A troubling paradox in world leaders is their apparent love for their own children while showing callous disregard for the lives of children and other innocents at the receiving end of their bombs and bullets, as Philip A Farruggio observes.
By Philip A Farruggio
Adolf Hitler never had any children, but most historians reveal how much he apparently loved the little ones … IF they were of pure Aryan blood. He also loved, they say, his dog Blondi, appropriately being a German Shepherd.
High-ranking Nazis on trial at Nuremberg
Most, if not all, of the top Nazis in his regime were devoted family men. One wonders if Heinrich Himmler, after his trips to the concentration camps to view the half-starved, pajama-wearing inmates, and of course the gassing and incineration system he supervised, came home to his lovely daughter Gudrun, whom he affectionately called Puppi (Dolly).
Did his deputy Reinhardt Heydrich find time to play with his children — Heider, Silke and Marti — after he planned the operation of the “Final Solution” for Himmler? As to the man who kept the “Cattle Cars” rolling on schedule to and from the myriad of concentration camps, did Adolf Eichmann sit his young ones — Klaus, Horst and Dieter — on his knees and read them bedtime stories? The historians tell us that all of these men were devoted and caring fathers, and in Hitler’s case, was looked upon as “Uncle Adolf.”
We know from our American historians that Richard Nixon loved Trisha and Julie, his devoted daughters. Did he spend a quiet Christmas eve and Christmas day with them while his Operation Linebacker II (Dec. 18-29, 1972) sent the heaviest in decades B-52 bomber assault upon Hanoi? Did he exchange wonderful gifts with the girls while thousands of civilians were killed during the raids, the most since World War Two?
Fast forward to the 1980s and the “great” inspiration of fearless President Ronald Reagan. Behind his excuses and later with U.S. weapons and training, the ultra-right-wing Salvadoran death squads were murdering anyone, including priests (such as Archbishop Oscar Romero) and nuns who showed dissent. Yet, Ronnie had time to spend time with his children — Michael, Christine, Patti, Maureen and Ron Jr. He was, from many accounts, a good dad.
So supposedly was Poppy Bush, the first President Bush. He must have spent lots of time with his five children, even when he ordered the bombing of Iraq during “Desert Storm” (August 1990-February 1991), which included obliterating a bomb shelter containing scores of women and children.
President George H.W. Bush also ordered U.S. airstrikes that annihilated defeated Iraqi soldiers as they retreated (the slaughter justified, in part, because he wanted to vanquish America’s anti-war sentiments, the so-called “Vietnam Syndrome”).
Another Kind of Syndrome
As for the U.S. military, would “Poppy” like it if his sons or daughter came down with “Gulf War Syndrome” (a very different kind of “syndrome,” i.e, debilitating and even fatal health ailments)? This condition, according to many scientific experts, was most likely caused by the U.S. forces detonating chemical weapons and the clouds of residue “blowing back” on U.S. troops.
President George W. Bush pauses for applause during his State of the Union Address on Jan. 28, 2003, when he made a fraudulent case for invading Iraq. Seated behind him are Vice President Dick Cheney and House Speaker Dennis Hastert. (White House photo)
William Jefferson Clinton became President in 1993, continuing the economic sanctions against Iraq. We know how much Bill and his wife Hillary loved their only child, Chelsea. Most likely, as with many parents of an only-child, she was spoiled in a loving way. Well, the harsh U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq left many Iraqis half-starved and sickly. So much so that thousands, perhaps tens, even hundreds of thousands died during Clinton’s eight years in office.
Clinton’s United Nations Ambassador and later Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright was asked in 1996 by reporter Leslie Stahl: “We have heard that half a million children have died. That’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And you know, is the price worth it?” Albright’s response: “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it.”
In 2003, George W. Bush ordered — or rather was told by his handlers to sign off on — an immoral (and illegal) pre-emptive attack on another country. As the embedded and servile mainstream media cheered the “shock and awe” bombing of Iraq, Bush Jr. most likely was doting on his twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara. After all, it doesn’t matter how many of other people’s loved ones, including young children, our bombs and depleted uranium weapons destroy, it’s our family values that matter, isn’t it?
Finally, we come to our last two presidents. We know both of them love their children. President Obama obviously loved his girls more than he did the children of Libya. He allowed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to convince him to sign off on another bombing campaign of another country that wasn’t threatening the United States, this time Libya.
Obama must have been proud, as he shot some hoops at the White House, with how the U.S. contributed to the destruction of one of Africa’s wealthiest and – in many ways – most progressive nations. Did he sit with his girls to watch the deadly chaos that he caused, with Secretary Clinton topping it off her celebration of Muammar Gaddafi’s grisly murder by quipping: “We came, we saw, he died.” Did Obama teach his daughters how much of the chaos in Syria was exacerbated by what his administration did in Libya and then by arming “rebels” who fought side by side with Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups?
