SHUT UP AND FIGHT BACK

Dr. Common Good (https://dr-common-good.com/).

Dr. Common Good is sick and tired of all the whining, handwringing and self-flagellation that has been rampant since Vice President Harris’ loss to Trump in the election. There is nothing to apologize for. So I am going to lay out the following:

• Regardless of whether or not he got elected, Trump is an amoral pathological liar, with no interest in democracy or the Constitution, ignorant of American or world history, a convicted felon who is guilty of much more than he was convicted for, a wannabe authoritarian dictator, and generally a sociopath who has no business governing anything. If the voting public ignored all this, well, good luck. But it’s the truth, and well-documented, and I for one will not back off on that characterization.

• Trump manipulated and benefited tremendously from a right-wing mediaverse that is the dominant source of information for a substantial portion of the US population. This mediaverse effectively ignored all the significant achievements of the Biden administration (called the envy of the world by The Economist), and painted a grotesquely false picture of an America in deep decline, both culturally and economically, overrun by immigrants, plagued by crime, and threatened by increasing diversity. This daily fearmongering provided the perfect platform for Trump to declare himself the savior of America.

• Trump’s wild and phony claims for achieving global respect and achieving the greatest economy the world has ever seen would be laughable if they were not believed by so many people who allowed their minds to be dominated by the Trump-supporting mediaverse. He was not respected globally. He was either viewed as a joke, a fool, or, in some cases a dangerous fool. The latter characterization will unfortunately be more common now.

• All those legal and often treasonous transgressions for which Trump was impeached and charged in Federal court were no hoax, despite the mendacious denials by Trump and spineless claims to that effect by boneless sycophants like Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio (I’m not even counting the out-and-out crazies like Marjorie Taylor Greene). I mean, as just one example, he did call the Georgia Secretary of State and ask him to “find 11,780 votes.” It’s recorded, and it is a crime, period. He did obstruct compliance with a legitimate Justice Department request for classified documents that he carelessly stored at his Florida home. It’s on video, and it’s a crime. And he absolutely did share information and communicate with the Russians during his elections, who were only too glad to help him get elected in 2016 and even more so in 2024. This is well-documented.

• And his Neville Chamberlain-like approach to Ukraine, a total appeasement to Russia – who attacked Ukraine and in doing so threatened NATO countries –.is revolting, and should make all those who fought and died to fight tyranny in WWII roll over in their graves. People should know that appeasing Putin threatens Europe’s well-being, and ours. Supporting Ukraine is in our self-interest. But people don’t know that, and hardly even know the historical context. Trump certainly does not, and doesn’t care in any case, because he wants to be in Putin’s good graces.

• Many progressives, Arab-Americans and others are angry at the Biden Administration’s support for Netanyahu’s horrific mass-killing of Palestinians, even as we all can agree that Hamas’ October 7 attack was brutal, indefensible and inhuman. But Trump will be much worse. Trump is a Netanyahu bootlicker with no concept of Palestinian rights and history, who does not in any case care one whit about the fate of Palestinians. He will unapologetically give Netanyahu and his far-right allies carte blanche to go as far as they want to clear out all Palestinians and expand the borders of Israel. 

• Trump is the entry door for a whole army of anti-government radicals (Project 2025) who aim to gut health care, Social Security, Medicare, the Departments of Education, Environmental Protection Agency, and countless other essential federal agencies – all in the name of some imagined effort to cleanse out the phantasmagorical “deep state.” Well, voting public, good luck when there are no more food inspectors, safety inspectors, people to monitor occupational safety or water quality, and much more.

• And there is absolutely nothing wrong with increasing the equity, inclusivity and diversity of our social institutions and social life. Calling it “woke” is just a cheap schoolyard name-calling trick. It is actually a logical extension of American values, and the American promise that animated the civil rights movement, Brown vs. Board of Education, the women’s suffrage movement, and so much more of what has made America a country that people admire, even with its flaws. It is truly pathetic to see Nikki Haley join the MAGA fever in criticizing Democrats post-election for being too “woke.” Give me a break.

• Finally (for now), where are all the critics of election fraud? Nowhere to be seen or heard from, because of course Trump won the election. That should tell you all you need to know about the validity of all that hyped nonsense and the violent January 6 attack. Oh, and notice that neither Kamala Harris nor Joe Biden stooped to such accusations in this election. They conceded, and promised a peaceful transfer of power, as should occur in a democracy.

The bottom line is this. Trump is a threat to American values, the constitution, and the American idea, regardless of the election. We should not apologize in any way for opposing this abomination of a president. It was and remains justified and critical. We should resist, anywhere and everywhere possible, to preserve the United States as a democracy and a just society.     

