Author Joseph Epstein Fails To Grasp That Trump Must Be "Nullified"- There Is NO Option "B"

"Yeah, I look forward to the wonders of my next term as president!"


 Joseph Epstein is an author, one of many, whose mental faculties appear to have been deranged and eviscerated by Trump.  Perhaps, like his fellow brain- eviscerated compadre (Lance Morrow) he lost his reason and logical capacity by being inundated  by Trump's tweets and verbal garbage. Or perhaps he became infected by the same false equivalence virus that has felled so many in or around the 4th estate.

We know this much, on reading his latest WSJ op-ed ('The American People Have Been Spoken To',  June 10, p. A15) it appears he's not only compromised by the false equivalence bug but fails to grasp how essential it is to see the back of Trump by January, 2021.   In regard to the former, Epstein continues to make the specious case that "the American people" (voters namely) are being led around by the nose by both parties. Essentially being lectured to, i.e. "Politicians (no distinction) lecture us on what we want, need, deserve and are really interested in."

Not stopping there but further amplifying this egregious claim, by writing:

"What each of our two parties is chiefly concerned about, and has been over the past two years, is putting down, degrading and humiliating the other party."

Hmmm....funny, but the ONLY party I've detected doing that, as well as degrading and humiliating the whole nation, is the GOP - as they bend over backward to kiss the ass of the criminal narcissist in the White House.  Jeezus peace, you'd think they were defending the Prince of Peace himself, and not a 2-bit grifter, con man, traitor and felon who ought to have been hung long ago.  The Democrats, by contrast, have bent over backwards to try to bring a semblance of sanity and rectitude back to this country, daily being pounded into a cesspool by Trump and his cabal.

As the WaPo's Eugene Robinson argued Monday a.m. on 'Morning Joe', and kudos to him for having no blinkers on like Epstein, and the other members of the 'Trump can do no wrong' stable:

"I think you have to go back to the Harding administration at least to find this level of corruption. I mean let's call it what it is. Just work your way through that swamp creature cabinet of Donald Trump's and then down in the agencies and you just see the most amazing sort of self-dealing, and self-enrichment.  That's what he's brought to Washington. That's what he's after. He follows perhaps the cleanest administration we've seen in a long time. In the Obama years nobody got indicted, nobody got arrested and nobody got convicted.

And here we are in what is really a cesspool. It is breathtaking. But again that's what Donald Trump is."

None of what Robinson noted was false or "fake news" especially about the Obama administration being among the cleanest in American history. So why isn't Epstein able to see that, or admit it, instead tossing out the tired old worn out trope that "all politicians are liars and slime balls". Or better, "both parties treat Americans like they just fell off a turnip truck." Well, because it serves his cynical purpose, i.e. that he isn't really about damning the politicos of both parties at all, but finding a clever, indirect way to provide more cover for Trump by seeming to damn both parties..  As he goes on, fully exposing his motivation:

"Since Hillary Clinton's loss in the 2016 presidential  election, the Democrats have been seeking a way to nullify Mr. Trump's victory.  Republicans, meanwhile, have done all they can to ensure Democrats are never viewed as anything other than obstructionist, malignant creeps."

But the two charges are nowhere near equal in gravitas. The first, for anyone perceptive enough to see it, is far more insidious because it tries to call into question the Dems as they've rightfully questioned Trump's legitimacy.  As time has gone on that withholding of legitimacy has been more than substantiated.  Indeed, it's clearly evident Trump is not qualified to lead this nation, and moreover - had the electoral college done its due diligence - never would have been elected on the basis of Electoral college votes.

Epstein's one -sided hammering of the Dems, in a piece one would have thought should be balance, then goes on:

"The forthcoming election figures to be not in the least about what is 'best' for the American people. But whether power can be wrested from Donald Trump....To be sure many would say that defeating Mr. Trump is in itself what is best for the "American people"."

