The obvious solution to this problem, of instability, extremism and climate change emanating from Riyadh, is electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. They should be adopted as quickly as humanly possible.
Unfortunately, there is also an economic factor in that a very sizable portion of the American people can't afford electric cars and solar panels. If we slashed our war department's budget in half or more then we could afford to spread more energy efficient systems among the people. Now that would be a very good defensive measure.
72% of Americans don’t trust Trump’s word on Russia.
What percentage of the American people trust the mainstream media on Russia - or any other political topic for that matter? My guess is that whatever the percentage is it should be cause for concern for anyone who genuinely cares for the future of this nation.
Muhammad bin Salman, the ambitious Saudi defense minister, said a couple of weeks ago that he would wage the war inside Iranian territory.
The defense (sic) minister would do well to ponder Saddam Hussein's war against Iran and the United States' "cakewalk" through Iraq and the history of the Middle East since.
Britain agrees. Khan told Channel 4 News Monday, “I don’t think we should roll out the red carpet to the president of the U.S.A. in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for.
The Brits have rolled out the red carpet for despots from the Middle East and Africa very much worse than Trump. Nevertheless, Mayor Khan does have a very good point.
Oh, and the coal miners? Both Kansas and China are offering them retraining programs in the wind industry.
I have read statements by former lumberman expressing their appreciation for retraining out of the forests and into work they find more rewarding for a variety of reasons.
The American public has shown itself incredibly patient as they watched a handful of corporations simply buy congressmen and senators and have them vote for the interests of the super-rich and against the interests of Americans.
I'm not sure "patient" is the right word to describe the American people in this instance.
Why is God allowing the Bible Belt to be put at such risk? Perhaps I should pose that question to the Christian Broadcast Network or Liberty University.
Add Trump the authoritarian to the ruling plutocracy, the climate change deniers, and the Israel lobby, and the future for the United States appears to be at grave risk.
There is one lesson we can learn with confidence from this event. The Washington swamp needs to be drained more than ever. Unfortunately, like the rest of America's infrastructure it will continue to be allowed to degrade even further.
I would argue that it is time for people such as myself and Mr. Bodden to run for political office as Dems, true to conduct a semi-hostile take-over of the party, ...
Give me a call, Grumpy. I would be honored to serve as your vice chair of the DNC.
Juan: I was referring specifically to the people who voted for these wretches, not to the American people in general. If Paul Ryan's district consisted of his house, Scott Walker's house and mine and this district was gerrymandered so that my family couldn't vote, then the choice and responsibility falls on the Ryan and Walker homes for electing Reichsfuehrer Ryan
Re: your very helpful list of single-payer nations. Otto von Bismarck established a universal health care system in Germany in the late 19th Century. link to pnhp.org
The sadism and greed of the American Republican Party was on full display Thursday, as the House GOP voted to destroy Obamacare and remove the coverage for pre-existing conditions (50 million Americans suffer from them).
That the house Republicans could be so brazen in this morally corrupt act should be of greater concern than voting for the AHCA itself. Flaunting their contempt for millions of people who are at risk of being in need of healthcare is evidence of moral decadence in Congress and a sizable segment of the American people willing to go along with this proto-fascism.
From another angle it doesn't say much for the intelligence of those among the American people who vote these despicable people into Congress.
Unfortunately, the Democratic party is little, if any, better.
Very well said, Juan. Hypocrisy prevails in the Washington swamp and the mainstream media as it has for generations.
Let's say Duterte is guilty as charged. How does he compare with the Clintons and the half million Iraqi children estimated to have died because of the sanction they maintained on Iraq with the support of Vice President Al Gore and SOS Madeleine Albright who said they thought it was worth it.
Or, the Bush-Cheney wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?
Or Obama's continuation of Bush wars and new ones in Libya, Syria and Yemen?
Brett Stephens at the NYT is the essence of fake news.
And, at last night's White House Correspondents Association dinner the attendees were dishing out and lapping up praise for the mainstream media and their search for the truth.
With or without Sessions in Alabama it retains a certain capacity for inhumanity. "Nothing is Fair About Alabama’s 'Fair Justice Act'” by Stephen Cooper - link to counterpunch.org
Next time Alabama wants to secede perhaps we should help all we can.
O’Reilly beat the drum nightly for George W. Bush’s invasion and occupation of Iraq.
It's okay to being an advocate for wars that result in death, mayhem, and displacement for millions of people, but getting exposed in sexually compromising indiscretions will get you in trouble.
And then they will outstrip the Christians by 2100.
Given the disregard of climate change among so many capitalists pathologically predisposed to greed and a mixture of low levels of intelligence and ever-increasing powers of weapons of mass destruction what are chances of this planet lasting until 2100?
An enlightened author I read several decades ago - he may have been Peter J. Drucker, then known as the father of modern management - said that any projections beyond five years should not be taken seriously. He cited numerous technological developments that were on the market then but very, very few people anticipated or heard of in the recent past.
As the adage goes, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
That leads to another mantra: Too much is never enough.
