WE'RE CONSTANTLY REMINDED OF KHASHOGGY BUT NOT SHIREEN ......NOR FROM GHISLAIN MAXWELL

 

Dear Friends,

In virtually every incident, Israel's first step has been to routinely, "buy time", typically by converting any accusation against it, as though it should be positioned in a "state of doubt".  

(And to, consequently, give time to its "Israel-supporters" to prepare their typically reflexed responses).

And it is easy for them to do, since over decades, our media and propaganda machine behind it, have deceptively converted our name from being "Palestinian" to a two syllable word, "Palestinian-terrorists". Consequently, when Israel "reflexively" claims that the shooter was most likely a "Palestinian", the typical readers in the West subconsciously convert it and understand it to be, "Palestinian terrorist".  And their conclusion? "Yes, of course, How can the shooter be anyone else, but a Palestinian terrorist"?

It is like Russia's attempt to call Ukraine's regime as being "Nazi". It would be like every time a Ukrainian is killed, Russia would accuse Ukrainian defenders of being responsible for the murder because of their chaotic behavior and indiscriminate shooting. It is like Russia accusing Ukrainians of stepping into an area that is "Disputed territory", etc, etc.

And people forget, or don't even realize, that only a year ago when Palestinian people in Gaza demonstrated for many weeks at the border area demanding that Israel let them return to their homes and farms and properties in Israel from which they were forcefully evicted and terrorized to flee, Israeli snipers were aiming at the  heads/necks and legs murdering and maiming hundreds of Palestinian "civilians" (the word "our" media correctly but also selectively uses to describe the Ukranians murdered by Russians military). 

Please read the article, below, by James Zogby, a Lebanese-American.

Awad

I am Furious

Washington Watch
May 13, 2022

Dr. James J. Zogby ©

President

Arab American Institute

The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh has left me furious. Furious that a wonderful woman journalist has been taken from the world. Furious because of the predictable way Israel has responded to this tragedy. And furious at the US for its failure to take a principled stand to ensure that the truth is known about Shireen’s death and there’s accountability for it.

Much has already been written about Shireen. She’s an American citizen and a journalist who for the past 25 years has been reporting from Palestinian lands. She wasn’t just a journalist, she was a storyteller who, like other greats in her profession, was able to get “under the skin” of an event to lay bare its human drama. Where Palestinian officials failed, she succeeded.

Shireen endeavored to bring to life the stories of individuals and families bearing up under the indignity, pain, and injustice of the occupation. Because of that, she posed a greater danger to the Israelis than any gunman ever could. She threatened their dehumanizing narrative that reduced Palestinians to faceless objects.

In this context, it was revealing that the Israeli military spokesperson described Shireen and her colleague, Ali Samodi, who was shot in the back, as being “armed with cameras, if you will permit me to say so.” That is what good journalists do — they arm themselves with cameras and laptops. They witness events as they happen and tell stories so that readers and viewers can understand the human drama that is unfolding. It appears that Israel finds this profoundly — even existentially — threatening. Why else would they have killed 20 Palestinian journalists since 2001 (according to the Committee to Protect Journalists)?

The Israeli response to Shireen’s killing has been predictable. Their hasbara (propaganda) machinery went into overdrive doing what they have always done — a combination of denying, lying, and obfuscating what may have happened.

Even before the military investigated the killing, the early Israeli response was that they were “looking into the possibility that journalists were injured, possibly by Palestinian gunfire.” Another spokesperson added: “I don’t think we killed her…if we indeed killed her, we’ll take responsibility, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.” While this effort at deflection was taking place, the Israelis took another tack claiming that they had offered to conduct a joint investigation with the Palestinians — while even the Israeli press was noting that no such offer had been made. After reading press reports of this “joint investigation” the Palestinians rejected the “offer” saying “no one approached us and no one offered anything…Whoever wants a joint investigation knows who to turn to.” This led an Israeli minister to suggest that the Palestinian refusal was “perhaps to cover up the truth.” 

