The Devolving Insanity of This Excuse for a President

It's difficult to even keep up with both how little and how much this sorry excuse for a leader or President is doing since he got his election defeat. I'll try here, now. Here's the first.

Trump officials rush to auction off rights to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before Biden can block it

Officials aim to sell drilling rights to the pristine wilderness’s coastal plain before the president-elect takes office

Forget that there is a huge glut of oil on the markets, the international markets and there has been ever before the international pandemic struck but now, with this COVID, there's even MORE oil on the markets because we all are driving so far less.  The world doesn't need more oil and likely won't for at least some time, if ever, given the push, however slow, to go electric and sustainable.

Ultimately, it seems this is all he's doing, however, these last few weeks, at least.

Amid the worst of the pandemic, 

our mad king rages only about himself

Here's the truth of the matter.

Trump is engaging in U.S. history’s deadliest-ever sulk

President Trump will be remembered for many things. For the audacity of his mendacity. For his ready recourse to prejudice. For his savant’s ability to rile and ride social resentment. For his welcoming of right-wing crackpots into the Republican coalition. For his elevation of self-love into a populist cause. For his brutal but bumbling use of force against protesters. For his routinization of self-dealing and political corruption. For his utter lack of public spirit and graciousness, even to the very end. And, to be fair, for the remarkable achievement of winning more than 73 million votes without an appealing message, without significant achievements and without a discernible agenda for the future.

But though Trump will be remembered for all these things, he will be judged for one thing above all: When the pandemic came and hundreds of thousands of Americans died, he didn’t give a damn.

Where we stand now with the Orange Man. This, basically, is what he IS doing.

Trump digs in on baseless election claims even as legal options dwindle

And this.

Trump blocks Biden’s incoming staff in unprecedented ways

Trump’s stonewalling of the incoming administration is leaving even some in his own party concerned

For the first time in more than half a century, an outgoing administration is stonewalling an incoming one at every level — with no intention of relenting.

President Donald Trump hasn’t called President-elect Joe Biden. The Trump campaign hasn’t reached out to the Biden campaign. The White House and federal agencies haven't briefed the Biden transition team...

There are no briefings being given about coronavirus, troop drawdowns in Afghanistan and Iraq, or aggression by China and Iran. No background checks being done for job applicants. No security clearances being conducted for potential Biden staffers.

The silence could continue into December, when states must certify their results to Congress, according to several Republicans familiar with the expected plans. Until then, they said, Trump and his team will continue to assert the election was fraudulently stolen from them, using unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud to file lawsuits and recounts challenging the results.

It’s a situation without parallel since at least 1963, when a federal law implemented modern presidential transition procedures, mandating the sharing of office space and the spending of money for the process.

The posture threatens to leave Biden’s team unprepared in January when it takes over a millions-strong federal workforce, according to officials who worked for Republican and Democratic presidents and lawmakers of both parties. And, they added, it sends a message to the world that the United States, generally a model across the globe, is vulnerable and unable to administer a seamless transition of power.

Here's the irony, too, added to this insanity.

Trump fights to keep a job he shows no interest in performing

I mean, really, what the heck? He's trying, fighting to deny he lost the election, seemingly fighting to stay President but HE'S NOT DOING THE JOB. For another example of proof of this, check this out.

Trump skips Asian summits as China set to expand influence

He always touted and flouted he was "tough on China" but he doesn't attend this Southeast Asian conference?  Not only that but this is far from the first time, too, that he skipped it.

Trump skips Southeast Asia summit for third year in a row

This, however, is the absolutely most frightening thing that did at least occur to him.

Trump Wanted to Start a War With Iran in the Final Weeks of His Presidency

But hey, last Sunday?  He got in his golf, let there be no doubt.

Mr. "You Won't See Me Out There Playing Golf" did, in fact, do just that.

One more thing he's doing, to the nation, to us, to the people and to Democracy, our Democracy.