President Trump’s congratulations to Erdogan reveal his autocratic tendencies too. It is a complete reversal of American ideals when we see that the American president is on the side of the likes of Erdogan, Marshal Sisi, al-Khalifa of Bahrain, Saudi rulers and an assortment of other dictators. This shows how far America has fallen since Trump’s election.
American proclivity for autocratic tendencies was alive and fermenting long before President Trump's more obvious enthusiasm for it. Hillary Clinton, to cite but one example, wanted General Suleiman, Egypt's Director of Torture Chambers, to replace Hosni Mubarak.
We have a lot of war crimes of our own to investigate and apologize for.
But won't because the plutocracy and their puppets in politics and the military-industrial complex believe might makes right and they and the nation are above the law and the rabble supports them.
“Eric Trump says his ‘heartbroken and outraged’ sister Ivanka helped persuade their father to strike Syria” by Eliza Relman – link to businessinsider.com
I wonder if Ivanka was equally heartbroken when Israel’s Operation Protective Edge slaughtered hundreds of Palestinian children in Gaza.
It is interesting to note that many of the talking heads on cable "news" supporting this strike on Syria also supported the disastrous acts of aggression against Iraq and Libya. None seemed to have recalled being lied to by the government as in the Tonkin Gulf and other incidents.
Talking of hypocrisy, compare the Washington establishment's and the MSM reactions to the dozens of children killed by chemical weapons in Idlib and their responses to the hundreds of children killed in Gaza during Operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge.
The massive use of depleted uranium by American forces in Iraq, especially in Fallujah, resulted in many documented cases of cancer and other birth defects.
Then there are the unexploded bombs and landmines in Vietnam and Laos and Agent Orange in Vietnam - Made in the USA.
Good point, Marianna. The anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Riverside Church speech just passed. In that speech Dr. King warned of America's spiritual death, a point at which the United States may have arrived. Among the supporting evidence, in addition to what Professor Cole has provided, there is the bizarre and irrational history of people promoting the unprovoked, disastrous and illegal war on Iraq and a crime against humanity. They are guilty of actions similar to what got the Nazis in the dock at Nuremberg. Instead of being banished in one form or another, they are running around the Middle East promoting more wars and more crimes against humanity.
Assuming by progressive we mean people who believe in the concept of all people being created equal with a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and they aspire to our nation becoming someday one with liberty and justice for all then they have many more reasons beyond the Trump cabal to be fatigued. Prominent among the other reasons are the proto- (verging on neo-) fascists in the Republican party and the Judas-Democrats across the aisle working to make the rich richer and the poor poorer as they continue to build the American empire with war and more wars "on the table."
The conspiracy-minded might conclude that Comey is a Pence supporter, and has cleverly maneuvered Pence into a position where he has a shot at the presidency if Trump is forced out over the Russia scandal.
Hopefully, any group seeking to get rid of Trump will wait until after the 2018 elections to give the Democrats a chance to take back the senate and/or the house - not that they will be any great improvement. Other than a nuclear or other war with Russia or Iran, it is difficult to contemplate anything worse than a President Pence supported by Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.
During yesterday’s hearing held by the House Intelligence (?) committee Rep. Adam Schiff stated unequivocally that Russia interfered with the 2016 election. Unfortunately, FBI Director Comey didn’t ask Schiff to provide his evidence to assist with the FBI’s investigation into the matter.
Does Trump’s slashed Foreign Aid Budget give China the Advantage?
China has an intelligence advantage over the United States and has had this advantage for several years, especially since and during the US wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. Where the U.S. went in with guns ablazing,, creating shock and awe and trillions of debt, the Chinese went into Afghanistan and other nations with money bags and walked out with contracts for special minerals and other precious goodies for profit. Meanwhile claims of American exceptionalism continue to evolve into hubris. Pride has been known to precede a fall, and hubris makes it a slam dunk.
Trump may have been the big Kahuna at his meeting with Angela Merkel, but for many people not among his followers there will be a sense that he was outclassed by the lady from Berlin.
The Resistance is alive. How well it will do will depend on the American people. Perhaps the shaft they are getting from Trump/Ryancare will wake them up.
What civilization does this nincompoop have in mind? In just the last twenty years the United States maintained sanctions on Iraq that cost an estimated half million children their lives. That was followed by an unprovoked war on Iraq that has destabilized the Middle East bringing death, destruction and displacement to millions of people - including the refugees seeking safety in Europe and the U.S.
The United States was forged in the War of the Revolution and has been at war almost constantly since. link to en.wikipedia.org
After the Second World War the U.S. played a prominent role in writing the United Nations Charter and the Nuremberg Principles and adding to the Geneva Conventions. Within a short time span the U.S. began violating those documents designed to promote a more civilized world.
Among the most blatant acts of hypocrisy in modern history was the war on Iraq in which George W. Bush and Tony Blair and their cohorts violated the aforementioned principles not only without consequence but they continue to be regarded with respect by many of their obsequious fellow citizens while their biographies are saturated by the blood of many of the victims referred to in this article..
Having Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency ,,,
and all his equally unenlightened colleagues in Trump's cabinet says a great deal about the Trump administration none of which is good.
