HOPE IS THE MESSAGE

HAPPY 2012

To win in 2012 Republicans must feed voters' fears, hatred of Obama, and their desire to return to the “good old days” of Bush. Democrats need to convince us the economic troubles Bush caused are being corrected and things are getting better, the country is safer, and Obama is prepared, and eager, to do battle with the lords of Wall Street. The GOP has no choice but to run a negative campaign while the Democrats can, and must, focus on the positive.

What makes it an especially tough year for the GOP is that their convention takes place in Tampa, Florida on August 27.and is followed on September 3 by the Democrats' in Charlotte, South Carolina. The country will have to endure a week of lamentation, hair pulling, and “Obama is the problem!” speeches. A week later the Democrats will throw a party to which we're all invited. The speeches will be upbeat, the music will be lively, and the Obama family (and dog Bo) will smile, laugh, and cheer. (Maybe Bo won't.)

My guess, or prediction, is that Americans are ready to feel good again after a year of tears, struggle, and fear. I think the nation is ready for a truly happy 2012. So let's let auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind as we embrace hope once again.

TRIP TO HELL

IF PEOPLE WERE CARS

When an uninsured driver totaled my car, my insurance company sent me a check for what Kelly Blue Book said it was worth. Cool. In California all drivers are required to have insurance, so the guy who ran into me lost his license. Very cool. Now, if people were cars everybody would be required to have insurance on their bodies like they do on their cars. It's called Romneycare in Massachusetts, and if the Supreme Court doesn't screw things up it will be required in all states soon. Totally cool.

What I don't understand is why some people are screaming that it's socialism, or worse. They didn't have a Tea Party extravaganza to shout down the laws that require car owners to have insurance. Were they asleep, or do they think making tax payers foot the hospital bill for people in ER is okay while getting their insurance company to pay if their car's in ER, also known as a repair shop, is swell?

Rather than further belabor the point, let me reflect on concepts laid out in the Christian Bible and the Qur’an. Both those holy books tell the faithful they must care for those in need or they'll go to hell. That being the case, Ron Paul faces spending a very long time in hell for his demands that we stop all foreign aid and repeal Obamacare. He wouldn't be alone “down below” All the other wannabe GOP nominees agree with most of his Libertarian views. (Which translates: liberty for me and screw you.)

The Good Samaritan saved the life of an injured Jew who was supposed to be is enemy. Other Jews who'd walked by the man had ignored him, the Samaritan came to his aid. That is the lesson all of us must learn. We are all our brothers' keepers. Remind those who don't want to pay for health insurance that can save another's life that it is damned hot in hell. .

POLITICS IS A DIRTY BUSINESS

ELEPHANT POOP

The old joke says the worst job in a circus falls to the one who has to shovel up the elephant poop.That job is now impossible as the GOP elephant has begun to suffer from acute diarrhea. And the shit is hitting all its fans. The brutal Iowa campaign – to win a meaningless victory – has forced the contenders to spit in each others' faces. Racism has reemerged (thanks to Dr. Paul,) wealth is an attack word, and anti-gay and anti-abortion attacks have once again alienated moderates and independents. The one who wins the rigid Evangelicals and Tea Party-ites votes in the Iowa caucuses will almost surely loose in the general election.

But it is even more of a problem for Republicans this year because the local battles have gone national, thanks to the endless string of “debates.” It used to be that what happened in Iowa stayed in Iowa, now it stays, and stays, and stays on Fox and msnbc. Gingrich's praise of Romeny-care will hurt Mitt in the Super Tuesday primaries, Bachmann's attack on Perry's position on immigration will erode the Hispanic vote even more, and Santorum's Christian crusade will reduce the Jewish vote for Republicans in Florida and across the country. And have no doubt, those bits from the Iowa campaign will be the stuff of Democratic TV ads month after month.

I'm not the only one who thinks all this shit can doom the party in November. Recently the conservative National Review and uber-conservative William Kristol have expressed dismay and called on more electable candidates to join the race. Who? Another Bush? Chinless Bobby Jindal? The fatso who rides in a limo because he can't even walk to his kid's ball game? The GOP isn't just in trouble in 2012, they also don't have any strong candidates waiting in the wings for 2016.

Watch where you step, Republicans, the ground is awash in what the elephant can't digest.

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DUMB AND DUMBER

WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE

I read The Nation every week and usually find it informative and agreeable. In the current issue (Jan 3) I ran across a bit that I assumed was a joke so I read on, expecting a punch line. Finding none, I reread the paragraph, hoping to find I'd missread the joke. I hadn't. The author urged, nay, demanded that Obama “move in the direction” of The American Dream Act, an omnibus bill the Progressive Caucus created. It is every thing us progressives could hope for and, of course, has absolutely no chance in hell of passing either house. I doubt it could pass even if Democrats gained control of both the House and Senate.

Switching from that, I prowled through stories about America Elect. It has just gotten on the ballot in California, and a bunch of other states. Its boss insists it is not a political party, but that's how it is described in all of the states where it will be on the ballot in 2012. Their idea seems simple enough: people vote on-line to pick a candidate, who must then pick a vice presidential running mate from the other party. So voters would end up with what. Obama and Gingrich? Or Ron Paul and Michelle Backhmann? Don't those dummies know that the vice presidency is a pot of warn piss, as Vice President John Nance Gardner put it. His (or one day, her) only constitutionally assigned job is to serve as titular president of the Senate. The President tells his veep what else he can do, or can not do. Period.