On his way out, Trump salts the earth behind him

This was probably the way we should have expected President Trump to finish his time in the White House: whining, lying, ignoring the duties of his office, desperate to keep his scam going and focused only on himself. But that Trump is being Trump should not for one second blind us to what is happening right now and how damaging it is. The destruction of the past four years was apparently not enough for him. So on his way out the door, Trump is salting the earth behind him.

It has been nearly two weeks since the election. President-elect Joe Biden won the electoral college by 306-to-232. His lead in the popular vote is 5.6 million and growing. Republican efforts to get courts to shut down counting and invalidate huge numbers of votes are being laughed out of court. This is over.

And what is the president doing? Complaining on Twitter.

He will not prevail, and everyone knows it. The White House staffers desperately spinning on his behalf know it. The Fox News hosts propagating conspiracy theories about stolen votes know it. Every elected Republican knows it. The only ones who don’t know it are the millions of Trump voters who are the targets of this noxious propaganda campaign, the ones being told that American democracy is worthy of nothing but contempt.

This was this morning.

Kyle Griffin

@kylegriffin1

Pool report: "The president has nothing on his public schedule today. He also has not posted any falsehoods on Twitter about winning the election or fraud or anything else, for that matter, in more than 11 hours. The day, however, is young."

His political party is no help, either, far from it.

The longer Republicans cower to Trump, the more damage they do to democracy

Not done there, his political party members in Congress are trying to do their own partisan damage, too.

Republicans are trying to jam through Judy Shelton. 

She has no business working at the Fed.

Republican lawmakers are about to start an arms race politicizing a government institution critical to the country’s functioning, one that spent decades painstakingly establishing its credibility as a neutral, apolitical body of professionals.

The Senate is expected to vote as soon as this week on Trump’s nomination of Judy Shelton to the Fed. Simply put, Shelton is a demonstrably unqualified partisan quack who has no business working at the world’s most powerful central bank. Her nomination has been condemned by hundreds of economists and Fed alumni, including prominent Republicans and at least seven Nobel laureates. The senators poised to confirm her appear to know she is unfit; ahead of February hearings, a former Republican Senate Banking Committee aide said that “the idea of even calling her as a witness for something was beyond the pale” not long ago.

It's not bad enough we have a non-functioning, non-leading President that's sulking, doing nearly nothing but thrashing about, the people in his political party set up, first, another extreme Right Winger on our Supreme Court and now want to do the same on the Federal Reserve.

But help Americans? During the worst, most killing, deadly international pandemic in the last more than 100 years?

Congress in gridlock over COVID-19 relief aid 

One of the most important things you'd think this Congress could and should do is pass COVID relief aid just now. People's livelihoods and work and homes all depend on it, given our current national situation. The pandemic is spreading and wildly across the nation. It's exploding in cases and deaths, both, and Congress is doing seemingly nothing to help us. It seems it should be issue one for them just now.

So what can we say now except "Thanks, Mr. President! Thanks, Republicans!" You're doing so much for us.

Not.

The other thing we can say?

Bring on inauguration day.

#Throwthebumout 

God help us all.

Links:

Either elected leaders the world over are wrong about the pandemic, or Scott Atlas is

Biden’s main political opponent — right-wing misinformation — remains unvanquished

The most significant rebukes of Trump’s voter fraud claims

How Mitch McConnell Flouts the Will of the American People

Trump makes one last effort to cut Social Security

Trump's coronavirus chief urges Americans to gather for 'their last Thanksgiving'

Joe Biden has had enough, makes it clear that Trump should concede now, before more lives are lost

So Many Things Too Many Americans Don't Know of Iran, the Middle East and Recent History

I found the following post today on Facebook on the page of author, reporter and former correspondent for NPR until 2014.

As I said, so many things too many of us Americans don't know in our world. I thought this enlightening, if not even important.

                                                    

Last night, for a few girlfriends, I made baba ghanoush for the first time in a long time. Blistering the eggplants’ skins to black, hulling out the pomegranate seeds, I thought of the first time I was served it -- in a beautiful salon, the snow falling outside, the carpets unfurled and the talk, mesmerizing. I was in North Tehran, at the home of two scholars, Goli and Karim Imami. It was 1995, 16 years after the Iranian revolution, and NPR hadn’t had anyone in the country in years. In the short two weeks I’d have there, I met scores of people -- and even, fell in love with an amazing man over tea and jasmine and jazz.