Well, I am in that camp and make no apologies for it. Especially as we've learned (NY Times yesterday) Trump is only interested in peripheral aspects of his campaign and has no firm plans for a 2nd term, other than doubling down on his daily tweets from the toilet, attacking all perceived political enemies, telling 100,000 more lies and sowing more chaos and division. In meetings with aides he wants to focus on campaign songs, selection of campaign merchandise and other twaddle.  It's also been reported he has never even asked to see a budget for 2019.  Most alarming, Trump has no clue what he'd even attempt to accomplish in a second term - assuming voters were dumb enough to grant him one.  According to the Times' piece:

"Mr Trump rarely if ever speaks to aides about what he hopes to accomplish in a hard won second term....He's shown no interest in formulating a new message for his campaign, instead continuing with the slogan 'make America great again' and adding that he 'also wants to keep America great.""

But it can't be so long as Trump is fouling the nation with his lies, despicable behavior and crimes against the Constitution. It can only go further into Trump's cesspool and will be totally unrecognizable if he's given a 2nd term.

After co-host Willie Geist presented the gist of the NY Times account on the same 'Morning Joe' episode, Mike Barnacle - also on the panel - responded  while saying there is way too much overthnking:

"This is a man who only cares about himself. Every day is just an extension of his show with set up villains - it's either Joe Biden, the Mexican government, whatever .  This guy is just obsessed with himself, not the country, not any formulation of plans to improve the country, Not any goals for his administration's first term and certainly not for what would be a second term set of goals. It's only himself."

This is a guy, in other words,  who's played out, who has no new ideas if he even had any in the first place. He needs to resign,  to get the hell out of office, willingly, even if not officially sent packing by the voters (who may be too enamored of their 401k balances to protect the nation's welfare.).  He simply isn't qualified to manage this country.  As Eugene Robinson  added, appropriately:

"This is what Donald Trump has been from day one.. He runs the country the way he ran the Trump organization. He sort of ad libs his way through an episode of the Trump show. That's what he's doing with the country. That's  why nobody in his administration has any idea what's coming out in the next tweet, or what the next policy change will be. It's always been all about Donald Trump.  My question is whether people in the country begin to understand  he's really about himself, and not about them."

All of which skewers Epstein's brain dead claim at the end of his piece, in regard to the next election:

"Whoever wins, the loser figures to be - the American people."

Nope, sonny. The winner will be the American people, if we can evict Trump the toad from office!  This is a no -brainer!

 In line with this, former Sen. Claire McKaskill put in her important 0.02 on that  same 'Morning Joe':

"Over forty percent of the country thinks this guy is okay.  I mean if you're us and you're watching this president, and watching his lying and undermining the country on the world stage you're saying 'How in the world can forty percent of America think this guy is okay. So as long as his number stays above thirty percent I think the Democrats are going to continue to panic but I think that panic is perfect and appropriate."

Well, rather than panic, I would say the Dems (especially Pelosi)  need to be seen acting and bringing impeachment proceedings to break the Dotard stonewall. Look, despite the Mueller Report describing how this nation was attacked by a hostile foreign adversary in that 2016 election,  Epstein accuses the Dems of wanting to "nullify" (with damned good reason) Trump's election. Failing to process it should be nullified!  Trump, his campaign team and family KNEW about the Russian skullduggery and welcomed it using a form of "coded" conspiracy exchanges with GRU assets. Then to top it all off, Trump tried to obstruct the ensuing investigation into it.

Worse, the Russians are still at it as I write, seeking to undermine the 2020 election and Trump hasn't said a damned word about it, Hell, as Janice puts it, he "bloody wants their help again".   So long as he keeps getting it no wonder he yaps about being "a president for life".

McKaskill and the rest of us with more than air between the ears have to nonetheless recognize that there are millions of blinkered, brainwashed zombies among our fellow citizens. People who likely don't read (i.e. the full Mueller report) and are incapable of thought outside FOX news.  Those like letter writer Elaine Little (in Monday's Denver Post) who scribbled, in reference to the House Democrats:

"No legislation passed, nothing! It appears the only thing they're bent on doing is rehashing the Mueller report and trying  to discredit the president and prepare for the next election.  Their self-importance is disgraceful and their service to the country is minimal."

