Tag: Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Faux Populists Shill for the Permanent War State

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Faux Populists Shill for the Permanent War State

In 2018, the Pentagon announced a shift away from their failing policy of counterterrorism in the Middle East and North Africa toward a new National Defense Strategy of so called “Great Power Competition,” with Russia and China. Instead of turning toward peace, free trade, and diplomacy, this policy change will come at enormous opportunity costs such as further distorting our economy, practically guaranteeing boom-bust cycles of ever intensifying severity, as well as reducing the average American’s standard of living. It would impoverish the very people who desire genuine populism.

US hawks push hardline presidential candidate in Iran + Raeisi wins presidential vote in Iran with a landslide victory

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

US hawks push hardline presidential candidate in Iran

However, Abrams’ support boiled down to his belief that Raisi represents “the true face of the Islamic Republic, while Rouhani is a façade.” According to Abrams, elevating a hardliner like Raisi would bring the Islamic Republic closer to collapse and provide a “clearer view” of the nature of the regime. Such an understanding would make it easier to advance the pressure policies that Abrams and his like-minded compatriots favored, regardless of their interlocutor in Iran and what could be achieved through diplomacy.

Related:

Raeisi wins presidential vote in Iran with a landslide victory

Hawks seek revival with new group

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Hawks seek revival with new group

As senior director for Near East and North African affairs from 2002 to 2009, Abrams played a key role in encouraging the U.S. invasion of Iraq and urging other interventions in the region and supported an armed coup attempt against the democratically elected Hamas government in Gaza, touching off a brief civil war that left the Islamist group stronger than ever. His advocacy as special envoy for Venezuela and Iran of ever-stronger sanctions against the governments in those two countries succeeded only in strengthening hard-line forces in both nations and pushing much of their middle classes into poverty. Given that record, why Vandenberg’s backers would choose him as the group’s chairman and public face, is intriguing, to say the least.

Trump Associates Said to Have Been Scrutinized in Suspected Pardon Scheme

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Trump Associates Said to Have Been Scrutinized in Suspected Pardon Scheme

Presidents have unchecked authority over clemency, and there is a history of donors or their family members getting pardons. No law bars people from lobbying for pardons, nor is it necessarily illegal to give a donation to a president after receiving a pardon. But bribery laws prohibit explicitly predicating donations or other gifts of value to the granting of a pardon.

Related:

Disgraced Republican Financier Accused of Secretly Lobbying for China

Neoconservativism In A Nutshell

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Neoconservativism In A Nutshell

If I were asked to boil down neoconservatism to its essential elements—that is, those that have remained consistent over the past nearly 50 years—I would cite the following:

* a Manichean view of a world in which good and evil are constantly at war and the United States has an obligation to lead forces for good around the globe.

* a belief in the moral exceptionalism of both the United States and Israel and the absolute moral necessity for the U.S. to defend Israel’s security.

* a conviction that, in order to keep evil at bay, the United States must have—and be willing to exercise—the military power necessary to defeat any and all challengers. There’s a corollary: force is the only language that evil understands.

* the 1930s—with Munich, appeasement, Chamberlain, Churchill—taught us everything we need to know about evil and how to fight it.

* democracy is generally desirable, but it always depends on who wins.