Tag: assassination

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“Oh Popeye! Oh Bluto!” — Fortunately, morons won’t decide the election now

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

September 18th 2024

The small group of voters known as “undecideds” break down into two categories. First, there’s the “What? There’s a election?” crowd. They tend to have an exaggerated impact in polls because they rarely actually vote. They need to know to register, and when, where and how to vote.

The others are the Olive Oyls. They’re the ones who are like the old Popeye cartoons character, the weak-willed and ever-vacillating female who can never decide between her two suitors, no matter how stark and obvious the difference between the two might be.

The reasoning might go something like this: “OK, Trump hates Taylor Swift, but Vance tells me Harris eats live kittens!” They can’t tell truth from falsehood, and aren’t ethically equipped to distinguish between normal and abhorrent behavior.

In a nation split almost exactly evenly by the power of propaganda, it’s horrifying to realize that these morons were likely to be the tipping point.

But the good news is that there is a new tipping point, and it lies with a group large enough to send the undecideds to the obscurity they deserve: this group is the Responsible Republicans.

They are a lot larger than most people realize. I started getting an inkling of their presence when I noticed that even in primaries where Nikki Haley wasn’t on the ballot, between 10 and 30 percent of Republican voters were NOT voting for Trump.

I looked at this, and I reasoned that as long as Biden held it together and didn’t do something utterly senile like declare hatred for Taylor Swift or childless cat ladies, and Trump went right on being Trump, these disaffected voters would become a significant factor in the election.

Biden’s withdrawal and the subsequent rise of Kamala Harris put Trump’s deficiencies in a glaring light. People immediately saw it as the Prosecutor vs. the Felon. Not Kennedy vs. Nixon, but more like Perry Mason vs. Tony Soprano. Only this “Tony” has stripped his mental gears and confuses Mason with Ironsides and mocks him for being in a wheelchair.

The exodus of Republicans choosing country over party didn’t begin with Liz Cheney and her father Dick endorsing Harris, but changed from a trickle to a landslide since. The latest round was announced by the Harris/Walz campaign today, when “more than 100 Republican former national security and foreign policy officials who served in senior roles in multiple presidential administrations and in Congress are endorsing Vice President Harris for President.” This is in addition to the hundreds of ranking Republicans—former Presidents and Vice-Presidents, former Congressionals, former members of the Trump administration, hundreds more from both Bush and Reagan administrations, who have either endorsed Harris or refused to endorse Trump.

And now we are starting to see the polls shift. And it isn’t a big increase for Harris (1 percentage point) but a significant decrease for Trump (3 percentage points). He’s bleeding support.

For Responsible Republicans, the message is clear: if you can’t bring yourself to vote for Harris, at least don’t vote for Trump. The country can survive Harris; it won’t survive Trump. They may believe the propaganda on Fox News that Biden has ruined the economy and turned the country into a Taco Stand run by the cartels, but they can see that things are actually pretty good in their town. And because things ARE actually pretty good all around the country, a lot of Republicans are noticing that.

We’re just about at the point in the campaign where Bluto has pulled a dirty trick so egregious that Olive is starting to look even more confused, and Popeye is muttering “That’s alls I can stands, I can’t stands no more” and you know the loud music is about to start.

This week’s “assassination attempt” at the golf course shows just how desperate the Trump campaign has become. The previous attempt in Bethel, Pennsylvania, which was very real, didn’t result in a boost in the polls, but it did earn Trump a certain amount of good will and he might have enjoyed a ‘honeymoon’ period after that, had he not started immediately grifting from it.

This one’s credibility didn’t even last overnight. Trump himself blew the believability of it out of the water by saying that his decision to go golfing that day was a “last minute decision” which, combined with police claims the guy with the gun was parked outside the golf course for twelve hours, added to a huge “this doesn’t add up” from everyone. Not only did the grifting begin almost immediately, but JD Vance and others instantly demanded that Democrats—commies, pet-eaters and baby-killers all—immediately tone down the “inflammatory rhetoric.” If Ashli Babbitt was the MAGA movement’s Horst Wessel, then Ryan Routh, the golf course guy, was Marinus van der Lubbe, the half-wit executed for supposedly starting the Reichstag fire.

