I prepared this podcast last year (2023) but did not get around to posting it until now (2024).  It focuses upon the time a few years ago when  I was asked to speak to the graduating class.  The students were there and their parents.  Plus the Chancellor and Deans and other luminaries.    It was a really nice event.   I did make one mistake.  When I came to the campus in 1973 the state of Michigan funded over 80% of our budget.  Today it is well under the 25% I mentioned, maybe closer to...

This summarizes the main findings of a book on this topic.  The Ottomans had experts in Zionism who monitored writings and developments very carefully. This podcast has surprising  findings. Note:  This was recorded during covid times as a class lecture (when we were not allowed to go live).  

Evangeline was a standard assignment in the 8th grade when I was a kid.  It was long and had big words but we read it because it made us better people.  This is the story of this poem, and of my experience with it.    It is also the story of Longfellow, the most popular poet of his age, and of his poems.  The Village Smith, Paul Revere's Ride, Haiwatha, and the powerful Christmas poem/song, "I heard the Bells on Christmas Day."  Longfellow had a painful life, but he kept writing those...

In January, 2024 Hamas published a paper called "Our Narrative . . .  Operation Al -Aqsa Flood."  It is an 18 page document discussing their perspective on the events of October 7.  I had not read any Hamas explanations, beyond short statements quoted by people not friendly to their side, so I immediately printed this out and read it.  More than once.  As I read this document, I realized I was not the only person who had never heard the Hamas perspective on those events.  I knew immediately...

  This is a summary of the main points in the ICJ ruling. Below is a summary of other International Humanitarian Laws.  These definine various crimes that occur within the context of war.  They are distinct from genocide but could be a part of genocide.  They would be heard by the International Criminal Court rather than by the High Court of Justice.  The three most commonly discussed offenses are Ethnic Cleansing, Crimes Against Humanity, and War Crimes. Ethnic Cleansing "rendering an area...

In December, 2023 South Africa filed a document before the High Court of Justice in the Hague accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza.  This was for its actions against Gaza in the wake of the blood-chilling Hamas attack on Israeli military positions, towns, and a music festival on October 7.  Those attacks killed nearly 1200 people.  There are three recent developments worth noting.  First, Mexico and Chile are preparing to charge Israel in the International...

The Israeli election of November, 2022 brought into the Knesset some of the most extreme individuals in that country's history.  To bring himself back into office,  Netanyahu brought them into his cabinet.  (Smotrich and Bin Gvir get the most attention, but there are others).   These were people who had been brought up in the shadow  of Rabbi Meir Kahane.  Kahane had been banned from office and Netanyahu's new allies had also seen their party banned.  But they had reconstituted themselves...

To destroy "in whole or in part" the ability of a people to function.   I delivered this talk in 2020  for a unit on Armenia.  It was well before the fall of 2023 and the horrible Gaza War.  As I am writing (December 2023) 20,000 Palestinians have been killed.  The Israelis say the number of Hamas combatants killed is around 1700+  Gaza is no longer functioning.  There have been several scholarly essays and discussions of whether this meets the standard for genocide.   Here is my  original...

In December, 2023  House Republicans summoned the Presidents of Harvard, MIT and University of Pennsylvania to a hearing about Anti-Semitism on their campuses.  They were asked if calling for Genocide against Jews would be an offense.  Knowing that Republicans consider the word “intifada” (“shaking off”) and the phrase “from the river to the sea” to be genocidal, not to mention that Israel should be a state for all its people rather than a “Jewish” state, there was no way to win with that...

Are you getting frustrated with argumentation?  Does it irritate you that so many people just seem to repeat tired old arguments that any reasonable person can see are not true?  Well, maybe you need to listen to this podcast.  Each of us carries around a narrative of logical and irrefutable arguments on this topic.  Except for the fact that people outside of our group have trouble accepting it.   I like this podcast.  My students also liked it.  I would pass it out at the beginnig of the...

For those of you watching the mass killings in Gaza (nearly 14,000 dead in seven weeks, over 2/3 of them women and children) you might find it helpful to think back to an earlier time when Israel was once again implicated in a mass killing.  This was what happened in September, 1982 during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.  The Israelis are quick to point out that they did not themseslves do the killing, but neither were they free of  responsibility.  This podcast has two purposes:  to...

Would anyone out there like to have a chat on Zoom?  It is now the end of November, 2023 and I just passed 50,000 total downloads so I am thinking I should do something to honor that event.  What beter thing than to talk to those of you who helped make that number possible.  And I almost never get feedback from you so I really don't know who you are.  We could talk about whatever you want.  The War in Gaza, American Politics, Politics in your country, podcasts that you particularly liked, or...