A MESSAGE TO MAGA FOLK

From Dr. Common Good

As a fellow American, I am concerned. You think Trump is the candidate who stands up for you? You think he is the one who cares about you and your values?

My friends, I ask you to take a look at his life and who he is. He is none of that.

If Trump lived in your town, he would be the guy that…

• Owned a used car dealership that sold defective cars, using fraudulent papers.

• Caused your grandmother to lose her house because the bank run by his buddies raised interest rates and canceled her mortgage with false accusations of default. Then they would repossess the house and sell it to someone else for a profit. Your grandmother may even try to sue to get her house back, but Trump and his buddies would use their fat-cat lawyers to overwhelm her.

• Tried to rape or molest your niece, who thought she got a good job working for his company. Then he would deny it, and force her to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

• Secretly teamed up with a construction company that aimed to build a housing development on land that had been family farms for generations – by planting false information about groundwater pollution and buying up the land for cheap.

• Pretended to be tough, saying he would be happy to confront anyone who opposed his people on the town council, but then chickened out, using an excuse.

• Avoided meeting with, or being seen in public with one of your sons or daughters if they were an Iraq war veteran who lost both legs in combat – while in public saying how much he loved our military.

And more.

You think this is bullshit? Look at his actual life. These are the kinds of things he has actually done, over and over. If he makes any other claims, he is lying to you, and treating you as a fool. Don’t let him do that to you. If you are Republican, all power to you. But for the sake of this country vote for a different Republican, one who is not a self-serving, manipulating coward who does not care about you, your town or your country. Trump cares about one thing – himself. No matter what he says, the minute he doesn’t need you for his own purposes he will drop you like a stone. 

THE WAY IT IS  #1 (as of April, 2024)

from Dr. Common Good

I don’t care if you are Republican or Democrat, or anything else. In these fact sheets, we are going to talk about our country – the one we ALL live in! If you are a Republican, there are a lot of good Republicans out there you could support for President. And you should do that. But Donald Trump? He is not a Republican or a Democrat, or anything else. He believes in one thing – himself. And to him, that is more important than his own country, more important than you, more important than democracy itself. There’s a lot of junk out there in the media world, so let’s just look at the real situation:

Donald Trump and the U.S. in the world — No matter what he likes to say, Donald Trump did not make the U.S. respected or stronger in the world, As President, he did the exact opposite, and he will only sink us lower if he is President again:

• Trump nearly ruined our relationship with NATO, an alliance that has helped to keep us strong and safe since World War II. Partly this is because he doesn’t even understand NATO, its history, or what role it has played in our defense. [The Biden administration had to do a whole lot of work to fix that relationship, and was successful in strengthening NATO against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.] Since WWII, every U.S. president, Republican and Democrat, has valued and supported the NATO alliance – except Trump.

• He crawled, and still crawls like a puppy dog for dictators like Vladimir Putin. Remember? He valued Putin’s opinion over our own defense and intelligence agencies, and said so in public. He is willing to throw Ukraine under the bus to make Putin happy, saying that, as President, he “would let Putin do whatever he wants.” He invited the Hungarian dictator Victor Orban to his own home! And he sent “love letters” to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, an absolute dictator who gets rid of opponents by shooting them with anti-aircraft guns. What President in the history of this country has done such things? We have fought wars against kings and dictators, not crawled to them like a little child who wants to be just like them. Those dictators all know that Trump is ignorant, a pushover, and can be manipulated easily. Believe me, he is not tough, though he loves it if you think he is.

• The U.S. used to be a leader, in global climate talks, in the U.N., and (most of the time) a supporter of democracy and freedom around the world. Trump threw that reputation and world leadership down the drain. He pulled the U.S. out of climate talks. He openly supported authoritarian governments and dictators – like Putin, Orban, Rodrigo Duterte (Philippines), and Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in Saudi Arabia. He went against hundreds of years of American values in doing so.

Donald Trump and the U.S. economy – Trump, despite what he likes to say, did not create “the greatest economy in the history of the world”:

• When Trump came into office, the economy was already on an upswing, after the terrible Great Recession of 2008-2009. If you compare key economic indicators from Obama’s second term in office to the first three years of Trump’s time (before the pandemic hit), the data show a continuation of trends, not a dramatic shift. So, Trump didn’t build anything new; instead, he inherited a situation that was already improving. The numbers show that average quarterly economic growth under Trump, 2.5 percent, was almost exactly what it was under Obama’s second term, 2.4 percent. And on average, there were more jobs added monthly in Obama’s second term than there were in Trump’s first three years.

• His big accomplishment? He and the Republicans passed a tax cut, which ended up adding to the national debt, something that Republicans used to oppose. A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that these tax cuts, mostly for corporations, have added more than $100 billion a year to America’s $34 trillion-and-growing national debt. While the tax cuts did lead to some increases in investment, and small gains in worker pay, the gains were nowhere near enough to cover the loss of national income.