Then, Obama gave way to Donald Trump, who may know as little about world affairs as Bush Jr. did. Yet, we do know how much this man has doted on his children, giving his Ivanka the leg-up to become a mega-millionaire. She is claimed to be his close adviser as well – and a devoted mother to her three children.
Ivanka reportedly urged his April 6 missile strike in Syria because she saw images of children apparently dying from chemical exposure, although President Trump’s rush to judgment – blaming the incident on the Syria government – led him to unleash 59 Tomahawk missiles, including some that veered off course and reportedly killed a number of Syrian civilians, including children.
A few days later, Trump dropped the largest conventional ordnance known to mankind, the so-called “Mother of All Bombs,” on a target in Afghanistan.
Just like the other aforementioned presidents, Trump will – in the end – do what the “Deep State” actors allow him or tell him to do. That is the real family that these men belong to.
Philip A Farruggio is a son and grandson of Brooklyn longshoremen – and a freelance columnist since 2001, with over 300 of his work posted on sites such as Information Clearing House, Nation of Change, World News Trust, Op Ed News, Dissident Voice, Counterpunch, Activist Post, Sleuth Journal, Truthout and many others. His blog can be read in full on World News Trust., whereupon he writes a great deal on the need to cut military spending drastically and send the savings back to save our cities. Philip has a internet interview show, ‘ It’s the Empire… Stupid’ with producer Chuck Gregory, and can be reached at [email protected]
Right on! to Phil Farruggio. Keep writing to get people thinking.
Perhaps there is a rational explanation, psychopaths have risen to the fore via natural selection , ruthlessness and total lack of empathy for others….. they are universally prominent in government and the executive corporate sphere all over the plane…. where they can indulge their pleasure inflicting pain upon others with impunity….
They have over the last few centuries created the no-liberal fundamentalist economic system, and increasingly tightly controlled authoritarian systems of government, imposing those on the rest of us who are not psychopaths….. like rats in a maze we are forced into a semi psychopathic state, to survive these systems….
Psychopaths show no signs of remorse for the calamities wrought by their catastrophic disregard for and lack of empathy for others.
But they learn to fake appropriate emotion when necessary …. perhaps the murderers mentioned above , have simply mastered the art of appearances ….
that video of Madeleine Albright is truly horrifying… how anyone can suggest mass murder with a straight face without any betrayal of emotion is beyond comprehension.
we are a becoming a psychopathic civilization … by forcibly living under psychopathic regimes…people nullify their conscience by ignoring it…. killing stealing cheating become easier each time one proceeds, until finally one no longer hears that distant voice of conscience , everyone is encouraged to nurture their ego and live in an endless self gratifying consumer bubble, we are brainwashed from cradle to grave that this is self actualization…
vis a vis Madeleine Albright … what i meant to say in that last comment was , how anyone can extol the virtues of the mass murder of children with a straight face is beyond comprehension if that is not psychopathic what is??
Jessica K, I understand what both you and b-e meant.
People have changed…and unfortunately I don’t think it’s been a shift for the better. I worked for years as a summertime troubleshooter ‘Rover’ solving problems and helping people (we were NOT fake cops with ponytails) at large 3-day outdoor rock concerts in NorCal; Hog Farm, Sierra Nevada World Music Festival, Benbow Summer Arts, Trinity Tribal Stomp, Summer Solstice Fest, Kate Wolf Memorial Folk Fest, the Earthdance world concerts, and others. At the last one I worked, with 8,000 public on the venue (EarthDance 2005), I ran the Pre/Post Security Crew and the change I saw was…an enormous number of the crowd were more interested in getting ‘Selfies’ to post on their FaceBlech page throughout the entire concert than the message that EarthDance represented. The thousands that gathered in the Main Bowl for the worldwide Peace Prayer which was being held simultaneously in 50 countries around the world was full of…cellphones being held up in the air.
There isn’t the social cohesion that I saw back when. It’s selfish ego (think Trump & Hillary & Obama & W and our other examples of what to grow up to be etc etc). Honestly, I think people cared more back then compared to the current paradigm.
Second problem I see is that this country is far more of a locked-down militarized security state than it was fifty years ago. Yes, it was bad and I was there But now…think ‘Free Speech Zones’ two miles away under an overpass and surrounded by wire and men with not only the guns and dogs but all the modern weaponry tried out in Afghanistan and Iraq before becoming part of the arsenal being used against protesters. LRAD Sonic weapons and trucks that burn you with Microwaves. Holy crap. And the people that point these things like it just as much as the cops did back then using nightsticks and saps…
When you hear a cop say with extreme sarcasm ‘oh, you’re one of those ‘Constitutionalists,’ you know we are in real trouble. So much for their oath (or do they pledge to uphold it any longer?). It is especially scary when you realize that the Bill of Rights in that document was written expressly to limit the violent power of people like him/her. And it no longer is in effect.
