Lindsey Graham Blames Obama For Every Problem On Earth While David Gregory Nods

25 Jul

The Most Lopsided Interview To Date: Gregory (left) Lets Graham (right) Off The Hook

The Most Lopsided Interview To Date: Gregory (left) Lets Graham (right) Off The Hook

I jokingly predicted earlier this week in a tweet:  Next on Sunday’s Meet The Press: Lindsey Graham and John McCain discuss how Obama arranged the downing of MH Flight 17.  Once again, Mr. Deference to Republicans with a side of hardline questions to Democrats, David Gregory, has engineered another episode of Meet The Press that could double as a commercial for the RNC.  After an interview with Secretary of State Kerry, where facts were given regarding Gaza, MH 17 and the Border Crisis, a smirking Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) appeared on the screen.  I recorded it and the transcript below is directly from the interview.  With regards to the Kerry comments, he said,

“That was the most delusional summary that I can imagine.  It scares me that he (Secretary Kerry) believes that the world is in such good shape.  America is the glue that holds the free world together.  Leading from behind is not working, the world is adrift, and President Obama has become the King of Indecision. His policies are failing across the globe and it will come here soon.”

Gregory asked what Kerry left out, saying “what is the administration not yet prepared to do that you think must be done?” (Since Graham deserves the final say on the matter,as his foreign policy ideas have been the model of peace and prosperity for the U.S.)

“What he didn’t call Putin the THUG that he is.  He didn’t call for the arming of the Ukraine so they can defend themselves against local separatists supported by Russia.  All the enemies of our nation are being well supplied, Russia and Iran are helping Syria, a 160,000 have been slaughtered, John Kerry, by Russian-supplied weapons to Assad. Syria has become a safe-haven for terrorists to attack our nation.” (from Syria?) He then commented on how the Europeans weren’t going to lead on the issue of laying heavy sanctions on Putin and we can’t keep “leading from behind. There’s a battle of wills between the KGB colonel and the “Community Organizer” (aka black guy) and the colonel is winning. “

Next Graham went into harsh criticism mode on the “deliberative” nature of the president.  He said, “it comes off as indecisive, he’s trying to be thoughtful, it comes off as weakness.”  He then supported aggressive US-European sanctions on Russia, especially in the banking sector and he finished up his rant on how we should rebuild the missile defense systems “that Obama took down.”

The final comment was regarding the border crisis.  Gregory asked if his party was prepared to move with the President on this.  He predictably said, “there will be NO MONEY….we have to streamline and quicken deportations, there will be no immigration reform because of the crisis on the border, I blame OBAMA for this moment.” He then stated the 2015 “Republican Congress” with the House leading (of course) will need to solve this immigration crisis or they won’t win the White House in 2016. However, they are not prepared in any way to cooperate with anyone to change anything.

The South Carolinian best bud of Senator McCain, in a very short time, blamed Obama for the border crisis, the crisis in Palestine and the Ukrainian mess.  Naturally, David Gregory had absolutely no challenges to any of those assertions and, in fact, followed up the interview with a largely Republican panel who parrotted Graham’s delusional ravings.

 

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Supporting Palestine Is Not Supporting Hamas

25 Jul haaretz

We Must Remember The Refugees Of Palestine From The Formation Of Israel In 1948

History, once again way too kind to the Bush Crime Family’s escapades, has omitted the main reason the terrorist group Hamas was able to ascend to power in Gaza:  Bush pushed for Palestinian elections when Israel, amongst others, cautioned against this.  In June 2002, when Bush in a White House speech pressed for the Palestinians to “to elect new leaders” and “build a practicing democracy,” helped encourage an election in a tumultuous time when poor and desperate people often clinged to their guns and religion, as candidate Obama once said.  We all know how well that comment went over, even if it couldn’t have been more true.

If anyone seems to take the side of the suffering civilians in Gaza, they are called “anti-semitic.” People generally fail to realize Semitic means relating to the peoples who speak the Semitic languages, especially Hebrew and Arabic.  So an anti-semite would be against both sides in this dreadful conflict.  I must admit, I was one of those people who fell for the tired meme, “the Palestinians don’t care about their own people and use them as human shields.”  I wrote an article about that a few days ago and I’ve evolved on my position in just one week.  I must apologize for my misguided assumptions based on listening to the media, most who have an axe to grind against the Muslims in this conflict.  The problem is Hamas, not the innocent civilians of Gaza. 

