Do You Want To Understand?

There is so much bullshit spread about the Israel-Gaza….mostly from the MSM….there is so much more to this situation than a warranted attack in October.

This video has some humorous parts but does try to explain as best anyone that does not live there can do.

It is a long watch and you must go to Youtube, as you can see, to watch it…..but if you think you know it all then I suggest you digest this.

John Oliver’s show “Last Week Tonight” is a good way to learn and with a small amount of humor and sarcasm.

A superb attempt to help people understand….but sadly it may be a fart in the wind.

It will not change many minds for most have there ‘beliefs’ set in stone and no amount of facts will change that.

Sadly this will not change many minds (I know redundant) because most do NOT to understand because to them Israel is always in the right….and that is a very stupid way to make the decision on this conflict and with lives.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Two State Solution Bullshit

The US has used the two state solution as a dodge and an invitation for Israel to do as they want in the theft of land on the West Bank. We have legalized the actions of those thugs that go by the serene name of ‘settlers’…..they are bullies and criminals….period!

Since most people are ignorant on the situation let me describe the two state solution….

The two-state solution refers to a plan to create a Palestinian state separate from the state of Israel. The goal is to address Palestinian claims to national self-determination without undermining Israel’s sovereignty.

The first attempt at creating side-by-side states occurred before the independence of Israel in 1948. The year before, the United Nations passed Resolution 181 outlining a partition plan that would split the Mandate of Palestine (under British control) into separate Jewish and Arab states.

The UN’s proposed borders never materialised. Shortly after Israel declared independence, Syria, Jordan and Egypt invaded, sparking the first Arab-Israeli war. More than 700,000 Palestinians were displaced from the new state of Israel, fleeing to the West Bank, Gaza and surrounding Arab states

Recently the ICJ ruled against Israel on their theft of land and of course the US had to rush in and defend their masters.

The US has criticized the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling that said the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and must come to an end, claiming it impedes a two-state solution.

“We are concerned that the breadth of the court’s opinion will complicate efforts to resolve the conflict and bring about an urgently needed just and lasting peace, with two states living side-by-side in peace and security,” a State Department spokesperson told Reuters in an email on Saturday.

The spokesperson said the ICJ ruling, which was a non-binding opinion, was “inconsistent with the established framework.”

In contrast, the US refused to condemn the Israeli Knesset passing a resolution that rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River, which covers all of the occupied territories.

“I’ll let Israeli officials speak to their own legislative chamber and the actions that that chamber takes,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said about the Knesset vote. He claimed the US was still committed to a two-state solution, but the US continues to back an Israeli government that’s explicitly opposed to the idea.

The ICJ ruling said the establishment and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem amounted to annexation. Since October 7, Israeli settlers have stepped up their attacks on Palestinians to steal their homes, and the Israeli government has approved the largest land grab in the West Bank in 30 years.

(antiwar.com)

The rhetoric of the two state solution is a con….all it does is allow Israel to steal whatever they want and the US will rubber stamp it.

I am sick of the scam of the two state solution after almost 50 years and the US meddling and allowing Israel a free hand to act out as it sees fit under the guise of self-defense.

It is all bullshit!

Either stand by the so-called commitment or stand aside and STFU.

Enough bullshit already!

“cognito ergo me agitare”

No One Has Done More

To be fair that whole quote is “I have done more for the Palestinians than anyone”.

That was a wildly inaccurate statement by Joe Biden in a recent interview…..seriously?

President Biden claimed in an interview published on Monday that he has done more for the “Palestinian community” than anyone else, comments that come after over nine months of his administration supporting Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.

“I’m the guy that did more for the Palestinian community than anybody,” he said on the YouTube show 360 With Speedy.

As an example of what he’s done for the “Palestinian community,” Biden said, ” I’m the guy that opened up all the assets, I’m the guy that made sure that I got the Egyptians to open the border to let goods and medicine and food through.”

