Morality and the Law

MORALITY AND THE LAW  CXLVI

By Stephen Ellis

THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR ECNOMY

Nobody asked me, but…

            Every day, without exception, I either read some economic pundit’s theory about what’s happening to our economy or hear about it on the radio or the TV news.  The problem is that many of these so-called pundits don’t know what they’re talking about.  They take a position based on “belief” and then try to justify it with a lot of statistics.

            It’ s difficult to separate fact from fiction, but I’m going to try and do it in a way that most people will understand:

            The economy of our nation is bad straits right now…not “desperate” straits, but, nevertheless, “bad”.  This is caused primarily from speculation in oil futures driving the price of oil through the roof.  What the skyrocketing oil prices have done is (a) make the cost of transportation prohibitive, (b)makes bringing food and other supplies to the market more expensive, (c) makes companies that rely on oil-energy reduce costs and start laying-off people which increases unemployment, (d) puts airlines on the verge of bankruptcy, (e) makes homes that are distant from the workplace lose values…because who wants to drive for an hour each way or spend a hundred dollars to fill their car with gas.  There are other damages from the high price of oil, but they are too numerous to detail in one blog.

            One bright spot: the oil “bubble” may have burst (as I foretold three months ago).  If the speculators cannot force the price of oil upwards, oil may slide down faster than it rose.  Here’s hoping!

            The second cause of our economic problems is the greed of real estate speculators.  No bank in its right mind would lend someone 100% or 110% of the cost to purchase a home.  But the pressure was put on them by large real estate developers who had overbuilt and needed to get rid of their houses, so they made “side-deals” with big mortgage lenders just to get rid of their overbuilt properties.  Some of the results of this are (a) increasingly high unemployment numbers in the construction business and in the real estate business, (b) banks who put these sub-prime or questionable loans into their portfolio find themselves short of the reserve requirements of the Federal Reserve Bank and cannot continue to stand, (c) banks become saddled with foreclosed homes that are worth less than the amount they loaned on them  (d) the high numbers of foreclosures depress the entire real estate market so that all home prices suffer, (e) the lenders put new stupidly high, restrictions of new loans so that even people with good qualifications who want to buy a home and could normally afford to buy a home, can’t afford the new down payment requirements of 25% or 35%.  Again, there are more problems, but they are too numerous to detail here.

            One bright spot: The numbers of homes being foreclosed on has dropped significantly in the last 30 days and the government may step in to help some of those who are facing possible foreclosure.  When the bargain-hunters get their fill of the foreclosed homes, the market will start to normalize; construction will again incrrease.  I believe the sub-prime foreclosures have started to bottom-out, and the market will start to rebuild itself to a more normal level…as soon as the lenders get off their high-horses and start making normal mortgage loans again  (good credit and 10% cash down payment…no more “creative” financing).

            Finally, the third major problem is the spending (for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) and the spending via pork-barrel politics that far exceeds this nation’s income.  To meet this nation’s obligations, the Federal Reserve has to print and issue more money…making the dollar cheaper, and having a spiraling affect on the cost of imported goods (mostly oil).  The only solution to this, in my opinion, is to bring in a new administration in November.  Maybe, if the dollar-bleeding can’t be stopped, it can be slowed-down to the point where we can start to reduce our national debt and our dollar will start to get stronger.

            As I said, nobody asked me…

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MORALITY AND THE LAW  CXLV

By Stephen Ellis

A CIVIL LAWSUIT – The conclusion

Nobody asked me, but…

            There has been so much reader inquiry as to how my civil lawsuit turned out, that I feel obligated to inform you of the results although there are things of much greater importance going on in the world.

            Previously, my blog had detailed the misery and expense my wife and I had gone through leading up to the trial date.  After numerous delays, the trial finally got started on July 7, 2008.  As a reminder, this case is about a couple and their realtor who had sold us a house and intentionally failed to disclose that there has been two landslides directly above the house we bought.  On the first day of the trial, the Judge wanted one more crack at trying to settle the case.  We had lost more than $800,000 as a result of the sellers’ failure to disclose.

