The Mysterious 1942 Death of Dr. Foster and Tesla's Healing Rays

by Nomad

Unearthed from the archives here is the curious death of Dr. Foster, a young and promising Manhattan physician. Was his sudden breakdown and mysterious death in 1942 linked to the suppression of a revolutionary medical discovery by Nikola Tesla.

Some might consider one of my hobbies to be a little eccentric. I like to go through the old newspapers and find odd news or snapshots of long-forgotten drama. To me, it's fascinating how often you find little treasures or peculiar mysteries that have long been buried in the past.
While the following post is not technically a "political" issue, I thought it was interesting enough to pass along. I will admit that there is a great deal of speculation involved and possibly there are no connections to the events in the post.

The Foster Mystery

With that said, hop into my time machine and we will return to January 1942 to investigate the death of a young Manhattan doctor.

Doctor's Mystery Death 

Opens 3 Investigations

Son of Late Boro Pastor Had Fractured Larynx, Autopsy at Bellevue Reveals

( January 19, 1942) 
A triple investigation was under way today into the death at Bellevue Hospital, Manhattan, of Dr. Allyn King Foster, Jr. 37 of E. 96th St. Manhattan, son of the late Rev. Dr. Allyn King Foster, pastor of the Washington Avenue and Marcy Avenue Baptist Churches.

The doctor was taken to Bellevue last Monday after a policeman had found him without hat or overcoat in a dazed condition at W. 56th St. and 6th Ave. Manhattan. His office was at 136 E. 57th St. Manhattan. He was placed in the psychiatric division. It was said that because he was uncooperative" forcible feeding had to be resorted to several times. He died Saturday evening while a friend of his family was arranging his transfer to another hospital.

Wife Asks Autopsy

Dr. Foster's wife, Elsa, requested an autopsy. As a result of the findings by Assistant Medical Examiner Philip Goldstein, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner ordered an examination. Assistant District Attorney Jacob Grumet of the Homicide Bureau of the New York County prosecutor's office, started an inquiry. 

A third was begun by police of W. 54th St. Station, the precinct in which he was found., and by the police of the E. 35th st. Station, the Bellevue precinct, because of the possibility of his having been injured in the hospital. 

Larynx Fractured

It was stated that Dr. Foster was found to have a fractured larynx, foreign matter in his bronchial tubes, and evidence of asphyxiation. Police said a fractured larynx was frequently an indication of a mugging- a holdup in which one bandit, standing behind the victim, throws an arm around his throat, choking him and forcing his head back while a second goes through his pockets.

Born in Cornwall, N.Y., Dr. Foster  was educated at Brooklyn Poly Prep. Colgate University, Rush Medical School of the University of Chicago and interned at St. Luke's Hospital. He was a junior assistant surgeon in his outpatient department, assistant surgeon at Broad Street Hospital and clinical assistant surgeon in the outpatient department of Laying -in- Hospital.

This tragic story echoes another unsolved mystery: the 2010 death of Jack Wheeler. 

So to sum up, a young Brooklyn doctor is found on the streets of Manhattan, wandering lost and incoherent. It's a little unusual that alcohol or drugs are not mentioned. At least it was not reported. Added to that, no injuries were reported at the time. Prior to that moment, there had been no sign of mental issues according to his widow. Police pick him up and he is placed under observation at a mental facility.
There, five days later, he is found dead. 

While the cause of his death suggests either hanging or strangulation of some sort, that possibility is never expressed in the newspaper item. Additionally, (and rather, surprisingly) the possibility of suicide is not mentioned, suggesting that it was obvious that he did not hang himself.

If You Stop and Think About It...

by Nomad

Maybe more than a hundred.

Roosevelt's 1906 Warning about the Dangers of Slinging Mud and Raking Muck

by Nomad

A speech on April 14, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt offers warnings about what happens when scandal mongers and hysterical sensationalists run amok. The evidence that Teddy had it right is every place you look today.

Politics, as most people know, can be a vicious animal. That's hardly news. It's always been that way. Political life brings out the worst - and more rarely, the best- in people. Things are often said and things are regularly done that would, under any other circumstance, be a shame to humanity.

"A Modern Day Lynching"

In these unprecedented days of America's first black presidency, all of us have witnessed some of the most vicious attacks on the character and motives of a president and, still worse, his own family. The opposition swears it has nothing to do with his race, but the defense is not particularly convincing. Every bad thing has been attributed to Obama even when the very same things were done- and often to a greater extent- by other presidents. 

When conservative Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court nomination was in serious doubt, he was able to shame to the Senate committee with accusations that they were conducting "a modern-day lynching." He successfully used white guilt to shame the committee to stop asking very serious  and legitimate charges of sexual harassment. 