• Were everyday prices lower? Sure they were. But don’t let that fool you. That was before COVID and the invasion of Ukraine, two situations that raised prices and inflation everywhere in the world, not just in the U.S. Look at the situation now, under the Biden administration. When Biden came into office, inflation had risen to just over 9%. His policies helped drop that rate back to 3.8% in February 2024, including gas prices. It will take a little while for everyone to see those drops in everyday life, but those are the facts. And even the stock market under Biden has gone up a lot higher than it did under Trump.

• On economic legislation: Despite all of Trump’s loudmouth talking, he never passed any infrastructure legislation, which is very important for the economy because it means improved roads, bridges, railways and Internet connections, among other things. By contrast, the Biden administration passed the largest bipartisan infrastructure bill ever. That bill has brought funding for infrastructure improvements all over the country, in both Republican and Democratic states, and created a lot of jobs. The Biden administration also passed the CHIPS and Science bill, investing in the production of advanced computer chips here in the U.S., creating a lot of jobs in the process and making the U.S. less dependent on China and other countries for these very important parts. And the Biden administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which has reduced health care costs and supported the growth of jobs in the expanding renewable energy economy.

• Speaking of jobs — Under Biden, U.S. employment is now 10% above what it was when he was sworn in, even higher than in the Clinton administration, and more than twice what happened under Trump (4.4%). It is a fact that Biden has the strongest record of any recent president on increasing manufacturing jobs, and it is a fact that under Biden, the unemployment rate has been below 4% for the longest stretch in 50 years of American history.

• Trump and trade: Pretending to be “tough”, Trump started a trade war with China that actually hurt Americans the most. That is partly because Trump didn’t and doesn’t understand how tariffs or trade work. When he raised tariffs on goods coming from China, it wasn’t China that paid, but Americans. This is because the companies importing those goods are the ones who pay, and they just pass those costs on to consumers through higher prices. According to a Council on Foreign Relations study, U.S. consumers felt the most pain from those tariffs, paying a total of $48 billion, with half of this amount paid by U.S. companies that rely on intermediate inputs (meaning parts) from China. Basically, as stated in a report by the United States International Trade Commission, the cost of the tariffs was passed through to U.S. importers.

Donald Trump and immigration – Trump has treated immigrants and immigration in a way that does not represent long-held American values, and he continues to throw out lie after lie about the situation:

• Trump uses the most repulsive language ever heard from a U.S. government official to talk about immigrants. He calls them “animals,” and says “Nobody has any idea where these people come from. We know they come from prisons, we know they come from mental institutions, insane asylums. We know they are terrorists…it’s poisoning the blood of our country.” That is a dangerous lie. Immigrants are not coming from prisons or mental institutions. Most immigrants are fleeing from terrible situations in their home countries, whether that is civil wars, gang violence, government repression, natural disasters, or extreme poverty. In recent years, for example, immigrants trying to get into the U.S. have come from Venezuela (due to the crisis there), West Africa, and even China.

• He lies constantly about immigrants and crime in the U.S. You can find the data yourself, but there is no evidence that immigration is associated with increased crime. It is in fact the opposite. A Cato Institute (not liberal) study showed that, in Texas, illegal immigrants were 47% less likely to be in prison, and legal immigrants were even less likely. A study published in the journal Criminology concluded that “increased concentrations of undocumented immigrants are associated with statistically significant decreases in violent crime.” Generally, though the data are complicated, the available research that estimates the relationship between illegal immigration and crime generally shows an association with lower crime rates.

• Immigration and immigrant workers actually help the economy thrive. They don’t take away jobs that other Americans want; they actually fill jobs that Americans don’t want, and contribute to economic growth. American companies have publicly stated this multiple times. 
• Help is definitely needed to process and manage the flow of immigrants trying to get into the U.S. But when Republicans and Democrats got together and finally negotiated a bill that would provide more resources to immigration courts, the border patrol and for border security, Trump told Republicans not to pass it. Why? Because it would give the Biden administration a “win.” As you see, Trump cares less about fixing the immigration situation than in winning office for himself.

Donald Trump and the Nation’s Health – Trump was a disaster for public health, during the COVID-19 pandemic and in general:

• Trump infamously denied the existence of COVID-19, and when he finally admitted that it was a problem, he showed contempt for basic preventive measures like masks, and peddled ridiculous “cures” like Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine and bleach. The consequences? Thousands and thousands of Americans died when they did not have to, causing tragic losses for so many families.

