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Ray Hanania informed commentary, humor, & insight on politics & issues in Chicago, Middle East & Arab/Muslim America
Episodes
Monday Oct 03, 2016
Monday Oct 03, 2016
Board of Review needs your attention
DVN, The Reporter, The Regional Sept. 29, 2016
By Ray Hanania
I know the big focus on November 8 is the battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but there are other elections that in reality more directly impact your lives.
The most important is an obscure office called the Cook County Board of Review and it has three members representing three districts that supposedly review your property taxes to make sure they are fair.
What really happens is that some of the commissioners use the lure of reducing your property taxes as a scam to get you to attend their re-election campaign events. They organize public “tax review” meetings and invite the public to “learn” how to challenge your property taxes.
Nothing happens. Your taxes remain the same.
You should remember one name if you live in the Southwest Suburbs who is trying to change that, Marty Stack. ...
Monday Oct 03, 2016
Monday Oct 03, 2016
Podcast: Obama follows in Clinton shadow to build “pro-Israel legacy”
Published in the Arab News, Saudi Arabia Sept. 30, 2016
By Ray Hanania
Many Arabs believed newly elected President Barack Obama would re-balance America’s heavily pro-Israel foreign policy, including establishing a Palestinian State.
In fact Obama didn’t disappoint Arab World or Palestinian expectations when he embraced Palestinian rights and acknowledged Palestinian “suffering” during an unprecedented speech in Cairo six months after winning election in November 2008.
Seven years later, though, Obama found himself in the ruins of the two-state solution, doing what his Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton did as his term ended, currying Israeli forgiveness to strengthen his post-White House legacy.
Clinton spent his entire eight years nurturing Palestinian-Israeli peace only to watch it vanish.
In 1993, Clinton convinced Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to shake hands with PLO leader Yasir Arafat. It was a spectacular moment that I personally witnessed at the White House with the naïve hope it would end decades of American anti-Palestinian bias.
Click here to read the column in at the ArabNews.com
Notes and Links:
A history of financial compensation to Israel
Obama’s Cairo Speech of June 4, 2009
Monday Oct 03, 2016
Monday Oct 03, 2016
Podcast: Interview with Hebah Fisher of Kerning Cultures
By Ray Hanania
We take a moment to talk with Heba Fisher, one of the editors at Kerning Cultures which explores Middle East issues in their weekly podcasts.
Hebah is one of the contributors to The Arab Daily News online and she will post Kerning Cultures podcasts here regularly.
Here is Hebah's bio.
HEBAH KAWAR, Podcaster, Blogger
Email her at: hebah@kerningcultures.com
Click here to visit the website of Kerning Cultures.
Monday Sep 26, 2016
Monday Sep 26, 2016
Ray Hanania's column commentary podcast of his weekly column in the Des Plaines Valley News, Southwest News-Herald, The Regional News, the Reporter Newspapers and IllinoisNewsNetwork.com. Topic: Who is to blame for Illinois' financial problems, the elected officials or the Illinois residents who can vote but don't?
Blame non-voters for state’s problems
9-22-2016 Des Plaines Valley News, SW News-Herald, The Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, Illinois News Network
By Ray Hanania
Last week’s column hammering the stupid idea of term limits brought on a lot of emails from readers.
And I thank them for sharing their views.
Most said they understand my logic that imposing “term limits” on elected officials strips voters of their right to decide who should represent them.
One person argued district “gerrymandering” is the problem. I disagree. The districts are drawn by the elected officials in power. If you want to change who has power, vote. If not, don’t vote.
And apparently, most people in Illinois really don’t blame the elected officials for the state’s problems. Because the majority of people who can vote, don’t. ...
Click here to read the rest of the column ...
Thursday Sep 15, 2016
Thursday Sep 15, 2016
09-15-16 Biggest Challenge is Credit Card Debt
The nation’s biggest challenge, credit card debt
Sept. 15, 2016
By Ray Hanania
I remember the JFK assassination. I remember the 9/11 terrorism. And, I remember the very first time I used a credit card. How many people remember that?
The Vietnam War ended and I had been transferred to an Air National Guard base in Peoria.
When I got home to Burbank, I borrowed my mom’s car to drive to Peoria. She gave me a plastic card and she explained I could use it to get gasoline from Shell.