Today the conservative Congressmen appear to have no fears that they might be accused of conducting the same kind of character assassination of a twice democratically elected president. No allegation from people like Issa, Palin, Boehner or Cruz is too ridiculous or too baseless to be denounced by the news media. 

Last week, the Speaker of the House was caught in the embarrassing position of wildly claiming the President had acted unconstitutionally without even being able to name the actual offense. 

The Men with the Muck Rakes

One hundred and eight years ago, in April 1906, Teddy Roosevelt made a famous speech at the ceremonial laying of the cornerstone of the Office Building of the House of Representatives. It has been called his "Muckraking" speech, a reference to a character in "A Pilgrim's Progress." 

Though his words are often misunderstood, it was in many ways one of Roosevelt's most progressive speeches. The term "muckraker" has been generally understood to refer only journalists and expose writers of the age, but it can be applied more widely.

"A muckraker is a man," Roosevelt said, "could look no way but downward, with the muck-rake in his hand; who was offered a celestial crown for his muck-rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor."

Evidence that the GOP Hasn't Changed in Nearly 80 years

by Nomad

This cartoon comes from a New York City newspaper. The cartoonist is showing how "out of tune" and tone deaf the Republican party was.

The date?

April 26, 1936.

Tourism, Islam, and Bikinis: Culture Clashes on Turkish Beaches

by Nomad

Turkey's culture clash between Islam and the West may have found a new battlefield: the nation's sunny beaches. And women could be caught in the middle.

Money Maker

To say that tourism is a big money maker in Turkey is an understatement. With more than 31.5 million foreign tourists, the nation ranks as the 6th most popular tourist destination in the world. 

This year, according to Turkey's largest travel agency association, it will see tourists spending a staggering US$35 billion. That's nearly a 10% increase in both the numbers of visitors and the amount of revenue. Most of those tourists will come from Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, Georgia, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. 

In some of the touristic resorts, summer in Turkey means fun and frolic, a lot of youthful (and not so youthful) wildness. Most of this frivolity involves rivers of alcohol. That situation has left some resorts with a bad reputation with tourists because of the general "anything goes" atmosphere. 

But then, drunkenness, occasional fights or public indecency have always been written off as just part of the drawbacks to mass tourism.

Interestingly, according to the association, this year there will also be a significant increase in the number of Iranian tourists. Given the diversity of cultures, you'd think it would be a challenge to accommodate every taste. Well, it often is.
Surprisingly it hasn't as a major problem as you'd think, mainly because of Turkey's high level of hospitality and tolerance.. and patience.

For Iranian tourist, the main attraction is, in a word, shopping. Iranians can buy hard to find brand names in shopping areas in Istanbul and other major cities that would be impossible to buy in Tehran. That's very good news for the Turkish economy.

As far as Turkish businessmen, Iranian visitors, generally speaking, have an excellent reputation. And they do not tax the patience of the natives like many overzealous Europeans do.

Iranian tourists are well-liked, not just because they are big spenders but because they are polite and rarely make trouble. They generally travel as families, not as gaggles of friends, and a loud, drunk Iranian would be highly unusual sight.

Be that as it may, Turkey has to constantly walk a fine line to please everybody.

The Long Struggle for Wage Equality for Women and Republican Road Blocks

by Nomad

Wage equality for women has been a long and difficult road, dating the Roosevelt era and before. Down through the years, step by step, progress against pay discrimination has plodded along, despite the numerous obstacles.

However, that struggle came to an abrupt halt last April when Republican Senators decided to shut down legislation to curb pay discrimination based on gender.
But the question is: will they pay a price in November?

In April of this year, Senate Republicans voted unanimously to block debate on proposed legislation aimed at closing the pay inequality between men and women. The GOP shut down a motion to proceed on the Paycheck Fairness Act with 53 votes for, and 44 against. That count fell short of the 60 needed to defeat a filibuster. 

As a result, the legislation was pronounced DOA and it marked the third time this particular proposal has failed. 

For Republicans, it was risky - some would say suicidal- thing  to do with the midterms coming up. However, in a marvelous bit of spin, Kentucky Senator and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the legislation was.. 

"just another Democratic idea that threatens to hurt the very people that it claims to help. ... We've already seen what five and a half years of Washington Democratic control has meant. More poverty and lower wages for women."

McConnell is facing Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes in the mid-terms. A new Republican poll has found that Grimes is leading McConnell by three points. The gap is even larger among women voters in his state. And that's no wonder: on a variety of women's issues, McConnell's voting record is hard to defend.

Exactly how tightening prohibitions against sex discrimination in the payment of wages, adds up to poverty and lower wages for women, is part of the magical thinking of the conservative GOP. Fortunately well-financed (think corporate funding) organizations are quick to plug up any logical leaks in the sinking ship.