This won’t be lost on the remaining responsible Republicans who hadn’t quite decided to break the bond with Trump. What was a trickle of Republicans abandoning him will become a flood.

It doesn’t translate to down-ticket votes necessarily, although candidates firmly aligned with Trump will suffer from it. If you’re a sane Republican in North Carolina, you not only won’t vote for Trump, but you won’t vote for that nutball Mark Robinson, either.

Republicans in the House especially may find themselves vulnerable.

But a lot of those Republicans who see the dangers of Trump may decide Harris is nearly as bad, and vote Republican down ticket to keep the country paralyzed. This could still happen.

Less than seven weeks to go, now. Stay focused.

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A Turn for the Douche — Trump reaches down for VP pick

A Turn for the Douche

Trump reaches down for VP pick

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

July 16th 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

Before he became a vulture capitalist and began his descent into utter dirtbaggery, JD Vance would occasionally say some things that suggested at least some personal integrity. For instance, in his book Hillbilly Elegy, he described Trump as “cultural heroin” and someone “leading the white working class to a very dark place”.

He told a friend, “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.”

In 2016 he told the NY Times, “Mr Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”

Also: “I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.”

Or how about “Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us.”?

Well, that’s all bye the bye now. He’s now Donald’s choice as vice presidential candidate, there to fluff Donald on command and snarl and threaten all those who oppose Donald.

It just happened to be coincidence, I suppose, that the update that Vance had been named VP candidate happened just as my disk mix started playing Garfunkel and Oates’ “This Party Just Took a Turn for the Douche.” (NSFW, but very funny).

The GOP has been on a steady downward trajectory since 1964, when the John Bircher crowd managed to make Barry Goldwater their nominee. He lost by a huge margin, of course, and what the Birchers (read: The Koch Brothers) learned was they would have to set up a vast propaganda apparatus and take control of the nation’s press, suborn the legislatures and courts to make it easy to buy elections, and get at least one major party to put their interests well ahead of the nation’s.

Thus was born the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, thousand of other “think tanks” (Goebbelese for “propaganda pits”), Rush Limbaugh and his control of AM radio throughout rural America, a vast right wing network, the takeover of local news and newspapers, and the neutering of “mainstream” media such as the New York Times or CNN.

If you think Trump and Vance 2024 is as low as it gets, expect it to get much worse. Germany 1938 worse.

Trump is Trump. He got grazed by a bit of shattered glass, and one of his fans was killed trying to shelter his family from the bullets. Trump never tried to call to console the family—instead he went out and played golf. It’s an example, though, of how thoroughly he has poisoned the minds of his followers: President Biden DID try to call the widow to console her, and they refused to take the call. Better to be ignored by a fascists then cared about by a Democrat, I suppose. That’s pretty sick.

Trump is trying to pretend he knows nothing (“I know Nuffink!!”) about Project 2025, and his followers are marching in lockstep. They’ve been told to say that Agenda 2030 is a far greater danger to America. Here’s a link to that 2015 laundry list of goals: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Read it, and cower in terror. They want you to be fed, clothed, housed, free from tyranny, and all kinds of mean nasty horrible things like that. The right is hoping that while you are running away waving your hands and squealing like a piggy, you pretend that Project 2025 is just an example of liberal hysteria and no self-respecting conservative supports it and besides it’s not all that bad any way. Here’s a link to that: https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf Since it’s over 900 pages, you might just want an overview: https://democracyforward.org/the-peoples-guide-to-project-2025/

The fourth pillar of Project 2025 (yes, it has pillars, just like Islam, only Islam’s are a lot nicer) is the transition plan for the first 180 days of the Trump administration. Kind of hard to believe that none of Trump’s people have heard of it, especially since 140 of his top aides from his last administration co-authored Project 2025. Basically, it’s a nightmare. Restores the Spoils System, makes all government workers Trumps’ personal serfs who he can fire and hire at will. Eliminates most of the departments of government, including the EPA, Education, Health and Human Services, and such vital agencies as NOAA, and FEMA.

