Joe Biden wasted no time setting the belligerent, paranoid tone in his State of the Union address to Congress on Thursday night.
"Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond. If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop in Ukraine, I assure you he will not," he thundered.
Whereupon his fellow belligerents erupted in cheers and thundering applause. You might have gotten the impression that they were cheering for Putin. They were definitely cheering for World War III, as Biden hearkened back to the good old days when Adolf Hitler brought the whole country together and the war economy boomed, putting the final nail in the coffin of the Great Depression.
Biden's theme of the night is that fascism is coming to America in the form of Donald Trump. So it was all the more grotesque when he strayed from his script in an attempt to out-Trump Trump on the border crackdown. If he can't beat the Republicans at their own bigoted game, then he will join them. In fact, he will outdo them in his fear and hatred of the Other.
He certainly proved his tough-guy right-wing mettle Thursday when he engaged with Marjorie Taylor Greene. He certainly shocked a few liberals when he called the alleged Venezuelan killer of a young U.S. woman an "illegal." It was especially jarring when he promptly returned to his script and pronounced himself disgusted that Trump had accused migrants of "poisoning the blood of America."
He, Joe Biden, respects the humanity of those dastardly illegals!
So that "gaffe" didn't prevent the media from praising his performance. He was totally on fire. He was feisty and he was folksy. He was Joe Being Joe! These are just the kind of qualities required when telling a litany of lies about how great America is, and how "heartbreaking" it is that Israel is using Biden's love-bombs to actually kill people.
Like the fairytale ogre who fattens up his victims before slaughtering them, Biden announced at his stand-up routine he is sending a military flotilla to the coast of Gaza in order to build piers for the offloading of food. Since he is simultaneously sending hundreds of bundles of ammunition and other deadly hardware to Israel - arriving at lightning speed compared to his food delivery stunt - it will be such a tragedy when the starving Palestinians who are still alive at that point will even have the strength to crawl through the rubble to get at the supplies.
One even wonders if the Israeli armed thugs posing as an army will shoot at the ships and US troops to prevent the aid from being delivered. One also wonders whether Joe Biden will nevertheless still defend Israel's right to "defend" itself.
"History is watching" was the refrain Biden kept bellowing out during the speech. History was watching then, it's watching now, and it will watch in the future. This is not surprising when you consider that Historian-For-Hire Jon Meacham reportedly composed much of the speech.
Because of the Standardized History Bible, Biden was also able to preposterously declare that the Capitol riot of January 6th was the darkest American day ever. It has apparently supplanted Nine Eleven as the greatest holy day of paranoid apocalyptic obligation.
But miracle of miracles! History has further decreed that even though Donald Trump (whom he did not name) is the greatest threat to America, America has enjoyed such a recovery that people don't even realize it, until Joe Biden, or Meacham, dubs his presidency " the Greatest Story Never Told." Historical Revisionist-in-Chief Joe Biden declared that despite the fascist threats both abroad and at home and existing in his own administration, America has never been better.
I won't bore you with his whole litany of lies, such as his boast that he cut child poverty in half. He did not mention that child poverty has actually increased since the expiration of Covid-era social spending legislation. To that end, he modestly vowed that every child in America will learn to read by the third grade.
The third grade? What a modest, all-American goal. Is History watching or even paying minimal attention to the gibberish flowing from Biden's lips?
What Biden could have meant was that he hopes every American will continue to read at a third grade level for the rest of their lives. That way, neither they nor History will notice all of the political gaslighting going on. They will also lack the skills to read any of Meacham's hagiographic history books.
16 comments:
I just saw a meme that was so fitting! It was of the Gilligan's Island crew reading a note that floated back in a bottle. It said, "Stay where you are! The U.S. has gone crazy!"
The State of the Union address what a joke! And my democratic friends are saying what a success it was. All they can talk about is what a psycho Trump is - which is valid - but they completely ignore the train wreck Biden is!
I am so worried for America.
No one seems to be able to think critically. They are victims of propaganda. How can reasonable people not put together that Biden is putting lipstick on a pig with his flotilla, his 6 week "cease fire," his air drops of food? The real issue is we are funding the and providing the bombs and weapons for the genocide in Palestine. I know, I know, Trump is just as bad on Israel but there is NO WAY we can force that lunatic to change - but surely the Democrats can change mid-stream!
