Monday, December 16, 2019

Left & Right Wednesday, December 4, 2019



Jim Wilfong again sits in the left chair. He's a former Maine legislator and worked in Washington for three administrations in the SBA (Small Business Administration). We open with a question from the producer asking if we'd like to see the White House participate in hearings by the House Judiciary Committee on impeachment. Jim would, citing the House's constitutional power of oversight. I wouldn't, citing rules made by the Democrat Chairmen of two committees rigged against the president and his supporters and denying him due process rights. Jim contends the impeachment process is more political than judicial given that there's no jury of peers, and "Politics ain't beanbag," as Harry Truman said. That leads to a discussion of Harry Truman, his association with Irish gangsters out of Kansas City, among other things. Nonetheless, we both agree that Truman was a man of honor who respected rules, and that trust is the currency in virtually all dealings short of war. I contend that even Irish gangsters had rules which they strictly enforced. Then we discuss the erosion of trust, especially between citizens and government, and that the impeachment process is exacerbating that erosion. Jim says our situation in that light is analogous to the 1850s just prior to our civil war. I cite the red/blue map of the USA as being red in the interior and blue on the urban coasts. In a smaller way, more urban southern Maine is blue while the rest of Maine voted for Trump. Jim picks up on that. He believes the divide coincides with an economic divide, that poor, rural people tend to vote red and also join the military. The producer's second question of us asks if Trump was being childish when he abruptly left the NATO meeting after a video of other leaders ridiculing him surfaced. Neither Jim nor I saw the video or were aware of any impetuosity on the part of Trump. We discussed NATO and the changing nature of war today. Though NATO was formed to counteract a WWII-type invasion of Western Europe by the Soviet Union, few military experts expect any such wars now. Instead, they expect things like proxy wars such as we're seeing in the Middle East. Ideally, we both agree, use of diplomacy is best when backed up by threat of, or use of, economic sanctions as America is doing now with Russia, N. Korea, Iran, and others. It's most effective when backed up by the plausible threat of, and use of military force. In that context I cited a new book about Jeffrey Epstein which purports that he was an Israeli agent, among other things, and that he had a handler in Mossad. It also claimed that he was closely associated with Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. I recall a visit to Israel a decade ago and seeing evidence everywhere of that nation being in near-constant state of war. Citizens are hyper-vigilant and many walk around with AR-15 slung over their shoulders, including what looked like 15-year-old girls. They probably were older, but they looked very young. When French President Macron claimed NATO was brain-dead, we speculated about what he may have meant. Jim guesses that he thinks NATO is stuck in a Cold War strategy and needs to change. Jim ponders motivations for US involvement in Middle Eastern proxy wars and suggests it involves control of strategic resources, which puts us in competition with China. I point to a former NATO official who is now a retired admiral in the US and speculates that Russia should be wary of China's designs on Siberia. We touch on with several other issues but end with using the next show to examine changing definitions of left and right, the title of our show. What issues define left and right? We will research the question.

11 comments:

Brian said...

Trump is not getting "due process"? It seems you don't understand the Constitution and the impeachment process. All you understand is what the talking head Trumpies are parroting.

CaptDMO said...

"When French President Macron claimed NATO was brain-dead..." I remembered that Msr. Macron is...French."
"What issues define left and right?" How about what spot on the honor "spectrum"
that has made the distinction throughout history, I mean, certain folks CALL themselves whatever they want, and change the school dictionaries "according to usage" all the time.
"Then we discuss the erosion of trust, especially between citizens and government..."
Simply couldn't happen without a disingenuous "press", and an inexplicable
audience for entertainment figures concerning grown-up table issues.
But that's ANOTHER issue best addressed psycho-historians.
A "new book", concerning Mr. Epstein? Really?
Any reference to his "little black book" of clients?

Stan said...

Epstein and maxwell worked for Israel. They nailed bill with lewinsky and one can only imagine what they have on the rest of them. Ah Israel, our special friend. What an ally! But I'm guessing any mention of their ties to Israel will be met with accusations of anti Semite, or some such bs. God forbid the truth. I wonder what you guys have to say about the recent redacted files concerning the so called "dancing Israelis" on 9/11. Or urban moving systems.

We have a president telling members of the country they don't love a foreign nation ( an aprtheid state at that) enough. Stunning. We have a president who just signed an executive order banning anti Israeli movements on college campuses. In America folks! Care to explain or justify support of this?

As far as Middle East policy goes it isn't rocket science. We are taking out Israels enemies for them. this was announced years ago. PNACs plan for a new century. We are seeing it live. But don't talk about it you anti Semite!

