Sunday, March 29, 2015

NO SCHUMER AS SENATE LEADER

NO TO CHUCK SCHUMER AS SENATE LEADER

NO TO THE TAIL WAGGING THE DOG

Mr Schumer has been a fine Senator on domestic issues and is a nice man. But unfortunately he does not think on his own when it comes to foreign policy in the Middle East...a part of the world where Israeli foreign policies and USA policies are diverging. This is no time for a Schumer ascendancy. This Senator has manifested particular biases and weaknesses all too often. The fact is Senator Schumer would have us manacled to the far right Israeli Likud leader Mr. Netanyahu's ISRAELI foreign policy. Recall, he was a co-sponsor of the dangerous Kirk-Menedez-Schumer Act of 2014 sometimes referred to as the "Wag the Dog Act" (formally known as the Iran Weapons Free Act of 2013. See lobelog.com (Dec 18, 2013)). That legislation would have effectively given over to the brazen, undiplomatic, trigger happy Mr. Netanyahu the ability to send our young men and women to war as a consequence of its "got Israel's back" clause. That alone should disqualify him from contention as Democrat Leader of the Senate, if nothing else. If Mr. Schumer were an Israeli Knesset member, rather than a US Senator, would he have given that powerful ability to the US President to wield over the Israeli citizenry? I think not!

But there is more. Just before Senator Reid announced his retirement from the Senate this week (March 27, 2015) Schumer announced that he was co-sponsoring the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015. If it passes, the President will surely veto it. The bill ties the hands of our duly elected chief executive in his efforts to make the Middle East a safer place. Its provisions are designed to throw a monkey wrench into the President's agreement and drive Iran into an untenable position where it is more likely to seek a nuclear umbrella of its own. (Not perhaps as massive as that wielded by the 200 or more Israeli weapons.) Upending the deal is a vote for WAR, and for the neocon warmongers and representatives who have been bought and sold by mega rich mono-issue activists like Sheldon Adelson.

No to Schumer...I like the guy...but all of us must recognize his weaknesses and put our own US interests first. The Middle East would be a far better place today were it not for the pro-Israel "knee jerk" reactions made by American officials like Chuck Schumer and others to even the most dangerous, ill conceived and illegal Israeli policies.

Sorry Chuck..

Friday, March 27, 2015

LEON PANETTA BACKSTABBING FOR CLINTON?

BACKSTABBING LEON PANETTA REDUX

ASKS PRESIDENT TO TAILOR US POLICY TO NETANYAHU'S

Panetta is a man who earned himself the epithet "stunningly disloyal" and greedy with the publication of his "tell all" book when he left the Obama Administration. The publication earned Panetta a nice buck when it was released just before elections. But it famously armed the Republican opposition with good talking points who claimed they were written by a "Democrat". This man has a long resume of working like a mole within the system. In his last tottering years he worked for President Obama and the administration as both CIA Director and Secretary of Defense. Positions which he did not deserve and was famously unprepared for. In his book he unjustifiably blames Obama for the rise of Isis and the destabilization of Iraq, as well as failing to send troops into Syria during the Syrian civil war. This man of who shifted with the winds from Republicanism to Democrat in 1971 is way off base in his recent pronouncements (March 26, 2015) advising the President to "make peace" with Bibi Netanyahu, another back stabber.

It was our nATION AND MR. OBAMA who were offended and rightly so, by the Israeli Prime Minister"s scheme to undermine the US President's foreign policy initiatives and (incomplete) attempt to conclude an Iranian nuclear deal, and to upend US protocol, and simple decent behavior, with his speech to the Senate, as well as his stated backtracking on commitments to support a two-state solution to the Palestinian question in good faith, and his racist remarks to supporters during the Israeli elections. It would be completely wrong for the US President to approach Mr. Netanyahu, hat in hand asking for reconciliation. Panetta does not mention that the crux of the problem is not personal pique between the two men, but MAJOR POLICY DIFFERENCES WITH THE ISRAELI LEADER, who had declared himself to be in direct opposition to established US policy goals. So what would Mr. Panetta have the President do? Tailor US policy to Mr. Netanyahu's whims? If that is Panetta's call it is plain stupid or worse it is unAmerican. The way I see it the brazen Israeli leader needs our help much more than we need his. But perhaps Leon is not that stupid, but has something else up his sleeve here.

