January 16, 2016

When will Trump pull off his mask and reveal that Andy Kaufman is still alive?

That is the only thing that can explain this:

This is the most jingoistic, narcissistic, and skeeviest thing I have ever seen.

January 15, 2016

The Boston bombing

was motivated, if the FBI is to be believed, by Islamic extremism. Can you think of anything the U.S. is doing that might have upset these people over the last decade or so?

Yes, they were living here, but that is no guarantee against terrorism, see Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph.

Now those two examples would seem to point to people our foreign/domestic policy isn't hurting, but actually, that is not true. McVeigh was a veteran of our first war in Iraq, and Rudolph was kicked out of the Army for weed. Thus our failed policy of foreign intervention and our failed policy of drug interdiction, along with our failed policy on veterans mental health care and employment, and our failed policy on investigating domestic terrorists (anti-abortion religious fanatics are given a pass and rarely called terrorists) was influential in what these men did.

And, of course, you are right. Some people are just insane. But then that would fall into the category of our failed policy for dealing with the mentally ill.

So, if you want to stop 99.99% of terrorism:

1) Stop killing other people

2) Stop meddling in other people's affairs

3) Take care of sick people

4) Take care of the people you train to kill people (soldiers and police)

January 12, 2016

HRC and her good friend Henry Kissinger

I am posting this because whenever this topic came up in the past, HRC defenders brushed it off as her simply being polite to a member of the political establishment. She wrote a fawning review of his book just to be nice, and we should in no way view praise of a war criminal as unseemly.

As I said in response, her relationship went beyond the "polite" to "kindred spirits". Henry Kissinger is the only man in this country with more blood on his hands than the likes of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and George W.

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/12/emails_expose_close_ties_between_hillary_clinton_and_accused_war_criminal_henry_kissinger/

Emails expose close ties between Hillary Clinton and accused war criminal Henry Kissinger
Salon.com

“I greatly admire the skill and aplomb with which you conduct our foreign policy,” wrote Henry Kissinger in a 2012 letter to “the Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton.” The compliment was included as a handwritten postscript added to the printed letter.

The Feb. 7 letter, which was released in a batch of emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is a request that she help declassify documents from Kissinger’s time as secretary of state, which he says constitute “a unique record of a critical period in American foreign policy.”

The late journalist Christopher Hitchens devoted an entire book to detailing the war crimes overseen by Kissinger, who infamously declared “The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.”

In “The Trial of Henry Kissinger,” Hitchens argues the former secretary of state should be tried “for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap and torture.”

Hitchens described Kissinger as a master of “depraved realpolitik” with “a callous indifference to human life and human rights,” who was behind U.S.-backed atrocities in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, East Timor, Chile, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Kurdish Iraq, Iran, South Africa, Angola and more.

Yes, the article points out that John Kerry also has cordial relations with Kissinger, and I will say right now that I condemn the man wholeheartedly and have no further use for him. ANYONE who treats with Kissinger on such a level is condoning war crimes.

Yes, I know other Democrats, including the current administration had dealings with him, and shame on them. I can excuse Carter, since he inherited the shambles of the loss of Vietnam along with the chaos of the surrounding region and had to deal with this ghoul in cleaning up his mess. But once his crimes became documented, treating him as anything other than a pariah unforgivable.