: re: Cleveland’s Terrible Stain

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 9:24 AM
Subject: re: Cleveland’s Terrible Stain
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
   A prosecutor who wants to prosecute can get a grand jury to indict
a ham sandwich. A prosecutor who doesn't want to prosecute should be
fired.  There is no third path for Timothy McGinty. He has shown
interest in neither pursuing justice not in protecting the public.
Rather, he has made himself an arm of the police force, and part of
the problem.
    A complete solution would institute special prosecutors--not
dependent on local police--for every accusation of police violence.
But that begins with firing Timothy McGinty.
Barry Haskell Levine



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/opinion/clevelands-terrible-stain.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

: re: The Importance of Retaking Ramadi

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 9:15 AM
Subject: re: The Importance of Retaking Ramadi
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
     If the U.S. has indeed " helped train thousands of local Sunni
tribal fighters, who oppose the Islamic State, to secure neighborhoods
captured from the militants" while " excluded Iran-allied Shiite
militias from the battle", we are acceding to the sectarian break-up
that L. Paul Bremer initiated by deBaathifying Iraq's army. Sectarian
partition may well be the best outcome for the region. But if that is
what we are pursuing, our government should stop lying to the American
people about our support for a unified Iraq.
Barry Haskell Levine


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/29/opinion/the-importance-of-retaking-ramadi.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

: re: ISIS Influence on Web Prompts Second Thoughts on First Amendment

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 8:27 AM
Subject: re: ISIS Influence on Web Prompts Second Thoughts on First Amendment
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

    A guarantee of Free Speech that didn't protect noxious speech would be a sham. Of course, the First Amendment must protect academics even as they critique that same amendment and its interpretation. But the discussion is too late; four years ago, the President of the United States dispatched Anwar al-Awlaki with a HellFire missile for exercising his right to engage in noxious free speech. Our Supreme Court should be considering this fact, and not a hypothetical restraint on social media.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/28/us/isis-influence-on-web-prompts-second-thoughts-on-first-amendment.html?_r=0

: re: The Democrats’ Family Squabbles

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Dec 25, 2015 at 8:32 AM
Subject: re: The Democrats’ Family Squabbles
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
    As chair of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman
Schultz has failed in matters large (the 2014 mid-term elections) and
small (misappropriating DNC resources for her Hillary project). That
she has become the news story in the middle of a presidential campaign
is bizzarely inappropriate. She must go.
Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/25/opinion/the-democrats-family-squabbles.html

: re: The Security Council Wakes Up on Syria

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 8:12 AM
Subject: re: The Security Council Wakes Up on Syria
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
         The boundaries of Syria are a vestige of imperial clashes in
the First World War; they never corresponded to an ethnic or cultural
nation. So while "the abrupt removal of Mr. Assad now would only
destabilize Syria", we must ask what are our interests here. Where
stability and legitimacy are at odds, I as an American stand for
legitimacy; if stability were our sole guiding principle, the United
States would still be British colonies.
Barry Haskell Levine



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/opinion/the-security-council-wakes-up-on-syria.html?_r=0

: re: Bernie Sanders Falls Behind in a Race Centered on Security

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 20, 2015 at 8:00 AM
Subject: re: Bernie Sanders Falls Behind in a Race Centered on Security
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   We all eagerly await senator Sanders' second paragraph; there must be more than economic opportunity and justice in a campaign for president. But to conclude that he "lacks moxie" is silly. In the current cycle, he is the champion of government of the people, by the people, and for the people, while secretary Clinton carries water for WallStreet.
Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/us/politics/bernie-sanders-falls-behind-in-a-race-centered-on-security.html

: re:Qaddafi Son Arrested by Lebanon in New Twist on Missing Imam Mystery

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 9:01 AM
Subject: re:Qaddafi Son Arrested by Lebanon in New Twist on Missing Imam Mystery
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

