, the West, obviously cannot be trusted.  Look how quickly we turn our backs. Better to suffer in squalor of poverty and abuse, but have consistent attention, than  it is to “flee to what they know not of”.  (Battered Spouse Syndrome).

So the one method that will work, and ironically Arabs are so good at this, is to make it our policy to divide and conquer, to separate the Arab’s well-being apart from their religion.   We use the rewards of recognition,  of extending equality, of true respect,  and bestow that upon the elements of the country who are not so inclined to follow the 1000 year admonitions of the Caliphate.

Somewhere in the future, someone there will stand up, and say:  ”wow, look at all the rewards I was able tol get by disavowing the Caliphate!  How prosperous are you, who are still following them?’

Crazy as this sounds, if Obama were to visit Egypt,  not in an official capacity, but to tour the ancient ruins, and make a few remarks of how inspiring it was to see people of ancient times who then were so far ahead of  everyone else, so advanced, and to hope that he would live to see the day when the entire known world may once again come together and be prosperous as the known world was back in that time, some indirect captured  off- mic comment  like that would go a long way to counter the influence the caliphate now has over the Egyptian people.  An influence no one there really wants, but all there are powerless to now obstruct .

We then open up American colleges and universities to Egyptians, and pay their way.  We then advise them on regional disputes but allow them to make their own mistakes and revel in their own successes.

We help make Alexandria the financial headquarters of the Eastern World.  No where else, except  Israel and Iran, will you have access to a smarter bunch of people.

We then  invite their soccer teams to tour America and compete against our National League….

We invite their military to Fort Ord to teach them our desert techniques and partner with them.

All of these are aimed at building up the pride of the Arab and Egyptian.  With self pride and self confidence,  one is never defenseless.  One can grow on its own.  And as their national pride over their own accomplishment grows within themselves, the old ideas of the Caliphate are seen in their true perspective, as being  over 1000 years old.

With the Arab Spring, the USA has inherited a foster home full of growing young rambunctious teenage boys.  We have the duty to grow them into men.  As with any dad, sometimes you will have to be tough.  But to succeed, your goal has to be clearly that you do not wish to turn them into carbon copies of you, clearly.  Instead, you wish to give them the tools and advice they will need to chose, to pick through all the options in order to decide who and what they want to be.  But as it is with every child, it is always those honest and non-bullshit moments of tenderness that we remember which are actually the ones that  make the real difference in our lives.

The US Foreign Service is being very ably guided.  If  we threw our own children out on the streets to fend for themselves, every time they got mad at us, we’d have a very sorry, poor, and sinful society right now.   Obviously we don’t do that to our own flesh and blood for good reason.  Instead, we set the limit. We contain the anger. We provide a better alternative. We let them make their decision.  Then we provide the consequences, good or bad, for that decision they chose to make.  That is exactly what we are doing on the global scale under the able leadership of Obama and Hillary Clinton, and the public servants who make up our State Department, many who were hired by the previous Republican Administration.

The Republicans are trying to capitalize on violence right now.  As expected, they are failing miserably.  It would be wise to remember that it was the fruits of their philosophy that gave us  9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda,  Iran,  and super-de- dooper high oil prices.  They also sent trillions to the development and building of the tools of war.

The Democrats are responsible for calming the Balkans.   How is that going now?  Exactly.

We are on the right track.  Romney is on the wrong.  What we have accomplished so far in three years, will be views by historians as amazing.  We have inherited a home of children who have no dad, or mom.   We have the obligation to make them full members of society.  It will be a miracle if we get them all to succeed, some kids break bad.  But the obligation is there nevertheless to try for a 100% success rate.

The fact that Romney doesn’t “get it” and Obama does, is reason enough not to vote for Romney. The fact that Romney’s foreign advisors are the exact same hard core right wing people (Boulton? Seriously?) that embarrassed the USA of the Bush administration over it’s 8 years of  activity,  is reason enough NOT to vote for Romney.

You in the military-industrial complex can yell, scream, holler, hoot, high-five all you want.  But when it comes down to facts.  Romney is very bad for this country.