The President's shift in policy toward the Israeli leader is a hard nut for Mrs. Clinton to swallow as she plans her initiation (we are all waiting!) presidential campaign. Perhaps Mr. Panetta, a longtime shill for the Clinton's is simply paving the way for Mrs. Clinton's presidential role-out. Having this disgustingly disloyal man claim that the President was at fault and SHOULD REVISE his new "businesslike" arrangement with Mr. Netanyahu would make it easier for Mrs. Clinton to stake out a position which would permit her to hold on to her big Jewish donors as well as keep a claim on Mr. Obama's loyal core constituency.

Panetta's machinations, at the behest of Clinton, undermine the President (again), and do the Israelis, and the nation no favors. This man should crawl right back under that pile of dry walnut hulls on his twelve acre 'nut ranch' in California from whence he slithered.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

SLATE LOSES IT ON KREMLIN TV

A ONE SIDED STORY ABOUT A ONE SIDED STORY

LOUSEY JOURNALISM

Slate published a piece, entitled "Kremlin TV," (March 19, 2015) by Lucian Kim. The piece reports on President Putin's TV exposition regarding the coup in Ukraine, and the Russian takeover of the Crimea. The author in characterizing a one-sided story, pens a one sided view of the events too reminiscent of Fox News "quality". That is, in his characterization of a Putin propaganda TV program..the author felt the need to generate another propaganda piece --though of the opposing view. The irony of the project did not seem to make an impression on the author. Though having the opportunity to set the record straight, none was taken. Only one aspect of a complex story is reported on. The Fox News style of: the USA is always right, and keep it simple for those who like their stories in only black and white was clearly followed. No mention of US encirclement of Russia with bases, or the history of CRIMEA, or encroachment by NATO into Russia's back yard, no word of the CIA involvement in Kiev demonstrations, or of the U.S. slush money spent to gin up anti Yanukovych crowds, or the activities of extremists such as "loose cannon" Victoria Nuland. Tsk tsk tsk....Slate is better than this PUTIN-style propaganda.



Wednesday, March 18, 2015

BIBI EXPOSED-NO SHEEP'S SKIN CLOAK

BIBI SHEDS HIS CLOAK OF SHEEP'S SKIN

TIME TO TREAT ISRAEL JUST LIKE OTHER NATIONS

Faced with certain defeat, Mr. Netanyahu of Israel came out of the "peace" closet and exposed himself for what he is: a supporter of one illegitimate, ethnically cleansed state. The view is not pretty.

By his own words, Netanyahu has expressed his unwillingness to make peace, and to give up illegally occupied territories for a settlement with the Palestinians--the legitimate original inhabitants of most of what ISRAEL is today.

In this election, Netanyahu exposed himself and his Likud coalition for what they are: far right-wing radicals, determined to hold onto the West Bank, happy with the status quo, and opposed to peace at any cost. The USA and the rest of the world will have to deal with them accordingly.

Netanyahu was a desperate man on the eve of the election...like any politician he was ready to retain power at all costs. He has chutzpah. He accused his opposition and Mr. Herzog of being manipulated by Americans! He actually made these claims while he spoke to the nation on free air time over airways owned and operated by American, Las Vegas gambling tycoon Sheldon Adelson. Also Adelson the American has showered millions on Netanyahu. Netanyahu pulled the Palestinian card too. In an attempt to frighten Israelis he claimed that Palestinian-Israelis (citizens too) who were voting in large numbers in the election were a "threat" to Israel. He stated flatly "there would be no Palestinian state" while he was in office. He promised to expand settlements in East Jerusalem. These are all views that will make it impossible to renew talks of peace. They are dead. Palestinians under sixty years of occupation can have no hope of succor? What is left only conflict?

