Book Review: “The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela” by Dan Kovalik

In one concise statement, Dan Kovalik sums up the criminal — if self-serving and for now effective — foreign policy of the U.S. across the planet:

“The US appears to be intentionally spreading chaos throughout strategic portions of the world, leaving virtually no independent state standing to protect their resources, especially oil, from Western exploitation.  And, this goal is being achieved with resounding success, while also achieving the subsidiary goal of enriching the behemoth military-industrial complex.”

A divided Korea, a decimated Vietnam, endless war in Afghanistan, a barely functional Iraq, a destroyed Libya, ongoing destruction of Syria and Venezuela, relentless attacks and incipient war on Iran, give us more than a glimpse into the awesome power of America’s military might, its malice and ruthlessness in projecting that power, its no-holds-barred no-moral-qualms no-body-count no-questions-asked ends-justify-the-means tactical use of genocide, its jaw-dropping hypocrisy in portraying itself as a force of good, its psychopathic exceptionalist world view which judges all other nations and their populations as dispensable, and its ultimate loyalty to a tiny autocratic ruling elite who use “democracy” as just another tool in their bag of tricks to promote absolute corporate tyranny — the framework of fascism Sheldon Wolin calls inverted totalitarianism — and global hegemony.  It’s for good reason that the U.S. is now often referred to as the Empire of Chaos.

The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil, as the title suggests, more specifically focuses on the horrors inflicted by the U.S. government on Venezuela.  This thorough, extremely well-researched, and fully supported exposé covers the current crises in and about Venezuela, intentionally and purposefully instigated by the U.S. to overthrow its current government and plunder the country’s rich oil reserves.  Just as importantly it offers rich and revealing historical accounts of America’s past dealings with Venezuela and almost identical scenarios with other Latin American nations, detailing the darkness and corruption that lies at the heart of U.S. foreign policy, and how that has cast a pall of oppression over the entirety of South and Central America, the nations of which have the geographical misfortune of being in America’s self-declared hemisphere of influence — read that as hemisphere of total domination and ruthless exploitation.  From Chile to Haiti to Panama to Honduras to Nicaragua to El Salvador to Colombia, we see the brutal deployment of U.S. political and military assets leaving whole countries impoverished, the poor without hope — often deprived of even food and water — and piles of nameless corpses in escalating numbers, dismissed by the U.S. government and its lapdog media as collateral damage of the Great Imperial Project. 

By the end of Kovalik’s chilling indictment of U.S. malfeasance in its war on the people of Venezuela, what is astonishing and shocking is that the U.S. is again getting away with such overt and illegal aggression, by not only using the same play book, but by using the same players.  With Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, John Bolton as National Security Advisor, and Elliot Abrams as Special Envoy to Venezuela, at the helm of the project to take Venezuela’s government apart and replace it with the puppet regime of the unelected Juan Guaido, we have three of the most notorious of the notorious — murderous, lying thugs — doing the dirty work.  All three have sordid histories of inciting war and orchestrating regime changes.  Abrams was indicted and convicted for lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra affair.

The thought-provoking Plot to Overthrow Venezuela is very well-written, with a clarity, accessibility, and erudition which puts it in a class with the best works of Noam Chomsky.  The Foreword by Oliver Stone is a worthy and deserving way to get things started.  I give it the highest possible recommendation, truly one of the most engaging and informative books I’ve read in ages.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]




Book Review: “The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela” by Dan Kovalik

Russia: Scary Bear or Barely Scary?

 

The U.S. needs to get its story straight.

We have been fed over the past few years entirely contradictory views of Russia.

Lately, of course, we've seen a preponderance of "scare bear" propaganda and commentary.

Could this have something to do with it being appropriations time, the annual fight over who gets what in next years federal budget?  Considering the U.S. can't pile up debt fast enough to suit its enlightened leaders, this also means lubricating the public mind for increasing the already humongous pile of money which goes into military spending, that being the major component of discretionary spending.

Of course, military spending, besides being intrinsically good regardless of how much it distorts our national values and bankrupts our economy, is about making American safe from the entire panoply of threats.  It seems everyone is at our throats, ready to chop off our benevolent heads.  Besides terrorists, rogue nations explicitly dedicated to destroying us like Venezuela and Cuba, and major nations like China -- which lent us over a trillion dollars to buy military hardware to prevent them from attacking us -- there is always the little discussed potential for an invasion from outer space.

Having said that, it's Russia that seems to get all the headlines.  We have former VP Joe Biden concurring with current FBI Director James Comey that, without a doubt, even without any corroborating evidence, Russia is out to get us!

