Rebirth of a Realist

Shuttle Lunacy

2007-10-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Shuttle Lunacy
Essay Forty-Four

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came back from her recent Middle East tour on Thursday Oct 18,2007. Her statement to the press was either out of a jet lag brain or scripted by the White House before she landed. She said, "there is moment of opportunity" for peace but much work was still needed to be done. She plans to return in two weeks. What opportunity?
"The teams are serious," she said. "The people are serious, the issues are serious, and so I'm not surprised that there are some tensions. I'm not surprised that there are some ups and downs. ... But I was encouraged by what I heard." WHAT?
She went to London ostensible to gain support from the King of Jordan for a Mideast peace
repeating the admonition that Israelis and Palestinians have a new "moment of opportunity" to forge peace, despite the obstacles. What?
Comics and cartoonists are having a field day with the woman who seems to believe that she is doing something important. The poor befuddled Secretary never appears to have a reference point.
Even during her many Trips back and forth the Israelis mock her. Israel announced on October 2,2003 it would build 565 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Should that not have been her reference point?
Does not the "road map" peace plan require a freeze in construction in 150 Jewish settlements?
Should that not be her reference point? Wasn’t that a plan the US agreed to?
Israel has repeatedly violated that plan. Actually the so -called Road map Peace plan was nothing more than a political speech by Bush probably written by someone like Carl Rove. The U.S. State Department drafted it,
Fourth Geneva Convention, article 49 prohibits any occupying power from transferring citizens from its own territory to the occupied territory The Hague Regulations "prohibit the occupying power from undertaking permanent changes in the occupied area, unless these are due to military needs in the narrow sense of the term.
Foundation for Middle East Peace reports Israel’s many violations such as Settlers from Tekoa set fire to 300 dunams of land owned by Palestinians from the nearby village of Tuqu’, damaging some 400 olive trees. (OCHA) IDF soldiers and security personnel guarding the Susiya settlement prevent a surveyor hired by Palestinians from surveying their lands in preparation for a presentation to the Israeli High Court. (OCHA)Settlers from Susiya force Palestinian landowners off land located near the settlement. (OCHA)Settlers from Hebron’s Beit Hadassa assault and injure a 13 year old Palestinian boy from Hebron City. (OCHA)OCHA reports on an investigation by the IDF into the uprooting of 300 olive trees belonging to a Palestinian farmer from Qaryut, Nablus. The IDF discovered that the trees had been uprooted by settlers from the Shilo outpost and 140 of them were replanted in the outpost. The IDF returned the trees to the farmer.
It is a land completely out of control and as Condi Rice waves and smiles from the steps of the plane, she give the impression that she is totally unaware of the depth of the problem and the hatred that has been allowed to fester all these years. She has very little if any credibility in the area and her frequent jaunts only add to her image of a lost diplomat without direction.
In all fairness to Secretary Rice what direction can she get from Dupya in the White House?
There is a great deal of talk in Russia about US President Roosevelt. Russian Television recently did a documentary stressing that Americans trusted FDR and so did the rest of the world.
Apparently Putin is comparing himself to Roosevelt. One can only imagine what Putin thinks of Secretary Rice as she flits in and out of Moscow.
It seems no one can capture the trust and credibility we all had in our Government under FDR. Cordell Hull, a man who literally came out of a Tennessee log cabin to become the Secretary of State under FDR before and during the war, would probably view Secretary Rice as I do. A butterfly flitting meaninglessly about and living a short political life.
When I was a young student I learned in History class that the expansionists were the evil ones like the Spaniards that raped and pillaged behind the cross through South America and the Japanese that did the same to China and the beastly nazis who did the same to Europe.
I was given to believe that Secretary Rice was a good student in school, but perhaps she had different teachers and different textbooks.
THE POLITICS OF DENIAL Pluto Press book Review
The 1948 war ended in the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their villages and homes. Israeli settlers moved in to occupy their land and the Palestinian refugees found themselves in refugee camps, or in neighboring Arab countries. Today there are nearly four million Palestinian refugees -- and they want the right to go home. Their problem is the greatest and most enduring refugee problem in the world.
Ninety-three percent of the land is now characterized as Jewish land, meaning that no non-Jew is allowed to lease, sell or buy it.
Genevieve Cora Fraser once wrote from Ramallah
Is America a Servant to the Will of Israel? Is America a servant of Israel's Will?
"Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians since 1948 has also been to regard them as "untermenschen" sub-humans and never more so than today. In January 2001 Ha'aretz published an article by Amir Oren, "At the Gates of Yassergrad" which cites an Israeli officer's statement that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) studies the 1943 military tactics of the Nazi SS against the Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto, for application against the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza.Even without the Ha'aretz article, casual observation of the incarceration of the 3.5 million men, women and children of Palestine in concentration camp conditions within the confines of the Apartheid wall, electrified razor wire fence, Israeli-only roads, and nearly 900 checkpoints and roadblocks is a tip-off that something is up. When you add in the destruction of a million olive and fruit trees, farmlands, livestock and beehives, enforced starvation (bombing of the UN food warehouse and refusal to allow in food aid) and dehydration (reservoirs, wells and roof top water tanks destroyed by the IDF), curfews that spread into weeks and sometimes a month or more, plus 24/7 IDF assaults on civilians whose defense is the use of rocks, confiscated rifles and homemade bombs, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why the term neo-Nazi is common graffiti at certain protest sites.
So what is Secretary Rice’s point of reference?
David Truskoff
www.erols.com/suttonbear

Jenna six, I'll sit this one out

2007-09-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

In Mid September 2007 I received a call from someone I did not know. The person asked me if I wanted to join in the protest to free the "Jenna six"
Six black students at Jenna High School in Central Louisiana were arrested after a school fight in which a white student was badly beaten. The fight began when the Black youths sat under a "White only" shade tree. The black students were charged with attempted murder and conspiracy.
I can remember that at the end of the Mississippi March for Freedom we were all lining up to march into Jackson. It was June 26,1966 and we were tired and depressed. The rifle butts, the tear gas and the billy clubs in Canton Mississippi, had turned us around and most of us felt that the non-violent Civil rights movement of Doctor King needed a new direction.
We tried to make the atmosphere seem like that of a victory parade and joked about where we were going next. I told Stokely Carmichael that I heard we were going on to "Lousyannna" He laughed and said, "I’ll be right behind you." To us "Lousyanna" was a lost cause.
Today Louisiana ranks third in the nation in the number of elected officials per capita convicted of crimes. The horror of New Orleans; the convictions of a Governor, attorney general, commissioners, a congressman, a federal judge, a state Senate president, to name a few of the convicted officials, still make Louisiana a place I would rather not go. Although I must admit that in my state of Connecticut we have the same list of convicted officials. I think that may be progress for Louisiana. In what some call the state’s black history none of them would have gone to trial.
It took three weeks before I decided to make my answer to the caller public. I do not want to be divisive. That is the last thing that we need.
Here is the essence of what I said.
Do not be a blind follower.

I can remember reading my mother’s literature about the struggle for justice for the "Scottsboro Boys," and her attempt to raise funds for defense attorney. Sam Liebowitz.
March 25, 1931 four black Chattanooga teenagers looking for work in Memphis hauling logs on the river and five other black teens were charged in Alabama of rape. One of the boys was only 13 years old. It was obvious and later proven that they were framed by a prostitute trying to keep herself out of court. The boys spent years in jail. Their lives were destroyed. It was a sophisticated well-orchestrated Lynching. It wasn’t easy during the depression for my mother to raise funds for the defense of four black teenagers in Alabama. I was a teenager myself by the time that I read the material, but I had already taken my stand on Civil rights in America.
I wonder which one, Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson got to Jenna first. We all know they are hopelessly hooked on TV cameras, but I ask you caller not to be a blind follower. You may be doing more harm than good.
Am I aware that racism is alive and well in the United States? Of course I am. Am I aware that the schools in our cities are more segregated today than they were before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus? Of course I am. Am I still ready to stand up to racism whenever it rears its ugly head? Of course I am. Am I willing to stand next to Jessie Jackson and listen to demagogic divisive harangues creating more tension? Of course, I am not.
I hear the old refrain from white residence of Jenna that say there is no race problem there. I heard the same kind of self-deception when I was trying to register voters in Mississippi or acting as a buffer between the red necks and the marchers during the Selma march. It was nothing new to me. ("Our darkies are happy") I attended high school in New Jersey and the school was integrated. It was a Republican conservative town. The whites always claimed that we had no race problem in town. I think they actually talked themselves into believing that. After school the blacks went to their section of town and the white students went to theirs. After all the post football game parties I attended I don’t ever remember seeing a black face at any of them although we had black players on our team. Things haven’t changed that much. Are blacks unfairly treated in the courts in Louisiana, I am sure they are, but I was a court watcher for the Connecticut Council of Churches and Blacks are treated unfairly in Connecticut also. White men charged with a crime would appear before court time and sit outside the prosecutor’s office. Their lawyer would then go in and make a deal with the prosecutor. His client would either just go home or make bail and wait for his deal to come up in court. Blacks could not afford a lawyer nor would a bail bondsmen trust them. They went to jail. I saw it happen over and over again and I doubt if those things have changed anywhere in America.
Would I join Doctor King again and demonstrate against a "white only tree" in front of a school? Yes I would. Would I object to unfair racist court proceedings? Yes I would. Would Doctor King support teen-age thugs who beat a boy senseless, kicked him in the head and risked killing him before he was taken to the hospital? I know he would not and neither will I.
Damn it! If you are going to march, find a real leader, a young committed person and march against segregation in the schools in Hartford Connecticut, Bridgeport, Los Angeles, Trenton, Chicago and almost every city in the country. March for more federal funding for our schools that will help the towns to integrate. There is a dangerous rage about to boil over again in America. Channel it for good and steer away from the demagogues who will grab any incident to elevate them-selves.

