Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

In the June 30 Wall Street Journal Robert Frank and Amir Efrati describe the history making court scene at Bernard Madoff's trial and sentencing:

"Bernard Madoff, the self-confessed author of the biggest financial swindle in history, was sentenced to the maximum 150 years behind bars for what his judge call an `extraordinary evil' fraud.

"That shook the nation's faith in its financial and legal systems and took a staggering toll on rich and poor alike."

The article reveals the victim's rage at what his $65 billion Ponzi scheme had done to their lives.

It can never be forgotten that the reason why the United States invaded Iraq was a lie involving international criminal conduct for which the perpetrators have not been brought to justice.

It can never be forgotten that Iraq's tyrannical dictator, Saddam Hussein, that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others in a neoconservative administration pursuing a New World Order were hell bent on removing since he allegedly posed a "nuclear threat" to America, had been placed in power by the same Central Intelligence Agency that was later run by Bush's father.

It can never by forgotten that Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, in conjunction with the New World Order and Carlyle Group that he has so notably served, launched a war against the same Saddam Hussein that to whom the U.S. provided weaponry and scientific wherewithal so that poison gas was able to be manufactured that had been used to kill Kurds in Iraq's northern provinces.

It can never be forgotten that Donald Rumsfeld concluded one of those agreements for the Reagan administration and was pictured with Saddam Hussein.  Both were smiling.  This was the same period when genocide was conducted against the Kurds.  When it came time for a power grab Bush the Elder referred to Saddam as "worse than Hitler."  

Bernard Madoff is the world's top economic swindler, and he operated in the United States where he conned, cheated, and lied to build his $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

The Ponzi scheme works quite simply:  To get people to trust so they hand over their cash to be invested, the person operating this fraud promises a high return on investment.

To give this high return, money must keep flowing into the investor's hands as that person is only giving the investor the high return of 15 percent or thereabouts by using the money from the last investor.

By being a member of a swank Palm Beach country club the Ponzi operator makes contacts with its rich members.  Madoff was Jewish and the members of the Palm Beach club to which he belonged were primarily Jewish.  He was, in effect, lying, conning, and cheating individuals with a similar ethnic background.

That is the burning question that must be answered!  Obama had the benefit of following one of the most unpopular presidents in U.S. history -- George Bush.  

When John McCain was running with the controversial Sarah Palin, Obama again scored a great advantage.  That was because McCain was looked upon as simply more of George Bush's failed policies.

Obama's political cry for change was welcome!  And Barack Obama delivered his "change" theme dramatically and convincingly from coast to coast.

The June 22 Newsweek in an article by Michael Hirsh explained how the Wall Street titans are currently trying to hold onto power.  The article explained about one brave individual who has seen it all, and desperately wants what Barack Obama claimed to seek -- namely change from the almost total corruption of the business world:

General Walter Bedell Smith was General Dwight Eisenhower's Chief of Staff when the future president served as Supreme Allied Commander.  

Once that Smith culminated his lengthy military career with influential  involvement in West Germany's governmental transition at the close of World War Two, he went into the federal government with important positions in both the Truman and Eisenhower administrations.  

A CIA operation in 1954 overthrew popularly elected Guatemala President Jacobo Arbenz.  There were leaflets alleging that the democratically elected Arbenz was some kind of Communist stooge.  Mercenaries were sent in to aid "The Company's" activities, engaging in acts of sabotaging trains and oil supplies.

Arbenz, who won Guatemala's presidency in a 1951 landslide, hoped to transform Guatemala's former dictatorial leadership and feudalist economy into a vibrant and modern democratic nation, and was instead driven from power.

Taxpayers are being forced to fund luxury vacations at luxurious resorts because of the betrayal by Congress.

How did this happen?  When Bush and the Republican congressional majority rushed through the $700 billion plus bank bailout it failed to apply caps on bankers, business bonuses, and other restrictions.

The same neglect of placing restrictions on bonuses and luxury vacation travel happened when Obama and the Democratic majority rushed through at lightning speed the second $700 billion plus bailout package.

These failed bankers and business executives who had brought about the economic collapse failed to recognize only corporate welfare at taxpayer expense was making it possible for them to have any job at all.

When one asks why Rush Limbaugh has so strongly attacked the nomination by President Obama of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the obvious rejoinder is another question:  "Why wouldn't he?"