A good friend, at one time, just sent me a clip of Gephardt saying that all Third Party candidates should withdraw in key states! So the solution for the Democrats putting forth a senile, angry, complicit in genocide, candidate - and this not being palatable to the thinking pubic - is to get the competition to back off. THIS is what brought us Biden (thank you, Obama!)
I think the higher ups in the Democratic Party are as deranged as the MAGA crowd.
Biden and Netanyahu have the good cop-bad cop act down cold. I don't believe or trust anything they say. They're as thick as thieves and so are the militaries.
I'm certainly not buying this pier thing. It's neither temporary nor primarily for delivery of humanitarian aid for starving Palestinians. After all, everyone has seen starvation coming from the start when Israel announced no food, no water, no electricity, etc. If starvation was on Biden's bingo card, he could have done something more effective by now instead of food bombs and real bombs that are both killing people.
I see the pier as being a beachhead and future sea base of operations, a political figleaf of humanitarian cover immediately, and a soon to be evacuation site.
One suspicious indicator is that the IDF will provide the security, not the US or UN. The UN is tasked with distributing supplies. Sounds like the new game is like the old game - IDF 'protects' the delivery of food and uses it to shoot fish in a barrel, done multiple times in multiple places, sport-killing of humans. They've even killed and tortured captured UN personnel, so who in their right mind would want the gig of working under the 'protection' of the IDF?
I see the pier used for evacuation of Palestinians before or after the massacre planned at Rafah during Ramadan. That's why Biden is trying for a 6 week temporary ceasefire, so that the pier can be up and running before the slaughter in Rafah begins. If Biden can convince Netanyahu to hold off on pulling the trigger until Biden can lure people out of Rafah with the promise of food before the next massacre begins, he can score a big political win. Netanyahu can also claim to the ICJ that he tried to save civilian lives by giving them fair warning. It's a win-win for everyone but Palestinians. Anyone left in Rafah gets incinerated like Aaron Bushnell, as he said the ruling class decided was to be normal. The rest of the survivors get shipped to Timbuktu or Dearborn or wherever. Culling the herd first would work for the Genocide Twins.
But can you imagine the IDF being in charge of vetting Palestinians lined up to be evacuated?
Talk about shooting fish in a barrel. Biden is a fool if he's going along with this plan, if indeed it's the plan.
And let's not forget the Benjamins in all this. It's all about the Benjamins, baby.
BTW, our beachhead will be conveniently placed where it could support the development of the Gaza Marine Fields. These are valuable offshore gas and oil resources owned by Gaza but stolen by Israel which prohibits access and continues to illegally sell oil and gas development licenses to BP and other imperial partners-in-crime.
The pier site could become another permanent military base in Israel, a Navy base to go with our Air Force base set up as a base-within-a-base during the Obama-Biden regime, not completed until 2017 under Trump. Bombenomic$, baby! We have other facilities there but if I told you, I'd have to xxxx you!
Then there are Israelis currently in Canadian and US synagogues promoting illegal land purchases in the West Bank - limited to juiche buyers only.
The bottom line is that this Genocide is the quickest, most profitable way to eliminate the remnants of Palestine/Palestinians and transfer the land and resources to become Greater Israel, the final solution. (Or the beginning of the end of Israel and Empire.)
“Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today.”
~ Joe Biden
Being pitted between Trump and Biden is facing a no-win choice between fear and loathing.
What Joe Biden’s State of the Union Speech Didn’t Mention —
The president’s speech made no mention of the forever war continuing in the Middle East.
https://theintercept.com/2024/03/08/biden-state-of-the-union-speech/
March 8, 2024 ~ by Ken Klippenstein
The Chris Hedges Report:
How the war machine took over the Democrats w/ Dennis Kucinich —
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b079rbpYIzU
Dec 16, 2022
There was once a wing of the Democratic Party that stood up to the war industry. J. William Fulbright, George McGovern, Gene McCarthy, Mike Gravel, William Proxmire, and, of course, Dennis Kucinich. But that was largely decades ago. The new Democrats, especially with the presidency of Bill Clinton, became shills not only for corporate America, but the arms industry. The massive military budget, $858 billion in military spending allocated for fiscal year 2023, is an increase of $45 billion over the Biden administration's budget request, and nearly $80 billion more than the amount appropriated by Congress for the current fiscal year.