Having Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as the two top contenders for the presidency says a lot about the American people in general. There is nothing of virtue in that scenario either.
We'll probably have some "strategy" similar to those we had in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan and try out the latest mindless idea du jour. Surges will probably be on the menu. We just need to give it a few Friedman Units.
opinion polling shows that a majority of Americans want Sessions to resign because, they say, he lied under oath.
Sessions was not the first to lie to Congress and he won't be the last. James Clapper lied to the senate intelligence (?) committee without legal penalty. Many of the promoters of the Iraq war lied to Congress - also without legal penalty.
Excellent points, hquain. It isn't only Trump but the other authoritarians and authoritarian followers associated with the Republican party that are major parts of this and many other problems. Not that the Judas-Democrats will come to our rescue.
But the fact is that concentrating too much on the sound and fury issuing from Mar-a-Lago is counter-productive.
"Global Warming’s Threat to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
March 5, 2017
Exclusive: President Trump’s war on President Obama’s regulations may kill off rules to reduce leaks of the global-warming gas methane, a partisan scheme with grave consequences for Mar-a-Lago and the world", writes Jonathan Marshall. - link to consortiumnews.com
Trump has a long list of Obama errors that he could legitimately use to criticize the former president. Violating international law to attack Yemen is one.
It went on to quote the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that US media allegations about Sessions-Kislyak meetings were “media vandalism and an attempt to completely misinform the American and global public opinion”.
Our mainstream media lying to the American people? How can the Russians say that? If it hadn't been for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Fox News, and others we would never have known about Saddam Hussein's stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
“If Palestinians in the occupied territories are to be denied self-determination in a state of their own, will they receive full citizenship and equal rights in a single state, potentially meaning the end of a Jewish majority state?
Very true, but it is nothing new. Mencken was a severe critic of journalists generations ago. link to realclearbooks.com
The great and courageous Helen Thomas nailed Ronald Reagan with a question that deserved an answer, but he dodged it with his aw-shucks schtick and was aided and abetted by other "journalists" at the press conference who should have backed Ms. Thomas to demand an answer. Instead, they laughed at Reagan's corny joke.
But surely, the White House correspondents and their friends sank to their lowest when they laughed at George W. Bush's squalid skit at the 2004 WHCA dinner when Dubya made fun of the non-existent WMDs that got the war on Iraq going and led to the deaths and maiming of countless people, including thousands of our military personnel "serving their country." David Corn was the only journalist and attendee at that dinner with the integrity to walk out after witnessing that despicable scene.
Trump is wrong believing our department of war is suffering from inadequate funding. The deficit is in the intelligence of the top civilians and brass at that five-sided black hole on the Potomac. They were outsmarted by and couldn't defeat the North Vietnam army nor the militias in Iraq whose budgets were small fractions of the Pentagon's. Similarly, our military and the military-industrial complex's European franchise (NATO) are bogged down in a quagmire in Afghanistan by insurgents with a budget that would correspond to chump change in Washington.
More on Russia bashing: "The Increasingly Unhinged Russia Rhetoric Comes From a Long-Standing U.S. Playbook" by Glenn Greenwald - link to theintercept.com
Justhnkn: You need to do some checking instead of buying into this canard** about Russian influence and thinking about it. The reason the Congressional Republicans haven't done anything about it is because they don't have any evidence to support it, and the reason they don't have any evidence is because there is none.
Robert Parry and others at Consortium News have written several articles disproving the allegations against Russia. Here is one:
The Did-You-Talk-to-Russians Witch Hunt
February 18, 2017
Exclusive: Democrats, liberals and media pundits – in their rush to take down President Trump – are pushing a New McCarthyism aimed at Americans who have talked to Russians, risking a new witch hunt, reports Robert Parry. - link to consortiumnews.com
** My first inclination to describe this piece of fake news was to use two certain and more pungent words, but they wouldn't have passed the moderator.
But again, if 60 percent of you think this guy’s values are alien to you, why would you put him in the presidency? Just for a change of pace?
Because:
1) Many considered the alternative, according to conventional wisdom to be worse.
2) The vast majority of voters passed on a chance to vote "none of the above" in the form of a vote for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson
3) The undemocratic electoral college gave Trump the presidency, and
4) A nation gets the kind of government it deserves.
The rational way to deal with long-term unauthorized immigrants would be to offer them a path to citizenship, ...
Another method would be for the United States ending its practice of helping to create economic and social chaos in countries south of the border and in the Middle East.
This and similar scandalous events reveal much that is deplorable about the main characters in the stories but also, probably much more seriously, a greater defect in the American people. In the long-ago past the careers of the principal figure or figures in a scandal would be finished. In extreme cases they would commit suicide. In our present era of decadence the perpetrators, when caught, engage in public relations campaigns. If successful, they continue to operate in high positions with power and commit similar and sometimes greater tragedies. This is made possible by the low moral and ethical standards of the American people and their attendant silence. If more people rose and spoke out in protest then we might see more resignations and firings.
Instead, a broad consensus of the American people agreed Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were two of the worst candidates ever to run for president. Nevertheless, more than 120 million people considered one or the other acceptable instead of voting "none of the above."
