Obama responding to the latest Israeli/Palestinian crisis at a press conference in Thailand on 11/18/12 at the start of a three-nation tour in Asia:
"Let's understand what the precipitating event here that's causing the current crisis and that was an ever-escalating number of missiles that were landing not just in Israeli territory but in areas that are populated, and there's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.”
Obama actually said "There's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.”
What a sense of humor that guy has! ROFLMAO!!!!
He really really really said that? He kept a straight face and all? “There's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.”?????
Wow. ... Wow!
That’s some hypocrisy -- some mendacity. On steroids.
There have got to be newer words for the exponentially excessive bullshit Obama is now shoveling. “Hypocrisy” or “mendacity” can’t begin to do it. Hyper-hypocrisy? Hyper-mendacity? No. I know. Killer-hypocrisy! Killer-mendacity!
Yeah. “KILLER-” is the perfect adjective for what Obama is saying as well as doing.
This from Paul Craig Roberts perfectly refutes the killer-mendacious, killer-hypocritical Obama:
But, of course, numerous countries do tolerate missiles raining down from the US. The war criminal Obama is raining down missiles in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen, and has rained missiles on Libya, Somalia, Iraq and Syria as well. Iran might be next.
Does Obama think all of America, let alone the rest of the world, is incapable of connecting the hegemonic dots? We are not! (Save the vast voting majority that has returned this defier of national and international law to executive power.)
As for Obama’s, as well as Hillary Clinton’s, the US Congress’, both houses’, rush to support Israel’s escalation of its continuing international war crimes against the residents of Gaza, Glenn Greenwald has this to say:
US policy always lies at the heart of these episodes, because Israeli aggression is possible only due to the unstinting financial, military and diplomatic support of the US.
Greenwald goes on to explain that the barbarism of Israel toward Gaza is no different from U.S. global barbarism:
Extra-judicial assassination - accompanied by the wanton killing of whatever civilians happen to be near the target, often including children - is a staple of the Obama presidency. That lawless tactic is one of the US president's favorite instruments for projecting force and killing whomever he decides should have their lives ended: all in total secrecy and with no due process or oversight. There is now a virtually complete convergence between US and Israeli aggression, making US criticism of Israel impossible not only for all the usual domestic political reasons, but also out of pure self-interest: for Obama to condemn Israel's rogue behavior would be to condemn himself.
It is vital to recognize that this is a new development. The position of the US government on extra-judicial assassinations long had been consistent with the consensus view of the international community: that it is a savage and lawless weapon to be condemned regardless of claims that it is directed at "terrorists".
Chris Hedges has the following to say about the horrifying plight of Gaza not just at this terrible moment but prior to. Gaza is not unique, he explains, thanks to relentless, violent, sociopathic agendas of industrial nations creating economically desperate states and communities globally. “Sacrifice” zones Hedges calls them:
Many impoverished regions of the world, which have fallen off the economic cliff, are beginning to resemble Gaza, where 1.6 million Palestinians live in the planet’s largest internment camp. These sacrifice zones, filled with seas of pitifully poor people trapped in squalid slums or mud-walled villages, are increasingly hemmed in by electronic fences, monitored by surveillance cameras and drones and surrounded by border guards or military units that shoot to kill. These nightmarish dystopias extend from sub-Saharan Africa to Pakistan to China. They are places where targeted assassinations are carried out, where brutal military assaults are pressed against peoples left defenseless, without an army, navy or air force. All attempts at resistance, however ineffective, are met with the indiscriminate slaughter that characterizes modern industrial warfare.
In the new global landscape, as in Israel’s occupied territories and the United States’ own imperial projects in Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan, massacres of thousands of defenseless innocents are labeled wars. Resistance is called a provocation, terrorism or a crime against humanity.
The rule of law, as well as respect for the most basic civil liberties and the right of self-determination, is a public relations fiction used to placate the consciences of those who live in the zones of privilege.
Prisoners are routinely tortured and “disappeared.” The severance of food and medical supplies is an accepted tactic of control. Lies permeate the airwaves. Religious, racial and ethnic groups are demonized. Missiles rain down on concrete hovels, mechanized units fire on unarmed villagers, gunboats pound refugee camps with heavy shells, and the dead, including children, line the corridors of hospitals that lack electricity and medicine.
