What Else You Got?

The thing that gets me is the lengths we are prepared to go, and the money we are prepared to spend, to deal with the fallout of our dysfunction, without actually dealing with the problem directly or really even summoning the need to be honest about it. The US has spent billions since 9-11 arming local police with military weaponry, which this week we saw turned on multi-racial protesters demanding justice for a young black man living in what is “one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States”.

http://www.wupr.org/2013/05/16/st-louis-a-segregated-city/

I have been struck by the response of people from around the world, particularly a man from Gaza who was photographed holding a sign saying: “The Palestinian people know what mean to be shot unarmed because of your ethnicity. #Ferguson#Justice.” Twitter has been alight with comments from Gazans explaining to protesters in Ferguson proper medical techniques for managing a tear gas attack. Things really got going from a perspective of media awareness when reporters from the Washington Post and the Huff Post were arrested and others from al Jazeera were gassed.  Nothing wakes up reporters to injustice quite as much as when an event when one of their tribe is mishandled.

Pundits will no doubt spend the days ahead parsing the events that led to this conflagration. We will hear many levels of sober dialogue about police and community relations. Hearings will be held about the militarization of police forces across the country. Questions will be asked about why a police force of 55, working in a community of just over 20,000, needed a military assault vehicle. I grew up in a town about that size, Streamwood, IL. I was thinking this week what it would have looked like to see an MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle headed down Parkside Circle towards Monaco’s drugstore. What was absurd is now real. Yet it seems we are not even capable of having a real dialogue about where we are and the problems in our communities.

We can start with the lack of a quality education. For all the talk about the failure of the American education system, the basic differences in educational opportunities between districts located in poor communities and those in wealthier ones are clear. It’s hard to listen to the debates between union types and so called reformer types, without wanting to ask the obvious question: “How can education ever fill the gap brought on by a home broken by poverty?” While it is possible for districts and schools to rise above the limitations of their location, it is so much harder when kids are not getting enough food, or of they reside in an environment of fear and despair, so that what we see in the mean is failure.  From the jumping off point of a poor education the most optimistic path leads to a poorly paying job. Too many do not even get that far.

The great disparity of both income and wealth between African Americans and whites and the divide in employment opportunities between the two communities is worse now than in 1960. With the collapse of manufacturing, income inequality is greater than 1960. While this statistic includes all races it has had an inordinate impact on communities of color who in the early 70’s were just starting to climb the economic ladder out of decades of isolation. Soon after America turned its back on the War on Poverty and programs they felt most benefited other communities. For a brief moment Dr. King, Bobby Kennedy and others shamed America into seeing ourselves as connected, then Vietnam, battles over busing, and targeted racist political appeals growing out of Nixon’s “Southern Strategy"-- which explicitly attempted to racialize poverty programs-- drove poor Southern whites to vote their racial animus over their economic self-interest. This is a pattern that continues today. How quickly white Americans settled back into our comfortable calculation of them and us.  From then on America surrendered its efforts to solve its problem with race, and the poverty that attends it, choosing instead to paper the issue over with fine speeches and a celebration of Dr. King on his birthday.

While it’s true that millions of people of color rose to capture some measure of the middle class American Dream, those that remain are poorer and more isolated in their poverty and neglect than ever. No amount of readings of the “I Have a Dream” speech has or will change that.

Most people know of the staggering number of young African American men under control by one means or another of the criminal justice system. The War on Drugs has turned the increasingly for profit prison system in America into a warehouse of young black and brown men.  Prison populations, which even through Jim Crow and legal segregation were majority white in 1960, have turned overwhelmingly Black and Latino.  Since more than half that serve time return after being released for another crime, the system has become a revolving door of despair, reaffirming a pattern of petty criminality and incarceration rather than breaking it. White liberals, like myself, have spent decades arguing with other white liberals about whether the criminal justice system creates the problem and how to measure the responsibility of the incarcerated, but no amount of research and debate has broken the cycle.

While some may have forgotten or simply chosen to ignore how the problems of poverty exacerbate issues within our communities, there is little doubt that there are two criminal justice systems, one for white folks and one for the poor minorities, two educational systems, two community development systems and so forth. Moreover, willful decisions were made. Robert Moses, the patron saint of New York City Parks, carved massive section of urbanized housing with highways and other development projects in such a way as to totally isolate whole communities. Nicholas Lehman, in his excellent book, The Promised Land, details the ways Richard Daley did the same in my beloved Chicago.   

http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Broker-Robert-Moses/dp/0394720245

http://www.amazon.com/Promised-Land-Migration-Changed-America/dp/0679733477/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408290282&sr=1-1&keywords=the+promised+land+nicholas+lemann

Our schools and housing communities either never escaped or are returning to levels of segregation which were identified as totally unacceptable in 1965. Meanwhile in almost every public sphere a majority of the Supreme Court has taken the position that the battle is over, and in the case of the most extreme justices challenged whether it ever ought to have been fought in the first place. Apparently the good guys won on Voting, in Housing, Affirmative action. Everywhere. Game over, time to move on. Congress has abandoned any desire for governance. Politicians with national aspirations, even the President himself, are afraid to say anything about poverty or race. Every program is measured by its impact on the middle class. It is as if America has surrendered its willingness to address or even talk about the stain of our historical legacy- racism.

Class plays an increasingly important role in some people’s willingness to see themselves as different or better than their brothers and sisters. Well off and well-funded Conservative African Americans now roam the land waving their fingers at those less fortunate than they. We see an increasingly willingness for those that escaped the desperation of poverty to roll up the road behind them rather than encouraging a broader and more expansive effort to pave an even better road, both metaphorically and literally. Infrastructure spending has become a dirty word. Herman Cain ran an ugly campaign of us and them, blame game politics, before he imploded amidst a flurry of not ready for prime time behavior (“Uz-beki-beki-stan”), punctuated by claims of sexually inappropriate behavior. His 9-9-9 campaign was a naked attempt to exacerbate the transfer of wealth from the poor and working class to those already obscenely wealthy and absurdly powerful.