The bigger question, however, is not why America Elect is so stupid, but who put up the millions it has cost them to pay for all the signatures that got them on those ballots. Do the backers of this bizarre movement have a Koch addiction? AE won't get anybody elected but it has the potential of drawing some independents from Obama, and even some semi-smart Democrats who are weary of the two party system. My guess is that that's what its financial backers had in mind now that there's no Ralph Nader to screw things up.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

Under the Christmas tree in the White House there is a gift box from the Republican National Committee, but there's nothing in it. The gift won't come for weeks, maybe not until Super Tuesday, or the GOP convention. But eventually Obama will opening it to find who the GOP nominee is, and what he finds will be just what he asked Santa for. Meanwhile, back at the campaign headquarters in Chicago, the staff is packing goodies into three boxes. One is labeled Romney, one Gingrich, and one just has a black “? “

These days the polls are looking good for Obama in 2012. In them, he's ahead of Romney or even with him, he easily tops all the others, and the campaign hasn't started. And there is the possibility that billionarie New York Mayor Bloomberg will toss his fedora in the race as a third parry canaidate, which would be a fatal blow to the GOP.. But none of this has stopped the professional whiners from attacking Obama for not giving them what they wanted in their Christmas' stockings.

The latest of these prompted me to cancel my subscription to Harper's magazine. The publisher of that once-responsible magazine, John MacArthur, recently wrote that Obama should not be reelected because he has “lost his moral authority.” It strikes me that anyone who says that has lost his, and his common sense too. Obama got bin Laden, ended Bush's Iraq war, got his health care bill passed, has cut taxes on the poor and middle class, killed “Don't Ask,Don't Tell,” and has restored true “family values” to the White House.

But the MacArthurs of the country, few as there are, will have zero affect on the 2012 vote. Before November of next year it will be Obama versus one man, and whoever that is his campaign is ready to launch block buster campaigns against him. (And it will be a Him now that Backmann has turned to dust.) There will be a southern campaign that reminds Evangelicals of Governor Romney's support of gay marriage and a woman's right to choose; a mid-west campaign that focuses on Romney's record as a jobs killer when he ran Bain, a company that is still paying him; and an east and west coast campaign that focuses on the recently “born again” Tea Party reactionary. All of those Romenys will loose and a truly moral man, who has read the Constitution, will be reelected.

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AN EASY RIDE?

I AM VERY CONFUSED

Can you help me understand what's going on in politics? What am I missing? I've been studying the Hedgehog Report which collects data from all the major polls and it shows Obama beating Gingrich in the Electoral College by a vote of 426 to 112. That's what is called a landslide victory. And Gingrich is tied with Obama in Arizona and has only a 1% lead in Ohio but Hedgehog gives them to the Republican. The Hispanic vote could tip Arizona to the Democrats and Independents could swing Ohio. That would turn an Obama landslide into a tsunami.

There is, of course, a year to go before election day but one would think those numbers would have Republicans quaking in their Gucci loafers and hunting for an “anybody but Newt” candidate. Why aren't they and what is the GOP thinking? That's my conundrum.

I had one thought. Maybe there's a George Smiley-type agent in the GOP. You know, John le Carré's master spy in Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy. He would have been the one who plotted all their disastrous debates, sought out the women in Herman Cain's past, fed Rick Perry a drug which made him forget what agencies he wanted to abolish, and talked Gingrich into saying Freddy Mac hired him as an historian. Oh, and he convinced Romney that Americans had lousy memories and wouldn't be able to recall what he's said yesterday about gays, abortion, or universal health care.

Their Smiley chap (who never smiles) has also gotten into Karl Rove's head and GOP pollster Linda DiVall's. Rove said the Obama campaign has a “sort-term view” and a very bad long-term problem. Ms. DiVall was prompted to note that the Obama campaign “should not feel in the least comfortable.”

Short term? Don't they read The Washington Post? That sometimes good paper finally noted that the Obama campaign launched the “two Mitts in one body” TV ad with sole objective of helping Newt get the nomination That was damned smart long-range planning and the campaign staff is feeling quite comfortable as they meet in the White House today. .

Or maybe the GOP rigged all the polls and concocted the Hedgehog report just to give the Obama campaign a false comfortable feeling. Now that would really have been a major coup for their Smiley-face. Or they could be echoing the line, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” to victory in 2012.

THE ONE PERCENT

GREED IS GOD

That is not a typo in the title of this piece. Congressman Paul Ryan and many others worship greed and Ann Rand's Atlas Shrugged is their bible. Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck also adore the book as do many right-wing Republicans and some, but by no means all, Wall Streeters. In the book, published in 1957, Rand describes the hero as, “Having been born without the ability to consider others.” This is, of course, characteristic of psychopaths, one of whom Ann Rand idolized: the homicidal maniac William Hickman who slaughter a 13 year old girl.