Yet, it wasn't that long ago that Russia was being dismissed as a second-rate power.  Obama mockingly announced it's economy was in tatters.  Sure, it might have some leverage regionally but certainly wasn't a player on the big stage of world geopolitics.

So what is the truth?  Is Russia a wild and woolly beast?  Or an affable and tame dancing bear?

Maybe we need some veterinarian advice to sort all of this out.  Can bears get rabies?

Because while over the past several years Russia has consistently been getting folks from all across the globe to the peace tables, trying to resolve diplomatically the crises created by the West in Ukraine, Syria, the Middle East in general, we are now told that under the spell of their crazed leader Vladimir Putin, the country is foaming at the mouth, haunted and possessed with diabolical visions of world conquest.  Did Russia get bitten by a rabid ground squirrel?

To add to the confusion is this recently announcement, a highly thought-provoking one at that, which should -- but won't -- result in some serious soul-searching in the U.S.:  Russia has just recently announced it is dramatically cutting its defense budget for 2017!  As this excellent piece of analysis points out, you are very hard pressed to find mention of it any where in the Western media.

Try to make sense of it.

Russia is 24/7 vilified as a rogue nation, an out-of-control empire-hungry aggressor, with a madman at the helm who longs for the glory days of the Soviet Union's dominion over vast stretches of the Euro-Asian continent, but in fact only has 15 military bases in 9 foreign countries, AND is cutting its military budget by 25% next year.

The U.S. breathlessly peddles itself as the purveyor of peace, the spreader of democracy, the guardian of justice and a harmonious world, yet it has about 800 bases in at least 63 countries in the world -- depending on your definition of 'base', some put this figure at over 160 -- AND is increasing its military expenditures by almost 10% in 2018.

What are we to think?

Is Russia a scary bear . . . or barely scary?

And what about America?

Much of the world seems to think we're the truly frightening ones!



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]




Russia: Scary Bear or Barely Scary?

A Nation of Relentless Savagery

 

You've been avoiding this for a long time.

You prefer to remember the times he took you to the park, that amazing camping vacation a few summers back, the funny things he often says at the dinner table, that beautiful dog he gave you on your 12th birthday.

But you can't deny it any longer.  The truth is painful.  But . . .

Dad is an alcoholic and he beats mom.

Do you hate him?  Do you reject him as your father?

No . . . but things have to drastically change and very soon.

This is not actually the story I wish to tell.  I'm merely drawing a parallel.  I'm talking about dealing with denial, facing reality, accepting responsibility, taking action.

There are many situations in life for which the above scenario is a metaphor.

The parallel I'm making is the relationship between a citizen and a government gone mad.

We've avoided it for a long time.  We prefer to think of America as a beacon of hope in the world, the fountainhead of truth and justice, a purveyor of democratic values and human rights.

But we can't deny it any longer.  The truth is painful.  But . . .

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his monumental, myth-shattering speech -- the one that probably got him assassinated -- at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967:

“The greatest purveyor of violence in the world: My own government, I cannot be silent.”

I won't go into the long history of American aggression.  Whole books have been written which detail our gruesome heritage of merciless wars, the most notable being Howard Zinn's classics, A People's History of the United States and the more recent A People's History of American Empire.  Nor will I indict the U.S. foreign policy apparatus for its gross deceptions and hypocrisies, elucidated with unparalleled clarity and candor in William Blum's excellent work, America's Deadliest Export: Democracy.

I won't talk about the millions of human carcasses piled on top of more carcasses, the result of countless war crimes and merciless military strategies which place no value on human life, whether the victims are in uniform or innocent civilians.  I've realized that the scale of the horror is such that its incomprehensible to most good decent citizens.  I myself when confronted by figures like 3 million Vietnamese killed, 1.5 Iraqis killed, on and on, find my eyes glazing over in the deluge of zeroes.  I literally cannot grasp these numbers and apply them meaningfully to the grief and physical suffering which they are supposed to somehow encapsulate.

Let's instead look at a few simple very recent facts and try to put them in perspective.

Fact 1:  The U.S. is not officially at war with any other country at this time.

Fact 2:  The U.S. has not been attacked in any sense of the word in the last 16 years.

Fact 3:  Last year the U.S. military dropped 26,171 bombs on seven different countries.



Mind you, these are the official figures.  Who knows what the real totals are?

