THE EVOLUTION OF FAITH ....

All religions are based more or less on some degree of faith. The three Abrahamic monotheistic religions ; Judeo-Christian-Islamic, more so than any other, especially the other major ; Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism, and of course the more than a billion openly declared or not, non believers, secular or atheist, throughout the world . Faith which is in fact a sort of belief without any supportive evidence or scientific proof, blind and absolute faith that has always been, and lately more than ever foolish, naive and dangerous, and only can lead to many of the evils in any society .

In our modern times, we do not consider or see morality as a god given affair, but rather as a result of humanity's own social development and evolution.

Societies where God plays an active role in their daily universe and in their people's lives, such as the Arab and Iranian and most of the Islamic world, Israel and its increasingly Zionist fervor, especially among the younger generations, and lately a new emerging Christianity in places like Russia, Serbia and of course the Bible belt of Protestant America and its reemerging white/Christian fanaticism , are all but modern examples of a blind and absolute pseudo faith in their gods, prophets and books .

Historically, between 900 and 200 BCE many attempts by many enlightened  individuals, throughout the glob were initiated, all trying to come up with some solutions to old questions of how it all started and where is it all leading us to, and what forces, if any, play any role governing it all. But around the 500 BCE centuries, the greatest and most revolutionary ideas were produced, almost simultaneously in India, China, Japan, Greece, Persia and the Middle-East .

An objective look at these ideas and philosophies show that almost all focused and were dominated by a return to the self, and reaching internal peace and harmony with ourselves and our surroundings, Buddhists, Taoists, Confucians and Greek philosophers were leading in those trends, they largely disregarded any ideas or talk of cosmic powers and external divine handling of human affairs, they all focused on the inner powers of each individual to replace the archaic god centered religions that humanity inherited from its childhood. Pharaonic , Abrahamic and old Hebraic monotheism .

Later came the newer Jewish prophets,after the Babylonian exiles, the Christian creators and later theologians and Islam with its late interpreters to reverse the whole previous inward trend and promise some form of eternal life next to an external God, and of course eternal hell for all others, all three religions came with promises and forceful brutality and cruelty for all non compliant,With imposed codes of how to dress, and what not to eat or drink, and classified and assigned genders and casts. All modern religions with no exception categorized gender so as to enforce patriarchy . And they all had to follow the adage of ; "God told us to do so."

 The Bible proposes that suffering and death will only end when Jesus returns for the last judgment . Jesus promised it would take place within a generation, and all his disciples believed they would live to see it, it didn't happen yet, but this logic states and proves by itself that Divine powers have the power and will to stop suffering on earth, but refuses to do so until certain more convenient dates .

After many centuries of theological imperialism , we find ourselves back into a world where there are too many gods, and when typical gods fight among themselves, men have to die . Gods have to compete with each other and invariably claim first place, thus societies pay the price and slowly drift into chaos . We have reached a point in time where pure intellect and rational thinking is not enough to govern and decide our worldly moral realities .

Any group in this world of ours, be it a rich oligarchy as we have achieved lately in the United States or in Russia, or the Israeli Zionism in its almost majority, or the Islamic world , these are assuredly not going to make our heads and minds believe in the betterness of the human kind .

My usual multitude of thanks for your times and help engaging ...                 

AN AMERICAN SAGA .........

For the past few months, and more so the past few days , America is watching the ongoing saga of health care, and repealing with an unprecedented hate and vengeance of what became known as the Obamacare, maybe the name does something to the attitude. The proposed replacement, the second attempt already, has almost the same name and intonations, they call it the healthcare bill .

Even though it promises to throw out approx. 23 million people from being insured, cuts 850 billion from Medicaid and Medicare, and defunds many many already proven programs, including planned parenthood, people with chronic illnesses, and makes it harder and more expensive for elderly to continue as well as to obtain fair priced medicine.

The proposed very secretive bill will impact a sixth of the American economy and will touch every single family, the president and his Republican followers have said more than once that their healthcare plan is good for business and good for America, but in fact it's not, and most medical associations and hospitals expressed their deep concerns of its implications and jobs effects .

