Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o’clock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018

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Here.

Here.

Yes (1969). Final song, first album. Written by Jon Anderson.

[P]erhaps the truest teachers of moral philosophy are the outlaws and thieves who, as Locke says, keep faith and rules of justice with one another, but practise these as rules of convenience without which they cannot hold together, with no pretence of receiving them as innate laws of nature.

(J. L. Mackie, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong [Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1977], 10-1)

The president once again crossed the line of civility with his bullying at the United Nations, threatening our client states, “our boys on the block,” as Noam Chomsky called them, by withholding funds because they didn’t vote “with us.” The matter on which they broke ranks was the issue of our locating our embassy in Jerusalem rather than Tel Aviv.

No doubt the practice of votes for money has gone on for a long time, but President Donald Trump is the first to call it out in his crass, crude commentary.

It’s probably an idle threat, as are many of his pronouncements, but with his limited knowledge, he didn’t consider the cost of withholding those funds. Parts of our foreign aid, called foreign military financing, are grants to U.S. allies to allow them to buy defense equipment made in the United States, a boost for the domestic defense industry.

So the money comes back here. Of the $5.7 billion request for FMF for 2017, $3.1 billion was for Israel, $1.3 billion for Egypt and $350 million for Jordan, the three largest recipients. The rest was divided up among various other nations.

But not to worry; the weapon makers have other ways to keep our reputation as the world’s largest arms dealer. Marillyn Hewson, Lockheed Martin’s CEO, optimistically estimated that continuing “volatility” in both the Middle East and Asia would make them “growth areas” for the foreseeable future. A Pentagon agency, known as the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, facilitated arms deals of $40 billion in 2016.

The sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia brought us remarkable photos of Mr. Trump doing a sword dance with the princes, soon followed by photos of dead and injured citizens of Yemen, struck by weapons made in the USA and used by the Saudis. So how “great” is that?

BETTE McDEVITT

North Side

The Failing New York Times has a new publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. Congratulations! Here is a last chance for the Times to fulfill the vision of its Founder, Adolph Ochs, “to give the news impartially, without fear or FAVOR, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved.” Get…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018

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….impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent “sources,” and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the next time I (and the people) win, you won’t have to write an apology to your readers for a job poorly done! GL

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018

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When it's warmer than usual, weather equals climate. When it's colder than usual, weather does not equal climate. Heads I win; tails you lose.

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