Tulsi on the New Cold War

This is excellent.

I don't understand how Trump could pull out of the inf treaty. Don't they have to be ratified by congress?

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I will rely on Tulsi.
She is on fire.
She has NOTHING to lose.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

janis b's picture

Today it was set at 100 seconds. That is 16% less. Does that mean we have about 6 years left at this rate?

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WoodsDweller's picture

@janis b
The Doomsday Clock was 3 minutes to midnight in 1949. It's not exactly a linear scale.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

janis b's picture

@WoodsDweller

where on the timeline the clock was set in 1949.

It’s hard to think rationally or linearly at this time of great unpredictably.

Maybe cruising through the uncharted is the way to go? …

[video:https://youtu.be/U5aFFKts9IU]

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in the Iowa caucus. She would then qualify for the next debate in February.

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24 users have voted.

@humphrey @humphrey

She has stated that she simply didn't have the resources to compete in Iowa - effectively, had to write it off and has concentrated instead on NH and, to a lesser extent, SC.

NH being an open primary where Republicans and independents can vote for her should help a lot, plus it is small enough that she can have an impact through on the ground campaigning.

If she can beat any of the "top tier" candidates in New Hampshire it would give her a way forward.

Would *love* to see it happen - and the MSM "analysts"
trying to explain it.

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Like the Iraq AUMF, which was a blank check to go to war if the President wanted to or not if he didn't want to.
Whatshisface, the old Dem segregationist from west Virginia had it right when he told Congress to either declare war on Iraq or not, but don't cede your power to the President.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

snoopydawg's picture

Link

“The 2020 election is likely to be the most consequential election in modern American history, and I am alarmed by new reports that Russia recently hacked into the Ukrainian gas company at the center of the impeachment trial, as well as Russia’s plans to once again meddle in our elections and in our democracy. After our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, including with thousands of paid ads on Facebook, the New York Times now reports that Russia likely represents the biggest threat of election meddle in 2020, including through disinformation campaigns, promoting hatred, hacking into voting systems, and by exploiting the political divisions sewn [sic] by Donald Trump….”

And so on for another 250 words. Not only did the statement put him in bed with the intelligence agencies, but it makes him party to the big lie that the Kremlin was responsible for putting Trump

Bernie is pushing the new Cold War propaganda that has caused censorship of leftist websites and is meant to manufacture consent for many other things that are being done. And especially the assault on journalists. I posted Caitlin's article in the EBs and I hope everyone reads it. There is no excusing Bernie for playing along.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg that I sense might be sine qua non for the Democratic leadership -- things like Russiagate and similar falsehoods/hoaxes. I think he's afraid to cross the leadership, and it's possible that he considers his central issues important enough to justify going along uncomplainingly elsewhere so that he will at least have a chance to make the good things happen. I can understand that even while wishing he wouldn't compromise so easily. We don't know what kind of pressures they place on their members.

But let me ask you, Snoopy -- what are the EBs?

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Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl

snoopydawg's picture

@laurel

Evening blues. EBs...

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg I shoulda known. The ol' brain is losing its flexibility. Pardon

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Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl

vtcc73's picture

@laurel as much as there is no advantage and plenty of risk in strong opposition to articles of faith to many or most Americans. Changing that programming is going to be a multigenerational effort I fear.

I don’t know enough about his thinking on these issues so I could be wrong. This looks to me to be a political calculation more than a statement of support or passive acceptance. Personally, I have to give him a pass because of his stance on so many other issues. Not supporting him isn’t an option because nobody else has so much of everything. YMMV

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"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

@vtcc73 about "Russians interfering with our elections" and also rails about Trump as if the childish old boob were the worst thing that's ever happened to this country. For a short time after the election he spoke of issues on which he could work with Trump but abruptly stopped. So the tone and pattern of his go-along stance seems forced and deliberate. However, like you I can put up with it as long as he sticks with his pro-people domestic agenda. Further, he's all we've got. At present, he and Tulsi are our only hope.

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Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl

@laurel
Also the report of someone talking about his dark money backers.
If Bernie takes dark money after touting his people powered campaign, I'm throwing in the towel.
Might anyway if he keeps talking that Russiagate nonsense.
Why is he backing Hillary's claims after being trashed by her? Is Bernie on the con?
Is he a Trojan horse? I rationalized his actively campaigning for Hillary, but ...

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness @The Voice In the Wilderness contribute to any campaign ever again.
Flip on me once, shame on you. Flip on me twice...

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@The Voice In the Wilderness how he has spent his entire life. Somewhere inside, that person is still there.

