John Chuckman

COMMENT ON FACEBOOK NOT TAKING DOWN THE “ASSASSINATE DONALD TRUMP” SITE BECAUSE IT “DOESN’T VIOLATE OUR COMMUNITY STANDARDS”

 

This is appalling. The people running Facebook regularly censor the most innocuous postings, such as the picture of the breast of a woman who wanted to teach people something about breast cancer.

It is the neo-cons and Israel Lobby and that portion of the American establishment in bed them which represent the most serious and determined threat to Trump. And Facebook clearly represents a segment of those combined interests, it having a definite reputation for its willing cooperation with American security agencies.

These interests are afraid that years of meaningless American wars – meaningless, that is, in terms of genuinely American interests, quite apart from their assault on the world’s peace and good order – and belligerent policies which serve Israel’s most selfish interests might be coming to an end.

And many of us, while not great admirers of Trump, also believe that this is one policy area of some promise from this very independent-minded man.

However, Trump and his supporters greatly overestimate the power of a president to get anything done, anything that is which goes against established policies.

John and Robert Kennedy discovered this truth in the early 1960s. The CIA and the Pentagon simply ignored them on more than one occasion.

The Pentagon also kept pushing big plans such as an all-out nuclear attack on Russia as late as 1961. Kennedy more than once left big meetings feeling sick at his stomach and keenly aware he did not have the control a president should in theory have.

Truly, any change in the policies covering the Middle East would be met by massive (although not open) opposition from all those who’ve worked on it for years and all those who benefit by it, and that is a very powerful and wealthy group.

I’m convinced that all the noise over Trump – Mitt Romney’s ridiculous and irresponsible speech to George Clooney’s precious-boy name-calling, the Pope’s unprecedented blundering comments, Facebook’s behavior to The Weekly Standard’s hectoring – represents only the first grumblings of these interests.

If Trump does get the nomination – after all, the establishment, much like security agencies in their black operations, does not do things in plain view, so I tend to doubt there will be a slamming of the doors against his nomination – we are going to have the dirtiest political campaign on record.

This kind of behavior from a guy like Mark Zuckerberg, who usually tries very hard to put on a meek and mild public face, represents just the first whiff of a very dirty war to come.

It will be fun to watch, but the outcome will certainly launch us into unknown territory with a Trump victory.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY JEFFERY SIMPSON IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Muscularity?

Is that what you call the killing of thousands of innocent people – often women and children – by buzz-cut thugs at the controls of computer games with real missiles?

Is that what you call having “kill lists” of American citizens?

Is that what you call the horrors secretly initiated in Syria?

Or the fact that the CIA’s torture gulag was never dealt with?

Well, muscularity has definitely been the image sought by some governments. Posters of Mussolini typically featured that quality.

For Canadians and most of the rest of the world, it really does not matter which of these sociopaths is elected.

Romney has always been an unattractive, nasty-minded figure, and Obama has thrown off virtually every quality that made him once attractive and a source of hope.

The only issue that makes any difference for the future of world affairs between these two is their degree of subservience to Israel.

Romney literally grovels to the madmen now running Israel.

Obama, while not setting the standards of toughness towards Israel required for genuine peace, has at least not quite grovelled.

And he has so earned the hatred of Netanyahu that that lunatic is busy interfering in an American election with ads made for Florida, a criminal act by the way under American law.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO AN EDITORIAL IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

A “new” Romney?

A “hesitant” Obama?

Yes, perhaps for one hour on a particular night in one year.

God knows Romney had nothing to lose: he could go for broke – that is, “broke” for him, which isn’t much.

And God knows what was running through Obama’s mind – maybe, a deeply concerning fact on national security or some other matter he had just been advised of.

But we all know that performance is not Obama in full campaign mode.

And we equally know that Romney offers no special promise of performance: he’s been running for president for at least five years (he spent $20 million of his own money in a desperate dash for the nomination in 2008), so we know Romney’s attitudes and behaviors, and they are not attractive nor are they even interesting.