The effort to obfuscate and deflect blame was also in evidence in an Israeli Foreign Ministry tweet which read: “Palestinian terrorists, firing indiscriminately, are likely to have hit…Shireen Abu Aqla.” While Prime Minister Bennett added, “Our forces from the IDF returned fire as accurately, carefully, and responsibly as possible. Sadly…Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in the exchange.”

To create further confusion, the Israelis offered a video which they claimed showed the direction from which the bullets may have been fired by Palestinians. An Israeli human rights group using satellite maps debunked this claim by showing that it was impossible for Palestinian gunmen, given where they were located, to have fired through walls and around corners and hit Shireen and Ali.

To answer why the Israelis engage in such a relentless effort to obfuscate, we need only look at an article that appeared in the Israeli press the day after Shireen’s killing. Written by the Israeli general who had been in charge of the division that was responsible for killing 12-year-old Muhammad Al-Durrah in 2000.  That killing was captured on camera and the image of a little boy being shielded by his father amidst a hail of bullets became iconic. In the article, the general confesses that he erred in immediately accepting responsibility, noting that in the days that followed other “explanations” were posited —including positing that it was all a hoax staged by the Palestinians to besmirch the good name of the Israeli military. The lesson he learned was to not admit to anything up front. Instead, wait until you have talking points that can muddy the waters for the Israeli public and Israel’s supporters abroad.

This is the approach suggested by the famous Marx Brothers’ comedic line: “Who do you believe, me or your lying eyes?” And it’s been used by the Israelis from the very beginning — e.g. “Palestinians weren’t expelled from their homes in 1948.  Arab armies called on them to leave” — despite all historical evidence to the contrary. It might be a lie, but if it’s plausible enough to convince or confuse the Israeli public and Israel’s supporters in the international community, then use it.

Finally, there’s the equally frustratingly predictable US response to Shireen’s killing that was in evidence at the State Department briefing the day of the killing. The spokesperson opened with: “We are absolutely heartbroken to learn of the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh…We send our deepest condolences…and strongly condemn her killing as we do the killing of journalists around the world…We call for an immediate and thorough and full investigation and full accountability. Investigating attacks on independent media and prosecuting those responsible are of paramount importance.”

That resolve, however, faded under intense questioning by the journalists present at the press session. While insisting that the investigation be full and thorough and that there be accountability, the spokesperson resorted to the usual deflections. When reporters pointed to instances where Israel either exonerated itself or only offered a slap on the wrist to its forces who had been found guilty of atrocities, the spokesperson would only reaffirm that the US had full confidence in Israel’s ability to investigate itself.

The US refusal to hold Israel to the same standard it insists upon for other countries is upsetting. More so in this case because Shireen is a journalist and a US citizen. In the more than four decades that I’ve been bringing cases of US citizens who’ve been killed, arrested without charge, tortured, had properties confiscated, or been denied entry, the US response has been the same: expressions of concern; quietly discussing the matter with the Israelis; and then doing nothing, as the issue is forgotten.

The result is that Israel operates with a sense of impunity and Palestinians are left defenseless. In the case of Palestinian Americans, the message sent is that to the Israelis and to our own government our US citizenship offers no special protection. And so, I’m furious. 

COLLAPSE .......

China says it will work with Russia to promote "Real Democracy" I wish they'd include Donald Trump with them, he might prove quite inspirational, and maybe few others like Orban of Hungary, Erdogan of Turkey and most autocracies/theocracies of the world, like Iran, Saudi, Israel and few others. 

All this at a moment when few can deny that this country is experiencing a deep crisis, depression, addiction, suicide, extreme wealth inequality, more difficult to attain medical and health treatment including medicine prices and monopoles, education and its availability in adequate forms for the public sectors, all made worse by Covid 19, the rash of mass killings, the effects of too many individual guns and high military and assault machine guns in too many individual hands. (Over 400 million pieces already existing in America). 

As well as a general political malaise, fueled by a total divide from an old inherited conservative and religious ideology, countering a more liberal, 21st century international ideology. More concentrated especially within the younger and better educated and more democratic populations, deserting fascism, and dictatorships, whether theocratic or secular, not to forget the greatest of our curses "Racism", and finally the spectacle of war, produced by all sorts of adventures all around, finally culminating by the Putin's war in Ukraine, and the threat of yet another one in the China sea. 

