The special relationship between the US and UK may be exemplified by many little things, take the advent of Rock & Roll; Hula Hoops; Bubble Gum; even “Regime Change”, within a few short weeks of being all the rage in the US, the ‘Limeys’ could also be seen with sticky Bubble Gum faces, or sitting in the Chiropractors waiting room, or happily joining in with bombing the shit out of the latest in a long line of Oil rich targets.
Connect the dots, or if you prefer, the cities razed to the ground by our concerted actions in bringing “Democracy to the Middle east”. When you have joined all the dots correctly you will find they lead you through the thousands of well heads and pipelines across the globe, straight to your living room, or the petrol pump at the filling station in your neighbourhood.
For the record, this is not a ‘Bash America’ piece, I have a long, genuine, and affectionate interest in the US that goes back to my childhood, and my family.
My father was a R.E.M.E .Engineer sergeant during WW2, and went through many of the major campaigns that used armoured warfare, his field was repairing and maintaining battle tanks. He spoke little about himself, but there were a couple of times when he opened up, and on one occasion, with my discovery of his WW2 scrapbook, I quizzed him about a couple of Photographs. The first was taken at the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes, showing 15 men, dad included, smiling and joking, (the war was nearly over), in a Forest, standing on the back of a 10 Ton truck.
That entire group had enlisted as war broke out, and they had been through living hell for nearly 6 years. The second photograph was taken a week later, the forest had gone, taking with it the mobile workshop area they had built. The landscape was just tree stumps and craters. Of the men in the original photograph, only my Father and 1 other man survived and both were wounded.
It was a US patrol that found them, a US field hospital that brought them back to health. The war had moved on and, when they were able, the US moved with it, taking my dad and his mate with them. They both had experience working on US Sherman Tanks and they were asked if they could help out their US counterparts until their own unit was found (It took a long time, it had been decimated).
For a year my dad worked alongside the “Yanks” and he grew a deep and lasting friendship with several soldiers and officers that lasted long after the war.
This story went into my mind and stayed there. The US had saved my fathers life and I am alive as a result of it, so for me too it is a “Special Relationship”.
Here on DG, I may come across as rabidly anti US, but that isn’t against the American people, its against the war hawks that have been responsible for driving the US into an ever deepening fascism, all for the love of Money. Lots and lots of money but only for the chosen few, the Billionaires for whom power and control are their Oxygen, their Lifes Blood.
Lord Acton famously once wrote,
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men,…”.
Those last few words are very telling, for they are rarely coupled to the first part these days. After observing political life over the last 60 years I have to say I agree with Lord Actons summary completely. What can be any more corrupt than the senseless taking of life, human or otherwise?
Who are these people that are happy to line their pockets with gold, while millions of dead bodies are left behind like so much garbage? There is a phrase for it “Collateral damage” it doesn’t sound as bad as Genocide, and it means nothing to the bastards that plan and execute the wars and incursions that have become pretty much seamless since 1945. The US White House administration may be the respectable face of the US but the warmongering is fermented deep in the corridors of power and the bunkers that they are attached to.
In recent years I have had cause to ask myself what the hell has happened to the US that I know, the people, the friendships, the sheer beauty and diversity of the place and its scenery?
Now ask yourself why tonight, at 0400 C.E.T, 14-April 20-18, as I edit this page, where Trump got his authority to bomb Syria yet again, inevitably killing thousands of civilians in the process, and what’s more he has taken the “Special Relationship” with UK and France along for the ride. It feels to me like an undeclared civil war is taking place, it is not JUST a Hawks and Doves thing, it is more entrenched, it is Haves and Have-nots, it is Caring and Uncaring, but mostly it is straightforward Democracy vs Fascism.
I find myself getting more and more angry about an entire nation being infiltrated and overwhelmed by people only interested in Money and Power, and to hell with Love and Beauty. Just contrast these words from JFK with the recent incoherent ramblings of Donald Trump,{Its about the US GDP, but dont be put off by that}..
Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product – if we judge the United States of America by that -that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
OK, I know that like all US Presidents, JFK was far from perfect, but if that passage above doesn’t have any meaning for you then you are beyond help in my opinion
The ugly, “Anti-Society” Libertarian movement has been fueled for 70 years by the continuous drip feed of $Millions of the Rockefeller & Koch Austrian School tax free donations. This has enabled the elite Think Tank/Lobbyist “Movement” to tighten its grip on government and once again the war hawks are circling using the particularly compliant, and very flexible “Reality Show” POTUS to do their bidding
When Donald Trump was elected I knew the US was in deep shit. It has always been obvious to me that the US POTUS was never in charge of events, the Backroom Brigade, the endless stream of Advisers and Consultants, now reinforced by the addition of multiple layers of Contractors, they formulate policy, not the president. We all know who Trump is, and his family, son & son in law (Senior Adviser to POTUS Jared Kushner), but names like Paul Manafort kept cropping up, he was Trumps Campaign adviser, which meant nothing to me until his name was repeated a few times. I found a very good article in The Atlantic about him, it is a real eye opener and makes much more sense of what is to follow.
The following text is the amalgamation of a series of Tweets. The author was asked if he minded us using them but so far we have had no reply. In any event they have been placed in the Public Domain, and our sole reason behind our actions is to give these thoughts, and facts, a very much wider audience.