• By contrast, Biden immediately passed the American Rescue Plan, supporting a massive nationwide effort to make COVID testing available, and creating a national infrastructure for vaccine access. Also in the plan was a wide range of supports for small businesses and other economic aid that clearly stimulated the economy after COVID and prompted the recovery we have seen.

• Trump has consistently sought to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, which has expanded health care access for millions of Americans. Biden, by contrast, expanded its availability.

Donald Trump, Democracy, and the American Way – Trump is by any measure the most un-Democratic president in American history:

• No president or past president has been criminally indicted. Trump, by contrast, faces four criminal indictments and a total of 91 felony charges.

• No president has ever sought to overturn the legal results of a national election in order to keep himself in power – this includes the attempt to coerce the State of Georgia to falsify votes, the fomenting of an insurrection to prevent a lawful vote count in Congress, and the manipulation of the Justice Department to support his attempts.  

• No president has ever violated the Espionage Act in the way Trump has, withholding classified documents from his time in office and obstructing efforts to retrieve them.

• No president has ever courted the help of nations who would otherwise be our enemies in order to help him win an election. That help, whether one calls it a conspiracy or not, is irrefutably documented in the Mueller Report.

SO, DON’T LET TRUMP’S TRASH TALK AND BRAGGING FOOL YOU. HE WAS NOT AND IS NOT GOOD FOR AMERICA, WHETHER YOU ARE A REPUBLICAN OR A DEMOCRAT. HE DOES NOT MAKE AMERICA GREAT. “MAGA” SHOULD ACTUALLY STAND FOR “MAKES AMERICA GO AWAY,” BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT HE REPRESENTS.

TRUMP. NOT GOOD FOR YOU. NOT GOOD FOR AMERICA. NOT GOOD FOR DEMOCRACY ITSELF. AND NOT GOOD FOR THE WORLD.

TRUMP LIKES TO CALL PEOPLE LOSERS AND SUCKERS. DON’T BE ONE.

Dr. Common Good

Yesterday in the U.S. Mexico border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, Trump once again spewed out his usual ignorant, mendacious swill, ominously warning his audience about “Biden migrant crime,” because, he said, they (migrants) are “coming from jails, and they’re coming from prisons, and they’re coming from mental institutions…and they’re coming from insane asylums, and they’re terrorists. They’re being let into our country.” And then he added, “We have languages coming into our country. We have nobody that even speaks those languages.”

It is beneath human dignity to even respond to this, but unfortunately this is what we are facing in today’s political cesspool.

First, do not give this garbage any credence. None. To characterize migrants that way is repulsive. This should not be coming out of the mouth of anyone purporting to represent American values or an American government. I want you to just think for one moment – What circumstances would drive people to flee their homes, cross over long stretches of hostile territory, hungry, with few possessions, and vulnerable to all manner of victimization? Could you do that? People leave their homes, for the most part, because of hunger, violence, immediate threats, and a lack of opportunity to make a living, or feed one’s family. I know, because I have worked with migrant communities for years. I have documented some of these circumstances. I have been on that U.S. – Mexico border, and I can tell you, I don’t know if I would have what it takes to get across that unforgiving landscape.  And in the case of migrants from Central America, they are often fleeing violence that is the long-term consequence of our own policies in the region. They are not coming from insane asylums, jails, and terrorist camps. That is a flagrant lie that Trump uses to whip up support, and pull in more campaign contributions. National police data in fact show that crime is down in the cities that have received the most migrants. So, yet another lie. Another shameless part of his con.

And “languages coming in to this country”? What kind of stupidity is that? “Languages” have always come in to this country, and every other country. English is itself a composite of multiple languages. But of course Trump would not know that, because he has the mind of a self-absorbed child.

What we really need is sensible immigration reform, and the resources to help manage the border. Some of that was actually in a bipartisan immigration bill that was on its way to being passed. But then, enter Trump. He ordered his Republican flunkies – that is truly the only way to think of them – not to pass it. Why? Because he didn’t want Biden to be able to claim any sort of success, especially on an issue he thinks is “his.” That’s a lot like the benched quarterback who tries to prevent his own team from winning because someone else would be able to take credit. What would your reaction to that be? It would not be good, and you know it.

Once again, and again, and again, Trump shows that he is disturbed, malicious, and ignorant. He is manifestly unqualified to be the head of anything, not even a local Boy Scout troop. I ask you, the American people, not to defile this country by supporting this disgrace of a person. We are better than that, whatever political party you follow.

