We Can Do Better...

US Medicine: We Can Do Better Than This   Please read this (link) heartfelt appeal by Dr. Dave Dvorak for more humane American health care. Sadly, we need more victims: domestic poster boys & girls -- wholesome people oozing suffering through the media -- to impress America's rulers and the AMA (American Medical Association). The American people have been misinformed that their nation can thrive on a low tax, poor public services regime. Cooperation these days is British English. Wake up America - only 1% have the American dream -- the rest live a daily nightmare.

Sikh, Sikh, Sikh

Yesterday seven people were murdered in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, USA.

How can the USA be regularly rocked by insult & attack fueled by ignorance? We live in the 21st century, with great tools & resources for public education. What contributes to vicious intolerance and race-baiting in America?

In my opinion, here are top American weaknesses:

1) Deliberate neglect
America's underclass grows together with poor communities, lack of jobs, and limited civic opportunities. Shit neighborhoods and stupid neighbors shape too many dud citizens. It's acceptable to grow-up an idiot.

2) Fox News
Hearing aggressive commentary from assholes such as Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity & Ann Coulter make savagery and foolishness OK. Ghosts of the slaughtered innocent should haunt Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, and other shortsighted programmers. TV people made me do it!

3) Political gridlock
US Republican strategy has been to minimize regulatory oversight and privatize all social services, though with each big scandal the goal slips backward. Because of poor checks & balances, Jack Abramoff, international banksters, Enron & Arthur Andersen, Blackwater & Halliburton, Bernie Madoff, etc., grew hugely powerful via corruption and greed. But poor public funding has nonetheless emasculated public services. Too many Americans stopped investing in their communities; bare-bones taxation has hurt everyone.

4) Overseas adventurism
It's long past time to demilitarize. Few in America truly expect public help - you must survive on your own. Iraqis, Afghans & Israelis should fend for themselves.

Civil War & The UN

How much should the community of nations interfere in regional political affairs? The present strife in Syria has been condemned by a UN General Assembly resolution (document A/66/L.57; passed 133 to 12, with 31 abstentions). But the resolutions has no binding legal sanctions. Past resolutions seeking peace elsewhere in the Middle East have too often done nothing. What might the UN General Assembly have done in the case of the American Civil War? The Confederate States of America ultimately was re-amalgamated into the Union, but after horrible losses of perhaps a million dead overall. Efforts to trigger European intervention & mediation had little impact.

The United Nations Charter prohibits member nations from aggressive attacks against others. The idea is good, but many such attacks have taken place since WWII. Chapter VII of the UN Charter gives the Security Council the possibility of imposing military power "to maintain or restore international peace and security." But any of the UN Security Council's five unelected members (China, France, Russia, UK, USA) can veto intervention. In the case of Syria, both Russia & China have strongly resisted intervention. But judging from past unlawful interference elsewhere by big military powers, (which remains largely unpunished), surely surreptitious destabilization is underway now.

Bad Admin Olympic Shame

Badminton is major news, as eight players were disqualified from the London 2012 Olympic Games for "not using one's best efforts to win" and also "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport".

Competitors in preliminary group play tried to position themselves better for the important knockout round.

The newly-constructed competition system at this Olympics failed miserably. The Badminton World Federation (BWF) was mainly responsible for the failure, not the players.

First, there should have been an immediate response to any lackluster play. Warnings, fines or penalties could be threatened or imposed during the first poor match, not after a whole day of buffoonery.

Of course, if other athletes see one team seem successfully "conserving energy" or avoiding injury they might do similarly.

In athletics (track & field) it's common to see competitors run more slowly in preliminary rounds - doing just enough to qualify. In field events there's often a qualifying distance or height, where a first good throw or jump allows an athlete to advance without further efforts. Too bad for the spectators.

It's perhaps more disturbing when a winning athlete in the finals fails to perform a final throw or jump when they've already won, or when a runner slows before the finish line. But it's not really a situation where we want to see dozens of sports bureaucrats arguing & interfering. Make reasonable rules!

Send home bad bureaucrats & unwise coaches, not Olympians.

Olympic Sabotage USA

Olympic Gold medalist & world record holder, Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen was reportedly smeared with doping allegations by John Leonard of the USA, Executive Director of the World Swimming Coaches Association (he's also Executive Director of the American Swimming Coaches Association).

It's unclear if Leonard was properly quoted. If he's credentialed as an Olympic official maybe he should be censored. His opinions are damaging when directed at a specific athlete, and without evidence.

 It seems to me that Olympic Champion Ye should have a good case for slander -- if she's clean of cheating, she should sue the bastard.

