A Gun Crazy President Faces Reality!

Posted in On Guns and Violence in America with tags on June 14, 2017 by playthell

Trump in a pugnacious mood firing up the crowd

“Ye Shall Reap What You Sow”

During his presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump promised the “deplorable” gun nuts that supported him en mass that he would remove all controls on gun possession in America! Well, now that a group of Republican Congressmen got shot up on a baseball field this morning, Trump’s Birthday, perhaps the twittering twit and verbose airhead – who shoots from lip without a thought – will take notice of the fact that NOBODY is safe from gun violence in a nation awash in guns!!!

If I were a Christian I would argue that it is a revelation of biblical prophecy that it was Republican Congressmen who came under fire by a gunman wielding a military assault rifle by a disgruntled citizen outraged by the Grand Obstructionist Party’s pro-rich policies. We know what motivated him because we have now see pictures of the gunman – a 66 year old unemployed white male from Booreville Illinois – on television in a Pro-Bernie Sanders campaign carrying sign calling for increased taxation of the American plutocracy.

The Shooter!

JamesT Hodgekinson: On the Front Lines of the American Class War

It is a miracle that only one Congressman – Steve Scalese from gun crazy Louisiana – was hit among the six casualties, and none was killed. If the gunman had been a better shot, or attacked from closer range, this could easily have ended up like the Orlando Massacre!  The weapon had a scope, and if the Capitol police had not responded so quickly the shooter could have picked them off like sitting ducks on a pond. Two of the people shot were capitol cops; who were badly outgunned going up against a military assault rifle with their little six shooters!  One of the Congressmen had served as a battle surgeon who served in Iraq, and he says that the way the bullets were raining down on them he felt as if he was back in Iraq.

The grand irony in this is that only Republicans were on the field, because they were practicing for an upcoming bi-partisan soft ball game featuring the Republicans vs the Democrats, and it is the Republicans that refuse to allow any kind of gun control legislation to pass.  These Republican gun nuts have been removed restrictions on people who are potential terrorists on the FBI no-fly list, and people who have been treated for mental illness. President Barack Obama pleaded with them to pass gun legislation, but they refused to even restore the ban on military assault weapons.

In view of these facts it is almost amusing to hear Republican Congressmen now whining about getting shot up; when they have been unmoved by the daily carnage perpetrated by gunman all across America that has resulted in the slaughter of thousands of innocents including children.  Hence it is amusing to listen to these hypocritical Republican assholes talk agonizingly about how they never thought something like this could happen to them.  Say What?  It happens multiple times every day: It is the chance we all take just going about the daily business of living in America

The most odious aspect of the discussion now going on in the aftermath of the shooting – and there is an embarrassment of riches amongst the banal blather flooding the airwaves – is all the talk about how special protections should be provided to Congressmen! And coming from Republicans it is shameless duplicity.  I don’t think we taxpayers should spend a dollar to protect special protection to them!  They should be exposed to the same dangers that they expose the rest of us to with their amoral folly.  For it is their shameless genuflection before the Gun Lobby and firearms manufactures that make billions selling these instruments of death!

They are deserving of our most loathsome contempt, as does the cowardly reports who now broadcast their self-righteous whining and crocodile tears without pointing out their responsibility for this tragic state of affairs, where all Americans are forced to live under the terror of gun wielding criminals and lunatics. Most appalling are their prayers, which in the absence of concrete action to remove all of these guns from the streets is blasphemy!

The empty wooden statement of Donald Trump on the shooting is beneath contempt in light of his cheerleading for the gun totin mob during the election, when he swore to block any attempt to control access to guns by Congress. And when you consider how his reckless rhetoric poisoned the political atmosphere by revving up the worse passions among the American people, heightening the probability of internecine violence, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Trump is a man with blood on his hands.

Yet, amoral bunko artist that he is, Dastardly Donnie put on his false face feigning sorrow and, speaking for the Diplomatic Room in the White House, he told the nation:

“We may have our differences but we do well in times like these in times like these that everyone who serves in our nation’s capital is here because above all they love our country. We can all agree that we are blessed to be Americans that our children deserve to grow up in a nation of safety and peace and that we are strongest when we are unified.”

Trump’s speech was a paragon of pious perfunctory prattle; meaningless empty blather devoid of any mention of the need to control access to firearms and reduce the number of guns on the street.  It was an embarrassment from a man who has vowed to use the power of his office to get even more guns in the hands of gun nuts! Alas, the pronouncements of Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the Republican controlled House of Representatives, from whence any gun control legislation must originate, was no better.

“We are united in our shock…. We are united in our anguish. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. My colleagues, there are many memories from this day we will want to forget, and many images we will not want to see again. But there is one image in particular that this House should keep. And that is a photo I saw of our Democratic colleagues gathered in prayer this morning after hearing the news.

 You know, every day, we come here to test and challenge each other. We feel so deeply about the things we fight for and believe in. At times, our emotions can get the best of us. We are all imperfect. But we do not shed our humanity when we enter this chamber. For all the noise and fury, we are one family. These were our brothers and sisters in the line of fire. These were our brothers and sisters who ran into danger and saved countless lives.”

Only Terry McCauliff, the Democratic Governor of Virginia,  used this occasion to speak out ahainst America’s insane gun laws!  Alas, while the Republicans are quite adept at pious preachment, they are missing in action when it comes to passing legislation that could rescue the American people from this catastrophe of gun violence that presently engulfs this nation.  Again, there was no mention of any legislation to address this plague, just more meaningless prattle.

Choosing to play upon the emotions of Americans instead of offering a plan of action, much is being made of the fact that one Republican Congressman had his young son with him this morning.  Hence we are subjected to much expression of shock, accompanied by sentimental outrage about the ten year old “having to witness gun violence.” Well I say welcome to the realities of life for millions of Americans, whom his father continues to place in danger by supporting laws that make it easy for anybody to buy guns!

I think this the worse kind of emotional exploitation by people who are a huge and integral part of the problem.  If Republican Congressmen want to feel safe from gun violence, then let them REPEAL THE SECOND ADMEDMENT!!!!!  That is the ONLY SOLUTION to the gun plague that takes more lives on the streets of America than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan!!!

Even as I write the news has reached my ears that six more people have been shot on the other side of this vast nation in San Francisco, four have died! Already I can hear the tepid cries of pusillanimous poot-butt pooty-pop politicians bloviating about how this is not the time to discuss gun control! That’s what these spineless charlatans always say, as they offer up phony prayers in contemptable blasphemous incantations. BUT I SAY NOW IS THE TIME!!!!! IF NOT NOW WHEN?

