CITIZENS UNTIED

So the Supremes' tune is that Corporations have the same Constitutional rights as humans do, ergo they can spend all they want in trying to get someone elected. Well, the right to free speech seems like a flawed argument to me. Humans are mortal; corporations are immortal by design, intended to last in perpetuity. My political power, my ability to influence elections is finite, at best.

If the intent was to grant corporations equal power to the individual, they actually granted super powers to the corporations with stupidity being the only kryptonite and even then, if corporations pump enough $$$ to the lawmakers, they get the public to cover for corporate stupidity. A corporation can live on and on and .... AND have a virtually unlimited advantage over citizens. Then please explain to me why the rationale for Citizens United is legally valid!
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There were two events that brought me off the bench and into the PR war, which of course led to my connecting with PJTN. The first was Carter's book labeling Israel as apartheid, which caused me to organize a protest at the Carter Presidential Library in May '08. The second was the JCPA resolution in favor of a two state "solution" (TSS). As publisher of TVOM, I interviewed the communications guy for JCPA. He decided to cooperate when I told him that, if he preferred not to give the interview, I would report that his response was , "No comment."

I asked him how, given that no prior agreement with the PLO, ... cease fires etc ... was ever honored by the PLO, he thought that anything short of going back to, sayyyy... 1933 borders would lead to a conclusion? In other words, did they actually believe that the other side really intended to reach an agreement?
And why wasn't the resolution's language more pro-Israel like, "We support a TSS IF AND ONLY IF {math lingo} the language includes recognition that Israel is a sovereign Jewish state and that any agreement must create a multi-national force to ensure secure borders?
ANNNND... how can his organization not know that Israel's enemies just love calling it a TS"Solution" rather than a two state plan, because to them it's just Final Solution 2.0? I asked if he could understand that my readers thought that word dishonors the memories of Jewish holocaust victims?
That conversation and a few others with the Organized Jewish Community (OJC) lead me to conclude that, for all of their philanthropy and social services, and defense of Israel and our people, the OJC can't see the forest for the trees. It may turn out that our enemies have a clear advantage over us ... fundamentalism. For them, there is no , "Well, on the other hand...

IF ... THIS WORD... it scares the hell out of me to think that if more Jews would have spoken out about the mistreatment of Israel, then Israel might not have responded to the pressure to take down some checkpoints, including the one that allowed Palestinian animals to slaughter a family. If we had, would a one month old infant still be alive? If it could happen in Israel, why not Atlanta, Boca, New York? If you think it can't, think again. That's what Jihad means.

WHAT DOES..."Never again!" mean if Jews sit this one out??

I can't do it! No matter how hard I try, I just can't grasp the true fear and horror of those who were systematically dehumanized and exterminated by the German Government, the Nazi party, other European Governments, and the German and European citizenry. From as far back as I can remember I, have watched the gripping footage of the liberation of the death camps, again and again. I have seen the movies ... Schindler's List, Sophie's Choice, It's A Beautiful Life, The Pianist and many, many others. I have read innumerable accounts describing the systematic manner in which the German Government worked to dismantle rights to livelihood, culture, possessions, and even self-respect... the Nuremburg Laws, Kristallnacht and many others.

I have spent countless hours at the Dachau death camp in Germany, in the Holocaust Museum in DC, and at the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach hopelessly trying to comprehend the gradual hour-by-hour, day-by-day realization of the inevitability of the German genocidal plan felt by just one parent, one husband.

But I can't. I can't even adequately imagine the slightest shred of hopelessness and helplessness that even so much as one of the 6 millions Jews, and an equal number on non-Jews, felt each waking minute of the day, as the "noose" tightened around them and everyone they loved was herded into rail cars, into death camps, and, sooner or later, into gas chambers.

In my visits to Germany and other European countries, I couldn’t stop myself from looking at the faces and wondering whether those faces in front of me… not in some movie or documentary …. truly felt remorse for what had been done. After all, didn’t their relatives possibly have some complicity? Aren’t they the ones still arguing against fair compensation for the remaining Holocaust survivors in their last few years on Earth? Aren’t they involved in the government legal system and the insurance industry denying the beneficiaries of death camp and firing squad victims their claims on the policies’ death benefits? AREN’T THEY THE ONES WHO HARBOR ILL WILL FOR THE CITIZENS OF ISRAEL AND QUIETLY SMILE WHEN ISRAEL IS ATTACKED IN THE UNITED NATIONS ONE RESOLUTION AFTER ANOTHER?

So many yet unanswered questions. Were the houses or apartments in Europe that I walked past once occupied by a Holocaust victim’s family? Who occupies them now and how did they get possession? Exactly who took the Holocaust victims’ property, money, jewelry, paintings, and other possessions? Who are these despicable people… are they alive today or did they pass their ill-gotten gains on to their families without those family members knowing the Jewish blood that provided them these possessions?

Worst of all, I can’t decide what to “never forget” and what to let go of, because we surely can’t move forward while clinging to suspicions and assumptions. But where is the proportionality? You know … PROPORTIONALITY… that demand from the world on Israel each time Israel defends itself from attacks by Palestinian terrorists? Where is the proportionality for the Holocaust victims… Jews and non-Jews… for their misery?

For far too many people, the Holocaust is just a fading chapter in a history book and, with time, will lose its significance like the terrorism of the KKK and lynchings. We cannot and must never allow it. It is not enough for our children and theirs and future generations of Jews and non-Jews to merely know that the Holocaust happened. They must understand the Holocaust in the most personal terms possible, so that the feelings are imbedded in their DNA. And from that sense of connection, they will see to it that no other people will be treated so inhumanely. I feel inadequate to the task, but I have an obligation to continue the pursuit of connecting to just one victim, not compulsively, but out of respect for all of the victims.

MURDER. FEW PEOPLE KNOW…
… what they’d kill for or what they’d die for until some circumstance actually flips on the switch that moves them to act. You know… the switch attached to their value system … their conscience. Hopefully, most of us will never need to find out what flips our switch. But there is a category of people whose switch is never off. Pathological murderers just don’t need a reason. Maybe their sick, twisted minds generate some perverse justification, but it’s probably just the evil in their DNA at work.

Whatever pleasure they derive from slaughtering another human being … whether endorphins, the belief that they have pleased their deity, or just the thought of virtual virgins that brings them to slaughter not just innocent civilians, but babies and children is just a thinly veiled disguise for the fact that they are not part of the human race nor do they deserve to be. They, those who celebrate them with cheers, money, or candy, and those who justify their acts … even political leaders … have resigned their membership in the human race.

Let’s not go out and form a lynch mob. Let’s give the murderers due process. I don’t want to take the life of an innocent person by mistake. But once they are found guilty let’s take back their membership card. I now know what flips my switch