     Logically, Hannibal Qaddafi could have had nothing to do with the murder of Moussa al-Sadr; he was only a toddler at the time. But the Lebanese know that State-level crime is a family enterprise. If Hannibal Qaddafi can be linked to a murder committed by his father, then Bashar al-Assad can be hanged for the assassination of Rafik Hariri--even if his father Hafez al-Assad played the larger role.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/world/middleeast/qaddafi-son-arrested-by-lebanon-in-new-twist-on-missing-imam-mystery.html

: re: The Trump Effect, and How It Spreads

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 9:14 AM
Subject: re: The Trump Effect, and How It Spreads
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

When father Coughlin railed against the Jews

he wasn't running to be president

and didn't sport orangutans' hairdos

and couldn't yet know Hitler's full intent

but fascism is back in vogue this year

among what we don't call "a certain class"
embracing policies of greed and fear

or whatever spews out of Donald's ass

the Trumpen proletariat fear jobs

too often go to those born overseas

and offer threats and violence by mobs

in what seems less and less Land of the Free

the nativists' appeal's always the same

to fall for it once more is our deep shame

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/opinion/the-trump-effect-and-how-it-spreads.html

: re: President Obama’s Tough, Calming Talk on Terrorism

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 6, 2015 at 8:43 PM
Subject: re: President Obama’s Tough, Calming Talk on Terrorism
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

     If we take the constitution of the United States seriously, "to bear arms" is a "right" and--unlike e.g. the privilege of air-travel--cannot be curtailed without due process of law. That cannot be satisfied by any secret office or process.  And if we do not take our constitution and rights seriously, what are we fighting to defend?
Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/opinion/president-obamas-tough-calming-talk-on-terrorism.html

: re: Republicans’ Climate Change Denial Denial

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Dec 4, 2015 at 3:37 PM
Subject: re: Republicans’ Climate Change Denial Denial
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

     There is, as professor Krugman notes "no counterpart abroad" to American climate denial and it's privileged position in our political discourse.  But there was a parallel that should chill us. That was the ideologically driven unscientific biological theory of Trofim Lysenko that crops would evolve not through Darwinian selection, but under instruction from their harsh environment. Lysenko's theory--enforced on Soviet farmers by his patron Stalin--contributed to millions of needless deaths of Soviet citizens by starvation. Foot-dragging on addressing and remediating our changing climate could cost more.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/opinion/republicans-climate-change-denial-denial.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

: re:Hillary Clinton Looks Past Primaries, and to Republicans, in Strategy to Beat Sanders

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Nov 25, 2015 at 6:17 AM
Subject: re:Hillary Clinton Looks Past Primaries, and to Republicans, in Strategy to Beat Sanders
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

    This paper is mistaken to report that "[senator Clinton]  has locked in the support of  over half the Democratic Party’s superdelegates, party leaders and elected officials, needed to secure the nomination".  Super delegates are also known as "unpledged delegates" for a reason; they are unpledged, responsible to the party and not to a candidate. Like any thinking person, each can change her or his mind as new information becomes available.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/us/politics/hillary-clinton-looks-past-primaries-in-strategy-to-defeat-bernie-sanders.html

: re: John Kerry Adds Voice to Those Urging Bigger Push Against Islamic State in Syria

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Nov 24, 2015 at 9:18 AM
Subject: re: John Kerry Adds Voice to Those Urging Bigger Push Against Islamic State in Syria
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

     If the U.S. is to have a role in the defeat of ISIS and not just charge into another quagmire, we need allies fighting for their own mission and ours, not just proxies in it for the swag. That means giving up the Sykes-Picot map of 1916 and endorsing the legitimate national aspirations of the peoples of the region as ambassador John Bolton sketches. Then, finally, our military will be in service to the policy president Obama called for, looking forward, and not backwards.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/world/middleeast/john-kerry-adds-voice-to-those-urging-bigger-push-against-islamic-state-in-syria.html

: re: Mrs. Clinton’s Syria Strategy

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 8:50 AM
Subject: re: Mrs. Clinton’s Syria Strategy
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   Secretary Clinton has indeed "given voters and the other candidates in both parties much to think about and debate".  What exactly would a "no-fly zone" in Syria mean? ISIS has no military aircraft. But Russia has fighters stationed there. Does she really propose to shoot down Russian pilots? Or would she draw a red line but not enforce it?  