However, Biden also backed the Israeli operation to capture the Rafah border crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border, and it’s been closed ever since.

Biden also appeared to suggest in the interview that he has only provided “defensive weapons” to Israel even though his administration has shipped tens of thousands of bombs and other types of munitions.

“I sent defensive weapons,” Biden claimed. “I denied them offensive weapons that they were using 2,000lb bombs and the rest because I made it real clear they cannot use weapons that we provide them to, in fact, use in civilian areas.”

While the administration did pause a single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, it shipped 14,000 of them to Israel before that. Israel is still using heavy munitions on civilians, as Israeli officials told Axios that the military dropped five 2,000-pound bombs on the al-Mawasi camp over the weekend in a strike that killed at least 90 Palestinians, including many women and children. Israel said the strike targeted Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s senior military commander, but Hamas denied the claim, saying it was an excuse to massacre civilians.

In the interview, Biden expressed strong support for Israel and the idea of Zionism. “Do you know what a Zionist is? If there weren’t an Israel, every Jew in the world would be at risk. There’s a need for it to be strong and a need for Israel to be able to have, after World War II, the ability for Jews to have a place that was their own. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist,” he said.

Lily Greenberg Call, a Jewish-American who resigned from the Interior Department over Biden’s support for the slaughter in Gaza, criticized Biden for frequently claiming that without Israel, Jews wouldn’t be safe. “Jewish safety cannot — and will not — come at the expense of Palestinian freedom. Making Jews the face of the American war machine makes us less safe,” Call said in her resignation letter.

(antiwar.com)

Defensive weapons……bombs are not defensive.

But then what has Biden done for the Palestinian people?

While the administration did pause a single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, it shipped 14,000 of them to Israel before that. Israel is still using heavy munitions on civilians, as Israeli officials told Axios that the military dropped five 2,000-pound bombs on the al-Mawasi camp over the weekend in a strike that killed at least 90 Palestinians, including many women and children. Israel said the strike targeted Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s senior military commander, but Hamas denied the claim, saying it was an excuse to massacre civilians.

In the interview, Biden expressed strong support for Israel and the idea of Zionism. “Do you know what a Zionist is? If there weren’t an Israel, every Jew in the world would be at risk. There’s a need for it to be strong and a need for Israel to be able to have, after World War II, the ability for Jews to have a place that was their own. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist,” he said.

Lily Greenberg Call, a Jewish-American who resigned from the Interior Department over Biden’s support for the slaughter in Gaza, criticized Biden for frequently claiming that without Israel, Jews wouldn’t be safe. “Jewish safety cannot — and will not — come at the expense of Palestinian freedom. Making Jews the face of the American war machine makes us less safe,” Call said in her resignation letter.

An aid supply pier that did not work…..massive amounts of weapons to0 Israel…..rubber stamping anything and everything Israel did……is there more?

I would guess the Palestinian people would ask Biden to stop helping for he is killing them in droves.

This just Biden trying hard to get the genocide spotlight to dim a bit.

He has done NOTHING of substance for the Palestinian people…..so STFU about your imaginary accomplishment.

“cognito ergo me agitare”

What The Hell Is “Militainment”?

Now there is a word you do not see everyday….basically because the media and entertainment industries do not want the public equating stuff to war.

Hollywood has weaponized entertainment to promote war….some say as many as 2500 films and show are in that category.

“The easiest way to inject a propaganda idea into most people’s minds is to let it go through the medium of an entertainment picture when they do not realize that they are being propagandized,” explained Elmer Davis, a renowned CBS broadcaster, who had just been named director of the Office of War Information (OWI), a Pentagon program created on June 13, 1942, six months after Pearl Harbor.

Later in 1953, as the Cold War was in full swing, President Dwight D. Eisenhower commented on the burgeoning partnership between Hollywood and the Pentagon by stating that, “the hand of government must be carefully concealed and […] wholly eliminated,” adding that the engagement should “be done through arrangements with all sorts of privately operated enterprises in the field of entertainment, dramatics, music and so on.”