Mitt.  You’ve never heard of the “Bangles”?  I don’t believe it. You copy her eye motions exactly when you are before a camera.

Exploring Romney Connections to the Death of Libyian Ambassador

Here is what we know.

Group of people put up money for film.   Allegedly  $5 million dollars.

Film gets made, and actors are later shocked to find their voices were dubbed over and that they were portrayed completely different from what was actually filmed.  Evidence is visible on trailer if you watch.

Film can find no Arabs who will play.  They use hillbillies and put on spray on tans ( rushed job; you can see where they missed)

Film gets edited , and  debuts in a theater in Hollywood, and all wait…  BOOM…. nothing happens….

Film finally debuts on website of that fake charlatan  who was in Florida burning Korans a little while ago.   That sets off search engine and the trailer hits Google.

That being a known, monitored anti-Muslim site, the film gets picked up in Egypt and goes viral.

Upset people riot.

Riot occurs in Libya, not where ambassador was, but at a consulate.  Ambassador goes to consulate and dies.

US announces that those attacking the embassy were not part of the riot, unless they created the riot as a diversion.

Romney criticizes Obama for causing the problem.

Romney defends his remarks despite the death of the ambassador.  Meaning did Romney, like John McCain over Georgia, have foreknowledge of the impending attack, and the ambassadors death was a freak accident, he stumbled in and discovered it was not an Islamic but a US operation?

Wishy Washy Romney,  is stuck, cannot give more fuel to the claim he doesn’t think before speaking, so he buttons down harder on his original remark….

The director who made the film is a fictitious person.  Some reports say he is in hiding, but,  a producer, Steve Klein who is now taking full responsibility for the film, has a history.

This Steve Klein is not what reports said.  This Steve Klein is the author of a piece  called “Eric Holder: The Ugliest of Things” which uses the trial of Gitmo holdees in a civilian court way back when, to call for the impeachment and imprisonment of the US Attorney General for violation of the Constitution.  This is a very provocative piece made to defend the insanity of right wing thinkers, and the element of provocation fits very well with this film’s provocative nature…  If put on a couch and analyzed Steve Klein would  be a person who has to shock and awe others  in order to consider himself worthwhile….. like a meth-head.

Steve Klein is connected to the whacky shell group called Courageous Christians United.  This strange group or eclectics  has a division that sparks hate with Muslims, a division that sparks hate with Jehovah’s Witnesses, and a division that sparks hate with Mormans.

Obviously the anti- Morman connection is perfect, for who would expect Mitt Romney of orchestrating this fiasco, if it got traced back to Steve Klein.  The smart money would bet that Klein’s group could be stoked to sponsor an anti Muslim film, and then those with the right connections could create the hassle in Libya that Romney needed to illustrate his lie which portrays that Obama is not truly the best president in foreign affairs we have ever had in our lifetime…  Everyone knows:  Flat out, he is.

That press statement of Romney was off; it didn’t make sense as pundits were quick to point out.  It was like it had been rehearsed way too many times,  and was just waiting for the right second, to be spit out…   “Ok, Romney, it just went down. Got confirmation; it’s a go..  in 5;   four, three, two, one. You’re on!…………………………………..”

The Republican Party is like a WWII bomber, missing its tail section and having both wings shot off..  It is going down……. They desperately needed a diversion to try to get the men out alive before it explodes on the ground.   Hey, fighter pilots… look over there.

This is a Swift Boat Attempt upon the current president. But instead of using film, a medium whose threads could be trace, they decided to use Muslims who have no accountability, and basically  pull out of the same play-book as 1980, and stage an embassy takeover to bring down Jimmy Carter and put Ronald Reagan (oh my… what a wonderful coincidence that the hostages get released as soon as Reagan ,pronounced as President of the United States of America, gets beamed to Iran…)  Oh, yeah that’s right.  It was Dick Cheney was authored that. With that much guilt, I’d have heart attacks too…

The link got pulled within the past three hours,  but earlier according to Google, one of  the backers of this $5 million film was Sheldon Adelson, who once backed Gingrich,  and then flipped to Romney.   Very soon we will know who the others were.

