Our Military Leader Promotes Idea Ukraine Did It

People around the world, including citizens of the United States, know Russian actors tried to influence the election of 2016.  One person, however, seems unaware:   Our Military Leader (OML).*  It wasn’t Russia, he is telling our allies, it was Ukraine!

This is pure nonsense.  No matter how one feels about Russia, it does no one any good to espouse crazy theories.

It so happens that the Musical Patriot believes it was appropriate for OML to reach out to Russia and try to achieve better relations.  This has been practically the best thing about this administration.

And it also happens that it was Republican dirty tricksters, not Russians, who deprived ever so many American citizens of their right to vote in 2016.  Greg Palast, internationally known journalist, has shown this.

But OML, from all appearances, has his personal financial reasons for wanting to shift the blame away from Russia.  The problem now is, who will believe him?

Source:  OML Asserts Ukraine Is to Blame in ’16 Election Interference

 

 

 

 

 

* The President of the United States

Democrats Rue Not Fighting Harder for Garland

In an important article on Huffington Post, Senate Democrats express regret for not pushing back hard against Mitch McConnell’s blocking of President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.  I now understand their rationale at the time, though I have always considered Garland to be the true nominee.

Perhaps Democrats’ demonstrated lack of muscle in this case is part of the reason a Bernie Sanders’ adherent shocked the political establishment by defeating a long-time Democrat in the New York primary.

If Democrats can maintain unity and at the same time move toward electable progressives, America can be better off.

Democrats Regret Not Fighting Harder for Garland

A reversal on immigration policy?

Before delving into this issue, I’d like to refer readers to my past comments about the legitimacy of the Trump administration.  This (very poor) administration was the result of what I am now calling an “instant coup.”   According to the path-breaking work of esteemed journalist Greg Palast, voter suppression efforts by Republican operatives led to a false total in the mathematical construct called “The Electoral College.”

But this is a story for another time.  For now Our Military Leader has supposedly announced the end to the separation of immigrant families at the border.  However, no one yet knows what is going to happen to those children already detained.  Further, there has been no change in the policy of treating immigrants like ordinary criminals.

Certainly this policy has nothing to do with the spirit announced on the Statue of Liberty:  “Give me your tired, your poor….”   Our Military Leader is clearly un-American in this and many respects.

 

Is Technology King?

Yesterday, I continued re-reading Neil Postman’s famous book, Technopoly.  This 1992 book still has much to say about how technology has come to dominate our society in important ways.

Postman’s most important insight in one sense, is that the form of the communication technology used has an effect on content.  Thus, written communication is different from oral communication not only in form but in content.  This is a lesson little understood by most all Internet “writers” of today.  But Internet writing with its speed of use, its relative anonymity and its rather gray format, also affects content compared with ink on paper writing.

How all this is so is told of in the first instance in Postman’s book.  Other more recent works talk about Internet communication and writing.

For now let us remind ourselves that we are in a new age.  Also, may we contemplate how, while the Internet changes communication, some human characteristics remain.  For example, there is still enjoyment and love, but also rage and the desire for conquest.  Does the Internet tend to magnify these qualities, or only certain qualities?

Postman’s book is helpful with all these questions.

 

Economic Expert with a Succesful Track Record Predicts Disaster

For the most part I will let economics prognosticator John Hussman speak for himself, as in the article whose link follows.  It does seem to me that his analysis of excessive debt coupled with inflated earnings by the wealthy is spot-on.   The question is When will the disaster strike?

I am one who would point out the economy is not great for a majority of people.  The contribution of Mr. Hussman is his showing that this disparity between average workers’ earnings and the earnings of the extremely wealthy has a negative impact on the economy as a whole.

Read more by following the link.

Economic Expert Predicts Disaster

Good Citizenship: The Answer

Of course, no one thing goes into being a good citizen.  However, a 2001 book entitled The Good Citizens’ Handbook offers many, many useful suggestions, all based on good citizenship books of the past.

This amazing book by Jennifer McKnight-Trontz shows how America can be a happy, functioning democracy with a minimum of division, torpor, sleaze, and no decay.  That such pamphlets and books are not widely read now is a national tragedy.  It doesn’t have to be.  I’ll have more to say on the subject in the future.  For now, here is a mighty quote from the preface:

“Good citizenship is our duty.  The future depends on us.  The alternative, as we are warned in Edwin C. Broome’s and Edwin W. Adams’ Conduct and Citizenship, is unthinkable:  ‘Character is a nation’s strength.  The nations of the earth that, like the Roman Empire, have been overthrown were not defeated by outside enemies, but by their own failure to live up to high standards of national character.'”

Jennifer McKnight-Trontz