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NOTE: In the essay linked below, I vigorously refute their sophistic arguments in favor of the SECOND ADMENDMENT: including its historical origins and reasons for maintaining it! See: A GUN CRAZY NATION at
https://commentariesonthetimes.me/…/…/14/a-gun-crazy-nation/

NOTE: This is a call to action and the case for repeal. it is ammunition for the debate: READ IT CAREFULLY, FOR IT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!!!!!

Governor McCauliff’s Statement
 http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/06/14/virginia-governor-terry-mcauliffe-calls-gun-control-after-steve-scalise-shooting
Video From the Shooting Scene
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/14/politics/alexandria-virginia-shooting/index.html
An Eye Witness Report by Republican Congressman From the Scene
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/14/politics/alexandria-virginia-shooting/index.html

Mr. Cameleon and the Arabs

Posted in On Donald Trump, On Foreign Affairs, On War and Peace in the Mid East!, Trump and the Arabs with tags , on May 28, 2017 by playthell

Chillin with the King

Whatever Happened to Radical Islamic Terrorism?

Listening to the accolades heaped upon Donald Trump’s attempt at Middle-East diplomacy, I am reminded of the apocryphal tale of the talking dog.  It didn’t matter what the dog was saying; the fact that the dog was talking at all was cause for praises.  This story could serve as a metaphor or allegory for the low standard set for Trump’s performance as president.  So long as he does not utter some incoherent nonsense, make an outrageous claim, or tell a blatant lie, his public performances are declared a success and thoughtful Americas can comfortably exhale.

Yet even when the bar is set that low, a candid assessment of the President’s performance results reveals a mediocre performance at best and   a soulless, transparent charade at worse; with the President reading speeches prepared for him by others and trying to look deep.  What I saw on the podium was a clueless con-man trying to sell an impossible dream of peace and mutual friendship while choosing sides in the contentious disputes that have shaped the political realities of the contemporary Middle-East – a region rife with wars and rumors of war based on ancient disputes.

Trump’s speech was preceded by comments from King Salman, the Saudi Sovereign, which put forth their vision of the contemporary situation in the region, and appended a wish list for the US President to ponder.  The 50 heads of Muslim nations which supplied the raison d’etre for Trump’s visit, sat stiff as stuffed owls as the respectfully listened to the King while anxiously waiting to hear what Mighty Whitey – leader of the richest and most powerful military nation on earth – had to offer to their collective defense.  For the sad truth is that all of them have a Fatwa – a religious death warrant – issued by Caliph Ibrahim, the Supreme Ruler of the ISIS Caliphate.  Hence they were all dead men living on borrowed time, because their assassins will be seen as instruments of the will of Allah by the Jihadists who view them as apostates, for which the penalty is death!

Under Caliph Ibrahin….the Spawn of Saudi Whabbism

This is the Fate of Apostates!

King Salman, the absolute ruler of Saudi Arabia, presented a fawning speech that often sounded like panegyric to Trump and cast America in the role of Savior of the Saudi’s – indeed the entire Sunni Muslim world – from their enemies, whether Sunni Jihadists or the Persian Shiites of Iran.

“Our meeting with His Excellency President of the United States of America, a country enjoying strong bonds of friendship and relationship with many of our countries, does reflect His Excellency’s keenness on enhancing cooperation and coordinating stances in various fields… our 55 Arab and Islamic countries attending the summit today with a population exceeding 1.5 billion, are an important partner in fighting the forces of extremism and terrorism and achieving world peace, security and stability. His Excellency holds many hopes and aspirations for cooperation with the Arab and Muslim world… As we extend our thanks to and appreciation of His Excellency for his response to attend and participate in this summit, we reaffirm our happiness and gratitude for His Excellency’s choice of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and this summit as His Excellency’s first trip and external participation since assuming office.”

As the Saudi King went on to address the issue of Islamic extremism and the scourge of terrorism, which was the central issue of the summit conference, his remarks took on a surreal quality that bore little resemblance to the facts. He declared: “We have to stand united to fight the forces of evil and extremism whatever their source, in compliance with the orders of our true Islamic religion. Islam was and will remain the religion of mercy, tolerance and coexistence..” 

To listen to the mutterings of the King, one would never suspect that Whabbism, the most extreme interpretation of Islam, was born in Saudi Arabia and spread throughout the Islamic world through the financing of Mosques and Islamic education by the Saudi government.  Hence it is no accident that Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda, and the majority of the terrorists who launched the devastating 9/11 attack on the US were Saudi Citizens.  Yet, according to the Saudi Monarch: “The Iranian regime spearheads the global terrorism since Khomeini revolution until today. Since 300 years ago, we, in this country, did not witness terrorism or extremism until Khomeini revolution emerged in 1979.”

The fact is that the use of terrorism and mass murder as a means of spreading Islam goes back to the time of the Prophet.  The Jihad, or “holy war,” was the dominant means by which Islam was spread in the middle ages.  And the modern Jihad was hatched in Egypt during the mid-20th century through the theology of the Muslim Brotherhood and was relocated in Saudi Arabia after the Egyptian nationalist leader and military strongman Abdel Gamal Nasser hung the principal theologian of the movement Sayeed Guthb in 1966, and his brother Muhammad Guthb fled to Saudi Arabia, where he was provided the means to establish an Islamic Studies department in King Faisal University.  One of his most enthusiastic students was Osama Bin Ladan!

Hence the Saudi King’s diatribe is a lie, what he accuses Iran of is true Saudi Arabia.  There have been no terrorist attacks sponsored by Iran against the US, or any other Western country.  The Islamist terror attacks on France, Belgium, Amsterdam, and Britain, which has just experience a devastating attack by a terrorist affiliated with ISIS, were all carried out by Sunnis whose radical theology grows out of the fanatical fundamentalism propagated by the Saudis.  King Salman’s speech was self-serving propaganda, disinformation, blatant lies designed to stroke the misguided and none too bright American President, who is clueless on these questions and does not appear eager to learn because it confirms his hostile view of Iran. It is a view of Iran that has gained wide currency among Americans despite the fact that all the terrorist groups that have launched attacks in western nations are Sunnis.

Trumps long and rambling speech that followed the Kings Tirade – a strange mixture of hyperbole, fantasy, historical amnesia, denial of present realities and outright lies – Trump extended the theme of Iran as the focus of evil and source of terrorism in the Middle-East.

“Starving terrorists of their territory, their funding, and the false allure of their craven ideology, will be the basis for defeating them.  But no discussion of stamping out this threat would be complete without mentioning the government that gives terrorists all three—safe harbor, financial backing, and the social standing needed for recruitment. It is a regime that is responsible for so much instability in the region. I am speaking of course of Iran.

From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms, and trains terrorists, militias, and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region. For decades, Iran has fueled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror. It is a government that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing the destruction of Israel, death to America, and ruin for many leaders and nations in this room”.

