American Election, Self-Absorbed, Ignoring World Crises

 

Spend time reading the distressing news coverage of the upcoming American elections and the subjects vary from the superfluous to the mundane all the while ignoring anything more serious than illegal immigrations from Mexico or the American economy. Most of the coverage zeroes in on misspeaks and gaffs while attempting to gloss over Hillary Clinton’s e-mails and ignoring all things concerning foreign policy, especially her time as Secretary of State, Benghazi and the loss of four American lives including an Ambassador, the Clinton Foundation contributions for favors potential scandal and any other foreign policy problems facing the United States, Europe or the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This is nothing new as American elections are almost always about the economy, jobs and the manufactured crisis which usually activates in October and has been even given a name, the October surprise. Not all elections require the emergency October surprise which is usually targeted at one of the candidates to make them appear weak or unprepared while the other will receive a last minute bounce just in time for election Day. Even the political considerations are usually a secondary affect in the election and in recent elections it has become a popularity contest. One would easily believe that the elections are actually the American public voting en-masse for class president and not the presumed most powerful man or woman in the world. As long as the candidate is perceived as the most personable and least threatening, then they need only motivate their base and make a final push with slick advertising campaign using all forms of media including radio, television and internet, especially social media. The social media campaign is largely handled by younger voters and volunteers so whichever candidate has the greatest number of youthful volunteers has an advantage in the final push on social media. There is one final area of effect which comes from organized media including talk radio, television news and commentary, radio news and entertainment shows on both radio and television such as the Tonight Show, South Park, Saturday Night Live, Howard Stern and any and every entertainer imaginable. It has been the contest of personalities since President Bill Clinton played saxophone to prove his suitability and his being in with ‘it,’ and it all depends on what the meaning of it is, that may have pushed him to victory despite some negatives which had been hounding him. Some present that President George W. Bush was elected due to scare campaigns pushed on conservative talk radio which resulted in his election. President Obama has been all about the cult of personality.

 

All of this about an election between two people with the highest negatives ever coming into the election campaign and their final push. Many have pointed out that the choice is between a self-absorbed lunatic clown and a crooked untrustworthy liar. Talk about between a rock and a hard place; this election is truthfully exactly that. The choice is also described as total unpredictability against predictable deceit. Obviously the choices in the upcoming Presidential Elections in the United States could easily be said to leave a little to be expected better than the available choices. The problems were legion in the primaries of both parties. One party used power politics and back room dealings to force the choice to the promised one while the other permitted in numerous places anybody to vote and as they had over fifteen choices at the start. This permitted one to take an early lead due to name recognition and being the sole personality who received media coverage beyond any advertising the rest could manage combined. This led to both parties having regrets and second guessing as to whether the candidate they ended up with on their ballot was necessarily their best choice. With the candidates they ended up presenting, Hillary Clinton on the Democrat Party side and throwing out Donald Trump on the Republican side, both parties are limping with the choice they became stuck with. The Democrat difficulties were evident outside and within the convention in Philadelphia while the Republican problems have been far more evident as one group of party elites coming forward demanding some way be found to disrupt and intervene to block Trump all the way up to a vote taken in the convention rules committee where the elites were silenced by an overwhelming rejection of their attempt to release delegates from their obligations in order to get the selection past the first ballot and hope to then introduce a candidate the elites found more presentable and aligned to the party elites. The difference is on one side the elites cherry picked the candidate they desired to present while the other part the elites were shocked and dismayed by the choice which came from the primary votes cast across the nation. In either case there are going to be elites sore about the choice no matter which party wins.

