Shkreli's Lump of Coal

There's more in the saga of Martin Shkreli, the Turing CEO who jacked up the price of the crucial medicine Daraprim by more than 5000%. It turns out that Shkreli wasn't satisfied with bilking the public legally, he also had to rob us illegally. He has been arrested on charges of securities fraud. Shkreli, who also headed two hedge funds, lied to investors about their profitability, then illegally diverted money from another company he headed to pay off the investors. It seems that Shkreli is just another example of the narcissistic predatory speculators who have been allowed to run rampant.

Falling Down the Staircase Again

A CNN poll says that 53% of respondents favor sending American troops into Iraq or Syrian. Presumably these are people with long term memory problems because the last time American troops invaded Iraq it didn't go well. Remember? Let's leave aside the question of whether the corporate conservative media, of which CNN is an egregious example, is engaging in "push polling" in order to further its warmongering agenda. We need to remember that war has consequences, death and destruction being the most prominent of them. War is not a sporting event, where the worst thing that can happen is a few broken bones.

Much of the war fever might be the product of "Messianic Militarism," a deranged turn in many fundamentalists that mash-up militarism with religion. Another influence are those trashy Hollywood movies. I think that many people think that war is just "going in there" and shooting "the bad guys." War is much more complicated than that and unless you are willing to pay the price and live with the consequences, you better not start.

Why Don't We Bomb Kuwait and Qatar?

The title is sarcastic but given the mood after last week's shootings in San Bernardino the GOP is spouting war fever again. Since everyone is talking about bombing here or there, it would make most sense to bomb Kuwait and Qatar, who are actually funding ISIS. It would be rather embarrassing since Kuwait and Qatar are supposed to be our allies. With "friends" like these and all that stuff.

This is going to be the GOPer line 2016 "Obama is weak." The GOPers don't actually have a plan or even an idea. We might have more aggressive monitoring of the internet in order to crack down on those using the web to instigate violence and terror, and crack down on those who are using the web to instigate acts of terror. The dishonesty of the Bush II administration has created a climate of mistrust and confusion.

ISIS can be defeated but it's going to require intellect and the ability to understand complex realities. Macho posturing isn't the solution.