For example, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an influential conservative think tank, claimed in an op-ed piece for The New York Times that:

"discrimination plays little role in pay disparities between men and women, and it threatens to impose onerous requirements on employers to correct gaps over which they have little control."

That's not too surprisingly an allegation for AEI.  That organization has long promoted the "advancement of free enterprise capitalism." Its board of trustees is literally a who's who of leading business and financial executives. Hardly what one would call a disinterested party. 

But for the Republicans, it is a link to the kind of power player that can finance re-election campaigns.

On the other side of the political aisle, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told reporters, "For reasons known only to them, Senate Republicans don't appear to be interested in closing the wage gap for working women."

A Look Back

Turning back the clock 78 years, we see this June 1936 editorial cartoon in a New York newspaper. The cartoon shows an exhausted bedraggle cleaning women holding a note that reads:

Any wage they can get away with.

"It's Constitutional!" was the title. What could the cartoon be referring to? 

Because it seemed so timely, it sparked my curiosity. 

Just a two days before the publication of that cartoon, the conservative Supreme Court had handed down one of its most startling and most unpopular decisions.

In the case of Morehead vs. New York, the court struck down a New York minimum‐wage laws for women and children. 

Calls for Tony Blair's Resignation as ME Envoy: The Unraveling of a War-Mongerer?

by Nomad

Calls for Tony Blair's resignation as Middle East envoy have come from former ambassadors and politicians.
They have cited his prominent role in the Iraq invasion and his failure to accept responsibility for the mess.
Have events in Iraq finally caught up with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair? Don't bet on it.

For his role as head cheerleader of the Iraq invasion, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has lately come under fire. In an open letter, former British ambassadors and politicians have called on Blair to step down from his position as Middle East envoy  on behalf of the US, Russia, the UN and the EU. 

The scathing letter was addressed to foreign ministers in the US, Russia and the EU as well as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Blair took up the envoy post immediately after resigning as PM on 27 June 2007. Our source reports:

The letter, with signatories including his former ambassador to Iran Sir Richard Dalton and former London Mayor Ken Livingstone – comes weeks after he published an essay in which he claimed that the 2003 invasion was not to blame for the current crisis.

The letter also points out how little Blair has achieved in his position.

With the existential threat to the Iraq democracy project posed by the Islamic militant group ISIS, the authors of the letter have accused Blair of trying to "absolve himself" of his responsibility for the present crisis in the war-torn nation.

“We believe that Mr Blair, as a vociferous advocate of the invasion, must accept a degree of responsibility for its consequences.”

(This might also explain why Dick Cheney has been working so hard recently at passing the buck on the Iraqi "liberation debacle" on to Obama.)

In the past, critics of his actions, including Bishop Desmond Tutu, Harold Pinter and Arundhati Roy have all called for Blair to face a trial at the International Criminal Court. Unsurprisingly, nothing has come of it.

Even if Blair has the integrity to step down- which is doubtful- one needn't worry that he will be facing the misery of standing in the unemployment line. Apart from his gig as an envoy, Blair has other things to keep him busy. His life has been stuffed with lucrative opportunities since dropping out of politics.

Russian Lawmaker Puts Foot Down on High Heels, Ballet Shoes and Loafers

by Nomad

Just when you thought the American Congress couldn't get any more silly or intrusive into the lives of women, the Russians step in with the draft laws against footwear.

A Paris-based international news agency, AFP, is reporting this story.

Russian women may soon undergo a dramatic makeover if a Kremlin-friendly legislator has his way and pushes through a ban on a fashion item they perhaps cherish the most: high heels.

Oleg Mikheyev, a legislator with pro-Kremlin A Just Russia party, says vertiginous heels as well as trainers, ballet flats and men’s loafers are bad for people’s health and it’s time to do something about it.

The article goes on:

Mikheyev has sent a proposal to the Customs Union which also includes ex-Soviet Belarus and Kazakhstan, suggesting that the Moscow-led group introduce official standards stipulating the height of heels. “Footwear should have heels that are two to four centimetres high, five centimetres high at the most,” said the proposal. “The harmful effects of wearing extremely high heels and flat shoes have now been recognised by experts of the entire world,” said the five-page proposal. “It’s necessary to change this trend.” Mikheyev said he was simply looking to raise awareness rather than ban heels outright.

In fact, Mikheyev is no stranger to [insert adjective of choice] legislation.  

Cheney's Editorial: A Total Detachment from Responsibility and Reality

by Nomad

Minds were boggled this week as ex-vice president Dick Cheney managed to flip history on its head in order to escape his record in advocating the invasion of Iraq. 