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Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl

@snoopydawg

I'd love an explanation for Bernie doing this

edit- I guess this is as good as any

he's afraid to cross the leadership

That is not what we used to call a "good excuse".
Someone needs to call him on this dangerous bullshit.
Krystal Ball, Shaun King, Caitlin? (do they believe it too)

SPEAK UP SOMEBODY

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edg's picture

@snoopydawg

I hate to say it about Bernie and I'm supporting him for 2020, but that statement is just plain ignorant. This part...

thousands of paid ads on Facebook

...just boggles my mind. Facebook runs many millions of paid ads each day. What the big bad Russians did was like spitting into the Pacific Ocean.

And this Ukraine nonsense irks me, too. Would we be happy if Russia armed Cuba? I think we know how that worked out in the 1960s. Yet TPTB have made it an article of faith that Ukraine is our best bud and we must give them weapons to fight the Russian menace. Sheer idiocy.

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Bob In Portland's picture

@edg @edg @edg https://www.thenation.com/article/seven-decades-nazi-collaboration-ameri...

Then this: https://archive.org/details/CovertActionInformationBulletinNo35TheCIAInE...

If you haven't read Christopher Simpson's BLOWBACK, a 1988 book about the US importing fascists into the US, do so.

A question I've asked myself at the time of reading this book and afterwards was what happened to the children and grandchildren of these Nazis and fascists imported to the US after WWII? Just about every participant in that war is long gone. But like the concentration guards who would pop up on assembly lines in the sixties, seventies and eighties, the children and grandchildren seem to be popping up.

When you see a person who has an Eastern European-sounding name, look at their wiki bios. See if their parents were "anti-Communist" or "freedom fighters". That was the term the CIA used for them. See where their parents came from, when, and try to determine if they were part of the CIA's "Crusade For Freedom".

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snoopydawg's picture

@Bob In Portland

wait for it... RUSSIA!! Yep the guy who created the Blaze which is a neo Nazis group married a Russian woman and lives in Russia. This is all it takes for people to say that Russia is behind the rise of white supremacists here. Good lord I really wonder if anyone even knows the history of what Russians went through during WWII?

No matter what happens here people are blaming Russia because of that Hideous woman Hillary Clinton. The dems are pushing this crap and people don't even bother to question whether it's true of not.

I am not giving Bernie a pass for this just because of his domestic policies. If he can't stand up to the status quo democrats now just what would he do in regards to Russia if he becomes president.

Too many people are paying the price for this cold war propaganda bullsh*t. Assange, Manning, Bluementhal and now Greenwald. Real people are paying a heinous price for this and I am disgusted that Bernie has pushed it every since it was created. He was asked if Hillary one the primary fair and square and he said she did. Bullsh*t she did. It was rigged and he knows it.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

The neo Nazis in Ukraine were funded by our country during the Maiden square massacre and they have murder tens of thousands of people since then. Whenever I hear democrats bitching about Russia supporting neo Nazis here I tell them that it was their beloved Obama who created their rise in Ukraine. Silence...

Did Zelensky snub Holocaust memorial to avoid upsetting Ukrainian nationalists?

Zelensky’s problem is that it's now a taboo to criticize Second World War-era Ukrainian nationalist leaders, who were installed as national heroes after the 2014 Maidan. They were Nazi-collaborators, who took part in the Holocaust. Thus, his presence at a commemoration set up to denounce folk of that ilk runs contrary to Ukraine’s new historical touchstones, and national origin myths.

Other Ukrainians, of course, fought with the Red Army, which defeated the Nazis and their Ukrainian allies, who almost exclusively hailed from the Western part of the country. Zelensky, himself of Jewish heritage, is from central Krivoy Rog, a historically Russian-speaking industrial city. Members of his family perished in the Holocaust and his grandfather was a Soviet soldier, during the conflict.

So, while he doubtless personally wanted to attend, something quite obviously held him back.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Roy Blakeley's picture

@snoopydawg but if I could up-vote a dozen times I would.

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lotlizard's picture

You’d think a treaty with an independent country — requiring a 2/3 vote of the Senate for ratification — would be necessary for it to be legal for the U.S. to terminate that country and annex it.

Yet Hawaii was supposedly annexed by a simple congressional resolution.

Isn’t that great? “Our legislature can pass a simple resolution terminating and annexing your country. No input from your people required.”

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@lotlizard

Happened, in the course of researching something unrelated across US Senator Richard Pettigrew - first US Senator from South Dakota.

Who unsuccessfully fought against the annexation of Hawaii in the Senate, basically laying out a case that it was the illegitimate result of a US-backed regime change coup against the Republic of Hawaii.