 

Of all the items about this election, the hardest of things will be predicting who will win. We can count on one fact which will be soothing, polling will not be anywhere near as accurate as in the past as many of the voters only own cell phones so they may not be polled by robo-calls. Further, many younger voters are very difficult to poll and older voters are already telling pollsters that they will likely not be sure which candidate they will support until Election Day morning, some not until the levers are before them and still others have mentioned closing their eyes and never looking at the paper record as they prefer not to know. There has already been a perfect example of how horridly polling has proven. Donald Trump won primary after primary while polling kept claiming he was about to crash and burn and pull out of the primary elections disgraced and head hanging low. On the other side the polls initially claimed that Bernie Sanders would be a laughing stock and have little if any effect on the primaries which was to be a contest between Clinton, Chafee, Webb and O’Malley and if needed Biden could come in late and save the party. Bernie was not supposed to create the Bern yet had the primary system in the Democrat Party had been weighted more towards the voters in the primaries; he might have stolen the candidacy from Hillary just as President Obama had done. So, Trump was supposed to burn out while Sanders was never supposed to Bern. Go figure.

 

Presidential Rivals Not So Different
on Far Too Many Positions

 

So the election drive is lining up at the start line and the red lights at the top of the tree just blinked off and the first yellow bar is lighted and about to continue down soon to hit green in now in the middle of August and then the candidates are heading down the quarter year sprint with election Day as the finish line. Just as in a drag race, the start is more smoke than flashing down the track as they try to get initial traction and pull out first ahead of the field. We have a number of third party candidates with Gary Johnson representing the Libertarian Party, Jill Stein representing the Green Party, Darrell Castle representing the Constitution Party and a number of what can only be called lesser party and completely independent candidates. Yes, most, if not all, of these third party candidates and independents have no possible path to the Presidency for no other reason other than lack of credibility, lack of money and complete lack of media coverage unless they say something so ridiculous that it all but disqualifies them from the human race, then they would get one day coverage. So, the reality is by early November the world will know who to fear and what kind of fear they will have by the end of the third week of the new year. So, until then we get to fantasize and guess what will be coming in the next year when President Obama retires to write his memoirs and, if you believe rumor, work on his resume so he can be the next Secretary General of the United Nations. One thing for sure, Obama is still thinking big and the problems with him heading the United Nations are beyond imagination. What causes me to wake at night in a cold sweat is the thought of Obama as head of the United Nations and Bernie Sanders as President of the United States, at least I can put that nightmare to bed.

 

The talk shows and media have been having a field day with Donald Trump but after his last appearance he appears to have been forced by whatever means were necessary to follow a script to the teleprompter letter to the letter to the letter. This will provide the media with a very boring Trump for as long as his discipline holds out. Hillary Clinton, on the other side, appeared to have some very sticky legal predicaments until she officially became the Democrat candidate for President. Now the FBI, CIA, State Department and Attorney General’s Office are all in her corner and have been instructed to make everything disappear. Well, not so much disappear but more to pass along as not really all the prosecutable as technically things are not as clear as they may have appeared to the public and things are far more complicated than we the stupid old public could ever understand. There are finessing situations which demand delicate treatment and assessments so complicated with oblique and acute angles which are not actually complementary leaving room between legal and illegal and Hillary and Bill Clinton were playing in that grey area between the lines. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has said some wild claims and some were contradictory to earlier statements, as the media has made sure we heard about, and thus who knows where Trump stands on anything. That will be as close to honest reporting on either candidate as they will lie one into public menace number one and lie the other one into the White House if at all able. It is a sad day America has reached when the mainstream media takes sides on elections becoming almost a spokesperson repeating every accusation against one side while pampering the other. I would love to say the American Presidential race will be exciting but I cannot do so. I can promise that we will try and find things worthy of reporting or commenting upon but really this election looks like we will be facing more of the same for the entire campaign which will eventually become overly tedious. Imagine how our friends in the United States will feel as they will receive little if any real news between now and Election Day. For the average American the entire world just went black and nothing exists outside Hillary and the Donald. The world will continue on and things both good and horrific will continue to happen around the world but little will occur making the evening news as the election blanks out everything even if World War III were to begin, assuming it has not already.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

Sanders Foreign Policies Even Worse than Obama

 

Democrat candidate for President attempting to catch and pass Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, has less foreign policy knowledge and absolutely no grasp of the Arab Israeli conflict beyond that of President Obama and Possibly even former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. His knowledge on these issues and others were illuminated by the Washington Post using an interview from the transcript from the New York Daily News interview by their editorial board. We took both and other commentaries and attempted to choose those items which we found the most revealing concerning those items we here hold in value. We will attempt to use his own words wherever convenient and not overly challenging.

