Month: October 2023

Occupied Land and Real History

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There should be no doubt- both Israel and Palestine are places that have existed historically in the area most Western religions consider “holy.” Neither one existed in 1947 though. In fact, historically the land has been a pin ball, with control bouncing between outside powers, as well as both Jewish and Palestinian governments. Trying to keep track of control is like watching a long volley in a tennis match.

At the time historical Jesus would have existed, Rome ruled the Holy Land. At the time, the descendants of today’s Palestinians certainly did exist, but Islam as a religion did not yet. In the centuries that followed, the country bounced between foreign powers, eventually landing in the early-1500’s under the control of the Ottoman Empire, or modern day Turkey. For the next 400 years the Turks ruled over today’s disputed Israel/Palestine. At no point did the Palestinians or Jewish residents in the region rule themselves. Basically for centuries the region was under foreign occupation.

We all know of course that the Ottoman Empire came to end with the end of the First World War, and that much of the region then came to be under British rule. In places like Iraq, new countries were drawn on a map by the West. For Palestinians, they now lived in “Mandate Palestine,” under the foreign occupation by London. It would stay that way for close to 30 years, until Israel’s founding from the British occupied lands. At that time, the agreement was for two states- Israel and Palestine- to be drawn from the British occupied territories. Arab opposition to the Israeli state boiled over when Israel declared independence, war broke out, and Palestine never happened.

Of course I think that any just person believes there should be a Palestinian state in “the Holy Land.” There’s no just reason not to. There almost was about 30 years ago, when the Oslo I Accords were signed. The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an Israeli extremist, and terror acts and opposition by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, managed to derail full implementation. The Israeli right-wing sets out a position for a two state solution that is likely unattainable. Hamas and the other terror organizations (Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad) rule out negotiation altogether.

The main point though here is simple- there was no Palestinian or Israeli state on this land prior to 1948 for centuries. When we say Israel is on “occupied” land, we are treating the region in the way one might treat American conquest of former Native American lands, and it is simply not. These lands have been under occupation by foreign powers longer than anyone living was alive. The point should be to get to a two state solution. Pretending one side has a cleaner, clearer, more obvious claim to the land is bigoted propaganda that should be rejected by all civilized people.

The U.S. Needs Social Media Regulation

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It’s hard to remember in 2023, but when I was a kid most of us didn’t have the internet yet. My family got AOL and Prodigy when I was about ten years old. About a decade-ish later when I was on campus at Moravian College, Facebook was born- at least if you went to a school that had joined it. In the years that followed the platform opened up to everyone. Other platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tik Tok have followed. each platform has brought their own challenges and controversies. There have been great moral questions. Through it all, Congress has sat by quietly.

In most functioning societies, legislative bodies step in and set rules for innovations that dramatically change society. Think about American policy actions after cars were invented, or television became more common. No sane person says “let the industry govern themselves.” They won’t do that, they’ll exploit every opportunity to make a dollar possible. That’s what businesses are supposed to do. Unfortunately our modern Congress is a failed institution, so they have failed to act for at least two decades too long. Society has suffered.

There are four basic areas that need comprehensive legislative action. They are:

  • Protection of personal data.
  • Protection of minors, both from predators and in terms of mental health protections in what they are shown.
  • Stopping the distribution of disinformation.
  • Regulating how social media giants program their algorithm selecting what you see online.

The first two are pretty straight forward and definitely powers of the state. In fact, to the credit of the state Attorney Generals in 42 states, they’re suing Meta now over what social media is doing to kids. The last two are admittedly harder, particularly with the current Supreme Court being more “business friendly.” The best bet for these are for legislative action to treat them as consumer protection.

The main point here is pretty simple- Congress should be acting. Absolutely no one expects that they will. That should be alarming in this case.

Preview- Red October 2023- The NLCS

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Be careful what you wish for. The Phillies have arrived. Home field advantage, favored in Vegas, back in the NLCS for a second straight year. No more disrespect. Nobody telling them they can’t win. The Phillies are the big dog. Now, starting tonight they have to prove it. After all, they’re the reigning National League Champions.

You know, other than the hostile environment they’re coming into, what should Arizona hate about this? They won 84 games, they’re the six seed, nobody is picking them, and all they’ve done is win their first five playoff games and knock out their dreaded rivals in LA. Now they get to play no pressure baseball and try to win four games to reach the World Series. Not bad, right?

