Scapegoating and Misdirection - by Hénock Gugsa

Scapegoating and Misdirection 

- by Hénock Gugsa -

~~~~~~~ // ~~~~~~~

Mel W. on Facebook today (3/25/16) :-
" Why are Independents and Democrats registering as Republicans? I'm independent and I'm fed up with massive debt, Illegal getting benefits before veterans, 22 veterans commit suicide a day, lengthy wait for Hospital Appointments, over 3 year wait for benefits, illegals get them immediately. If you have a low paying job or do not have a job the cause is illegal immigration. This country is on the verge of bankruptcy. They'll be a time when this country cannot borrow any more money and the Federal Reserve can't print anymore. Top 20% of earners pay 84% of income tax. Top 1% Pay 24% income tax. What would you do when they leave the country or businesses leave? Or should I say along with the business that has left due to government regulations. That will be the end of the free stuff. "

My Response to Mel W. on Facebook
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I see a lot of scapegoating and misdirection in the arguments given above.  You do not provide any actual statistics of how many "illegals" take advantage of benefits here in the United States.
==> What benefits are easily (freely) gotten or given in this country?  If "stuff" were free, why then do we see so many homeless people and unattended veterans?!  
==> Why do "illegals pour into this country" ?!  It's certainly not because they are given dirt-paying jobs by exploiters who are not paying employer taxes or employee benefits to these "illegals". 
===> On the other side of the equation, there are bureaucratic inefficiencies, and there is  the big, big problem of "waste, fraud, and abuse" of government whether it is run by Democrats or Republicans.
===> What about the unjustified, never-ending military adventures in foreign lands that have so far cost us 3 or 4 trillion dollars?!
===> And about the tax-paying sectors in this country ... are the top 1% really paying income tax? .... And are they really investing in corporations that create jobs right here in the U.S.A??  Have you seen any proof of wealth trickling down to the lower rungs of society? 
===> Wasn't the relaxing of regulations the main cause behind the recent Wall Street crisis? 
===> You talk about "the end of free stuff".  For the majority of Americans, free stuff has been a thing of the past for a long, long time.  At the same time, I am sorry to say that nothing has ever really ended for the very well-to-do in this country!!

 

Trump ... not an idiot ! - by Hénock Gugsa

Trump ... not an idiot ! 

- by Hénock Gugsa -

=== "This man [Donald] is an idiot."  ===

I disagree, Donald Trump is not an idiot.  But, anybody who follows him is.

Trump is a very clever, dangerously clever sociopath who knows what he is doing every step of the way.  He comes from a marketing background, where public sentiments are gauged and also guided to certain desired goals of the marketer.  Everything is calculated, everything  is business, and morality or conscience have no place in the general scheme of things. 

What is the main product Donald Trump is peddling? -  R a c i s m !!!
 

And what is racism? ....  It is a virulent social sickness not unlike alcoholism.  It can be passed from generation to generation thru familial and societal nurturing. There are merchants of racism just as much as there are liqueur salesmen or bartenders.  There is absolutely no question that Donald Trump is an unabashed practitioner and salesman of racism. 

To date, no one has yet challenged Donald Trump with serious and concentrated effort.  He is being dismissed or underestimated by the media and those with political power or influence.

The war on racism needs to be waged anew.   Battles must be fought on all fronts daily and without letup.  We should never give in to fatigue or despair.  In particular, the battle with Trump must be fought with focus because he is not an idiot!

 

Speaking my Mind - by Hénock Gugsa

Speaking my Mind
- by -
Hénock Gugsa
//// ~~~~ ////

Recently, I spoke my mind honestly when I posted something on Facebook about a politician running for the presidency, and I questioned his intelligence.   I said, in essence, he is a "pendejo".*

An old high-school classmate, now an old wealthy socialite, was up in arms calling me a "hater" and everything. Then she sent me a pm that I should refrain from posting my "liberal" views because she does not like seeing them in "her" Facebook. 

She said if I continue this way, she might have to "unfriend [me] at least until after the elections." 

I decided I will save her the bother ... I "unfriended" her on the spot.

