Dialing Back the Hostilities

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Sean Hannity was reveling in the great victory of Netenyahoo over his rivals in the labor party such as Herzog.  The Lecud party won 31 seats in the 120 seat parliament, and he still needs sixty to govern.  Yesterday they were prediction the Lecud party had won 28 seats.  Hannity was so “ebuliant” over it.  He kept saying that he wished Netenyahoo were president in this country because “He’s the adult in the room” and also Republicans in this country lined up to congratulate him such as Bush, and Ted Cruise, and Marco Rubio and Senator Corker.  It’s almost like he saw it as some personal victory over President Obama.  There is a new charge leveled to “the liberals” that Netenyahoo made some kind of racist appeal by referring to the “bussing in of Arab citizens” to cast a vote.  I think it’s time to let frayed tempers mellow out a little here.  Hannity stated that President Obama will congratulate every dangerous liberal or Islamic leader, but so far hasn’t congratulated the Israeli prime minister.  There was talk about Yetenyahoo’s “surge in the polls” in the final four days, and what a decisive victory he had won to build a “strong government”.  And Sean compared Netenyahoo to republicans who are “weak” in contrast because by back down before Obama, whereas Netenyahoo is a man who never backs down for anyone.  If I’ve left anything out of the mix here, or if I’ve misspoken on any matter here, I’ll await your correction.  We know that there will be no Palestinian state in the next four years because Netenyahoo made this one of his campaign promises.  Apparently Sheldon Addelson donated large amounts of his own money to found a “free newspaper” in Israel to get his point of view across to the people.  They don’t have anything like Citizens United there so this is kind of the only way it can be done.  This is the same guy who stated that he admires the Israeli army a lot more than the US Army.  Correct me if I’m wrong but it almost seems Israel as a nation is exalted above our own country now.  And for those of Christian Faith, highly regarding the nation of Israel is virtually a requirement.

In terms of the previous paragraph - -  I didn’t add any editorializing or value judgements.  I’m just trying to take it all in.  We all want to be good citizens and work what’s for the best, don’t we?   I’m thrown in remarks about “Faith” and “Trusting God” lately.  Would it do any good to disguise how I “feel” about the tea party?   I guess it was that WCPT program that had the author of that book titled “In God We Trust” Incorporated or something - - how the moneyed businessmen created a “Christian country”.   Thom Hartman is great in citing old documents and treaties where it flatly states the United States is NOT a Christian country.   But if prayer helped found the constitution, than I guess it was a good thing.  I’ve never been one to go overboard on “Televangelism” and all of the money raising and expenditures of ministers that goes on.  How they spend the money is their own business.  It’s between them and God, as long as the money was freely given and no coercion or threats were used- - or some kind of criminal fraud was involved.  But this new accusation first made on Thom Hartman’s program yesterday is a horse of a different color.  It’s one thing to use the riches of the material world to further spreading of the Word of God.  It’s quite another thing (in my humble opinion) to flip this and to “Use” the whole idea of Christian faith strictly as a ruse to further the ambitions of right wing businessmen.  I would imagine that “God” agrees with me on this issue.   The way the book puts it- - big banks and business interest first began running flat out adds that “Business is good if you vote republican and fight FDR and the Unions”.  But this message, according to the author, wasn’t “playing” very well in Peoria.  I guess the grip of the Great Depression was too strong on the common people.  So then pastors were approached about using the trappings of religion in right wing endeavors.  Various Evangelists were accused of buying into this money scheme.  But it was the election of Dwight Eisenhower that really got the whole ‘National day of Prayer’ and “prayer breakfasts” thing going good.  In the course of time the Rev Billy Graham dialed back the more blatant political references in his messages.  Certainly in my conscious lifetime- - I’ve never thought of Billy Graham as political at all.  Maybe it’s a question of samantics or something or some mis-understanding by the author of the book.  Or maybe it’s just an issue that I need to pray about.

There is a Facebook semi pornography scandal in Penn State where another fraternity was decommission because photos of nude women, often nude women “passed out” perhaps after having being given some drug or something.  This Arron Shock guy is an Illinois congressman who has had to resign in disgrace.  Now there are roomers the guy is gay.  I went to check up on Stephanie for the first time this week on WCPT and there is this substitute guy live on the air who is pretty good.  Whenever a candidate cries “Family values” check his math and see how many divorces he’s had or how many women’s abortions he’s secretly paid for.   He talks about the “young guns” of the Republicans.  Eric Cantor is gone, and according to this host, Paul Ryan has become completely discredited with his phony math on health care.  What struck me was that Thom Hartman stood for “Family Values” when he said back when he grew up his father got paid the equivalent of forty or fifty dollars an hour for his good union job.  That’s a lot of money, but the point is that one bread winner could support the family leaving the wife home to bake cookies and attend PTA meetings. 

Prime Minister Netenyahoo proudly proclaimed that he was the victor in today’s elections in Israel.  Actually the Lecud party won 28 seats in Parliament to Herzog’s 27 seats.  But now I hear you need sixty seats of Parliament to form a government.  It would seem no matter who comes out on top as leader, compromises will have to be made.  The Prime Minister claimed that “Arab citizens were being bused in to Vote today”.   Let's pull ourselves out of tape delay and do live right now.  Norman Goldman is trashing the parliamentary system.  I think it's a better system than we have now.  This tweedle-dee and tweedle-dumb two party nonsence gets a little absurd after a while.  Even Glen Beck quit the Republican party today because he says "It's not pure".  Maybe God should weigh in with his oppinion as to whether the Republicans are a "pure party" or not.  I rest my case.  Norman seems to want the "appearance" of stability and all that, even if the wheels of government have ground to a halt, like they are now.  People say the two party system is so ideal.  I don't get it.  What am I missing?  I don't like the idea of ideas being "held hostage".  Some say the Federal Reserve dare not raise interest rates because of the chaos it would cause for the rich in the stock market.  Norman Goldman believes if we ever even ALLOWED a third party to be a major player in politics, our system would break down.  This is government by thought coersion, and it inherently invites bad compromises.

Now in blog reading we have the Bush Iraq War Conspiracy Academy Awards.  There is a list of all the people who planned the Iraq War as far back as January 30^th 2001.  And the fact that the knowledge that Iraq did NOT have weapons of mass destruction was widely known in government.  This really shouldn't be news to anybody, and I refer you to a Sixty Minutes segment done a couple of years ago.  Vince Bugliosi was lecturing on the two elements of murder.  It's A killing B or else A has to defend himself against an iminent threat from B.  The key word is known iminence.   Bush knew we were not in an iminent threat by Iraq in 2002.  The act of course was premeditated, thus making it first degree murder, which is prosecutable.  Any blood which was shed after Bush made the false decision to go to war is thus blood guilt on President Bush, and Chaney and Wolfiwitz and anybody else involved.  This business of "all war all the time" just is not psychologically healthy for a nation.  It isn't healthy for an individual person either to be in a constant state of psychological stress.  They pay for it somewhere along the way with some sort of "psychogenic" disease somewhere down the line.  If what Washington's blog states is true the United States support "Salifis", which are the most radical of Muslims, from whence Al Qaeda and ISIS come.  Iraqi Generals in the Baath Party became radicalized from time spent imprisoned by the United States.  So when is Shawn Hannity going to be asked any of these questions?  The very idea that the US could be in ANY WAY be instrumental in the rise of Al Qaeda or ISIS is unthinkable to Shawn, of course.  In an ideal Shawn Hannity world, what is the "ideal outcome" that Hannity is seeking, anyhow?