            The judge told us candidly, that because our “expert-witnesses” did not agree on the amount the house should have sold for when we bought it had we known about the landslides, the absolutely “most” we could expect in a verdict would be about $500,000 (a $300,000 loss to my wife and me).  Then he explained that the judgment would have to be apportioned among both defendants: 40% to the sellers and 60% to the real estate agent.  But, since the sellers had no money, we might as well write-off the 40% from the sellers.  The Judge also told us that our claim for $150,000 in attorney fees was also valid only against the sellers…so we should write that off, too.  He said we would probably get a judgment for $300,000 against the real estate company. BUT…the real estate company (a national giant)  would probably appeal the verdict which would take an additional two years and cost an additional $100,000 in attorney fees…AND...there is a chance the Court of Appeal may overturn the verdict and send it back for a new trial.  The real estate company offered close to $200,000to settle the case, and my wife and I figured let’s just accept it and move on with our lives.

            The moral of this story is that even when you’ve been blatantly cheated, you’re better-off taking your shoe and hitting the cheaters with it rather than filing a lawsuit.  Stay away from lawsuits.  The only people who ever win are the lawyers.

 ***************************************************************************************************

            Iran’s testing of some short-range and intermediate range missiles has really sent some chills up my spine.  Iran is publicly announcing  that they have the ability to fire missiles into Israel.  If and when they complete their nuclear enrichment procedures, it means that they will have the ability to send nuclear missiles into Israel.

            Will they do it?

            Remember, Israel also has nuclear arsenal and an accurate missile system.  If Iran decides to send some nuclear missiles into Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, I can guarantee you that a rainstorm of nuclear missiles will be sent into Iran from Israel, probably destroying 70% of Iran’s population.  The sad thing is that the leadership in Iran doesn’t care!  Human life appears to have little or no meaning to fundamentalist Muslims who figure that whoever is left can repopulate the world.  They truly believe that all Muslims killed by infidels (non-believers) will be rewarded in Muslim Heaven.  Yes…they are that naive and stupid!

            Will it bring the USA into it?  You bet!  In fact, it has become pretty evident that George W. Bush is already planning some sort of a pre-emptive strike on Iran to damage Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities.

            You would think, after the lessons learned in Iraq, Afghanistan and Viet Nam, that we would know that a show of military power doesn't scare anyone.  And, Iran would respond by shutting-down all oil-flow to the West.  If you think the price of oil and gasoline is high now, just wait to see what happens if and when Iran’s oil-flow is shut down.  The economy of the entire world will be headed for total chaos.

            And what about Israel?  Are they supposed to just sit there and twiddle their thumbs while a nation sworn to their  extermination prepares for nuclear war?  A pre-emptive air strike on Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities by Israel may defer a nuclear war, but it would instantly shut-down the oil-flow to the West from Iran.

            This is a time for intelligent people to sit-down and work out solutions…but who have we got?  George W. Bush?  Condoleeza Rice?  Vladimir Putin?  Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad ?  The lack of ability of the word’s leaders to think and act in a reasonable or prudent manner is absolutely frightening.

            How about economic sanctions on Iran from the UN?  Not a chance!  China sits on the Security Council and China’s primary source of oil is Iran and China is now the second only to the USA in its need for oil.

            There are some possible answers, and I’ll talk about them next week.

            As I said...nobody asked me...

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MORALITY AND THE LAW  CXLIV

By Stephen Ellis

BILLIONS AND TRILLIONS

Nobody asked me, but…

It’s all in the numbers.  People often ask me why someone would spend a hundred million dollars to try and get a job that pays $400,000 per year.  Granted, that the job will last for four years…a total of $1,600,000…but is that reason enough to spend a hundred million dollars?  Of course, I’m talking about the Presidency of the United States.  Both McCain and Obama will have spent a hundred million (or more) in campaigning to get the job.  Apparently, they both think it’s worth it.

Of course, there are other benefits to being the President:  You get free rent…free transportation…all expenses paid…and the world recognizes you as the most powerful person in the world.  And then, there are minor benefits like being able to appoint 50,000 of your friends to influential government jobs.  And, of course, there is the benefit that you will have control over trillions of dollars in government spending.