 

One somewhat rare plus was Senator Sanders answer to the question of whether Israel should be left as a Jewish State to which he replied “Of course (pauses) that’s the status quo.” From here things get murky at best and otherwise troubling. After some urging Senator Sanders finally fleshed out some visions he holds including this quote, “Here’s the main point that I want to make. I lived in Israel. I have family in Israel. I believe 100% not only in Israel’s right to exist, a right to exist in peace and security without having to face terrorist attacks. But from the United States’ point of view, I think, long-term, we cannot ignore the reality that you have large numbers of Palestinians who are suffering now, poverty rate off the charts, unemployment off the charts, Gaza remaining a destroyed area. And I think that for long-term peace in that region, and God knows nobody has been successful in that for 60 years, but there are good people on both sides, and Israel is not, cannot, just simply expand when it wants to expand with new settlements. So I think the United States has got to help work with the Palestinian people as well. I think that is the path toward peace.”

 

Uncle Bernie Wants You

 

Well, that does leave some wiggle room for policies that range from full support for Israel to Israel needs to save the Arab Palestinians from their own leadership. Israel must make sure that the Arab Palestinians have sufficient employment, reasonably priced homes and apartments, sufficient resources and plenty of opportunities and fiscal success. That would be the same as demanding that the British assure the economies, health, and general prosperity of the Australians, Indians, Pakistani, Americans, Israelis, Jordanians and all their other colonies succeeded when they were granted freedom and self-government and France do the same for her colonies and the Spanish and Portuguese all supported and maintained a functioning economy and government and the people had health care and everything at a similar level as is available in the colonizing nation. This expectation is ridiculous beyond measure as Israel was herself a colony which suffered an assault intent on genocide immediately starting on the morning of Israeli independence where Israel lost the areas which would come to be known as the Gaza Strip and West Bank. This thinking falls into the trap that the Jews of Israel having worked and established successful businesses and making revolutionary discoveries, new software and hardware, innovative medical procedures, and developed a system which provides opportunity to develop intuitive new concepts allowing for intellectual freedoms leading to successful ventures but the world, including Bernie Sanders, see Israeli success as stealing opportunity from their Arab neighbors who are impoverished because if Israeli success. Such reasoning is insane as well as faulty.

 

When Bernie Sanders was challenged on the 2014 Gaza War he danced with great skill around committing to supporting one side or the other. Eventually a longer answer which had some red meat to it was presented. When asked pointedly, “And I’m going to look at 2014, which was the latest conflict. What should Israel have done instead?” where Bernie struck forth replying that, “You’re asking me now to make not only decisions for the Israeli government but for the Israeli military, and I don’t quite think I’m qualified to make decisions. But I think it is fair to say that the level of attacks against civilian areas…and I do know that the Palestinians, some of them, were using civilian areas to launch missiles. Makes it very difficult. But I think most international observers would say that the attacks against Gaza were indiscriminate and that a lot of innocent people were killed who should not have been killed. Look, we are living, for better or worse, in a world of high technology, whether it’s drones out there that could, you know, take your nose off, and Israel has that technology. And I think there is a general belief that, with that technology, they could have been more discriminate in terms of taking out weapons that were threatening them.” And when the New York Daily News pressed further on the Gaza conflict of 2014 and the Arab Palestinian casualties Bernie provided a slightly deeper view stating, “I don’t have it in my number…but I think it’s over 10,000. My understanding is that a whole lot of apartment houses were leveled. Hospitals, I think, were bombed. So yeah, I do believe and I don’t think I’m alone in believing that Israel’s force was more indiscriminate than it should have been.”

