Tamir Rice 12-31-2020

 

31, December 2020                      Tamir Rice

Last Tuesday, the United States Justice Department announced they would not be pursuing criminal charges against the two officers involved in the 2014 fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, citing insufficient evidence. Oh really? Does it really take a Perry Mason to determine the identity of the killers?

Rice would have graduated from high school in 2020 if he were still alive. The tragedy has been a major lynchpin in the Black Lives Matter movement over the course of the past several years. Dialing back to the fateful day, - on November 22 2014, a 911 caller reported seeing a young boy waving what appeared to be a toy gun. Officer Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir within two seconds after his police cruiser pulled up in front of the boy. Neither Loehmann nor his partner, Frank Garmback administered first aid to save the boy’s life. They then handcuffed Tamir’s 14-year-old sister and threw her to the ground as she ran to her at brother’s side, callously leaving the boy to die. Incredulously, an Ohio grand jury returned a decision not to indict.

What was omitted during the trial was Timothy Loehmann’s resignation from another police force after a “dangerous loss of composure” during firearms training. It is an absolute travesty that police officers who responded made no attempt to assess the situation for themselves but only saw the boy’s skin color and toy gun as a danger to the community which required the use of maximum lethal force. Tamir’s death has become another alarming statistic of a criminal justice system that continues to offer blanket impunity to police officers for their actions when confronting African-Americans. It appears that the prosecutor deliberately cherry-picked the jury and what amounts to gross prosecutorial misconduct recommended a non-indictment.

Other experts did find probable cause, including a municipal court judge who recommended Loehmann be charged with murder, manslaughter and reckless homicide.

Rice and scores of other blacks have had the gross misfortune of being born in America where we only give lip service to the value of human life. ”All men are NOT created equal and it is NOT self-evident especially to many law enforcement officers who only see skin color before taking lethal action.

 

 

Israeli terrorists assassinate Iranian nuclear scientist 11-28-2020

 

28, November 2020             Israeli terrorists assassinate Iranian nuclear scientist

Israeli terrorists struck a mortal blow into soon to be announced, Biden’s Iran’s peace initiative with Iran. It seems likely that Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo gave the green light to Prime Minister Netanyahu who in turn instructed Israeli secret police, the Mossad, to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.  Netanyahu made no attempt to hide Israel’s role in the assassination. “There must be no return to the previous nuclear agreement,” he declared shortly after it became clear that Mr. Biden — who has proposed exactly that — would be the next president.Seething with anger over his presidential loss, Trump is determined to throw every possible roadblock in Biden’s attempt to charter a successful Middle East policy.

Pompeo also threatened a strong military response if a single American soldier is killed in the Middle East before Induration Day impeding the smooth transfer of power.

In spite of President Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the 2015 Nuclear Accord, Iran has been in strict compliance according to the nuclear watchdog oversight agency, the IAEA and crippling U.S .sanctions.

In spite of these provocations, , Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Iran, proclaimed: “If the United States fulfills its obligations under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, then Iran will honor its responsibilities under the nuclear deal. This could be done automatically, without any need for negotiations. If the US wishes to rejoin the nuclear deal, then we will be ready to hold talks on how the US can re-enter the deal.”

Indian Farmers revolt 12-9-2020

 

9, December 2020                       Indian Farmers revolt

Indian farmers are angry with Prime Minister’s Modi’s policies of neoliberalism and inequality. Hundreds of thousands marched in New Delhi demanding repeal of new laws that maintain agricultural products at historic lows. This is a complete betrayal of promises made to famers in the 2014 election.

In a bid to win over farmers, Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said in its 2014 general election manifesto that all crop prices should be fixed at a minimum of 50% higher than the production costs. In 2016, Modi promised to boost the country's agriculture sector with a target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022. Agriculture is the main source of income for more than half of India’s 1.3 billion people.  Many farmers are no longer able to maintain a living wage and have been driven into bankruptcy and suicide. An estimated 250 million workers participated in the strike making it the largest strike in the world.   Police beat back peaceful demonstrators, many in their late sixties and seventies, with lathes and water cannons in the freezing cold weather.