These were not water-filled balloons or July 4th fireworks.  At the end of every explosion, there were body parts strewn all over the surrounding area.  Survivors were being crushed in collapsed buildings, or crawling along the ground with limbs torn off, leaving a trail of blood squirting out of severed arteries.  Innocent people, men, women, and children just going about the everyday business of living, were mangled by a lethal mix of high-velocity shrapnel, and chunks of rubble created by ton after ton of high-yield explosives dropped anonymously from the sky.

Rigorous studies have made it very clear that well over half of the casualties of current warfare are civilians.  In what are called 'internal conflicts' -- like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia -- which now are by far the most prevalent form of military conflict, the percentages can be as high as 90% civilians.  These violent clashes are typically fought by proxies. In all of the countries just listed, the aggressors are mercenaries paid by the U.S. and its allies to enter and destroy a country in what is then deceptively characterized as a civil war or "people's uprising".  There is very disturbing recent evidence, for example, that the U.S. through CIA back channels has been funding ISIS, Al Nusra, as well as other extremely barbarous terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria.

By the way, that money they withhold from your paycheck?  Or that quarterly tax payment you regularly make?  Think about it.  This is where a big chunk of your tax dollars is going.  You're paying for this.

Does any of this make my point a little more comprehensible?

26,171 bombs . . . funding terrorism . . . innocent civilians die . . . all in a days work.

America can say with great pride that what it does, it usually does very well.

When we put our minds to something, we pull out all the stops.

Now we can put killing right up there in the Top 10.

We kill efficiently.  We kill without remorse.  We kill without hesitation.

NOTICE TO THE WORLD . . .

Beware!  We are a nation of relentless savagery!

Then again, a lot of countries already know that.

---

I've said this many times before and I'll keep saying it until people get it . . .
Peace will not come from the top.  There are too many incentives and rewards in our corrupt corporate kleptocracy to keep the wars going and the wheels of the defense industry churning out more mechanisms of death and destruction.

It is only when we everyday citizens finally have had enough of the carnage, enough of the military waste, enough of the chest-beating imperialism which makes us less safe, enough of the empty rhetoric which claims to embrace the noble virtues but is just more deception in the name of war and imperial conquest, it is only then that America will turn around.

Maybe there are detailed plans out there somewhere to mobilize the good decent citizens of this country.  I haven't personally seen any.  So here is mine.  Yes, it is outside-the-box, some would say radical, extreme.  But if we are the nation we claim to be in the world and in the eyes of God, isn't cruelly and senselessly dropping 26,171 bombs on mostly innocent people extreme and radical?
My plan demands very little of us individually.  We don't have to march on the capital or mount a revolutionary insurrection.  Despite that, it could make all the difference in the future we leave to our children and our children's children.  All that is really required is that we listen to the voice of reason and stand strong.

At least take a look.  Open your mind up to the possibility of a future without the madness.  Of a future without endless war.  Of a future when our hard-earned tax dollars don't go to fund the relentless savagery of a military gone mad.

 

The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at all of the usual outlets . . .

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[ This originally appeared at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


A Nation of Relentless Savagery

War On Terror = More Terrorism and More War = More Terrorism and More War = . . .

We can talk and talk, cite all sorts of statistics, construct marvelous narratives, collect anecdotes, offer incisive and powerful analysis.  But sometimes a few charts says it far better than any amount of verbiage.

Look at these and you tell me how the War On Terror is going.  See if you see the same obvious connection between America's military intervention and geopolitical meddling and the growing threat of terrorism.


I remember a truly idiotic joke from my youth.  Pathetically it seems relevant here.

"Why do you keep hitting yourself on the head with that hammer?"

"Because it feels so good when I stop!"

When are we going to stop, ladies and gentlemen?

When?

I've offered an extreme remedy to this madness.

It's one that is so wild and completely outside-the-box, it actually makes sense.

The Peace Dividend!

Or maybe we should keep pounding ourselves on the head with a hammer.

Let's really go for it.  You can borrow mine . . .





[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



War On Terror = More Terrorism and More War = More Terrorism and More War = . . .

The fix is in … Hillary will win … vote for Jill Stein!

 

I've finally emerged from my naive stupor and faced the facts.

Hillary Clinton will be installed as the next POTUS, regardless of how many people do or do not vote for her.

To the extent that I see the insulting choice between the Queen of Chaos and the King of the Racist Rant as somehow pivotal, I have been subconsciously mulling this diabolical verity for some time now. 

What finally cracked the edifice of my willful denial was a highly insightful interview of Julian Assange by the award-winning Australian journalist and film maker, John Pilger.  Please take the time to watch this.

