Saudi Arabia & 9/11 9-29-2016

29, September 2016            Saudi Arabia & 9/11

President Obama’s efforts to veto a bill allowing victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue Saudi officials is ill-advised. Saudi Arabia is no friend of the United States. Propping up a thoroughly corrupt regime which withholds basic human rights from its citizens, stoning would be adulterers, demeaning women and forcing them to wear head to toe suffocating burkas in the stifling heat, lashing dissidents in public, chopping the hands of would be thieves, - is indefensible. Our decades of alliance to this monstrous regime is based on our addiction to oil and our desire to sell billions of the most sophisticated weapons to enrich our defense contractors.  These weapons have been used to kill thousands of innocent people in neighboring Yemen making us complicit in Saudi’s war crimes.

The Obama administration argues that passage of the bill will open up Pandora’s Box to possible lawsuits. The sad reality is that we have killed millions of innocent men, women and children with impunity with bombs, drones and other lethal weapons of war without offering apologies or reparations (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan…).

Why shouldn’t we hold our officials to the same standard that we demand from our adversaries?

Perhaps this might be the impetus to apply the brakes on endless wars and surely that would be a positive development. President Obama should shred his weekly “kill list” and allow the victims of 9/11 lawsuits to proceed.

The Trump Clinton Debate 9-27-2016

27, September 2016            The Trump Clinton Debate

The debate did not really change perceptions, what was unthinkable continues to be highly improbable. Barring another swooning attack or more WikiLeaks revelations, Clinton seems to be winning the race to the Whitehouse. At last nights’ debate, Trump was clearly thrown off his comfort zone, away from his adoring fans. The proverbial school yard bully was biffed by a superior debater. Trump’s huffing, puffing and pouting and complaining that Clinton was running commercials using his own words needs to learn that words matter. Contrary to his denials, Trump (and Clinton) supported the invasion of Iraq and Libya which were major policy blunders.

Trump was right, Clinton did vacillate on the TPP – first lauding it as the gold standard, but sensing the winds of change and prodding by Bernie Sanders – subsequently opposed it. Trump’s claim that he has the better temperament is laughable. His support for ‘Stop & Frisk’ is blatantly racist. Clinton was right to call him out on stiffing his contractors out of money owed to them.

Trump’s talk about bringing back jobs is hypocritical given that he has profited from cheap foreign labor. Trump can claim one major victory, the longest tax audit in US history. It is doubtful that a single American, outside his core constituency believes he has nothing to hide. Clinton missed an opportunity excoriating Trump’s use of his Foundation as an ATM.Trump’s racist rants on the birther issue, challenging Obama’s American citizenship, has boomeranged badly.

For Profit Prisons 9-26-2016

26, September 2016                   For Profit Prisons

The shocking conditions inside for profit prisons have recently come to light.

An investigation by the Nation magazine revealed frequent riots inside private prisons caused by overcrowding and lack of medical facilities. Prisoners are often denied treatment to lower cost and maximize profits. Compounding the problems is the catastrophic decision to criminalize border crossing which ballooned the federal inmate population triggering the quick fix remedy: Privatization.  The sordid details were uncovered after months of dogged investigation of medical records, internal reviews, interrogation of prison guards and inside information coaxed from whistleblowers at the Bureau of Prisons. Relentless pressure by the Nation finally elicited tangible results. The Justice Department directed the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to stop using private contractors to run its prisons. The number of inmates in private prisons will be phased out over a five year period.

Dozens of deaths followed substandard care and widespread neglect. Despite the government’s own watchdogs sounding the alarm for many years, BOP brass renewed contracts to ingratiate themselves with their future employers in an all too familiar revolving door activity.

Nevertheless, superb reporting by the, The Nation, can produce desirable results even in the age of Trump and his legion of followers.

Israel’s Shift to the right 9-22-2016

22, September 2016            Israel’s Shift to the right

Israel has made a dramatic shift to the right after the recent elections.

Gen. Yair Golan, the deputy chief of staff of the Israeli army, voiced his concern during a speech on Holocaust Memorial Day that has sent shock waves in Israel. Reading from a prepared speech he warned,: “if there is something that frightens me about the memories of the Holocaust, it is the knowledge of the awful processes which happened in Europe in general, and in Germany in particular, 70, 80, 90 years ago, and finding traces of them here in our midst, today, in 2016.” This was a direct comparison to the treatment of Jews under the Third Reich to the decades of oppression and discrimination against the Palestinians.

Overt racism has reared its ugly head. A growing number of rabbis have called for a boycott of Arab shops. “Death to the Arabs” can be heard at soccer matches. A member of the Knesset has called for the separation of newborns in hospitals. A chief rabbi made the absurd claim that Goyim (non-Jews) were created by God to serve the Jews.

Quoting religious texts to justify cruelty and occupation of indigenous people can never be justified. God is not in the real estate business offering promises to certain religious groups. Christianity and Islam have all justified unspeakable acts of violence based on scripture.

The education and cultural ministries have issued new guidelines to conform to its more extremist ideology. Criticism of elitism and political correctness bears a strong resemblance to other European far right parties and the Trump movement.

The replacement of the more moderate defense minister, Ya’alon with ultra-right wing, Avigdor Lieberman, is yet another disturbing occurrence.