What about these pronouncements...won't Bibi just backtrack at some time and back off of these radical views? Probably not. The Israeli political system....more democratic than what we have--- does not easily permit a lying politician to get away with phony election promises. In the US system a pol has two to four years (in the Senate six) before the office holder must face the voters again, and hope that over that time the citizen's memory has gotten foggy (too often it's true) and has forgotten the unmet promises. Not so in Israel's more representative parliamentary system. If "lying Bibi" were to try to modulate or even go back on his election eve pronouncements some time during his new term...the splinter parties which had come together to form his government with the Likud party would very likely withdraw and deny him his majority. At thqt point he would have to call another election. So what we heard from Mr. Netanyahu is what we will most probably get in the coming years. If it is as it seems and he does form another government, expect more unreat, conflict, another intifada, more Gaza incursions, more deaths, more chaos and instability in the region.

But there is a bright spot of hope. Now that Mr. Netanyahu is exposed for what he is...and where he really stands, it will be much more difficult for his US and European sympathizers to concoct a false rationale for continuing to support this man's expansive, colonialist, bully government.

Now that Netanyahu has slipped his lamb's wool camouflage, it is time for the USA to TREAT ISRAEL LIKE ANY OTHER ALLY. TO USE IT'S UN VETO LIKE IT WOULD FOR ANY OTHER ALLY, AND it's time to support economic pressures on Israel which would help to bring about political change from within.

Israel is a small country desperately in need of the world's good will. It has lost much during Netanyahu's tenure. Perhaps a realistic view as now demonstrated by Mr. Netanyahu, of what Israel has become, will put more support behind the efforts of the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) movement. Perhaps a truly evenhanded US approach to the Israeli-Palestinian problem is now possible. If so there IS hope for peace.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

BREEDLOVE ......BREEDS WAR

BREEDLOVE...BREEDS----WAR...MUST BE BROUGHT HOME

Spiegel (March 06, 2015) reports that NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe...Gen Phillip Breedlove has lost his credibility with our European allies. His excessive bellicosity, his exaggeration of Russian intervention, troop movements, and deployment of weapons has become legendary. Our European allies have complained bitterly...that his alarmist proclamations seem to be designed to purposely make diplomacy more difficult. He and well known warmongering Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland are both loose cannons on a slippery deck and in rough sea. Both should be recalled and reprimanded by President Obama who with his European allies is rightly attempting to solve the Ukraine situation diplomatically.

All of our knowledgable military experts have stated that there is NO military solution to the Ukraine problem. Supplying weapons to the Ukrainians, is the overriding ill-conceived passion of both Breedlove and Nuland. Their plans, were they to come to fruition will be greeted with glee only by the casket makers, and war-material-mongers, but will bring only disaster, chaos and destruction to the people of Ukraine. These two are dangerous to the US as well as the peace and security in Eastern Europe. Their excesses have damaged their credibility irretrievably. Time for them to come home. PS. The talk of making Nuland Secretqry of State in a future GOP administration is laughable..and enough of a threat to force one to vote Democratic. See: "Berlin Alarmed by Aggressive NATO stance....",Spiegel On Line International (3-6-2015).

Saturday, March 14, 2015

SEN. GRAHAM'S LOOSE LIPS SINKS OWN SHIP

LINDSEY GRAHAM THREATENS COUP

Would Cross Rubicon with troops if elected President.

Recent events in the Senate and in New Hampshire seem to indicate that Senator Lindsey Graham and his sidekick John McCain have apparently both gone over the hill. From their recent behavior I suggest they both go home and reread the US Constitution. After that, they should carefully peruse their oath of office, especially the part where they repeat the phrase "uphold and support the Constitution".

Admittedly, these two are "old guys" and maybe they have not been taking their meds lately. But they should both have thought again when they stepped over the bounds of protocol, propriety, and legality (and perhaps made themselves subject to the Logan Act) by unthinkingly signing on to a letter to the Iranian leadership drafted by wild-eyed and still wet-behind-the-ears-junior-Senator Cotten (R-AK). They were also the most animated of the ugly cheering squad in the Senate Chamber for far-right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as he brazenly used the Senate Chamber for his own domestic political purposes, undermined on-going diplomatic efforts, angling to press the US into an unwanted war, by undermining OUR elected President's foreign policy goals. The behavior of these two US Senators macks of either stenosis of the carotid arteries, plain old senility, or simple treasonous treachery.