Assange discusses the incriminating emails he has dumped into the public sphere, denies that Russia had anything to do with providing them, highlights Hillary Clinton's criminal use of the Clinton Foundation for influence peddling and her demented plan to establish herself as the go-to candidate for the presidency by destroying Libya and attacking Syria, Wikileaks' role in exposing systemic corruption wherever it occurs, the U.S. defying the UN and ignoring international law, rendering him a fugitive in the Ecuadoran Embassy.

Assange as always is brilliant.  He claims Hillary's victory is predetermined, a foregone conclusion.  History and the facts are on his side.  Think George W. Bush in 2000. 

What will happen after Clinton's coronation in January is anyone's guess.  All informed predictions portend the worst.

The world is heading for war.  No one I know seems to have any clue how that decision is made and who makes it.  But the writing is on the wall.  The military build-ups in Europe and Asia, the constant vilification of Russia and intimidation of China, the hysterical and thoroughly unfounded clamoring about the necessity to stop the aggressive actions of Putin -- though no evidence is presented because no real evidence is available -- all paint the same hideous portrait of apocalyptic violence and unprecedented carnage.

World War III.

Why?  Why must it again come to this?  Because . . .

It's time.

And Hillary Clinton is the perfect minion to inflict this upon the world.

The preparations are being made as I write this, while the mesmerized masses either can't wait to get to the polls because they've already made their decision, or ponder the weighty choice between a sociopathic narcissist and a criminally insane warmonger.

As if it made a difference.

So . . .

Vote for Jill Stein.

You have nothing to lose.
It won't change the results of the election.

As I've said, the fix is in.  The power brokers, the investment banks, Wall Street, the media, the transnational corporations, the security agencies (except for some rebels in the FBI), the .01%, the oligarchs, have made their choice.  The polls have been fixed around that choice, as will be the final results of the election.

Why Jill Stein?

If the programming of the voting machines hasn't completely removed any possibility of her getting sufficient voter support, and the Green Party manages 5% of the popular vote, it will qualify for federal matching funds in the next election.

If there is a next election.

Am I being pessimistic?

Of course not.  There is hope!  The Loch Ness Monster might come out of hiding, and lead humankind to a new spiritual rebirth.  Or in an unexpected turn of events, Sasquatch will win the presidency on a write-in ballot, then require all armaments to be melted down and turned into snow shoes.  An extinction-threatening meteor could glide in from outer space and make a soft landing at Dulles Int'l Airport, Jesus Christ, Ghandi, Buddha and Nelson Mandela could emerge healthy and invigorated, take a limo into DC and talk some sense into the lunatics running our country.

Or . . . or . . .



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



The fix is in … Hillary will win … vote for Jill Stein!

Why Donald Trump is not as horrible as Hillary Clinton . . . and why you should vote for Jill Stein.

I could have named this article "Damage Control" -- because it essentially is about that, related to the lobotomizing dilemma of "lesser evil voting".

But let me be clear at the outset.  I have already voted for Jill Stein.  I had no other choice.  I am firm in my conviction that to vote for sociopathic, narcissistic, self-serving, ruthless, guileful corporatists is an unconscionable act and a major crime against my country, irrespective of the convoluted rationalization which might attempt to justify it.

Now let me offer reasoning that goes beyond my "morally pure" posturing.

The accepted wisdom is that a vote for Jill Stein is a vote for Donald Trump.  This analysis purports that anyone voting for Stein would likely be a former Clinton supporter, and such a vote would subtract from Clinton's total.

Even though Hillary's elitist, warmongering, anti-democratic, demonstrably criminal world view is diametrically the opposite of Jill Stein's, and I can't imagine anyone who's moved by the Green Party's agenda for the briefest moment being fooled by Clinton's phony populism, for argument's sake I'll accept this proposition.

While I consider both Trump and Clinton to be equally unfit for office, I do not for a moment believe they would be equally ineffective.

Hillary has for good reason become the choice of the oligarchs, the MIC, the bankers, the media, the people who actually run the country.  She will serve them well.  She knows her way around the system -- she's been gaming it most of her adult life -- and has all the right connections.  Which is why even many prominent Republicans have joined the feeding frenzy and flocked to her like vultures over fresh kill.

Hillary will continue her faux-populist bloviating to keep the stinky masses in line, while her closest allies, the rich and powerful, continue to loot the Treasury, hollow out what's left of the U.S. economy, and bankrupt the middle and lower classes.

Much to the delight of the neocon-infested Department of State, Department of Defense, security agencies, MIC, and media, Hillary will "get tough" with Russia and China, press the war on Syria and the rest of the Middle East, promote and spread more chaos, death, and destruction across the globe in pursuit of military conquest, ultimately world empire.  It'll be good for business and pumping up the already inflated egos of the exceptionalists.

