Racism and Trump

THE ABSURD TIMES

Our country and the Mideast

By

Ellia dea

Our noble leader at work.   Hungry for anything.  Seems the invasion is over, but the kids are still locked up, 14,000 of them.  Many have people here more than willing to take care of them, recommended by their parents, but they are undocumented.  If they call the person and find that out, the people are referred to ICE.  After all, they are Mexican.

What else is going on?  Trump doesn't want comedians at the white House correspondent's dinner, and they caved in.  Last time he was there, that I remember, Obama deconstructed him and he didn't find it amusing.  In fact, I don't think he finds anything amusing or funny.  Low IQ.

He attacked the 9^th Circuit as having "Obama" judges.  Chief Justice Roberts set him straight one that (and he is only intelligent, not politically liberal at all) and then Trump tried to stir up a Twitter war with him.  It ain't gonna happen. 

Gun control with Ollie North as its spokesman – a huge black Friday sort of shooting in Hoover Alabama.  The name itself should be a warning.  The cops shot the wrong guy who is still on the loose.  Then, anybody who voluntarily goes to a shopping mall in a place called Hoover, Alabama on Black Friday is obviously taking their own lives very lightly.

They also shot up a mall in Alaska.

Some woman in Mississippi, land of the inbred Scots (apologies to the people of Scotland, it's not your fault), who makes a 1960s Jerry Lee Lewis look like a puritan, cheered public hangings and voter suppression and had posed at a Confederate museum with a gun,  She will probably win, but Trump will go down there to lend his support.  Who needs Jeff Sessions?

In a land of mawkish, selfish, and racist panorama

We are attacked with vicious, ignorant, and un-mellow Drama

God took a dump

And expelled Donald Trump

And we all miss Barack Obama.

Some crackpot went to some island to tell the people about Jesus.  They didn't want to hear it.  First they shot his bible and he got away.  So the bugger goes back: "My name is Paul and I want to tell you about Jesus".  This time they shot the arrow into him.  Moral: Get you Jesus outta here.

This is crazy!  This Trump is weird.  It's like a bad acid trip.  Go away.  Bats and lizards!!!  I can't take it!!

Intervention

By

Czar Donic

It seemed to us at this point in time to terminate Ellis' contribution and bring us back to the topic at hand as the rest of his contribution is incomprehensible.  Contemporary events sometimes overwhelm Ellis, but the limerick is fun.

Looking back at it, however, helped me realize why I've never been able to finish writing a work of fiction. One of the purposes of fiction is to concoct a story so vivid that it penetrates the veil that separates us from reality.  Today, finally, it is clear that the only real fiction is in the so-called "reality shows", which Donald Trump once starred in.  He is still doing the same thing, but he has hired someone else to say "You're fired".  There are rumors that Kelley will be dismissed and he is the one whose job it was to do that for him, so I don't know who it is that will do that.  Betsy DeVoss?  

Anyway, France is in trouble.  Macron is trying to blame the riots on the right wing, but it is his economic policy that is crippling him.  He is practicing what eventually brings down every government – austerity.   Whether he dislikes Trump or not, it will bring him down. 

May gave her policy for the EU or Brexit to parliament, and the members laughed.  She continued, but they continued laughing.  Jeremy Corbyn, a sane leader in England, gave a rebuttal, but the BBC cut away after about 15 brilliant minutes of his analysis, giving credence to the contention that the BBC had become the Fox news of Britain.

Anyway, the racism here is getting very stark these days.  Trump has lifted the taboo on the subject and the mental white wing is getting uglier by the day.  The attack in Pittsburgh was not against Zionism, but against Jews.   Same with the attacks on Muslims.  These people are too dumb to distinguish an Indian sect from Islam.  They just don't like what they perceive to be their race.  Of course, there are exceptions for Saudi Arabia and other places the racist in chief likes because they bribe him, but in general, it is a dislike of the "other".  They can't handle it.  Black people? Low IQ, of course.

Much of this is supported by Evangelicals and other Jesus freaks, so I'd like to say a bit about Jesus.  (As people see him.)  The freaks are everywhere.  Recently, I was driving through a busy intersection on a two lane.  I wound up behind a bus with a big sign saying HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS!  Well, the driver missed one green light and was still not moving at the next one, so I beeped the horn to alert him.  The people in the bus went wild, waving, smiling, shouting – that was the last thing I wanted.  I tried to pass, but too crowded.  At the next red, I made an illegal u-turn and escaped. 

Now, this isn't the first time I ran into these freaks.  Once they knocked on my door and said "We have good news, you can be born again!" 

I yelled back, "and go through puberty once more?  NO THANKS!"

Well, I was telling my Dad about this once and he mentioned Mormons knocking on his door every Sunday morning.  He kept telling them, as well as he could with a splitting hangover, "Please don't come again."  Well, they showed up then next Sunday.  "Well, youse guys one one ting I like dat de odders don't dat I like/"

"Oh sir, that's that der Ploygany.  Now you bring some seven or eight girls here, let me pick out say four, and if dey put out real good, I might just sign up wid youse."

"Oh, no sir.  We don't allow that any more."

"Den wat da hell good are youse.  Get outta here!"

They never disturbed him again.

So now, a guy goes to an Island where they are not allowed.  They kill him with a bow and arrow right after he says "I came to tell you about Jesus."  This was his second attempt.  The first time he stopped the arrow with a waterproof Bible.  He is with Jesus now.

 Next election – I'd like to see Sherrod Brown as President and Kamila Harris as Vice President.  The only problem would be getting them elected. 

But we are far from the racism new.  Let's get back to it with out interview.

The following is Noam Chomsky on real anti-Semitism and the war on Gaza.   It may give some people a clue as to the difference between Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism. 

Transcript

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

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. We continue our conversation with Noam Chomsky. Democracy Now!'s Nermeen Shaikh and I spoke to him on November 1st. It was just days after a gunman shot dead 11 Jewish worshipers, October 27th, at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. It was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. I asked Noam to talk about anti-Semitism and his own Jewish upbringing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father was a Hebrew linguist.