According to a George Washington university recent study, in a state like Florida alone, the proposed healthcare plan would result in 83,000 fewer jobs, and 8.6 billion in lost revenue. Services for seniors, persons with disabilities, and those in need of in-home care would be jeopardized, the uninsured rate amongst children would skyrocket, premiums would increase and millions across the nation will lose their jobs.

And all for what ?? to give more tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals and corporations, in plane words, it could be summed up ; we lose jobs, we lose money, and we lose coverage . From coast to coast it is estimated that nearly one million jobs could be lost as a direct result of the new plan, with millions of families paying more in premiums for less care.

A bill that was kept secret, kept hidden, and in the last possible minute will be rushed before a divided and very partisan Senate for a quick vote. One should only ask; Why is it that the United States is the only major country on earth that does not guarantee healthcare to all of its citizens as a right. And why do Americans pay more per capita than any other nation for basic healthcare, with no better outcome than most. Plus the highest prices for prescription drugs even for American manufactured drugs that are sold cheaper in many parts of the world than America itself .

Obamacare was bitterly attacked by Republicans for spiking insurance premiums, but those costs could go up even more under the proposed alternative health plan, to most middle-classes. Billions of Dollars in federal subsidies that have reduced out of pockets expenses for more than 6 or 7 million patient would now be replaced by 2019 under the Senate health plan, and all for what ??  To further enrich a very rich minority .

In fact and in all honesty this proposed healthcare bill, is nothing but a massive transfer of wealth from the middle-classes and the poorer families to the richest people, drug manufacturers and insurance conglomerates in America . I believe Mr. Obama said it and he was right , maybe we ought to call it our new wealthcare bill .

We should start swinging the nation's pendulum back towards sanity, decency and civility, and the kind of future that America must never give up on , America is not all about a one percent rich and greedy bunch, it's way more than that , at least in my opinion .

My as always many thanks for your time and help .                

RELIGIOUS VERSUS RELIGIOUS ....

This past Saturday, June 10th, many small marches took place in many U.S. cities, mostly organized by a group called ACT, and some alt. right backed organizations. Demanding that Islamic shariia laws be banned from U.S. civil laws and insinuating that Islamic shariia is gaining ground and influencing many law makers and localities to adjust and possibly accommodate certain Islamic ways. In fact ACT's sole purpose of existence is to limit and ban Islamic laws and codes from America.

I've mentioned it before in a previous blog, that criticizing and banning the specific laws, codes and acts of any one religion, while forgetting and ignoring some other religions of more or less similar ways and laws is a wrong approach , ineffective and inefficient , it only leads to xenophobia, apartheid and hate .

In fact Islam's many aspects and codes of dress in our case here, resemble in their essence and were inherited from Jewish and many conservative Christian ways . All Abrahamic sects  and many other religions, as well as other Semitic tribes share these same Conservative dress and behavior codes, especially concerning women, and all three monotheistic religions maintain an attitude of denigration , vilifying the female hair and physical parts . Islam is simply nowadays more  a la mode , than its other two sisters .

And let's not kid ourselves with modern rhetoric , all three religions are equally violent and bloody,  "There is more violence in both the Hebrew Bible and the new testament than there is in the Koran." .  According to Karen Armstrong .

The only effective method is to really separate religion, all religions, from state and civil laws, and if need be condemn all religious aspects, behaviors and folklore outside of certain confined worship centers, no other way will work , and let's not succumb to the initiators and promoters of such movements and their hate of one particular faith or sect , leading us all into their ugly games of dividing similar communities .

As a matter of fact , we aught to keep reminding ourselves that since we invented our YHWH , Gods and Allahs, and their teachings and their prophets and messengers , we established as well hegemony, apartheid, cruelty , we legalized and legitimized annihilation of the others .

Technically , only atheists are allowed to address, criticize or forbid certain aspects of religious nature, only atheists are free enough to have the better judgment toward other religious acts and fervor , that do not correspond or blend with our civilization .

