The year was 1990. Saddam Hussein asked the Bush 41 administration if they objected to him invading Kuwait. He was told the US had no opinion, diplomat-speak for “go ahead.” Hussein did. But the US should have checked with their master, Saudi Arabia, who DID NOT like that invasion at all. The Saudis told Bush to get Hussein out of Kuwait. That was the start of the first Gulf War.
WHEN one gives permission that must now be forcibly revoked due to politics, one has to fire up the army to get interested in going in an killing a bunch of people they don’t even know. A good way to do that is to let YOUR army know what terrible things that evil, immoral OTHER army is doing to people. Americans were told Iraqi soldiers were taking Kuwaiti babies out of incubators and throwing the babies on the ground. What an outrage. Well, it would have been – had it been true. But it wasn’t.
It was an atrocity that never happened. But it DID fire people up and we DID get our war. That’s the actual goal. Once wars get started, they’re hard to stop and munitions suppliers get to make lots and lots of money. The US hasn’t fought a war of actual defense since the 1940’s. Everything since has been “defending American interests,” which means the economic interests of a few rich people. They don’t seem to mind killing ‘poors’ to protect their own money.
58,000 American servicemen lost their lives in Vietnam because one boat supposedly attacked another in the Gulf of Tonkin. That never happened. 58,000 Americans and countless Vietnamese died anyway. The second Gulf War happened because Saddam was making WMD’s, remember? Only, Saddam was NOT making WMD’s. He even certified as much to the UN in writing. The US response was “too little, too late” and the attack was on. I’ll never forget Colin Powell sitting in front of the United Nations Security Council telling scare stories about all the horrible, terrible, bad weapons Saddam may or may not have while all of his credibility sloshed away from him and out the door, never to return.
It’s just the way governments gain approval for whatever war they feel like making poor people fight. It’s almost stunning. It’s so common, it has a name: atrocity propaganda. We got a BUNCH of it after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. We were told about all the children intentionally and brutally killed by heartless Hamas. We were told about all of the rapes and beatings and other general sociopathic abominations committed by Hamas. Did you hear the one about the baby being cut from the belly of the mother? Yeah, brutal. Also? Fake news.
It turns out? Much of it is not true. I need to be clear, here. Violence as a way of life has been ongoing between Israel and Palestinians since the 1948 Nakba, or purge. In those confrontations, some horrible events must occur. It turns out, Israel is committing them every day. It’s part of their war. But to have so many stories turn out to be less than truthful? At some point, someone should be held responsible.
Much of Netanyahu’s genocidal efforts are predicated on these false stories. The US is instrumental in killing thousands of innocent and defenseless victims based on those false stories. 47’s wider war-that’s-not-a-war with Iran can trace it’s roots back to the October 7th attack – along with the now infamous trump stupidity.
Here’s a quote from Hermann Goering, one of the most powerful Nazis of Hitler’s Third Reich.”Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” It’s not a positive commentary on humanity that he was right and people can so easily be deceived…
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Oh, I get it. So long as he’s going after hosts and shows you don’t like, it’s a-okay with you. It’s even fun. But you really ought to think about how you’ll like it when it works against you. Team Evil is attacking ABC. They don’t like some of the programming. They don’t like Jimmy Kimmel. They likely hate him even more now that Rosie O’Donnell sat in as guest host. Team Evil wants to control what the networks broadcasts.
To that end, they’ve demanded ABC apply for their broadcast license renewals early – because the regime can threaten ABC during the process. ABC has filed a lawsuit and should win, based on that First Amendment MAGA hates. But it’s going to cost them lots of money, time, and effort and it’s all because Donny is such a thin-skinned, weaselly, little whiner.
But if that’s the game, harassing networks that say things you don’t like, couldn’t that same attitude be pointed at, say, Fox Not-News? Maybe some left-leaning President down the road – yes, hope does spring eternal – decides he doesn’t like Fox’s content. Maybe he manages to force them to fire all of your favorite talking heads and change their content by threatening their broadcast license. I suspect there are a lot of people out there laughing about ABC who would stop laughing as soon as it happened to them.
That’s why one should stand up for the right thing, even when it’s a thing you don’t necessarily like. It makes it easier for people to stand up with you when it IS your turn to be attacked. I don’t like Fox Not News so I don’t watch it. Simple. If you don’t like Kimmel, don’t watch him. Problem solved. Easy. We don’t need the government dictating what we can watch, think, or say…
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Okay, so this is a personal beef. I play Madden Football, a video game put out by EA sports. I have since the very first Madden Football was introduced. Madden Football once set the standard – at John Madden’s insistence. Now? Honestly, it kind of sucks. EA managed an exclusive contract with the NFL to use the NFL rules, players, team names, etc. No one else could. That made their efforts in the area less-than. EA, essentially, had a lock on the market and used it to add stupid features while removing useful ones.
The lack of competition has really allowed EA to put out a substandard product. People have been bitching about the quality of Madden Football for years, but because EA has that exclusive license, many keep playing. The market, it turns out, doesn’t really have the power to force EA to put out a better game. So EA doesn’t put out a better game.
Now, EA has been bought by an investment group that includes Mohammed Bin Salmon, the guy who ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal murder, and his good friend Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of the most corrupt President in the history of the US. I’m going to try and stop buying EA games. I don’t want to do one single thing to add to the coffers of those killers and thieves…