Romney is a man who has never done anything but pursue wealth, and he has done so ruthlessly and without principle (as in keeping money offshore) – a mighty dull and unpromising individual to do anything else and a man the majority of people can no more identify and sympathize with than those in Canada can identify with that icy ideologue, Stephen Harper (whose “majority” represents only 39% of voters and is only an artifact of the democratic deficit in our voting system ).

Only a foolish person would draw definitive conclusions from that brief time on the stage and assert that the campaign was “beginning.”

But, as readers know, Globe editorials under John Stackhouse have reached an all-time record for juvenile, narrow thinking.

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY KONRAD YAKABUSKI IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

I’m not sure anyone really cares, always excepting Mitt, Ann, and Mitt’s certifiably insane pal, Netanyahu.

He has to be one of the least interesting men ever to run, dull as a piece of re-treaded truck tire by the side of the road.

He has nothing to say, he has no record of achievements, his knowledge of world affairs is almost Palin-esque, and he has the spoiled brat’s sense of entitlement.

But he wants to be President, so much so that in 2008 he spent $20 million of his own money trying to secure the Republican nomination and then came back again.

Now he has it, and he doesn’t even know what to do with it.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Grovel, grovel, grovel.

What in God’s name does this matter have to do with most of America’s 300,000,000 people?

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

And what does it have to do with most of the world’s 7,000,000,000 people?

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

So why does he go out of his way to raise it?

Campaign contributions from special interests.

Of course, it is Romney’s behavior that truly is shameful for someone aspiring to be a world leader.

 
JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Mitt has a dark record, well concealed, much like that other dreadful man, George W Bush.

Mitt was a “missionary” to get out of the Vietnam War.

Ever heard of a missionary toiling in the South of France and staying at a villa? That was Mitt’s arduous task.

The smuck had so little character that he was photographed insulting and heckling honest war resisters trying to stop the idiot slaughter in Vietnam at the same time he entered this glorious “service.”

His claim as to when he left Bain Capital is simply a lie, and trying to avoid iron-clad proof of that is why he won’t submit his tax returns, a practice which has become the expected norm in the U.S. elections.

His claim about turning around Bain Capital with his wonderful management skills is patently false.

He took advantage of the government’s bank account insurance agency to lay his hands on millions. Never even said thanks.

He’s kept good parts of his fortune in offshore tax havens like the Caymen Islands. How admirable for a potential President.

He has made the most stupid statements – on everything from the poor to the London Olympics – time and again, almost as bad as Sarah “no brains” Palin used to do.

And his little adventure in driving the family dog strapped to the roof of his car on super highways for a twelve hour trip speaks volumes.

He is a sociopath.

And that fact is confirmed further by the stories of youthful acquaintances of his great idea of a practical joke: he used a flashing light on his car to pretend to be a policeman and pulled friends over on the road. Not funny to normal people and definitely illegal.

Readers might enjoy:

http://chuckmancartoons.blogspot.ca/2012/08/romney-seamus-stop-slobbering.html

http://chuckmangrotesques.blogspot.ca/2012/01/blog-post.html

http://chuckmangrotesques.blogspot.ca/2012/08/romney-this-image-of-mitt-is-of-course.html

http://chuckmangrotesques.blogspot.ca/2012/08/romney-ann-has-that-same-look-of-well.html
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Romney’s treatment of Ron Paul is still another big mark against him.

I’m not a libertarian, as Paul is, but I recognize a sincere and honest man of intelligence when I see one.

Romney’s cronies worked very hard to strip him of delegates, honestly won.

They carried out all kinds of tricks in some of the state primaries to make it impossible for him.

They seated the states with significant Paul delegations in obscure locations of the convention hall.

And they would not allow Paul to address the convention except under the most unacceptable conditions, including vetting of every word, something an honorable man simply could not abide.

Why?

Paul dislikes war, and always says so.

And Paul dislikes America’s nightmare marriage to Israel’s wishes and drives.

Indeed, possibly no candidate in history enters the race with more secret promises of cash from that most powerful of special interests, Israel, quite possibly many of them illegal since you cannot accept foreign funds in American elections.