In The Fifteen Biggest Lies About Capitalism author Joshua Holland details Rand's obsession with the concept of a world without empathy, a world in which each of us seeks only to achieve personal wealth and power. She doesn't even invoke Adam Smith's mysterious “invisible hand,”which he said is somehow able to reap a bit of benefit to all from the avarice of the few. Rand's dream of a world without concern for others leads Newt Gingrich into wanting poor kids to map the floor of their school while the well off students mock them, and to Ryan's plan to slice apart the fabric of what is left of our ragged safety net.

I read an advance copy of the book in the spring of 1957 and hated it. But when I was told to go up to the Brown Derby restaurant to interview her I gathered the film crew and headed up the street. She was sitting in a booth along the north wall with men I presumed represented the publisher. When she saw me and my film crew she hissed that we were schwein, (pigs.) I tried to smile as I spoke in my poor German; Ich nicht ein Schwein, Fraulein, ich bin ein Reporter.” The men in the booth laughed. Ann Rand tossed her glass of water in my face. NBC news carried the spot that night unedited.

However it is not the hard faced German's rudeness, nor even her books, that trouble me now. It is the way her philosophy of soulless selfishness has become an acceptable way of doing business in the world today. Recent research has revealed that even rats have empathy. When another rat is trapped the one who is free attempts to chew off the trap. But if the Randites have their way we will abandon all concern for others and serve only the god of greed. I hope her vision doesn't become reality, but I hope to live long enough to see my government boldly act to punish pathological capitalists.

JUDGE'S WORD ISN'T LAW

JUDGE TRASHES THE 1st AMENDMENT

Boston police raided the Occupy site (Dec. 10) after Judge Frances McIntyre ruled that “occupying” constituted “seizing” public property. She made that ruling while occupying a chair owned by the state, while occupying the position of judge, after having occupied a hotel room on occasion, occupying a seat on an airplane, and maybe even flicking the Occupied sign on a toilet door. How that beyond-stupid-woman could have so totally screwed up is hard to fathom. But in doing so she blithely ignored the 1^st Amendment of our constitution which guarantees the people's right to assemble peacefully to seek “redress of grievances.” And the Constitution does not limit that right to assemble where, when, or for only as long as the local authority approves.

I suggest that before the Occupy folks go to court to get her witless ruling overturned they buy her a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of the English language. To justify her bizarre ruling she may want to seize on the Latin root of the English word which combines ob – to move toward, and capere - to seize, but, as noted above, no English speaker (except foolish Ms. McIntyre) uses the word to mean “to steal,” “to take permanent possession of another's property,” or “to lay claim to.”

The dotty Ms. McIntyre is not, tragically, the only one who has ignored the Constitution to shoo Occupiers out of public parks and off campus. Multibillionaire Mayor Bloomberg did it, so did suck-up-to-the-banks Oakland Mayor Quan, and semi-English speaking Chancellor of the Davis campus of the University of California. Linda Katehi. (For whom our Constitution may be “all Greek to her.”)
The Occupy movement began as an effort to call attention to Wall Street's usurpation of power and the tragic effects of the wealth gap in the U.S. But now, due to the violent acts of police and the venality of local governments, it has became a true civil rights movement. Imagine what things would have been like had the McIntyre view prevailed when people marched to Selma. They could have been routed for “seizing” a public bridge, and poor old Glenn Beck's crowd would have been ordered to vacate the Washington mall or face pepper spraying. .

BRAIN DRAIN

YOUR BRAIN ON POLITICS

Remember the old anti-drug ad that said your brain on drugs is fried? Something like that seems to be true of some people's brains on politics. Republicans who were running against the Washington establishment now support Mister Insider, Newt Gingrich. Evangelicals who were running against “immoral” Democrats now support Mister Infidelity, Newt Gingrich. Conservatives who oppose Freddie Mac now back it's former lobbyist, Mister Insincere, Newt Gingrich.

As I tried to make sense of that I turned to psychology and brain science blogs and found a couple of clues. First, people are very good at deceiving themselves. Those who believe adultery is a sin switch from morality to electability as the basis for their decision to back Gingrich. Those who despise Washington insiders switch to hatred of Obama as their reason for supporting him. And “everybody has to make a living” is reason enough to overlook Gingrich's career as a lobbyist.

The other insight came from a study of “group think.” This is the “to get along, go along” attitude which explains why honest men and women working on Wall Street engaged in flagrantly dishonest practices. And it may also explain why perfectly rational men and women are backing a man who was fined $300,000 for engaging in corrupt activities while serving as Speaker; number three in line to serve as President.

Between now and election day the airwaves, and on-line social media, will be awash in ads which remind voters of Gingrich's past. (Assuming he's the nominee.) But those ads won't change minds unless they directly address the self-deception and group thinking. I suggest using a grandmotherly woman in an ad in which she says, “You may want to forget his repeated adultery, but I can't and you ought to be ashamed of yourself if you do.” And one that features a man in jail who says, '”I broke the law when I was on Wall Street and am paying the price. Are you going to let Gingrich get away with his crimes and serve his time in the White House? (Head down) It's just not fair.”

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

THE WHITE HOUSE OR THE JAIL HOUSE?

The President and Attorney General Holder are probably meeting in a closed door session today to discuss whether a Federal indictment should be brought against Newt Gingrich. It seems patently clear that he has violated Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 29, Section 599 of the U. S. Code which prohibits a presidential candidate from naming his (or her) cabinet picks, which Gingrich did. Today's Washington Times reported in detail Gingrich's speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Arlington, Virginia during which he promised to name former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton as his Secretary of State. That clearly violated the law, and if found guilty Gingrich faces a year in jail. Of course, if charges are filed Obama will be accused of using the law to help his campaign, and if they aren't he will be slammed for putting political expediency above enforcing the law.