This Condemnation of Iran, which has just held a democratic election to choose its leader, was preceded by abundant praise for the Kleptocratic Islamic Fascist Saudi Regime which is chosen by a medieval process of monarchal sucession:

“I want to thank King Salman for his extraordinary words, and the magnificent Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for hosting today’s summit. I am honored to be received by such gracious hosts. I have always heard about the splendor of your country and the kindness of your citizens, but words do not do justice to the grandeur of this remarkable place and the incredible hospitality you have shown us from the moment we arrived.

You also hosted me in the treasured home of King Abdulaziz, the founder of the Kingdom who united your great people. Working alongside another beloved leader — American President Franklin Roosevelt — King Abdulaziz began the enduring partnership between our two countries. King Salman: your father would be so proud to see that you are continuing his legacy — and just as he opened the first chapter in our partnership, today we begin a new chapter that will bring lasting benefits to our citizens.”

Nowhere in Trump’s speech does he mention the fact that all protest against the Saudi government is banned by law, and carries severe penalties ranging from mutilations to death!  The Saudi’s claim that this prohibition of dissent, which is a complete denial of democratic expression, is based on Sharia Law.  Hence the Saudi government cite chapter 4, verse 83 of the Koran to legitimize their police state tactics.  The text reads “And when it comes to them a concern for security or fear they divulge it, but if they had referred [their concern] to the Apostle and to those in a position of authority among them, those who are able to draw the right conclusion would have known [what to do]; and had it not been for the grace and mercy of God upon you, you would have followed Satan, except for a few” 

This passage was cited in a declaration of March 10, 2011 – three months after the commencement of the “Arab Spring” uprisings that swept several Arab tyrants from power – issued by the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, giving religious sanction to the Saudi government to suppress all “deviant and partisan connections and anything that leads to disunity and fragmentation of the nation.”  Which in effect means all protest against government policy.  Since unlike Catholicism or the Anglican Church there is no Pope or Arch Bishop, the “Senior Scholars” are the final arbiters of what Koranic text says. Just as the US Constitution means whatever the majority of the nine sitting Justices at the time says it means.

This is why the Saudi’s rejoiced at Trump’s statement:

“I stand before you as a representative of the American People, to deliver a message of friendship and hope. That is why I chose to make my first foreign visit a trip to the heart of the Muslim world, to the nation that serves as custodian of the two holiest sites in the Islamic Faith. In my inaugural address to the American People, I pledged to strengthen America’s oldest friendships, and to build new partnerships in pursuit of peace. I also promised that America will not seek to impose our way of life on others, but to outstretch our hands in the spirit of cooperation and trust….And so this historic and unprecedented gathering of leaders—unique in the history of nations—is a symbol to the world of our shared resolve and our mutual respect.”

In other words, you can do whatever you want to your citizens and not to worry about American interference. Before Trump could even return to American soil, the results of this new-found license from the “Insane Clown President,” as crack US journalist Matt Taibbi titled his recent book about Trump, the Sunni tyrant king Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah of Bahrain, unleashed a violent attack on some Shiite demonstrators who were peacefully protesting the arrest of Imam Sheikh Isa Qassim, the spiritual leader of the Shiite majority for performing religious duties.  Thus far there are reports that several protestors were injured in the attack and at least two have died!  The Iranian government has issue a statement blaming Trump for the murders.  That Trump envisions this as the path to peace in the Middle-East is another sign of his cluelessness; the Editor of Foreign Policy magazine calls Trump’s shameless embrace of these autocrats “un-American.”

Hence it is easy to see why these Arab tyrants prefer Trump to President Obama, who persistently criticized their record on human rights and insisted that the extension of democratic rights to their citizens was essential to peace and prosperity in the region.  Whereas Obama emphasized the Golden Rule, Trump stressed the rule of gold:

“Now, there is even more blessed news I am pleased to share with you. My meetings with King Salman, the Crown Prince, and the Deputy Crown Prince, have been filled with great warmth, good will, and tremendous cooperation. Yesterday, we signed historic agreements with the Kingdom that will invest almost $400 billion in our two countries and create many thousands of jobs in America and Saudi Arabia.”

Upon hearing of the US-Saudi deal, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, sneeringly tweeted “Iran—fresh from real elections—attacked by @POTUS in that bastion of democracy & moderation. Foreign Policy or simply milking KSA of $480B?”

Trump also stressed a willingness to supply Saudi Arabia, and by implication the other tyrants in the room, with state of the art American weaponry:

“This landmark agreement includes the announcement of a $110 billion Saudi-funded defense purchase — and we will be sure to help our Saudi friends to get a good deal from our great American defense companies. This agreement will help the Saudi military to take a greater role in security operations. We have also started discussions with many of the countries present today on strengthening partnerships, and forming new ones, to advance security and stability across the Middle East and beyond.  Later today, we will make history again with the opening of a new Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology — located right here, in this central part of the Islamic World. This groundbreaking new center represents a clear declaration that Muslim-majority countries must take the lead in combating radicalization, and I want to express our gratitude to King Salman for this strong demonstration of leadership.”

There was much frippery about the will of God in Trump’s speech, which I am certain the conferees took with a grain of salt from this ungodly man. “Will we be indifferent in the presence of evil? Will we protect our citizens from its violent ideology? Will we let its venom spread through our societies? Will we let it destroy the most holy sites on earth?”  And judging from their blasé body language, Trump’s recounting of Islam’s glorious past in grand gluttonous phrases fared no better:

?The Middle East is rich with natural beauty, vibrant cultures, and massive amounts of historic treasures…Saudi Arabia is home to the holiest sites in one of the world’s great faiths. Each year millions of Muslims come from around the world to Saudi Arabia to take part in the Hajj. In addition to ancient wonders, this country is also home to modern ones—including soaring achievements in architecture.  Egypt was a thriving center of learning and achievement thousands of years before other parts of the world. The wonders of Giza, Luxor and Alexandria are proud monuments to that ancient heritage.  All over the world, people dream of walking through the ruins of Petra in Jordan. Iraq was the cradle of civilization and is a land of natural beauty. And the United Arab Emirates has reached incredible heights with glass and steel, and turned earth and water into spectacular works of art.”

In a room full of murderous Sunni tyrants with a death warrant on their heads, Trump could have quit after he promised American might would aid them in their fight against Shitte Iran; supply American arms; and join them in the fight against their fellow Sunni Jihadist. And most important is what Trump didn’t say.