What happened to the Democratic Party? Why has it become impossible to question war and the massive expenditures on arms? Why is such questioning political suicide? Why can't a Democrat ask, especially at a time of economic hardship and huge deficits, how much we are going to divert to the war in Ukraine, which has already consumed some $60 billion? Former presidential candidate and eight-term Congressperson Dennis Kucinich joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the past half century of the Democrats, and how the war machine conquered the party.
Dennis Kucinich is running again (!) now as an Independent.
https://www.kucinich.com/
This is Who Joe Biden Is —
Repolarization, Anyone?
https://paulstreet.substack.com/p/this-is-who-joe-biden-is
March 7, 2024 ~ by Paul Street
A site worth checking:
http://theempirefiles.tv/
Great analysis, @Thought Criminal,
The pier thing sounded strange to me when it was introduced. As I read somewhere, all the food drops are really just publicity stunts because they have to be approved by Israel in advance.
I think I just lost my last Democratic friend - and I don't have any Republican friends. As lonely as that feels, how can I not speak the truth when my friends are acting like complicit Germans during the Nazi time? They occasionally send me what they think are profound arguments - usually transparent propaganda - Gephardt saying independent candidates should back off in key battleground states, Joe Biden taking a train ride in his younger years - presumably commuting back to his wife and family while Trump assaults women (because Biden is such a moral guy).
They say they are sad about the genocide in Palestine - but are they really? It reminds me of the way I felt as a child about starving people in Africa. It was such a world away, I was so separated from the reality of it, I could compartmentalise it. But I am not going to cut my friends any slack. With social media and the videos coming out of Palestine, the great alternative geopolitical sites giving us good analysis and even good investigative reporting, there is no excuse. They turn away because they don't want to look and more importantly, they don't want know. They definitely don't want to hold their politicians' feet to the fire. So much more comfortable to stick to the one dimensional good and evil version of reality. They can’t even bring themselves to vote “uncommitted.”
I know I keep sharing good videos or essays I have read, but this short talk by Max Blumenthal and the Q and A afterwards is especially outstanding. It is called The Genocidal Democrats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS3HOEss9rk
Whenever, I read a good article or hear a good video or podcast, I often scroll through the comment section. It is here that I pick up great links and references to some of my favourite articles and videos that I would otherwise not even know exist. This is one of those videos. Naledi Pandor, who I had never heard of six months ago, is now one of my favourite women in geopolitics today. I hope, one day, she will be Prime Minister of South Africa. She is brilliant, sincere, moral and articulate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsSJs59L_Yc
Does anyone know anything about Chris Van Hollen? Senator from Maryland.
I just saw a clip of him on social media asking why Biden isn't invoking section 6201 of the Foreign Assistance Act "No assistance shall be furnished under this chapter of the Arms Export Control Act to any country when it is made known to the President that the government of such country prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance."
I've not heard of him but I've been out of the country for 15 years and he is not a Senator from my state. He sounds really impressive in this video and I am wondering if any readers know anything about him. He is wanting Biden to invoke this act - which I am assuming means no weapons or monies until Israel complies. It sounds like the President has the power to do this -whether or not Congress agrees and complies - but I am happy to be corrected on this point.
Max Blumenthal says Biden has received over 1 million in donations over the course of his career from AIPAC - more than any other politician. It seems such a paltry amount to be complicit in the killing of thousands on thousands of innocent people over the course of Biden's career.
Even my wife fell victim to the political theater that is the State of the Union speech, especially in a campaign season. She thought the speech was effective in resurrecting Biden as a viable candidate. If you take a public speaking class, the first thing you are told is: Know your audience. NPR was completely caught up in this event as a campaign spectacle and commented accordingly.
It took no thinking at all to see fig leaf as the aid pier for Gaza idea. Gaza has largely faded from the "news". Aaron's immolation as a pang of conscience lasted about three days. So, says Biden, all sorts of beneficence is in the pipeline. Can't tell what bit of it has surfaced in the last three years. The tax rate for billionaires is still at 8.2%. Take away the pageantry, the spectacle, the posturing, the fawning media and all you've got left in your sieve is the banal, throwaway promises typical of all these chest thumping speeches. Speeches are the most appallingly mendacious forms of human communication ever devised (after advertising). They, that whole room, both sides, know well the credulity of their audience who do predictably get all caught up in the sporting aspect, the contest. One of the great canards of American virtue is the infallible doctrine of "competition". This is a corollary of the "free market" doctrine. Some of us know that the "competition" between the parties is total bullshit. The addiction to spectator sports makes it easy to swallow. It's an acquired nervous tick that gives attention first to the competitive distraction. The Romans called it "Bread and Circuses", the formula for distracting the masses from the fact that they're being used. Some aspects of humanity do never change.