So the theory stands even though it is still being put together, that this event was caused by the same people supporting Romney, this event was orchestrated in order to make it appear that Israelis made the film and the United States sanctioned it.  Truth is, we do have a contingent of America that is very unchristian and actually do believe whatever they are told, (our Tea Party Contingent), just as Muslim leaders have similar headaches within their own borders.

The more one looks into all the pieces that came together and the smooth planning that seamed all the pieces together leaving no loose ends, even though the idea is far fetched, and as yet, still speculative….  it is fun putting the pieces together, even if later they turn out wrong…..

The theory that makes the most sense out of Romney’s ridiculous statement, is that he appears to have had fore knowledge and was uninformed at his speech that something had gone desperately wrong.

When you look at the evidence this is the only way it could be….  Just like our Commander in Chief’s birth certificate is a forgery . It’s the only way it could be…

Hot Water: Cold Greece

Courtesy of Facebook.

The Greek track star was booted off the Olympic Team. No, it was not because of the Euro… It was because of her slur against Africans. People need to keep their mouths shut. I was glad the Olympic Committee was adhering to high standards.

Later, another report came across the wire. This one actually had translated what she had said…… It was something like …”with so many Africans here, the West Nile Mosquitoes will be able to dine on local food.”

I read it again, because that didn’t sound horrible.

“with so many Africans here, the West Nile Mosquitoes will be able to dine on local food.”

I HAVE to be missing something…. I read it real slow.

With….. so…..many….. Africans….. here, .. the….. West….. Nile…. Mosquitoes…. will…. be….. able…. to…..dine…. on …..local…. food..

Didn’t see it that time… I tried reading it real fast.

Withsomany Africans here, theWestNileMosquitoes willbeabletodineon localfood.

No it is not in delivery…. Is there something racist about West Nile Mosquitoes?

Google Search of West Nile Mosquitoes lists these locations…. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Atlanta, Rockville, and Illinois. Someone just died of it in Arizona. These mosquitoes are all over America, and it appears they bite white people as well as nonwhites too. Oh, crap. They just found one in Tom’s River!!!!! Now even I’m worried. I saw one on my arm earlier today….

Is the joke in regards to the Nile River? It is, after all in Africa. But is that pejorative? After all, most of us associate the Nile with Ancient Egypt, where mankind began civilization. The Nile almost has a regal nature to it. Do we preach defamation when someone says “Mississippi”? or “Missouri”? or “Ohio”? They are rivers too… How about… “Amazon”? Ooooh. There is pejorative turn of a word. That makes me think of tall scantily clad Lucy Lawless. … If there was a mosquito disease originating in Jefferson County outside of New Orleans, and we said, the same thing when the Saints come up to Philadelphia to play… ” With so many Saints fans here in Philadelphia, all our Jefferson County mosquitoes will have local cuisine.” ( I would have added) “I hope they didn’t lose their tolerance for cayenne.”

Would I be cast off an Olympic Team?

The Phillies play the Colorado Rockies at home next on September 7,8,9th. Must I pencil myself a note never to say… “Rocky Mountain spotted fever” on those three days? Especially if to do so is….to lead me “to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke I published on my personal Twitter account. I am very sorry and ashamed for the negative responses I triggered, since I never wanted to offend anyone, or to encroach human rights.”

Or if I go up to New London, Connecticut, I must be very careful not to think of ticks and if I do get bitten by one on the back of my hairline, while there, I must be very careful not to say in the local’s presence… Lyme Disease. Old Lyme is only a couple of towns west of New London. I wouldn’t want to offend anyone, or encroach human rights.

Encroach human rights? How.

How does either statement encroach human rights? Does either statement bring down people from Colorado or Connecticut?

Are you a bad person just because there is a disease that originated in your country? If so, all Africa is doomed. And so is South America. And syphilis came from the New World! So we are all in this together.

Mosquitoes dine on everyone, myself included. They ARE color blind.

Where is the racist remark? “There are so many Africans here?” Should she have said Negroes? or blacks? Do we take offense when we get called Americans while we are abroad? “kick that bitch off the team. We are United Staters; not Americans. Everyone in the Western Hemisphere is a damned American…”

I’m struggling here. Someone help me out. I’m trying to think of a slur made at Americans that would require an apology and a kick off the Olympic Team… and for heavens sakes, I just can’t think of one.