No mention of the vicious oppression of women and gay people.  Not a hint that the Jihadist movement is fueled by a lack of democracy and the squandering of their countries wealth by avaricious rulers whose actions are unchecked by a free press. Independent secular courts, or popular dissent.  And not one reference to the phrase “Radical Islam,” for which Barack Obama was severely criticized by Trump and his Republican comrades!  It was the most dramatic about face I have yet witnessed in an American President on foreign soil.  Hence where many in the US press are waxing eloquent about the success of Trump’s parley with the Arabs, I am reminded of the old radio detective “Mr. Chameleon.”  If I had to characterize the gathering I’d sum it up as a meeting between the Joker and the thieves.

Dead Men Standing!
Trump Closing Ranks with the Sunni Tyrants

Anyone who wishes to take the time to read my essays on the Invasion of Iraq – see “The Prophetic Commentary on Iraq,” The Arab Spring, “Sleeping in the Same Bed Dreaming Different Dreams, or the 12 essays on the Occupy Wall Street Movement, especially “Will Wall Street Rebels End up Like Jack the Bear” – will recognize that they now read like PROPHECY!  I point this out not to merely boast about my prescient powers, but to offer a good reason why you should take the prediction I am offering now seriously.

I am certain that when future historian examines the results of the policies Trump announced on this trip, they will conclude that its main affect was to help solidify and grow the Jihadist movement.  I say this because – as Professoe Luther P. Gerlach pointed out in his seminal study of mass movements “People,Power, Change” – the most powerful stimulus to a mass transformative movement for change is a real and clearly identifiable enemy who opposes their goals.  Hence I predict that the open embrace of Trump – whom many on the “Arab Street” view as the great Satan – by the tyrannical Arab regimes, will prove to be a colossal blunder that could exceed that of the Bush invasion of Iraq!

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Witness Trump’s Speech at the Saudi Summit
https://youtu.be/BoYDP2cWH-A
Playthell G. Benjamin
Harlem, New York
May 28, 2017
 

 

 

 

Arabian Knights

Posted in Barack's Second Inaugaration, On Donald Trump, On Foreign Affairs, On War and Peace in the Mid East!, Trump and the Arabs with tags , on May 21, 2017 by playthell

Donnie Dancing with the Sheiks

 Building Mid-East Policy on Sinking Desert Sands

The Donald’s moves in the Saudi Sword dance were as awkward and out of step as his evolving Middle East policy. Which is a lot like building your castle on sinking sands.  If the paramount objective of US policy in the region is to promote peace, Trump could not have made a worse beginning.  Alas, the House of Saud, whose 3000 princes control everything and own most of the vast wealth created from oil revenues is one of the world’s most corrupt, anti-democratic regimes.  And unless you happen to believe that “Allah” bequeathed his “gift” of oil to the Royal Family the Saudi regime is also a kleptocracy.

It is a regime with a medieval conception of the relation of the people to the monarchy and the official religion, and it is enforced with the iron fist of the police state – all things that Englishmen in America overthrew in a war with their mother country Great Britain in the 18th century that created the United States!   And while Donald Trump genuflects before the Arabian King, his regime is widely despised by many of the King’s subjects, as well as militant young Muslims throughout the Middle East.  I believe that this Newfound relationship with the House of Saud will prove more costly to the US than it is worth.

For instance, Trump was practically giddy about signing a deal with the corrupt Saudi regime for 110 billion dollars and he says the Saudis have pledged to spend another 300 billion dollars in the US.  And while the US quietly sold even more weapons to the Saudi’s under the eight years of the Obama Administration – due to the long standing US-Saudi alliance – Trump’s slavish genflection before the King of a regime that is hated by both the secular progressive forces and the Islamic Jihadist among the Sunnis, while expressing hostile intent toward Iran, the giant Shiite nation who share a border with the Saudis, is a prescription for armed conflict throughout the mid-east region and we have yet to see what he will promise the Israelis.

Donnie Genuflecting Before the Tyranical Saudi King

Selling American Integrity for Petro dollars

After signing the arms deal Trump turned to the camera and announced that it would create “JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!   However that is problematic since the Saudi’s want many of these Americans weapons to be manufactured in Arabia. Yet it is a good bet that showering arms on the reactionary Saudi’s with no restrictions on their use could ignite a wider war than we have yet seen in the Middle-East.  And it will surely involve direct engagement of US forces in a war that could pit the US against Iran and all the anti-Saudi forces in the Sunni world, including anti-royalists’ insurgents within Saudi Arabia!   In this scenario, the 400 billion dollars that the Saudi’s have pledged to spend in the US will prove to be chump change when we subject it to a cost/benefit analysis.

We need only consider the fact that the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the war of choice in Iraq, is projected to cost a total of four trillion dollars by a Noble Prize winning economist at Columbia University.  To put this enormous sum in perspective, it is twice the amount of money that the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated it would have cost to completely rebuild the entire infrastructure of the US: roads, bridges, power grid, create a high-speed train system, etc.  And it is four times the paltry trillion dollars that Trump has request for infrastructure development. Trump has asked for.  Alas, the war that could result from the US arming the backward House of Saud with advanced US weaponry will make the conflict spawned by the invasion of Iraq look like a dress rehearsal for the real thing.

On the eve of America’s invasion of Iraq I wrote a 3,000 word critical essay titled “The Iraq Attack: Bushes March of Folly,” warning against the aggressive action and pointing out that it was based on a bogus analysis of the role Iraq supposedly played in the 9/11 attack on US soil.  That essay now reads like prophecy and can be read on this cite under the title: “The Prophetic Commentary on Iraq” at https://commentariesonthetimes.me/2009/08/07/the-prophetic-commentary-on-iraq/.

My careful analysis of the real reason for the Iraq invasion, How the Iraq War Was spawned in a Think Tank,” can also be read on this cite at https://commentariesonthetimes.me/2011/05/06/the-iraq-war-was-spawned-in-a-think-tank/.  Furthermore, my essays on the Arab Spring, which were written in real time as events unfolded, are also posted on this site under different titles, are full of accurate predictions.  Hence, I have a solid and easily verifiable record of analysis and prediction of developing conflicts Middle East.

I have cited my record of successful prediction in the turbulent Mid-East not to brag, but to point out why you should pay attention to what I am saying on the present issue.  And my paramount point here is to say that the direction American foreign policy is taking under the puppet President Donald Trump should be question not applauded, and anxiety not jubilation is the proper response to it.  After all, despite the attempt at an instant makeover, Trump is a clueless buffoon with no independent understanding of the critical issues in the Middle-East.  In truth, he is an embarrassing ignoramus and pugnacious anti-muslim bigot who just a few weeks ago was advocating killing he families of terrorists – which would have included several prominent Saudi families such as the Bin Ladins, who are very close to the Royal Families.