When will they ever learn

2007-09-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

"Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing? Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago? Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards, everyone.Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn? "
Recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, Words by Pete Seeger

The answer to Pete Seegar’s question is still blowing in the wind.
The only good thing about getting older is that you have the ability to see the past being repeated, but you always wonder why others can not. I hear the bla bla bla of crazy military men and the just as crazy politicians and I get depressed thinking that if I hang around any longer I will still not see or hear anything new.

"We have taught the enemy a lesson. He has found out that aggression is not cheap or easy. Moreover, men all over the world who want to remain free have been given new courage and New Hope. They know now that the champions of freedom can stand up and fight.
Our resolute stand in Korea is helping the forces of freedom now fighting in Indochina and other countries in that part of the world. It has already slowed down the timetable of conquest....
The new commander, Lt. Gen. Matthew Ridgway, has already demonstrated that he has the great qualities of military leadership needed for this task."
Harry Truman 1950
The war in Korea was lost. Tens of thousand died.
General Westmoreland flashed his stars and medals after being called back to the US to generate new support for the war in Vietnam and the Johnson Administration. He testified before Congress and spoke before the National Press Club in Washington "With 1968," he said, "a new phase is starting. We have reached an important point where the end begins to come into view." That was during the time he used the often quoted phrase "There is light at the end of the tunnel" With that phrase he tried to convince the American people that victory was near.
President Johnson had said that he would not be sending American boys to do the fighting that Vietnamese boys should be doing, but later he changed that to," our boys are fighting in the name of freedom"
It has always been my belief that president Roosevelt knew that the Japanese were going to attack, but as often is the case he had a military vision of the previous war and no idea of the damage that modern war fare could inflict in one blow. Johnson had the same arrogance and naivete when it came to military matters and thought that he could use World War Two tactics and bomb the Communists into submission. General Curtis LeMay said, "the U.S. should bomb Vietnam back to the Stone Age"
. In his book "How We Lost the War in Vietnam", Nguyen Kao Ky, described the U.S. role in Vietnam as "misguided" and naïve."
The war in Vietnam was lost. Tens of thousands died.
On Tuesday January 23, 2007; Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new top commander in Iraq, ( also flashing his stars and medals) told Congress that sectarian violence has reduced Baghdad's population to a daily struggle for survival, undermined the U.S. strategy of handing responsibility to Iraqi forces and created the prospect of a "failed state."
Petraeus went on to say a new approach that would include pushing tens of thousands of additional U.S. and Iraqi troops deep into Baghdad neighborhoods, would allow the Iraqi Government to "come to grips with an "exceedingly difficult situation."
In his report to congress Monday, September 10, 2007 Gen. David H. Petraeus’ said
"The progress our forces have achieved with our Iraqi counterparts has, as I noted at the outset, been substantial. While there have been setbacks as well as successes and tough losses along the way, overall, our tactical commanders and I see improvements (light at the end of the tunnel) in the security environment
In closing, it remains an enormous privilege to soldier again in Iraq with America’s new "Greatest Generation." Our country’s men and women in uniform have done a magnificent job in the most complex and challenging environment imaginable. All Americans should be very proud of their sons and daughters serving in Iraq today."
. Previously in terse, short answers to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. Casey did what no one dared to do since Gen. Douglas MacArthur. He doubted the president’s ability to conduct the war. It was risky and shocking, but at that stage I don’t think Casey had anything to lose.
Finally on September 13.2007 President George Bush said, "The success of a free Iraq is critical to the security of the United States."…"Now because of the measure of success we are seeing in Iraq, ( more light at the end of the tunnel) we can begin seeing troops come home."
Bla Bla Bla
Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois. Said that, Gen. David Petraeus told her that the U.S. "will be in Iraq in some way for 9 or 10 years."
Even republican congressmen know that the war in Iraq is lost and thousands of American troops have already died and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died.
The question that Pete Seeger asked (when will they ever learn) is still not answered, but the question, when posed back in the sixties, implied that it was the soldiers and the raving generals and politicians that will never learn, but the question should be asked another way; when will the American people ever learn.

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Uneducated Graduates

2007-09-08T12:23:00.000-07:00

Uneducated Graduates
I am often amazed at how some people with impressive academic credits can be so stupid when it comes to the most important subjects that affect their very lives? Cindy Sheehan described the out of touch, right wing spokes person William Kristol this way," By all accounts, Mr. Kristol is a brilliant man, who like his father before him, uses his brilliance for destruction. He is a shameless supporter of a failed, murderous, and miserable strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan and one of the "mushroom cloud" crowd. One thing Mr. William Kristol is not, is a combat vet."
I think she gives Kristol too much credit. Does she believe he is brilliant because he graduated from Harvard? George Bush graduated from Harvard, although I am yet to hear any Harvard folks brag about it. I never equated academic credentials with character or smarts and certainly not with moral structure.
All during the sixties the Kristol types baffled me. They claim to be patriotic and they are not. Patriots stand up for what they believe is in the best interest of their country not the best interests of a chosen few, or the best interests of a foreign state. They claim to be knowledgeable and they are not. One day I debated a representative from then Senator Tom Dodd’s office. (Chris Dodd’s father who was later censured by the congress) Dodd was a Vietnam War hawk. It soon became obvious to the audience that the man didn’t know much about the history or the oppression of the people of South East Asia nor did he know much about the political situation. I can remember him saying things like, "The people of Southeast Asia will be so grateful to us for bringing them democracy."
Cindy also reports," On February 20, 2003, Mr. Kristol incredibly gushed: "If we free the people of Iraq, we will be respected in the Arab world."

It is De’JA vu all over again as Yogi Berra said. What Arab world is he talking about? After the murder and mayhem we have brought the people of the region it will be a long time in hell before we can gain any respect there.

Essay Thirty Nine
Uneducated Graduates

Acadamia is shuddering and shaking like the empire.
Matthew Abraham said on September 5th, 2007 " I am an untenured, assistant professor at DePaul University in Chicago, where Norman G. Finkelstein, the most heroic critic of U.S. and Israeli policy in Palestine ever to set foot in the U.S. academy, was denied tenure over nearly three months ago. I was, and am, deeply saddened that DePaul University, the institution where I have chosen to make a career, has so effectively undermined its social justice mission in a series of actions that have put us, as a faculty body, in grave peril.
By capitulating to the threats, antics, and pressures of Alan Dershowitz, the Israel Lobby, and its numerous affiliates, DePaul has compromised something so integral to an educational institution’s mission, that once so compromised, it is impossible to regain. That something is institutional autonomy. An institution’s ability to withstand outside pressure, and economic coercion — which can often be tantamount to blackmail — is a must in an age of corporate scandal, sleazy deal making, and political cover-ups. The general public used to look to the academy for leadership, vision"

Noam Chomsky of MIT says, "[Dershowitz] launched a jihad against Norman Finkelstein simply to try and vilify and defame in the hope that maybe what he is writing will disappear."
Yes, this is the same Dershowitz that not only defended the Pollards who were found guilty of spying and giving US secretes to Israel, but also campaigned for their release. Obviously His country did not come first.
How can anyone call themselves a patriot when they write junk yard dog attack letters to the dean of a school asking them to refuse tenure to a respected professor simply because he does not like the professor’s writings? He made the professor so uncomfortable that he resigned. Dershowitz also has campaigned to keep others, who may say anything, negative about Israel from speaking at schools. He is Jewish and as such how can he not realize that he is the same as one of the brown shirt book burners?
The influence all of this has on students, in particular the Hillel members on campus must be enormous. If you do not like what someone says, try and get him or her fired. Dershawitz is a main contributor to the Divisiveness that leads to the isolation of many students on campuses. Extra security is needed when incidents like the showing of the very offensive Muslim Cartoons were shown on campuses. Thousands of Muslims worldwide protested both on and off the college campuses. One wonders who put them up to it on the Harvard campus.
More divisiveness is just what is not needed as we start this new school year.
The entire US education system is under duress. The "No child left behind act" has further divided the system. --Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said that "the U.S. higher education system is the envy of the world but primary and secondary schools are failing to adequately prepare students for college." Mr. Gates sends his three children to private schools and he himself is a college drop out. (Proving that the key to financial success is a college degree is not always a fact.) One of the wealthiest men in the world also said, "This nation has to do something very challenging, which is to provide a strong education to almost every student,"
It is true that if you are one of the football elite in high school or a member of the new phenomenon the girls basketball elite and a member of a minority group chances are good that you can go on to college. The chances are also good that you may join the ranks of America’s uneducated graduates. I have had conversations with students at some of America’s most prestigious citadels of higher learning and was amazed that they maintain such high averages in their masters of business administration classes and can not tell you anything about what really makes their government run.
As the rich in America get richer and the poor get poorer US News and World Reports published these figures. "An academic year at a typical public university is $16,400: $5,836 for tuition and fees, almost $7,000 for room and board, and an additional $3,500 or so for books, travel, and entertainment, If prices keep rising at the current rate, (6%per year) students who don't receive any grants will most likely pay more than $115,000 to reach graduation day."
In 2005 Act (The ACT test assesses high school students' general educational development and their ability to complete college-level work) reported half of last year's high school graduates did not have the reading skills they needed for college-level science and math courses. The report, based on scores of the 2005 high school graduates who took the exam, some 1.2 million students in all, also found that fewer than one in four met the college-readiness benchmarks in all four subjects tested: reading comprehension, English, math and science.
The 2007 report was glowing, well sorta, "Scores have trended upward for nearly all racial/ethnic groups since 2003. All groups with the exception of African American graduates posted an increase on their ACT composite score this year compared to last, with Asian American students showing a sizable gain of 0.3 point. Scores for African American students this year are 0.1 point higher than in 2003, but have fluctuated slightly in the intervening years, dropping 0.1 point this year compared to last year."
With the reorganization of the militant Students for a Democratic Society forming on many college campuses across the nation and the huge demonstration against the war Planned for Washington DC September 16, 2007 all taking place in a divided society and a divided student body I fear for our young people.
College campuses are just an extension of our society. The anger and alienation splitting racial and ethnic groups amid the fear and anxiety created by the Bush administration, with the help of the Dershewitz types, can soon lead to the violent explosion that will further accelerate the crumbling of the empire.

