Oh, Boy, she can speak in whole sentences with more than one clause.
When she says “First,” she follows up with “Second . . .”
Clear-spoken.
More so than Saint Obama.
Not afraid to use the w-word (“warmonger”).
Nice voice. OK, they went over the questions.
But she remembered the answers and held her ground.
Congrats to Tucker for giving her and American TV viewers this opportunity.
And yet still only 3% of registered Democrats who intend to vote in the Democratic primary in their state intend to vote for her. https://projects.economist.com/democratic-primaries-2020/ She is getting a terrific amount of favorable coverage only on Republican ‘news’-media. That’s reaching people who aren’t even being primary-polled for the Democratic primaries. They’re not registered Democrats. Should we therefore expect the Iowa Caucuses to produce shockingly better for Gabbard than the 2% the Iowa polls are showing for her https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/ia/iowa_democratic_presidential_caucus-6731.html ? And better than the 4% the NH polls are showing for her https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/nh/new_hampshire_democratic_presidential_primary-6276.html ? Yes. But HOW MUCH BETTER? That’s the big question now. Currently, whereas 80% of Democrats disapprove of Trump’s Iran policy, only 11% of Republicans do. Furthermore, whereas the disapproval among Democrats is extremely intensely felt, the disapproval among Republicans in only mildly felt; so, there won’t be many Republicans who will be going to the polling places in their state’s Democratic primary or caucus, and voting for Gabbard. Here’s the poll: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/13/672/672/Topline%20Reuters%20Core%20Political%20Impeachment%20Tracker%20Poll%2001%2007%202020.pdf
January 6-7, 2020 on behalf of Thomson Reuters. For this survey, a sample of 1,115 adults age 18+
“TM1128Y17. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling the following issues?… Iran”
Republicans “Strongly disapprove” = 5%
Democrats “Strongly disapprove” = 69%
Republicans “Somewhat disapprove” = 3%
Democrats “Somewhat disapprove” = 8%
Republicans “Disapprove” = 11%
Democrats “Disapprove” = 80%
Bottom line: Gabbard is overwhelmingly rejected as a Presidential candidate in this country. I loathe to say it, but it is true, so I do.
I knew Gabbard was at best a longshot VP choice, but in the beginning I supported her for the “antiwar” stuff. Her being a worshiping Hindu didn’t bother me, but the fact she has been silent on India’s goonish behavior in Kashmir sure does. She has recently voted against BDS! But the real killer when she voted against impeaching Trump.
In my humble opinion the woman is waiting for a great job offer from Fox before dropping out of the Democratic Primaries. I’m done with Gabbard, and regret my previous gullibility.
You are indeed quite gullible if you think voting against impeachment was a bad thing. Also, she abstained, not voted against. Luckily, Tulsi Gabbard does not need fair weather friends, because the truth is on her side.
The difference being that Tulsi Gabbard is actually legitimate, while Trump turned out to be nothing more than a coward and a bully.
I don’t know what will happen when Tulsi is elected, but you can bet your ass the Neocons / Zionists will either attempt to impeach her or possibly even outright assassinate her.
At which point the mask of democracy our country wears will be shattered forever, and the American people will be thrown into direct conflict with the Neocons / Zionists, probably manifesting the form of a second civil war.
Anonymous, some thoughts — maybe a bit off topic — for you (and others) to consider :
1) Trump is definitely a bully ( was elected for exactly that attribute by a demographic convinced that only an alpha male bully-boy would have a snowball’s chance in hell of draining this particular “swamp” … but coward? Hmmmm. Really!?
We’ve seen “the swamp” and the “deep state” (two different but equally dangerous entities) come at him with (almost) everything they’ve got; and, while they do keep him plenty muddy and off-balance wrestling alligators, what does he do as he dispatches each one in turn? He circles back to his agenda.
E.g.: What did he do the minute the Mueller Report dropped? ( : made that “perfect” phone call to Zelensky.) What did he do the day the Articles of Impeachment dropped? ( : published a photo of himself meeting with Sergei Lavrov in the Oval Office.) Cowards don’t troll their adversaries like that. I won’t address the long saga of how he has tried to side-step obvious mutiny while still pressing forward with his order for withdrawal of troops from the Middle East, because it’s still on-going; but, will note that what began with campaign rhetoric escalated at regular intervals throughout his presidency (inflection points being April 2018, Dec. 2018, Oct. 2019, and now).
Let’s see a show of hands: how many think the op against Soleimani was a random, stand-alone event — unconnected to the constellation of impeachment + Ukraine + Lindsay Graham & Giuliani + MEK , intersecting with the constellation of NordStream2 + Power of Siberia + TurkStream + Iran.Russia.China naval exercises + Israel’s East-Med pipeline project. Anyone?
I’m a bit ambivalent about advancing this opinion (never was a Trump fan), but : this cat could be doing the most daring high-wire act since that French guy strung a line and walked on wind between the (now defunct) Twin Towers. I’m willing to be wrong about it, but haven’t yet ruled it out.
2) re: “the mask of democracy our country wears will be shattered forever…”
Aw. Hate to tell you this, but that mask will never shatter — it’s way too mouldy, flimsy, and tattered. The only reason people in the rest of the world humour the US ‘democracy’ delusion is because it pays and pays well to do so. Once the ROI goes negative (as it is now doing), you’ll simply wake up one morning to realize y’all are bare-face naked, and have been for a while. (It’s a good feeling, actually! Embrace it.)
As for the US potentially being thrown into another civil war … IMO, it’s more complex than that. Train-of-thought example: when Esper claimed “we are not looking to start a war with Iran, but we are prepared to finish one,” I thought: Dude! When has the USA ever finished a war!? You’re still killing and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq; still occupying Germany, Japan, and South Korea; have yet to sign a peace treaty with the DPRK. You maintain your own Civil War as a low-intensity conflict. You’re still fighting (and losing) the Spanish-American War; still fighting (and losing) your War of Independence!
Oh, ah! and, there’s the rub, innit?! Not fighting, maybe, but still losing the War of Independence. City of London…the Round Table Movement…Fabian Society…Rhodes scholarships…Skull & Bones…OSS and CIA…old Britannia’s hand is so far up the Republic’s arse its feet don’t even touch the ground any more. Same applies to all the other FVEY countries, as well as Israel and Saudi Arabia, plus lesser territories and dependencies all over the globe. Canada still stamps the Queen of England’s face on our coins, for heaven’s sake! All these countries are functional digits on the hand of that Empire ’pon which the sun never sets.
I agree. Trump has always been a flimflam conman. He told the deplorables what they wanted to hear but never had any intention on making good it on. He filled his cabinet from the get go with the worse neocon psychopaths and Goldman alums. My instincts tell me that Tulsi is the real deal when it come to ending these wars of empire. I disagree with practically all of her domestic program and economics, but she is the real deal regarding ending the wars. But I wonder if she realized that the USA would implode in weeks with a withdrawal from the empire’s frontiers? But better to do it now while the grunts at least have bus fare home.
Exactly. Same wine, new bottle.