 

Bernie Sanders Says, “Shhh, Quiet it’s a Secret”

 

These are the most egregious quotes from the transcript that we found with simply a cursory review doing a few simple searches for keywords such as Gaza, Israel, Human Rights and Crimes. The real root problem of Senator Sanders making such statements derives not from any validity that they might have, nor from the fact that these claims are coming from a candidate for President of the United States as they have because they come from the Jewish candidate for President of the United States. That fact makes these statements all the more credible and gives them the veneer of truth and places their validity beyond repute making them valid and truthful accusations because of their source more than anything else. When Bernie Sanders uses such statements that place the number of civilians killed, and he may as well say murdered, by the IDF at 10,000; even though he qualified it with the fact that he did not have the exact number and was working from memory, it validates that number as a point any detractor of Israel can now use with impunity. Add the rest of the quote which reads, “My understanding is that a whole lot of apartment houses were leveled. Hospitals, I think, were bombed. So yeah, I do believe and I don’t think I’m alone in believing that Israel’s force was more indiscriminate than it should have been and now you have the makings of admitted war crimes by the IDF.” And add in the earlier quote where Senator Sanders stated, “You’re asking me now to make not only decisions for the Israeli government but for the Israeli military, and I don’t quite think I’m qualified to make decisions. But I think it is fair to say that the level of attacks against civilian areas…and I do know that the Palestinians, some of them, were using civilian areas to launch missiles. Makes it very difficult. But I think most international observers would say that the attacks against Gaza were indiscriminate and that a lot of innocent people were killed who should not have been killed,” and that simply adds more fuel to the fire. It will not matter that Senator Sanders is not an expert or that he is not an ardent supporter of Israel or that he has voted against Israel funding and defense packages as his desired use for such funding is in social spending and domestic spending and he would all but cancel all defense spending in favor of his pet social issues spending is all meaningless. The only thing which those who oppose Israel Defense Force actions and Israel generally will see is the Jewish candidate has made these accusations thus they will take on a life of their own and these quotes will be used everywhere as they can be quoted in context with no fear that Israel’s defenders can cut them down when they can be attributed to Senator Bernie Sanders.

 

This is part and parcel of the problem with much of what Senator Sanders says on the campaign trail where he plays fast and loose with facts and factoids which it often appears he just makes up figures and his own facts using anything which will sound right and further his campaign. Should these facts and figures result in throwing Israel under the bus, then it must really suck to be Israel as all is fair in the arena of the hunt for that November candidacy spot on the ballots. These quotes we found here all came from a transcript which has been published and is now a part of the public record and there is nothing that can be said which will erase or excuse the fact that they have been added to the arsenal of quotes which will now be used repeatedly with the full veneer of truth. There are those who claim rightfully that Israel does not spend sufficient time, money or effort to counter the many mistruths, half-truths and outright lies which are spread far and wide against the Jewish State. Where such is a valid point, statements such as these by the Jewish Presidential candidate and you have something which cuts much deeper, the seeming proof due to their source. Senator Sanders making such statements would grant such statements validity but Jewish Presidential candidate Bernie and these accusations take on a life of their own and can now be used with impunity claiming them to be the gospel truth. Where we would not think to demand that Senator and Presidential candidate Sanders state, though we wish we could invalidate some of his statements, full and uncompromised support for Israel, antagonism is not a supportive policy position. Even if we were to have the reach his statements have, we would not have the instant credibility he gives to them simply by his being Jewish. Such things and truths about facts are not fair but then that is life and life never was promised to be fair. When Senator Sanders talks, there are legions of Israel’s detractors who are documenting his every expressed factoid as the gospel truth as only a Jew could express them. It matters not if Bernie expresses truth or simply grabs numbers from the thin air, either way his statements will be quoted time and again and marked up as truth and no amount of proof will be capable of erasing their stains on the reputation of Israel or her soldiers. That is the crime here, and it is a crime, will be the irrefutable truth set in stone by the Sanders campaign and the listings of the presumed crimes committed by Israel, the IDF and in their name as attributed by the Sanders campaign. The entire election taken into consideration, there is but one currently viable candidate who fully supports Israel, and it just had to be Ted Cruz, didn’t it.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Nevada Republican Race, Israel and Random Commentary