Well, I could likewise say this woman's brainpower is minimal especially if she sincerely believes the Mueller report is being "rehashed".   Her moral compass is also affected, either by the sort of propaganda meted out by the likes of Epstein, or FOX News, as when she claims the Dems are "trying to discredit the president".  Nope, that reprobate has discredited himself, now by over 10, 700 lies at last count, and committing obstruction right in front of our very eyes by his stonewalling on lawful subpoenas.

That this ninny doesn't even grasp the  Article I powers granted congress under the Constitution tells me she ought to have her citizenship revoked.  And the fact she isn't aware of how Bitch McConnell is burying every bill that makes it to the Senate  - over 140 so far - suggests to me she needs to ease up on the Xanax.  If the majority of citizens are more like this zombie than wide awake and alert to Trump's perfidy, then yeah, it is time to push the panic button!

On an end note, the other thing Epstein gets wrong is how Aristotle perceived politics. Epstein claims he defined it "as the practical science for making citizens happy".    But in his great work, 'Politics' Aristotle is clear (cf. Book I, cc.I, a:)

"The ultimate object of the state is the good life.. The naturalness of the state is proved by the faculty of speech in man....It is founded on a natural impulse that tends toward political association."

The emphasis by Aristotle on the 'good life' transcends "happiness" which is predicated on mercurial emotions. One can "feel" happy after his team wins the Superbowl, but crushed and depressed if it doesn't,  after all. It is the stuff of mainly trivial concerns and fleeting subjective emotions. By the "good life",  Aristotle instead meant one based on the judicious exercise of  will which consistently chooses the maximization of  faculties, such as reason, to attain maximal good in society.   Thus, a moral compass is also essential  . In his Book V of The Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle writes:

"We see then that all men mean by the term Justice a moral state such that in consequence of it men have the capacity what is just and actually do it, and wish it. Similarly also with rspect to Injustice, a moral state such that in consequence of it men do unjustly and wish what is unjust.."

Aristotle didn't rest there, but actually demanded a proportionality to Justice in its particular expressions.  If he was faced with the political world of Trumpism today, Aristotle would be appalled at the lack of justice and the reign of injustice. As Epstein ought to as well, if he were not so blinded by Trumpism.

DOH! Of Course Trump - aka "Dotard" - Is A MORON! (It's Not A State Secret, Folks)

"Rex is right! I am a moron! And know what? I don't care!"

 

The news item out of NBC today that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a "moron" back in July seems to have taken many people by surprise. One wonders why given it's not exactly a state secret -  including that Tillerson has been pissed at the Moron-in-chief for a while now, and even threatened to resign back in July.

This took place after Dotard appeared at the Boy Scout Jamboree and totally went off from his prepared script to castigate Barack Obama for not appearing at the same venue, and then blabbering about fake news. Also, turning the event into a tawdry, self-promotion political spectacle. Tillerson, who once headed the Boy Scouts was appalled as well as livid.  At that juncture he finally realized he was totally working on behalf of a half-assed moron who lacked any self-discipline. Rex, to put it bluntly, had seen enough and was prepared to resign.

According to reports appearing in The UK Independent and Guardian, VP Mike Pence had to intervene to deliver a "pep talk" to Tillerson, emphasizing how in the age of this egomaniacal "dear leader" one was expected to only say nice things if not kowtow with outright adulation. The word was Tillerson still wasn't buying it so Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Gen, John Kelly had to be recruited  to add their voices and plead with  Tillerson to remain "for stability".

That pretty well sums it up as even Sen. Bob Corker in so many words today (on CNN) asserted that without "the adults in the room"  (Tillerson, Mattis, Kelly) this White House would soon descend into abject chaos. Why this should prompt so much second guessing is beyond me, I mean it isn't rocket science, nor is it a state secret (that Trump is mentally feeble)  - as one commenter on the UK Telegraph site put it.