NOAM CHOMSKY: When I was a child, the threat that fascism might take over much of the world was not remote. That's much worse than what we're facing now. My own locality happened to be very anti-Semitic. We were the only Jewish family in a Irish—mostly Irish and German Catholic neighborhood, much of which was pro-Nazi, so I could see it better on the ground.

What we're now seeing is a revival of hate, anger, fear, much of it encouraged by the rhetorical excesses of the leadership, which are stirring up passions and terror, even the ludicrous claims about the Nicaraguan army ready to invade us—Ronald Reagan—the caravan of miserable people planning to kill us all. All of these things, plus, you know, praising somebody who body-slammed a reporter, one thing after another—all of this raises the level of anger and fear, which has roots.

The roots lie in what has happened to the general population over the past 40 years. People really have faced significant distress. An astonishing fact about the United States is that life expectancy is actually declining. That doesn't happen in developed societies, apart from, you know, major war or huge famine. But it's happening because of social distress, and not necessarily impoverishment. The people who are demonstrating this fear and resentment may be even moderately affluent, but what they see is they're stagnating. In the past, there was—you had this dream: You worked hard, you could get ahead, your children would be a little better. Now it stopped. It stopped for the last 40 years as a result of very specific socio and economic policies, which have been designed so that they sharply concentrate wealth, they enhance corporate power, that has immediate effects on the political system in perfectly obvious ways, even to the point where lobbyists literally write legislation. This onslaught has literally cast a bunch of the population aside. They're stagnating. They are not moving forward. They see no prospects. And they're bitter and angry about it.

AMY GOODMAN: And then, if you could talk about specifically the targeting of the Jewish worshipers, I mean, and the clear connection that the shooter made between this temple and HIAS, what's formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the group that has helped to resettle refugees of any religion for well over a hundred years? And he repeated words that Trump has begun using more and more about, you know, they're helping the "invaders" come in. If you could respond specifically to that?

NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, I think it's pretty clear that he's whipping up terror about invasions, people pouring across the border to plan to kill us all, to destroy our civilization. You take people who are already somewhat disturbed and living under harsh conditions, this can incite them to acts of extreme violence against targets like the Jewish temple. All the anti-Semitic tropes are pointing in that direction, but most—also against Afro-Americans, immigrants, any vulnerable population or population that's easy to target for lots of cultural and historical reasons, all this amplified by the loud speaker up in the White House and his minions, who are doing what they can to terrorize the population, create the conditions under which you can get something like the attack on the synagogue.

AMY GOODMAN: So, I wanted to turn, then, to a clip of the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, who was interviewed by Ayman Mohyeldin on MSNBC on Sunday, so it was soon after the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre.

RON DERMER: To simply say that this is because of one person or it only comes on one side is to not understand the history of anti-Semitism or the reality of anti-Semitism. One of the big forces in college campuses today is anti-Semitism. And those anti-Semites are usually not neo-Nazis on college campuses. They're coming from the radical left.

AMY GOODMAN: This is right after the white supremacist attack on the synagogue, and the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. is now injecting, saying this comes from both sides. If you could respond to this? Interestingly, two days later, when Trump and his family went to Pittsburgh, the only—and this is pointed out in The New York Times—the only public official standing there to greet him was Israel's ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer. People like the Pittsburgh mayor and the others said this was not the time to come.

NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, I think it's quite easy to understand. There is an alliance of reactionary repressive states developing under the U.S. aegis. Israel is a leading member of it. Saudi Arabia is another, one of the most brutal, regressive, harsh states in the world; United Arab Emirates; Egypt under the harsh, brutal dictatorship; the United States; Israel.

And the United States, of course, very—especially under this—the alignment goes way back, but the Trump administration has gone way out of its way to lend support to Israeli crimes, Israeli expansion. And the Israeli right wing, of course, which is increasingly dominant, is delighted. So, the fact that, say, the Israeli ambassador would come out and say that is really no more surprising than the fact that John Bolton would praise the election of a strong advocate of torture, murder and repression. It all fits the same pattern.

AMY GOODMAN: This issue of the number of people who died this weekend, the horrific massacre—11 Jews died. The model of the coverage, of knowing who each person was, hearing their names, their life stories, their ages, who their families were, knowing when the funerals are taking place through the week—what about this being a model for what's happening in Gaza? I mean, for example, on, I think it was, Friday, six Palestinians were killed, with those ongoing protests near the separation wall. Israeli military has gunned down more than 200 Palestinians. That was Friday. Six Palestinians died. And on Sunday, three Palestinian teenagers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip. Your thoughts on Dermer trying to make this connection to get away from the issue of white supremacy and, somehow, someway, blame the left?

NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, remember, all of this in Gaza is being done with overwhelming U.S. support, even U.S. weapons, literally.

Gaza is on the verge of becoming, literally, uninhabitable. The international monitors—U.N. and others—have warned that within just a few years, it may be literally unlivable. I mean, right now, there's virtually no potable water. The sewage pours into the sea, because Israel has bombed and destroyed the power plants and the sewage plant.

Back in 2005, when Israel withdrew its illegal settlers in Gaza and moved them to illegal settlements in the West Bank, it imposed a siege on Gaza. The official terms for that—official, not making this up—are "We have to impose a diet on Gaza, not harsh enough so they'll all die"—implication being that wouldn't look very good—"but harsh enough so that they can barely survive."

And there have been—quite apart from the brutal siege, there have been repeated attacks on Gaza by the Israeli army. Gaza is virtually defenseless. This is one of the strongest armies in the world, lashing out to devastate Gaza.

There's always pretexts. There are pretexts for everything. Hitler had a pretext for invading Poland: He was protecting Germany from the wild terror of the Poles. And the Israelis, with U.S. backing, have concocted pretexts—no time to go through it here, there's plenty in print about it. Every one of them collapses on inspection. It's just a punching bag.

And the effect on the people of Gaza is to create utter desperation. The current march is just an attempt to somehow break the siege, make life possible. The problem could be overcome easily, simply by providing them with the opportunities for survival. That's it. Not trying to block every attempt at political unification of the factions. It's often been a pretext for another attack.