Altogether producing an omnipresent and universal anxiety, reigning in the back-ground, all of which lead to more economic instability, poverty, exploitation, undermining resilience and resistance world wide, destroying the general hope of a stable and more prosperous unified glob. 

Just by being a little more observant and looking around all over, we can all begin to notice something profoundly disturbing happening to our world, it's the same feeling that led in a sense to world wars one and two, to a situation of cold war or an in between semi cold and hot war. Our civilization all over is beginning again to start collapsing and it's visibly failing, our economic systems are not functioning well anymore, our social policies and fair equality of wealth distribution are left behind and being neglected, even refused under different parroted arguments. 

But surely they are all united under few general headings; greed, and concentrated power, and winner takes all, superiority and supremacy of the few, etc...etc.... Israel is a clear leader and joins many of the world entities with these attributes.  Food, water, energy, money, state welfare, climate change, selfishness, major immigration shifts, how many crises can a civilization take ?? Are we really facing an inevitable civilizational collapse ?? Are we really living through a pre collapse era, by witnessing failures of all kinds, pushing all our basic systems to start shattering and breaking. 

The real source of distrust, many Americans feel toward the establishment and government, being it Democrats or Republicans, presently being played and manipulated by Republicans, this distrust comes from some chronic ailments, manifested by four decades of near stagnant wages to all but the highest echelon of the corporate world, widening inequalities, a clearly alarming shrinking middle-class, an ever more concentration of wealth at the very top, and growing corruption in the form of campaign cash and bribes from the wealthy and the corporate world, leading to an almost total stagnation of governance and some very nuanced legislations, always to favor the few very rich and powerful. 

     My as always, many thanks to all, stay safe and well.                  

IDEOLOGIZING MASSACERS ......

 

The Uvalde (West Texas) elementary school should not have happened , 21 people including 19 children and 2 teachers were murdered in cold blood by a young gunman yesterday, their death are incomprehensible, they should not have lost their lives. Little kids, massacred, few days after another massacre, after another, after another, and the response from half of American politicians; Nothing. 

America is not defined by the worst of its citizens, of course not, but it must not pretend that they are not part of its rooted fabrics. And they are shaping the image of America and what it is, in some awful, terrible way, they and the weapons they use, are for sure a solid part of the American culture, and it's not to say that Americans have to accept it. Americans need to push, fight and speak out, and do everything they can to move the country in a better direction. 

Americans love and cherish their freedom, their constitutional rights, even now when it is harder every day to do so, with mass killings occurring on daily bases around the country, and most are vulgar and cheep, driven by mostly white young people, whose hearts and minds are fully polluted and poisoned by racist ideologies, by practically legitimizing the killing of not fully perceived as equal or legitimate white original citizens, so Blacks, Latinos, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Asians and or any other ethnic minority in America. 

The next major test in choosing these ugly patterns and directives will be in November's rapidly approaching mid-term elections, and opening the way for the next presidential elections in 2024. When everything the country stands for ,  and the fundamental rights of millions of Americans will be on the ballots. 

The teenager who murdered 19 elementary young students and their 2 teachers in Texas few days ago, the one who murdered several black people in Buffalo, the guy who drove 9 hrs. to kill Latinos in El Paso, the man who gunned down Jews at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, the one who shot and killed 9 people at a bible study in South Carolina, and many, many more, they all share the same convictions of "Great Replacement" and it is their duty to kill indiscriminately all non fully belonging real white Americans. 

American history include a long and bloody trail of that kind of violence, since its conception. But, and to be honest, these acts of brutality and racism, are not the whole story, American history is also a story of people of all walks of life, coming together, melting in the great pot of what the country is really all about, totally countering the idea that this country belongs to any particular group more than any other other sharing its common goals. 