I would make several more trips to Iran in the 90’s and 2000, one of which, for the Washington Post magazine, would even lead to meeting my husband a few years later. Iran is a spectacularly beautiful country -- you can ski right outside Tehran, or visit the Caspian Sea. 

Once, doing a story for Vanity Fair, I got stuck overnight on a train with Faezeh Rafsanjani, the daughter of President Rafsanjani, who was the country’s leader then. We went skiing, too. I made many, many friends -- and my Iranian boyfriend, Ramin, moved with me for a year to Canada, where he became a citizen, (his brothers were already there) before he returned to Tehran and his business. He was a brilliant physicist and poet. 

We’ve lost touch, but so many other friends remain -- Mamak, the art collector, scholar and curator, Houman, the graphic artist who had his own marketing and design firm (he’d spend eight years in America before returning to aging parents), Azar Nafisi, the author who emigrated and wrote Reading Lolita in Tehran and I remember, too, all the women who were pushing for change. Maziar Bahari, the documentary filmmaker who was imprisoned in 2009 and lives in London today.

Iran has had internal struggles since the dawn of 20th century, sometimes erecting democratic measures, as in its 1906 constitution (demolished in 1979), and other times, more often, seen those instincts suppressed by monarchies or theocracies -- but it is the Americans overthrew its democratically-elected prime minister Mosaddegh in 1953, in favor of the US-dependent Shah and his brutally repressive regime. The 1979 revolution was wildly popular before it was essentially hijacked by its theocracy, which has enacted its own brutality on the Iranian people, murdering thousands of people. And one way or another, they have held onto power ever since, despite mass demonstrations and international pressure.

But at least Iran, in 2015, under the nuclear agreement JCPOA, signaled it would give diplomacy a try, and abide by the international nuclear agreement that Donald Trump couldn’t wait to tear up, a racist’s rebuke to an African-American president, whose hated legacy he’d do anything to destroy.
Now, the forces of progressivism have been dealt a tremendous blow in the killing of Soleimani. 

Even Iranians who would have hated his malicious lethality believe in Iran’s sovereignty-- and there is plenty of hatred within Iran for its own leadership. There were huge demonstrations last fall. 

Listening to my former colleague Mary Louise Kelley conduct her excellent interview with Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, I thought back to a time when I’d interviewed him in New York, and how bitter and angry he sounded last night. 

As why should he not? 

Skills of diplomacy have failed-- and this president has hollowed out intelligence in all the various military sectors, left nearly a score of top defense and intelligence positions vacant, all so that he can act arbitrarily and conduct his whims by tweet.2020 dawns with fear -- the fires in Australia, the gaslighting from the White House and its enablers like Pompeo, the missile strikes raining down in an Iraq caught helplessly in between the US and Iran, and the Iranian people insulted and enraged.

We talked so much, when I was in Iran 20 years ago, about "goftegu," dialogue - could there be a dialogue between Iran and democracies. Two men had founded a magazine by that name. And even though at least them would have to flee, (as did many others; Iran is a bad actor to its own people as well) at least, while Barack Obama was president, we had some dialogue. We had diplomacy. Iranians had sympathy for Americans after 2001.

If there is any sympathy there today, I can imagine, it is among the kinds of educated people who’ve struggled under this regime, who know too well what it is like to have a malignant actor with autocratic instincts at the helm. We have a man who would destroy culture, something he does not understand, and who celebrates war crimes. 

I just hope we can survive long enough to get rid of him. 

Until he is gone, the world is so much less safe.

My baba ghanoush was well-received. Restraint, restraint, restraint.

Links:

Jacki Lyden - Wikipedia

Jacki Lyden : NPR

Jacki Lyden - Author | Facebook

The Singular Most Important Article Any Adult American Could Read Today

There is a fantastic, long, long overdue article in today's Sunday New York Times that says everything I and a lot of us have ever thought about present day America, our defense spending and our insane, inane perpetual, endless war.