They’ve added sex appeal to cloud the judgement of middle aged men and lesbians but she’s the latest model Obama-tron, ready to to go with new batteries, no doubt about it.
Read her Wikipedia bio; Tulsi has benefitted from any number of fortuitous opportunities, associations, appointments and astounding boosts to her career before she gained national attention. Some benefactors are guiding her along, even if she only suspects it herself. Maybe you just don’t ask too many questions when everything you touch turns to gold.
Don’t get fooled again, people. America’s Next Top President pageant is not the answer.
Tulsi knows where she stands and is very good at articulating her position. We love and respect her for that. Let’s suppose she were to get elected as Commander-in-Chief … what do you assess would be her chances of being able to control both CENTCOM (which, according to the perennial chatter @ Pat Lang’s site is a major problem) and the CIA (which boasts that it always gets its way)? What would her chances be? Or, do you think she would be stepping into a snake pit without any idea of how deep and how venomous it really is?
Question is directed toward the Saker, but I’ll throw in my 2 c/ worth.
I think it would depend greatly on the team she puts together: both the official cabinet appointments (SecDef; SecState; etc.) and her own kitchen cabinet, not to mention special expert advisors she can call on. She would/will need a very strong, committed team, carefully vetted for *no* skeletons in the closet such as groping someone 20 years ago. Also, some special envoys who speak some foreign languages, e.g., Russian, Chinese, Arabic.
Katherine, thanks for your thoughts. True: Tulsi’s experience in the House and in the Army, combined with her clarity of thought, calm demeanour, and peaceful approach would greatly contribute to her being able to select a strong, coherent team and list of cabinet appointees. That’s in the textbook version of reality.
Down in the snake pit, however, toil legions of mostly nameless, faceless functionaries each of whom is committed, each for their different reason, to maintaining the smooth functioning of a certain status-quo. The Vindmans, Ciaramellas, Strzoks and Pages if you will; and, those further down the food chain who can make disappear a database of names which had been put forward for consideration for a position on the transition team, for example. Also, many (most?) cabinet positions must be ratified by the Senate (IOW, they are vetted by the Lindsay Grahams and John McCains of this world).
In a system which for 75 years has been calibrated to and is oiled by the MIC, nobody’s gonna just waltz in and call the troops home. The system itself is going to resist that order, at many levels. So, what I was asking was: how does Tulsi Gabbard handle a full-blown mutiny?
Tulsi as president with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson as Defense Secretary or Secretary of State would be a great start. Maybe Sanders as president, Tulsi as Defence Secretary and Wilkerson as Secretary of State it viceversa.
Very good video—I am impressed with Wilkerson. Never heard him speak before.
If you are pressed for time, start listening around 20:00. When Mate asks Wilkerson to respond to a Pentagon assessment of Iran. What Wilkerson says after that is most striking and worth hearing.
Tulsi and Tucker both seem to be on the right track but still supporting the lie that ISIS an Al-Qaeda are not creatures of the US empire and tools of its war on both Syria and Iraq.
C’on… she’s just another one! No matter whom is put up there, she/he will become just another puppet playing by the cards from those running the show from some sort of ‘safe distance’.
She miserably fails to address the fact that US troops were not in Iraq to fight ISIS but to support them! Everyone with as low as an ounce of brains knows quite well that ISIS was just created to fulfill the “7 countries in five years” zionist wet dream. She’s not being honest and this is not a good sign. What’s her toughts about Israhell? As far as I know she’s quite zionist friendly, isn’t she? She even uses to share the usual mantra about “Iran’s nuclear weapons”!
Miles and miles of shining new Toyotas cruising the desert and the most beautiful army in the whole Galaxy full of beatiful weapons and beautiful surveillance assets which can take a picture of a rats pubic landscape far from above failed to notice it even more when they still were running the Iraqi show at that time and she always refuses to make any mention about it? Is she trying to be politicaly polite with the herd? Well, I guess we already know how good those use to perform when the subject is in the interest of the so called 99%.
She may be the best or one of the best options, but… she’s not the best because she’s the best, but because she’s not the worst from them all as none of them running for the best profitable job (or game, depends how much wealthy they are) of their lives are! They’re all puppets! Well… maybe some of them start not being one, but eventually sooner than later no matter whom is picked up to spit out the script to feed the cattle will end up becoming one. History never lies! We may open an exception to JFK, all others were/are/wiill become just ‘Mongols’ from a mentality perspective, it’s just a matter of time, when and the right threat comes forcing them to comply.
Maybe Tulsi —any candidate, to make it to the WH — must to some extent pull a Prince Hal.
Pretend to be something she is not . . . ? I know, I know. Still . . .
“Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at.”
The only way we might possibly get a useful president is if he/she as a candidate can convince the PTB that he/she is anodyne. Then reveal true colors and agenda once in power.
Of course, this was more or less the JFK scenario.
And of course JFK was JFK’d for showing his clear intention to go off the reservation in his second term.
Stop the arms race and get rid of nukes. Get along with the USSR. Smash the CIA into a thousand pieces. Get control of US currency.
Sigh.
Tulsi should be everyone’s pick for president. A sane leader who will stand strong against the military industrial complex. #Tulsi2020 #TulsiTellsTruths #NoWarWithIran
Tulsi is the real deal but a lot of people misunderstand what she has to say sometimes because of politics. If she were to always tell the unvarnished truth then she would turn off more people than she can otherwise get on her side. An example is that if most of the people you want on your side believe in “X is true,” then you would be smart not to upset them and turn them off from you completely by saying “X wrong.” You need to gain their faith first that you are trustable. Also, in the Art of War it is taught that secrecy is important in order to keep your ability to surprise, and therefore use that surprise factor to win a battle because your opponent will not be able to defend against something well if they don’t know what you are going to do. Tulsi is taking on the LIEO and their trainwreck plutocracy, make no mistake about it, and they know it. This explains Tulsi Gabbard: Enemy of T̷h̷e̷ Their State
Imagine me heaving a huge frustrated sigh at this masterfully wrought piece of Kabuki theater and at those who simply ignore the manifest fraud of the supposed “two party system”.
Wikileaks summed up it up beautifully with a simple cartoon picture.
*YES, I know it’s pintrest copy of the original but I simply was unable to find the original. Expunged down the memory hole? Probably.
The American’s need for a savior is their undoing.
The Empire machine creates the crisis and then sends in a White Knight savior to the rescue.
When the dust settles it becomes apparent that the new boss is just like the old boss and it’s too late.
Again and again …wash, rinse repeat.
Look at the Peanuts cartoon strip where Lucy is always able to convince Charlie Brown that THIS TIME will be different and she won’t pull the ball away when he goes to kick it and yet she does. Every single time.
Americans, snap out of your Charlie Brown mentality. You’re being played.
I found the image using Tineye.com, a reverse search engine. It was first posted on September 20, 2017 to the r/pics subreddit and was originally drawn by Osama Eid Hajjaj (Arabic: أسامة حجاج), a Jordanian political cartoonist.
The US is leading the world by the nose to a nuclear war. The conventional war has already started. I think it’s a good idea to understand why. Too bad that it takes more than a few words.