No one is more American, or more patriotic and loyal to America on account of their skin color or their religion or their ethnic original background. No one should be discriminated against for where they were born or who they love, or who they believe in or don't believe in. America is living at a time when so many unprincipled people are set to divide the country for power, profit, or blind ideological and religious demagogy. 

 These are specifically the days when Americans need each other the most, to face existential future dilemmas, whether political, economical or existential climatic on world levels. Those are the days to be grateful that there are so many Americans who have made firm commitments to making a difference, to recommit to the idea of the true American way, they're committed to save the country. 

As always, my many thanks for your time, stay safe and well.                       

THE " GREAT REPLACEMENT "

 

The massacre in Buffalo few days back, a young man 18 years old, probably still a high school element or barely a graduate, a self described fascist, a full adherent to the "replacement" theories, a well hidden ideology kept in secret under different names and adjectives, until it pushed its disciple to arm himself to teeth with army assault gear, and bullet proof jackets, even mention his intentions on many social media platforms, while acquiring a car, drive more than 3hrs the equivalent of 200 plus miles to a black neighborhood in a totally strange city from where he lived, storms into a market place, and brutally in very cold blood shoots 10 people to death , and injuring many more, terrorizing many others in the building and around it. 

This scene, as awful as it is, and many other ones like it at different levels and backgrounds, are becoming the regular norm in America, in all of America, rural, urban, smaller towns and larger cities, whereby well armed young civilians attack innocent people in crowded places, it is growing as well in many parts of the world, mostly though in Europe. 

The "great replacement" is a relatively newer version, a milder and more acceptable way to talk about some older and more classical words like "white genocide, Jewish cabal, immigrant invasion, Muslim take over". In the U.S. it's often called white genocide, while its counterpart in Europe is called "Eurabia". The baseless theories claim generally, that these population's shifts are orchestrated by elite power players. In Europe it is the traditional political elite, bringing in Muslim immigrants, while in the U.S. it's ascribed to Jews, who are pushing to bring more immigrants, promoting interracial marriages, replacing the white labor forces, all to suppress the white population. 

Nowadays in the U.S. the new way is to blame Democrats for all of this, while Republicans are harboring and becoming more and more the party of the pure white masses. The "great replacement" propaganda, is capitalizing on sharing and spreading their ideology on major scales among the wider population through well organized and orchestrated social media platforms. The white supremacy messages are now the norm at web sites like " The Daily Caller, Breitbart, and Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham,  both Fox News hosts, it is carried faithfully by many other AM radio DJ's programs and talk shows, and now more than ever Republican politicians repeating openly some of this stuff. 

All official investigations, are consistently ignoring the real side of the back ground, the environment, the parents, the schools, the neighborhoods producing these young perpetrators like the Buffalo shooter, or the South Carolina before it, and nowadays an almost daily occurrence of similar actions across the country. The new trend is to put more restrictions and more arms control measures, on vulnerable individuals, these are for sure necessary and helpful measures, but surely not enough by any means by themselves, we are facing a new and well organized movement, spreading like an epidemic among vulnerable and innocent populated groups of the younger population, and no one is seriously trying to address or even look it up straight in the face. 

The Replacement demagogy theory, espoused by the Buffalo shooter, has been published, talked about and discussed, even embraced officially by some ultra right-wing politicians and commentators, its roots lie down deep in certain communities and families, even in some private schools and institutions, they should all be investigated, rationed and stopped if we really care to eradicate such dangerous maladies from our society, and not just target the young perpetrators judge and condemn them. 

My, as always, many thanks for your time.... stay safe and well.                           

INDEED A FURIOUS AMERICA ......

 

Published in

Eudaimonia and Co

umair haque   May 6

Why a Furious America Feels Betrayed By the Democrats

I Asked Average People What They Think About the Democrats After Roe, And the Results Aren’t Pretty 

How angry are Americans at the Democrats right now? Don’t take it from me. Here’s a smattering of opinions, from my kid sister’s friends — and I asked them particularly because they’re the constituency the Democrats need to survive. To say that they’re not happy would be an understatement.