It’s way way worse than the 60s.
My stepmom was a Peace & Freedom Party activist at San Diego State U and up and down the Cali coast with family living in Frisco while her little brother was killing and about to be killed. She was also a survivor of the US WWII Japanese camps; she’s in the japaneserelocation.org index, who was born on their farm on San Francisco Bay. She was…driven against what war represented. She just hated the concept of the draft.
I was a teenager, 12-16, that was with her at a lot of protests. I witnessed enormous amounts of hate and violence then. And now as then, the same question is being used to muzzle and denigrate anybody who questions.
Why do you hate America?
My answer over the last bunch of years has been: Well, since there is no such country I can honestly say it would be impossible to hate something that doesn’t exist. Then you get a blank look, and if you explain that we live in what is just one country in the Americas and are actually called the ‘United States of America’ that usually pisses people off.
I digress. Sorry.
Third problem is that there already is a draft. It’s an economic one and it is very, very effective. The jobs are not coming back, ever, don’t fool yourself or others that they will, while the population continues to grow. So what are all those kids going to do if/when they get out of high school? Walmart the largest ’employer’ in the US that has set up special centers to help their employees sign up for Food Stamps? Or the local fast food crap job? Retail selling cheap China slave-made shit that breaks in a week? Sell some bud? Boost cars? Get pissed off join a gang and shoot one another? Lot of convicts in this country…lots of prisons.
I don’t have all the answers. I could think of a few things I would love to implement but then I’d probably not live all that much longer. And if I did shout it out nobody would listen anyway because…I’m not a participant of FaceBlech so socially I don’t count. No cell phone, either, so no selfies. But I do have a digital camera! :)
A very large sigh has just escaped my chest. I’m going outside with the dogs to look at the stars. Some nights that helps.
sealintheSelkirks – I hear you and agree. One thing is for certain: it can’t continue to go on like this. Something’s gonna give.
seal, b-e explained what i intended, that people don’t seem to care about these wars unless they “have skin in the game”. The Vietnam War protests were huge. People did care if they recognized that they could be sent to die, or their children might be. The business of getting your salary from war because there are so few jobs other than military service has a completely different impact than forced service. Of course, i’m sorry for your uncle’s tragic death in an unnecessary war.
i am honored to breath the same air as mr.farruggio.
there is hope as long as such people exist.
Charles, thanks so much. too many Trolls ‘ visit these great sites and miss the real meaning of work like my own. if you ever wish to be added to my extensive ‘ readers list’ email me at the address from my column.
thanks again and thanks for Consortium, which tells it like it is.
The Dumbing-Down has been relentless. It has been going since before we were born. I view the Power-Psycopathy nexus more in terms of Cybernetic Social Engineering, than good ole vanilla politics. To cut to the chase: 27 Nazis were put on trial at Nuremberg. 12 received a death sentence in this morality play for the public. Meanwhile, the CIA brought in up to 3,000 Nazi war criminals and gave them new identities in the attempt to get the upper hand in the emerging Cold War. Countless other Nazi assets in South America were protected by the CIA ( think Klaus Barbie and Joseph Mengele) .
So the Tectonic plates of imperialism may shift, but the same psychopaths manage a seamless handoff or passing of the baton. They call it realpolitik.
“The truly terrible thing is that everybody has their reasons” — Jean Renoir
Generally we Americans regard Abraham Lincoln as a national hero. He was very attached to his four boys. So what was he thinking when he led this nation in what many considered an unnecessary war, and won it?
A higher cause. As are all Good Parents Who Kill Strangers.
No Jessica K, a military draft is NOT the answer. At least not a general draft ie: all the poor people that can’t run away. My ‘report for physical’ notice came in 1972.
My barely older-than-me Uncle Kenny sent letters back from Viet Nam telling his sister (my stepmom) to send me to Canada. Or Mars or anywhere but into the Army in Southeast Asia. Until his letters stopped coming as did he…
Wealthy scions of prominent families never carry a rifle in the jungle. Or desert. Or swamp. It truly would be interesting to see what would happen if ALL of those young adults got drafted. No more wars started by rich people in power, eh?
Or how about this? Since televised gladiator sports like Wrestlemania and Cage Fights and Mixed Martial Arts battles are so highly valued in our violent predatory society, maybe every single politician male or female of any age should be paired with their counterparts from other countries when there is a dispute and forced to fight to the death. The winner gets…re-elected in their respective countries. Have the same rules with all the military brass that are itching to get another star on their shoulders, too.
