“We the people” have been bombarded by an incredible number of LIES since the day individual 1 took his oath of office. (When you’re a pathological LIAR what significance do you think any “oath” might be?) So, apparently, the “briefers” who explained the rationale for the MURDER of Qasem Suleimani a week or so ago to members of Congress felt comfortable continuing with the constant LYING. It appears even some of the republicans in the SCIF were offended by the LYING. Some of them came out of the meeting looking outraged that even in a room which is protected from any “leakage” they just can’t stop LYING – even to their own republicans.
Of course, this shouldn’t surprise anyone because individual 1 routinely stands in front of his adoring public and LIES to their faces – all the while as they are CHEERING being LIED to. I’ve actually got a good friend, we’re friends despite the fact he’s an individual 1 supporter, and he’s actually said to me he doesn’t believe our so-called president is a LIAR (Despite something like 15,000 documented LIES coming from our so-called president since his first day in office). It’s become glaringly clear individual 1’s base is part of a huge CULT. That is the only explanation why so many Americans can continue supporting a (so-called) president despite his incredible level of CORRUPTION (LYING is just part of it – every day seems to be further evidence individual 1 is a mob boss. The evidence coming from Lev Parnas seems to be more proof our country is infested with organized criminals).
Just the other day, in a Fox “news” interview (where he LIED about the “imminent” threat supposedly posed by Suleimani), individual 1 justified sending a large segment of American troops into Saudi Arabia because the Saudi’s are paying for them. He said, “They’ve already deposited $1 BILLION in the bank.” I’d like to know which bank account for one thing, but the reality of what he’s saying is he’s turned our military into a mercenary force! Yikes!! (FYI – since I started this rant individual 1, after being publicly exposed for his LYING about the justification to MURDER Suleimani, has said, “It really doesn’t matter if there was an ‘imminent threat'” – which is just further proof legal boundaries are of no interest to him – or many of his sycophants)
Like many others, I have continued thinking of the ASSASSINATION of Suleimani despite it’s being over a week since he was MURDERED. Yes, he was a General in the Iranian military and, yes, according to the “hawks” in individual 1’s cabinet – like Pompeo and, despite he’s gone, John Bolton who was a known Iranian hawk, I’m sure, they all wanted Suleimani taken out long ago. What keeps sticking in my head is the way individual 1 and his sycophants keep using as the justification for killing Suleimani – “he had American blood on his hands.”
And, I don’t in any way question that characterization. I mean Suleimani has been one of Iran’s leaders since the day Bush/Cheney LIED America into invading Iraq. Of course, at the time, Iraq and Iran were mortal enemies – having a BLOODY war which pretty much encompassed the decade of the 1980’s and, of course, America was supporting Iraq. In fact, the U.S. (while Reagan was president) supplied Saddam Hussein with the chemical weapons he used to MURDER as many as 80,000 Iranians not to mention how many were debilitated. Does this mean America has Iranian blood on her hands? We all know the answer to that one, don’t we?
Of course, Iraq is 60% Shia which would align many of the Shia militia’s in Iraq with Iran. In fact, I still remember Muqtada al-Sadr, a young Shia cleric in Iraq, at the time Bush/Cheney invaded,who had his own militia after the U.S. invasion in 2003 (likely with “American blood on his hands”) going to Iran in order to study to become an Ayatollah. Essentially, the U.S. invasion of Iraq emboldened Iran and people like Bolton, who helped orchestrate the Iraq FIASCO, have been plotting a war against Iran ever since. It’s like America strengthened Iran while wanting, after doing so, to – once again – cause a regime change. Is this “chasing your tail?”
This issue with Iran v the United States began in the early 1950’s because Iran’s elected leader wanted to nationalize THEIR oil. I’m sure individual 1 isn’t the only American who would like Iran’s oil. (Evidently he’s got a claim on Syria’s oil???) Personally, I believe the reason for this “mess” in the Middle East was caused by the “thirst” for Iraqi’s oil by George W Bush and Dick Cheney. This is all very disgusting to people like me who don’t want America acting as “The world’s policeman.” It really bothered me when Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld decided they could determine who is an “enemy combatant.” That’s authoritarianism in my view – and, now, “we the people” have a more extreme example of that abuse of our constitution.
So, if in this world generals with “blood on their hands” – or the politicians who ordered them to get the “blood on their hands” are vulnerable to ASSASSINATION, well, there are a lot of American military personnel and American politicians who need to be careful where they go. For example, the Bush/Cheney regime was FULL of people who you could say have massive amounts of “Iraqi blood on their hands.” If you’ve paid attention to world affairs of late you know there’s a lot of bad stuff going down around the world – and, a lot of it is due to American foreign policy decisions. I mean, to me, the dysfunction in the Middle East, to this day is the result of the Bush/Cheney regime. My point is having a rogue policy of ASSASSINATIONS is a “slippery slope” to descend – aside from the FACT it’s illegal. Honestly, I believe there are people in leadership positions in America who believe “we the people” are the “rulers of the world.”