   Military experience is not a pre-requisite to the role of commander-in-chief.  But sobriety should be.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/20/opinion/mrs-clintons-syria-strategy.html?_r=0

: re: Europe’s Welcome Sign to Terrorists

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:19 AM
Subject: re: Europe’s Welcome Sign to Terrorists
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:
   Predictably, a head of InterPol seizes the Paris attacks as an opportunity to argue for increased police power. He is, however, disingenuous in citing the U.S.'s example. Where there are checks on U.S. internal borders, they are agricultural controls. Most Americans don't even hold passports. The borders the Schengen group need to control are the perimeter to the outside world.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/19/opinion/europes-welcome-sign-to-terrorists.html?_r=0

: re: Cabs, Camels or ISIS

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 8:48 AM
Subject: re: Cabs, Camels or ISIS
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   Thomas L. Friedman talks out of both sides of his  mouth. We join with him in praying that education, enlightenment and a creeping scientific world view will in time leave no room for ISIS or groups like it. We cannot, however join him in embracing Mohammed el-Sisi. el-Sisi is just the latest military strongman whom America has supported against his own democratically-elected government, this time in Egypt. As long as we are seen as standing with el-Sisi (who has gunned down political demonstrators in the streets) we are encouraging recruitment to those very terrorist groups that mr. Friedman claims to oppose.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/opinion/cabs-camels-or-isis.html

: re: In Suspects’ Brussels Neighborhood, a History of Petty Crimes and Missed Chances

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 8:15 AM
Subject: re: In Suspects’ Brussels Neighborhood, a History of Petty Crimes and Missed Chances
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

  Tellingly, Belgian police already had an eye on Ibrahim Abdeslam, not for his religion (he seemed only an indifferent Muslim) but for his criminal activity before he blew himself up in Paris.  France, like any nation, must take care to reject criminals at the borders.  Instituting religious tests for travelers and immigrants might buy some votes among bigots, but it would not make France--or the U.S.--safer.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/world/europe/in-suspects-brussels-neighborhood-a-history-of-petty-crimes-and-missed-chances.html?_r=0

: re: The Virtue of Contradicting Ourselves

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 9:06 AM
Subject: re: The Virtue of Contradicting Ourselves
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

    Anyone who is honest and intellectually engaged must sometimes change her/his mind as new information becomes available. This poses a problem for any republic. The American form of government requires that I vote for someone in this cycle whom I will trust to act as I would want on future issues as yet unforeseen. The only guide by which I can choose such a leader is his/her past action.  To vote for a candidate with a record of position reversals is to embrace a personality, but not a platform or a program; it reduces politics to a popularity contest.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/opinion/sunday/the-virtue-of-contradicting-ourselves.html

how-the-us-and-israel-can-move-forwar

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Nov 7, 2015 at 11:43 PM
Subject: re:
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

  President Obama would be wrong to "throw[n] in the towel on a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians" exactly as PM Yitzhak Rabin was wrong to link Land and Peace. "Land-for-Peace" worked between Israel and Egypt because both parties were States, each competent to enforce the terms of the agreement on its own people. To contract peace with a non-state entity would be nonsense; it cannot enforce the agreed terms.
   So let president Obama recognize Palestine (and Kurdistan!) as president Truman recognized Israel. The right to self-determination belongs to Palestinians and to Kurds no less than to e.g. Jews. Only then can two States agree to a peace that mean anything, exactly because it  can be enforced by each party, on its own people.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/opinion/how-the-us-and-israel-can-move-forward.html?_r=0

: re: 20 Years After Rabin, Israeli Politics Have Shifted

From: barry levine
Date: Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 2:47 PM
Subject: re: 20 Years After Rabin, Israeli Politics Have Shifted
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

     With twenty years hindsight, neither of the polar views that dominated Israeli discourse at the time of Rabin's murder make sense. On one hand, Greater Israel from the Jordan to the Sea would establish a nonsensical "Jewish State" in which Jews were a minority. On the other hand, "Land for Peace"--which worked with Egypt--in the West Bank would require that a non-State entity enforce the terms of a peace on its people. That's also nonsense. The power that can enforce such terms is called a "State".