Basically her point is…. Gee, there are a lot of Africans here… Yeah.. duh… it’s the Olympics……
You take that and put it with the fear of West Nile, which in Greece is at a higher preponderance than here in the US.

The Olympics must have the highest standards. Without question. But there is the other standard, the one requiring a burden of proof. It appears all we have to have is a prosecutor and boom, a sentence is levied.

And this is not one occasion. Nancy Grace on Fox is a case. Bloggers comments are another case. Everyone has an opinion. No one stops to look at facts. They judge based on one or two words in the question. “Sure, if someone slurs a race, they should be thrown off the team. I say throw them off the team. We need to make an example so powerful it never happens again!” Hey, everybody! Let’s judge by popular opinion and not the facts.

Everyone has an opinion before anyone knows what she said. The implication is: “oh, it doesn’t matter what she says. If someone complains and thinks it is derogatory, then that is what matters. Whether it is derogatory or not, is inconsequential. After all, how can she not be guilty, if someone complains?”

Uhhhhh. perhaps the person doing the complaining is simply not that smart? If affects 50% of the worlds population you know?

I remember saner times.

Courtesy of Facebook

Taxes and The Wealthy

Right click to open full image… Pictograph Courtesy of Viral..

So, can someone tell me again, why we shouldn’t tax the rich, and instead, balance the budget on the backs of everyone else?…….

I seem to be missing that little detail where that all makes sense……

Where We Are…..

One of the best pieces of practical advice ever handed down, was that every once and a while, you have to step back, disengage, look around, and take note of where you stand and what’s going on around you….

So here we go.

We killed Bin Laden.

Christina Schools opted out, then back in to the “Race to the Top”.

Our debt ceiling is coming due, and we have teapeople who want to let us default.

The birth certificate issue was finally put to rest for all intelligent Americans.

Due to man’s insistence he is more powerful than nature, parts of Japan are inhabitable.

Markell is taking on the NRA over their insistence that gun shows should be able to continue to sell guns to known criminals…

Wilmington’s death toll is higher than ever.

Protack is not going to run Delaware’s Republican Party this season. The NRA is.

The General Assembly has been remarkably productive, (There are no Republicans, you know?)

The Republican House of Representatives has been remarkably destructive.

Paul Ryan’s budget is being touted by Republican’s as being “grown up.” (scary: what were their budgets before? “childish”?)

Speculation has driven up gas prices to where they are actually damaging the recovery.

Inflation on food since last May, has risen 50% on basics, but for some reason, no one counts food in the inflation reports.

Energy costs were the highest on record this year, though less carbon was burned. They too are discounted from the inflation index.

Labor unions are in danger of becoming obsolete in tea party states. Workers everywhere see their future as working for less and less each year.

Charitable organizations are in danger of failing; donations are down.

The housing market is still down. To unload a house you need to sell it at 40% of its value.

The Fed Chairman wants 30 Trillion worth of derivatives exempt from regulation.

Republicans think to be president you have to be a cool TV star. To hell with running a country. Whether hunting in Alaska, or the streets of New York; get a show, run for office.

Ok, that’s just a few… ]

Looking back over that list, a couple things jump out… One, is that the economies supporting all the layers of government are doing poorly, and THAT is creating the issues.. Cutbacks are because each layer of government, is taking in too little money.

And expressly because of the tightness of money, we have people losing their jobs, and that… of course causes “drama.” Whether it is rioting in a Middle Eastern street, or subdued protest off the back of John Deere tractors in Madison, or heated exchanges at the Eden Support center off Bear-Corbett road, or wacky Wilmington City Council meetings, or a lot of construction workers sitting at home waiting for a call to come to work…. in all cases, the myriad of problems are because the economy is not working well enough…

Btw, who is doing well?

Investment firms.

What are they investing in?

They are investing in schemes; not hard capital. They are buying companies, and squeezing them dry, then selling the pieces. All told, they make cash; the employes file for unemployment. Banks with money, aren’t lending it. They are buying other banks.