To envision a nation and a society fundamentally different from what they've got is not possible for most Americans. It's easy for the rich and powerful to keep it their way with all the resources committed to that end. Electoral politics is one route to join that club. But there's a greater canard than "competition" to invigorate you, it's the worship of "democracy". Biden's campaign is largely afloat on the authoritarian threat. How much has his party done to thwart that fascist horde? The legal apparatus against "insurrection" seems paralyzed. Why would you harm the threat that is your raison d'etre.
They rely on you to vote against it.
From Aaron Mate - The Biden Doctrine in Gaza: Bomb, Starve, Deceive
"According to the Washington Post, the US has made more than 100 sales of weaponry to Israel since Oct. 7th. Only two of those transfers were made public – and in both of those cases, the White House invoked emergency powers to bypass Congressional review.
To avoid standard disclosures, the administration sent the weapons “in smaller batches that fall below a dollar threshold that requires the administration to notify Congress,” the Wall Street Journal reports, a method that comes as part of “a broader pattern in which the Biden administration has sought to avoid scrutiny from Congress.” And there are far more sales to come: according to the Journal, the US has “600 active cases of potential military transfer or sales worth more than $23 billion between the U.S. and Israel.”
Is this secrecy the Democrats' idea of saving democracy, by Genocide Joe deliberately hiding his assistance for a Genocide from us AND from Congress even AFTER the ICJ has indicted Israel for Genocide, meaning all assistance must stop? Give me a break, man! If Trump did what Biden's done, it would be considered the crime of the century. Dems would storm the White House and engage in a real insurrection. Come to think of it, that's what they'll likely do if he wins.
Trump should just let Biden finish the job - of collapsing the Evil Empire that's devouring our country and world. He's more than halfway there and doesn't even know it, which makes him the perfect man for the job.
https://www.aaronmate.net/p/the-biden-doctrine-in-gaza-bomb-starve
I'm surprised Genocide Joe doesn't help Netanyahu by just dropping Smallpox blankets in his food/bait drops.
I stopped reading Nicholas Kristof's opinions a few years ago, but this column in the NYTimes caught my attention and admiration for telling it like it is.
He quotes Mohammed Alshannat, a Palestinian in Gaza, reporting in horrific detail their ghastly suffering there:
"… My children are crying from hunger all the time. People are hoping that Israel nukes us so we get rid of this pain…."
In professor/poet* Refaat Alareer's last heartbreaking video, right after the IDF called him to torment that they were coming for him, he struggled to hold back tears and asked in anguish "What do they want us to do, commit suicide?"
Just moments later they bombed and killed him and members of his family.
RIP Refaat Alareer
RIP Aaron Bushnell
* 'If I Must Die'
I watched Naledi Pandor videos and took her advice. She suggested we all make a poster saying STOP GENOCIDE.
I bought a 3 pk of white magnetic vent covers, cut one to the size of a large bumper sticker, wrote STOP GENOCIDE on it with a magic marker and attached it to the back of my vehicle.
I too have no family, friends, or neighbors who seem to know or care about the New Holocaust so it's the least I can do to help spread awareness and solidarity.
Now I'm looking around town for other metal surfaces ; - ) for the other sheet magnets.
FREE PALESTINE!
Please forgive me for bogarting Karen's blog. I confess it's my therapy and helps me cope. Thanks, Karen.
According to an exclusive in the Jerusalem Post, Biden's plan for building a military pier/port was actually Netanyahu's idea dating back to the second week of the genocide so clearly not about providing humanitarian assistance. No wonder Biden is going along with Israel's plan for the IDF to 'guard' it [make it their shooting gallery].
'Diplomatic Source to 'Post': Gaza Maritime Route Was Netanyahu’s Idea'
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-791239
The great thing about social media is that news is crowd sourced from all over the world from formal and informal sources. There's always someone somewhere who attends to news from the Times of Israel, Haaretz, or Tehran Times and others formal sources from around the world in addition to informal, direct sources on the ground, often with video. It then gets shared and spreads like wildfire.