On the other hand, Trump will fall flat on his face.  His trademark bull-in-a-china-shop approach to making deals has no chance of success in Washington DC.  He has no support -- his own party has all but disowned him -- no connections, at least not the political ones necessary for promoting his agenda.  Yes, the politicos drank his champagne and ate the food at his extravagant bashes.  Who wouldn't?  But they don't owe him anything.  Nada! Trump's much heralded talents for making great deals would confront hostile Democrats, contemptuous Republicans -- a perhaps long-overdue bipartisanship -- closing ranks to isolate and defeat the outrageous and vulgar outsider who thought he could buy and muscle his way into political power.

 

He'll try to build his wall.  When Congress gets done with it, it'll be a 200-foot white picket fence in Calexico.  He'll attempt rapprochement with Russia.  That will be sabotaged with a false flag attack, maybe dressing some disgruntled maquiladora workers as Russian infantry men and mounting an invasion on the U.S. -- probably in Calexico -- or by John McCain threatening to fall on a grenade or blow his brains out in the Senate chambers if America doesn't immediately nuke Moscow.

Despite his self-proclaimed success in the business world, Trump simply does not know the rules of the game in Washington DC.  Unless he "fires" everyone -- declaring martial law and sending all members of the legislature to a FEMA labor camp in Montana -- he will either be the most ineffective president in history or be impeached.  Maybe both!

In a phrase, Donald Trump as president will do 'less damage'.

Anyone who has read my blogs knows that my greatest concern about a Hillary Clinton presidency is her truculent foreign policy.  A decade ago, I might have believed that she was misguided.  Now I realize -- as quite a number of others do -- that she is completely insane.  She's become drunk on power, poisoned by surrounding herself with neocons and warmongering humanitarians, possessed by visions of herself as the Warrior Queen. 

Or as many other writers have been saying . . .

A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for World War III.

So . . .

Vote for Jill Stein!

We'll have our first female president, a great president at that! 

One we can all be truly proud of.  The world will breathe a sigh of relief!
At the same time, if voting for Jill Stein ends up electing Donald Trump . . .

So be it.

At least we'll come out of it alive.  And . . .

We'll have four more years to figure out how America got so screwed up.

Hillary can go back to taking bribes and looting impoverished countries.

Hard choices . . . so many helpless victims, so little time.




[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


Why Donald Trump is not as horrible as Hillary Clinton . . . and why you should vote for Jill Stein.

It’s not easy being infallible . . .

 

In case you didn't hear President Obama's historic speech at the Hiroshima Peace Park this past May 27th, let me sum it up for you.  Paraphrasing . . .

"It's very sad.  War is nasty.  Shit happens."

There is broad consensus among reputable historians -- who don't filter everything through the brainwashing lens of American exceptionalism -- that dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was entirely unnecessary.

There is concrete evidence -- I've seen the U.S. government documents on display at the Hiroshima Peace Museum myself -- that dropping the bombs was an experiment.  These two Japanese cities, both of relatively marginal importance in terms of the war effort, were the petri dishes, the Japanese were the bacteria.  The nuclear scientists who had developed a deployable nuclear weapon wanted to see how people and dwellings would hold up in the 10,830º fireball.  You think I'm exaggerating about any of this?  The bombs didn't target factories or military installations.  The epicenter of the Hiroshima explosion was directly over a medical clinic, for chrissakes!

With those two heinous war crimes, of course, America was just getting warmed up.

Next came Korea, or more specifically North Korea.  In what was considered a savage and one-sided genocidal attack, over 20% of the population -- by some estimates close to 1.4 million people -- mostly civilians were killed by the U.S. campaign.  North Korea was reduced to rubble.  At the end of the carpet bombing, planes were returning with all of their bombs, with the pilots complaining there was nothing left to bomb.  Why did North Korea deserve such genocide?  They were demanding that as promised at the end of World War II, when they were finally liberated from the oppressive rule of the Japanese, that the country be unified and free democratic elections be held.  You think I'm making this up?  If you can go beyond the facile fairy tales of our high school history texts and do some reading, you'll find this right in the historical record.


 

After taking a little breather, the U.S. moved on to Vietnam.  What was the problem there?  These misguided gooks might go communist and we couldn't let that happen!  Of course, Vietnam is now a communist country.  I've been there.  It's a pretty decent place.  No one tried to shoot me.  I practically never saw any police.  The food is spicy.  Amazingly, I was treated with courtesy and kindness.  Why was I amazed?  Because we slaughtered between 1.3 and 3.9 million Vietnamese in that war, again mostly civilians.  We sprayed them and their farmland with lethal chemicals that are still causing horrible birth defects.  In fact, America dropped twice as many bombs on this tiny country as was dropped by all sides in every theater of World War II! 

