God-damn particle

 

THE ABSURD TIMES

 

A pictoral representation of the equation devised by Goins to finally arrive at a mathematical solution to the Higgs Boson -- what he called "The God-Damn" particle.  I found it, of all places, after searching just about anywhere else, on Wikipedia.  It has doubtless been revised and attacked, but that’s your problem.

 

 

 

God-damn

By

Czar Donic

 

 

It is really getting far too weird for me, so I’m going to start with something else than usual.

 

Recently, someone quoted Stephen Hawkings as saying there was no God to create the universe.  Well, it is true, but it takes awhile to get there and, believe me, I’ve simplified this as much as possible.  The math is out and the ideas, still debated, and pared down to the point that we are discussing an Alpha-Romeo by seeing one of its tires. Still, I hope I’ve been able to get across how far the God Squad has to go to establish a viable alternative as to the origin of the universe(s).  It is mind-stretching.

 

We have to start with the Higgs Boson, sometimes called the “God” particle. Well, lets get rid of that idea first.  It come from some physisist/mathemetician (the boundaries have not existed for decades now) who was assigned to work on it and he got so frustrated with the mathematics of it that he called it ‘THE GODDAMN PARTICLE”. So, sorry, there is no real metaphysical significance to that term, (one would suppose).

 

It’s value is that is is the particle that gives mass to all the other subatomic particles, starting with hydrogen for that had been missing since the 50s at least.  Finally, they were able to find it a CERN (still the one superconductingsupercollider of distinction).  Gerogie Bush wanted to build an even bigger one, but would listen to nobody with any knowledge and tried to build it in TEXAS (of course). Well, ants kept eating it, so it never really got built.  (But I digress).

 

So, where does the string theory come into this? Well, before anything else, at the big bang, these strings, not particles, came out and each represented a dimension. The Higgs particle/space generates 30 dimensions in itself.  However, there are other particles and theories, each with their own plethora of dimensions. The easiest to wrap your mind around (you still there? Ok.) is the idea of a two dimensional model that combines all the dimensions but requires a mirror to be understood. (Don’t ask me, I was lost about 2/3rds of the way through this.)  This gives rise to plausible idea of multi-verses.  I’ll just stick with out own and focus on earth. That’s enough for me.

 

All of our ideas, theories, beliefs, etc., depend upon some sort of cause and effect, and that requires the dimension of time.  I started out as  Physics Major in college and had read a great deal about relativity, thought experiments, nuclear reactions, and so forth, but such topics were never even considered in the official classes we took.  All of them, without exception, seemed to be designed for the education of civil engineers. The focus was on Newtonian mechanics with a bit of newer ideas thrown in, but nothing beyond electricity (which they were still debating as to whether is traveled in waves or particles) and related topics. Gauss and then Maxwell seemed to be the most abstract thinkers they could follow – and I mean the "Professors".

 

I remember very vividly once, having heard of the activity of the hyperon where the reaction took place a micro nano second before the action and was eager for direction on where to search for more information.  I raised the question in class and was answered with “when we want to be talking about that stuff, we should all be wearing along beards!” He chuckled, hoping for a class agreement and was greeted with yawns.  Such was the intellectual climate. I also had trouble in a mathematics class because I used a novel solution (I thought) to a Calculus problem and nearly flunked for the sin of reading ahead to the next semester. Naturally, I hadn’t and it was the first time I had ever been attacked for actually reading anything in these textbooks before I absolutely had to and the only thing that kept me awake was looking for spelling errors or omissions of proper exponents.  It was also the last. (I think I had suddenly, with no reasoning at all, applied what was known as “L’Hospital’s Rule, a clever rearrangement of sine and cosine.)  Never mind.  At least this is more intriguing than thinking about Donald Trump.