How delusional could Kerry have been if he believed Netanyahu and his cohort of right-wing racists would accept a peace plan that would preclude Israel from completing the Zionist plan of transferring all Palestinians out of their territory?
As H.L. Mencken once said, no one ever went broke by underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
Another adage worth pondering is the one about a nation getting the kind of government it deserves. There are individuals that can rightly claim they deserve better but not the composite American.
With a couple exceptions America has generally been hostile to immigrants with the "Yellow Peril" of the late 19th Century being one of the more notorious and cruel.
The exceptions include, according to a Texas school textbook, the "workers" imported from Africa and the "poor and tired huddled masses" to help keep wages depressed.
The Americans that got it right when they claimed immigrants would bring disaster were the Native Americas who understandably didn't like the aggressive behavior of settlers moving into their nations.
Does the SEAL TEAM 6 raid in Yemen not qualify as a war crime? If so, why are people getting so excited about Ms. Conway's plugging Ivanka's rags instead?
why not choose another English-speaking country like Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, etc.?
Two or three years ago "60 Minutes" featured a high tech university in India that was reportedly very desirable for Indian students. The program suggested that students that couldn't make the grade for this Indian university had to settle for something like MIT . . .
These international students bring in $30 billion a year to the US economy.”
The interchange of ideas and greater understanding of our and their cultures may be more important if we can oppose the barbarians that seem, more often then not, to get in the driver's seat.
Spicer: Trump can Criticize Iraq War but no one can Slam Trump’s Yemen Raid
It's a White House tradition - spokespersons and presidents talking out of both side of their mouths. Same for politicians such as McCain and many others.
I wonder how many people listening to Lady Gaga or other renditions of these songs got the message? To be honest, I can barely understand a word she and other singers of her generation "sing" with all the noise and distractions going on at the same time. Perhaps, this is a generational thing. Contemporaries I talk to have similar problems.
If only Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra could teach the younger generation some lessons.
Let's not forget the journalists who were killed in the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad by rounds from a U.S. Army tank and the Reuters' staffers in the Collateral Murder video. Killed by soldiers working for President Bush and Darth Cheney.
As for journalists, we should never forget Alan Berg, the liberal radio commentator in Denver shot down in his driveway by The Order, “a splinter group of the Aryan Nation white nationalist movement that financed its anti-government goals with bank robberies in the Pacific Northwest.” Cute.
and Let us also not forget Paul Guihard, a French reporter for AFP shot in the back at close range during a segregationist riot against the admission of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi on September 30, 1962. link to juancole.com
Not by orders of a sitting president, but the next could be encouraged by a sitting president or his close advisor who says journalists should shut up.
O'Reilly and Scarborough appearing oblivious to the sins of the United States while berating others for lesser sins is an all-too common practice these days.
Would anyone care to estimate how many people have been killed by Americans in illegal actions just in this century? You might find it easier to estimate the number of beans in a barrel. If you can handle it emotionally, how many children have been killed by Americans in just this century? How many children have been killed by close allies and justified by Americans?
Hypocrisy was in full display when slave owners signed the Declaration of Independence that said all men have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness while they had no intention of releasing their slaves from bondage. Hypocrisy in the United States has been rampant ever since and shows no sign of declining.
Flynn's notice appears to be a continuation of Obama policies: Israel has a right to defend itself, but others don't - in this case, Iran. If Iran is attacked, the US fleet in Bahrain and closing of the Strait of Hormuz will be Iran's first targets. General Flynn, you are on notice.
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Very well said, Richard Rosen.
The obvious solution to this problem, of instability, extremism and climate change emanating from Riyadh, is electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. They should be adopted as quickly as humanly possible.
Unfortunately, there is also an economic factor in that a very sizable portion of the American people can't afford electric cars and solar panels. If we slashed our war department's budget in half or more then we could afford to spread more energy efficient systems among the people. Now that would be a very good defensive measure.
72% of Americans don’t trust Trump’s word on Russia.
What percentage of the American people trust the mainstream media on Russia - or any other political topic for that matter? My guess is that whatever the percentage is it should be cause for concern for anyone who genuinely cares for the future of this nation.
Muhammad bin Salman, the ambitious Saudi defense minister, said a couple of weeks ago that he would wage the war inside Iranian territory.
The defense (sic) minister would do well to ponder Saddam Hussein's war against Iran and the United States' "cakewalk" through Iraq and the history of the Middle East since.
Of course, let's not forget our own George W. Bush who was a guest of Her Majesty. They don't come much worse than Dubya.
Britain agrees. Khan told Channel 4 News Monday, “I don’t think we should roll out the red carpet to the president of the U.S.A. in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for.
The Brits have rolled out the red carpet for despots from the Middle East and Africa very much worse than Trump. Nevertheless, Mayor Khan does have a very good point.
Oh, and the coal miners? Both Kansas and China are offering them retraining programs in the wind industry.
I have read statements by former lumberman expressing their appreciation for retraining out of the forests and into work they find more rewarding for a variety of reasons.
