Life with the Lions

"All the phrases which have meant so much to Americans – peace and progress, justice and compassion, leadership and idealism – often sound not like stirring reminders of our nation, but call forth the cynical laughter or hostility of our young and many of our adults. Not because they do not believe them, but because they do not think our leaders mean them.

“This is not simply the result of bad politics and lack of skill. It flows from the fact that for almost the first time the national leadership is calling upon the darker impulses of the American spirit – not, perhaps, deliberately, but through its action and the example it sets – an example where integrity, truth, honor, and all the rest seem like words to fill out speeches rather than guiding beliefs. “
Senator Robert F. Kennedy


The nation came to a three prong fork in the president's tongue when he said that Israel attacked the South Pars, the Iranian part of the world's largest gas field. Was this simply another lie told by the pathological liar? Did others know – perhaps Jared and half-Witcoff – but not tell the sociopath-in-chief? Or perhaps the convicted felon/sex offender simply sit when Netanyahu says sit, bark when he says bark, and bite when he says bite?

Is any one better than the other two? Or worse? Maybe, but I think it is an equilateral triangle of terrible options. I suspect that the felon has had little influence, other than ordering the military to destroy Iran. I heard one administration official say they “have to interpret” the president's thinking, which strongly suggests the role that “truth social” and brief conversations with the press play. He certainly has not followed the Constitution by going to Congress to ask them to declare war. Nor has he addressed the nation to identify his game plan.

Whatever the truth may or may not be, the fact is the bombing of South Pars was the step of escalation in the war intended to inflame the Middle East. I think Netanyahu did this in order to increase the level of violence to a point where he can order his lap dog, the felon, to send in ground troops. But almost immediately, Iran responded by bombing Qatar's section of South Pars, among similar strikes in several other countries.

A person willing to destroy the White House to build a monument honoring himself, and try to stick his name on the Kennedy Center, wants to be remembered. It's not just that he leaves his smell like an alley cat, to paraphrase Lennon from “Steel and Glass.” He wants to be a conquistador, for two of the three motivators of the 16th century Spaniards: god, gold, and glory. His administration sought out weak victims to attack. Pay millions to certain people in their government, and some politicians were willing to set up Maduro. In boxing, this is known as a “fixed fight.”

Marco Too Shoes wants to take Cuba, surely telling the felon he would accomplish what no president since 1959 could. The felon also has weird, unnatural feelings – oh, oh, oh, feelings – about Greenland. No one can say what would come next, if he is able to continue on this destructive path. But we do know how much money they want in the budget to continue this war.

The greatest threat to the US is the president. The greatest threat to Israel is Netanyahu. That is the reality of now, here on earth. As I was discussing with a friend here on DU a couple of days ago, it is important that we be here, now. What we do today helps to determine tomorrow. That includes short-time “tomorrows,” such as the upcoming No Kings! Rallies. It includes long-term “tomorrows,” including this fall's elections. Now is the time to be preparing for tomorrow.

“Theoretically, if everyone that disagrees with the lie that has been imposed upon us--tomorrow...if everyone got up and said...'I'm not going to enable the lie anymore'--you would have nonviolent change--and you would have quick change--because the system goes upon our self-rationalizations and self-justifications and insecurity. ...That's how it works and it has turned all of us against each other through distortion...The one thing [these people] fear...is that we would use our minds [to] attempt to see clearly...[and our] apathy makes us the enemy of our descendents. ...They want us to be in a position where all we think about is ourselves...We need to use our minds *to think things through*...[E]verybody is trying to find a way out from the mess they're in and they're using these dark age intellectualizations and remaining confined in these concepts of Freud and all the rest of these people.”
-John Trudell