Israel Is a Friend — But What Kind of Friend?

Donald TrumpApparently, Donald Trump is now going around saying, “I watched in Jersey City, NJ, where thousands and thousands of [Arab] people were cheering” — in regard to the 9/11 attacks. (Ben Carson has said the same thing.) I’m beginning to wonder if the guy is just testing the nation. At what point will we say, “No! This is not acceptable!” I really question whether there is a bottom — at least when it comes to the Republican primary voters. There is just a hollow anger at the core of American conservatism that can’t be sated. As for Trump, I don’t think we can say whether he believes this stuff or not. He’s a narcissist and saying it gets him attention; that’s as deep as it goes.

PolitiFact looked into it and rated the claim “pants on fire.” There is no evidence of Muslims celebrating 9/11 anywhere in America. But the weird thing is that there is evidence of Israelis celebrating the attack. Five of them were arrested and interrogated for a couple of months, before being deported back to Israel. It looks like they were part of an Israeli intelligence operation. You can imagine what many people have made of that. One of the many 9/11 conspiracy theories claims that Israel knew about (and maybe even took part in) the attack. That seems about as credible as most 9/11 conspiracy theories.

But there is something that seems really interesting to me. When one of the men, Sivan Kurzberg, was questioned by the police, he said, “We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem.” I think he was telling the truth at that point. And I think that he and his comrades were celebrating the attack. I think they saw it the same way that the British saw the attack on Pearl Harbor: a great thing for their political interests.

9/11 AttackIt’s interesting, because I was listening to an interview earlier today by Max Blumenthal about his new book, The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza. I’m not totally in Blumenthal’s camp. I do still see a need for a safe haven for the Jews. Just the same, I am incredibly skeptical of Zionism at this point. I really do question whether it isn’t necessarily racist and therefore violent. And I think the United States’ absolute commitment to Israel is totally inappropriate. Not only is it bad to have this increasingly fascistic state tell us what to do, in the long run, I think this is all very bad for Zionism itself. And for Jews the world over.

So right now, I’m probably too open to the idea that Israeli intelligence officers would be happy that we got bombed. That’s not to say that they were happy to see Americans killed. But people have lots of ways of justifying these things: you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet and all that. One thing is for sure: if these five Israelis had been Iranians or Iraqis, they wouldn’t have been released back to their home countries — they’d be half insane for a decade and a half of torture at Guantanamo Bay.

People can be your friends and still not want what is in your best interests. I increasingly think that of Israel. I don’t doubt that they are our friends. Just the same, they seem more like that friend who is always making trouble and getting you involved in it. It turns out that Benjamin Netanyahu — the man who has done more to harm the US relationship with Israel than any other man — is actually a centrist in Israel. That should give you an idea of just how bad things have gotten in Israel. I’m beginning to believe that the only way to save the Jews is to destroy Zionism. But I’m not quite there.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is telling people that thousands of American Muslims were dancing in celebration of 9/11. And if I had to guess the result, it would be that his poll numbers will go up.

Employers Need to Invest in Workers — But Don’t

David Cay JohnstonI was recently listening to a lecture by David Cay Johnston, How Government Creates Inequality. It was brilliant as usual. Imagine if we had another hundred or thousand journalists like him! But anyway, he mentioned that when he got started working the 1960s and 1970s, people like him had no trouble finding work. But now college graduates really do have to worry. And in the world that Johnston was talking about, it wasn’t just college graduates who were at such an advantage. My father had no education to speak of. He was certainly smart and hard working, but at that time he was given a chance. What chance would he be given today? Stocking shelves at Walmart?

I was thinking about this with regard to some work I did a while back for my main client. She had sent me an article written by a young writer of hers. She said she didn’t like it and couldn’t say why. I read it and told her that there were many problems with it and that there were two options: I could fix it or mark it up for the writer. I suggested the second idea because I felt that the writer had potential. She agreed, and so I wrote about twice as much in notes as the writer wrote for his article. She and the owner of the company were thrilled with my notes.

Understand: I could almost be the grandfather of this young writer. And maybe I came off as nasty or like I knew it all or whatever. I thought I had been very nice. What’s more, I wrote to the writer as a peer — just a younger and less experienced one. But the writer returned a barely edited version of article — integrating at most one-tenth of my suggestions. And then he quit. What’s interesting is that about a month later, I was reading an article, and I told my editor, “This is great! Who wrote it?” And she told me it was the same guy.

