January 2014
The Middle East and climate change
By Arthur Scott: One of the problems confronting the Middle East is that political/socio/sectarian issues tend to dominate the dialogue marginalizing the hidden “multiplier effect” of climate on stability. Popular Middle East analyses tend to ignore the dynamics and geopolitics of climate change. It is as though climate has no impact on sectarian violence in Afghanistan, Taliban, Syria, the military coup in Egypt, and Somalia. A contributing factor to setting Middle East climate today consist of these historical events: Western Imperialism and the new Middle East map, oil/ Exxon/Shell, Arab nationalism, Fundamentalism, Islamic Resurgence, 9/11 and the sectarian violence/terror /civil war it has unleashed. Each of these events along with modernity has in their own ways contributed to global warming/change in this region. Read More
March 2014
Quranic ecological imperatives: A new global perspective
By Arthur Scott: We all know the world is in the throes of an ecological crisis, the Goliath of our era, described by some as “Climate Change,” and this crisis has come from the disconnect between the world of nature and humanity. The magnificence of the planet resonating with the Divine energy of the Sacred has been forgotten and reduced to a product, thing or commodity that is brought and sold in the marketplace of globalization. Read More
November 2014
Global crisis of feminine
By Prof. Arthur Scott: An underlying source of global/domestic conflict can be traced to the tension between masculine/feminine energies. These energies are universal, found in each person as well as permeating all cultures regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. Ideally male/female energies are meant to be complementary and not antagonistic or in conflict. When masculine/feminine energies act harmoniously, they generate deep experiences of peace, balance and awe. In a family/group setting, they are the touchstone of collaboration, cooperation, and creativity. Unfortunately, the world has gone mad, politically, ecologically and psychologically excoriating the feminine and targeting women. Read More
December 2014
Mid-term elections: The republicans now control both houses of congress
By Arthur Kane Scott: Though Republicans won at the polls, their victory is at best a minority victory and what is even more paradoxical is that their national agenda differs drastically from most Americans. The People's agenda for Congress includes lower student loans (80%), infrastructure modernization (75%), raising minimum wage (65%), fighting Ebola (60%), climate change (59%) and Keystone Pipeline (54%). Mitch McConnell and John Boehner however want to repeal Obamacare, pass Asian Trans- Pacific Partnership trade agreement, lower corporate taxes, challenge Obama on immigration and reign in EPA. Read More
February 2015
“I can't breathe”
By Arthur Kane Scott: I have randomly developed a global list and what strikes me most is the universality of situations where the slogan “I can’t breathe” persists. It’s an existential reality for many including Mother Earth, women, children, the homeless, the poor, peoples of color, the elderly. As frightening the list may be, it hardly scratches the surface. It raises the moral issue of what needs to be done, and why humanity remains so slow to respond by continuing to ignore the deep suffering of so many is puzzling. Read More
March 2015
Hypocrisy of Bibi Netanyahu
By Arthur Kane Scott: Native culture is filled with stories about the Trickster, a deceptive con artist, often presented as a coyote. This certainly was the role played by Bibi Netanyahu, when he gave his March3, 2015,speech to the US House of Representatives, about the nuclear deal being negotiated between Washington and Teheran. His major point was that it was a “bad deal” for the West and Israel. He came as a “sheep in wolves clothing” to sow doubt about its value, and along with 47 Republican Senators, to cast aspersions at President Obama’s leadership. Read More
June 2015
World War I, Middle East map, & ISIS / ISIL
By Arthur Kane Scott: World War 1 was the most significant event of the twentieth century as it set in motion deep political and social forces that still resonate today, especially in the Middle East. WWI saw the collapse of four multi- national empires: Russia, Germany, Austro-Hungary and Ottoman. It accelerated American and Japanese rivalry for East Asia, and it provided France and Britain with an opportunity to consolidate their hold on the Middle East made strategically valuable because of the emergence of oil as primary fuel source. The current flawed Middle East Map, itself a product of Orientalism in many ways accounts for the fizzle of the Arab Spring as well as the prevalence of authoritarian regimes. The “map” originated with the diplomatic machinations of Paris and London that centered initially on Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and Francois Georges Picot of France. Subsequent players were Woodrow Wilson of United States and Sir Arthur Balfour of London. Sharif Hussein bin Ali, emir of Mecca, along with Lawrence of Arabia, were reduced to pawns in these high stakes negotiations. Read More
August 2015
The Iran Card / Paradox / Critics
By Arthur Kane Scott: Reaching an agreement with Iran, historically under Obama, can be as significant as Nixon’s trip to China and the rapprochement it initiated. It would represent a profound game changer in Middle East diplomacy, relationships and resources. Though the Iran deal is hardly perfect, it does accomplish its major intention of curtailing Iran’s entry into the nuclear club for ten years. Also, itcan be a game changer in ending American and Iranian forty year animus as it provides an opportunity for both powers to come together on several vital issuesthat candramaticallyreshape the geopolitics of the Middle East.Read More
January 2016
American politics of fear: The Muslim chapter
By Arthur Scott: Unfortunately, American political culture revolves around what Richard Hofstadter called “the paranoid of fear.”What the “politics of fear” does is to identify a nationality/ethnicity, a gender/color/race, a political party/movement/group,or an economic classes: super-rich to middle-class to poor, and demonizes them with the claim that they have the power to alter or destroy the American way of life..... For many in the world, America is the promised land of freedom, and as its watchmen we need to be vigilant for the Muslim community who are presently most vulnerable to the politics of fear. Rather than closing borders by entering into another isolationist period, American should open its arms to Syrian/Middle East refugees whose lives have been so disruptive with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Let’s never experience another internment. Martin Luther King warned: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Read More