Or I might have agreed with you if you had suggested a military draft of all children over 18 that come from families that are above a certain income level (say…$200k gross income a year) or with high levels of inherited income with the clause in the contract that none would ever be allowed to rise above the rank of grunt. Literally have to stay cannon fodder for their entire tour.
And only be allowed help in any medical or psychological way by the VA. NO private insurance or outside entities allowed.
But one thing has been troubling me for quite a while. The concept of women actually wanting to go into combat so they can be ‘equal’ to men. Is there something wrong with modern woman? Why would they want to go help kill people in other countries? I’m starting to come to the conclusion that stupidity is not a gender issue….
Totally agree about women wanting to go to combat!!!!!
sealintheSelkirks – I’m sorry for what happened to your uncle. Very sad. I can’t speak for Jessica, but I have heard people mention bringing back the draft ONLY for the reason that it would finally get people up in arms to stop these wars. Can you just imagine if they tried doing that now? The people would go ballistic on them, and I kind of think the wars would stop on a dime! No way they’d be sending their kids over to fight in foreign wars.
These wars continue because the elite are able to use proxies, manufacture ISIS-like armies (arm, train and fund them), or use paid mercenaries, etc. The taxpayers end up paying for it, and far fewer Bob’s and Joe’s get killed.
Bringing back a military draft would be a good idea.
Unified tax resistance would be great, but tax resistors have always been broken, some of them sent to jail. But we do need to find an effective way to protest.
The Charlottesville episode shows how people in the US can get worked up over image and symbols but care little for the reality of what the US does in its killing fields of other nations.
James W. Douglass in “JFK and the Unspeakable” writes about Kennedy’s desire for an end to the Cold War, and Khruschev in the Soviet Union also desired an arms limitation agreement. Kennedy understood that all the world’s children should be considered as he saw his own children, and he spoke of that. He walked out of a meeting when the Joint Chiefs talked of using nuclear weapons on the USSR and sarcastically told an aide, “And we call ourselves the human race”. He also was planning to end the Vietnam War, but realized that he had to be reelected to do so. The world changed much for the worse on November 22, 1963.
Excellent post. What will it take to create popular resistance to the well documented psychopathic behavior of the mass murderers we call our “leaders?” Perhaps when all of us look in the mirror and accept our own complicity in this monstrous system, simply by virtue of paying Federal income taxes, we will be forced to contemplate what an ethical response might look like. Even a one day general strike would be a start, but this requires a level of solidarity we have not had in the U.S. for many decades.
“The United Nations reported in October that more than half of Yemen’s 28 million people are short of food. At least 1.5 million children are going hungry in the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, including 370,000 who are suffering from malnutrition so severe that it’s weakening their immune systems.
“And the Saudi-led attacks continue, striking Yemen’s hospitals, which are running out of medicine. All the while, these attacks have continued to receive backing from the United States and the United Kingdom since they began on March 26, 2015.” Mnar Muhawesh , January 17, 2017.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/genocide-in-yemen-media-complicit-in-us-saudi-war-crimes/224106/
What hapened to (the bogus) “Humanitarian Intervention” and “R2P”? It seems that Bandar Bush, et al, s/b subjected to the Qadaffi treatment (following a taste of Shock and Awe).
We lied to the UN and we lied to both China and Russia who abstained (rather than veto) UN approval on Libya … that “option” slammed closed quickly following the regime change we “promised” wasn’t our “real motive”
The “work” of our “allies” can be read at link below:
———————————————————————————————
“The Saudi-led coalition and its Western patrons are among the chief authors of nightmarish conditions that threaten the lives of millions of innocent civilians.”
Daniel Larson, July 20, 2017. The American Conservative.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/yemens-cholera-epidemic-is-the-worst-on-record/
Most people do not understand the puzzling patterns of abuse, any more than they have a clue about addiction and it’s paradoxes. I have considerable experience of both. Alice Miller and Derrick Jensen have been among my best teachers about abuse. Many horrible abusers are exemplary pillars of society in their daytime lives. Their night side is another story altogether. To say they have a split personality is an understatement. Psychopaths can also manifest this dual nature. To most people it is impossible to believe that their charming and helpful neighbor may also be a sadistic monster. These cases are the best of people and the worst of people, all in the same package. Hitler was like that. In her bio of Hitler, Alice Miller goes into the violent abuse inflicted on him in his childhood, which he passed on to Jews and many others in adult life – a typical pattern in these cases.
Any president or politician with children old enough to join the military, should be in the military. With the outbreak of war they should be on the front line.Not an office job in the pentagon, up there with a gun. It may alter their eagerness to please the military industrial complex. But, I guess, not too much..