Trojan Horse

2007-09-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

"America is, by far, the most violent country in the world when measured against comparable, industrialized nations. Violence is deeply rooted in our society and has become woven into the fabric of the American lifestyle. A culture of violence has emerged that invades our lives at every level, from our most intimate relationships at home to our schools and work environments. For many of us, violence has become an acceptable strategy for solving conflict, exerting power and control, obtaining possessions, and satisfying emotional desires. Moreover, violence has itself become entertainment, glamorized in the behavior of both real and fantasy heroes."
California Attorney General Daniel E. Lungren
Essay Thirty Seven
Pure Bred American Violence
Attorney General Lungren made that statement back in 1995. The situation has not improved. It has, in fact, become much worse. There have been 202 homicides in the city of Baltimore alone this year, (2007) The city is headed for at least 300 murders this year. Those are murders alone. It does not include the hundreds of non-fatal shootings.
On any given day in America one can turn on the television set and watch, Kick Boxing, women boxing, extreme fights (Where anything goes, biting, kicking, punching and knees to the groin) There is also a daily fair of so called wrestling (where grown men break metal chairs over the backs of their opponents and perform other insane violent acts.) Add to that the films such as the one that was on while I was writing this piece. I left it on because I was too busy to shut the set after the news and it was so apropros of what I was talking about. The film was titled "Wyatt Erp". In the movie men are shooting men in scene after scene. If you do not want to watch a movie there are many violent detective stories that include all kinds of murder and mayhem for you to enjoy.
After they watch the movie Americans can turn on the local evening news and see how many fellow Americans were shot, knifed or just plain killed by other means in their community. That of course is followed by the death count from Iraq.
It is true that violence is inbred in Americans. It is part of our tradition and culture. We revel in the stories of the Wild West and the horrendous Civil War. We play World War Two movies over and over. Actors who were never in the service glamorize over emphasized violence in "the Longest Day" a movie about the Normandy invasion. It is played along with many other War movies very often on movie channels.
Do not miss-understand me. I am not saying that violence belongs to Americans alone.
I remember one day when I was speaking to a convention of Church youth groups about the Civil Rights struggle in America. During the question period one young women said," I am afraid to go downtown because they (meaning Blacks) are so violent." I lost my composer, for which I later apologized. "You mean like that (N) (I used the forbidden N word) Hitler who was responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people Or that (again the N word) Truman who dropped the atom bomb and killed 70 thousand people in one day and then a few days later did the same thing again?"
No we Americans do not have a corner on Violence. No race or ethnic group does, but we have made a religion of it. We have poisoned each generation with it and allowed the mass media to ridicule those who oppose it. We have made it into the most profitable product that we produce. Like sex, violence sells. One can not watch an American football game without seeing the joy a "Great Hit" brings to the announcers. The "Great hits" are played over and over interspersed, of course, with commercials. Violence sells.
Two subjects that American politicians dare not touch without risking burned fingers, are Gun Control and of course the plight of the Palestinians. Both of these subjects are guarded by the most powerful lobbies in Washington and a political career can be dashed on the rocks by supporting the Palestinians who are suffering from the American intercourse with the Israelis’ violence (who came by their brand of violence suckling at the breast of the American military complex) and calling for gun control to protect Americans who are also suffering from their own violence.
US Children are ten times more likely to die from gunfire than in 25 industrialized nations combined. For young black males in the US guns are the leading source of death…In 1995 one in 12 students reported carrying a firearm or some other weapon. In 2004, 81 people were shot dead every day in the US according the US center for decease control. 29,569 were killed by firearms that year.. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also reveals that every day; nearly eight children or teens are killed by gun violence in America which adds up to about 235 each month.
Where did they get the guns? That is the question gun control advocates continue to ask, but it is like trying to find an acceptable answer to the so called mid east crises. Everyone knows the answer, but no one can apply it. Let’s just dream for a minute. The answer to the gun lunacy can be simple. Guns, in particular hand guns, are used to kill people so the US government should take over all gun manufacturing businesses that make huge profits from the gun murder rate and see to it that only the law enforcement people and the military have guns. Why do any others need them?
There was a time, not too long ago, in England when even the Bobbies didn’t carry guns, but since the huge influx of illegal weapons they are now forced to carry them in order to protect themselves and the general public.
The gun nuts still parrot "Guns don’t kill people, People kill people." No, people with guns kill people more often. They will also quote from the second amendment to the constitution "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." June 21, 1788.
The small country of 1788 when much of the population had to hunt for food and many still worried about Indian wars was a much different place than the three hundred million divided population of present day America.
The second amendment should have been amended before the Wild West became so wild. For decades cowardly politicians have never been able to rewrite it so that it will really protect the people. After demands by law enforcement agencies who have found some of their men outgunned by outlaws (Protected by the second amendment) the best they could do is try and control military assault weapon being used by criminals. They even failed in that.
Oh my, how the neo-cons will scream. Take over an American business, that is socialism they will say. No, it is common sense to save the children and in turn save the nation. It might even inspire the United Nations members to demand weapons limitations. Of course, the merchants of death will also join the chorus and scream that is Marxism being promoted by the dangerous Peace people.

2007-07-26T07:04:00.000-07:00

Today a group of door to door Evangelists interrupted my work. I am not one given to rudeness, but I was annoyed. When I told them I wasn’t interested and tried to close the door they persisted. I told them if there was a God would he or she have made the two-legged killer called man? Would he or she have religionists all over the globe goading people to kill each other because only their religion is the right one?
Their stock answer is always; "God has a Plan."
It was shortly after lunch and I had just turned off the noon news. The five lead stories on the news were, " Family crushed." It was about two crazies who entered the home of a well-known physician and killed his wife and two daughters after raping them. Before leaving they set fire to the home. Then in order we heard about a body that was cut up and put in a barrel to float down the river, a truck driver who raped and left a women for dead, two knifings and one shooting. All that and we haven’t even gotten to the Iraq body count. Many times they just toss that in at the end of the news. If you are still there you may rejoice to hear that we killed 37 bad guys and only lost two of ours. Turner Broadcasting has decided to "go local" with all of their major news outlets and news rooms are nothing but men listening to police scanners and sending crews out to cover the mayhem.
With each idiotic war a spell is cast on the population. Today we must hate the unshaven Muslims who are worst then the Communists. The Communists didn’t believe in God, but these Muslims believe in the wrong God. They are out to kill us all in the name of the wrong God. They are called extremists. We are bombing them and we are shooting them and we are starving them in their land, but THEY are the extremists. We always seem to find masters of sorcery to lead us into these death traps.
Oh yes, what was I working on when they interrupted me. Tisha B’Av In Israel.
Tisha B’Av is the last day of mourning the destruction of the first and second Temples, both of which were destroyed by the Babylonians and the Romans. During the time of fasting and not washing, other tragedies that befell the Jewish people are remembered including the King of Spain declaring in 1492 that no Jew will ever walk on Spanish soil again. Israelis celebrate that they now are free.
At that time in Spain Father Tomas de Torquemada believed that as long as the Jews remained in Spain, they would influence the tens of thousands of recent Jewish converts to Christianity King Ferdinand and Isabella would not deny the church Many Spaniards gained financially from the tragedy as Jews had to sell their homes and businesses at very low prices. Dominican priests actively encouraged Jews to convert to Christianity and thereby gain salvation both in this world and the next. You see, God had a plan.
I can remember when I felt a sort of ancestral visceral pride in Israel, but that was when I related to a state that was created on socialistic stanchions. What has it become? We see a mall built right in front of the old city that Israel has "Liberated." Corruption and crime are out of control led by the Sorcerers. Ex presidents escape jail time for charges of sexual harassment and indecent acts. Others in the circle of the sorcerers like Omir Sharon son of the former Prime Minister, Naomi Blumenthal convicted of Bribery had her sentence commuted. All this while Israeli jails are bulging with innocent people whose only crime is they resented their temple and homes being destroyed by the Israelis. We hear about the starvation and terrible poverty in Gaza, but Jews are hesitant to admit that extensive poverty in Israel is shameful for many reasons, One it are constantly fund raising and no one knows where the money goes. When American tax payers who are sending Israel 3 to 6 billion dollars a year ask where does the money go we are told it is none of our business, but the real shame is the poverty being suffered by the elderly Holocaust victims. Those who touched the conscience of the world and were chiefly responsible for the creation of the state are powerless and poor.
The so-called Jewish State is nothing of the kind if you use the word Jewish to describe a religion. The battle goes on between the orthodox who are right in saying Israel was created as a Jewish state and they say if you abandon that you have no more rational for taking someone else’s home and land. You can no longer claim that God gave you the land. They insist on more religion in schools and a close adherence to Jewish law. The majority rejects them, but the majority must cling to the rational that God gave them the land.
Religionists are appalled at the corruption that gives developers the right to turn the so-called Holy Land into Long Island. The pollution of the rivers, the clogged and dangerous roads and the ever present swingers with their gambling casinos and legal houses of prostitution makes the religionist warn, History will show Israel died an early death by its own hand.