The Only Way to End ‘Endless War’

First, America has to give up its pursuit of global dominance

Dr. Stephen Wertheim

As I said, I think all Americans should read it, all of it, absolutely but herewith, I'll post just a few of the most important quotes and clips. I'll begin with a stunner from none other than Republican Party President Donald J "the John" Trump.

“Great nations do not fight endless wars.”

“We have got to put an end to endless war,” declared Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., during the Democratic presidential primary debate on Thursday. It was a surefire applause line: Many people consider “endless war” to be the central problem for American foreign policy.

But vowing to end America’s interminable military adventures doesn’t make it so. Four years ago, President Barack Obama denounced “the idea of endless war” even as he announced that ground troops would remain in Afghanistan. In his last year in office, the United States dropped an estimated 26,172 bombs on seven countries.

President Trump, despite criticizing Middle East wars, has intensified existing interventions and threatened to start new ones. He has abetted the Saudi-led war in Yemen, in defiance of Congress. He has put America perpetually on the brink with Iran. And he has lavished billions extra on a Pentagon that already outspends the world’s seven next largest militaries combined.

Dominance, assumed to ensure peace, in fact guarantees war.

In theory, armed supremacy could foster peace. Facing overwhelming force, who would dare to defy American wishes? That was the hope of Pentagon planners in 1992; they reacted to the collapse of America’s Cold War adversary not by pulling back but by pursuing even greater military pre-eminence. But the quarter-century that followed showed the opposite to prevail in practice. Freed from one big enemy, the United States found many smaller enemies: It has launched far more military interventions since the Cold War than during the “twilight struggle” itself. Of all its interventions since 1946, roughly 80 percent have taken place after 1991.

Why have interventions proliferated as challengers have shrunk? The basic cause is America’s infatuation with military force. Its political class imagines that force will advance any aim, limiting debate to what that aim should be. Continued gains by the Taliban, 18 years after the United States initially toppled it, suggest a different principle: The profligate deployment of force creates new and unnecessary objectives more than it realizes existing and worthy ones.

In the Middle East, endless war began when the United States first stationed troops permanently in the region after winning the Persian Gulf war in 1991. A circular logic took hold. The United States created its own dependence on allies that hosted and assisted American forces. It provoked states, terrorists and militias that opposed its presence. Among the results: The United States has bombed Iraq almost every year since 1991 and spent an estimated $6 trillion on post-9/11 wars....
Armed domination has become an end in itself. Which means Americans face a choice: Either they should openly espouse endless war, or they should chart a new course.

...the United States should pursue the safety and welfare of its people while respecting the rights and dignity of all. In the 21st century, finally rid of colonial empires and Cold War antagonism, America has the opportunity to practice responsible statecraft, directed toward the promotion of peace. Responsible statecraft will oppose the war-making of others, but it will make sure, first and foremost, that America is not fueling violence.
On its own initiative, the United States can proudly bring home many of its soldiers currently serving in 800 bases ringing the globe, leaving small forces to protect commercial sea lanes. It can reorient its military, prioritizing deterrence and defense over power projection. It can stop the obscenity that America sends more weapons into the world than does any other country. It can reserve armed intervention, and warlike sanctions, for purposes that are essential, legal and rare.

Shrinking the military’s footprint will deprive presidents of the temptation to answer every problem with a violent solution. It will enable genuine engagement in the world, making diplomacy more effective, not less. As the United States stops being a party to every conflict, it can start being a party to resolving conflicts...

Today a world with less American militarism is likely to have less militarism in general.

...there’s a reason no one can connect the dots from unceasing interventions to a system of law and order. After decades of unilateral actions, crowned by the aggressive invasion of Iraq, it is U.S. military power that threatens international law and order. Rules should strengthen through cooperation, not wither through imposition.

In truth, the largest obstacle to ending endless war is self-imposed. Long told that the United States is the world’s “indispensable nation,” the American people have been denied a choice and have almost stopped demanding one. A global superpower — waging endless war — is just “who we are.”