Thus, the president who coined the term “military industrial complex,” was, in fact, one of the first major proponents of what would later be called the military entertainment complex or the militainment industry.

Today, this militainment industry is thriving. From Top Gun to the Marvel franchise and even shows like Extreme Makeover, the Pentagon has been able to shape the narratives of more than 2,500 movies and TV shows. No one knows this better than Roger Stahl, the University of Georgia’s Communications Studies Department Head, and author of Militainment Inc. With University of Bath lecturer and Workers Party Candidate Matthew Alford, investigative journalist Tom Secker, and others, Stahl created “Theaters of War,” a concise 87-minute documentary in which he methodically dissects our modern militainment industry, showing the behemoth it has become.

Responsible Statecraft talked to Stahl, Alford, and Secker about the ways our TV screens are weaponized through the Military Entertainment Complex’s oversight over and control of Hollywood scripts and production agreements.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/theaters-of-war/

Do not get me started on the Pentagon and the patriotism of pro sports teams…..I know you have seen the ‘Patriot’s Day” or the Vets appreciation Day, or a salute to the armed forces….all that is not out of the desire to show their appreciation but rather a paid event by the Pentagon.

In the past few years, the Pentagon spent $6.8 million to pay for patriotic displays during the games of professional sports teams.

That’s according to a joint oversight report released by Arizona Republican Sens. John Flake and John McCain on Wednesday.

The senators found that since 2012, the Pentagon has signed 72 contracts with teams in the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer that amounted to “paid patriotism.”

For example, taxpayers paid $49,000 to the Milwaukee Brewers to allow the Wisconsin Army National Guard to sponsor the Sunday singing of “God Bless America.” In another contract, the New York Jets were paid $20,000 to “recognize one to two New Jersey Army National Guard soldiers as hometown heroes.”

USA Today reports that NFL teams received the biggest slice of the pie — $6 million, according to the report. The newspaper adds:

“The Atlanta Falcons received $879,000; the New England Patriots, $700,000; and the Buffalo Bills, $650,000. The Atlanta Braves received $450,000, the most of any Major League Baseball franchise, while the Minnesota Wild were paid $570,000, the most of any National Hockey League team.

“The Atlanta contracts included a 2013 event during which a roaring crowd cheered as the Falcons welcomed 80 guard members who unfurled an American flag across the Georgia Dome’s turf.”

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/05/454834662/pentagon-paid-sports-teams-millions-for-paid-patriotism-events

Keep in mind that cash is your money, taxpayer cash…..it is bad enough that we must fund every goddamn war on the planet but we also have to pay overpriced athletes to be patriotic?

Did you know patriotism has a price?

Go Team!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“cognito ergo me agitare”

Christian Bullshit At Its Best

The nation is confronted with the rise of what some called ‘Christian Nationalism’….a forceful attempt to make all American conform to their warped sense of country.

And yes I wrote about it (go figure)….

Does Theocracy Approach?

It began many years ago when the Right started with their opposition to the freedom of choice (abortion) and when Roe v Wade was overturned by SCOTUS it opened a door that had been closed for about 200 years.

Now states are flexing their misguided religious muscle…..fist with Louisiana….

Under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom. The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities, the AP reports.

  • The displays, which will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries,” must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025.
  • The posters would be paid for through donations. State funds will not be used to implement the mandate, based on language in the legislation. The law also “authorizes”—but does not require—the display of the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance in K-12 public schools.
  • Opponents question the law’s constitutionality, warning that lawsuits are likely to follow. Proponents say the purpose of the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the law’s language, the Ten Commandments are described as “foundational documents of our state and national government.”
  • The Tennessean reports that Landry boasted about the bill at a Republican fundraiser in Nashville on Saturday. “I’m going home to sign a bill that places the Ten Commandments in public classrooms,” he said. “And I can’t wait to be sued.”

