As Glen Ford famously said quite some time ago; the Republicans may be the greater evil, but the Democrats are the more effective evil. Now I am am starting to think that by being the more effective evil, that they are, de facto, the greater evil. I am fairly positive that Trump, despite how much I despise him, at least would not have pushed for the war in Ukraine like the Biden gang has done. What is very clear now is that the primary system in the US is designed to make sure only people like Biden will ever get to the general election, leaving voters with no choice other than endless war. The fact that Trump is generating such hysteria from The Powers That Be, it seems clear that they think he would be less useful to them than another 4 years of Biden the Terrible. That is reason enough for many people to chose Trump over Biden. I will be voting for Cornel West, as the Green Party is always on the ballot in my state.
The DNC brought this situation on themselves, and all the rest of us, by sabotaging Berni Sanders 2020 campaign. They made sure that that Pete B. and Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the primary before Super Tuesday. After dropping out they endorsed Biden. I thought at the time that it sounded like a setup, and Sanders said the same in his book. Sanders would have been a better president than Biden, in my opinion. I don't know who I will vote for in 2024, but I know it won't be Biden or Trump.
Good luck trying your case, DA Fani "Fatty" Willis.
And by all means roll the TV cameras in the courtroom.
You are about to supplant the Scopes trial of 1925 as the most notoriously ridiculous piece of legal work in US history.
Mr. Trump is thriving under the tribulation of four court cases brought against him as he runs for election in 2024. Each new set of charges boosts his poll numbers.
It helps him hugely that the cases are transparently idiotic and mendacious.
If he is initially convicted in any of them, he can still run for president and be elected, even if he’s jailed — as Eugene Debs did in 1920 getting 913,693 votes running on the Socialist Party from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where he was jailed under the 1917 Espionage Act for speaking out against America’s entry into the First World War.
The Party of Chaos is running scared. Everybody knows that “Joe Biden” can’t possibly run for another term and yet the public debate is so grotesquely disabled that nobody will talk about it. Most particularly, they will not talk about who might take his place. And there is a good chance that the crimes of the Biden crime family are finally going to see the 46th POTUS impeached.
Voting third Party is not going to achieve anything. Maybe worse.
With Trump you have a very slim chance of getting what you want.
With Biden or 3rd Party - you get NOTHING - except more war and economic failure.
And the Deep State (Obama and Victoria Nuland?) continuing to run the country.
And probably end up with "Giggles" Harris as your President. Oh dear!
Today Rep. Nancy Mace says, based on receipts from SAR's (Suspicious Activity Reports) bank records, the Biden family has taken in over $50 million in illegal bribe money. Rep. Mace says Biden's are the most corrupt family in politics.
This comes as a Trump witness went to the press and a judge unsealed Hunters court documents.
Viktor Shokin, a fired Ukrainian Prosecutor, says he believes the Biden's were bribed to stop his investigation of Burisma energy.
Big breaking story - the Bidens enriched their family while selling out America. “God save the Queen, man.”
When will the US legacy media just drop the act and start calling this crap out for what it is?
Why isn't anything being done? When is the House Oversight Committee with James Comer going to have an Impeachment Inquiry, or just charge them? (Our mission statement is to ensure the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies. We provide a check and balance on the role and power of Washington - and a voice to the people it serves. hahhahaha... Pull the other one!)
The World sees it - and gets it. If it was Trump OMG!
Equal treatment under the law for everyone - yeah right!
Watch another Indictment coming in for Trump! The Democrats have no shame.
Banana Republic - the America that is going to bring democracy to the Ukraine! The US is now the laughingstock of the World.
Dennis, Re.: "When will the US legacy media just drop the act and start calling this crap out for what it is? "
I realize that's a completely rhetorical question; and you know dang well the answer: NEVER! Not in the remainder of our life-times, certainly. And, because the bullshit must continue (with different faces & names) for as long as these legacy media exist, they can never really acknowledge their deceptions. The best they can ever do, when enough of the truth leaks out to enough people, is to offer a slight editorial apology about one of their reporters having gotten something wrong and they failed to properly vet it. a la Iraqi WMD, NY Times and Judith Miller.
Who knows, Dennis? It's a rapidly changing world. Lots of institutional upheaval to come. Some good outcomes, maybe some not so good. The only 'constant' will likely be change itself. Substack, Rumble and other platforms already present challenges - will the growing establishment pressures for censorship succeed in getting them to cave in, too? Could the Supremes turn out to have any real, consistent regard for that rapidly-disappearing freedom of speech? All is to be seen. I don't know if I'll see any real answers in my remaining lifetime.... Just change!
Do you think any of these indictments of Trump are going to be successful and he will serve jail time Jeff? I don't. They are idiotic and frivolous.
I don't think they care - as long as they keep him tied up in court until after the election - and they rig the election to win - these indictments will disappear into thin air eh!
Rachel Maddow actually said as much!
And if he wins - then the shit is going to hit the fan. Paybacks are a bitch!
Hope you are doing well today. 1st day spring here tomorrow. Beautiful sunny day. Outside my window......
You know if Trump actually meant what he said about ending the Ukraine war, that would at least be a reason to vote for him. But the problem is he is a liar who is out for no one but himself, period.
Trump would have had absolutely no say in the matter, Bill.
He was ~ and still is ~ as owned, operated, commanded, and controlled as Biden and everybody else in DC.
If he wasn't, he probably wouldn't have been chosen in 2016 to lead the pack. And even if he was, if he had any problem with the planned war in Ukraine, Mike Pence would have replaced him.
I'm afraid that this is 'mostly' the case. The security state establishment obviously had major issues w/ Trump. Mainly, he was too much a loose cannon when it came to foreign policy... especially unreliable against their long-term 'enemy', Russia. This was obvious when that establishment, primarily through their media-talking-heads mouthpieces, actively attacked his planned Summit meeting with Putin in Helsinki. They all constantly crowed out about him being "Putin's bitch" (ostensibly because of the later-discredited Steele dossier); and that he'd sell out his nation because of that.
That meeting, which of course followed upon earlier Trump (campaign) words about improving relations with Russia made of Trump a marked man. The NSA (or was it CIA) attache to the White House just coincidentally became a whistleblower- listening in on, then leaking Trump's effort to get Ukraine to follow up on the Biden's corrupting efforts vis a vis Burisma, Hunter Biden, etc.
The press made it out that Trump was corruptly putting financial pressure on Ukraine for his political benefit (which he likely was), and completely elided mention of the fact that Joe Biden himself had done precisely the same thing- threatening to withhold moneys promised to Ukraine- until they fired the Procurator General who was investigating Burisma. Which, of course, Ukraine's leadership promptly did; alleging that he was being fired for being too reluctant to take on corruption!!!! ;-) .
Some might think the Deep State (and I'm not afraid to use the term) went after Trump primarily because he insulted them early on, leading Sen. Schumer to his giddy comment on Trump (later shown to be predictive): "You take on the intelligence community. They have six ways to Sunday of getting back at you."
But any slights taken in Trump's dismissive remarks about the Intel agences were insignificant, I think, compared to the fact that he would always be too unreliable a party to the neocons' schemes involving the ultimate take-down of Russia as a precondition to the pivot to China and their fantasies about a final, unchallenged global hegemony.
Whether Trump really understood any of this, or would ever really be willing to put his life (and fame) on the line to challenge the Deep State's agenda in any consistent way is, in my view, doubtful. I think he maybe had some hints of what he was up against, but never had the principles, spine and/or intellect to really challenge it. And then, too, the fact that he empowered people like James Mattis and Mike Pompeo was self-defeating, in my view, if he ever really was serious about better relations with Russia and China. Of Mattis, the Wikipedia entry notes, " An opponent of proposed collaboration with China and Russia, Mattis stressed what he saw as their "threat to the American-led world order"." Pompeo's war-mongering is equally renowned.
In sum, even if Trump had a few relatively benign impulses- such as reducing tensions with Russia - he wasn't consistent enough nor equipped well enough to help realize them. So he certainly would effectively have too little, if any say in these matters. And if he did, they'd have found even quicker ways of ending his Presidency.
Great comment Roger. The million-dollar question is whether Trump learned in his first term, and is better equipped, and not afraid to challenge the barstad's when he is inevitably reelected the 47th POTUS.
I don't see anybody else with balls to do so. I don't see any candidate that has the principles, spine and/or intellect to really challenge the Deep State. And I think this time he knows the great unwashed American public has his back! Look at the turnouts he is getting! Like that of a King wherever he goes! And the huge amount of +ve coverage he gets on social media (Niggas for Trump - oh dear!) - he does not have to spend a dime on advertising. LOL
Why there is such a huge effort to derail him by those feeding at the Fed trough and know their paycheck is threatened. And by the Rhino's.
Wadda yuh think?
(Thanks for the kind words BTW - much appreciated - you don't know what you got, until it is gone eh)
But i don't think that Trump is "mostly" controlled by the same forces that control Biden and everybody in DC or was ever there as an elected politician. i think he is totally controlled; just like Biden, etc.