Try to wrap your head around that.

Of course, just because we were at war with Vietnam didn't mean we would confine our destruction and carnage to that country, in losing the war.  We also mercilessly bombed Cambodia and Laos.  In Cambodia -- a country we weren't at war with -- America dropped a half million tons of bombs killing 100,000 innocent people. 

But that was child's play compared to Laos, again a country which was neutral not in any way participating in the Vietnam conflict.  Laos has the chilling distinction of being per capita the most bombed country in the history of the world!  Yes, we really cut loose on this tiny, impoverished nation by dropping 2,000,000 TONS OF EXPLOSIVES on them!

And how bad does America feel about the death and destruction it inflicted on tiny Laos?  Never one to let an opportunity for cynical irony go ignored, Obama in his public relations swing through Southeast Asia stopped by to do some glad-handing.  While when it comes to countries we've abused Obama prefers to leave the past behind, to look ahead toward a bright, harmonious future -- in particular one controlled by the corporate totalitarian regime of TPP -- he did give a nod to a little problem that 2,000,000 tons of explosives had left scattered across the landscape of Laos: that of unexploded ordnance.  He was in such a generous mood that he committed $90 million to help clean up the mess before more children lost their arms and legs.  $90 million for 2 million tons of explosives only four-and-a-half decades late.  What a guy!

I could go on but we'd be looking at a book.  A very depressing one at that.

The point is the bombing and the wars just keep on going and in parallel we are treated to a never-ending barrage of self-righteous deceptions and exceptionalist demagoguery.

The only difference now is that the rhetoric is more vitriolic and audaciously deceitful.

Since hopefully many of you like myself may not be amused by Obama's infinite capacity for expectorating America-first drivel, let me spare you from listening to this narcissistic ideologue and sum up his recent speech before the United Nations.  I read between the lines a bit, and here's the gist of this remarkable gust of self-congratulatory hot air:

"We know if you repeat a lie often enough, it will stick.  We are also firmly committed to never admitting a mistake, and no matter how implausible, always finding someone else to blame for what goes wrong.  Finally, the United States of America never apologizes."

For the final UN speech of his celebrated 8 years as president, I think Obama has done an excellent job of clarifying exactly where the U.S. stands, and sealing his place in the history books after the U.S. inevitably implodes, as one of the most myopic of our chief executives.

Having said that, I'm still for offering a balanced view.  Though we often get caught up in quibbling about the details, let's look at the big picture and give credit where credit is due.

Do you think keeping track of the torrent of destructive but spellbinding lies dumped on the American public and the rest of the world is easy?

Can you fathom how thoroughly exhausting it must be to relentlessly embrace and nurture such intemperate arrogance, such malignant hubris, such shameless moral insensitivity, how draining it is to keep feeding the rhetorical river of buttery self-congratulations and slimy bombast?

What about having to unrelentingly deny facts, obfuscate and hide the truth?  What about the colossal task of constructing an alternative and patently false reality to keep American citizens from waking up to the horror their leaders are visiting on the rest of the world?  You're going to tell me this is not incredibly grueling work?

In a nutshell . . .

Do you think it's easy being infallible?

Maybe we should ask President Obama at his next news conference.


[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



It’s not easy being infallible . . .

How to Become a Target for State Assassination

 

In my recent article Peace is as American as . . .?, I argued that while there have been anti-war movements, there has never been a real "peace movement" in America.

What's the difference?

The absence of war is not peace. 

More accurately, in our times the absence of war is a truce.

A truce is the abatement of conflict with no guarantee that war will not break out again.

Peace is a state where no conflict is ongoing or possible.

Big difference!

There are over 15,000 nuclear weapons held ready for use by nine countries.



Just because we are not at this point in time using them does not mean we are at peace.

It's like living among pallets stacked with dynamite, serving breakfast on a table-size crate of TNT, and claiming that you feel safe and secure knowing that if you're careful the whole thing won't blow sky high.

Our Nobel Peace Prize president has committed $1 trillion dollars to "update" America's bulging nuclear arsenal. Capable of destroying the planet and every living organism on it 25 times over, it needs to be made more efficient.

Do you feel the peace?