Trump, or Dotard, has the temperament of a three year old. From the viewpoint of that mental age he isn't even a moron, but an idiot.  He has to be "handled" daily, i.e. fed pabulum for his monstrous ego, which was Pence's point to Rex Tillerson: you have to tread nicely and be kind and praising to this giant baby in a man's body.

In an MSNBC discussion earlier today, the host (Nicole Wallace) appeared flabbergasted that this could be the case in the U.S. of A. that we have ended up with a "leader" whose ego needs to be stroked and stoked at every turn, lest he mutate into a rabid ferret. "Please tell me this isn't so!" she bawled. "Please!"

But almost immediately WaPo columnist Eugene Robinson, then Wisconsin conservative talk show host Charlie Sykes, had to assure her that it was.

"Sorry, but it's all too real!" said Eugene.

We in this country were - are saddled with a big baby whose every tantrum must be appeased and gratified as well as his malignant ego.

Of course, Trump-Dotard's base loves the spectacle and the chaos. According to one talking head on CNN, "this is what they voted for".  Well, the rest of us - the sane majority - didn't. We wanted a stable and sane person who had the capacity to work  with his Secretary of State during a possible nuclear crisis with N. Korea - not tell him he "is wasting his time with little Rocket Man".

My own prediction is despite Tillerson walking back comments on leaving (he never denied he called Dotard a moron) he will be gone by the end of the year if not sooner. There is no way any sane person who values his position could remain with a lunatic asshole simpleton like Trump undermining his every step.  It's actually amazing Tillerson has lasted this long. I would have thought the interference in the North Korean nuke talks would have been the last straw..

As for Trump's moron base I am sure they are waiting with bated breath for him to really perform an act of unrepentant rebellion against the "establishment" and toss his soiled Pampers on the floor of the Oval Office for Kelly to clean up.

Does Trump Have The Brains To Avoid A Nuclear Confrontation? NO!

"They gotta be taught a BIGLY lesson! That punk Kim Jong Un can't get away with threatening me! I'm gonna bomb 'em back to the stone age!'


The question for the CNN panel yesterday evening was how best to respond to the continuing North Korean threats, including taking out the Carl Vinson and its strike group, while also holding an American hostage. Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson offered the most serious warning: "We can't treat  Kim like a normal guy. It would be a huge mistake".

These echoed the words of Denver Post columnist Gregg Dobbs two days earlier who wrote that he didn't believe Trump had the patience, intelligence or emotional equilibrium to deal with the rapidly escalating situation on the Korean Peninsula.   The basic reasons have been echoed many times from the date Trump "won" the farcical 2016 general election, by the likes of David Brooks, Charles Krauthammer, Charles Blow, Eugene Robinson, Richard Cohen and others.  Cohen early on even recommended Trump be removed under the little known 25th amendment - by virtue of his inability to rein in his egoistic petulance, along with his reckless bombast and narcissism. I agreed, and in a subsequent blog post asserted the Donald is barely able to run a dog kennel, far less an administration or the whole nation.

All these concerns have acquired enormous gravitas as the North Korean standoff has now reached the phase it could instantly turn into a blood bath.  With Trump now deploying the Carl Vinson carrier  strike group close to the peninsula along with the U.S.S. Michigan - a nuclear sub outfitted with nuclear missiles - we're now in a situation close the Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962. We got through that crisis because we had a man of temperance, intelligence and historical understanding at the helm : John Fitzgerald Kennedy..  Now, we have a "former" failed businessman who actually rode his sleazy real estate empire -  based largely on bankruptcies - to fame and fortune. Oh, after he already got 'nuff millions from daddy via inheritance.


So now we're saddled with a clown:  a bombastic pseudo-business tycoon and former reality TV personality who still thinks he's playing a role on 'The Apprentice' and believes any time he barks he can make lowly staff jump.  But we're in the real world now, not Trump's fantasy world of ego, entitlement and arrogance. And despite multiple warnings from even former military - generals and admirals - Trump can't seem to back off the bellicose rhetoric. This even as the North Koreans have vowed to take down the Vinson using one of their missiles. Rather than pause and reflect, Trump continues to think he's playing 'chicken' or high stakes poker - not that he's playing with the lives of tens of thousands.