We already know what sort of man Donald is. Now we know Vance is no better. And Project 2025 tells you a lot about the people supporting Trump.

They aren’t doing it for you. As far at they are concerned, you are there to generate revenue, buy their stuff, and keep your fucking trap shut.

It won’t be a fun existence. Especially since tyrannies like that need endless scapegoats to distract and intimidate you with. They’ll start with immigrants, but it won’t stop there. The camps will grow huge, and as they grow huge, more expensive. You can probably figure you where things go from there.

Don’t listen to what Trump and Vance say: they are inveterate liars and hypocrites. Instead, see what their supporters say. There’s the real agenda, and it’s an ugly one.

“The real problem is what they want to do to the dollar, the constitution, the judiciary and the rules based international system is an absolute train wreck, a perversion of what was once conservatism. It is a brand of anarcho-Christian populism, which borders on fascism; it is a very dangerous time for the United States. The deficit spending is out of control and if they devalue the dollar they’re going to disrupt the entire global capitalist system. The United States could lead the world out of this problem, but it would need to do it in a way that is almost the opposite of what they are doing.” — Anthony Scaramucci on Project 2025

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The Trump Shooting — Chaos and confusion reign—don’t let it rule you

The Trump Shooting

Chaos and confusion reign—don’t let it rule you

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

July 14th, 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

Perhaps the most depressing thing about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump yesterday was that I was utterly unsurprised. I would have been equally unsurprised if the intended target had been Joe Biden, or even Robert F. Kennedy Jr. All three men, and indeed any politician of any notoriety at all, have enemies by the thousands or even millions, and with 600 million guns in the country, a lot of those enemies are heavily armed.

I was surprised that anyone meeting that criteria could get close enough to get some shots off. The Secret Service are very good at their job, and despite the fact that hundred and perhaps thousands of armed people fantasize about shooting one politician or another, the last really close call was Ronald Reagan, 43 years ago. (Gabby Giffords didn’t have SS protection when she was shot.) While there are legitimate questions about how this happened at all (at least one member of Trump’s audience says he spotted the shooter on a neighboring roof and tried to warn SS and police personnel on the scene and was ignored) the fact is there are weapons of war out there that can hit a three inch target from three miles away. In this instance, preliminary reports are that the shooter used an AR-15 (or “AR-type rifle”), which certainly has the range but isn’t particularly accurate.

Some reports are that Trump wasn’t grazed by a bullet, but by a shard of glass from a teleprompter the shooter did hit. That seems plausible. Even at 300 yards, getting nicked by an assault rifle bullet should produce enough hydrostatic shock that Trump would end up with a permanent case of what boxers used to call “Cauliflower Ear.”

It’s a sign of the utter confusion surrounding the event that even now we don’t know how far away the shooter was. In baseball, Statcast can tell the crowd the precise distance and velocity of a home run before the ball even lands. Estimates began at “300 to 400 yards” and now are around 150-200 yards. The latter seems more likely, partially because the bullets did come so close, and partially because it’s a lot easier to spot a man with a gun at 150 yard than it is at 400 yards. Let alone hit him with return fire almost immediately, as apparently happened when the Secret Service returned fire. (And in the moments since I wrote that, the Guardian produced a aerial photo showing where Trump was, where the shooter was, and where the SS snipers were. The shots came from 120 meters away, about 133 yards).

We don’t know much about the shooter. His name was Thomas Matthew Crooks, he lived nearby, he was twenty years old, and registered as a Republican. That last might surprise some folks, but remember that some of Trump’s most vociferous critics and strident foes are Republicans. For all the adoration of his fans, the man is very widely hated.

