Category: 2016

With all the earnestness of her young age, she told me: “I read your blogs regularly. I also read similar stuff from other outlets, however, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it all!? How can I change our governments, our societies, end the wars and all that other crap? It’s just not possible! And the election of Donald Trump is going to make matters worse, isn’t it? And his choices for cabinet heads and other officials to date sounds like it will be a disaster, no?”

Our conversation went on for a while after that reflecting the anxiety gripping this nation and the world after our Presidential Election. I am not really optimistic about our state of affairs, either. I am deeply worried about this country where my children and grandchildren are living, working, going to school and looking towards their future. I am equally very disturbed about the Middle East which seems to be – and has been for a while – spiraling out of control with dangerous events and spilling of innocent blood such as I have not witnessed in my lifetime. It is absolutely mortifying!

There is no doubt that the politics of these United States are, and have been for quite a while, veering towards incoherence. And, frankly – don’t be too shocked now! –  I am delighted that Donald Trump is upending our rotten state of affairs, turning it on its head with his Tweets and his unpredictability. Someone needed to expose us to ourselves wherever that may lead! He has thrown the world and all its leaders for a loop, and, he is, very smartly I must say, neutralizing his enemies one by one. He also seems to be travelling down a totally new, unconventional and uncharted path. Moreover, his winning this election has left Progressives, Liberals, Democrats and even some Republicans in total disarray! It is so very amusing to watch them and their surrogates trying to make sense of their self-inflicted loss! He didn’t just Trump them all. He pulled a Grand Slam that has exposed them for the hypocrites that they have been for decades! Will Trump herald a Requiem for our world as we know it (to quote one of my own blogs), or a New Beginning?  Indeed, a very interesting spectacle to be watching as 2017 unfolds!

There will be many surprising developments occurring as of now and into the four coming years. Recently though, that comical battle on whether Russia, and Vladimir Putin in particular, have been influencing the outcome of our American Elections, or not, has been bewildering, funny and ridiculous. Our CIA said one thing, our FBI another, some politicians are decrying the Russian meddling and hacking, others are saying there is no proof of any of that, our current President says one thing, and the President-Elect another. One guy even compared the so-called Russian interference to “the political equivalent of 9/11!” Whoa! Seriously? Yes, the Russians may have hacked our systems, however, hasn’t the US spied on and hacked everyone and their mother? Friends and enemies? Who still believes that we have never meddled or orchestrated any elections in this world? What are all those hypocritical politicians, experts and pundits getting so bizarrely horrified about? A brouhaha that has been blown totally out of proportion! Simply another example of what a ridiculous shambles our politics have become, exemplified by those pompous dinosaurs that make up most of our corrupt political establishment, as well as most of the mainstream media schmucks. It could have been Anyone doing the hacking (or leaking?). Or, as is possible, the whole Russian hacking episode is just another smoke-screen that is being used to cover up something sinister that none of us are aware of at the moment. Are we itching for a confrontation with Russia, perhaps? Or, some other war to keep the wheels of our war-economy oiled? Maybe? There is ample proof that this has been previously done, and, on many occasions, I might add. In any case, the bias, double-standards and hypocrisy are all so painfully obvious! Governments, corporations, individuals, criminals et al are all hacking and spying on each other! So who is above reproach here? Maybe, we just want to be the only bullies in the intrusive arena?

Yet, not one of those decrying the hacking possibility has ever exposed, or contested, the blatant meddling of Israeli politicians, lobbyists and their Jewish supporters, as well as their other surrogates, in our American elections and politics, as well as in the Middle East. No one, not on the Right, Left or Center of this nation has the balls to address such issues. They have mostly bought into the skewed and untruthful Israeli narrative which persists in blaming the victims while absolving the aggressor. Moreover, Bibi himself, the Master of Outrageous Spin and Outright Lies, has appeared before our Legislative body inherently demanding that the US President and Government continue to support his criminal policies unconditionally no matter what the effects of those policies are, and how much against our own declarations, international law and many UN Resolutions they are. And, we are, undoubtedly, doing exactly that! In fact, Bibi has been, and still is, pushing for us to have a confrontation with Iran, the last country still standing after all the others in close proximity to Israel’s borders have been destroyed. And is that, perhaps, why Trump is filling so many posts with Military Brass? Will we continue persevering on this bloodbath? It sounds like that, as the anti-Iran rhetoric is being Trump-ed up. What about that mind-boggling hissy fit which Bibi and his surrogates are having regarding the recent UN Resolution? Are Bibi’s numerous pawns in the US so ignorant of the Middle East perspective, or is it that their racism, and bigotry have willfully blinded them to the historically factual realities of the Palestinian catastrophe, human, civil and legal rights? It is so tragic, but not surprising. Nor would it surprise me when Trump makes good on his campaign promise of moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem. He is going to do just that. I wonder, though, how he will deal with the Palestinians as he is stabbing us very painfully in the very heart and soul for doing this? And would that inspire more ISIS terrorists to shed more blood and kill more innocent humans? This decision needs some very serious calculation! Are we even capable of doing that?