There is an out, however. U.S. Attorneys don't have to check with the AG before acting to enforce Federal law, so Neil MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (an Obama appointee who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate) is free to act. Meanwhile ultra-right winger John Bolton has declined to say whether he'd take the job, but that should not stop MacBride from bringing charges.

The dilemma Obama faces is bound to spoil his sleep tonight. (And maybe make him wish he hadn't quit smoking.) What would help would be pressure from Congress to act to enforce the law. So Obama might want to make a late night call to Michigan Congressman John Conyers, Jr, the ranking minority member of the Judiciary Committee. “Hey, John, do me a favor. Call Neil MacBride and get him to arrest Newt.'” The next day the President can meet with the press to lament the tragedy and point out he had no control over the action MacBride took. That ought to help him sleep better.

THE COMEDY SEASON

IT'S HARD NOT TO LAUGH

Donald Trump is going to moderate a GOP political debate. That's not a joke from the Colbert Report, funny as it seems. What's going to be tough for The Donald is to make this episode of the seemingly endless string of debates more bizarre than the others. They could all have been written by Jon Stewart's team on The Daily Show, and I'm sure that has not been lost on Obama's team, which may be tempted to run a Comedy Central campaign.

If “The GOP's a joke” becomes their 2012 slogan we're in for a fall season that will have the country in stitches. And each day's news brings more material to the comedy writers who, I'm sure, are not sipping tea as they work. G.W. Bush's press secretary handed over a bunch of new stuff when he urged Republican campaigners to attack Obama as a flip-flopper. To make his point he listed items so obscure that even the party professionals were mystified. I presume most of those present knew that flip-flopping is both Gingrich and Romney's Achilles heel, and using those words only hurts them. And at that same Republican National Committee meeting, to which a Yahoo reporter was inadvertently invited, pollster Nicholas Thompson countered that the party should be wary of attacking Obama because of his “high personal approval rating,” which has risen to 49%.

And they're faced with the new Public Policy Polling's finding that were the election held this week Gingrich would get 42% of the popular vote to Obama's 50%. That does not mean that 2012 is a certain win for Obama, which is why I'm urging them to go for the laughs. So let's dig out our old Mort Saul caps and start writing. How about, “The funniest thing about Obama is his name. The funniest thing about Romney is how many of him there are.” Or, “Gingrich just got a powerful endorsement. Tiffany's is backing him 500,000 percent.”

A WHO DONE IT

THE MYSTERY OF POLITICS

I read a lot of political news and a lot of mystery novels and during the political season the two begin to blend together. With mysteries the question is Who did it and will the good guys nail him, or her? With politics it's Who will do it, and will voters nail him, or her? In both genres the reader expects to encounter a number of suspects, be faced with the author's misdirections, and read of heart pounding threats to the good guys.

The GOP initially offered up a dozen suspects which over time has been reduced to two, Gingrich and Romney. Almost from the beginning of the novel it seemed that the Obama's good guys had their sights set on Mitt as the “who will do it,” then came a puzzling misdirection more confusing than I'd run into in any of the novels I've read. The Obama campaign ran a powerful anti-Mitt ad exposing the two Mitts trapped in one body. I asked myself if they want to run against Romney why run an ad that will hurt him win the GOP nomination? Then came the Ah Ha! moment. Obama wants to run against Gingrich!

At that point I went back to reading political news and discovered that Independents really, really don't like Newt. In California, 60% of them would vote against him and nationally only 31% of GOP voters have a favorable view of him. So things are turning out just the way the Chicago good guys want them to.

Of course before an “arrest” can be made hard evidence has to be gathered which will convince the jury (voters) that Newt should be locked out of the White House. And, as with any good novel, that evidence only comes in the last chapter; DNA turns up, or a camera catches the suspect with his hand in the till. We're going to have to wait a while before the “authors” reveal that evidence, but it is most likely something other than the million he took as a lobbyist for the mortgage giant, his marital infidelity, or his Tiffany bill. I wish I could flip forward to the last chapter but I'll just have to wait until mid-summer of 2012. And then for the November trial when the jury votes. That's the heart pounding element.

CRIME STOPPERS

LAISSEZ FAIRE IS NOT FAIR

It French, laissez faire means “let do” or “let it be,” which has been translated into the mantra of western capitalism: “Keep government's hands off!” The result, as we now see, is that those who plunder win over those who produce, those who cheat beat out those who create, and those who steal do better than those who save. Imagine if laissez faire were imposed more broadly on our society. There would be no traffic lights, no police to arrest bank robbers, no FDA to keep poison out of baby formula, and nothing to prevent counterfeiting. Surely we all now recognize that if government kept its hands off capitalism chaos would follow – as it has.

Government has managed to put a few Bernie Madoffs in prison, but most of the slime bags have been allowed to go free without having to admit their crimes or even say, “Sorry. Won't do it again.” The lackeys of Wall Street even managed to prevent the Consumer Protection Agency from saving us from investment pollution as the FDA protects us from poison in our food.