Its most unthinking supporters have promised many millions to defeat Obama, a man whose only right act has been to put some pressure on Israel for genuine peace, earning himself a bad reputation with the Israel Lobby and Netanyahu’s people.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Romney’s comments may well be racist.

But, without question, they are ignorant beyond comprehension for a man who worked in finance.

He’s comparing apples to oranges on a grand scale.

First, Israel is, without question, the most subsidized entity on earth.

Israel’s economy for that reason cannot be sensibly compared to anything.

It receives about $500 per year per Jewish citizen from the United States, and it has done so for decades.

But that is only the beginning.

There are periodic loan guarantees of tens of billions.

There is constant access at the highest level for this nation with the population of Ecuador, something virtually no other country, even far more important ones, has.

It has a plum free-trade agreement – indeed, without sending its subsidized crops to the U.S. Israel’s agriculture would disappear. It was a gift to Israel because it has no tangible benefits for Americans at all.

The opportunity cost of water Israel squanders on tomatoes and clementines to export is unbelievably high because it is the cost of desalination-plant water. It sends subsidized produce to the United States under free trade, produce the United States doesn’t even need.

Israel receives billions worth of intelligence and defense cooperation every year from the United States, something few other countries receive.

The two billion dollars a year going to Egypt is a bribe paid on Israel’s behalf by Americans since the Camp David Agreements.

Israel receives heavily below cost natural gas from Egypt, the result of U.S. pressure on Mubarak. Everyone knows this is scandalous, and the U.S. has offered to pay a subsidy to top up the price.

Israel also receives billions from the Jewish communities of America and Europe, and it receives important business intelligence and connections.

The great privilege granted to American Israelis to be recognized as dual citizens means they move back and forth regularly, all the while sharing business and other intelligence.

Israel’s farms and cities and water supply were all taken with absolutely no payment or reparations from other people. That is the biggest subsidy ever received, the very substance of the nation.

And it is not satisfied with what happened in 1948, it keeps stealing the property of others regularly, refusing to live in peace because it still wants more.

Israel has received tens of billions in reparations from Germany – wholly appropriate in view of the past – but still a subsidy.

The list is even longer than this, but I think the point is clear: Israel has, in no sense of the words, an independent national economy.

It is in truth a gigantic international welfare case.

Second, and equally important in the ignorance contained in Romney’s speech, Palestine has been under occupation for the best part of half a century.

But it is more than an occupation, it is a set of unfair rules and laws actually designed to discourage Palestinians from staying in their homes.

They are not even allowed to repair things without special permissions.

They are not allowed to build roads without special permissions.

They are not allowed to travel without permissions and going through check-points.

They cannot get supplies for businesses because of Israel’s embargo and controls.

They cannot even fly or travel by sea to do business as they wish.

Even international funds for assisting Palestine have been controlled, and plundered, by Israel.

The last I read, Israel even, in contravention of international treaties, controlled and limited the mail going into Gaza.

And, week by week, Israelis literally steal their homes, their farms, and their water resources.

How on earth can you compare an economy under those circumstances to anything?

You cannot.

And wouldn’t it be amusing to watch the arrogant and unthinking Mr. Romney himself try running an efficient business under the circumstances Israel imposes on Palestinians, instead of benefitting from the freewheeling environment of the United States and his ability to shelter his earnings from taxes in the Cayman Islands?

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

He’s supposed to be running for President of the United States, a nation of more than 300 million people with plenty of problems.

So why is it that he goes to Israel to speak on matters which are of no concern to most Americans?

Indeed, why does virtually every candidate and elected Congressman take paid junkets to Israel, a nation of 7 million whose own problems are immense and whose interests mostly have nothing to do with those of the United States?

It’s certainly not the ex-pat vote because that amounts to a few hundred thousand people.

The answer of course is the relentless need for money by the American political machine.

These guys are going to burn through hundreds of millions of dollars in the next few months.

And the American Supreme Court has said that money is free speech.