     The status quo is unsustainable and indefensible. As Yishayahu Liebowitz laid out in 1967, "the Occupation must be ended not because that will bring peace, but because it is immoral." Only then can two States negotiate a peace that each can enforce on its own people.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/world/middleeast/20-years-after-rabin-israeli-politics-have-shifted.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

: re: New U.S.-Backed Alliance to Counter ISIS in Syria Falters

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Nov 3, 2015 at 1:52 PM
Subject: re: New U.S.-Backed Alliance to Counter ISIS in Syria Falters
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   It is perhaps fitting that " the Syrian Democratic Forces...[which] exists in name only" should serve a country that exists in name only. Syria's borders were drawn in 1916 by Mark Sykes and Francois George PIcot without regard to ethnic or cultural cohesion, before the Ottoman Empire was even defeated. Since then, it has been held together by repressive governments, only to fly apart like Yugoslavia when the fist relaxed. The U.S. would do better to work for UN charter's guarantee of a people's self-determination than to futilely tape up the territory of a paper state whose own residents don't acknowledge.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/world/middleeast/new-us-backed-alliance-in-syria-exists-in-name-only.html?ref=world

: re: When Turmoil Strikes, Turks See Conspiracy at Work

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Oct 29, 2015 at 10:43 AM
Subject: re: When Turmoil Strikes, Turks See Conspiracy at Work
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:  

    That Turks see the hand of their own government in the peace rally bombing doesn't require a "penchant for conspiracy theory". Where it's established that "there is a long record of violence that turned out afterward to be the work of agents for the state", this is evidence that the Turks are resistant to their own government's efforts to frame their Kurdish neighbors for the government's own terror tactics.
  It is a key characteristic of the DeepState that is persists even as the heads of government come and go.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/29/world/europe/in-times-of-chaos-turks-point-to-a-deep-conspiracy.html

: re: Jimmy Carter: A Five-Nation Plan to End the Syrian Crisis

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 10:13 AM
Subject: re: Jimmy Carter: A Five-Nation Plan to End the Syrian Crisis
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   The Syrian people rose up against Bashar al-Assad in 2011 because his regime was illegitimate and intolerable. It has not gained legitimacy by killing tens of thousands of his own citizens in the interim.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/opinion/jimmy-carter-a-five-nation-plan-to-end-the-syrian-crisis.html?ref=opinion

: re: Big-Name Plan B’s for Democrats Concerned About Hillary Clinton

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 2:43 PM
Subject: re: Big-Name Plan B’s for Democrats Concerned About Hillary Clinton
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   It is fascinating and repugnant to glimpse the DNC's dark machinations.  Garnet Coleman assures us--while Americans align on issue by issue with sen. Bernie Sanders--that the DNC will pick for us someone whom the donors like.

   That's exactly the pre-selection that the people of HongKong so bravely rejected when Beijing offered them a sham democracy.  I hope Democrats here show as much spine.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/10/us/politics/big-name-plan-bs-for-democrats-concerned-about-hillary-clinton.html

: re: Mismanaging the Conflict in Jerusalem

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 7:21 PM
Subject: re: Mismanaging the Conflict in Jerusalem
To: "letters@nytimes.com" <letters@nytimes.com>

To the Editor:

   For two generations, America has told Palestinians that their national aspiration to self-determination is legitimate--but peace first, then statehood. Yet when they are peaceful we ignore them--what doesn't bleed doesn't hold our attention. And when they militate, we wave a censorious finger and say "peace first".  So let's not pretend shock that "Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank will not indefinitely extend to Israel a period of calm while no corresponding reduction of the occupation takes place."
Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/19/opinion/mismanaging-the-conflict-in-jerusalem.html

ephemera

ephemeral art
wrought by Andrew Goldsworthy
memento mori

rapt

gesticulating
freed by a BlueTooth device
no hands on the wheel

missing mass

neutrinos add up
infinitesimally
to outweigh the stars

unconstrained

flouting all constraints
not haiku nor senryu
self-indulgent crap

dumbshow

spectator culture
millionaires playing kids' games
vicarious "sport"

out!