There are four historic events that go a long way to explain the single “ball of wax” that is the US political system, foreign policy, the printed-out-of-thin-air USD and their vital need for perpetual war.
First, in 1971 Nixon decided that nations that had lent money to the US by buying US “treasury” bonds could no longer redeem those bonds for physical gold. (I highly recommend watching the entire 18 minute video.)
Nixon said that he was “temporarily” stopping this convertibility because of “currency speculators”, but the real reason he did that was, in short, because the US literally did not (and still does not) have enough physical gold to ship to those nations who wanted to return their US bonds for gold rather than more paper. Nixon was literally forced to do what he did or he would have to stop making war on the world. He chose the former and all his successors have made the exact same choice.
Second, because the US economy would, as George Kennan said just a few years before the end of the USSR, have experienced too much “shock” without perpetual war and the economically-necessary military-industrial-complex to fight it, something other than gold had to be found to “back up” printed-out-of-thin-air USDs. A few increasingly desperate years later one was — the petro-dollar. It is vitally important that you understand its secret origin, because without such understanding you will not be able to make sense of the current United States of America. (Also take careful note of the people in the article’s photos. Likely you’ll recognize at least a few of them.)
explain most of the US’s military behavior in Latin and South America, as well as, more recently, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia. In short, by adopting the petro-dollar, the US had fully committed itself to use its military forces to control not only the middle east, but the entire world in order to maintain US dollar hegemony. From the get-go, that was a fatal mistake.
Third, for just one example of the petrodollar’s irresistible political power, on October 4, 2017, for the first time ever, a Saudi King flew to Moscow and met with the head of the Russian Federation, who at that time just happened to be Vladimir Putin.
The King’s trip sent an earth-shaking, absolutely clear message to the US Elite, as well as to the US President, who at that time just happened to be Donald Trump. Nine days after that unprecedented visit, on October 13, 2017 Trump announced that Iran was violating the JCPOA– the “nuclear deal” with Iran.
even though Iran was NOT, and is still not, violating the terms of that painstakingly negotiated and detailed agreement.
The King’s visit to Russia and Trump’s announcement only a few days later were no mere coincidence. The King of the petro-dollar was telling the commander-in-chief of the US military forces that unless the US president fulfilled his nation’s commitment to the petro-dollar agreement, the USD would not remain the de facto world reserve currency for long. (If Saudi Arabia were to pull out of its petro-dollar agreement with the US and, say, replace the US with Russia in a new agreement, IMO, unlike that of Dr. Hudson, the US’s war/petro-dollar-based economy would collapse nearly instantaneously. This is why the US regards its 21st century regime changes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, and its establishment of military bases all over the middle east, as a complete victory. This is why it can literally never close those bases and “bring the troops home”. IMO, if elected POTUS, Tulsi will do exactly as Trump has done, although perhaps she’ll join the JCPOA again.)
Trump obeyed his orders and in May 2018, pulled the US out of the deal. The rest of the nations that signed onto the deal have been unwilling or unable to fulfill their own obligations to it.
The US’s petro-dollar quagmire is completely responsible for the US’s reaction to MbS’s murder of Khashoggi. Here’s my headline for this part of my “story”:
Donald Trump Admits Bush’s War On Terror Is Actually President Lyndon Johnson’s War On Poverty —“I don’t want to lose an order like that.”
“When considering punishments if Saudi Arabia were found culpable, Trump was hesitant to suggest sanctions. ‘It depends on the sanctions,’ he said. ‘Let’s give an example: We are ordering military equipment. Everybody in the world wanted it: Russia wanted it, China wanted it, we wanted it, we got it, and we got all of it, we got every bit of it.’
‘So would you cut that off, or take…’ Stahl asked.
‘Well, I tell you what I don’t want to do: Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon, all these companies, I don’t want to hurt jobs, I don’t want to lose an order like that. And you know, there are other ways of punishing, to use a word that’s a pretty harsh word, but it’s true,’ Trump replied.”
What Trump failed to mention is that the US economy literally can not afford to “lose an order like that”. Again, George Kennan explained exactly why just a few short years before the end of the Soviet Union. (What he said is even more true today.)
“Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”
Fourth, the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008” (EESA) — the act that prevented the Elite from suffering losses on their mal-investments and created the TBTF banks:
Although there are many important, unprecedented actions allowed/required by that act, for the present purpose, the following Section 112 is most important:
“SEC. 112. COORDINATION WITH FOREIGN AUTHORITIES AND CENTRAL BANKS.
The Secretary shall coordinate, as appropriate, with foreign financial authorities and central banks to work toward the establishment of similar programs by such authorities and central banks. To the extent that such foreign financial authorities or banks hold troubled assets as a result of extending financing to financial institutions that have failed or defaulted on such financing, such troubled assets qualify for purchase under section 101.”
Just exactly how much of this unprecedented, completely-experimental coordination between foreign “financial authorities” (the “Group of 30”, maybe? http://group30.org/members ) and central banks is taking place this very day and just exactly what is their real goal? We can take a damned good guess by reading what VIP George Kennan wrote a few decades ago:
“…..we have about 50% of the world’s wealth but only 6.3% of its population. This disparity is particularly great as between ourselves and the peoples of Asia. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. ……..We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction.
………
We should cease to talk about vague and — for the Far East — unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.
We should recognize that our influence in the Far Eastern area in the coming period is going to be primarily military and economic. ……… It is my own guess, on the basis of such study as we have given the problem so far, that Japan and the Philippines will be found to be the corner-stones of such a Pacific security system and if we can contrive to retain effective control over these areas there can be no serious threat to our security from the East within our time. Only when we have assured this first objective, can we allow ourselves the luxury of going farther afield in our thinking and our planning.”
The very serious problem for the transnational US Elite and the Elite of its vassal sates is that USD hegemony is now, for the first time since the end of WWII, being seriously challenged by other increasingly powerful nations’ economies and their currencies and their weapons. Things are no longer going completely the Superpower US’s way. China’s economy is perhaps even now larger than that of the US.
What we commoners are now hearing 24/7, the only thing we’re allowed to hear, is the Elite’s investments incessantly beating the drums of war for profit. Their voice was Donald Trump addressing the United Nations. Their voice was Donald Trump saying “I don’t want to lose that order”. Their voices ordered Donald Trump to kill Qasem Soleimani.
Speaking of the voices of the Elite, don’t forget the relatively recent NYT article by Bernanke, Paulson and Geithner in which they predict yet another financial crisis that, when it inevitably happens, will be declared by the same three to have been completely unexpected.
“But the powers of the regulators alone proved inadequate. Congressional action made it possible for two presidents, one Republican and one Democratic, working with regulators, to prevent the collapse of the financial system and avoid another Great Depression.”
We must ask: just exactly what is “the financial system” whose “collapse” was prevented in only few hours of discussion by the above three Robber Barons? It is a system in which a microscopic percentage of the population owns the vast majority of wealth and large-scale capital equipment for their own astronomical profit. It is an ancient, increasingly explosive economic system that is still operating today. The population/climate catastrophes, the perpetual war catastrophes and the incessant, inevitable, predictable financial catastrophes are all part of an all-encompassing “ball-of-wax” that has that ultimately-fatal, completely man-made “system” as its core.