Give Limbaugh credit of sort for knowing his own audience.  He is not seeking to ultimately build a Republican Party base.  Rush looks out for himself first, last, and always and that means appealing to the vicious and faithful following whose support has made him a multimillionaire.

Pound minorities!  This is what the mean-spirited Limbaugh base wants and so he will faithfully comply.

How many of us have known far right Republicans?  I have and have heard many in their ranks slam minorities and engage in hateful bigotry, especially after a few drinks or after talking to you long enough to where their prejudices jump to the fore.

In the Wall Street Journal June 12, Erica Schacter Schwartz wrote an article on this topic:

"Why pay for religious schools when charters are free?  The first Hebrew charter school opened August 2007 in Broward County, Florida.  The Ben Gamia Charter School `is not a religious school in any form,' its principal, Sharon Miller, said, `but a Hebrew-English public charter school'  educating 585 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, and a high school is scheduled to open in 2010.

"This coming fall, a second Hebrew school, Hebrew Language Academy, will open its doors in Brooklyn, New York, offering a completely secularized dual language curriculum committed to academic excellence and Hebrew-Language proficiency.

"The Roman Catholic Diocese in Brooklyn, in financial straits, recently wrestled with this question as well, when it had to decide whether to allow some Catholic schools to be converted to charter schools rather than to close down.  `A charter school is not a Catholic school,' explains the Reverend Kieran Harrington, the vicar of communications at the Diocese.  'In a Catholic school, we look at the whole human person -- the mind, the body and the soul.  A public school cannot be involved in the formation of the soul.  Charter schools, while not ideal, are an opportunity for us to at least speak about character.  We are hoping to attract some families who would never pursue any Catholic education."

The April 6, 2009 Newsweek Magazine featured Paul Krugman on its cover with this bold-faced black headline "Obama is Wrong!"

The feature story by Evan Thomas left no doubt about Paul Krugman's background qualifying him to speak out on what is happening now to the U.S. economy.  Thomas explained:

"Paul Krugman has all the credentials of a ranking member of the East Coast liberal establishment:  A column in the New York Times, a professorship at Princeton, a Nobel Prize in Economics."

"In his twice a week column and his blog, conscience of a liberal, he criticizes the Obamaites for trying to prop up a financial system that he regards as essentially a dead man walking.  In conversation, he portrays Tim Geithner and other top officials as, in effect, tools of Wall Street.

How easy it is to throw stones at others and blithely ignore our own shortcomings.

It is easy when you are Ari Fleischer and you said anything that was on the Bush-Cheney menu for the day.  As Fleischer and other neocon allies point fingers at Obama and proclaim that his weaknesses caused the current Iran election vote scandal to materialize, it is necessary to see where the Republican right has stood on democratic electioneering.

This is the same Ari Fleischer who was laughed off his own podium and out of the White House press room after steadfastly declaring that the Bush-Cheney administration did not make decisions based on politics.

A subject that is too tragic to laugh off is how Democrats actually won the last five presidential elections but were not given official credit for two victories.  Fraud coupled with political opportunism robbed Democrats of legitimate victories in 2000 and 2004.

It has been my custom to read for half an hour before drifting off to sleep at bedtime.

However, last night in reading Robert Wright's article in the June 15 Time Magazine edition, "De-Coding God's Changing Moods", I was so horrified with the very first paragraph that I couldn't have a peaceful sleep all night long.

I read more than once Robert Wright's first paragraph, which both startled and deeply depressed me.  Wright wrote as follows:

"The ancient Israelites got straightforward guidance from scripture on how to handle people who didn't worship Israel's God, Yahweh, 'You shall annihilate them -- the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebsuites -- just as the Lord your God has commanded.'"

Early in the gritty film noir boxing classic "The Set-Up" a close-up reveals  tired, battered veteran boxer Ryan, his years of wear and tear visible in the generous layer of scar tissue over his eyes and his mashed left cauliflower ear.

Slated for one more battle, a 4-rounder following the main event at Paradise City Arena, he makes one more stab at optimism in the manner of a tired warrior seeking purpose after two decades in the boxing ring.  The 35-year-old boxer, whose ravaged body possesses the wear of someone much older, tells his faithful wife Audrey Totter that he is "just one punch away" from an upset win over his 23-year-old opponent.