To be very clear, I am against ALL religions.  I believe religion is the cause of the subjugation of women and children, war, unjustified hate that tries to hide its prejudice by making the occasional charitable deed to offset the inherent evil in a man-made construct of religion.  I am a minority in America.  I am also vehemently against war, especially a religiously motivated war.  But this war is actually one very much like the displacement of Native Americans based on Manifest Destiny in the nineteenth century.  Up until the formation of the Jewish State, the area was occupied by roughly 85% Muslims, and it was a real place called Palestine.  Many say Palestine is not a “real” country, but the folks who lived there for hundreds of years would beg to differ.  I’ve heard more times than I can count no neighboring Arab nation would take them.  Then again, what country opens immigrants with open arms these days?  Look how America treats our Central American refugees. 

Palestinian Refugees Flee By The Thousands In 1948

Palestinian Refugees Flee By The Thousands In 1948

Take a look at this video of Palestine in 1896, an Ottoman territory at the time. It was a typical Middle Eastern nation, where Jerusalem, then population 500,000, was much like Cairo, Damascus and Beirut. The land was abruptly divided when the Zionists formed the nation of Israel in 1948, divided by not only religious disagreements but for the simple fact the residents were forced onto reservation-like conditions after hundreds of years of living on their own land.  Add things like blockades of supplies, disruption of utilities and curfews, the Palestinians were not welcomed by Israeli society but were treated, from the onset, like pariahs. The “catastrophe,” or “nakba,” of Israel’s creation, during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes into exile. Seldom have I heard in the American media the perspective from the Palestinians side. The Center for Research on Globalization, based out of Montreal, Quebec tells a different story here about Israel.

It took six months to complete, consider the toll, and understand the Nakba’s meaning. It displaced 750,000 to 800,000 people – men, women, children, the elderly and infant civilians. Many hundreds or thousands of others were killed. Sweeping destruction was carried out. It erased 531 villages and 11 urban neighborhoods in Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and other cities….Golda Meir said: “There are no Palestinians” and Menachem Begin and Nobel Peace Prize recipient called Palestinians “two-legged beasts” and said Jews were the “Master Race” and “divine gods on this planet.”

History clearly remembers there was another person in Nazi Germany that claimed they were also the  “master race;” the irony here is pretty astounding. There are a growing number of disenchanted IDF Israelis who have grown tired of military-only solutions to problems.  By taking this position, these people are often imprisoned for their pacifist beliefs. If war is the only solution, the ideology of Netanyahu and his neocon friends McCain, Cruz and Graham will sadly prevail in the region.

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Israel Invades Gaza, Hamas Uses Palestinians As Martyrs

19 Jul irondomebest

 

Israel's Iron Dome Protects Citizens While Hamas Exploits Human Shields For Weapons

Israel’s Iron Dome Protects Citizens While Hamas Exploits Human Shields For Weapons

At midnight on May 14, 1948, the Provisional Government of Israel proclaimed a new State of Israel and President Truman and the U.S. officially recognized the provisional Jewish government.  Since that time, there has been interminable war, with displaced Palestinians existing with the plight of the “coloreds” of pre-1994 Apartheid South Africa.  The Gaza Strip is a region the size of Detroit with a population of roughly 1.6 million. There’s constant suffering at the hands of the Islamic Hamas government who promote the ideology that martyrs are good for their movement.   Israelis easily dominate the economically and militarily inferior Palestinian people and there really is very little hope for happiness for the people of Gaza anytime in the near or distant future.  

World opinion tends to sympathize with the people of Gaza, and aside from hawkish conservatives in both Israel and the U.S., most feel the Netanyahu Government is in the wrong.  In a world where developed countries are gradually abandoning religious dogma, logic would conclude religion is a very arbitrary means of determining sovereignty.  American Conservatives who believe the Jews are God’s Chosen People defend Israel’s right to mistreat Palestinians. Misery for Gaza is compounded by a government that is more than happy to use them as human shields for their own rockets and not vice versa.  On HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher, the host said, 

“I feel terrible for a Palestinian child who dies,” Maher said, “but if it’s your father, your brother, your uncle who’s firing those rockets into Israel, who’s fault is it really? Do you really expect the Israelis not to retaliate?” 

The panel agreed: “Israel builds an “Iron Dome” to defend its citizens from missiles, Hamas uses its citizens to defend its missiles.”  But the Israelis have always prevailed in every conflict since its birth mainly because of their values.  Unlike the Jihadist-mentality of Palestine’s Hamas, Israel does everything to protect, educate and care for their citizens.  Maher even said out of necessity, Israel has become very good at defending itself, largely because of the Jewish expertise in science. “Jews have, I think, 155 Nobel Prizes, Muslims have two. That seems like kind of a big advantage for team Hebrew.” Religion creates the problem on two fronts:  both sides use it to lay claim to the land.  The most notable difference: Hamas uses religion to martyr its people while the other side uses religion and science to protect its people.

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Thank To Uncle Rupey, Two Continents Are Denying Climate Change

17 Jul

Australia and the U.S. have a common enemy.