Kieron – yes, put the politicians’ own children on the front lines. The wars would end yesterday.
These people are not like other people, parents or family members. They are completely overtaken with the power and influence of their controllers. Trump, a prime example, let’s be friends with Russia, he said,let’s stay out of wars abroad and let’s look after the people of America. The way it’s going at the moment there won’t be any people to look after in America, or anywhere else for that matter.
The only people that can stop this madness are the people themselves. However, they seem to be quite happy to sit on this roller coaster to hell while watching fake news,trash TV and eating junk food..we’re stuffed guys !
500,000 children under 5 died in Iraq from 1991 – 2003 because of sanctions. Lack of food, basic medicine, polluted water, poor sanitation. This figure was supplied by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. Its senior bureaucrats resigned in disgust. Young children have died in Syria and Iran because of difficulties obtaining basic medicine. Particularly child cancer patients. Cuba has bought expensive medical monitoring equipment from countries like Holland and been prevented from using it because it contains a small American component. People die as a result. This is all planned. The intention is to cause hardship in prey nations targeted for destruction by the subhuman Nazi filth that passes for the US government, in the hope that they will overthrow their governments and install obedient, pliant US stooges instead. But what normally happens is that hatred for America and Americans and all their works just goes off the scale.
This goes a long way to explain the fanatical behaviour of people who seek revenge in random brutal killings with total disregard for their own lives. Many people in the US and its satellites are kept in complete ignorance of the actions of their own governments by the corrupt and mendacious mainstream media. They would react in an identical fashion if they were targeted by the US empire, with whole villages and wedding and funeral parties wiped out. They don’t realise the extreme hatred that has been built up for their countries over many years. Many of the people on the receiving end would quite like western parents from the aggressor countries to have to watch their children die in front of them in similar fashion.
mark – excellent post. Yes, if my own children were killed at the hands of the West, I can’t even begin to tell you what I’d do. Hatred? It would be off the scale. This is what the MSM should be showing on TV, the death and destruction. I just know people would be up in arms if they knew the truth, if they actually saw it with their own eyes.
This. USA is awful. My rich, privileged Democratic friends do not think so. All my rich Dem peers cold give a shit abut USA wars. I’ve DemExited.
The 2018 midterm election is going to be a hell of a shitshow for the Dems. They are so dumb and in denial that they don’t get it.
I’m not known for being a defender of Hillary, but in this case I doubt if she had to do very much “convincing”. At heart Obama was a mean bastard, and even made jokes about murdering people.
“The Jonas Brothers are here. (Applause.) They’re out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans. But, boys, don’t get any ideas. (Laughter.) I have two words for you — predator drones. (Laughter.) You will never see it coming. (Laughter.) You think I’m joking. (Laughter.)” — Barack Obama at the White House
I’d place Trump no less than equal to Obama on the ‘ethics’ level, and possibly even a notch ahead. Trump is an ignorant right-wing rube with a lot of money. He has bought into to all the crazy crap put out by the rightwingnuts. That compares with an Obama who clearly knew better, yet did what he did anyway.
I want it understood this is less an endorsement of Trump than it is a dumping on BHO.
Zachary – “I’d place Trump no less than equal to Obama on the ‘ethics’ level, and possibly even a notch ahead.”
You might be right, but when Trump bombed Syria, he made sure that the people at the airstrip were given advance warning, and then he bombed a virtually empty airstrip. In fact, apparently there was no damage to the airstrip itself, as they flew jets out of it the next day.
When he dropped the mega bomb on Afghanistan, it was virtually out in the mountains.
He did holler and bellow at the North Korean leader.
So far Trump is not exactly a warmonger. So far.
I have given some thought to this from time to time as well and I’m grateful for this insight.
Rather than focus on the individuals, I have looked at the culture which produces them the society which chooses people with their qualities as leaders. In our culture, ruthlessness and the use of merciless force is rewarded. It is Harvard and Yale who choose and train the leaders to believe in themselves as saviors, as doing god’s work, ridding the world of evil. Yes, they act in pathological ways but those pathologies are prized among the elite. If your hiring for Goldman Sachs you are not looking for anyone who displays empathy in any way.
I can not contemplate how something so deeply entrenched in society and culture could be meaningfully effected.
Reagan began the “well folks, we’re not gonna be able to save everybody” has he opened the mental hospital doors and set the inmates “free” to mingle with the very large homeless Vietnam vet population (with their mental health and substance abuse burden) … he and the conservatives back in the 1980’s preached the “tough love” of kicking out “problem” teen and young adult children who wouldn’t follow the rules (let them taste “real life” and let the welfare rolls and society at large pay for their care and feeding on the streets) …
I don’t know — having not traveled much for a long time — were there homeless encampments filled with able bodied young people in every large city in Europe BEFORE the refugee crisis, before the 2008 economic meltdown (which we do not accept responsibility for)?