We are still living under the same rules and influences of archaic times, albeit in a reasonably more scientific and technologically advanced world, but the deadly combination of religion and scientific advancement makes it all very lethal and dangerous for the survival of Sapiens on this particular globe .

My usual appreciation for your times and help engaging the blog .  

MORE OF THE SAME ........

Mr.  Trump chose the Middle-East for his foreign debut. A strange choice for achieving nothing, not now, not in the foreseeable future . Unless we consider receiving gifts , huge and expensive personal gifts an achievement by itself .

Consequently American foreign policy nowadays is shifting rapidly , changing the focus of our alliances, as we are satisfied with having as our top allies the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and some of its minor vassals , and Israel, both considered some of the most repressive regimes in the world, both exemplary in their behavior, hegemony, barbaric brutality toward others and neighbors . Apartheid is only one of the policy aspects both entities respect and adhere to .

At a second level comes the greatly illuminated leaders and their oligarchies and bankers. Mr. Putin, Erdogan, and Duterte of the Philippines come immediately to mind . The rest of the world pivot between ex-allies to cold relationship, to enemies of America, even the very popular Catholic Pope is now somewhere on the same scale .

The new motto for our foreign policy is now " Screw them all , we come first." As a State department official told the satirical Daily Beast, "When it comes to diplomacy, president Trump is a drunk tourist, loud and tacky, shoving his way around the dance floor, he steps on others without realizing it, it's utterly ineffectual."

According to an unofficial Saudi report, after the famous visit to the kingdom of S-A. the jewels and other personal gifts, including apparently a full blown huge yacht, plus the money transferred to Ivanka's international funds from the royals, gets into some considerable amounts, 600 to 800 millions of Dollars. Not bad for couple days of family diplomacy .

A carte-blanche for many years to come to all their policies and adventures. Did the Israeli lobbyists and rich enthusiasts in the U.S. match those figures ?? We might never know for sure . We know though that Russian investors and bankers did , thus the quick shifts toward Russia and its leader.

And Mr. Trump latest brilliant move to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accords puts the country in league with only 2 other regimes globally ; Syria and Nicaragua, that are not participating in the agreement, versus 200 world nations, maybe we ought to add these two to our list of best allies and friends .

For the past 15 years G. W. Bush invaded and destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama's undecidedness further destroyed Libya, Syria and Iraq, now we have Mr. Trump to complete the task, for his Allies the Israelis and Saudis, and kill whatever little chances the area has to a fair future .

The president will be judged in 2020, and surely in every election in between , as all GOP candidates will be judged in 2018 on his behalf , I hope Americans will think and act bypartisanly , and choose the country first and not the party, and that money will not be the decisive factor in every election. As it will be very, very disappointing for America, and American already bruised image throughout the world .

My usual thanks to all , for reading, participating and spreading the blog .        

TRUMPOPHOBIA ........

Mr. Trump is away this week , selling American weaponry to the envy of the watching industrial world, maybe America should have elected him to the post of head arms salesman of the United States of America. Instead of president, one should wonder if these deals will stick if he leaves office or looses the confidence of the American people .

As Aristotle believed ; that watching tragedy we ought to feel pity and fear at the same time.  Mr. Trump is striving to convince the Arab and Musslem world to unify and combat terrorism, forgetting that terrorism has a momentum of its own now after initially being funded by mostly Arab Musslems . And humiliating the Middle-East populations year after year with our policies, helped create and nourish such organizations, and made it far more difficult to combat or defeat .

Ignoring and not solving the Israeli/Palestinian problem, or any other situation in which Musslems and Arabs nowadays feel abused and humiliated would turn the war against terrorism practically to a stand still.  Continually vilifying Iran, even after the moderate election win , is a continuation of blind and naive policies, very short sighted strategy indeed. And only serving Saudi and Israeli narrow interests over solving the real issues, and serving our long terms interests .

The American administration  is playing the local sentiments of the M-E, tribes against each other, forgetting it could be playing with fire, destroying all fantasies of omnipotence and supremacy, and plunging it to its ruin . We are, by watching Mr. Trump's tactics, proving that he is an author of nothing and only an architect of empty spaces .