The mainstream media told us how we should feel about him...they lied!
The media has the power to make the innocent look guilty & the guilty to look innocent! Malcolm X. ( Remember Bush the draft dodger vs Kerry the war veteran. The media made out W the good guy. Do I have that wrong?)
Those that call Trump the names that they call him, are just reflecting on their own lives.
One thing Is that Trump was found guilty of sexual assault in Jean Carrol's civil suit. The fact is he raped her in a dressing room of a New York department store. It isn't a good character recommendation is it? That fact should be plenty enough reason not to vote for him.
Civil suits don't find people guilty or not guilty. Those are criminal trials. The civil suit (Manhattan) found Carrol's claim of rape "unproven" but did uphold damages for sexual assault and defamation.
Donald Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll, but the jury did not determine that the former president had raped her.
What normal person says about being raped: ‘It was only three minutes.
Carroll was regularly seen in the media in the mid-1990s but made no mention of being sexually assaulted. You know why? Because she’s a reprehensible liar who was coached to make false allegations in Court to damage Trump.
The E. Jean Carroll case was a made-up SCAM.
One of Carroll’s attorneys was Roberta Kaplan — a Democrat Party activist who led the group Time’s Up. She left the activist group after it was revealed she was aiding former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in attempting to discredit the Democrat’s accusers.
Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn and a harsh critic of former President Trump, helped pay for the lawsuit. Hoffman gave at least $500,000 to the Mainstream Democrats super PAC, which was founded in February 2022 and has since spent more than $1 million supporting the campaigns of Democrats.
Furthermore, Federal District Judge Lewis Kaplan who oversaw the process had connections to Carroll’s other attorney, Shawn Crowley.
This was a clear civil case of "She said" vs "He said".
And the gullible jurists fell for it hook line and sinker.
The Democratic party operatives pulled it off perfectly Steve.
Dennis: Are You saying that the media made Malcom X look like an innocent person who was actually guilty? Or did they make him look like a guilty person who was actually innocent?
And which part of the MSM made Bush, the draft dodger, out as "the good guy"?
First of all, how many MSMers called Bush a "draft dodger"?
Thats a quote from Malcolm X Jeff! “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
You know this eh Jeff......in 2004 the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), a group later known as the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, questioned details of Kerry's Vietnam service record and circumstances relating to the awarding of his combat medals. Their campaign against Kerry's presidential bid received widespread publicity - to Kerry's detriment and ultimate demise. The SBVT claims later turned out to be bullshit.
Since the 2004 election, the term "swiftboating" has become a common expression for a campaign attacking opponents by questioning their credibility and patriotism in a dishonest manner. The term is used with the pejorative meaning of a smear campaign.
So, John Kerry was swift boated eh? And yes, MSMers never outright called Bush a "draft dodger", but everybody knew the truth. In the 2004 election Kerry was smeared and W escaped criticism. His indiscretions ignored by the press.
In 2004, "The Forever War" was in full bloom in Afghanistan and Iraq, Dennis. There is no way that America was going to change horses in the middle of that stream, and replace the Cheney/Bush the Lesser regime by one headed by Kerry.
And if everybody "knew the truth" about Bush being a "draft dodger" for enlisting in the Texas Air National Guard and successfully completing jet fighter bomber pilot training ~ see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_military_service_controversy for details ~ what did and does that make Trump, whose Daddy bought him a Podiatrist's diagnosis of "bone spurs" that exempted the future POTUS Maxximmiuss XLV [and XLVII Wannabe] from military service during the height of the Vietnam GoatFuck?
ps: And i did not know that that was a quote from Malcom X. If i did, i wouldn't have asked my question.
More importantly than even that, Ed, is the fact that Trump did absolutely nothing to reign in the Kyiv government ~ that Obama had installed ~ while it killed thousands and thousands of Ukrainians living in the east, right up next to Russia.
This war was being planned and initiated long before Putin's "special military operation" in February, 2022.
True, OSCE monitored the shelling in Donetsk from 2014, documenting hundreds of cease fire violations.
Two Minsk agreements were ignored by Ukraine/EU, with semi anual meetings in Normandy prolonging the shelling.
There are rumors that US donations were lined up to invade and the Russia threat to Kiev in Feb 2022 caused a rapid redeployment! US media relates no truth!
Permit me, Bill, to make a serious and sincere recommendation that You give thought to posting a reaction and response to Seymour Hersh’s piece about Anthony St John’s recently released book, THE HIPPIE LIEUTENANT: Vietnam “War” Memoir [cited earlier and below by Ray, and commented upon by me] at https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/the-hippie-lieutenant .
i know that i ~ and a whole bunch of BV subscribers, readers, and commenters [to saying nothing of folks at Tom Dispatch, Information Clearing House, antiwar.com, etc] ~ would love to read it.
Thank You for Your consideration on this, and, as always, have a Great day. ~ jeff
Seymour Hersh has an interesting article Today giving out more for free than he usually does, sharing an excerpt from a book 'The Hippie Lieutenant: Vietnam "WAR" Remembrances' I found the whole book online to read free. This quote by Oscar Wilde is on the cover of the book,
"As long as war is looked upon as wicked, it will always have its fascination.
When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
'THE HIPPIE LIEUTENANT'
One soldier’s unsparing vision of life and combat in the Vietnam War
What a nightmare US troops went through that one night the solder describes in his book.
If freedom loving Americans were put through nights like that often, reading it gives me a new understanding why so many US Officers were offed by their own troops.
Reading Hersch’s excerpt about what those GIs went thru that nite recalled another nite in Vietnam that led, ultimately, to the SEEDING of what was to ultimately become Veterans Against War… :
VETERANS AGAINST WAR [VAW] was seeded some 56+ years ago, in a place high and close enough to the coast of Vietnam’s South China Sea to the east to be able to watch the fishing boats’ and other “non-combatant” ships’ lights at night, traversing the mystery ~ with an occasional live-fire brouhaha or two between contestant proprietors or three out there over that crystalline, stark blackness ~ of that sultry night ocean.
Specifically, it was on the morning following a nite in late summer, 1966, when, as a survivor of the carnage that results when a ground force of some 300 ± Viet Cong [unit designation unknown] ~ supported by .50 caliber machine gun and 75 mm recoilless-rocket fire, plus hand grenades and satchel charges by the bazillions ~ what happens when those VC attack and overrun a platoon of some 30± American infantry paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division, 1st Brigade, 2nd of the 327th Infantry Battalion….
More specifically, it was when, on that morning, as the Sun officiously but diffidently breached a dawn still mist-laden with the smoke and stench of cordite and of burnt and burning blood, flesh, and viscera, and the residually echoing shouts, screams, sobs, and imprecations of those attacking and defending, and of those killing and dying, or left to die or to be killed….
It was specifically on that morning, as a relatively intact survivor of that nite, helping to first find potential other survivors, and then to dis- entangle and then re-assemble body parts ~ carefully distinguishing the bad guys’ parts [typically in black pajamas] from the goods’ [typically in GI boonie-green]…
Most specifically, it was when, on that morning, just before being medevacked out of there ~ when i wept on that young Airborne Infantry Battalion Chaplain’s shoulder, and challenged him to show me ~ or anybody else on this forsaken hilltop ~ anything, anywhere at all that was a manifestation of his, the Chaplain’s, God’s “Love, Compassion, Patience, and Forgiveness,” as present and presented here, this morning, on what was operationally known in the business as “Grenade Hill”…
It was then, and there, when all that that thoroughly shaken, but doctrinally-sanctimoniously self-assured, faithfully self-righteous, and thoroughly stupid son-of-a-buzzard cherry [his father was an Airborne full-bird Colonel Chaplain, and this was his first exposure to and experience of the true nature and reality of war, just like it was mine] could do and/or say was to brace me by my shoulders, thump me on my chest, and promise me:
“… They’re all in Heaven with Jesus, my son…. All in heaven…. well….ehhhh [in response to my dumb-founded, incredulous stare]… the Americans are … or rather, uhhhh… the American Christians who have accepted Jesus as their Personal Savior are…. or, ehhhh, well, ….. THESE ones [gesturing to a line of poncho-covered, official US Government “Remains” that he had apparently just successfully processed for transition], They… [with an almost not-quite-forced pathetically beatific smile and theatrically-choked sob]… They’re all in Heaven… with Jesus… ; trust me.. and Know.. . Now, Airborne All the Way, son…. Now, get on the medevac….” And smartly saluted me [a PFC], did an even smarter about-face, and tripped over one of his own ponchos.
Had i not lost my sidearm in the chaos of the nite before, i [sometimes] like to think that i might just would and could have just shot that Sky Pilot on the spot, even as he lay face down in that squirming sordid mix of rivuleting rain, Viet Nam mud, and human blood, just to put him out of his misery and stupidity. But, on reflection [at least most of the time], i’m glad i didn't, and got medevacked out instead.