As Gregg Dobbs put it, Kim Jong-un is not intimidated by threats, especially hollow ones - and also any pre-emptive strike would be about the worst move  possible. It would ensure the slaughter of tens of thousands of South Koreans as well as U.S. troops stationed there.   There is even the possibility the North Koreans could be spurred to employ one or more of their nuclear weapons, again most likely against South Korea - namely Seoul.

Things might not have reached this malignant stage had the media (most) not done back flips with wet dreams after Trump launched his 59 cruise missiles on a Syrian base. Since then, this deformed mental mutant has been putatively granted the "keys to the kingdom" (read: "respect" from media) by a stupid pack of slobbering suckers and goofballs who'd held their breath for any sign of Trump being "presidential".   Since these sycophantic imbeciles conflate use of force with "being presidential"  it was inevitable we'd now see a guy acting like he's been given his first hit of smack or crack cocaine.

As I wrote before, unless the same media pulls him back to reality - mainly by halting the cheerleading- we may now be in for the "most serious military confrontation since the Korean War" - in the words of one pundit last night.

Except this confrontation may be nuclear and we have a psychotic in charge of the country without the brains, knowledge, forbearance or basic human skills to deal with the situation.

Lindsey Graham Needs To Think About His State's Role In This Tragedy

Rebel symps fly their Confederate flags in South Carolina

"I can't explain this. I don't know what would make a young man of twenty one to get so sick and twisted to kill nine people in a church"  - Lindsey Graham,  yesterday

Graham,  asked if he thought it was a hate crime, then went off on a tangent, dredging up "people who are organized to kill others for their religion, especially Christians" - which this massacre in Charleston had nada to do with. Only a posturing imbecile like Graham would fail to see it was all about race. (Though the Wall Street Journal editors also fall into that category!)  Especially as we now know Roof had openly declared  blacks were "taking over the country, raping our women" and confided to a pal he wanted to "start a race war or a new Civil war". This was also a guy who sported white supremacy emblems from two nation states - Rhodesia and Apartheid South Africa - that have been the worst in history for racial separation and white supremacy.

But Roof didn't live in those nations, but in South Carolina. So where's the connection to his hate and what fueled it?  Journalist Eugene Robinson offered the most trenchant observation this morning:

"Very clearly this was about race. That was a state motive. He inhaled this poison from some atmosphere. He got it from somewhere."

The discussion on 'Morning Joe' then finally settled on the still existing racially divisive nature of the place - South Carolina - which still flies the Confederate  battle flag in its state capitol. Aspen Institute leader Walter Isaacson then pointed out one reaction to this crime is "we should take it down".. Indeed.

Expanding on this was author Kevin Alexander Gray last night on Chris Hayes' 'All In'. As he  told Hayes"

"Look, I'm from South Carolina. This state is the ideological home of white supremacy in this country. On our state house grounds we have memorials to Confederate heroes. We have streets, roads, bridges, schools, buildings named after Confederates. And we're on Calhoun Street! They built a statue of Calhoun so high that the freed slaves wouldn't tear it down.

The tourism industry in this city is based on slavery. That young man grew up in a state that reveres its Confederate history. It reveres the fact that the first shots of the Civil War were fired from this city. It reveres the fact that the Citadel, right across town, was built to crush slave rebellions.

That young man was born and lived in a county that is the most Republican in the most conservative state - that if you go places like Swansea and Gaston, you'll see Confederate flags- which theyve  believe is the flag of the white man's country. "

Alexander than made the significant point that while black activists are dismissed as "thugs" and Hispanics as "illegals", white men who brutally kill others are all of a sudden "mentally ill"  - which he noted in disgust was an "overused term". (In fact, statistics show the mentally ill are at least 3 times less likely to wantonly kill than their normal counterparts.)