Revival

2007-07-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

The first demonstration that I can remember was when my mother took me to the New York waterfront to join her labor group. We carried signs asking the President to stop sending scrap Iron and other war materials to Japan. It was shortly after Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany.
Since my discharge from the Navy in December of 1945 and the time spent with college and bar hopping, it seems my life was one long battle. Progressive Party, Korean War, Civil rights, Vietnam War, Zionism, and all stops in between. Would I trade it for a life of security in my little cubby at the insurance company? No, but I hold no malice toward those that seek that security. Most of them are good family people and are needed just as farmers and carpenters and others are needed, but my genes were bent in another direction.
The following essays are a synopsis of an activist’s quest for truth. I have always held the belief that Secretary Dag Hammarskjold so beautifully articulated, "In our era the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action."
David Truskoff

The years go by and the struggle is endless.
Sometimes it all seems so senseless.
Demonstrations, marches, tear gas and jail,
Ten days the judge says and you can’t make bail.
School chums wonder what made you who you are.
And how can you make the payment on the new car?
They patronize and admit that you are right,
But, they, "can’t afford" to get into the fight.
"How long," King asked, "not long he answered"
The audience repeated, "not long, not long"
and I knew that I was where I belong.
The empire is crumbling, but it’s a good thing
because the mendacious are frightened, panic has set in.
Will I have to share they wonder. What will tomorrow bring?
Peace and freedom for all, the whole world will sing.
Was it all worth it? fighters for justice may ask,
No problem for me to answer, You bet your ass.
David Truskoff

Who am I

2007-06-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

Who am I?
As a small boy I had to endure the pain of not knowing who I was.
My parents moved to a town in New Jersey that was populated mostly by Catholic polish immigrants who were brought over by the slave traders with help from the church to work in the rubber and textile mills. They were greatly influenced by the anti-Semitic Detroit Radio priest father Coughlin, who often referred to the president of the United States as President Roosenfeld. At Easter time, when the priests came around to bless the kielbassa and Ham and get their hand out, Polish kids threw rocks at me because I killed Jesus.
At school we had to start the day by taking turns reading from the bible. The teacher always gave me the same page to read from. "The ungodly are not so, They are like the chaff that the wind driveth away." I could feel her eyes burning in my back.
My father’s family in the old country were non-practicing Russian Orthodox and my mother’s family Orthodox Jews. Neither of my parents were religious, although my mother did keep a set of kosher dishes for family visits.
I have never been a member of any church or temple, and I was astounded years later when I was in Israel to listen to the debates over who is or is not a Jew. I remember when I asked my mother. "Mom, am I a Jew?" Her answer was always the same. "I am a Jew so therefor you are a Jew. That’s all there is to it." "But if you don’t come from Jewland and you call the rabies gonifs how can you be a Jew?" My mother never called herself a Jew. She said she was an American of Russian Yiddish descent. That didn’t help me because then Yiddish was a derogatory word like the infamous N word.
It was all so confusing. If your family came from Ireland you were an Irish American. If they came from Italy you were an Italian American. My parents came from Russia so how come I was a Jewish American. I didn’t mind being a Jewish American and I still don’t.
Israeli Law of Return is not a law at all because it still defies definition. Russian is a second language in Israel and most of those who speak it are not religious Jews and many do not call themselves Jews at all.
Wikipedia includes the following paragraph "the registering of "nationality" on Israeli Teudat Zehut ("identity card"). This is also controlled by the Ministry of the Interior, which has generally only registered as a "Jew" those who meet the traditional definition according to the (Orthodox) Chief Rabbinate. However, in a small number of cases the secular Supreme Court of Israel has forced the ministry to register as Jews individuals who did not meet that definition." WHAT?
Uri Avnery said, "Anyone who calls himself a Jew is a Jew." WHAT?
My wife insists that Jewish means religion and genetics has nothing to do with it. It is an important subject because those who blindly support Israeli aggression do so because they feel if there is no "Jewland" i.e. Israel and they do not belong to any religious group they are faced with the same dilemma I had.
That is forever asking the question, who am I? To them Jewish is not religious, not political, but simply a nationality.
I solved it long ago with the help of Avnery. When I brought him to America for a book tour, my mother was already too sick to talk to him, but he taught me to separate Zionism, religion, and the awful Israeli politics from my mother’s beautiful Yiddish culture and I am free to oppose the madness of greater Israel.
David Truskoff
www.erols.com/suttonbear

2007-06-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

Shrill lies getting louder and more shrill
A statue purported to be a memorial to victims of Communism worldwide was unveiled on June 13,2007 In Washington D.C. The propaganda show kicked off a barrage of lies that would even make the wild eyed claims of the Hearst press and the New York times of 1933 seem mild.
Cal Thomas, Tribune Media Services, wrote on June 15, 2007.
"The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression" by Stephan Courtois, Nicolas Werth, Jean-Louis Panne, Andrzej Paczkowski, Karel Bartosek and Jean-Louis Margolin lists by country the number of people murdered under communist regimes: 65 million (and counting) in China; 20 million in the Soviet Union, 2 million (and counting) in North Korea, 2 million in Cambodia, 1.7 million in Africa, 1.5 million in Afghanistan, 1 million in Vietnam." Other hysterical screaming followed; "Who knows that the communist holocaust has exacted a death toll surpassing that of all of the wars of the 20th century combined."
President Bush at the unveiling said, "In short, communism, an evil ideology unlike any the world has seen, is responsible for the slaughter of more than 94 million human beings. It tops all plagues, natural disasters, crime, and other political ideologies, probably combined. According to the best scholarly estimate, Communism took the lives of tens of millions of people in China and the Soviet Union."
In Moscow Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov who narrowly lost the 1996 Russian presidential election to Boris Yeltsin, was quick to respond. He called the memorial an "attempt to distract the attention of world opinion from the bloody evils of American imperialism as a whole."
Since the Russian Revolution of 1917 the US media propaganda barrage of anti-communism was steeped in lies and hypocrisy, but today it has reached a new level of hysteria and sophism. A brief look at truth and real history shows that in the early thirties America was in the throes of the Great depression. Millions were out of work and there was no safety net for the poor and hungry. Thousand died for lack of proper nutrition and health care. Socialism and the radical labor movements were forming in the States. It was, the conservatives thought, imperative for the media to try and distract Americans and steer them from the left by claiming the famine in Russia was a Communist plan to kill millions of their own people. For years they hammered away at that lie and the lie took on a life of its own growing like the puppet's nose longer and longer.
The 1932-1933 Ukrainian famine had many causes. The main cause was the anti Communist effort led by the kulaks and those who wanted to return to the days of the Tsars. They fought against giving up their land and their oppressive hold on the peasants. In the face of losing their power they began a system of slaughtering their cattle and horses in preference to having them collectivized. The result was a blow to Stalin’s idea of collectivization. He felt the shared machinery and free workers could produce more Soviet agriculture, Kulaks slaughtered tens of thousand of live stock. Some armed themselves and joined the anti-Semitic Black hundreds and murdered officials, burned the property of some of the collectives, and even burned their own crops. What followed was the horrible famine of 1933.
Add to that the terrible drought that hit the area causing more sickness and death in the remote areas. ANOTHER FACTOR overlooked by the US media was the disruption following the Russian revolution by the ruthless 15,000 troops the US sent to Murmansk, Archangel, and Vladivostok as part of an Allied force in opposition to the Bolsheviks. Until the late thirties many other attempts were made by covert operatives to overthrow the Soviet Government. Yes, through all that chaos, many died. It must have been the most difficult situation to try and raise crops in. By 1934 the Russian famine was ending, but the US needed ten years and World War 11 to recover from the disastrous economic bust the robber barons of the twenties created.
In September of 1947, the Russians proposed at the UN a mutual withdrawal of USSR and US troops from the peninsula of Korea. The UN in 1947 declared that elections should be held throughout the entire country to choose one government to unify the country. The US rejected the proposals. The south under the advice of the US held its own election and created an independent Republic of Korea with Dictator Syngman Rhee as its leader. Rhee Threatened to "annihilate the north" prompting the civil war.
U.S. President Truman authorized the use of American land, sea, and air forces in Korea. On 7-1-1950. The Army's 24th Infantry Division became the first US troops to arrive in Korea. That intervention into a civil war led to American battle deaths that totaled 33,629 and another 20,617 deaths from other causes making a total of 54,246. The number of wounded came to 103,284. Almost half a century later the US still has 37 thousand troops stationed in Korea. The gunboat diplomacy that FDR rejected and the ignoring of a democratic election was the criminal act resulting in that disaster.
The people of Vietnam took the opportunity to establish their own government lead by Ho Chi Minh after the Japanese withdrew. However, at the end of the war the Allies gave back South Vietnam to the French while the North was left in the hands of the non-communist Chinese The Russians didn’t invade Vietnam in 1954, we did. There was an election, but once again America refused to recognize a democratic election. The result that time was approximately 3 to 4 million Vietnamese on both sides were killed in addition to another 1.5 to 2 million Lao and Cambodians who were drawn into the war. More than 58,000 Americans died and another 304,000 were wounded.
This month America has again refused to recognize a democratic election in Gaza. These deceitful machinations have taken their toll on the frustrated American public who feel they have lost their hold on their own country.
One needn’t wonder why the Communist bogeyman has been resurrected. America’s Gunboat diplomacy of the last fifty years has fueled anti America and leftist movements all over the world, but as the US ship of state begins taking on water the screaming liars intend to go down with the ship.
Sadly, I do not see any FDR type savior on the horizon to throw us life jackets and save our ship.
David Truskoff
www.erols.com/suttonbear