In yet another example of Republican delusional thinking, former vice-president Dick Cheney penned an op-ed for the (Rupert Murdoch-owned) The Wall Street Journal this week, blasting President Obama on  foreign policy. 

Specifically he accused the president of "'fantasy' policies that weaken the US armed forces, embolden terror networks like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and reduce Washington's ability to influence global events."

It was a startling piece of writing, given the source. For a full appreciation of the text, an experienced mental health expert is perhaps required. Psychological projection is evident throughout and frankly, it's a little frightening to see how detached from reality the man has become.
(If Liz Cheney truly loved her father, she would keep as far  from access to the media as she could. Even Nancy Reagan had the common decency to do that for her husband.)

Hypocrites on Parade: Pat Robertson Slams George Bush for Lying about Iraq

by Nomad

Recent remarks by the evangelist Pat Robertson about George Bush and the pretext for the Iraqi invasion were interesting.
Yet, before you shake Robertson's hand, it's important to hear the whole story.

America's Bill of Goods

Yesterday Raw Story delivered this interesting news:

Televangelist Pat Robertson on Monday blasted former President George W. Bush for selling Americans a “bill of goods” before the Iraq invasion, which led to the violence that is currently sweeping across the country.

Robertson, a former ardent Bush supporter, is the founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network and the Christian Coalition. Broadcasts of his 700 club reportedly reach a daily audience of one million viewers, both on cable and through syndication.  

Arming ISIS: The Danger of Listening to Warhawks

by Nomad

Two years ago, as the Syrian Civil War dragged on, Republican war hawks had the answers about what President ought to do in Syria. Sending weapons to the freedom fighting rebels was the only answer. 

Today we can see the folly of McCain's foreign policy solutions.

Back in February 2012, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham were indulging in their favorite hobby, telling President Obama what he ought to be doing in the seemingly insolvable Syrian Civil War.
Their answer was to send American weapons to the anti-Assad rebels.

McCain's Folly

“I believe there are ways to get weapons to the opposition without direct United States involvement,” McCain told reporters at a news conference during a visit to the Afghan capital, Kabul, “The Iranians and the Russians are providing Bashar Assad with weapons. People that are being massacred deserve to have the ability to defend themselves.”

“So I am not only not opposed, but I am in favor of weapons being obtained by the opposition.”

In other words, the best policy was to return to the proxy wars of the Cold War.

(Nobody on the Republican side bothered to inform the senators that arming rebels in any country is a violation of international law. The International Court of Justice has in the past ruled that such shipments violated the UN charter. The last time this matter came up was curiously enough in the Reagan era with the covert arming of the Nicaraguan contras.)

According to a Wall Street Journal article (behind a firewall), legal advisers to President Obama repeatedly warned that aiding the Syrian rebels probably "violated international law and risked a direct conflict with the Assad regime."

Furthermore, it could easily lead into a larger conflict involving Turkey, Iran, Russia, Israel and other regional neighbors. The President had every reason to proceed with extreme caution. It's the kind of thing a president- as Commander in Chief- is paid to consider.

It was clear that the Obama Administration was never fully committed to the idea of sending weapons. In any event, it made no sense to openly discuss that option. What is the benefit of publicizing such a policy? 

The then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also a little less hawkish about the idea. However according to one source, (her own recently-published memoirs) suggests that early in the country's civil war, she thought the proposal was one option.
Importantly, she adds, that view was overruled by the president.

"The risks of both action and inaction were high, [but] the president [Obama]'s inclination was to stay the present course and not take the significant further step of arming rebels," she added.

"No one likes to lose a debate, including me. But this was the president's call and I respected his deliberations and decision," she wrote, according to CBS News.

As we shall see,  Hilary's version of events was not exactly the final chapter in the whole story. Ultimately, everybody in Washington and in Europe agreed that the Syrian President Assad had to go but nobody could decide how it should be done.
For the war hawk Republicans, the most expedient way seemed to be shipping weapons into the country covertly. It had worked in other cases. After all, it worked for Reagan and the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan...hadn't it?

Radio Talk Show Host Ingraham Says Cantor Lost Because He had No Sense of Humor

by Nomad

Right wing talk show commentator, Ms. Laura Ingraham, has been blamed for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's stunning defeat in the Virginia GOP primary. She resented the charge and explained that there was a much more logical reason for his defeat. 

Conservative radio hotshot Laura Ingraham thinks she knows precisely why Eric Cantor lost his primary last week. It had nothing to do with the overall weakness of his party which has been running counter to American voter opinion on issues like immigration, same-sex marriage and marijuana law reform.

Nor the fact that he constantly undermined the Speaker of the House Boehner's attempts to work out any kind of deal with the president on a host of issues.

