Time to Think

WAR!                                                  #377 By Hank Silverberg On the surface, getting rid of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is a good thing. He has been the devil for the last 40 years, oppressing his own people and supporting proxy terrorist around the world, including Hamas, the worst of them all. Thousands of Israelis, Americans, Iranians and Gazans have died, directly or indirectly because of him.  But watching the attack on Iran unfold over the weekend, the big question on everyone's mind was "why now?" The U.S. had been negotiating with Iran over its potential nuclear weapon's program, which was quickly restarted after President Trump killed a previous deal during his first term and restarted again after air attacks last June that the President said had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear capability.  So now Trump has...

Antisemitism Comes In Many Forms                          #376 By Hank Silverberg   I am having a great deal of trouble understanding fully the distinct rise in antisemitism in America.  Let's be clear. I am not naïve. The bigots have always been here. They pick on Jews, and often other minorities, because somehow it makes them feel better about themselves. There is someone else to blame for their misfortune in life-- Jews, Blacks, immigrants. That has always been here, and probably always will be.  But it is the war between Israel and Hamas that has brought on this new wave, and it is clear A lack of education and internet propaganda is driving it.  Here's a good example: what happened with the Israeli bobsled team at the Olympics. Just being there was an accomplishment for Israel, which traditionally doesn't send athletes to the winter Olympics. There's not much snow in Israel. The bobsled team was ou...

Artificial Intelligence Could Spell Disaster  #375 By Hank Silverberg  Commentary What I am about to write could anger some people. And others will think it's an exaggeration, but there's a big chance that Artificial Intelligence could change the world so much that 2046 will bear little resemblance to 2026.   AI is a mass fake. Everything it touches becomes artificial. It has placed doubt on everything from a  7th grade English class essay to pictures of Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.  Promoters say AI is just a tool to help humans do things better, more efficiently and with less stress, when it actually is damaging individual creativity, our ability to communicate one-on-one, and our ability to find truth in mass communication.  Let's be clear. I am not talking about robots designed to build cars or vacuum the floor. We have dealt with automation and mechanical changes for the last 100 years often awkwardly, but without disasters. I am focusin...

 Why I Didn't Watch The Super Bowl          #374 By Hank Silverberg  Commentary  No, I did not watch the game, nor any of the hype leading up to it. First, I'm not a football fan, so I have no attachment to the sport, and I have not watched it in the past either.  But this year, with all the nastiness about Bad Bunny and the halftime show, I was particularly turned off. In the past I have turned on just the half- time show, like when Sir Paul McCartney was the performer. Or Bono. But who wins, who loses the game, or the halftime show nonsense is irrelevant to me, and frankly, I think much of the country. Sure, fans in New England and Seattle cared. But for the rest of the country the game is just a reason to  invite friends over, drink beer, eat chicken wings and have some fun. Great. No problem. So why bring politics into it?  Because this is the era of Trump, where everything becomes political. I have heard from people who will ro...

The Decline of the United States                                        #373 By Hank Silverberg  Commentary  We have   now entered the second year of Donald Trump's second term as President of the United States. It feels like he has been hammering away at the American way of life ever since he strolled down that elevator in 2015, almost eleven years ago.  This is not a comprehensive or scholarly analysis of the damage this one man and his close associates have done, but it is a simple look at this weapon of mass destruction know as Trumpism.  Let's start with our  treasured institutions created by the U.S. Constitution, the three branches of government. Trump has damaged the presidency, possibly beyond repair. His use of executive orders has been extensive, 225 in his first year of this term, and 220 in the four years of his first term.  Barak Obama...