Today (March 10, 2015) I read of another faux pas of Senator Graham, who seems to harbor aspirations for higher office. Apparently, he showed up in New Hampshire for a "pies and politics " rally. During his presentation at that conference he is reported ro have stated seriously that the first thing he would do when he was elected President, would be to "call US troops into Washington and force Congress to reverse the cuts to the defense and intelligence budgets". (Unlike Senator Graham, most logical, rational US citizens, even many in the military, agree that the defense budget has grown like a cancerous tumor on the government body. It now stands at a nominal $600 billion annually. It accounts for more than 55% of all government discretionary spending. Out of about $3 trillion dollars in tax receipts in 2013, we spent @$ 600 billion on defense/military, the largest single component of the budget. That year we ran a deficit of about $500 billion. In plain language we spent $500 billion more than what we took in...so we had to borrow the $500 billion. With a smaller military we would not have that big of a deficit each year. Do those figures make it appear as if we are in desperate need to expand the military defense budget? No. Our nation is truly "exceptional" in the military expenditure department. Our "defense" expenses are four times greater than China, ten times greater than that of Russia, and about equal to the sum of the defense expenditures of the 15 largest economies in world.) So Senator Graham's manic urge to bring out the troops, lock the Congressmen and his Senate colleagues in their offices and force them to raise the defense and intelligence budgets is both dumb and unconstitutional.

According to David Weigel a reporter for Bloomberg News (March 12, 2015) who was present at Graham's speech, there was little response to Graham's bizarre remarks. Perhaps the few reporters in the room either went slack-jawed upon hearing the Senator's proposal, or they simply remained silent, participating in a form of self-censorship all too prevalent in our present corps of so-called journalists. But we do know that no follow up questions were asked. Weigel's report in "Bloomberg's Politics" attempts to soften the blow and suggest the remark "was a joke". But he also states: "No one laughed". Reporters present in the room from Bloomberg, Fox and the Concord Monitor did not report it. Perhaps they were self-censoring and pre-editing also. With "journalists" attempting to curry favor with the candidate, the comment might have just wafted off into space to be forgotten, except for the actions of a local man who actually taped the Senator's remark. According to Weigel, three days later, Ben Swan, a libertarian reporter for the Free State Project, uploaded his "exclusive audio" onto his site. The audio of the remarks went viral. Upon hearing it some commentators called it "chilling". Others termed the remark a " threat to the Republic", while many simply stated the facts: "Graham announces plan to stage a coup", Graham's spokesperson quickly claimed it was a joke. Other defenders, who knew the man better indicated it was simple hyperbole...a common element of "Graham speak". Apparently, according to them, Senator Graham often plays to the crowd, blows his top and speaks hyperbolically. If so, his behavior, his penchant for loose lips, strictly cuts Graham out of the herd of possible Presidential candidates. We could not possible survive as a nation with a man like that in the White House.

The fact that not one major reporter in the room dared report this story is even more chilling. Reporters too often put their fear being cut out of interviews down the line ahead of the truth. When reporters accept this kind of speech, preferring to self-censor, to make personal excuses for a candidate's foibles, to protect a candidate, they do a grave disservice to the voters, citizenry and the nation as a whole.

This comment of Graham's fits like a good leather golf glove with the Senator's past history and thus "adds to the existing Graham narrative". Thanks to Ben Swann perhaps we may have cleared another unstable, war mongering blabbermouth off the Presidential trail.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

CLINTON DECEPTION AT THE UN

HILLARY: NOT "CONVENIENCE" CONCEALMENT

Mrs Clinton, presumptive secret and self-ordained Presidential Democrat nominee, gave a shifty-eyed, denial yesterday (March 10, 2015) of any malfeasance regarding her use of a personal email server which she set up in her Chappaqua home basement for official government business. In responses to a clamor of questions from numerous reporters crammed into a small hall at the UN, she claimed with down cast eyes, over, over again that her decision to ignore State Department rules and protocol was for "convenience" only. She claimed she did not want to "carry two devices". A more honest and LOGICAL reason for her duplicity regarding installation of her own server and domain for official use was that such a system would give her complete control and access for personally editing her messages, both personal and official, so as to be able to conceal her official foibles, errors, and perhaps unsavory revelations concerning her dealings with the Clinton Foundation. The Nation's need for transparency and accountability, not to say security from prying eyes of foreign nations was apparently of no concern to Mrs Clinton.