To save capitalism from today's capitalists we need to invoke a different French word: Arrêt! - Stop! And our only hope of doing that is to keep today's Republican party from gaining even greater control of our government. To achieve that, the Democratic party has no choice but to campaign against Wall Street. Harry S Truman defeated Thomas Dewey by running not against him but against a “Do nothing” Congress when Dewey led in all the polls. Obama can defeat the GOP candidate (assuming the eventually settle on one) by labeling him as the “Tool of Wall Street,” which he (or she?) surely will be. And the party must fight to control congress by running Main Street candidates against the Wall Street candidates. The Occupy movement has pointed the way, now it's time for the Democratic party to join the movement.

STREET CRIME

I MISS THE MAFIA

There was a time, not so long ago, when most suburban neighborhoods were safe from the Mafia. Back then, bad guys of one “family” murdered bad guys of other “families,” and if you weren't in “the game” you were pretty safe. Now no one is safe because crime has moved from the streets of Chicago to Wall Street. If you don't believe me, check out Academy Award winner Charles Ferguson's eye opening documentary “Inside Job.”

The “numbers racket” and loan sharking are now exclusively the business of the big banks, “investment” firms, and hedge funds. And they haul in vastly more money than the Mafia dons ever dreamed possible, money that comes out of your pocket and mine. The question is, Where are the G-Men now that we really need them?

The reason most of the crooks of today get away with stealing from us is that Congress has made their crimes “business as usual.” It's perfectly legal to put a bunch of totally bad debts (sub-prime mortgages) into a box and sell the box to somebody for a high price, which they can because they pay the “rating” agencies like Moody's and S&P to swear on a stack of old phone books that the box is really, really valuable. S&P, as you recall, was the agency that was paid to downgrade our country's credit rating because the people who paid them thought it would hurt Obama's chances of getting reelected.

There is today a glimmer of hope. Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley has filed suit against Bank of America, JPMorgan-Chase, and others charging them with real honest to God crimes. She's not a G-Man but she's one ballsy G-Lady!

THERE ARE LOTS OF US

THE PUBLICS OPINIONS

When I taught courses in Public Opinion, I tried to help my students understand that there is no such thing as “ public opinion,” but, rather, there are opinions shared by those who identify with the dozens of publics that make up America. However pollsters and pundits persist in dividing the nation into three camps; Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. Occasionally they do admit there is a “Jewish vote,” a “Black vote,” and, increasingly, an “Hispanic vote,” But race or ethnicity is only one of the dozen “publics,” among which are age, religion, wealth, ideology, occupation, and education.

The holocaust and the AIDS pandemic taught us there is also a “compassion public” whose opinions shifted away from Antisemitism and homophobia when they began to “feel sorry” those who were slaughtered by the Nazi and who died in the HIV pandemic. (There is also a news junkie public, of which I'm one, and I am also part of the growing non-religious public.) Within all of these publics there are sub-publics, among which are the young environmentalist Evangelicals, anti-Zionist Jews, gay Catholics, and Democrats who watch Fox News.

As the “topic of the day” changes there are significant shifts in the opinions of all of these publics. That was clear when Republican Congressman Ryan's budget plan caused older Americans to shift away from the GOP. And when the Occupy movement shifted the topic from the deficit to the wealth divide a major change followed, including among the wealthy.

It is too early to make predictions about how the many publics opinions will impact the 2012 election, or even what topics will dominate the popular discourse then, but if jobs and the wealth divide remain hot Democrats will benefit. But if there is a terrorist attack it could do for Obama what it did for Bush when there actually was, if ever so briefly, a true national public opinion. .

PARTY'S OVER

UNCORK THE CHARDONNAY

I had to read the New York Times (Nov. 29) story about the dramatic decline in Tea Party support twice before it's impact fully took hold. The Pew Research Center study revealed that support for Republicans in strongly pro-Tea Party districts is now about the same as for Democrats. The Times summarized the finding by noting, “The survey suggests the Tea Party may be dragging down the Republican party. . .”

What this tells us would have been all but unthinkable a month ago: the 2012 contest may be about issues rather than ideology. Imagine the consternation that is broiling in GOP hopefuls' campaign offices as the realize the base they were playing to is no longer solidly theirs. The bad news for Democrats, however, is that this may cause some Independents to shift to the GOP in 2012 now that it is free from the anchor of far right ideology.

When the Occupy movement forced the media to pay at least some attention to the vast disparity between the 1% and the rest of Americans the GOP quaked in its boots. If we stopped our single minded focus on the deficit they knew it would hurt them badly, and it has. The Tea Party's fear of big government spending shifted to the old fear of Robber Barons. So get out the Chardonnay, tea time's over.

THANKS POPE

IS THE POPE CATHOLIC?

In his January 6, 2011 Epiphany sermon, Pope Benedict XVI declared that God had caused the Big Bang, the event cosmologists believe occurred a bit over 13 billion years ago. It gave “birth” to the universe and all the matter and life in it. His comment prompted me to ponder the formerly comic question about the Pope's faith (and where bears defecate) as his acceptance of the Big Bang reduces Genesis in the Old Testament to a fairy tale and questions much of the New Testament. In his sermon, the Pope also said, “The Church never fears the truth.” Those six words challenge the very foundation of religion as they elevate science above faith.

