Breaking: Libya’s Prime Minister Just Kidnapped…

Breaking: Libya’s Prime Minister Just Kidnapped…

Surprise.

4th of July And Civil War

What an odd title but that is exactly what is going on in Egypt right now. A similar juxtaposition also occurred inside the minds of some Americans back on July 4th 1863 (exactly 150 years ago)  as they begin to bury the dead from both sides in Gettysburg.   Since human beings are 99.5% the same, what Egypt is now bearing must create some  intro-inspection upon how things are going here in the US as well.

I was shown an email passed among Tea Partiers that whooped:  “Egypt got rid of  their dictator; Why can’t we get rid of ours?”   Ironically the popular vote percents are strikingly similar… Morsi won with  51.7%;  Obama with 51.1%…   Yet Egypt is in the middle of a coup; and Obama is being hailed as the first since Dwight to have solidly won over 51% for both terms…

Just looking at a chart over our nation’s history one sees just how tight our popular vote margin is.  (one also sees the margin of victory is a bad indicator of just how good a president will be)…

It’s a good thing we have an electoral college to decide matters for us, and create a more determinable method of preventing what Egyptians and many of out tea partiers think should happen now….

I know many decry Bush’s win (-0.51$)  over Gore and use that to promote an amendment to abolish the Electoral College.  However America survived far better than Egypt (+1.7%) is doing  now,  with even worse violations against the the  popular vote total…  Through the House of Representatives, these people became President:  Benjamin Harrison (-0.83%), Rutherford B. Hayes (-3.00), and John Quincy Adams (-10.44%) all with more of a percentage loss than had George W. Bush over Gore.  In two of the three, the loser returned to whomp the stealer out of his second term.  One  of these “losers” even had a 51% popular vote majority!

But the electoral college  provided decisiveness. Just like in football or basketball, the final score may not portray the better team, but it provides a finality from which we can all move on.

The demise of Morsi is a great chance to bring up this issue, simply to force us to understand why our founding fathers who were unburdened at that point by political parties,  could by using what today are called “thought models”, come up with this peculiar institution that has well served it’s test over time.  Couple that to the fact that even today, we have something almost akin to a political party vying for the forced overthrow our our elected top official,  one can imagine the rancor and violence that might have tainted our nation’s  development if we did not have a clear uncontestable “score” that determined our winners from losers.

One must be cautious when comparing today’s Egypt with today’s American democracy.  Egypt is in its founding stages.  As Morsi proclaimed, removing him removes all legitimacy of any future democratically elected government.  As did Julius Caesar to all future democracy in Rome.

It makes us realize how lucky we are today that all of America was unified behind George Washington as it’s first head of state.  That unanimity of opinion, allowed the slow formation of  traditions we now have today to take root.   For one, Washington did not impose himself (as did Morsi) by aligning with either the Democrats or Federalists on policy at the expense of the other.

Morsi made that mistake with the Muslim Brotherhood.   Instead, unlike the current head of Egypt,   George Washington held court over a myriad of opinions, and picked and chose in the fashion of King Solomon, almost the same as he did at the Constitutional Convention,  of which was the most judicious approach on the basis of each proposal’s merits.  It is worth noting,  that towards the end of his second term as the political parties were being formed for the upcoming  1798 race,  he himself became quite disgusted with the smears, dirt, graft, and corruption required to enable any country to run effectively upon its own power…

Perhaps because Egypt did not endure a long war of Independence, it does not respect the cost of freedom.  Perhaps because democracy came to Egypt in its first time  like a pack of chewing gum in a cashiers line, they easily think they can replace it again with a better flavor?

But this foreboding irony of Egypt remains.   Instead of comparing it with American Democracy, suppose we go Godwin and compare it to the German election of 1932.  What if the Germans had risen up a year later against Hitler and thrown him out?  That would be  good thing right?  Or had  Mao been pushed out and the Chinese business reforms begun 40 years earlier?   Or had North Korea said “unh unh” to its dictator in the first year?  Or had Centrists in Iran risen and prevailed over the Ayatollah?

The Turkish Army as well as the Pakistani Army has on occasion stepped in and then later bowed out whenever control has become precarious.  Perhaps this is the only model that works well for overly excitable Arab populations?  it is a longterm democracy with military safeguards built into its Constitution.

But one thing is very clear from this current outcome is this:  religion can play NO part in government, even if given a political mandate. Living vicariously through Egypt it is clear there must be an impenetrable wall between that which belongs to Caesar, and that which belongs to God. All political entities who have dared mix religion into their political framework, have populations who are deeply suffering now (relative to those in strictly secular governments), even when that religious entity is the Chairman of the ruling political party himself, as is the case in North Korea, the old Soviet Union, or as was of Japan and Germany during the second world war…

It’s a lesson the US should take to heart.  They next time anyone decries we need more religious people in our democracy, cut them off with this:  “Remember Iran; Remember Egypt.”

As Americans we are not immune to Civil War.  From it we learned it is a horrible alternative to walk away from one’s existing structure simply because one does not get one’s own way…  We also learned that one can’t impose one’s will on vast majorities of ourselves who think differently.

Third.  We learned that freedom is great, but the need to eat is greater.  Government first has to function to meet the basic needs of its citizens; only then, once its citizens are economically stable to be not worried whether they will be alive the day after tomorrow,  can their thoughts begin to turn to topics such as does democracy even matter?

As US policy,  our actions need to first get Egypt to feed themselves; Spare no expense; make it our generation’s Marshall Plan. Then once well fed and able to provide for themselves, can we begin to  proselytize our points of view.  Whether they choose democracy or totalitarianism, will depend solely on who they see helping them now in their time of need…  One can talk of democracy’s long-term future implications, but that rings on deaf ears when all one really wonders, is if one will be alive the day after tomorrow.

Pros and Cons of Holding Nationwide Strike on January 2nd In Support of Raising Taxes On The Wealthy

Pros and Cons of Holding A Nationwide Strike on January 2nd, 2013.

Pros:

1) Forces Republicans to negotiate.
2) Demonstrates to Congress this is not a game.
3) Gives everyone a day longer holiday break.
4) Raises stakes for Tea Party Republicans thinking about defaulting.
5) Causes all eyes to stay focused on the deficit issue at hand.
6) Could be conducted as a wildcat strike , just call in sick.
7) Shows that Americans are serious about taxing the wealthy.
8) Gives our president a tool to hold over corporate America
9) January 2nd is the lowest productivity day of the year, no economic loss
10) Needs to be viral to have any meaning. People have to want to show their support for balancing the budget through taxes on the wealthy.
11) Continuation of occupy themes.
12) Businesses as well as labor, can show their support for raising taxes on the wealthy.
13) After experiencing a nationwide strike, Labor negotiators will have more clout in negotiations.
14) America’s people takes back their destiny. Like Thanksgiving, almost every American is off work.
15) Will demonstrate what happens if America stops working.
16) Will be called off if Agreement is decided before Dec. 15th.
17) Should be also supported by Businesses, corporations as well as workers. We all have a hand in making sure our government can pay it’s bills far into the future.

Cons:
1) Inconvenience to those flying that day, or any travelers.
2) Lost day of work.
3) Job may fire you.
4) There are no winners in a strike. Victor goes to the one who stands hardship the longest. All lose.
5) If successful Could be overused. Strike for Animal Rights.
6) Will gum up normal operations. for whole day. and perhaps the next.
7) Will lower GDP by one day’s worth in that quarter.
8) May cause gigantic riots never before seen in the history of the World.
9) Nobody will come.

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.