This is a bad idea and should not be allowed to stand.

After Louisiana’s assault the great state of Oklahoma had to inject its brand of ignorance…..

Coming to classrooms in Oklahoma: the Bible. The state’s superintendent has ordered the religious text be taught in Oklahoma’s public schools, reports the New York Times, which calls it “an extraordinary move that blurs the lines between religious instruction and public education.” “Every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom, and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom,” Ryan Walters said on Thursday, though the AP notes that the directive from Walters, a 39-year-old conservative Christian and ex-AP history instructor, applies to classrooms from fifth grade through 12th.

“Immediate and strict compliance is expected,” the order reads. It comes about a week after Louisiana ordered the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools, a move that has already been hit with legal challenges. This, too, will likely face pushback in the courts. “Public schools are not Sunday schools,” Rachel Laser, head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, tells the Times, adding to the Wall Street Journal that the decision is a “transparent, unconstitutional effort to indoctrinate and religiously coerce public school students.”

Her group is also challenging the Louisiana Ten Commandments mandate. Some aren’t even sure that Walters has the authority to make such a sweeping order, as state law leaves such authority on instruction and curriculum to individual school districts. The superintendent, however, is adamant that the Bible be a required study topic in his state. It’s “a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our legal system,” Walters says, per the Times.

Both these will make it to the Supreme Court and I have NO faith that the judges will even take the Constitution into consideration before the make their ruling.  After all only the First Amendment is at stake….no big deal.

I am truly sick of these lying assholes about the history of this nation.

The sooner we can pull the plug on this mindless twats the better.

I personally do not want to0 live in the theocracy….do you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“cognito ergo me agitare”

Deceit And Deception

Those two words describe what the US gets from Israel and for the past 70+ years.

It is well documented on how I feel about Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty….but it goes deeper than that….in the 80s after the Marine barracks was bombed in Beirut the US turned to Israel for help isolating the group an d its leader….We were told by their crackerjack intel service that a local iman was the leader of a group that bombed the barracks….the US went about putting together a plan to take out the leader and a bomb was set to remove the iman…..after the bomb civilians were killed and the iman was able to escape death……the problem was this person had nothing to do with the bombing.

Then there was the attack on Qaddafi in the 80s….a Israeli team has his compound under surveillance and the US was told he was in his tent on the compound grounds…..we called an airstrike to get Qaddafi the problem was he was not there and we killed family members .

We could go into the numerous American citizens that have spied for Israel against their very own country….but why bother some small minded person will justify all these incidents in some small  way or another..

But no matter how much one defends Israel the fact remains that it is always one sided…..

Israel’s history over the past 76 years is replete with examples of deceit.  This was true from the start, when the Israelis denied their role in expelling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes during Israel’s War of Independence.  The Arab world refers to the expulsion as the “nakba” (the catastrophe), which is largely denied in Israel.  The Israeli legacy of denying the “nakba” is no different from those who deny the Holocaust.

The mainstream media bends over backwards to defend Israel’s case, and over the years it has said very little about the history of Israel’s deceit and deception.  As recently as last week, for example, the Washington Post carried a bizarre headline that read “Israel is on its honor to comply with U.S. intelligence limits.” The accompanying story was a significant one, detailing the importance of the U.S. intelligence provided to Israel to conduct the rescue of four Israeli hostages, an operation that took the lives of nearly three hundred Palestinians, mostly women and children.  By any definition of the requirement for proportionality in wartime, this was indeed a war crime.