One anonymous police report is that they found bomb-making equipment but for now we should just assume they found a set of wire cutters in his garage.

Congress is already demanding a full investigation into how this could have happened, and while some of those congressionals are simply grandstanding, it is a very legitimate point. This. Should. Not. Have. Happened. Somebody screwed the pooch.

There are calls for national unity in the wake of the shooting, and no doubt most of them are being made in good faith. But some aren’t. Mike Lee of Utah thinks we should show our support for America by dropping all criminal charges and convictions against Donald Trump. Get a few stitches in your ear, it’s a get-out-of-jail card, amiright?

Some are misguided. Speaker Mike Johnson compared this to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. That event didn’t do much in the way of unification: a third of the land (the Confederacy) erupted in wild jubilation, and Lincoln’s shooting is celebrated in some quarters even today.

There’s a lot of bad actors and opportunists out there spreading misinformation and disinformation. Beware any report that seems suspicious, or is simply too good to be true. It’s very unlikely, for instance, that Crooks was a transgendered DEI hire who was secretly banging AOC and hated Jesus. He don’t even know if his motives were political.

So stay calm, call out the professional liars and opportunists, and remember that the simplest explanation is most likely to be the correct one.

And reflect on the fact that it’s hard to maintain stability in a land with six hundred million guns. We’ve got to do something about that.

 

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Where’s Waldo? – Is he with Howard?

Where’s Waldo?

Is he with Howard?

February 17th 2020

Trump wrote in a tweet Friday, “Ralph Waldo Emerson seemed to foresee the lesson of the Senate Impeachment Trial of President Trump. ‘When you strike at the King, Emerson famously said, ‘you must kill him.’”

Now, I don’t for an instant believe Trump wrote that. It’s unlikely he’s ever even heard of Emerson, let alone be able to quote any of the man’s writings. He may have heard the Prohibition-era quip that strong drink will make you shoot at ‘revenooers’ and miss. He may well think that assassination is a viable political tactic, since Hitler said, “Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future.”

But even he might think twice about making a remark about his potential assassination that some people could take as a challenge. Unpopular leaders and even popular ones don’t, as a rule, suggest to potential assassins that competence in their craft is a desirable feature. For obvious reasons, right?

One of Trump’s hirelings doubtlessly thought the Emerson quote would be good braggadocio, a kind of a “we can do whatever the hell we want” statement in the wake of the shameful and sham trial in the Senate.

But Trump’s cabal—and this is their one saving grace—is that they are riddled with morons and incompetents. Even leaving aside the utter lunacy of a public figure saying what amounts to “Come shoot at me if you’re hard enough,” there’s the fact that very few American politicians ever gained much mileage out of comparing themselves to kings. With the exception of Huey Long (“Every man a king”) most politicians prefer to avoid the term altogether, since memories of English tyranny, rightly or wrongly, are a part of the American DNA.

Braggadocio usually backfires. George W. Bush is still trying to live down “Bring it on!” which got several hundred extra American troops killed in the middle east. About the only time it’s warranted is when the circumstances are so dire that only over-the-top persiflage will do. Churchill’s splendid rallying speeches in the darkest days of the Battle of Britain would have been deemed utterly ridiculous if the threatening invader was only Denmark, or Tonga.

People don’t like braggarts, outside of pro wrestling matches. Perhaps Donald thinks of the country as just another part of his pro wrestling empire. It’s hard to say. Even pro wrestling has a term for that sort of posturing: kayfabe. It’s a part of the act, just there to entertain the schmucks. But apart from the resolutely stupid people who still support Trump, Americans aren’t schmucks.

It’s dumbfounding that Trump’s people would even want to put the notion of assassination on the table for public consideration. It’s a horrifying concept on the face of it, right?

But then I thought of an American movie that was made in an entirely different America some 45 years ago: Network.

Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch and Robert Duvall, this brilliant 1976 satire featured such things as doctors advertising their medical corporations, and news anchors who were loud, opinionated and dishonest. This was still the era of Cronkite, when newscasters were respected and trusted, and there were still firm restraints on corporate depredations. So the idea of a mad television anchor, Howard Beale (Finch) shouting things like “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!” was very foreign to American sensibilities of the time. This was a era when nobody could imagine the Rush Limbaughs and Faux News, and the populist shouters and screamers in sideshow religious and neo-nazi reactionary movements were relegated to small, lightly regarded AM radio stations out in the boonies.

Network executives realized that Beale was developing a following amongst the dissaffected, and rather than sacking him (their first impulse) they kept him on, and he got crazier and crazier and his ratings rose.

However, he turns on the corporate entities that own his network, and exposes corrupt Saudi dealings behind many of the corporate buyouts. Beale is ordered to evangelize in favor of corporate globalisation, and his ratings drop. People want crazy populists, not grimly efficient corporations that are out to suck them dry.

Finally, it’s decided: the only way to eliminate Beale and restore the ratings up is to arrange to have him assassinated, live on TV, during his news show.

Thus, he is assassinated on screen, the most watched TV show in history. Beale dies a hero, a martyr to causes that he himself despised.

Now, it’s widely reported that people in the White House, despite endless purges and cleansings, famously regard Trump as out of control and uncontrollable, a danger to himself and others. More than one “insider” book has claimed that there is a cabal, a resistance, dedicated to preventing Trump from effectuating some of his loonier and more destructive impulses. Clearly this resistance has had little effect, and Trump is consolidating his power. The fact that the front runner against Trump is Sanders may increase the level of desperation of this resistance, since the only thing worse, in their eyes, than a mad, stupid Hitler is a democratic socialist.

So this tweet might not be just bad judgment on the part of some flunky: it may be a signal that persons in the administration may be getting ready to Howard Beale Trump’s ass. It wouldn’t be hard to take the ensuing chaos, confusion and outrage and turn it to their own advantage. President Pence would be a hero who ‘saved America’ by tracking down the head of the evil conspiracy that took the beloved leader from us: Bernie Sanders. Yeah, yeah, I know. Doesn’t matter if he had any involvement or not, though. He would be a serviceable villain for the Trumpkins, though. Rally the base, all that.

Think it’s far-fetched? Gawds, I hope so! I think it’s far-fetched myself.

But go rent a copy of Network and watch it.

Then ask yourself if it’s a possible scenario – or not.

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Holy Murder – Got Mit Uns

January 5th 2020

The Washington Post is reporting this morning that Trump did not notify leaders of Congress of the planned assassination of Qassam Suleimani as he is legally required to do, but he DID notify the Russians. Kinda shows who he’s really working for, doesn’t it?

If anyone tells you that Putin and his criminal gang are better suited to hear American military strategies ahead of Congress, explain to them that they are fools and traitors to their country and to get the hell out of your sight. Yes, I’ve seen Trumpkins make that very claim. They are shit Americans.

Mike Pence, God’s Designated Liar on Earth, tried explaining that Suleimani was behind 9/11, an utterly factless claim put out there in Pence’s dim-witted hopes that people would somehow take this to mean that Trump had just prevented another 9/11. It’s on about the same level as assassinating Boris Johnson and then claiming he was involved in the 1605 plot to blow up Parliament.

Trump himself tried claiming that he had preempted an plan for an imminent attack upon American interests, which was about as factually-based as anything else that flushes out of that man’s mouth.

Nearly every pundit in the country is bloviating on what kind of blow-back America can expect, and what Trump will do next with the disaster he has created. They are even, gawds help us, asking if it saves Trump from impeachment. Fox News and the Christian Right see Trump as a resolute and godly hero for employing the same tactics that Trump assassinated Suleimani for. Lindsey Graham huffed that you can’t impeach a president during war time, and right wingers are even pushing for a constitutional amendment saying just that.