I think part of the change in America has been this … since Reagan, the poor and the indigent, the homeless have been cast as both “undeserving” and “damaged” — “hopeless cases” … and our religious institutions increasingly silenced themselves as advocates for the poor and needy.
Americans view most immigrants as poor and needy (even if they are well-to-do — they are the “huddled masses” to whom America has “mercifully” granted refuge (regardless of our actual immigration criteria and processes) … It’s part of why they so often report hostility … as with African-Americans, white America believes they are resented even hated by “minorities” and the “less fortunate” … Americans for generations have been told — as Bush reformulated — that everyone wants to be American — that our standard of living and amenities are the envy of the world … oh, and our freedoms too … but there has always been both a superiority complex mixed with anxiety and fear of loss …
It’s really ugly. Stephen Frears (actor / director / atheist) said recently he kept wanting to chide others to “act like Christians” … and I (also an atheist) have had the same impulse … It used to be better … not great … but better. we could really use reviving the golden-rule
” Americans for generations have been told …that our standard of living and amenities are the envy of the world”. So true”… my own wife never got over the story(suggested by my aunt)that she married me for American citizenship). But the best story comes from a Scottish co-worker, Betty Hogue who chose to immigrate to America instead of Australia. Betty had a heavy Scottish brogue and entertained our office with stories that seemed incredible until we were confronted with the facts. She used to sing World War II songs at a piano bar in New York(i.e. We’re Gonna Hang Out the Washing on the Seifried Line) .According to Betty all Scots were either “left footers”(heavy drinkers) or “right footers”(complete abstinence). Being a left footer she was always worried about “me Mum” burning the house down and one day it happened when “Mum” passed out drinking and smoking at the kitchen table. Anyway Betty said she was influenced in choosing to come to “America” instead of Australia by her “dear Uncle Alfie” who had heard wonderful things about the states, although he had never been.There were so many stories about “uncle Alfie” that some of us wondered whether he wasn’t a fiction of Betty’s fertile imagination. So one day we were all surprised to meet Uncle Alfie after Betty had gotten him an “apex”ticket round trip(restricted dates) from Glasgow to N.Y.C.. A couple days later Uncle Alfie was walking in front of a bank while it was being robbed. The perpetrators threw him up against a planter in front of the bank. He was bruised but otherwise, unhurt. The next day he paid the penalty on his ticket and went back to Scotland rueing the day that he landed in America. As for Betty, she always regretted not moving to Australia instead.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91PqShHl4H0
Left footer is slang for Catholic in Scotland. Maybe Betty confused the left footer/right footer with alcohol as many protestant varieties in Britain are firmly in the teetotal camp.
John A. – using both Betty’s way of thinking and your correct usage of the terms, my grandfather was a left footer, especially on Saturday nights, and most especially if he won at the track.
She equated being a left footer with drinking(as Backwards explains). There was another Scottish woman in our service unit(Moira Carruthers)who was a right footer with an opposite personality(deeply “religious”, stern, and tighter than a tourniquet). Moira once asked someone who was going to London to mail a letter there for her brother because the postage was cheaper(we were working in a service unit for PanAm at the time).
How far is the USA from the Nazis at this point?
History is merely the lies the living play on the dead. So it is with the Nazis. Much of what we have been told about the Nazis is fictional propaganda. Much of what is true of the Nazis is equally, if not more so, of the US and its allies (e.g. USSR). For example, the Nuremberg trials made an utter mockery of justice where torture was routinely used to obtain confessions and affidavits from Germans. Indeed, Rudolf Höss was tortured for 3 days before he signed an English affidavit regarding the gassing of millions of Jews – even though Hoss spoke little to no English. Hoss is considered the primary witness on which much of the holocaust myth is based. The USSR committed the Polish massacre at Katyn. And yet, at Nuremberg, it was the Germans that were found guilty of committing this massacre and murdered – sorry, sentenced to death – because of it.
You need only look at events today to see the US and it’s allies routinely commit war crimes and the hypocrisy is the US and its allies and MSM are completely silent about their guilt and crimes against humanity! The US and its proxy wars have caused the death of 50 to 60 million people since the end of the WWII. Think about this number for a second. The US has outdone, many times over, anything that the Germans and Nazis did!