A victory will bring a chance for at least a semi-final or perhaps main event rematch against Hal Baylor, a young fighter who is being groomed for bigger things.  The higher paying rematch will afford an opportunity to purchase the contract of a young middleweight who, according to Ryan, is the most promising prospect in that class since the great Harry Greb.

Audrey Totter, a woman of wisdom far beyond her years who has suffered many psychological scars amid her husband`s punishment, has an answer.

In the June 1 New York Times article by Gretchen Morgenson, the big U.S. banks' rush to battle against regulation was revealed:

"As the financial crisis entered one of its darkest phases in October, a handful of the nation's largest banks began holding daily telephone sessions.  Murmurs were already emanating from Washington about the need for a wide-ranging regulatory overhaul, and Wall Street executives girded for a fight.

"Atop the agenda during their calls how to counter an expected attempt to rein in credit default swaps and other derivatives, the sophisticated and profitable financial instruments that were intended to limit risk but instead had helped take the economy to the brink of disaster."

What so-called credit swaps and derivatives achieved for the big banks that profited from them was to transform banks into complicated gambling casinos.

We read and hear every day what a trouble spot Iran is to America and the world.  "If only they would understand us" is one pet saying delivered with the shake of a head and a loud accompanying sigh.

A search through history, in this and other instances, reveals why Iran took the steps it did to bring it to its current chapter where the mainstream media engages in perpetual hand wringing over what is perceived as the policies of "crazies."

To those who have not studied the history of post-World War Two in Iran the idea of Iranians having their own functioning democracy existing under an elected popular leader can expect to be greeted with a dismaying stare and a comment of "Couldn't be!  We're not talking about the same country.  Not in Iran."

Understandably the mainstream media along with corporate giants, particularly in the global oil sphere, are not eager for the real history of Iran to be revealed.  It becomes embarrassing and downright disconcerting.

When Bill Clinton signed the World Trade Agreement it was the beginning of the end of U.S. dominance in worldwide manufacturing.

The congressional members who voted approval of this destructive agreement can take bows now for the General Motors collapse.

With $50 billion of taxpayers' dollars one cannot help but wonder where this deluge of borrowed billions is going?  

According to a New York Times article by Micheline Maynard on June 1, the plan following bankruptcy protection is as follows:

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

In the age of Barack Obama, both the Republican Party as well as the South appear marginalized and out of step with the rest of America. Yet it wasn't so long ago that the South represented the foundation of America's conservative hegemony. Starting with Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, the Republican Party prevailed in nine out of the next fourteen presidential elections with a reliable Southern base.

Specifically, the Republican Party exploited white Southern resentment against the cause of civil rights and integration. The "Southern strategy" as it was later called, enabled Republicans to end the Democratic Party's previous domination of the South following the Civil War. A key figure in that realignment was the renowned evangelist Billy Graham.

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

On January 1, 2007, Yale Law School professor Heather Gerken  published a widely read article in the LegalTimes entitled, "How Does Your State Rank on The Democracy Index." Gerken argued that just as the Environmental Performance Index ("EPI") shamed countries such as Belgium to upgrade their environmental practices, a "Democracy Index" would embarrass state and localities into reforming their electoral administration through competition.

Since Bush vs. Gore in 2000, the debate about electoral reform has been dominated by anecdotes and overheated abstractions. Liberals like me have long suspected that states such as Ohio and Florida were deliberately disenfranchising minority voters sympathetic to Democratic candidates. Conservatives complained that voter fraud and urban political machines were allowing ineligible voters to cast ballots at the expense of Republican candidates. With her article, Gerken contended that a Democracy Index would replace a debate dominated by shouting with data driven arguments instead:

Amid all the discussions about potential paths forward in terms climate legislation, there is basic agreement about the need to 'put a price on carbon' to incentivize reducing carbon intensity (and usage ... or, actually, dumping into the atmosphere) throughout the economy.

Should we pursue a Carbon Cap (or A CAT, a Cap, Auction, and Trade) or some form of Carbon Tax (or fee)?

And, then the debate turns to "what to do with the resources".  For many, the best answer seems to be some form of Cap & Dividend program.  The idea of sending money "back" to people has great appeal, for many reasons but what about looking behind the curtain. Does it continue to make as much sense?

After bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki the year before, US officials knew the effect of massive radiation on human beings and animals.  They had to know.  So what else were the thousands of navy personnel positioned on ships from five to eight miles from the Bikini Atoll bomb site in the central Pacific if not guinea pigs?