So then we come back to Ferguson, Missouri. Every act by the police and local officials has been and will continue to be minutely dissected. The local police are clearly a bunch of jackasses. In action after action they have shown their contempt for the community. After what we have seen does anyone really doubt a police officer in that department may have felt that almost any show of force would be justified, up to and including shooting a young unarmed man with his hands in the air? After calm is restored, the questions will remain. For these protests are about so much more than the isolation of the police from the community? If calm returns tomorrow, for what reason would anyone abandon their sense of despair? Does St Louis County have some new Fair Housing Plan in the works? Is some new approach to breaking barriers of race in achieving access to good schools being considered? Job training? Summer work programs for young people next year? We see the assault weapons and military equipment. We’ve heard the lectures about bootstraps. What else you got?  

Israel and Palestine: Shared Tragic Loss

Yochanan Gordon is a zealot, made even more dangerous because he does not carry a weapon. Yesterday he wrote an Op-Ed, published briefly, but quickly withdrawn for the Times of Israel in which he concluded with this question:

“If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals?”

Gordon is a writer, a demagogue, not all that different than Dick Cheney, for example, someone who provides a rationale for others to fight and die.  Back in the old days when there was 60% to 70% support in the Occupied Territories and Israel for a negotiated two-state solution the big question was always whether or not those in favor of peace and reconciliation would be able to sustain their voices over the hopeless nihilism coming from extreme factions in both communities who do not see the other as even at the level of human. The brutality of bombs landing on hospitals, factories, power plants, schools, and homes we have seen in Gaza, matched equally with the inhumanity of 3000 rockets fired indiscriminately into Israel, has empowered the masters of war on while weakening the peacemakers. Gordon is just one example of it. Even if he represents just a tiny fraction of the thinking  in Israel, his position is so extreme it is bound to drown out others, in the same way that the Tea Party, all 20 or 30 of them in the House, is the only element of Republican Party that gets any ink in this country.
I posted this not only to criticize Gordon, though he is worthy of that, but also because I know there are people of good faith who lean one way or the other, but maybe do not understand or choose to acknowledge the extremism that exists in the side they support or the community they live in. Elements of both the both Palestinian and Israeli nations are worthy of condemnation in my view and there is precious little understating or acknowledgment of that. I understand that some whom may read this and respond by saying what Gordon wrote does not match the sins of Hamas, words not having the same weight as action. But I would ask those people would you same the same for the political leadership of Hamas cooling their heels in Doha. Aren’t they also one step removed from the actual carnage taking place on the ground? Does this distance give them the leeway to speak of the extermination of jews? Does the bullet hate? How about the rocket or the missile?  Or are they merely means by which hatred is expressed? The utter contempt for the sub-human nature of other?

For weeks we have heard how Israel is weakening itself in the court of public opinion or Hamas is being “brought to heel” like dogs by Israeli bombs. This is the classic analysis of power, but the real shift of power is away from those whether in Palestine or Israel who seek peace and reconciliation.  People are fighting for their lives so good polling is not available in Gaza and the West Bank, but we can be sure that support for a negotiated two-state solution is no longer anything close to previous levels.  How do we ask a father destroyed by the loss of a dead child in his arms, or a mother hunkered down in an air raid shelter as sirens wail and her children cry to seek peace?  I make no qualms about my belief that the suffering of Gazans is unimaginably, obscenely greater, but that said, which family ought rightfully to be expected to press their leaders to seek peace?

Through this week I have seen post after post from those who see this calamity primarily through the prism of their personal allegiance. As one might expect most Americans see Israel as the victim, and Hamas as the cause of every hurt, both those inflicted on Israel as well as the Palestinians. But in this amazing new world we live in those of us who care, can also tap into a social network site and see a multitude of comments that can give as perspective as to how others might view these events, people with different perspective and views than our own.

It is easy to tap into the hurt and pain on the other side of the crisis if you are so inclined. There are people of good will and honor all over the world that are expressing their support and honorable hurt for the Palestinian people. There is much righteous and well directed anger towards Israel which I share. Despite the inaction of totalitarian Arab governments fearful of political Islam, across the Middle East there are people speaking in rational terms about the pain they experiencing and the wrong they see.

If one dives deep enough and frequently enough, it is not hard to find Islamic Yochanan Gordons. Like him, all these people do is sit with their phones and type words, they do not carry weapons, and even their audience is for the most part their fellow travelers on Twitter or wherever. Judging from their pictures with their pink hair accessories or American themed t-shirts many of these people would never pick up a gun. Some of the most pro-Palestinian supporters I have seen do not live in the Territories. They are just angry and hurt and for their people, and so they perpetuate a rationale out of their bitterness, for others to fight and die, and in Gaza if we are to be totally honest, simply die. There are estimated to be 15,000 fighters in Gaza affiliated with Hamas or other aligned groups. Still some suggest ultimate victory over a nuclear armed Israel. This is such wrong thinking to the point of being delusional. I was reminded of Dr. King’s words prescient words posted on the MLK Center FB page this week, “The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.”

Most of those committed to their rationale do not see any reason to question it. I find this particularly hard to understand coming from liberals, who in almost any other conflict would criticize any entity that used its overwhelming power so indiscriminately. (Too many centers of Palestinian survival have been struck now to call the Israel effort targeted. Dr Belal Dabour, a Palestinian Doctor @belalmda12 has provided a steady sorrowful representation of the ways in which Palestinian society is being systematically destroyed.)