Ian – Paul Craig Roberts has a good article entitled “Tyranny at Nuremberg”:
“The Nuremberg trials are paradoxical in that the law Jackson intended to establish applied to every country, not to Germany alone. The ex post facto law under which Germans were sentenced to death and to prison also criminalized the terror bombing of German and Japanese cities by the British and US air forces. Yet, the law was only applied to the Germans in the dock. In his book, Apocalypse 1945: The Destruction of Dresden (1995), Irving quotes US General George C. McDonald’s dissent from the directive to bomb civilian cities such as Dresden. Gen. McDonald characterized the directive as the “extermination of populations and the razing of cities,” war crimes under the Nuremberg standard. […]
What Irving does in his book is to report the story that the documents tell. This story differs from the patriotic propaganda written by court historians with which we are all imbued. The question arises: Is Irving pro-truth or pro-Nazi. The National Socialist government of Germany is the most demonized government in history. Any lessening of the demonization is unacceptable, so Irving is vulnerable to demonization by those determined to protect their cherished beliefs.
Zionists have branded Irving a “holocaust denier,” and he was convicted of something like that by an Austrian court and spent 14 months in prison before the conviction was thrown out by a higher court.
In Nuremberg, Irving removes various propaganda legends from the holocaust story and reports authoritative findings that many of the concentration camp deaths were from typhus and starvation, especially in the final days of the war when food and medicine were disappearing from Germany, but nowhere in the book does he deny, indeed he reports, that vast numbers of Jews perished. As I understand the term, a simple truthful modification of some element of the official holocaust story is sufficient to brand a person a holocaust denier.”
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/08/11/tyranny-at-nuremberg/
now I realize that Paul Craig Roberts once worked ( happily ) for the Reagan cabal. how dare he and anyone else try to ‘ soften ‘ the blow of the Nazis!! I guess if one comes down hard on any of the right wing ‘ dribble about the Holocaust, he or she becomes Pro Zionist. I have a plaque of mine about the Holocaust subtitled ‘ To BE a Jew’ about that era. It was accepted in the Holocaust Memorial in LA. Yet, I am a virulent critic of the Israeli govt and its policies towards the Palestinians.
I just won’t fall into the category of many from the left and right who equate everything our gov’t does in foreign policy as being of the ‘ Anglo Zionist ‘ camp.
Finally, Israel was ALLOWED to be created by the Brits and the US to be their ‘ junkyard dog ‘ to watch over their oil interests in the Middle East, and of course all those A-RABS.
Most people in the US would be shocked and outraged, I mean outraged, at the comparison with the Nazi’s.
Russia Today has had a series on several dozen Russian children found in orphanages in Iraq … their parents left Russia to fight for ISIS and are now lost, missing, presumed dead. Some children are too young to even know their names …
https://www.rt.com/news/399470-sisters-orphanage-iraqi-isis/
These Russian grandparents are both publicly grieving for the death of their children but also desperate to get their grandchildren back …
I have found myself wondering if Americans would/could act that way .. y’know like humans … or would they be afraid of what “others” would think of them … would they believe it was their patriotic duty to renounce them?
John Walker Lindh is due to be released in May 2019 … will “we” let this unfortunate young man have a “life” after 17 years in prison?
If one Trump’s sons went off to Syria to fight for ISIS as so many British and Europeans have, would he have them killed by US bombs? The trouble with war mongers is, they don’t really regard the people they are exterminating as human so killing children doesn’t come into it. When other people kill children as he accused Assad of doing over the supposed gas attack, then Trump pours out crocodile tears, but its not out of compassion its for show. American death squads are butchering kids by dropping bombs on them every day but Trump couldn’t care less, in fact he’s rather pleased about it.
Trumps kid IF they’d been signed up for war would likely be sitting behind a desk, son in law too. This is where Bush 2 did when he was in uniform. Gotta protect the rich kids.
More slaughtered children at link below:
———————————————————————-
August 5, 2014
They call it a War: But many others call it ‘Genocide,’ ‘Infanticide,’ ‘Crimes against Humanity, ‘War Crimes,’ ‘a moral outrage and a criminal act’
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2014/08/they-call-it-war-but-many-others-call.html
[Pictures of Children contaminated in Iraq with depleted uranium]
https://www.google.ca/search?q=pictures+of+Children+contaminated+in+Iraq+with+depleted+uranium&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=shqjU9LaOIT3oASM5oCIAg&ved=0CDUQ7Ak&biw=1263&bih=557
Do the men that are mentioned in this article, Hitler, Obama, Bush, really love their children, or do they see their children and others in their lives as narcissistic extensions of themselves, and call it love? Do they love their children unconditionally? Certainly not!. I don’t think a normal human being, free of profound pathology, can order the death and destruction of others. Personally I believe most of those people who rise to positions of power and engage the world in war and destruction are psychopaths. Their children are just useful possessions as long as they continue to function in the best interest of their parent. I’m sure they would feel a sense of loss over the death of their child, but not that it was so much loved, but rather they lost something that belonged to them.