In fact, the United States presently is about 9 trillion dollars in debt from our general fund.  We should recognize that we owe this money to ourselves, and with one single stroke of the pen we could wipe-out the entire national debt.  There would be a lot of people holding Government Bonds, Notes and Treasury Bills that would be very unhappy about this, but understanding the complexities of our national debt is not the purpose of today’s blog.  Rather what I want you to look at is the numbers our government throws-around:

Everything spent by our government is in billions and trillions.  Yet so few of us know just how large those numbers really are.  Let me give you some examples:

One billion seconds ago, it was the year 1959.  One billion minutes ago the Middle East was expecting the arrival of a Messiah.  One billion hours ago, the Earth was inhabited by dinosaurs.

Beginning to see how large a billion really is?  Yet our Congress thinks nothing of passing bills requiring the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars…most of which goes into the pockets of special interest groups.

What about a “trillion”.  When I was teaching school, I used to ask my math classes how long it would take to count to one trillion…assuming that the counter counted three numbers every second throughout the day and night and never stopped for food, sleep  or bathroom breaks…just continuously counting three numbers per second:  Usually I got responses of from one week to ten years.  In fact, it would take approximately 11,000 years to count to one trillion.  Follow the simple math and confirm this for yourself:

At three numbers per second, that would be 180 numbers per minute (3 times 60 seconds); and 10,800 numbers per hour (180 times 60 minutes), and 259,200 numbers per day (10,800 times 24 hours).  That equals 94,608,000 numbers per year (259,200 times 365).  In ten years  (94,608,000 times 10) that would make 940,608,000; in a hundred years 940,608,000 times 10) that would be 9,406,800,000; in a thousand years, (9,406,800,000 times 10) we get to 94,406,800,000, and in ten thousand years (944,068,000,000) we start to approach one trillion.

Our country has a national debt exceeding 9 Trillion Dollars.  I think it’s time we started to recognize the enormity of these numbers and not simply view them as some words bandied-about our halls of Congress.

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MORALITY AND THE LAW  CXLIII

By Stephen Ellis

WHEN WILL IT END

Nobody asked me, but…

            The continuing skyrocketing of oil prices and the real estate recession have this country…our beloved USA…absolutely reeling economically.  On earlier occasions, I’ve discussed the “causes” of this economic tornado that is whipping us silly, but I haven’t  really talked about “when” it will and…and “why” it will end.  And, since I’ve spent many hours researching and analyzing the subject, I thought it would be nice to share this with my readers:

            Let’s first look at the real estate mess this country is in:  Home prices are falling, foreclosures are rampant…and yet there is something very unusual about what’s happening:  First of all, historically, real estate has had its cycle of booms and recessions.  When a real estate recession ends, prices not only go back up, but they go up to levels far beyond what they were before the recession.  Normally, a real estate recession is caused by high unemployment and high interest rates that make buying a home very difficult for Mr. and Mrs. Normal Americans. 

            Right now, interest rates are at record lows and although unemployment is rising (with major thanks to the price of oil) the national unemployment rate is far from the record highs of 9 and 10 percent as they were under the mis-administration of Jimmy Carter…who also allowed mortgage interest rates to go to 18 percent.

            When the Bush administration learned that there were record numbers of homes being foreclosed upon, he sent out word to the Federal Reserve Board to put a lot of restrictions on mortgage money.  Bush did not want to see any continuation of the “easy” mortgage money that started the real estate downslide.  Of course, as is almost absolutely everything else done by Bush,  this was the worst thing he could have done. 

There are two very big negatives resulting from what Bush did: (1) Mortgages have become almost impossible to get…even for highly qualified buyers… because banks and other lenders are now requiring 25% to 50% cash for a down payment.  If the “average” price for a home is $400,000, that means that a buyer will have to pony-up $100,000 to $200,000 in cash to make the purchase…and there are not too many people who can afford to do this.  The result is that there are a lot of legitimate buyers out there…qualified people who want to buy homes...but with the new lending restrictions, they simply can’t get a mortgage loan that they can afford.  And, (2) lending institutions have been hit-hard by the numbers of foreclosures and repossessions coming in to their “real-estate owned” departments.  Even worse, they can’t lend out the money they have.  The result is that our financial institutions have a real problem:  they can’t earn enough money to survive.  It’s like Amadeo Gianinni (the founder of the Bank of America) said to his workers: “If you don’t make some loans today, how am I going to be able to pay your salaries tomorrow?”