Many of the liberals now defending Israel and attacking Hamas by practice and seemingly family history almost always stand for peace, often for the underdog, the weaker or more defenseless. But not now. Israel has, for a very long time, been one subject that deeply divides American liberals. Those of us who now criticizing Israel are often accused of being supporters of Hamas. I heard it on during a debate on TV again last night. It was no different in 1982, when Israel blundered out of anger and frustration into Lebanon, and pounded Beirut mercilessly for months. Back then I was in the audience when representatives of the Israeli group Peace Now, explained that Israel was violating international law, using white phosphorus and other anti-personnel weapons in an attempt to terrorize the civilian population. We were told then that civilians were trapped in Beirut. Similar claims are being made in Gaza. What place in Gaza is safe for civilians? How can Israel drop flechette shells on Gaza city?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/20/israel-using-flechette-shells-in-gaza

Back in 1982 many of us felt then that what Israel was doing in Lebanon was wrong and tragically would not bring them closer to their ultimate goal of security. And then Sabra and Shatilla happened and militias working closely with the IDF massacred between 1,000 and 2,000 civilians, killing many as they slept. Where are we now 30 years after Sabra, Shatilla, and Beirut, incidents we were told would so shock the conscience as to require both sides to forge a new path? 95% of Israelis support the recent military invasion of Gaza.

Yet I say for supporters of the Palestinian cause, those that can only see Israel’s mistakes, are we to believe the entire nation of Israel only hates Palestinians? Are we simply to forget that a few years back nearly 70% of Israelis were prepared to sign off on a negotiated settlement which would result in a two state solution?

With Lebanon in 1982 those of us who dared raise a voice were criticized as being pro-PLO. It is pro-Hamas now, then it was PLO. There is a very good reason that this approach is so effective in silencing honest discussion, the deplorable record of the PLO then and Hamas now. Many people do not accept that some of us can support the Palestinian people, while condemning the leadership which precipitates crisis after crisis. The foolish claim that ultimate victory is possible that the PLO told Palestinians then, and Hamas tells Palestinians now is a lie, designed to distract from their own humiliation at the hands of the occupiers, and to maintain allegiances that for any sane person should have long since been extinguished. Some of us find it impossible to disassociate our humanity from the devastation we saw this week in a UN school being run as a shelter where the UN claimed that the IDF was advised 17 times of the coordinates.  To us when supporters of Israel defend the indefensible with “Look at what Hamas has done,” the words feel effortlessly Orwellian. So those of us who seek a path towards peace, even of those of us with some knowledge of history, and the pain of both sides, we have no place. We are simply defenders of Hamas.

Here's the full text of the deleted Times of Israel post backing genocide in Gaza

http://www.vox.com/2014/8/1/5959635/heres-the-full-text-of-the-deleted-time-of-israel-post-backing?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_name=share-button&utm_campaign=vox&utm_content=article-share-bottom

The Author of That Gaza Genocide Op-Ed Is Not Backing Down

http://www.mediaite.com/online/the-author-of-that-gaza-genocide-op-ed-is-not-backing-down/

Yochanan Gordon Apologizes for ‘Genocide Is Permissible’ Op-Ed

http://www.mediaite.com/online/yochanan-gordon-apologizes-for-genocide-is-permissible-op-ed/

Belal:

I read your story about the wounded little boy asking for his father and brother. I have a son. He is nearly 16 now, but at that age he was a skinny little guy just like that boy. My heart is heavy for that family and for all those now suffering such loss.

I will continue to follow and hope that this madness is soon over. We pray for peace and your personal safety.

http://belalmd.wordpress.com/2014/07/23/the-boy-who-clung-to-the-paramedic-the-story-behind-the-photo/

Mohammed, Naftali, Eyal, and Gilad

More than 70% of Israelis and 70% of Palestinians favored a two state solution in 2009. In absence of any progress on Peace Talks those numbers have dropped precipitously, though majorities in both Israel and Palestine still want negotiations which would lead to peaceful coexistence. It is not the will of the people that has killed the chance for peace it is the timidity of political leaders. Netanyahu does not want a two state solution and he has spent two terms as Prime Minister doing everything he can to derail any chance for progress. He has been a major proponent of settlement activity and has taken an eye for an eye approach to every provocation. Thomas Freidman once said that Arafat never missed an opportunity to waste a chance for peace. In the succeeding years every Palestinian leader has pretty much followed that playbook. Though I understand the frustration and political calculations that lead the Palestinian Authority to align in a pact with Hamas, in its way, this is just as great wound to the Palestinian aspirations as Settlement activities by the Israelis in the occupied territories. I would call the alliance a catastrophe, except we all know how many other foolish and damaging steps each side has taken previously. Was the Infitada which sent Palestinian boys into the streets with rocks to battle heavily armed Israelis a catastrophe? Was the 1982 invasion of Lebanon which led to the massacre of 2000 civilians at the hands of militias working directly with the Israeli Defense forces a disaster? In 1946 Zionists, some of whom would later have significant leadership roles in Israeli government, were battling the British occupation and they blew up the King David hotel decades before terrorism was part of the modern vocabulary. Was that a catastrophe? What about Munich and its bloody aftermath?

 Leadership in both Palestine and Israel governed large majorities willing to take a chance for peace, but they have squandered opportunity after opportunity, either out of fear of the militant fringe in their community (which is real) or because the leaders themselves did not have the political desire to seek peace. Arab governments in the area have spent a lot of time exploiting the crisis over the last 50 years, without lifting a finger, or taking any risk, to push any real chance for peace forward. Here in America the hard right is myopically committed to an absolute defense of Israel, no matter the circumstance.