This series is a lot closer on paper than you think. The Diamondbacks actually match up fairly decent for the first two games of the series. They have a good lineup, two very good starters, and momentum. The problem is that this is a longer series now, and they are decided underdogs in game three, and have no idea who they throw in game four. Also, the Phillies have a better bullpen on paper, pretty clearly. Longer series do tend to highlight pitching depth issues. This is a weird situation where the Diamondbacks probably need to beat Wheeler and Nola no less than twice, if not three times, so the first two games in Philadelphia are crucial for them. Not to mention that they haven’t faced any adversity at all in the playoffs yet (literally none), so there’s the question of them coming back after a loss. Basically, once the momentum breaks, then what? If Arizona gets out of Philly any worse than 1-1, the series is over. They may even need better than that.

I think they split in Philly, the Phillies take the first two out there, and put it away in six. I doubt this will be the runaway some think, but I do think the deeper roster wins.

Since the ALCS began last night, I have to admit game one influenced my thinking. I thought the Astros would win in 5. They dominated the season series, 9-4. Then Jordan Montgomery happened. He will pitch at least one more game this series. I have it Astros in 7 now.

About Me, 10/12/23

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Who are your favorite artists?

I’m not an art critic. I was a musician growing up and still play the drums from time to time. The one area of art I can say I have favorites in is music. I guess if we’re measuring favorites, who you pay to see kind of reveals that. I’ve seen The Rolling Stones six times. I just saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers for the third time on this tour, and fifth or sixth time overall (I’m not fully sure). I just saw the Foo Fighters for like the 4th time. I think I’m at five times on Aerosmith. I saw Live, Counting Crows, and Fuel more times than I could count back in the day. Green Day has been a favorite for a couple shows I’ve seen them on. I saw Pearl Jam back in 1998, Tom Petty back in the 90’s, and Bruce Springsteen at least three times. Back almost 20 years ago I saw Oasis and Jet together. The Wallflowers were another favorite, way back when. I added The Killers, Weezer, and The Strokes this year. I would really like to add Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World, and New Found Glory to the list. I see a lot of rock music, and I’m missing quite a few probably between Live 8 back in college and Sea.Hear.Now this year.

On the hip hop side, I saw Jay Z at Live 8 with Linkin Park and on the final night of his Brooklyn Barclays Center opening shows in 2012, when his special guest was Beyoncé. I saw 50 and G Unit way back when. I wish I had seen Kanye West before he lost his mind. I’d love to see Snoop. But above everyone else, I’d love to see Eminem. That’s the show I want.

As far as country goes, most of my favorites, particularly Johnny Cash, are gone. Chris Stapleton sounds like a sick show to see though. That dude has a ridiculously good voice.

And before you twist my arm, yes I’ll go see Taylor if you get reasonably priced tickets. Britney would be a cool show too, I’m sure.

Actually MLB, Your Playoffs Are Fine This Way

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You can’t really be serious, can you?

https://x.com/ken_rosenthal/status/1711345741069754840?s=46&t=uFwsDf5qz8ilkzcWfCUn2Q

So this is what got the national writers up in arms- the underdogs got off to a good start in the LDS round of baseball’s playoffs. To read it down in Atlanta, or even nationally, the Braves were being robbed of their birthright championship. Since then Baltimore has gone from 100 wins to booking tee times on the golf course and the Dodgers continue to look like they’re in a coma. The over hyped AL East finished up an 0-7 campaign in the postseason and now everyone is confused.

It isn’t supposed to go this way.

If what you wanted was to insure the “best” team wins the championship, your real best option is to go British Premier League Soccer style and give the trophy to the best record- Congrats Atlanta. Baseball never did that because of the separate leagues though, so your next best option is the pre-LCS option where the best records in both leagues advance to the World Series- so congrats to Atlanta again, and Baltimore, lace ‘em up to go seven. Of course baseball got rid of this decades ago, before my 40 year old self was born, so don’t bet on these options. The point was to separate the regular season from the title, because postseason games aren’t like regular season games. You don’t pull your starter after 3.2 innings of no run, one hit ball in July. The game is different. Only your back end relievers pitch meaningful innings, but those innings can come at any time in a game. You don’t give your every day starters a day off for rest, you sit them because of bad splits against the pitching they’re going to face. Much like NBA teams shorten up their rotation from 12 guys to 8 or 9 in the playoffs, MLB teams lean heavier on their best players to play their best. In the Braves comeback game 2 win, it’s worth noting that Acuna got their scoring going and Austin Riley hit the game winning homer- hardly role players. Playoff games are about the best versus the best. Most regular season games are more relaxed.