The Post article went on to cite National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, an apologist for Israel since the start of the war on October 7th, who explained that the United States has “provided an intense range of assets and capabilities and expertise to Israel,” and that the provision of intelligence  is “not tied or conditioned on anything else.  It is not limited.  We are not holding anything back.  We are providing every asset, every tool, every capability.”  These remarks are dispositive of our complicity in Israel’s brutal and unconscionable assault against Palestinian civilians.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/06/21/biden-team-ignores-israels-history-of-deceit-and-deception/

There in this lies the problem….people will defend without looking at all sides of the argument and they use some pretty vague reason to hide their true feelings.

Sadly people will not challenge their biases to try and get to the truth….the truth is there just too damn lazy to look for it so fall back on the MSM to design their thinking for them.

Netanyahu has spoken privately about his ability to manipulate Democratic administrations because he has the power of the Jewish lobby behind him, and Democratic presidents are fearful of antagonizing the Jewish vote and Jewish fund raising on behalf of Democrats. He has insulted American presidents, vice presidents, and secretaries of state over the years, and has never missed an opportunity to demonstrate that he has the upper hand in negotiations with the United States. Netanyahu has always played hard ball with the United States. Now, it’s time for the United States to do the same.

I agree…the US needs to grow a spine and do what is needed to return to the prominence we once had in the world.

I have asked many question over the years and most responses are canned BS from the media or their idiot brother-in-law….critical thinking leaves the room when Israel is mentioned.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“cognito ergo me agitare”

Is It American Fascism?

The term has been batted around for several years now….but the question should be is this American fascism?

An excellent question and the New Republic has covered it very well….

After all it is 2024 and a very important election (according to some) is in the works….maybe now is a good time to look at the whole thing a little closer.

“No, no,” some admonish: “Don’t get carried away. Sure, Donald Trump is dangerous, perhaps uniquely so. But … fascist? The need to label him a fascist says more about the labeler than about Trump.” This argument has sprung from certain quarters of the right, which was to be expected, but it has also sprouted from the left, where a point of view has arisen that the “hysterical” invocation of the f-word is as much a danger as Trump.

We have trouble seeing the hysteria. We chose the cover image, based on a well-known 1932 Hitler campaign poster, for a precise reason: that anyone transported back to 1932 Germany could very, very easily have explained away Herr Hitler’s excesses and been persuaded that his critics were going overboard. After all, he spent 1932 campaigning, negotiating, doing interviews—being a mostly normal politician. But he and his people vowed all along that they would use the tools of democracy to destroy it, and it was only after he was given power that Germany saw his movement’s full face.

Today, we at The New Republic think we can spend this election year in one of two ways. We can spend it debating whether Trump meets the nine or 17 points that define fascism. Or we can spend it saying, “He’s damn close enough, and we’d better fight.”

We unreservedly choose the latter course. And so we have assembled herein some of our leading intellectual historians of fascism; a member of the fourth estate who learned firsthand what the Trump lash feels like; a leading expert on civil-military relations; a great Guatemalan American novelist with a deep understanding of immigrants’ lives; one of our most incisive cultural critics; and a man with all-too-real experience in living under a notorious authoritarian regime. The scenarios they describe are certainly grim. We dare you to say, after reading these pieces, that they are impossible.

(newrepublic.com)

Trump’s rhetoric smacks of fascism….now he just chest thumping or does he really want the authoritarian rule to become fact?

To speculate on what the future of American culture might look like in a second Trump presidency, we must consider the past: the formative New York and educational years of Donald Trump himself. By a curious turn of fate, the young Donald and I share a birthplace and, generally speaking, an education at the same institutions of higher learning. I can’t pretend to know the influence our common background has on his attitude toward the arts, but I can make some informed guesses by contrasting Trump’s journey to my own. To understand Trump and the cues his base takes from him, we need to see him as the anti–New York New Yorker: intellectually incurious and leery of the crowded streets of the crown city of cosmopolitan difference in a nation that mythologizes rural communities of sameness.

Then there is Project 2025….a master plan….