 Considering this history, those who defend one side or the other without acknowledging the sins of those that they defend, miss the point almost completely. Both sides have wronged the other, sometimes with great pain, and sometimes with catastrophic results for their own political goals and any moral standing they would hope to project to the world. In my heart, I think I instinctively feel more defensive about the Palestinian cause than that of Israel, but this is only because while the political wheels spin in the mud, the Palestinians continue to suffer grave depravation of basic human needs like housing, food, and medical care in their everyday lives, not to mention gross indignities as they move through the terrain of occupation. The fact that Israel confronts the land of those they occupy with tanks and other high powered weaponry which is overwhelming in every way to anything the Palestinians can muster feels like it should ascribe a greater moral obligation to Israel. Yet I hesitate. We can be certain that the mothers of those three Israeli teenagers-- slain for the furtherance of no cause-- feel no more or less pain than the mother of the Arab teenager who was kidnapped and brutalized—also for no cause. A dead child is a dead child. As the father of a teenager myself, who lives every day with both the joy he brings and the foolish choices he sometimes makes, my heart feels broken for this most recent loss of life. I see the news, and then I think of my all arms and legs, 6’3, 165 pound, beautiful, son and I shudder, feeling tears of fear and worry that won’t come. As human beings our collective soul is scarred by these heinous acts in the way that Newtown and 9-11 scarred us. We do not recover from these cuts, we merely endure. We are not scarred because I or anyone who reads this wasted those lives, but because we were so helpless and or disinterested to prevent the horror we then had to witness. Those of us who consider ourselves as citizens of the world have a lot of work to do and speaking personally I feel that during the course of my life far too much is left undone. Perhaps, far more than anything else, there remains too much hate in this world, too little love, too little acceptance, and too little commitment to dialogue.

 Which brings me back to the words of Dr. King which I posted yesterday: "That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing."
There is no reason for hope right now, except in our lifetime we did get to watch the Berlin Wall come down. Though we lost Steven Biko, we watched the heroic Mandela walk out of prison and lead his beloved South Africa in an inclusive and forgiving way. Though Burma is now besieged by ethnic violence, we saw the magnificent Daw Aung San Suu Kyi leave her house arrest of more than 15 years. We lost Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney, Viola Liuzzo, Medgar Evers, both Dr. King, and Malcom X and countless others, but this week we saw one of my great personal heroes, John Lewis, alongside millions of other Americans celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights act. No matter those that would turn back the clock and the miles we still need to go, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act which followed a year later fundamentally transformed America. So, I guess there is also this: “The Arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

Our Failure In Iraq

This week John McCain has referred to the crisis in Iraq as the gravest threat to American security interests since the end of the Cold War. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/huffpost-reporter-confronts-mccain-does-victory-in-iraq-mean-endless-war/ Of course, he also said those same words, or something almost exactly like it, about (in alphabetical order) Georgia, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Ukraine. I find the omission of the basic facts about American opinion on Iraq when Obama entered office an interesting cross current in all the commentary about bad choices and feckless leadership. In 2008 a Washington Post poll found that 64% of Americans felt the worth was not worth fighting. Hilary Clinton lost the nomination specifically because she authorized the resolution to go to war. Obama was elected to get the US out of Iraq. So McCain's position is basically that Obama should have voided one of the central rationales for his campaign, the reason that he is President, the reason he in fact beat McCain, to support a failed policy that 2/3 of Americans were challenging. Whatever, McCain says now, there is no clearer example of the statement that elections have consequences.  Any criticism he directs towards the President is also in part a howl against public opinion which abandoned him, his party and his ideas in 2008. I suppose this is McCain’s way of saying he was right and ought to have been elected, but only Americans with absurdly short memories have forgotten how American public opinion had completely shifted in opposition to a war they now realized was wrong, both in justification and execution.  Then again I don’t think it’s possible to lose a bet underestimating the memory of either the shameless American politician or the voters they try to hustle.

Joe Scarborough who has long advocated the departure of American troops from Afghanistan, is now pillorying the President for leaving Iraq too soon. I am glad to hear Scarborough and so many other commentators lay so much blame squarely at the feet of Paul Bremer, Bush's civilian administrator in Iraq. His decisions to force all Baathists from the Army and any role in civilian government ensured that the Sunni would be isolated form the administration of Iraq and is the direct antecedent to the current crisis.  http://pfiffner.gmu.edu/files/pdfs/Articles/CPA%20Orders,%20Iraq%20PDF.pdf When he forced all NGO’s to register with the American occupiers he in effect advised the Iraqis many of whom deeply distrusted America and its new viceroy, Bremer, that America, and the coalition forces it lead were their new master. Problem is the place stopped functioning.  Electricity in Bagdad summers where the temperature routinely reaches 120, became scarce and inconsistent. Water and food were hard to get. Government offices and cultural institutions were looted. A sense of lawlessness took over the streets. Hostilities between neighbors were played out in high noon showdowns. Thanks to Rumsfeld’s disastrous war plan, the Americans were so shorthanded they could not be in enough places at once. This unleashed the savage dogs, butchers from both religious groups, long suppressed by the brutal tyrant Hussein were unleashed.

What Americans did not understand then and are only waking up to now, is that the United States bumbled into a civil war by taking sides between a Shiite majority, now backed by Iran, and a Sunni minority. There was no way this was going to end well. Joe Scarborough, speaking in recent days, surprises me, though I guess he shouldn’t.  He has been advocate for troop withdrawals from Afghanistan for years, putting him to the left of Obama who he’s criticized for moving too slowly.  In Iraq he was a hawk from the jump. He wrote a blistering editorial in 2011 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70653_Page2.html where he excoriated Bush’s handling of the war and the left’s criticism of it.  Back then we was trying to make the case that the removal of Hussein was a good thing. He called on all sorts of politicians and media types to “apologize” for the politically motivated criticism of Bush, and to finally acknowledge the painful but ultimately positive results in Iraq. He listed Democrat after Democrat that voted for the resolution. And then he ended with this, “The Iraq war framed a disastrous decade for U.S. foreign policy. President Obama should be praised for bringing it to a close. But as we move forward into even more uncertain times, Americans should always remember that the Iraq war was not the product of one man or one party, but of a political system that continues to betray the very citizens it is supposed to protect and serve.” Just three years later in the face of a new crisis, Scarborough is bashing the President for leaving too soon. He generously allows Obama to share the blame with Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, who bumbled into a disastrous war, and Bremer, of course. We all have short memories I suppose. But after 4,500 deaths, and 40,000 or so grievous injuries, we ought not to allow ourselves to be distracted so easily.  The Iraq war, after all, was one Scarborough supported fiercely early on.