Some of what's gone on—parts of it we've seen—are just grotesque, like when a highly trained Israeli sniper murders a young woman far from the border who's trying to help—a Palestinian volunteer medic, young woman, who's trying to help a wounded man, and a sniper murders her. Highly trained snipers. They know what they're doing. The international monitors who have gone through the hospitals are shocked by the kinds of wounds they're finding, purposely designed to maim people so they'll barely—not kill them, but maim them, so they won't be able to have a—even take part in the minimal life that exists there.

Actually, Trump had a solution to this, to the misery of Gaza and the prospect that 2 million people, half of them children, will soon be in a situation of, literally, beyond the possibility of survival. They had a lifeline, what's called the UNRWA support, international support, which was barely keeping them alive. So, Trump's reaction is to cut it, cut support for it. And he even had a reason. He said, "They're not being grateful enough to me for my efforts to give them the ultimate deal that I'm planning." Ultimate deal, which means give up all your rights and forget it.

I mean, the war in Yemen, which finally, at last, is getting a little bit of attention, has been a major horror story. The most careful estimates of the killing, that are now just coming out, show that there may be seven or eight times as high as what has been—the numbers that have been given. They're on the order of 70,000 or 80,000. The analysis of these Saudi-Emirate programs, a long study that came out of the Fletcher School of International Diplomacy at Tufts University recently, showed, quite persuasively, that the policies of the attackers are aimed at destroying the food supplies, making sure the population starves to death. They're also trying to close the port through which some supplies come.

All of this is fully backed by the United States. U.S., and Britain secondarily, supply the arms. The U.S. supplies the intelligence for the Saudi Air Force, which is carrying out massive atrocities. All of these things are happening. For years, they've barely been discussed. Now, finally, you're seeing pictures on the front page of starving Yemeni children, even a call for a ceasefire—much belated, little attention to our crucial responsibility for it.

Just like our responsibility, which is overwhelming, for the plight of the miserable people trying to escape from the troika—Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala—the three countries that have been completely under our thumb and are suffering bitterly for it, now trying to escape. So we turn them into an invasion mob planning to destroy us. All of this is surreal. It only is overshadowed by the failure to attend even minimally to the literal existential threats, that are not remote.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you consider this one of the gravest times, in your lifetime, in U.S. politics, Noam?

NOAM CHOMSKY: It's one of the gravest times in human history. Humans have been around for 200,000 years. For the first time in their history, they have to decide—and quickly—whether organized human society is going to survive for very long. So, is it the most gravest moment in my life? Yes. But also in all of human history.

AMY GOODMAN: The world-renowned professor, linguist and dissident Noam Chomsky. He was speaking to us from Tucson, Arizona, where he now teaches at the University of Arizona. He's also institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught for more than 50 years.

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TRUMP IS ANTI-SEMITIC?

THE ABSURD TIMES

Since our news is preoccupied with the tweeting Trump, someone has to talk about something else.  (More about that later.)

Above are a couple self-explanatory illustrations.  One is even a note from Albert Einstein and people in physics tend not to think much about politics.  Hawkings eventually skipped a visit once he figured out what was going on there.  The most surprising bit on information in the letter, at least to us, is the opposition of Franz Kafka – it must have given him nightmares to think about an Israel.

They do raise questions about the term "anti-Semitic".   If used in a genetic sense, as in racism, it could hardly apply anywhere except amongst Trump followers.  The recent spate of not only attacks on Black Churches, Mosques, Synagogues, and Sihks ("go back to your home," (meaning Iran), is an example of the sort of moronic behavior Trump's words and actions make quite attractive to many of his followers who believe that they now have official license to carry out these actions.  (And, if you want to use a public bathroom, be sure to gring your birth certificate.)

Lunacy of Trump. 

By

Sergi Kissmyarz

If you do a search on Trump Lunacy, you will get about half a million results.  Islamic Terrorism will yield about 77 million, all in less than a second.  I imagine one day, in the dictionary, next to lunacy will be a photo of Trump.

The media seems fixated on the subject.  The kindest interpretation is that he tweets out insanity in order to change the focus.  Otherwise, he actually means what he says.  Both interpretations are rather unpleasant, but he was elected and will be President for 4 years or until he is impeached, whichever comes first. 

There really is little else to say.  He did claim that Obama had his phone tapped.  Now think about that for a minute.  Do you think that Obama, during his last months in office, would want to spend them listening to Donald Trump talking on the telephone?  I wouldn't.

Now, the NSA does collect just about everything everywhere.  It then stores it.  You can see 77 million references to Islamic Terrorism just on a public, free, search engine.  Now what code words would they have to use to dig out something worth listening to?  Perhaps "Nude" would yield even more results, in fact I'm almost certain it would, but why bother?

Paris, Isis as a Religion, Racism in MO

THE ABSURD TIMES

 

Illustration: Latuff and Hollande

WISDOM GRATIS

In these difficult times, we've asked our resident philosopher, Dr. Ellis Dea, for some advice.  He says: "Never hold a cat when you turn on a vacuum cleaner."  So there it is.  You have to apply it to the current situation.

PARIS

During the attacks and the immediate aftermath, it was almost impossible to communicate via social media, especially Twitter, but I did manage to post the English Language site for French-TV:  http://www.france24.com/en/livefeed .  Still up if you are interested.

Now, of course, our worse expectations have become reality: every single politician is making his or her own political point about it and our Bernie Sanders is the only one who is sane enough to listen to.  Almost all the others are screaming out how they will destroy ISIS and lock our borders.  The real point, here, is that ISIS is not a state, even though they claim to be

ISIL is closer to being a religion than anything else, but it is not Islam.  It is not even Wahabbi (which is strange and retrograde enough all by itself).  I propose we call it Isilanity (izlanuhti).   We have not yet deciphered its tenents, but they are basically a celebration of death and destruction and a rejection of culture and art.  Self-immolation is also a central aspect.

