The Bobbsey Twins* Reincarnated —Hubert Humphrey & Kamala Harris[*Bobbsey Twins, fictional character featured in a series of children’s books] On November 5,1968 President Lyndon Johnson departed the White House leaving his vice-president Hubert Humphrey to run for president as the democratic candidate. On November 5, 2024, fifty-six years later, President Joe Biden departed the White […]
In Part 2, we look at the resumes of the last three presidents of the United States. Carrying on a well-honed tradition, they are a pack of liars. Their watch includes the usual foreign policy missteps: leading America into endless war, laying waste to countries in Southeast Asia and Africa, disrupting the lives and fortunes of inhabitants to satisfy the demands of empire. They have lied to their own people and the people who live in the countries they target with a wide variety of lies — claiming human rights abuses, threats to democracy or to the rights of women or to the rights of minorities within the country. Any excuse, even the laughable one that Susan Rice, Obama’s ambassador to the UN, uncorked that Muammar Gaddafi was supplying his troops with Viagra to encourage mass rape. No evidence to back up her claim but U.S. elites don’t need evidence to do what they planned to do all along. In short order Qadaffi was dispatched and Libya quickly went from the most prosperous African state to a failed state. Even more hilarious the tale dreamed up by one of Trump’s noodle heads that Russia secretly offered Afghan militants bounties to kill U.S. troops. One thing for sure lying about supposed enemies of the empire is a bipartisan sport. Here’s Biden supporting the bounty story — “I don’t understand why this president [Trump] is unwilling to take on Putin when he’s actually paying bounties to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.” After Biden was elected, the usual denials took center stage — “US spies doubt reports of Russian ’bounties’ for troops” [BBC, 4/18/2021] Before you believe the next claim by U.S. leaders that a targeted enemy is threatening the U.S., make sure you check out Part 2: Prevaricating Presidents —Worms on Parade
“The “American way of war,” is to seek absolute annihilation and to treat the other side as subhuman monsters bent on world domination.” [Todd Greentree, Foreign Service officer, once stationed in Afghanistan] Whether it’s Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen…the list goes on and on, the U.S. “way of war” in these countries is unnervingly similar. From accusations of a Communist (lately updated to “terrorist) conspiracy to promises to bring American ”values” to the masses, the U.S. MO starts with an invasion, drones, bombs, a cadre of indigenous troops usually at the behest of a U.S. ‘fav’ autocrat doing the dirty work of the empire in-house. But what about the U.S. State Department? Isn’t the Secretary of State supposed to be America’s chief negotiator? Not so fast. The U.S. always starts an invasion convinced (by the generals) despite a history of failed interventions that it can beat the enemy du jour on the battlefield. Negotiating is for weak countries not the world’s sole super-power. Reality always proves them wrong. The latest candidate is this cavalcade of missteps is Ukraine. Here’s how it works. First the chest pounding and inflated promises. Here’s President Biden on March 26, 2022, predicting the imminent demise of Russia: “Russia’s ruble is reduced to rubble. Their economy will be cut to half. The ruble is crumbling now.” [President Biden, March 26, 2022] Two months later: “Russia’s ruble strengthens to 57.1 per US Dollar, its strongest in over four years.” Now with most of the world, including NATO “partners,” predicting the defeat of Ukraine, Biden digs in “America . . . will stand with you as long as it takes.” (State of the Union, Feb 7), How long do you think it will take before Biden and the rest of his war cabinet do their usual two-step out of Ukraine leaving the pain and suffering of its people in the rearview mirror? For more on the pernicious history of U.S. foreign policy disasters tune into “Aggression Not Negotiation: The U.S. War Machine On the Hunt”
Not all refugees are equal in a world ruled by elites where incompetence, greed, and obeisance to wealth and power create calamitous conditions for the millions who are not wealthy or powerful. Along with their co-conspirators the mainstream media, the U.S. and its hand-maiden European countries would have you believe that there are two classes of refugees — the worthy and the unworthy [Noam Chomsky]. You can probably guess where the line of demarcation falls. On the worthy side, Europeans, in this case Ukrainians, majority white and with the patina of “civilized” stamped all over them. Here’s what’s in store for them as they flee home and country — “At the Polish border, guards hand out sandwiches to Ukrainians in waiting rooms. Polish citizens donate piles of toys and meet migrants with hot tea and free rides to where they need to go.” If you were both unworthy and fleeing war-torn Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya or Syria, you weren’t so lucky. As the bombs fell, and the refugee totals swelled, Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán announced that Hungary’s restrictive immigration policies would remain in place — “[W]e aren’t going to let anyone in.” He’s not the only leader shaping his immigration policy to the skin color of refugees: “EU, fearful of refugee crisis, delays response on Afghan asylum.” [Aljazeera, 10/15/2021] Call it what you will — disgraceful, obscene, horrendous — chalk it up to the price extracted by one nation in particular whose dreams of a Pax Americana have spiraled down into a death grip on past glories fast slipping away. People all over the world are feeling the pain of that “grand delusion.” [John Mearscheimer] Check out what happens when racism determines the fate of millions in “U.S. Hypocrisy and the War in Ukraine.”
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