To sum up, we are living in the competition of all tribal competitions and the outcome of this contest will determine the role of the US economy in the world, as well as the ultimate fate of the Fed’s hundreds of trillions, perhaps quadrillions of printed-out-of-thin-air USD.
The US’s imposition of all these tariffs and “sanctions” and wars are absolute proof of the transnational US Elite’s flailing desperation to do only one thing –maintain USD hegemony in order to prevent Kennan’s “unacceptable shock to the American economy”. These measures will ultimately fail and, therefore, the only really important question that remains is whether the increasingly-desperate US Elite will “go gentle into that good night” and develop a peace-based economy amidst near-certain economic/political/social chaos, or will this insane Elite “false-flag” the rest of the world into a no-win nuclear shootout at the OK Corral? The US pulling out of the INF treaty;the US Secretary of the Interior’s recent threat to perhaps use the US navy to blockade Russian exports; the US ambassador to NATO’s recent threat to “take out” Russian missiles on Russian soil, the US very recently moving B-52 bombers to Dieo Garcia and, finally, the murder of Qasem Soleimani indicate that the shoot-out is far more than being seriously considered. It may have already started. At least now you will be able to tell your children why.
But by definition isn’t nuclear war not perpetual?
So w/your theory must also go some type of an extinction event, like the stability of the current U.S. currency. Yes, monetizing $100 billion a month for unfunded liabilities can go under the radar, but the economic fallout from a full blown, or even 1/2 full blown nuclear exchange cant simply be swept under the congressional rug.
Repayment of damages will be demanded by the world court and if the current gvt cant not produce the funds (most likely demanded payment in gold), then said gvt would be dissolved and a new one would replace it, one that could negotiate repayment and reset the laws which to date are totally corrupt.
It, in theory, could be the answer to future generations who under today’s system of justice would not have a fair shake at a productive lifestyle.
Excellent,
Perhaps, Saker, post this as a separate op-ed?
It ties together a lot of parts with which most people here are certainly familiar, but seems to present a clear bird’s eye view of the terrain.
Our current elites do not seem to be able to engineer a soft landing.
No one wants social chaos in the USA.
But there is a lot of social chaos in the USA already, resulting from failure of our economic elites to paln for everyone, not just themselves. Resulting in housing/drug/education/debt and other crises.
And, there is USA-borne chaos in numerous other , of Latin America and the Middle East.
The MIC is holding the USA and the world hostage.
We need to think about how we as a society will respond to economic “chaos.”
I don’t understand Alabama’s point about “nuclear war not perpetual.” I don’t see where the author implies this.
No one is safe now, says Dr Mahathir Mohamad in
response to killing of Iran’s Qasem Soleimani
“We are no longer safe now. If anybody insults or says something that a person doesn’t like, then it is
alright for that person of another country to send a drone and perhaps shoot at will,” said Dr Mahathir
after chairing the Special Committee on Anti-Corruption meeting today.
“I don’t care who is strong or weak. If wrongdoing is being committed, I have every right to voice it out,”
he said.
So far she is one trick pony. Her positions on military involvements are correct because she’s been there. Her other positions are either childish or the same as the rest of dems. And although she is much better than all of the rest together, she is not ready for prime time.
Truth is Americans are not ready for prime time no matter who grabs the brass ring. They’ve all been fakes since JFK (and he was no choir boy anyway). We’ve been at this game since Plymouth Rock and it’s who we are – greedy, murderous thugs. We’re not going to change. Naomi Klein (Shock Doctrine) pointed out that when we run out of countries to plunder, we’ll just turn on ourselves and strip ourselves of our wealth. Well, hell! Just look around right now at what we’ve become! All those tents in the cities, the excrement, the discarded needles, the burgeoning homeless, the insidious opioid scam, the failed health care scheme, the egregious concentration of wealth in the ultra elites, the madness of our imperial wars……it’s going to end badly. You just can’t outrun the history train! As for Tulsi, she gets her picture taken hangin with the Adelsons and Shmueli Boteach fer cryin out loud! Nice kid, but better she stays riding the breaks off Kauai.
The quotation from Mrs Clinton didn’t get the trouncing it deserved. “If Iran were to launch a nuclear attack on Israel…” is much like saying “If a sheep were to leap on a leopard and try to eat it…”
The wording of Mrs Clinton’s statement is cleverly misleading. It assumes that Iran could “launch a nuclear attack”, which it obviously couldn’t because
1. Both the US and Israeli governments have declared their determination to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons.
2. Iran has signed international agreements promising not even to seek nuclear weapons, and has complied perfectly with all their provisions. (Until the USA unilaterally broke the JCPOA, anyway).
3. The Supreme Leader of Iran has declared nuclear weapons “unIslamic”, and strictly forbidden all Iranians to work on such weapons.
Meanwhile, Israel is known to have as many as 100 nuclear warheads ready to use at a moment’s notice. Yet, although Israel has commited many acts of unprovoked and illegal aggression and Iran has committed none, it is Iran that is said to be the danger.
Not much detail has been revealed about Major Gabbard’s military career. However, what stands out is that she served in medical units – helping to save lives rather than to destroy them.
I don’t think that important fact gets nearly enough emphasis. Of course, it’s quite possible that she or her campaign team feel that it would detract from her popular appeal. Maybe being in the army is good, but being a medic instead of a professional killer is bad.
Wikipedia is intirguingly vague about her education, too. I went there to see if she had any medical, or even scientific, qualifications. It seems she was home-schooled and didn’t got to university.
That puts Anonymous’ comment in an interesting light. ‘[S]he can speak in whole sentences with more than one clause. When she says “First,” she follows up with “Second” . . . Clear-spoken’.
Interesting that a lady who was home-schooled comes across as so much better educated than many who went through high school and prestigious colleges such as Harvard.
Tulsi won’t be President. She won’t even be the Dem nominee. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t important. Just the mere fact that she’s bringing the warmonger issue to the fore is enough for me to give her some credit for honesty. These issues need to be discussed openly, and I’m glad she’s doing it.
Oh, Boy, she can speak in whole sentences with more than one clause.
When she says “First,” she follows up with “Second . . .”
Clear-spoken.
More so than Saint Obama.
Not afraid to use the w-word (“warmonger”).
Nice voice. OK, they went over the questions.
But she remembered the answers and held her ground.
Congrats to Tucker for giving her and American TV viewers this opportunity.