Connect the dots

2007-06-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

Connect the dots of those who are connected
Start connecting the dots at the very beginning.
On the 27th of February 1933, the Reichstag (German parliament) caught fire. Hitler described the fire as a "beacon from heaven". History shows that it removed many obstacles to the Nazi power grab and led directly to the rise of Hitler and the brutal killing spree that followed. Communists were blamed, and many were rounded up and imprisoned, but evidence shows the Nazi’s were responsible for the fire. "You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in German history...This fire is the beginning," Hitler told a news reporter at the scene. What followed was death, destruction, and horror. The Bush family is all too well acquainted with that part of history as Prescott Bush (GW’s grandfather) was instrumental in bringing Hitler to power. One former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor insisted that Prescott Bush should have been prosecuted for, "giving aid and comfort to the enemy."
(I can not believe that the Republican Party of Connecticut still has the annual Prescott Bush honor dinner.)
Shortly after George Bush was inaugurated on January 20, 2001, the US stock market seemed to be crumbling. The 171.32-point drop on August 30, 2001 left the Dow down more than 500 points for that week alone. Markets the world over caught the jitters and showed signs of crashing. Close to $5 trillion in paper wealth was wiped out. Personal debt, caused by credit card and ballooning mortgages was rising by an average of 8.2% a month. Thousands of workers were being laid off. Americans were unhappy. They did not feel that they had elected GW Bush, but that the election was stolen and Bush was appointed by a stacked Supreme Court. He had no mandate from the people. There was an American mind lock and a yawning void waiting to be filled by a political explosion. The explosion came on September 11, 2001.
There were people who knew a way to save Bush and the empire. Names jump at you. Larry Silverstien. Rupert Murdoch, Frank Lowy, Lewis Eisenberg, among others.
There is nothing really new here. It has all been written about before, but facts are piling up and now that the big payoff has occurred on May 24,2007 and the money trail becomes more visible, it all must be brought before the world again, and again and again. We must not allow 9/11/01 to simply pass into history. Those who suffered the unspeakable crimes that followed scream for justice.
As the reign of the Bush family comes to an end and the empire shudders and shakes, perhaps a new Nuremberg Tribunal will mete out punishment for those responsible for the tens of thousands who died and the suffering of millions of others as a result of that awful Tuesday 9/11/01.
The deadly dust had not yet settled when the drums of war began to beat. Murdoch’s pro Israel New York paper, (New York Post, 9/12/01) headlined "Kill THE BASTARDS. An editorial stated, "The response to this unimaginable 21st-century Pearl Harbor should be as simple as it is swift-- kill the bastards. A gunshot between the eyes, blow them to smithereens, poison them if you have to. As for cities or countries that host these worms, bomb them into basketball courts."
That kind of inciting gutter, journalism was poured into the eyes and ears of people the world over via the Murdoch Media Empire and there was no letup for years. The Muslim community was astounded by the hate of Fox news and other Murdoch outlets. Murdoch’s unabashed support of Bush and his own devotion to Israel made him a well-known figure to those who took control of the World Trade Center shortly before its destruction.
Larry Silverstein and Frank Lowy, who leased the WTC property six weeks before 9/11, insisted on the unusual insurance coverage under Terrorist acts, added to the contract. Port Authority Chairman Lewis M. Eisenberg approved the transfer of the leases. One has to wonder how that all came down.
On March 19.2001, Lewis M. Eisenberg released this statement, " re: Net Lease of World Trade Center.
"In connection with the net lease of the World Trade Center, on February 22, 2001, the Port Authority entered into an exclusive negotiating period with Vornado Realty Trust. During this period, Port Authority staff and its advisors, JP Morgan, Cushman & Wakefield and Milstein Brothers Realty Advisors have worked with representatives of Vornado to complete the contract and associated transactional documents. In view of the lack of a final agreement at this time, the Port Authority's Board of Commissioners has instructed staff and our advisors to engage in exclusive negotiations with Silverstein Properties and Westfield America to conclude a 99-year net lease transaction."
In February of 2002 Silverstein Properties were granted a $861 million settlement from Industrial Risk Insurers to rebuild on the site of WTC 7. Silverstein Properties investment in WTC 7 was approximately $386 million. Silverstein Properties gained almost half a billion. More litigation was to follow.
It is well known that Murdoch, Silverstein and Eisenberg were members and supporters of
many right wing Zionist organizations. It is also well known that Ariel Sharon, the man responsible for the massacre at Sabra and Shatila, and Murdoch were friends and Sharon looked to Murdoch for support. Murdoch was also a friend and supporter of Benjamin Netanyahu who said on the day of the 9-11 attacks, "It's very good (for American and Israeli relations)…Well, it's not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy (for Israel)."
As soon as I heard about the Mossad agents being present and taking pictures across from the twin towers on 9/11/01 I immediately thought of The Lavon affair in 1954. The Israeli secret service set up a spy ring in Egypt with the purpose of blowing up US and British targets. The operation was code-named "Susanah." The terrorist hits were to be blamed on the regime of Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser, with the purpose of alienating the US and Britain from Egypt and Nasser. A bomb exploded prematurely and the ring was discovered. Israel denied knowledge and kept the information from its own citizens until the secret could be kept no longer.
On 9/11/01 police received several calls from angry New Jersey residents claiming "middle-eastern" men with a white van were videotaping the disaster with shouts of joy and mockery. The men in the white van were stopped and arrested in East Rutherford NJ.
On 9/12/01, The New York Times reported that a group of five men had set up video cameras aimed at the Twin Towers prior to the attack on Tuesday, and were seen congratulating one another afterwards. The Jewish weekly The Forward reported that the FBI finally concluded that at least two of the detained Israelis were agents working for the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, and that Urban Moving Systems, the ostensible employer of the five Israelis, was a front operation. Two former CIA officers confirmed this, and they noted that movers' vans are a common intelligence cover. The Israelis were held in custody for 71 days before being quietly released. If by their own admission, "they were there to document the event" does that not mean, to any intelligent person, that they knew in advance what was going to happen?
After 9/11 on a PBS documentary Silverstien admitted that he made the decision to have the building WTC 7 "pulled." meaning he planned to have it taken down well before the disaster. Not Silverstein himself or his daughter who normally would be in the building were present on 9/11/01.
On May 24, 2007 an AP story stated, "The builders of the World Trade Center site and seven insurers have reached a $2 billion settlement that ends all outstanding legal battles over its multibillion-dollar policy, state officials said Wednesday."
Gov. Eliot Spitzer and state Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo announced the settlement after leading two months of talks with the insurers, trade center developer Larry Silverstein and the site's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The $2 billion, added to $2.55 billion already paid out since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that destroyed the trade center, is about $130 million less than the amount awarded to rebuild the site after the trial in 2004.
So those connected all got what they wanted. Silverstein got his money. He will rebuild and hold a 99-year lease. Murdoch sold a lot of papers and got the hate Palestinians propaganda into high gear. The Israelis got millions more of American taxpayers dollars and as Benjamin Netanyahu said, "a lot of sympathy".
Bush became the ‘war’ President and The Commander in Chief.
No one except a seemingly deranged man (Zacarias Moussaoui) went to jail.
Tens of thousands have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the oil barons are running amuck. Murdoch’s media still controls the minds of millions of people. Realists are wondering are the people going to allow the 9/11 commission report to stand? Should we not be demanding a new investigation? Do we not owe that to the children of Iraq and the millions of other suffering people including Americans?
David Truskoff
www.erols.com/suttonbear

Seeds Of Disaster

2007-05-23T06:44:00.001-07:00

SEEDS OF DISASTER
):
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
Galatians VI (King James Version):
When my father first came to the United States in 1905 he went to work at a job he hated in the coal mines of West Virginia. He said he thought he would do that until he learned the language.
The trouble was the "Slavers," who at that time, brought the workers to the US kept them in segregated groups. The Polish workers spoke Polish and the Italians Italian. Frustrated, my father left and made his way to New York. He soon joined a Russian speaking group who sponsored English classes for new emigrants. There he met my mother and for years and four children later they continued to tease each other about their accents. "No. " my father would say, "it’s not Ott Hiron, Its hot Iron." And my mother would answer, "It’ not wegatbles it’s Vegetables. Although both spoke many other languages and my mother could switch from Russian to Polish to Yiddish to German in one conversation, they would never allow the children to speak any language but English. They did not want us to have a "Hacksent" We were all taught to be proud of our heritage and we were always aware of our parent’s love for their old country and culture that they left to survive the famine and terrible hardship.
I often think about my parents when I hear arguments for dual language in the American school systems. The results have been devastating to millions of new young Americans. They are kept outside the herd. They always feel that they are visitors not members of the society. African Americans in particular living in northern Black Ghettoes retain the old slave mentality. Black television, like Spanish television perpetuates that mentality. Both groups segregate themselves mostly because of lack of language skills.
I get very emotional when I think of the SPECIAL DEDICATION I wrote in my book The Second Civil War.
"To the great patriots; Little Jimmy Jackson, Reverend Reeb,
Shwerner, Goodman, Chaney and Liuzzo who gave their lives in
the fight for freedom and justice and specially to the wonderful
young freedom fighters who showed us adults the way."
We let them and all the other "freedom Fighters of the1960s Civil rights movement "down. Forty years later Spanish speaking children are struggling in school and dropping out. Over four million students are expected to enter high school next semester and almost half of the minority students will not graduate and CNN this week reported, "a third -- or more than a million -- will never graduate. They are coming to high school with poor math and reading skills, become bored and frustrated, and then drop out. Graduation rates peaked in 1969 and have declined for most of the past 30 years. And of those who do graduate, too many lack the skills to enter college."
We are speaking of America’s future. It is the most important subject for Americans to tackle, yet I have not heard one of the, party created, presidential candidates speak about it.
The US Census Bureau released official statistics showing a slight rise in the poverty rate from 2003 to 2004 and a decade-long trend of growing income inequality highlighted by rising revenues for the top 20 percent of households and a drop in earnings for the bottom 60 percent.. It is well known among economists, media, and politicians that income is extraordinarily concentrated among the population. According to the State of Black America 2005, the income level of African American families is only one-tenth of that of white families, and the welfare enjoyed by Black Americans is only three-fourths of their white counterparts. In 2004, the poverty rate was 24.7 percent for African Americans, 21.9 percent for Hispanics, and 8.6 percent for non-Hispanic whites. In New Orleans, 100,000 of its 500,000 population lived in poverty; with the majority of them being black Americans. The homeownership rate for blacks is 48.1 percent compared with 75.4 percent for whites. Although blacks are just 12.2 percent of the American population, 41 percent of American prisoners detained for more than one year are blacks, and 8.4 percent of all black men between the ages of 25 and 29 are behind bars. Only 29 % of students in a Connecticut all black school graduates with their class. The drop out rate leads to the unbelievable rate of street shootings in our cities. All of our cities have become places of fear. Guns are everywhere. Dig deep into those young minds and you will find they do not feel their citizenship.
IRS records from 2002 and 2003, shows that the average income for the top 1 percent of earners in the nation rose by $49,000 while the bottom 75 percent of US residents saw their incomes drop.
By 2007 DAVID CAY JOHNSTON wrote in the March 19,2007 New York Times. "Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans — those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 — receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows.
The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000 also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression.
While total reported income in the United States increased almost 9 percent in 2005, the most recent year for which such data is available, average incomes for those in the bottom 90 percent dipped slightly compared with the year before, dropping $172, or 0.6 percent.
The gains went largely to the top 1 percent, whose incomes rose to an average of more than $1.1 million each, an increase of more than $139,000, or about 14 percent.
The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980."
Education, as everyone knows, is directly linked to income. How can any American not be panicked? If this trend continues with the seemingly unstoppable high school drop out rate what will the income gap be in just one more decade? Are we really on a runaway train headed for depression and more violence? Can our military based foreign policy be maintained in the face of such a fracture in our society? Those questions seem to escape all of the Party candidates. If there is a savior he or she is not yet visible.

