Pointing fingers in conflicts, Israel/Gaza, and Iran raises political passions but miisses a bigger issue.

 Pointing fingers in conflicts raises passions, but misses a bigger issue. Immediately, I  predict that this post heading sounds like I am about to address the Gaza issue that the Democratic Socialists support: Hamas over Israel.  Wrong.  So am I a partisan of Netanyahu's reducing Gaza to rubble and the death of women and children by starvation or bombing? No. Do I think we can bomb Iran to force it to change direction? What we lose sight of is a bigger issue. commission of war crimes. The recent conflict's political and military leadership do not care a whit about the fate of those who are the victims, regardless of the regime or politics they support. They then use their suffering and death as propaganda tools to gain support for the actions of their leaders.   In recent times, we have seen this at play not only in Gaza/Israel but in Iran, as well.   The focus of our condemnation should be directed at the leadership if we profess to care about the innocents, the women and children. The evil forces at play in those related conflicts are the leadership of those on "either side" who care more about their power and military success than their concern about humanity and commit war crimes. It does not stop with Israel/GazaIran. We in the US have a political leadership who wants the freedom from accountability to commit war crimes, too.

The plight of women and children in Gaza in Israel's campaign and the raped and murdered victims of Oct. 7 of Hamas is the fault of their leaders who do not care or and later who see playing on the rest of the world's care for victims of such violence used as a propaganda tool. At the same time, the Trump administration has learned, or should have learned, that making the everyday people of Iran the victims of a bombing campaign has been ineffective because the  Iranian leadership, clerics, and IRG do not care about the suffering of non-combatants, women, children, and men, either.  Iran, it has appeared, had anticipated that the US would attack, but slaughtering as many demonstrators against the regime as they could. The death toll of those mowed down in Iran is at least in the thousands, though. 

  I have not forgotten Oct. 7 and Hamas beginning the conflict in that horrific rape and massacre of young Israelis attending, of all things, a concert in support of peace.  I have not forgotten that Hamas leadership in effect used their own women and children as human shields by refusing to give them access to their tunnels as refuge from Israel's attempt to bomb Gaza to rubble.  We do not have access to the total suffering of the Iranian civilians, but there is a stand-in icon for that: the horrible killing of over 150 school girls (whether it was a mistake or not) in Iran. 

The rest of us who are observers, if not partisans, of these conflicts still have the responsibility to raise our voices against such crimes against humanity, to try to bring those who commit them to justice in world court tribunals, and to provide aid and compassion for the victims.  We also should take the personal responsibility to realize and to condemn leaders who use the suffering of their own people, suffering their policies caused, as a propaganda weapon.   Instead of pointing fingers at who is the worst war criminal, we should not fall for such messages that abuse the reports of the suffering of their own people to convince others of their rectitude.  Instead,. we need to support institutions that enforce the law and hold accountable those who commit crimes against humanity, regardless of the "side" involved.  

The establishment of the UN (providing a forum for talking is better than military fighting) and the World Court of Justice were founded after World War II's air and bombing with modern weapons that wiped out millions of non-combatants. Rules were devised  inthe Geneva Convention for combatants to take care of civilians., War crimes were defined. And now we have our own president who no longer wants our armed forces to abide by the Geneva Conventions and wants to do away with the world court tribunals. We are not members but want it ended, anyway.  It sounds like Trump wants to commit war crimes without any accountability or shame.  Trump is constantly threatening to bomb Iranian infrastructure to bring more pain and suffering to non-combatant civilians, even though he should understand that would not change the behavior of the IRG and clerical leadership. (They have not suffered enough, he opines)  . That, for the sake of humanity, needs to be nipped in the bud, and that is what we at home can and should stop now. 

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/04/trump-advocating-war-crime-t-when-hague.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/31/donald-trump-geneva-conventions-the-problem-military-foreign-policy

Trump and Rubio proposing dismantling the world courts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjGcWLFmTnk

see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjGcWLFmTnk.  Why the world court tribunals?

Abdul El-Sayed says he is a progressive and not a democratic socialist, but will it make a difference in November?

Updated: 8/7/-10 /2026 from my Muftic Forum Facebook post: I've always suspected white " Christian " nationalists and white supremacists had a home in the MAGA base, but what percentage of the MAGA base they were was difficult to grasp by pollsters. The racist, Muslimaphobia scree hurled at El-Sayed after the Michigan Senate primary narrow victory brought them out of the closet with no blowback from anyone in the GOP I could see. If you who plan to run on hate campaign planks in November are a whole party, either you are a silent supporter or an instigator.. Please, do not call yourselves Christian, at least.. Hate of neighbors or those of another religion like the one helped by the good Samaritan wer, were never Christ's values, were they? Nor was El-Sayed a jihadist, a member of the Democratic Socialist of America, or endorsed by them, and he was clear he was a supporter of capitalism (with some reforms). Attack him for being a progressive and for his position on issues if you disagree, but do not make it based on hatred of his race or religion that you have so hatefully stereotyped. Also be aware how political leaders will try to cater to your own closely held hate, as Ted Cruz did ar once .and : Donald Trump unleashed a racist, bigoted Islamophobic vitriol from the Oval Office on August 10. If there was any question whether Trump himself, he who rose to the White House on birtherism and sneering at Obama's given names, is a bigot and a racist, there should no longer be any doubt. The other question is, how many are there like him in America? We will soon see in 2026 and 2028.