The fascists believed that you have to destroy to create, and this is what a second Trump administration would do. Project 2025 is a plan for an authoritarian takeover of the United States that goes by a deceptively neutral name. It preserves Trumpism’s original radical intent in its goals to “[d]ismantle the administrative state” and “decentralize and privatize as much as possible,” allowing the American people to “live freely.” “[T]he Trump administration, with the best of intentions, simply got a slow start,” Heritage Foundation head Kevin Roberts told The New York Times in January. “And Heritage and our allies in Project 2025 believe that must never be repeated.” The solution to this “slow start”—code for the restraints imposed by operating in a democracy—is counterrevolution.

The plan promises the abolition of the Department of Education and other federal agencies. The intent here is to destroy the legal and governance cultures of liberal democracy and create new bureaucratic structures, staffed by new politically vetted cadres, to support autocratic rule. So new agencies could appear to manage parents’ and family rights, Christian affairs, and other pillars of the new order. The Department of Health and Human Services is poised to have a central role in governance, given the priorities Trumpism places on policing sexuality, weaponizing motherhood, persecuting transgender people and LGBTQ

https://newrepublic.com/article/181265/permanent-counterrevolution

What is the old saying?  “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck?”

Personally I think the time to fight this cancer is now……

January 2025 will be too late.

I Read, I Write, You Know

‘cognito ergo me agitare’

The Political Cancer

We are well aware of what a cancer is…..our country is infected with a political cancer….a practice or phenomenon perceived to be evil or destructive and hard to contain or eradicate.

That cancer has a name….greed.

Because of greed the Democrats have lost the very foundation of this once proud party….the working class.

Much of today’s Republican Party is treacherous and treasonous. So why are Democrats facing midterm elections that, according to most political observers, they’re likely to lose? Having been a loyal Democrat for some seventy years (my father liked Ike but my mother and I were for Adlai), including a stint as a cabinet secretary, it pains me to say this, but the Democratic Party has lost its way.

How? Some commentators think Democrats have moved too far to the left — too far from the so-called “center.” This is utter rubbish. Where’s the center between democracy and authoritarianism and why would Democrats want to be there? Others think Biden hasn’t been sufficiently angry or outraged. Please. What good would that do? And after four years of Trump, why would anyone want more anger and outrage?

The biggest failure of the Democratic Party — a disease that threatens the very life of the party — has been its loss of the American working class. As Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg concluded after the 2016 election, “Democrats don’t have a ‘white working-class’ problem. They have a ‘working class problem’ which progressives have been reluctant to address honestly or boldly. The fact is that Democrats have lost support with all working-class voters across the electorate.”

The working class used to be the bedrock of the Democratic Party. What happened?

https://www.alternet.org/the-democrats-disease/

To illustrate what I mean by my accusation….I give you the ‘Indicted Congressman’s Club….

Well-deserved indictments keep hitting Congress. The latest indicted legislator is Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar, the politician backed by former House speaker Nancy Pelosi in his last election, against a more progressive opponent, of course. On May 3, the justice department charged Cuellar with accepting roughly $600,000 from Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company and a Mexican bank. These payoffs were for “official acts as a member of Congress.” Sound familiar? It should, because it resembles the case against New Jersey Democratic senator Bob “Gold Bar” Menendez, charged some months back with selling his office for gold ingots, a fancy car and other gifts. And then, back on October 10, New York GOP congressman George Santos was charged with conspiracy for, among other things, stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization. What a buncha guys!

Since the indictment, Menendez has taken to the airwaves to insist he’ll fight to the finish. How is he even still in Congress, you ask? A massive case of narcissistic entitlement, that’s how; Cuellar – same problem. Instead of doing the correct and decorous thing, namely resigning, they cling to their congressional seats. The GOP-controlled House had the decency to expel Santos, but don’t expect such propriety from the Dems. They reserve their threats of expulsion for great senators, like Al Franken, guilty of making an off-color joke that riled the Me-Too fanatics. But when it comes to two congressional bigwigs like Menendez and Cuellar? The Dems may squabble about one or both resigning, but they put no muscle into it. Not like they did for the incorruptible Franken, on whom they ganged up and swarmed like a mess of angry hornets, and with about that much, insect-level, brain-power. Looking at you, Kirsten Gillibrand.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/24/the-indicted-congressmans-club/

These are just the most recent indictments….the sickness of greed goes well back in this country’s history.