Graduates go out into the world with $150k debt
A dentist told me that current dental graduates commonly have debts of around a half million dollars.
The American public has shown itself incredibly patient as they watched a handful of corporations simply buy congressmen and senators and have them vote for the interests of the super-rich and against the interests of Americans.
I'm not sure "patient" is the right word to describe the American people in this instance.
Why is God allowing the Bible Belt to be put at such risk? Perhaps I should pose that question to the Christian Broadcast Network or Liberty University.
Add Trump the authoritarian to the ruling plutocracy, the climate change deniers, and the Israel lobby, and the future for the United States appears to be at grave risk.
There is one lesson we can learn with confidence from this event. The Washington swamp needs to be drained more than ever. Unfortunately, like the rest of America's infrastructure it will continue to be allowed to degrade even further.
I would argue that it is time for people such as myself and Mr. Bodden to run for political office as Dems, true to conduct a semi-hostile take-over of the party, ...
Give me a call, Grumpy. I would be honored to serve as your vice chair of the DNC.
Juan: I was referring specifically to the people who voted for these wretches, not to the American people in general. If Paul Ryan's district consisted of his house, Scott Walker's house and mine and this district was gerrymandered so that my family couldn't vote, then the choice and responsibility falls on the Ryan and Walker homes for electing Reichsfuehrer Ryan
Re: your very helpful list of single-payer nations. Otto von Bismarck established a universal health care system in Germany in the late 19th Century. link to pnhp.org
The sadism and greed of the American Republican Party was on full display Thursday, as the House GOP voted to destroy Obamacare and remove the coverage for pre-existing conditions (50 million Americans suffer from them).
That the house Republicans could be so brazen in this morally corrupt act should be of greater concern than voting for the AHCA itself. Flaunting their contempt for millions of people who are at risk of being in need of healthcare is evidence of moral decadence in Congress and a sizable segment of the American people willing to go along with this proto-fascism.
From another angle it doesn't say much for the intelligence of those among the American people who vote these despicable people into Congress.
Unfortunately, the Democratic party is little, if any, better.
Very well said, Juan. Hypocrisy prevails in the Washington swamp and the mainstream media as it has for generations.
Let's say Duterte is guilty as charged. How does he compare with the Clintons and the half million Iraqi children estimated to have died because of the sanction they maintained on Iraq with the support of Vice President Al Gore and SOS Madeleine Albright who said they thought it was worth it.
Or, the Bush-Cheney wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?
Or Obama's continuation of Bush wars and new ones in Libya, Syria and Yemen?
Brett Stephens at the NYT is the essence of fake news.
And, at last night's White House Correspondents Association dinner the attendees were dishing out and lapping up praise for the mainstream media and their search for the truth.
... the Bill Clinton of France, Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen ...
Given that choice, France is screwed either way. Not as grotesque as the Clinton-Trump choice but bad enough.
On the other hand a state tends to get the kind of government that indicates the preponderance of opinion .
With or without Sessions in Alabama it retains a certain capacity for inhumanity. "Nothing is Fair About Alabama’s 'Fair Justice Act'” by Stephen Cooper - link to counterpunch.org
Next time Alabama wants to secede perhaps we should help all we can.
O’Reilly beat the drum nightly for George W. Bush’s invasion and occupation of Iraq.
It's okay to being an advocate for wars that result in death, mayhem, and displacement for millions of people, but getting exposed in sexually compromising indiscretions will get you in trouble.
And then they will outstrip the Christians by 2100.
Given the disregard of climate change among so many capitalists pathologically predisposed to greed and a mixture of low levels of intelligence and ever-increasing powers of weapons of mass destruction what are chances of this planet lasting until 2100?
An enlightened author I read several decades ago - he may have been Peter J. Drucker, then known as the father of modern management - said that any projections beyond five years should not be taken seriously. He cited numerous technological developments that were on the market then but very, very few people anticipated or heard of in the recent past.
As the adage goes, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
That leads to another mantra: Too much is never enough.
President Trump’s congratulations to Erdogan reveal his autocratic tendencies too. It is a complete reversal of American ideals when we see that the American president is on the side of the likes of Erdogan, Marshal Sisi, al-Khalifa of Bahrain, Saudi rulers and an assortment of other dictators. This shows how far America has fallen since Trump’s election.
American proclivity for autocratic tendencies was alive and fermenting long before President Trump's more obvious enthusiasm for it. Hillary Clinton, to cite but one example, wanted General Suleiman, Egypt's Director of Torture Chambers, to replace Hosni Mubarak.
We have a lot of war crimes of our own to investigate and apologize for.
But won't because the plutocracy and their puppets in politics and the military-industrial complex believe might makes right and they and the nation are above the law and the rabble supports them.
“Eric Trump says his ‘heartbroken and outraged’ sister Ivanka helped persuade their father to strike Syria” by Eliza Relman – link to businessinsider.com
I wonder if Ivanka was equally heartbroken when Israel’s Operation Protective Edge slaughtered hundreds of Palestinian children in Gaza.
It is interesting to note that many of the talking heads on cable "news" supporting this strike on Syria also supported the disastrous acts of aggression against Iraq and Libya. None seemed to have recalled being lied to by the government as in the Tonkin Gulf and other incidents.
