WATCHING AMERICA : Obama No "Lame Duck"

Link to 2009 article from Salon.com

As a citizen of the United States and a democratic Socialist, I do not think I am "WILLFULLY IGNORANT of the way the world truly works." I applaud President Obama's fresh approach to Cuba.

What scares me is how out of touch the now Republican Senate and the now Republican House are with the common people of America. Imagine Cuban American Senator Marco Rubio saying he does not care what 99 percent of the American people think? Just what is HIS concept of Democracy anyway? When the majority opinion is always checked and frustrated? Does our capitalist ruling class always know best ?

Link to PBS excerpt

I am presently reading American socialist Irving Howe's political biography "A Margin of Hope." From a New York Jewish background, author of the popular best seller "The World of Our Fathers", Howe never abandoned the socialist idealism of his youth. The problem, as he saw it, was to keep socialism compatible with Western Civilization values of freedom and democracy.

Today in America there is a whole -not so fresh anymore- crop of right-wing intellectuals who idolize crackpot Ayn Rand and her "Virtue of Selfishness." Now this is atheism with an attitude!

Thank God for Pope Francis and the humane social philosophy of the Catholic Church. Francis played a key role in this ending of official hostility to socialist Cuba.

And I am sure this progressive Pope has only kindly feelings for the people of Israel.

( Comment on article in " Walla, " Israel  ,published on Dec.19 , 2014 by Uria Kanaf . Translated from Hebrew by Shani Morris. )