Why I'm Supporting Tulsi
I want to preface this piece with the notion that I find politics in general ineffective in the US. What the majority of the citizens want is NOT reflected in the policies of this nation. Our government is owned and controlled by the multi-national corporations and their will is abetted by the mafia branch of the government, the CIA (et al). Secondly, we face the existential threat of rapid impending climate disaster and extinction, the future shock of which probably makes politics moot. That said, when looking at next years primary season, I think Tulsi is a better candidate than Bernie. Here's why...
Really it boils down to foreign policy. Consider the response of Tulsi and Bernie to the US coup in Venezuela...
Tulsi Gabbard
Verified account @TulsiGabbardThe US needs to stop using our military for regime change & stop intervening in Venezuela’s military. Throughout history, US-led regime change has been waged in the name of humanitarianism, but has resulted in more suffering, destruction & lives lost. #HandsOffVenezuela
Bernie posted 3 tweets
The Maduro government has waged a violent crackdown on Venezuelan civil society, violated the constitution by dissolving the National Assembly and was re-elected last year in an election many observers said was fraudulent. The economy is a disaster and millions are migrating. 1/3
The United States should support the rule of law, fair elections and self-determination for the Venezuelan people. We must condemn the use of violence against unarmed protesters and the suppression of dissent. 2/3
But we must learn the lessons of the past and not be in the business of regime change or supporting coups—as we have in Chile, Guatemala, Brazil & the DR. The US has a long history of inappropriately intervening in Latin American nations; we must not go down that road again. 3/3
He is incorrect about several things. Abby Martin reported from the streets of Venezuela and documented the violence was primarily from the US funded opposition. They literally were burning Chavistas. The election was not fraudulent. The opposition largely declined to participate, and instead attacked polling places dominated by Chavistas. The economic collapse in the country is due primarily to our illegal sanctions. The third tweet is better, but the sequence shows a lack of understanding of the situation.
Jimmy, Abby and Mike discuss the story...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6chIn6JRjBA (16 min)
Now I'm not going to run down Bernie. I know many of you support him and I'm certain he stands a better chance at the nomination than Tulsi. Many people vote strategically. In 2016 many of my friends voted for the $hill rather than Bernie because they thought she had a better chance to win in the general.
I feel similar to Caitlin about a possible Sanders presidency....
While Bernie might not start any new hot wars or engage in the kind of obscene regime change interventionism we’re seeing from Trump in Venezuela, under a President Sanders we can expect to see a continued escalation of the world-threatening cold war against Russia, continued starvation sanctions against nations which fail to comply with the demands of the US empire, continued military expansionism around the world, and very little pushback against the depraved agendas of military and intelligence agencies. We can expect to see him play right along with the establishment narrative if the political/media class decides that Assad is gassing civilians and needs a dose of Tomahawk missiles, and we can probably expect him to facilitate the persecution of Julian Assange as well.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/02/20/six-thoughts-on-bernie-2020/
(worth the full read)
So what's so great about Tulsi. Well she has issues too. Neither she nor Bernie are calling out Israel. As we saw with Ilhan last week...just mention Israel and they go off the rails. More evidence of the dysfunctional nature the US government, media, corporate stranglehold. However she is a strong anti-interventionist. On Cross-Talk yesterday they spent the half hour discussing Tulsi as the "Peace Candidate". (25 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2rQQbvYYxo]
Excellent conversation!
The corporate media is at war with the peace candidate...
Jimmy covers some of the attacks...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlXhRBsOwpA (27 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yTStAk7XqM (10 min)
Yesterday the war mongers on the View dished out some hate on Tulsi... attacking her about both Syria and Venezuela
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w1zf3YyXRI (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lydWqDS1GbY (2 min)
Tulsi isn't just against regime change war (although that is what arouses most of the ire against her). She has introduced and supported many progressive policies. Here's a nice clip...What does Tulsi stand for? (12 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb_lrNBUF7U]
She was on Joe Rogan's show for an extended interview back in September
Full interview (1.75 hours) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIb2lmHgd5s
Here's a 1 hour edit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPNGfAUWQ5o
or a 11 min excerpt about the 2016 primary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szkh57R3IoM
You can read or watch her presidential announcement at:
https://www.tulsi2020.com/press/2019-02-02-tulsi-gabbards-full-speech-pr...