In any event, It was then and there ~ without even bothering to think to ask the Chaplain what happens to those who were, if American, neither Christian nor, if Christian, not Jesus-as-Savior-accepting [let alone the non-American Vietnamese Buddhists, Catholics, or Confucianists, or the Montagnard Animists, or the Marxist/Leninist/Hoist materially dialectic Infidels, or etc, dead and/or dying from that nite] ~ it was then and there that the VAW was seeded. And, on the medevac flite back to Tuy Hoa, and then further to the rear, ultimately to Nha Trang, was finally delivered unto an fertile ovum.
VAW first subsequently significantly thereafter manifested at a military funeral in a place called Van Nuys, California, in very early 1970, four months and a day before four young Americans were to be killed by hostile “friendly” [or was it “friendly” hostile] fire… whatever… in a place called Kent, Ohio.
It was thirty-one years later, on the streets of New Orleans within days of September 11, 2001, that VAW abruptly and somewhat surreptitiously manifested by having temporarily morphed itself into V2A2V [Vietnam Veterans Against Another Vietnam], and mounted a concerted concerned citizens’ information campaign against the pending, proposed, planned, and programmed so-called “Global” so-called “War On” so-called “Terrorism.”
Finally, it was during those heady days after 9/11 and before the USA PATRIOT Act, or the “liberation in the name of retribution” of Afghanistan, that V2A2V/ VAW was first informally described as:
"...Not an organization. At least not yet. Rather, it is an extended ad-hoc hyper-community comprised of every Child, Woman, and Man on this Planet who has ever been directly or indirectly in any way negatively Affected By War: Anywhere, Anytime, and in Any Way Whatsoever ~ and who is prepared to do whatever is possible and necessary to ensure that something like that never, ever happens again to themselves, to their families and loved ones, or their friends, colleagues, cohorts, and compeers.
"Or to anybody else, anywhere. Anybody. Anywhere. Ever."
VAW shifted base camp to Sitka, Alaska and established Sitka Platoon, in late summer of 2012.
POC is Jeff Moebus, Master Sergeant, US Army [Retired] at vaw.sitka@gmail.com.
RT just gave me a new Award among many within minutes of posting this comment. The last one they gave me for commenting was in an article July 13 and the Award simply called 'Fuck yeah '
"If we evaluate the Pope’s phrases with an open mind, we’ll see that they are an unconditional encouragement of aggressive imperialism"
It appears to me watching from CanaDa if we truly evaluate, the Ukrainian government is just too indebted to the US and brainwashed and/or money bought, to see this Ukraine WAR is the result of US AGGRESSIVE IMPERIALISM using the Common People of Ukraine, not the Ukrainian elites, as US sacrificial lambs-cannon fodder to advance US aggressive Imperialism!."
My 2nd comment may be harder for them to digest, anyone can read if they want to following the link to the article & comments below.
This was in response to this article, ' Pope Francis an ‘instrument of Russian propaganda’ – top Zelensky aide The Pontiff is promoting “aggressive imperialism” by praising Russia’s history and culture, adviser Mikhail Podoliak claims.......
What RT gave me was the 'William S. Burroughs' Award. Never heard of him before but he has brainy quotes I discovered in my search.
This one I like a lot because it essentially describes the Way I've been on since I was Resurrected from the Spiritually DEAD to believe in the Living Spirit of God within my body February 1, 1975.
THAT'S the FUNDAMENTAL of the Christian Faith!
"Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer."
In other words, it takes the Patience of Job. Developing Patience in a 30 second sound byte Society is a real JOB these Days with so many exterior distractions.
"Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war."
"Hustlers of the world, there is one mark you cannot beat: the mark inside."
"This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games."
I was right! this 2nd comment is so hard to digest, discussion stopped.
Every human being on planet Earth is an instrument of God for the Good or Evil. In the Old Testament, God creates Good and Evil, WAR and PEACE.
In the New Testament, the God and Father of Christ Jesus is ONLY GOOD and a PEACEMAKER-HEALER.
In the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the Last Days it's written, "And the NATIONS were angry, and your WRATH is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should give reward to your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear your name, SMALL and Great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth."
Even unbelievers can see the 'NATIONS ARE ANGRY, and Your WRATH is come' and happening in our Lifetimes. Scientists are screaming at the top of their lungs, we humans made in the image and likeness of God are destroying this Earth that sustains us over what? Money and Things.
Since this Business World operates in this Year of the Lord 2023, the World still rejects the terms of the New Testament so the Old Testament still governs. That's totally evident watching what's happening in Israel TODAY.
Nature itself is warning the WORLD, with all the floods happening all over this WORLD, the history of the corruption and violence recorded in the Old Testament that caused the Great Flood, is happening in our Lifetimes. The Old Testament says it won't end because of a great flood again, the Rainbow is the Sign of that.
Applicable to our generations than any before us, the END in the Old Testament is described this way,
"For behold, the Lord shall come with FIRE, and like a tempest,
His chariots, to render His anger with FURY, and His rebuke with flames of FIRE."
How can anyone see the Signs of Heaven if they can't see them on Earth? The spirit of those words describe the reality of NUCLEAR WAR! Total INSANITY!
As for the WRATH, in the next chapter in the Revelation after the words above, it's written, "Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell in them. (the kingdom of heaven is WITHIN you according to the Christ!) Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great WRATH, because he knows that he has but a short time.
You know The Kansas City Times was quoting me in 1976, “He came to town for the Republican National Convention and will stay until the election in November TO DO GOD'S BIDDING: To tell the World, from Kansas City, this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered [...] He gestured toward a gleaming church dome. “The gold dome is the symbol of BABYLON,” he said.” [...] He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a War with Russia.”
That 1976 FUTURE is NOW with the Revelation of the details GENERALLY unfolding in the spirit of the letter.
The World is waking up to see Americans may hasten “its days are numbered” part of the 1976 Vision, and waits with bated breath.
All I know is if the "Jesus" ever did come back most of these so called "Religious" people would run for the corners like the cockroaches they are when a bright light was turned on..! The supernatural and Revelation can be interpreted in any way , place, time, events & peoples you see fit!!! How about replacing interpretive exuberance with true Humility.
That's the marvel and wonder of the Book of Revelation throughout all the Centuries and Ages since Gutenberg's Bible was made available to the MASSES.
Only Catholic Priests were able to use it in any way the Church Establishment demanded. The People couldn't question the Authority until the Bible was widely disseminated and the People who could read, could see for themselves..
That's why what I see unfolding in THIS Material World TODAY is how I characterized it reading Revelation 11:18 ; 12:12 and Isaiah 66:15-16.
Some will get it and some won't!
Not my worry or concern! No One has to account to me. Every One including you and me, will give account to God
You are free to interpret the words and visions from Revelation I cite.
I'll take your humble interpretations into consideration. Please do.
Until last week, the only other thing President Trump has ever said that i can recall ever 100% agreeing with was back in early 2017 when he said something to the effect that "the [First American] Civil War could have been avoided"; ie, that it didn't necessarily need to happen.
His Tweet of last week, tho, may go down in history as one of his profoundest and most important ever:
“The United States has spent EIGHT TRILLION DOLLARS fighting and policing in the Middle East. Thousands of our Great Soldiers have died or been badly wounded. Millions of people have died on the other side. GOING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE.....IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY! We went to war under a false & now disproven premise, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. There were NONE!”
If the precursor of "Peace" is "Justice," and the antecedent of "Justice" is "Truth"; then Trump should get the next Nobel Prize for Peace for daring to utter the following blasphemic Facts and Truths:
1. That the United States is a serial enabler of War Profiteering. Ie, every dime of that $8 trillion has gone or is going into some American's pocket, or some American lackey's. And thus, America has become a corporate Welfare/Warfare State; and Debtor State.
2. That the United States is the biggest War Criminal of the 21st century. While not in the league with Stalin, Hitler, and Mao just yet, we are closing in on Pol Pot. And thus the "New American Century" has turned into a global horror show.
3. That the United States is a War Monger. And while no closer to winning this War than we were on 9/12, we are ever looking forward to bigger, badder, and thus better "threats" and "enemies." And more money for more tanks, ships, missiles, bomber-fighters, and other weapons systems to meet those threats and to beat those enemies, real or imagined. [See #1.]
Generally speaking ~ in this, Year III of The Age of Trump ~ the prevailing doctrine among Trumpatistas is that Trump's "truth" trumps TRUTH. That is, what he says is "true" trumps what really Is True.
This is one of those very rare instances where Trump's TRUTH [what really Is] trumps "Truth" [what those who embrace, endorse, and are invested in "The Forever War" would rather the American people not even think about].
This should be a litmus test for anybody who aspires to be the next President of the United States: "Do You agree with President Trump's Tweet? If You do and if elected, what do You intend to actually, really DO about it?"
"And if You don't agree with the hard, cold, blunt facts presented in that Tweet, why not?"