 

Anyway, now we have the background. The concept of a God or “Creator" relies on our experience in the four, or two, dimensions we confine ourselves to, all of them not in existence until AFTER the big bang. Using the dimensions that we are able to detect and in which we live, we have developed a prejudice in favor of cause and effect, and this idea depends on these dimensions. Essentially, it states tha one thing causes another and that means one thing happened before another, and the relies on the dimension of time.  Space is another dimension, although we usually divide it into three, length, height, and width.  In any case, none of this happened before the dimensions emerged, and the idea of cause and effect only makes use of two or three of them. Thus a “creator" is a ludicrous concept.

 

 So, the Senate Republicans want to confirm someone to make sure that healthcare is more expensive, skip the idea of helping those who are out of work as a result of our mishandling of Covid, and make sure that the current occupant remains in the White House, eh? Let’s have a good laugh at that one!  Then realize tat a majority of our population is stupid enough to vote for him.  Talk about String Theory being a puzzle.

 

 

 Here are a few simplified statements regarding our discussion:

  

 

 

  The Higgs boson is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics, produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field,^[8][9] one of the fields in particle physics theory.^[9] It is named after physicist Peter Higgs, who in 1964, along with five other scientists, proposed the Higgs mechanism to explain why particles have mass. This mechanism implies the existence of the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson was initially discovered as a new particle in 2012 by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations based on collisions in the LHC at CERN, and the new particle was subsequently confirmed to match the expected properties of a Higgs boson over the following years.

 

String Theory

String theory began as bosonic string theory, whose 26 dimensions act as many fewer. Yet this modeled only bosons, which are energy particles, while omitting fermions, which are matter particles. So bosonic string theory could not explain matter. Yet by adding supersymmetry to bosonic string theory, fermions were achieved, and string theory became superstring theory, explaining matter, too.

(In versions of quantum field theory that include supersymmetry (SUSY), each boson has a corresponding fermion, and vice versa. That is, each energy particle has a corresponding matter particle, and each matter particle has a corresponding energy particle, yet the unobservable partner is more massive and thus super. These superpartners might seem an extravagant prediction, yet many theorists and experimentalists favor supersymmetric versions of the Standard Model, whose equations must otherwise be tweaked extravagantly and sometimes arbitrarily to maintain predictive success or mathematical consistency, but with the superpartners align.

It seems as if some of the devotees of the Abrahamic Religions felt left out, So I conclude with a quote from one of their favorite books, in fact the Bible of the Judeo-Christian ones:

"I saw a pale horse and a pale rider upon it. 

And the name of the horse was Pestilence,

And the name of the rider was death."

So now everyone is is happy?  

[I may add more as new issues concerning this arise, but I have not heard from any pantheists or Buddhists yet.  

Hitler is Offended, Trump Thinks Crowds Are Huge

THE ABSURD TIMES

 I believe, owner of the Professional Wrestling Whatever 

and Trump nominee for Education Secretary

It does sweem to be time for this again.

First, the editor of NeinQuarterly says that "Hitler is getting angry at being compared to Trump," so cut it out!

We are now told that the best weapon we have against Trump is comedy.  Seems he lives in fear of comedians.  At least, that's Michael Moore's take on it.  So, perhaps it is worth a review of some of the funnier things about his administration (sounds funny already).

The first problem with this is the valuable advice given decades ago by Bernard Shaw: "I always tell the truth. It's the funniest joke ever."  So, we can just report, you decide.

Perhaps the hearings of Trump's nominees are a good place to start.  Betsey DeVoss is the star of this hearing, and quite clearly knows almost nothing about education.  This is a good start, because one would think that she then has no nonsense to unlearn.  However, as head of the WWE, and sister to Eric Prince (of Blackwater infamy), she wants to privatize the public school system.  Now this does not mean allow private K-12 schools to exist, but to take taxpayers' money and give it to religious institutions.

The two most pertinent senators questioning her were Bernie Sanders and Al Franken.  Sanders set her up by asking if she seriously thought she would even be there is she had not given so much money to Republican politicians.  She said yes, meaning she was qualified and knowledgeable.  