Her behavior in this matter fits in well with her past history and reinforces the judgement that she should not be the ONLY Democrat candidate for nomination to the highest office in our land. Ms. Clinton does our nation a disservice in the way she has stalled and manipulated the nomination process to benefit her obsessive personal goals for power and wealth. Her personal goals go counter to the wishes of the vast majority of the electorate who would prefer an open nomination process. Mrs. Clinton and her operatives deny the nation this desireable goal. Sadly, the Democrat Party so far remains complicit in this matter. For Mrs. Clinton, this most recent email scandal (and the festering Clinton Foundation matter) is only the tip of an unseen iceberg of other sleezy scandals waiting to unfold.

Come the 2016 elections, the nation as a whole, and the Democrats will deeply regret their failure to hold a meaningful nomination process, rather than the "coronation" of Mrs. Clinton.

Monday, March 9, 2015

47 SENATORS BACKSTAB THE NATION

47 QUISLINGS IN THE SENATE

Bloomberg News today (March 8, 2015) reported that 47 Republican Senators, under the prodding and leadership of wild-eyed far-out freshman Senator Tom Cotton, sent a letter to the leaders of Iran warning them that any nuclear deal with President Obama won't last after Obama leaves office. If you didn't understand what a dysfunctional government wracked by partisanship to the point of self abuse and mutilation is--- this letter clearly reveals and explains it. Coming close upon the embarrassment of the Bibi Netanyahu speech to Congress this new act of traitorous behavior from the Republicans simply boggles the mind.

The author of the letter begins with a preamble which obstensibly presumes to explain the intricacies of our Constitution to the Iranians.....as if they did not know. It then proceeds to point out that any deal with Obama could be abrogated with the stroke of a pen by his successor after early 2017. But do these 47 backstabbers and traitors understand their duty to THEIR nation? Do they understand that the President was elected by the People to conduct foreign policy? He is OUR representative...we elected HIM twice....on his promise to modulate the shoot-first-ask-questions-and pay- the-costs-later policies of the previous administration. When these men undermine our President's efforts to wage peace and solve problems through diplomacy they undermine the collective will of the entire nation. What chutzpah they have to back-stab our elected leadership! They need someone to explain the Constitution to them! First and foremost they do not even know what the final deal will entail. The process of negotiations is ongoing. All they know is that they (and their war mongering overlords and paymasters) do not want the President to be successful in any endeavor...whether it serves well the interests of this nation and its citizenry or not. The nation's well being is apparently of no concern to these quislings.

The Founders sensibly put the conduct of foreign policy in the hands of the President. These renegade "US" Senators should be forced to reread their oaths of office. Apparently, these fifth columnists serve not the people of the USA, but the extreme right wing Israeli government of Mr. Netanyahu and their multibillionaire foreign and domestic radical supporters.

What have we become?

Sunday, March 8, 2015

DEGRADED DEMOCRACY AND CLINTON EMAIL-GATE

CLINTON EMAILGATE

USA ELECTIONS DEGRADE INTO OLIGARCHS VS MONARCHISTS

Today (March 7, 2015) we are celebrating the courage and determination of our Afro-American citizenry of fifty years ago..on the 1965 March to Montgomery. The peaceful marchers were barricaded, harassed, tear gassed and beaten with axe handles along Route 80 in Alabama by the local police and sheriff deputies. The reason for the violence against them? They were determined to have the right to vote in "the greatest democracy in the world". Today, after the effects of recent Supreme Court rulings by the Roberts Court one almost wonders if their deaths, pain and suffering were worth it. Our outstanding, exemplary democracy of 1965 has sorrowfully shriveled. In the post Reagan decades we have regressed from a truly representative government where a citizen's vote was meaningful into something else. In our hide-bound late 18th Century system, we find ourselves constrained to only two political parties, and in recent times we find that one of these has taken up a form of oligarchy, while the other has descended into an outright monarchy. Where is a thoughtful voter supposed to go?