Of course Evangelicals and other Christians are free to ignore the Pope, as are Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists, but the position he expressed has already begun to infiltrate their congregations. In France, the Scandinavian countries, and even in the United States, church attendance has declined as more and more people turn to science as they seek answers to the great questions humans have been asking forever. And now a quarter of all Americans declare they are not “affiliated” with any organized faith and non-believers are the fastest growing “church.”.

Dr. R. Douglas Field's fascinating (and exhausting) The Other Brain, makes it patently clear that the world of science now speaks the same language – the language of mathematics and science. And women and men all around our earth are slowly proving there is nothing that is impossible. The God whom the Pope credits with starting it all must be distressed that his effort to deny us a universal language failed. (See Genesis 11.) .

LET'S TALK

BABBLE ON!

The dictionary says “babbling” means to talk enthusiastically or in excess, but the word comes from the Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel where it had a profoundly different meaning. At the end of Genesis 10, we learn that Noah's three sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth, scattered about the now dry earth and all their offspring spoke the same language. In Genesis 11, it is written: “Now the whole world had one language.” When the Lord discovered that, he scattered the people and gave them different languages, because, he said, “If as one people speaking the same language. . .then nothing they plan will be impossible for them to do,”

Now English is becoming a world language, and for those who don't speak it translation sites like the amazing Babel-Fish make it easy to understand what anybody who's tweeted you is talking about. That fueled the Arab Spring, lets the young in Iran hold on to hope, and enabled kids in Manhattan to kick off what has become a world wide protest against the corporate and bank overlords.

Since 1979 the top 1% has enjoyed an income rise 275% and a majority of both Democrats and Republicans agree that that's not good for our country. Since nothing is now impossible,we may be able to close the divide between the 1% and 99% a bit and return to the world as it was in ancient Babel. The Lord was right, now nothing is impossible!

TIME FOR CHANGE

POLITICAL UN-CORRECTNESS

I know political correctness requires that we only say nice things about Israel but as of today it's OK to call Benjamin Netanyahu a sonofabitch. It's not Anti-Semitic, it's pro-American. That weirdo made a speech in the kneseet in which he said Arabs aren't smart enough to create democracies and President Obama doesn’t understand reality or history. He's angry because we didn't go to war to defend Hosni Mubarak's totalitarian regime in Egypt and he said the Arab Spring is anti-democratic, anti-Western, and, oh yes, anti-Israel. If you call Arabs stupid it is sort of to be expected they wouldn't like you much either.

In his speech, Netanyahu said one very smart thing: “Reality is changing, and if you don't see it your head is buried in the sand.” I imagine he had to blow his nose after saying that to get the sand out. What that Tea Party-ish head of state seems unable to understand is that the world he lived in when he was in college at MIT really has changed. Thanks to the current administration, our foreign policy no longer puts the interests of Israel above the interests of the U.S. Obama's Cairo speech made it clear that a new era of relationship with the Arab world had begun. That speech was one of the triggers of the Arab Spring and as today's demonstrations in Cairo prove, Egyptians won't rest until they have a true democracy.

Young David slew Goliath with a stone but, to paraphrase Senator Benson, Netayaho is no David, even though an atom bomb can do more damage than David's rock. Peace will come to the Mid-East, though probably not while Benny Netanyahu is running, and ruining, Israel. It's high time to reexamine our gifts to his government.

WHATS MONEY WORTH?

IF I WERE A RICH MAN

In the song. “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye begs God for just a little more, saying, “If I were wealthy I wouldn't have to work hard,” And, most tellingly, says were he rich people would seek his advice and it wouldn't matter if what he said was right or wrong because, “When you're rich they think you really know!” Tragically he was speaking truth for in America today we seem to believe that a fat bank account proves the rich man is smarter than we are, just ask New York Mayor Bloomberg.

Some who are rich certainly do work hard, but for every Bill Gates or Steve Jobs there are thousands who sit at a “poker table” on Wall Street and gamble with other people's money, and when they win they're paid millions. This “capitalism” is certainly not what Adam Smith had in mind, nor even Frederick Hayek. Smith's “invisible hand” would slap they silly. That “hand,” he argued, allowed men to pursue their self-interest without regard to “public good” but it would enhance the general welfare anyway. Today's capitalists have proved him wrong and the “hand” is flapping in the wind.

It may, of course, turn out that the wealth cozened by the 1% will eventually benefit others, just look at the value to tourism of the doge's palace in Venice or the good the Rockefeller Foundation has done. But America can not wait for the money hidden in the mattresses of the mega-rick to trickle down over the next century. The invisible hand needs to become a clenched fist with which to knock some sense into those who drive the price of gas up by gambling on the futures market, who seek to destroy unions, and rig elections by making it harder for the poor and minorities to vote. Bill Gates has a lot of money, but just one vote. That's all the power he, and other 1% folks should have on our government. \If I were a rich man I'd make it illegal for anyone but live human beings to contribute to political campaigns. That would be a start.

FUTURE LIFE

TOMORROW'S ALMOST HERE

I recently saw a performance of the musical “Annie” in which my grandson, Eli, played one of the orphans. As they all sang “Tomorrow is Just a Day Away” I reflected on the science blogs I'd read that morning and realized they had given me a glimpse of our tomorrow. Indeed as I sit at my computer, talk on my cell phone, or press my hand against the pace maker in my chest I realized that tomorrow has already arrived.