We will all watch now as truly brutal masters assert their will in Iraq. This human catastrophe will be worse I think then Sarajevo in 1992 for one simple reason: Americans, or at least any of us capable of honesty, will know in their hearts the significant roles we took in unleashing this fury.  Short of boots on the ground there is precious little we can do that will have any impact, and I am fairly certain that won’t happen, so we will watch, haunted by images of utter brutality.  Let us hope this will finally cause Americans to take stock of the limits of our power. Since 1954, the US has executed its will, often violently on the countries of Bosnia, Cambodia, Columbia, Cuba, Chile, The Dominican Republic, Grenada, Iraq, Iran, North and South Korea, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, North and South Vietnam, Yemen. We have fought the war on communism, the war on drugs and the war on terrorism. Though communism pretty much imploded under the weight of its own failure, drugs, terror, and all means of sectarian violence consume vast portions of the human community here on our very small earth. We have tried to remake the world in our image, often with arrogance and ignorance. We have yet to learn the limits of our power and in allowing and encouraging its use even after we have seen cataclysmic failure after cataclysmic failure we have squandered our morality as a nation.

Let us all now, pray for peace… And forgiveness…

Missing The Point On Hobby Lobby

It is self-evident that women should be free to choose the birth control method they feel works best for their reproductive system and their family circumstances just as men are free to choose the form of boner pill that best suits them. Hobby Lobby is trying to get four specific means of Birth Control off the Obamacare required FDA list of options that the company provided insurance must provide their workers. Hobby Lobby is a privately held company, and its owners believe the requirements are tantamount to abortion, and so forcing their insurance policy to provide them would be like forcing them to fund baby killers. Regardless of the decision, more than a dozen other methods of Birth Control would still be offered by Hobby Lobby to their workers.

That said this case is shaping up as another which enshrines the rights of corporations on the same level or above the actual rights of people. I am less concerned about the specifics of this case, as I am the ramifications, with broader impact, on American citizens. I would be shocked if the SCOTUS opinion said that publicly held corporations would be able to restrict access in any way based on religious ideology. The sheer numbers of shareholders would never fall into a distinctly defined religious grouping. However, I would not be surprised at all to see this decision stretched in new ways to grant ever greater power to entrenched financial interests seeking to exert their political and social influence.

What’s of far greater concern than the Hobby Lobby contraceptive decision is that we seem to be on an Orwellian slide towards a future where Big Brother is defined by corporate wealth, far more than governmental power, with reach beyond that of the state, so entrenched that citizens, even those actively engaged, have no hope of prevailing in either the rigged justice system or at the ballot box. Powerful financial interests, with little restraint beyond a confused and financially mobbed up public opinion, are increasingly running roughshod over both our government and us. Certain entities have grown so large and so powerful, the government is powerless to intercede on the American citizen’s behalf. Far from it, the government exists as a rubber stamp for the meanest, most selfish, most ideologically perverse policies pushed by those interests.

If you think I’m wrong you might ask yourself what happened in West Texas? Who was or will be prosecuted for the West Virginia chemical spill which made the water for 300,000 undrinkable? Did anyone beyond Bernie Madoff ever go to jail for the Big Bank, Wall Street, ponzi scheme, run up to the Market Crash of 2007? Who stands with the citizens of small and medium sized towns across America suffering the medical fallout of fracking in their communities? Why did the farm bill enshrine subsidies for sugar growers, some of them actual members of congress, even as SNAP benefits to the most vulnerable citizens in our communities were cut? Why is it that in the midst of the worst job crisis in American history the political dialogue has been shifted so adroitly to the matter of the debt? Why is it that the NRA has been able to stymie gun control legislation supported by the majority of Republicans, and overwhelming numbers of Democrats and independents? Why are the Koch Brothers investing hundreds of thousands in a County Board Race in Polk County Wisconsin? Why are they Kochs spending heavily to swing a school board race in Colorado? Why are so many of the potential Republican nominees for ’16, including Bush and Christie, lining up for a beauty pageant in Las Vegas? Could it be that the only judge is Shelly Adelson, a billionaire with hard right views on Israel, and little commitment to any other political position other than lax regulation of his Casino interests?

Whether Hobby Lobby wins or loses their case, their workers will still have medical access to some forms of birth control. It is not what it should be, but few things in an America corrupted by religious dogma are. In my view access to proper medical care, including reproductive health, ought to trump religious dogma, but especially in the case of abortion and choice that has never been the reality. Why should this be different? As a consequence I am not that fired up about Hobby Lobby. David Green will pass on eventually, to be replaced by perhaps less dogmatically distorted children and grandchildren, but the real residue of his life will have been striking another blow for the supremacy of financial interests over the rights of American Citizens.

Paul Ryan-1984

I started to do some research this morning on the kerfuffle over Paul Ryan’s C-PAC speech and his hoary tale about soulless school lunches http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/03/06/a-story-too-good-to-check-paul-ryan-and-the-story-of-the-brown-paper-bag/) I was going to look up the cost of Federal subsidies for School Nutrition programs for children in families that have difficulty providing for their kids. I was going to make the obvious arguments about how little school lunches programs cost on a per meal basis, juxtaposed against the costs of some things the government pays for, apparently with no reservation as to the higher moral purpose of the expense. Each FA-18 Hornet military jet, for example, costs $94 million. I was going to look up the seldom mentioned statistics, when Republicans raise their voices on these programs and demonize the poor, that most of the money goes to people that work. I was going to list a handful of wealthy individuals and Fortune-500 companies that have paid little or no taxes for years. Everyone knows that list is quite lengthy, and it goes to the heart of our increasingly heartless society.  