How much money have we spent? How many casualties have there been, here and there? What WAS a worse decision in the history of our country? And have those WMDs ever been found?
So Yeah: If Obama can get the Nobel Peace Prize after doing absolutely nothing but making promises and then actually, really doing absolute zero to bring peace anywhere, and in fact spread the War, then why doesn't Trump deserves it for introducing that rarest of factors in modern American [and global] political discourse and debate: Facts and Truth?
For again, as the Latin American Liberation Theologians back during the terror reign of future-NRA President Lt Col Ollie North and his assassination squads put it:
“There can and will be no Peace unless and until there is Justice. And there will and can be no Justice until and unless there is Truth.”
Trump has given us a Truth that may be like the one Mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke of on the afternoon of 9/11 when asked how many people may have been killed at the WTC: "That may be a Truth that is too terrible to bear."
For all the bleating and braying coming out of SwampLand from the Left, Right, and Muddled Middle since the Tweet, You'd think he might have hit a very raw nerve, or something.
I also agree with you that if reelected TRUMP will fight a losing battle stopping war and getting the US out of NATO.
The alphabet agencies and the State Department think they are unaccountable and report to no one. You agree?
Trumps dumbest move surely was not firing Victoria "Fuck the EU" Nuland in his first term.
BTW, did you see Tuckers interview with the Hungarian PM Orbán today?
Orbán addressed the accusations by the Biden administration and the media that he is a “fascist” by arguing it is “very dangerous” for himself and his country to be hated by the most powerful nation in the world.
“It’s dangerous, may I say. So we should not neglect the importance of that fact when the United States administration does not like you, or considers you as an enemy or a having a backtrack, it’s dangerous in international politics,” the Prime Minister said.
Sorry, Dennis. But where did i say that "if re-elected, Trump will fight a losing battle stopping war and getting out of NATO"?
If re-elected, Trump will do whatever his owners/operators/commanders/ controllers/script writers/handlers tell him to do. Just like he did when he was in the Oval Office. Just like Biden is doing now and, if he gets re-elected, will continue to do.
And the alphabet agencies and State Department are very accountable to and report to the same people that the President does,
And Trump's dumbest move ~ at least from the perspective of the Ukrainians and Russians getting killed, maimed, widowed and widowered, orphaned or rendered childless, and, among Ukrainians, jobless, homeless, and hopeless ~ his dumbest move was in not reigning in the US-installed government in Kyiv as it murdered thousands of Eastern Ukrainians. That's one of the major reasons why that War is going on over there right now.
But from the perspective of the folks in the MICC, etc, that was one of the smartest things he did and could do.
If only because if he hadn't done that, he would have been replaced by someone who would have.
And i don't watch Tucker or anybody's podcasts, Dennis. i'll read transcripts, if they are available, and then only very rarely watch the video.
In any event, what Orban said has been true for a long, long time; like since the end of World War II. The only thing that has changed significantly and recently is that now a major threat to America is not just "communists," but "fascists," as well.
For those here on BV who may have missed Trump's proclamation about "America, the Innocent," here's how the July 29, 2020 WASHINGTON POST put it:
"Trump’s excuses reveal a twisted worldview. Swan noted that John Nicholson, the former top commander in Afghanistan, has also said Russia is supplying weapons to the Taliban, then asked Trump if this alone warranted challenging Putin over the bounties [put on Americans still in Afghanistan].
"Trump brushed off the question, saying the U.S. similarly armed groups during Russia’s Afghanistan war: 'We did that too.'
"This has been a pattern. Asked if the Saudis should be held accountable for the butchery of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump said that 'maybe the world should be held accountable” because it’s a “very vicious place.'
And when an interviewer told Trump that Putin is 'a killer,' Trump replied: 'There are a lot of killers. You think our country is so innocent?'"
When the Russians were in Afghanistan, the US armed and empowered al Quada to kill Russians.
Trump was pointing out the US attitude to this Day is 'Do as I say, not as I do.'
Occasionally Trump did toss out a significant Inconvenient Truth the devotees in his Cult of Personality justified for overlooking his many more lies and character flaws.
One of the most significant Truths Trump said is we need to have a better relationship with Russia.
I still believe that, especially these Days building up to WWIII-Armageddon.
BLESSED are the PEACEMAKERS for THEY shall be called the CHILDREN of God!
That has nothing to do with being labelled Jewish, Christian, Muslim or Atheist.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, weak and powerless, the US loved seeing Russia in that condition enduring the dirty 90s, much worse for the Russian People than the dirty 30s in the US.
I could see in 1997, when NATO started expanding toward Russia because of American hubris and arrogance, it was a totally unnecessary, provocative and aggressive act toward Russia that would lead to the dire straits we're now in, on the cusp of WWIII/Armageddon.
Sorry to hear about how the chemo is going. Dennis. i dealt with it second hand during my Wife's ten-year war with first, Breast, and then Liver Cancer; and can definitely relate.
Have You considered exploring Traditional Chinese Medicine?
PK did, and while it didn't cure her Cancers [nor did it claim that it could or would], it significantly helped reduce the negative side effects of both chemo and radiation.
Dennis, a doctor told me while I don't have leukemia or anything close requiring treatment, it could develop according to white cells in blood tests. I don't even think about it. I trust God.
I didn't tell my 87 year old Sister of that prognosis. She'd worry herself to death.
As for the Internet, ME TOO. All my friends from my teens and 20s are dead.
Dennis, I was unaware, or perhaps somehow forgot (though I doubt this) that you were in treatment for leukemia. I really hope you can find a less debilitating treatment regime- though of course, your 'long term' health (yeah...we know....we're ultimately mortal) is most important. Anyway, I do sincerely wish you a renewal of well-being... and I'm glad your brain is staying sharp as ever.
As Glen Ford famously said quite some time ago; the Republicans may be the greater evil, but the Democrats are the more effective evil. Now I am am starting to think that by being the more effective evil, that they are, de facto, the greater evil. I am fairly positive that Trump, despite how much I despise him, at least would not have pushed for the war in Ukraine like the Biden gang has done. What is very clear now is that the primary system in the US is designed to make sure only people like Biden will ever get to the general election, leaving voters with no choice other than endless war. The fact that Trump is generating such hysteria from The Powers That Be, it seems clear that they think he would be less useful to them than another 4 years of Biden the Terrible. That is reason enough for many people to chose Trump over Biden. I will be voting for Cornel West, as the Green Party is always on the ballot in my state.
The DNC brought this situation on themselves, and all the rest of us, by sabotaging Berni Sanders 2020 campaign. They made sure that that Pete B. and Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the primary before Super Tuesday. After dropping out they endorsed Biden. I thought at the time that it sounded like a setup, and Sanders said the same in his book. Sanders would have been a better president than Biden, in my opinion. I don't know who I will vote for in 2024, but I know it won't be Biden or Trump.
I'm with you, Bill. I'm done with voting for the lesser evil. I will continue to vote for the candidate who most closely reflects my values.
Ever notice that the people who say "but Trump" are the same people who say "but Putin"?
"Honestly, the DNC would rather lose with Biden than win with a more progressive and charismatic candidate."
That says it all folks.
*West is the best*
Ron Paul today...
Weekly Update --- A New Covid ‘Variant’…Just in Time for Election Season!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCmjcCynm_k
For those of You who don't watch videos but do read transcripts, here is the print version of Mr Paul's comments: http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2023/august/28/a-new-covid-variant-just-in-time-for-election-season/ ,
Join the movement to get campaign updates and volunteer here:
https://www.cornelwest24.org/
Trump indictments are abuse of prosecution, being kind the Georgia abuse is affront to the rights of man.
That said who would vote for the petty dictator(s) that would indict their political opponent.
I will vote Trump!
Enough irrational hatred of deplorables!
Good luck trying your case, DA Fani "Fatty" Willis.
And by all means roll the TV cameras in the courtroom.
You are about to supplant the Scopes trial of 1925 as the most notoriously ridiculous piece of legal work in US history.
Mr. Trump is thriving under the tribulation of four court cases brought against him as he runs for election in 2024. Each new set of charges boosts his poll numbers.
It helps him hugely that the cases are transparently idiotic and mendacious.
If he is initially convicted in any of them, he can still run for president and be elected, even if he’s jailed — as Eugene Debs did in 1920 getting 913,693 votes running on the Socialist Party from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where he was jailed under the 1917 Espionage Act for speaking out against America’s entry into the First World War.
The Party of Chaos is running scared. Everybody knows that “Joe Biden” can’t possibly run for another term and yet the public debate is so grotesquely disabled that nobody will talk about it. Most particularly, they will not talk about who might take his place. And there is a good chance that the crimes of the Biden crime family are finally going to see the 46th POTUS impeached.
Voting third Party is not going to achieve anything. Maybe worse.
With Trump you have a very slim chance of getting what you want.
With Biden or 3rd Party - you get NOTHING - except more war and economic failure.