Katherine
And yet still only 3% of registered Democrats who intend to vote in the Democratic primary in their state intend to vote for her. https://projects.economist.com/democratic-primaries-2020/ She is getting a terrific amount of favorable coverage only on Republican ‘news’-media. That’s reaching people who aren’t even being primary-polled for the Democratic primaries. They’re not registered Democrats. Should we therefore expect the Iowa Caucuses to produce shockingly better for Gabbard than the 2% the Iowa polls are showing for her https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/ia/iowa_democratic_presidential_caucus-6731.html ? And better than the 4% the NH polls are showing for her https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/nh/new_hampshire_democratic_presidential_primary-6276.html ? Yes. But HOW MUCH BETTER? That’s the big question now. Currently, whereas 80% of Democrats disapprove of Trump’s Iran policy, only 11% of Republicans do. Furthermore, whereas the disapproval among Democrats is extremely intensely felt, the disapproval among Republicans in only mildly felt; so, there won’t be many Republicans who will be going to the polling places in their state’s Democratic primary or caucus, and voting for Gabbard. Here’s the poll:
https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/13/672/672/Topline%20Reuters%20Core%20Political%20Impeachment%20Tracker%20Poll%2001%2007%202020.pdf
January 6-7, 2020 on behalf of Thomson Reuters. For this survey, a sample of 1,115 adults age 18+
“TM1128Y17. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling the following issues?… Iran”
Republicans “Strongly disapprove” = 5%
Democrats “Strongly disapprove” = 69%
Republicans “Somewhat disapprove” = 3%
Democrats “Somewhat disapprove” = 8%
Republicans “Disapprove” = 11%
Democrats “Disapprove” = 80%
Bottom line: Gabbard is overwhelmingly rejected as a Presidential candidate in this country. I loathe to say it, but it is true, so I do.
I knew Gabbard was at best a longshot VP choice, but in the beginning I supported her for the “antiwar” stuff. Her being a worshiping Hindu didn’t bother me, but the fact she has been silent on India’s goonish behavior in Kashmir sure does. She has recently voted against BDS! But the real killer when she voted against impeaching Trump.
In my humble opinion the woman is waiting for a great job offer from Fox before dropping out of the Democratic Primaries. I’m done with Gabbard, and regret my previous gullibility.
You are indeed quite gullible if you think voting against impeachment was a bad thing. Also, she abstained, not voted against. Luckily, Tulsi Gabbard does not need fair weather friends, because the truth is on her side.
Not sure how relevant these stats are.
49% of registered voters are independent.
Katherine
the audience is being prepped to accept tulsi as the hope&change savior 3.0 (trump being 2.0)
The difference being that Tulsi Gabbard is actually legitimate, while Trump turned out to be nothing more than a coward and a bully.
I don’t know what will happen when Tulsi is elected, but you can bet your ass the Neocons / Zionists will either attempt to impeach her or possibly even outright assassinate her.
At which point the mask of democracy our country wears will be shattered forever, and the American people will be thrown into direct conflict with the Neocons / Zionists, probably manifesting the form of a second civil war.
Tulsi Gabbard is merely the catalyst.
Anonymous, some thoughts — maybe a bit off topic — for you (and others) to consider :
1) Trump is definitely a bully ( was elected for exactly that attribute by a demographic convinced that only an alpha male bully-boy would have a snowball’s chance in hell of draining this particular “swamp” … but coward? Hmmmm. Really!?
We’ve seen “the swamp” and the “deep state” (two different but equally dangerous entities) come at him with (almost) everything they’ve got; and, while they do keep him plenty muddy and off-balance wrestling alligators, what does he do as he dispatches each one in turn? He circles back to his agenda.
E.g.: What did he do the minute the Mueller Report dropped? ( : made that “perfect” phone call to Zelensky.) What did he do the day the Articles of Impeachment dropped? ( : published a photo of himself meeting with Sergei Lavrov in the Oval Office.) Cowards don’t troll their adversaries like that. I won’t address the long saga of how he has tried to side-step obvious mutiny while still pressing forward with his order for withdrawal of troops from the Middle East, because it’s still on-going; but, will note that what began with campaign rhetoric escalated at regular intervals throughout his presidency (inflection points being April 2018, Dec. 2018, Oct. 2019, and now).
Let’s see a show of hands: how many think the op against Soleimani was a random, stand-alone event — unconnected to the constellation of impeachment + Ukraine + Lindsay Graham & Giuliani + MEK , intersecting with the constellation of NordStream2 + Power of Siberia + TurkStream + Iran.Russia.China naval exercises + Israel’s East-Med pipeline project. Anyone?
I’m a bit ambivalent about advancing this opinion (never was a Trump fan), but : this cat could be doing the most daring high-wire act since that French guy strung a line and walked on wind between the (now defunct) Twin Towers. I’m willing to be wrong about it, but haven’t yet ruled it out.
2) re: “the mask of democracy our country wears will be shattered forever…”
Aw. Hate to tell you this, but that mask will never shatter — it’s way too mouldy, flimsy, and tattered. The only reason people in the rest of the world humour the US ‘democracy’ delusion is because it pays and pays well to do so. Once the ROI goes negative (as it is now doing), you’ll simply wake up one morning to realize y’all are bare-face naked, and have been for a while. (It’s a good feeling, actually! Embrace it.)
As for the US potentially being thrown into another civil war … IMO, it’s more complex than that. Train-of-thought example: when Esper claimed “we are not looking to start a war with Iran, but we are prepared to finish one,” I thought: Dude! When has the USA ever finished a war!? You’re still killing and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq; still occupying Germany, Japan, and South Korea; have yet to sign a peace treaty with the DPRK. You maintain your own Civil War as a low-intensity conflict. You’re still fighting (and losing) the Spanish-American War; still fighting (and losing) your War of Independence!
Oh, ah! and, there’s the rub, innit?! Not fighting, maybe, but still losing the War of Independence. City of London…the Round Table Movement…Fabian Society…Rhodes scholarships…Skull & Bones…OSS and CIA…old Britannia’s hand is so far up the Republic’s arse its feet don’t even touch the ground any more. Same applies to all the other FVEY countries, as well as Israel and Saudi Arabia, plus lesser territories and dependencies all over the globe. Canada still stamps the Queen of England’s face on our coins, for heaven’s sake! All these countries are functional digits on the hand of that Empire ’pon which the sun never sets.
We all need to wriggle free somehow.
I agree. Trump has always been a flimflam conman. He told the deplorables what they wanted to hear but never had any intention on making good it on. He filled his cabinet from the get go with the worse neocon psychopaths and Goldman alums. My instincts tell me that Tulsi is the real deal when it come to ending these wars of empire. I disagree with practically all of her domestic program and economics, but she is the real deal regarding ending the wars. But I wonder if she realized that the USA would implode in weeks with a withdrawal from the empire’s frontiers? But better to do it now while the grunts at least have bus fare home.
I think that’s pretty clear.
No mention of US/CIA/Western support for ISIS though. I wonder how Tulsi would have handled such a question.
Exactly. Same wine, new bottle.
They’ve added sex appeal to cloud the judgement of middle aged men and lesbians but she’s the latest model Obama-tron, ready to to go with new batteries, no doubt about it.
Read her Wikipedia bio; Tulsi has benefitted from any number of fortuitous opportunities, associations, appointments and astounding boosts to her career before she gained national attention. Some benefactors are guiding her along, even if she only suspects it herself. Maybe you just don’t ask too many questions when everything you touch turns to gold.
Don’t get fooled again, people. America’s Next Top President pageant is not the answer.
