The Witness Chronicles October 18, 2023
I venture a POV about Israel (gulp), ask what the hell is a climate refuge, and look at the emptiness of the Republican House
Man, the world seems to be in the grip of extreme darkness right now and most of it is pure human weakness. The weakness of terrorism, the weakness of the shameful humans in the Republican House majority, and the increasing scarcity of places to live in a warming world.
I debated long and hard about writing about the horrors in Israel. The subject is both divisive and extremely emotional for very good reasons. But I had thoughts and I thought I’d share them. I hope my readers will remember the horrors are shared.
If the GOP picks Jim Jordan for Speaker we will see the total capitulation of the Party to Trumpism and the anarchy he craves. They are already the weakest elected officials in the recent history of the US. But morons are completely capable of destroying the nation and our democracy.
So it goes. Thinking of Mr Vonnegut a lot these days.
Finally, a pitch, the last here, for my newsletter on the recovery experience, The Remarkable. You might know someone who can relate to my experiences, which are ongoing. No advice, no lectures, just a story of change.
The Terrible Miscalculation of Hamas
And the failure of Netanyahu’s hate
Now what? That’s the question nagging me right now as I watch the endless news coverage and outrage over the Hamas insane terrorist action in Israel and watching Israel opt for what can only be called furious revenge.
Revenge is justifiable, except it is not. This seems to be the stalemate right now in the Middle East, where revenge is a traditional right going back millennia. The problem with Israel’s revenge and it is terrible, is what happens after the dust clears and the blood is washed away?
There was a scary concept during the Cold War called brainwashing, a kind of comprehensive hypnosis by Soviet Russia designed to reprogram people’s brains, until they can do unthinkable things.
Hamas has been brainwashing young men in Palestine and the Middle East to the point where it appears the entire terrorist organization is brainwashed into unthinking hate for Jews. We just saw the products of that hate, but what exactly did it accomplish?
Just more of the same on both sides. Netanyahu built his reputation as a purveyor of hate and mistrust, not because he is a patriot, but because it gave him a political power base. That’s my cynical opinion, but it has been his playbook for years.
Bibi was reliant on the vaunted Israeli intelligence machine, widely considered the best in the world. They would make sure his violent rhetoric was tempered by their ability to foresee and stop any serious terrorist acts.
They failed and now he is faced with a real war, something he has alluded to as he pretended to be a tough guy, but that never was a reality on the scale we see right now.
The Israeli military is doing what they are trained to do, which combined with the ferocious desire for revenge, means scorched earth in Gaza. The announced goal is total destruction of Hamas, understandable.
Except that Hamas is a virus, not an army. You cannot kill off a virus with a war, without killing the victim; in this case, the Palestinian people and the hope of a self-governed Palestinian homeland.
The cycle is kill, get killed, get angry, and continue the loop of death with no end in sight. Hamas’ terrible miscalculation is killing their people and soon there will be nothing left in Gaza, except millions of humans with no resources. Netanyahu’s charade of toughness utterly failed when faced with unrestrained conflict and his response changes nothing.
Meanwhile the US, under Biden, is all in on preventing a region-wide war while professing support for Israel, as we should, but it is impossible to ignore the images of Gaza in ruins even before the upcoming Israeli ground invasion.
Pursuing stability is our only option, not unequivocal support of Israel. The risk there is even further destabilization of our relationship with the Muslim world.
How important is our need to stabilize the situation? We have two senior cabinet-level officials working overtime in the region and the world to tamp down the political fury. And the President will personally be in Israel tomorrow as I write these words.
This is not just diplomacy. We are backing it up with the big guns. One carrier task group is offshore and another on its way. This is a massive show of force unlike any in recent memory. No other world power, including China, could muster it on this level.
There are messages upon messages here and managing them may be the Biden administration’s test, and possible triumph. When they meet tomorrow I suspect Netanyahu will get a message and a question he does not want to deal with:
What’s next Bibi? What does your world look like after you have destroyed all of Gaza, trying to kill a virus? Will you take responsibility for millions of starving and homeless Gazans? What’s the plan?
The US and the world cannot let this insanity continue. We cannot start talks and build alliances like that between the Israelis and the Saudis only to let a virus like Hamas destroy it. Those alliances are the only hope for stability in the region.