When a new administration takes office in 6 months, one of the first things on its agenda should be to “ease” mortgage lending.  I don’t mean the sheer stupidity and semi-criminal acts of "creative financing" and lending 100% or 110% of a purchase price…but simply going back to what has worked extremely well for the past 200 years: 10% down plus a good credit record.  When this happens, watch how fast the real estate recession disappears.

Oil prices are a “bubble” and it’s going to pop a lot sooner than speculators think.  Reduced gasoline usage in this country is already starting to show at gas stations where the prices are higher than ever…but the stations are selling less gas.  Vehicle traffic on the streets is being reduced at a noticeable rate as more and more people are opting for public transportation, car-pooling and any other way they can to save fuel costs.

The published daily price of oil, in fact, has nothing whatsoever to do with the value of oil.  It’s simply another commodity being traded like pork-bellies, soy beans or wheat.  People who think the price is going up are bidding the oil-futures higher and higher.  Normally this is controlled by supply and demand…but on a supply and demand basis, oil should be at about $50 per barrel…not $150.  As the demand for oil starts to decrease…or supplies increase…oil futures will start to slide.  And the people who are the “insiders” in oil trading, will start to “sell” instead of “buy”…and the “insiders” will sell “short” changing a "slide" into a "free-fall".  Mutual funds and other investment groups who’ve been pumping up the price of oil will suddenly find themselves on the short end of the stick of rapidly decreasing oil prices.  I, for one, will not shed a single tear.

When will this happen?  I can’t say for certain, but I strongly suspect that this will happen shortly after our presidential election, when a new administration takes office that is not heavily invested in oil such as is the Bush family.

As I said, nobody asked me…

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MORALITY AND THE LAW  CXLII

By Stephen Ellis

AN OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA AND JOHN McCAIN

Nobody asked me, but…

            One of two of you will become the next President of the United States.  Having lived longer than either of you, I would like to make some suggestions that would help to turn our economy around  when you take office:

            The price of oil and gasoline:  At five dollars a gallon (or even more by the time you take office) our nation is being badly bruised and beaten.  I realize that ethanol, plug-in vehicles, hydrogen and hybrids are on the way and they will decrease our dependence on imported oil.  But even when cars that use a fraction of the petroleum now being used are ready, it will take about ten years before the newer vehicles populate our streets and the newer fuel is available at the corner station.  I suggest that we (a) take the reins off of oil drilling in the USA.  There is a veritable ocean of oil beneath us if only the government will allow it to be pumped out before Canada, using slant drilling, takes most of it and (b) we open our huge strategic oil reserves to impact the price of oil from OPEC.  By the time we have consumed our strategic oil reserves, machinery of modern warfare that we are saving it for will be using other methods of propulsion.

            The real estate market:  We are in a “false” real estate recession caused by some very greedy lenders lending 100% and sometimes 110% of the price of a home to people who could not possibly afford to buy a home.  This is a “false” recession because all real-estate recessions have always occurred when interest rates and unemployment are high.  Neither is true at this time.  But the media and the “greedy” have made it seem like a genuine recession…and it may become just that if you don’t take corrective steps.  G.W. Bush has handled it in the worst possible way putting pressure on lenders to make obtaining mortgage loans difficult.  This is directly the opposite of what should have been done.  Mortgage loans should be made easy to get, but not given-away in the manner that started this whole fiasco.  Lenders should be encouraged to make mortgage loans, but require a minimum of 10% hard-money down payment.  No “second mortgages” or tricky financing, etc.  This will create a strong income for our financial institutions and end the so-called real estate recession abruptly.

            Our troops in Iraq:  You have to recognize that the first duty of the USA’s military is to defend the USA from foreign attack.  I don’t know who appointed the USA as the world’s policeman, but it’s “wrong” to have our boys killed in some foreign land such as Afghanistan, Iraq or Viet Nam.  I was a combat veteran of the Korean War, and where did that get us?  The customs and mores of other nations belong to them.  It is not our God-given duty to try and make them like us.  All we ever succeed in doing is making every country we occupy “hate” us and bankrupt our Treasury.  Iraq and Afghanistan must be left to resolve their own problems in their own way.  Let’s save our military for “if” and “when” some nation takes it upon themselves to attack us.  What actually happened on 9/11 is still open to serious question and investigation.  But neither Iraq nor Afghanistan had anything to do with it.

