Palestinians are stabbing Israelis and Israelis are shooting Palestinians. What else is new? This has been going on almost forever and it will continue to go on until we get moderates leading both the Palestinians and the nation of Israel. There is really only one solution, Partition. The Israelis are terrified about the Palestinians ability to reproduce and eventually outnumber them; they understand that if there is only one Israel with both factions represented that eventually the Arab children will outvote the Israelis and take over the nation. This is what is in back of all Israeli planning.
The only sensible solution is to move the Palestinians from Gaza to the settlements that Israel has illegally created on the West Bank and to move those Israeli settlers to Gaza and create two countries. Sure, this won’t work but only because there are too many people on each side that don’t want it to. There are entrenched interests that would be hurt by such a move, fanatical or religious interests, greedy economical interests and bigoted social interests that preclude any good thing happening for either side.
So it’s partition or the status quo and right now the status quo is winning. No it’s not a realistic plan but as long as people like Netanyahu are running Israel it’s the only one available.
The players involved are not good people. They are people who want their way and don’t give a damn about either their people or their nations. Sound familiar? It should. It’s exactly what is happening here with our two parties. Yes, the world stinks and it will continue to stink until that shadowy God that most humans worship, in some shape or form, sends down a couple of leaders who are interested in the good of their people and not just the achievements of their personal goals.
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Let’s face it, the GOP is the party of prime bullshit, the party that cares nothing for the good of the nation but only for what they can get for themselves. Just look at their current favorite candidate. The bullying builder openly claims that he has bribed everyone in sight to get the favorable positions that enable him to make billions. The Republican favorite is just a self-admitted crook that made big time money by cheating, stealing and corrupting those he encountered on his way to doing business as usual.
But Trump is not unusual among Republican leaders. The money men, the Koch’s and Adelson’s who actually run the party, do as much or more dishonest and illegal dealing as any mobster, but they remain above the fray thanks to armies of press agents and lobbyists who make sure that the thieves of Duke Energy, Koch Industries and Shelly’s casino gambling interests get only the best TV ad time so their legions of bottom feeding lawyers can keep them and their henchmen out of jail.
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Republican Congressman Blake Franco from where else, Texas, was on the tube this weekend trying to explain the difference between the Tea Party Caucus and the Freedom Caucus, two organizations a little to the right of Adolph Hitler. I have been to Tea party rallies and have seen the gun toting, “No Niggers” poster carrying Klan fugitives and find it hard to believe that anyone could be more out of the mainstream, but as Franco explains it, the Republican Study Committee, the furthest right of the furthest right, of which he is a member has given birth to the Freedom Caucus which like its ancestor the KKK has secret membership. Franco claims that the beauty of congress is that various fanatics can get together and build coalitions to move forward toward goals that suit them but never seem to help the nation.
Franco, who bears an alarming resemblance to a male Miss Piggy with black curls, doesn’t think that McCarthy’s departure has hurt his party, nor does he seem to recognize that McCarthy left because he screwed up so royally.
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Paul Ryan, who, it seems, everyone wanted to be the Speaker, was the best current choice, but maybe he was a fool to take this job. Ryan has a shot at the presidency in 2020 but if he tries to run the mess of sewer rats that currently exist in the House that chance will be doomed to failure.
This entire zoo with the Freedom Caucus is very entertaining, and it certainly gives anyone with a pen, something to write about, but it is ultimately too damaging to the country to allow it to continue. What’s necessary now, is for one of the bigger political publishing operations to issue a list of all the members of the Freedom Caucus along with their voting records so that those who are in a position to vote on their continued occupancy of the House can see who they are and how they are acting contrary to the needs of this country
Anyone who follows politics knows that a least 50% of the voting population is functionally illiterate when it comes to knowing anything about their voting choices. These are the same people who believe in Noah’s Ark and who look for the R or the D when they step into the voting booth, which they regularly do because they think of it as their duty. Most of these people, if properly informed of the choices made by their choices would be appalled. For that to happen, of course, the media would have to at least partially abandon their thrill seeking coverage of what goes on in the celebrity world and try to do their job , illuminating their readers about what the people they elected are actually doing for their paychecks.
Ryan had spoken to the fact that it was his young family that might have kept him from taking the Speakership. He has three little ones. Actually, handling those kids should be great training on how to inform the tiny minds and immature emotions of the members of The House.
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We put down troops and invaded Iraq. We didn’t put down troops but still invaded Libya. We didn’t put down troops and didn’t invade in Syria. None of them worked and there is no evidence to think that any of these approaches will work anywhere in the world. So what the hell are w still doing in the Middle East?
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Caught an interview with Charles Koch. First time. Really stunned at the persona he put forth. He definitely wants us to believe that he is against corporate power and that he is willing to raise money to fight it. But more than that, he seems like a kind of confused old man who just wants the country to be good for everyone. This would be a terrific position for a billionaire except for what his businesses are doing to the nation and the planet. Koch Industries is a fossil fuel conglomerate that does more to poison the earth and encourage the poisoning of the earth by others, than almost any company in existence.
Koch says that he wants people to be able to lead good lives but how can they when they can’t breathe, when the residual effects of what Koch industries does, poisons their rivers and lakes, the very soil under their homes.
He speaks to wanting to help individuals transform their lives and he says he wants to fight those who want to keep private citizens from having a say in how their lives are run. But everything his company does runs counter to what he says. Koch lobbyists pour millions into convincing members of congress to vote against the good of the people and the planet we live on.
He does admit that the candidates they backed in the last election haven’t produced in any way, and that he and his brother feel that even though those candidates won, they lost. In that he is in the same boat as the Trump backers who voted in a slate of do nothing candidates and are now hoping that Trump will be different. Fat chance.
He rants against corporate welfare but doesn’t seem to understand that he and his brother are the epitome of crony capitalism and corporate welfare.
He discusses his book, which is called “Good Profit,” which he describes as producing a product that is good for society and the environment, a situation, to which the history of his company definitely puts the lie. He talks constantly, about maximizing the value placed on what his products do for others, yet doesn’t seem to understand that the products produced by Koch Industries are killing people and destroying the land
What’s interesting and confusing is that he has many liberal ideas such as fixing the drug laws, reducing prison populations, upgrading a poor education system and fighting regulations that work against people getting themselves out of poverty, but everything he says flies directly in the face of what he does with Koch Industries
Toward the end, Koch was joined by his brother David, who added nothing to the interview. Neither of these guys looked like a baron of industry, just like a couple of doddering old dudes who would be harmless if it weren’t for the fact that they are wielding billions for all the wrong causes.