She's been campaigning in Iowa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lReq9xDG-M (2 min)
...and New Hampshire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgcitSCVZJA (5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwjclS0I9UU (8 min)
You may have noticed that the MSM rarely even mentions her as a candidate. They exclude her in many polls. The way in which they sideline her makes me think she better represents the people than the corporations.
Voting may be futile at this point in time. Tim Canova and Jimmy discuss the problems with our election system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6A452H6wA4
Here in Alabama the general election will go to Trump. However, the primary does provide an opportunity to have some effect. None the less keeping in mind Tim's comment in the clip above, in 2016 the outcome of the Alabama dim primary differed by 18 points from the exit polls (in the $hill's favor). So it is obvious the momentum is for Bernie, but my preferred candidate is Tulsi.
Comments
Tulsi Gabbard will be more effective
in US-European-ME-relations than Sanders. She needs to visit and tour Europe. She is more courageous than Sanders on foreign policy issues too. She is a woman I could imagine to be the first female President of the US and it would be quite a good sign, if she could become it.
I think she would be well loved and respected all over the world. Na ja, may be I am naive.
https://www.euronews.com/live
No just hopeful...
I am too. I still dream of things that could be.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Wow! I have been out all day and this is up to 110 comments!
It is all about PEACE for me. I posted in 2015 over at the other place that I could never support the evil queen because of her war mongering. There are sins of commission like the above evil queen and there are sins of omission like nearly every Democrat on the public stage. Tulsi Gabbard is the exception.
I did not spend nearly every Saturday with a local Peace vigil because it was simply a social gathering. I did it because I believe that until we rid this country of the blood sucking and blood letting vampires of the military/ banker/industrial complex, this country and the world will devolve into chaos, especially with climate change looming like the sword of Damocles.
Not only is Tulsi Gabbard the only candidate who is bringing the issue of our war mongering/regime changing government into the public discussion, but she is the only candidate who has shown me that she has the leadership skills to confront those thorny issues and make those difficult decisions. The more I learn about Tulsi, the more I am convinced that this country needs her or someone with the backbone like her to stand up to the deep state.
Bernie is definitely my second choice for the Dems even though his foreign policy statements are sometimes cringe worthy. There is no other Dem that I will support and that includes the weasely Elizabeth Warren.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Anyone else been seeing this tweet?
RT has the article on it and my Twitter feed is loaded with it.
Megan McCain..ugh. The tone she took with Tulsi made me want to slap her. It was her own damn daddy that made the rounds with AQ and ISIS leaders and it's them that were using chemical weapons on Syrians. But for Megan it's wrong for anyone to try to get people to see that it's this country that is going around using chemical weapons in its illegal wars. Depleted uranium and white phosphorus were used in Iraq and Syria, but let's pretend that our poop aren't smelly.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
I suggested upthread...
that Tulsi was portraying Maduro, Assad, Qaddafi, etc were dictators. At least on the View this AM (see links in essay) If so, then T-rump is a dictator too. She partially redeems herself in arguing our invasion (for humanitarian reasons - yeah right) result in worse lives for the people in those countries, and promotes more terrorism making the US less safe.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Tulsi Gabbard
is military. If she thinks Assad is a brutal dictator, she's no doubt right. If she thinks he has used chemical weapons on his own people, she may know something we don't know. Her point is that WHAT WE HAVE DONE in supplying Al Qaeda, ISIS and their thug partners with enough weaponry to destroy Syria in our effort to proxy the Saudi assault on Syria is WORSE.
Even Joe Biden said this:
Even Hillary Clinton said this:
And especially our Defense Information Agency under Michael Flynn said this:
I don't give a shit how many ways the liberal media try to make her into an Assad apologist. She and the members of our military who criticize our bad policy are not supporters of Assad. They are critics of our bad policy of supporting Al Qaeda and Salafist head choppers.