            Our declining infra-structure and maritime fleet:  There is little that needs more attention from a new President than to rebuild our infra-structure of highways, bridges, flood control of rivers, rebuilding and modernizing our maritime fleet.  These are the things that keep one nation ahead of others.  Our railroad situation is pitiful.  What was once the pride of the world is antiquated and virtually useless except for freight.  Mag-lev and other high-speed trains are needed and needed now.  Alternate fuels must be found for our commercial airliners or every airline will soon be filing bankruptcy.

            Abortion must remain a woman’s choice:  No matter how you view it, abortion is “wrong” except as the result of incest, rape or medical problems.  Very few people believe that snuffing-out the life of an unborn child is the right thing to do.  But that child is in a woman’s body…and it is she…and no one else…that must carry that child to full term.  Therefore, as much as the thought of abortion is distasteful, it is only the woman carrying the child that can make a sound decision as to whether or not she wants to have that baby.  With apologies to anti-abortionists, the woman’s choice must be deemed legal and final.  As for the “fathers”, when they have to carry a child in their womb, it will become their choice, too.

            Universal medical and health care:  We are supposed to be the most advanced nation in the world…yet we are one of very few countries that do not provide universal health and medical care.  The way we treat our citizens, medically, is this nation’s greatest shame.  We have allowed the medical and drug lobbies to become so powerful that they, not our congress, are running the nation.  This has to be stopped…now!

            Illegal Immigration:  This is a problem that we have created for ourselves and one that does not have a simple solution.  Our borders with Canada and Mexico are so vast that I see no way of stemming the flow of illegals into this country.  Illegals come to the USA to find work and work is available in America.  We have made welfare benefits so easy to get and pay so well, that American citizens make more money by sitting on their behinds and receiving welfare than they can earn doing the unpleasant jobs the illegals are willing to do.  So, our welfare recipients prefer to live on welfare and there is a national shortage of people willing to work at the lower-paying jobs.  Thus there will always be an influx of illegal workers to fill those jobs. 

            It is estimated that there are 25 million illegals (and their families) living  and working in this country.  I realize you don’t want to reward non-citizens for having illegally entered this country, but how do you send back 25 million people…many of them with children born in the USA?  The answer is easy:  You can’t!  There is absolutely no way to round-up the illegal workers in this country and send them back to where they came from…even if the nation they came from would accept them back…which is doubtful.  Even if you could locate, identify and pack a thousand busses full of illegals every day, it would take years to send them home…and many would be back here the next day. 

What you should do is require every non-citizen to get a Tax ID number from the INS; no chance of their being arrested or deported.  They apply for and get a Tax ID number.  Anyone…absolutely anyone… employing an alien without a tax ID number will be subject to massive fines.  What this will do is make the non-citizens pay their fair share of taxes…even if, as non-citizens, they are not entitled to benefits such as Social Security, they and their employers would have to pay into the system.  It might actually make the Social Security system solvent.

There is much, much more to add, but these few things would help start your Presidency on the right track.  Please consider them seriously.

            As I said…nobody asked me.

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MORALITY AND THE LAW  CXLI

By Stephen Ellis

THE COMING PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

Nobody asked me, but…

            I really hope I’m wrong, but I believe the forthcoming Presidential campaign will be the dirtiest campaign in the history of the U.S.A.  There really isn’t any need for the campaign to be full of smut and outright lies, but, on the internet, you can already smell it coming:

            Now that the tentative presidential candidates have been selected for both major parties I’ve already started receiving e-mails stating that Obama is going to appoint an all-Black cabinet or that he’s going to be sworn-in with his hand on the Koran; that Obama is a Muslim sworn to exterminate all non-Muslims; that Obama will favor the Arabs over Israel; etc.

            I’ve already received e-mails stating that McCain’s war record is phony; that he’s planning for the USA to set-up and maintain bases in Irag for the next hundred years; that at least another 4,000 young Americans will die in Iraq if McCain is elected; that if McCain is elected, war with Iran or North Korea is a certainty, etc.

            This is not campaign rhetoric, these are out-and-out lies designed to put fear into the voters.

            The truth is that we know all about McCain’s war record and his having been a prisoner of war in Vietnam.  We know all about the Christian church Obama has attended (and the sheer idiocy of some of his Pastors), etc.