Once we realize this, and accept it as such, then we can go about and devise ways to stop and destroy it.  In the meantime, of course, killing as many of the maniacs as possible is a move in the right direction.  We have actually progressed over the last two or three years as we used to call them "rebels," with all the glory that seems to attach itself to the word.  The sight of them eating the raw organs of people they have killed began to change their mainstream image along with cutting off people's heads and burning people alive.  Isilanity is fairly attractive to a younger, disaffected, powerless faction of the population, mainly those of lower IQs, and it will continue to be so long as we think of it as a version of a reputable religion and then attack that religion.

No, our focus must be on Isilanity, not Islam, Christianity, or Judaism -- it is not even Wahabism or Baptism or Scientology.  

I enjoyed the Place of the Republic in Paris and stayed there once for several days.  It was much more peaceful and less crowded than it is today and there was more time to contemplate the statue.  The stores around were quite varied, and one was not even surprised to see a McDonald's there selling hamburgers for $75 each.  For that amount, one could get an enormous amount of food at a Tai Restaurant there.   Now in Germany almost everybody speaks better English than I speak German, but the same is not true in France.  Attempting to use German in France is not at all advisable.  I managed with a few words in French and the use of France's second language -- mime. 

At any rate, no amount of ranting and bombing will be of much use until the basic tenets of Isilanity are understood and exposed.  Above all, it is most important not to think of it as a state as such thought will only be confusing.

RACISM AND MU (MISSOURI UNIVERSITY)

This started out in good faith to explain the racial situation in Columbia, MO.  I know the place very well, much more than they would want anyone to know, but it is actually a mere symptom of our system at work.  I could hardly be called Capitalism as Adam Smith called it, nor would it fit Kapitalism as Karl Marx defined it.  If I think of a word for it, I'll put it here: ______.

One of the most salient things one should know about Missouri is that it is two states, one called Missouri, and the other called Muzzuruh.  The former is somewhat Democratic in its political sentiments and the other Republican.  The former is mainly comprised of the 1-70 corridor, including Kansas City, Columbia, and St. Louis, but not their suburbs.  The fact is most clearly defined in Columbia.  Many of the students, however, come from Mizzurah, white, rural, and socially retarded.  There was one Republican U.S. Representative in Columbia, but he was a real politician, actually listening to his constituents, and was therefore challenged by a tea party candidate in a primary and has not been heard from since.  

Another issue is that University Presidents nationwide are today nothing more than glorified fund-raisers and have been for a few decades.  There are no Maynard Hutchinson's who would abolish the football team altogether left.

One of the first publicized aspect of the unrest, as they call it, is that someone called the student president the "N" word as we are supposed to call it since we are so nice and liberal, after all.  The trouble is, at what point did it ever occur to anyone that the President of the student body was actually a person of color in the middle of Missouri?  The University was established as a land-grant university (first west of the Mississippi River) during slavery, so guess who built the buildings? 

More important, none of the protests, demonstrations, and discussions made any difference until the football team refused to play until the President of the UM system resigned.  He made $500,000/year. The head football coach makes 4 million/year.  Obviously, he won that battle.  It also illustrates why college football teams are not allowed to unionize.  These players, for the most part, have absolutely no interest in academics, but are really a part of professional football's minor league system.  If they were simply hired and paid a salary and not enrolled in the University, and I speak from experience, an enormous percentage of the faculty there would be overwhelmingly gratified.  I have even attempted to tell the coach, Dan Devine when he was there, that I would gladly give his players any grade they wanted provide I did not have them enrolled in my classes.  At least I would not have to read any idiotic papers written by hired hands and submitted in the name of the players.  The trouble is, our system does not want unions to exist.  They caused too much trouble in the 20s and 30s.

So much for Missouri.  It has now named a retired professor who started as a black leader in the late 60s as his replacement. 

Other universities seem to get to more productive issues such as free tuition for all public university students, forgiveness of all student debt, and so on.   

Thoughts and Invective -- Maudlin Edition

THE ABSURD TIMES

 

FUCK IT

Bobby McGee

A while ago, Kris Kristopherson wrote the line "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."  Nice.  That line, along with a Janis Joplin recording of the song, left him with enough money never to have to work again in his life.

Some have even written about it at great length, analyzing its meaning, and so on.  That's not our purpose here.

Thomas Mann's last masterpiece, Dr. Faustus, has a similar line, sort of.  Now I've only read translations of the book.  While I am comfortable reading Goethe, Schiller, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, (Heine and Hesse for sure), and so on in the German, Thomas Mann is a bit of a different case.  Now I can enjoy reading Milton's prose, even though some of his sentences run on for 50 or so words.  Somehow, he uses semi-colons and the like so that the meaning is clear. I can even agree with most of his points once I allow for his first premise that there is a god.  Dut I draw the line at a couple of pages, especially in German where they usually save the verb for the end.  No, I'll read a translation thank you.

But by a little tweaking, mainly elimination one adjective, Thomas Mann wrote "Freedom's just another word for subjectivity."  You can actually sing it to the same tune, and it makes more sense.  

Israel

The face of Nitwit Yahoo is quite ugly.  It also reminds one of the worst things Israel has done.  Unfortunately, it also leads to reinforcement of the anti-Jewish sentiments around the world.  No wonder the Hassidic sect carry signs saying ZIONISM IN NOT JUDAISM.  Perhaps in the days of Daniel Deronda there was something in it, back in the days of Queen Victoria, but today the movement is simply repugnant. 

Sexism

After women use the bath room, is it too much to ask that they put the seat back up?  It seems like such a little thing to do.  In other words, the whole thing is getting too tiresome.

Racism

One thing I noticed most about that 73 year old fart that drew his gun instead of his taser is that he looks like Dick Cheney.   It is a haunting resemblance, especially with his glasses on.