She didn't say that about Assad before today
as this tweet says. This isn't the only tweet that is pointing that out. I know that she is against regime change and our arming terrorists, etc. my post is only about what was said on the View and about Megan's dad palling around with terrorists.
Sheesh. Guess no one has read my other comments about Tulsi here.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
I've been wondering....
if she re-evaluated after the AM Joe attacks to concede the dictator point in order to drive home the fact that these wars have made things worse not better. Otherwise is was a constant argument about if these leaders are bad. As if...
bad leader = destabilize the country + civilian deaths + steal their resources
Just speculating, not excusing though.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Snoopydawg,
I didn't mean to express my anger at you or at the points being made in your comment. You are a stalwart of research and contribution here towards peace and justice. My anger is at the media's assertion that anyone in our military who criticizes the corrupt, treasonous, failed policy of arming terrorists against a dictator is somehow soft on dictators!
And, yes, it disheartens me to read that she has said Assad has used chemical weapons on his own people because I think each of the supposed cases we have been misled about has turned out, after much scrutiny, to have been a false flag attack. But maybe she knows something we don't know about those or other cases.
Even so, what we have done in response has made matters immeasurably worse. I think you and I agree here, and I apologize if my anger overwhelmed my comment and landed on you instead of on the mainstream media.
It is all about peace to me as well
Stopping our insane war economy is not only important it also begins to deal with the climate problem. https://www.projectcensored.org/2-us-department-of-defense-is-the-worst-...
...and provides funding that could be used for social services and a green new deal. Our future hinges on this issue. Our national morality (if we ever had any) has been squandered.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Amen to that.
We cannot begin to invest in our domestic economy and infrastructure, not to mention pay for Medicare for all, free college tuition, etc., until we stop the ruinous spending on overseas bases and interventions.
Mary Bennett
step one really
Do no harm. Sadly we spread ever more aggression. War in Venezuela and Iran are knocking at the door and may be rammed down our throats before we get rid of T-rump.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
At our Peace vigil,
cost was my most effective talking point. Although my personal reason for doing the Peace vigil was the moral and ethical reasons, that is not an effective way to bridge the political gap. We had a lot of self described conservatives stop to talk to us. Some approached us with initial antagonism. And then we would bring up the fiscal cost of these wars. Most folks were shocked to find out just how much these wars were costing the US taxpayers. It helped them to make the link of why things were falling apart here in the homeland and why waging endless war was so wasteful. This is why I have been surprised that Bernie has not used this approach in his campaign.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
A strong anti-war message
resonates across the political and social spectrum. I always wondered why Bernie didn't make it a major plank. I do appreciate his focus on the "too big the fail" banks and other economic issues - medicare 4 all, $15/hr, etc. - and think he is much better than Warren on these points.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Can You Be For Non-Intervention and Support Isreal?
And I mean the State of Isreal, which should go without mention...
Seems to me that support for the State of Israel as a global superpower puts you smack dab in a world of extra-territorial intrigue. Essentially supporting the State of Israel is incompatible with non-interventionism.
Practically, can you have both? I wondered similarly about Bernie's FP, but it wasn't such a clear cut Achilles heel in his case...
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
I don't see how...
I finally figured out that Israel is a big part of the arms business. Spreading war and chaos improves the bottom line. The US also uses this strategy as the leading merchants of war. We're in business together causing death and destruction. Israel sent trainers and advisors to Brazil last week in order to prepare for a Venezuelan invasion.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I think the only way to stop
Them from stealing elections is to provide armed guards around the voting places and armed escorts for all ballots being transported. And tons of witnesses.
Supporting Tulsi
I supported Bernie last time around, and I would be okay if he ended up being president, but it makes me nervous him parroting all the neolib talking points about Russiagate, etc. He does seem to have been influenced.
Tulsi speaks truth, but it is correct she is nowhere near as popular as Bernie. That's because she's still not visible to most people--perhaps the caucuses and primaries in the initial states will change that. If she gets into the debates, perhaps that will change that.
I do know she would wipe Trump off the map in an election--she has wide cross-appeal. I hope she gets the nomination, but if not, I hope Bernie gets the nomination and takes her on as VP.