Wow, how the world changed since I left to join the fight against the Commie-bastards!
The tank was filled and I jumped in without thinking, pretty much the same way we got into the Vietnam War, and later the Iraq War. I drove to Peoria. On the way back, I passed a Shell Station outside of Pontiac. ...
Click here to read the rest of the column ...
Thursday Sep 15, 2016
Thursday Sep 15, 2016
09-08-16 Laboring through Labor Day Podcast
Sept.8, 2016
ByRay Hanania
TheLabor Day weekend usually marks a special point in our lives when children go back to school, the weather shifts from swelter to soothing, and we’re reminded politics really has no season and is here with us every day.
It’s supposed to be the start of something new, but honestly, it’s become a familiar blur.
Things may not change in politics but they have changed in how we act. These days, the kids start going back to school in the middle of August and it continues pastLabor Day, depending on where you live.
I don’t know why but I figure it has to do with money. Sadly, that’s what most educators really care about. It ain’t the kids (my illiterate protest). ...
Friday Sep 02, 2016
Friday Sep 02, 2016
09-02-16 Mohammed Dajani Daoudi on the Holocaust, Normalization & Palestinian peace
Thursday Sep 01, 2016
Thursday Sep 01, 2016
Ray Hanania's column & commentary audio podcast, www.RayHanania.com Sept. 1 2016
Term limitsdeny voters their rights
By Ray Hanania
Every time a failedpolitician or a failed group of activists don’t get their way, they stamp theirfeet and whine like little babies that they want to impose “term limits.”
“Term limits”basically takes away the right of each individual voter to choose theirgovernment representatives at the ballot box through voting.
Why wouldanyone do that? Because many times, voters really like some politicians andreturn them to office over, and over and over again. That upsets the losers whoget so frustrated because they can’t seem to get enough votes to win anything.
If they justhad “term limits,” losers might be elected to office. In our system ofDemocracy where voters decide their destiny and representation, “term limits”is a strategy for losers. ...
Click here to read the rest of the Column ...
Friday Aug 26, 2016
Friday Aug 26, 2016
It's the News Media, Stupid!
Ray Hanania's column & commentary audio podcast, www.RayHanania.com August 25, 2016 explores the hypocrisy of the news media in covering Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton, and how the media downplays a tragedy in Louisiana, compared to the tragedy in New Orleans 11 years before, in order to make anti-Trump attacks. It's the News Media, Stupid!Playing golf or politics with people’s suffering
By Ray Hanania
The flood damage in Louisiana is considered one of the worst American natural disasters since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
More than 40,000 homes have been seriously damaged or destroyed by the flooding and thousands have been made homeless.
It also may be the worst example of politically motivate media bias since Katrina, too. And the timing is ironic: Katrina slammed nearby New Orleans 11 years ago this month.
The Louisiana floods began on Friday August 12. By Thursday August 18, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump flew to Baton Rouge to tour the flood ravaged region and asked out loud the question no one in the media wanted to ask: Why isn’t President Obama in Louisiana showing support?
Click here to read the rest of the column ...
Monday Aug 22, 2016
Monday Aug 22, 2016
Ray Hanania's column/commentary podcast. August 18, 2016
Are the Olympics fair? A look at the disparity of the various nations, from the rich to the poor, and how that directly impacts the competing athletes
By Ray Hanania
I know that the Olympics are probably as political as a Chicago election. It’s not just about talent. It’s about who you know that gets athletes onto Team USA.
It’s even worse in other countries.
But I have a higher conscience that I just can’t abandon.
This year, 205 nations sent athletes to the Olympics. But the battle for Gold comes down to a handful, the richest, the most powerful and the most influential: The United States. Russia, China, Great Britain. Canada, France, and most of the European countries and a few of the Asian countries, including Japan.
Monday Aug 15, 2016
Monday Aug 15, 2016
Ray Hanania's column & commentary audio podcast, www.RayHanania.com August 15, 2016 explores the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hatred reflected in the racist TV series on FX, Tyrant.
Friday Aug 12, 2016
Friday Aug 12, 2016
Is it Trump or Clinton? Yikes! Ray Hanania's column & commentary and audio podcast, also available at www.RayHanania.com August 11, 2016 explores the difficult choice Americans have in the presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump
By Ray Hanania
How do you sort through the turmoil of this presidential election, the worst we have seen in generations?
