John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON INFOWARS

 

I’ll remind readers that Ross Douthat, the journalist who tweeted an idiot reference to assassinating Trump, does a job Bill Kristol used to do at the New York Times.

So he comes from the same ugly pack that has been most strongly attacking Trump from the start, the neo-cons and their close friends.

And these are people who have worked hard to keep the blood flowing abroad, seeing the Middle East flattened, and the U.S. mired in decades of war.

These are people who view independent-mindedness in foreign policy as unthinkable, being totally dedicated to the cozy and immensely destructive relationship which keeps Israel afloat.

Any serious threat on Trump would almost certainly come from this quarter.

After all, these people, the neo-cons, gave the world the whole Middle East in blazes with millions killed and hurt and great masses of refugees. Why would they even pause about the life of one politician they hate after all that?

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO A COLUMN IN THE GUARDIAN

 

“Liberal left”?

Charlie Hebdo?

This is a fantasy idea.

Hebdo is a nasty little publication which attacks a select group of targets, largely Muslims and Catholics, with cheap, obscene cartoons.

They are self-satisfied, gleeful attacks on the solemn views of others, much resembling a gang of arrogant teenagers giving “the finger” to some passing old folks.

Ugly attitude is accompanied by an immense sense of self-importance, much like some graffiti scribbler who fancies himself the reincarnation of Voltaire.

Hebdo has a phony kind of free-spirit image, yet it very much functions as an organ of hate and propaganda.

I am not questioning its right to do what it does. Rather I am putting into perspective what it actually does. You would never recognize Hebdo from the high-sounding clap-trap regularly published about it in France or Britain, much of it seeming to confuse a nasty squib with Emile Zola’s J’ accuse.

Readers who would appreciate a longer, serious exploration of the matter should see:

 

https://chuckmanwords.wordpress.com/2015/01/13/je-ne-suis-pas-charlie-the-extremely-dark-and-unexamined-underside-of-the-charlie-hebdo-affair/

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN

The New York Times is very much like American foreign policy.

On the outside, it’s all lip service to truth and integrity.

On the inside, it’s exactly and precisely the opposite.

The paper has a long history of prejudices and bad intentions and twisted journalism and work for the secret services while pompously trumpeting its superior merits.

It is, literally, as sick an institution as the State Department, no matter who happens to be serving at its head.