Question for the Saker:
Tulsi knows where she stands and is very good at articulating her position. We love and respect her for that. Let’s suppose she were to get elected as Commander-in-Chief … what do you assess would be her chances of being able to control both CENTCOM (which, according to the perennial chatter @ Pat Lang’s site is a major problem) and the CIA (which boasts that it always gets its way)? What would her chances be? Or, do you think she would be stepping into a snake pit without any idea of how deep and how venomous it really is?
Thanks in advance for giving this a thought.
Question is directed toward the Saker, but I’ll throw in my 2 c/ worth.
I think it would depend greatly on the team she puts together: both the official cabinet appointments (SecDef; SecState; etc.) and her own kitchen cabinet, not to mention special expert advisors she can call on. She would/will need a very strong, committed team, carefully vetted for *no* skeletons in the closet such as groping someone 20 years ago. Also, some special envoys who speak some foreign languages, e.g., Russian, Chinese, Arabic.
Katherine
Katherine, thanks for your thoughts. True: Tulsi’s experience in the House and in the Army, combined with her clarity of thought, calm demeanour, and peaceful approach would greatly contribute to her being able to select a strong, coherent team and list of cabinet appointees. That’s in the textbook version of reality.
Down in the snake pit, however, toil legions of mostly nameless, faceless functionaries each of whom is committed, each for their different reason, to maintaining the smooth functioning of a certain status-quo. The Vindmans, Ciaramellas, Strzoks and Pages if you will; and, those further down the food chain who can make disappear a database of names which had been put forward for consideration for a position on the transition team, for example. Also, many (most?) cabinet positions must be ratified by the Senate (IOW, they are vetted by the Lindsay Grahams and John McCains of this world).
In a system which for 75 years has been calibrated to and is oiled by the MIC, nobody’s gonna just waltz in and call the troops home. The system itself is going to resist that order, at many levels. So, what I was asking was: how does Tulsi Gabbard handle a full-blown mutiny?
Tulsi as president with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson as Defense Secretary or Secretary of State would be a great start. Maybe Sanders as president, Tulsi as Defence Secretary and Wilkerson as Secretary of State it viceversa.
See Wilkerson on The Grayzone.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GVWmmVhS0uc
Worth posting with Grayzone permission Saker.
Very good video—I am impressed with Wilkerson. Never heard him speak before.
If you are pressed for time, start listening around 20:00. When Mate asks Wilkerson to respond to a Pentagon assessment of Iran. What Wilkerson says after that is most striking and worth hearing.
Katherine
Tulsi and Tucker both seem to be on the right track but still supporting the lie that ISIS an Al-Qaeda are not creatures of the US empire and tools of its war on both Syria and Iraq.
C’on… she’s just another one! No matter whom is put up there, she/he will become just another puppet playing by the cards from those running the show from some sort of ‘safe distance’.
She miserably fails to address the fact that US troops were not in Iraq to fight ISIS but to support them! Everyone with as low as an ounce of brains knows quite well that ISIS was just created to fulfill the “7 countries in five years” zionist wet dream. She’s not being honest and this is not a good sign. What’s her toughts about Israhell? As far as I know she’s quite zionist friendly, isn’t she? She even uses to share the usual mantra about “Iran’s nuclear weapons”!
Miles and miles of shining new Toyotas cruising the desert and the most beautiful army in the whole Galaxy full of beatiful weapons and beautiful surveillance assets which can take a picture of a rats pubic landscape far from above failed to notice it even more when they still were running the Iraqi show at that time and she always refuses to make any mention about it? Is she trying to be politicaly polite with the herd? Well, I guess we already know how good those use to perform when the subject is in the interest of the so called 99%.
She may be the best or one of the best options, but… she’s not the best because she’s the best, but because she’s not the worst from them all as none of them running for the best profitable job (or game, depends how much wealthy they are) of their lives are! They’re all puppets! Well… maybe some of them start not being one, but eventually sooner than later no matter whom is picked up to spit out the script to feed the cattle will end up becoming one. History never lies! We may open an exception to JFK, all others were/are/wiill become just ‘Mongols’ from a mentality perspective, it’s just a matter of time, when and the right threat comes forcing them to comply.
yup. i agree TC.
I can’t strongly disagree. . .
Maybe Tulsi —any candidate, to make it to the WH — must to some extent pull a Prince Hal.
Pretend to be something she is not . . . ? I know, I know. Still . . .
“Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at.”
The only way we might possibly get a useful president is if he/she as a candidate can convince the PTB that he/she is anodyne. Then reveal true colors and agenda once in power.
Of course, this was more or less the JFK scenario.
And of course JFK was JFK’d for showing his clear intention to go off the reservation in his second term.
Stop the arms race and get rid of nukes. Get along with the USSR. Smash the CIA into a thousand pieces. Get control of US currency.
Sigh.
Katherine
Aye, and may I add:
“For in such business
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
More learned than the ear”
From the perspective of one who is not a member of the ‘Exceptional Nation’, Tulsi seems a good bet for the USA (and RoW) but we’ll erm…see.
Tulsi should be everyone’s pick for president. A sane leader who will stand strong against the military industrial complex. #Tulsi2020 #TulsiTellsTruths #NoWarWithIran
Tulsi is the real deal but a lot of people misunderstand what she has to say sometimes because of politics. If she were to always tell the unvarnished truth then she would turn off more people than she can otherwise get on her side. An example is that if most of the people you want on your side believe in “X is true,” then you would be smart not to upset them and turn them off from you completely by saying “X wrong.” You need to gain their faith first that you are trustable. Also, in the Art of War it is taught that secrecy is important in order to keep your ability to surprise, and therefore use that surprise factor to win a battle because your opponent will not be able to defend against something well if they don’t know what you are going to do. Tulsi is taking on the LIEO and their trainwreck plutocracy, make no mistake about it, and they know it. This explains Tulsi Gabbard: Enemy of T̷h̷e̷ Their State
Imagine me heaving a huge frustrated sigh at this masterfully wrought piece of Kabuki theater and at those who simply ignore the manifest fraud of the supposed “two party system”.
Wikileaks summed up it up beautifully with a simple cartoon picture.
*YES, I know it’s pintrest copy of the original but I simply was unable to find the original. Expunged down the memory hole? Probably.
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/640426009489783942/
The American’s need for a savior is their undoing.
The Empire machine creates the crisis and then sends in a White Knight savior to the rescue.
When the dust settles it becomes apparent that the new boss is just like the old boss and it’s too late.
Again and again …wash, rinse repeat.
Look at the Peanuts cartoon strip where Lucy is always able to convince Charlie Brown that THIS TIME will be different and she won’t pull the ball away when he goes to kick it and yet she does. Every single time.
Americans, snap out of your Charlie Brown mentality. You’re being played.
I found the image using Tineye.com, a reverse search engine. It was first posted on September 20, 2017 to the r/pics subreddit and was originally drawn by Osama Eid Hajjaj (Arabic: أسامة حجاج), a Jordanian political cartoonist.
The US is leading the world by the nose to a nuclear war. The conventional war has already started. I think it’s a good idea to understand why. Too bad that it takes more than a few words.
There are four historic events that go a long way to explain the single “ball of wax” that is the US political system, foreign policy, the printed-out-of-thin-air USD and their vital need for perpetual war.
