EXIT FROM AFGHANISTAN

 The Afghanistan war has been a difficult problem into which America was dragged 20 years ago. The entrance was unavoidable because America was attacked at the twin towers by Al Qaida which which the Taliban supported. In addition it was then complicated by a side war in Iraq. Iraq was an unnecessary diversion. George Bush was an honest president, but he did make a mistake in Iraq. However, in the end, America was able to exit gracefully from Iraq but not as gracefully from Afghanistan. Afghanistan had to end, and unfortunately the Afghan government folded when we left, but we eventually had to leave. The exit was initiated by Trump and finished by Biden. The Republicans laid the blame on Biden for political reasons, but neither party is guilty. Completion of the withdrawal by Trump would not have been any smoother than by Biden. It probably would have been worse.

PUTIN'S PUPPET IS GUILTY

It is not American patriotism to support Putin's puppet Trump.

It is not American patriotism to support Trump self-serving dishonesty and authoritarianism.

It is not American patriotism to be part of or to support a violent insurrection against the American seat of government to support an overturn of the honest election of an American president to keep Putin's puppet in the presidency.

The insurrectionist mobsters who attacked the capitol were anti-American criminals.

President Biden won the election fair and square.

Trump is afraid that now that he is no longer president, he is liable to be convicted of his crimes as the most dishonest, treasonous, and self-serving president in American history.

A TRUMPER RUNNING FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR WITH OLD TRUMP CRAP

I watched Caitlyn Jenner on the View today. She is running for California governor as a Republican against Gavin Newsom in the upcoming recall election. She claims to be inclusive. She says although she is new to politics but is surrounding herself with the “best people.” Joy Behar asked her the most important question which forced Jenner to reveal who she really is. The question was essentially, Did Biden fairly win the last presidential election or was the election rigged against Trump as Trump claims? Jenner’s answer was that she did not want to get into that. This reveals that Jenner is really a slavish Trumper, not inclusive. Surrounding herself with the “best people” is exactly what Trump said about himself. As it turned out, he surrounded himself with crooks like Trump, some of whom have been indicted and some of whom have gone to jail. Some have avoided jail because Trump used his power as president to get them off the hook. I suspect that Caitlyn Jenner would be an incompetent governor surrounded by incompetent crooked Trumpish advisors. As for California taxes being too high, you pay for what you get. If you want a state with good services, you have to pay for those services with tax money. Republicans have a history of lowering taxes as a benefit to their rich contributors while the rest of us (especially the poor) pay for those lower taxes with less benefits.

STATEHOOD FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

The population of the District of Columbia was 689,545 in 2020. In that same year, the population of Wyoming was 595,653. Yet the people of Wyoming enjoy statehood including electing 2 senators and one representative to Congress. Why do the people of DC not enjoy the same representation? Is it because DC has a large Black population and Wyoming is mostly White? Is it because most of the people in DC are Democrats and most of those in Wyoming are Republicans? The American citizens of DC deserve the same representation as those of Wyoming. Our fellow Americans in DC deserve the same citizenship as the rest of us. America needs statehood for the District of Columbia.

GAZA

 I am a Democrat and consider myself a liberal both in American and International politics. I often agree with positions taken by Daily Kos (not always). Recently Daily Kos took a position more than just critical of the action of Israel in regard to Gaza and asked that the readers advocate that position. In this case I felt that I needed to reply, This is my reply:

"I do not agree with your one sided request of blaming Israel for the recent war between Israel and Gaza,. I would criticize Israel for evicting some Palestinians from their Jerusalem homes that were acquired after the 1948 war because many people were displaced on both sides.

However your criticism of Israel for bombing Gaza neglects to mention that Gaza started the conflict by shooting rockets at Israel. What would be your suggestion for Israel's response? To simply sit still quietly and allow the Gaza rockets to kill Israeli citizens (including Israeli Arabs)?

Incidentally, the separation of Gaza from Israel was originally intended as a first step in the creation of an independent Palestinian state peacefully living side by side with Israel. Gaza was chosen as the first step because of its distance from the population center of Israel (compared to the West Bank). Unfortunately the people of Gaza elected Hamas as their government. Hamas then proceeded to attack Israel with rockets and terrorists tunneling under the border." I would add that the goal of Hamas is not a Palestinian state existing side by side with Israel, but rather a Hamas Palestinian state from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River with no Jews in it.

TO WHAT COUNTRY ARE THE TRUMPUTINCANS PATRIOTIC?