But it is for the people to decide who we are, guided by the best of what we have been. America “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy,” Secretary of State John Quincy Adams said in 1821. “She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.”

Two centuries later, in the age of Trump, endless war has come home. Cease this folly, and America can begin to take responsibility in the world and reclaim its civic peace.

Benefits to the nation, to us all, if we were to do this?

• First and foremost, it would save our military soldiers' lives..
• As the article points out so clearly, it would reduce war and terror in the world.
• Next, it would cut our spending, our obscene government spending
• We could spend far more wisely on our infratstructure--schools, bridges, roads, HEALTHCARE. 
• In short, we could support and invest in our people, in the nation. Imagine better roads, smarter healthcare, better schools, no poverty, fewer, in not zero Americans on the street, impoverished, sick, etc. 
• Finally, on this short list, we could also SAVE MONEY.

Any of those, let alone all, are worthy and all are possible, honestly, if we only ended this insanity of perpetual war, the path we're on now.

We have been in Aghanistan EIGHTEEN YEARS. Does anyone really think we've improved things over there? Worse, does anyone think we will (improve things there)?

Finally, here today, for anyone who says we must keep up our "defense spending" because have a "war on terror", I quote the following:

"We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security."  --Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The catch-all phrase "the war on terrorism", in all honesty, has no more meaning than if one wants to wage a war against "criminal gangsterism". Terrorism is a tactic. You can't have a war against a tactic. It's deliberately vague and non-definable in order to justify and permit perpetual war anywhere and under any circumstance."  --Ron Paul

"Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it."  --Douglas MacArthur

"Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich." --Peter Ustinov

"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency."  --Douglas MacArthur

"We cannot simply suspend or restrict civil liberties until the War on Terror is over, because the War on Terror is unlikely ever to be truly over."  --Gerald Bard Tjoflat

"Terrorists can endanger some of us, but the war on terror endangers us all. How much more can the Constitution be diminished before it is completely replaced by arbitrary government power?"  --Paul Craig Roberts

And the best, most true quote on the "war on terrorism" nonsense comes, for me, from Gore Vidal:

“You can’t have a war on terrorism because that’s not an actual enemy, it’s an abstract. It’s like having a war on dandruff. That war will be eternal and pointless. It’s idiotic. That’s not a war, it’s a slogan. It’s a lie. It’s advertising, which is the only art form we ever invented in America. And we use it to sell soap, war and presidential candidates in the same fashion.”

International Day of Peace, 2017

Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September. The General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.

The theme for 2017 is “Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for All.”

The theme honours the spirit of TOGETHER, a global initiative that promotes respect, safety and dignity for everyone forced to flee their homes in search of a better life. TOGETHER unites the organizations of the United Nations System, the 193 Member States of the United Nations, the private sector, civil society, academic institutions and individual citizens in a global partnership in support of diversity, non-discrimination and acceptance of refugees and migrants. It was initiated during the United Nations Summit for Refugees and Migrants on 19 September 2016.

See more here:

International Day of Peace 21 September - the United Nations

Most Dangerous Nation In The World?

There is a terrific article out today over on TomDispatch. It's all about America--what we've been doing for some time, across the globe, what we're capable of and what we may yet do.

The Most Dangerous Country on Earth

It ain't Russia, kids.

The article poses the possibility of whether we, the United States, are, very likely and literally, the most dangerous nation in the world.

Honestly, no hyperbole, I think it's unquestionable.

Given our "yooge" army, our military and all our weapons and what we spend on what we call "defense" alone, that can be argued. Then, when you add in how many nations in the world we have military bases in? Over 700? All interfering in other nations' internal affairs?

Oh, yeah.

We think ourselves the most peaceful, peace-loving people in the world, sure. Standing up for peace and justice and fairness and right and equality. Sure we do.

But the truth? What we actually do? What we've done? What we're doing?

Read the article.

As it states, we just had the head of our own "..leading domestic investigative outfit...", the FBI, interfere in our own national election for our president.

Karma is most surely a bitch, isn't it?

And then, consider these facts. First, we spend more, as a nation, on what we call defense, than any other nation and in huge numbers.