“It’s the total failure of leadership! The fact that they can’t get anything passed or done. They have accomplished nothing major. No student debt relief. No stimulus checks. They keep increasing military spending. They’ve continued f*cking up Covid. They’re just completely absent. They don’t know what to do with power. They have no clue how to use it and for what. And it’s because they don’t believe in the policies they won on. They’re in a holding pattern. Like you yell at them to do something they said they would and they go well you know we would but we can’t because the parliamentarian said so or because the republicans are so bad or because we can’t do anything about Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema so we’re just going to sit here, twiddle our thumbs and shrug. Or they say nothing. I’m so pissed.”

That particular rant comes from a young gay man. Why is he this upset? Because faced with the greatest attack on and seizure of rights in half a century, the Dems are doing nothing.

Why is a young gay man this upset? Well, one because he’s a decent person. But two, because he can see the writing on the wall.

Is he right to be this mad? Context. This attack on rights — putatively taking bodily autonomy away from women, but even more than that — is probably the single greatest regressive move that’s happened in a rich country in modern history. That is how bad this is, and that’s just on its face. When the obvious implications are factored in? This is one of the greatest losses of rights in modern history, period, anywhere, full stop.

Americans understand this. And they are furious.

“The only people in America, apparently, who didn’t understand that this was coming — a full blown removal of women’s autonomy? The Republicans knew, which is why they advanced crazy, authoritarian laws making people citizen-vigilante-informants well in advance. We all knew — women, young people, old people, everyone. Everyone knew. Except, apparently, the Democrats.

They were, incredibly, caught flat-footed. Paralyzed. How did they not know this was coming? Are they idiots? Are they complicit? I don’t even know anymore! It’s crazy-making. I want to burn their party to the ground.”

That’s from a young woman who’s in policy. She understands very well the simple reality at work here. It couldn’t be any more absurd, really. It goes like this. The Republicans bent the rules to appoint an incredible cast of characters to…The Supreme Court. A religious nutcase literally a member of a cult which has Handmaids. An alleged multiple-times-over sexual predator. A coup-plotter.

And the Dems went along with this, pretending that these people weren’t going to do what they were obviously…going to do. Attack everyone else’s rights, beginning with women. Take those rights away. The Dems appear to have genuinely believed the lies that were told under oath, which is why they’re in disbelief that the painfully obvious has come to pass. Are they idiots? Who doesn’t get that religious nuts, sexual predators, and coup-plotters are going to attack everyone they can, not uphold democracy?

All this is anti-democratic in almost surreal sense. 70% of Americans are against what an illegitimate Supreme Court made of cranks and predators and religious nuts is forcing on them. Meanwhile, the Dems — who are the governing party of the most powerful country on planet earth — didn’t just believe the lies the cranks and predators and religious nuts told — “why, we’d never take anyone’s rights away!!”…now they’re sitting there holding their heads in disbelief and doing nothing.

It’s insane. How…insane?

“There is a feeling from women that the Dems have had 50 years to codify Roe into law, but have not because they wanted it to remain a bargaining chip. Something they could hang over women’s heads, and say, ‘you better vote for us, or they’ll get rid of it!’ Now that they’ve gotten rid of it, the Dems aren’t even fighting, they’re just handwringing, making excuses for it, and… asking for money. It’s incredible. 70% of Americans are against this. And the Dems are doing nothing.”

That’s from a young woman who’s a teacher. My brilliant friend Sarah Kendzior put it like this — the only place she’s seen this stunning level of gullibility and inaction is in advanced kleptocracies, where democracy really is a sham. She’s right. It is totally, completely, utterly abnormal for an opposition party — let alone a governing one — to sit there yelling at you that they can’t do anything. That is a sign that democracy is not working: when even the side that’s supposed to be for the people is now fighting them. American democracy is made a sham and mockery of by this shambles — and Americans are furious because they know it.

And the average American isn’t buying the Democratic Party loyalists’ and insiders’ excuses, either — that a) nothing can be done, b) what they’re doing is good enough, and c) if they let the Republicans have this, then somehow, that’s smart politics. Nobody believes that anymore.