Francis exorcised
the House OrangeJohn haunted
yet to go: Legion

pestilence walking

Andrew Wakefield's fraud
propagates like a virus
for which there's no cure

contagion

were al-Assad hanged
Putin would fear for his neck
peons get ideas

: re: A Road to Damascus, via Moscow

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 8:11 AM
Subject: re: A Road to Damascus, via Moscow
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

    There have long been voices in America who favor the stability a strongman promises over the messiness of legitimate democracy. The U.S. armed Josef Stalin as he murdered millions of his own Russians, and we backed or installed the Shah in Iran, and Marcos in the Philippines and Pinochet in Chile...This week, the face of the tyrant is al-Assad and the short-term goal of reducing mayhem in Syria is appealing. But al-Assad never had any legitimacy, and he has gained none in recent years by imprisoning, torturing and killing thousands of Syrians.

   Let's join with our allies in eradicating the blight of ISIS from the region. But that does not require embracing al-Assad, his murderous regime, or his lies.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/opinion/a-road-to-damascus-via-moscow.html

: re: For Afghans in Kunduz, Taliban Assault Is Just the Latest Affront

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Oct 8, 2015 at 9:50 AM
Subject: re: For Afghans in Kunduz, Taliban Assault Is Just the Latest Affront
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:
   Despite the paeans of his PR flacks, general David Petraeus' policy of arming and empowering sectarian militias rather than building multi-ethnic national institutions in Iraq fueled and fuels the civil war that continues to rage there.  Disastrously, the U.S. has reproduced that policy in Afghanistan, with predictable results. Many Pashtuns in Kunduz, feeling excluded and aggrieved welcomed and abetted the latest Taliban campaign there.

    It is not for the U.S. to build an Afghan nation that doesn't exist in Afghans' own minds. A confederation of tribal states may be the best solution in the end. But we must stop stoking their civil wars.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/world/asia/for-afghans-in-kunduz-taliban-assault-is-just-the-latest-affront.html?_r=0

\: re: Mr. Putin’s Motives in Syria

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Oct 7, 2015 at 8:45 AM
Subject: re: Mr. Putin’s Motives in Syria
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:
   "Never" Napoleon advised "interfere with the enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself." In propping up Bashar al-Assad, Putin is getting into a commitment with no good exit. al-Assad has killed far more innocent people than ISIS has, and is as hated by the world's Muslims--16 million of whom live in Russia.  As recession wracks Russia, there will be some willing to sign on to his irresponsible military adventurism. But as years drag on, Russian mothers will resent sending their sons to die in Syria as surely as they  resented sending their sons to Afghanistan. And if Putin doesn't fear them, he's a fool.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/opinion/vladimir-putin-motives-in-syria.html?_r=0

: re: President Obama and the Power of Mercy

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 10:42 AM
Subject: re: President Obama and the Power of Mercy
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:
  Our constitution provides the President of the United States broad power to pardon. Too often--too my eye--it has been used to reward partisans (e.g. Caspar Weinberger, Marc Rich). But it remains on the books, and can be a tool for patching democracy's shortcomings.
     It is time that President Obama pardon Edward Snowden.  What Edward Snowden leaked, he leaked to the American people. To prosecute that as an act hostile to the American government is more an indictment of that government than of the leaker.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/opinion/president-obama-and-the-power-of-mercy.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