I keep hoping that the Obama daughters would one day tell their parents that they disown them because of their actions. Especially what Barry did to the people in both this country and the Middle East.
Obama sat back and watched as millions of people lost their homes while the banks continued to commit fraud and he did nothing to stop them.
The damage he did to this country is going to felt for decades.
Add in what he did to women and children who lost their lives and others lost their homes and countries because of his actions in the Middle East.
Millions more have become refugees and are in camps that are like the concentration camps in Germany. Just don’t have gas chambers. But because of his decisions, they have lost everything. And for what? For what reason did he decide that Gaddafi had to be murdered? He did it because Gaddafi was going to use other types of money besides the US dollar. This can be verified by a search.
I’m sick and disgusted by the people in this country that stayed silent about Obama’s actions after they protested against bush for doing the same things,
These are the people that were going to vote for Hillary who was responsible for Libya.
Try this out: Walk up to a Democrat and tell him/her that by voting for Democrats they are voting and tacitly supporting rape, torture, the use of chemical weapons, terrorism, slavery, war crimes, and the potential extinction of the human race.*
The response? “What, no, not me. How could you even say that?”
Then you point out Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, the potential nuclear devastation from a war with Russia, the tens of thousands of rapes that have occurred throughout our decades of wars, people being sold in Libya due to destroying the nation, arming terrorists around the world, etc.
Abby – good post. The media loved their darling Obama. He could do no wrong. What he did with the banks was unforgivable. All of those banks were bankrupt and he bailed them out. Every single one of those bankers should have been sent to jail. Instead they got fines and a slap on the wrist. Ordinary people suffered terribly.
What’s been happening in the Middle East and Ukraine is unconscionable. Nothing justifies it – nothing.
Trump is President and wants to stop the wars – he’s crucified.
Read again what Annie said above. These people are on the psychopathic end of the spectrum.
i have to take issue with the comment given that ‘ Trump wants to stop wars ‘. Trump is a coward who did ZERO when we, of his same generation, were protesting on the campuses we went to in 1970 after the Cambodia bombing. Trump says whatever comes to his mind at the time folks. He is merely a ‘ phony populist ‘ who has bamboozled millions with his ‘ anti government rhetoric’. Look at the people he picked for his cabinet and administration: Super rich corporate predators! Trump is NOT the problem, rather the symptom of this Military Industrial Empire. ALL those who serve in gov’t from this two party con job are hypocrites and ‘ climbers’ and not true ‘ public servants’. Sad, but true.
Well said, great knowledge you possess.
Yep. Obama oversaw the killings of thousands of brown and black people in other countries. And aided and abetted Goldman Sachs banksters here in the USA in screwing American homeowners.
The head of a big US law firm told me over lunch a couple of months ago that while Obama was president, she “didn’t have to pay attention ” cause things were in good hands. This is a person who reads at least 3 papers a day. Very smart and informed. Ha!
Obama was a well read president, like many other presidents being well read .he also read several newspapers each day like other presidents. And yes he’ d watch a bit of t v. But trump doesn’t read books or newspapers. only watchs several t v stations for the latest news.He’s worth several billions, some say 10 billion. I wander how that compares with Clinton coming from a single parent family. i understand she relied on scholarships to get her schooling. He hasn;t a clue about NAFTA and just sends his threats just like a bully he is. Oh Mex. and Can are not playing well and I ll just dissolve it. The states can stop inport and do their own. That is such a joke. We have tougher laws with our meat, a better grade. Where would they get hydro ? We sell to them many times cheaper to them then to our own costumers for one thing. And WE sure don’t need their guns.Someone should stand up to the NRA. I see they will be making I understand the gun people well be making over 3,106 guns for the states and other counties.
P S The manufactures of war equipment need to have your sons and daughters sent to war as that means quipment for them to be safe. It’s the local people who are getting killed. Not trump in his ivory tower. He couldn’t even sign up,because of spurs Yet he could have had a simple surgry and be out the same day.,or he could have wore them off by walking. Maybe he just love the armed forces because he has this obligation for not being in uniform like Mccain and several other heros .
He went to the funeral of the first soldier killed when he became pres., no others. I wounder since the parents wanted no journalist or cameras that would mean no photo op for trump. so now I think he just rather no do that.
Annie – I’ve done a fair bit of reading on psychology, and your explanation is bang on, IMO! “Narcissistic extensions of themselves” is a perfect description.
Good job, Annie.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
I think their Golden Rule is, “Do unto others before they do unto you.” Oh yes, and, “He who has the gold, makes the rules.”
I believe your right, well said.
Spot on! Welcome to animal Planet.
Excellent commentary on the evil hypocrisy that is the United States of America.
What about the other people/nations mentioned Nancy? Do you have an axe to grind?