In America as it is in many spots of the world today, fascism must be resisted, the real question would come to be, are conventional liberalism, humanism, and rational maturity really up to the task ?? As our president elect and his entire team are proving to only believe in power, appetite, self interests,  immediate and quick winning calculations, they are proving to be angelic and demonic at the same time. Putin, Erdogan, Netanyahu, the royal Saudi monarchy and Trump all belong to the same league and follow the same school of thought.

The demonic alliance between a very rich manipulative minority and ultra conservative elite, and the  white rural lower middle classes, whereby the role of the later is to provide some legitimization to the former. Are we in all sincerity creating or recreating a system of the mad, absurd, monstrous, traumatic, surreal and disgusting ?? A regime of status obsessed individuals, a regime that goes in circles rather than moves forward in straight lines, a regime whereby being elected means, the future has already happened .

Mr. Trump and his entire entourage is proving to resemble God, who if he does turn out to exist had absolutely no reason for doing or creating anything , he is his own reason for being or doing, he also created the universe just for fun, and not for some purpose . Mr. Trump is not out there to achieve anything, as achievement belongs to a realm of means and ends, causes and effects, rational calculations and sane behavior, and not his world of deals, greed and benefits and high gambles, as T. Eagleton very well expressed it in his Evil book .

Mr. president, your trip, the multi tens of millions of Dollars as personal presents and even the billions in arms sales you've achieved will not make the American people forget or let go of what you and/or your entire entourage are entangled in or planning to implement in America . Not very good news for our leadership .

My usual many thanks to all .....          

CHANGING THE RULES .....

" Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty "  This idiom was said, used and repeated since the days of the founding fathers of the republic. American democracy must be defended from Americans who could exploit its freedoms to bring about undesirable changes and possibly its end . The mistake is to assume that rulers who won power through democratic institutions cannot alter or destroy those very same institutions .

Any single party, oligarchy, theocracy or even a family, could seize power in some combination of an election joined by a coup-d'etat and a high-jack of power motivated by ideology, profit, and love of supremacy. It could change the system from within totally to suit their longer terms purposes.

The party that exercises such control, generally comes up with very few policies and legislation that are really popular, but always the contrary, that is why they fear the same democracy that brought them initially, and invariably work on weakening it.

1920 Italian fascism, 1930 Nazis, 1937 Stalinist communism, later all theocracies, and in our times Islamic modern caliphates, plus lately many European attempts, Israeli continual playing on all these chords, and of course our famous American 2016 elections, all share something in common.

The Russian oligarchy established after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the ascent to absolute power by Mr. Putin in the aftermath of 1998, continues to function on these basis, promoting foreign policies destined to destroy democracies elsewhere.  Turkey's last events are shaping its leader as an absolute dictator, eliminating and impoverishing whole segments of the opposing population.

The present American administration, backed by the traditional GOP leadership are mostly focusing  on producing more often than not, less popular legislation and policies, avoiding more democracy and voting, GOP town halls meetings are slowly becoming a thing of the past.

When Western and Eastern Europe in the last century turned in many instances and against every logic into a one sided party system with dictatorial applications, propaganda and policies, everyone thought it's temporary and going to fade soon. But soon didn't materialize, on the contrary the systems became stronger and more entrenched in their positions, and its grip over every aspect of life became stronger, demanding blind loyalty from all. Only tragic horrors followed in every instance. They all managed to create obedient and loyal civil servants and an obedient war machine and populace.

Legislating laws that meant to secure and serve the ruling class, the affluent elite, and of course what was good for them became the law of the land. To serve their purposes, they wouldn't hesitate saying and doing things that they could have thought unimaginable previously. The Nazis, their SS and multi organizations started within the law, then transcended the law, and ended up undoing the law.

Abandoning democracy for some form of authoritarianism happened in many parts of Europe last century, some of them are still attempting it. While in America a growing tendency for the same under the guise of depraved white rural America and greedy big money.