One conservative site offers this insight into the minds of some in the Republican party: 

Republican insiders — fed up with the scorched-earth tactics of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor — privately fear the fiery Virginia right-winger could destroy the party’s majority in the House of Representatives with his constant undermining of Speaker John Boehner’s attempts to reach a debt deal with President Barack Obama.

 The article adds:

“Whether Eric Cantor likes it or not, John Boehner is the leader of our party in the House of Representatives,” one frustrated GOP consultant said Tuesday. “If Cantor continues his infantile actions, there won’t be a Republican majority in the House after 2012.”

And it wasn't even that. Despite appearing to press the right buttons, Cantor simply did not abide by the wishes of his ultra-conservative voters in his state. Could that have been the reason?

The Iraqi Invasion, The French Warning and Fox News

by Nomad

As the Republic of Iraq faces its first existential crisis since the evacuation of American troops, it is important to take a look back to the time before the invasion, to the days before the crossing of the Iraqi Rubicon.
The events of this week shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody who has a memory. After all, the French warned us that this would probably happen.  

With Iraq is such a mess, and Republican conservatives attempting to blame the Obama administration, it is a good time to review things. Let's go back to the months before the invasion of Iraq. The US worked hard to get the UN on board to approve of military action, to sanction the use of force. US troops had already been deployed and were waiting in the Saudi Arabian desert for the "thumbs up" sign. 

But that is when France and, to a lesser extent, Germany, threw a monkey wrench into what had seemed to be a solid coalition of the West. Colin Powell had pulled out all stops to convince the members, with diagrams of mobile chemical weapons factories and even holding up a fake bottle of anthrax.
This form of persuasion, (scare tactics, some said at the time), did not have the desired effects. 

The French ambassador to the UN at the time, Dominique de Villepin, gave his famous speech, in which he told the UN that while nobody was ruling out the use of military action, the inspections and the use of crippling sanctions on Saddam's government should be allowed to continue. Hans Blix, the UN chief inspector, had so far found no chemical weapons and should be allowed to continue the systematic search.

In a calm and cool delivery, he proposed regular meetings of the security council to review the progress. Here is an excerpt of that speech.

In that 14 February 2003 speech, he warns what that any direct military intervention would naturally also involve a difficult peace. It could, he pointed, out also lead to greater instability and provide a suitable environment for the spread of terrorist groups in that region.

Naturally the Bush administration was shaken by this formidable challenge to the Anglo-American war plan for Iraq. Without UN approval, the invasion of Iraq- even with a coalition, could be considered an aggressive and illegal action.

In Honor of Eric Cantor's Loss..

by Nomad

I made this meme in special honor of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's unexpected loss in the Virginia primary to Tea Party challenger, Dave Brat. (If you look closely you can actually see the head.) 

Birtherism Reborn: Candidate Ted Cruz and the Wrath of Karma

by Nomad

Republicans have once again incurred the wrath of the Karma goddess. After years of ranting suspicions about Obama's eligibility to be president, the Republicans could be in a pickle in 2016.
Karma has now focused her attention on GOP/Tea Party darling, Ted Cruz.

For most of President Obama's first term in office, the subject of his birth and eligibility for office were constantly being bandied about by ultra-conservatives. The "Birther" bunch was lead primarily led by one Orly Taitz- a colorful character to say the least. No amount of proof seemed to satisfy her and her scouts. Something, they said, was just not right (white?) about Obama. 

Eventually even the most die-hard conservative lost interest. To the so-called right wing-nuts, the question was enough to bring up any attack against the president. Truth did not need to prevail, the innuendo was sufficient. 

Now the subject of citizenship seems poised to re-appear, but this time it will become the bane- (so to speak) of Republicans.

The Importance of Being American

Last week, Texas Senator Ted Cruz formally renounced his Canadian citizenship which he had maintained throughout his life. As of May 14, Cruz was no longer a Canadian citizen. 

Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada  on December 22, 1970, Cruz had kept his dual citizenship until its existence was revealed by the Dallas Morning News.

This move and the revelation that necessitated it was an important step in the career of Ted Cruz.

Why?

A recent survey by Public Policy Polling (PPP) found that Ted Cruz was a Republican front-runner for the 2016 election, beating out Rand Paul, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal and even Jeb Bush. 

Hard to believe, I know. 

The poll also found that Cruz is considered the de facto leader of his party, with a large majority of respondents saying they trust him more than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House John Boehner.

With Eric Cantor expectedly tossed out on his tunkus, who knows who is next to receive the bum's rush out of the doors of Congress.

Therefore the question of Cruz's eligibility to run for president suddenly becomes essential.