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Building consensus within America's body politic and national security establishment for a new way forward with Muslims worldwide is a formidable challenge. Many Americans still don't appreciate the complex nuances of Muslim society and remain stubbornly Islamophobic almost seven and half years after 9/11. Equally formidable is earning the goodwill of Muslims worldwide following the Iraq War as well as American atrocities perpetrated upon Islamic detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Hopefully, President Obama's historic election has finally opened a path for constructive conversation about how America can most effectively engage the Muslim world.

The CIA's former point man on Islam, Emile Nakahleh, has vigorously entered this conversation with his new book, A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America's Relations With the Muslim World (Princeton University Press). From 1991 to 2006, Nakahleh served as the director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program in the Directorate of Intelligence at the CIA. He holds a PhD in international relations and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

By Steven Best and Jason Miller

"I am one of those who believe that it is the mission of this war to free every non-human animal in the United States. I am one of those who believe that we should consent to no peace which shall not be an Abolition peace. I am, moreover, one of those who believe that the work of animal liberationists will not have been completed until all the sentient beings of the Earth, shall have been admitted, fully and completely, into the moral circle of humanity. I look upon speciesism as going the way of all the earth. It is the mission of the war to put it down." --revision of a quote by MLK

By Jason Miller

"I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague, and we are the cure."

--Agent Smith from The Matrix

With the latest campaign finance report filings, we are getting a clearer picture of the 2010 California Governor primary on the Democratic side. As Shane Goldmacher of the Sacramento Bee reported:

Attorney General Jerry Brown announced Friday that he raised $3.4 million in 2008 in advance of an expected bid for governor in 2010. That sum leaves Brown, a Democrat, perched above his two declared Democratic rivals, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who each reported raising on the order of $1.1 million last year.

Brown's haul, combined with leftover cash from his 2006 election, leaves him with $4.1 million cash-on-hand, a total that dwarfs the roughly $750,000 available to Garamendi and the $540,000 available to Newsom at year's end.

Yet that doesn't give an accurate picture.

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal..

"We face a monumental economic challenge that goes far beyond anything being discussed in the U.S. Congress or the corporate press. The hardships imposed by temporarily frozen credit markets pale in comparison to what lies ahead.

Even the significant funds that the Obama administration is committed to spending on economic stimulus will do nothing to address the deeper structural causes of our threefold financial, social, and environmental crisis. On the positive side, the financial crisis has put to rest the myths that our economic institutions are sound and that markets work best when deregulated. This creates an opportune moment to open a national conversation about what we can and must do to create an economic system that can for work for all people for all time."

With the latest campaign finance report filings, we are getting a clearer picture of the 2010 California Governor primary on the Democratic side. As Shane Goldmacher of the Sacramento Bee reported:

Attorney General Jerry Brown announced Friday that he raised $3.4 million in 2008 in advance of an expected bid for governor in 2010. That sum leaves Brown, a Democrat, perched above his two declared Democratic rivals, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who each reported raising on the order of $1.1 million last year.

Brown's haul, combined with leftover cash from his 2006 election, leaves him with $4.1 million cash-on-hand, a total that dwarfs the roughly $750,000 available to Garamendi and the $540,000 available to Newsom at year's end.

Yet that doesn't give an accurate picture.

Harry Truman in a "bipartisan" moment with Lauren Bacall, a staunch liberal Democrat. This is about as "bipartisan as Harry got."

Last week was exhilarating for Democrats and, judging by the international media, for people all over the planet who have suffered for nearly a decade from the misguided and often criminal policies of George Bush and his terribly inept administration.

The swearing in of Barack Obama and the departure of the Connecticut Cowboy from our public affairs was something long anticipated, and, after our long dark winter, as welcome as the return of springtime and birdsong, at least in these quarters.

There was great emphasis made before Barack Obama's inauguration about reconciliation as a people, of reaching out across the aisle in a spirit of cooperation.  This emphasis was enhanced by the focus on Lincoln and Obama being sworn in on the same bible as America's Civil War president, who stressed "malice toward none and charity for all."