And the Deep State (Obama and Victoria Nuland?) continuing to run the country.
And probably end up with "Giggles" Harris as your President. Oh dear!
Today Rep. Nancy Mace says, based on receipts from SAR's (Suspicious Activity Reports) bank records, the Biden family has taken in over $50 million in illegal bribe money. Rep. Mace says Biden's are the most corrupt family in politics.
This comes as a Trump witness went to the press and a judge unsealed Hunters court documents.
Viktor Shokin, a fired Ukrainian Prosecutor, says he believes the Biden's were bribed to stop his investigation of Burisma energy.
Big breaking story - the Bidens enriched their family while selling out America. “God save the Queen, man.”
When will the US legacy media just drop the act and start calling this crap out for what it is?
Why isn't anything being done? When is the House Oversight Committee with James Comer going to have an Impeachment Inquiry, or just charge them? (Our mission statement is to ensure the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies. We provide a check and balance on the role and power of Washington - and a voice to the people it serves. hahhahaha... Pull the other one!)
The World sees it - and gets it. If it was Trump OMG!
Equal treatment under the law for everyone - yeah right!
Watch another Indictment coming in for Trump! The Democrats have no shame.
Banana Republic - the America that is going to bring democracy to the Ukraine! The US is now the laughingstock of the World.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KBtTV9LwMM
Dennis, Re.: "When will the US legacy media just drop the act and start calling this crap out for what it is? "
I realize that's a completely rhetorical question; and you know dang well the answer: NEVER! Not in the remainder of our life-times, certainly. And, because the bullshit must continue (with different faces & names) for as long as these legacy media exist, they can never really acknowledge their deceptions. The best they can ever do, when enough of the truth leaks out to enough people, is to offer a slight editorial apology about one of their reporters having gotten something wrong and they failed to properly vet it. a la Iraqi WMD, NY Times and Judith Miller.
So the question is: is the legacy media doomed for extinction Roger?
Is X and Rumble the new media for upcoming generations?
And will they be able to be censored??
Who knows, Dennis? It's a rapidly changing world. Lots of institutional upheaval to come. Some good outcomes, maybe some not so good. The only 'constant' will likely be change itself. Substack, Rumble and other platforms already present challenges - will the growing establishment pressures for censorship succeed in getting them to cave in, too? Could the Supremes turn out to have any real, consistent regard for that rapidly-disappearing freedom of speech? All is to be seen. I don't know if I'll see any real answers in my remaining lifetime.... Just change!
Doesn't Trump have SCOTUS on his side Roger?
And while we are on it - is that another thing that has to CHANGE?
Lifetime appointment to SCOTUS in a rapidly changing world.
Would that be a Constitutional Amendment?
And if Trump is found guilty, sent to jail, and wins the election from jail, then once he's inaugurated, he can pardon himself.
Do i have that right, Dennis?
I dunno - you tell me Jeff.
Do you think any of these indictments of Trump are going to be successful and he will serve jail time Jeff? I don't. They are idiotic and frivolous.
I don't think they care - as long as they keep him tied up in court until after the election - and they rig the election to win - these indictments will disappear into thin air eh!
Rachel Maddow actually said as much!
And if he wins - then the shit is going to hit the fan. Paybacks are a bitch!
Hope you are doing well today. 1st day spring here tomorrow. Beautiful sunny day. Outside my window......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0K1q9JriDE
i agree, Dennis, that the indictments are Bullshit.
But that doesn't mean that he won't be found guilty. That will depend entirely upon where the cases are tried, and who the judges and juries are.
And then of course, there is the appeal process that would have to be dealt with.
Hey, we agree...
10 Amazing Birds That Can Be Found In New Zealand Only
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2WJHQkaP8M
You know if Trump actually meant what he said about ending the Ukraine war, that would at least be a reason to vote for him. But the problem is he is a liar who is out for no one but himself, period.
I could see Trump trying to end that war driven by his own ego -- "Only I can make peace." And, if he did, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.
Trump would have had absolutely no say in the matter, Bill.
He was ~ and still is ~ as owned, operated, commanded, and controlled as Biden and everybody else in DC.
If he wasn't, he probably wouldn't have been chosen in 2016 to lead the pack. And even if he was, if he had any problem with the planned war in Ukraine, Mike Pence would have replaced him.
I'm afraid that this is 'mostly' the case. The security state establishment obviously had major issues w/ Trump. Mainly, he was too much a loose cannon when it came to foreign policy... especially unreliable against their long-term 'enemy', Russia. This was obvious when that establishment, primarily through their media-talking-heads mouthpieces, actively attacked his planned Summit meeting with Putin in Helsinki. They all constantly crowed out about him being "Putin's bitch" (ostensibly because of the later-discredited Steele dossier); and that he'd sell out his nation because of that.
That meeting, which of course followed upon earlier Trump (campaign) words about improving relations with Russia made of Trump a marked man. The NSA (or was it CIA) attache to the White House just coincidentally became a whistleblower- listening in on, then leaking Trump's effort to get Ukraine to follow up on the Biden's corrupting efforts vis a vis Burisma, Hunter Biden, etc.
The press made it out that Trump was corruptly putting financial pressure on Ukraine for his political benefit (which he likely was), and completely elided mention of the fact that Joe Biden himself had done precisely the same thing- threatening to withhold moneys promised to Ukraine- until they fired the Procurator General who was investigating Burisma. Which, of course, Ukraine's leadership promptly did; alleging that he was being fired for being too reluctant to take on corruption!!!! ;-) .
Some might think the Deep State (and I'm not afraid to use the term) went after Trump primarily because he insulted them early on, leading Sen. Schumer to his giddy comment on Trump (later shown to be predictive): "You take on the intelligence community. They have six ways to Sunday of getting back at you."
But any slights taken in Trump's dismissive remarks about the Intel agences were insignificant, I think, compared to the fact that he would always be too unreliable a party to the neocons' schemes involving the ultimate take-down of Russia as a precondition to the pivot to China and their fantasies about a final, unchallenged global hegemony.
Whether Trump really understood any of this, or would ever really be willing to put his life (and fame) on the line to challenge the Deep State's agenda in any consistent way is, in my view, doubtful. I think he maybe had some hints of what he was up against, but never had the principles, spine and/or intellect to really challenge it. And then, too, the fact that he empowered people like James Mattis and Mike Pompeo was self-defeating, in my view, if he ever really was serious about better relations with Russia and China. Of Mattis, the Wikipedia entry notes, " An opponent of proposed collaboration with China and Russia, Mattis stressed what he saw as their "threat to the American-led world order"." Pompeo's war-mongering is equally renowned.
In sum, even if Trump had a few relatively benign impulses- such as reducing tensions with Russia - he wasn't consistent enough nor equipped well enough to help realize them. So he certainly would effectively have too little, if any say in these matters. And if he did, they'd have found even quicker ways of ending his Presidency.
Great comment Roger. The million-dollar question is whether Trump learned in his first term, and is better equipped, and not afraid to challenge the barstad's when he is inevitably reelected the 47th POTUS.
I don't see anybody else with balls to do so. I don't see any candidate that has the principles, spine and/or intellect to really challenge the Deep State. And I think this time he knows the great unwashed American public has his back! Look at the turnouts he is getting! Like that of a King wherever he goes! And the huge amount of +ve coverage he gets on social media (Niggas for Trump - oh dear!) - he does not have to spend a dime on advertising. LOL
Why there is such a huge effort to derail him by those feeding at the Fed trough and know their paycheck is threatened. And by the Rhino's.
Wadda yuh think?
(Thanks for the kind words BTW - much appreciated - you don't know what you got, until it is gone eh)
Yeah... I hear Joni singing, in her then still-pristine voice: "Don't it always seem to go that...."
I wish I had reason to believe that Trump would/ could follow through with his 'better' instincts.
Very good and thought-provoking comment, Roger.
But i don't think that Trump is "mostly" controlled by the same forces that control Biden and everybody in DC or was ever there as an elected politician. i think he is totally controlled; just like Biden, etc.
What if Trump is not a liar Steve?
The mainstream media told us how we should feel about him...they lied!
The media has the power to make the innocent look guilty & the guilty to look innocent! Malcolm X. ( Remember Bush the draft dodger vs Kerry the war veteran. The media made out W the good guy. Do I have that wrong?)
Those that call Trump the names that they call him, are just reflecting on their own lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjhMYv1z0ws&t=3s
One thing Is that Trump was found guilty of sexual assault in Jean Carrol's civil suit. The fact is he raped her in a dressing room of a New York department store. It isn't a good character recommendation is it? That fact should be plenty enough reason not to vote for him.
Civil suits don't find people guilty or not guilty. Those are criminal trials. The civil suit (Manhattan) found Carrol's claim of rape "unproven" but did uphold damages for sexual assault and defamation.
Yeah, well, he raped her.
Donald Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll, but the jury did not determine that the former president had raped her.
What normal person says about being raped: ‘It was only three minutes.
