Friday, July 25, 2014

A Report from Tel Aviv


Tel Aviv in a Time of Peace


-----Original Message-----

From: Anonymous in Israel
Sent: Mon, Jul 21, 2014 4:21 pm
Subject:  Re: ARE YOU SAFE ……..?


Martinshushu, 
Tell me about it. I know the news is horrible. 
With all the news happening around the world, I am more frightened of the world atmosphere than I am during the sirens in Tel Aviv. One of my super religious friends posted something today that truly expresses how I feel. She used to be orthodox, but the community has now cut her off due to her political views, and believing that a Palestinian state should exist: 

"Dear _______ , 
I posted the link from Germany and have spoken multiple times about France, but I didn't talk about the threatening letters targeting Jews in Chicago, the newspapers in Turkey demanding Turkish Jews "apologize for Gaza" or the harassment of Jews on California campuses. If I tried to list every instance of antisemitic aggression ONLY linked to this war, I'd be here all day, and I still wouldn't be done. 

There is a huge antisemitism problem in the antizionist movement. Antizionism isn't necessarily antisemitic, but that doesn't mean antizionists are free from examining themselves from antisemitic words or actions. The global rise in antisemitic violence that comes as a direct result of these Palestine marches speaks VOLUMES. I completely support pro-Palestine marches, and I've spoken out against this war constantly, but I cannot turn a blind eye to this violent antisemitism. 

If the oppression of a marginalized ethnoreligious minority is not somehow motivation enough on its own, realize that the more antisemitism is allowed to grow and fester in this movement, the more zionists you get as a direct result, and the more Israel as it currently is gets blanket uncritical support from Jews who have to flee there to survive. 
TO SURVIVE.

I could not have said it better myself. Its a terrible situation and the more press Hamas gets, the more alone Jews will be all over the world. 

Palestinians have a right to a state, they have a right to exist just as much as we do. They have a right to raise their children in a beautiful land, to laugh and sing, not run from rockets. 

SO DO WE. Our children have a right to laugh and sing in the same land as theirs - that is the ultimate goal is it not? Peace. 

But with all thats going on, it seems very far away. These "demonstrations" that are happening all over the world in London, Germany, California and France are violent, antisemitic, and horrifying to humanity. They taught us in school "Never be Silent and Never forget" in regards to the Holocaust, and now I know why. This is what scares me, this is what gives me nightmares, not the sirens but the blind hatred of thousands. 

Hamas is screaming "genocide" to anyone who will listen, and if they keep it up, they'll get exactly what they want, the genocide of Jews across the globe. It wont be by rockets that Israel is destroyed, but by their blatant manipulation of the masses into blind hatred for an old scapegoat. 

Im sorry this was a very dark email. I pray for peace, I pray that the unbelievable ignorance will cease, and I pray for those whose minds are already closed to the possibility of coexistence. 

We will stay safe, we will keep smiling - what else can you do when the world hates you? 

Missing you dearly and wishing you luck!  

Anonymous in Israel  


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On Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 1:24 AM 

‪Martinshushu‬ wrote: 

This is an amazing letter! 
May I publish it on the blog? 
If you wish I could post it as "Anonymous in Israel." 
Just tell me. 
Stay sharp and be safe dear ones. 
Much Love, 
Martinshushu 

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From: Anonymous in Israel
Sent: Thu, Jul 24, 2014 10:02 AM 
Subject:  Re: ARE YOU SAFE ……..?

Martinshushu, 
Good to hear from you. Yes, I would prefer to remain anonymous. 

The general consensus here is that people are more frightened about what is happening in the world, and how that affects people's feelings towards our country. 

Hamas wants Israel to stand alone, to be seen as murdering Jews who care little to nothing about humans. We don't want to fight, we want our soldiers back for Shabbat dinner. 

Hamas has an incredible ability to manipulate the social media news  and Israel is struggling to keep up. Pictures are taken from Syria, and posted under #freegaza of burned children wandering the streets alone, manipulated to take pictures coved in fake blood, crying over "dead" family members who are alive and well according to twitter. It's a horrifying game and we are losing. Palestinians have the right to their own state free of terror and that is the bottom line. Hamas is the enemy, not the Palestinian people. Innocent lives are being taken on both sides, and that is unacceptable. 
I hope all is well with you. 

Anonymous in Israel


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Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Goober Capitalism™



Cooper Square New York City November 2001


"I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. 
. . . 
It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

George Washington 1796 

FAKE PATRIOTS THE BEGINNING

Listen up for a few minutes and ignore the fearful rants and raves of tea party agonists and all other republicans warning of war and invasion by immigrants all over our media in America. Quickly let's review some reality of the past thirteen years or so. First, in September 2001, a gang of psychotic Arabs caused the 911 attacks killing thousands in New York City and Washington, DC and a field in rural Pennsylvania. The gang was financed by racial and cultural bigots hiding out in Afganistan and Saudi Arabia and the Yemen. We were assured by most of our media and all of our leaders in Washington that we must all greatly fear the Al-Qaeda cult and Osama Bin Laden. We all knew where the leaders were hiding. The Al-Qaeda cult and Bin Laden were sheltered and aided by Taliban oligarchs in ultra-conservative Islamist Afganistan.

Therefore we must go to war, and America invaded that ill-fated nation to stop the bigots and save us from a repeat of the 911 attacks. Then almost as a sidebar we were all told that we must invade the nation of Iraq too because more bigots there have very dangerous weapons that can kill thousands of Americans in a single attack. What is the secret story of the Iraq war, of spooks and cold war fanatics in power in Washington? Who wanted Saddam dead? And why? Lately more and more is being revealed about the Iraq War. We are in the midst of a sea change in national politics as tea party agonists and republicans fade into the darkness of oblivion due all traitors. Of course many cable TV media celebrities continue to rave the opposite as in "Tea party republican Eric Cantor lost his seat in a primary because he wasn't ultra-conservative enough." Recently former Veep Dick Cheney himself rages, "Another attack is about to happen! We, must arm up and be ready to re-invade Iraq!" Hucksters and fake patriots like Cheney make a mockery of our democracy by their TV show manipulations of the media. 