There’s also no evidence that the six team format isn’t “working” for favored teams. Last year’s champion had a bye in round one. Half the LCS teams had a bye last year. Basically, if you want to boil this down, this system hasn’t worked out yet for the Braves and Dodgers, and fans of those teams and baseball writers don’t like it. They want the story they want. Acuna vs. Betts. Olson vs. Freeman. Never mind what’s happening on the field. They want their epic showdown. God knows they’re still mad they have to cover a postseason without New York, Chicago, Boston, or their beloved Padres. For all we know the Astros and Braves both win their series and the teams with byes bat 50% again.

We all know the expanded Wild Card, and all playoff expansion for 60 years, has been about money. In this case, television money. All of the complaints about “lesser teams” (aka- teams that are winning higher quality baseball games than they played all season) winning won’t drive baseball to contract the number of teams in, it will cause them to become more like the NFL, NHL, and NBA and let more teams in. Nothing beats an 82 win 7th seed getting in and pulling an upset, right? Even better will be when a 78 win team gets in (it will happen). It’ll be great when the first day game starts at noon right, especially when it miraculously always happens to the smallest market home team. They’ll start inserting even more off days to have less non-prime time games. You’ll love that, won’t you? That’ll insure the best records win, right?

Should MLB re-seed after round one? Sure, I think so. There’s flaws in this system. Phillies-Braves probably belonged in the NLCS, given what we’ve seen so far (it’s easily the best series of the postseason so far). What everyone is missing though is that MLB’s goal was not to protect a Braves-Orioles or Astros-Dodgers World Series, it was to put forward an entertaining product that people watched. If that means you get Arizona-Texas in the Fall Classic, so be it. The point was never to reward the regular season. A system that dramatically favored regular season winners would dramatically change how teams built their rosters and played regular season games. Instead, they get to set their rotations for the series. Houston seems to do that really well. It seems like everyone else just cries.

There is Good and There is Bad

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I haven’t been much of a fan of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel. He has lead his nation in a very conservative, hawkish direction at various points over the last 30 years. He has clearly shown his support of American Republican politicians over Democratic ones, something I both disagree with and find dangerous to continuing bipartisan support American support for Israel. His continual establishment of “settlements” in the West Bank make the possibility of a “two state solution” between Israel and Palestinians harder and harder. I basically have policy differences with Netanyahu and his government that make me not support him. While he has enjoyed varying levels of support (he has at times “won” elections with less votes, but been elected Prime Minister because he could build a coalition in the Knesset), I still view him as a legitimate leader of his government, because people elect him.

There is nothing good or redeemable about Hamas. Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people in any legitimate way, and their “governance” in Gaza has harmed the people they claim to represent. Hamas “won” a completely rigged, illegitimate election in 2006. They committed acts of violence against political opponents and behaved as a banana republic would. After winning, they simply took over Gaza and proceeded to not hold elections since. Today nearly half of Gaza was born after their “government” was elected. Hamas is legitimately “elected” to lead Palestinians in the same way Putin wins real elections in Russia. In short, Hamas is a terrorist organization, and you can’t support a terrorist organization. This goes beyond policy differences.

What happened this weekend in Israel is not legitimate “resistance” by the Palestinian people, it is an act of terror against civilians by Hamas. The targeting of Israeli and international citizens in Southern Israel is an act of terrorism and war, and must be treated as such. Americans and others should be very careful to assign themselves he blame to Hamas, and not the Palestinian people, but any civilized person should make clear it was unequivocally bad. A response against Hamas is beyond warranted, it is required. The question of Israel’s existence is settle, their right to self defense and safety should not be questioned. Unfortunately any military response to Hamas will almost certainly hurt Palestinian civilians, which is wrong and bad too. With that said, adults should realize this emphasizes the bottom line point- Hamas is an evil terrorist organization that serves no legitimate purpose, and does great harm to the Palestinian people they disingenuously claim to represent.

There is not a “good and bad” between the Israeli and Palestinian people. They have both lived and existed on the Holy Land of three major Western religions for thousands of years. One can fairly and passionately argue against the policies and actions put forward by the Likud government in Israel and challenge them through the ballot box and legitimate international legal angles available. It is no understatement to say the current situation is not good for Palestinian people, and there’s plenty of blame to go around. With all of that said, whether it’s between Israel and Hamas, or even Fatah and other Palestinian parties and Hamas, there are clear differences of “good and bad.” Hamas is purely bad, for everyone. Rallying on the behalf of the indefensible is unacceptable. Hamas has long outlived their usefulness for everyone. There is nothing to redeem in Hamas.