Well, the single best organized and financed special interest there is is Israel and its American apologists.

When just one American billionaire can donate at least 18 million dollars to John McCain’s efforts to gain the nomination, as Sheldon Adelson very much did, it becomes clear that it is well worth while to make a trip or two, done a yarmulke at the Wall, and make outlandish speeches.

Mr Adelson among others was reported as intending to attend the campaign fund raiser in Israel.

This is the essence of government by and for special interests.
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What is always left unsaid in statements like Romney’s about supporting an Israeli strike on Iran?

Iran has the capability of striking back.

So after Israel bombs yet one more nation, and that nation turns its resources against Israel, as it will be entirely justified in doing after an unprovoked attack, what will Israel’s response be?

I think we all know that Netanyahu’s lying bluster and threats will immediately melt into special pleadings for help from the United States, and the United States will be dragged into yet another war.

It would be a war which serves not one genuine American interest, and, indeed, would do the opposite, alienating the hundreds of millions of people whose native region Western Asia is.

Making policy commitments with those kinds of consequences is beyond being stupid.

It may get him special-interest campaign contributions today while just giving the American people he is supposed to serve one more gigantic life- and money-wasting war.

That is how twisted American national politics have become.
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“Maybe its something to do with a fellow democracy in a part of the world that is ruthless and tyrannical…”

Oh please.

How is Israel a fellow democracy?

A democracy that insists on its being the “Jewish state”?

How is that different to an Islamic state?

What kind of democracy kills 400 children in Gaza, a giant refugee camp?

What kind of democracy drops a million cluster-bomblets on Southern Lebanon?

What kind of democracy keeps people under occupation for the best part of half a century?

What kind of democracy steals the homes and farms of those it occupies regularly?

What kind of democracy keeps thousands in prison with no proper legal proceedings?

What kind of democracy starts wars with every neighbor that it has?

What kind of democracy has systematic practices that some of the world’s best ethical minds have declared are apartheid?

What kind of democracy allows insane settlers to shoot people and cut down olive trees and take property with no penalties?

What kind of democracy doesn’t allow women to approach a national shrine from the same place as men?

What kind of democracy lets people exclude women from buses?

What kind of democracy makes atomic weapons deals with a rogue statel like apartheid South Africa?

What kind of democracy has secret agents running around assassinating people all the time?

What kind of democracy sends commandos to board a humanitarian ship in international waters and shoots a number of the unarmed people in the head?

The only past examples of “democracies” I can think of that are even close are the American Confederacy and the previous governments of South Africa and Rhodesia.
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“63% of Americans support Israel he is representing the will of the majority in supporting Israel.”

“It is hard for anti Israelis to understand democracy.”

As anyone familiar with statistics and polling knows it is always possible to get different answers to the same questions just by asking them in slightly different ways.

This matter came up in the Quebec referendum, and it is an age-old one for pollsters.

Example: “Do you think Romney is a resolute man?” as opposed to, “Do you think Romney a stubborn man?”

I guarantee different numbers to the two essentially-same questions.

Again, positive responses to broad open questions like “Do you support Israel?” are as meaningless as the question.

And quoting them, as you do, is dishonest.

Indeed, many respondents, afraid of being thought anti-Semitic by an unknown caller on the other end of the line, would be constrained to a positive response.

But if you ask the same question with some meat on the bones, you will certainly get a different answer.

For example, “Do you support Israel’s having illicit nuclear weapons?”

Or, “Do you support Israel’s shooting of 400 children in Gaza?”

Or even, “Do you support Israel if its policies take the United States into a costly war?”

And, no, it is not hard for critics of Israel to understand democracy.

Indeed, just the opposite is true.

Israel’s apologists seem blind to the traditional meanings of democracy when it comes to any discussion of Israel.

We went through centuries of oppression to get to the Enlightenment and to the institutionalizing of democratic and human values.

Today’s Israel simply represents a giant step backward.

Indeed, I would add that it is the worst tyrannies who have always been Israel’s secret friends: Mubarak in Egypt, the kings of Saudi Arabia, and the past government of South Africa.