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Trickle Down Economics Perpetuates War

2007-04-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

The Trickle down theory of economics has been a Conservative political anthem for a century. Even though most economists admit that it doesn’t work greed still prevails and old trickle down spreads around the world.
The theory is that if you get investors, foreign and local to invest in companies and give the companies large tax breaks, the profits they make will trickle down to the workers. It’s like the old Wobblies song (International Workers of the World) "there will be pie in the sky when you die THAT’S A LIE!"
The folks that put words and ideas into the mouth of Ronald Reagan in the economic insanity of the 1980s cut the top tax bracket from 70% down to 50% and then down to 28%. How well I remember Reagan’s budget director David Stockman telling American workers that the tax cuts would stimulate the American economy and benefit the workers.
Cold war profits soared, but the number of people below the poverty level
increased from (31.8 million) to (39.3 million) according to the Statistical Abstract of the United States. The federal budget deficit grew from $74,000 million in 1980 to $221,000 million in 1986 and what was called the greatest collapse of U.S. financial institutions since the 1930s left the working poor devastated and facing foreclosures on their homes.
From 1986 to 1989, 296 savings and loan institutions with total assets of $125 billion were forced to close and many workers realizing the American dream of home ownership for the first time lost their homes.
An April 10, 2007, editorial in the New York Times claimed a net loss of homeownership for up to one million families and challenges Congress and state governments to determine whom to hold accountable. It is not whom, but What."
Henry Wallace, vice President under FDR and Presidential candidate then, said back in 1948 "War preparations create record profits for big business, but only false prosperity for the people—their purchasing power shrinks as prices rise, their needs go unfilled, and they are burdened with new debts." He was right then, as Harry Truman prepared for the war In Korea and became the worst trickle down labor president in history, and Wallace would be right today.
Trickle down has never worked; it is not working now. It is a steroid for greed as Russian workers have found out and the Chinese are beginning to understand. It has caused the old cast system in India to be born anew. Countries, that allow foreign investors to buy into their companies and control the workers and the countries resources, quickly discover that trickle down does not trickle. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. That is always a formula for social upheavals.
The major cheerleader for Wall Street, the Associated Press gleefully reported on April 20, 2007 that "the signs of a surging economy are every where in China, but Chinese leaders are trying to apply the breaks." It is not the inflation that they have caused that they fear; it is the workers anger.
In my book "The Genes Of Gregoria" I quote a Russian economist who was old, sick and dying. He earned many medals fighting the great war against the Nazis, but after seeing the boorish drunk Yelstin give away the nations resources and insert the trickle down, he shouts at his wife, "Is that what so many of my comrades died for…so a few Russians could get rich?"
At a book show in New York two years ago, a Chinese editor took my book home. Is that what you fear for China?" she asked by email "Yes," I replied. "Greed feeds on greed." Thousands of holocaust survivors living in Israel live in shameful poverty, as Trickle down is a stanchion of Israel’s economy. Some 80,000 of the 260,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel are living under the poverty line, according to the Holocaust Survivors' Welfare Fund.
Trickle down creates and thrives on war. War profits do not trickle down they land on the workers drip by drip, but inflation keeps them at the faucet trying to survive. Those of us who call ourselves "peace people" do what we can issue by issue. We try, but only if we can cut off the serpent’s head will real peace arrive. The serpent is greed and it feeds at the trough of Trickle down Economics.

Am I A Racist?

2007-04-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

THE CONFUSED AMERICAN LEFT ask, am I a Racist?
Jackie Robinson the icon of American baseball was the first black player to play in the Baseball major leagues. Both the political right and the politic left claimed Robinson as their own.
On April 15, 2007, the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's MLB debut, Major League Baseball invited players to wear the number 42 just for that day to commemorate Robinson.
Robinson made his Major League debut on April 15, 1947
What few Americans know is that the American Communist party was the driving force that broke the baseball color line.
The Communist newspaper the "Daily Worker" pounded the issue for years prior to Robinson’s emergence. A sports writer for the "Daily Worker" named Lester Rodney wrote pointed articles that not only embarrassed the wealthy owners of the teams, but brought demonstrators to Ebbets field in Brooklyn the home field of the Brooklyn Dodgers the team Robinson was to play for. Ebbets field became a shrine for the left. My own brother was one of the demonstrators. It was no wonder that the left felt Jackie was one of their own when the FBI opened a file on Jackie and brought him before the house un-American activities Committee after he appeared at the Harlem Solidity Center of the " International Workers Order," listed as a "Red" organization.
Years after Robinson left baseball he became a vice-president for the Chock Full O' Nuts
. Coffee Company that employed blacks in their many restaurants, and that is when I first met him in 1963. I was booking him on a television show to promote the Coffee Company. I expected him to arrive via a chauffeur -driven car, but no I picked him up at the train station and brought him to the TV station where I worked. After the show we sat in the car and talked. It was early and he did not want to wait at the station and be bothered by autograph seekers. I was already known as a Civil rights activist and that was a subject he welcomed. I was horrified when he told me that he was going to support the right wing candidate Richard Nixon for president. I mentioned the Daily Worker and the effort of the left to bring him to baseball, but he said that John Kennedy "couldn’t even look me in the eye." And the civil rights issue was his main concern. It was devastating to the Liberals and the leftists. It created a serious breach. Many thought that he had been bought off with the Chock Full Of Nuts Job. How could Jackie Robinson, who owed so much to the left turn his back on them?
It was a hard lesson for all of us and today I must think back at that time. Yes there were racists among us liberals then and even though Robinson was himself the grandson of a slave many doubted his mental ability to see Real America. There was much talk then about a prominent Professor’s theory that African Americans were mentally inferior.
Today the liberals are once again asking themselves the question," "Am I, after all, a racist?" On April 4,2007 a morning "Shock Jock" which is terminology " used to describe filthy mouthed low level characters who elevate themselves by using their power of the airwaves to insult people went too far. This time the shock Jock called "Imus" referred to a predominately black college women’s basketball team as a group of, "nappy-headed hos." If you are an intelligent adult you probable never heard the expression or know what it means. African American hair can sometimes be Kinky or nappy. Hair strengthener ads dominate Black magazines. The "Ho" I am told refers to whore. I myself while driving into the city have heard this man make such stupid remarks about one of his co-workers on the air, but this one gave the self declared professional Black leaders a media feast. The result was that Imus was fired.
Jessie Jackson who can smell a TV camera a mile away lodged a protest, and demanded Imus be fired. This is the same Black Jessie Jackson that once called New York City "Hymmie Town" a very offensive anti- Semitic remark and one that set race relations back many years.
In a recent survey by a television station 67% of respondents said they do not believe that Imus should have been fired for his remarks and that is a red alarm for America. The Imus issue has placed many Americans between Jessie Jackson; Al Sharpton and the other so called Black leaders and a white Shock Jock.
Black Television programs; modern Black music and Black attitudes in general are all in the line of fire. Liberal left Americans particularly Jews who can no longer deny or defend the blatant racism of Zionism and dreamed along with Doctor King about a better America are disappointed in Black efforts to help bring that about and are again asking themselves the question, am I, after all, a Racist.