Jared Kushner
His “Special Relationship? Father in Law! Really special, bigly special, as special as can possibly be.
The single most important fact in the Trump-Russia investigation is one that is never-discussed.
- Investigators are currently trying to determine “exactly” when every member of the Trump campaign found out Russia was working to elect Trump. These dates are of legal importance because they establish a “mens rea” (mental state) for possible crimes committed by Trump and others.
- Once Trump, his family, and/or his campaign aides knew Russia was committing crimes to assist Trump, certain actions became “prohibited”, for instance, once Trump had this knowledge, he could not publicly deny it without running afoul of federal Aiding and Abetting statutes.
- For instance, once Don Jr. had this knowledge he couldn’t take any action in furtherance of a plan to benefit from Russia’s illegal acts.
- Knowledge of Russian illegalities—even broadly—is a necessary precursor to what we colloquially call “collusion” (not a legal term here).
- This is why “all” of Trump’s most audacious lies—and his family’s, and his aides’—centre on their “knowledge” of what Russia was doing.
Jared Kushners excuse for not knowing Russia was working to elect Trump?
(a) he left a big meeting early;(b) he didn’t check his email.
What do the Trump aides who changed the GOP platform last July say in response to charges they were executing a quid pro quo for Russia?
(a) they were executing orders Trump gave March 31, 2016…(b) …but don’t blame Trump, because he didn’t know what we were doing.
What is “Trump’s” excuse as to Russia working to elect him—after *admitting* he knew and then “getting briefed on it” on August 17, 2016?
Why, he just didn’t *believe* what U.S. intel agencies said, of course! He just didn’t “believe” the mountains of evidence we all saw!
Now ask yourself: does Bob Mueller believe any of these lies? Does the FBI? Does the DOJ? Do American voters? Would a duly-seated jury?
FACT: Don was directly told by a trusted friend that Putin was working to elect his dad. He knew this as of the first week of June 2016.
Now consider: despite the way the Russia issue blew up after June 2016, Don says he “never told his dad” Putin was working to elect him. Don, Jared, and Manafort say they “never” discussed the issue again—with “anyone”—and deliberately plotted to keep this info from Trump.
Do “you” believe that? Do you think Mueller does? Or the FBI? The DOJ? Most American voters? Most American Congressmen? Would a duly-seated jury?
Do you think Don sat there watching Russia news every single day for “months”, yet never told daddy that Putin was confirmed as “in his corner” or that once the Russia news broke shortly after June 2016— Kushner and Manafort “never went back to look at their emails”?
The Dangerous Globe does not believe that for a moment. The Twitter thread above has clarified things no end for me as an Englishman, we have been bombarded by names lately and we live a long way from the action.
Having caught up on the “Doings” of Paul Manafort I am totally convinced that there is a major case to answer by the whole Trump family and anyone subsequently engaged by them as campaign advisers. In the UK, daily revelations about Cambridge Analytica and its parent, SCL, combine with the toxic machinations of the misruling Conservative party, also be in the pocket of Russian Oligarchy.
This cloud of smoke and the Hall of Mirrors engulf the highly suspicious poisoning case in Salisbury some days ago, the plot has not so much thickened, as congealed into a mess of lies and intrigue. Trump is a Liar, as are many of the people he surrounds himself with, as is the UK Tory Government, also rife with people who tell bald faced lies straight to the BBC camera.
Lying to the public has now become quite acceptable, we are being conditioned to see it as “Normal”. We have actually been “Softened up” by a continuous bombardment of lies and half-truths by the advertising industry for decades. It is no big surprise then when we are told that CA and SCL’s stock in trade is peddling their 2 basic tenets of…
“It is no good fighting an election campaign on facts, because it is actually all about playing on the emotions of people”
And
“Things don’t have to be true – as long as they are believed”
Well screw that for a game of Soldiers, these two statements demonstrate the utter contempt in which the American and British people are held by their “Lords and Masters”. They also demonstrate the power of the Libertarian mind in its transformation of the works of Edward Bernays and his PR movement into the most powerful propaganda machine since the one owned by the Third Reich
We are to be “Played” or “Gamed” into delivering Election results that the establishment want by continually maintaining the status quo. It also ensures we stay on that very crooked and very slippery road into totalitarian corporate fascism, where a handful of Corporations, and a few hundred Billionaires, control us and the worlds resources. It really is time to put the garbage out, the World is stinking more every day, and if you find this hard to believe take a look at Donald Trumps “Defence” Secretary, Gen James Mattis….
If you don’t like the Generals “Special Relationship” with Death and his brand of American Democracy you are deep in the shit.
It is still the early hours of 14 April, 2018, warplanes will be landing back at base, assuming none were shot down, and pilots pumped on Adrenaline will be getting de-briefed. We “The People” will never know how many people died tonight because the fascist regime doesn’t want you to know. Rupert Murdoch and the BBC will ensure the people of the UK wake in a few hours and are fed total bollocks for breakfast, as they are most days,and that we never forget we have a very “Special Relationship”with each other. Andrew Marr will sit on tomorrow mornings BBC bullshit Political TV and interview all manner of people who think the UK just did “a jolly good job”, and that whatever the collateral damage…”It was worth it”
I will leave you with the sickening words of Madeliene Albright on that subject and bid you good night
Another great site by the Dangerous Globe