April 2016
Trump/Hitler/American Muslims
Arthur Kane Scott: Watching Trump campaigning is likeobserving a rerun of Hitler in the 1920s.They both use inflammatory language, over-simplify, repeatcatch-phrases, and appeal to dark nationalistic impulses by targeting vulnerable groups as responsible for their countriessocio-economicills. Hitler often said: “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” Donald J Trump picking up on Hitler has called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering US.” Read More
July 2016
Radical Islam and Wahhabism
By Arthur Scott: Today in America there is a heated debate over how best to describe Muslim radicals without either demonizing the entire religion, or giving ISIS added notoriety that it can use in recruitment. Finding the correct metaphor that captures best this Islamic expression is very challenging. What makes the debate even more complicated is that even within conservative Islam, mostly Sunna Saudis, there is an “ultra-conservative strain’ known as Wahhabi. Read More
August 2016
Trump and the Khan`s: Goliath/David
By Arthur Kane Scott: Donald Trump’s emotional rhetoric has been central tohis campaign of fear: that America is involved in a life/death struggle for civilization with Islam. It carried him through the primaries, and into the Republican Party Convention, where he was chosen their Presidential nominee. Trump’s hyperbole, whether directed at Blacks, Latinos, women, and disabled, never before stuck or damaged his campaign. He lived a charmed existence until the Democratic National Convention. Read More
September 2016
The Two State Illusion
By Arthur Kane Scott: Over the last ten years, the Two-State solution has languished, without any real energy to resuscitate it, despite sundry diplomaticinitiatives. This seemingly permanent stalemate raises the question ofwhy has Two-State lost its appeal. The answer may lie in history, politics and sociology. Read More
March 2017
The night mare of Stephen Bannon
Arthur Kane Scott: Stephen Bannon has emerged as the Darth Vader of the Trump administration not only in domestic but also international affairs. His agenda is broadly grounded, on what Naomi Kline described as the “shock doctrine,” a process of excoriating and attacking democratic institutions, in particular the press, as a way of undermining their credibility, so that centralization of power in the White House can accelerate way beyond the notion of an “Imperial Presidency.” His political goal is a coup d’état drawn from the Right. Read More
July 2017
Presidential Election 2016 - The Trump Phenomenon
By Arthur Kane Scott: As soon as Trump became the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 election surfaced. Russian cyber-attack on American democracy led to the Comey firing in spring 2017, to the appointment of Robert Mueller, former FBI Director, as Special Counsel to explore the matter and the degree, if any, of Trump organization involvement in the Russian meddling. It cast a dark shadow over the White House as did Trump’s policies on immigration, Obamacare, women’s rights, environment and education. By summer’s end many in American were calling for impeachment. The great “Deal Makers” cards for transforming America were in serious peril. Read More
October 2017
Trump World: What needs to be done
By Arthur Kane Scott: The Trump presidency has been steadily marginalizing the American Dream of Democracy envisioned by the First Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863, in which he concluded with the moving words “and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the face of the Earth.” Lincoln had just defeated the rebellious Confederacy on the grounds that a minority did not have the right or power to force its views on the majority. Ironically, this is what is happening today in America.About 35 percent of the country primarily drawn from the rural South, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountains, who are white, rural, evangelical, traditional, and nationalistic are critical of the new America that is emerging: urban, multi-racial, science-based, global and futuristic. Read More
February 2018
Trump Presidency: A historical assessment 2018
By Arthur Scott: Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of 1968 is very reminiscent of today. America then and now finds itself experiencing a cultural meltdown in race, gender, class, war, equity, generations and values. Past becomes present! An overriding characteristic of `68 wasthe declining faith among Americans in the integrity of political institutions to problem-solve and to keep the Union whole. This confidence loss in government began with the assassination of JFK and the flawed Warren Reportwhich many Americans found suspect. They saw it as a cover-up of a possible coup d’état. Read More
December 2018
The Jewish conundrum: If America only knew
America to Give Israel $10.4 million per day: “That Money could send our kids to college.”
Co-authored by: Arthur Scott & Forrest Cioppa: The Israeli influence is so pronounced that Senator Joseph Lieberman averred that Congress would never act against Tel Aviv. The question is – how is it possible that Americans are so unaware of this astronomical drain on our coffers? American Israel Public Affairs Committee popularly known as AIPAC. It has an endowment of $100 million and operational budget of $60 million much of which is used to lobby Congress in favor of Israel. Israel Political Action Committees. There are about 30 PACS scattered across the country that pour millions into lobbying efforts to maintain Washington support for Israel. Dollar amount unavailable. Read More
March 2019
Supreme Court Integrity
Arthur Kane Scott: To sustain the rule of law, fairness requires that the courts be objective and impartial in their discernment. The independence of the judiciary goes back to John Marshall, first Supreme Court Justice, who argued that the judiciary was the third branch of government, equal to and wholly independent of the other two branches. Part of its independence was guaranteed by life-time appointments. Its role was to act as arbiter and umpire over the constitution and mores/laws of the nation. To do its task of adjudicating, its membership ideally must be beyond reproach. Read More
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