What do young Jews know

2007-04-05T16:02:00.000-07:00

Germans are the most gifted and most highly educated people who ever devoted the full strength of a modern state to stopping the exchange of ideas; they are the most highly organized people who ever devoted all the coercive power of government to the abolition of their own intellectual life; they are the most learned people who ever pretended to believe that the premises and the conclusion of all inquiry may be fixed by political fiat."
Walter Lippmann. (1936), The Good Society
In 1939 my father, who always wanted his children to "fight through the smog
of propaganda and see the truth," took me to Union City New Jersey, not far from our home, to witness German American Bund members march through the streets, swastikas and all. I remember him shouting swear words at them in Russian and English. We joined other members of his trade-Union there. I was fifteen and confused. "Why?" I kept asking him, "are they not Americans?"
"Because they are afraid to be called un-German" was his answer. He explained that from the early thirties The German Students' Association conducted a propaganda campaign named "Against the Un-German Spirit" that led to the idiotic book burning.
and masochistic destruction of wonderful German culture that began to bloom again following the First World War.
Many first and second generation German Americans were afraid to oppose Nazism for fear they would be classified as" UN-German" and their life in the German communities in which they lived would become unpleasant. .
A February 1939 rally was held claiming that white gentiles were the "true American patriots and German Americans who did not understand that Hitler was their leader were Un-Germans." This Madison Square Garden rally drew a crowd of 20,000 who consistently booed President Franklin D. Roosevelt and chanted the Nazi salutation "Heil Hitler."
The German American Bund closely cooperated with the "Christian Front" organized by the anti-Semitic priest Father Charles Coughlin who spewed anti-Semitic
Hatred from his radio pulpit.
Does it all sound familiar? Perhaps Walter Lippmann could say the same thing about present day Israel.
Today in 2007 young Jews know very little, if anything, about the campaign to make Young German Americans afraid to be called UN-German and to make it unpleasant for them in their own community. Even if they did, I doubt that it would make any difference for as Henry David Thoreau said, "Every generation laughs at the old and follows religiously the new."
No, I am not Un-Jewish or a Jewish self-hater, or anti-Semitic. I am opposed to the atrocities perpetrated against the Palestinian people by out of control Zionism and I stand with the peace makers in Israel.
David Truskoff
www.erols.com/suttonbear

Rachel Corrie

2007-03-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

Rachel Corrie, a martyr’s Voice as powerful as that of Ann Frank.
The new Jew: personified by the Israeli, muscular tanned Sabra, is a new breed far removed from the Image of the depression-emaciated holocaust Jew of the thirties and forties. He has a new body and a new mind. The transformation however has left the new Jew with out the compassion and sensitivity that I loved about my families’ Jewishness.
The ruthlessness of the IDF: the horrific criminal cluster bombing of Lebanon and the shameful acts of starving children on the West Bank, are crimes against humanity that all Jews will someday have to answer for. The continuing acts of forcing the Palestinians into such dehumanizing poverty puts those responsible not only in the category of the oppressed becoming the oppressors as President Truman described them, but as the worst criminals in history, the Nazis.
The perfect illustration of the blind faith mentality of the new Jew is the pressure brought against a theater to stop the showing of the Rachel Corrie play in New York. They would stop the story of Rachel Corrie, but ask all of us Jews to remember the story of Ann Frank.
I am thankful however to see a rebellion brewing by those who seek to restore the Jewish compassion and tradition of resisting the very tyrannical acts Zionism has wrought on the people of Palestine. Young People including Jews were at the forefront of restoring the Rachel Corrie play and bringing it to the people
On March 16 2003 a bulldozer driven by an Israeli army soldier killed Rachel Corrie. Many believe as I do that the killing was deliberate and to teach other peace activists a lesson.
Rachel, was only 23 years old and her life was full of promise. In a statement Released by her parents last year her mother said, "We are greatly concerned for the non-violent internationals volunteering in the Occupied Territories. We ask that members of Congress call upon the Israeli government to cease harassment of these individuals and, specifically, to cease firing upon them when they are engaged in protecting the Palestinian water supply, protecting Palestinian homes from illegal demolitions, and retrieving bodies of murdered Palestinians for return to their families – all events Rachel witnessed."
As we honor the memory of Rachel Corrie on this the fourth anniversary of her killing which, blind faith, new Jews continue to rationalize, we older Jews must pledge to keep on striving for a new teaching that will replace blind faith Zionism.
The place to begin that is here at home in the USA March 17th in Washington D C. There we will be bringing a message to the gang in the White House. That message will be, "It's over." The people have had enough. That is how we will honor the memory of Rachel Corrie, and that is how we will try and save the new Jew.

2007-03-09T15:46:00.000-08:00

Perhaps We can Still AvoidThe Third Civil War
By David Truskoff
10 March, 2007Countercurrents.org
March 7th 1965 is the day the Selma civil rights marchers were beaten trying to march for freedom. On March 9th we re-grouped and started the historic Selma to Montgomery Freedom March. Presidential candidates are planning to attend this year’s anniversary celebration. They will again embarrass most of us who made that March with their hypocritical promises of a better America for all races.
When I wrote the book THE SECOND CIVIL WAR it was with a great deal of emotion and yes, some tears. I think that it is important that on this day liberals at least read the introduction to the book.
INTRODUCTION
The first time that I met LeRoy Jerome Moton was in March of 1965, one hundred years after the first battle of Selma. He was in his late teens, and the Messiah had come to his hometown. The six-foot gangling youth glowed in the Messiah’s reflection.
It was all a beautiful dream. Martin Luther King, that very articulate, internationally famous, Black man had come to Selma Alabama to lead them to the Promised Land. LeRoy was ready to follow no matter what the cost; no matter what sacrifice had to be made, no matter what dangers had to be faced.
LeRoy Jerome Moton is an intense person, but he has a smile that could turn the Wicked Witch of the West into Mother Teresa. His very presence added to the excitement of being part of the worlds greatest love in, the 1965 Selma March that seemed to shake this country out of it’s one hundred year long Racist stupor.
When ever he came marching into town singing and laughing with a group of students behind him, you couldn’t help but get caught up in the excitement generated by the young pied piper who walked, always, like the Alabama mud was too deep.
The last time that I saw LeRoy we both shared a podium at the University of Hartford on Martin Luther King day, in 1997. His hair was silver and his young son sat in the first row of the audience. He was doing quit well. He had a good job, nice home and he was free of the frightening grip of depression and frustration that plagued him in the seventies and part of the eighties. It was a joyous reunion. I was so glad to see him, but I soon learned that his disappointment about America’s progress in ending racism that he saw as not only alive and well, but also developing new roots among both Blacks and Whites, was the same as my disappointment.
When students ask me the question, what has happened to white liberals in America, and why do they seem to be moving away from civil rights. I told them how I felt when Jessie Jackson called New York City "Hymie Town." I felt betrayed. If I, as a white man, called New York "Nigger Town" I would be cast out of the society, but Jackson was not cast out. He is still accepted in the Black community as a leader, and he has his own TV program. I shall never forgive him, nor should anyone. If that kind of phrase comes out of his mouth, then it is part of his thoughts. To me he is a bigot. I do not think that Black people have ever assessed the lasting damage that Jackson has done.
I feel obligated to tell the students about the depth of the impact the O.J. Simpson trial had on race relations vis-a-vis white liberal America. I had to put that into perspective for them. I told them that in March of 1965 a Beautiful person named Viola Liuzzo was murdered by a group of cowardly, racist thugs as she drove along the highway in Alabama. She was on her way to pick up freedom marchers that wanted to return to Selma Alabama from Birmingham where the historic Civil Rights march ended.
I knew her and I knew how proud she was to be helping Doctor King and all the young people who she thought would get a better chance at life once segregation was defeated. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind who the killers were. The FBI. had a paid informer in the car that pulled along side of her car and emitted the fatal shots.
The men were brought to trial in a small segregated county in Alabama. The lawyer for the killers blamed "Communists" for the killing. He also tried to convince the all white jury that Leroy Moton the young black man riding with Viola might have been the killer. The defense lawyer, Imperial Klonsel Matt H. Murphy Jr. said, in his address to the Jury, "The nigger is an African, and everybody knows that the African lived by the tooth and the claw for three thousand years and never built anything on earth more advanced than a hut with a thatched roof."
It was all a shame and a disgrace to American jurist prudence. The killers walked out of the courtroom free men and signed autographs as they left. Two members of the all white jury, frightened of what the K.K.K. might do to them, could not bring themselves to convict. But wait, I hear you saying isn’t that awful. How could that happen in an American courtroom? Yes, the lawyer who got them off; the racist jury and the frightened judge should all be condemned.
Now I ask you, dear reader, how could I not tell those students to think about what Black attorney John Cochran did in the O.J. Simpson trial? Did he not play the same race card? He even went so far as to have Minister Louis Farrakhan’s body guards come into the courtroom and menacingly stare at the almost all Black jury during the last days of the trial, just as the Klan stared at the all white jury during the Liuzzo trial. I ask you, where is the condemnation? Cochran is a hero in the Black community. He even has his own TV show, as does Jessie Jackson, although I doubt if many white liberals watch either one of them. Many liberals feel betrayed, as I do, and many take their hidden rage into the voting booths with them.
While Black intellectuals talk at each other, and the Black middle class seems preoccupied with escaping Black, the rage among poor blacks increases with each passing day, and the danger exists that when a spark ignites the rage, white liberals will have their own rage to deal with.
It appears that most African American people today cannot determine if they, as a group, are moving forward or backward. In the face of present day media control it is difficult to determine if we, as a nation, have made two steps forward and one step back, or one step forward and two steps back. Perhaps in the sixties we made one giant step and have been moving in inches ever since. LeRoy had no such problem that day in 1997, his speech was full of pessimism and anger.
The University had made up a poster with a photo of me marching with Doctor King in Mississippi and a picture of LeRoy taken from a newspaper article that I once wrote about him. In the photo of me, I was standing between King and Fanny Lou Hammer. During the question period, LeRoy was asked who the Woman in the picture was. He did not hear the question so I stepped up, not to answer, but to ask how many of the Black students in the audience knew who she was. Not one replied. It was a sobering experience for both of us. One young student finally asked if it was Oprah’s mother. It made us realize that this second, "Me First" generation cannot relate, or even understand those who made the great sacrifices so they can have the education that they were receiving. In the early sixties there were only twelve minority students in that school.
I told LeRoy that it was normal for young people to ignore the past and to remember that we were talking about something that happened before they were born. I told him that he would soon have the same problem with his son as I did with my teen-agers. Never-the-less when we parted, we promised each other that we would do more speaking to young audiences even though neither one of us still had the passionate fires burning. There was a time when those of us who fought for the voting rights act felt proud of what we had accomplished, but now the pride is gone.
Recently, I went to down town Hartford Connecticut to hear a Black politician speak. I heard her say all the things that I said many years ago. There was, however, a major difference. She did not tell the people, who desperately needed decent housing for their families, to go home and get their blankets and pillows and camp inside of city hall until housing was found. We did that in Waterbury Connecticut in 1968. Oh, wasn’t that a special time? I shall never forget the look on the mayor’s face when he arrived to find dozens of kids running up and down the marble stairs. Before the day was over, and the media could print their front page pictures, housing was found for nearly all of the families, and no one had to huddle in front of open ovens to keep warm, as they did in the slumlord apartments.
The African American politician called for more jobs, better housing and better education for minorities. She never said a word about how to achieve those goals. She simply demanded them. The audience applauded and I walked out. Too many times, people my age have heard the demagogues present to new young audiences that six-word combination that will cure everyone’s problem. "Vote for me . . . Give me money"
At my age those speeches become a kind of pornography, obscene acts by opportunists. Young people are always susceptible. As Thoreau once said, "Every generation laughs at the old, but follows religiously the new."
I must admit that after listening to the politician’s speech, I went home in a very depressed mood and decided to re-read the old LeRoy manuscript and at the same time I played some of the tapes that the manuscript is drawn from. I heard LeRoy’s young voice, and some of the singing. Tears came to my eyes. Have we gone forward or backward? I asked myself.
The political speech that I heard was given in the heart of the ghetto. There, the housing problem is much worse than it was thirty years ago: There, the schools are more segregated than they were thirty years ago. There, the isolation is worse than it was thirty years ago. (Bypass highways have been built so the suburbanites do not even have to see the city as they drive to work and into their parking lots). There, crime is much worse than it was thirty years ago, and the lack of leadership is much worse than it was thirty years ago.
Today, Old "Uncle Tom" has been transformed. He is no longer the preacher who fronted for the slumlords or the city hall employee who was counted on to deliver the "Darkie’s" vote. No, today it is the Black politician who is counted on by the white chamber of commerce to keep the restless natives quiet.
I ask you, dear reader, to honestly, without the uses of any rose colored glasses, evaluate America now. Ask yourself are we moving ahead or are we moving one step forward and two steps back. Is there a city in American where there is an African American structure (Mayor, police chief) and the majority of Blacks in that city are better off today than they were thirty years ago? Chicago? Detroit? Hartford? Newark? New York? Los Angeles? Have the cities been turned over to Blacks only after the living sections of the cities have become worthless property and walled off while the Malls and the office buildings remain white owned?
In Hartford Connecticut there are only two major chain super markets in the entire town and both are close to the outskirts. Some women have to take two buses to do their food shopping. Most of the white owned business fled to the suburbs and the malls following the riots of 1969. They were right behind the exodus out of the cities of the white homeowners. The same thing happened to many towns in America, and like Hartford, they never recovered. The tax base continues to dwindle as companies move out to business malls
What was the Los Angeles Riot really about? Most Americans, Black and White were appalled by the pictures of the beating of mister King, but after learning about Kings actions preceding the arrest, they were willing to simply rationalize it away and say a Pox on both the police and King. On talk shows and in letters to the editors many said simply that the riots were uncalled for. There was little understanding of the combustible build-up that the King beating sparked. There seems to be very little awareness of the thickening of the wall of fear that separates the city dwellers from the suburbanite today.
What kind of progress are we making? Run down buildings are being left for the cities to take over every day, punching more holes in the feeble city economies. Once again leaderless minority people have been taken down the garden path. A garden filled with garbage and crime. Promises are followed by more opportunists’ promises while the frustration leads to more Black on Black crime that has already reached terrifying proportions. I am reminded of the old "Wobblies" song. (The Industrial Workers Of The World) that goes, "There will be pie in the sky when you die, that’s a lie." Once again tomorrow has slipped away for too many Americans.
I did not risk my life and deprive my family so that we could replace incompetent, corrupt, opportunist, white, politicians with incompetent, opportunist, corrupt, Black politicians. That is not what I had in mind. I thought that we were all fighting for a restructuring. An American perestroika that would make equality possible.
One violent night in Mississippi in June of 1966, a young Freedom Marcher returned to the tent after being threatened by gun carrying hoodlums riding in a car with a swastika on the side, and learned that his father had been killed in Vietnam. He died fighting for free elections in Vietnam. At least that is what he was told. Most Black people in Mississippi could not vote then. I think that tells the entire story about the weakness of Black leadership then and now. Blacks should have been at the head of the anti-war movement. After all, African Americans were also a heavy load of cannon fodder. When Doctor King finally denounced the war and merged the anti-war movement with the civil rights movement, he became, not a civil rights leader, but an American leader and it was then, many believe, the decision to assassinate him was made.
Black people in the cities are faced with another serious problem that wasn’t so prevalent thirty years ago and that is the problem of the ghetto brain drain. Too many Blacks that benefited from programs that others fought for have taken their education and fled to the suburbs where they are tolerated. Do not misunderstand me. I am not criticizing anyone for trying to create a better environment for their families, but I am distraught by the fact that so many forget their obligation as citizens and not only are glad to escape the cities, but Many are still trying to escape being Black.
It is time for all Americans to turn away from the tube and face reality. I beg you now to join me and look back. Remember when Blacks and Whites were joyously singing "We Shall Overcome" and believing it before President Johnson turned it into a political slogan? Remember when we believed that integration was not only possible, but also workable? I ask you to remember when we were all reaching for a better tomorrow together. Let us try to recreate that momentum because another showdown may not be that far off and the senseless acts of burning ones own community may be repeated. This time Liberals may sit on their hands and watch. Surely the Los Angeles riots of 1992 should serve as a pre-cursor of things to come if we do not act as individuals to prevent it. I ask you to please read on, but keep in mind; with the ever worsening world economy, the widening economic segregation in America, and the bulging jails and the daily horror of children shooting children in our cities, the ticking bomb may have just a few more ticks. It is easy and comforting to look at the few who "make it big time" playing basketball and ignore the thousands who are forced to waste their scholarship and are thrown back on the junk heap. "Live a dream," we are told by those promoting the state Lotteries who want us only to see the few who win and not the millions of desperate dreamers who spend the rent money gambling and lose. Listen to the LEROY tapes with me and re-generate the motor. Look Back so that we can all, once again, march forward together.
PERHAPS WE CAN STILL AVOID THE THIRD CIVIL WAR.