So what does it all add up to? It configures the state of South Carolina as at least an accessory after the fact to what happened at ".Mother Emanuel" church.  It bears partial responsibility for breeding this kid Roof as a diehard white supremacist sympathizer and pro-Confederate racist hater.  It thus answers Eugene Robinson's question of  the atmosphere from which the kid "inhaled the poison".

And inhale it he did. From the state's resident racists, the  shameless pro-Confederate atmosphere including the Battle flag over the state capitol.

Rationalizers can try to explain this all away as best they can but facts are facts. And we know even a slightly unstable personality - left to percolate in a race hate environment where slave masters are still extolled- will ultimately surrender to the memes and act them out. This is made more certain when the person in question - such as Dylann Roof, is semi-educated. (He left school in 9th grade, as reported last night).

And, of course, semi-educated people are far more likely to believe and accept twisted histories - whether that the Civil War was fought for "state's rights" as opposed to preserving slavery, or that lands of Native Americans were seized in justified conflicts, or that LBJ didn't start the Vietnam War on a pretext, or that the Warren Commission is the final word  on the Kennedy assassination.

We can consult Robert Baum’s textbook, LOGIC, pp. 469-70, to see that explicating necessary and sufficient conditions are practical replacements (in logic) for causes. To refresh memory, a necessary condition is one which, if absent, the entity cannot exist or the event occur. A sufficient condition is one which, if present, the entity must exist and the event must occur.  In this context, we can see that the pre-existing racially divisive atmosphere of South Carolina emerges as the necessary condition . Roof's hatred of African-Americans along with being given a Glock .45 for his birthday was the sufficient condition. Roof's racial hatred of blacks (he adopted the middle name 'Storm' from Storm front) along with his birthday gift of a .45 Glock was the sufficient condition.

Governor Nikki Haley lamented this heinous crime that has "broken the heart of South Carolina". Maybe she could begin to repair it by getting that Confederate Battle Flag taken down and toning down the bitter white supremacist memes still afoot in her state.

See also:

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/18/its_not_about_mental_illness_the_big_lie_that_always_follows_mass_shootings_by_white_males/

Why Are Liberal Commentators Afraid to Relate the WHOLE Ukraine Backstory?

The  Neocon Repukes, including Lindsey Graham, Mike Rogers, and John McCain ("This is a feckless foreign policy!") are all screeching for Obama to "do something" about the Ukraine situation, but this reactionary,  bully boy rhetoric  is what we expect from numb skulls. Any person with even room temperature I.Q. knows that you aren't going to be able to "muscle down"  a proud nation that sports an armed force of 845,000, and  thousands of nuclear-tipped  missiles.

On the other hand,  I've been looking - searching desperately in fact-  for some liberal voice or commentator to at least get the Ukraine back story right, even as the rest of the Neoliberal corporate media gets hysterical - goading Obama into precipitous action.  Yesterday evening I scanned my generally favorite liberal commentators to search for any kind of kernel of genuine, unfiltered, unskewed insight into what's happening in the Ukraine.

I started out with Chris Hayes (All In, MSNBC) and was encouraged when his guest Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (Ret.) appeared. He started out, correctly, referencing  that the seeds of the current crisis go all the way back to the administration of George H.W. Bush, when he and his Secretary of State Jim Baker assured Mikhail Gorbachev that "NATO would not go one inch further to the east".. He added: "Then a series of Presidents came in who not only went further to the east - pushed by Lockheed Martin and others, who wanted to sell weapons to eastern and central European countries - but hinted at Georgia and Ukraine."

Most salient, and a key point of history I wanted to see expressed:

"Anyone who knows Russian history .....could have guessed that  President Putin would move into the Ukraine once we had formed a group there, led by the NED and its affiliates - which effectively pulled off a coup".