Speaking of wildfire, I can't see flames now and not immediately think of Aaron Bushnell, probably because I watched the unedited version of his video so it's literally burned into my mind and soul. IMO, flames of fire should be the international anti-genocide symbol. I plan to add red flames to my magnetic signs. The nice thing about their being magnetic is being detachable so I can swap them out for others including RIP AARON BUSHNELL and FREE PALESTINE, or just audaciously add them to cover the entire back of my van. Who can't notice them then? I just need to drive around more or figure out a way to add one to my bike, my primary vehicle.
If I sound obsessed, I admit I am. Whenever I wake up at night I immediately think about Palestinians still being starved, shot, bombed, and dying while Biden is still sending munitions in violation of international law. If Genocide Joe thought of Palestinians, especially the children, as his own family members like I do, he would have stopped this madness long ago. It's clear he doesn't. No heart, no compassion, no soul. What happened to restoring the soul of our nation, Joe? Always pay attention to what they DO, not what they SAY.
The virality of social media is why our rulers want to not just control TikTok but the rest of social media to eliminate the sources that we use to share accurate and more complete information to get the full picture. For instance, the pending TikTok legislation in Congress is being moved by leadership under 'suspension of the rules', which means short debate and no opportunity to amend. According to Rep Thomas Massie, it's a Trojan Horse because the fine print gives the President the power to ban even WEBSITES.
So why not ban ALL Governments from spying on American citizens, including all of the Five Eyes including the USA itself? It's all a violation of our Constitutional rights.
https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20240311/HR%207521%20Updated.pdf
Speaking of fear and loathing ...
U.S. Government Seeks “Unified Vision of Unauthorized Movement” —
Homeland security towers are to be powered by artificial intelligence.
https://theintercept.com/2024/03/12/dhs-border-towers-ai/
March 12 2024, ~ Daniel Boguslaw
"… Towers are currently being built and netted together by Elbit America (part of Israel’s Elbit Systems), Advanced Technology Systems Company, and General Dynamics.… "
Speaking of wildfire ...
"God gave Noah the rainbow sign
No more water, the fire next time"
‘Fire Weather’: Big Oil’s climate conflagration —
The 2016 Fort McMurray Fire forced 88,000 people to evacuate in a single day and let off temperatures hotter than Venus.
It’s just the beginning of the future Big Oil has in store for us.
https://therealnews.com/fire-weather-big-oils-climate-conflagration
March 8, 224 ~ by Chris Hedges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HZs-v0PR44
US President Joe Biden said that “if there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one” while speaking to Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Biden had previously made similar comments about Israel, most famously in 1986 during a session of the US Senate where he proclaimed that it was “the best $3bn investment” the US had made, and that it would have to “invent an Israel to protect US interests in the region” if Israel didn’t exist.
https://theconversation.com/biden-says-the-u-s-would-have-to-invent-an-israel-if-it-didnt-exist-why-210172
Hasbara: Oct. 7 and Israel’s propaganda war —
Israeli claims of Hamas committing mass rape and beheading babies traveled far and wide through corporate media before being discredited.
Why is our media so susceptible to Zionist propaganda?
https://therealnews.com/hasbara-oct-7-and-israels-propaganda-war
March 15, 2024 ~ by Chris Hedges
The Hebrew word for this propaganda is hasbara or explanation.
The start of Operation of Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7 was accompanied by a deluge of Israeli propaganda. Claims of beheaded babies, infants found in ovens, mass rape, and other heinous atrocities allegedly committed by Hamas circulated far and wide, promoted by a range of interlocutors that included journalists, celebrities, legacy media, and even President Biden himself. Months later, the most outrageous of these claims of Hamas atrocities have been debunked, but the damage has already been done. Ali Abuminah joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the Israeli propaganda campaign providing cover for the genocide in Gaza, and the complicity of corporate media in these crimes.
Ali Abuminah is a Palestinian American journalist and the co-founder of The Electronic Intifada.
Israel’s Trojan Horse —
The “temporary pier” being built on the Mediterranean coast of Gaza is not there to alleviate the famine, but to herd Palestinians onto ships and into permanent exile.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/israels-trojan-horse?
utm_source=substack&publication_id=778851&post_id=142739814&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=1gm7xf&triedRedirect=true
March 18, 2024 ~ by Chris Hedges
"No matter how cynical you get, it's almost impossible to keep up."
~ Lily Tomlin
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