            Both men are good men and neither has lied to the public (that I know of).  The choice is simple: If you want four or eight more years of George W. Bush’s policies, vote for McCain.  If you want anything but that, vote for Obama.  This time the choice is very clear: each candidate has already set forth what his program will be as President:  take your choice!   As long as we can prevent the voter fraud that took place in Florida and the tampering with voting machines that took place in Ohio, we should be able to elect someone the voters want.

            It never ceases to amaze me how many people I’ve spoken to who have decided not to vote.  A lot of Hillary Clinton’s supporters tell me they will not vote for Obama and have already decided not to vote at all.  How many times do we have to be taught the same lesson?  In the last two Presidential campaigns and in the last California general elections, public office has been won by less than 50 votes.  If you decide not to vote, it’s exactly the same as voting for the candidate you like the least.

            Then, undoubtedly, there will be some third-party candidates.  Ralph Nader (a man I formerly respected) has already announced that he plans to run again.  Nader’s third-party candidacy clearly gave the 2000 and 2004 elections to George Bush.  A survey showed that almost 85% of those that voted for Nader would have voted for Gore and/or Kerry if Nader had not been a candidate.  Had the Nader votes gone to Gore in 2000 or Kerry in 2004, Bush would never have been President and we would all have been much better-off.  How much better-off we will never know, but, to me, the Bush-Cheney administration has been the most corrupt and generally the worst administration in the history of this nation.  Will Obama or McCain be any better?  Who knows?

            Nader is, probably, a good man with a hopeful agenda.  But, a vote for a third-party candidate is, right now, a “wasted” vote.  No third-party candidate can possibly win (Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, etc.), but a vote for a third-party candidate can help elect the wrong person as President.  There will come a time when a third-party candidate will capture the imagination of the people and have such strong national support that he/she can upset the two national political parties…but that time and that candidate have not yet arrived.

            The result is that we actually only have a two-party choice:  either a vote for the continuation of Bush’s policies or a vote for change from Bush’s policies.  There will be a lot of campaign rhetoric about such things as the prisoners at Guantanamo not having the right to know the crime(s) with which they have been charged; the right of the government to “listen-in” on any/all telephone conversations without a court order; the relationship between us and our allies in Europe and Asia; our relationship with Israel and the Arab world; the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the potential war between us  and Iran and/or North Korea; universal medical care; the shrinking value of the U.S. dollar; the weakening U.S. economy; unemployment; etc., etc., etc. 

            But the truth is that every voter will either be voting for or against the policies of Bush over the last eight years.  Whichever way you believe, please vote for or against it….but please vote!

            As I said…nobody asked me.

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MORALITY AND THE LAW  CXL

By Stephen Ellis

WHY ISRAEL

Nobody asked me, but…

            The other day, a (legal) Mexican worker was doing some work for my wife and me at our home, and he asked me a few questions: “Why is the United States government always talking about Israel?  Why does our government always seem to favor Israel?  Why don’t they offer other countries the same coverage in our media?”

            To answer these questions properly, you need to explain a lot more than the simplistic response of, “The Jewish population in America has a very strong lobby in Washington”.   It’s true that the Israeli lobby is strong, but so is the Saudi lobby, so is the Iranian lobby, so is the China lobby, etc.  Why Israel?

            To really explain it, we need to go back to 1946, following WWII when the British were occupying what was then called Palestine.  Although the Jewish population in Palestine was very sizable, the Arab population was even larger.  Pursuant to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the Jews, who had been prosecuted by the Nazis, and almost half their population exterminated in the Nazi death camps, were promised a homeland of their own where they could worship, as Jews, without fear of prosecution.

            The British, trying to get rid of the Palestinian problem, at first offered to create two separate States: one called Palestine (for the Arabs) and one called Israel (for the Jews).  The Jewish population agreed, but the larger Arab population did not.  So, in keeping with the Balfour Declaration, the British designated one single State called Israel, and immediately ordered all their troops to evacuate the area.  The British had been informed that as soon as the State of Israel was declared, all of the neighboring Arab countries were going to invade Israel and exterminate the Jewish population.  So, having declared the independent State of Israel, the British hurriedly evacuated this new State and got their troops and diplomats out of Israel in a record “one day”. The stated British policy was that they had done their duty and whatever happened after that was none of their concern.

            Immediately, the Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq invaded Israel determined to exterminate the Jewish population and take Israel for themselves.