We occasionally see surges of anti-war sentiment. More recent than the game-changing demonstrations against the Vietnam War, immediately before the Iraq War, impressively large crowds assembled to object to the announced attack.  While the numbers were in the hundreds of thousands in Europe, across the U.S. demonstrations drew tens of thousands of "anti-war" activists.  CBS reported protests in over 150 cities.  I personally marched in Portland, Oregon where it was estimated that 58,000 showed up.

Even more recently in September 2013, when pressure was mounting on President Obama to attack Syria around the false flag use of chemical weapons -- allegedly by Syria's Bashar al-Assad but later demonstrated to be by rebels who were trying to hoodwink the U.S. into a full-on bombing assault -- again impressive numbers of people voiced their opposition. The White House and offices of our congressional representatives were flooded with calls, emails, letters.

I still maintain that a fuss over a particular war, or some misguided military aggression by the U.S. military does not constitute a "peace movement".

The truth is that America does not embrace peace.

America promotes war.

“The greatest purveyor of violence in the world: My own government, I cannot be silent.”

Who said that?

Martin Luther King, in his speech at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967.

He was assassinated one year later.

Unfortunately, what Dr. King said is more true now than ever.

Evidence?

By a long shot, every year the U.S. is the leading exporter of military equipment in the world. In 2014, our military-industrial complex, as advocated and supported by our own government, sold over $36 billion in weaponry.  In 2015 it increased to over $46 billion.

Everything but our most advanced weapons -- we have to keep them in reserve for when all the other weapons we sell are turned on us -- is for sale.  Fighter planes, bombers, bombs, artillery, guns, killing machines and devices of every shape and size.

I could go on for hours citing examples.  But here is one from just last week.

Yes, the Pentagon in its infinite wisdom is selling $683 million worth of smart bombs to a country which is destabilizing the entire Middle East.

Though a member of the NATO alliance, Turkey has lately proven to be a wild card, its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pursuing his own highly nationalistic and treacherous agenda. Selling more weapons to this renegade, arguably psychopathic ego-maniac, is like giving an armed grenade-launcher to a 3-year-old child to chase the dog around the yard.

The U.S. continues to supply Saudi Arabia -- one of the most ideologically-extreme, brutal, anti-democratic monarchies in the world, responsible for horrifying war crimes in Yemen, egregious crimes against its own citizens, and a major player in plans to destroy Syria and eventually Iran, even if this triggers a major war with Russia and carries the possible risk of starting World War III -- with some of our most advanced weaponry.

Such decisions to militarily equip saber-rattling, autocratic, aggressive, dangerous regimes would be the target of a real peace movement in America.  These are clear, frightening and appalling examples of America's wanton propagation of lethality and potential for hellish destruction across the face of the Earth.

Our silent acquiescence represents the opposite of peace.  It is nothing less than our tacit approval and championing of war.

I occasionally hear faint whispering from the enlightened but tiny minority of Americans who understand this -- more like muted whimpering than a concerted call to action.

This is not a peace movement.  It is an anomaly.  At the same time . . .

What can we expect?  Americans are addicted to war.  The idea of peace does not even get enough attention to be scoffed at. It's such a quaint, silly sort of notion, the simpleminded province of "peaceniks" and "peace creeps", evidence of weakness and cowardice, clearly an infliction of modern day Don Quixotes and other delusional brainiacs.

It's appropriate and inspiring to revisit the words of John F. Kennedy:

 

"What kind of peace do I mean?  What kind of peace do we seek?  Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war.  Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave.  I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women -- not merely peace in our time but peace for all time . . .

Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it . . .

For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet.  We all breathe the same air.  We all cherish our children's future.  And we are all mortal."

John F. Kennedy spoke these words at American University, June 10, 1963.

He was assassinated five months later.


[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



How to Become a Target for State Assassination

More Bases More Bombs More War

 

They say things have to get worse before they get better.

But how much worse can the U.S. and the world tolerate?

Driven purely by institutional self-preservation and relentless pursuit of profits by the military-industrial-complex, the cancer of American military presence continues to metastasize unchecked across the planet.  Not satisfied with creating tens of thousands of new terrorists since 9/11 with aggressive wars, invasions, special ops initiatives, drone bombing, assassinations -- all claiming the lives of over a million innocent civilians -- budgetary allocations are in place and plans being implemented for even more bases in Asia, Africa, Europe, even the Arctic.

Is it any surprise that when America sets up a new military hub in a foreign country, conflict and war soon follow?

It's a closed feedback loop where a cure sets up the conditions for the disease it's supposed to treat.  If an area is relatively at peace, the putative guarantees of continuing tranquility offered by a military presence will produce opposition and rivalry which inevitably will metastasize into conflict and war.