Updated 8/6/2026 from a Facebook post: Whipping up the Red Scare in the wake of Abdul ElSayed's narrow Michigan Democrat Pirmary victory, the GOP hopes that branding all Democrats as communists will offset the negatives of the mess Trump and MAGA have made in Iran, and the actions like illegal tariffs will have on the cost of living. It is a deceptive diversion, and they hope voters will fall for it. FYI, El Sayed was not endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, and he does not subscribe to or is a member of them. He supports capitalism, and he is a progressive who believes in "big tent" participation in the Democratic Party, but a DSA?, no.

The use of the Red Scare is an old one made by the 1950s by paranoid and later discredited Sen.Joseph McCarthy. To succeed, the GOP will have to hope the recipients of their red scare only listen to FOX and are low-information voters. and the Democrats hope voters realize that a campaign based on this will not make their lives more affordable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSvnGRAp4o0.  

_____________________________________________________

continuing with original post:

On the news this morning, the not-yet-called Democratic Michigan Senate Primary...a very close victory for Abdul El-Sayed. El-Sayed says he is a progressive and not a democratic socialist, but will it make a difference in November? The question that is hanging out there is whether El-Sayed will be painted as a democratic socialist and ripe for deceptive and vicious attack ads by GOP candidate Mike Rogers, which will doom the seat for Democrats. It will take an enormous effort on behalf of El-Sayed to educate unsophisticated voters that he is not a democratic socialist but is indeed a pro-capitalism progressive seeking reforms, not revolution. El Sayed has made it clear and is on the record as being in favor of capitalism, the kind of democracy, and the form of government we once had for 250 years.

El Sayed was not endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), whose platform proposes to upend both, replacing capitalism with socialism and replacing our checks-and-balances system with a parliamentary form of governance, among other very controversial planks. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AJCcNbFfLd4

The GOP is already salivating at their prospects by attacking those adhering to or looking like they are adhering to the Democratic Socialists of America's platform.' There is beginning to be a realization among voters that the Democratic Socialists of America's platform is very close to communism and is very vulnerable to being charged as that.

The DSA is more extreme than their kin in Europe and is nothing like Bernie Sanders' benign version. This is why we are seeing more and more progressive candidates distancing themselves from the DSA as fast as they can and self-described moderate and progressive Democrats positioning themselves as "not the DSA."

The media is reporting this controversy as a self-defeating internal party fight. There is one, but the Democratic Party can survive if DSA candidates clarify what parts of the DSA plank they do not support.

The theater of the absurd performed by Trump and supporters as they abuse power and the legal system

Sometimes I get the feeling that politics is the Theatre of the Absurd, as drama and playacting fuel hyperbolic lies, half-truths, outrageous, unproved, unevidenced accusations, manufactured issues, show-trial-like hearings, and crises to grab headlines. It just adds to the frustration and feeling that politics is hopeless and bewildering, and makes you feel anxious, so why bother to care or counter?  Despite this, those who support the rule of law have no choice but to soldier on and call out such abuses of power and the legal system if democracy is to survive intact.

Case in point: The hearing held recently in which  Dr. Anthony Fauci and MAHA locked horns was the GOP at their"performative" best to cater to the hardcore supporters of the anti-vaxx movement. Nothing substantive was accomplished, and by taking the 5th, Dr. Fauci avoided traps the GOP tried to lay for him to make a statement they could use and manipulate in a state court hearing.  That's what the initial spat at the beginning of the hearing, resulting in removal of Fauci's attorney, was about.  There are still MAHA-inspired cases accusing Fauci of unevidenced wrongdoing pending in state courts, even though Fauci has the protection from federal cases due to the pardons Biden provided. He is not shielded from state laws.  Not to let go of this debacle, the GOP is planning to hold Fauci in contempt, compounding one abuse of power with another one.

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/29/anthony-fauci-senate-covid-hearing-takeaways

 Like so much of Trump's revenge tour, with nearly all such accusations presented without supporting evidence or legal basis being thrown out by judges, it is just another tool to use in political propaganda warfare. It is used to make a point and to punish the disloyal to Trump and MAGA by forcing their targets to spend emotional energy and money on their defense. The practice is plain and simple: an abuse of power to which the judicial system has wised up to and is referring Trump's attorneys to local bar associations for disbarment. 

 Since the 2020 election, judges have not tolerated the political theatre of the absurd in their courtrooms, though disciplinary action takes time. Disbarment of lawyers has resulted,, first in the wake of 2020's "stop the steal" ,  and now again in numerous cases in Trump's second term.

 https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-2020-attorneys-face-disbarment-suspension-ahead-of-2024-election/     

 Last month, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s alleged misbehavior was referred to the New York State Bar for disciplinary review regarding a pending "fraud upon the court" inquiry.  A separate IRS litigation ruling and complaints also targeted Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward at the District of Columbia Bar. 