So what is the reason why Trump is being embraced by the House of Saud?  Well, Trump is interested in making big arms deals with the Saudi’s without any moral restraints on how or where they are deployed, and he is foolishness enough to wade into an 1800 year old conflict between the Sunnis and Shiites based on an obscure theological dispute. President Barack Obama, a brilliant and highly moral man with an in-depth understanding of the complex problems of the Middle-East, who had promised those of us who voted for him to withdraw American forces from the region, did impose moral constraints on US dealings with the Saudi’s and pursued a more balanced policy in the region to the extent that vital American interests would allow.

The difference between President Obama’s knowledge of the critical contemporary issues and their historical evolution, and Trump’s ignorance of them, explains why Trump’s first trip to the Middle East was to Saudi Arabia and President Obama went to Egypt. For a better understanding of this see: “Of All the Places in the Muslim World, Why Egypt” at https://commentariesonthetimes.me/2009/09/17/of-all-the-places-in-the-muslim-world/. Just as Bush’s failure to understand the issues around the historical reasons why Osama bin Ladin and Saddam Hussein could not possibly be allies, caused him to buy a rationale for the disastrous invasion of Iraq.  And Trump’s ignorance of the history and present conflicts in the Middle East threatens to lead us into an even wider war into the region.

A gaggle of TV talking heads are making much of how well Trump and the Saudi Royals are hitting it off.  But there is no mystery here, it can be summed up in the old addage: “Birds of a feather flock together.”  The House of Trump and the House of Saud have a lot in common.  Both revere unchecked power and a disdain for a free press, independnt courts, and protest from the people.

Both Trump and the Saudi Royals worship personal wealth, dwell in vulgar opulence without a care for the impoverished multitudes beyond self-serving lip service, and both view women as basically the property of men.  And both want to keep America on a petroleum based economy.  In view of these realities, it is wise to view “The Donald’s” diplomacy with a jaundiced eye: skepticism not jubliation should guide our conclusions.

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The Vulgar Opulence of The House of Saud

 

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How the King’s Subjects Live

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The House of Trump

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Trump’s Voters

She believes Donald Trump is her Savior

But other Poor Folks know better!

Detroit: The Decaying Post Industrial City

Urban Warriors: The Boggs Institute:

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Watch Donnie Do the Sword Dance with Saudi Shieks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f35TUFmCtYY
 Watch Trump Sing the 110 Billion Arms Deal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0Vu6djvsPk
Playthell G. Benjamin
Harlem, New York
May 21, 2017

PUTIN’S PUSSY???

Posted in On Donald Trump with tags , , , , on May 11, 2017 by playthell

Trump Recieves Putin’s Messenger in the Oval Office

The Decision of Donald Trump, “The Insane Clown President” of the USA – as the crack reporter Matt Taibbi properly labeled him in his book by that name – has once again demonstrated what a clueless, megalo-maniacal, fool that he is!  The day after firing FBI Director James Comey – following his request to the Justice Department for more resources to investigate whether Trump’s campaign operatives colluded with the Russians to subvert our presidential elections in order to defeat Hillary Clinton – he invites Putin’s surrogates into the Oval Ofice.

And to add insult to injury the insane clown bars the American press while allowing entry to the Russian Press.  It is such an absurd move, a chance to embarrass the hated journalist of his own country which he misses no opportunity to iusult.  Hence the photographs that you see here were shot by RUSSIANS!!!!

This kind of outrageous behavior bespeaks a degree of hubris that is hard to match in the history of American politics, and is an invitation to disaster for his presidency. This is because this outrageous decision by Trump has already set tongues to wagging about whether “The Donald” is actually a Putin surrogate. Inquiring minds want to know!

The Russian Invaders

Russians Invade the Oval Office at Trump’s Invitation

The question at the top of EVERYBODY’S list is what is the source of Putin’s power over Trump? Rumor has it that the Russian intelligence agencies have photograph’s of “The Donald” recieving Golden showers from Russian whores during his visit to Russia when staging a beauty peagent! If these rumors are true – and he was a WILD AND CRAZY GUY back in the day – then that would explain why he behaves like Putin’s Pussy. And as tawdry as this explanation is, it beats the orther explanation for his actions toward Russia: He is the Kremlin’s candidate.

Alas, just as Shakespeare warned in Hamlet: “There’s a rottening in Denmark,” something smells to high heaven in Trumps Washington. If Trump’s behavior regarding Russia is innocent, then he is the dumbest MOFO in America!!!! Which leaves no doubt that he is far too stupid to be our President. When stupidity is combineD with arrogance and egomania we have a very toxic cocktail indeed….and if left unchecked it could bring the deth of our democracy.
An autocrat moulded in the panelled offices of corporate plutocrats, where CEO’s are dictators, Trump is unsuited by personality and experience to deal with checks on his power. Hence, instead of recognizing that his ass is in a ditch and he ought to stop digging, he continues dig the ditch even deeper….it is becoming so deep he might not be able to climb out and his increasingly moribund presidency might well be buried there.

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The saddest thing about this whole Trump/Russian affair is that there is no foreign power in the world that the US needs to maintain friendly relations with more than Russia.  In fact, I have written that the sole identifible virtue in Trump’s political posture is that he has refused to be stampeded into adopting and promoting the traditional anti-Russian attitude that is a persistent theme in American politics; an attitude that is approaching a collective hysteria.  In fact, the only thing that I can think of that would be worse than Trump’s fawning attitude toward Putin’s Russia, is if he held a belligerent attitude towards them.

For those who read my commentaries on a regular basis, it is old news that I believe our traditional hostility toward the Russians is both unecissary and extremely dangerous due to the vast nuclear arsenals both nation’s posesses.  I is also no secret that I believe American expansion into Eastern Europe via NATO, and the recruiting of former members of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact into this western military alliance is a form of clear American aggression against Russia. Hence I welcomed Trump’s vocal scepticism about the role of NATO, his empathy for Putin’s position, and his dismissal of the bogus, dangerous claim of “American Exceptionalism.”

But all of that was before the Russians hacked our election to help Trump win.  Although I do not think this is the worse transgression in the history of international relations – Americans have done far worse on numerous occasions – and should be treated as a reality check, a warning to up our game, I do care a lot about the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency and the extent to which the Russians helped bring it about.

I am also appalled and shocked by the indifference right-wing so-called “patriots” have show toward this Russian transgression.  It is clear that they have placed the narrow ideological concerns of the Grand Obstructionist Party over the fate of our nation.  To my mind their behavior  borders on treason!  And Trump’s firing of the FBI Director who was leading the investigation into the extent of collusion between Republican operatives and Russian intelligence forces in tryng to rig our presidential elections only increases the stench of treason in the air.