Shutting It Down: The Costs of Silencing Occupy Dissent

by Nomad

Shutting down dissent is costly. After a court ruling this week on police handling of Occupy Wall Street protesters, we learned how much such tactics by law enforcement cost the American taxpayer. Of course, the American taxpayer has had to foot the bill,  not once, but twice.

This week, lawyers for the organization Lawyers for the Rest Of Us. issued a statement announcing the largest settlement to date regarding the Occupy Wall Street protesters and the City of New York. In addition to the public relations nightmare, the city has agreed to pay a staggering out $583,024 to 14 who were falsely arrested. 

According to the source:

On January 1st, 2012, in a federal lawsuit, Peat v. City of New York, 12-cv-8230, filed in the Southern District of New York on November 13, 2012. The lawsuit alleged that the plaintiffs’ Constitutional rights to free speech and assembly were violated by their arrests.

This settlement is notable as it is  the largest single settlement to date for an Occupy Wall Street-related civil rights lawsuit in New York. The details of the case are worth reviewing since it may not be the last of its kind.

The fourteen plaintiffs were arrested at 2nd Avenue and 13th Street in Manhattan during a peaceful march of Occupy Wall Street supporters. At that location, police officers accompanying the march stopped the march from continuing forward and enclosed the marchers within police lines composed of scooter patrol officers and officers on foot. High-ranking NYPD officers, including then-Chief of Patrol James Hall, Deputy Chief Theresa Shortell, Deputy Inspector Daniel O’Donnell, and Captain William Taylor were present at the scene and directly participated in making the arrests.

The plaintiffs were charged with blocking pedestrian traffic under Penal Law 240.20 (disorderly conduct). The District Attorney’s office later declined to prosecute the criminal cases against the plaintiffs.

The point was to get them off the street and, others might say, to intimidate them into silence.

Comrade Abraham: Was President Lincoln a Closet Marxist?

by Nomad

When we think of Lincoln, most of us do not consider the sixteenth president as a Marxist revolutionary. Yet, a little research uncovers some very interesting- slightly confounding- connections between Abe Lincoln and the father of the Communist movement. As fascinating as that might be, there is an even bigger shock in store when it comes to the origins of the Republican Party.

This quote in the meme above reportedly came early in his political career (December 1847). For some of us who grew up thinking of "Honest Abe" as a folksy backwoods lawyer, it's a bit jarring to hear him talking about labor issues. It's not the image many of us have of the man who freed the slaves and held the nation together. (It's hard enough to think of him as a Republican.)

But there was more to that quote. Lincoln also wrote in that same passage:

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people.

It's impossible to imagine that any president would dare to say such a thing today. And especially not a Republican one. Any conservative politician who expressed such thoughts today could expect to be skewered alive and roasted slowly (with relish) live on Fox News.

The Battle of the Quotations
As we are all well aware, politicians tend to talk more than necessary and in doing so, say a lot of nonsense, especially early on in their careers. However, in Lincoln's case there is more to it than that. We do know that from early in his career, Lincoln's ideas had not changed but actually expanded. 

A Snapshot from the Frontline: Where Boston's Homeless Find Health Care

by Nomad

Providing health care to homeless citizens is a job that gets far too little attention compared with, say, celebrity news. One film takes a closer look at the people who have dedicated themselves to that task.

Director  Jeff Schwartz hadn't anticipated that his short film would turn into a full-length documentary.. or a life-changing experience.

"With a small crew and unprecedented access to homeless men and women on the streets.. I was introduced to people I would have normally passed by. "

The result was a film that hat NPR has called "extremely powerful" and "fascinating."

"Give me a Shot of Anything: House Calls to the Homeless" deals with lives of homeless and the doctors and care-givers who provide them with health care. 

Schwartz gave his assessment:

"These are people that care. They see the humanity of the homeless and make sure they are granted basic rights like food, shelter and quality health care."

On a larger scale this film documents one city's response to America's health care needs, the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program. 

Mistaken Identity and Monkey Suit Mayhem

by Nomad

Taking a break from the political scene, for a moment. I saw this article about a case of mistaken identity at a zoo in Tenerife. 

Zoo Fail: Man 'in Gorilla Suit' Shot in Training Drill

A Spanish zoo worker who dressed up in a gorilla costume as part of a drill was rushed to hospital after one of the vets mistook him for a real ape and shot him with a tranquilizer rifle.

The case of mistaken identity took place at the Loro Parque zoo in the

Canary island of Tenerife on Wednesday.

As part of a drill to find out how to deal with the potential escape of one of the park’s apes, one of the workers dressed up in a gorilla costume to make the whole scenario all the more believable.

Unfortunately for him, one of the vets must have not been informed about what was happening.

When he saw a furry 'beast' outside its cage, he quickly grabbed his rifle and shot it, or him, with a narcotic dose meant for a 200-kilo mammal.