This comes as COVID rages through India, which has reported more cases than any country in the world outside the United States. India’s working class endorsed the demands of the farmers.

Many artists and poets returned their civilian awards. Punjab’s famous athletes sent their medals to Modi in solidarity with the farmers. It was a tremendous show of unity and solidarity, when millions of workers were saying, “We are with the farmers.”

With unemployment hovering around 27% many farmers are unable to survive. In just two years, from 2018 to 2019, over 20,000 farmers died by suicide. Meanwhile the richest man in India, Mukesh Ambani, made $12 million an hour since the lockdown began. The farmers’ agitation rattled the Modi government prompting them to imprison opposition leaders.  The chief minister of Delhi, Mr. Kejriwal has openly come out in support of the farmers’ demands to roll back Mr. Modi’s agricultural policies. India’s tone deaf, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi dismissed the protests as a “conspiracy by the opposition.” Little wonder Modi and Donald Trump became such bosom friends. The autocratic Modi doesn’t seem to have learned from his heavy handed polices. Let us hope the powerful voices of India’s courageous farmers will change his mind. To introduce such unpopular polices during raging pandemic is excessive cruel and short-sighted.

Trump’s Lust for Killing 12-4-2020

 

Public Comment

 December 04, 2020 

                       Trump’s Lust for Killing

Following his monumental failure to protect the American people from the deadly Coronavirus, DJT has turned his attention to America’s most vulnerable population, people on death row who now face a firing squad, poison gas, or the electric chair to end their lives. It is baffling why a firing squad is needed is still needed to kill a single person. 

Under a new rule filed by Attorney General Darth Vader, William Barr now offers a tantalizing choice of methods can to carry out executions for federal death sentences in addition to lethal injection. DJT’s lust for killing during the lame duck period is unprecedented. 

This comes as the Trump administration has already executed eight people in the past five months. Well done sir, ievangelicals, and Jesus must be so happy. 

The Death Penalty Information Center reports it’s been more than a century since a federal execution was conducted during a lame-duck presidency, in 1889, during the outgoing administration of Grover Cleveland. 

Sister Helen described the planned executions as the most grotesque federal sponsored murders in US history. 

President-elect Joe Biden said during the election campaign he now supports eliminating the federal death penalty which is a welcome change from1990 Biden who authored legislation that expanded the federal death penalty. Let’s offer him a very short honeymoon before we demand he live up to his more enlightened pledge. 

America’s Double Standard 12-11-2020

 

 

11, December 2020                     America’s Double Standard

A deafening silence by the western press greeted the brutal murder of Iranian scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Strangely absent from the reported killing was the word “terrorist”. Fakhrizadeh was the fifth scientist to be (allegedly) assassinated by the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad. Not even a murmur of outrage was reported in the western press following these brutal crimes.

Israel never even bothered to deny they were responsible. Neither Democrats nor Republicans condemned the killing. 

President Trump, on a whim, in complete violation of International law, decided to renege from the 2015 Nuclear Treaty boasting that it would be replaced by a “tougher” agreement. Crippling economic sanctions followed causing enormous suffering to the Iranian people amid a raging pandemic. The Iranians still have long memories of the theft of their oil in a 1953 coup orchestrated by British Mi6 and the CIA. 

What happened to our sense of morality?

These murders are acts of terrorism and should be described as such by the western media.   Failure to do so will expose us to charges of hypocrisy and embolden Iranian hard liners to seek revenge. An eye for eye, lust for revenge will leave us all blind. The Netanyahu government has played President Trump and Pompeo like a fiddle smothering them with flattery while cementing their chokehold on the suffering Palestinians expropriating more of their land and claiming the Syrian Golan Heights as their own.

These targeted killings of Iranian scientists not only go unquestioned but in the words of Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, are considered “treasonous” to even pose.