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Playthell G.Benjamin
Harlem, New York
May, 1 2017

Dangerous Liaisons…

Posted in Guest Commentators, On Donald Trump with tags , on May 11, 2017 by playthell

Ministers of God Genuflect before Mammon

 Faith Sells Out

I’m an Anglican Priest in Canada, watching in disbelief as the Trump administration trashes every high principle which we know that most people of the U.S. hold dear. With my brother and his extended family living in Massachusetts, New York, Florida and California, what happens south of the border matters to me. Personal reasons aside, however, it’s also tragic to watch entire groups of people dismissed… poor people, sick people, people from foreign countries, people who are ‘different’, people from ‘other’ religions…you know – all those people Jesus welcomed in a heartbeat.

Which brings me to my incentive for writing; the Executive Order on Religious Liberty that Trump just signed. It’s no surprise to me that millions of people look at organized religion and find it wanting. What are we to make of this noise about a religious ‘liberty’ that in essence works to secure Trump’s hold on the Bible Belt and ensures that he may receive cash endorsements from religious organizations? Trump commented, “This financial threat against the faith community is over. No one should be censoring sermons or targeting pastors.”  The named financial threat is a reference to the ever-present question of the relationship between church and state, and whether churches should be taxed.

What many people don’t realize is that most government structures in both Canada and the United States are keenly aware that, should the churches be taxed, it could well compromise their ability to pick up the slack in caring for the hungry, the mentally ill and the homeless – the poor souls who fall through the cracks by the thousands in the governments’ inadequate systems of care. According to recent research, it’s estimated that for every single dollar a church spends in ministry programs, the city benefits to an amount of $4.77 in services provided to the marginalized. (See link below to The Halo Project, a Canadian research study based on a similar study in the U.S.)  Hence churches understand well that the government simply cannot afford to tax them.

The financial issue is more about Trump easing the way for religious organizations to back him with big bucks from the Bible Belt Bubble. As for “…censoring sermons or targeting pastors” as a priest, I can promise you that the church and clergy already have freedom of speech. We’ve all heard the gossip that in February a version of the Executive Order was drafted which contained provisions to protect religious leaders who speak out against same-sex marriage, transgender issues or pre-marital sex. So of course, this softened final version has disappointed religious conservatives. But trust me, they’ve been energetically preaching against these people from the pulpit for years, and they’ll continue to do so.

I was dismayed to learn from the Rev. William J. Barber II’s lucid response to Trump’s first National Day of Prayer, which Barber called a “public spectacle” (see link below)  that the Billy Graham Evangelical Association donated ten million dollars to the Trump campaign. For years, this organization has been a light in the darkness – a witness of compassion and integrity. Billy remained scandal-free, kept his hands off the money and told the world of God’s endless love for decades, without trashing or excluding anyone. But the witness of the Billy Graham Association has been compromised. We all loved Billy for his humility and grace, and we’re surprised that his compassion and wisdom seem to have eluded his son, William Franklin Graham III, the current CEO. His donation to, and affiliation with the Trump Administration are rich with irony.

If any of the Christians on the grass roots level of these organizations behaved even remotely like Trump has, they would be kicked out, “read out of the assembly,” so fast that their heads would be spinning. I was raised in conservative fundamentalism and I know from brutal experience how it works. They might be technically ‘forgiven’ but they’d be alienated from community from that moment on, and yet they embrace Trump’s lies, racism and misogyny with all their hearts. What’s going on, here? How do they justify this disconnect between what they preach and who they’re getting into bed with?

In my tender years in Fundamentalism, I was taught that politics had no place in the pulpit. Politics stayed out there in the secular world, and we stayed pious and sheltered, in the spiritual world. We didn’t have to worry about injustice or war or caring for the environment or racism, because the ‘good’ people would all escape to heaven and that would be our bliss. But it’s not only Evangelical Christians who struggle with the relationship between politics and faith. As an Anglican Priest (Episcopalian in the U.S.) I’ve been attacked for preaching about social issues and for reminding people of their Christian mandate to speak up for justice. I’ve been told, “I don’t come to church to hear about politics or the problems of the world. I come here to escape them.”

For years, this has been the position of the religious right generally, until the likes of Pat Robertson realized the clout the Bible Belt had in elections, and the power they could seek through close ties with conservative political allies. And now we have Franklin Graham climbing into bed with a President whose lies are documented on film, even as he lies about the lies we can all see so clearly.  There’s a huge problem in going to church to escape the problems of the world, but there’s also a huge problem in climbing into bed with politicians. If we truly want to follow Jesus, we’re going to have to follow him into passionate engagement with the problems of the world.

Televangelist Pat Robertson
He Married the Evangelical Movement to the Republican Right
Billy Graham Passing the Bible to Son Franklin

But in his political wheelings and dealings he dropped it!

If we truly want to follow Jesus, there’s no escaping the fact that we must follow him into being a voice for justice; crying out against the corruption and racism and imperialism and self-serving structures we find in both the church and the state. Belonging to the church or to a political party does not negate our responsibility to be a critical voice. But to align with the Trump administration, casually dismissing the horrifying decisions and behaviors that rob people of their dignity and their place in the world in exchange for support for the religious right’s desire to exclude and control is, quite simply, not Christ-like. Jesus didn’t seek to build a fortress of power that would keep others out. Jesus called a lie a lie. Jesus insisted that everyone belongs. Everyone. Jesus said that the bottom line in what God wants from us, is for us to love others as we love ourselves…not to decide who’s in and who’s out.

This Executive Order is not for the church. It serves only Trump. It gives the churches essentially nothing they didn’t already have, but it works as a giant flag-waving opportunity for Trump to ensure the continued donations and votes of the religious right, vaguely affirming their fierce intentions to control women’s rights and to exclude and vilify the LGBTQ community. This Executive Order doesn’t serve the church, and the religious leaders gathering around it should be ashamed of themselves.

If Christians really want to model ourselves after Jesus, we should be walking alongside the suffering, rather than deciding who we should exclude. We should be praising the government when it establishes policies that care for the marginalized and the vulnerable, and calling them out when they don’t.  But the fundamentalists, it seems, have missed that faithful stance, having gone from one extreme to the other…from non-involvement to completely selling out. The religious right has become an angry force for exclusion. Where’s that divine love? Where’s that marvelous grace about which they sing every Sunday?

They Claim to be Brides of Christ….

So why Are they cavorting with Lucifer?

It’s alarming to the point of shock that they choose to support a leader whose words, actions and policies fly in the face of the One they claim to follow. Perhaps it’s time for all people of faith to join the modern day prophets like Rev. William Barber, and put a little more effort into reclaiming the essence of faith and resisting this environment that would make God into a bully for the sake of its own agenda. Perhaps it’s time for faith leaders to remind the world that following Jesus is simply about embracing love.