Secondly, we supply more arms to the world than any other.



After repeatedly interfering in other nation's elections, at times assassinating one here or there and just "taking others out", our own investigative unit guides our own election.

The irony is virtually dripping.

You can go way back, at least decades, into what America has done in other nation's affairs or you can go to far more recent history with the Republican Party's and George W. Bush's very chosen war in Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein. And then there's all over the Middle East, of course, and Southern and Central America.

So, yeah, America, get over yourself. Look around. You are the biggest threat to world peace in the world.

And you have been for some time.

And you have no intention of stopping.

Don't Wanna' Study War No More

This is so true and America, the world's biggest arms seller, is the biggest, worst culprit.

Peace loving people, my ass.

CIA Whistleblower, Missouri-born, In Prison

I hadn't heard this story but one CIA whistleblower, Jeffrey Sterling, "...an American lawyer and former CIA employee who was arrested, charged, and convicted of violating the Espionage Act for revealing details about Operation Merlin to journalist James Risen."  

Mr. Risen you may remember:

,,,is the author of the book State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration (January 2006). The book conducted important investigations into Central Intelligence Agency activities. It states that the CIA carried out an operation in 2000 (Operation Merlin) intended to delay Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program by feeding it flawed blueprints for key missing components—which backfired and may actually have aided Iran, as the flaw was likely detected and corrected by a former Soviet nuclear scientist the operation used to make the delivery. In early 2003, the New York Times refrained from publication of the story after an intervention by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice with the NYT Executive Editor Howell Raines.

So Mr. Sterling "blew the whistle" on the CIA over their own illegal activities and now he's in jail. 

He's originally from our own Cape Girardeau. He also got his Juris Doctor degree from the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.

Jeffrey Alexander Sterling was being investigated during the Bush administration. In 2010 he was indicted under the Espionage Act of 1917, one of the few people in US history whose alleged contact with a journalist was punished under espionage law.

In May 2015, Sterling was sentenced to 3½ years in prison.

So one more time, our government is found doing things illegal---against our own laws---as with Edward Snowden, it seems, someone blows the whistle, so to speak, and they end up in jail, no one else.

And check this out. According to the Wikipedia entry on Mr. Sterling:

Sterling was convicted of espionage charges on January 26, 2015. Sentencing was originally scheduled for April 24, but after learning of the sentence of no more than two years’ probation plus a fine given one day earlier to David Petraeus for the felony of providing classified information to an unauthorized person, Sterling's lawyers submitted a plea that Sterling "not receive a different form of justice" than Petraeus, asking for a similarly lenient sentence instead of the 19 to 24 years imprisonment sought by the federal prosecutors.

So the white General "provides classified information to an unauthorized person" and gets probation. 

The black guy in the CIA gets 3-1/2 years?

Really?

That's what passes for justice in America?

Link:  How Jeffrey Sterling Took on the CIA — and Lost Everything

Whither the Price of Oil

Think oil is cheap now?

It's at $1.52 per gallon now across many parts of Northwest Missouri.

Iran sanctions lifted: Brace for oil shakeup 

Brace yourself. Sanctions just came off Iran and heaven knows they need and want money.

I think gasoline under $1 per gallon is entirely possible.

Link:  Sanctions Lifted: Iran About to Unleash Tidal Wave of Oil Into Depressed Markets; How Big the Wave?

On This Day, 1986

U.S. President Reagan and Attorney Gen. Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to rebels in Nicaragua. 

National Security Advisor John Poindexter resigned and Oliver North was fired.

Nothing came of the federal laws being broken.

Nothing. Ever.

To this day, legions of Americans have nothing but praise for Ronald Reagan.

Humankind's Worst "Pandora's Box"

It occurred to me today, humanity's biggest and worst "Pandora's box" must surely be gunpowder, first, so many centuries ago but explosives in general.

Certainly drugs are another and they destroy lives but it seems our ability to shoot and kill each other and blow each other up has become far bigger. And a far bigger problem and threat to humankind.

I look around the world today, city to city, state to state, region to region, here in America but across nations, too, and the world, and it seems clear we seem to be exploding and so, imploding.