Then I told one or two of my friends and explained about the old Ethiopian (Abyssinian) saying: Less beans, less farts!!  ...
  " ባቄላ ቢቀር ፈስ ቀለለ !! "
-------------------------------------------------------
* "pendejo" - (Spanish) asshole

 

The Self-immolation of the Republican Party - by Hénock Gugsa

The Self-immolation of the Republican Party 

- by Hénock Gugsa -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ///// ~~~~~~~~~~~~
[extracted from "The G.O.P Created Donald Trump" - by Nicholas Kristoff, NY Times]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.... 
So how did we get to this stage where the leading Republican candidate is loathed by the Republican establishment?

In part, I think, Republican leaders brought this on themselves. Over the decades they pried open a Pandora’s box, a toxic politics of fear and resentment, sometimes brewed with a tinge of racial animus, and they could never satisfy the unrealistic expectations [of smaller government] that they nurtured among supporters.
....
[An] echo chamber deluded its believers to the point that it sometimes apparently killed them. During the 2009-10 flu pandemic, right-wing broadcasters like Limbaugh and Glenn Beck denounced the call for flu shots, apparently seeing it as a nefarious Obama plot.

The upshot was that Democrats were 50 percent more likely than Republicans to say that they would get flu shots, according to a peer-reviewed article in The Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. So when the pandemic killed up to 18,000 Americans, they presumably were disproportionately conservatives.
....
============================================
 

Missing Obama Already - by David Brooks

 

[What We Will "Miss" Most About Obama]
**== extracted from a recent David Brooks editorial ==**
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 ..., a resilient sense of optimism. To hear Sanders or Trump, Cruz and Ben Carson campaign is to wallow in the pornography of pessimism, to conclude that this country is on the verge of complete collapse. That’s simply not true. We have problems, but they are less serious than those faced by just about any other nation on earth.

People are motivated to make wise choices more by hope and opportunity than by fear, cynicism, hatred and despair. Unlike many current candidates, Obama has not appealed to those passions.

No, Obama has not been temperamentally perfect. Too often he’s been disdainful, aloof, resentful and insular. But there is a tone of ugliness creeping across the world, as democracies retreat, as tribalism mounts, as suspiciousness and authoritarianism take center stage.

Obama radiates an ethos of integrity, humanity, good manners and elegance that I’m beginning to miss, and that I suspect we will all miss a bit, regardless of who replaces him.
========================
Source: David Brooks, "I Miss Barack Obama", 
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/opinion/i-miss-barack-obama.html?_r=0

The "MarcoRoboto" Moments - by TPO

 

The "MarcoRoboto" Moments by   TPO *  ===== #### =====
    RUBIO:  And let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing. Barack Obama is undertaking a systematic effort to change this country, to make America more like the rest of the world....

    RUBIO:  But I would add this. Let's dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing. He is trying to change this country. He wants America to become more like the rest of the world....

    CHRISTIE:  That's what Washington, D.C. Does. The drive-by shot at the beginning with incorrect and incomplete information and then the memorized 25-second speech that is exactly what his advisers gave him. See Marco, the thing is this. When you're president of the United States, when you're a governor of a state, the memorized 30-second speech where you talk about how great America is at the end of it doesn't solve one problem for one person.

    RUBIO:  Here's the bottom line. This notion that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing is just not true. He knows exactly what he's doing.

    CHRISTIE:  There it is. There it is. The memorized 25-second speech. There it is, everybody....It gets very unruly when he gets off his talking points....

    RUBIO [an hour later]:  I think anyone who believes that Barack Obama isn't doing what he's doing on purpose doesn't understand what we're dealing with here, OK? This is a president who is trying to change this country.
---------------------------------------------
* Source: Kevin Drum - Mother Jones.com

A Greatly Cheered Exit ! ... - by TPO

A Greatly Cheered Exit ! 

by TPO
~~~~ /// ~~~~