Why does Israel always get a free pass? After Fakrizadeh was murdered, Agnes Callamard, a U.N. Special Rapporteur and Director of Global Freedom of Expression at Columbia University, tweeted that the assassination was “a violation of international human rights law and a complete violation of the UN Charter that disallow the use of force extraterritorially in times of peace.”

Yet it is Iran that continues to be targeted as a global threat. This, despite the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, repeatedly confirming in 2018 that Iran was complying with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal. So which nation is the greater threat to world peace?

Simply stated, Iran today has zero nuclear bombs while Israel is widely believed to possess 90 plutonium-based nuclear warheads and to have produced enough plutonium for 100-200 weapons, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

I wonder how the world press would respond if Iran assassinated an Israeli or US scientist?  Public discourse on these state-sponsored acts of terrorism has historically been absent: Washington and Tel Aviv have had such a long-running alliance and shared intelligence regarding Iran that targeted killings not only go unquestioned but in the words of Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, are considered “treasonous” to even pose. So much for Israel’s claim to be a democracy.

No, America should NOT lead the world 12-17-2020

 

17, December 2020             No, America should NOT lead the world

I was horrified when president elect, Joe Biden thundered. “America is back at the head of table to lead the world.” Oh Really? Surely a healthy dose of realism and humility is in order before America can claim leadership or even a seat at the table! Hasn’t America done enough damage imposing its economic and military power on smaller nations?

For the past several decades we have cajoled our coalition partners to support our disastrous military adventures. From Vietnam to Afghanistan we have witnessed a monstrous misuse of American firepower. Deceitful politicians aided and abetted by US Defense Contractors and armies of lobbyists have bribed politicians with “campaign contributions” to do their bidding and bankrupt our nation sending tens of thousands to their early graves. No, Vietnam was no threat to the US but military engagement was based on the deceitful Gulf of Tonkin Resolution falsely claiming a North Vietnamese boat had fired on a US war ship. The Vietnamese are still suffering the devastating impact of “Agent Orange” and carpet bombing of their country causing devastating birth defects. The landscaped is littered with deadly cluster bombs responsible for the debilitating injuries of many children. President Nixon secretly widened the war carpet bombing neighboring Laos and Cambodia killing tens of thousands.

The Iraq War was a direct result of misguided political objectives orchestrated by the Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice cabal but blame was nimbly deflected on US Intelligence Agencies when no WMD’s were found. Bush’s grotesque “war on terror” resulted in the death of hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis and destruction of much of their country. Depleted uranium was used by the US military causing a great deal of ‘Gulf War” sickness. No politicians were held responsible, Cheney was back fly fishing and Bush jnr. is spending his days doodling on a canvas. Only General Colin Powel expressed remorse for his role.

Following the 9/11 attacks Bush Jnr launched another hasty, devastating war chasing our former ally, Bin Laden and his small band into the Bora Bora Mountains. Black sites were quickly established where we engaged in the most gruesome forms of torture. One of the senior CIA leaders Gina Haspel has since been promoted to head the CIA. GITMO was a maximum security prison used to house Afghan prisoners most of whom have never been charged with any crimes. It cost US taxpayers a whopping $13 million to house each detainee. GITMO is a disturbing Bush-Cheney relic and should be shut down and all prisoners released. Following the death of Bin Laden our military is still fighting the Taliban and losing the war. In a bizarre twist, the head of U.S. Central Command recently confirmed that the U.S. military has conducted drone strikes on the Islamic State terrorist group to assist the Taliban. In the 20 year conflict, hundreds of civilians have been killed which the US dismisses as acceptable collateral damage.

Throughout all these terrible wars the US has never apologized for its blunders and mistakes or offered reparations. Both Democrats and Republicans are both eager to demonstrate their loyalty to the US military by granting them generous pay raises. Trillions of dollars have been squandered in these war games. Billions more have been spent on U.S. cyber defenses only to have them compromised by the Russians. The CIA has always enjoyed a “hands off” approach and a black box budget but no one has had the courage to measure the effectives of their clandestine activities.