: re: George W. Bush Made Retroactive N.S.A. ‘Fix’ After Hospital Room Showdown

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Sep 20, 2015 at 8:33 PM
Subject: re: George W. Bush Made Retroactive N.S.A. ‘Fix’ After Hospital Room Showdown
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   Unless we are to accept Richard Nixon's radical formulation "that when the president does it, that means it's not illegal", violations of the FISA Statute of '78 that happened before the 2008 were crimes, and still await prosecution.  It is the Executive's job to see that "these laws be faithfully executed". It is not the presidents job and it is not within the president's power to do or to authorize that which our statutes forbid.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/us/politics/george-w-bush-made-retroactive-nsa-fix-after-hospital-room-showdown.html?_r=0

: re:Carried-Interest Tax Break Divides Again, After Trump Revives the Issue

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 6:30 AM
Subject: re:Carried-Interest Tax Break Divides Again, After Trump Revives the Issue
To: "letters@nytimes.com" <letters@nytimes.com>

To the Editor:

   As mr. Maloney says, on the matter of taxation in general, and on carried interest in particular, "there is a lot of misinformation out there,”.   The scandal of carried interest is not that the investment manager is rewarded for the investment's good performance. It is that for many on Wall Street, their contractual remuneration (what for anyone else is "salary" and therefore subject to ordinary income tax) is misdefined as "carried interest" and accorded the lower tax rate.

   As important as keeping track of our money is keeping track of our information, of our misinformation, and of who is pumping out that misinformation. Mr. Maloney is among the pumpers-out.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/19/business/carried-interest-tax-break-divides-again-after-trump-revives-the-issue.html

: re: Constitutionally, Slavery Is No National Institution

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 12:07 PM
Subject: re: Constitutionally, Slavery Is No National Institution
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

    While leaving lesser crimes (like murder) to the States, our nation's founders wrote the fugitive slave clause right into our constitution.  Harboring another man's slave is thus a high crime on the order of treason. No logical argument can get from here to prof. Wilenz' conclusion that we "did not sanction slavery in national law".

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/16/opinion/constitutionally-slavery-is-no-national-institution.html

: re: Democrats Lay Groundwork to Expand Use of ‘Super PACs’

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 9:50 AM
Subject: re: Democrats Lay Groundwork to Expand Use of ‘Super PACs’
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:
  

a DNC beholden to the few

wants someone who's more pliant to their will

who'll do what WallStreet bankers tell him to

they'd brush Bernie aside, and cling to Bill

but he's served twice, and cannot run again

and has to hide behind his smiling wife

as if high birth could make her president

or unify a party prone to strife

the media snub Sanders and his wing

who dream that votes should matter more than bucks

but they know billionaires control the king

directing whom he loves, and whom he fucks

we've read "How Nations Fail", but haven't learned

in stifling Bernie, our best hope is burned

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/us/politics/democrats-seek-to-expand-use-of-super-pacs.html

: re: The Elusive Truth About War on ISIS

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 9:32 AM
Subject: re: The Elusive Truth About War on ISIS
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   Half a billion dollars to train "four or five" Syrians to combat ISIS is a bit of math that even most Republican candidates for president might get right. No one can afford to wage war or proxy war at that rate. If we mean to stop ISIS, it will mean either arming Kurdistan or putting American lives on the line. The latter is unpopular; the former is decades over-due.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/opinion/the-elusive-truth-about-war-on-isis.html

: re: The Lobbyist With a Six-Figure Government Job

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 8:57 AM
Subject: re: The Lobbyist With a Six-Figure Government Job
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

    The Webster's dictionary defines "farrow" as a litter of pigs. So what do you expect when you turn a Farrow loose in the corridors of power?

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/us/politics/jeffrey-farrow-lobbying-government-contractor.html

: re: Democrats Lay Groundwork to Expand Use of ‘Super PACs’

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 8:22 AM
Subject: re: Democrats Lay Groundwork to Expand Use of ‘Super PACs’
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   As the RedWing of the Bankers' party and the BlueWing of the Bankers' party maneuver for advantage in their battle of the superPACS, the majority of Americans--who believe money has too much influence in our politics--face a stark choice. That is not a choice between whomever the RNC and whomever the DNC puts forward wrapped in gold and fettered by debts. Rather, it is the choice between a government of donors and a politics of the People.