ISRAEL, THE U.N., AND WAR WITH HAMAS: STOP DENYING CONTEXT, START SEEKING SOLUTIONS

Dr. Common Good

Now Israel is calling for the resignation of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and barring UN personnel from entry into Gaza. Why? Because Guterres said that the Hamas attack “did not happen in a vacuum” and that Israeli bombing was causing “clear violations of international humanitarian law.” For that, he is being called biased against Israel and somehow “understanding” of terrorism – even though, as part of the same address, he clearly said that the Hamas attacks were “appalling” and that “nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians, or the launching of rockets against civilian targets” (reported by CNN, October 25). He also referred to the context, saying “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished,” yet, significantly, adding “But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

So let’s step back a minute. Guterres was not in any way condoning Hamas or its unforgivable, brutal attack. He was merely acknowledging that there is a context, and that the massive loss of life now occurring in Gaza is not a justifiable response. I ask you, what did he say that was incorrect here? Was he incorrect about occupation and displacement? Was he incorrect that there is a context to consider? Was he incorrect about the disproportionate response? Not at all.

There is clearly a context. That 56 years of occupation has only intensified under Netanyahu’s right-wing government. As reported by the Norwegian Refugee Council (August 10, 2023) and the UN, just since 2022:

• At least 488 Palestinians, including 263 children, from seven communities in Area C of the West Bank have been forcibly displaced due to an increasingly coercive environment, according to the UN. These include Ein Samiya (132 displaced), Wadi As-Seeq (35 displaced), Wedadie (21 displaced), Lifjim (46 displaced), Ras At-Tin (99 displaced in 2022, 89 displaced in 2023), Al-Baqa’a (54 displaced), and Khirbet Bir Al-Idd (12 displaced).
• The UN has documented 591 Israeli settler attacks so far this year that have resulted in casualties and property damage. The monthly average for the first six months of 2023 is 39 per cent higher than the monthly average of settler-related incidents in all 2022.
• Settlers killed six Palestinians and injured 204, including 24 children, in the first six months of 2023 (before the Hamas attack).

Moreover, the UN recently reported that Israeli settlers had displaced more than 1,100 Palestinians from the West Bank, just since 2022 (ABC News, September 21, 2023). Since the re-election of Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister in 2009, some 14,000 Palestinians have been forcibly removed from their homes, including in East Jerusalem (UN data, reported by CNN October 22, 2023). As it is, Palestinians are living on only 22% of the land that was traditionally known as Palestine. The greater proportion of 78% was already claimed as part of Israel in 1948. And then there are Netanyahu’s cynical attempts, for years, to prevent formation of a Palestinian state. As part of this strategy, outlined by Zvi Bar’el in Haaretz, Netanyahu essentially nurtured Hamas. As reported in The Week (October 27, 2023), under his divide-and-conquer strategy, “he undermined the Palestinian Authority, which wants a two-state solution, while propping up Hamas, which doesn’t” (it wants elimination of Israel). He even allowed Qatar to supply Hamas with $30 million a month, and members of his cabinet, including security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, have shown open contempt for, and dismissal of Palestinians – the latter routinely claiming that there is no Palestinian people.

So yes, there is a context. If we are ever to achieve peace, denial, obfuscation and suppression of this context cannot continue. It is not anti-Semitic to criticize Israeli policy, or Israeli politicians, or to report the glaring violations of human rights that have characterized Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory for years. It is actually pro-Israeli. If Israelis are ever to live in peace and security, a goal I support, this history must be acknowledged and rectified. Don’t forget, whether you want to hear it or not, that prior to Israel’s founding in 1948, there were multiple Jewish terrorist groups – including Lehi and Irgun – that assassinated British officials, bombed the King David hotel in Jerusalem, bombed civilians at a bus stop near the Jaffa Gate, bombed the Ramla market in 1948, and committed other acts of sabotage and terror during that time. Importantly, however, these groups were disbanded or absorbed following the declaration of an Israeli state. There is an obvious lesson here. A state was formed, and terrorism stopped. The situation is not exactly parallel, of course, and the current conflict has festered for many more years, but denial of Palestinian self-determination, land and dignity is just going to keep producing a repeat of the same cycle of violence, whatever organization becomes the perpetrator.

This is a history that cannot be denied. It is context. It does not justify Hamas terrorism and brutality, but it does describe the wellspring from whence it came. In order to stop such terrorism, bombing and more violence is clearly not the answer. Ignoring settler violence and the appropriation of Palestinian land is not the answer. Ignoring decades of Israeli policy is not the answer. Shutting down the UN and its Secretary General is not the answer. Reconciling with the truth is the only meaningful step forward.

THE HAMAS-ISRAEL WAR: A STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL RESIGNS

Dr. Common Good

CNN reported today (October 19) that a State Department official has resigned over the Biden Administration’s handling of the Hamas-Israel conflict, and more broadly, because of its whole approach to the resolution of the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian issue. I am going to repeat here what CNN has reported (CNN 10/19/23, article by S. Paget) about his statement because what he has done is admirable and necessary, and because his statement is a succinct summary of what is wrong.