From our neighborhoods and the streets of Kansas City, indeed, nearly every city of our own nation, we see shooting after shooting, nearly daily.

Senseless, needless, totally unnecessary shootings. And far too many killings, from all that.

Same, as I said above, in all our big cities.

It divides us, too, the rest of us who aren't shot and killed. We have our opinions but so many don't know what to do about it.

Then, all those guns and the desires and perceived needs for them and for more guns ends up creating now companies and corporations. And these corporations, by their nature, must not just exist but must grow and grow, perpetually, and thrive and grow more.

And this corporate growth and the demand for more infinite growth means all they want to do is sell more and yet more weapons, guns. So there are yet more and more and more guns---on our streets, in our homes, in our society.

And guns are no solution. Guns don't solve problems. Far from it. Quite the opposite, in fact.

So we have guns, expanding in numbers all across our own nation then they are expanding across the world.

And one of the worst places on Earth they're expanding in numbers may well be the Middle east where, along with bombs, people are shooting and killing enemies but also strapping bombs on themselves in order to blow up and kill their enemies.

The most bizarre of these situations that destroys the very societies they're in is that of Sunni Muslims killing Shi'ia Muslims.

From what I understand, to people of cold, straightforward logic, the differences between the two groups, even though they're both Muslim, is extremely small. And yet, even though small in differences, they are committed to annihilating each other and their numbers, along with anyone and everyone else they disagree with or whom they find "in their way."

Insanity.

With the world seemingly blowing up, so to speak and no pun intended, certainly, Pope Francis recently said this:

Pope claims Christmas is a 'charade' 

due to continued war

We have wars breaking out now in Europe, more in the Middle East, still in Afghanistan, Syria, so many places.

Then there are the bombs. Always the bombs.

Still the corporations build more.

We learn nothing.

Link:  Peace can only come from the heart not guns and bombs

Side note:  I'd thought about this article for a couple days, anyway and decided to write it yesterday, last evening. By sheer coincidence, after having written it, I discovered that on this day, November 25 in 1867, Alfred Nobel patented dynamite.

Who Created That Mess In the Middle East, Anyway?

It wouldn't be us, would it?

Quote of the Day -- On Any "War On Terrorism"

What far too many don't know or realize. Or accept.

"You can't have a war on terrorism because that's not a actual enemy, it's an abstract. It's like having a war on dandruff. That war will be eternal and pointless. It's idiotic.

That's not a war, it's a slogan. it's a lie. It's advertising, which is the only art form we ever invented in America. And we use it to sell soap, wars and presidential candidates in the same fashion."

--Gore Vidal.

The Solution to the Middle East

I figured it out.

I figured out a way to end the violence and fighting between the Israelis and Arabs and all others in the Middle East.

We--the world community--give each side one nuclear warhead with the requirement that we--that same world community---shoot off those 2 warheads at precisely the same time, at the other side.

Problem solved.

Peace in the Middle East, at long last.

Prophetic. Prescient

On this day, September 25

1990 - Saddam Hussein warns that US will repeat Vietnam experience.

It's Looks To Be A Busy, Even Great September

Just glimpsing into what this September is going to bring us, besides Autumn and cooler temperatures, which is always welcome, it seems there's not just a lot of things that are going to take place but a lot of good to great things. Some examples:

--The Iran Deal. Agree or disagree, like it, love it, hate it, whatever, we're very likely now going to get the negotiated Iran deal which we--everyone--need so badly. Sure, disagree if you wish but scientists, military advisers actually in the military and experienced in the region as well as hundreds of Rabbis all came to the same conclusion, that this is a good and smart move. It's good for Iran, good for the region, good for the US, heck, good for the world. (see links, below).

--On a lot lighter side, we get Stephen Colbert back. This has, all of a sudden, become Stephen Colbert's week and even month, what with his Late Night talk show beginning this Tuesday. I don't know anyone brighter or any funnier than Mr. Colbert nor full of more energy and what appears to be downright, welcomed intelligence.