Carroll was regularly seen in the media in the mid-1990s but made no mention of being sexually assaulted. You know why? Because she’s a reprehensible liar who was coached to make false allegations in Court to damage Trump.
The E. Jean Carroll case was a made-up SCAM.
One of Carroll’s attorneys was Roberta Kaplan — a Democrat Party activist who led the group Time’s Up. She left the activist group after it was revealed she was aiding former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in attempting to discredit the Democrat’s accusers.
Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn and a harsh critic of former President Trump, helped pay for the lawsuit. Hoffman gave at least $500,000 to the Mainstream Democrats super PAC, which was founded in February 2022 and has since spent more than $1 million supporting the campaigns of Democrats.
Furthermore, Federal District Judge Lewis Kaplan who oversaw the process had connections to Carroll’s other attorney, Shawn Crowley.
This was a clear civil case of "She said" vs "He said".
And the gullible jurists fell for it hook line and sinker.
The Democratic party operatives pulled it off perfectly Steve.
Dennis: Are You saying that the media made Malcom X look like an innocent person who was actually guilty? Or did they make him look like a guilty person who was actually innocent?
And which part of the MSM made Bush, the draft dodger, out as "the good guy"?
First of all, how many MSMers called Bush a "draft dodger"?
Thats a quote from Malcolm X Jeff! “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
You know this eh Jeff......in 2004 the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), a group later known as the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, questioned details of Kerry's Vietnam service record and circumstances relating to the awarding of his combat medals. Their campaign against Kerry's presidential bid received widespread publicity - to Kerry's detriment and ultimate demise. The SBVT claims later turned out to be bullshit.
Since the 2004 election, the term "swiftboating" has become a common expression for a campaign attacking opponents by questioning their credibility and patriotism in a dishonest manner. The term is used with the pejorative meaning of a smear campaign.
So, John Kerry was swift boated eh? And yes, MSMers never outright called Bush a "draft dodger", but everybody knew the truth. In the 2004 election Kerry was smeared and W escaped criticism. His indiscretions ignored by the press.
Do I have that right?
In 2004, "The Forever War" was in full bloom in Afghanistan and Iraq, Dennis. There is no way that America was going to change horses in the middle of that stream, and replace the Cheney/Bush the Lesser regime by one headed by Kerry.
See the Comment i made about Kerry being a Sacrificial Bunny in Election2004 on the Word Press version of BV at https://bracingviews.com/2023/08/29/vote-for-biden-because-trump/ for details.
And if everybody "knew the truth" about Bush being a "draft dodger" for enlisting in the Texas Air National Guard and successfully completing jet fighter bomber pilot training ~ see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_military_service_controversy for details ~ what did and does that make Trump, whose Daddy bought him a Podiatrist's diagnosis of "bone spurs" that exempted the future POTUS Maxximmiuss XLV [and XLVII Wannabe] from military service during the height of the Vietnam GoatFuck?
ps: And i did not know that that was a quote from Malcom X. If i did, i wouldn't have asked my question.
Yes!
Trump presided over the huge secret arming of Ukraine, the billion he tried to hold back was a pittance of what the "black" (classified) budget sent!
More importantly than even that, Ed, is the fact that Trump did absolutely nothing to reign in the Kyiv government ~ that Obama had installed ~ while it killed thousands and thousands of Ukrainians living in the east, right up next to Russia.
This war was being planned and initiated long before Putin's "special military operation" in February, 2022.
True, OSCE monitored the shelling in Donetsk from 2014, documenting hundreds of cease fire violations.
Two Minsk agreements were ignored by Ukraine/EU, with semi anual meetings in Normandy prolonging the shelling.
There are rumors that US donations were lined up to invade and the Russia threat to Kiev in Feb 2022 caused a rapid redeployment! US media relates no truth!
https://www.osce.org/special-monitoring-mission-to-ukraine/512629
Tx for reminding us.
You're welcome.
Permit me, Bill, to make a serious and sincere recommendation that You give thought to posting a reaction and response to Seymour Hersh’s piece about Anthony St John’s recently released book, THE HIPPIE LIEUTENANT: Vietnam “War” Memoir [cited earlier and below by Ray, and commented upon by me] at https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/the-hippie-lieutenant .
{Note: The full, free online text of St John’s book itself is available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335946330_The_Hippie_Lieutenant_Vietnam_War_Remembrances . ]
i know that i ~ and a whole bunch of BV subscribers, readers, and commenters [to saying nothing of folks at Tom Dispatch, Information Clearing House, antiwar.com, etc] ~ would love to read it.
Thank You for Your consideration on this, and, as always, have a Great day. ~ jeff
Yes, I read Sy Hersh's piece on "The Hippie LT" and was impressed by it.
Seymour Hersh has an interesting article Today giving out more for free than he usually does, sharing an excerpt from a book 'The Hippie Lieutenant: Vietnam "WAR" Remembrances' I found the whole book online to read free. This quote by Oscar Wilde is on the cover of the book,
"As long as war is looked upon as wicked, it will always have its fascination.
When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
'THE HIPPIE LIEUTENANT'
One soldier’s unsparing vision of life and combat in the Vietnam War
What a nightmare US troops went through that one night the solder describes in his book.
If freedom loving Americans were put through nights like that often, reading it gives me a new understanding why so many US Officers were offed by their own troops.
https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/the-hippie-lieutenant
Thank You, Ray, for that reference and link to Seymour Hersh’s article on THE HIPPIE LIEUTENANT.
For anyone interested, the link to a free online text of the entire book is at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335946330_The_Hippie_Lieutenant_Vietnam_War_Remembrances .
Reading Hersch’s excerpt about what those GIs went thru that nite recalled another nite in Vietnam that led, ultimately, to the SEEDING of what was to ultimately become Veterans Against War… :
VETERANS AGAINST WAR [VAW] was seeded some 56+ years ago, in a place high and close enough to the coast of Vietnam’s South China Sea to the east to be able to watch the fishing boats’ and other “non-combatant” ships’ lights at night, traversing the mystery ~ with an occasional live-fire brouhaha or two between contestant proprietors or three out there over that crystalline, stark blackness ~ of that sultry night ocean.
Specifically, it was on the morning following a nite in late summer, 1966, when, as a survivor of the carnage that results when a ground force of some 300 ± Viet Cong [unit designation unknown] ~ supported by .50 caliber machine gun and 75 mm recoilless-rocket fire, plus hand grenades and satchel charges by the bazillions ~ what happens when those VC attack and overrun a platoon of some 30± American infantry paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division, 1st Brigade, 2nd of the 327th Infantry Battalion….
More specifically, it was when, on that morning, as the Sun officiously but diffidently breached a dawn still mist-laden with the smoke and stench of cordite and of burnt and burning blood, flesh, and viscera, and the residually echoing shouts, screams, sobs, and imprecations of those attacking and defending, and of those killing and dying, or left to die or to be killed….
It was specifically on that morning, as a relatively intact survivor of that nite, helping to first find potential other survivors, and then to dis- entangle and then re-assemble body parts ~ carefully distinguishing the bad guys’ parts [typically in black pajamas] from the goods’ [typically in GI boonie-green]…
Most specifically, it was when, on that morning, just before being medevacked out of there ~ when i wept on that young Airborne Infantry Battalion Chaplain’s shoulder, and challenged him to show me ~ or anybody else on this forsaken hilltop ~ anything, anywhere at all that was a manifestation of his, the Chaplain’s, God’s “Love, Compassion, Patience, and Forgiveness,” as present and presented here, this morning, on what was operationally known in the business as “Grenade Hill”…
It was then, and there, when all that that thoroughly shaken, but doctrinally-sanctimoniously self-assured, faithfully self-righteous, and thoroughly stupid son-of-a-buzzard cherry [his father was an Airborne full-bird Colonel Chaplain, and this was his first exposure to and experience of the true nature and reality of war, just like it was mine] could do and/or say was to brace me by my shoulders, thump me on my chest, and promise me:
“… They’re all in Heaven with Jesus, my son…. All in heaven…. well….ehhhh [in response to my dumb-founded, incredulous stare]… the Americans are … or rather, uhhhh… the American Christians who have accepted Jesus as their Personal Savior are…. or, ehhhh, well, ….. THESE ones [gesturing to a line of poncho-covered, official US Government “Remains” that he had apparently just successfully processed for transition], They… [with an almost not-quite-forced pathetically beatific smile and theatrically-choked sob]… They’re all in Heaven… with Jesus… ; trust me.. and Know.. . Now, Airborne All the Way, son…. Now, get on the medevac….” And smartly saluted me [a PFC], did an even smarter about-face, and tripped over one of his own ponchos.
Had i not lost my sidearm in the chaos of the nite before, i [sometimes] like to think that i might just would and could have just shot that Sky Pilot on the spot, even as he lay face down in that squirming sordid mix of rivuleting rain, Viet Nam mud, and human blood, just to put him out of his misery and stupidity. But, on reflection [at least most of the time], i’m glad i didn't, and got medevacked out instead.