To be fair, it would have been difficult for Hawaii to maintain its independence - other imperial powers, especially Japan had their eyes on it as well.

A lot of people know, or did, that Japan attacked the US Navy at Pearl Harbor - but very few know or care how it was that the navy was there to be attacked in the first place.

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lotlizard's picture

@Blue Republic  
the great powers Britain and France agreed not to try to add Hawaii to their respective empires, with an implication of willingness to intervene on Hawaii’s behalf to prevent any other empire such as Japan from grabbing it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_%28Hawaii%29

Granted, the argument that stealing Hawaii out from under the Hawaiians was good in the end, because if “we” hadn’t done it someone else would have, is a view one will often hear raised . . .

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ggersh's picture

@lotlizard https://ejmagnier.com/2020/01/22/immediate-us-withdrawal-due-to-its-viol...

The Iraqi Parliament has decided to ask for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign forces from the country for violating the terms of their presence. The US has broken its contractual obligations to the government of Baghdad and affronted the sovereignty of Iraq, jeopardising its stability. Sources at the Prime Minister’s office said “the request for withdrawal is imminent. US forces have violated the agreement. Therefore, the agreement is now null and void. The agreement had stipulated that US forces were to be given one year’s notice for withdrawal, but since the US broke the terms of the agreement, this time horizon no longer applies.”

Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi informed all countries with military forces in Iraq — the USA, and its coalition partners the UK, Canada, France, Belgium, Denmark, etc. – of the urgency that they initiate withdrawal as soon as possible. So far, I have learned, no country has responded positively to the request via diplomatic channels. Only the US has even answered the Iraqi government, openly declaring its refusal to depart. Tremendous pressure and intimidation are being applied to the government to persuade it not to carry out the constitutional decision voted by the parliamentary majority.

“I can only see one solution ahead: to inform the country that the United States is defying the will of the Iraqi people, and to declare the US military an occupation force if all diplomatic means are exhausted”, said the source.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

@lotlizard A treaty requires 2/3s approval in the Senate. Since the JPCOA couldn't get that, Trump was able to withdraw from it, all by himself. It illogically follows that, since the INF is a treaty, .... Trump can withdraw from that, too, without involving Congress at all.

How is this not rank insanity?

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@tle
in a global game of capitalist imperialism.
Executive, congressional, judicial all get their
instructions from the game controllers.
Yeah, it would be good if US honored treaties
and congress did their jobs constitutionally.
And we had an independent justice.
Or a representational democracy.
Seems we are winning the race to the bottom.

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edg's picture

@tle

US President Donald Trump announced on 20 October 2018 that he was withdrawing the US from the treaty due to Russian non-compliance.

A Trumped-up charge if I ever heard one.

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lotlizard's picture

@edg  
mid-2016 and the revelation, via Wikileaks, of inconvenient facts about the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Russia bad! “Hey, it may be b.s. but look, it’s been working for the Democrats with their base . . .” One thing Trump has always appeared to understand is marketing (or as Scott Adams of Dilbert fame calls it, persuasion).

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Situational Lefty's picture

backed by Dennis Kucinich and opposed by the entire Clinton-Obama corporate wing of the Democratic Party.

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"The enemy is anybody who is going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on." Yossarian

mimi's picture

[video:https://youtu.be/tdCYWbYtzXc]

I lose my trust in Sanders. Sorry Bernie, but you made mistakes we don't have to make.

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mimi's picture

[video:https://youtu.be/hsStjUfdJfs]
fact based fears.
Tulsi's Motive: To Save the People & Planet from Annihilation

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RantingRooster's picture

how far we have fallen...

Reagan 1987 = "Tear down this wall"
Trump 2015/20 = "We're building a beautiful border wall in Colorado"

[video:https://youtu.be/lTHzMRpixEA]

What's scary is the people behind trump clapping. None of them seem to realize Colorado isn't on the US border...

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

edg's picture

@RantingRooster

The border of New Mexico.

Mexico, New Mexico...tomayto, tomahto. Only pedants care about the difference. Smile

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RantingRooster's picture

@edg

of something, right!

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

at the impeachment dance to say "we have to fight them over there (Ukraine) or we'll have to fight them (Russia) here" and he is just one of many calling Russia "dangerous", but he tops everyone in war mongering by adding fear and urgency in painting the picture of Russia as "a wounded animal" which implies they are an imminent threat.
A "wounded animal" creates the image of something that you can't expect to act normally, an imminent threat that has to be killed immediately or disabled in order to euthanize the animal, and any Country viewed like that is one where negotiations are considered pointless with war being the only answer available.

