The Crime of Crimes

At the end of World War Two, a relatively few German war criminals were tried in one way or another by one court or another. Then the allies lost interest. Some international principles were developed in the course of all this. It turned out that the worst possible war crime was the crime against peace--it included all the lesser war crimes that happened because someone began an aggressive war. So who have been the worst war criminals since 1946?

Armed Crackpots

It's no surprise that the Republican attempts to stir up their base with attacks on Planned Parenthood have brought on an armed attack on a Planned Parenthood office with two civilians and one police officer murdered. We knew that would happen. Every nation has its crackpots. Our nation arms the crackpots.

Accounting for the Deaths of Young Men of Color

I've tried to avoid seeing the current video of a Chicago police officer shooting a 17-year-old in the back as he walks away, then shooting the boy 15 more times. We have our local death, a deputy shooting Andy Lopez, 14. In this nation, the police kill about one unarmed black man a week on average. The police have a kind of gentleman's agreement with district attorneys, a license to kill. Our local killer was excused by the District Attorney, and he is back in his car, roaming, armed to the teeth, ready to strike again. No accountability.

Often a district attorney will investigate, stall for long periods and then announce that the killing on an unarmed person of color was legal and good for the community.  On rare occasions there is a video of the street killing, and the district attorney must charge the killer or risk losing an election. The tactic changes. The D.A. can overcharge the police officer, making it almost impossible for a jury to convict him. Let's say the officer commits second degree murder. If you charge him with first degree murder, the jury will find him innocent. Everyone goes home happy.

33,000

Here's an oddity.  About 33,000 people in the world were killed by terrorists last year, including several Americans, and about 33,000 Americans were killed by firearms, all of them Americans. 

None of the dead included Ben Carson, who fears terrorists and supports the wider employment of firearms. (Why do I watch the news?) 

Getting Priorities Arranged

Okay, I know we're having trouble with priorities, mainly which people do we keep out first? For a while it was Mexicans. Now the Syrians are contending. The Mexicans are Christians, but they often have darker skin than Muslims. It's hard to know which to choose.

The Republican leaders say we must keep foreigners out except for the 20 million tourists each year who come without visas. We don't check on them. Some come from Syria or Mexico, and they spend money.  They can buy expensive meals or handguns. 

It's a little confusing. As Marx said, a capitalist will sell you a rope to hang him with.

Consider this. More Mexicans left our country last year than came into our country. That insults our entire heritage; perhaps we should  begin to take Don Trump's idea of an eighty-foot fence more seriously. We can build a wall, stop this drain out of our nation and maybe the Mexican government will pay for it. They already have extra people. At the same time we should focus on keeping Syrians out of New Jersey, where Gov. Chris Christie (imagine how pleased Jesus would be by this dude's name) has banned Syrian orphans under the age of five. I am not kidding. Keeping out Syrian orphans has become a top priority.
  

38 Countries

All I need to know is that there are 38 nations whose citizens are free to come and go in the United States without any sort of background check. 

One of the countries is Saudi Arabia, home of the 9/11 terrorists.

Syrian refugees, to enter this country, have to be vetted first, a process that takes nearly two years. Syrian refugees have not been a problem, but we've seen terrorists emerging from the 38 nations. The Republican response is to bar the Syrians. 

The citizens of Saudi Arabia remain free to come and go at will. (Saudi Arabia has the best oil in the world.)
  
The Republican leaders in this country who have stirred up hysteria about Syrian refugees are despicable.

I don't have the statistics, but when it comes to terror, ISIS probably kills 500 Muslims for each Christian. What do you suppose the Muslim communities think about that?

Which terrorists should Americans fear? The guys who enter classrooms shooting? The men who kill abortion doctors or blow up government day care centers? The unchecked visitors from 38 nations? White men with guns?

The Borderline

I have to wonder at the people I see on TV calling for America to send troops to fight ISIS on the ground. That's a job for the locals. It's up to them to free themselves. The Kurds are setting an example. We should support the Kurds directly (not indirectly, as we do now). We are not the world's police force, and we should not be constantly putting our military in harm's way.

As far as I can tell, we offer the Kurds only lukewarm support, because we want to maintain the weird national boundaries that the British Empire set up 90 years ago. We want Iraq to remain intact, so we  don't really arm the Kurds, who want out of Iraq. We should stop doing that. Let the borders change into something that makes sense to the local peoples. 

Carson

Late at night, as I am trying to fall asleep, I sometimes think that Ben Carson might be coming at me with a knife.  My only defense is a belt buckle. I can't sleep. But then I decide to listen to some Brahms. Brahms, you know, grew up poor, and he got his start in music by playing piano in a whorehouse (true story).  That was unfortunate on more than one level, but Brahms' music changes the pattern of my thoughts, and eventually I doze off.

fire

As some of you know, several weeks back our apartment burned, along with 11 others. We lost a great deal (but not our cat).  The fire fighters did a great job. The Red Cross stepped in to help in big ways. Kith and kin from all over the continent helped us. Cousin Dan put us up for three weeks. Healdsburg, led by Chris Love, came to the rescue. Sarah, our older daughter, went on Gofundme and raised a large sum of crowd-funding cash. Our insurance (Farmer's) came through. We settled in yesterday in a new apartment near Montgomery and Summerfield. Today I plan to buy inexpensive chairs to sit in.

On another topic, the paper today ran an article on the death rate among America's poor white people. Their death rate has been rising annually. That makes sense. Our nation has provided them with inadequate educations, particularly in sound ways to reason and in sound health practices. That's a political issue. Instead of an education, they got bullshit from political leaders (soulless corporate hacks).  The price if you are a poor white fellow?  You lose about five years of your life for going around saying, "We want our country back."