Opinion

ow Donald Trump is a war criminal just like his predecessors. That didn’t take long. Over the inaugural weekend, while the president was obsessing about the size of his crowd, his government also let loose two drone strikes against defenseless Yemen, reportedly killing an estimated 10 people, some of whom could possibly have been terrorists about to strike somewhere in Yemen. Three of these people were on a motorcycle hit by one drone, the other seven were in a vehicle hit by the other drone.

The United States is not formally at war with Yemen but strikes the country with drones whenever it feels like it. The U.S. also maintains a naval blockade of Yemen, contributing to near-famine in the region’s poorest country, which has never been able to produce enough food to feed its 25 million people. And since March 2015, the U.S. has supported and participated in the undeclared, illegal war of aggression launched by Saudi Arabia and its allies with U.S. blessings.

“Numerous foreign-born individuals have been convicted or implicated in terrorism-related crimes since September 11, 2001.”

As Donald Trump sets out to “protect America,” I dedicate the words of his explosively controversial proclamation banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, to one of his supporters: Alexandre Bissonnette, the white nationalist Canadian who shot up a mosque in Quebec City a few days ago, murdering six people and injuring eight others.

Bissonnette is the latest native-born lost soul who figured out how to combine a simmering hatred for a preselected “enemy” with guns and ammo and set out to save the world. He won’t be the last. He’s part of a burgeoning North American tradition of mass murder that is fed by racism, war, fear and guns — a tradition the American government happily exploits but is clueless on how to address effectively.

I gather these are the features people have concerns about in the recent U.S. raid in Yemen.

1. It was fought on the ground rather than from the air.

2. An American died.

3. The American was a Navy SEAL Team 6 member, more valuable than other Americans.

4. Trump approved it instead of Obama.

5. Trump didn't have "proper" "intelligence."

6. Trump had the wrong accomplices in the room.

7. Trump wasn't in the room.

8. The U.S. hasn't declared war against Yemen.

9. Trump, who is legally responsible for this crime, sounds like an intoxicated idiot.

10. Last and certainly least, a bit too many children and women were killed.

May I respectfully request everyone pushing these ideas to stick a "Make America Great Again" hat in their mouth and eat it?

What in the hell is the matter with you people?

The Committee, appointed by Norway's parliament,  that selects the Nobel Peace Prize Winners will also for 2017 have a good range of candidates that fulfill the intention of Alfred Nobel; the Nobel Peace Prize Watch has posted its list of  21candidates qualified to win in 2017 here:

President Trump has pushed forward with his campaign promise to build a wall to help decrease the continued influx of illegal immigrants who enter the USA from Mexico. There are many who oppose this wall being built for reasons that they feel are important. There are others who support this wall being built for reasons that they feel are just as important. But the main question that I have is who benefits from this wall being built or not built?  

Let’s start with the American who used to be able to support his or her family by working in skilled trade jobs. The men, of all races, were able to become plumbers, masons, landscapers, roofers, construction workers, cooks, auto mechanics and a host of other skilled labor jobs. The women, of all races, were able to provide for their families as housekeepers, cooks, seamstress, caregivers and more. And of course, for the African Americans, these jobs were at times in America, the only jobs they could get, educated or not to support their families.  

I have been in a funk since the day after last year’s presidential election. About a month before the voting, I began to feel as though Donald Trump would beat Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. I thought the only hope was that she could eke out a win through the Electoral College. Well, we all know that didn’t happen.

I have been in a funk since the day after last year’s presidential election. About a month before the voting, I began to feel as though Donald Trump would beat Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. I thought the only hope was that she could eke out a win through the Electoral College. Well, we all know that didn’t happen.

Gov. John Kasich, his allies and some media sycophants made great noise during Kasich's failed Presidential campaign that Ohio's governor was the "adult in the room" and the "prince of lightness."

Folks in Ohio wondered who they were talking about. Kasich's hard-ball right-wing politics of rewarding friends and punishing enemies in the Buckeye State was anything but genteel and grown-up.

Now the dust has settled and Kasich's once lofty favorability rating in Ohio has fallen to 50-50. Many state Republicans have turned against him and he breaks even only because some independents and Democrats have come his way because he opposed and refused to vote for Donald Trump.

President Trump has put Kasich in the doghouse by masterminding the defeat of GOP state chair Matt Borges, a Kasich protégé, and replacement with Trumpster Jane Timken.

Kasich's playground has been reduced from 50 states to one, Ohio, and his persuasive powers have been curtailed by term limits that will cause him to leave the governorship in early 2019.

Here is where my dream comes in.

“We The People” in Ohio just had another nail pounded into the casket lid of our “presumed Democracy.” Our constitutional right to pass our own local laws in our communities is now all but disallowed. Over the past two years, we have witnessed that the judicial system has been turned against We The People as they politicize constitutionally-presumed precedents by flipping them in favor of moneyed interests. For two years in a row, the Supreme Court upheld the latest vaporization in the separation of powers by allowing our Secretary of State to cheat We The People. He does this by illegitimately instructing our boards of elections to nix our rights of initiative through refusing their path to the ballot.

Hey everyone, David Bromberg has a new CD out. It’s called “The Blues, the Whole Blues, and Nothing but the Blues.” Do you think you’ll be able to appreciate it properly? Do you have a proper blues education?

Oh yeah, education. That’s how I was introduced to the blues; something you were expected to learn about if you wanted to know music. Like algebra or The Great Gatsby. Learn about it, respect it and insist that others do the same, because it is self-evidently great. When I was in high school, all of us wanted to play guitar like Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell or Sepultura’s Max Cavalera. But we all professed to be huge BB King and Eric Clapton fans, although their recordings secretly made us squirm with boredom. To say otherwise would show a lack of respect to the elders, the depressing but mystical spawning pool of Rock ’n Roll.