One of the carriers of this cancer are the “Lobbyists”…..

The relationship between foreign governments and members of Congress is generating headlines and drawing scrutiny. First, on May 3, the Department of Justice charged Texas Representative Henry Cuellar with bribery, money laundering, and doing work on behalf of a foreign government. Then on May 15, the trial began for New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, who stands charged with using his office to facilitate favorable deals and agreements involving select businesspeople and the Egyptian and Qatari governments. The Menendez case has produced sensational and salacious details — ranging from stacks of cash to gold bars found in the Senator’s residence — attracting a massive media spotlight. Cuellar has said he is innocent and Menendez has pleaded not guilty.

Yet, while the two cases are grabbing headlines, they are far from the first time foreign governments may have courted members of Congress. Such efforts — often illegal — have long been a way to shape American policy so that it benefits other countries. Foreign governments frequently pursue a dual track strategy in which they court policymakers through lobbying and other means, while also working to shape American public opinion to limit the options for members of Congress and the President. These strategies have paid great dividends in the past, even as they have also at times resulted in scandal.

https://time.com/6981957/foreign-interference-lobbying-history/

This cancer can be mostly cured by removing lobbyists and cash from our political organism.

These reports illustrate just how deadly cash is to the health of our beloved system….we need a surgically remove the malignant parts so the system can survive.

The problem is that this sickness is entering into Stage 4 and may be too late to save the entity we say we love.

Any thoughts?

‘cognito ergo me agitare’

Questions Need Answers

I normally try to write a post that is at least 350 words, I try to give as much information as possible and I ask questions hoping for a few answers.

So far my questions, which have been in just about every post, have gone unanswered…..lots of platitudes and babble but no direct answers.

I decided to write a post to ask the questions with no flowery stuff….just a straight forward question…..in search of straightforward answers.

1–What does the US expect in return for its massive investment in Ukraine?

2–What is it that makes Americans such die hard supporters 0f Israel?

A couple of easy straightforward questions that I think deserve some easy straightforward answers (if known).

I look forward to the answers.

‘Lego ergo scribo”

“Severe Consequences”

Recently a couple more nations recognized the state of Palestine and as you would imagine it sent Israel and the West into apoplectic shock….

Another three countries say they will officially recognize a Palestinian state amid outrage over Israel’s war in Gaza. Ireland, Norway, and Spain announced Wednesday that they would formally recognize the Palestinian state on May 28. Israel immediately recalled its ambassadors to Oslo and Dublin in response to what it called a “distorted step,” and said it would also recall its ambassador to Madrid, per NBC News. The outlet notes the step may be echoed by other European countries “as outrage over Israel’s actions in Gaza bolsters the Palestinian cause on the global stage.”

“There cannot be peace in the Middle East if there is no recognition,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, per Al Jazeera. He said the recognition helps “keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike”—”two states, living side by side, in peace and security.” Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said Israel “loses nothing” from the designation, which he hoped would “offer hope and encouragement to the people of Palestine at one of their darkest hours.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the move was “an act in favor of peace, justice and moral consistency” and “not against the Israeli people.”

Yet Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the message was that “terrorism pays.” He said the recognition could hurt efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza by “rewarding the jihadists of Hamas and Iran.” Hamas, meanwhile, applauded the move, saying it was “an important step on the path to establishing our right to our land,” and encouraged other countries to follow suit. According to the Palestinian Authority, 142 of 193 United Nations member nations now recognize the state of Palestine, per RTE News. Among those not included: the US, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Australia.