Where did the investment firms get their money? They got it from the Federal Treasury, given with no strings; fully expecting it to be invested in hard capital.

So we have a 14 Trillion Dollar deficit, where we bailed out the investment firms, and they are squandering the money by not creating capital.

So are we due for another crash? History says yes. The crash of 1937 occurred precisely because attempts were made to reign in spending by firing people (cutbacks) and all the gains of 1936, were wiped out…. Only WWII, and out of control deficit spending brought us out.

America was the last power to exit the Great Depression, because of the debacle of 1937…

So when will we get hit? Best guess is November 2011. Unemployment will be over 10%, causing a lot to clamor we are going the wrong way.

How do we move all that money out of investment houses and back into the actual economy?

Do what we did during WWII… The top marginal percent was 94%… All privately earned money went into the war effort.

We need to stop the siphoning of money out of our economy… Raise the tax on capital gains, raise business taxes, and most importantly, raise the top rates on the top 1% of the wealthy.

Pass it with an expiration date 3 years hence. That means like the Bush tax cuts which were set to expire, the revenue enhancers expire on a certain schedule.

And of course, keep the exemptions so that any hard capital enterprise, isn’t taxed at all…

Which means (so all can understand it) that if one builds an American manufacturing plant, none of that money gets taxed, but if you build a third world manufacturing plant, that money is subject to the highest tax rate possible. if you purchase another company in a hostile takeover, the money spent to buy that company is taxed. But were a plant built next to the Fisker Auto Plant, that money would not be touched…

Obviously in such a tax environment, construction would take off. With it, our economy would start to grow.

Pretty much, that’s where we’re at. If we don’t tax to promote hard capital investment, we lose…. if we do tax more, we get our country back. As our purchasing power grows per individual, our economy becomes stronger, and is then able to support all layers of government.

It is so simple. Tax, tax, tax. those with all the money. (but ignore all the money that gets buried into hard capital )… Had we done so in November, as the Democratic House voted to do, …. unemployment could now be 4%, and gas, no more than $2.50 a gallon. ( I know that’s a jump for neophytes, but most of you already know, exactly how those two are intertwined with the marginal tax rate)……

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Egypt vrs Iran

For those of us privy to being on the inside of the collapse of the Shah, these times are eerily familiar.

“The palpable sense of relief. The euphoria among the government’s opponents. The carnival-like atmosphere. The explosion of national pride. And the blind faith that the new regime would be more just, more equitable and more democratic than the old. Iran’s masses were no less hungry for democracy than the Egyptians who crowded into Cairo’s central Tahrir Square to demand an end to Mubarak’s rule. Where the Iranians put their trust in Muslim clerics to bring about a just and equitable society, the Egyptians turned to the secular-minded army to give the Mubarak regime a final push.”

The hated autocrat was gone. A new era was ushered in with cheers, tears and the cacophony of car horns.

And so it was in Tehran – 32 years before to the day.

“On Feb. 11, 1979, the commander of the Iranian air force announced on national radio that the armed forces were withdrawing from the fight to save the American-backed regime of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who had already fled the country three weeks before in the face of burgeoning street protests against his autocratic rule. With the military gone, the Iranian monarchy collapsed and with it any chance that the shah would return from what had been spun as a vacation – ironically to Anwar Sadat’s Egypt. As the troops returned to barracks, Tehran erupted into wild celebrations – punctuated by the deafening din of thousands of horns. “

Whereas Iranians turned to their muslim clerics, today’s Egyptians are internet savvy. Messages and directives back then, were smuggled over months into Iran on cassette tapes. Today technology could reach thousands within one hour…. But for the sake of remembering, despite the differences, all of us should be wary… For a vacuum has been created. What goes in, will depend for the most part one nothing less than “idealism.” of the Egyptian people. They have the numbers, but do they have the will.

All it takes is one person withing the military of Egypt, to say…. “why not me?” Egypt then goes down the road of ruin similar to the Myanmar Empire (old Burma)…

Turkey faced a similar situation. One idealist, Attaturk prevailed and today Turks are for the most part, a very happy people.

What is best for the US?

