Bombs, sanctions, drug charges: US Troika of Regime Change

Everyone knows the US uses bombs to effect regime change. We didn’t bomb Afghanistan and Iraq to send a wakeup call to their rulers. We did it to remove them and put in our designated puppets. Some know we use economic sanctions to get the same result. That method alone never works, such as the case with Iran. It doesn’t because the populous of any country so sanctioned will never do America’s bidding regardless of how unpopular the targeted leaders.

But few know of a third US method of regime change…drug trafficking charges. US Attorney General Bill Barr filed drug trafficking charges against Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro last month. Barr added a $15,000,000 bounty for Maduro’s capture and return to the US. Once out of the way, the US can install their designated puppet, capitalism friendly Juan Guaido to protect US interests in Venezuela. The US has been sanctioning Venezuela for twenty years now, starting with the hated Hugo Chavez, who died of natural causes before Uncle Sam could topple him. Since his successor Maduro is also a dedicated socialist, the US simply refuses to recognize him, backing US friendly Guaido instead.

But since sanctions aren’t working, the US pulled out an old chestnut from 1988, drug trafficking charges. Back then we turned on long time Panamanian leader and CIA helper Manual Noriega, indicting him on drug charges we winked at during his long tenure moonlighting for the CIA. When that didn’t work, we invaded Panama with 27,000 troops, killed a thousand Panamanians, left 20,000 homeless before nabbing Noriega. The US official who greenlighted this illegal, immoral invasion was Bill Barr, who, as George H.W. Bush’s head of the Office of Legal Counsel, wrote a legal memo condoning it against every precept of international law

Thirty-one years later, Barr, now Attorney General, has reprised drug trafficking charges in a desperate attempt to remove Maduro. As a sign that’s not going to work, the US has sent a naval armada to the Caribbean and US officials says military action is not ruled out.

America’s Troika of Regime Change, military invasion, economic sanctions, drug trafficking charges always return to Plan A for success…military invasion.

What's in a name?

I still remember those ubiquitous Illinois Tollway signs with the the long name 'Rod R. Blagojevic, Governor' prominently displayed.I found then annoying, tho clearly just another aspect of Blago's narcissistic persona. I'm reminded of those signs hearing about the kerfuffle over Trump's holding up pandemic relief checks to get his signature on them. Maybe Trump should call up now free Blago and ask him how wasting taxpayer money to get his name overlooking Illinois motorists like Big Brother worked out for him.

A pandemic behavioral change desperately needed

The pandemic has shut down much activity in the US. Unfortunately, that does not include US perpetual war in the Middle East and Africa. That is unfortunate for several reasons. US warfare there should never have be started and should have been ended without a pandemic. But the coronavirus makes it more imperative that our soldiers stand down as it thrives among many military in close quarters. Look no further than the 600 sailors infected aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, one of whom just died. Perpetual war squanders treasure needed for combating both the virus and the corresponding economic meltdown. Perpetual war, the organized killing of peoples, directly contradicts the organized saving of peoples from a pandemic. On March 23, the the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterrez urged warring parties worldwide to lay down their arms to support the bigger battle against Covid-19, the common enemy that is now threatening all mankind.

The US has turned deaf ears to Guterrez's plea. The Trump administration has continued to threaten war against Iraqi militia groups seeking end of the US occupation of Iraq, claiming they are sponsored by our real enemy Iran. Massive bombings against these militia groups which are connected to the Iraqi military are still possible. A shooting war with Iran is still possible. Besides Iraq, the US shows no sign of leaving Afghanistan or Syria; the former a client state whose leaders we're propping up to do our bidding; the latter a regime change target we still seek to achieve.

Besides the bombs we drop, the economic sanctions we impose on Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela, among others, make it more difficult for them to combat the pandemic. Those sanctions were making life for their citizenry miserable before the pandemic. With it they are adding to its toll.

The pandemic has been a wake up call to virtually every American to alter numerous daily behaviors. Up till now standing down from perpetual war is not among them.

Circuit Courts short-circuit red state governors pandemic abortion bans

Some good news against the atrocious use of the pandemic by Republican governors to cancel surgical and medication abortions:

The 5th Circuit re-instated medication abortions in Texas, saying that since use of drugs to induce abortion doesn't use up PPE and medical services, the real agenda of simply preventing abortions was clear and unlawful.

The 6th Circuit declined to review a lower court decision allowing
surgical abortions in Ohio.

The 10th Circuit upheld a lower court order overturning Oklahoma's surgical abortion ban.

Alas, It will take the Supreme Court to reinstate surgical abortions in Texas as the 5th Circuit upheld that onerous restriction to women's reproductive health. But, as the saying goes.....3 out of 4 ain't bad.