Talking of hypocrisy, compare the Washington establishment's and the MSM reactions to the dozens of children killed by chemical weapons in Idlib and their responses to the hundreds of children killed in Gaza during Operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge.
The massive use of depleted uranium by American forces in Iraq, especially in Fallujah, resulted in many documented cases of cancer and other birth defects.
Then there are the unexploded bombs and landmines in Vietnam and Laos and Agent Orange in Vietnam - Made in the USA.
Hypocrisy in Washington? Unfortunately, that is not exceptional. It is equally rampant in the corridors of power of our allies and satrapies.
Even despicable terrorists can be right on this.
Good point, Marianna. The anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Riverside Church speech just passed. In that speech Dr. King warned of America's spiritual death, a point at which the United States may have arrived. Among the supporting evidence, in addition to what Professor Cole has provided, there is the bizarre and irrational history of people promoting the unprovoked, disastrous and illegal war on Iraq and a crime against humanity. They are guilty of actions similar to what got the Nazis in the dock at Nuremberg. Instead of being banished in one form or another, they are running around the Middle East promoting more wars and more crimes against humanity.
The sale of all those fossil fuels may be good for Iran and the purchasers but not for the environment.
Assuming by progressive we mean people who believe in the concept of all people being created equal with a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and they aspire to our nation becoming someday one with liberty and justice for all then they have many more reasons beyond the Trump cabal to be fatigued. Prominent among the other reasons are the proto- (verging on neo-) fascists in the Republican party and the Judas-Democrats across the aisle working to make the rich richer and the poor poorer as they continue to build the American empire with war and more wars "on the table."
Gore Vidal nailed it years ago when he labeled the U.S. government as proto-fascist.
The question now is, "When, if ever, will the American people wake up?"
The conspiracy-minded might conclude that Comey is a Pence supporter, and has cleverly maneuvered Pence into a position where he has a shot at the presidency if Trump is forced out over the Russia scandal.
Hopefully, any group seeking to get rid of Trump will wait until after the 2018 elections to give the Democrats a chance to take back the senate and/or the house - not that they will be any great improvement. Other than a nuclear or other war with Russia or Iran, it is difficult to contemplate anything worse than a President Pence supported by Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.
During yesterday’s hearing held by the House Intelligence (?) committee Rep. Adam Schiff stated unequivocally that Russia interfered with the 2016 election. Unfortunately, FBI Director Comey didn’t ask Schiff to provide his evidence to assist with the FBI’s investigation into the matter.
Does Trump’s slashed Foreign Aid Budget give China the Advantage?
China has an intelligence advantage over the United States and has had this advantage for several years, especially since and during the US wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. Where the U.S. went in with guns ablazing,, creating shock and awe and trillions of debt, the Chinese went into Afghanistan and other nations with money bags and walked out with contracts for special minerals and other precious goodies for profit. Meanwhile claims of American exceptionalism continue to evolve into hubris. Pride has been known to precede a fall, and hubris makes it a slam dunk.
The US foreign aid budget is not mainly about helping the poor.
Make that "The US budgets are not mainly about helping the poor."
Trump may have been the big Kahuna at his meeting with Angela Merkel, but for many people not among his followers there will be a sense that he was outclassed by the lady from Berlin.
The Resistance is alive. How well it will do will depend on the American people. Perhaps the shaft they are getting from Trump/Ryancare will wake them up.
Try alibris dot com or abebooks dot com for used books. Amazon get too much business.
What civilization does this nincompoop have in mind? In just the last twenty years the United States maintained sanctions on Iraq that cost an estimated half million children their lives. That was followed by an unprovoked war on Iraq that has destabilized the Middle East bringing death, destruction and displacement to millions of people - including the refugees seeking safety in Europe and the U.S.
Did we direct the Saudis to attack Yemen? We shouldn’t be helping, but to say we’re responsible is a leap of logic.
The driver of a getaway car in a bank robbery is just as guilty and the robber who holds up the teller.
The United States was forged in the War of the Revolution and has been at war almost constantly since. link to en.wikipedia.org
After the Second World War the U.S. played a prominent role in writing the United Nations Charter and the Nuremberg Principles and adding to the Geneva Conventions. Within a short time span the U.S. began violating those documents designed to promote a more civilized world.
Among the most blatant acts of hypocrisy in modern history was the war on Iraq in which George W. Bush and Tony Blair and their cohorts violated the aforementioned principles not only without consequence but they continue to be regarded with respect by many of their obsequious fellow citizens while their biographies are saturated by the blood of many of the victims referred to in this article..
Having Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency ,,,
and all his equally unenlightened colleagues in Trump's cabinet says a great deal about the Trump administration none of which is good.
Having Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as the two top contenders for the presidency says a lot about the American people in general. There is nothing of virtue in that scenario either.
Do we have a strategy.?
We'll probably have some "strategy" similar to those we had in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan and try out the latest mindless idea du jour. Surges will probably be on the menu. We just need to give it a few Friedman Units.
opinion polling shows that a majority of Americans want Sessions to resign because, they say, he lied under oath.