[ Worst Terrorist Ever Blows Self Sideways out of Plane Without Killing Anyone Else ]
(February 5, 2016)
by
Ben Mathis-Lilley *
Passengers on a Daallo Airlines flight leaving from Mogadishu were subjected to just about the most terrifying experience imaginable on Tuesday as a bomb exploded in the plane's passenger cabin somewhere above 12,000 feet. The bomb only created a relatively small hole in the plane's fuselage, however, and the aircraft was able to return to Mogadishu and land safely.

Somali authorities now believe that they know who carried the bomb onto the plane and detonated it: A man who was then sucked out of the hole in the fuselage and became the attack's only fatality. (Only two minor injuries were reported among other passengers and crew.)

From CNN: The man sucked out of a Somali airliner after an inflight explosion has been identified as Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh, an elderly Somali national, Somalia officials said Friday.

Investigators suspect he carried a laptop computer with a bomb concealed onto the plane, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

One can only hope that Borleh, who is believed to have been acting in affiliation with the al-Shabaab jihadist terror group, was conscious for long enough to understand just how ironically his attempt to murder more than 70 people had gone wrong.

// Abdullahi ,  we hope you find the accommodations in hell appropriately satisfactory !! //

=============================================
* Source: Ben Mathis-Lilley writes for slate.com
 

"Rubio - pendejo by design!" - by Hénock Gugsa

 "Rubio - pendejo by design !"

by 
Hénock Gugsa *

Didn't he [Rubio] also say some time back that he wouldn't mind sitting and having a beer with Malala Yousufzai, the young Pakistani Nobel Prize winner?
At least three things wrong with that picture ....
One, she is a moslem (alcohol is forbidden) ...
two, she is an underage female and he is almost middle-aged ...
and three, he presumes that he is doing her the greatest honor by sitting with her!
===  How embarrassingly stupid can you get ?!  ===
------- ##### ------- ##### ------- ##### ------- ##### -------
* recently posted on Facebook and caused the following reaction from a "friend" who wrote the following ...
<<
Henock:  why are you such a name calling hater?? Your political posts are offensive! Do you think this hate tactic will change any minds?! Or do you post them to impress your fellow extreme liberal 'friends'??? Why don't you post POSITIVE ideas by your liberal candidates instead of hateful name calling personal attacks against Republicans???Name calling is the lowest level is [sic] debate. >>
---------------------------------
This was followed by a private message threatening to "unfriend" me if I continue in this manner in the future.  I started getting visions of being banned from posh and exclusive country clubs. So, I promptly and unceremoniously beat her to the punch ... I unfriended her. As we say in Ethiopia: Less beans, Less fart!   " ባቄላ ቢቀር ፈስ ቀለለ !! "

The Coleman and Pawlenty Sellout - by TPO

The Coleman and Pawlenty Sellout 

- by TPO -

What is irksome in politics?  In my view, it is the persistent political infiltration by outside forces to purposefully sway local electoral outcomes.  Here in Minnesota, we had a taste of it back in the Bush/Cheney years (2001-2008).  There were two rising (?!) stars named Tim Pawlenty and Norm Coleman. Tim was from the State legislature, and Norm was a former mayor of St. Paul.

Of the two, Tim Pawlenty was the least harmful, in my opinion.  He had shown progressive mettle and was in effect a moderate politician.  Norm Coleman, on the other hand, was a mealy-mouthed opportunist who once used to be a democrat but had defected to the dark side.  In 2002, Norm Coleman was going to make another attempt for the governorship, and Tim Pawlenty had begun the preliminary steps of a campaign for the U.S. Senate seat (running against Paul Wellstone).

Then Dick Cheney stepped into the picture and rearranged the political plans of these young politicians.  He got Coleman to go for the Senate seat and told Pawlenty he should run for Governor instead.  All political munitions and what not were aimed at defeating Wellstone.  It was, I am sure, very fortuitous for Norm and the Republican White House that Wellstone died in a plane crash.  Norm won the Senate seat against a democratic party that was in disarray and undergoing persistent political doldrums.  As for Tim Pawlenty, on the other hand, his victory was uncomplicated, unblemished, and well-earned. 

To me, to this day, the nauseating thing about Coleman and Pawlenty  was that they were Dick Cheney's puppets.  They worked for him and not for Minnesota!