Obama indeed struck that note, but there were two areas of emphasis where the historical focus lay more with two Democratic presidents with direct linkage to World War Two and dealing with grave economic times.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt sounded the correct note in his memorable first inaugural address is stating the phrase that stands out historically more than anything else said, "We have nothing to fear itself."  With America caught in the vise-like grip of the Great Depression, his words served to enforce and reinforce the American spirit and the necessity to triumph over economic adversity.

Barack Obama sounded a comparable note in stressing the necessity of Americans rolling up their sleeves and getting to work, stressing the essential of common goal and purpose in a manner that unifies rather than dividing.

At the same time leaders of key American allies who supported completing that inspection effort were rudely insulted.  It was accordingly fitting and highly appropriate for Obama to send out a signal that the comprehensive change he advocated in his winning 2008 campaign would be carried out in the foreign affairs field.

When Obama cited the importance of reaching out and repairing damaged relations internationally he was visiting familiar terrain as a Democratic president.  Most of World War Two was fought under FDR, the same leader that presided over a domestic war against the Great Depression.  John F. Kennedy fought in World War Two and achieved heroism as a PT boat commander in the Pacific naval campaign.

Both Roosevelt and Kennedy achieved triumphs internationally, winning friends abroad with programs such as the Good Neighbor Policy under the former leader and the Peace Corps and Alliance for Progress under the latter.

Throughout the world Obama's November victory was greeted with elation.  World leaders and their people stand to embrace the new president and the kind of positive change he proclaimed to auger.

These were appropriate notes to highlight Obama's inaugural address and hopefully they will constitute a beginning, constructive building blocks toward a better future domestically and internationally.

Fifty years ago today I was halfway through my sophomore year at WE Stebbins High, an almost completely segregated school in the almost completely segregated city of Dayton, Ohio, a town said at the time to be a southern city that happened to be north of the Mason Dixon line.

The school was "almost completely" segregated because it was located within a good Hail Mary pass of Wright Patterson AFB. I don't remember exactly the reasons but we were told that because the school received federal funds for students who were military dependents that it had to be integrated.

"Integration" was accomplished by the admission of two young Black kids, The boy was named Sam. I remember because we became friends for awhile until the transparent racist displeasure of my little Quaker Grandmother became thick enough to keep him from dropping by. She wasn't ready for a black president.

The girl's name is beyond my atrophied powers of recall. I can see their faces though; both were exceptionally attractive, beautiful in fact, bright, "A" students (National Honor Society), and the son and daughter of Air Force Officers. They weren't related, although they might have passed for brother and sister (to my eyes) and they knew each other from the Air Base (the Air Force at the time wasn't a lot more integrated than my high school).

Their presence among the lower and middle class adolescent white children of factory workers, shopkeepers and lower level bean counting managerial types caused no great stir. There were no serious problems (to my eyes) other than an occasional racist taunt, or snub. Civility towards them was rigorously enforced. The powers that be paddled freely and often back then and the sting of that paddle and its humiliation was seldom sought.

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Tomorrow, America honors the birthday of heroic civil rights activist Martin Luther King. Americans revere King across the political and ethnic spectrum for his wisdom, idealism, courage and practice of non-violent civil disobedience against the forces of racial oppression. Thanks in large part to the trailblazing efforts of King and his followers; America inaugurates its first black president the very next day when Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20th. Yet even as Americans celebrate the historical arc from Martin Luther King to Barack Obama, the scars of racial injustice remain woven into our country's fabric.

Understandably, historians have overlooked the immediate aftermath of King's assassination in a Memphis, Tennessee hotel on April 4th, 1968. The meaning of King's life as well as the tragedy his loss represented has received considerable attention from historians and the body politic. Yet the immediate aftermath of King's death was dwarfed by his iconic life as well as the assassination of Robert Kennedy and the violence that took place during the Democratic National Convention later that year.

George W. Bush had not done enough to benefit corporate cronies with his huge tax cuts and launching a war in Iraq on behalf of big oil with emphasis on corporate giants like Dick Cheney's Halliburton.

Despite efforts by incoming President-Elect Barack Obama, who was able through his influence to achieve a delay in action, George W. Bush told the nation's cable companies that he was definitely on their side.  

At the same time Bush's actions revealed that he was once more siding against the middle class and poor, especially those on fixed incomes suffering from the calamitous economy he achieved through his and partner Dick Cheney's policies.

Those so-called rabbit ears, those antennas from roofs that brought television into the homes of those struggling middle class, poor families and individuals just had to go.