  So let's make sure that our candidates say they favor campaign finance reform. But let's judge them on their campaign actions, not on their glib words.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/us/politics/democrats-seek-to-expand-use-of-super-pacs.html

: re: Big-Name Plan B’s for Democrats Concerned About Hillary Clinton

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 2:43 PM
Subject: re: Big-Name Plan B’s for Democrats Concerned About Hillary Clinton
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   It is fascinating and repugnant to glimpse the DNC's dark machinations.  Garnet Coleman assures us--while Americans align on issue by issue with sen. Bernie Sanders--that the DNC will pick for us someone whom the donors like.

   That's exactly the pre-selection that the people of HongKong so bravely rejected when Beijing offered them a sham democracy.  I hope Democrats here show as much spine.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/10/us/politics/big-name-plan-bs-for-democrats-concerned-about-hillary-clinton.html

: re: 3,000 Miles From Denali, Ohio Fumes Over Renaming of Mount McKinley

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 10:21 AM
Subject: re: 3,000 Miles From Denali, Ohio Fumes Over Renaming of Mount McKinley
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   In restoring Denali's good name, president Obama prompts us to consider what is president McKinley's legacy. William McKinley was the original president of the One Percent. Had he--and our first millionaires' congress--implemented his whole program, Organized Labor in America would have been crushed. The few who owned the rail, oil, banking and telegraph trusts in this country would have owned us all.  Had the presidency not been handed to Teddy Roosevelt by McKinley's assassin, we might have had a Workers' Revolution here in the U.S. before the Russians had theirs.

    So let's not forget McKinley has we rename Denali. Let us take this opportunity to remember that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/us/3000-miles-away-ohio-fumes-over-renaming-of-mount-mckinley.html

: re: The Lessons of Anwar al-Awlaki

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 7:19 AM
Subject: re: The Lessons of Anwar al-Awlaki
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

     Before discussing how best to destroy Anwar al-Awlaki, we must remember that he was never convicted of a crime. He was never charged with a crime. In American jurisprudence, that makes him an innocent citizen. Neither the president of the United States nor anyone else had any legitimate power to destroy him, whether by Hellfire missile or by attacks on his character.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/magazine/the-lessons-of-anwar-al-awlaki.html?_r=0

: re: A Warning on China Seems Prescient

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 8:46 AM
Subject: re: A Warning on China Seems Prescient
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

  If we are to lionize professor Rogoff when one of his warnings  hits the mark, we must keep track of his record, and when he was wrong. We learned years ago (http://www.peri.umass.edu/236/hash/31e2ff374b6377b2ddec04deaa6388b1/publication/566/)
that professor Rogoff always diagnoses "excessive debt", even when his own data don't support it.  To a reader who keeps track, professor Rogoff looks less like a prophet and more like the little boy who cried "wolf".

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/business/dealbook/a-warning-on-china-seems-prescient.html

: re: One Palestinian’s Refusal to Eat Puts Israel in a Bind

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 1:39 PM
Subject: re: One Palestinian’s Refusal to Eat Puts Israel in a Bind
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:
  John Locke--who, more than any other individual, inspired America's Founding Fathers--found the Right to Die to be fundamental. Without it, the State has  no legitimate power to imprison offenders.  The U.S. has long divorced our policy of incarceration from this basis. And of course Israeli practice is in no way bound by our laws or by our constitution.  But if the U.S. and Israel are to obey the Rule of Laws, and not of men, we need to ask soberly by what right we would shove a hose up a detainee's (or a prisoner's) nose. If it is only to spare the State the embarrassment of of a death in custody, maybe that custody was never legitimate.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/world/middleeast/one-palestinians-refusal-to-eat-puts-israel-in-a-bind.html

: re: Robot Weapons: What’s the Harm? II

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 4:05 PM
Subject: re: Robot Weapons: What’s the Harm?
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

  Professor Kaplan envisions a battlefield on which human combatants are increasingly replaced by intelligent killing machines. In such a scenario, victory belongs not to the side fielding the greater force, but to the side that is able to corrupt/co-opt the targeting of the enemy's weapons.