A Yank in Ireland! - by Unknown

 

An American Tourist in Ireland ** ===> 
--------------------------------------------- <<
Well now, folks ... There is this American here a-touring all of Ayre-land, ya see.
When his tour bus arrives in Belfast, the yank decides to go for a stroll on his own with the aim of taking in the sites 'n the culture first hand.
After he has been walking for a while, someone rushes up behind him and sticks a gun in his back.
The person says to the tourist "What are you, Catholic or Protestant ?"
The American thinks to himself: "Great - if I say I'm Catholic, this guy is sure to be Protestant ... and if I say I'm Protestant, he is sure to be Catholic. Either way, I am dead."
Then he has an inspiration, and he says to the guy with the gun, "Actually I'm Jewish."
This, he thinks to himself, will surely keep him safe.
The mugger then replies, "Gee, I must be the luckiest Arab in Ireland!"  >>
========================================
** Source: An unknown narrator, presumed to be an irreverent, hard-drinking, politically incorrect, and outspoken Irishman who has no use for foreigners (especially Americans and Arabs) !

The Good Farmer - by TPO

 

[The Good Farmer] *
- by TPO -
There was [once] a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year, he won the award for the best-grown corn.

One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting .... The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.

“Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

So [it] is with our lives... Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all ....

-Call it power of collectivism...
-Call it a principle of success...
-Call it a law of life.
The fact is, none of us truly wins, until we all win!!

============================================
* Source: Aaron Avner (Facebook, September 24, 2015)
============================================

TPO's comment ...-
This debunks the irrational social and political conclusions of ...
1- all Darwinian proponents who focus only on the destructive (negative) side of "evolution",
2- all followers of Ayn Rand,
3- all short-sighted, hypocritical, and greedy people - especially the non-altruistic politicians and the mega-wealthy. 

In a Pig's Eye! - by Hénock Gugsa

In a Pig's Eye! 

- by Hénock Gugsa -

A couple of days ago, a big fat guy was driving an SUV in front of me ... and I noticed he had a bumper sticker that said: "Cop Lives Matter too!"

** I was so outraged and I did not know what to make of such stupidity!  The only way I can respond is by designing a meme of my own that encapsulates the totality of my reaction! **

America's Humanity at Risk! - by TPO

America's Humanity at Risk! 

- by TPO -

~~~~~~~ **** ~~~~~~~

Stephen Colbert: Syrian Refugees & the Republicans' Panic

Vive la Liberté ! - Hénock Gugsa

Vive la Liberté !  
~~~~~~~~~

- Hénock Gugsa -

"J'aime Paris ... j'aime la France! " - Hénock Gugsa

J'aime Paris ... j'aime la France!

V I V E    L A    F R A N C E   !!!!!

"La Marseillaise" -- chanteuse: Mireille Mathieu

Help Me Understand, Please! - by Hénock Gugsa

Help me understand ... please!