Birds of a feather…

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY KONRAD YAKABUSKI IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

“…[Obama’s] the most formidable fundraising apparatus in the history of American politics…”

As with almost anything in American politics, you cannot make such a generalization.

In this case there are genuine reasons for change less than 4 years later.

In 2008, the entire world held its breath in anticipation of Obama, a seemingly charming and graceful figure with great promise, succeeding George Bush, a certified moron, and his ugly gang of war criminals.

Less than four years later, what do we have?

America is still fighting in Afghanistan, it is also assassinating thousands in Pakistan, Guantanamo is still open, the CIA’s International Torture Gulag still operates, America only has come even closer to being a police state, and virtually nothing of Obama’s promise has been realized.

Obama’s Peace Prize has become a nasty sarcasm with his most memorable contribution being the work of death-drones, a new form of South American death squads.

The second big factor here is Obama’s relationship with Israel.

He started in office with the right view for those who care about peace and justice, but that view earned him only hatred and contempt in Israel.

He was reviled and called names, and his Vice-President was insulted on a trip.

He has back-peddled, succeeding in making himself not only unliked by those wishing for justice and peace, but gaining no popularity with Israel or its apologists.

Wealthy American Jews are very important political contributors to a campaign system built on private money, with, only recently, just one man having given Newt Gingrich about $18 million for his brief nomination drive, the quid pro quo for that money being Newt making absurd public statements like “There are no Palestinians.”

Already Romney has make the statement that in the Middle East, he would do everything the exact opposite to Obama.

That is music to the ears of American donors who like to hear good things for Israel, and it will be re-inforced by government and private contacts in Israel privately expressing their contempt for Obama.

I doubt Obama stands a chance of matching Romney’s funds, unless he starts a new war with Iran, something not unthinkable and that would turn around the opinion of an important group of contributors.

It is all very sad from the point of view of democratic and other human rights principles.

America simply gets the best government money can buy.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

There are no choices here at all.

Obama, once so promising, has proven a man of little backbone and no principles, unable to change anything worth changing.

He is responsible for at least 3,000 deaths by killer-drones.

The incipient American police state has continued to grow rapidly with TSA agents and drones everywhere.

There are even new portable backscatter x-rays, the ones used at airports, mounted on vans to travel up and down cities.

TSA agents are beginning to patrol the nation’s highways, and they are riding on inter-city buses.

The hideous Patriot Act has not been attacked, only re-inforced.

The CIA torture international gulag remains in place, its ghastly reality not even called into question.

Obama is almost indistinguishable from George Bush, judged by his acts.

We already know that a man with Romney’s background – a man who travels hundreds of miles with a dog tied to the roof of his car, a man whose hobby as a young man was to pretend he was a policeman with a blinking light on his car, and a man who made his fortune throwing people out of work and keeping his money offshore – is almost certainly psychopathic.

No matter who wins this silly election – after billions are spent on a big show and tons of advertising – the military-intelligence-security complex will go right on running things.

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

The best government money can buy.

America now has only the superficial appearance of democracy.

It is in fact a plutocracy.
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Campaign finance reform is almost impossible in the U.S.

And the main reason for that assertion is that the American Supreme Court has ruled: 1) that corporations are individuals under law; and 2) that giving money to campaigns is a form of free speech under the Bill of Rights.

How did that bizarre situation happen?

Year after year, appointments made to that court have moved it further and further to the extreme right.

Just think about the position Harper is in to reshape our Court, and you will have every reason to feel afraid for our future as a democratic nation.
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Harper’s long term strategy includes adopting something resembling the American system of finance.

That provides a subtle way of tipping our politics permanently towards the right wing, since money is so important to “getting a message out,” “defining an issue,” and creating “name-recognition” – among other manipulative concepts of political marketing.

He already eliminated government support for parties – unfairly characterizing an enlightened policy with pejorative words – and as we can all plainly see, he works tirelessly to serve special interests in a position to advance large sums.