Australia and the U.S. have a common enemy.

I thought America was way behind the times on the science of climate change, given the positions of so many anti-science, anti-evidence Republicans who populate our House of Representatives. Our northern neighbor, Canada, is surprisingly anti-environmentalist, considering they are socially more progressive than the U.S. with their single payer healthcare.  Canadian PM Harper, who is as committed to proliferating the production of dirty Alberta tar sands oil as (America’s fossil fuel sweet-hearts) Charles and David Koch; stands in unison with the ultra-conservative Australian PM, Tony Abbott.  Salon reported,  “President Obama has stayed far from these two other world leaders when it comes to climate policy. He is pursuing a number of avenues to reduce the United States’ emissions with his National Climate Plan, including the recent announcement of the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to substantially reduce emissions from power plants.”  

Abbott Fiddles While Australia Burns

Abbott Fiddles While Australia Burns

I was both relieved and troubled to know Australia out-devolved the United States and completely abolished the carbon tax yesterday. The Australian media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, a big player in the denial 0f climate change, is a strong supporter of Heritage Foundation policies and Australia’s move to abolish all progress in the area of renewable energy. Australia was once a leader on climate action. This cabal of the anti-conservationist movement,  formed by the unlikely triumvirate of Murdoch, Grover Norquist and PM Abbott has  dealt a lethal blow to the future prevention of climate change disasters.  This denial movement has shaped legislation on two continents, both very susceptible to the rising sea levels that are imminent with our current carbon emissions. Curiously, yesterday was also the day Mr. Murdoch publically offered to buy Time Warner Cable, which includes the very cash lucrative HBO, for $80 billion.  Currently that bid has been rejected, but he is determined to find a price that will be acceptable for the massive merger.  With control of the media on two continents, unfettered pollution will only become a bigger problem with the media devoting little to no attention to the crisis of man-made climate change.

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Eric Holder’s Racial Animus Claim Enrages Racists

15 Jul secret meeting

Attorney General Eric Holder stated that part of the problem with this administration is racial animus, and the defensive right wing says he is absolutely unjustified.  The claim “we must take our country back” promoted by Right Wing Tea Party extremists insinuates that we are living in an America they are unable to recognize. The improving economy, falling jobless rate and the ACA, which is lowering the number uninsured Americans are all successes any Republican would highly tout and exploit for all they’re worth.  For those suffering from Obama Derangement Syndrome , these positives actually represent the end of freedom, liberty and the American way. In the area of Foreign policy, Obama has been infinitely more successful than his predecessor Bush, yet is subject to merciless scrutiny.  On this Sunday’s appearance of GPS with Fareed Zakaria on CNN, WSJ deputy editorial page editor Bret Stephens actually said (regarding NSA controversy),

“Sloppiness seems to be the order of the day with the administration,”….”You don’t have a sense of adult responsibility coming out of the White House. “

Apparently the entire NSA and the Patriot Act are the fault of  President Obama.  When asked about the subject of racial discrimination,  Obama’s Attorney General had this to say:

There’s a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that’s directed at me, directed at the president.  You know, people talk about taking their country back.  I can’t look into people’s hearts, look into people’s minds, but it seems to me that this president has been treated differently than others.  There’s a certain racial component to this for some people.  I don’t think this thing is a main driver, but for some there’s a racial animus.  It’s interesting to me that for whatever reason, Republicans decided early on that this was a president they were simply not gonna cooperate with.

But there most definitely was an agreement and an actual meeting that occurred as President Obama was being inaugurated.

Yes, Limbaugh, This Actually Happened.

Yes, Limbaugh, This Actually Happened.

Rush Limbaugh, who harbors deep hatred for the president and the Attorney General, denies race is ever a part of his problem.  Limbaugh says, in his most patronizing voice,

The Republicans were bending over backwards to support this guy.  They were bending over backwards to not be seen as racists, and yet here’s Holder saying, “Republicans decided early on they were not gonna cooperate.” But this technique of smearing straw men and playing the role of victim. The president of the United States, attorney general of the United States, oh, poor guys, poor victims of a mean, racist America.

Consider a recent Gallup poll that asked whether the justice system was biased against blacks. While 69% of whites answered no, 68% of blacks answered yes. The Tea Party and the NRA, both groups are over 95% white and go out of their way to claim there is no racism, yet the prison population is disproportionately black and the rate of poverty for black Americans is disproportionately higher. The rise of hate groups (aka Patriot groups by the right) is pretty stark.  ir153_yih_patriot_groups_1995-2013_webNo, Mr. Holder, you are definitely not imagining racial animus.  You are right in the midst of the hate, and you’re doing a great job despite their efforts to thwart the administration in every way.

