Congratulations, Iowa caucus-attendees
It took an old mule from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, to kick Hillary Clinton, whose husband attends Aspen, Bilderberg, and Davos financial conferences on a regular basis, into understanding: IT’S INCOME INEQUALITY, STUPID.Ineluctably inundated by feminists, I am told that Clinton is superior to Sanders because she has experience. My answer: It’s her experience at being a poor imitation of manliness in the Senate — acting tough and aggressive and participating in neoliberalism ideology on economics, while at the same time claiming to be a Democrat while performing like a Blue Dog.
However, as a female, I understand that as a woman Clinton was at a disadvantage in a male-dominated political system. But I cannot understand or excuse her ignorance to the fact that income inequity, not ISIS, is the greatest threat to American democracy since the 1930s.
Economists such as Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, and journalists such as George Packer of the New Yorker elucidate this danger.
Ted Cruz kept Donald Trump at bay, but Cruz misreads America. The U.S. is exceptional because it isn’t a theocracy, nor are Christians, when not under the sway of neoliberalism, devoted to laissez-faire capitalism. Americans prefer to leave religion in the churches, synagogues, mosques, and keep God in our hearts. This has preserved U.S. as one nation under God without the need to exterminate the other. United under the protection of an Enlightenment document, the U.S. Constitution, which states at Article II sec. 1: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution [1789], shall be eligible to the Office of President …”
Cruz was born in Alberta, Canada.
Trump, strutting like a Philadelphia Mummer, bragging like a Gansta’ rapper, seems to have selected Benito Mussolini as his model for running for president. In modernity, no totalitarian (a system invented by Mussolini himself) dictator has ever taken office without the consent of the people. The majority of Republican caucus-attendees seem to have understood this.
Mary Gravitt
Recognize the 1992 Khojaly Massacre
I join all Azerbaijani Americans, members of the Pax Turcica Institute, in commemoration of the 24th anniversary of the Khojaly Massacre, the first worst war crime in Europe since World War II.
On the night of Feb. 26, 1992, the Armenian military supported by the 366th infantry regiment of the Russian army attacked the town of Khojaly in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Fleeing residents of the town were chased and brutally murdered by the Armenian forces. Estimated 613 civilians, including 106 women and 63 children, were tortured and killed on that horrific night; hundreds more went missing, more than 1,000 received permanent health damage, 1,275 were taken hostage, and more than 150 children lost one or both parents.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the New York Times, numerous other media and rights watchdogs documented the atrocity committed by the Armenian forces. Armenian field commander Monte Melkonian provided a shocking witness account of the “killing fields” near Khojaly, reproving fellow Armenian fighters of the war crime. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan admitted that it was an act of revenge against Azerbaijanis. Yet, the Armenian government and Armenian-American lobby continue denying the war crime committed by the Armenian forces.
As the U.S. government mediates a peaceful settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the recognition of its largest atrocity is essential for reconciliation. In the recent years, 17 U.S. states and many countries formally recognized the Khojaly Massacre. Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance in January 2015, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin highlighted Khojaly among the genocidal acts that the international community failed to prevent.
I urge our elected officials to properly recognize the 24th anniversary of the Khojaly Massacre through public statements and legislative resolutions.
Agshin Taghiye