Then Franken asked her where she stood on the debate between proficiency and growth.  Now this is an easy question for those interested in education in the K-12 realm, but is a bit confusing for those otherwise inclined.  Proficiency is simply the definition of the standards for, say, 4^th, fifth, and sixth Grade levels.  How many of your students, if you are a teacher, have attained the level mandated?  If enough, you win. 

On the other hand, growth is more complicated, which perhaps is why she does not comprehend it.. If you are a fifth grade teach, and have several students who entered with a second grade proficiency and when tested after months of your teaching increase to a fourth grade level, you lose.  If one of your students enters at the sixth grade level, and you bore the shit out of him and he tests at the fifth grade level, that's fine.  Obviously, growth is more important than proficiency. 

Personally, many fellow students who achieved A level evaluations from their teachers while I did not, strangely enough did not test on standardized tests in the upper 1% as I did.  Obviously, I was less able to disguise my impatience with stupidity than fellow classmates.  But I digress.

Ringling Brothers is closing down it's circus.  Obviously, the competition from a Trump Administration is too much.

The first major debate of the new Administration is the crowd size of the inauguration.  Now, I must thank God for the rain on Trump's parade.  I mean that literally (in the correct sense of the word).  See, I asked God on Twitter to make it rain on Trumps' parade.  He asked if I wanted toads and snakes or "just the regular stuff"? I said just the regular stuff and he obliged.  Thanks again!

So, how many did show up? Not many, especially when compared to Obama's.  However, both were easily eclipsed by demonstrations around the world, London, Paris, Athens, Rome, and of course New York, Idaho (remember them?), Fargo, St. Louis, of course Chicago (go Cubs), and just about any other city.  The best sign award goes to Paris, France, of "Down with Stupidity". 

Madonna said something that offended news channels, but I didn't hear what it was.  What the fuck did she say?  Any ideas? Ah, piss on it.

Trump, Chicago, Cubs, God

THE ABSURD TIMES

Our Media, Above

More Absurdity Abounds

By

Czar Donic, ed.

I know I promised no more on this election, I know; however, this is the Absurd Times and where better?  It is our responsibility to cover the absurd, and nowhere is it more prevalent than here.

Above you see the monopoly on information distribution in the U.S.  See, we do not believe in Government control of the media.  Well, actually, since these corporations do own the government, perhaps we do, but at least we are not like Russian, eh?  Or Egypt?  No.  We believe in a free press.  As free as possible so long as it makes money.

So why is the election covered in such depth on U.S. media?  Because it is free programming, that's why.  Same with Egypt Air.  They do not have to pay royalties to the political candidates and they can charge the same for commercials.  In fact, they even charge the candidates for the commercials on top of it all.

Therefore, we hear little about the fascism or National Socialism growing in Ukraine.  Say what?  You never heard of it?  Well, of course not.  Who is going to watch that when we have Donald Trump to see and hear?  Never mind the few who would rather see a rerun of Barney Miller than pay any attention to Donald Trump.  There are many more who are so ill-informed that they will listen to and believe anything he says.

Now he is dragging up the suicide of Vince Foster, someone Hillary Clinton may have had killed while she was first lady.  Obama said that after that, Donald will turn his "attention to important things such as uncovering the moon landing fake.  Now that is a good and funny line, but then Obama spent 10 years in Chicago so he has a sense of humor. 

How do I know?  Believe me, everyone who has spent that much time in Chicago has a sense of humor or else has relocated.  This is the place that predicts the Cub's winning the World Series of Baseball every year.  The last time that happened, man invented the flying machine, later called the airplane.  Once, the Cubs made it to the World Series, but a goat cursed them and they lost.  Say what?  You don't believe that?  Well, think about this: a few years running Cubs fans went to Arizona (spring training) and sacrificed goats.  See, the reasoning was that if they killed enough goats, the Cubs would win.  Right.  You don't believe that?  Well, you haven't lived 10 years in Chicago, then.