The Trumputincans claim to be superpatriots. What is so patriotic about loyalty to Putin and his puppet Trump? What is so patriotic about invading the American capitol or supporting the invaders?

COVID IS REAL

Don't be a gullible fool. COVID IS A REAL THREAT TO YOUR HEALTH AND LIFE. Protect yourself from COVID. Get vaccinated. Wear a mask when in public, especially if indoors. Keep at least 6 feet away from others unless you are certain they are vaccinated and do not carry COVID.

SHAMAS

The word for policeman in modern Hebrew is shamas. The original meaning of shamas is helper because a policeman is a person who helps others. Derek Chauvin is not and was not a shamas.

A SUMMARY OF TRUMP'S FAILINGS

Donald Trump, as president of the USA, disregarded the truth, disregarded the American people, and disregarded American democracy. He is a con-man whose only interest is promoting himself no matter what the consequences for others. That is how he acted in business as well as politics. Fortunately for the rest of us, he failed because he was not smart enough to fool all of of us all of the time (to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln).

DEJOY NEEDS TO BE REMOVED BEFORE HE DESTROYS THE AMERICAN POSTAL SERVICE

When Trump was president he installed his stooge DeJoy as postmaster general and stacked the Postal Service Board with Trump stooges to keep DeJoy there contrary to the interests of the American people. Trump’s purpose in sabotaging the American Postal Service was to interfere with the right of the American people to vote and thereby keep himself in office. But the American people came together and voted out Trump overwhelmingly despite all his crooked attempts to keep his presidency (including inciting a treasonous insurrection against America). Now DeJoy is still there as Trump's turd in the punch bowl. President Biden should fire the Trump zombies on the Board and bring in honest Americans who can fire DeJoy, the turd, and save our Postal Service.

WHY WAS THE KGB ABLE TO INFILTRATE THE US INTERNET?

Why was the KGB able to infiltrate the US internet to elect Donald Trump to the US presidency? Yes, I said KGB because the Russian intelligence service is called by a different name today, but it is the descendant of the Soviet Union KGB where Vladimir Putin used to work. Yes, the same Vladimir Putin who is now the President of Russia. For 4 years we saw Donald Trump openly side with Putin and try to break up our traditional alliances with our Western European allies. Trump abruptly pulled our troops out of Syria to allow Putin’s ally Bashar al Assad to crush his opponents. Trump stabbed our Kurdish allies in the back. Trump pushed out his competent advisers like his secretary of Defense James Mattis, CIA director James Comey, National Intelligence Chief Dan Coates, and many others to replace them with incompetent sycophants loyal to Trump. But were these actions by Trump only stupidity, or Trump’s narcissism, or was it that Trump was beholden to or compromised by Putin because of personal financial involvement?

BLACK LIVES MATTER

Black lives matter! Black people, particularly African American young men, are subject to violence by rogue police officers and others in the USA. This problem is compounded by the gun anarchy in our country. Three recent examples that have come into public view were the killings of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, George Floyd in Minneapolis Minnesota, and Breona Taylor in Louisville Kentucky. All three cases were tragic and had racial implications, but the details were different. The killing of Ahmaud Arbery was a first degree murder and a hate crime. The murderers pursued and shot Arbery, who was simply jogging, because he was Black. The killing of George Floyd was committed by the reckless action of a rogue police officer. What degree of murder or manslaughter was committed depends on the intention of the killer, but certainly race was a factor. The killing of Breona Taylor was tragic, should not have happened, and race was involved, but looking at it only through the lense of what I heard in the news poses the question of where is the guilt? Apparently the police were falsely sent during the night to the wrong location to investigate. Breona Taylor and her boyfriend were roused from their sleep by the police crashing down the door. The boyfriend fearing a criminal entry fired at the door with his gun. The police responding, fired back killing Miss Taylor. So, where is the guilt? Unless there are factors other than what I understood from the news, the guilt does not lie with the police officer who fired the shots after shots had come out of the dwelling or with the boyfriend who fired thinking he was firing at intruders. There was guilt by whoever sent the police to the wrong location, by a mentality among Whites that assumes the worst when Blacks are involved, and by the people who promote the gun anarchy which put all the parties immediately involved in this tragic situation. If there had been proper gun control in place, the tragedy could have been avoided.