The man not only fell to the ground like a ton of bricks, he also suffered an allergic reaction which made his condition all the more serious, La Opinión de Tenerife reported.

When emergency services arrived at the scene, they found him lying unconscious in his underpants.

On Friday, a Loro Parque spokesperson denied the man was in a gorilla suit and said the tranquilizer rifle had simply misfired. His condition is now stable and local authorities are investigating how the unfortunate event happened, given that there was a risk assessment team present at the zoo when the drill took place.

Labor: An Appreciation

by Nomad

Paving Paradise: Austerity, Pristine Beaches and the Greek Fire Sale

by Nomad

Critics to proposed Greek legislation opening up beach development worry that in an effort to abide by harsh austerity measure, the Mediterranean nation will be selling off its greatest treasure, its untouched coasts. 

Teacher and chemist Irini Chassiotou, writing for a European environmental news portal, GreenFudge, describes how the Greek economic crisis has been used an pretext to undermine environmental protections and to open up areas to commercial exploitation.. 

The target? The country’s unspoiled beaches and 13,676 kilometres (8,498 mi) of coastline. On the surface, legislation proposed by the government was aimed at reducing bureaucracy and increasing investments. 

Bounty in Common: The Early Christians Fathers vs. The One Percent

by Nomad

Here's what the Early Fathers of the Christian Church had to say about the rich. Despite what many on the Far Right might say, these ideas about wealth redistribution, sharing God's blessings and holding all things for the common good came a long long time before Marx.

It always amazes me how few Christians are aware of Church teaching. They claim to believe every word but- as I saw recently from a religious politician- quote Ghandi mistaking for the Bible.

It's a pity that Christians do not actually study their faith seriously. If they reviewed for themselves what the early Church fathers said about the greedy rich- instead of taking it second-hand from wealthy evangelists, they would have cleansed the world of the 1% quite some time ago.

Of course, the sad fact is that the capitalist system untempered by at least some kind of socialism, and pure Christianity, as taught in by the Early Fathers, are two ideologies that are incompatible. Judge for yourself.

Lest We Forget: GOP Senator Feels the Sting as Veterans Remember

by Nomad via Liberaland

In yet another example of a Republican underestimating the attention span and memory of the average citizen, North Carolina Senator Richard Burr's attempt to make political hay out of a recent scandal at the Veterans' Administration has backfired. 

Last February, when Republicans successfully voted down a $21 billion Veterans Aid Bill, it was seen as yet another defeat for the president, served up cold by Congress. The vote was close at  56-41 but only two Republican Senators voted for the bill.

Bernie Sanders, (I-Vt.) , the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and primary sponsor of the bill, warned the Republicans that there would come a time when they would have to explain themselves to the public.

You tell that [veteran] you think we cannot afford to help him or her..."But when you do that I hope you also tell him why you voted to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top 2 percent [of earners]. Virtually all my GOP colleagues thought it was important to find new tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires."

Sanders with clear contempt for the partisan political games, said, "Enough [talk] about how everybody loves the veterans." 

One Senator North Carolina Senator Richard Burr  was openly critical of the aid bill at that time and gave his reasons to the press. 

With $17 trillion in debt and massive annual deficits, our country faces a fiscal crisis of unparalleled scope. Now is not the time, in any federal department, to spend money we don't have.

The year prior to the vote disabled vets were only days away from seeing their monthly checks held up by a GOP-led government shutdown.  

Seizing what he considered a political opportunity, Burr pressed the matter a little too far when he attempted to rally veterans against the Obama administration on the matter of healthcare problems in the VA system. 

The syndicated article below explains the reaction from some veterans' groups to Republican politics in action.

Republican Senator Who Voted No On $21 Billion In Vet Aid Further Infuriates Veterans Groups (via Liberaland)

North Carolina Senator Richard Burr, the ranking Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, voted no on aid for vets earlier this year. Now, veterans groups are lashing out at him for an open letter he wrote the groups condemning them for …

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Progress and Poverty: The Life and Warning of Forgotten Crusader, Henry George

by Nomad

Outside of the academic world perhaps, few people have heard of the name of Henry George. That's a real pity since his observations about economic inequality are as timely as they are essential to our own day. 

A Pyramid On Its Apex 

So long as all the increased wealth, which modern progress brings, goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent. The reaction must come. The tower leans from its foundations, and every new story but hastens the final catastrophe. To educate men who must be condemned to poverty, is but to make them restive; to base on a state of most glaring social inequality, political institutions under which men are theoretically equal, is to stand a pyramid on its apex.