            What happened is a matter of historical record:  The Israelis, fighting for their very existence beat back the onslaught of Arab troops outnumbering the Israelis thirty-to-one.  Defeated, the Arab armies negotiated a truce establishing Israel’s borders and Israel agreed that their capital, Jerusalem ,would be a divided city owned half by Israel and half by Jordan.  There were millions of Arabs who fled Israel fearing that living under Jewish rule would be a terrible thing.  Most fled to the strip of land known as Gaza while others fled to Jordan and the West Bank.  Fleeing Israel was a costly mistake that the Arabs would suffer for many years to come.  While Israel grew and flourished, both Gaza and the West Bank became filthy, crime ridden, refugee camps.

            Having won a war against almost insurmountable odds, Israel captured the imagination of the Americans.  Israel was the little “David” who felled the giant “Goliath” of the highly-touted Arab armies.  The U.S.A. became a huge fan of Israel.  The Arab armies were already preparing for another onslaught against Israel, so the Americans agreed to help arm the Israelis by training their troops and arming them with modern machines of warfare.  They trained Israeli Air Force pilots (who became the best fighter pilots in the sky), and prepared Israel to defend itself against the Arab armies who were being supplied with modern weapons and military training by Russia.  This was the time period of the “Cold War” between the Soviet Union and the U.S.A.

            The “Cold War” also helped to bond the USA and Israel because Israel became the place, halfway around the world, where the US could test their military weapons against Russia’s military might.

            Not only did the Israelis prove themselves worthy of the task in beating back several other Arab attempts to invade Israel, Israel became the strongest military power in the Middle East…using U.S.A. training and weapons.

            More than just the military gains, Israel became the “garden” of the desolate Middle East.  Other than the oil pumped by Saudi Arabia, Israel developed an economy four times larger and stronger than the aggregate of all its Arab neighbors.  They took the desolate Palestinian desert and made it “bloom”.  They built cities and factories where only the Bedouin Arabs had trekked with their goats.  Israel became an adopted child of the U.S.A. developing technical expertise rivaling that of the U.S. A. itself. 

That’s why the USA now thinks of Israel in a preferential manner to that of all other nations in the world.  Having reached adulthood, Israel and the United States have become “brothers” halfway around the world.

In this case, somebody did ask me…

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MORALITY AND THE LAW  CXXXIX

By Stephen Ellis

NOMINATION TIME

Nobody asked me, but…

            The Democratic National Committee (“DNC”) yesterday sounded the death knell for the Hillary Clinton campaign by allowing only half the delegates she won to be added to the total number of delegates standing behind her campaign.  These were delegates that were duly elected in the Florida and Michigan primary elections and, by numbers, were essential to her campaign to be nominated.  But, the DNC felt they had to “punish” the states of Florida and Michigan because they opted to hold their primary elections earlier than the DNC requested.

            Please do not interpret this as my being against Barak Obama.  I think he will make an excellent candidate for the Presidency: not as good as Hillary, but, nevertheless, a good candidate.  It will make for an interesting Presidential election.

            My problem is not with who the best candidate will be; I’ve already expressed my opinion several times, but rather with the entire process.  The DNC has no unified method for selecting a nominee, and in fact, the system now used is antiquated, unfair to the candidates, and unfair to the people who take the time to vote…and yes, I’d have felt the same way if Hillary or anyone else was the nominee of the party.

            It’s really kind of rare to have a race as close as this one just to select the nominee of a party, but it’s the close races that point-up the huge flaws in the system.

            Some states have a winner-take-all system and other states divide the elected delegates by the vote of the electorate.  As a simple example, let's suppose that the State of  Illinois had one hundred delegates.  Let’s also suppose that one million people came out to vote in the primaries to select a nominee for the party’s presidential race.  Let’s further suppose that the vote came out to be 499,000 for candidate number one and 501,000 for candidate number two.

            If Illinois was a winner-take all state, the candidate receiving the 501,000 votes would get all one-hundred delegates.  If the delegates were apportioned to the vote of the people, candidate number one would receive 51 delegates and candidate number two would receive 49 delegates.

            Obviously, the winner-take all system does not reflect the way people voted.  Thus, a candidate could possibly “load” his/her number of delegates by campaigning hardest in the winner-take all states.  But it’s neither fair nor does it represent the will of the people.