“Might makes right” is the merciless mantra used by Israel, the U.S., NATO nations, etc. Hedges accuses these nations of flouting international law. The misery of economic and military victims is of no serious consideration to them.
Right now, according to Hedges, Israel is defying “a hundred U.N. Security Council resolutions” calling for the sadistic Israeli occupiers to withdraw. He writes:
The Israeli blockade of Gaza, established in June 2007, is a brutal form of collective punishment that violates Article 33 of the Fourth 1949 Geneva Convention, which set up rules for the “Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.”
The blockade has turned Gaza into a sliver of hell, an Israeli-administered ghetto where thousands have died, including the 1,400 civilians killed in the Israeli incursion of 2008.
Hedges goes on to explain that 95% of factories in Gaza have been shut down. The fishing industry has been sabotaged by an Israel that forbids fishermen to travel more than 3 miles from the coastline and even within the fishing zone “boats frequently come under Israeli fire.” Israeli border patrols have seized 35% of Gaza’s agricultural land as a “buffer zone.” As the infrastructure collapses and Israelis seize “aquifers” many refugee camps have no running water.
Hedges:
UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) estimates that 80 percent of all Gazans now rely on food aid. And the claim of Israeli self-defense belies the fact that it is Israel that maintains an illegal occupation and violates international law by carrying out collective punishment of Palestinians. It is Israel that chose to escalate the violence when during an incursion into Gaza earlier this month its forces fatally shot a 13-year-old boy. As the world breaks down, this becomes the new paradigm—modern warlords awash in terrifying technologies and weapons murdering whole peoples. We do the same in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Hedges claims that industrial states are economically and militarily driven and are the enemy of the human and the natural world. Millions have been killed or displaced for profit. He goes on to warn that this present paradigm shift to desperate conditions engineered by a sociopathic corporate global elite will impact an exponentially growing number of the U.S. population.
... And the awful algebra of this ideology means that these forces will eventually be unleashed on us, too. Those who cannot be of use to market forces are considered expendable. They have no rights and legitimacy. Their existence, whether in Gaza or blighted postindustrial cities such as Camden, N.J., is considered a drain on efficiency and progress. They are viewed as refuse. And as refuse they not only have no voice and no freedom; they can be and are extinguished or imprisoned at will. This is a world where only corporate power and profit are sacred. It is a world of barbarism.
snip
There are 47.1 million Americans who depend on food stamps to eat. The elites are plotting to take these food stamps away, along with other “entitlement” programs that keep the poor from destitution. The slashing of trillions of dollars from Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs, given the political impasse in Washington and the looming “fiscal cliff,” now seems certain. There are 50 million people considered to be living below the poverty line, but because the poverty line is so low—$22,350 for a family of four—this figure means nothing. Add the tens of millions of Americans who live in a category called “near poverty,” including all those families attempting to live on less than $45,000 a year, and you have at least 30 percent of the country living in poverty.
snip
In Gaza and other blighted parts of the globe we see this new configuration of power. What is happening in Gaza, like what is happening to people of color in marginal communities in the United States, is the model. The techniques of control, whether carried out by the Israelis or militarized police units in our inner-city drug wars, whether employed by military special forces or mercenaries in Pakistan, Afghanistan or Iraq, are tested first and perfected on the weak and the powerless. Our callous indifference to the plight of the Palestinians, and the hundreds of millions of poor packed into urban slums in Asia or Africa, as well as our own underclass, means that the injustices visited on them will be visited on us. In failing them we fail ourselves.
snip
Centralized authority has devolved into the hands of an executive branch that slavishly serves global corporate interests. The press and the government’s judiciary and legislative branches have become toothless and decorative. The specter of terrorism, as in Israel, is used by the state to divert gargantuan expenditures to homeland security, the military and internal surveillance. Privacy is abolished. Dissent is treason. The military with its mantra of blind obedience and force characterizes the dark ethic of the wider culture. Beauty and truth are abolished. Culture is degraded into kitsch. The emotional and intellectual life of the citizenry is ravaged by spectacle, the tawdry and salacious, as well as by handfuls of painkillers and narcotics. Blind ambition, a lust for power and a grotesque personal vanity—exemplified by David Petraeus and his former mistress—are the engines of advancement. The concept of the common good is no longer part of the lexicon of power. This, as the novelist J.M. Coetzee writes, is “the black flower of civilization.” It is Rome under Diocletian. It is us. Empires, in the end, decay into despotic, murderous and corrupt regimes that finally consume themselves. And we, like Israel, are now coughing up blood.