Scientific advances are accelerating exponentially and give us a glimpse of a future more amazing than any we find in science fiction novels or films. Today I read of breaktroughs in solar panel technology and of hydrogen fueled cars. The brain science blogs reported on new ways to cure diseases and improve brain function. And I reread the account of the Google car which drove a thousand miles without a driver. As I tried to absorb the news I began to imagine the culture in which Eli and my other grandchildren will be living when they are my age.

First, of course, 80 years old will be the new 50 as the average life expectancy hovers around 110 and cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s have been brought under control. Their grand kids will learn mostly on-line and colleges will be free. The family will get into their non-gasoline powered car, tell it where they want to go, and relax and read as the car drives itself to their destination. If they are going to a political meeting the conversation will be vastly different than any I've ever experienced as the issues will have changed so profoundly.

First, of course, will be the impact of the change from the current white majority in the country to a brown, black, and yellow majority. That is sure going to alter the “immigrant invasion” ranting. And the end of oil importing will have turned now wealthy Middle-East nations into pockets of poverty. And the recently tested bombs that fly themselves will have made the Air Force an historical oddity.

This does not assure that my greatgrandkids will live in a world at peace, but even that is a real possibility. Wish I could stick around to enjoy the new world.

IGNORANCE IS BLISS

THE KNOW NOTHINGS

A non-partisan research project recently surveyed TV viewers to see if the program people watched made a difference in their knowledge of current events. It turns out it does. Those who watch the Colbert Report on the comedy channel knew more facts than those watching other programs. But the most disturbing discovery was that those who watched Fox News knew the least. An article in the current issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology sheds light on the reasons for these differences: people who don't know don't want to.

“Don't confuse me with the facts,” used to be a laugh line but it turns out that for many that is how they deal with the world. That is not simply about issues like climate change and evolution, but also about what's going on in the world. People who don't like Arabs know the least about the Arab Spring and those who don't like Obama know less than nothing about the Affordable Care Act. That may explain the support Newt Gingrich appears to be getting from Evangelicals who are ignoring the facts of his troubling, and troubled, sexual exploits and his history as a lobbyist.

How “blissful ignorance” will impact the 2012 election is far from clear, but history teaches us that sometimes a line like “flip flop,” or “the screamer” can derail a campaign even though they only vaguely refer to facts. “We can't wait!” won't win the election, but “We are the 99%!” might. Harry Truman ran on the simple, and factual, charge that the nation's problem was a “Do nothing Congress!” He beat Tom Dewey whom the pundits, and The Chicago Tribune, picked as the winner. The winner, it seems, is the candidate who picks his (or her) most vulnerable enemy. Wall Street (and the congress it owns) is surely the optimum enemy in 2012. Even the (want to) Know Nothings will get that message.

MOST CHRISTIANS AREN'T

THE BULLY PULPIT

The going-nowhere GOP 's 2% popular Rick Santorum excoriated President Kennedy for promising not to obey the Vatican but, rather, serve the American people. He insists presidents should obey their religious leaders. He echoed the demands of the Alliance Defense Fund which promoted the late September preach-in which called on preachers to defy the concept of church-state separation. That was one of the groups backing California's anti-gay marriage Prop 8. The idea is simple: state laws should implement Bible edicts and to hell (literally) with non-Christians.

The problem, however, is that most Christians aren't. If they were they would honor the words of Jesus, not those Titus called “old Jewish myths” (Titus 1:14.) The concept of a proper separation of the church from the state is expressed succinctly in Mathew 22:21 where he admonishes the followers of Christ to “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.” That is what our founders agreed to do when they promised our government would not embrace one faith or deny to those of other faiths, or none, equal rights.

When Mormons were denied the right to marry more than one woman, the Constitution was violated as surely as it would have been had San Francisco passed the proposed law to make circumcision illegal. And as it was when Californians passed Proposition 8 and when congress adopted the falsely named Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA imposes Biblical rules on non-Christians and non-believers and makes a mockery of “equal justice.”

When Teddy Roosevelt spoke of the presidency as affording him a “bully pulpit” he did not mean that he got to preach religious dogma from the White House, only that it was one hell of a platform. Would somebody please urge Santorum and the other zealots to read the Bible – and the U.S. Constitution.

THE REAL CRIME

COPS AND ROBBERS

A number of people, including the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, have noted that were it not for police brutality the Occupy movement would probably have wasted away by now, but, thanks to them, it hasn't. Which makes one wonder if the cops are working for the Robber Barons or for the OWS folk around the nation and world. The latest was the pepper spraying of some kids sitting on the U.C.Davis campus looking about as threatening as a pile of Play-Doh.

What's really freaky have been the efforts to justify the police action. In the U.C Davis case the police claim they were entrapped by the kids and “couldn't get away.” The video, however, makes that claim a lie. And one cop said it is normal procedure because, “bodies don't have handles” by which to lift them up and get them moving away. Gee, hands and arms make pretty good handles but the cop made no effort to yank them up. (Considering his obesity I guess he was just too fat to reach down over his beer belly.) Oakland is still “investigating” the cause of the blow that broke the skill of the former marine, and the NYPD cop known as “Tony Baloney” (aka: Anthony Bologna) has kept his badge after pepper spraying a young girl who was trying to move away as he directed, and so is the Seattle cop who assaulted an 84 year old woman.