First, in 1971 Nixon decided that nations that had lent money to the US by buying US “treasury” bonds could no longer redeem those bonds for physical gold. (I highly recommend watching the entire 18 minute video.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye4uRvkAPhA
Nixon said that he was “temporarily” stopping this convertibility because of “currency speculators”, but the real reason he did that was, in short, because the US literally did not (and still does not) have enough physical gold to ship to those nations who wanted to return their US bonds for gold rather than more paper. Nixon was literally forced to do what he did or he would have to stop making war on the world. He chose the former and all his successors have made the exact same choice.
Second, because the US economy would, as George Kennan said just a few years before the end of the USSR, have experienced too much “shock” without perpetual war and the economically-necessary military-industrial-complex to fight it, something other than gold had to be found to “back up” printed-out-of-thin-air USDs. A few increasingly desperate years later one was — the petro-dollar. It is vitally important that you understand its secret origin, because without such understanding you will not be able to make sense of the current United States of America. (Also take careful note of the people in the article’s photos. Likely you’ll recognize at least a few of them.)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-05-30/the-untold-story-behind-saudi-arabia-s-41-year-u-s-debt-secret
This then-new, completely experimental petro-dollar system and the ensuing “Carter Doctrine”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Doctrine
explain most of the US’s military behavior in Latin and South America, as well as, more recently, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia. In short, by adopting the petro-dollar, the US had fully committed itself to use its military forces to control not only the middle east, but the entire world in order to maintain US dollar hegemony. From the get-go, that was a fatal mistake.
Third, for just one example of the petrodollar’s irresistible political power, on October 4, 2017, for the first time ever, a Saudi King flew to Moscow and met with the head of the Russian Federation, who at that time just happened to be Vladimir Putin.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/05/saudi-russia-visit-putin-oil-middle-east
The King’s trip sent an earth-shaking, absolutely clear message to the US Elite, as well as to the US President, who at that time just happened to be Donald Trump. Nine days after that unprecedented visit, on October 13, 2017 Trump announced that Iran was violating the JCPOA– the “nuclear deal” with Iran.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/13/politics/iran-deal-decertify/index.html
even though Iran was NOT, and is still not, violating the terms of that painstakingly negotiated and detailed agreement.
The King’s visit to Russia and Trump’s announcement only a few days later were no mere coincidence. The King of the petro-dollar was telling the commander-in-chief of the US military forces that unless the US president fulfilled his nation’s commitment to the petro-dollar agreement, the USD would not remain the de facto world reserve currency for long. (If Saudi Arabia were to pull out of its petro-dollar agreement with the US and, say, replace the US with Russia in a new agreement, IMO, unlike that of Dr. Hudson, the US’s war/petro-dollar-based economy would collapse nearly instantaneously. This is why the US regards its 21st century regime changes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, and its establishment of military bases all over the middle east, as a complete victory. This is why it can literally never close those bases and “bring the troops home”. IMO, if elected POTUS, Tulsi will do exactly as Trump has done, although perhaps she’ll join the JCPOA again.)
Trump obeyed his orders and in May 2018, pulled the US out of the deal. The rest of the nations that signed onto the deal have been unwilling or unable to fulfill their own obligations to it.
The US’s petro-dollar quagmire is completely responsible for the US’s reaction to MbS’s murder of Khashoggi. Here’s my headline for this part of my “story”:
Donald Trump Admits Bush’s War On Terror Is Actually President Lyndon Johnson’s War On Poverty —“I don’t want to lose an order like that.”
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/trump-promises-severe-punishment-behind-khashoggis-disappearance-1152147
From the above link (my emphasis in bold):
……..
“When considering punishments if Saudi Arabia were found culpable, Trump was hesitant to suggest sanctions. ‘It depends on the sanctions,’ he said. ‘Let’s give an example: We are ordering military equipment. Everybody in the world wanted it: Russia wanted it, China wanted it, we wanted it, we got it, and we got all of it, we got every bit of it.’
‘So would you cut that off, or take…’ Stahl asked.
‘Well, I tell you what I don’t want to do: Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon, all these companies, I don’t want to hurt jobs, I don’t want to lose an order like that. And you know, there are other ways of punishing, to use a word that’s a pretty harsh word, but it’s true,’ Trump replied.”
What Trump failed to mention is that the US economy literally can not afford to “lose an order like that”. Again, George Kennan explained exactly why just a few short years before the end of the Soviet Union. (What he said is even more true today.)
“Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”
Fourth, the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008” (EESA) — the act that prevented the Elite from suffering losses on their mal-investments and created the TBTF banks:
https://www.congress.gov/110/plaws/publ343/PLAW-110publ343.pdf
Although there are many important, unprecedented actions allowed/required by that act, for the present purpose, the following Section 112 is most important:
“SEC. 112. COORDINATION WITH FOREIGN AUTHORITIES AND CENTRAL BANKS.
The Secretary shall coordinate, as appropriate, with foreign financial authorities and central banks to work toward the establishment of similar programs by such authorities and central banks. To the extent that such foreign financial authorities or banks hold troubled assets as a result of extending financing to financial institutions that have failed or defaulted on such financing, such troubled assets qualify for purchase under section 101.”
Just exactly how much of this unprecedented, completely-experimental coordination between foreign “financial authorities” (the “Group of 30”, maybe? http://group30.org/members ) and central banks is taking place this very day and just exactly what is their real goal? We can take a damned good guess by reading what VIP George Kennan wrote a few decades ago:
“…..we have about 50% of the world’s wealth but only 6.3% of its population. This disparity is particularly great as between ourselves and the peoples of Asia. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. ……..We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction.
………
We should cease to talk about vague and — for the Far East — unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.
We should recognize that our influence in the Far Eastern area in the coming period is going to be primarily military and economic. ……… It is my own guess, on the basis of such study as we have given the problem so far, that Japan and the Philippines will be found to be the corner-stones of such a Pacific security system and if we can contrive to retain effective control over these areas there can be no serious threat to our security from the East within our time. Only when we have assured this first objective, can we allow ourselves the luxury of going farther afield in our thinking and our planning.”
The very serious problem for the transnational US Elite and the Elite of its vassal sates is that USD hegemony is now, for the first time since the end of WWII, being seriously challenged by other increasingly powerful nations’ economies and their currencies and their weapons. Things are no longer going completely the Superpower US’s way. China’s economy is perhaps even now larger than that of the US.
What we commoners are now hearing 24/7, the only thing we’re allowed to hear, is the Elite’s investments incessantly beating the drums of war for profit. Their voice was Donald Trump addressing the United Nations. Their voice was Donald Trump saying “I don’t want to lose that order”. Their voices ordered Donald Trump to kill Qasem Soleimani.
Speaking of the voices of the Elite, don’t forget the relatively recent NYT article by Bernanke, Paulson and Geithner in which they predict yet another financial crisis that, when it inevitably happens, will be declared by the same three to have been completely unexpected.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/opinion/sunday/bernanke-lehman-anniversary-oped.html
“But the powers of the regulators alone proved inadequate. Congressional action made it possible for two presidents, one Republican and one Democratic, working with regulators, to prevent the collapse of the financial system and avoid another Great Depression.”