I pointed out in my previous rant a reminder of Dwight Eisenhower’s warning about the potential “growth” of the “military industrial complex” and, clearly, it has become the “elephant in the room.” America has become a militaristic behemoth and it’s to a point where I don’t know how we stop it. America’s economy has become dependent on the continual growth of a military which is already well beyond reason – “we the people” are spending more each year than 144 other countries COMBINED by OVER $100 BILLION. With individual 1’s depletion of the State Department our diplomacy now is BOMBS! Holy Cow!!!
I was supporting Senator Cory Booker in the democratic nomination process mainly because I saw him as a candidate who sees the importance of fighting the incredible challenges facing “we the people” by attempting to somehow pull people together. We know that the division in America is “real,” but we also know both individual 1 (and his supporters) along with Vladimir Putin have been working full time to exacerbate those divisions making them worse. I’ve written recently about the issue of Cambridge Analytica (read Chris Wylie’s book) and how they, in concert with the Russians, were able to group Americans into “neighborhoods” based on the data they had STOLEN from Facebook and target these people with misinformation (that’s a euphemism for LYING) designed to exacerbate the divisions. Why would they do this? Because it works!
Cambridge Analytica (CA) is gone (thanks, in part, to Wylie) but the data is still somewhere and, keep in mind, during the 2016 campaign Steve Bannon was the CEO of CA and they were working with Russians. In fact, this is one of the issues I had with the Mueller report because I believe it was very possible the “link” between CA and Russian intelligence could have been a pathway to proving a conspiracy with individual 1’s campaign and the Russians. Of course, that was then, and this is now. And, of course, individual 1’s campaign is already flooding Facebook with misinformation – which Facebook refuses to monitor from what I’ve read – and, now, the Russians are back at it again.
This is not to say the Russians haven’t been finding ways to infiltrate Americans via our social media networks, but it was reported last night the Russians hacked into the servers of the oil company Barisma in Ukraine – apparently looking for material which they could eventually use to attack Joe Biden should he be the democratic nominee for president in 2020. If you watched Robert Mueller’s testimony last year you would not be too surprised by this as he pointed out the Russians were “at it right now and they’re going to be involved in the 2020 election. Obviously, the Russians are going to do whatever they can to keep individual 1 in office. He’s truly helping to “Make Russia Great Again!”
Based on the reports exposing these cyber attacks on Burisma it’s a bit unnerving that America’s intelligence community was unaware, apparently, this was going on because Congressional leaders didn’t know about it until they read it in the NY Times. Just as individual 1 has depleted the State Department so has he been attacking the intelligence community since his first day in office. Additionally, individual 1 has a crony as the head of the Justice Department – all of this a formula used by others around the world as they attempted to turn democracies into dictatorships. Many Americans believe “it can’t happen here,” but it’s time to “wake up.” I believe the Russians are doing this because they KNOW there will be no repercussions coming from the “White House.” To me, whether they are working in concert with Americans or not, is irrelevant. We know what they’re doing and individual 1 is encouraging it!
Just yesterday I was reading about how Major League Baseball (MLB) finished an investigation which confirmed one of their teams, the Houston Astros (and, likely the Boston Red Sox as well), was/were CHEATING through the use of technology and the result was far worse than what individual 1 has received in regard to the Russians. (Further evidence he’s in cahoots with them becomes public almost every week) The Astros were fined the MAXIMUM allowed under MLB rules, both their general manager and the manager on the field were suspended for the next year and then FIRED, and they lost multiple draft picks for the next two years. This was a significant penalty for CHEATING. Apparently, in American politics there is no penalty for CHEATING! For example, one day after Robert Mueller testified about the “collusion” individual 1’s campaign had with the Russians and he felt exonerated what did he do? He called up the president of Ukraine and attempted to EXTORT help for the next election!
Final Thought: Like, I suppose, MILLIONS of other Americans, I’ve become somewhat numb to all the LYING coming from individual 1 and his sycophants. And, some of them (like Mike Pompeo) aren’t very good at it – but, apparently, it’s “part of the job description” in this administration. As I mentioned above, individual 1 and his “national security team” have been busy LYING about why they MURDERED Qasem Suleimani (and, I believe, about 5 Iraqi Shia leaders) at the Baghdad Airport and, in the process, have been “stepping all over each other.” It reminds me of the saying above the principal’s office when I was still teaching which read: “Tell the truth, there’s less to remember.” When it became painfully obvious they were ALL LYING, individual 1 finally admitted “It doesn’t matter if there was an imminent threat.” OMG – when is this American nightmare going to end? Likely not in the upcoming Senate trial.
“We the people” can’t keep up with all the scandals coming out of this “White House.” For example, in any other administration, sending American troops around the world for MONEY would be a SCANDAL we’d be up in arms about. In this administration there’s been hardly a whimper about sending the troops to Saudi Arabia for “$1 BILLION.” To me, selling our troops as mercenaries is a shocking admission which individual 1 did casually as if it was the way we should go. I’m not sure how many other Americans were offended by this admission (or how many even know) but it confirms to me our “commander in chief” is deranged. (That’s really dangerous!)