"Years ago there was a plan,A Clean Break: Project for the New American Century (PNAC), to wreck the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians and to re-mold the Middle East. It first involved destroying Iraq or in the discredited words of Paul Wolfowitz, “The road to peace in the Middle East goes through Baghdad.”

Destroying Syria was to be next. And then Iran. In 2006, columnist Taki Theodoracopulos warned in TheAmerican Conservative of the “Clean Break” plan “to aggressively remake the strategic environments of Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. As they say in boxing circles, three down, two to go.” Core promoters of the PNAC plan signed an open letter to then President Clinton calling for the removal of Saddam Hussein. They were Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, R. James Woolsey, Elliot Abrams, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Zoellick and John Bolton, all solid members of the Neoconservative project."

Funny isis never attacks Israel.
Hey let's keep making Israel great again!!! Yeah for apartheid! Please Israel take more of my hard earned tax money so you can continue to slaughter and steal and lie. Thanks, you guys are the best ally!

Brian said...

Crimes against humanity performed by Israel is countered by a hand scrawled message from Trump saying "You are great" like from a 2nd grade love letter. For real!

Stan said...

America needs a serious, open, discussion regarding Israel and her influence on this country's govt and its people. We need a discussion free from mindless and baseless accusations ( "anti Semite" eg) based on the facts and the numbers. If only we had a real press corps anymore instead of paid propagandists, on both sides. But we don't. Not even close. When a nation starts passing laws stifling free speech at the behest of another nation things are already too far gone. When a sitting president publicly calls for loyalty to another nation things are already beyomd absurd. When you actually cannot criticize another nation for fear of being ostracized you no longer are free.

"The Israel lobby’s buying off of nearly every senior politician in the United States, facilitated by our system of legalized bribery, is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. The lobby’s campaign of vicious character assassination, smearing and blacklisting against those who defend Palestinian rights—including the Jewish historian Norman Finkelstein and university students, many of them Jewish, in organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine—is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. Twenty-four state governments’ passage of Israel lobby-backed legislation requiring their workers and contractors, under threat of dismissal, to sign a pro-Israel oath and promise not to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. The shameless decision in 2014 by all 100 U.S. senators, including Bernie Sanders, to pass a Soviet-style plebiscite proposed by the Israel lobby to affirm Israel’s “right to defend itself” during the 51 days it bombed and shelled homes, water treatment plants, power stations, hospitals and U.N. schools in Gaza, killing 2,251 Palestinians, including 551 children, is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. The U.S. refusal, including in the United Nations and other international bodies, to criticize Israel’s apartheid state and routine violation of international law is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. The well-funded campaigns by the Israel lobby, which works closely with Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, to discredit any American politician or academic who even slightly deviates from Israeli policy is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. (One infamous example of a U.S. politician kowtowing was the unconstitutional invitation by then-House Speaker John Boehner to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress in 2015 to denounce President Barack Obama’s Iranian nuclear agreement.) The massive interference in our internal affairs by Israel and the Israel lobby, far exceeding that of any other country, including Russia or China, is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact."

Mary said...

Could you please explain your support of Zionism in regards to the constitution, international law, and Catholicism.
Thanks

Tom McLaughlin said...

Mary, would you have me write up another column just for you? To answer your question, I'd have to write an essay with thousands of words. You're welcome to make your case here if you like, but I have other work to do. If you go to tommclaughlin.blogspot.com and type "Israel" in the blog's search engine, you'll come up with many of my past columns on the subject.

Mary said...

Just a short statement concerning legality, constitutional justification, and Christian values will suffice. Thanks!

Jack said...

You could try and counter all the points laid out in stans last post. Counter some actual facts. It seems to me doing so would be a disaster though as it blows wide open the bs all this zio centric propaganda is based on. We have a sitting president professing his admiration for an alrthid state! Speaking of, maybe you could justify your Christian support of aprtheid. That would be interesting. Seems to me Jesus isn't a fan of aprtheid. But what do I know. Or, address these facts pasted below.

NEW YORK — For nearly two decades, one of the most overlooked and little known arrests made in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks was that of the so-called “High Fivers,” or the “Dancing Israelis.” However, new information released by the FBI on May 7 has brought fresh scrutiny to the possibility that the “Dancing Israelis,” at least two of whom were known Mossad operatives, had prior knowledge of the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Shortly after 8:46 a.m. on the day of the attacks, just minutes after the first plane struck the World Trade Center, five men — later revealed to be Israeli nationals — had positioned themselves in the parking lot of the Doric Apartment Complex in Union City, New Jersey, where they were seen taking pictures and filming the attacks while also celebrating the destruction of the towers and “high fiving” each other. At least one eyewitness interviewed by the FBI had seen the Israelis’ van in the parking lot as early as 8:00 a.m. that day, more than 40 minutes prior to the attack. The story received coverage in U.S. mainstream media at the time but has since been largely forgotten.