Recent news is about Albuquerque, New Mexico where people rioted outside his rally.   Well, everyone has forgotten about when he wanted to hold a rally in Chicago.  Essentially, Chicago told him "Forgeddabout it! Outta here! No way!"  Trump stayed away.  Chicken.  Was it because of good taste?  Nope.  Trump claims to be a Republican and probably is as he is nearly as insane as his fans and Republicans do not fare well in Chicago.  That's all.

Crimea?  Remember that? The descendants of Genghis Kahn? Actually, they are much better off now, although one was victorious in the Eurovision contest with a song about her grandmother being persecuted by Stalin.  Any Fans of Stalin out there? 

So it was time today to check out a Donald Trump speech.  Sort of like expecting a Cubs victory?  First, some person introduced him at length and finished with "God bless America!"  He said it as if it were an order, a command.  Assuming there is a God, and wondering if there is one why is there a Trump, it leaves questions as to whether God follows orders.

As Trump was speaking, I was reminded very much of when I spent some time writing satire.  It was all extemporary, and one was on a very boring sports announcer named Bob Elson.  The trouble with that is that boring is very difficult to make funny, and so it soon shifted to a satire on the host of a radio talk show host who was popular.  Now the best thing the Cubs ever had was a radio play by play announcer named Jack Quinlin.  In fact, he was so good that he won the award for best announcer five years straight.  All such announcers are employees of the team and the Cubs moved him from a 5,000 watt station to a 50,000 clear-channel station that at night could be heard from the East coast to the Rockey mountains.  In traditional Cubs fashion, he died in a car crash before the sixth season.  No, it wasn't him. 

The person in mind was called Jack Eigen, a guy who was full of himself.  We wanted to name him Jack Ego, but Mike Nichols beat us to it and nobody could top Mike Nichols, so it remained Bob Elson.  Elson, during the 60s, would give long monologues on Luke Appling while the game was in progress.  This was, indeed, on the radio.  The satire took the form of Hockey interviews thinly disguising the names of the players. 

So, Trump's speech, what I could tolerate of it, was like Jack Ego reincarnated.  The choice the above corporations will leave the U.S. with is Trump or Hillary Clinton.  They complain that he will not concede and give up, but he is actually a politician who has constructive ideas, a rarity in American politics.

So, how about Israel?  Israel is Jack Eigen.  The Kennedy administration made it a law that all radios manufactured in the U.S. (yes, they once were) had the receive both AM and FM stations.  The remedy for Israel is not a simple, but individuals can chose not to contribute by not purchasing anything from which it profits.  Other postings indicate how to do this.

Das ist alles fÜr Heute.

Yemen, Israel, Palestine, Saudi, Wahabbi, God

THE ABSURD TIMES

Caption: School in Yemen.  See? Schools in Chicago ain't so bad.

            Quite overwhelming is the amount of absurdity today, so much so that it is difficult to know where to begin.  One thing is certain, to begin at the beginning is even more absurd.

            We can start with Yemen, the country that Obama pointed to as his model for dealing with terrorism.  Yet who is going to believe that he actually thought of it that way?  Well, the same people who remember that he called ISIS the "Junior Varsity".  The rest, well, they will simply either have to take our word for it, or search though back issues here to find the documentation.  There is no eagerness to relive all of that.  All that need be said is that all of what follows is an accurate reflection of what we have been told by our government and what we know is true, although not always at the same time.

            Saudi Arabia likes us because we believe in God.  They did not like the Soviet Union because they did not believe in God, at least not officially.  Our Constitution makes it official that we do not have to believe in a God, but it helps.  So, we are friends.  Everybody with us so far?  Ok. Good.