It's been widely reported Ye's split time in the 400m individual medley for her final 50m (28.93) was faster than men's winner Ryan Lochte's split (at 29.10). "However (according to the BBC) her world-record time was still 23 seconds slower than Lochte's winning time, and several of Lochte's competitors were faster than her over the final 50m. Chinese officials also pointed out that Lochte was easing to the finish, comfortably in the lead, whereas Ye had to battle to the end to take first place."  

The Greek Olympic team expelled triple jumper Voula Papachristou a few days before the London Opening Ceremony for joking online about West Nile mosquitoes favoring Greece's many Africans. (She rudely tweeted: "Με τόσους Αφρικανούς στην Ελλάδα..Τουλάχιστον τα κουνούπια του δυτικού Νείλου..θα τρώνε σπιτικό φαγητό!!!")

As her comments were considered "contrary to the values and ideals of the Olympic movement," then John Leonard begging us to doubt the performance of a Chinese swimmer is worse. Leonard embarrasses his great nation and the Olympic sense of fairness & justice.

Stalin & Tip O'Neill ?

There's an unseemly hurry to rename the Cape Cod National Seashore's year round Salt Pond Visitor's Center after former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Jr.

The problem is that in comparison to a few others, O'Neill's contribution to the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore was minor. U.S. Rep. Hastings Keith & U.S. Senators Leverett Saltonstall & John F. Kennedy sponsored and pioneered the legislation that created the national park. Further important influences were authors Henry David Thoreau (Cape Cod, 1865) and Henry Beston (The Outermost House, 1928). Although 2012 is the centennial of O'Neill's birth, he's already well-remembered and officially memorialized in assorted other projects, including the Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Library at Boston College, the Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Tunnel of  Routes 93, 1 & 3 (Central Artery) through Boston, and the Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Federal Building.

It seems unwise to force local people to adopt such name changes. Projects meant to weather the ages should stand above short-term political expediency and partisan brown-nosing. In my opinion, the USA saw far too many things named after actor-President Ronald Reagan. The USSR named many things after Stalin. People hesitate to say "No."

The passage of time, a different sense of reason, or more forthright opposition may lead to another future change of name. Simmering conflict becomes rather insulting...

Best family members of Tip O'Neill decline the honor, or request others be memorialized.

Stalingrad, formerly Tsaritsyn, is now named Volgograd.

Leningrad has been Petrograd and is now Saint Petersburg.

Rich Rancor: Romney a Retard

Mitt Romney has failed to properly handle questions about his wealth & income, his work with Bain & Co., his IRA (individual retirement account) worth $100 million, etc. 

But Willard Mitt Romney bit the hand that fed him. His blustering explanations have fueled wider interest in offshore tax havens, investment banking loopholes, private banker links to unsavory foreigners, and how to hide details of who's the beneficial owner of wealth. A recent study (link) estimates the super-rich are hiding between $21-32 trillion ($21,000,000,000,000+) in secret tax havens, assisted by a "bevy of professional enablers in private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries" -- Seem exactly Mitt's kind of people !

Surely many mega rich now fear their furtive world might unravel... they prefer darkness, outside public awareness. Mitt became their enemy, because basically, he's stupid.

Capitalist Treachery

Keep people indebted, keep them dumb, keep 'em hungry...

Republicans and Mitt Romney are preparing the groundwork for a new America. Jobs will become available after the minimum wage is scrapped. The American people will work longer hours, in worse conditions, for less.

The richest among us too readily exploit weakness & suffering in the other 99%

Entrepreneurs & businessmen deserve to enjoy successes stemming from their efforts. The key argument rather is such businesspeople have no right to monopolize all of America's riches. We all deserve decency, a chance to learn, stable community life, leisure time, etc...

The dangers of profit maximization regularly threaten safety and health. This is clear when flimsy minimum standards collapse (link). As long as America's borders are open to trade, jobs will continue to be exported to sweatshops abroad.

In Sweden, the whole society enjoys five or more weeks of paid leisure holiday. The roads are good, education is free, excellent medical care is available to everyone regardless of income.

Tweedledee & Tweedledum

Paul Krugman on Romney's hidden finances:
"I’ve been awe-struck by the way questions about Mr. Romney’s career at Bain Capital, the private-equity firm he founded, and his refusal to release tax returns have so obviously caught the Romney campaign off guard. Shouldn’t a very wealthy man running for president — and running specifically on the premise that his business success makes him qualified for office — have expected the nature of that success to become an issue?"

To me it is more of a question: why are our choices of leadership so poor?...  Romney's a fool; Obama is a tool of the oligarchs. 

Examine the charter of incorporation granted by states and foreign nations to companies infiltrating our communities. "Limited liability" allows companies to cut-and-run on debts & mistakes, often leaving their huge problems with local people. Should the funds of distant investors be allowed to buy the support of our elected officials? America's people are being shanghai'd -- "induced to do something by means of fraud" --
we're pushed to Elect the fool, or Re-elect the tool.