RJ Eskow: Guernica Revisited? A President on the Verge of a Political Breakdown

Guernica, or Guernica Y Luno is a town of Northern Spain in Vizcaya Province, 12 miles northeast of Northern Spain in Vizcaya Province, and 12 miles northeast of Bilbao. It has traditionally been a center of the Basque culture. As a stronghold of the Loyalist forces from 1936 to 1939 during the Spanish Civil War, the town was devastated by German air bombardment in April 1937. The tragedy was captured by the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso in his monumental oil painting called "Guernica", which is enshrined in New York's Museum of Modern Art. Now, it seems that history, as it always does, is repeating itself, since NATO is visiting Libya and her people with faster planes and a much greater cargo of lethal ammunition! Pablo Picasso, if there is a hell, must now be crying in his ant and worm infested coffin, wondering tearfully whether there is a GOD? After my flight from our home in Breslau, Germany, and my family's witnessing of the US and British destruction of the beautiful city of Dresden, I fully believe that there is NOT! So we are stuck here in the Devil's playground, playing war games, and torturing our fellow humans. As Obama is my witness, I will never torture another human AGAIN! This isn't the first time the White House has floated the idea of Social Security cuts as part of a 'grand bargain' with Republicans, nor when there has been a ground- swell of opposition, but that opposition has never crystallized so quickly into something deeper and more threatening to the president's political fortunes: Liberal pundits are turning against him and Democrats on the Hill are taking the fight directly to him. With a new poll confirming that Social Security cuts would alienate the other side's base and independents, this "grand bargain" doesn't look like much of a bargain anymore. Senator Bernie Sanders already laid the responsibility for unpopular cuts squarely at the President's feet on a phone call with reporters today: "We thought Social Security was off the table," said Sanders, "but by reopening this issue the White House is not only going to take on these changes, but will open the door to whatever the Republicans want." In other words: If something "bad" happens to Social Security, you own it, Mr. President!