I heard a black comedian say "You lost your right to discuss race during the O.J. trial."  I wondered about that as I was on the defense side all the time and I think I'm "white".  I guess several factors entered into this.  Marsha Clark revealed herself as a real bitch, worse than the Lilith of the old Frasier and Cheers series.   Barry Sheck was great fun to watch.  You had to be pulling for the guy when he tried to ask a simple question, objection, sustained, then tried again.  Five times and finally the answer was allowed.  Imagine the effect on a juror.  What horrible information was being suppressed?   And even with this team of Prima Donna attorneys, OJ maintained control of the defense as a football coach would his team.  That's why Scheck was elevated to second chair, despite being the lowest paid one there.   Clark objected to the term "hysterical" as "sexist" as Freud had used it as a "wandering uterus."  Sheck's team found that she was the first person to use the herm in the trial, months ago.

One of the best things about it for me happened a year or so later when Clark came out with her account of the trial.  She called Sheck "easily the most obnoxious person at the trial."

FUBAR MEDIA

[Fucked up beyond all repair=FUBAR]

A pretty mild-mannered 60+ year old post office employee has been crusading against money in government.  Anyone here know that corporations can give as much as they want to buy off congress and that they do.  So, this guy decides on an act of "civil disobedience," sends a video and makes several phone calls to a newspaper in advance, then flies to what amounts to a mo-ped with a rotor blade on top like a helicopter (called a gyrocopter), and land on the Capitol Lawn with a letter for each congressman and senator.  He thought it would bring attention to campaign reform.

The media turns it into a madhouse of the need for more counter-terrorism measures.  Now why would that be?  There is more money in it, that's why.  This is what our democratic system has come to. 

Lest any other country thing we are racist here in the U.S.A, remember we elected a Black President.  Things are so much better now.

IRAQ

They say they have killed al-Duhry.  He was the second in command to Saddam and there was a 10 million dollar bounty on him.  Of course, for over a decade, they have claimed he was dead.  Of this much you can be certain: he was not with Daesh.  Perhaps he advised them, but his goal was to re-establish the Ba'ath party.

Libya

Hundreds are fleeing to reach Italy.  In the past, these people found gainful, peaceful employment when Gaddafi, but we took care of that to make the world a better place.  Sort of how we improved life for Iraq, made things so much better for Palestinians, and are trying to do in Syria.  It didn't quite go our way in Syria, so we created a "model" in Yemen.

Government

Perhaps competence is over-rated.

Education

Teachers and administrators are being locked up for helping their students "cheat".  The problem is that G.W.'s plan to leave no child behind consists in nothing but standardized tests.

Now, I liked standardized tests.  I never scored lower that the 97% percentile on any of them and on one I got a perfect score once I explained why one of the questions in logic was incorrect.  They worked in my favor because they were completely anonymous and the machine scoring them did not know how misanthropic and anti-social I was.  In short, there was no room for teacher bias.

However, these tests do not measure the ability to think but rather the ability to memorize [unless, of course, you study them and the psychology of the test designers as I did].  School in this country is designed to indoctrinate, not to encourage critical thinking.  Why if you have people going around able to think for themselves, who would vote for the idiots and greedy bastards that are running?  Who would sign up and get slaughtered in our many, many wars of imperialistic aggression?  No, best to make them learn how to do long division and remember dates.

SUMMARY

I am really a nice guy, loved by people all around the world.  All of the above may offend some people, but then they are simply morons, or idiots, or rich.  So, have a nice time!

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Meaning of the Israeli Election

THE ABSURD TIMES

The Israeli Election

by

Zarathustra

           

ILLUSTRATION: We were just sent this.  Seems Mizzou has joined forces with Zionism.  There is a Zionist Presence there, but never this blatant.  Any association with these forces should be disavowed.  When Palestine was noticed on the poster, the History Museum cancelled the exhibit and discussion.

         

            The virtue of the Israeli election is that the determination of Israel never to allow Palestinians the right to exist or be treated as equal beings.  For the first time an Israeli Prime Minister has openly stated what we and many others have understood as fact:  there is no intention of a two-state solution. 

            The second party, the one that was considered "Center-left," which in this country is like Lindsay Graham and John McCain, called itself the "Zionist Union".  All this time people thought they were insulting Israelis by calling them Zionists and it becomes clear that they think this is a good idea, very liberal of them, don't you know?

            An attempt was made to keep Arabs from even being in Parliament be requiring a higher percentage to qualify, and this led the four Arab Parties to merge into one and actually gain seats.  The general view, held by both the Zionist left and the Zionist right is that Arabs are not to be given any consideration if such consideration would in any way reflect on the Jews being the "Chosen People".

            Of course, in this country, there are still a number of religious morons who think that the Bible meant the USA when it said "Israel."  These people are generally white baptists living in the states that Abraham Lincoln sent Ulysses Grant down to butcher.  In other words, "Dixie".  Jews tend to think of these people as beneath contempt.

            Obama actually had enough backbone for once not to congratulate Nitwityahoo after he promised no two-state solution and thus won the election.  It is even possible that the US will not vote against the rest of the world when the two-state idea comes up at the UN.  If so, finally.

            What else?  Nothing, this has been our position for years now.  Netanyahu simply confirmed and admitted it.

            Some literate people are interviewed, give some suggestions:

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2015

After Netanyahu Wins Israel Vote with Racism & Vow of Permanent Occupation, How Will World Respond?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has won a surprise election victory, putting him on course for a fourth term in office. Netanyahu’s Likud Party is poised to control 29 or 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset. The Zionist Union opposition placed second with 24 seats. A united list of Arab parties came in third with 13 seats. Netanyahu closed out his campaign with a vow to oppose a Palestinian state, reneging on his nominal endorsement of a two-state solution in 2009. Netanyahu also vowed to expand the illegal West Bank settlements and issued a last-minute plea to supporters denouncing a high turnout of Arab voters. The Zionist Union, Netanyahu’s chief rival, also ran on a platform for Israel to keep the major Israeli settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank, the home of any future Palestinian state. Likud says Netanyahu intends to form a new government in the coming weeks. Talks are already underway with a number of right-wing parties. To discuss the election, we are joined by two guests: Jamal Zahalka, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset and chair of Balad party, which is part of the Joint List of Arab parties; and Amira Hass, correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz in the occupied Palestinian territories.