The life of Henry George reads like a novel from another age. George was born into a large, lower-middle class and devout Episcopalian family in Philadelphia in 1839 . His father was a publisher of religious texts and insisted on a religious education for his son.
By 14, George had left the religious academy and was seized with a wanderlust. In April 1855, young George at 15 went to sea as a foremast on the Hindoo, bound for Melbourne and Calcutta. 

After 14 months at sea, he returned to Philadelphia and began working as a printer. Ever restless, George traveled to California where he married and started a family. Despite marital and familial happiness, times were not easy and according to his own admission, there were times his family was close to starvation. 

He tried unsuccessfully to become a gold miner in British Columbia before finding work as a newspaper printer, journalist and eventually editor and newspaper owner. 

Politically, George initially leaned toward the Republican party of Lincoln but later, after viewing how corporations and industrialists were corrupting the party, switched to the Democratic party. He was a staunch opponent of the railroads which as he saw it were benefited only those fortunate enough to have a financial interest. Everybody else, he said, was being thrown into poverty. Such a stand proved to be his undoing when he attempted to run for politics in the California State Assembly. Executives from the powerful Central Pacific Railroad apparently went to some lengths to ensure George's electoral defeat. 

Incidentally it was from a minor- seemingly unimportant railroad case in California from around that time - along with a few precedents built upon that original case- which provided the Supreme Court a basis for its outlandish Citizen United decision. The Court somehow decided that corporations possess rights equality to citizens, that is, as the Republican candidate in the last election famously said, corporations are people.

America's Stunning Hypocrisy on Indian Marital Rape Laws

 by Nomad

After a judge in India decided that rape laws could not be applied to married couples, it was easy in the West to sneer at the utter backward-ness of the world's largest democracy. Clearly women are still treated as second class citizens.. there.
Yet how much difference is there between Indian laws and laws in the US regarding spousal rape? The answers might surprise you.

In India, issues related to rape have in the last few years been, for the first time a matter of public discussion. In a sign- perhaps- of a flourishing democracy, ideas on this subject are evolving at a rapid pace. Yet, in some respects, public attitudes might seem hopeless trapped in the past.

For example, the question of recognizing rape within the bounds of marriage, marital rape or spousal rape, is still a thorny one in India. The syndicated news story below provides us with an example.

Marital rape is officially legal in India

A judge in India has officially confirmed that rape laws do not apply to married couples — once you’re legally wed, forced sex is no longer a crime.

What’s especially chilling is that the judge, Virender Bhat, was hearing a case in which a woman alleged she had been drugged, then forced to marry, and then raped — in other words, she hadn’t consented to the marriage or the sex. Bhat said there was no evidence that the accuser had been drugged, but he also said that if the woman’s husband (identified only as Vikash) had forced himself on her, that wouldn’t qualify as rape under Indian law....

This isn’t the first time marital rape has been an issue in India. Recently, after a student was raped and murdered in Delhi, a committee headed by former Indian Supreme Court chief justice J.S. Verma made a number of recommendations for improving India’s rape laws, including doing away with the marital rape exemption. According to the Verma Committee’s report:

Under the Indian Penal Code sexual intercourse without consent is prohibited. However, an exception to the offence of rape exists in relation to un-consented sexual intercourse by a husband upon a wife. The Committee recommended that the exception to marital rape should be removed. Marriage should not be considered as an irrevocable consent to sexual acts.

The country strengthened its sexual assault laws based on the committee’s recommendations, but the marital rape law remained unchanged — and this new ruling just reconfirms it.

This story- replete with the colorful images of India- made a few waves on the vast Internet sea.  But it was really only half of the story.

Before we get on a high horse and "tsk, tsk" at that backward India, it is important to add a little perspective. India is not any more backward in this respect than the 38 other countries where marital rape is not recognized as a crime. This includes nations like Nigeria, Kuwait, Singapore, Uganda, Mongolia, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia. From Afghanistan to Zambia, the laws, in effect, do not allow wives to refuse their husbands' demands for sex.

Here's something else you might find surprising.

Paul Ryan, Bill Bennett and the Exclusive Country Club Mentality

by Nomad

This quote by Herman Melville was the impetus for this post about two well-known conservatives, Paul Ryan and Bill Bennett.   Whenever you hear two elitist white guys pontificating about what's wrong with the "inner-city" culture, it's hard not catch the faint scent of racism. 

Paul Ryan and the Dog-Whistle

On March 12 of this year, Republican Paul Ryan was on Bill Bennett’s Morning in America radio show to share his brand of wisdom about poverty in the US. He was quoted as saying:

"We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning to value the culture of work, so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with."

The whole conversation was absurd on so many levels even Melville could not have held back a chuckle. Of course, the thought that unemployment is a just moral/culture failure no doubt provides a welcome sense of superiority to some of the more privileged among us.