Saturday, May 18, 2019

Stop Saudi Arabia, Israel from fomenting US war on Iran



The American public appears oblivious both Saudi Arabia and Israel are goading the US to attack their bete noir Iran. They've concluded there is room for only two hegemons in the Middle East...which is them. A triumvirate with Iran is unacceptable so it must be taken out. Their problem is even combined the Saudis and Israelis can't topple Iran so they've gone to Plan B; having their client state America to the job for them. They've been lobbying such action for years. Fortunately for the world both George W. Bush and Obama pushed back for 12 years. Enter the pliable idiot on foreign affairs Donald Trump who glomed onto Saudi strongman Mohammad bin Salmon and Israeli forever prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, essentially giving them a blank check to have the US do their Iran dirty work.

Step one was busting up the 5 +1 nuclear deal with Iran which arguably diffused war clouds over Iran's imaginary nuclear program when inked in 2015. The clueless Trump did this with relish, lusting to overturn every sensible policy the wise Obama implemented; fulfilling a campaign promise that no Obama good deed would go unpunished. That makes war with Iran a real possibility. Step two is to follow the Iraq war model: make stuff up to justify war. We're starting to see this at play in real time with Trump's Murderers Row of National Security Adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo trumpeting scare tactics to get the media and masses in line.

It's bad enough we're enabling the Saudis' murderous war against pitiful neighbor Yemen to keep the hated Houthis out of power, and Israel's Apartheid subjugation of the pitiful Palestinians. Now we must contend with the possibility of full scale war which would dwarf the grotesqueness of both.

The American public is asleep to the danger ahead. How unfortunate it may take full scale war to wake it up.

Friday, May 17, 2019

Hooray for abortion


I proclaim 'hooray for abortion' in the same sense I proclaim 'hooray for brain surgery, hooray for prosthetic limbs and hooray for hear​t transplants'. Whatever improves the health of people is their business. I would no more restrict their efforts of securing better health and life options than I would allow them to restrict mine. Nor would I ever use underhanded means to subvert their constitutional right of privacy needed to embrace such medical attention.
Alas, red state legislators are doing both with their restrictive and likely unconstitutional laws virtually outlawing all abortions for women without the means to dash off to a progressive state like Illinois to get what they most certainly deserve right at home. These laws put millions of women in those states at risk of having to run a cruel gauntlet of shame, poverty, and possible back alley practitioners to obtain possibly the most basic right a human being is entitled to.
I'm not trying to convert any anti abortion person to applaud abortion. I simply encourage them to not ever have one if they find themselves pregnant; counsel their loved ones to do the same; even stump for a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade, if that's their fancy. But an end run around the Constitution to inflict untold pain on the have nots in desperate straights earns my fervent opposition.
Hooray for abortion...and may it become a basic human right in all 50 states...and around the world.

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Why isn't John Bolton in jail?



If an private citizen advocates violence against a public official, he will be arrested, prosecuted and possibly imprisoned for such advocacy. 

But if an administration official calls for violence against millions in another country, he gets to keep his six figure job, generous pension and a chance to repeat such murderous behavior in future administrations practicing perpetual war. 

One such person is John Bolton, National Security Adviser to President Trump. He openly advocates for regime change in Venezuela and Iran, specifically threatening that all options (military attack) are 'on the table'. Bolton is not a newbie advocate for criminal war. He was one of the most vociferous helping to launch the Iraq war in 2003 which needlessly killed hundreds of thousands including 4,497 US soldiers. 

Bolton has been advocating violence against the innocent around the world since the 1980's. 

It's wrong when an individual threatens violence against a public official. It's hideous when a public official threatens violence against millions in a country not at war with the US. It's incomprehensible our country does not outlaw the advocacy of criminal war and prosecute pubic officials like John Bolton who is a menace to peace on Earth.