 

Trump triumph or even cornier, Trump Trumps; any way one looks at it, The Donald won and won big. The question was could Donald Trump now that most of the also rans had quit the race, particularly Jeb Bush, get the Bush voters; and would Trump just receive what has been referred to as the thirty-five percent protest vote. There have been elections past when there was predicted a percentage which would be the “protest voters” such as the election with the Gingrich Revolution and the Contract With America and the predicted high percentage for the protest vote was a measly five or six percent with twelve the “worst case scenario” which would have a significant affect and as the Republicans were seen as the party which would garner the majority of the protest voters, protest voters were seen as uneducated and simply angry white men. Honest, there was no racial or sexual vindictiveness, it was simple truth, well, truth to the liberal mainstream media, an item broadly protested in the media, particularly by the New York Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and on and on ending somewhere around the BBC and PBS, the two largest government run media outlets in the world. So, they drummed on FOX NEWS as well, “Will Trump manage to climb past forty percent or was his voter pool just the maladjusted loser voters who hate everything which was set at thirty-five percent of the voters. It has always amazed me how the media decides who does not belong in the race, the outsider with no real experience, and their voters are the disaffected and thus actually insignificant or a set number or percentage and never considered to be of any real value or able to make rational decisions and totally voting on instinct. The meaning behind that is they are mad animalistic rabies infected brains incapable of rational thought because they disagree with the moneyed elite, party central committees, the establishment and should be restricted from elections because they are chaotic and seen to also be quixotic and unstable. Well, I have news for all those making any of these claims, hey, democratically choosing the President, Congress all the way down to dog catcher, it is messy, emotionally driven, often factually limited and always surprising and this makes it a dangerous and unstable system with little order or predictable direction making it as you claimed, chaotic and with all that in mind, it still beats everything else ever attempted.

 

What is astounding is that representative governance has proven to be better at being self-correcting than any other system because every other system serves one person (dictatorship), party (Communism), family (Monarchy), ideology (Fascist), religion (Theocracy), moneyed elite committee (Aristocracy) or nothing with no laws (Anarchy and some claim Texas, incorrectly). By all appearances, if the people get their way, the Republican candidate for President will be Donald Trump. Let us assume that the under ten percent who support Kasich and Carson are freed up as they leave the race it would be ridiculous to expect that Trump would not get a minimum of three percent additional support which puts him really close to garnering half the electorate amongst the Republicans. Another thing the Republican Party better consider when they decide whether or not they will submarine Trump through the near forty percent of the delegates the Republican elitists, those Republican furthest removed from the electorate if their previous choices are to be considered, where Trump may have as high as ten percent of Republicans staying home election day, which considering the Democrat choices with Hillary the odds on favorite because the equally isolated Democrat elitists have chosen her, and even if it is loveable Bernie, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Sanders, and let’s face it, he does resemble the character Howard Beale from the movie Network, the Republicans will vote for a grasshopper if that were their choice against those particular Democrat candidates of which Hillary will be the better motivator of Republican voters.

 