I even researched Laura Schroff and Maurice Mazyck, the two people at the heart of Representative Ryan’s misanthropic vignette.  There has been a fair amount of press on Schroff and Mazyck, and it pre-dates this latest kerfuffle by years. Laura met Maurice on the streets of New York in 1986, when he was an  11 year old boy. He was panhandling for food. She bought him a meal and they became friends. They have been friends since, now almost 30 years. They have been lauded on shows which range from Rachel Ray to Huckabee. Americans see in them the best of what we can be. This is because Ms. Schroff did more than write a check, a charitable donation she could deduct on her taxes. She gave of herself.  Republicans like to pretend that we can cut taxes further because people like Schroff exist, but both Laura Schroff and Maurice Mazyck are advocates for expanded School Lunch Programs and SNAP,  Supplemental Nutrition assistance. Rep. Ryan’s use of their story was an Orwellian distortion of the facts of Laura Schroff’s and Maurice Mazyck’s life.

By some grace my family has been spared the injury of children without enough to eat, or parents making harsh choices between food and medicine or food and rent. As a child my parents did a number of small “c” charitable things that exposed us to the poverty in our community. Thanks to our parents my brother and sister and I knew poverty existed in our hometown of Streamwood, what it looked like, felt like,  even smelled like, and that the circumstances of these people’s lives were barely different than ours. Twenty years later I stumbled into a mentoring program called Big Brothers and Big Sister’s in New York. BBBS is my favorite charity (http://bigsnyc.org/index.php) precisely because it mentors kids for a future path where hopefully they can sustain themselves. While I always consider those who are purely suffering as worthy, the Coalition for the Homeless for example,  (http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/) for years in my own giving I have emphasized programs designed to help young people avoid the pitfalls that lead them to or trap them in poverty, homelessness, and hunger.

When I was a young man and mentoring through BBBS, all my friends knew my “little”,  Calvin. I was proud of what I did and I wore it perhaps a little too proudly. Somehow my friend survived and lives down in the Carolinas now. He has had issues over the years, but like that old Door’s song I like to think that he broke on through to the other side. I seldom speak of that experience now. I think this is partly because that that relationship, no matter my failings in it, was what I, speaking purely for myself, truly consider giving. Everything since then somehow falls short. There is no small shame in that.

So instead of another litany of statistics, let me just say this: Mr. Ryan has his story and I have mine. If sustaining the lives of children with nutritional needs is soulless then I will surrender my soul. It's sort of f***ed up anyway. Just tell me when and where.

We can be outraged over Ryan’s distortion of the truth, but he represents a part of who we are just as Laura Schroff and Maurice Mazyck represent another. When I say part of who we are, I literally mean it. I know it is part of who I am. Most of us are weary at some point or another of the burdens of our society. It’s is easy to feel worn down by the needs of others. Selfishness is a human trait that can only be mitigated by selfless giving.

I make no judgment here on the quality of Ryan’s life, certainly not in comparison to mine. He may be a good and charitable man in his private giving, but the powerful and wealthy forces he represents are another matter entirely.  If Mr. Ryan is a giving man in private, on the public stage he is a scoundrel, selling victimhood to the powerful, and creating villainy out of hunger.  

Finally this, the matter here is not statistics. I have exposed a glimmer of my own journey here precisely because I know that real lives are at stake. I have been in their apartments and homes, felt their struggle, and viscerally internalized their pain. On FB I have read the constant struggle of Colleen and her beautiful, princely, tousle-haired, autistic son, Mathew. Colleen’s whole family endures through this struggle. I am sure many of us who read her regular posts would reach through and extend our hand if we could. Are we to believe that whatever lifeline either the state of Nebraska or the Federal government extends to this family is soulless? I will never accept that. I reject completely Ryan’s Orwellian saga. My soul may be tired but the struggle continues. Mr. Ryan is who he is, but I will never be that cynical.

Blowin' In the Wind

I watched all of MTP today. I have not done that for months. Now I remember why, and it's not just this show. The constant barrage of media talking heads we hear every day distorts our view and cramps our morality. David Gregory did his duty, asking Sec. Kerry essentially the same two questions in slightly different ways. The first is very important: “Will the President consider American Military intervention to resolve the Crisis in Ukraine?”

In fairness, Kerry wanting to seem tough, sort of danced around a direct answer to the questions. We know how that goes and how that can go, but in this case everyone knows American military action is not in the tool case. 

 The second question is more nefarious and it gets to the reason that the question about war needs to be answered. Gregory came at it several ways from different directions, but the gist of it is this: “You know that Putin is a bad mofo, Why is the President such a wimp?” At the moment Americans are anti-war bordering on isolationists, so one may rightly wonder what moral standard must be abridged so that the US feels compelled to roll out the long bombers and fire up the tanks. 

 It is odd even to an anti-war liberal like me to think that American can no longer be the police force for the world. How strange to consider what options are available beyond brute force? The world gets complicated when you have to accept and understand the perspective of every other nation on earth: We cannot deploy our forces and engage every problem. We’re going to have to talk our way out of some of these. We’re left with lesser weapons which require rather more sophisticated leadership.

Weapons of diplomatic isolation and economic pressure can work, but they’re a little like tax evasions charges which send gangsters to prison for 20 years, so much less satisfying. We live in a complicated world with evil forces of rather substantial size and scope, but I think this is a good and challenging dialogue to have. Most of the world has already adapted to this reality. Only the US still thinks we can project a macho big d*** foreign policy and fix all the problems of the world.