Will it be Donald Trump, the popular celebrity TV businessman with the offensive rhetoric, or Hillary Clinton, the veteran politician who distorts her record from Benghazi, her emails to the war in Iraq?
It’s an ugly choice but we can’t waste a vote on a 3rd party.
Click here to read the column ...
Ray Hanania writes each week for several newspapers and publications both online and in print on issues involving American politics, American life, and also issues of the Middle East. You can visit his websites for more information on each:
Thursday Aug 04, 2016
Thursday Aug 04, 2016
Ray Hanania's weekly column commentary podcast explores the issue of change in politics and in everyday life.
Sometimes too much “change” is not good
By Ray Hanania
Southwest News Group newspaper (Des Plaines Valley News, Southwest News-Herald, The Regional Newspaper, The Reporter Newspaper)
Everyone is talking about “change” these days.
It’s one reason why so many people are willing to take a risk withnon-politician Donald Trump over insider establishment politician Hillary Clinton.
It’s not about being a Democrat or a Republican. It is about “change.”Despite his sometimes off-the-wall rhetoric, Donald Trump represents change.Hillary Clinton does not.
Sometimes, though, “change” can be too much.
Last week, I went to the Marcus Theaters in Orland Park to watch thepremiere of the movie “Jason Bourne.” There have been five in the Bourneseries, far less than records set by Star Trek (around 13 including the latest,“Star Trek Beyond”) or James Bond (around 24 with the latest being “Spectre”).
But it wasn’t the movie choice that made me think of “change” becausemost movie series and remakes like Jason Bourne, Star Trek and James Bond relyheavily on fundamental expectations that can’t change, although they oftenchange the stars for younger actors. ...
Friday Jul 29, 2016
Friday Jul 29, 2016
“Law and order” today and 50 years ago
By Ray Hanania
When we look at the terrible rise in violence between police and mainly the African American community, we think this is a new phenomena.
But it’s not.
I was listening to an audio book by author Gabriel Sherman called “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” a detailed look at the rise of Roger Ailes, the unscrupulous political activist who built the equally unscrupulous Fox News Cable Network only to be forced out recently in an unscrupulous sex scandal.
And they say there is no justice!
The book describes how Ailes helped candidate Richard Nixon overcome his broadcast problems to win the 1968 presidential election.
In preparingNixon for TV, Ailes arranged for panels to ask questions. One panel included journalist Warner Saunders, a rising African American anchor at WMAQ TV who I met while covering Chicago City Hall in the late1970s. He retired in 2009.
Saunders askedNixon a question that could have been asked today. ... Click to read more.
Tuesday Jul 19, 2016
Tuesday Jul 19, 2016
Ray Hanania's Podcast Column Commentary July 19, 2016, Violence today and 50 years ago. This column explores violence in America in a unique way comparing two unrelated events, the murder of police officers by two American veterans, and the reaction to the killings. Also, the racism of America reflected in the violence 50 years ago by Richard Speck and the murder of 8 student nurses. No one ran from the neighborhood after Speck raped, tortured and killed the 8 nurses. But two years later in 1968 in the same neighborhood, thousands of Whites fled when one Black family moved into the community in a massive White Flight to the suburbs. Many left in the middle of the night because they knew it was morally wrong.
Tough questions on killings today and 50 years ago
By Ray Hanania
July 21, 2016
As a veteran who served active duty during the VietnamWar, and who wore a uniform proudly for more than 15 years including in theIllinois Air National Guard, I have a right to ask this question in the killings of eight Police officers this past month in Dallas and Baton Rouge?
What has the military done to respond to the trauma manyAmerican soldiers experienced first fighting in the just war to destroy al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and in the unjust wars that were fought in Iraq, and are being fought in Yemen and Syria?
Is this a price we are paying for those wars?
In East BatonRouge: the killer of three police officers, wounding three more, was identified as Gavin Long, an African-American of Kansas City Missouri. Long was a formerMarine who had served from 2005 to 2010, and he had been deployed to Iraq in2008, according to military records.
In Dallas Texas:the killer of five police officers, and wounding nine others, was Micah X.Johnson, 25, a reservist working in carpentry and masonry who deployed toAfghanistan once in 2013, and was a former member of an Army engineering company and served in the Individual Ready Reserves. ...