There is one item about Donald Trump which bears mentioning that everybody has been completely mum about, perhaps because it is such a solid argument for electing Donald Trump, the people he knows. Donald Trump may set the mood and to an amount the preferred direction of the government, but he will also have advisors which will be guided to some extent by their requiring to pass Senate affirmation which will require them to tolerate the inane gotchas questioning probably by mainstream Republicans as well as the Democrats; but there would be a way Trump can even beat that. First and foremost he will need to set the mood by appointing some well-established experts to some cabinet posts. Donald Trump has likely made more than his share of enemies but probably also has a fair number of friends or people who owe him favors, some really, really big favors. Some of them, probably more than we might think, are, very likely, experts, and recognized as such, in numerous fields. Imagine if he were to appoint a surgeon with an impeccable and respected record in his field who also had in his resume being the chief of surgery or higher office within a hospital and its surrounding systems being appointed Surgeon General and another well-respected physician who has a record working part of his life with doctors without borders as head of Health and Human Services. I am sure Trump knows and is owed favors by sufficient people who have great resumes with making deals with foreign countries as well as having taken over a number of companies and turning them around nominated as Secretary of Labor and a renowned retired politician with a strong resume in foreign affairs, a previous Ambassador to the United Nations for example, appointed as Secretary of State. Once such have been appointed and survived the Senate reputation assassination and been approved, then Trump could appoint some lesser known but very competent managers and similar types to run other departments. His advisors will likely be a who’s who of business leaders and those well versed in international affairs.

 

I am of sufficient age to remember two United States Presidents who exceeded expectations. The first was General Dwight Eisenhower who accomplished more than many give or gave him credit for. He passed legislation to have the interstate highway system modeled after the Autobahn as he realized in case of great emergency the government may need such a system to transport military units across the nation from one end to the other. He began another system which worked for a while but grew to the point where it affected the market and is currently a real problem and repeal may be required to have system stabilize and pricing to fall more within expectations and represent service provided and not funds which can be almost stolen, that was the Federal Military Education Act which provided tuition assistance in return for service either in the military, Peace Corps or other approved system and the scholarship or grant in fields needed by these areas such as physicians, surgeons, engineering, management and similar areas.

 

The other was a man who exuded charm and warmth but likely was not qualified to hold too many if any cabinet positions, Ronald Reagan. But what President Reagan knew was very intelligent people who could take care of the cabinet and also advise the President; and he appeared to show common sense or he had a secret conscience who advised him and who he completely trusted to decide for him, possibly Nancy or some astrologer or a Ouija Board. Whoever or whatever he had, it had a good record and he had people who protected him from harm, a particular Colonel Oliver North comes to mind who in the hearings over the Iran-Contra Affair all but literally fell on his sword taking all the blame and removing any need to search higher for the guilty person, he had taken that charge. That Trump can bring people, some very well established and taking the positions because they respect Trump, owe Trump, love America or whatever reason, the people he will surround himself with will very likely be of greater quality than he himself possesses and that might provide exactly what is needed in the immediate future, competent and wise guidance and management of the affairs and spending with all working with an eye on efficiency and quality while streamlining government as much as possible. This would be a good thing and might just bring the United States back from their current position, legs and arms swimming in the air suspended at a position just a wee bit out of reach and beyond the cusp and Trump with the right advisors in place might just be able to catch a branch and while still beyond the cusp in a position where a lifeline becomes an option instead of a freefall.

 

Now I would like to share a video we received and found to give a great argument and question one can ask any Israel basher to answer and then watch them squirm. I will give a one word answer which while not exactly applicable as the current globe was the intention of the question, there is a historic answer. Harvard law Professor Allan Dershowitz revealing the undeniable truth Israel-haters will never admit making their answering this single question all the more satisfying. Here’s A-a-a-a-a-Alan Dershowitz:

 

 

We would like to thank Professor Dershowitz for posing his very appropriate challenge and despite knowing he was demanding a modern example but as that was not stated, I have an answer for Professor Dershowitz as ‘Judea’ which after the defeat of Israel, which became the ten lost tribes, were obviously next. They survived the Assyrians but finally fell to Alexander the Great forces and bringing on the Hellenistic challenge which almost destroyed Judaism. The savior might have been the Maccabees and their revolt against the Hellenist Greeks who were one of the four Greek remnants who were amongst the Greek Empire forged by Alexander the Great, in this case the Seleucid Empire. But Judea was threatened even by Alexander the Great and finally revolted after, according to the story of Hanukkah, being forced to make a sacrifice to a Grecian god which was more than the Head Cohen of the small town, who initially grabbed a weapon and killed the Hellenized Jew who offered to make the sacrifice, and after he and his five sons killed the Greek soldiers and he then made the fateful cry, “Those who are with Hashem come with me.” He and his sons and after his death his sons carried out the guerilla warfare which led to the Greeks deciding the land was not worth the troubles and departed. That too was Judea.