            Now Yemen is our model for combating terrorism,  or at least was.  Al-Quaeda is evil, but they believe in God and has a center in Yemen.  The thing is, they don't like us, so they try to bomb us with underwear and such stuff.  They even have the nerve to have people on the Web talking about God.  We do too, but our people are good -- you just have to take our word for it.  If not, we have drones. 

            But then there is a group called "Houtis", and the closest I can find of an Arabic word for that is "whale," and this is entirely unrelated to these people, as is the case with everything else with everybody else.  The Saudis (remember them?), good, don't like the Houtis because they have an Iranian God.  Now how did Iran get into this, you ask.  They used ships, we are told.  Right.  So our Christian ships often block the Shiite ships to protect the Sunni, or Wahabbi, really, bombers.  Or, to paraphrase, "God is Great"! 

             So, in order to preserve democracy, remember Democracy?, good, we have to support Israel.  That gets us into another problem because Israel says it is a "Jewish" state.  However, it is imposed on a Palestinian State.  Palestinians are basically secular, except for those in Gaza, so they are bombed in violation of any of the International laws one can think of.  Moreover, Jews can not be Israelis and Zionists at the same time (according to the original Zionist beliefs and most current Jewish beliefs).  Being Apartheid in nature, Jesus would not like the whole idea, but then Jesus never met Netanyahu.  One of our ex-Presidents, Jimmie Carter, who teaches Sunday School, called it apartheid and worse than ever, but then he is getting very old, so he doesn't count anymore.  See how it all fits together?  No?  Well, then, next paragraph.

            We carried out sanctions against south Africa because they were Apartheid, but at the time we supported Mandella staying in prison.  The only country to support South Africa towards the end was Israel because that is what God wanted.  See how it all fits together now?  Yep.

            So, Ukraine.  How did we get here?  Well, Ukraine is not Russia, you see.  Now, the Government in Kiev that we installed is called fascist by many, but according to those who are currently demonstrated, not fascist enough.  Some have called them "Neo-Nazis," but they do not like the "neo" part of that.  Hitler, after all, considered himself a good Catholic.

            Therefore, Putin snapped into action, distributing a video of himself and Medydev (as close as we are going to get to the spelling) exercising using weight machines and then having a barbeque.  Clearly, sacrilegious behavior. 

            So, who is going to straighten out all of this?  Donald Trump recently interviewed online by Sarah Palin.  She did not ask him what newspapers he read and he did not ask her to be his Vice President. 

            There is a God.

            But not in Chicago.  Rahm Emmanuel is the worst mayor Chicago has had since Kennelly, the guy who thought reform meant reform.  No understanding of Chicago at all.  Calamity Jane Byrne, Michael Blandeck, none of them come even close to Rahm Israel Emmanuel, and none had a more foul mouth, either (that was his one good trait -- at least you could communicate with him.  He is also the reason Obama's first term was such a disaster and why so many sane people left the staff as soon as possible.  Rod Blagojevich could probably get elected if an election were held today.  After trying to sell off the school system, he appeased the populace by calling out a mass of law enforcement offices to pursue cop killers near Fox Lake, north of Chicago.  The Fox River Valley extends all the way from there, past Chicago, and down towards rural Illinois.

 

             Here is some documentation on Yemen (remember Yemen?), good.:

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

Despite Global Ban, Saudi-Led Forces Kill Dozens in Yemen Using U.S.-Made Cluster Bombs

Human Rights Watch has accused Saudi Arabia of using U.S.-made cluster munition rockets in at least seven attacks in the Yemeni city of Hajjah between late April and mid-July. Dozens of civilians were killed or wounded, both during the attacks and later, when they picked up unexploded submunitions that detonated. Neither the United States, Saudi Arabia or Yemen have joined the global convention banning the use of cluster munitions. Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch criticized the U.S. stance on cluster munitions. "The U.S. thinks that cluster munitions are legitimate weapons," Roth said. "The U.S. still hasn't signed onto the landmines treaty. So, the U.S. is very much behind the rest of the world."