I did not vote for Donald Trump. However, and in all fairness and honesty, I must admit that a lot of what he says is true, and, incidentally, that’s why he was elected. And, yes, a lot of what he says is also so totally off the wall! Totally! Nevertheless, his choosing some businessmen to preside over some of the nation’s cabinet departments, rather than the tired and same old corrupt politicians is truly refreshing. They cannot be worse than our bought-and-paid for politicians and lobbyists, can they? I will reserve judgment and not join in the inane circus that is painting them as monstrous ogres who are coming to eat our meagre dinner and impoverish our children, while trashing the environment and throwing us all into hell! It might all turn out to be true, and then again, it just might not. No one knows what will unfold, for this is certainly as unpredictable as it can ever get!

Happy New Trump Year!

In the Beirut of my teenage years there were a few daring girls who secretly dated at a time when relationships with guys were considered a strict societal taboo. While most of us knew what they were up to, they went about pretending to be the little angels that they were not. We called them Sainte- Nitouche – the Untouchable Saint, or, in other words: the goody-goodies.

As time went by, and as we all grew up, there were more and more women having more and more secretive trysts with men, while conducting themselves in society as Sainte-Nitouche. That nomenclature evolved over the years to encompass not only illicit affairs, but also corrupt politicians and individuals who went around pretending to be holier-than-thou when most people were aware of their lies, hypocrisy and corruption.

The latest American elections, and everything political that has been going on in this country since that fateful 9/11 day specifically, took me back to that description of hypocritical shenanigans. What then could be a more perfect description for the United States than Sainte-Nitouche?! Here we are – and have been for long – rampaging and warring all around the world, dictating our conditions, ordering countries around, upturning governments, assassinating people who do not comply and doing anything and everything towards enforcing our objectives at the expense of uprooting, maiming and killing innocent humans, as well as stifling the political aspirations and the human and civil rights of the overwhelming numbers of innocent civilians whom we choose to ignore and to trample upon. In tandem with our efforts (and aside from the corrupt local politicians across the planet who are under our control) Israel and the United Kingdom are our main supporters, followed by our second tier of surrogates: France, Germany and Italy after which the rest of our proxies follow. To date, we are winning! For who can stand up to military might such as we can muster?

Much the same as the illicit affairs and the corrupt politicians and individuals in Beirut, the militarily powerful aggressor governments of the US, UK and Israel – that really dangerous Axis of Evil in our chaotic world today – are going about pretending to be what many people on the planet now realize is a huge charade! How very comically tragic! The people of the Middle East especially, are most aware of this farce. With their long memories and after having lived through colonialism, occupations, wars, civil strife, uprooting, maiming, killings, repressive regimes and corruption they know that their real stories and the honest truth are not making their way to the Western public. They know that most of the foreign reporters who write about them and their situations are the very arms and informers of their occupiers, invaders and torturers. Hence, their so-called reporting is always skewed and biased, and so it follows, that the majority of people in the West are kept intentionally ignorant of what the Sainte-Nitouche nations of the world are really inflicting on innocent humans. How truly unfair and unjust!

As another example, one has to simply sit in front of the corporate Idiot Tube for a day, surfing from one corrupt, untrustworthy mainstream news channel to another to see for themselves how the nauseating and shameless so-called journalists and reporters are conducting themselves; the lies they spew; the utter sensationalism, superficiality and gossip they seem so serious about; the inane talking points that they parrot – I mean, how humiliating is that by itself – while pretending to be smart analysts and unbiased news imparters! Most are so puffed up; so full of themselves; such empty gas bags who never even humbly admit that they were ever wrong about anything, all this, while not even pretending to be anything but pure, honest Sainte-Nitouche! How utterly despicable and quite laughable, really!

It is not in the interest, it seems, of our elected officials, or their mainstream news servants, to expose the repressive practices that our government has been continuously applying, the rolling back and chipping away of our civil and human rights, and the extension of the aggressive and domineering policies we are applying internationally onto our own citizens, many of whom are fully aware that this is going on but unable to reverse the tide as yet. In that, our own citizens are treated no different from the multi and myriad humans that we call “backward,” “uncivilized,” and “undemocratic” all across the world where our unabashed neo-colonialism strides. They are looking on helplessly, and with rising internalized anger! For how long do people’s frustrations, whether in the US or internationally, remain pent up and smothered? It simply cannot be sustainable. Indeed, all indications are pointing to the fact that there is a world wide uprising in the works; an anti-establishment furor that is gaining more traction slowly and that is being written about by a vibrant alternative press with daring journalists, thorough investigative reporting and honest writing that poses such a shining contrast to the hypocrites in the mainstream media. Will the establishment governments alter their defunct systems and draconian measures in order to accommodate the clamoring, frustrated and angry citizens? What will it really take after all, to practice real and honest Peace, Equality, Justice, Human, Legal and Civil Rights? It can be easily done if there is a will. Is there? It’s not looking that promising at the moment though, is it?

Nevertheless, and despite their parading around as Sainte-Nitouche, the aggressor governments, as well as the avaricious multi-national corporations of the world have become too obviously undemocratic and self-serving, too greedy and corrupt to the core. They can pretend to be Sainte-Nitouche, but many are too aware of the fact that they really are not! No, their methods are not sustainable. There is no Sainte-Nitouche who can remain so for long. Not in these transparent days especially!