Julian Assange: Scarlett Pimpernel or Pretentious Prig?

Julian Assange: Scarlett Pimpernel or Pretentious Prig?

by

Paul E. Rondeau

   How courageous of Julian Assange to fight for open government as he braves the radiation from his laptop.  We can now all feel safe as WikiLeaks exposes the failures and foibles of the human condition from those in high office to the front lines of the battlefield.
    Gadzooks!  NATO has expanded contingency plans should Russia invade Poland (again) or enslave the Baltics (again).  OK, so the timing of this revelation may be deleterious for relations between the two nations that could turn Earth into nuclear ash.  And, it is probably not that helpful to the security of NATO's 24 democratic nation members.  Julian has calculated that this is a small price to pay.
   Julian Assange imagines himself as Scarlett Pimpernel of the information age bent upon ending the reign of secrets.  But, just what is being exposed?
   WikiLeaks could help dissidents expose terrorists, religious persecution, ethnic cleansing, drug cartels, weapons proliferation, or human trafficking.  But alas, apparently Assange's 'media outlet' never receives secrets about governments or organizations that might violently act to silence him permanently.
However, this self-appointed arbiter of the greater good will enlighten us ignorants to sensitive conversations, duplicity, double dealings, and governments who play both sides against the middle.
   Assange assumes we are surprised that in many places around the world that much -- both good and bad -- can only be accomplished in the shadows? Assange's solution is to undermine the tenuous trust between officials and governments upon which diplomacy and alliances rely.
   Of course, the rest of us never heard of the tragedy and the horror of soldiers mistakenly killing friendlies...including children.  Or, of machete wielding cutting of hands, raping women, and intentionally killing their own people or neighbors over food, territory, or just plain power.   Sir Julian will end such things by undermining diplomacy and trust between the longest running continuous democracy mankind has ever seen and other nations.  Yes, that's the ticket!
   Knowing nothing of personal sacrifice in defending freedom beyond a hard drive crashing, Assange endeavors to enlighten us that innocents are killed in war, sometimes by a soldier surrounded by death and destruction who becomes indifferent to causing death and destruction.  His contribution is to portray the tragic exception as the rule without context.
  Of course, should he be detained or arrested, Assange threatens to release the cyber equivalent of a 'thermonuclear device' of unexpurgated classified files sure to endanger the lives of innocents   When it comes to his noble fight for open government and a better world the sacrifice of innocent life is justified in defending his personal life from legal threat.
   Perhaps Mr. Assange imagines himself as the Robert Redford character in the movie Sneakers.  I see no similar courage nor character. I see no cyber-Robin Hood, Scarlet Pimpernell, nor Zorro.   I do see a crippled intellect blind to any negative consequences of his actions.  Meanwhile, media elites give 'journalism awards' to a convicted computer hacker.
  If Assange offered a solution rather than just further mucking up the works, he might amount to more than a self-aggrandized pretentious prig.