In any event, It was then and there ~ without even bothering to think to ask the Chaplain what happens to those who were, if American, neither Christian nor, if Christian, not Jesus-as-Savior-accepting [let alone the non-American Vietnamese Buddhists, Catholics, or Confucianists, or the Montagnard Animists, or the Marxist/Leninist/Hoist materially dialectic Infidels, or etc, dead and/or dying from that nite] ~ it was then and there that the VAW was seeded. And, on the medevac flite back to Tuy Hoa, and then further to the rear, ultimately to Nha Trang, was finally delivered unto an fertile ovum.
VAW first subsequently significantly thereafter manifested at a military funeral in a place called Van Nuys, California, in very early 1970, four months and a day before four young Americans were to be killed by hostile “friendly” [or was it “friendly” hostile] fire… whatever… in a place called Kent, Ohio.
It was thirty-one years later, on the streets of New Orleans within days of September 11, 2001, that VAW abruptly and somewhat surreptitiously manifested by having temporarily morphed itself into V2A2V [Vietnam Veterans Against Another Vietnam], and mounted a concerted concerned citizens’ information campaign against the pending, proposed, planned, and programmed so-called “Global” so-called “War On” so-called “Terrorism.”
Finally, it was during those heady days after 9/11 and before the USA PATRIOT Act, or the “liberation in the name of retribution” of Afghanistan, that V2A2V/ VAW was first informally described as:
"...Not an organization. At least not yet. Rather, it is an extended ad-hoc hyper-community comprised of every Child, Woman, and Man on this Planet who has ever been directly or indirectly in any way negatively Affected By War: Anywhere, Anytime, and in Any Way Whatsoever ~ and who is prepared to do whatever is possible and necessary to ensure that something like that never, ever happens again to themselves, to their families and loved ones, or their friends, colleagues, cohorts, and compeers.
"Or to anybody else, anywhere. Anybody. Anywhere. Ever."
VAW shifted base camp to Sitka, Alaska and established Sitka Platoon, in late summer of 2012.
POC is Jeff Moebus, Master Sergeant, US Army [Retired] at vaw.sitka@gmail.com.
RT just gave me a new Award among many within minutes of posting this comment. The last one they gave me for commenting was in an article July 13 and the Award simply called 'Fuck yeah '
"If we evaluate the Pope’s phrases with an open mind, we’ll see that they are an unconditional encouragement of aggressive imperialism"
It appears to me watching from CanaDa if we truly evaluate, the Ukrainian government is just too indebted to the US and brainwashed and/or money bought, to see this Ukraine WAR is the result of US AGGRESSIVE IMPERIALISM using the Common People of Ukraine, not the Ukrainian elites, as US sacrificial lambs-cannon fodder to advance US aggressive Imperialism!."
My 2nd comment may be harder for them to digest, anyone can read if they want to following the link to the article & comments below.
This was in response to this article, ' Pope Francis an ‘instrument of Russian propaganda’ – top Zelensky aide The Pontiff is promoting “aggressive imperialism” by praising Russia’s history and culture, adviser Mikhail Podoliak claims.......
https://www.rt.com/news/582073-pope-francis-ukraine-podoliak/
What RT gave me was the 'William S. Burroughs' Award. Never heard of him before but he has brainy quotes I discovered in my search.
This one I like a lot because it essentially describes the Way I've been on since I was Resurrected from the Spiritually DEAD to believe in the Living Spirit of God within my body February 1, 1975.
THAT'S the FUNDAMENTAL of the Christian Faith!
"Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer."
In other words, it takes the Patience of Job. Developing Patience in a 30 second sound byte Society is a real JOB these Days with so many exterior distractions.
"Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war."
"Hustlers of the world, there is one mark you cannot beat: the mark inside."
"This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games."
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/william-s-burroughs-quotes
I was right! this 2nd comment is so hard to digest, discussion stopped.
Every human being on planet Earth is an instrument of God for the Good or Evil. In the Old Testament, God creates Good and Evil, WAR and PEACE.
In the New Testament, the God and Father of Christ Jesus is ONLY GOOD and a PEACEMAKER-HEALER.
In the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the Last Days it's written, "And the NATIONS were angry, and your WRATH is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should give reward to your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear your name, SMALL and Great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth."
Even unbelievers can see the 'NATIONS ARE ANGRY, and Your WRATH is come' and happening in our Lifetimes. Scientists are screaming at the top of their lungs, we humans made in the image and likeness of God are destroying this Earth that sustains us over what? Money and Things.
Since this Business World operates in this Year of the Lord 2023, the World still rejects the terms of the New Testament so the Old Testament still governs. That's totally evident watching what's happening in Israel TODAY.
Nature itself is warning the WORLD, with all the floods happening all over this WORLD, the history of the corruption and violence recorded in the Old Testament that caused the Great Flood, is happening in our Lifetimes. The Old Testament says it won't end because of a great flood again, the Rainbow is the Sign of that.
Applicable to our generations than any before us, the END in the Old Testament is described this way,
"For behold, the Lord shall come with FIRE, and like a tempest,
His chariots, to render His anger with FURY, and His rebuke with flames of FIRE."
How can anyone see the Signs of Heaven if they can't see them on Earth? The spirit of those words describe the reality of NUCLEAR WAR! Total INSANITY!
As for the WRATH, in the next chapter in the Revelation after the words above, it's written, "Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell in them. (the kingdom of heaven is WITHIN you according to the Christ!) Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great WRATH, because he knows that he has but a short time.
It's TIME!
Ray, Revelations is such a terrible word salad that it could mean ANYTHING eh!
You know that early "editors" of the Bible even debated whether it should be included.
Take care
Dennis, the fact is Revelation is included in the Bible as the last Book in the Book of Books.
Citing "And the NATIONS were angry, and your WRATH is come" from Revelation 11:18 is explicit using plain language.
It's obvious to those who have eyes to see, it's happening NOW.
These words are from the last chapter of the major prophet Isaiah 66:15 in the Old Testament.
"For behold, the Lord shall come with FIRE, and like a tempest,
His chariots, to render His anger with FURY, and His rebuke with flames of FIRE."
Are you denying the FURY of a possible Nuclear Holocaust destroys by FIRE?
Then watch this destruction scene from the 1983 movie THE DAY AFTER Kansas City of all cites, was destroyed by great FIRE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VG2aJyIFrA
If the shoe or glove fits...........
You know The Kansas City Times was quoting me in 1976, “He came to town for the Republican National Convention and will stay until the election in November TO DO GOD'S BIDDING: To tell the World, from Kansas City, this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered [...] He gestured toward a gleaming church dome. “The gold dome is the symbol of BABYLON,” he said.” [...] He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a War with Russia.”
That 1976 FUTURE is NOW with the Revelation of the details GENERALLY unfolding in the spirit of the letter.
The World is waking up to see Americans may hasten “its days are numbered” part of the 1976 Vision, and waits with bated breath.
https://rayjc.com/2013/09/01/signs-of-the-times/
Naturally, most People don't want to know that!
All I know is if the "Jesus" ever did come back most of these so called "Religious" people would run for the corners like the cockroaches they are when a bright light was turned on..! The supernatural and Revelation can be interpreted in any way , place, time, events & peoples you see fit!!! How about replacing interpretive exuberance with true Humility.
Agree with both points Fireman..
That's the marvel and wonder of the Book of Revelation throughout all the Centuries and Ages since Gutenberg's Bible was made available to the MASSES.
Only Catholic Priests were able to use it in any way the Church Establishment demanded. The People couldn't question the Authority until the Bible was widely disseminated and the People who could read, could see for themselves..
That's why what I see unfolding in THIS Material World TODAY is how I characterized it reading Revelation 11:18 ; 12:12 and Isaiah 66:15-16.
Some will get it and some won't!
Not my worry or concern! No One has to account to me. Every One including you and me, will give account to God
You are free to interpret the words and visions from Revelation I cite.
I'll take your humble interpretations into consideration. Please do.
Yep The DNC strategy is old and worn out. So primary: Marianne General: Cornell
This is the kind of thing Trump says that fools people into thinking as a Billionaire, he's anti-establishment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7ErFCqCXcg
Thanks for the link Ray,
Bill O'Reilly: "Putin is a killer!
Trump: "There are a lot of killers. You think our country is so innocent?"
TRUMP 2024
THAT, Dennis, qualifies as only the third thing Trump has ever said that i totally, completely, and 100% agree with.
The other two are detailed in this post to The DAILY KOS on 16 Oct 19 at
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/17/1893044/-Trump-s-TRUTH-trumps-truth . :
Trump's TRUTH trumps "Truth"
Until last week, the only other thing President Trump has ever said that i can recall ever 100% agreeing with was back in early 2017 when he said something to the effect that "the [First American] Civil War could have been avoided"; ie, that it didn't necessarily need to happen.