According to the CNN report, Josh Paul, who worked in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for more than 11 years, said in a LinkedIn post that he resigned “due to a policy disagreement concerning our continued lethal assistance to Israel.”

“Let me be clear,” Paul wrote. “Hamas’ attack on Israel was not just a monstrosity; it was a monstrosity of monstrosities. I also believe that potential escalations by Iran-linked groups such as Hezbollah, or by Iran itself, would be a further cynical exploitation of the existing tragedy. But I believe to the core of my soul that the response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response, and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people – and is not in the long term American interest.”

“This Administration’s response – and much of Congress’ as well – is an impulsive reaction built on confirmation bias, political convenience, intellectual bankruptcy, and bureaucratic inertia,” Paul adds. “That is to say, it is immensely disappointing, and entirely unsurprising. Decades of the same approach have shown that security for peace leads to neither security, nor to peace. The fact is, blind support for one side is destructive in the long term to the interests of the people on both sides.”

Paul said that he cannot work to support a set of policy decisions that include sending over arms, which he believes to be “shortsighted, destructive, unjust, and contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse.”

Reached for comment, a State Department spokesperson told CNN the agency declines to comment on personnel matters.

In an interview with The New York Times, Paul said legal guardrails that are intended to keep American weapons out of the hands of human rights violators are failing, as the US backs Israel while the nation has cut off water, food, medical care and electricity in Gaza.

“There’s a moment where you can say, OK, well, you know, it’s out of my hands, but I know Congress is going to push back,” he told the Times. “But in this instance, there isn’t any significant pushback likely from Congress, there isn’t any other oversight mechanism, there isn’t any other forum for debate, and that’s part of what got into my decision making.”

Well said, Mr. Paul. You have summed up the situation exactly.

THE HAMAS-ISRAEL WAR: WHAT IS JUSTICE? WHERE IS THE ROAD TO PEACE?

Dr. Common Good

Before going any further, I want to make two stipulations. These are important. You must keep them in mind when you continue to read this post, whether you like what I say or not. Because if you do not keep them in mind, you will misinterpret what I am saying. And you should not do that, especially now.

STIPULATION 1: The Hamas attack on Israel and the murder of innocent civilians was brutal, reprehensible, inhuman, appalling, despicable, and every other word that one can conjure for this act that in truth defies words. It was unforgivable, and a stab right in the heart of Jewish historical trauma. There are no two ways about it. At the same time, it is plain wrong to conflate Hamas and the greater Palestinian desire for recognition, self-determination, control over their land, and a state. Hamas is but one actor in the Palestinian setting, whose modus operandi is far too much like that of ISIS and others like it – an all-or-nothing, violent mentality that devalues human life in the service of an absolutist goal of obliterating the other. As columnist Kenan Malik wrote in the Guardian (October 15), “[T]o suggest that such butchery represents the Palestinian struggle is to demean the Palestinian people and their battle for freedom and rights.”

STIPULATION 2: Israel and its people deserve to live in peace, and with security. Anyone, or any group, that denies this cannot fairly be a part of any process that could lead to peace. Equally, the Palestinian people deserve to live in peace, and with security. Anyone, or any group, that denies this cannot fairly be a part of any process that could lead to peace.

NOW, THE BROADER STORY:

These two stipulations made, one has to ask at least two questions: 1) What possible point, other than mindless revenge, is there to the retributive counterattack that is now underway by the Israelis, with the ostensible purpose of eliminating Hamas? 2) Why did this attack, and others before it, happen?

On the first point: Israel will not eliminate Hamas by mass-bombing Gaza and cutting off all water, power and food. It will primarily kill innocent civilians. In fact, as of the time this post is being written, the IDF has already killed almost twice the number of civilians than Hamas did in its attack. No, not by gunpoint (at least not yet), but through indiscriminate bombing. Yes, the Israelis mass-dropped fliers warning civilians to evacuate, but then gave Gaza residents just 24 hours to do so, which by all counts was logistically, and humanly impossible. So what is the point here? How is this possibly justified? Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that “We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza”…“There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything will be closed.” This purportedly was to fight the “human animals” that attacked Israel. The problem here – there are over 2 million people living in Gaza, most of whom are just civilians, trying to make a living and care for families. What Israel is doing is not a solution, it is compounding extreme brutality with more extreme brutality. And ultimately, even if Hamas were eliminated through some brilliant surgical strike strategy, another Hamas, with a different name, will arise, because the essential conditions giving rise to Hamas have not been addressed. It is a serious fault of major news outlets reporting on the current conflict that these conditions are largely being ignored. More broadly, it is a fault of today’s political environment that any expression of support for Palestinian rights, or criticism of Israeli policies, is denounced, and labeled anti-Semitic. Moreover, while barely reported, the Gaza violence has spurred point-blank attacks on unarmed West Bank Palestinians by Jewish settlers, as documented in reporting by the Guardian and video footage circulated by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. This has nothing to do with a goal of eliminating Hamas.