A few quick points, Lindsey: Trump has already been impeached. It was in all those papers and news sources you don’t read. Second, we aren’t at war. Iraq, where the assassination took place, is a putative ally—or at least was, more on that in a moment—and despite the incessant saber-rattling from Bolton and Cheney and the rest of the trash militant right, Iran is not an enemy. At least, not as of this writing. And third, if you have anything at all resembling a brain in that skull of yours, do you really want a loophole in the constitution that encourages a president to start a war in order to avoid being brought up on criminal charges? Really? Is that all that’s left of your bullshit “suthun honor”?

This morning, the Iraq Parliament voted by a small majority to kick American troops out. If Trump reacts the way I expect and decides to blow off the Parliamentarian decree (after all, if he doesn’t pay attention to the US Congress, why would he care about anyone else’s?) then he’s probably just rekindled the Iraq war. And Donald may be too stupid to realize this, but America cannot win ground wars in Iraq and Iran. Hell, in the past twenty years, America hasn’t been able to win a ground war in Afghanistan, an economic basket case. It will just mean thousands of lives lost, and trillions of dollars squandered.

And Iran has renounced the nuclear deal in total today. I don’t want to hear a single American whine about that: the US arbitrarily broke the deal two years ago, part of Trump’s efforts to score points with the “let’s bomb them all” crowd, and the criminal fascist Netanyahu.

Oh, by the way, Donald. Remember ISIS? Those are the indisputably bad guys you claim to have defeated. Well, funny thing. The people who really brought ISIS to heel were the Kurds and the Iraqis. But now you’ve betrayed the Kurds, and you’ve pissed off the Iraqis to the point where they want your ass out of their country right now, and so ISIS can regrow, abetted by the propaganda coup that your foolish assassination of Suleimani has given them. And no, they still aren’t nice guys. But then, neither are you.

In fact, you’re a lot like Suleimani, except he was a lot smarter and less of a corrupt fraud. He was a vicious and crafty bastard, a master at asymmetrical warfare, and yes, Americans were his most frequent target. You may be wondering how such a bastard could develop a devoted following. Well, next time you hold one of your mini-Nuremberg rallies, look at the rabid faces goggling back at you with mindless devotion. Same types of assholes, only unlike you, with your manipulative nihilism, Suleimani actually stood for something (if awful) and didn’t have to pretend to be a leader.

His assholes are more dangerous than your assholes, and most of them are a lot smarter. You might want to keep that in mind.

It’s no wonder you reported to the Russians first ahead of your own nation. Putin must be beside himself with joy. For many years, since before you were born, Russia has wanted strong influence in the Persian and Babylonian regions. Reducing both countries to utter chaos is the easiest way to do that, since he understands that he cannot win a ground war or sustain an occupation in either land. (Unlike you, he learned from a failed occupation of Afghanistan). You’ve given him the chaos he wants to become the principal cohesive entity in that region. He doesn’t need troops and bases there to subdue the locals; he just wants control of the currency and the main industries, and you’ve given that to him.

And of course, the only country capable of preventing him from doing that is already in chaos, and largely at Putin’s hand. He managed to get a puppet regime that trashed the country’s intelligence and military, and divided and enraged the population. Place called America. He managed to get that most unlikely piece of shit you can imagine into the Oval Office.

That would be you, Donald.

And you’ve pretty much destroyed the intelligence agencies you now desperately need to gauge world reaction. What a fucking fool you are.

I can’t wait to see you convicted and thrown in prison. I hope you never see daylight again.

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“Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation”

“Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation”

He looked at me funny. Kill him.

 

© Bryan Zepp Jamieson

February 5th, 2013

 

Back on February 19. 1942, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing police to round up and throw American citizens into concentration camps because one or more of their ancestors came from Japan.

Even the most fervent admirers of FDR regard this as a shameful blot on his record, a moment of weakness and cowardice from a man who assured the nation it had nothing to fear but fear itself. It was illegal, it was immoral, and it violated the very heart of the Bill of Rights.