Obviously if we learned anything from Iran, it is not to make Egyptians our enemy. That is the single most important objective that the United States must take away from Iran. That anti United States rhetoric from the Ayatollah Khomeini, has dominated our foreign relations from that moment on. All our problems with the Middle East, stem from that denunciation by that one man. How can any Arab do business with the “Great Satin” and go back home to peace? He gets taunted relentlessly by his peers, and therefore because of that, the United States has an uphill battle communicating even the simple basics of diplomacy to those who could be our friends and partners. We have a difficult time persuading them to accomplish things that work best, even in their own self interests, simply because we, … are the ones proposing it…

We, as the father of democracy, need to support those who our daughters pick. Even if it goes against our grain. If a majority of Egyptians pick the Muslim Brotherhood, so be it; we need to treat it as a wise father treats his daughter’s choice of a mate….

“Uh, … are you sure? Well, that’s a surprise. But you know, I raised you to be independent, and if this is who you want, and if this one makes you happy, and if this one you really, truly believe is the right one for you…. and I want you to be honest with yourself right now, well, as long as you are happy, I think it’s a great choice, and I will support you all….”

That solid support hinges on the words…. as long as you are happy. Were it to become known, that their spouse, (new head of government) was to start siphoning out of their bank account, we again side, as should the father of democracy, with the people, and help them explore the options of divorcing and rediscovering who they are….

That was our failure in Iran. Had we supported the Islamic revolution, it would have had to live upon it’s own devices, which were paltry. Instead it lasted fiercely defiant against the Great Satin; in fact, that was the only thing it had going for it. Able to fire up anger over our nations support of the shah, it didn’t need to take care of its people to stay in power…

We cannot give the next ruler of Egypt that option. Instead, we must embrace their choice, and accept that what makes our nation happy, like crappy private healthcare, like working long hours with little to show for it, like having false news broadcast over our corporate media, like working hard hours to pay back the bank collectors, utility company collectors, hospital and medical collectors, as well as paying up front for insurance policies that don’t cover anything,….. may not be their idea of a perfect society…..

We have to wise up and understand that as the father of democracy, our getting pushy and saying: ” I forbid you to marry that man” may actually be the very thing that makes that man appear attractive .. “

Therefore we have to do the manly thing, swallow our pride, forget our ego, realize our grace, and accept what the Egyptians want, should be what we want too. Only then,… will no interruption occur within our relationship….

Biden Does One Up On Carter

I’m not the only one comparing Egypt with Iran (79).. Both were populist revolts against dictators, both were lifting off oppressive regimes.

As the people poured into Tehran, Carter did not give them support. We were too tied to the Shah. Thereby when he left, there was a period where the population looked around, saying “what do we do now?”

Khomeini, was in France. He quickly packed and moved back to Iran, and the mullahs, who were the only structure left in that nation, by default, became the government. One that was quite hostile to the US; and considering we supported their oppressor, one would expect they should be…

But for a moment, there was hopefullness. Perhaps here was a new American revolution, where a government was ruled by its citizens, and not … vice versa. There was jubilation, hope, and joy.

Then Khomeini set up shop, and the mullahs—and a roving army of “spiritual enforcers” known as the Revolutionary Guards—ended up substituting one autocratic regime for another. In doing so, they dashed the hopes of millions of middle class Iranians who thought the revolution would bring more freedom, not less.

Women lost the social gains they had made under the Shah, and were forced to wear head coverings and full-body cloaks called chadors. Opponents were imprisoned and tortured as ruthlessly as under the Shah. A parliamentary democracy existed mostly on paper, with true authority residing with the mullahs. With the Shah in exile, Khomeini identified the U.S. as “the Great Satan” and an “enemy of Islam.”

We seemed to be on the same track in Egypt. The Obama administration was proceeding too cautiously, voicing support for Mubarak to finish his term. That made Egyptians view us suspiciously. Was the United States unwilling to see just how hated Mubarak really was? Could they not gauge the hatred which average Egyptians felt towards this man?