The men — Sivan Kurzberg, Paul Kurzberg, Oded Ellner, Yaron Shimuel and Omar Marmari — were subsequently apprehended by law enforcement and claimed to be Israeli tourists on a “working holiday” in the United States where they were employed by a moving company, Urban Moving Systems. Upon his arrest, Sivan Kurzberg told the arresting officer, “We are Israeli; we are not your problem. Your problems are our problems, The Palestinians are the problem.”

For years, the official story has been that these individuals, while they had engaged in “immature” behavior by celebrating and being “visibly happy” in their documenting of the attacks, had no prior knowledge of the attack. However, newly released FBI copies of the photos taken by the five Israelis strongly suggest that these individuals had prior knowledge of the attacks on the World Trade Center. The copies of the photos were obtained via a FOIA request made by a private citizen.
According to a former high-ranking American intelligence official who spoke to the Jewish Daily Forward in 2002, the FBI concluded in its investigation that the five Israelis arrested “were conducting a Mossad surveillance mission and that their employer, Urban Moving Systems of Weehawken, NJ, served as a front.” At least two of the men arrested were determined to have direct links to the Mossad after their names appeared in a CIA-FBI database of foreign intelligence operatives. According to one of their lawyers, one of the men, Paul Kurzberg, had previously worked for the Mossad in another country prior to arriving in the United States. Another of those arrested, Oded Ellner, subsequently stated on Israeli TV that the five Israelis had been in New York at the time “to document the event,” meaning the attack on the World Trade Center.


Good luck with your special friend Israel. How are zios gonna spin this one?

Tedx said...

Wow, some deafening silence. No big deal that Israel/Mossad had foreknowledge of the attacks and were seen celebrating. Phtoto evidence plus the cops who busted the van have been interviewed.

Ignorance isn't an excuse.

David said...

This isn't rocket science. The US media blackouts the truth, however, that certinaly is no excuse for supporting such horror and evil. We subsidize this terror people. Think about that this Xmas. How your "political" views and affiliations can be used to justify the absolute worst human behavior.
"Israeli Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Palestinian Children

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)

In Occupied Palestine, defenseless young children are considered a threat to heavily armed Israeli soldiers – authorized to shoot them with impunity.

Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) documented the worst abuses against Palestinian children in 2017.

They include Israeli military and police brutality, highlighted by the killing of 15 Palestinian children last year, including 9-year-old Mohammad Abu Hdaf, succumbing to serious injuries from an IDF drone strike during summer 2014 Israeli naked aggression on Gaza.

DCIP said the following:

“Israeli forces routinely employ the use of excessive force and intentional lethal force in situations not justified by international norms, which in some incidents may amount to extrajudicial or willful killings,” adding:

“International law requires that intentional lethal force be used only when absolutely unavoidable where there is a threat to life or serious injury.”

“Where individuals allegedly carry out a criminal act, they should be apprehended in accordance with international law and afforded due process of law.”

Not in Occupied Palestine. In 2017, DCI-P documented dozens of Palestinian children killed or injured by IDF live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets, and other so-called crowd control methods alone.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported nearly 1,000 Palestinian children injured by Israel security forces last year – shocking crimes ignored by the world community and Western media scoundrels, especially US ones.

In January 2018, a three-year-old Palestinian infant miraculously survived an IDF live fire wound to the head, inflicted during a West Bank training exercise.

When ongoing, families are ordered to leave their communities. Unexploded ordnance left behind when exercises are concluded at times cause injuries or deaths to children unaware of the danger these munitions pose.

Last December, an Israeli soldier shot Ahed Tamimi’s 15-year-old brother Mohammad in the face at close range with a rubber-coated steel bullet. Embedded in his skull, it caused severe bleeding in his brain.

A portion of his skull was surgically removed to save him, two operations required. Reconstructive surgery is needed.

Israel despicably lied claiming the injury was caused by falling off his bike. Eye witnesses debunked the Big Lie. Before surgery, a CT scan showed the bullet lodged in his skull.

Israel repeatedly uses excessive force against defenseless Palestinians, young children as vulnerable as adults.

According to retired Israeli General Zvika Fogel, any Palestinian (adult, youth or child, male or female) “who gets close to the (Gaza border) fence, anyone who could be a future threat to the border of the State of Israel and its residents, should bear a price for that violation,” adding:

A “child or anyone else (can) hide an explosive device or check if there are any dead zones…or cut the fence” to enter Israel. The penalty for trying is “death.” "
As a Christian and an American I am appalled and devastated that we let this happen....with impunity.