Sessions was not the first to lie to Congress and he won't be the last. James Clapper lied to the senate intelligence (?) committee without legal penalty. Many of the promoters of the Iraq war lied to Congress - also without legal penalty.
It's the perennial Washington syndrome, Professor: Hypocrisy.
Excellent points, hquain. It isn't only Trump but the other authoritarians and authoritarian followers associated with the Republican party that are major parts of this and many other problems. Not that the Judas-Democrats will come to our rescue.
But the fact is that concentrating too much on the sound and fury issuing from Mar-a-Lago is counter-productive.
"Global Warming’s Threat to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
March 5, 2017
Exclusive: President Trump’s war on President Obama’s regulations may kill off rules to reduce leaks of the global-warming gas methane, a partisan scheme with grave consequences for Mar-a-Lago and the world", writes Jonathan Marshall. - link to consortiumnews.com
"If Trump Tower Was Wiretapped, Trump Can Declassify That Right Now" by Jon Schwarz - link to theintercept.com
Trump has a long list of Obama errors that he could legitimately use to criticize the former president. Violating international law to attack Yemen is one.
It went on to quote the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that US media allegations about Sessions-Kislyak meetings were “media vandalism and an attempt to completely misinform the American and global public opinion”.
Our mainstream media lying to the American people? How can the Russians say that? If it hadn't been for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Fox News, and others we would never have known about Saddam Hussein's stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
Friends, the United States and the State of Israel have a strong bond, going back to the moment of Israel’s founding.
And, as Senator Sanders indicated, a mutual history of ethnic cleansing applied to the indigenous peoples.
“If Palestinians in the occupied territories are to be denied self-determination in a state of their own, will they receive full citizenship and equal rights in a single state, potentially meaning the end of a Jewish majority state?
The answer to that question is "NO."
Something is broken in American journalism.
Very true, but it is nothing new. Mencken was a severe critic of journalists generations ago. link to realclearbooks.com
The great and courageous Helen Thomas nailed Ronald Reagan with a question that deserved an answer, but he dodged it with his aw-shucks schtick and was aided and abetted by other "journalists" at the press conference who should have backed Ms. Thomas to demand an answer. Instead, they laughed at Reagan's corny joke.
But surely, the White House correspondents and their friends sank to their lowest when they laughed at George W. Bush's squalid skit at the 2004 WHCA dinner when Dubya made fun of the non-existent WMDs that got the war on Iraq going and led to the deaths and maiming of countless people, including thousands of our military personnel "serving their country." David Corn was the only journalist and attendee at that dinner with the integrity to walk out after witnessing that despicable scene.
Trump is wrong believing our department of war is suffering from inadequate funding. The deficit is in the intelligence of the top civilians and brass at that five-sided black hole on the Potomac. They were outsmarted by and couldn't defeat the North Vietnam army nor the militias in Iraq whose budgets were small fractions of the Pentagon's. Similarly, our military and the military-industrial complex's European franchise (NATO) are bogged down in a quagmire in Afghanistan by insurgents with a budget that would correspond to chump change in Washington.
Please explain how John McCain is a parasite for honestly pointing out that Obama is a Christian.
He's a parasite for his warmongering and support of the military-industrial comples.
Let’s face it, Trump has unleashed uneducated and ignorant racists, ...
where they have easy access to a proliferation of guns.
There’s no difference between publishing a rag like Breitbart
and the Voelkischer Beobachter
More on Russia bashing: "The Increasingly Unhinged Russia Rhetoric Comes From a Long-Standing U.S. Playbook" by Glenn Greenwald - link to theintercept.com
Justhnkn: You need to do some checking instead of buying into this canard** about Russian influence and thinking about it. The reason the Congressional Republicans haven't done anything about it is because they don't have any evidence to support it, and the reason they don't have any evidence is because there is none.
Robert Parry and others at Consortium News have written several articles disproving the allegations against Russia. Here is one:
The Did-You-Talk-to-Russians Witch Hunt
February 18, 2017
Exclusive: Democrats, liberals and media pundits – in their rush to take down President Trump – are pushing a New McCarthyism aimed at Americans who have talked to Russians, risking a new witch hunt, reports Robert Parry. - link to consortiumnews.com
** My first inclination to describe this piece of fake news was to use two certain and more pungent words, but they wouldn't have passed the moderator.
But again, if 60 percent of you think this guy’s values are alien to you, why would you put him in the presidency? Just for a change of pace?
Because:
1) Many considered the alternative, according to conventional wisdom to be worse.
2) The vast majority of voters passed on a chance to vote "none of the above" in the form of a vote for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson
3) The undemocratic electoral college gave Trump the presidency, and
4) A nation gets the kind of government it deserves.
The rational way to deal with long-term unauthorized immigrants would be to offer them a path to citizenship, ...
Another method would be for the United States ending its practice of helping to create economic and social chaos in countries south of the border and in the Middle East.