 

Always Playing The Victim: #WAAR Claims Republicans Are All Refugees

14 Jul

We Are American Refugees

We Are American Refugees

There’s a group of people, no matter what the factual evidence states, who cannot come to terms with the idea that their legitimately elected president is black.  These curious folks truly believe everything about President Barack Obama is “illegitimate, tyrannical and unConstitutional.” The latest fresh horror I encountered on Twitter? The hashtag WAAR, #WAAR stands for We Are American Refugees. Playing the victim, they feel their country is unrecognizable from when the Great White Hope, George W. Bush was our fearless leader. The patriarch of this “movement” is Roger C. D’Aquin.  The Refugees are described as thus: (bold emphasis mine)

We are strict constitutionalists who believe in liberty and a limited republican form of government. We reject the unconstitutional government lead by the criminal, Barack Obama. We are not terrorists. We do not advocate violence. We do advocate political and economic revolution. We also refuse to be disarmed and will not surrender our weapons. We will defend our homes, property, lives, and families against any illegal attack, even if it comes from government.

We were inspired by the great super hero, The American Refugee, Roger D’Aquin. Roger was rocked by the betrayal of Justice Roberts in the Obamacare decision. He did all he could in the next months to see to it that Obama was defeated. When voter fraud, a corrupt media, and dependent moochers left Obama in office, Roger gave up his career and his small business in order to go Galt, with a twist.

These Tea Partiers, the fringiest of the fringe, have actually scored victories in the Republican Party.  The quintessential hero of these ultra far right-wing Tea Partiers this year had to be the man who unseated Cantor, Dave Brat.  These folks who support Brat believe Republicans haven’t gone far enough to the right.   These are folks who deny there’s a war on women by simply photographing the women attending the victory party for the newly coronated Dave Brat.

The victimized people, the ones who via the Quinnipiac Poll claim to profess Obama is the “worst president since WW2,” deny the facts: (do they know) “federal discretionary spending is well below average? Or that the poverty rate has stabilized? And the stock market is, as mentioned, breaking records, benefitting rich white dudes more than ever? Also, people are buying lots of new cars, and there’s a fully recovered auto industry ready to meet all demand.“

#WAAR is merely another “patriotic Republican group” like Oathkeepers, Stormfront or the Heritage Foundation.  What’s the common denominator in all these organizations?  They’ve hated, hate and will continue to hate the black man occupying the White House.

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Corporatism And The War On Drugs Created This Border Crisis

10 Jul central america

The Refugees Are Fleeing From Central America

The Refugees Are Fleeing From Central America

It’s a commonly used term, but the idea of a “Banana Republic”  (penned by the writer O’Henry) actually stemmed from the governments formed in the tortured Northern Triangle of Central America: El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.  The region is known for its banana crop and U.S. demand, satisfied by the centralized corporatization of fruit production, has created a crisis whose repercussions we are now seeing. These are desperately poor countries and the issue on our border should not be to deport these refugee children, As Emile Schepers says, “What is needed is for U.S. politicians to ponder why it is so dangerous for them to stay.”

Large U.S. multinational corporations are making a fortune in Central America, so much so , they’ve privatized their own “security forces” to keep their interests protected.  Much like the democratically elected government of Iran in the 1950′s, the CIA conducted a similar operation to overthrow the popularly elected government of Guatemala, by unseating the democratically elected Jacobo Arbenz. During the Eisenhower administration, Secretary of State John Dulles was motivated to act in Guatemala because he had some interest in the holdings of a corporation known as United Fruit.  The intervention was a personal matter to the Secretary of State.

And the Dulleses had their own personal sympathies for United Fruit: they had done legal work for the company, and counted executives there among their close friends.

Throughout the 1980′s we had a minor little scandal called Iran-Contra, where the U.S. sent arms to the Nicaraguan guerillas. When the U.S. passed the Boland Amendment in 1982, our real interference with Central American affairs helped truly make the region a volatile powder keg.

Let’s fast forward to the twenty-first century.   Our need for bio-fuels like palm oil, has created a very volatile situation especially in Honduras.  The impoverished nation also experienced a dire water crisis, where much of the resistance to flooding has been attributed to aggressive forest clearing by logging.  The U.S., with the failed war on drugs, has also had a hand in the violence in the area, where we’ve essentially turned Central America into a war zone.

When President Barack Obama signed the annual list of countries with major drug trafficking or drug producing problems in September of 2010, five of six Central American countries made the cut. 

Families risk a dangerous voyage north to the United States border to give their children a fighting chance at life.  Contrary to Tea Party opinions, there is no such thing as an illegal human being, but rather millions of refugees who have been put in a terrible situation by no fault of their own.  Thanks in part to corporate pillaging and a tremendous murder rate, these impoverished people need our help more than ever.

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