Helen Thomas, Israel, and Studied Ignorance

Helen Thomas, Israel, and Studied Ignorance

by

Paul E. Rondeau 

Recently, the matriarch of the White House press corps Helen Thomas  said Israeli Jews are "occupiers" and should go home to "Germany and Poland." These ill-conceived remarks sparked a firestorm  finally forcing the veteran journalist into 'immediate retirement' at age 89.
   But her remarks are far beyond just politically insensitive, they are conveniently and grossly ignorant.  It is too bad that the current administration and liberal media seem intent to keep the rest of us no better informed.
   First, there is scientific consensus that Hebrews are a West Semitic people indigenous to Palestine.  Their roots in the The Levant (lands at the eastern end of the Mediterranean) date back to the Bronze Age, circa 3,000-4,000 BC.
   Second, Palestine was never a nation.  It was little more than a loosely defined geographic area with no central government reaching from Egypt to Turkey comprised of various people, city states and nomadic tribes.
   After the breakup of the Egyptian Empire, the Hebrews consolidated western Palestine around 1,000 BC into the nation of Israel, i.e. the Kingdoms of David and Salomon. (There is academic argument whether Israelites actually conquered Canaan (Palestine) as described in the Book of Joshua or simply expanded via migration.)
   But from about 1,000 to 500 BC, Jewish dominion stretched from the Euphrates in northern Syria to the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea, over 1,600 years before Islam was even founded.  (A religion itself birthed in multiple political-religious assassinations and civil wars after the death of Mohammad.)
   Neither Arabs nor Persians/Iranians have any claim to the land known as Israel.  Persians, Arabs, Greeks, Romans, and later the Turks (Ottomans), British and French are all Johnny-come-lately interlopers, invaders or traders in comparison to the Hebrews.
   If anti-Semite Thomas had only said "go home to Africa" from which humanity's first migrations flowed, at least her remarks could have been more intelligent although still insulting.  Instead, she told Jews to go home to "Poland and Germany," epicenters of the holocaust. A ridiculously dishonest statement both politically and historically.

It's (not) the land...stupid!
  
   Mideast strife is about religion, not geography.  When the United Nations mandated a homeland for Jews a fraction the size of the original nation of Israel that existed for 500 years, the U.N. simultaneously divided Jerusalem and created a new nation named (Trans-) Jordan for Arab Palestinians.
   Nevertheless, the Palestine Post reported in 1948 that within 24 hours of the formal reconstitution of Israel it was invaded by every Arab nation on its borders, "Moslem armies from the south, east, and north." That violence has continued unabated for seven decades. 
   Today, the Hamas government of Gaza stated mission is to replace the Jewish state with an Islamic state.  Iran simply wants to wipe Israel off the map.   That would tend to make one a bit testy one would think.
  Such hate is aided and abetted by intellectual posers like Ms. Thomas and even our own President who falsely espouse that  Jews are "occupying" Arab peoples and places holy to Islam while, in reality, Hebrews in Palestine are the equivalent of our Native Americans.
   Jerusalem was the center of Jewish culture for centuries before it was taken by the sword and Israel became a military district of the Arab Caliphate circa 630 AD.   Muslims built the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site of Islam, over Judaism's most holy place, the Temple Mount.
  Jews believe God gathered dust at the Temple Mount to create mankind.  Jews built the first temple to God in this place. Today, Muslim countries would consider Israel rebuilding their Holy Temple in their own capital on Temple Mount as desecration of the Dome of the Rock, as an act of war.
   No one dares mention that the Dome of the Rock itself is an artifact of a millennia old act of war against Jews that included total desecration of  Judaism's most holy sight and religious cleansing of all Jews from the Jewish capitol of Jerusalem.

None are So Blind...

   Activists and media blinded by ideology condemn Israel for the deaths resulting from Israel intercepting an uninspected 'freedom' flotilla' carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.   Yet video shows IDF forces being attacked with steel bars, knives, and stun grenades.
   Reuters News doctors pictures to crop out the the knife in the hands of  "peace activist" attackers and pools of blood from wounded Israeli soldiers prior to any shots being fired.  (Only discovered because a blogger  noticed the difference in photos published in Turkey versus those released by Reuters for U.S. consumption.)
   They choose to be blind to Gaza electing a government dedicated to purging Judaism from Israel.  They are blind to Islamic terrorists acting with impunity from within Gaza's borders to strike against Israel. They are blind to Hamas as a vassal of Iran, an Islamic nation seeking seeking nuclear weapons that is publicly committed to Israel's annihilation.
   It has been said that a blind man will still not see a light even when shined directly into his eyes.  Perhaps this explains why both Thomas and President Obama lack the intellectual honesty to even see the simple critical issue:
   If Islamic terrorists lay down their weapons, Mideast violence could cease to exist.  If Israel lays down its weapons before that time, Israel would cease to exist.