 

 

In Israel there were two more Israeli men murdered in the terror war or intifada which has been exacerbated by a constant drumbeat of incitement from every corner and level of the Arab governance, the Palestinian Authority (PA) even including Mahmoud Abbas and the upper echelon of PA leadership to the preschool teacher and social media government and other posters who further the societal provocations along with many government salaried personnel providing media supplementations to the Third or Stabbing Intifada energized and foremost in the Arab mindset largely of the young adults, teens and even preteens. Then, as well, officials name streets, parks, soccer fields, schools, gymnasiums, official buildings and anything receiving a title or plaque as well as parades and anything their little minds and black hearts can dream up with the names honoring the worst of the worst terrorists who have killed large numbers of Israelis. We showed a video where Mahmoud Abbas was making a speech translated by Palestine Media Watch (PMW) in our article The Lie, the Temple, the Temple Mount and the Future After Jerusalem where he praises the terrorism and blesses the attacks, especially those where the attacker died as a shahids, and repeats the quote of the blessings heaped upon the Shahids including honors in the shahids’ family and they go to the best areas in heaven and granted seventy-two perpetual virgins who retain their virginity even after having sexual relations with their assigned shahids. There have still been a minimum of three attacks daily and usually a lot more. Just because it does not make the front page of every news reporting, is this the new normal for Israel and the world could not care less. Come summer the attacks per day will likely ramp up and by next fall if no serious consequences befall directly due to these deadly assaults will simply reach a daily average around ten to twelve. When Israel finally responds, that will be front page news and the world will gasp in horror over the response which should have been launched when the attacks first became news despite the world demanding Israel simply accept this as the price for existing. And before anyone asks, yes, it is insane to allow such attacks to be defined as normal because that sets the bar at least three to five Israelis murdered in the street every week. What makes this Intifada different is that PA television and radio broadcast are instigating for Israeli Arabs, specifically the youth, to rise up and murder their fellow countrymen as if it were a rite of passage and it has been working, especially when such attacks occur in Tel Aviv and Haifa.

 

Finally, the ceasefire in Syria has simply reduced the violence and not halted it completely. The refugees from this devastation continue to flood into Europe while their brothers and sisters across the Middle East continue to refuse them into their nations for resettlement. As the violence sweeps across Europe nation after nation will prevent them from crossing their borders. The Syrian war has also begun to spread as it has become the nexus for Sunni and Shia violence as some of these flames have begun to spread across the length and breadth of Europe as the sectarian war persists. It has spread to the fractious war in Libya, the struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran in Yemen while going from a small war to a much larger confrontation even in Nahariya and this has instigated much more of the violence. There have been demands made that Israel be forced to take in her share of refugees and there was one resurrection by the Israelis to this series of events as they have progressed and occurred. The response might result in turning away even the flow of Arabs requiring medical assistance which will result in an increase of deaths around the spreading value as reporting of the violence simply will remain mute except for blaming Israel for the violence. The drift of the deadly music has danced across borders and crept into Israel where they have received medical treatment and are returned to the border and reputedly simply return to the fighting. There are those in the Arab world who desire flooding Israel with the refugees their mindless violence had produced simply to destroy Israel and have it resemble Syria and know that if they simply march ten million refugees through the fence and towards Tel Aviv and Jerusalem that there is nothing Israel will do to prevent them from entry as we cannot shoot them and such numbers would overwhelm any attempt to stop them in a manner which is nonviolent. May such a threat never be foisted upon us as that would be damning us because we choose life by using your love of death and you hoping we harm a hair on a single head so you can then condemn Israel before the world. The saddest part is you do not really care if we kill these people or take them in as they are of no value unless they can destroy Israel, and this is your idea of reaching salvation, how sad.