Here, read more reactions.

“Dem men’s reactions have been to urge people to vote in November. It makes me wonder whether this leak was a calculated attempt (or a convenient way) for the Dems to court votes. But many women’s responses have been, now that Roe is gone, why should we vote for a party that did nothing to secure its place in law?”

“People hate a traitor more than an enemy, and it is for this reason there is going to be an intense backlash against the Dems for, one, letting this happen (and yes they could have done plenty: ended the filibuster, expanded the SCOTUS, codified Roe, passed the effing ERA!), and two, for doing nothing after it happened. Why don’t they organise and fund a sustained protest outside the White House? A strike? ANYTHING?”

I think I like that one the best, because it’s straight to the point — which is that the Dems should be going for the jugular right at this moment. There are so, so many things they could be doing. So many. They could be organising a national strike. Weeks of protest. A general strike. They could be expanding the court or passing the Equal Rights Amendment. Setting term limits on Justices, limiting their powers in numerous ways. They could even, for Pete’s sake, just be giving fiery speeches at the steps of the Supreme Court. See them doing any of that?

What they should be doing — what a serious party would do, in any other country — is simple, and lethal. What do you do when public officials are found to have lied under oath? For Supreme Court Justices, in particular, there is no graver violation than that. It is disqualifying. You impeach them for it. You remove them from office.

See the Dems doing that? Nope. They’re actually OK with fanatics like religious nuts, sexual predators, and coup-plotters lying under oath to the entire country, to history, to the world, to ascend to power — so they can abuse it.

It’s as shocking as it is sickening. If lying under oath — perjury — isn’t grounds for immediate impeachment, then more or less all of democracy is rendered meaningless. Anyone can say anything under the auspices of a formal government procedure — and it doesn’t matter. Witnesses can lie, Senators can, Presidents can — nothing matters. And yet this is the precedent the Dems are OK with.

It is crazy. Like I said, I’ve never seen this anywhere else in the world that calls itself a democracy, even hardcore failed states, and as Sarah explained, the only other places she’s seen it is in kleptocracies where democracy really is a sham.

It’s so insane, bananas, over the top, I struggle to find an analogy. This is like asking a serial killer to slit your wrists because you can’t be bothered to lock the door. It’s like inviting a religious nut and a sexual predator to abuse your kids because, hey, they said they wouldn’t, but now that they are — well, who can be bothered to stop it? Go right ahead!!    Crazy.

And it is having an effect. But not the one the Dems want. The Dems think people will now have to see them as saviours, come November — an abusive frame of mind to begin with. They are wrong. Here, have some more reactions.

“So this is the first time I’ve seen the most diehard Democrats question their party and actually be critical of how they’ve behaved. People who have always defended the Dems are now incredulous, saying WTF? What was my vote for?”

“The Republicans at least care about their campaign of evil. They are evil but we know they’re evil, we know what they want, what they care about, and in that sense they’re a known quantity (as long as you’re not in denial about it.) What are the Dems? What do they care about? It doesn’t seem to be democracy, since they’re not putting up a fight. It doesn’t seem to be women, since they haven’t done ANYTHING in response to this decision. It doesn’t seem to be much of anything, and that’s why they can’t get anyone to care. They cannot simply be Not-Trump, they have to be FOR something, anything. ‘Vote us in in the midterms’ isn’t exactly meaningful when you’ve plenty of power right now and you’re not doing anything.”

The Dems are badly wrong to think that this is going to work out well for them. This, meaning, letting Republicans rip democracy away from Americans, of whom 70% and more don’t support any of this, from women losing their bodily autonomy to the obvious attacks on gay people and minorities which are coming next — letting all that happen, so that Dems can be the good cop to the Republicans bad cop. That strategy has barely been working for decades now — witness how little respect and trust people have for the Dems, and the question of actually liking them is LOL — and now it’s at an end.