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/26/rudy-giuliani-disbarred-washington-00181183

"Theatre of the Absurd, dramatic works of certain European and American dramatists of the 1950s and early ’60s who agreed with the Existentialist philosopher Albert Camus’s assessment, in his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1942), that the human situation is essentially absurd, devoid of purpose. The term is also loosely applied to those dramatists and the production of those works. Though no formal Absurdist movement existed as such, dramatists as diverse as Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Jean Genet, Arthur Adamov, Harold Pinter, and a few others shared a pessimistic vision of humanity struggling vainly to find a purpose and to control its fate. Humankind in this view is left feeling hopeless, bewildered, and anxious." Enclopedia Britannica.     

Some personal reflections on the anti vaxx movement

Here is my view of MAHA anti-vaxxers. Some diseases can kill or leave you seriously disabled if you survive. Millions have been saved by vaccines. I spent summers confined to a few in my immediate neighborhood in my youth to avoid polio, and only after the vaccine could I again attend movies, go swimming, and even go to church gatherings. In my membership beginning in the 1990's in Rotary, there were still members who were survivors of polio, so Denver Rotary led Rotary's worldwide attempt to stamp out the disease with our Polio Plus project carried forth by Rotary International.. We did, and the Gates Foundation helped, but now some want to reverse that. It is sure insanity. Fauci almost single-handedly broke through and found the treatments for AIDS. However, MAHA wants you to risk your lives because of a few paranoid, uneducated science deniers, parents looking for a culprit other than themselves or their own DNA to blame for the learning disabilities of their kids, and then launch a disinformation campaign to duck data and research results  that debunked their theories or find someone to blame... If they want to put their own children in danger, that is their choice, but to try to force us to swallow their dangerous BS is the problem. Some people do not believe in science or have other motivations, religious, or just plain failed high school biology, or forgot or never learned anything about viruses.(When I was a child, we did not even know about viruses.) They, the uneducate and those looking for an explanation that makes them feel good about themselves, are the victims of this anti-vaxxing proselytizers. Then there are those like political opportunists who ride this issue because it is another one they can falsely lob at those who do not support Trump. They were on display at these recent hearings. Rand Paul is a libertarian who never found a government program he liked and is an ophthalmologist, but he puts his ideologically based politics first and ignores whatever he learned in med school. The eyes may have got it, but infectious diseases, viruses, seemed to have been forgotten. 

What I do appreciate is the ability and freedom to refuse a vaccine to which I am allergic...and my allergist told me not to get: the flu vaccines based on eggs.I am allergic to eggs...seriously. The result would be worse than the flu. I learned that he wasn't kidding when I took the swine flu vaccine. That was the last flu shot I ever took. The new methods used for COVID that avoid the egg stuff are a savior. I am so grateful that mNRA technology works.(MAHA paranoids fear this one) I am high risk for COVID, mostly due to my advanced age, and I had no reaction at all. MNRA may also let me take a flu vaccine someday. Each to his own, but what is good for you and me should be based on recommendations of a person's physician, not on some politically motivated anti-science advocate looking for a political opportunity to thump the table and mislead the public because it serves a political purpose, as it was in that disgusting hearing attempt the other day.. Trump's greatest accomplishment was the fast-track COVID vaccine, but he cannot even boast about it because of the MAHA ideological and science-deniers involved in politics who are so grateful for RFK, Jr. spreading the same dangerous message..

So far as searching for blame for a child's learning disabilities, a parent's time is better spent in providing therapy and help and a whole lot of patience and understanding.  Leave that search for cause in the hands of professionals, instead. 

Stop blaming yourself or trying to find someone else to blame.  It is a far better way to spend time and effort to concentrate on helping a child and other children succeed than to be off on a blame crusade..  I fear that motivates much of the anti-vaxxer's interests.  I can say that because as a mother of 3 and 4 grandchildren, I have been there with diagnosis and therapy at a time before and during the discovery of such disabilities in my own family. They may not turn out to be your ditto or what you wished, but success and talents come in many different packages.

I saw a time when a child tested so low, she was considered "a slow learner, learning challenged" in the terms of the time. But with new techniques of diagnosis and with intense therapy privately and in specialized schools, and the use of the ADA disabilities act, she graduated from public high school and later from a 4-year college. She found a profession where her disabilities were an asset, and she had compensated with other talents::  focus, memory, patience, learning from watching what others were doing, creativity,  and applying these to her own tasks.

She was fortunate: we had the means to afford what seemed best therapy at the time....and for that reason, I am such an advocate for such publicly funded schools that provide those alternative ways to learn, such as the Montessori methods, and for learning disabled specialists to be on hand at all schools. I am particularly grateful for the ADA legislation that permitted her to take exams in ways that let her use her compensating talents to show she had indeed learned the subject matter.