ENDA: Prelude to a Nightmare

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Financial Crisis? It's the People, Stupid.

The documentary Generation Zero is causing quite a stir.  Its preview drew gasps and rave reviews at CPAC in February.   Hannity at Fox devoted an entire program to it.  Bloggers (without seeing it) have already labeled it everything from a plot to get conservatives to the polls to 'disaster capitalism' to outright 'bullsh*t.'

It brings home the point that blaming the multi-trillion dollar financial meltdown on banks, the Fed, capitalism, Wall Street, or political parties ignores the obvious.  Governments don't make policy decisions like the Community Reinvestment Act.  Agencies like Fannie and Freddie don't inflate the mortgage and housing markets with whimsical financing.  Wall Street does not dip its snout ever deeper into ethereal derivatives and high risk strategies.

None of these alleged culprits brought the world to the literal brink of financial collapse.  Not really. No institution, no economic model, no political party, no industry sector, no financial system, and no government has ever made a decision or taken an action.  Only people do. 

Generation Zero follows the radical cultural shift to immediate gratification, self entitlement, and disdain for moral and fiscal traditions starting with the Baby Boomer generation.  The trend is global  and accelerating with generations X and Y.

Baby Boomers (of which I am one) all over the world have mostly been in charge for the last couple of decades.  That includes the leadership of developed nations as well as world class corporate disasters like Enron, Worldcom, and AIG.

Although one can certainly argue that this does not make the global financial mess that generation's fault, it is no matter--there is plenty of blame to go around.

The cradle of western civilization is on the verge of bankruptcy with a national debt nearing 125% of Greece's total Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  At its current rate, debt that Greece already can no longer afford will double in less than six years.  Nevertheless, private and government employees are striking and rioters are taking to the streets in protest of government cuts to bring their annual budget deficit of 12.7% GDP down to 'only' 8.7%.  (Most say Greece will be lucky to achieve a 2% reduction.)

U.S. Deficit Spending Jumps 500% since 2009
For comparison, from 2001-2008 U.S. national debt rose a dismaying 13 points from 56.5% of GDP to 69.2%.  But just since 2009 America's total debt has rocketed to 94.3% of GDP with annual deficit spending jumping a whopping 500% to 10% of GDP from the previous eight year average.

Including the six years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, deficit spending remained at about 2% GDP. Critics rightfully screamed that Bush was a big spender.  It was true.  But then how in the world does one describe the current administration;  a government that has already quadrupled deficit spending and added $2 trillion in federal debt in the first year?

The only other time in history that America's debt got to 100% or more of GDP was in WWII when annual deficit spending peaked at  28% of GDP.  Even when the government tried to spend us out of the Great Depression of the thirties, annual deficits stayed below 5% of GDP.  I guess we all had different ideas about debt back then.

Redefining Fiscal Responsibility
Saving is out.  Sliding ever deeper debt but at a slower rate is heralded as fiscal responsibility.  Maybe that is why the interest on our current national debt has reached over $1.2 billion per day and now consumes 11% of our nation's annual budget.

Maybe 11% of the budget seems manageable but it equals $380 billion annual tax dollars to pay nothing but interest on previous overspending.  By 2015 America's national debt is projected to grow another 30% approaching $20 trillion.  The CBO projects interest will explode to 11% of GDP by 2035.  But each year Congress circumvents Pay-as-you-Go legislation by raising the debt ceiling.

It gets worse.  About 42% of the federal budget goes to Social Security and subsidized health care.  The Trustees of Social Security and Medicare have issued a warning to the public for the third consecutive year.

The Medicare Health Insurance trust fund will be broke in seven years.  Medicare revenues from payroll taxes (FICA) will then fall short by 19% and grow to a 50% deficit within another 18 years.