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn right now to Yemen. We turn to Yemen because, well, a Saudi-led airstrike killed 36 civilians working at a bottling plant in the northern province of Hajjah on Sunday. Another attack on the Yemeni capital Sana'a hit a house and killed four civilians. The news comes amidst new evidence the Saudi-led forces have used cluster munitions in Yemen. Human Rights Watch said it found U.S.-made cluster munition rockets likely used in at least seven attacks in Hajjah between late April and mid-July. Dozens of civilians were killed or wounded, both during the attacks and later, when they picked up unexploded submunitions that denotated. Neither the United States, Saudi Arabia or Yemen have joined the global convention banning the use of cluster munitions.

Yesterday I spoke to Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth and started by asking him what Human Rights Watch found in Yemen.

KENNETH ROTH: As you note, the fact that the relevant countries have not ratified the cluster munitions treaty, while it would be helpful to do so, it's not decisive, because all of them have ratified the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit indiscriminate warfare. And cluster munitions are, by definition, indiscriminate. They scatter over wide areas, so they should never be used in civilian-populated areas to begin with. Plus they leave a residue. Not every munition explodes on contact with the ground, and they become antipersonnel land mines for people to just stumble upon and die. So the U.S. should be using pressure on the Saudis not to be using these weapons at all, but certainly not to be using them in populated areas where, as we're seeing, Yemenis are being killed.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain what these weapons are and what they do.

KENNETH ROTH: They're essentially area-denial weapons. There is a canister with, you know, upwards of 200 submunitions, little bombs, inside. The canister opens in the sky and spreads these submunitions over a wide area. Each one of those is lethal, so you don't want to be in that area as these things rain down on you. You also don't want to walk through that area afterwards, but it becomes effectively a land mine field, because these cluster munitions are unreliable and a significant number don't initially explode. They only explode later, when somebody touches them or stands on them.

AMY GOODMAN: How do they affect the human body?

KENNETH ROTH: They're devastating. They're like standing on a land mine. They, at minimum, will rip off your limbs, and they very frequently are completely lethal.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to a video released by Human Rights Watch featuring interviews with victims of cluster munitions in Yemen.

AZIZ HADI MATIR HAYASH: [translated] We were together, and a rocket hit us. It exploded in the air, and cluster bombs, submunitions, fell out of it. Before we left the house with the sheep, two submunitions fell down while others spread all over the village. One exploded, and the other still remains. My cousins and I were wounded.

FATIMA IBRAHIM AL-MARZUQI: [translated] Three brothers were killed—two children and one adult. It hit us while we were sleeping, and we were all wounded, including my brothers. I can't walk. My mother carries me. She gets me out, washes me, as well as my brother. My whole body is wounded. My dress was burned that night. My hands were burned, and my bones were broken.

AMY GOODMAN: Those were victims of cluster munitions in Yemen. Ken Roth is executive director of Human Rights Watch, which put out this video. So, talk about what Saudi Arabia is doing right now in Yemen.

KENNETH ROTH: Well, Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition which is fighting the Houthi rebel forces in Yemen, and it's repeatedly using indiscriminate forms of warfare. A big part of the problem has been these cluster munitions, but we've seen time and time again that even more targeted weapons are being targeted in the wrong place. These are sophisticated weapons; the Saudis should be able to target them only at military targets. But we're finding often that they're not. And that's why we're seeing such a significant civilian toll.

AMY GOODMAN: So they're being used to terrorize.

KENNETH ROTH: Well, they're being used at least without much care as to who is hit. There is a sense that, particularly in the northern areas, which are predominantly Houthi, that there's not so much concern about civilians.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, the U.S. just sealed a deal with Saudi Arabia for military weapons and jets that's the largest deal in the world.