There aren’t many apologists around these days for that action, but the few that remain argue that America was facing the greatest threat of her existence from Japan and Germany, and what’s more, those countries had concentration camps and things far worse than concentration camps. That’s true: Hitler and Japan were huge threats, they were utterly vile, and they represented a standard that America was expected to exceed. For the hundred thousand plus Americans who were locked up indefinitely without trial, their property seized and their lives ruined, “We’re not as bad as Hitler” must have seemed scant comfort. In 1943, in a photo-op that would have made Joseph Goebbels moan in envy (and probably did) Eleanor Roosevelt allowed herself to be photographed at the Gila River concentration camp, where she paid a “surprise” visit, surrounded by clean, well-dressed, beaming concentration camp inmates.

That shameful time brings us to 2011, and a 16-page memo entitled “Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen Who Is a Senior Operational Leader of al-Qaeda or An Associated Force.” Basically, this document lays out an Obama policy that anyone accused by the administration of being a member of or supporting al-Qaeda or any other group that scares the administration can be assassinated.

The government can kill anyone they accuse of being involved with the wrong people. They don’t need proof. They don’t need evidence. Just an accusation by any high administration official will do. The order goes out, and the accused dies. In fact, in Yemen, Obama has taken up killing off children of the accused, just in case. They killed an American in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, and then they targeted and killed his 16 year old boy, because a teenage orphan four thousand miles away has to be at least as big a threat to America as the Japanese Navy, or the Nazi U-boats.

That the administration had been targeting and killing people based on gossip, who may or may not be members of outfits that don’t like America, has been pretty well known. Some were Americans. But the administration had always denied that any formal decision to do this had ever been made, and that the deaths were more or less incidental to larger, more legal policies.

They claimed there was no memo. They lied. NBC published it yesterday. http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/020413_DOJ_White_Paper.pdf

The paper is a frightening document, at least as terrifying as the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. It simply states that based on the unsupported opinion of any senior member of Obama’s administration, they have the right to murder you without warning, let alone without due process. And they can kill your family, too. There’s no “minimum requirement.” That’s explicitly stated right at the beginning. The administration needs NO threshold to decide that you must die. If they feel like it, you’re dead, your house blown up by a drone. Just like that. Just by writing this, I might meet that fate.

In amazing verbiage, the memo calmly states that it does not violate international or American law, including laws against assassination. It asserts that the administration has a constitutional mandate to protect Americans by murdering some of them. Just enough to set an example, you understand.

It uses “imminence” as a rationale, the same ruling that permits a police officer to use lethal force if a suspect presents an immediate and real threat to bystanders. It’s a well known fact, of course, that police never overstep this directive and exceed their authority. And politicians are even more moral and circumspect than police. Therefore abuse is inconceivable.

You did know that, right?

The document attempts to figleaf itself by iterating that it must be on foreign soil that these assassinations are carried out. It’s hard to understand how some clown with a bazooka can be an imminent threat to the security of the United States when he’s four thousand miles away. “Foreign soil” – wink, wink, nod, nod, a wink’s as good as a nod to a blind drone, eh?

The document goes on to justify itself by citing Supreme Court decisions, Geneva Convention rules, international and national laws, almost as if any of these things did justify this policy. In fact, none of them do. Not even the ones that deal with treatment of foreign soldiers and other adversaries during conditions of declared war.

This document lays bare the utter moral, ethical and legal depravity behind the so-called “war on terror.” It shows the cowardice and fear that informs US efforts to deal with people who don’t like America and might throw rocks. It is shameful, as shameful as the incarcerations in World War II, as shameful as My Lai or Andersonville.

It’s a disgrace to America, and it’s a disgrace to Obama.

Obama must renounce and abjure this document and the policy it represents, and he must do it now.

If he cannot, he doesn’t belong in the White House. He belongs in prison as a war criminal.

 

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