Hanna Arendt, explained that totalitarianism removes the difference between the private and public, not just to make individuals less free, but to draw whole societies away from rational politics, and toward conspiracy theories, and fall victims of hidden realities, fake news and dark conspiracies . Arab populations and Semites are especially prone to these .

Most new appointees of the new present administration in the U.S. are playing within the norms and limits of destroying all rules, a known Nazi policy, and invoking danger and terrorism and fear . But surrendering freedom and good judgment in the name of safety should not be an option, there shouldn't be necessarily a trade off between the two side .

Democracy failed big times in Europe of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, it is failing in parts of modern Europe, and in many parts of the world, Syria, Turkey and Russia are only some typical examples, it is surely possible to fail in Israel, the whole Middle-East, and sadly the U.S. " Let's not say it cannot happen here, because it can." 

This blog was inspired by alarming events all over the 21st century world, and by a recent booklet by T. Snider, called Tyranny, all my thanks to the author and to my good readers .                   

ADVOCATES, DENIERS, AND THE IN BETWEEN .....

The strong belief of many or most Zionists zealots of the coming of " Malkuta de-Adonai" or the kingdom of God, is only matched in our modern times by Musslem zealots, expressed by jihadies and terrorists, reenacting their caliphate. Both sides are enthusiastically willing to commit the worst atrocities to attain their thousands of years old godly inspired aspirations . Against each other, their neighbors, their compatriots and all of humanity if and when divinely ordered .

It's common knowledge that Israeli foreign and military policies going back to the days of Ben Gorion, have been exceedingly opportunistic, brutal and immoral, as his old and infamous saying proves it amply; " Were I to know that all German Jewish children could be rescued by transferring them to England, and only half of them by transfer to Palestine, I would opt for the later, because our real concern is not the personal interest of these children, but the historic interest of the Jewish people and its dreams."

It's so brutal and calculative when considering Israel's or the Islamists cynical motives and choices, in addressing their interests, their military adventures, their apartheid and population transfer policies, all minutely executed under an extremely well used shield of "Anti Islam, or anti Semitism." All rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-semitism are allegedly against Jewish groups, but obviously not exclusively, as non Jewish individuals and populations, their properties, community institutions, villages and towns and religious facilities are as threatened daily by Israeli Jews .

A clear definition of "Semite" by Merriam Webster  A; a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient south-western Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews and Arabs. B; a descendant of these people. 2, A member of a modern people speaking a Semitic language. It goes without saying that ; A Semite is a member of a group of people originally of South-Western Asia,that include Jews and Arabs."

President Trump, few days ago in a speech addressed to Holocaust survivors, strongly condemned those who deny the holocaust, and pledged to confront anti-Semitism . The president added , we must never, ever shrink away from  telling the truth in our time. He also pledged that as a president of the U.S. will always stand with the Jewish people, but not the Semitic people. I wonder what is he telling the Palestinian president today at the White house !!!

All very well, very noble and worthy words and sentiments, expressed by the American president, in the name of America and Americans, the problem we find in these words is clearly in the correct definition of words, or the not so clear definitions in the president's and many Americans minds .

The numbers of hate crimes recorded in the past year, in Trump America, Brexit Britain, and Europe in general, exceeds 11 or 12 % from the previous years. Efforts are being systematically conducted, at least in Europe, to separate and clarify the difference between speech and criticism against the state  of Israel, and hate speech labeled as Anti Semite. It is important in the whole discussion of not conflating or mixing the totality of the Jewish people  with Israel, nor the totality of the Arab peoples or Musslems with ISIS or the Islamic Theocracies.

With humanity still scarred by wars, genocide, ethnic cleansing, refugees, racism, anti-Semitism, apartheid and xenophobia. The international community and the advanced powers share a clear responsibility to fight those evils, wherever they exist and are found. Together we must all rid the world of these sick ticking bombs threatening the world's well fare, peace and continuity .

Generally speaking , our lives may only form a tiny flash of our collective existence on earth and in the universe, but thanks to our brainpower, we at least have the power and opportunity to redefine and correct our place within it all, and to find and point the absurd from the normal path of life .

My as always many thanks for your time and help spread the blog.