 

We wish there was an easy path to put the world to right, but it has never been nor will it remain that way for long. We will have a chance when men no longer strive to conquer the world and instead conquer diseases and inequities, and by inequities we do not mean different levels of wealth or pay grades but rather we end hunger, treat the mentally challenged and work towards a better world instead of trying to mold it and the people in it to match our idea of right. Maybe the time will come when all people are educated and can realize their dreams, as long as those dreams are not subjugating others or taking everything for your group and who cares about all others. We see a time when that can come true and we are not that far from reaching a virtual utopia. Unfortunately there are an equal if not greater number of those who would tear the world apart destroying most of what is fine and wonderful about the human spirit. Destruction will never beat the path to mankind realizing all that they can be, but mankind is a foolish group of people often incapable of rational thought. Mankind has the capacity for such greatness and such depravity and each calls the other fascist or starry eyed dreamer who is incapable of living productively. That was once the sole determiner if a person was worth living a life. They were the eugenicists and their idea of a perfect world was one in which only the talented would be permitted to breed and one would be required to have a license to reproduce and those considered too stupid or otherwise imperfect would be sterilized or worse. Imagine their idea of perfection where any child tested and found to be wanting would be relieved from having to live an impaired life. One had to measure up and pass muster at every point in life and if you got injured and were no longer fully capable they would have had you removed as you no longer were producing more than you cost the society. These eugenicists had a name for their political train of thought, Progressives. They believed in the Master race and it resembled the idea identical in all ways to a madman who also had the eugenicist dream of perfecting the human race, the human condition, as it was called. When we refer to a perfected world everybody is permitted to be the best them that they can and care to be. A world where in dreamers who dream big ideas are permitted their and those who simply dream while lying in a field chewin’ on a piece of straw also are allowed to look at clouds and count the animals he can see them depict. We see a world which has reached such a state through automation reaching a point and science has invented power plants which are using renewable fuels and all those dreamed of things which would perfect the human condition to allow spirits to soar and people who are childlike to retain their innocence. A world without hunger and rivalries are tested in a mutually enriching manner. But perhaps those are simply the dreams of an old fool and the world will always have its cursed who strive to place all under their rules and their philosophy leaving no room for free thought or actions other than the strict line which is defined as a straight and narrow path. A world where there is but one book and it is law and there can be no other. Such a world will be stifling and eventually the human spirit will rebel and it will start with an act of defiance which will grow until dreamers can dream and fools can play their games of dreams and have dreams of games. When will this future utopia arrive? Perhaps it will come about in 2050 and perhaps never and that, we are afraid to say, our friends, but that depends on what happens here and now and in the next twelve years. Mankind is on the brink of greatness and at the same time staring into the brink of a dark and endless void as we walk along what may as well be the edge of a blade. If we can keep a balance in the world and there are no overwhelmingly destructive forces which succeed in forcing complete uniformity including thought and beliefs, then mankind might make that final leap into a bold future, all we need to do is get beyond that cusp which is almost within our grasp. Honestly, we see a world of wonder and greatness and a world of sorrows over what might have been if only. In one we may all want to live forever and be able to and in the other death will be an escape for far too many but it will be a world where lives are wasted in submission. The problem is which path do we choose for greatness and which path leads to ruin? There within lied the dilemma going forward and we must choose which cusp to cross and once we have we will only be able to hope that we went beyond the cusp which leads to progress though not necessarily the world of those early twentieth century Progressives, but a world which will have progressed beyond hate and death and war and into a celebration of life and how life made us all so very different. We can only wonder if we can ever reach a point where we can celebrate each other despite our being different. Let us hope for the best and guard against the worst and pray we all reach that promise of lands free of want, without hatred and free to choose and be different, that is the place where we all can celebrate.

 

Beyond the Cusp