Social Security is currently solvent only if you count Treasury IOUs as money? Forget about 10 or 20 years from now.  There is no cash in the Social Security Trust Fund account today.  Not one dime.  Zip. Nada.  Zilch. The big goose egg.  Just $1.2 trillion of 'special' Treasury bonds.

Our national debt.is so bad that our government even owes itself money.

Through stones at 'Capitol Hill' or 'Wall Street' if you must.  It is not likely to do much good. No lifeless federal building or mechanical ticker tape ever made a decision. It is people that we elect and allow to stay in office.  Corporate America is made of people.

No, it is not someone else or some lifeless legal entity that drives our society's culture and values.  It is people.  We are those people.

We have met the enemy and it is us.

Deficit Spending Graphic @ Washington Post

Death of Common Sense Ruled 'Natural Causes'

Death of Common Sense Ruled 'Natural Causes'

by

Paul E. Rondeau

Today we discovered the passing of an old friend, Common Sense, who had been ill for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since both his birth and death records can no longer be found in government files.
    He will be remembered as having cultivated long standing but now discredited teachings such as:
- No one owes you anything;
- Don't spend more than you can earn;
- Life isn't always fair;
- Maybe it was my fault (and his infamous corollary Maybe I don't know everything.)
    It seems few will miss him.  Critics contend that Common Sense clung to outmoded principals.  "Simplistic ideas like 'adults, not children, are in charge' may be what people believed in the Dark Ages," said one critic, "but society is much more sophisticated today.  We now know that the Earth isn't flat."
   News accounts report that Common Sense's first visible signs of deterioration coincided with results of well-intentioned regulations to 'protect freedoms and promote tolerance' in public schools.  These facilitated much needed new protections such as charging a 6-year-old boy with sexual harassment for kissing a female classmate.  Teachers and student clubs could also now encourage acceptance of alternative sexual behaviors regardless of parents' wishes or the associated health dangers.
   Common Sense's health grew weaker with each new pretzel logic incident. Like when the State required schools to get parental consent to administer an aspirin and also ruled that children who were pregnant.and seeking to end their baby's life through a medical procedure called abortion needed to be protected by not involving their parents.
   His mood brightened when he thought he might have the answer to this paradox:  Perhaps many of these pregnancies were caused by incest and the students really were being protected by not informing the parents?  With some diligent research (almost an entire thirty seconds worth!) he confirmed that 99% of abortions stem from consensual sex and only 1% are reported as due to rape or incest combined.  Common Sense's mood once again darkened.
   One teacher who would only speak off the record said, "His depression really accelerated when sex and gender were determined to be totally unrelated and taught that way to children in K-12 schools.  He said he  he had done his best to serve humanity for a thousand years but now felt trivialized and marginalized.  I think it pushed him over the edge."
   The Superintendent of Progressive Public Education stated the accepted view for the record, "Common Sense obviously suffered from a severe mental illness.  He just didn't like being ignored.  Of course we feel sorry for him but today, it is our civic duty to protect our students from unscientific dangerous ideas like his."
   One friend of Common Sense who spoke on the condition of anonymity believes the final straw came when Tolerance was elevated to the transcendent virtue governing all others.  "I think Common Sense finally lost the will to live when the practice of his teachings became defined as ignorance and hate speech," he offered quietly.
   Political Correctness, also known as PC, was at first thought to be a person of interest in the death.  However, when questioned PC enlightened the investigators that Common Sense was obsolete and did not have the vision of the anointed.  Chastised investigators quickly realized that Common Sense died of natural causes and dismissed any need for further questions.
   Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, his wife, Moderation, his daughter, Personal Responsibility, and his son, Tradition.  No media accounts note their passing.
   He is survived by four estranged cousins: I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, I Have No Shame, and I'm A Victim.  They issued this joint statement:  "It would not be appropriate to hold a funeral that may offend someone. We encourage condolences for Common Sense to be expressed silently." 


Editor's Note:  Those wishing to commemorate Common Sense should speak-up while they still can.