There is also a historical irony in the Israeli attack on Gaza as a whole that is undoubtedly not lost on many Gaza residents; Gaza itself was populated by Palestinians fleeing the initial expulsion of some 700,000 Palestinians (the Nakba) following the creation of the Israeli state in 1948. Likud MP Ariel Kallner even tweeted “Right now, one goal: Nakba!…A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of `48.” What on earth does that have to do with Hamas?

On the second point: The answer here is potentially long, because history is involved, so I will be as brief as possible. To start, we should not be surprised by the attack. After years of ignoring the Palestinian situation under Trump, and little attention paid to it by the Biden Administration — even as an extreme right-wing government took charge in Israel, doubling down on settlements, de facto annexation, repression and ugly rhetoric (e.g., from Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir) – some reaction was bound to happen. In fact, many sources predicted some form of escalation. In an interview on CNN, former Israeli prime minister Ehut Olmer said as much. Even Yigal Carmon of the pro-Israeli Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) warned that there were indications in August that war would break out in September-October.

The historical truth is that this land, divided into multiple states in the years following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and two world wars, was inhabited both by Jews and by the ancestors of the people now called Palestinians for thousands of years. Yet Netanyahu, echoing the hardest right-wing ideologues, has referred to the West Bank as Israel’s Judea and Samaria, completely obliterating the presence of a Palestinian people that deserves a land and country of its own as much as does Israel. And Israeli policies follow – settlements have continued virtually unabated for decades, encroaching on land once owned in one form or another by Palestinians, who farmed, sold their goods at market, went to school, and tried to live a life just like Israelis have tried to do. Where settlements are built, walls are built, the Israeli military follows or looks the other way, and the courts support it — to protect settlements, and to control the movement of Palestinians whose territory is now like Swiss cheese. Reviewing a recent book by Nathan Thrall documenting the destruction of Palestinian homes and villages, David Shulman (Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) writes that 62 percent of the occupied West Bank is under full Israeli control, with almost 200 settlements and settler outposts. Palestinians have been powerless to stop it, and the U.S. government has rarely exercised its leverage to force the Israelis to even slow down this inexcusable, and illegal, takeover of territory. How can any reasonable observer not expect deep frustration, and multi-generational anger?  

Furthermore, I am concerned that the attack will be used, cynically, by the Netanyahu government and its supporters to divert and drown out the growing opposition, in Israel, the United States, and globally, to Israeli policy vis a vis the Palestinians — just as Netanyahu and others cynically endorsed the growth of Hamas in the first place as a means of weakening and dividing Palestinians by weakening the political power of the Palestinian Authority/Fatah.

So one has to ask, amidst the fog of media coverage and unidimensional narratives, where is justice here? Where is a road to peace and security?

ON TRUMP INDICTMENTS, SHAMELESS REPUBLICAN PROPAGANDA, AND DEMOCRACY

Dr. Common Good

OK folks, let’s stop messing around. There is so much distortion and outlandish BS out there about the Trump indictments, denying Trump’s destruction of democracy, and the Biden administration that we need to set the record straight and clear:

Indictments and Democracy

• Trump is not being persecuted, and he is most definitely not the victim of some effort by the Biden Administration to get him out of the way for the 2024 election. Biden has not “weaponized” the Justice Department, and it is beyond belief that Trump and his loyalists could even say such a thing with a straight face, given Trump’s blatant use of the Justice Department to further his personal goals (coercing Justice Department staff to support his election fraud claims, using AG Barr to threaten Michael Cohen, distorting the Mueller Report, and countless other actions). Biden has remained hands-off and his AG Merrick Garland, as well as the special prosecutors, have been accorded full independence. Trump alone is at fault, along with his sycophantic gaggle of political hacks and gutless wannabees, for all of this, from day one. No other president in the history of the United States has ever come close to the rank criminality, abuse of office and absolute selfishness of purpose as this shameful individual. Hard as it may be to say, even President Nixon ultimately acted with some sense of country over person. But Trump is not even capable of thinking beyond himself. He has been, and is willing to destroy a country and its democracy for his own twisted benefit.

• The primary victim here is the United States of America and its people. Trump has stained our democracy, manipulated so many people, and deeply damaged our global reputation as a country, all while foisting the MAGA lie on millions of unwitting Americans.