The NED and its affiliates!! NEOCONS! There it is!  The National Endowment for Democracy,  the Right wing, Nazi -linked bunch which was a central part of Ronald Reagan’s propaganda war against the Soviet Union three decades ago.  And which many have noted has been working to destabilize Ukraine, and with the help of  Victoria Nuland, John McCain and others,  oust Viktor  Yanukovych. But don't believe me, hear out Col. Wilkerson, who went on to say:


"What is Putin to think when a nation that talks about bringing Georgia and Ukraine into NATO  suddenly effects the removal of his oligarchic leader in Kiev.  If I were Putin I'd have done exactly what Putin did. And anyone who says they couldn't predict this is either a fool or lying"

In other words, Obama spouting more balderdash that "Russia is on the wrong side of history" is Neoliberal codswallop. It's the U.S. on the wrong side for betraying promises it made on the expansion of NATO!! 

More to the point, Col. Wilkerson did confirm that what President Putin said in comments yesterday was correct:  Yanukovych was overthrown in a coup confected by the NED and neocons!

Alas, Chris Hayes - even when the red meat was handed to him on a platter by his guest-   backed away from pursuing the NED - Neocon links to the Amerikkan putsch that delivered Kiev and the Ukraine to "Yats" (Nuland's favorite NED pawn) and went off to discuss the "costs to Putin" and Russia.

I then turned to Rachel Maddow, hoping she might run with it given she already has a documentary on our Iraq invasion folly coming out Thursday. Actually, earlier in the day, in an interview on MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell. Maddow charged that the George W. Bush administration's Middle East policy "has steered America's current security policy and response to global crises — including the one in Ukraine." Talking about her new documentary, "Why We Did It," involving circumstances leading to the Iraq War, Maddow told her MSNBC colleague that the Bush administration is largely responsible for the nation's current course overseas.

She went on to say that :

“The decisions of our generation on national security are determined more than anything by what the George W. Bush administration did with that nine-year war in Iraq and, alongside it a 13-year war in Afghanistan that’s still going on, and the American people are against those wars."

 
which is certainly true, and we know the PNAC (Project for the New American Century) was behind the Iraq invasion. Trouble is she didn't pursue the Neocon- PNAC connection to Iraq and then follow it through to how they also wanted Ukraine included in the 'regime change' mix after Iraq, Iran and Syria.  Since the cons couldn't provoke Obama into regime change in the latter two (Putin intervened and caused the 'Cons to back down - while providing Obama and the U.S. with outs), they decided to go after Ukraine - on Putin's doorstep.   If they had had any sense at all, they ought to have known that Putin would respond exactly the way Wilkerson said he would - and which even Wilkerson admitted HE would!   (At least there's one U.S. official or military person who's not a hypocrite!)

I then tuned into Maddow's show at 7 p.m. and she went into a long prelude about the "deal" made to disarm nukes in the Ukraine and how this led to "closer ties with the West". (I dispute the meaning of the term "closer" as she interpreted it and vis-à-vis how the Ukraine or Russia did, based on Col. Wilkerson's earlier assessments).   She then attempted to show it was a formal agreement or "treaty" between Russia, the U.S., the Ukraine and EU not to intervene there.  Hence, when Putin dispatched troops to the Crimea he "violated it". 

This is wrong on several counts. First, what Maddow referenced was not a formal document but a diplomatic agreement. This meant it did not carry any treaty obligations, including for the U.S. to "defend" the Ukraine, or for Russia never to intrude.  What Maddow also neglected to mention in her set piece (and yes it was great to have those nuclear weapons disassembled),  is that while Russia kept her part of the bargain, the U.S. didn't. NATO expansion continued under Clinton. To his credit, Clinton didn't launch an attack on Iraq in 1998 as the Neocons demanded (that had to wait their installation of Gee Dumbya in 2001) but his expansion of NATO partly laid the path to what's unfolding now. 

The problem is that Maddow avoided all of this like the plague. Why? If her work on the documentary  'Why We Did It' is a barometer, she ought to have brought the same ferocity and truth-telling to the fore on the Ukraine,  but she held back. Why? In fact, she had a pro-Maidan compact,  "Ukrainian lobby"  American congress woman on as guest who merely stoked the airwaves with more  anti-Russian propaganda - as if the Neocon controlled media (like The Washington Post) haven't done enough in that regard.

