Benghazi Post-Mortem

by Tom Kando

 As I have been saying for three years (See my The Benghazi Pseudo-Issue; Benghazi Ad Nauseam), the so-called “Benghazi affair/scandal” is nothing. It is a puff of hot air aimed to undermine Hillary Clinton and her quest for the White House.

I watched parts of the October 22 congressional hearings of the Select Committee on Benghazi chaired by Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy. This is the umpteenth committee created by the enemies of President Obama and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to “investigate Benghazi.”

I feel obligated to educate the public about Benghazi once again. Hopefully this will be a POST-MORTEM of this stupid and useless three-year-long scandal-mongering campaign aimed purely at undermining the Obama-Clinton administration, not to uncover any nefarious lies by them.

If you read the remainder of this short article, you will NOT see a repetition of what the media - at least the non-reactionary media - have already been saying for the past few days - namely that “Hillary Clinton did very well,” that she “won the exchange between her and her accusers,” that “the Benghazi hearings are useless,” etc.)
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Is Democracy for Sale? The Problem with Paid Petitioners

by Madeleine Kando


Push to listen

Today was one of those 'Oh, wow' days in my life. Something happened that put a permanent dent in the armor of naivete with which I usually view the world.

Because I feel strongly about animal protection, I volunteered to gather signatures for a new ballot initiative in Massachusetts which would curb extreme confinement and lifelong immobilization of animals at industrial-style factory farms.

There I was, standing at the entrance of the local super market, boldly approaching strangers, ignoring my natural shyness for the sake of a lofty cause. I watched the shopping cart retriever maneuver his catch, like a long metal snake, as he was trying not to collide into the walls. Ha, so that's how it feels to be anonymous - you know, when nobody pays attention to you. As we exchanged looks, this older man pushing his long trail of carts and I, we had a moment of 'understanding'. Read more...

The Psychosis of Violence: A New Phase in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

by Madeleine Kando

Another wave of attacks took place this week in Israel. A terrorist stabbed a sixty-year old woman and this past Tuesday another Palestinian willfully crashed his car into a bus stop, then swung a cleaver to hack Jews to pieces. The hatred jumps out at you, as you watch the footage of this senseless attack, taken by a security camera. What triggered this latest bout of violence?

According to the Times, "The wave of violence is a response to the increase in Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount, the Muslim holy Al-Aqsa mosque." Last year, 12,000 Jews visited the Temple Mount. But 200,000 Christians visited the site during the same period, and the number of Muslims amounts to four million. But those damn Jews, those 33 per day, that's just unacceptable.

Others would say that the attacks are a result of the Palestinian despair at the lack of progress of the peace process—never mind that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas just declared the Oslo Accords null and void.

Dr. Col. (res.) Moshe Elad views the wave of terror attacks as a desperate cry for attention from the international community. "The Palestinians felt that in the last couple of months they were a little out of focus because most news was about ISIS, the problem in Syria, Russia, the United States and suddenly the Palestinian problem was a little outdated." In an article 'The Real Reason why Arabs hate the Jews', Dutch writer Leon de Winter has another, more basic explanation: 'With the overwhelming success of their state, the Jews have humiliated the Arabs. This is the core of the madness from which Palestinians and most other Muslims suffer. They refuse to live in a region with a superior Jewish state. Jews are supposed to be second-class citizens, that is what the Koran says.' Read more...

The Debate, Hillary Redux and why any Democrat is better than any Republican

by Tom Kando

Call me a one-track mind, but after the democratic presidential debate, I MUST devote another post to Hillary Clinton and the presidential campaign.

So on October 13, five democratic candidates for the US presidency held a debate, attempting to emulate the same level of entertainment as that with which eleven Republican candidates regaled us nearly a month earlier.

The candidates were (1) former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the front runner; (2) Bernie Sanders, Vermont Senator, an independent and a “Socialist,” the only other candidate with a significant following at this time; (3) former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley; (4) former Virginia senator Jim Webb; and former Rhode Island governor and senator Lincoln Chafee, who had the great courage to convert from Republican to Democrat in 2007.
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Is Hillary a Cold and Calculating Woman with Chipmunk Cheeks and Ugly Pantsuits?

by Tom Kando

 Once again, I want to express my feelings about the shabby treatment of Hillary Clinton. Not only by the Republican presidential candidates and their paymasters at Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, but also by the majority of the media left and right, the public and the nation’s political machinery. 

The nearly universal approach is to totally ignore her substantive policy positions, and to focus exclusively on two things: (1) alleged scandals, all fabricated pseudo-issues and (2) her personal and largely irrelevant characteristics.

I have written about this dirty business before. See my previous posts of December 15, 2014 - Obsessive-Compulsive Hillary-Hatred Disorder - and March 15, 2015 - The Persecution of Hillary Clinton.

When was the last time you read a discussion - critical or supportive - of one of Clinton’s substantive positions - be it a domestic economic issue or in foreign affairs? Have you read about her stance on tax reform to reduce inequality? On Wall Street regulation to reduce corruption? On energy or the environment? On education? On how to deal with ISIS, Syria, Iran or Putin? I suppose the media recently mentioned that she opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Obama is pushing. But they only did this to highlight a juicy brewing disagreement between her and her former boss, not because of any interest in her reasons for opposing the proposed agreement.
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Dutch Law Tolerates Child Marriages

by Madeleine Kando

One of the more disturbing aspects of the Refugee Crisis in Europe, is the 'child bride' phenomenon. For the past year and a half, at least 34 Syrian child brides have applied for asylum in the Netherlands, among them girls aged 13, 14 and 15.

As described in a recent article in the Dutch Magazine 'Elsevier', adult men who marry underage girls in their own country, can legally have their brides come to the Netherlands within the framework of 'family reunification', which means that the Netherlands is in fact participating in marriages that are often forced upon a child.

The basis for this is the Dutch Civil Code which says that: 'If a marriage is performed legally in the country of origin, is has to be recognized as valid', even though such a marriage would not be legal, if performed in the Netherlands. In other words, under this ruling, a Moroccan man living in the Netherlands can have multiple wives if these marriages were legally performed in Morocco, where polygamy is allowed. Read more...