The point is not the quitting. I’ve had to do a whole lot of work on this guy’s half finished articles, and I really wish he were still around. For one thing, his politics are very much mine. For another things, he is very talented. I know that if he sticks with it, he will at least become a fine writer — maybe even a great one. If he were around, I could be part of that process. But the point is that this company is willing to pay me to work with writers. The company understands that you don’t get exactly the workers that you want or need. You as the company or manager must invest in the workers.

Unemployed MarchThis is sadly not the way things mostly work in the modern world. And that’s especially true in the high tech world. It used to aggravate me when I was a programmer and a company would be looking for something really specific. For example, they had to have a Java programmer — a C++ programmer wouldn’t do, even though there is no real difference. Or a C++ programmer would have to have MFC experience. These are indications of companies that don’t want to invest anything at all in their workers. An experienced C++ programmer could be up to speed with MFC within a week. Transitioning from C++ to Java probably wouldn’t even take that much time. But the way these companies see workers is the same way they see widgets: plug them in and they should work.

That’s the sad thing about a college education. The truth is that most jobs don’t require a college education. I have spent about half my working life as a programmer, and I’ve never taken a course on computers or programming. But the thing about forcing people to have college degrees is that it is supposed to make them better workers. But it really doesn’t. The specifics of any job will require specialized training. The whole business of college degrees is just a way for the power elite to justify why it is that people don’t have jobs. “Oh, well you need a college degree!” And then, the kids get a college degree, and it doesn’t matter.

I constantly see stories about how companies can’t find the skilled employees that they need. This is what the whole thing about the H1-B visas is about. If an employer finds that it can’t find good help, it has two options. It can pay more or it can find inexperienced people and train them. The problem with both of those solutions is that they cost money. What such stories should actually be saying it, “Employer can’t find help at the wages it wants to pay.” But then it would be only too clear: the employer isn’t doing its job. Or the employer wants an unfair advantage by getting trained workers for less than the going rate. Much better to blame workers. In the 1960s and 1970s, when unions were much stronger, workers had an easier time finding work and (relative to comparable countries) they made more. We’ve given both those things up so that employers can make a lot more money. And as Johnston discusses in the video above: this isn’t an accident; it is due to government policy. We live in an oligarchy, folks.

Morning Music: My Favorite Things

My Favorite Things - John ColtraneOkay, it’s almost over. Today, we will do “My Favorite Things” from the 1965 film The Sound of Music. I liked the musical very much when I was young. I don’t care for it so much now. I’m not that fond of Christopher Plummer — except when he’s playing a Klingon. But mostly, there is just something offensively earnest about the whole thing.

When I was younger, I always wondered about something. In the play, the new Nazi Youth Rolfe does not summon the Nazis — allowing the family to get away. In the film, he does, leading to a rather stupid car chase. I had wondered if this was an indication of changing ideas about human nature. But later I concluded that it was formal. In a play, you couldn’t have a chase. In a film, you can. Simple as that. I still prefer the non-chase, because I want to believe that people are basically good.

Luckily for you all, I just remembered that John Coltrane did a great version of the song. That’s piano by McCoy Tyner — another of my favorite things.

Anniversary Post: Berners Street Hoax

Theodore HookOn this day in 1810, the Berners Street hoax was perpetrated. Theodore Hook made a bet with his friend Samuel Beazley that he could make any house in London the most talked about within a week. He did this by sending out thousands of letters to people asking for different services. So, for example, a dozen chimney sweeps showed up. There were also doctors and priests and lawyers. There were also various deliveries of pianos and so on. It got so bad that the police had to be called in to disperse people and keep them away from the house.

Hook was just 22 years old and I suppose can be forgiven. He did, of course, great harm to a lot of hard working people. I hardly worry about doctors and lawyers. But chimney sweeps? It is the kind of prank that only someone of a fair amount of privilege would do. Others would be too busy trying to get by. At the same time, the Romantics, despite being often quite silly in their ways, were at least concerned about more important issues.

There was some search made for the perpetrator of the crime, but clearly not too much effort was put into it. I suspect it was understood that anyone able to perpetrate that costly a hoax would be reasonably well protected. I don’t miss the amusing aspects of the prank. At the same time, I have a hard time not seeing it from the perspective of class. This was not long after the French Revolution when people like Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft were seriously discussing how to improve the world. And young Mr Hook was just causing the 19th century equivalent to a traffic jam.