• And make no mistake. His right of free speech is not being prosecuted or curtailed. That is a pure load of crock, repeated by GOP leaders who really know better but do not have the fortitude to act better. He is being prosecuted for actions – including knowingly making false statements to the FBI, the illegal retention and display of classified documents, obstructing justice by attempting to destroy security cameras/hide evidence, orchestrating multiple attempts to overturn the will of American voters and illegally restore himself to power (including fake elector schemes in multiple states, attempting to coerce the Vice President to refuse certification of the election results, coercing the Georgia secretary of state to “find” votes so that he could overturn the state’s election results, coercing the Justice Department to open sham investigations to reinforce fraud lies, threaten witnesses, and other such actions). Trump has had plenty of opportunity, in more than 60 court cases, to demonstrate evidence of fraud, and he has never been able to do so. Nor did the high-profile “audit” of the Arizona vote find anything either.

• This does not even count the other indictments and convictions related to sexual abuse, tax fraud, and much that is in the Georgia indictments for blatantly conspiring to change the Georgia vote count in his favor.   

Biden Administration

• On the allegations of Biden corruption and bribery repeated endlessly by GOP oversight committee chair James Comer and others? Patently false. Comer’s supposed “star witness” Devon Archer actually refuted the claims of corrupt connections between Hunter Biden businesses and President Biden under sworn testimony, for which there is no evidence. But Comer, following the Trump repeat-the-lie strategy, continues to spout this garbage. Whatever Hunter Biden did or did not do, that will be determined in a court of law – but there is no evidence at all that President Biden had any involvement in these alleged violations. It is head-spinning, by the way, to hear such allegations from those who defended or ignored Trump’s constant and corrupt use of his own businesses to get government funds, his facilitation of multi-billion dollar deals between the Saudis and son-in-law Jared Kushner, grifting of his supporters under false pretenses, and more.  

• As part of the larger propaganda swarm, Republican propaganda keeps referring to Biden as a disastrous president. Nothing could be further from the truth. Whatever you think of him personally, we should all thank President Biden for what he has done since his accession to office in 2021, including:

• Restoring American leadership and pulling NATO together, a remarkable feat, to stand with Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression, and backstopping the entry of Finland and Sweden to NATO, providing substantial military assistance to Ukraine (with bipartisan support), and imposing a series of stiff economic sanctions against Russia and its oligarchs. Trump, utterly ignorant of NATO’s role, would and could never have done this. He would have kowtowed to Putin, whom he admires.

• Passage of the American Rescue Plan, getting more than 500 million COVID-19 vaccinations out to Americans, and providing temporary support for businesses and families affected by the pandemic. The rescue package also cut child poverty in half, and reduced healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act by $800 a year. The Plan contributed significantly to the eventual mitigation of the pandemic and the return to work and school for millions. Trump did not do this, spending most of his time denying the severity of the pandemic and the need for masking, costing many lives.

• Passing a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which increased badly-needed investments in roads, bridges, broadband internet, public transport and more. Trump often promised to do this, but never even really tried. And plenty of Republicans who voted against the bill are now taking credit.

• Making a $369 billion investment in climate change, the largest in American history, through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. This Act also capped prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare and gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices while also reducing government health spending. He also recommitted America to the global fight against climate change by rejoining the Paris Agreement. Trump, by contrast, took the U.S. completely out of this global leadership role and denied climate change as an issue of concern.

• Under the Biden administration, the economy has regenerated, even in the face of Ukraine war-driven inflation, to a growth rate of 6.5% in the second quarter of 2023 (according to Business Insider). Inflation, very high for a time, has dropped from 9% to 3.2% (according to a PBS news report). Unemployment rates have dropped to historic lows. In fact, the Biden administration has overseen the creation of more jobs in one year than any other president in U.S. history. As of July, 2023, the economy added 13.2 million jobs, for a total of 3.8 million higher than before the pandemic. The unemployment rate dropped for a time to the lowest in nearly 54 years; unfilled job openings surged, with over 1.6 for every unemployed job seeker (according to FactCheck.org). So much for false Republican claims that Biden has destroyed the economy – and this record outperforms Trump’s by a wide margin (even though he was seen as the “business president”).

• Passing the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, to strengthen American manufacturing and innovation, especially in some areas where we have been dependent on foreign products (e.g., computer chips).

• Signing the PACT Act to address service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins.

• Reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act through 2027.

• Stopping a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence by signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that created enhanced background checks, closed the “boyfriend” loophole and provided funds for youth mental health.

• And, though many have justifiably criticized the way it was handled, Biden did pull troops out of Afghanistan, ending the longest war in American history. This, by the way, is something Trump promised to do but never actually did – though he negotiated an agreement with the Taliban (behind the back of the Afghan government) that has been seen as a disaster, and that forced Biden’s hand in withdrawing the troops.