Stability is the dream of the Middle East, but not all share it. The tribal hatreds that drive all these conflicts are thousands of years old, yet they thrive across the region. Hamas surprised us all, not only with their invasion, but with the unimaginable brutality of their actions.
Now it appears Israel may match that brutality but within the rules of war, a concept I find unreal. Their bombing of Gaza is indiscriminate and just as deadly as the actions of their enemy, just less in our faces. But under that rubble we see on TV are thousands of bodies, children, men and women, seniors.
So, can anyone tell me what is next? Has anyone even thought about it?
What is a Climate Refuge?
Not refugees, refuge; a safe place to live
I’m going to spend a minute here talking about words and their power if used correctly, or the damage they can do if used in ways that discourage, denigrate, or disenfranchise. The words in this case are refugee and refuge.
A refugee is a person forced to leave their homeland or region because it has become unlivable due to persecution, dangerous conditions, including climate, and political and religious conflicts, including wars.
Refuges are places where people can go to find safety and security. The important distinction is that while refuges may take in refugees, not all who go to refuges are necessarily refugees.
Here’s the distinction and why it’s important. We are in the midst of a major climate crisis, one that is likely to last for the rest of our lives and far beyond. That crisis is creating a flow of refugees worldwide, as regions become uninhabitable due to drought, heat, flooding, ocean rise, or a host of other climate issues.
But here in the US and other Western or prosperous nations, seeking refuge can mean choosing a place to live that offers a degree of stability and safety compared to other areas. A safe zone of sorts.
I’m thinking about this because I live in an area that could be called a climate refuge. Rare extreme weather, plenty of fresh clean water, reasonable housing costs including the ability to buy homeowner’s insurance, essential to getting mortgage loans, and a healthy economy are all hallmarks of a climate refuge.
Not to mention natural beauty. We have all these characteristics.
We are seeing increasing interest in the US for people reconsidering their options for where they choose to live in the near future. From a capitalist perspective this represents an opportunity for some regions and a disaster for others.
I was heartened recently by a local elected official recognizing the potential in our region to market ourselves as a climate refuge. But she stumbled badly when it came to her use of language.
She kept referring to these potential future residents as climate refugees, a phrase that might be technically accurate but also carries powerful negative connotations for those who are unlikely to see themselves as refugees.
In other words, if you are promoting a region as a safe harbor, don’t market that area as safe for political or sociological refugees. Splitting hairs a bit? Definitely, but using the word refugee to describe someone bringing their family and business into our community has a seriously negative connotation.
There is another aspect of this I cannot ignore. Do we want an influx of people into our region or do we want to be a well-kept secret? There’s a definite fear of something like this driving prices up, increasing congestion, and materially affecting quality of life.
But, though I’m a liberal, I am also a capitalist from a pragmatic point of view. In our system, if there is a vacuum and a demand, market forces will fill it. That’s just reality. And if local politicians see opportunity in this, developers will be all over it. More reality.
I don’t believe in isolationism, not in the face of a global calamity. We are in a new reality right now. But, like a million responses to changing climates, this calls for planning, including the infrastructure needed to support a growing population.
And planning to ensure an influx of new money doesn’t make the area unlivable for existing residents. Because my city is not far from New York City, having a flood of wealthy New Yorkers moving here is not out of the question.
Real estate in the nearby Finger Lakes, for example, has skyrocketed, as the very wealthy search for beautiful bargains in safer areas. It’s mostly out of reach for locals these days, unless you have deep pockets.
These are some of the realities we face right now, not in a few years, now. Climate change is not coming, it is here and has been here for a while, regardless of what fossil fuel companies tell us. As far as I’m concerned they are criminally responsible for constantly lying about reality to grow profits.
But that’s a rant for another time.
Empty Minds, Empty Speaker, Empty House
We elected placeholders and now we have no government
The House of Representatives adjourned and went home this weekend. Asked by a reporter why, one said, “it’s been a long two weeks”.
It’s been a long two weeks out here in the real world where being tired isn’t an option for anyone in the Middle East, any Jew anywhere, Ukraine, and particularly Israel and the Gaza Strip where millions are fleeing with nowhere to go and guns advancing on their homes.
