Quotations from Albert Einstein

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“The most aggravating thing about the younger generation is that I no longer belong to it.”

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything one learned at school.

“You teach me baseball and I’ll teach you relativity…..No, perhaps we shouldn’t…..You will learn relativity faster than I learn baseball.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Sexual abuse in the Catholic church

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A new manual designed to help prevent clerical sexual abuse in Chile has triggered further outrage by listing a host of instructions that critics say should be self-evident. Among other things, the manual – which was published on the website of the Archbishop of Santiago, but which has since been withdrawn – advised priests not to touch children’s genitals and to refrain from “expressions of affection” such as patting buttocks and hugging from behind. It also warned priests not to kiss children on the mouth. The document, signed by Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, was posted online one day before Pope Francis defrocked Fernando Karadima – one of the priests at the centre of Chile’s clerical abuse scandal.

I would prefer a Catholic to explain how the church got itself into this appalling mess. For a non-believer to do so seems inappropriate.

Me Too

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If occasonally I depart from philosphic mode, I hope I will be forgiven for my human failing. It usually isn‘t worth getting roiled up.

On this issue, however, I don’t apologise at all. What some entitled, predatory and totally amoral men are doing now in the United States is trying to discredit the MeToo movement and to make out that they, the men, that is, are being victimised and unfairly picked on by harridans who hate men and who make up sordid events that never happened. Already we have seen a group of men, led by no less than the President of the United States (!) trash the reputation and the quiet, honest and totally believable testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, who charged Judge Kavanaugh with attempted rape.

Now other men are piling on, with poor-me stories of wild and unsubstantiated accusations that “women” are false witnesses, only out to bring down decent, upstanding men, who now dare not even smile at a woman without being accused of date rape.

Maybe I, in turn, am being unfair, but to me (as a man) the only reason I can see for this backlash against women is a compunction to lash out as a “saint” (with a guilty conscience?) in order to head off a real case of sexual harrassment, and to brand a woman before she gets a chance to brand you. The sight of the President trashing the victims of harassment and rape while his ardent supporters (including women!) cheer and laugh, filled me with disgust. You can be poorly educated, out of a job, fed up with the way the country is run, but still exhibit sympathy, even outrage on behalf of women exploited sexually by powerful bosses.

Can a man be a member of the MeToo movement? Count me in!

“The new Republican tax code rigs the economy.”. A millionaire investor

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“The new Republican tax code deliberately rigs the economy in favor of the political donor class – the CEOs, corporations, and millionaires who fund campaign – and virtually guarantees that a tiny number of the richest people in the country will get significantly richer while working families and the middle class get screwed.

“Among other things, the NEW REPUBLICAN TAX CODE allows:

– Millionaire investors to pay half the tax rate of people who bring home a paycheck from an actual job.
– Trust fund babies to inherit more than $22 million tax free while Americans who work for a living pay up to 37% in taxes on what they earn by actually working.
– Corporations to get a tax break for moving jobs outside of the US.
– “Fund managers” to pay half the tax rate of similar professions.
– Real estate developers and the children of real estate developers to be exempted from paying any taxes at all on properties worth tens of millions of dollars!
– Families who control massive stock portfolios to be exempted from paying any taxes at all on those assets, forever.
– Corporations who hid money overseas for years to be rewarded for their deceit.

“With the passage of the new federal tax code, Republican politicians essentially transferred almost $2 trillion of the nation’s money to the corporations, CEOs, and millionaires who fund political campaigns. Those same politicians are now using the deficits they themselves created to demand huge cuts to Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Programs, and other essential benefits that have protected American citizens and American society as a whole for decades.

“To add insult to injury, these politicians (along with the donors and corporations who fund their campaigns) insist on arguing publicly that this obscene new tax code is somehow going to create new jobs and explosive economic growth. Nonsense. Common sense understands (and academic studies have confirmed) that in history, tax cuts have never created new jobs. They won’t this time either. And because of the new tax code, most if not all future growth of the economy will be captured by a tiny group of people rather than shared across our citizenry.

“Let me be clear, the new Republican tax code is not based on some credible economic theory or philosophy. It’s a payoff to the political donor class. Yes, it is that simple. They make it complicated on purpose to try to confuse you.”
(Morris Pearl, Chair, the Patriotic Millionaires, Retired Managing Director, Blackrock)

Blackrock is one of the biggest investment companies in the world. There is no need for comment from me, except to say “Why isn’t this common knowledge? And why is anyone still voting for them?”

The U.S. Mail should not be for sale!

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Postal workers and their allies are demanding that the country’s mail service stay in the hands of the public. This comes amid increasing threats to privatize the postal service, including a proposal from President Trump this summer to examine selling U.S. Mail off to the highest bidder.

Many may think that in the internet age, the Postal Service has outlived its usefulness, and that the decline of letter mail is the cause of the Postal Service’s financial troubles. But the Postal Service actually turns a profit on its deliveries.

The USPS’s problems were largely created by Congress which passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which forced the USPS to pre-fund future retiree health benefits 75 years into the future! That means it had to fund retirement benefits for postal employees who haven’t even been born yet, a crushing burden that no other agency or company — public or private — is required to meet, or could even survive.

The mandate drained $5.5 billion a year out of Postal Service funds and accounts for more than 90 percent of its losses. In fact, if it weren’t for this manufactured pre-funding crisis, the USPS would have reported profits in four of the last five years — all without receiving a dime of taxpayer money. The reason is that package volumes have exploded with the e-commerce boom. Companies of all sizes, including Amazon, rely on the Postal Service. USPS delivers 30 percent of FedEx Ground packages and 40 percent of all of Amazon’s many shipments. Vitally, the USPS is at the heart of a $1.7 trillion mailing industry that employs more than 7.5 million people. 88 percent of Americans view the USPS favorably.

What could the public expect if the Postal Service were sold to off to private interests? Higher prices, slower delivery, and an end to universal, uniform, and affordable service to every corner of the country. In the UK, postage costs are up nearly 80 percent since 2007. The privatized Portuguese post has closed nearly a third of their post offices.

The US postal system postal system is older than the country itself. It was a vital component of our country’s public good then, and still is today. It never belonged to any president, any political party, or any company. It has belonged to the people of the country.

My comment: Here they are, at it again – spot a public organisation and the far right money-grubbers realise they have another source of private profit. Privatise it, raise prices, fire a third of the staff, reduce the level of service, and, of course, skim the profits off into offshore bank accounts that can be used to bribe congressmen to deliver yet more public operations into private hands. They call it “shrinking government”. Clever, isn’t it? Some would call it legalised theft. How can they live with themselves? Oh, by the way, do look at what has happened to the once terrific British postal service. Half the mail delivered is wrongly delivered – at inflated prices. Epicurean situation? No!