TRANSCRIPT

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

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We’re going to move on now to Israel, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has won a surprise victory, putting him on a course for a fourth term in office. With 99.5 percent of the votes counted, Likud won 29 or 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset. The Zionist Union opposition placed second with 24 seats. A united list of Arab parties came in third. Exit polls had showed Likud and the Zionist Union in a close tie, but in the final days of the campaign, Netanyahu stressed his right-wing positions. He visited the Har Homa settlement and vowed to ramp up the construction of more settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. And he unequivocally ruled out allowing a Palestinian state, thus reneging on his nominal 2009 endorsement of a two-state solution. On Election Day, he railed against Israel’s Arab voters.

PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Right-wing rule is in danger. Arab voters are streaming in mass to the polling stations. Left-wing nonprofit organizations are bringing them in buses. Go out to the polling station, bring your friends and family, and vote Likud, in order to close the gap between us and the Labor Party. With your help and God’s help, we will form a national government and protect the state of Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: In a statement, Likud said Netanyahu intended to form a new government within weeks, with negotiations already underway with a number of parties, including the pro-settler Jewish Home party and ultra-Orthodox groups.

Isaac Herzog, the leader of the Zionist Union and the son of a former Israeli president, conceded defeat, saying he had called Netanyahu to congratulate him. The Zionist Union also ran on a platform for Israel to keep major settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank, keep Jerusalem as Israel’s "undivided" capital, and block the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

On Tuesday, Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, responded to the election results.

SAEB EREKAT: Well, I think there is also, the Israeli elections indicate business as usual. It seems to me that Mr. Netanyahu will form the next government in Israel. And we all heard what he said yesterday. He said if he is re-elected as the prime minister in Israel, Mr. Netanyahu said, he will not allow a Palestinian state. He will continue with settlement activities and dictations. I believe he was not campaigning in the elections. I believe he was honest, and he specified his truth. Mr. Netanyahu has done nothing in his political life but to destroy the two-state solution. And I believe now it’s up to the international community to stop treating this prime minister as a prime minister that’s above the laws of man. And he should be held accountable. And he should—the international community should not cover him or give him impunity. Impunity will mean more conflict, more complicities, and it will not make peace. Justice will make peace.

AMY GOODMAN: Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

To talk more about the Israeli election, we’re joined by two guests. Joining us from Tel Aviv, Jamal Zahalka, he is an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, chair of the political bloc of Arab parties known as the Joint List, which took third place in Tuesday’s election, winning 13 seats. He has served as a member of the Knesset since 2003. Here in New York, we’re joined by the Israeli journalist Amira Hass, correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz in the occupied Palestinian territories. She’s based in Ramallah. She’s the only Israeli Jewish journalist to have spent more than 20 years living in and reporting from Gaza and the West Bank. Her book, Diary of Bergen-Belsen: 1944-1945, written by her mother, Hanna Lévy-Hass, with her own afterword and introduction, is also just out in paperback this week.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let’s begin with you, Amira Hass. Your reaction? Would you call this a surprise victory of—

AMIRA HASS: Not at all, not at all. The whole campaign was not about the real issues of war, of occupation, of Israeli continued colonization. The cosmetic differences between the Labor, which is now called the Zionist Alliance or the Zionist Camp, and Likud were minor, did not attract people’s real enthusiasm. What Netanyahu has been offering for the past years continues to be a winning horse for most of the people. That means the nonexistent welfare state in Israel proper now exists by the occupied territory in the forms of colonies, well-pampered colonies, so it is always an option for Israelis to move to the occupied territory to improve their conditions. Inside Israel, his policies guarantee that there will be continued the discriminated—the policy which discriminates Palestinians, Israeli citizens, from their—against the Israeli Jews. With a combination of support of the right-wing parties—of the religious parties, I think his position was guaranteed. The change would have been only in the puzzle—I mean, if he would get 28 seats and not 30 seats. So, for me, I didn’t expect much more.

And when people say that it is because he promised now not to have a Palestinian state, to do everything against a Palestinian state, his actions have done everything possible to prevent this from happening anyway. So it’s not about statements that the people fall to. I mean, it’s the reality that he’s established for the past—and not only he, other parties as well. So it’s not about the last-moment statements, I think, that—what guaranteed his position. Labor—anyway, the two-state solution that people, that other parties, like the Labor Party, advocate, I call it the 10-state solution or the seven-, eight- solutions, which doesn’t see Gaza in a Palestinian state, and the Palestinian state itself is a bunch of bantustans inside the West Bank.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about the impact on the international community of Netanyahu’s last-minute veering even more to the right on many of these issues and his attacks on Arab citizens within Israel?

AMIRA HASS: Yeah, sure, sure.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: What’s going to be the long-term impact.

AMIRA HASS: This has to be seen, because, I mean, we always expect, you know—we feel that each, every time Israel is crossing a red line, and now is the moment for the world to react, and there it doesn’t react, the world. So still we want to see it reacting. We thought that the war on Gaza was a red line that was crossed again, and good relationships with Europe, with America continue. So, of course, we want to hope that something will change, and not only among rank-and-file and grassroots levels, but also among the political echelons in their decisions. But so far, as long as Israel is considered part of the enlightened, democratic West, and Israelis are welcome, and Israeli support teams are welcome everywhere in the world, and scientists, etc., Israel is seen as part of this world.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to go to break, and when we come back, we’ll go to Tel Aviv, as well, to get response from Dr. Jamal Zahalka, who is a Knesset member for more than a decade and chair of the Joint List. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: Our guests are the award-winning Israeli journalist Amira Hass, who is a correspondent for Ha’aretz, lives in the Occupied Territories, and we’re joined in Tel Aviv by Dr. Jamal Zahalka, Arab member of the Israeli Knesset. He is chair of the Balad party, which is a part of the Joint List of Arab parties, joining us from Tel Aviv.

Doctor, you’re an MK, I guess you’re called in Israel, member of the Knesset. Dr. Zahalka, your response to the win of Netanyahu, who has vowed there will be no Palestinian state and went after Arab voters yesterday, saying if he lost, it would become—it would be because of, well, I guess, people like you?