What happened after the armistice in January of 1949?   Of course, the major consequence was the Palestinian refugees.  Thinking only of what we consider the internationally recognized boundaries of Israel, probably 80% or more of all the Palestinians inside of that area  on January 1, 1948 were gone by December 31, 1948.  This is the real “catastrophe,” or nakhba,  as the Palestinians call it.  The Israelis were insistent that none of these refugees would be allowed to return.   I am very...

It has occurred to me that there is great interest in the background to the current conflict.  Here is a discussion of the Palestinian Refugees of 1948. This is an extremely important topic surrounded by false narratives and inflammatory rhetoric.  I have put off preparing a podcast for some time, but not because it is sensitive.  I deal with quite a few sensitive topics.  It goes with the territory.  But in this case, a reason for my hesitation is that I have a written briefing document...

This is the second podcast on this war.  I have posted it a second time because Buzzsprout had technical problems andthe first posting may not have reached everyone.  It was written November 1.  It is written in the early stages of the Israeli invasion.  Much of it has to do with implications and reactions.  As I post this update on November 5, there are close to 10,000 Palestinian fatalities.  Perhaps 40% of them are children. 

This was written November 1.   Much of it deals with the reaction to the war and the implications of the war.  Note:  There are approximatley 10,000 casualties.  40% are children. 

On October 7, 2023, the anniversary of the 1973 War, Hamas began a massive missile barrage at key Israeli cities.  Hamas soldiers crashed through the barriers that enclosed Gaza and struck at 22 different Israeli cities.  They also attacked a Music Festival going on just near the Gaza border.  By the time they were driven back, over a thousand Israelis had been killed.  Perhaps a hundred and fifty were taken into Gaza as captives.  This was the sixth Hamas-Israel combat.  Most had left large...

1973 October War, 50th anniversary October 6.   October 6, 2023 is the 50th anniversary of the 1973 October War.  This war lasted three long weeks and took the great powers (the US and the USSR) to the brink of  nuclear war.  It also cleared the sinuses, so to speak.   Nixon and Kissinger realized that unless there was progress in working out some kind of resolution of the 1967 war, the US was going to get dragged into a major war.   Let me clarify the term “The Year of Decision.”  My lecture...

Today (September 28) I watched the first hearing of the impeachment investigation (or whatever they are calling it) of Joe Biden.  Not that this podcast  on what the Founders meant by impeachment  will be of much use to the Republican Caucus  Even their three  expert witnesses told them there were no grounds for their investigation.  Unless they just wanted to investigate for the sake of investigation.  Which I suspect is their purpose.  Fox News had two experts  discuss what they had just...

Why I Killed Gandhi  by Nathuram Godse  Gandhi was assassinated in 1948.  In most movies, the assassin is portrayed as a deranged bearded scary-looking fanatic. (In one, Horst Buchholz played the role.  His character was closer to the real assassin).  Some of those words might well be justified, but we are never told that the assassin was an exceptionally well educated, well-read reformer, someone who hated the caste system and looked forward to a modern India.  His name was Nathuram Godse. ...

Falling Man:  A story of September 11 Let me be a Time Traveler and take you back to that terrible day.   For those of us who remember September 11, the image of the “Falling Man” is iconic.  As the flames engulfed the upper stories of the towers, there were several people who decided they would not wait to be burned alive.  They jumped to their deaths.  Some even held hands with friends as they fell.  One person on the ground was killed when hit by a falling body.  The noted American...

Biden Will Be a One Term President I came up with this insight nearly three years ago.  If I had posted it back then, you could have thought about it all this time and looked for little signs here and there.  With Joe creating a campaign structure, it may look a bit different in late 2023.   Still, it is only 8 minutes or so long so you will not sacrifice a lot of time listening to it.  And if you haven't listened to the podcasts on the three indictments (Mara-Lago Documents, January 6...

This is the third indictment of Donald Trump relevant to the election of 2020.  I have done podcasts on each of these.   The Mara-Lago Documents case The January 6 indictments.  Now the Atlanta/Fulton County, Georgia Indictments.  I also did a podcast on the Dominion Voting Machine defamation case against Fox News, which was settled out of court.  If you listen to these four podcasts, you will know more than any other kid on your block. 

This is a discussion of the January 6 Indictment for Insurrection handed down in early August.  There is an earlier podcast on the Mara-Lago stolen documents case, and one on the Dominion Voting Machine defamation lawsuit against Fox News.  There were some glitches in this podcast. The Vice President is President of the Senate, not Speaker.  Giuliani showed the Georgia committee an edited video, not an edited photo.  There is a "crime-fraud" exception, not exemption.  But Rudy Giuliani...