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FAKE PATRIOTS THE TEA PARTY REPUBLICAN PLAYBOOK

Last month the fake patriots and Pay-Per-Vote™ Senators Jeff Sessions and John McCain and thirty-nine other tea party agonists and republican fake patriots voted against helping veterans.

This vote was part of a broader plan or playbook for the game. The tea party and republican playbook calls for grossly under-funding some government operation, and then when the operation fails in some way you can blame the administration. Pretty sick stuff but they've been doing it since the financial crisis through Benghazi and now the VA problem. Fake patriot tea party agonists and republicans like Boehner, Cantor, and Ryan in the US House and McConnell and McCain and Cruz in the Senate play this reality show for a national audience on cable TV news stations. 

Most republicans and all tea party republicans in America tout that lower taxes are essential to the American Dream. Mitt Romney and Charles Koch and David Koch and other billionaires hide money in bank accounts in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland to avoid paying taxes. Many, many US corporations do the same. So those acclaimed leaders of business in America don't want to pay the tab for our children dying in Afganistan and Iraq to protect their homeland? 

When I visited the Trade Center site in November 2001, the fences were covered with notes and photos from thousands of people who'd come there from all over America.  Most of the postings were from church groups bussed in to pray for the dead and console the survivors of the attacks. It occurred to me that this must be the start of a religious war: Christianity versus Islam. After fourteen years, we can all see the war is not religious, but it is about the money and a new religion founded on Goober Capitalism™. 


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FAKE PATRIOTS AND FOUNDING GOOBER CAPITALISM™ 

Most republicans and all tea party republicans in America deeply believe in the notion of "free market" capitalism as codified in the republican playbook. This brand of capitalism is based on a dogma that free markets and more profits always benefit all Americans. Money is the highest good. This is the lie I call Goober Capitalism™or a corrupted capitalism based on TV news hype and taken as truth by many people all over our America. 

So the term Goober Capitalism™ is a newly discovered subset or subculture of the traditional American capitalism of free markets, but grossly ignorant of the societal consequences of it's actions. Thomas Malthus was talking about such Goober Capitalists™ when he formed his theory of land and farming and how inevitably there would be more people than the land could support leading to social disruption. 

Our modern American Goober Capitalists™ have a single purpose for the corporations and companies they control, more profits. They ignore any consequences of their actions to the employees, the products, or the nation of America in general. Goober Capitalists™ are dedicated to the dogmatic peanut (bean) counting of profit margins for their corporation or company. Some of the financial wizards of Wall Street we discovered in the crisis of 2008 are iconic Goober Capitalists™. Mitt Romney is a shining example and so are Charles and David Koch. These Goober Capitalists™ are American oligarchs with rigid political agendas that are not good for our American Democracy.  

Corporations and companies are a figment of the imagination of people who worship at the alter of Goober Capitalism™. Both corporations and companies exist because some billionaire in the past direly wanted anonymity. Do corporations and companies and their attendant billionaires have no ethics and no conscience? I don't think so. Corporate and company executives are just like the regular people with the same prejudices and dreams per capita. Some number of them are fake and fearful and cruelly deny their due. Some are giving and want the best for our America. Either way all of them should pay their taxes for the wars we fought to protect their homes in Aspen and Beverly Hills and Palm Beach. 

The doctrine of Government-For-Profit is a viral element of Goober Capitalism™ that we must wipe out. In this world we can no longer tolerate libertarian fools with anything-goes teenager tactics in our Congress and Judiciary. The consequences are dire for the people of our America and the entire planet. 

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FAKE PATRIOTS THE IDEOLOGY 


Robert Kennedy, Jr. said that business controlled by government is called communism, and government controlled by business is called fascism. Let's look at the exacting libertarian, Government-For-Profit booster, Rand Paul who is the kind of guy who truly believes that Government should be run like a business. By that perverse reasoning we should only give defense or any public contracts to low bidders. Then the HumVees that breakdown in battle will cost only a few lives. Or the cheap guns that don't fire. Or any other service provided by government like fire trucks or police protection­. Justifiabl­e by the numbers, but premeditat­ed homicide anyway. So good old boy Ayn Randist Rand Paul sputters on and on like an old Yugo import. Recall the low budget cars manufactur­ed in what is now Serbia. The Yugo's were certainly the result of low bidder perversion­s. You get what you pay for, right Rand Paul?

Rand Paul and his father Ron Paul both declared Ayn Rand to be our new American Ideology? Instead of Ayn Rand, we should go back and re-read Alexis de Tocqueville. He precisely predicted the competition between the USA and Russia and he predicted the rise of an egotistical American oligarchy very similar to what has come to us in the form of rancid Pay-Per-Vote™ tea party republican people in our congress and Judiciary. 

While we are at the library do some more research on economics.  Read some real economics like John Maynard Keynes and Joe Schumpeter and other real academics who did not cow-tail to any of the Goober Capitalism™ of their times. 

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GOOBER CAPITALISM™AND THE TRADEMARK "™" 


Government is not a For-Profit Business. But I trademarked the term Goober Capitalism™to protect future posts from being misquoted on some cable TV station.  

One more thing for all the fake patriots, our money-grubbing Pay-Per-Vote™ politicians there's an old Wall Street saying: "Take your cut and don't get greedy, because we send pigs to the slaughter." 

It's all over boys and girls.  Take your loot and go home. 

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