Imagine what the Russian leaders and the Russian people in general think when they hear that, and then when they see this....

US Army Begins Largest War Exercise In Europe In Decades

"....Lt. Gen. Christopher Cavoli, U.S. Army Europe commanding general, told Stars and Stripes in a statement. “This ability is critical in projecting force at a moment’s notice.”

During the Cold War, similar mobility exercises were seen as a preparation for a potential conflict with the Soviet Union. The drills allow U.S. and NATO allies to move combat troops and equipment across the European Union to quickly respond to a potential crisis.

The Pentagon has shifted its focus in the last five years from Middle East wars to large-scale conflicts between Russia and or China.

The exercise will involve more than a dozen air and seaports in eight European countries: Belgium, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, and Poland.

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Kramer, who leads EUCOM exercise programs, said DEFENDER-Europe 20 is the most massive exercise since the Cold War. " (all emphasis mine)
https://theduran.com/us-army-begins-largest-war-exercise-in-europe-in-de...

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Steven D's picture

are nothing more than promises made by governments at a particular time in history. To the extent they are followed, it is because the provisions of the treaty serves the interests of those governments, or to be specific, the interest of the current regimes. But without any higher authority to enforce the treaty provisions, it's not uncommon for a new regime to decide the treaty in question no loner serves those interests. And in America, with our Military-Intelligence-Industrial complex, there are always factions that seek to abrogate treaties that place limits on weapons, that seek to pursue aggressive approaches in foreign affairs rather than diplomacy.

Here's the text of the INF treaty. Please read the following article, which states when a party may withdraw for the treaty:

Article XV

1. This Treaty shall be of unlimited duration.

2. Each Party shall, in exercising its national sovereignty, have the right to withdraw from this Treaty if it decides that extraordinary events related to the subject matter of this Treaty have jeopardized its supreme interests. It shall give notice of its decision to withdraw to the other Party six months prior to withdrawal from this Treaty. Such notice shall include a statement of the extraordinary events the notifying Party regards as having jeopardized its supreme interests.

Under the Constitution, Article II, Section 2, the president is granted the power to negotiate treaties, which take affect only after approval by two thirds of the Senate.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur;

However, nothing is said that Congress has any right to decide when a treaty, to which the US is a member, can be terminated by the federal government. Typically, the power to withdraw from treaties has been viewed as one that lies solely within the ambit of the executive branch, though arguments have been made over the years that withdrawal from a treaty should require the approval of the Senate. However, under current case law, the executive branch has been given wide leeway regarding the decision to withdraw from any treaty. However, it remains an open question as to whether the Congress can assert any implied right to deny a President from taking such steps, as SCOTUS has never definitively ruled on the matter. Unfortunately, the Constitution does not specifically grant Congress that power.

Edit: Language from the ABM treaty case summarizing the only SCOTUS decisionthat addressed this issue:

A.Goldwater v. Carter

Goldwater is the only Supreme Court decision to date that addresses the constitutional role of Congress in treaty termination. In 1979, as a precondition for formally recognizing the People's Republic of China, President Carter unilaterally terminated a 25-year-old mutual defense treaty with Taiwan, without obtaining congressional consent. Eight senators, one former senator, and sixteen House members “claim[ed] that the President’s action in terminating the treaty with Taiwan has deprived them of their constitutional role with respect to a change in the supreme law of the land.” 444 U.S. at 997-98 (Powell, J., concurring). By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court remanded to the District Court and ordered the case dismissed, without addressing the merits of the claim.

The Court's ruling resulted in four opinions, two concurring in the judgment and two dissenting. Four Justices in the majority — Justices Rehnquist, Stevens and Stewart, and Chief Justice Burger — concluded that the case should be dismissed because the issue presented a nonjusticiable political question that was inappropriate for resolution by the courts. Justice Powell concurred, finding that the issue was "not ripe for judicial review" because neither Congress nor the President had asserted their constitutional authority to the point of political impasse. Justice Marshall simply concurred in the result.

Three Justices dissented from the Court's order to remand for dismissal. Without reaching the merits, Justices Blackmun and White stated only that the case should be set for oral argument and considered fully. Justice Brennan disagreed that the issue was nonjusticiable and concluded that the President had a constitutional right to withdraw from the treaty, without congressional consent, given "the President's well-established authority to recognize, and withdraw recognition from, foreign governments."

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

snoopydawg's picture

@Steven D

for taking the time to look that up and post it here. Great information.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.