by 
Hénock Gugsa
~~~~~~~~ ////// ~~~~~~~~

Why do some racists show their racism in the most stupid and cowardly way?!

-- The racists at the University of Missouri who painted (?!) black students' dorm room doors with feces ... what was the message being delivered?
a) ... that swastikas are shitty symbols?!
b) ... that the racists play with their crap, like doing finger painting and stuff?!
c) ... that the racists have never heard of toilet paper or toilets?!
d) ... that these racists are just sewer rats on a rampage?!

-- The racists who fly confederate flags, wear symbols and trinkets of the confederacy or of Nazi Germany ...
a) ... are they just saying they love a losing side no matter what?!
b) ... do they even know  that hate is like a self-inflicted wound and it can boomerang and come back at you?!
c) ... isn't there enough hot air out there without the extra heat and discomfort from racists' hate?!

*** I have more respect and fear for the intelligent racist who is subtle and uses (manipulates) society's institutions to get his way and do his evil deeds. ***

Bernie bitch-slaps Wall Street's thugs! - by TPO

 Bernie bitch-slaps Wall Street's thugs !

 - by TPO -

Recently, Wall Street's shakers and movers had the premeditated gall to  lecture Americans to “act on the deficit and reform Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.”   The following is Senator Bernie Sanders' response =======>

<<  There really is no shame. The Wall Street leaders whose recklessness and illegal behavior caused this terrible recession are now lecturing the American people on the need for courage to deal with the nation’s finances and deficit crisis. Before telling us why we should cut Social Security, Medicare and other vitally important programs, these CEOs might want to take a hard look at their responsibility for causing the deficit and this terrible recession.

Our Wall Street friends might also want to show some courage of their own by suggesting that the wealthiest people in this country, like them, start paying their fair share of taxes. They might work to end the outrageous corporate loopholes, tax havens and outsourcing provisions that their lobbyists have littered throughout the tax code – contributing greatly to our deficit.

Many of the CEO’s who signed the deficit-reduction letter run corporations that evaded at least $34.5 billion in taxes by setting up more than 600 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens since 2008. As a result, at least a dozen of the companies avoided paying any federal income taxes in recent years, and even received more than $6.4 billion in tax refunds from the IRS since 2008.

Several of the companies received a total taxpayer bailout of more than $2.5 trillion from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department.

Many of the companies also have outsourced hundreds of thousands of American jobs to China and other low wage countries, forcing their workers to receive unemployment insurance and other federal benefits. In other words, these are some of the same people who have significantly caused the deficit to  explode over the last four years. >>

 

Coexistence - by TPO

Coexistence

- by TPO -

In a time of difficulties back in the 1930s, an Italian photographer saw something which he had never seen anywhere else but in Ethiopia and was very much surprised: Muslims and Christians praying together.
 

After a little conversation with the locals he documented his unique experience in pictures. 

The picture was later published by Richard Pankhurst and Denis Gerard.
 

The photo caption read: “At St George’s Cathedral, Addis Ababa, Christians and Muslim’s praying together for peace.”
-----------------------------------------------------------
Coexistence: (noun) a policy of living peacefully with other nations, religions, etc., despite fundamental disagreements.
source: Dictionary.com

"Oromo Street" in Minneapolis, MN - by Hénock Gugsa

"Oromo Street" in Minneapolis, MN

 - by Hénock Gugsa  -

[አገር የሌላቸው ሰዎች በሰው አገር መጥተው አስፋልት መንገድ ይሰጠን አሉ !]  

-------------------------------------------------
There is a saying in Ethiopia: 

"Without food and starving, yet she covets the fancy dress!"
" የምትበላው የሌላት የምትከናነበው አማራት !! " 
-------------------------------------------------- 

The street in this picture is found in the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis (near the U of M campus), which is now locally known as "Little Mogadishu".  The black building in the background is a madrasas (Islamic school) that belongs to the dominant Somalis in the area.  Up-to almost fifteen years ago, this same building used to be a bar/club called "the 400 Bar".  I have some great memories of some good times at that bar back in the late 80's.  But back then, there were few Oromos and even fewer Somalis here in the Twin Cities.

Regarding this street ... thankfully, I don't believe the city of Minneapolis completely recognizes this new, strange name.  It is still "S 4th Street" as far as everybody (including this writer) is concerned ! 

To be sure, the money wasted on this stupid street name (the sign itself and the license or permit fees, etc.) could have been put to better use in Ethiopia.  That money could have bought school books and materials for poor Ethiopian children, it could have bought hospital beds, and it could have been used as startup funds for building community wells, etc. 

One last point of note:  Has anybody seen streets named for Laos, for Vietnam, for Liberia, for Kenya, etc. here in America?  The expats from those countries living here are to be commended for having sense enough to keep low profiles and making noteworthy contributions to America, their new home.   So, Oromos and Somalis: ===> If you want to be recognized, please be good citizens here first, and then go and do something substantial, something meaningful and respectable for your former (native) lands ... and do it quietly!
 

Wealth and Happiness - by Yaakov Menken

Wealth and Happiness *

- by Yaakov Menken -

     "Who is wealthy? He who is happy with his lot."
Imagine a farmer who owns a modest few acres of land. He works through the year, harvests his crop, and knows that he'll be able to feed his family. He's content, because he has all that he needs.

But before he can take advantage of that crop, he knows he has to bring his first fruits. So he saddles his donkey, fills a small bag with loaves of bread and a few clusters of grapes, and heads off for [the city]. After traveling for a while, he reaches the main highway.

[And then things change...] He isn't happy anymore!

He gets to the main road, but needs to wait -- a huge caravan is passing. There is a huge carriage with extraordinarily large and beautiful grapes. The next is piled high with loaves of bread. And in the third sits the owner of the horses, carriages, farmland and crop.The farmer looks at his small bag of first fruits. 

Has anything changed? Only his perception. His satisfaction is replaced by jealousy, because someone else has all that wealth.
______________________________________________________ 
* Source: Yaakov Menken (News from Project Genesis and Torah.org)