Obama’s terrible, reality-defying remark on his support of ANY people against onslaughts of rogue entities raining missiles down on them -- such a colossal lie and such killer-hypocrisy -- should alarm all of us. His remarkable willingness to deny his own administration's -- regime's -- use of STATE terror globally and domestically for corporate profiteering should give all of us profound pause.
[cross-posted on correntewire]
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Have a great Thanksgiving, Libby.
The US, at the instigation of the corporate elite, the banksters, and 'old' inherited wealth and their 'wanna-be' sycophants is clearly set upon a path of world domination. So long as the American people are useful to them in this quest, they'll be allowed to collect the 'trickle-down' crumbs from the gorging elites.
The incredible weaponry available for use against any uprisings (and there will be some) will put paid to any such in very short order.
The world is going to see a 1000 year Third Reich after all. The worst imaginings of science fiction writers will be surpassed, I'm afraid. I'm so glad I won't be here to see it.
What will undoubtedly make such a regime so awfully terrible is that the means for extended life are already in the testing-on-humans stage of development. This will allow the elite vastly extended life. With this they'll command instant obedience from those who will give up liberty for temporarily extended life.... the majority.
I expect that underground facilities of great comfort and luxury await that elite. Global Warming will mean less than nothing to them except a cheap way to rid themselves of unwanted populations. Those of you who have wondered aloud why it is that the elite don't realize that they too will face the effects of global warming, should realize that the elite has no intention of facing those effects at all. They are, as they have always been, way ahead of you. They will be safe and comfortable. You? Hahahahahaha........! You're gonna die, silly fool! Who cares about you??!!
Good luck to all who will live to see this.......
.
The incredible weaponry available for use against any uprisings (and there will be some) will put paid to any such in very short order.
The world is going to see a 1000 year Third Reich after all. The worst imaginings of science fiction writers will be surpassed, I'm afraid. I'm so glad I won't be here to see it.
What will undoubtedly make such a regime so awfully terrible is that the means for extended life are already in the testing-on-humans stage of development. This will allow the elite vastly extended life. With this they'll command instant obedience from those who will give up liberty for temporarily extended life.... the majority.
I expect that underground facilities of great comfort and luxury await that elite. Global Warming will mean less than nothing to them except a cheap way to rid themselves of unwanted populations. Those of you who have wondered aloud why it is that the elite don't realize that they too will face the effects of global warming, should realize that the elite has no intention of facing those effects at all. They are, as they have always been, way ahead of you. They will be safe and comfortable. You? Hahahahahaha........! You're gonna die, silly fool! Who cares about you??!!
Good luck to all who will live to see this.......
.
Truly bizarre. The worst part about it is, I suspect Obama sees no irony here.
Rated.
Rated.
no use ranting about the fact that amoral politicians are directing american policy, so what else is new?
but, lib, amoral politicians caught in such a gross hypocrisy is very funny. thanks for that, even a sour smile makes a change.
but, lib, amoral politicians caught in such a gross hypocrisy is very funny. thanks for that, even a sour smile makes a change.
The callous brutality which is now in worldwide extension through the corporate and financial powers now in the functional agendas of many of the major governments of the world is dependent on intricate integration of many highly sophisticated and highly vulnerable technological systems – energy grids, informational facilities, satellites, and all sorts of delicate control systems for management and manufacture. As the experience of the highly sophisticated military systems in the Middle East have demonstrated, when an intractable population refuses to be subdued, none of that is sufficient to crush stubborn resistance.
When the general populace has suffered sufficiently and the forces for suppression are recognized as the enemy the blowback will come from all sorts of technologically sophisticated sources and it probably will be a terrible time but I doubt if the overlords can sustain in a severely punished ecology where the Earth itself will fight back and there is enough comprehension in the educated sectors of the general population of the vulnerabilities of a system that is no longer beneficial and they can be destroyed.