Asian lives matter! The murder of 8 people at 3 Asian massage parlors by a white gunman in Georgia was obviously racially motivated. Yet a sheriff’s captain in Cherokee County defended the murderer saying that he had a bad day. It turns out that this particular captain has displayed hostility toward Asians. This murder is the culmination of months of incitement by the former president (Trump) who blamed the COVID crisis on China to deflect from his own neglect of the problem here in the USA. Many of Trump’s slavish followers are responding by targeting their fellow citizens of Asian decent.

Jewish lives matter! I am fortunate that my grandparents brought my parents to America fleeing persecution in the Russian Empire in the early 20^th Century. One third of all the Jews in the world and the vast majority of my relatives in Eastern Europe were murdered by the invading Nazis during the holocaust.

All lives matter!

The glass pendant pictured above is named Black Lives Matter and is inspired by the Black Lives Matter Movement. The black background represents Black Americans. The green stems and light blue flowers represent life. It can be found at BLACK LIVES MATTER GLASS PENDANT WITH BAIL (beadshaper.com)

TRUMPERS! GET OVER IT

Trumpers, pro-Trump/Putin anti-America mobsters (like those who attacked our Capitol on February 6), and conspiracy theorists. Get over it, Trump lost! Joe Biden won fair and square. More Americans voted for Biden and Harris than for Trump/Putin. America won and Fascism lost.

THE POST OFFICE MUST BE RESURRECTED FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

My fellow Americans. Now that Putin Puppet Trump is out of the WH, our Post Office must be taken back from the fecalith Louis DeJoy that Trump left behind.

TRUMP-STYLE IN TEXAS

The Texas response to cold weather failed because the Texas governor and his administration practice Trump-style rugged individualism which is rugged individualism for the regular people and social welfare for the very rich, especially the fossil fuel barons.

TRUMP'S GUILT

 The Capitol Police bravely defended the Capitol and Congress of the American people. Some were murdered in the process. Others suffered grave injuries. Police Officer Goodman received the Congressional Gold Medal for his bravery in outwitting the stupid Trump/Putin mobsters to save our American senators and representatives. Congratulations to the House Managers for presenting the truth about Trump's treason to the American people. Trump was not officially convicted by the Senate because they did not meet the 2/3 needed although they did reach the majority. However the real judges were the American people who were presented with the facts of Trump's guilt.

JEWISH POPULATION

 I began this blog some years ago writing about Judaism and religion in general as well as Zionism, Jews in general, and other related ideas. The past year has been devoted almost exclusively to American politics because of the urgent problems in American government in the past 4 years. Now that the American government has returned to normality, although the problems created by the Trump era still need to be corrected by the new Biden administration, I can return at least part of my attention to Jewish issues and issues of religion in general.

Let’s start with what is the Jewish population in the world now, and where do we Jews live in the world? That depends on who is included in the count. The number of people who consider themselves Jewish more than anything else is about 15 million. The number of those who consider themselves at least partially Jewish is about 20 million. About 40% of the Jews in the world live in Israel and another 40% in the USA. France, Canada, and Russia each have about 3%. Britain has about 2%. Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Germany, Ukraine, and Hungary each have about 1%. Everywhere else has about 2% altogether. By continent, about 40+% of Jews live in North America, about 40+% in Asia (mostly Israel), about 14% in Europe (including Britain), about 1% Australia, and less than 1% in Africa.

CONGRATULATIONS TO JOE AND KAMILA

Congratulations, Joe Biden and Kamila Harris, on your inaugurations as president and vice-president. You have a lot of work to accomplish to clean up the mess left behind by that other guy (what's his name?)

PARDONS FOR SALE

Pardons for sale! Pardons for sale! Mail your check to Donald J Trump, Mar-a-Lago Club, Palm Beach, Florida.

TRUMP MOBSTERS INVADING AMERICAN CAPITOL

A gang of pro-Trump mobsters invading America's Capitol urged on by Draft Dodger Donald Trump, Putin's Puppet, soon to leave the White House, and possibly promoted by Putin's neo-KGB posing as Americans on social media, 

TRUMP HAS INCITED MOB AGAINST AMERICA

Trump incited a pro-Putin anti-democracy mob to attack America's Capitol to stage a coup. They must be arrested and thrown in jail along with their Trump. America is the country to which my ancestors fled from Eastern Europe. The Trump mobsters are trying to do what Hitler and his Nazis did to the Weimar Republic in Germany. We must not allow these goons to take over our America. Joe Biden was lawfully elected President of the USA, not the wannabe dictator Trump.