Rev. Susanne

09 May 2017

                                                                                                                                                                                     Link to The Halo Project                                                                                                         https://www.haloproject.ca/phase-1-toronto

Link to The Rev. William J. Barber II on Trump’s First National Day of Prayer https://thinkprogress.org/rev-barber-religious-liberty-discrimination-27331473e4f4

 

The Great Pretender Commits a Sacrilege!

Posted in On Donald Trump, Playthell on politics, Witnessing Against False Preachers on May 7, 2017 by playthell
 
A Souless Fraud

Somebody is Gonna Burn in Hell Over This Blasphemy

The world has just witnessed a shameless exhibition of hypocrisy, one that rises to the level of blasphemy, conducted by the shameless charlatan who by a grievous accident of history, made possibe by the triumph of the untutored white mob weilding ballots, now occupies the Oval Office of the American presidency.  Donald J. Trump – a serial philanderer, compulsive liar, vainglorious braggart, and avaricious money grubber – as ungodly a man as has ever ascended to this omnipotent office; which has sheltered thieves, slaveholders and mass murderers such as his idol Andrew Jackson – called a press conference on the White House lawn to announce his latest Executive Order, “Defending Religious Liberty.”

The monstrous dimensions of this sacrilegous fraud is clear to anyone who pays attention to American politics. Trump’s Executive Order is a transparent payoff to the religious right.  Especially the millions of fanatical white Evangelicals, like the legendary Evangelist Billy Graham’s son, who contributed grand theft dough to Trump’s campaign that played a vital role in his election to the presidency.

With no visible qualifications for this critically important and demanding job, the Christian Right supported this garish, empty, charlatan because  he promised to allow them to do whatever they wanted: The Constitution be damned.  Trump’s pandering to right wing Christians, smashing down the longstanding wall between church and state, will almost certainly be challenged in the federal courts, but given the composition of the Court anything can happen. Alas, the language of the Constitution is filled with ambiguity; which allows the sitting Supreme Court Justices to interpret its provisions as they damned well please. That’s why there is a no-holds barred fight over who sits on that august bench.

For instance, the First Amendment, which speaks directly to this question, is far from clear in its view of the government’s role regarding the practice of religion.  While it is virtually unanimous among historians that a principal motivation for the insertion of the Establishment Clause was to prevent the creation of a state sponsored church such as The Church of England – from whose tyranny some colonist had fled – other implications for the relationship of government to religious practice remains unclear.  And a simple reading of the text does not immediately resolve this uncertainty.  It states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

If one is an “originalist,” such as the late Justice Antonin Scalia and his sidekick on the high court Uncle C. Thomas – and perhaps Justice Gorcish, who was recently appointed to the High Court by Trump – the text must be taken at face value; regardless of the fact that this is an 18th century document and the drafters of the Constitution were imperfect men filled with contradictions – like perpetually spouting the virtues of freedom while maintaining a system of slavery that represents the apex of tyranny.  Hence, while it has become conventional wisdom that the First Amendment proscribes the role of the Church in the affairs of state, the text of the First Amendment can be interpreted as solely limiting the power of the state over the affairs of the church.    

Consider how two of the “Founding fathers” viewed the “Establishment Clause” of the First Amendment, which addresses the religious question.  Dr. Benjamin Rush, a brillant polymath who was a leader of the American Enlightenment, signed the Declaration of Independence, led the Pennsylvania delegation that ratified the Federal Constitution, vigorously opposed slavery, supported the rights of women and promoted scientific research, also envisioned a prominent role for government in promoting religion.  A founder of the Pennsylvania Bible Society, Rush proposed that the US government provide a copy of the Bible for every American citizen at public expense, and the words “The Son of Man Came into the World, Not To Destroy Men’s Lives, But To Save Them,“ should be emblazoned above all court houses and government buildings.

In his role as a leading advocate for the establishment of a public-school system, Dr. Rush proposed that the bible be used as a basic text in the curriculum.  He once observed: “I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the Union of the United States in its form and adoption is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament” and he would argue in 1798, eleven years after the drafting of the Constitution: “The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”

Hence those who argue against the intrusion of religion into the political sphere on constitutional grounds will find no support from this Founding Father.  However, reading the views of Thomas Jefferson, arguably the most thoughtful of the Founders and no religious zealot like Dr. Rush, in fact he was publicly accuse of being an “infidel” by his political enemies – does not offer much comfort either. In a letter to The Danbury Baptist, penned on New Year’s Day 1802, Jefferson said the following:

“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”

It is instructive that it was in this letter – which some historians have dismissed as political pandering because he consulted local elected officials before crafting it – that Jefferson’s oft quoted statement regarding a “wall of separation between church and state’ originates.  And it is usually referenced by those who argue that churches should play no partisan role in politics – a sentiment that is enshrined in the tax laws which give exemptions to religious institutions, particularly the much referenced “Johnson Act.”   However, when Jefferson’s statement is viewed in context one could credibly argue that it was intended to prevent the government from interfering in the affairs of the church rather than the other way around.

However ambiguous the text of the Constitution is on this question, there remains the Johnson Act – which is a statute that cannot be overturned by an Executive Order – and Trump’s open display of favoritism for Christianity and Judaism to a lesser degree over say, Islam, Buddhism and Orisha Voodoo which is expressly forbidden in the “Free Expression” clause of the First Amendment.  All of these factors mitigate against the legality of Trumps Executive Order “protecting religious freedom.’

However, being the pompous fool and opportunistic charlatan that he has revealed himself to be…none of these fine points of law mean a thing to “The Donald.”  This raises ethical questions about the integrity and credibility of the religious leaders who assembled in the White House Rose Garden, and enthusiastically applauded the transparently ungodly Trump in a Lips to posterior posture, even as he was violating the most basic charge of Jesus Christ to ‘heal the sick and feed the hungry,” to tend to the “least among us.  For as you do unto to them so have ye done unto me!”

The whole thing was the foulest blasphemy!  To venerate a self-confessed sinner, who claims to be a Christian yet says he has never felt the need to ask the lord for forgiveness, is a shame before man and a sin in the sight of God!  Nothing was sacred to these preachers with forked tongues. They called upon scripture, and even defamed the good name of Dr. Martin Luther King, associating the legacy of this modern day prophet, “drum major for justice,” and Apostle of Peace with their shameless genuflection before an obscene money changer and minister of mammon.  To associate God’s holy word and the memory of Dr. King with  this profane  scoundrel, whose evil deeds even offends a godless wretch like me, and Jesus Christ drove from the temple with violence, is brazen hypocrisy!