  Such a development may be inevitable. It is not comforting.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/opinion/robot-weapons-whats-the-harm.html?_r=0

: re: Robot Weapons: What’s the Harm?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 3:18 PM
Subject: re: Robot Weapons: What’s the Harm?
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

    Throughout human history to date, a leader contemplating war had to overcome natural hesitance if not to leading troops himself, to sending his children, or his neighbors' children or his constituents' children into battle. And he was likely to be overthrown if too many of those troops died. Professor Kaplan envisions a world in which this restraint is lifted. Only replaceable intelligent war machine assets are risked. It seems clear to some of us that that is a world in which war is more likely, if not actually perpetual.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/opinion/robot-weapons-whats-the-harm.html?_r=0

: re: The Affluent Ante Up for the Presidency

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Aug 15, 2015 at 5:19 PM
Subject: re: The Affluent Ante Up for the Presidency
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   

    In a campaign for the Republican nomination that has been full of posturing and personality but weak on substance, we are indebted--as are many of his own political rivals--to Donald Trump. In the first debate, he attested to exactly the tangible quid-pro-quo corruption that our Supreme Court opined would be needed to rule differently in re "Citizens United".
   Now that that's established, it does not require an amendment to fix our campaign finance system; SCOTUS need only acknowledge that "Citizens United" was wrongly decided based on ignorance of political reality.
   I'm not holding my breath. We should work on that amendment while we wait for our Supreme Court to wake up.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/15/opinion/the-affluent-ante-up-for-the-presidency.html?_r=0

tools

:

useful idiots

shouted down Sanders' challenge

to the plutocrats

: re: How the Republican Candidates Fared in the First Debate

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sat, Aug 8, 2015 at 6:00 PM
Subject: re: How the Republican Candidates Fared in the First Debate
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

  Perhaps this paper's analysts saw a different debate than I did on Thursday. I watched Donald Trump attest to exactly the quid-pro-quo corruption that our Supreme Court opined didn't exist in re Citizen's United. While Trump's testimony may, years hence, move our republic back away from plutocracy and towards legitimacy, it will rank as the worst moment of his campaign--to date--years after his tiff with senator Paul is forgotten.

Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/08/07/us/politics/republican-candidates-debate.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

: re: Israeli Justice in West Bank Is Seen as Often Uneven

From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 1:37 PM
Subject: re: Israeli Justice in West Bank Is Seen as Often Uneven
To: "letters@nytimes.com" <letters@nytimes.com>


To the Editor:
  That the Knesset would need to enact new statutes to treat a Jewish
terrorist like any other shows that--67 years into the project--Israel
still struggles to create  a Jewish State. It can't ever achieve that
until it has and enforces "one law for the stranger as for the
homeborn".
Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/03/world/middleeast/israeli-justice-is-seen-to-be-often-uneven-among-palestinian-cases.html?_r=0

: re: Stepping on a Slippery Slope

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 8:34 AM
Subject: re: Stepping on a Slippery Slope
To: "letters@nytimes.com"


To the Editor:
   No one can accept Martin Baron's claim that journalists need to
"abandon the idea that the news room can labor in isolation from the
business operations" and still work as a journalist.  Giving
advertisers what they want is the business of entertainers. But the
functioning of our republic requires an informed electorate, and that
in turn requires journalism, especially when it covers material
advertisers don't want to endorse.
   It is sad to see that Bezos' Washington Post has abandoned even the
pretense of pursuing journalism. It is outrageous that a columnist in
this paper should cite Baron approvingly.
Barry Haskell Levine



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/opinion/joe-nocera-stepping-on-a-slippery-slope.html?_r=0