Obama was pulling a Carter… Fortunately for the world, instead of a Walter Mondale, he has a Joe Biden (he’s from Delaware, you know) who steps up and speaks from the heart, as would Jackson, Lincoln, Cleveland, Truman, other leaders also cut from the common cloth…

“He stressed that the Egyptian government is responsible for ensuring that peaceful demonstrations don’t lead to violence and intimidation and for allowing journalists and human rights advocates to conduct their important work, including immediately releasing those who have been detained,

Joe Biden is needed in Egypt. The Obama team is too blind. Their backing Suleiman will backfire. He is known as “The CIA’s Man in Cairo.” for his his ardent anti-Islamism, his willingness to talk and act tough on Iran -

Mubarak knew that Suleiman would command an instant lobby of supporters at Langley and among ‘Iran nexters’ in Washington – not to mention among other authoritarian mukhabarat-dependent regimes in the region. Suleiman is a favourite of Israel too; he held the Israel dossier and directed Egypt’s efforts to crush Hamas by demolishing the tunnels that have functioned as a smuggling conduit for both weapons and foodstuffs into Gaza.

Obviously this is not what the Egyptians, those sleeping out in the cold to protest another day, crowds who stop rioting to bow their heads, ex-patriots who are abandoning their European jobs to fight for their homeland against tyranny and oppression, want…

No! America needs to be like France was to us during our similar Revolution. “What do you need?” “I have it if you can deliver?” ” can put our fleet off Yorktown for a week, can you be there?

Only then, if we support the people, … it won’t matter who becomes the ruler. Whoever it is, will be beholden to the people, a people who will love the United States of America.. … Instead of the Great Satan, we become the Great Angel…..

We can do this: and Delaware’s own Joe Biden has taken the lead. His words rippled through Tahrir square like wildfire……

On the other hand the person to whom Obama seems to be willing to throw his support, figured predominantly as Egypt’s torturer-in-chief, during the days of rendition by the US of terror suspects to extract information. At least one person extraordinarily rendered by the CIA to Egypt — Egyptian-born Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib — was reportedly tortured by Suleiman himself.

Equally embarrassing for the Obama administration, is Suleiman’s involvement in the famous torture evidence erroneously proving a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda. It was later refuted. His whereabouts were, in fact, a secret for years, until April 2009 when Human Rights Watch researchers investigating the treatment of Libyan prisoners encountered him in the courtyard of a prison. Two weeks later, on May 10, al-Libi was dead, and the Gaddafi regime claimed it was a suicide.

According to Evan Kohlmann, who enjoys favored status among US officials as an ‘al-Qaeda expert’, citing a classified source: ‘Al-Libi’s death coincided with the first visit by Egypt’s spymaster Omar Suleiman to Tripoli.

Are we putting in another Shah? Another spymaster who will torture and use fear to exert control? We’re doomed if we do…

Better to let the middle class do whatever it is they want, elect whoever it is they want…. Forget the ruler… support the people…

Joe Biden knows this….

Egypt: Bloodbath Coming

Uprisings versus a despotic ruler.

Judging from the streets of Egypt, capitulation is the only thing that will stop it.

Either the government of Mubarak capitulates, or it establishes control with violence.

China was faced with the same in 1989.
Iran faced it last summer.
Tunisia faced it in December.

There is no other solution. It is a matter of will. Does Mubarak have the will to kill his own people? Mow them down like rattlesnakes?

If he doesn’t… he must leave… Does Mubarak have the will to abdicate his position, to being a pariah the rest of his days, watching his back for a sniper paid to clip him?

If he doesn’t, he must regain control by killing innocent people irregardless of the consequences.

In the first case, that of abdicating, …. he can’t win. The second case, killing off all protesters no matter how many, is an option where he can win. It was done in China. It was done in Iran. The world yelled loudly, but that really doesn’t matter much in Egypt, just as it didn’t matter inside China, just as it didn’t matter in Iran. And… after being ruthless, there were no more riots in either country.

He has no choice. Expect the bloodbath soon.

Mid East Unrest Due to Mid East Values

First Algeria, then Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, and Albania. And I just heard Kyrgyzstan had riots too?

And no one is blaming Israel or the Great Satan? These are truly incredulous times…

So then, who is blame? A better question,…. once facts are on the table, is WHAT… is to blame?