KENNETH ROTH: The U.S. obviously views Saudi Arabia as a major supporter of the U.S. military complex, you know. And airplane producers and the like need these contracts—think they need these contracts, in order to continue to be profitable. That shouldn't be happening at the expense of civilians on the ground. The U.S. should be willing to live by the principles that it is theoretically signed up for in the Geneva Conventions and ensure that anybody it sells arms to is not using those arms to indiscriminately kill civilians, as the Saudis have been doing.

AMY GOODMAN: Human Rights Watch is calling for a U.N. inquiry into violations on all sides in Yemen?

KENNETH ROTH: Absolutely. In fact, there is a conference coming up reviewing compliance with the new cluster munitions treaty. And one of the problems is that the U.K., Canada and Australia, all of which had joined the cluster munitions treaty, are pushing to water down this inquiry. They're trying to put "allegedly" in front of the evidence we have that Saudi clusters have killed civilians in Yemen.

AMY GOODMAN: Why?

KENNETH ROTH: They're doing the U.S. bidding.

AMY GOODMAN: Why does the U.S. want to water this down?

KENNETH ROTH: Well, I mean, the U.S. thinks that cluster munitions are legitimate weapons. The U.S. still hasn't signed onto the land mines treaty. So, the U.S. is very much behind the rest of the world. As most nations of the world want to ban these inherently indiscriminate weapons, the U.S. has a huge arsenal of them, it doesn't want that arsenal limited, and it hates the idea of treaties that are restraining the Pentagon on humanitarian grounds. It lives with the Geneva Conventions because it understands that those help to fight a better war. But the add-ons that Human Rights Watch and others have pressed—the land mines treaty, the cluster munitions treaty and the like—the Pentagon hates and has prevented Obama from signing onto them, and is trying to undermine enforcement, using U.S. allies around the world to do that.

AMY GOODMAN: How much difference does mass protest make around something like this?

KENNETH ROTH: I think it makes all the difference in the world. In other words, Obama doesn't want to be seen as underwriting indiscriminate warfare, even if it is on the other side of the world. If it happens under the radar screen, if the Pentagon is able to push this quietly, there's no big political cost to Obama. But I think rabble-rousing and publicity helps make Obama responsible, and he's going to have a hard time standing up and saying, "I don't really care about indiscriminate warfare."

AMY GOODMAN: Just to be clear, the land mine treaty that the U.S. also has not signed onto, that's the one that Princess Di was pushing so many years ago, right, among many other people?

KENNETH ROTH: Precisely. And, in fact, the U.S. government is—has limited the use of land mines. And even though it hasn't joined onto the treaty, it recognizes that these are weapons that are extremely difficult to use because of public relations problems. And so, there has been a real shift at the Pentagon. We haven't seen that shift yet, in any significant way, with cluster munitions.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you have this situation where people are being struck, civilians are being struck, by cluster munitions by the Saudi-led attacks on Yemen, yet Saudi Arabia continues to lead a blockade against people leaving. Can you explain what's happening there?

KENNETH ROTH: Well, there's an enormous humanitarian crisis in Yemen. It is already a country that is very dependent on international assistance for basic things like water and the like. And because the Saudis have been blockading the country, trying to prevent fuel and other things from getting into Yemen as part of its effort to fight the Houthi rebels, the Yemeni people are suffering. And we're seeing enormous numbers of people who are facing malnutrition and even starvation because of the deprivation caused by this blockade.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, the figures are amazing. According to the U.N., 21 million Yemenis, a staggering 80 percent of the population, need assistance. And half the population is facing hunger, famine. More than 15.2 million people lack access to basic healthcare, and over 20 million lack access to safe water.

KENNETH ROTH: Yeah, I mean, it's absolutely horrendous, and it really underscores the importance of making clear that if you're going to go to war, yes, you shoot at the other side's combatants, but you can't use means that cause the entire civilian population to suffer. And that's what the Saudi-led coalition is doing in Yemen today.

AMY GOODMAN: Human Rights Watch executive director Ken Roth speaking here in New York. This is Democracy Now! 

---

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

-->