“Variety’s the spice of life,that gives it all its flavour.” The current administration has drafted an executive order called “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” which dictates that new federal buildings mimic ancient Greek and Roman architecture. “For too long architectural elites and bureaucrats have derided the idea of beauty, blatantly ignored public opinions on style, and have quietly spent taxpayer money constructing ugly, expensive, and inefficient buildings” according to the chairwoman for the National Civic Art Society, which seems to . . .
Next Move?
67 Years of US / Iran History 1953 Iran had a democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, who was concerned with the influence that Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP) had over Iranian oil reserves. A coup d’état was arranged by British Intelligence and Eisenhauer’s CIA. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was installed as monarch and ruled for the next 26 years until he was overthrown by the Iranian Revolution in 1979. 1979 The Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line stormed the US embassy . . .
Speed Talking Lies
Trust? It looks like IMPOTUS, like Julius Caeser, has decided to take us across the Rubicon. According to our pompous speed talking Secretary of State, we are executing our “national security strategy.” We have a strategy? The senior senator from Florida is also speed talking a defensive sounding rationale on the Sunday talk shows. Talking fast gives a sense of urgency. But this is about desperate domestic political pandering – not about the many words. Meanwhile we wait for the . . .
IMPOTUS's Dark World
Children, farm workers anyone down wind be damned! People with opposing ideas are “human scum” in this world of the self-defined stable genius with his great and un-matched wisdom and attempted cyber bullying of teenager, Greta. Normally, these public musings would end a public career in disgrace. But our reality show tycoon has convinced his political aspirants high and low that they can’t survive a primary attack and would lose their perk-laden jobs if any dissent is uttered. So, a . . .
C’mon Eddie!
Poke the Bear, Get A Response. Eddie Johnson made a public “values” statement by not attending the “commander’s” speech at the recent International Police Chief Association conference in Chicago. This is bear bating and got a predictable response: “Chicago is, unfortunately, the worst sanctuary city in America. Chicago protects criminals at a level few could even imagine… It’s embarrassing to us as a nation. All over the world, they’re talking about Chicago. Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison. ” . . .
Middle East Strategy?
Waiting for instructions from the kingdom Iran? We are “locked and loaded” waiting for the word from the “kingdom” for how to proceed after drone attacks on the Saudi oil fields. We dropped out of the Iran Nuclear Deal which apparently was working as intended. Now Iran is enhancing their nuclear skills and instigating trouble in response to US “maximum pressure”. The cruel and stupid civil war in Yemen which we support through our “friends” in the “kingdom” has been . . .
Real Damage
The buffoonery is obvious. Let’s recognize it, move on, and waste no more energy reacting to each embarrassing example of this behavior. Let’s focus on the damage to: The Planet Wage Earners The Economy Our Place in the World The Planet: The EPA Administrator is a former energy lobbyist whose biggest clients included Murray Energy Corporation and vigorously fought the Obama administration’s attempts to reduce carbon emissions and strengthen environmental and public health laws. Shortly after the current administration took . . .
Human Rights Reevaluated?
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948 in Paris. The U.S. State Department has something new: a Commission on Unalienable Rights to provide “fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation’s founding principles of natural law and natural rights.” The Secretary in a recent WSJ op-ed complained that human rights advocates have created “new categories of rights” that “blur the distinction between unalienable rights and . . .
2020
The “Make America Great Again” experiment has issues. What should we look for in 2020? Character Needed? Honesty Yes Effort Yes Experience Yes Intelligence Yes Maturity Yes What about a combination of honesty, effort, intelligence and maturity? Despite being a “stable genius” and “very rich” the current “Commander” does poorly with the requirements above. Maybe we allow partial credit for thirty months and no new direct “kill chain” wars? The other aspirants offer an array of experience (Vice President, Governors, . . .
Kill Chain?
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the last of the trophy generals) reported to congress in 2018 that the U.S. is not involved in the “kill chain” in Yemen, but we are supplying the bombers, laser guided bombs, intelligence, and mid-air refueling to the Saudis and Emiratis who are involved. Is not being in the “kill chain” meant to assuage our sense of murderous guilt? Maybe , but this is little consolation to the thousands of innocent Yemeni . . .