Second,  even the CIA in an LA Times story yesterday, acknowledged that "a 1997 treaty between Russia and Ukraine allows up to 25,000 Russian troops in the vital Crimea region" - thereby scotching the nonsense that Putin "invaded Crimea", certainly in his mind this is balderdash given all actions are in conformance with said treaty, see e.g.
http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-us-intelligence-russia-ukraine-20140303,0,4657644.story#axzz2uy8lfu8m

True, CIA director Brennan "doesn't believe this justified Russia's moves", but I revert back to what Col. Wilkerson (Ret.) noted above - that given the U.S. neocons conducted a putsch, a coup - he WAS justified and Wilkerson would have done it too if in Putin's place as he himself noted. 

Then there was the WaPo's Eugene Robinson, perhaps the last relatively liberal voice and columnist on what has become a nonstop cheerleader for Neocon-Neoliberal foolishness. In his column yesterday ('Who are We To Judge Russia') he certainly hits the nail right on the head in his opening paragraph:  

"Let’s be real. It’s one thing to say that Russia’s takeover of the Crimean Peninsula “cannot be allowed to stand,” as many foreign policy sages have proclaimed. It’s quite another to do something about it.

Is it just me, or does the rhetoric about the crisis in Ukraine sound as if all of Washington is suffering from amnesia? We’re supposed to be shocked — shocked! — that a great military power would cook up a pretext to invade a smaller, weaker nation? I’m sorry, but has everyone forgotten the unfortunate events in Iraq a few years ago?"

But from there he veers off into less relevant piffle and issues, including falling into the Neocon propaganda meme trap, i.e.  that his "sentiments are with the legitimate Ukrainian government, not with the neo-imperialist regime in Russia" Again,  failing to see that the government controlled by Nuland's and the Neocon's pawn "Yats" (Arseniy Yatsenuk ) is in fact NOT legit, but was installed after a coup - the same one Col. Lawence Wilkerson acknowledged had occurred in his interview with Chris Hayes.  (See also “Cheering a ‘Democratic’ Coup in Ukraine.”)


Hence, with Robinson's weight behind the illegit American puppet Arseniy Yatsenuk  it's not surprising he  doesn't pursue the Neocon -NED links to the putsch in Kiev. WHY not? Are the Neocons THAT powerful in the Beltway that they have everyone by the balls? Why are ALL the professed liberal voices so intimidated? Are they afraid they will lose their jobs if they come out even the slightest in a way that might be construed "pro-Russian"?

What has become ever more apparent to me the past week, is that if intelligent Americans really want to find out the cause and basis of the current crisis, they will have to dig much deeper than any American corporate news source. All of them are laden with propaganda, disinformation and outright untruths - in varying amounts. Pick your poison.  Even the relatively liberal MSNBC has fallen under the "blame Russia" meme.  Sadly, even when shows like Chris Hayes 'All In'  feature informed guests - like Col. Wilkerson - with an opportunity for background and backstory - there seems to be the incentive to punk out, as opposed to pursuing the truth.  Even if that truth leads to the door of a U.S.-sponsored coup, and installation of a figure head pawn.

But as I noted repeatedly before, in my assorted blog posts on the JFK assassination in November, if we don't become more conversant with what really happened in our own history, we will be at the mercy of any brain-twisting propaganda that comes along. And these days, believe me, there's a LOT of it.

At least blog readers can be assured I will do my utmost to keep them properly informed and especially on who they can trust and who they can't!

See also: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-lindorff/54577/not-funny-but-it-s-still-hard-not-to-laugh-how-can-the-us-accuse-russia-of-violating-international-la


http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/daniel-patrick-welch/54587/blessing-in-disguise-ukraine-may-be-the-last-straw-if-it-doesnt-kill-us-all

and

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/ted-rall/54581/the-four-horsemen-of-the-american-apocalypse