We must ask: just exactly what is “the financial system” whose “collapse” was prevented in only few hours of discussion by the above three Robber Barons? It is a system in which a microscopic percentage of the population owns the vast majority of wealth and large-scale capital equipment for their own astronomical profit. It is an ancient, increasingly explosive economic system that is still operating today. The population/climate catastrophes, the perpetual war catastrophes and the incessant, inevitable, predictable financial catastrophes are all part of an all-encompassing “ball-of-wax” that has that ultimately-fatal, completely man-made “system” as its core.
To sum up, we are living in the competition of all tribal competitions and the outcome of this contest will determine the role of the US economy in the world, as well as the ultimate fate of the Fed’s hundreds of trillions, perhaps quadrillions of printed-out-of-thin-air USD.
The US’s imposition of all these tariffs and “sanctions” and wars are absolute proof of the transnational US Elite’s flailing desperation to do only one thing –maintain USD hegemony in order to prevent Kennan’s “unacceptable shock to the American economy”. These measures will ultimately fail and, therefore, the only really important question that remains is whether the increasingly-desperate US Elite will “go gentle into that good night” and develop a peace-based economy amidst near-certain economic/political/social chaos, or will this insane Elite “false-flag” the rest of the world into a no-win nuclear shootout at the OK Corral? The US pulling out of the INF treaty;the US Secretary of the Interior’s recent threat to perhaps use the US navy to blockade Russian exports; the US ambassador to NATO’s recent threat to “take out” Russian missiles on Russian soil, the US very recently moving B-52 bombers to Dieo Garcia and, finally, the murder of Qasem Soleimani indicate that the shoot-out is far more than being seriously considered. It may have already started. At least now you will be able to tell your children why.
But by definition isn’t nuclear war not perpetual?
So w/your theory must also go some type of an extinction event, like the stability of the current U.S. currency. Yes, monetizing $100 billion a month for unfunded liabilities can go under the radar, but the economic fallout from a full blown, or even 1/2 full blown nuclear exchange cant simply be swept under the congressional rug.
Repayment of damages will be demanded by the world court and if the current gvt cant not produce the funds (most likely demanded payment in gold), then said gvt would be dissolved and a new one would replace it, one that could negotiate repayment and reset the laws which to date are totally corrupt.
It, in theory, could be the answer to future generations who under today’s system of justice would not have a fair shake at a productive lifestyle.
Excellent,
Perhaps, Saker, post this as a separate op-ed?
It ties together a lot of parts with which most people here are certainly familiar, but seems to present a clear bird’s eye view of the terrain.
Our current elites do not seem to be able to engineer a soft landing.
No one wants social chaos in the USA.
But there is a lot of social chaos in the USA already, resulting from failure of our economic elites to paln for everyone, not just themselves. Resulting in housing/drug/education/debt and other crises.
And, there is USA-borne chaos in numerous other , of Latin America and the Middle East.
The MIC is holding the USA and the world hostage.
We need to think about how we as a society will respond to economic “chaos.”
I don’t understand Alabama’s point about “nuclear war not perpetual.” I don’t see where the author implies this.
Katherine
It wasnt directed toward the author, it was from the commenter above mine, leading to and vital need for.
No one is safe now, says Dr Mahathir Mohamad in
response to killing of Iran’s Qasem Soleimani
“We are no longer safe now. If anybody insults or says something that a person doesn’t like, then it is
alright for that person of another country to send a drone and perhaps shoot at will,” said Dr Mahathir
after chairing the Special Committee on Anti-Corruption meeting today.
“I don’t care who is strong or weak. If wrongdoing is being committed, I have every right to voice it out,”
he said.
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/01/554266/no-one-safe-now-says-dr-m-response-killing-irans-qasem-soleimani
“No One Is Safe Now”
The watchword of this year, this decade, this century.
So far she is one trick pony. Her positions on military involvements are correct because she’s been there. Her other positions are either childish or the same as the rest of dems. And although she is much better than all of the rest together, she is not ready for prime time.
Truth is Americans are not ready for prime time no matter who grabs the brass ring. They’ve all been fakes since JFK (and he was no choir boy anyway). We’ve been at this game since Plymouth Rock and it’s who we are – greedy, murderous thugs. We’re not going to change. Naomi Klein (Shock Doctrine) pointed out that when we run out of countries to plunder, we’ll just turn on ourselves and strip ourselves of our wealth. Well, hell! Just look around right now at what we’ve become! All those tents in the cities, the excrement, the discarded needles, the burgeoning homeless, the insidious opioid scam, the failed health care scheme, the egregious concentration of wealth in the ultra elites, the madness of our imperial wars……it’s going to end badly. You just can’t outrun the history train! As for Tulsi, she gets her picture taken hangin with the Adelsons and Shmueli Boteach fer cryin out loud! Nice kid, but better she stays riding the breaks off Kauai.
From the other side of the great divide I find it unbelieveble that you all still believe in this elections charade.
The quotation from Mrs Clinton didn’t get the trouncing it deserved. “If Iran were to launch a nuclear attack on Israel…” is much like saying “If a sheep were to leap on a leopard and try to eat it…”
The wording of Mrs Clinton’s statement is cleverly misleading. It assumes that Iran could “launch a nuclear attack”, which it obviously couldn’t because
1. Both the US and Israeli governments have declared their determination to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons.
2. Iran has signed international agreements promising not even to seek nuclear weapons, and has complied perfectly with all their provisions. (Until the USA unilaterally broke the JCPOA, anyway).
3. The Supreme Leader of Iran has declared nuclear weapons “unIslamic”, and strictly forbidden all Iranians to work on such weapons.
Meanwhile, Israel is known to have as many as 100 nuclear warheads ready to use at a moment’s notice. Yet, although Israel has commited many acts of unprovoked and illegal aggression and Iran has committed none, it is Iran that is said to be the danger.
I would ignore this witch, if you try to understand her, it will be hazardous to your health.
Not much detail has been revealed about Major Gabbard’s military career. However, what stands out is that she served in medical units – helping to save lives rather than to destroy them.
I don’t think that important fact gets nearly enough emphasis. Of course, it’s quite possible that she or her campaign team feel that it would detract from her popular appeal. Maybe being in the army is good, but being a medic instead of a professional killer is bad.
Wikipedia is intirguingly vague about her education, too. I went there to see if she had any medical, or even scientific, qualifications. It seems she was home-schooled and didn’t got to university.
That puts Anonymous’ comment in an interesting light. ‘[S]he can speak in whole sentences with more than one clause. When she says “First,” she follows up with “Second” . . . Clear-spoken’.
Interesting that a lady who was home-schooled comes across as so much better educated than many who went through high school and prestigious colleges such as Harvard.
Tulsi won’t be President. She won’t even be the Dem nominee. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t important. Just the mere fact that she’s bringing the warmonger issue to the fore is enough for me to give her some credit for honesty. These issues need to be discussed openly, and I’m glad she’s doing it.