The whiff of fascism is unmistakable.

The general’s warning is apt; with the growing intolerance unleashed by Donald Trump and his supporters, a Nazi party can come to any country, including America.

Sugar addiction 9-20-2016

20, September 2016                 Sugar addiction

Much like the tobacco companies, the sugar industry has been on a long crusade to sell more and more of their products and hide their dirty secrets.

Investigations by a number of media outlets, have uncovered hundreds of memos, letters and reports of sugar companies and their collaborators, in academia betraying an extremely sordid picture of decades of malfeasance. 

According to a respected scientist, Professor Lustig, the general safety threshold for sugar consumption is about six to nine teaspoons (25-38) grams per day. This excludes the large amounts of sugar stealthily added in processed foods. A can of coke contains 40 grams.

The sugar industry has consistently tried to debunk the irrefutable connection between sugar tooth decay, heart disease and cancer.

According to the latest World Cancer Report issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), sugar is cancer’s favorite food. Cornell University, Professor Lewis Cantley, warns that elevated insulin gives cancer tumors a boost by directing cancer cells to consume glucose.

In an effort to intensify the sale of their products, the food industry recruited their own hired gun - food consultant, Harvard educated math’s whiz, Dr. Howard Moskowitz.

Dr “Bliss” went to great lengths to find the precise ingredients that would induce a food craving, a “Goldilocks” zone which would get generations of Americans hooked and ensure billions in profits to the sugar industry. A final warning to readers, sugar is eight times more addictive than cocaine.

Wells Fargo 9-16-2016

16, September 2016            Wells Fargo

Responding to intense high pressure tactics to meet unreasonable targets, bank officials illegally transferred funds from existing customers’ accounts to open new fraudulent accounts.  When the seedy activities were finally exposed, Wells Fargo agreed to pay restitution to customers who were charged for these sham accounts. The scale of the operation is mind-boggling spanning five years impacting millions of customers. 5,300 of the ‘bad apples’ managers and employees were fired while the senior vice president in charge, Carrie Tolstedt, chose early retirement raking in millions in stock and options.  Displaying gross insensitivity to the massive charade, chief executive, John Stumf, called Tolstedt, “a role model for responsible leadership” and “a standard-bearer of our culture.” She earned $27 million over the last three years for her stellar leadership. This gross violation of the public trust will continue until senior bank executives trade their expensive attire for orange jump suits.

The Obama administration must share the blame for establishing a dangerous precedent allowing senior Wall Street Banks bankers to escape  punishment during the 2008 financial crisis. 

Response to NYT op ed “Mohammad Javad Zarif: Let Us Rid the World of Wahhabism” 9-15-2016

Response to NYT op ed “Mohammad Javad Zarif: Let Us Rid the World of Wahhabism”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/opinion/mohammad-javad-zarif-let-us-rid-the-world-of-wahhabism.html?comments#permid=19797164

The US is the largest enabler of Saudi extremism. We continue to flood the Middle East with weapons of perpetual war to enrich our defense contractors.
Consider our latest transgression in Yemen, one of the most impoverished nations in the world, ranked 154th out of the 187 nations on the U.N.’s Human Development Index. One in every five Yemenis goes hungry. Such was the dire conditions of the country prior to Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign last year, which has destroyed, factories, power plants, warehouses, ports, hospitals, schools, water tanks, gas stations, and bridges. In a grotesque effort to inflict more pain and misery, the Saudis have enforced a blockade, cutting off supplies of food, fuel, and medicine.
The tentacles of Saudi money penetrate deep into Washington. They have donated money to Hilary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation which recently received $10 million. Scores of US lobbyists are funded by the House of Saud.
Yemen has never been a threat to the US and there can be no justification for our complicit role in Saudi’s war crimes. President Obama bypassed Congress to facilitate the sale of $110 billion of the most sophisticated weapons.
What an appalling legacy of a man who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, allowing US defense contractors to enrich themselves at the expense of human lives.
Recent Clinton’s emails showed her to be supportive and euphoric of weapon sales to Saudi Arabia while she was Secretary of State.

USA for Sale? 9-14-2016

14, September 2016               USA for Sale?

The New York Attorney General has launched an investigation into the Trump Foundation.

The investigation reveals that Trump has falsely claimed that he is the source of money he has received for his foundation, noting he has not donated any money to his charity since 2008.  Among other egregious activities - $20,000 of the foundation money was used to buy ‘the love of his life’ - a six-foot-tall painting of himself!  To make matters worse, the foundation has made political contributions, including a campaign group for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had threatened to investigate Trump University.

This comes on the heels of another investigation by Newsweek  which raises questions about the Trump Organization’s potential serious conflicts of interests if Trump would became president. The investigation reveals the Trump Organization consists of a vast financial network that stretches from New York City to India, Ukraine, China, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey and Russia, where the organization has strong financial interests to Russian mining, banking and to real estate billionaire Vladimir Potanin. Potanin has close ties to the Russian government. This may explain Trump’s adulation for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Newsweek warns that if Trump is elected president and his vast overseas network is not shut down or severed from the Trump family, the foreign policy of the United States of America could well be for sale." Trump’s ‘latest fan’ – Colin Powell whose hacked email said Trump is a "national disgrace" and an "international pariah."