It is a betrayal of the commandments of the lord in order to appease the princes and powers that rule this modern-day Babylon!   I say to them beware: Check yourself before you wreck yourself.  For the Bible instructs us that no person can serve two masters; we must either serve God or the Devil. And I can think of no better personification of Lucifer in these dawning years of the 21st century, a time when one man has the ability to set the world on fire, than “The Donald.”   Therefore, if the beliefs about heaven and hell claimed by those impious preachers who gathered in the Rose Garden and sang hosannas to Trump prove to be true: SOMEBODY IS GONNA BURN IN HELL OVER THIS UNHOLY UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE!

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Click on Link to witness the Ceremony in Hypocrisy

 

Playthell G. Benjamin
Harlem, New York
May 5, 2017

Mooks with Nukes

Posted in On Donald Trump, On Nuclear War with tags , , , on April 20, 2017 by playthell

Trump and National Security Advisor HR McMaster

They Lost the Fleet at Sea? Be Afraid…Be Very Afraid!

No matter how they try to spin it the alarming fact is that the Commander-In-Chief lost track of a nuclear armed carrier fleet on the high seas!  It is a blunder unprecedented in US history, and the attempt to pass it off as Trump being “unpredictable” is unconvincing and does not pass the smell test.  Yet even if it were true, that would-be madness since it created the most dangerous possibility of a nuclear exchange since the Cuban missile crisis – an event that nearly destroyed our civilization!

Accompanied by the reckless rhetoric of Donald Trump bragging about the firepower of his magnificent Armada, while threatening an assault on North Korea after bombing Afghanistan and Syria, the North Korean Ambassador to the UN announced that any attack on his nation by the US would be met with the full force of their military…including nukes!  Listening to the news this morning I find an attempt to play down the magnitude of this blunder, and it is disconcerting.

There are vital lessons to be learned here and it would behoove us to learn them quickly.  The most important of these lessons is that the US Armed Forces, which has the power to wipe out the world, has a chain of command which is in disarray because the Commander-In-Chief is an incompetent ignoramus, and mistakes can be made in the deployment of nuclear weapons; therefore an accidental nuclear war is quite possible. I have repeatedly warned of this grim possibility in several essays.

In listening to people discuss the possibility of nuclear war I find that they are in deep denial.  Unable to contemplate the horror of it all, they take refuge in the assumption that no leader of a nuclear armed country would dare order an attack on another nuclear armed country because of the certain consequences to themselves.  In military strategy this is known as the MAD doctrine i.e. “Mutual Assured Destruction.”

It is this policy that has thus far prevented a war between nuclear powers, although we came within one wrong decision by Kennedy or Krushev from blwing up the world during the Cubam Missile Crisis of 1962.  Yet we should take no comfort in the fact that the MAD doctrine has worked in the past, for new dangers have arisen that threaten to make this policy obsolete.

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The main danger lay in the development of the Internet and the advent of cyber-warfare.  This makes threats, and loose talk about the possible use of nukes in a first strike, a destabilizing factor that was not a part of the security regime in the past.  And thus it ushers in new scenarios as to how an accidental nuclear war could start, and I have never believed a war between nuclear powers would ensue other than by accident.   But when you have the President of the USA, who commands the world’s most potent nuclear arsenal, saying things like he won’t take “the nuclear option off the table” at the same time that he is telling the world that he wants to be “unpredictable” the preconditions for catastrophe are laid.

Nukes

If we don’t destroy these doomsday weapons…they will destroy us!

There are over a million attempts a day to hack into the US strategic command computers, from whence the orders to launch a nuclear missile would be given, and I am certain there are many attempts to penetrate the Russian system.  It is reasonable to assume that the experience hackers are gaining from their attempts to penetrate these highly-sophisticated systems will help equip them to invade less complex systems such as that of North Korea.  For a fanatical Muslim Jihadist equally pissed off at the “Great Satan” America, and the Godless Communist in Korea and China, provoking a nuclear exchange between them could be viewed as a carrying out the will of Allah.    It is beyond hubris and into the realm of delusion to believe that no one will ever succeed in crashing these nuclear command systems.

Of course, given the cluelessness of Trump, an accidental nuclear exchange could occur without the help of Jihadist.  The ignorance of the man who controls the Doomsday US nuclear arsenal is shocking.  In a recent interview in which Trump was asked about the possibility of a thermo-nuclear war with Korea, he sounded dangerously confused – as if he had refused to read his copious briefing notebooks and slept throug the briefing sessions with the National Security Advisor.  An alarm went off in my head as I listened to Trump recount how American Presidents from Clinton to Obama had been “played” by “the gentleman” from Pyongyang, and assured us that things would be different now that the wily Korean would be dealing with him!

The problem with his analysis is that Trump was actually talking about three different people: Kim ill Sung, Kim Jung Ill and Kim Jong Un. Verbose, intellectually lazy ignoramus that he is, Trump had no clue that the present leader of north Korea, Kim Jong UN – was a toddler when Clinton did his deal with Kim ill Sung.  Alas, a day hardly passes that Donnie Dimwit does not do something that embarrasses the nation.

Yet that is not the worst of it: the combination of ignorance, arrogance and pugnacousness that are the pillars of his personality makes him dangerous to America and the world.  Alas, when Trump’s mindless impulsive use of America’s vast military power is spurred on by an ignorant electorate who want to “make America great again,” applauded by a jingoistic press and encouraged by old warmongers in the Senate such as Lindsay Graham and John McCain – two reckless old farts with one foot in the grave who appear to want to take everybody else with them – we should be afraid…very afraid

VIDEOS!
Click on link to see the lost carrier fleet at sea
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/04/18/the-trump-admin-said-this-aircraft-carrier-was-on-her-way-to-north-korea-it-was-sailing-the-other-way.html
Watch Rober S. McNamara’s Extrodinary Witness
For a first hand account of how nuclear war almost destroyed civilization
Click on Link and Watch Robert S. Macnamara’s film: “The Fog of War.”
https://freedocumentaries.org/documentary/the-fog-of-war#watch-film

Note:  Robert S. McNamara, the subject of this film, was the Secretary of Defense during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the US and Russia almost destroyed the world in a nuclear war.  His testimony about how close both side came to launching their nuclear missiles is the most chilling revelation you will ever hear. And his reflections on war and weapons of mass destruction, which traces the growth in the destructive power of those weapons offer vitals lessons that could save us from a war of extinction.  PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO VIEW THIS FILM, AND DEMAND THAT YOUR CONGRESSMAN PUT FORTH A BILL THAT WILL END DONALD TRUMP’S BOYCOTT OF THE UN CONFERENCE TO BAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS!   

 It is the height of hypocrisy for Trump to emphasize the ban on nerve gas, and become so worked up by its alleged use by the Syrian government that he bombed the country, while at the same time refusing to even enter into a discussion about banning nuclear weapons – the destructive power of which makes nerve gas seem like a minor issue.

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Playthell G. Benjamin
Harlem, New York
April 4, 2017
 

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