The heart of the problem is in the dysfunctional nature of conservative, traditionalist Arab society. They fail to function economically, because of their values prohibit them from doing so.

Here is a case in point. Nine out of ten Egyptian women suffer genitalia mutilation. This act is not sanctioned by the government of Egypt, but is actually, officially opposed. Mubarak’s wife, actively campaigns against it. Yet nine out of ten women continue to have this done:

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi - the president of the International Association of Muslim Scholars – explains:

The most moderate opinion and the most likely one to be correct is in favor of practicing circumcision in the moderate Islamic way indicated in some of the Prophet’s hadiths – even though such hadiths are not confirmed to be authentic. It is reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to a midwife: “Reduce the size of the clitoris but do not exceed the limit, for that is better for her health and is preferred by husbands.”

That is not a Muslim view (the practice is rare in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan), but an Egyptian Muslim view. In the most fundamental of matters, President and Mrs Mubarak are incomparably more enlightened than the Egyptian public. Three-quarters of acts of genital mutilation in Egypt are executed by physicians, meaning they are not being performed at religious ceremonies, but are instead being quietly paid by the very parents of the girls themselves.

Fact is, Egypt is wallowing in backwardness, not because the Mubarak regime has suppressed the creative energies of the people, but because the people themselves cling to the most oppressive practices of traditional society. And countries can only languish in backwardness so long before some event makes their position untenable.

So what broke the back of those toiling in Egypt? The price of wheat?

Wheat prices have almost doubled in the past year.

Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer, beholden to foreign providers for nearly half its total food consumption. Half of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day. Food comprises almost half the country’s consumer price index, and much more than half of spending for the poorer half of the country.

Egyptians love their bread. The nation is the world’s biggest consumer of bread with around 400 grams of bread consumption a day, easily eclipsing France at just 130 grams daily.

So, why can’t the Egyptians buy wheat?

The prosperous Asians are buying it up first. The wheat flows to the area having the most money.

Earlier this year, after drought prompted Russia to ban wheat exports, Egypt’s agriculture minister pledged to raise food production over the next ten years to 75% of consumption, against only 56% in 2009. Local yields are only 18 bushels per acre, compared to 30 to 60 for non-irrigated wheat in the United States, and up 100 bushels for irrigated land.

Prosperous Asians want their protein. And we all know it takes seven times as much wheat to make an equal amount of protein. The Asians have priced wheat out of the Arabs budget.

The trouble isn’t long-term food price inflation: wheat has long been one of the world’s bargains. The International Monetary Fund’s global consumer price index quadrupled in between 1980 and 2010, while the price of wheat, even after the price spike of 2010, only doubled in price. What hurts the poorest countries, though, isn’t the long-term price trend, though, but the volatility.

It turns out that China, not the United States or Israel, presents an existential threat to the Arab world, and through no fault of its own: rising incomes have gentrified the Asian diet, and – more importantly – insulated Asian budgets from food price fluctuations. Economists call this “price elasticity.” Americans, for example, will buy the same amount of milk even if the price doubles, although they will stop buying fast food if hamburger prices double. Asians now are wealthy enough to buy all the grain they want.

If wheat output falls, for example, due to drought in Russia and Argentina, prices rise until demand falls. The difference today is that Asian demand for grain will not fall, because Asians are richer than they used to be. Someone has to consume less, and it will be the people at the bottom of the economic ladder, in this case the poorer Arabs.

Wheat supply dropped by only 2.4% between 2009 and 2010 – and the wheat price doubled. That’s because affluent Asians don’t care what they pay for grain. Prices depend on what the last (or “marginal”) purchaser is willing to pay for an item….

It wasn’t the financial crisis that undermined dysfunctional Arab states, but Asian prosperity. The Arab poor have been priced out of world markets. There is no solution to Egypt’s problems within the horizon of popular expectations. Whether this regime survives or a new one replaces it, the outcome will continue to be a disaster.

So in each of these conservative Muslim states, no matter who remains or takes over, the conditions will not become better until they understand that… it is their conservatism, that is literally the thing killing them.