The outrageous failures of the intelligence agencies of the various governments to comprehend major changes such as the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the USSR and the idiotic stupidities in dealing with Cuba to indicate how vulnerable they are. The latest Petraeus scandal indicates how deeply stupidity is embedded in current officialdom and that is a major vulnerability of the whole system.
It will fall.
When the general populace has suffered sufficiently and the forces for suppression are recognized as the enemy the blowback will come from all sorts of technologically sophisticated sources and it probably will be a terrible time but I doubt if the overlords can sustain in a severely punished ecology where the Earth itself will fight back and there is enough comprehension in the educated sectors of the general population of the vulnerabilities of a system that is no longer beneficial and they can be destroyed.
The outrageous failures of the intelligence agencies of the various governments to comprehend major changes such as the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the USSR and the idiotic stupidities in dealing with Cuba to indicate how vulnerable they are. The latest Petraeus scandal indicates how deeply stupidity is embedded in current officialdom and that is a major vulnerability of the whole system.
It will fall.
"What goes around comes around"
The hypocrisy has been present for more than 500 years... and *every* American whose ancestors were not indigenous to this continent prior to 1492 is GUILTY of abject hypocrisy when it comes to the United States and Israel. Those who condemn Israel for doing to the Palestinians what they themselves are guilty of doing to Native Americans are GUILTY of abject hypocrisy and yet FAIL miserably to see or acknowledge their own GUILT of the SAME crimes against humanity - and for a FAR LONGER period of time. FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY YEARS is the length of the longest illegal occupation in history... and the abject FAILURE of Americans in general to ACKNOWLEDGE the FACT that they have spent 520 years being AN ILLEGAL OCCUPYING FORCE is part of the problem. The THOUGHT, whether acknowledged or not, is "It worked in the United States - it will work anywhere"... and guess what... they are RIGHT. Because you see the vast majority only see the PRIVILEGE and fail to see how it was acquired and the COST to OTHERS in the accomplishing.
1864 - the Year AMERICANS decided in their infinite wisdom to lock the Indigenous peoples of the continent into PRISONER OF WAR camps and call them "Reservations". Isn't that EXACTLY the same thing Americans condemn Israel for doing to the Palestinians? Why (and I want specifics) is their very little condemnation of AMERICANS for the EXACT same thing?
1979 - the year the US Supreme Court ORDERED the US Military to get OFF the Reservations and stop keeping people confined by force. And it will likely take at least as long (if not longer) for the Israeli Supreme Court to get to the SAME place. Expecting a different result when you engage in the same action repeatedly is the height of insanity.
The hypocrisy has been present for more than 500 years... and *every* American whose ancestors were not indigenous to this continent prior to 1492 is GUILTY of abject hypocrisy when it comes to the United States and Israel. Those who condemn Israel for doing to the Palestinians what they themselves are guilty of doing to Native Americans are GUILTY of abject hypocrisy and yet FAIL miserably to see or acknowledge their own GUILT of the SAME crimes against humanity - and for a FAR LONGER period of time. FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY YEARS is the length of the longest illegal occupation in history... and the abject FAILURE of Americans in general to ACKNOWLEDGE the FACT that they have spent 520 years being AN ILLEGAL OCCUPYING FORCE is part of the problem. The THOUGHT, whether acknowledged or not, is "It worked in the United States - it will work anywhere"... and guess what... they are RIGHT. Because you see the vast majority only see the PRIVILEGE and fail to see how it was acquired and the COST to OTHERS in the accomplishing.
1864 - the Year AMERICANS decided in their infinite wisdom to lock the Indigenous peoples of the continent into PRISONER OF WAR camps and call them "Reservations". Isn't that EXACTLY the same thing Americans condemn Israel for doing to the Palestinians? Why (and I want specifics) is their very little condemnation of AMERICANS for the EXACT same thing?
1979 - the year the US Supreme Court ORDERED the US Military to get OFF the Reservations and stop keeping people confined by force. And it will likely take at least as long (if not longer) for the Israeli Supreme Court to get to the SAME place. Expecting a different result when you engage in the same action repeatedly is the height of insanity.
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