Now for the ‘severe consequences’ thing…..a threat issued out of Israel after the recognition vote…..

Israel’s foreign minister issued a blunt threat of “severe consequences” for the countries of Norway, Ireland, and Spain—and presumably other nations that may follow—after the trio announced their decision Wednesday to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

In their joint move, inspired in large measure by the ongoing Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, the governments of Norway, Ireland, and Spain said they would make the formal recognition next week on May 28. In response, Israel recalled its ambassadors from Oslo and Dublin as an initial sign of displeasure and protest.

Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said in a public statement that the move to recognize Palestine was a “distorted step” by the countries which he claimed was “an injustice to the memory of the victims of 7/10, a blow to efforts to return the 128 hostages, and a boost to Hamas and Iran’s jihadists, which undermines the chance for peace and questions Israel’s right to self-defense.”

Katz warned that “Israel will not remain silent” in the face of what it perceives as a betrayal by its European allies and that “further severe consequences” would follow for those making such a decision. Israel recalled its ambassador to Spain last year after comments made about violations of humanitarian law in Gaza.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/norway-ireland-spain-palestinian-state

“Severe consequences”? What are they going to do attack Norway or Spain or Ireland? That seems to be the only action these people know….they could claim self-defense since that is their answer for all the destruction they carry out.

Of course the USA vetoed the UN vote …..

The resolution would have recommended that the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, approve Palestine becoming the 194th member of the United Nations. Some 140 countries have already recognized Palestine, so its admission would have been approved, likely by a much higher number of countries.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the Security Council that the veto “does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood but instead is an acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties.”

The United States has “been very clear consistently that premature actions in New York — even with the best intentions — will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people,” deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said.

https://apnews.com/article/un-vote-palestinian-membership-us-veto-8d8ad60d8576b5ab9e70d2f8bf7e2881#

Premature actions?

Get real fucking real!

When the British mandate expire in 1949 Israel declared itself a state and the US immediately recognized the claim. Israel did n0t have to jump through hoops that they put the Palestinians through.

Then there is the dodge that the US stands behind the two state solution.

What crap!

They have been using that old tired dodge for 50 years and still nothing is any closer to being resolved….so when you hear Biden or any of his thugs use the term then know they are lying.

Without some sort of enforcement there will be NO two state solution….

Israeli support for two states, a strong majority in the heady days of the 1990s Oslo process, has eroded for years. The national trauma of the slaughter of 1,200 Israeli innocents—some beheaded, burned alive and raped—on October 7th and the ensuing war further hardened public opinion. In January, 59% of Jewish Israelis rejected a two-state solution as part of a package of US guarantees, normalization with Arab states, and long-term military peace. Support for two states is tied to perceptions of its feasibility, and Israelis have grown increasingly skeptical: a month before October 7, only 32% of Israeli Jews thought Israel and a Palestinian state could coexist peacefully, down 14% from 2013. 

The core reason for this opposition is more practical than ideological. Many Israelis support the idea of a compromise for peace but are wary of abandoning the status quo without an agreement with a partner they trust—in their view, the only way to provide real security and actually end the conflict. While a dedicated minority view the West Bank as biblical patrimony which cannot be ceded, in January 2023 over 60% of Israelis were willing to accept mutual Israeli-Palestinian recognition of the other’s legitimate claims, an end to the conflict and the end of future claims under a two-state solution. If Israelis thought a deal would work, a majority would support it. They understand that, if successful, a two-state solution is the best way to ensure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state. 

https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/without-enforcement-talk-two-states-hollow

That is also a pipe dream….the US no more wants a solution to this problem than it wants AIPAC money to dry up.

If you would like to read a great work of fiction then the US explanation of the veto from the US mission to the UN….

https://usun.usmission.gov/explanation-of-vote-at-a-un-security-council-meeting-on-palestinian-membership/

Every word crap!

cognito ergo me agitare