Ives to Illinois’ Sixth: ‘No mail-in voting for you’

Illinois Sixth District Republican congressional candidate Jeanne Ives’ fundraising email blasting mail-in voting got way more publicity than intended. The Trib took umbrage that her communications director Kathleen Murphy included two sentences verbatim from a Trib article on concerns about mail-in voting to bolster Ives’s fear mongering that regardless of the pandemic, mail-in voting is a cynical Democratic exploitation of the crisis. Murphy admitted her error in not citing the Trib article but refused to say whether Ives approved the plagiarism or if she even saw the email.

Ives is taking her cue from President Trump and the Republican Party, that mail-in voting in a pandemic is a necessity that dare not speak its name. To be horrified by even the idea of mail-in voting when it may be required this November is utterly irresponsible. It has worked for years in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado and Hawaii; and for early voting in 28 other states simply as an advancement in good electoral governance. If Ives wishes to get away with plagiarizing on mail-in voting, she should simply repeat verbatim her idealized president on Fox News: “If we have mail-in voting you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again”.

Red states exploit pandemic to restrict abortions

The Republican controlled states of Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas haven’t squandered the pandemic’s opportunity to restrict abortion. They’ve unfairly included abortion as one of the discretionary medical procedures prohibited to preserve PPE and medical resources. They precluded all abortions except those needed to save the life of the mother and those bumping up to the 24 week limit imposed by the Supreme Court. That their ban on early abortions includes use of pills, not requiring medical facilities or PPE, demonstrates the ulterior motive to cynically use the pandemic to restrict abortion.

These laws simply expand the psychic trauma of women in need of the most basic reproductive service. They’re faced with an unenviable dilemma: hope they can still obtain their abortion before the 24 week clock runs out or flee to a nearby sane state not infected with cruelty for women in need. Of course the cynical six states imposing these restrictions aren’t concerned about the pandemic risk they impose on women traveling afar for what they should receive at home. Nor are they concerned about all that PPE used up for totally unnecessary and unwanted births that will inevitably occur.

The Texas restriction is the first to be headed to the US Supreme Court after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling prohibiting Texas’ nonsensical abortion restriction. The supreme reproductive freedom of Texas women is now in the hands of the Supremes.

How many?

As of April 12th, 533,000 Americans have become infected with covid-19 and 20,600 have died. In assessing President Trump’s performance handling one of the greatest crises in American history, it would be helpful to know how many infections and how many deaths were due to:

• His two month fantasy of delay, denial, dismissal of the coming pandemic he knew about

• His refusal to promote, indeed mandate, a national stay at home order

• His appointment of Vice President Pence to head his response team to quash public health warnings

• His constant misstatements regarding availability of masks, ventilators, tests and other vitally needed medical supplies

• His disparagement of state leaders as the cause of virus treatment shortages

• His pushing an unproven cure to change the focus from the under tested, under treated victims

• His obsessive promotion of resuming economic normalcy to save the economy

• His insistence on calling the pandemic a ‘Chinese virus’, touching off nationwide fear and mistreatment of Asians

• His forcing top government health experts to waste several hours daily standing woodenly behind him while he spouts or denies all the above at press briefings

How many? Decent, concerned and frustrated Americans would like to know.

Unlimited guns, scant jobs spells no dent in Chicago shootings

It’s not a pandemic, just a weekly slaughter, the shooting of 43 Chicago citizens each week, ten of whom die. That’s over the previous two years which police officials and the mayor touted as improvement from 2016 when nearly 15 died each week. But as soon as they trumpeted that decrease, gunfire escalated like covid-19, putting Chicago on track for a 22% and 13% increases respectively for shootings and deaths through the first quarter. That wasn’t a momentary upward blip. April started with a bloodbath. Twenty-one were shot, of which 8 died on Tuesday, while 8 were shot in an 8 hour span Wednesday.

Chicago police chiefs come and go. Wednesday, David Brown becomes sixth top cop in the last 14 years, each one entering with high hopes and reorganization plans to stem the bleeding. Nothing works. The hand wringing will continue till there is a momentary pause in the carnage, at which point the Mayor and Police Chief will claim their approach is working

Bunk.

The catastrophic shooting and murder rate is a national problem fueled by millions of guns and virtually no jobs for the demoralized, disaffected youth who fire endlessly and aimlessly. Vulture capitalism sends in the guns but keeps out the jobs.

The Mayor and new Police Chief can help by stop claiming each momentary lull demonstrates success. We’re weary of happy talk like that fed to us every afternoon on America’s unflattening covid-19 curve. They must call this carnage the national disgrace it is, imploring us all to demand a massive federal reduction in guns and an equally massive federal effort to end joblessness and despair. Those two efforts are attainable with national will. Like the hundreds who disappear in Chicago yearly, that will is missing.