tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2771563516536608026.post461133505102825865..comments2024-03-26T23:51:00.971-07:00Comments on Popular Resistance: Black September ReflectionsQumsiyehhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12546765130702006218noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2771563516536608026.post-15971900903565957682016-09-11T15:52:32.701-07:002016-09-11T15:52:32.701-07:00I should have said, "the gnomes of Wall St. w...I should have said, "the gnomes of Wall St. who work the Dow-Jones Industrial average have a thousand points to play with."chrisrushlauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11432949074147807503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2771563516536608026.post-45205541181577023402016-09-11T15:50:03.434-07:002016-09-11T15:50:03.434-07:00But here comes Sunday and Mrs. Clinton almost fain...But here comes Sunday and Mrs. Clinton almost faints at a 9-1-1 anniversary event. If I am generally right to say the voters vote for whomever would do the better job, so that I can look back at recent races and say that the vote spread matches a very reasonable assessment of the Presidential candidates' respective competencies, I will probably get more credence for saying the voters will not vote for someone they fear will not survive the stresses of the job at all.<br />So what do we conclude if fate can intervene in the midst of the highest rational undertakings? The politician and scientist are both stuck where they begin: grasping what is here, like it or not. A politics of evasion is like a science of evasion: doomed to failure, and the sooner, the better.<br />If poetry is a bit odd to put in a political or scientific statement, even odder would be including fate or God's will. But rationality is always based on faith in God and hope in other people (to make a distinction that's been made before). You obey the rules because you trust the judgments of the other participants, most especially the one who sets up the whole process. If you don't trust that, you don't obey the rules. Why would you?chrisrushlauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11432949074147807503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2771563516536608026.post-52497491985034121522016-09-11T15:48:54.816-07:002016-09-11T15:48:54.816-07:00Another year. Let me say something about the wort...Another year. Let me say something about the worthy recipient. Your poem almost got me until it go to that topic. Politics and science have in common this idea of legal procedure: you cannot reach a good result with a bad procedure. The human nature law is not discrete and concrete like words in a book in a law library or laboratory. It is couched in terms, when we try to define it, of "what was that that just flashed across my mind: was it my evasion or my evading my evasion?" The nice rule, from Catholic tradition, is "reason never contradicts revelation". My uncle would say, "If you have a doubt, don't."<br />So the human condition is having millions of ideas flash across your mind and millions of ideas registering a doubt: "no, that's wrong." Thomas Alva Edison commented that his trial-and-error process took a long time, but he learned all the things that wouldn't work.<br />Friday the European stock indices took a dive and those few hours later the US indices did the same. The explanation in the US market was a comment by a Federal Reserve official about future interest rates. But the European indices began to move before that comment was made. I interpret such a situation as the market-makers, whom I identify as supporters of Israel, using their limited freedom of action to threaten, in this case, President Obama with damage to his precious "metrics" (people asked him early on how we should register a successful reaction to the economic crisis of 2009: what "metrics" would show a successful reaction). I think the current shock from market-makers (those inside the stock exchanges who have the power to generally set prices, not at will, but within the range of the possible: I assign the "gnomes of Wall St.", for example, a thousand point range they can play within if they want to send a political message) is a demand on Obama to do something that will stop Trump in his tracks. Part of the reason I believe that the gnomes support Israel is that the news media hate Trump: two separate professional worlds, two different political dynamics. In the latter case, I'd have to say why Israel would hate Trump--if I am to convince you of the general phenomenon of Israel influence at work here. He is the unknown, the loose cannon, the guy who might break out in a case of honest perception, break free of his proper speculation. It might be said that power works by delimiting and on the other hand demanding speculations. "We dare not conjecture," a friend of my older brother would joke when we were teenagers, but he went on to become a very successful main stream media worker, and limiting conjecture is its main feature and function: making the main stream the only stream. And it's hard to imagine what the MSM doesn't want you to imagine.chrisrushlauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11432949074147807503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2771563516536608026.post-21112217981333080102015-11-16T11:32:24.094-08:002015-11-16T11:32:24.094-08:00Mazin, thank you so much for this essay on memory ...Mazin, thank you so much for this essay on memory and mourning and for the essential meditation on giving, receiving, and active resistance to injustice. You are living that struggle for righting the injustices. In peace--Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792360895254683381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2771563516536608026.post-4768477072660323832015-11-15T10:27:37.085-08:002015-11-15T10:27:37.085-08:00Back in Florida and facing overwhelming ignorance ...Back in Florida and facing overwhelming ignorance mixed with apathy. Americans I meet turn a blind eye or regard as too complex to understand the sores festering beneath recurrent tragedies. Media smatter newswires with a circus of pathetic presidential candidates as "entertainment," while people dream on for the one able to solve domestic woes and world terrorism." Doris Norritohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16728820812360214175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2771563516536608026.post-42441420430947367632015-11-15T10:27:07.443-08:002015-11-15T10:27:07.443-08:00Back in Florida and facing overwhelming ignorance ...Back in Florida and facing overwhelming ignorance mixed with apathy. Americans I meet turn a blind eye or regard as too complex to understand the sores festering beneath recurrent tragedies. Media smatter newswires with a circus of pathetic presidential candidates as "entertainment," while people dream on for the one able to solve domestic woes and world terrorism." Doris Norritohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16728820812360214175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2771563516536608026.post-57712993905569100282015-11-14T11:40:16.431-08:002015-11-14T11:40:16.431-08:00Thanks for sharing this sincere, transparent and a...Thanks for sharing this sincere, transparent and a painful piece of someone, who is no one except you and your co-travelers and friends. Yesterday again there is a catastrophe as was in 9/11 in NYC and I feel almost similar as you had felt then. However, any act of violence, even if it's against injustices and hurts inflicted on victims stands to be an object of rejection. Poem of Darwish is so touching.<br /> Uday Prakashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07587503029581457151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2771563516536608026.post-30389022412200241902015-09-29T20:33:02.981-07:002015-09-29T20:33:02.981-07:00Karin
As David Ray Griffin has documented in his b...Karin<br />As David Ray Griffin has documented in his books, Muslims were not responsible for the three (3) World Trade Center skyscrapers falling at free-fall speed on Sept. 11, 2001. Nor were they responsible for many of the other "terror" events the west blames them for. Examine the facts carefully of each event. And look at who benefits. People must find the courage to break their silence and speak truth to power. It's time to stop allowing Muslims and Palestinians to be used for political purposes.Fisherwomanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15934792667616087854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2771563516536608026.post-52061394772208689252015-09-07T04:40:05.374-07:002015-09-07T04:40:05.374-07:00There is talk of relocating Syrian refugees from c...There is talk of relocating Syrian refugees from camps in and around Syria. Good. But there are Palestinians who have been living in 'refugee camps' for decades. I visited one. They may not want to be relocated to Europe, but is anyone asking them what they do want?martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12834863968063411133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2771563516536608026.post-15996702920952425462015-09-06T19:41:23.354-07:002015-09-06T19:41:23.354-07:00thank you Mazin, for this deeply meaningful reflec...thank you Mazin, for this deeply meaningful reflection on "giving" and your comments on history. But more, thank you for who you are and for the tens of thousands of Palestinians like you, who give of yourselves for justice and continue to resist not only Zionism but all forms of oppression. You give us hope and light for the long journey. Don Wagner and Linda KateebDon Wagnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08290162936903007903noreply@blogger.com