On that note, there certainly is no mystery why terrorism is on the rise, especially in Middle Eastern countries.

Osama bin Laden stated it clearly.  To paraphrase: "We don't want you here."

Not only is sovereignty at issue in these native lands, but often they host sites which are considered sacred in both social and political traditions which stretch back centuries. The very presence of U.S. soldiers, war planes, drones, or any of the other paraphernalia of empire is insult enough. But the slaughter of innocent individuals, too often women and children, can only evoke cries of outrage and demands for revenge.  Is it asking too much to imagine how U.S. citizens would react if a wedding party was blown to bits in Topeka, Kansas or Knoxville, Tennessee?

This must end. The unnecessary expansion of U.S. military presence throughout the world is bankrupting our economy, incriminating each and every American citizen in horrifying war crimes, risking World War III, and ultimately will collapse the nation and take down the great American experiment.

It's up to us to stop this before it's too late!



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


More Bases More Bombs More War

Putin’s War on America’s Christmas!

 

Without a doubt, it is extremely difficult keeping up with the news. There's so much happening everywhere on the international stage, it's enough to make your head swim.

I've learned that it's often necessary to go beyond what's available from the usual news sources, to dig deep and explore alternative avenues for discovering what's really going on behind-the-scenes. It's hard work but at the end of the day quite rewarding. Because after getting ALL of the information that's available through the miracle of the internet, everything starts to make sense. Many of the things which are on the surface puzzling suddenly become clear.

For example, why did Turkey shoot down the Russian SU-24 bomber?

President Erdogan is claiming it was just a standard response to a pilot error.

I have discovered by using some of the same highly reliable "deep data" sources that our own CIA uses -- Facebook and Twitter -- the real reason the Russian plane was destroyed.

Turkey was protecting a Christmas ornament factory!

Here is one such facility in the town of Bidama, near the Turkish border. Look at how it was mercilessly bombed to rubble by the Russian air campaign.



Granted, the "whoops-sorry-about-that" official position of Turkey is plausible. After all, the U.S. military has had a few minor slip-ups itself -- two months ago bombing a facility making the highly dubious claim it's a hospital, then just last week killing Iraqi soldiers. Hey, these things happen! Nothing's perfect. Haven't we all had the tab break off a soda can making it nearly impossible to open?

But it wasn't an impulsive or anomalous response when Turkey had its F-16s shoot down the Russian plane. Matter of fact, I've learned from deep sources right in the Middle East that Turkey's entire military campaign on the Syrian-Turkey border is now dedicated to standing up to the attack Russia is mounting on our most holy -- and most profitable -- holiday of the year.

Yes, I am talking about . . . Vladimir Putin's war on America's Christmas!

 

Now I'm not saying I approve of crazy jihadists making money, even if it's by manufacturing what have widely been judged to be the finest and most stunning Christmas ornaments available today.

Furthermore, it's not at all consistent with our long-range intent -- that of defeating terrorism -- to have thousands of tons of contraband holiday decorations "smuggled" into Turkey, then shipped to America to be distributed to shopping malls from one end of the country to the other, so that rampaging bands of cutthroats and mad suicide bombers have the funding to buy even more weapons, ski masks, and SUVs. 

But these are nice terrorists, as is evidenced by the excellent contribution they are making to the beauty of America's Yuletide trimmings and overall good cheer.

So lighten up!  It's Christmas!  Where's your holiday spirit?

I can tell you where Vlad the Impaler's holiday spirit is . . . at the end of a barrel!

While he would like to enjoy Christmas at the helm of a reconstituted Soviet Empire, with all his comrades sitting around a Christmas tree drinking vodka, or doing their trademark "gunslinger" strut across Russia's newly-conquered vassal state of Crimea, he plans on us here in America being deprived of the beautiful holiday ornaments produced in villages of liberated Syrians, and sticking us with cheap, sweat-factory junk from China.

Yes!  The plot thickens!

Like I said, spend a little time on the internet, and everything starts to make sense.

See, Putin and Xi Jinping are chums.  And now we get to the whole truth behind Russia's military campaign in the Middle East, and its alleged war on ISIS . . .

Russia is destroying the Christmas ornament factories in northern Syria of well-meaning and industrious entrepreneurs -- jihadists who are America's good buddies -- to enhance its partnership with China. The endgame is that the Chinese will continue to monopolize the mistletoe-ornament-tinsel-manger-scene market and use the money to buy advanced new military weaponry from . . .

Who else?

Russia!

I have to hand it to Putin. He is one cagey character!

Or is that KGB character?


[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Putin’s War on America’s Christmas!