The logic is super clear to anyone and everyone. Why should we vote for you then when you didn’t do anything for us when it mattered? Why bother at all when you don’t stop the bad guys from doing incredibly, shockingly, crazily bad things — like making societies places of full of vigilante-informants and tip lines and fanatics who are slavering to attack everyone they don’t like, and now they have to power to rip their lives apart — when you don’t stop all that when you have power, what’s the point of voting for you at all?

Americans are right to be furious with the Dems. They have never failed America more badly than they are right now. This is the real thing, code red, a nine alarm fire. The house of democracy is burning down. And the Dems are standing there, holding their heads, pretending to care — instead of throwing some water on it, even calling 911…and the arsonists are standing right there, too, laughing at them, telling them they’re going to burn down the entire neighborhood.    Words fail.

I study social collapse. I predict it. This is my professional opinion, and it should chill you to the bone. I have never seen a political party more useless than the Dems. Except maybe in Weimar Germany, or in places like Russia, where opposition parties are just shams.

And right now? More and more Americans seem to agree with me.

Umair  Haque.      May 2022

One of the best, a very true and descriptive article about the attitudes of many Americans vis-à-vis  the Democratic party and its leadership.....   My many thanks to all, stay safe and well. 

THE AMERICAN STATE OF MIND .....

 

If one asks most Americans on any street, what would they consider as the most important or threatening problems and issues the nation is facing nowadays, one will get answers like inflation, the economy, education, the cost of healthcare and medicine, and recently the war in Ukraine and the possibility of it spreading.

But you have one group fairly representative of a good third of American voters, mostly on the Republican side, the white supremacy, and some distinct religious factions, they are all expressing with the same fervor the same words, the same context and back ground, the same indoctrination, it is becoming an end by itself, "Don't say gay" and total anti trans laws, "Cancel culture", "wokism" and invented rumors. criminalization of abortion in all its forms, banning books of any subjects mentioning history of blacks, Jews, Muslems, immigrants et al. 

For many Republicans and groups following and serving their purposes, homophobia, islamophobia, transphobia, racism, hate, anti Semitism and supremacy are becoming the new normal. This relatively new post modern manufactured culture serves well their ultra right indoctrination as well as their electoral purposes. By diverting attention from the real problems, the stagnation of the absolute free, wild and unchecked capitalism, the economic plunder by big corporate America, by the war machines, the drug manufacturers  and cartels, all leading to total wealth disequilibrium, and totally unfair taxation and disparate distribution between the poorer majority and the very limited numbers of the powered non elected ultra rich, practically eliminating the remaining vanishing middle classes. 

Republican politicians and representatives want desperately everyday Americans divided and living in fear of one another, they want every group loathing and hating the others, so the majority don't unite behind real dangerous issues, like fair decent livable wages, safer and better working conditions, fairer wealth distribution, better public social programing, more efficient fighting to eliminate or reduce climate change effects, in few words a better and fairer economy management. 

Most Americans as well as most people around the world today are asking their leaders and law makers to address the future of a livable planet, rather than continuing the past policies and tactics and old faith in some sort of divine intervention, they are willing to sacrifice some of the most endeared slogans and ideas for a complete new look and belief in a brighter and safer future, based on more compassion, morality, equality, and dignity. American youths are forgetting how to hate words and concepts like socialist and progressive, they want to ignore religions, imperialism, colonialism, apartheid, superiority, fascism,  Zionism, ethnic cleansing, all accompanied by unchecked brutality. 

But unfortunately, we're facing a new manipulator, a racist, fascist, nationalist, populist faction, that exist not only in America but is spreading on all corners of the world, old and new world. Destroying systematically all hope for the young to look for the bright and safe future. It is the same narrative used by these oligarchies and leaders for centuries, and more so nowadays,  to divide and conquer and rule eternally by colonizing and subduing others, staging coups and terrorizing their helpless neighbors. 

Demagogues like Trump, Florida's DeSantis, Fox news' Tucker Carlson, Russia's Putin, the Zionist entire leadership in Palestine, and many other mini dictators from around the world are all selling the same narratives of a dominant culture that is always endangered and threatened by minorities and different phobic feelings emanating from immigrants, refugees, transgender people, even from different colors of skin. Always endangering their limited versions of history. The worst part is sadly, that it's working, as many are falling for this type of sick propaganda. 

