Fascism 2-26-2017

26, February 2017                            Fascism

Following the disastrous travel ban, White House press secretary issued a fatwa barring reporters from The Times, CNN, and Politico.  .  . from attending daily press briefings. This is a huge breach of protocol and a major assault on free speech. This speaks volumes of an insecure razor thin-skinned Donald Trump who cannot tolerate criticism and only craves adulation from his adoring fans. Bad hombre, Sean Spicer, compounded the policy change by inviting more Trump friendly reporters such as Breitbart News, The Washington Times, along with conservative leaning journalists from The Wall Street Journal, and Fox News. The few principled news outlets, such as TIME and the Associated Press, who were invited to the Spicer propaganda forum, declined the invitation to register their solidarity with the excluded media. Shame on the other news media who attended.

This is similar to the fake news strategy used by the Pentagon under George W. Bush embedding reporters to put a positive spin in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

To counter Trump’s fascism, the White House Correspondence Association should cancel its traditional roasting of the “so called president.” The media protects our democracy. The president does not get to hand-pick news organizations that shower him with compliments and positive stories. This is disturbing and a dark foreshadowing of what's to come. We are witnessing fascism in the making where Trump and his hired hands are attempting to control the narrative by denigrating and personalizing legitimate criticism.

Islamophobia & Anti-Semitism 2-24-2017

24, February 2017                   Islamophobia & Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have once again reared their ugly heads. Eleven Jewish community centers across the country received bomb threats. At a cemetery in University City, Missouri, more than a 100 Jewish gravesites were desecrated. Facing intense criticism President Trump finally broke his long silence and denounced anti-Semitic threats. But this came a week after he chastised a Jewish reporter, Jake Turx, for asking about the recent bomb threats at his news conference. In his usual nasty bullying style he heaped scorn on the reporter and the “dishonest media” and demanded the reporter sit down.

During the press conference with Prime Minister, Netanyahu, Trump side-stepped a similar question posed by an Israeli reporter by heaping self-congratulatory praise on his “amazing election victory” raising increasing concerns about his rapidly declining mental faculty.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center the number of anti-Muslim groups in the US has tripled last year, from 34 in 2015 to 101 last year. Hate groups have received a huge boost by the candidacy and then election of Donald Trump who has been very adept at fanning the flames of racial disharmony and has now become “divider-in-chief”.

Sadly, Trump has unleashed a kind of Pandora’s Box of hatred in our country. And those are not easy things to get back in the box.

But in rare gesture of racial harmony a Muslim group went online to raise money to help the Jewish community restore the damaged tombstones. 

Indian Politicians 2-20-1017

20, February 2017                    Indian Politicians 

India is a country mired in endless contradictions. It is puzzling that a nation which prides itself in being the epicenter of spirituality ignores honesty and integrity in conducting its day to day activities. Many seem to believe that a quick stop-over and donation to the local temple will absolve them from their many sins.

In western democracies, the whiff of a political scandal would bring a swift end to a political career. Witness Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu fighting corruption charges or his predecessor Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who was driven from office on bribery charges.  Or Richard Nixon who famously claimed that “I am not a crook” but then resigned in ignominy.

Perhaps, Donald Trump may buck the trend and escape punishment – in the near term but his ‘Russian connection’ may yet doom his presidency. In his soon to be released new book Milan Vaishnav, “When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics” argues that in India, politician’s criminal behavior is generally considered to be an electoral asset. Vaishnav, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, states that most countries hold their politicians’ in low esteem but not in India where law makers who have been charged or convicted of serious crimes are three times more likely to be elected than those with a squeaky clean record. India’s lower house the Lok Sabha is stacked with murderers, blackmailers, thieves and kidnappers.  A staggering 34% of members of parliament (MPs) have criminal charge sheets and the numbers is rising dramatically.

Part of the problem is the overburdened Indian judicial system which moves at glacial speed - with a backlog of 31M cases. Even serious crimes can take a decade or more before they are tried. Legal postponements are lubricated by a system of graft that is so effective that many defendants die before their cases are reviewed. Following independence in 1947 thuggish businessmen seeking lucrative import licenses, state concessions such as mining rights, were able to bribe politicians with relatively ease. 

Rivers of money would flow into Congress Party coffers enabling them to hold onto power for extended periods. But during the 1980s the Congress Party lost its political edge opening up new business opportunity to Indian dons who cut out corrupt politicians and ensconced themselves in positions of power.

A weary electorate were no longer inclined to expose dishonest lawmakers but were more interested in gaining access to political power. Vaishnav states that a candidate who has been charged with serious crimes is 18% more likely to win than a “clean” candidate. The more serious the charge the better the electoral boost. Caste appears to have less of a role than in prior elections. Much like American elections with the absence of campaign finance laws, deep pocket dons have become a permanent fixture in India’s new political landscape. How Mother India must be weeping!

FLYNN-GATE 2-15-2017

15, February 2017                   FLYNN-GATE

The stench of White House involvement in Russian spying in the 2016 presidential election seems to be getting stronger and stronger. Recall how Trump implored Russia to hack into Hilary Clinton’s benign emails and make them public during the election?

It is now known from phone records and intercepted calls that Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year BEFORE the election. During the same time Trump was effusive  about Russian president, Vladimir Putin which raises the question, what incriminating hold does the bare chested Russian leader have on Trump – salacious videos cavorting with Russian call girls or is he mired in debt with Russian oligarchs? The public must demand he release his tax returns to ensure that he has no embarrassing debts which would surely compromise his ability to govern.