This and similar scandalous events reveal much that is deplorable about the main characters in the stories but also, probably much more seriously, a greater defect in the American people. In the long-ago past the careers of the principal figure or figures in a scandal would be finished. In extreme cases they would commit suicide. In our present era of decadence the perpetrators, when caught, engage in public relations campaigns. If successful, they continue to operate in high positions with power and commit similar and sometimes greater tragedies. This is made possible by the low moral and ethical standards of the American people and their attendant silence. If more people rose and spoke out in protest then we might see more resignations and firings.
Instead, a broad consensus of the American people agreed Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were two of the worst candidates ever to run for president. Nevertheless, more than 120 million people considered one or the other acceptable instead of voting "none of the above."
How delusional could Kerry have been if he believed Netanyahu and his cohort of right-wing racists would accept a peace plan that would preclude Israel from completing the Zionist plan of transferring all Palestinians out of their territory?
As H.L. Mencken once said, no one ever went broke by underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
Another adage worth pondering is the one about a nation getting the kind of government it deserves. There are individuals that can rightly claim they deserve better but not the composite American.
And what a corrupt and shabby "democratic" process it was
With a couple exceptions America has generally been hostile to immigrants with the "Yellow Peril" of the late 19th Century being one of the more notorious and cruel.
The exceptions include, according to a Texas school textbook, the "workers" imported from Africa and the "poor and tired huddled masses" to help keep wages depressed.
The Americans that got it right when they claimed immigrants would bring disaster were the Native Americas who understandably didn't like the aggressive behavior of settlers moving into their nations.
But he was not charged with terrorism.
Of course not. In the United States of Hypocrisy it is only people of color who are charged with terrorism.
Nobody brought up that the British colonialists ...
and
No one brought up that the Palestinians ...
etcetera.
And, no one brought up the continuing moral degradation for Israel and the United States that accompanies Israel's policies and U.S. complicity.
“The Flynn Drama” by George Friedman makes interesting points related to Flynn’s actions and resignation – link to geopoliticalfutures.com
So very true.
This rigidity is dangerous to our Republic.
Perhaps in this instance treason is too strong a word, but betrayal seems appropriate.
Does the SEAL TEAM 6 raid in Yemen not qualify as a war crime? If so, why are people getting so excited about Ms. Conway's plugging Ivanka's rags instead?
why not choose another English-speaking country like Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, etc.?
Two or three years ago "60 Minutes" featured a high tech university in India that was reportedly very desirable for Indian students. The program suggested that students that couldn't make the grade for this Indian university had to settle for something like MIT . . .
These international students bring in $30 billion a year to the US economy.”
The interchange of ideas and greater understanding of our and their cultures may be more important if we can oppose the barbarians that seem, more often then not, to get in the driver's seat.
Spicer: Trump can Criticize Iraq War but no one can Slam Trump’s Yemen Raid
It's a White House tradition - spokespersons and presidents talking out of both side of their mouths. Same for politicians such as McCain and many others.
Yemen is a basket case.
Creating basket cases of national dimensions is a specialty of the United States.
A very timely summary.
Old enough to have transcended my years of youthful exuberance.
“God Bless America”: Irving Berlin’s Awful Hymn" by David Yearsley - link to counterpunch.org
I wonder how many people listening to Lady Gaga or other renditions of these songs got the message? To be honest, I can barely understand a word she and other singers of her generation "sing" with all the noise and distractions going on at the same time. Perhaps, this is a generational thing. Contemporaries I talk to have similar problems.
If only Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra could teach the younger generation some lessons.
Let's not forget the journalists who were killed in the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad by rounds from a U.S. Army tank and the Reuters' staffers in the Collateral Murder video. Killed by soldiers working for President Bush and Darth Cheney.
As for journalists, we should never forget Alan Berg, the liberal radio commentator in Denver shot down in his driveway by The Order, “a splinter group of the Aryan Nation white nationalist movement that financed its anti-government goals with bank robberies in the Pacific Northwest.” Cute.
and Let us also not forget Paul Guihard, a French reporter for AFP shot in the back at close range during a segregationist riot against the admission of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi on September 30, 1962.
link to juancole.com
Not by orders of a sitting president, but the next could be encouraged by a sitting president or his close advisor who says journalists should shut up.
O'Reilly and Scarborough appearing oblivious to the sins of the United States while berating others for lesser sins is an all-too common practice these days.
Would anyone care to estimate how many people have been killed by Americans in illegal actions just in this century? You might find it easier to estimate the number of beans in a barrel. If you can handle it emotionally, how many children have been killed by Americans in just this century? How many children have been killed by close allies and justified by Americans?
Hypocrisy was in full display when slave owners signed the Declaration of Independence that said all men have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness while they had no intention of releasing their slaves from bondage. Hypocrisy in the United States has been rampant ever since and shows no sign of declining.
I, and am sure countless others, hope you are right
By magisterial decree, when necessary all future Trump administration decisions and decrees will be based on alternative facts.
Flynn's notice appears to be a continuation of Obama policies: Israel has a right to defend itself, but others don't - in this case, Iran. If Iran is attacked, the US fleet in Bahrain and closing of the Strait of Hormuz will be Iran's first targets. General Flynn, you are on notice.