A further defense of the use of excessive force has been based on allegations that the protestors were using drugs, peeing, or having sex. With regard to the first, the police have yet to report finding a “stash” in the encampments they raided and I have not seen any police photos of men urinating. (Hard to tell if a squatting women is.) As for sex, Gee if they did it in a tent and it was consensual it's not exactly a crime in the U.S. (Of course it is a “sin,” but the cops aren't supposed to be enforcing Biblical edicts.)

So, for now, all we can do is hope the cops keep up the violence – and pray they don't kill anybody. Meanwhile the new Robber Barons have begun to quake in the Gucci loafers.

GLOBAl POLITICS

“ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL” IS LOCO

Congressional Speaker Tip O'Neill is famous for the cliché, “All politics is local.” What the hell was he talking about? He was from Boston, for god sake, which was – and is – a city with dozens of “locals;” Irish enclaves, Italian ghettos, Jewish neighborhoods, and, oh yeah, Beacon Hill. Where was “local” Boston? Surely not in Harvard yard. Did any of those “locals” share a common view of political issues?

America is not, and never has been, a “melting pot.” It is a savory dish in which every morsel has kept its unique flavor, and to talk about “local politics” is loco. But people facing foreclosure in Nevada because the bread winner has lost a job share the concerns of the family facing foreclosure in Idaho, Michigan, and – yes –in O'Neill's Boston. The wealthy in Beverly Hills share interests with the rich in

Boca Raton, as do Muslims in Chicago and Tulsa, and gays in both Portlands, Maine and Oregon's. What O'Neill ought to have said is, “All politics is about issues – and ideology.”

Not since the conflicts in ideology leading to the Civil War has America been as divided, and, as the outbursts at GOP gatherings reveal, never have our moral values been as sorely tested. In ancient time the Good Samaritan tended to the needs of a wounded Jew who was his enemy. During World War II many Christian Germans gave sanctuary to Jews. The people in my village protested against the vile scheme to relocate our Japanese neighbors to concentration camps, and today the majority of Americans accept gays as their equals before the law. But a virulent minority cheers when told a man without health insurance will die, a military hero who is gay is booed, and they cling to the lie that our president is not a “real American.”

Radio, television, and the Internet enable people all over the nation, and indeed, all over the world, to know what people like themselves care about. Today all politics is world wide and many of us pay as much attention to the election in Tunisia as we do for the race for mayor in our town. Who'd have thought the Internet would create a “one world” planet?

THE HISTORY LESSON

SANTAYANA'S CURSE

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana famously warned. In his brilliant new book, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, Robert Reich demonstrates the truth of Santayana's curse; Wall Street has repeated the sins that led to the Great Depression and is ignoring the lessons it taught.

Republicans today have taken the same position their party did during Hoover's administration and are echoing his multimillionaire Secretary of Treasury, Andrew Mellon's, advice to let farms, businesses, and individuals fail because, “It will purge the rottenness out of the system.” Of course that did not keep them from agreeing to bail out the mega-banks, but it fuels their opposition to everything in Obama's jobs bill. They seem to be saying that it is okay to let the poor starve as long as the top 1% isn't made to pay higher taxes.

The Great Depression ended, in part, because FDR took the advice of former Wall Street tycoon Marriner Eccles who shared John Maynard Keynes economic philosophy. Today there is no Eccles counterpart on the scene (unless it is Reich) so it has fallen to the “mob” to teach economic theory to Washington, and to the nation. The Occupy movement view may be summarized by the words on one of the homemade signs carried by a young girl Oakland, “The Beginning is Near!” We do not yet know what that “beginning” will lead to, but history shows us incontrovertibly that it must lead to a dramatic reduction in the chasm that divides the top 1% from the rest of us. That is the lesson history teaches, a lesson not lost on the Occupiers. Santayana would be impressed.

MAKE ME DO IT!

MAKE ME DO IT

When A. Phillip Randolph, head of the Sleeping Car Porters Union, complained to FDR that he wasn't doing enough to end the depression, the president said, “Make me do it!” It is clear that President Obama is now inviting the same pressure and his campaign staff, and the Occupiers, are making him “do it.” The 2012 slogan, “We Can't Wait!,” might have come directly from a poster carried by protestors, for it clearly reflect their view and his decision to use executive authority to do what congress won't seems to be evidence he intends to “do it.”

The Latin phrase, vox populi, translates simply as “voice of the people,” but the only voices politicians listen to are their financial backers', pollsters', and announcers reporting results of the election. Now, however, the vox of the people is being heard in cities and towns across America, including the 10,000 who protested in Oakland, California on November 2. And there are some signs their voice is being heard, and not just by Democrats. House Speaker Boehner and Senate minority leader McConnell have muttered they might allow some modest revenue increases, .i.e, taxes, to be included in their scheme to lower the deficit.

But what is far from clear is whether the voice of the people will change Wall Street's control over our country. What is loud and clear, however, is that “Jobs” has replaced “Deficit” as the one word challenge politicians will face in 2012 and the country is not turning to Wall Street to put America back to work. What we must do now is demand that Congress “do it!”