DR. JAMAL ZAHALKA: First of all, we are proud of the achievement of our Joint List. We are four parties, and we won—more than 30 percent more voters voted for us. Mr. Netanyahu winning the Israeli elections is a very, very, very bad message to everybody, to everywhere, because he implemented war crimes in Gaza, and he should be punished. Now he’s become Israeli hero. So I think this is why, because the world watched him and did nothing. Men like him should be sentenced in an international tribunal. He killed more than 2,000 Palestinians. I think this is the main thing in the Israeli elections, meanwhile. Politically, no change in Israel, and Netanyahu is continuing with the same policies.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about the impact of the growth on the Joint List vote? Most Americans are not aware that the Arab population of Israel is 20 percent. That’s a higher percentage than the African-American population of the United States. And what about the impact for the future in Israel of the growth of the Palestinian and Arab vote of citizens of Israel?

DR. JAMAL ZAHALKA: We are stronger now, and we can defend better our people and our interests, our lands, our rights, and oppose rising Israeli racism and their policies, especially those of Mr. Netanyahu himself. He did yesterday something which I don’t—I don’t think that any prime minister in the world did: He said that voting of some citizens is a danger. Instead of encouraging the citizens to go to vote, he said that Arabs are voting, and it’s danger for us. This is something, I think, clarify that Mr. Netanyahu is anti-democrat and racist, mainly.

AMY GOODMAN: This is one of the videos, produced by the Joint List, that features a variety of Israeli voters explaining why they support it.

JOINT LIST SUPPORTER 1: [translated] I’m voting for the Joint List as a Jew, because I think that it’s the only democratic option.

JOINT LIST SUPPORTER 2: [translated] The hesitaters need to look inward and ask themselves what they’re afraid of.

JOINT LIST SUPPORTER 3: [translated] Because I’m sure you want to live in a state of social justice and equality.

JOINT LIST SUPPORTER 4: [translated] I feel totally confident and comfortable, as a Mizrahi Jewish feminist, to vote for the Joint List.

JOINT LIST SUPPORTER 5: [translated] The Joint List represents me, as a half-Palestinian, half-Jewish girl living here.

JOINT LIST SUPPORTER 6: [translated] It’s the first time that I feel I’m going to vote wholeheartedly.

JOINT LIST SUPPORTER 7: [translated] It’s the only list that represents both of us.

JOINT LIST SUPPORTER 8: [translated] The Joint List is my political home.

JOINT LIST SUPPORTER 7: [translated] Nice!

AMY GOODMAN: One of the videos produced by the Joint List. Dr. Zahalka, can you explain what the Joint List is, what are the parties that make it up, and how you came into being?

DR. JAMAL ZAHALKA: You know, the Joint List is comprised of four parties: Hadash, which is communist and that allies its binational party, Jews and Arabs; and Balad, my party, is a democratic national party; and the moderate Islamic Movement; and the Arab Movement for Change. And I think that we became a major force in the Knesset by joining together. And we also have many Jews who are supporting us. And because we have also—they support us as act of solidarity with oppressed people, first of all, and also because we have a democratic platform, the only democratic platform in the Israeli Knesset, based on the state for all its citizens, not state who belong to one group of the citizens, namely a Jewish state.

AMY GOODMAN: During an interview with a website owned by U.S. casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, one of his leading backers, the prime minister, Netanyahu, unequivocally vowed never to allow a Palestinian state if he’s re-elected.

PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: [translated] I think that whoever moves to establish a Palestinian state or intends to withdraw from territory is simply yielding territory for radical Islamic terrorist attacks against Israel. This is a genuine reality that was created here in the past few years. Those who do not understand that bury their heads in the sand. The left-wing parties do it, bury their heads in the sand, time and again.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Amira Hass, talk about the significance of this and also of the growth of the Joint List. Is this a new development in Israeli politics?

AMIRA HASS: As I said before, what Netanyahu said now in an interview to an American, probably he says now he’s more frank than he was four years ago, five years ago, three years ago, but, again, his actions have been always directed to preventing a Palestinian state from being established. But he was not unique in that sense. I mean, the whole trend in the past 20 years of—also of Labor-led coalitions and Labor-led governments, all was channeled to this reality, that the two-state solution seems almost impossible, at least in the sense that we saw the two-state solution—Gaza, West Bank, '67 border, East Jerusalem the capital, and no settlements. I mean, now, when they talk about the Palestinian—some kind of a strange configuration of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, which is an agglomeration of some islands in the ocean of Israeli-controlled area, I mean, this is a joke. This is not really two states. So, I don't attribute, personally—maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t attribute too much importance to this statement, only that he—maybe he’s defying more the American audience, who likes to hear, or the American politicians, who like to hear that—"Oh, since also even Netanyahu is for the two-state solution, let’s continue and support him." Maybe it’s a sort of defiance, stretching a bit more this edge or pushing the edge a little bit more. I tend to believe that also this will pass quietly, but I hope to be wrong. But...

Now, the List, of course, I think it’s one of the—it’s the only positive thing about these elections, the Joint List. First of all, because it was—you know, that, actually, it was a reaction to the Knesset bill to higher—to increase the threshold for these elections, so not three votes, not three seats in the Parliament, but four seats in the Parliament, so that you should get as many votes as—I mean, up to four seats, minimum, in the Parliament, which meant that some of the parties were in danger not to be elected, some of the Arab parties, of the four. And this made—this brought to the decision to unite forces, even though there are big differences between the different parties and animosities, you know, that exist, because, OK, they are all Arabs, but they are also—they also have different convictions and different viewpoints. But still, we thought—many of us, both Palestinians, citizens of Israel, and Israeli Jews—we felt that because it is the most targeted community in Israel, targeted against, because the threshold build meant to eliminate them, or almost eliminate them, from political presence, from parliamentary presence—and, by the way, it was the—Avigdor Lieberman suggested it, and it went through, and some of the so-called mainstream parties voted also in favor. So this was a defiance of the Israeli right-wing wish to oust them from political presence. And this is why—this is why this is already a victory. If there are 13 seats or 14 seats, which are two or three more than it used to be together, altogether, in the past elections, then it’s already a sense of achievement—I won’t say victory, but a real achievement, that can also—of course, as being the third strong party in the Parliament, it gives them certain position within the committees of the Parliament. But the best thing for me is the message to the Palestinians in Israel and also in the West Bank and Gaza, that some changes in internal politics can create a change of other effects.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you, in the lead-up to the elections, a lot of the coverage here in the United States talked about the growth of the economic issues—

AMIRA HASS: Yeah.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: —in the Israeli electorate, and not so much the issue of the occupation.