Another question which remains unanswered is the role of FBI director, Comey, who made public the FBI investigation of Clinton’s benign emails but remained silent on the much larger issue of Russian involvement of the 2016 election.

Trump owes former Acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, an apology for failing to take heed of her repeated warnings that Flynn might be lying about his calls to the Russian ambassador.

The democrats must demand a full Senate hearing modeled on the Republicans Benghazi investigation or appoint a special prosecutor to uncover the sordid details of Flynn-gate.

Massacre in Syria 2-14-2017

14, February 2017                  Massacre in Syria

Over the course of a year of research, Amnesty International has uncovered a calculated campaign of mass hangings and extermination at Saydnaya prison in Damascus. They were able to reconstruct the prison using the services of forensic architecture experts and from testimony from a group of Saydnaya survivors.

According to an Amnesty spokesperson, the Syrian authorities have been repeatedly torturing prisoners and depriving them from the basics of human survival, food, water, medicine and medical care, which has resulted in a massive number of deaths. The remaining survivors were taken out of their dark cells and hanged.

An estimated 13,000 have perished. Those arrested would simply disappear - cut off from friends and family and the outside world. An additional 17,700 people have died in other prisons as a result of savage beatings. In a horrific sadistic orgy to entertain the guards the prisoners were forced to rape each other before they were tortured and beaten to death.

These appalling war crimes are in complete violation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In a chilling epitaph to this ongoing saga, Fox News has reported that Russia has just sent Syria the largest shipment of missiles to date to ensure the slaughter continues.

It is an absolute abomination that President Trump has chosen to remain silent in Russia’s active role in supporting these war crimes - lest he offend his friend, Vladimir Putin. Please call 202-456-1111 and demand an end to the human carnage.

The Judiciary fights back 2-11-2017

11, February 2017                             The Judiciary fights back

In a major pushback to unfettered executive power, the judges of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Trump administration failed to offer any plausible reasons for its travel ban.

In an effort to delegitimize judicial oversight, an enraged Trump tweeted: SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!"

It is tragic that Trump seemed oblivious or unconcerned that his travel ban negatively impacted so many innocent travelers.

Thousands of people including many children were held without food and water and a number forcibly thrown back on airplanes. Others were compelled to sign away their visa rights in order to be forcibly deported.

Trump’s many dangerous falsehoods to energize his base, mirrors President George Bush’s playbook of exploiting the tragedy of 9/11 to advance his bogus claims of weapons of mass destruction which led to the disastrous invasion of Iraq, resulting in the death of thousands of American and Iraqis and the birth of ISIS.

There is little hope that Republicans will cross party lines to challenge the extreme policies of Trump who has surrounded himself with dangerous ideologies like Steve Bannon and his ilk. The intoxication of political power and all its trappings cannot be so easily shunned. For the sake of our children and future generations we must raise our collective voices before our ship of state and perhaps our cherished planet vanishes into oblivion.

Huddled Masses 2-9-2017

9, February 2017                       Huddled Masses

Kuddos to the Seattle judge who halted President Trump’s executive order targeting people from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the US. Hundreds of refugees, students, researchers, business men and women had to endure extreme humiliation being forced off planes stuck in limbo waiting for sanity to return to the US. Trump was attempting to follow through on his campaign promise to launch a “total and complete shutdown” on all Muslim entrants to America.

Predictably, Trump who does not take defeat gracefully, lashed out at the judicial branch for considering challenges to his executive order accusing them of being politically motivated judges and “disgraceful”. Acting more like a king than a president, Trump chose to exclude senior officials in his travel ban fatwa adding to the confusion.  

The state of Washington was right to argue that the court must provide a check on executive power. Trump’s order clearly discriminates between minority and majority religions giving favorable treatment to Christians. This is a clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution and thus Trump’s travel ban must be invalidated by the US Justice Department. Even Supreme Court Justice Nominee, Gorsuch, jumped into the fray calling Trump’s tweets, about the judiciary “demoralizing and disheartening” If the stay by the district court is overturned, the case will likely be fast-tracked to the US Supreme Court. Let us hope common sense will prevail and the US remains a haven for the “huddled masses”.

State Dept.’s Cable 2-2-2017

2, February 2017                                  State Dept.’s Cable

Within hours of Trump’s ban on seven Muslim majority countries, State Department officials crafted a dissenting memo which has gone viral. The memo repudiates Trump’s justification of the ban. Like a chain letter, the memo has been sent to all US embassies around the world in one of the largest protests against presidential policies. Thus far, the memo carries 1,000 signatures but more and more officials wanted to add their names to voice their fierce opposition to Trump’s misguided policies. Many commented that the visa ban would surely “alienate allies” and “hurt America economically.” Our negotiating wizard seems be unaware that foreign travelers inject nearly $250 billion into the American economy and support more than one million jobs. Furthermore, Trump’s stated claim to keep us safer is hogwash. There hasn’t been a single terrorist attack in America by anyone in the targeted seven countries during the past 40 years. According to the Cato Institute, the risk of an American being victim to a terrorist attack by a refugee in a given year is one in 3.6bn. 

Much like the lasting shame following the forced internment of Japanese-Americans, the racial quotas imposed on non-whites in the 1940s, Trump’s ban has evoked similar outrage. This sentiment was echoed by David Miliband, the head of the International Rescue Committee, who stated “it is a repudiation of fundamental American values, an abandonment of the United States role as a humanitarian leader.”