Clear & Present: SaudiGate, IsraelGate, Nixon & Reagan
I've got some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that, for at least the next few months, several
million Americans will live a little bit longer because they will still
have affordable healthcare. Even though it's not single-payer
healthcare (which could save millions more American lives and cost
billions of dollars less), it's still better than
Trump-Ryan-McConnell-Don't-Care by a long shot. But then this isn't
really news at all, right? Just the same old story of our
corporate-sponsored government vs. what Jesus would have done. Boring.
Nothing to see here, folks. Let's move on.
The bad news is that I just got into a big fight with a friend of mine
over RussiaGate. https://consortiumnews.com/2017/07/09/ten-problems-with-anti-russian-obsession/
"The Trumps should be arrested," my friend shouted at me, "for using Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election!"
"But what about the Clintons and their use of the Saudis and Israelis to influence the 2016 election?" I replied.
"But that's completely different."
Is
it now? In exactly what way? Israelis have used the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to rule our elections with an iron hand for the past four decades, and
the Saudis have used the Clinton Foundation to influence our elections by donating all kinds of $$$$ to it. But
nobody appears to be whining their little hearts out about that kind of
stuff. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/us/politics/hillary-clinton-presidential-campaign-charity.html
"Yeah, but..." countered my friend. "Both AIPAC and the Clinton
Foundation are run by Americans, not foreign
nationals." And that makes it okay? Americans who are unregistered
agents of foreign countries are supposed to declare themselves according to the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Section 22 et seq. Or perhaps these Americans are just committing treason?
Is my friend really actually trying to tell me that, "Treason is okay -- just as long as it doesn't involve Russia...."
Then I replied, "But AIPAC and Israel have tried to influence the
outcome of almost every
single American federal election in the past 50 years -- and in the past
few decades, almost no politician has been sent to Washington
without AIPAC's stamp of approval. Just ask former congresswoman
Cynthia
McKinney about that one." Not to mention Israel's grim influence in
attempting to sink the USS Liberty 50 years ago today. http://usslibertyveteransblog.org/cong-jerrald-nadler-accepts-discredited-version-of-uss-liberty-attack-1378/
"But what about Barbara Lee?" answered my friend. Geez Louise. Bad
example.
Rep. Lee is what we call a PEP -- Progressive Except for
Palestine. In America, PEPs are elected all the time. Even Al Franken
and Bernie Sanders are PEPs. But you never ever hear of any
PER (Progressive Except for Russia) getting elected. In fact, according
to spell-check, that
isn't even a word. https://972mag.com/gaza-will-be-unlivable-next-year-not-2020-as-the-un-says/128598/
Nobody on The Hill dares to cross Israel or the Saudis --
for fear of not getting re-elected. And yet almost everybody on The Hill feels
free to bad-mouth Russia. I rest my case. https://www.thenation.com/article/congress-has-removed-a-ban-on-funding-neo-nazis-from-its-year-end-spending-bill/
PS:
No, wait. I don't rest my case either. Have you ever gotten yourself
into a debate and then gone home and told yourself, "Good grief, I
shoulda said this..." Well. Perhaps what I should have also said to my
friend is, "Donald Jr. talked with some Russian attorney? HELL, REAGAN
KEPT AMERICANS HOSTAGE IN TEHRAN for months in order to get elected --
and later even illegally sold weapons to Iran during the Iran-Contra
scandal when our ally Iraq was at 'war' with Iran. But nobody
complained about that. You never heard of ReaganGate. Of course you
didn't."
Not to mention that Nixon totally screwed the
Paris peace talks with Vietnam in order to get elected, causing the grim
and unnecessary deaths of hundreds of American soldiers. Where's the
anger about that? Plus the Bushes, the Clintons, Obama, etc.
all regularly chatted it up with Saudi princes and Israeli
neo-colonialists in order to
get elected too. Hypocrites. All of them." http://www.globalresearch.ca/
syria-a-civil-war-supported- by-washington-and-its-allies-
us-wants-to-partition-and- reconfigure-the-middle-east/ 5598841
And, duh, I also should have told my friend about how I myself have
lived through the grim and useless 1950s First Cold War, deliberately
started by the Dulles brothers -- and that it was a miserable, scary,
McCarthyism-laden time that I wouldn't wish on a dog. And that Putin is
no Stalin. And that Trump, Netanyahu, Prince What's-his-Name and Mitch
McConnell are not John and Bobby Kennedy either.
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Stop Wall Street and War Street from destroying our world. And while you're at it, please buy my books! http://straitwellbooks.blogspot.com/2016/04/our-top-best-seller-right-now-is-bring.html
Plus here's a sneak preview of my latest book, a thrilling murder mystery entitled "Road Trip to Damascus," hopefully coming out by the end of 2017: http://straitwellbooks.blogspot.com/2017/05/new-book-by-straitwell-press-coming-out.html
Stop Wall Street and War Street from destroying our world. And while you're at it, please buy my books! http://straitwellbooks.blogspot.com/2016/04/our-top-best-seller-right-now-is-bring.html
Plus here's a sneak preview of my latest book, a thrilling murder mystery entitled "Road Trip to Damascus," hopefully coming out by the end of 2017: http://straitwellbooks.blogspot.com/2017/05/new-book-by-straitwell-press-coming-out.html