Why VP? Bernie is old. There is a fair chance that, just because of his age, he would pass away in his first or second terms of office. Then, Tulsi would step in as a worthy first woman president. Or even more ideally, Bernie would serve two terms, people would want more of it, and Tulsi would win the following election and serve two more terms after Bernie! Sixteen years of progressive leadership!!!
A guy can dream . . .
it bothers me...
that Bernie never called out the DNC and instead adopted the russiagate narrative (which I find absurd).
Tulsi has been calling out corrupt pols on both sides of the aisle. We'll see what we'll see.
Thanks for your comment.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I was amused to hear the squeals of outrage when Tulsi pointed
that the shutdown was the result of both Parties being unwilling to sit down and work out a compromise. She didn't come out and say it, but it seemed obvious to me, that she felt both sides were playing politics and didn't really give a rat's ass about the "issues" involved. And they sure didn't care about the hardship inflicted on furloughed workers.
chuck utzman
TULSI 2020
We need an organization of our own.
It's easy to imagine 2020 being a repeat of 2016. I'm sure the Democrats already have a plan in place for how 2020 is to be rigged, perhaps following the plan laid out in 2016. Remember the lawyers' defense against the lawsuit against the DNC: the Democratic Party is not legally obliged to offer fair primaries.
It's also easy to imagine two neoliberals running against each other and the public gearing up for another four years of getting nothing. Bernie will lose again and endorse the Democrat again. Maybe this time around Biden or whomever will win or something like that, though. Remember that Trump only won through razor-thin margins in the upper Midwest and that if he'd lost two or three of those states he'd have lost. The Democrat winner in 2020 will try to imitate the successful formula of Clinton and Obama -- look sharp and be neoliberal. And we will all have died having changed nothing about America or the world.
Well that's what it's easy to imagine. Our Revolution clearly wasn't enough to change the culture of American politics -- we need another organization, one dedicated to that. Lessons can be learned from, for instance, the Zapatistas, or the South Central Farmers. When my situation with a forthcoming inheritance (or lack thereof) settles down I hope to form such an organization.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
I'm sure the DNC made plans to rig 2020
Right after they all recovered from the shock of losing to the Orange Hairball
For me personally, that was the only glint of light in that entire fiasco of an Election. The DNC power machine having to eat shit on election night. Oh, the sweet satisfaction when Hillary couldn't even bring HERself to come out and give a concession speech and thank her many fervent supporters. The shock of it all. As if none of them couldn't see HER losing as obviously as watching a train rolling down the tracks.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
It broke my heart to see what happened to the
South Central Farmers, but do try to learn from their mistakes. In a state where rents are outrageously high, and practically no landlords, including minority landlords, I might add, won't no how anyhow allow tenants to garden, a message of "What about our community?" wasn't going to get much public support. I looked at a house being rented out by a couple from Mexico. Not only was the rent high, but the man and his son did all the yard care, the tenant had no say in what was planted, or, presumably, when it was sprayed and with what chemical brew. They could charge extra rent for having a "nice yard", but it didn't look like the tenant got to use said yard.
Mary Bennett
It's amazing what kind of crap we put up with
Revolt would really be a bonus at this point.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
The French middle and working class put up with
the excesses of the Ancien Regime, including its' tax free status, until the day when the price of wheat rose beyond what Parisian housewives could pay. Balzac details in Pere Goriot just how that wheat price was deliberately manipulated. No need to assume conspiracy, greed provides a perfectly sufficient explanation, though of course there were conspiracies waiting for a sparks they could fan into bonfires.
Mary Bennett
"Say it ain't so,Tulsi."
Can't bring myself to watch this.
What happened?
https://www.rt.com/usa/452095-tulsi-gabbard-the-view-mccain/
Edit. snoopy has this upthread. missed it,sorry.
All good points on Tulsi. I hope she makes it into the
debates. Her anti-war stance is desperately needed in the conversation. In the end, I believe Bernie will have a better chance and if he makes it to the presidency Tulsi should definitely be in his cabinet maybe VP. Good article here on Venezuela: The War on Venezuela is Built on Lies
John Pilger one of my all time favorite journalists. A couple snips:
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
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