The Party of the right has regressed from supporting a representative government into an 18th Century oligarchy where only wealthy landowners, powerful business interests and similar elites have a say. Republican voters today cast their ballots for candidates who have been first picked and groomed in unofficial "money primaries" arranged by the hyperwealthy, powerful business interests and multibillionaires who vet the candidates for their own purposes, force them to pass an acceptability test and then promise them monetary support only if they adhere to the policies of the monied classes. Some use their enormous wealth in a form of control, not to support but to undermine candidates. One Well-known, affluent auto salesmen from Florida (Brad Woodhouse) has vowed to politically "kill off dead" Governor Christie, whom he sees as unworthy. Regular folks, Poor middle class, black, brown and white, have no real choices when the candidates for the two parties are previewed, then bought and sold like commodities before voters even get a chance to hear their policy positions. Such practices, I am sad to say, mirror those of Communist China where the Party elders vet, then pick the candidates who are permitted to appear on the ballot. Only then can the people make a choice to "elect" their candidate.

On the Republican side, oligarch candidate JEB Bush has apparently (nearly two years before the elction) already "won" the money primary. He "hoovered up" most of the big cash, the main donors and savvy political operatives and has effectively closed out the other potential candidates. (oh you needn't search for similar comments in the general media or see it on TV. The paid talking heads make a living on handicapping the political horse race...though the game is all but over now.) Though the Other candidates may continue to show up at political functions they are recognized by the cognoscenti as straw men, posted to stand alongside JEB just for show. They will be knocked down one by one to generate the appearance of a contest where none is. They are effectively dead men walking.

The Democrats have gone even further back in history, into the Middle Ages, where they have embraced a monarchial system. On their monarchist side of the aisle they did not even organize a "money primary". Apparently they believe in the "Devine Right" of ascendency to the throne. Under the monarchist banner there was no need to permit their superwealthy party elites and elders a choice concerning who to give their money bags to. Hillary Clinton, the self-proclaimed nominee is their self proclaimed candidate. Recall she was the looser candidate of the 2008 election, who has been siting in the wings since that time plotting and scheming for the 2016 nomination. The Democrats, more eesperate for a presidential win than in selecting the best candidate, and too fearful of Clinton power and wealth, just let Madam Clinton take the throne. There was no formal coronation, Hillary quietly and secretly crowned herself long ago. She did not need an imprimatur from the wealthy lords and barons or a "green" primary since she is is flush with money from her personal slush fund, the Clinton Foundation, and it's foreign donors, and has been cosy with Wall Street money-men since her Senate days.

Unfortunately for the nation..both parties have problems. The Republicans have the problem of keeping interest alive in their contest. On the Democrat side the party has made the classic mistake of putting all their eggs in only one basket. They have a crowned princess on hand and no one else of presidential stature prepared to take over if Hillary stumbles. Unfortunately for the Dems and the nation, Mrs Clinton is now entangled in an ugly, long term scandal which will take up much effort and time defending herself.

Even before she formally notified the nation she was THE heir to the throne, a flurry of Clintonesque scandals and "eruptions"surfaced in the press. See recent NYT stories. If we needed a reminder of what it would be like with a Clinton ensconced again in the White House these revelations have hit us all in the face like a semen soaked blue dress. The latest Clinton revelation--perhaps we can call it ...."email gate" has revealed that Madam Clinton, as Secretary of State, shunned the required, official, safe, encrypted, US government emails and instead used her own private emails for Government business. Not only did she have her own domain (hillary.com?) but her own server too, which she had secretly installed (Nixon like) in her Chappaqua, NY home basement. Thus as Secretarynof State and a member of the touted "most transparent Administration in history" she and her staff had complete secrecy and control over all her correspondence, both government and personal. After leaving office, she illegally kept her emails as her private property-- until the Bengazi investigation forced her to turn some 50 thousand selected (by her) pages of emails over to the State Department and then to Congress. Of course, owning her own server, she carefully vetted all the pages she gave over to the State Department first. Some member of Congress rightly called this level of secrecy, duplicity and paranoia, Nixonian! Whomever that was, he was right on!

