Two cheers for US abstention on UN Israeli settlement vote

For the first time in 36 years the UN Security Council voted to condemn Israel's illegal, immoral and inhumane settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. The vote was 14-0 with the US abstaining rather than casting their customary veto to any UN measure attempting to hold Israel accountable for their continued subjugation of Palestinians seeking statehood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid all the blame for the condemnation on President Obama claiming he "colluded against Israel." That would be like the President of South Africa condemning efforts to oppose black Apartheid as colluding against South Africa.

President Elect Trump, whose pick for Israeli Ambassador David Friedman, is to the right of Netanyahu, lobbied for a US veto, placing himself fully on the side of continued Israeli crimes against Palestinian humanity. Friedman argues these despicable settlements on Palestinian land are legal; the two state solution is dead; and the Israeli capitol should be moved to Jerusalem which is also claimed as their capital by the Palestinians, a move sure to create more havoc in the region.

The US said it "fully supported the language of the resolution condemning illegal Israeli settlements", which should have prompted a 'yea' vote. That costs the US one cheer, but two cheers for the abstention are better than none.

29 Days

Mr. President, though you've accomplished much in 1,432 days, there is much to do with your last 29 days. Here's a few to consider:

Close the American gulag at Guantanamo. While it doesn't reach the level of Nazi concentration camps or the Russian gulags under Stalin, it has been a inhumane blot on the American Story. Release the sixty remaining souls detained and tortured for years so you can leave the White House completing the promise you made 1,432 days ago.

Find a legal way to appoint Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. When the Republicans refused to give him a hearing, they abdicated their right to advise and consent.

Pardon every last soul languishing in prison merely for small amounts of drug possession. They are essentially political prisoners in the war on minorites, the poor, the throwaways of our society.

Make good on your false claim you ended the senseless, failed and criminal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bait and switch doesn't cut it; thousands of soldiers there refute your claims. Remove every soldier and contractor from those countries and work through the UN and the regional neighbors to reduce the violence we enable by our presence.

Renounce regime change as an element of American foreign policy. It failed in Afghanistan, failed in Iraq, failed in Libya, failed in Yemen, failed in Syria, and will fail in Iran and Russia, which many in the war party lust for. It causes senseless death, destruction and serves as a recruiting tool for individuals or groups seeking revenge against America.

Do what you can to protect the undocumented who drive up our stock portfolios with their productive work while being demonized.

Oppose every initiative you can that promotes self destructive fossil fuel exploration.

Take every measure you can to expand women's reproductive rights.

In 29 days, Mr. President, a soulless, obscene con man inexplicably takes your place vowing to unravel your good work to heal a fractured nation and expand the American Dream. Don't waste a single one of those 29 days; not a minute; not a second.

State ID and 2 bucks buys ex-con cup of Joe

Illinois governor Bruce Rauner basked in the praise he received signing legislation requiring Illinois to issue a valid state ID to ex-cons leaving prison. According to Rauner "To combat recidivism we need to remove some of the hurdles offenders face when they are released from a detention facility and begin to re-integrate into society. This will help us end the cycle of recidivism and give former offenders more tools necessary to be successful and thrive and gets Illinois on step closer to safely reducing Illinois' prison population by 25 percent before 2025."

Bunk. Issuing a valid state ID to felons exiting prison is a simple administrative function that requires virtually no cost, no risk, no sweat. Lack of a state ID is a barely noticeable bump in road to a productive life for ex-cons. What Rauner's disingenuous rhetoric hides are the walls taller than Trump's he's building keeping ex-cons on the path to recidivism: lack of a state budget to fund the substantive services they critically require to stay straight. Illinois' social service agencies are north of a $100 million behind in state payments to serve their clients, including Illinois' burgeoning ex-felon roll. Youth unemployment help? Nyet. HIV services? Sorry Charlie. Affordable housing? Take a hike. Social and psychological counseling? The doctor is out.

We're tens days short of 18 months with no budget to help Illinois' one million plus needy, including ex-cons that Rauner imagines his state ID will magically rehabilitate. Rauner would gladly implement a budget if the ornery Democratic legislature would simply grant him term limits to rid him of those ornery opponents. To jeopardize the lives of thousands of ex-cons for a anti-democratic and cynical political agenda is a moral, if not an impeachable offence. Instead of touting an insincere gesture with words of self praise, Rauner should have told the truth at the state ID law signing: "Here's your state ID. This, and two bucks, will buy you a cup of Joe."

Kirk's actions more damaging than his rhetoric

"I hope I'm remembered as a careful, bipartisan lawmaker.... someone who was in the end not judged by the heat of his rhetoric but by the effectiveness of his actions."

So stated outgoing Illinois Senator Mark Kirk summing up his 16 years in the House and Senate. I certainly don't judge Kirk by his post stoke verbal gaffes, the most notorious of which was his racially insensitive remark that white folks speed up when driving though black neighborhoods to avoid being shot. Though comments like those made me wince, it was his actions that revolted me. 

Kirk spent every one of his sixteen years voting trillions of dollars for our senseless and failed post 911 military ventures that got hundreds of thousands needlessly killed, including 7,000 GI's. Kirk became so obsessed about regime change in Iran he signed on with 46 other Republican senators to urge Iran to quash the 5 power nuclear deal which likely avoided another catastrophic Middle East war. He can never live down that arguably treasonous dagger at sensible, successful American diplomacy. 

Kirk went on TV to tout his miraculous post stroke recovery that allowed him to return to promoting crazed militarism in the Senate. Kirk's medical miracle was actually fueled by million dollar medical care courtesy of the US taxpayer. When asked whether the forty million shut out from simply normal health care should also be provided for, Kirk callously retorted "We can't afford it." Kirk was true to his belief, working endlessly to defeat, defund, discredit and dis the law that has likely saved 50,000 lives and $12 billion in medical cost to date. 

No, Senator Kirk. It's not what you say we'll remember. It's what you did. 

Is inner city gun violence a form of societal genocide?

The gun violence carnage infesting America's inner cities came home to me personally when someone I knew was gunned down driving in Chicago's Austin community December 2. He was Chicago murder victim No. 702, a lifelong community activist and pillar of his west suburban community with ties to Chicago's West Side that put him in the gunsights of shooters unknown, and likely never to be. His was probably a random death little noted by those who didn't know him.

What we do know is our sick society allows millions of guns, generating billions in profits, both legal and illegal, proliferated by soulless creatures oblivious to the bloodbath their enabling, to wreck this carnage upon our inner cities. These death merchants have bought off most of the 535 members of Congress, most of the 50 governors and most of state legislatures on their path to blood money to live the high life while America's rotting, neglected inner cities have become real life shooting galleries.

Outside those innumerable fire fire zones, the insensitive and the racist point the finger at the desperately poor and forgotten, claiming it's all their fault, as if those shut out from the American dream have any ability to stem the violence plaguing their communities. The President, the Congress, the governors, the state legislatures have done nothing to address the epidemic of violence resulting from a cruel and heartless political culture that serves the gun and ammo merchants instead of their must vulnerable citizens.

Is this a form of societal genocide? The answer is an unequivocal...YES.