Where all of Israel mourns and seethes for revenge for thousands brutally murdered by terrorists, in a night of terror all too familiar to Jews throughout history.
This morning tanks will advance mercilessly on Gaza’s blown out ruins. Their goal is the destruction of an enemy who cannot be found, who knows no rules, and who has one goal, the death of all Jews. And who surrounds themselves with civilians, old people, mothers and children, and everyone else as human shields, their own people.
Meanwhile Israel’s greatest partner, the US, the fall back partner for negotiations, has a government that cannot function because one third of it went on vacation. They were tired.
Before the House adjourned, the Republican majority went behind closed doors and elected Jim Jordan Speaker, but it means nothing. He cannot win the majority he needs in a public vote. This vote behind closed doors is a shameful chickenshit move by a Republican House who not only cannot face the light of day, much less govern.
Jordan is an eight term Representative who has never gotten a bill to the House floor, much less shepherded one to law. Somehow these zeros make him qualified to be one of the most powerful people in the US and the world.
His qualifications are stellar: he is a former wrestling coach.
Meanwhile, our government is poised to cease functioning in weeks because an empty-headed, self-absorbed House of Representatives can’t get anything done.
Wait, I need to qualify that. A Republican majority of Congress cannot get anything done. That’s better. Not.
The fact that we have been paying a man like Jim Jordan for sixteen years to not only do nothing but to obstruct anyone who even tries to get things done, sucks.
Frankly, they all suck and there is no sign it will change.
Our Secretary of State and Defense Secretary are both in the Middle East trying to rein in the dogs of war, an unprecedented event required by unprecedented horrors and terrorism. Our President has spoken forcefully and clearly about our commitment to Israel and the pursuit of peace even if it means war.
Did I mention that one third of our government went on vacation because they were tired? After doing nothing and holding a straw election for their leader, a position required for our government to function?
If you live in the districts of the members of the House Republican Freedom Caucus, those who have held us hostage to an empty agenda of fake outrage, shame. Shame for voting them in, shame for not telling them to stop acting like children, and shame for electing a man like Jordan eight times.
Shame for all of us for allowing this to get this far, too far.
When did we start rewarding people for being empty minds, empty of civic ethics, empty of any work ethics, willfully empty? We don’t do this in our day to day lives. We don’t accept and cheer incompetence from co-workers, friends, or neighbors.
Or maybe we do, now. Maybe the worship of stupid has become ok in parts of the US. If you still know how to think and inform yourself, you know this crisis of inaction was calculated. A former president and a party decided that enough Americans were stupid and ignorant and they would encourage that to gain power.
It worked but now that they have power, the empty minded people they elected don’t know what to do with it and don’t care.
They don’t care that we have enough firepower floating in the eastern Mediterranean to blow all of the Middle East into oblivion, or that our highest government officials are there desperately trying to defuse a regional war, to save thousands of innocent lives.
They don’t care if hundreds of thousands of Americans, including members of the military, may not get paychecks weeks before Christmas. Or what that may do to our economy. They simply don’t care.
Do they have an agenda, things they believe in that cause this blind but willing mindlessness? No.
They just don’t care.
Shame on us for letting this happen, for making this happen. Something has to change, but don’t hold your breath. Oh, and don’t worry about Israel and the Middle East.
You shouldn’t care so much. In fact, take a vacation, you look tired.
I’m juggling a lot of things, especially as I’ve added The Remarkable to my task list, but it is a project as close to my heart as anything I can imagine.
I am enjoying my workload right now because it’s all defined by me and I’m only working for myself and my readers. The response has been very positive given the range of topics, not all popular, I’m addressing.
Balance is a complex thing and not easy to achieve. It’s my theme this week if I have one. Thanks, thank you, and patience- we all need more of it.
Did you write today?
Martin Edic
2654 words
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I'm part of the blue splat in N CA. We live in a liberal bubble. The Witness is my go-to morning message massage. Keep it up
Martin, this is, as usual, clear, precise and eloquent. I too, am another blue dot in the middle of Florida, trying to walk the line of the serenity prayer...