Of course these tactics are easily demagogued.

So the only questions Gregory was interested in directed everyone’s attention to what he characterized as Putin’s vigorous leadership as compared to Obama’s weakness. That Gregory did not accept Kerry’s non-denials of war as actual denials of war is what journalists are supposed to do. Kerry waffled and jived to no apparent purpose until Gregory finally asked the question that closed the loop so Kerry had to say no to militarism. But the mano-a-mano bullshit Gregory was spewing completely undermined any environment where an honest answer could be rendered. At the beginning of the panel Gregory went so far as to say this moment is all about the credibility of the President of the United States.

Really? 

 To every slob that followed, everyone who exhausted their book of clichés in reference to what they called a weak president, including Sen. Marco Rubio, I wanted to ask, “What would you have them do?”

Of course with America this is exactly what happens and before long we are sending two carriers in a wild scrum of “My d*** is bigger than your d***.” Up until now Obama has navigated that well. He entered as an anti-war president. With some glaring and disappointing exceptions he has governed that way. This is especially true as it pertains to Iran, where both Repub Romney and Israeli PM have proposed policies that likely would have led to war. It’s hard for me to see how the events in Ukraine could lead to American military involvement, but I still found the exchange interesting. It says so much more about Americans than Obama himself. 

 Beyond the news mongers and the posturing of our politicians it seems to me that Americans are the real reason we find ourselves so easily on the brink of War. Americans protect their macho manhood like a teenage boy on a football field. 

Gregory asked all the questions about the President because people sitting at home go, “Hey, you know, Obama is sort of a wimp.” He bows to kings, apologizes for this and that, and he never seems to stand up for anything.” I get that it’s a part of a narrative now and it resonates. But so is the fact that 13 years after Afghanistan most Americans view it as a mistake. Four years after Bush took us to Iraq most Americans thought that was a mistake. Since Korea once American’s see the price of war they come to the conclusion quickly that the price is not worth it. Yet every time, the jacked up talking heads postulate questions about manhood, or strength, or power soon America’s internal abhorrence of war, is trampled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWwgrjjIMXA

Ann Colter Is Right About One Thing

”With all the smirking on the left about their electoral victories, it’s important to remember that Democrats haven’t won the hearts and minds of the American people.”—Ann Coulter

62% of Americans support a pathway to Citizenship—Newsmaxx Poll

90% of Americans support gun background checks in almost all cases—Washington Post

76% of Americans support raising the minimum wage—Gallup

79% of Americans support targeted Tax Cuts to spur Job Growth. 75% favor additional infrastructure spending to create jobs.—Gallup

59% of Americans oppose the Affordable Care Act—Fox News—However, in January 1.1 million people signed up. CBO now estimates six million will have signed up by March. Initial estimates were for 7 million. Current monthly enrollments are now meeting or exceeding initial estimates. Almost all of the shortfall is a result of problems in the first 60 days.

70% of Americans support providing all low- and moderate-income four year olds with access to high quality preschool-- Public Opinion Strategies and Hart Research

67% of Americans are dissatisfied with the way income and wealth are currently distributed in the U.S. This includes three-fourths of Democrats and 54% of Republicans—Gallup

50% of Americans would support banning all contributions by individuals and instead have campaigns entirely funded by the government—Gallup

However, 75 percent of Americans feel there is “too much money in politics,” and only 25 percent felt that there should not be limits on the amounts spent in elections. 75 percent also feel that the amount of money in elections has given rich people more influence than other Americans.—Reuters Ipsos

In a March 2013 poll 79% of Americans support targeted Tax Cuts to spur Job Growth. 75% favor additional infrastructure spending to create jobs.—Gallup

However, more targeted polls regarding tax policy, corporate tax reform deficit spending and even defense spending present a mixed bag of sentiment. When one looks at a broad range of polls one gets the impression of an American electorate that wants to have its cake and eat it too.  The Tea Party protester with the signboard which says, “Government keep your hands off my Medicare!” comes to mind. People are confused. $7 billion in spending in the 2012 Election cycle (Federal Election Commission, as reported Sunlight Foundation) will do that for you.

When polled positions expressed by Americans on issue after issue are in extreme opposition to those  favored by the Republican Party.  Congress is perceived to be highly dysfunctional mostly because they are passing almost no legislation, but more importantly because there is a complete lack of action on issues where there is a clear and broad consensus. When public opinion leans strongly in one direction and the actions of Congress do not rise to meet those needs, we can be sure that there is a substantial amount of money tilting the table on which the legislation rests.

Finally this, 63% of Americans believe climate change is occurring, but a rising number, 23 percent, believe it is a hoax. (Newsmaxx). A new Poll by the  Yale Project on Climate Change Communication indicated that 83 percent say the U.S. should make an effort to reduce global warming, even if those efforts have economic costs. While the numbers of those willing to seek action on climate change –even as they leave home and discover winter is happening outside-- is not surprising, far more impressive  is the number of climate change deniers. 23 percent is an increase of 7 percent from just a year ago. There may be some overlap with the nearly 46% of Americans who believe in Creationism and a “literal interpretation of Genesis (this includes those who think creation took place over six actual days and those who allow for a longer time period but believe humans were created in their present form)” up from 40 percent in 2010. --Gallup 2012

Ann Colter is right about one thing. “Democrats have not won the hearts and minds of the American people.” It’s clearly not a policy issue, so what other reason could there be?