This scandal, was preceded by the revelation that the Clinton "slush fund" or "Foundation" continued to accept tens of millions of dollars in donations from foreign officials while Hillary was Secretary of State-in violation of Department directives, propriety, and N obvious and clear case of conflict of interest. Both stories fling us right back to the unpleasant Clinton years of lies, obfuscation, secrecy, self serving behavior, self-directed emolument, mistrust of the press, avoidance of public scrutiny, and a haughty disdain for the procedures and laws which govern the rest of us.

These Clintonian revelations DO remind us of former President Nixon. He had a bad case of paranoia too. That neurosis led him to make some fateful mistakes...the sort we would not like to see repeated in the White House.

If some were uncertain, whether or not there was a "New Hillary" under that 2016 tiara she has placed on her head, these recent "bimbo like" eruptions must very firmly put those thoughts to rest.

Thus we see the weakness of the monarchist system. Didn't we fight a war for our freedom from this sort of thing long ago?

Monday, March 2, 2015

NETANYAHU COMES TO MAKE WAR

NETANYAHU COMES TO CONGRESS TO DECLARE WAR

Prime Minister "Bibi" Netanyahu has come to give a speech tomorrow, March 3, 2015 to the US Congress. He is here to encourage our elected officials to pass legislation to impose further sanctions on Iran, even while delicate negotiations are on-going in Geneva on this very subject. His intention to encourage our Republican-led Congress to legislate further sanctions on Iran is designed to undercut and sabotage the efforts of President Obama and Secretary Kerry who are attempting to formulate an agreement to put limits on Iran's nuclear program. The Obama agreement would limit Iran's development of nuclear material in exchange for relief from international sanctions.

Here I ignore the media frenzy created by Mr.Netanyahu's invitation to Congress and the sneaky way it was arranged by means of secret meetings between Speaker Boehner and the representatives of the head of a foreign government. The slimy machinations had the express purpose of undermining one of President Obama's top foreign policy priorities....a nuclear deal with Iran. The apparent goal of both Netanyahu and Boehner were to embarrass and sabotage our President. Speaker Boehner, who too often forgets he is an American first and only second a Republican representative, should be taken to task for his (some would call traitorous), behavior. Mr. Netanyahu is a foreign politician working to further his own political and national goals and mostly to save his seat in the upcoming Israeli election. His actions are only what we would expect. What IS important is that Mr. Netanyahu is here to undermine our duly elected President's foreign policy.

What should be kept in mind is that the negotiations in Geneva have come to the point where Iran has agreed to limit its production of nuclear fuel (and to submit to intrusive inspections) but with the proviso that the onerous sanctions be lifted. That would be a reasonable agreement that responsible leaders could all agree to. That is all the rest of the world.... except Mr. Netanyahu's Likud government in Israel. Apparently, Israel's intention is that Iran must not have nuclear weapons, certainly not the hundreds they have. But they go beyond that. They do not want Iran to have the potential, the industrial ability, or the technology to make such weapons. That is not and was never the goal of the Geneva talks. Devastating total war, reducing Iran to rubble, can only achieve THAT goal. The Israeli claim of existential threat is a farce, it is really an insistence to continue as the only nuclear armed hegemon in the Middle East. It nuclear hegemony is necessary to support its policy of military expansion, illegal occupation and imperialism in the region. Their goals can only be achieved by eliminating all and any competitors, even those that offer only token opposition. Iran for all their bluster is no threat to Israeli survival. But it is the only nation in that region still standing. With the unwitting help of a malleable Bush President the Israeli right wing and their supporters and minions managed over the last decade to have the major parts of the Middle East laid to waste. Now apparently a proxy war with Iran is their present goal. Of course, they do not want to take on Iran all by themselves. Netanyahu is speaking to our Congress with the intention of encouraging us to force Iran to the point of no return. To declare war. He promises to hold our coat while we pay the military costs and send our boys and girls abroad to get killed and maimed for him.

Were our representatives truly apprised of his intentions, instead of standing ovations, Mr. Netanyahu should receive boos and hoots and calls to go home.