His Tweet of last week, tho, may go down in history as one of his profoundest and most important ever:
“The United States has spent EIGHT TRILLION DOLLARS fighting and policing in the Middle East. Thousands of our Great Soldiers have died or been badly wounded. Millions of people have died on the other side. GOING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE.....IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY! We went to war under a false & now disproven premise, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. There were NONE!”
If the precursor of "Peace" is "Justice," and the antecedent of "Justice" is "Truth"; then Trump should get the next Nobel Prize for Peace for daring to utter the following blasphemic Facts and Truths:
1. That the United States is a serial enabler of War Profiteering. Ie, every dime of that $8 trillion has gone or is going into some American's pocket, or some American lackey's. And thus, America has become a corporate Welfare/Warfare State; and Debtor State.
2. That the United States is the biggest War Criminal of the 21st century. While not in the league with Stalin, Hitler, and Mao just yet, we are closing in on Pol Pot. And thus the "New American Century" has turned into a global horror show.
3. That the United States is a War Monger. And while no closer to winning this War than we were on 9/12, we are ever looking forward to bigger, badder, and thus better "threats" and "enemies." And more money for more tanks, ships, missiles, bomber-fighters, and other weapons systems to meet those threats and to beat those enemies, real or imagined. [See #1.]
Generally speaking ~ in this, Year III of The Age of Trump ~ the prevailing doctrine among Trumpatistas is that Trump's "truth" trumps TRUTH. That is, what he says is "true" trumps what really Is True.
This is one of those very rare instances where Trump's TRUTH [what really Is] trumps "Truth" [what those who embrace, endorse, and are invested in "The Forever War" would rather the American people not even think about].
This should be a litmus test for anybody who aspires to be the next President of the United States: "Do You agree with President Trump's Tweet? If You do and if elected, what do You intend to actually, really DO about it?"
"And if You don't agree with the hard, cold, blunt facts presented in that Tweet, why not?"
How much money have we spent? How many casualties have there been, here and there? What WAS a worse decision in the history of our country? And have those WMDs ever been found?
So Yeah: If Obama can get the Nobel Peace Prize after doing absolutely nothing but making promises and then actually, really doing absolute zero to bring peace anywhere, and in fact spread the War, then why doesn't Trump deserves it for introducing that rarest of factors in modern American [and global] political discourse and debate: Facts and Truth?
For again, as the Latin American Liberation Theologians back during the terror reign of future-NRA President Lt Col Ollie North and his assassination squads put it:
“There can and will be no Peace unless and until there is Justice. And there will and can be no Justice until and unless there is Truth.”
Trump has given us a Truth that may be like the one Mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke of on the afternoon of 9/11 when asked how many people may have been killed at the WTC: "That may be a Truth that is too terrible to bear."
For all the bleating and braying coming out of SwampLand from the Left, Right, and Muddled Middle since the Tweet, You'd think he might have hit a very raw nerve, or something.
Jeffrey G Moebus
Master Sergeant, US Army [Retired]
Veterans Against War [Sitka Platoon]
vaw.sitka@gmail.com
Thanks Jeff.
I also agree with you that if reelected TRUMP will fight a losing battle stopping war and getting the US out of NATO.
The alphabet agencies and the State Department think they are unaccountable and report to no one. You agree?
Trumps dumbest move surely was not firing Victoria "Fuck the EU" Nuland in his first term.
BTW, did you see Tuckers interview with the Hungarian PM Orbán today?
Orbán addressed the accusations by the Biden administration and the media that he is a “fascist” by arguing it is “very dangerous” for himself and his country to be hated by the most powerful nation in the world.
“It’s dangerous, may I say. So we should not neglect the importance of that fact when the United States administration does not like you, or considers you as an enemy or a having a backtrack, it’s dangerous in international politics,” the Prime Minister said.
Sorry, Dennis. But where did i say that "if re-elected, Trump will fight a losing battle stopping war and getting out of NATO"?
If re-elected, Trump will do whatever his owners/operators/commanders/ controllers/script writers/handlers tell him to do. Just like he did when he was in the Oval Office. Just like Biden is doing now and, if he gets re-elected, will continue to do.
And the alphabet agencies and State Department are very accountable to and report to the same people that the President does,
And Trump's dumbest move ~ at least from the perspective of the Ukrainians and Russians getting killed, maimed, widowed and widowered, orphaned or rendered childless, and, among Ukrainians, jobless, homeless, and hopeless ~ his dumbest move was in not reigning in the US-installed government in Kyiv as it murdered thousands of Eastern Ukrainians. That's one of the major reasons why that War is going on over there right now.
But from the perspective of the folks in the MICC, etc, that was one of the smartest things he did and could do.
If only because if he hadn't done that, he would have been replaced by someone who would have.
And i don't watch Tucker or anybody's podcasts, Dennis. i'll read transcripts, if they are available, and then only very rarely watch the video.
In any event, what Orban said has been true for a long, long time; like since the end of World War II. The only thing that has changed significantly and recently is that now a major threat to America is not just "communists," but "fascists," as well.
President Obama said "The White House is the most luxurious PRISON on Earth!"
The Wardens set the rules, not the prisoner!
For those here on BV who may have missed Trump's proclamation about "America, the Innocent," here's how the July 29, 2020 WASHINGTON POST put it:
"Trump’s excuses reveal a twisted worldview. Swan noted that John Nicholson, the former top commander in Afghanistan, has also said Russia is supplying weapons to the Taliban, then asked Trump if this alone warranted challenging Putin over the bounties [put on Americans still in Afghanistan].
"Trump brushed off the question, saying the U.S. similarly armed groups during Russia’s Afghanistan war: 'We did that too.'
"This has been a pattern. Asked if the Saudis should be held accountable for the butchery of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump said that 'maybe the world should be held accountable” because it’s a “very vicious place.'
And when an interviewer told Trump that Putin is 'a killer,' Trump replied: 'There are a lot of killers. You think our country is so innocent?'"
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/29/three-big-takeaways-trumps-awful-new-admission-about-putin/ .
Trump was right and telling the Truth!
When the Russians were in Afghanistan, the US armed and empowered al Quada to kill Russians.
Trump was pointing out the US attitude to this Day is 'Do as I say, not as I do.'
Occasionally Trump did toss out a significant Inconvenient Truth the devotees in his Cult of Personality justified for overlooking his many more lies and character flaws.
One of the most significant Truths Trump said is we need to have a better relationship with Russia.
I still believe that, especially these Days building up to WWIII-Armageddon.
BLESSED are the PEACEMAKERS for THEY shall be called the CHILDREN of God!
That has nothing to do with being labelled Jewish, Christian, Muslim or Atheist.
German DW Documentary part 2, 'Trump and Putin.'
Once he become President, what Trump did vis a vis Putin was not in the same spirit as he talked on the campaign trail. Typical!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=300xF8SxWyM
Trump caused Tucker Carlson to see the TRUTH https://www.youtube.com/shorts/t0Y0nB2Z7_s
Hope you are doing OK Ray my man.
Dennis
I'm well, Dennis as I hope you are.
Tucker Carlson was late seeing the Truth.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, weak and powerless, the US loved seeing Russia in that condition enduring the dirty 90s, much worse for the Russian People than the dirty 30s in the US.
I could see in 1997, when NATO started expanding toward Russia because of American hubris and arrogance, it was a totally unnecessary, provocative and aggressive act toward Russia that would lead to the dire straits we're now in, on the cusp of WWIII/Armageddon.
http://rayjc.com/2011/02/23/the-declaration/
Ray, I requested an appointment with the Oncologist at the hospital on Friday. The Myelogenous Leukemia cancer drugs they have me on make me too sick.
Researching the internet, I found alternative drugs they say might(!) result in less debilitating side effects.
Keeping my fingers crossed.
I am not due for my next MRI and blood count tests until 1st November.
By the Grace of God hanging in here. At least my brain does not seem to be crapping out. I dunno what I would do without the internet.
Take care my friend.
Sorry to hear about how the chemo is going. Dennis. i dealt with it second hand during my Wife's ten-year war with first, Breast, and then Liver Cancer; and can definitely relate.
Have You considered exploring Traditional Chinese Medicine?
PK did, and while it didn't cure her Cancers [nor did it claim that it could or would], it significantly helped reduce the negative side effects of both chemo and radiation.
Dennis, a doctor told me while I don't have leukemia or anything close requiring treatment, it could develop according to white cells in blood tests. I don't even think about it. I trust God.
I didn't tell my 87 year old Sister of that prognosis. She'd worry herself to death.
As for the Internet, ME TOO. All my friends from my teens and 20s are dead.
Dennis, I was unaware, or perhaps somehow forgot (though I doubt this) that you were in treatment for leukemia. I really hope you can find a less debilitating treatment regime- though of course, your 'long term' health (yeah...we know....we're ultimately mortal) is most important. Anyway, I do sincerely wish you a renewal of well-being... and I'm glad your brain is staying sharp as ever.
Dennis, take care my friend.