--Also lighter on subject, football. The NFL. And normally I wouldn't mention this but this year, especially the first game of the year, is especially poignant since the New England Patriots and their quarterback/leader Tom Brady will be highlighted. Coming off that rather auspicious win, what with his/their/our "deflategate" seeming scandal and the belief on so many people's part that the game looked rather shady, at least, if not out and out stolen, it should be interesting. Then there was all the courtroom drama this Summer and not that long ago---weeks---when a judge threw out the case of the NFL and commissioner Tom Goodell against Mr. Brady and his Patriots. Heck, the commentary alone on that opening football night and game should be interesting. Fun, even.

--On a far more local, Kansas City note, there's always the Fall art shows--Westport Art Festival next weekend and the Plaza Art Fair--and the UnPlaza Art Fair, of course--the 3rd week.

And that's just a short list. Heaven knows it will be a busy month. Enjoy, y'all.

Links:  Dozens of retired generals, admirals back Iran nuclear deal

29 US Scientists Praise Iran Nuclear Deal

340 rabbis urge Congress to support Iran nuclear deal

This is an astoundingly good Iran deal

Quote of the Day -- On the Iran Deal

These Are the Days, My Friends

It's actually a pretty incredible time to be alive.

Millions more Americans recently came much closer to having full equality here in their own nation.

Greece just got yet one more cash bailout from it's Eurozone members yesterday.

It was announced today, Tuesday, that a nuclear agreement between Iran and 6 other nations to keep them from getting nuclear weapons was reached, taking off economic sanctions.

And there's a flyby of our satellite near Pluto today.

Big times. These are incredible times, indeed.

We take things so for granted.

Huge, Breaking National and International News

This came today, this afternoon, over at Daily Kos:

Report: Iran Nuclear Deal REACHED - 

to be Announced Tomorrow

A likely sign that a deal has been reached, according to news reports, is that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov just touched down in Vienna, and the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to arrive later today.

If the two unnamed envoys' accounts are accurate, it has been a historic couple of weeks for the Obama Administration, and, I daresay, for the entire planet Earth. w00t!

It's also reassuring to know that Israeli PM Netanyahu and his Goposaur pals in Congress will be powerless to thwart any agreement.

If true and if a good, strong, verifiable deal to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons, this is not just huge but great news for Iran, for the United States, for the entire Middle East and even, of course, the world. And yes, like it or not, it would be excellent, fantastic, even events for the Obama administration.

Now wait for every Republican in Congress want to shoot it down.

Congratulations, Missouri! You kill me!

Check out these statistics on "corporal punishment"--the oh-so-polite word for state-sanctioned murder, execution of the convicted:

America Ranks in the Top 5 Globally—for Putting Its Citizens to Death

That one, that statistic, by itself, is bad enough, sure.That's awful.

Look at the company we're with, for pity's sake---only China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia executed more.

This is the company we want to keep? These are the people we want to share this with? This is the kind of people we want to be? This is what we want to be known for?

I mean, I knew we incarcerated more people than any other nation in the world, sure:

The United States Has The Largest Prison Population

And that, by itself, is horrific enough but I didn't know we were also in the top 5 for killing our own citizens. 

And I figure you know China has to be in there by sheer numbers, the size of its population but all the rest of the nations in the top 5, including and especially us? That's just wrong. 

Then, to take it one step further, check this out, Missouri and fellow Missourians, from this article--

The overwhelming majority of those executions—nearly 90 percent—took place in four states: Texas, Missouri, Florida and Oklahoma.
And not to be outdone, it seems Utah may want to get into the top 5 states that execute, with their latest move, too. Seems lethal injection just wasn't effective, dependable--or barbaric?--enough for them:

Utah Senate OKs execution by firing squads

So kudos, America and congratulations to you, Missouri. Hats off to you, state sanctioned killers that you are.

When you put all this together with the fact that we grossly outspend all other nations on the planet, in the world, in and on defense spending, it's pretty eye-opening.

BusinessInsider

It seems clear, with all this information and all these statistics, America is fully wrapped up in the death and killing business.

And here you thought we were a "peace-loving people."