In America, as it is elsewhere, sane people must fight back, by arguing and explaining directly and clearly the real economic problems, the real danger of huge inequalities between the very rich absolute minorities and the vast poorer majorities, the climate changes effects, the vulnerability and sustainability of life on our planet, that marginalized communities are not really the problem, but corporate greed and concentration, political corruption, imperialism and colonialism, plus of course climate changes, poverty and shifting populations are the real problems facing humanity. 

The new Republican nowadays in America is defined as such; rich or at least nicely well off, white, male, straight, religious, adequately well armed, and definitely a firm believer in open and wild, unchecked forms of capitalism. These people will shape America and American supremacy for decades to come, and always partnered with other similar power hungry leaders locally and across the world. 

     My usual many thanks to all, stay safe and well.                            

SHORT AND TO THE POINT .....

 

Humanity always considered questions of morality as an important feature of civilized existence, of social coherence, even assumed that morality was an essential part of religious theism and faith, as we always assumed that god is supposedly the optimum moral entity. Morality was always a key criterion for respectability toward any individual or group, be it political, social, economic or religious. 

Professor Jonathan Haidt, who calls himself a morality psychologist, has proposed six attributes, calling them the foundation of human moral behavior, they come as follows; 1- Care/harm, operating out of kindness and concern, never harming others. 2- liberty/oppression, enhancing opportunities for others, and not constraining them. 3- Fairness/cheating, as in acting in a way that the community considers to be impartial and honest, not taking advantage of others. 4- Loyalty/betrayal, being faithful to commitments and obligations. 5- Authority/subversion, properly exercising power and control given by others, not subverting them. 6- Sanctity/degradation, upholding sacredness of the dignity and rights of others as human beings, not deprecating them. 

Haidt discusses in details how individuals and groups' differences with respect to these attributes play out in human interaction of all kinds, including politics. I'm going to apply those, or the lack of them, to four different political entities in our actual times, three are represented by individual leaders and their oligarchies, the fourth one by an ideology and religious fervor. I'm going to site Israeli Zionism, Bashar Assad of Syria and his oligarchy, Vladimir Putin with his oligarchy and Donald Trump with his family and oligarchy. 

The first through their collective acts against an entire indigenous people of different religious and ethnic origins under their occupation. The second through his behavior during a 12 years civil war against his own people. The third through his behavior toward all his neighboring countries, the entire world peace and stability, to top it by invading twice and brutally annihilating Ukraine. The fourth through his acts and his behavior while president, after loosing and denying it, and being a major part of  destroying democracy and stability in his country. 

The four regimes as a matter of fact share most if not all of these attributes sited by the above mentioned professor, and each proved it for long enough time through unchecked cruelty and brutality, even bestiality. The four continue to affirm their religiosity, to the same Abrahamic religious faith; Jewish, Muslim, and Christian in all their different denominations. Technically the four of them claim to be driven by religious morality. 

The four of them endanger not only their immediate neighboring countries and peoples, but world safety and harmony, the four of them share the same ideological dogmas of total supremacy, hegemony and an upper look and attitude at every one under their control. The four of them come from exactly the same school of thought, and act in the same methodologies and tactics. Of course there are many more who share fully these principles presently on the world scene, as well as historically through the times. 

The West in general, including America did the same during their past, only with a major difference, Western populations always managed to convince themselves of acting with morality while executing their devilish atrocities throughout the times against other races and populations. The four mentioned regimes don't even come close, or bother to justify their immorality and bestiality. Again, a wrong act never justifies another wrong act, brutality and cruelty here doesn't justify other cruelty and brutality there, every act should be judged on its own merits and facts, then praised or condemned appropriately.  

There are large individual differences in what people regard as the base of morality and how they behave with respect to one another, but here in our case those four regimes and individuals broke every rule of decency and fair accepted morality. For humanity it had always been, and still is in our times, that a human being without the feeling of modesty, morality and deference is not human. 

     My usual many thanks to all.