Real Talk on Immigration

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Immigration has spent most of the last 20 years being a political football in American politics. From Bush and the “gang of eight,” to Obama flipping a huge chunk of the West “blue,” to Trump pledging to build a wall, the Southern Border has been a major American political issue for half my life now. The rhetoric we debate it with has never been further removed from reality though. At the heart of this is both parties seeing this as an inherently political issue, and how the new voters will likely vote (hint: you don’t really know), rather than a functionality one. The very fact that we’re only debating the Southern Border really should tell you why.

There are essentially four basic facts that are being ignored or misused. The first one is that a sovereign nation has the right to control it’s border and set the rules for entering their country, regardless of how messed up other countries are. Even so, the United States is required to follow all treaties and international law that applies to refugees. Third is that the American economy badly, badly needs an influx of new labor that really only immigration can bring. Finally, the big part- the United States immigration system, particularly immigration courts, is completely unprepared for the volume of people arriving at our border right now. The first two points are the ones being misused and abused, the last two are the difficult details that everyone is trying to ignore, because it doesn’t fit a talking point.

America should not want to limit immigration to near zero levels and the only reason to want that is xenophobia and racism. It is a part of our history to constantly battle between needing new immigrants to drive us forward as a country, and to have a feeling that it somehow removes our national identity. Let’s be clear though, the xenophobes are always wrong though. As Asian and European immigrants flocked to the U.S. about 100 years ago for a booming labor market, forces of darkness did things like set quotas for nations they didn’t want to come here and close ports of entry like Ellis Island. It was not the right direction to take then, and it isn’t now. Whether we’re talking about Irish, Italian, Japanese, or any other group that faced xenophobia, we always regret it later.

Let’s also be clear, caravans of people arriving at our border from failed states like Venezuela, many of whom are claiming refugee status from dangerous cartels that want to kill them are not how our immigration system is supposed to work, and Americans don’t have to accept that this is the reality. Our immigration court system is woefully underfunded and lacks anywhere near enough judges to handle the backlog of cases they are facing. The numbers go a bit up some months, and a bit down others, but the situation has generally been out of control for a while now. The obvious problem that needs correction is the failed states in our hemisphere, right next to our broken drug laws that drive business to violent cartels that are thriving in these places. That’s not a five minute problem though. That will take time to fix. Our immigration system badly needs an influx of resources that can allow for an orderly and timely handling of the people at our border. This includes manpower at the border, technology, and legal system help. Of course, that doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker though.

An adult government could deal with these issues without setting policy based on stupid slogans like “build the wall,” but Congress is broken, and now we live with the consequences. Joe Biden is acquiescing to letting more wall being built on the Mexican border because an act of Congress was passed and signed by the previous President to do so. That’s how our system works. Should it have ever happened? No. But it did. Will it work? Of course not, never. Doesn’t matter. If you elect a bad government, you’ll get a bad government. Stupid people do stupid things.

With all of that said, adults in Congress should be trying to pass a bill tomorrow that ignores xenophobes from all political persuasions (wait until you find out who helped kill a bill in the Bush years). Would it excite people? Probably not. Would it be the right thing? Yeah. Don’t hold your breath though.

Preview- Red October 2023- The NLDS

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Well, you knew it was coming- the Phillies and the Braves. After last season it had to happen. After this season, it had to happen. And here we are.

The Braves had the best record in baseball, broke offensive records, and by the way they won the World Series two years ago. Two of the top four players in the NL are on that team. By basically every measure, they should be favored. And they are.

But, the Phillies are the defending NL Champs for a reason- they beat these guys. They play relentless baseball. They’re just a better team in October. Throw in some injury issues in the Braves rotation and you have a real fight.

My gut says the Phillies have to win one of the first two in Atlanta, but also that the Braves have to win both. The longer the series goes, the more I like the Phillies. The Braves would appear to have the edge in the game 1 pitching matchup, game two locks up as an epic, and the Phillies have the edge in game 3. But is Fried all good? No way to know until we see.

Last year I picked Atlanta because they were the reigning champs and they were on fire at the end of the season. I got that wrong. Both finished on a 7-3 regular season run. Both have had success in recent postseasons. They’re familiar with each other. I like the Phillies pitching a touch more. I like the Braves bars a touch more. I like the Phillies at home more. So, what gives? I’m tempted to pick the Phillies in four, because it happened last year. I’m tempted to pick a Braves sweep, because talent and revenge. The truth is that I want a repeat of last year, so I’ll pick Braves in four, like I did last year. Throw the hex on them.

As for the other series… I’m going Dodgers in three, Astros in four, and Rangers in five. Sorry America, nothing is satisfying here.