AMIRA HASS: That’s right.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But in the end, it really was the occupation that drove so much of the vote for Netanyahu, don’t you think? I mean, did the economic issues fade?

AMIRA HASS: The feeling that there is nothing to change about the occupation, this is good. I mean, people approve. Voting for Netanyahu is an approval of—a re-approval of his policies: to keep the occupation going; to call it—I don’t know what to call it, to name it—to call Gaza a state, a separate state; to have wars every now and then; to repress the Palestinians. This is a vote for confidence, an Israeli vote of confidence for these policies, and which says that, yeah, it is—it is always a mystery how a population that is not rich, the Israeli Jewish—not everybody is rich, not everybody benefits from the plutarchy that Netanyahu has created over those years, on the contrary—still they vote for the nationalist option. But it works. At the end, it works, because we are still—still, we are better off. We benefit from the occupation, as we see it now. I mean Israelis. We benefit from the occupation, when it comes to water, when it comes to land, distribution of land also in Israel proper, when it comes to always having an option to go and move into the occupied territory. There are about—there are more than half a million Jews who live in the occupied territory—I mean, both in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank—and in conditions so much better, that they could never afford in Israel proper. Half a million is a lot, is not something to dismiss.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask Dr. Jamal Zahalka about the foreign minister, Netanyahu’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who recently made headlines after calling for the beheading of disloyal Arab-Israeli citizens, prompting critics to label him "the Jewish ISIS." Your response to Mr. Lieberman?

DR. JAMAL ZAHALKA: Mr. Lieberman is a racist, and being the foreign minister of Israel reflects the change in Israel, and that racism is not in the margin, but it’s the mainstream of Israeli politics. The fact that capitals in Europe and in America received him and they respect a racist character like him, racist man like him, I think it’s a very bad message to Palestinians as a whole and Palestinian citizens of Israel: "We don’t care about you. He can—he’s racist against Arabs, not against Jews, so he should be forgiven." That’s what—otherwise, he shouldn’t be a guest in Paris and London and Berlin and Rome and Washington.

I think the world should intervene what happen—in what’s happening in our country. And I think the world should force a solution. The Israel is not right for any solution, kind of solution. And the only way to end the bloodshed is that the world intervene and force—have a force—force solution over everybody, according to the U.N. resolutions.

AMY GOODMAN: How can you, as an Arab Israeli—what difference can Arab parties make in the Israeli Knesset?

DR. JAMAL ZAHALKA: We struggle for our rights and defending our land. And we use the Knesset for that. So now we will be represented in more committees, and we will have more votes in the Knesset. And the world will change its policies toward us. I met European embassies, and everybody came, and they were very interested in our List. And now they are not dealing with us as partners, but rather as representatives of our community. This is very important, according to the world. And every establishment in Israel would be forced to do that for us—with us also. So now we are not one party or four parties united, but rather representatives of our community in the Knesset.

AMY GOODMAN: I was just speaking to a young Palestinian activist. She couldn’t vote—

AMIRA HASS: No.

AMY GOODMAN: —in the Israeli elections. She lives in the Occupied Territories. But she said she really—if she could vote, she would have voted for Netanyahu, because she said he states it exactly as it is.

AMIRA HASS: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: The other parties may soft-pedal it, but at least the world understands what’s happening.

AMIRA HASS: Yes, there is such a theory, which, of course, you know, it’s—we all know that he speaks frankly what maybe the Labor Party is saying more softly. But when it comes to policies, there hasn’t been much of a difference. There is still—with age, I come to appreciate also the danger of being in the worst—choosing for the worst situations, because when it’s worse, it’s worse. And sometimes if he might bring his bullies to be in ministries and in the army and in all kind of deciding stations in the body politic, which can push to brutalization which is not reversible. This is what I fear. It is not—it is not that I think that Labor would have made a change. Of course not. I mean, it’s not—I never thought of voting for them. But the brutalization that the presence of very right-wing parties in a coalition, this brutalization is very dangerous for both people. So sometimes it might be healthier or wiser to wait a bit more and to change one’s—also one’s tactics than to opt for the worst solution. I mean, that’s my—

But the right wing, the extreme right wing in Israel, I mean, the real—the most racist party of all, and the really dangerously racist party, Yachad, I think they’re named together, which is a combination of very, very—how would I say?—retarded religious party with the extreme nationalist religious groups, didn’t pass the threshold. Though we still have to wait for the soldiers’ votes. They are counted a day or two days later, and usually they strengthen the right wing. So we have to wait for the soldiers.

I wanted to add that one of the things that really warmed our hearts—I mean, I would say left wing, and even some of the Israeli press—is that the Joint List, Arab List, also presented that they—true, as Jamal said, representing the Palestinian community in Israel, but they also want to represent and to fight for the rights of other weakened groups in the Israeli society, which means also Jews, so to fight for social justice for all, and, of course, coming out from their position as representatives of the Palestinian community in Israel. But this is something that was—it showed how they are so much more enlightened than any of the other Israeli Jewish parties.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to leave it there. I want to thank you both for being with us. Amira Hass is a longtime Israeli journalist, has lived in the Occupied Territories for more than 20 years, award-winning journalist with Ha’aretznewspaper. Her mother’s book has just come out in paperback, Diary of Bergen-Belsen: 1944-1945, by Hanna Lévy-Hass, with a foreword and afterword by Amira Hass. We also want to thank our guest in Tel Aviv, Dr. Jamal Zahalka, Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, chair of the Balad party, which is a part of the Joint List of Arab parties.

This is Democracy Now! 

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