They are Baack

2007-02-28T08:49:00.000-08:00

Rebirth of a Realist

THEY ARE BAACK .THE USA RETURNS
The Washington Post reported: March 17, 2000, " US Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright will announce a major overture toward Iran today, promising steps toward the return of assets frozen since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, lifting a ban on imports of Iranian luxury goods and making it easier for Iranian academics and athletes to visit the United States. While stopping short of an apology, Albright will acknowledge past American meddling in Iran, including the CIA-backed coup that toppled Iran’s leftist prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, and restored its monarchy in 1953. She also will express regret for Washington’s "shortsighted" support of Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, according to an administration official who has read the speech."
Liberals saw this as a late and minor victory, knowing that the Savak, the Shah’s secrete police, was known to carry out many crimes. There were 61 Savak officials among 248 military personnel executed between February and September 1979, when the organization was officially dissolved by Khomeini. Khomeini supporters always claimed that the dreaded Savak was created with the help of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad. Realists wonder if any were trained at the USA School of the Americas.
Today the resources of the Middle East are just as essential to the empire builders in Washington D.C., but coupled with the threat of the loss of the value of the dollar via Tehran’s new policy of switching the currency in oil sales, makes military action almost a necessity.
February25, 2007, In Australia Vice President Cheney said the United States was "deeply concerned" about Iran's activities, including its "aggressive" sponsoring of the terrorist group Hezbollah and inflammatory statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
He also said top U.S. officials would meet soon with European allies to decide the next step toward tougher sanctions against Iran if it continues enriching uranium, which can produce material for nuclear weapons or nuclear power.
"We worked with the European community and the United Nations to put together a set of policies to persuade the Iranians to give up their [nuclear] aspirations and resolve the matter peacefully, and that is still our preference," he said.
"But I've also made the point, and the president has made the point, that all options are on the table," he added, leaving open the possibility of military action.
I don’t suppose that US Secretary Rice will be able to make her apologies to Ahmadinejad at a latter date. There may be no one to apologize to.
David Truskoff

Rebirth of a Realist

2007-02-11T07:08:00.000-08:00

Rebirth of a Realist

America is the craziest place on the planet
I think it is an old Italian expression that says, "From the head the rotting fish stinks first."
One presidency after another for the last forty years has been rocked with one kind of a scandal or another. They have taken our moral structure down with them. Bush, of course, has escalated that slide downward.
On February eight a pathetic, wretched women died at the early age of 39.
Let’s pretend that we are a Muslim man in Tehran who has access to American media and sees three anchors on CNN news devote almost the entire day to every detail they could find about the women and the sudden death. Newspapers across the country made it a front-page story
So who is this women that has caused millions of dollars to be spent just for American scandal sheets to get a picture of her? Is she a holy person? Maybe a queen? Perhaps a great scientist that has found a cure for one of our killer diseases or perhaps a political figure that has found a way to world peace.
No, she was none of the above. She was the daughter of a women who was married five or six times. She herself married at age 17 to a boy sixteen. Her son was born when she was eighteen. She soon divorced and made a living as an exotic dancer in a nightclub. As a very attractive women it was easy for her to find work as a model. She later became famous by posing nude for a sex magazine. Her next claim to fame was to marry a wealthy man 63 years her senior with just another year or two to live. His death caused a legal battle over his estate.
To cut through this awful life, just before her death she gave birth to a child, but no one knows who the father of the child is. There is a battle about to be fought over custody because who gets the child gets the money. America is spell bound. No TV saga can match it.
After such a life, she deserves to be at peace, but American mass media will not let it be. Her memory and her child forever will be tormented by the sleaze moguls
Now as the Muslim man in Tehran do you think America is an immoral place? Nah, we are just a little crazy.
David Truskoff
www.erols.com/suttonbear