Uninformed, fearful, awash with cash from highly motivated, deeply entrenched financial interests, Americans will go the polls in just 9 months or so. There will be those on both left and right who will analyze the results in the realm of political dialogue and policy decisions. No matter whether they vote Democrat or Republican the interests of all Americans will at best be represented in a watered down stew of corrupt money. How much longer do we need to pretend it’s real?

http://freakoutnation.com/2014/02/13/ann-coulter-i-cant-live-in-america/

The Enemy Within

According to Open Secrets.ORG, the Securities Industry & Financial Market Association (SIFMA) spent $5.0 million on lobbyists in 2011 and another $5.0 Mil in 2012. In the last election cycle SIFMA made just under $600,000 in political contributions. They gave roughly equal amounts to the Dem and Repub Senatorial Committees (Total $55,000) and made made similarly equal contributions to the Dem and Repub Congressional Committees (Total $65,000). There is a direct connection between the expenditures of these funds and policies enacted or ignored in Washington.

The Nation article at the end of this piece details the ways in which SIFMA is doing its level best to stymie community based efforts to use the laws of eminent domain to help underwater homeowners. The TARP money went to the banks and Wall Street firms, those represented by SIFMA, but money allocated for programs to help owners went largely unspent. Cities and towns across America, seeing the failure of the Federal programs, are still trying to secure the safety and vitality of their communities by avoiding still more abandoned homes. To do this they must stand up to the banks, trying to do what Washington can’t or won’t do.  

 As the Nation notes, these are small change programs, but SIFMA seems to be fighting them on principle. The city of Brockton, MA, had planned to help 2,300 homeowners. Richmond, CA, planned to use eminent domain laws to rescue 624 homeowners. In response, not only has SIFMA leaned on local authorities, but they have pressured Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to apply pressure to short circuit the programs. While Freddie and Fannie were quasi public-private entities before the financial crash of 2007, they are currently wholly owned by American taxpayers. They were taken over to save them from their own malfeasance. Though the bailout of Fannie and Freddie was only, only (?), $187 billion, as a result of the reserves that were set aside for problem loans it added $606 billion, with a “B”, to the national debt. Of the five trillion of debt that has been accrued during the Obama administration, nearly 15% was a result of the bailout of these two agencies.  

Though many other entities have emerged from the emergency funding schemes enacted around the time of TARP, Freddie and Fannie have not. Though dividends have been paid, and there is increasing optimism that the moneys will be returned to the federal coffers at some point, they have a long, long way to go. Last April Moody’s estimated 2019 as a target date for repayment.

Though, profitable now, the two agencies are not strong enough to pay back the largesse of the taxpayer any sooner. In addition, Congress, fearing erosion in the Mortgage market, and a hit to home prices once they do emerge, is not pushing with any fervor for repayment.

Whatever the repayment plan these two taxpayer owned financial institutions, Freddie and Fannie, are now siding with SIFMA to ensure that more homeowners lose their homes. Back when the banks were chasing profits in derivatives and all sorts of esoteric investment vehicles, often betting against their own investors in the process, clearly some people who were not qualified got loans. The wild speculation in bonds, based on those loans, was the reason for the financial collapse of 2007. While the banks, AIG’s, and other institutions like Fannie and Freddie  that knew better got TARP funding, the homeowners, in so many cases hoodwinked by the process, are still underwater.  

Does anyone believe that either the Dems or the Repubs will call for hearings in Congress into this program of intimidation? Does anyone believe that these same financial institutions that have paid billions in fines since 2007 for rigging everything from LIBOR rates to foreclosures to the mortgage market itself can’t afford to contribute to the solution?

This is the price of Citizens United and the evisceration of McCain Feingold. Those that attempt to parse John Boehner's ideology, Tea Party ideologue or main stream conservative, are completely missing the point. Boehner's ideology is driven far more by that of his special interest donors than any time worn political theory. Just this week we found that after he defended the company in West Virginia that corrupted drinking water for 300,000 people, claiming that "more regulation is not the answer", we found that he accepted campaign contributions from the company. The company, Freedom Industries filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection this week.

SIFMA made contributions to 31 House Dems, 46 House Republicans, 7 Senate Dems and 14 Senate Republicans. They also donated $745 to one Barack Obama and $30,000 to Mitt Romney. This is what happened to Dodd-Frank and this'll be what will happen to tax reform, corporate or otherwise. According to Open Secrets the #1 issue on which SIFMA spends lobbying money is around policies those that affect the Finance industry, the business of its members. #2 is taxes. This is the problem of Washington and the reason Congress sucks eggs on almost every issue important to the average American citizen. Moreover, this is not a problem of bad old Republicans and pure as the driven snow, friend of the working man/ woman, Democrats. SIFMA has bribed every politician on either side of the aisle that they thought could do them some good. About 1 of every 5 members of the House or Senate received funds from SIFMA. They haven't  corrupted the process. They bought it.

The finance industry is by no means alone in their extravagance. According to Open Secrets the insurance industry spent about $115 in direct lobbying last year and that does not include the money they spent on public issue ads designed to confuse/ sway public opinion. The tech lobby, while pushing for Immigration reform, is also spending big on reducing their tax bill. Last year they spent more than $100 million. Mining, Big Oil, Healthcare Institutions, Big Pharma  and the Defense Industry also each spent at least $100 million on lobbying last year. Direct contributions to politicians and the Senate and Congressional campaign committees for each party nearly match what is being spent on lobbying. Then there is the ubiquitous Public Service ads designed to mold public opinion.  So we get clean coal ads designed to obscure the impact of the dirtiest of fuels on the environment. BP has cleaned up the Gulf. Nothing to see here. The free exchange of ideas is now a slave market, funded by entrenched financial interests.

While the rest of America was arguing about race and abortion and trans-vaginal ultrasounds, while we defended or vilified those, some called takers, who depend on the $3.00 a day average they receive in supplemental food (SNAP) benefits, the guys on Wall Street stole our homes and wrecked our communities. They actually came in the middle of the night and drove away with everything.

http://www.thenation.com/print/article/177965/wall-street-group-aggressively-lobbied-federal-agency-thwart-eminent-domain-plans

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000229