The beginning of something — not the end
PLUS: I'll be joining MS NOW's "Velshi" at 12 pm ET TODAY
Judd Legum is a journalist in the old school sense. He’s ethical, diligent, tireless and fearless in making sure that powerful people are held accountable for their conduct by informing the American people about it.
This story about Jared Kushner from earlier this month is a perfect example, but it is also true that none of this is news in the sense that it isn’t new. The illegality has become normalized as the standard operating procedure of the corrupt Trump government.
Of course, Legum is powerless to make a single one of them care about the corruption, self-dealing and incompetence of a corrupt government.
Journalism isn’t the cure for indifference — suffering is — and there will be a great deal of suffering ahead to report on in the next couple of years.
When it begins there should be a crystal clear record that documents the folly of what led to the deaths of millions of people in a war that will eclipse World War II in terms of horror, death and destruction.
The lessons of the last world war held until they didn’t because they were forgotten, and so here we are.
I wrote about Kushner’s fantastical corruption years ago. I made the point that the enormous infusions of Saudi and Emirati cash should be covered less as a corruption story, and more like an espionage story:
Again, nothing new.
When George Washington said farewell he left two profound warnings for us. The first was about the dangers of factions or parties to poison patriotism and loyalty to the nation.
The second was about the dangers of foreign interference in American affairs. The plain as day, out in the high noon sunshine truth is that Washington, DC, is flooded by Arab money seeking favors at the expense of American interests, and more importantly, the American people.
Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania should be so lucky to get a piece of the $70 or $80 or $100 or $500 billion that Trump is talking about spending to rebuild Gaza, but that won’t “Make America Great Again.”
Unfortunately for Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania they aren’t a priority for the Saudis, and so MAGA shall make Gaza into a Middle Eastern Trumptopia to be built by Trump’s friends, financed by the American taxpayer, and ruled over by Tony Blair and Jared Kushner.
It seems that Claire Berlinski at the superb The Cosmopolitan Globalist woke up this morning in the same mood that I did when it came to making a point about something she has made the same point about for many years — to no avail.
Here is her topper introducing a peek into the not-so-distant future that is coming into focus:
What is that future?
It can be seen in this photograph:
What do you see?
Here is what I see:
What I see is World War III.
What I see is a land war in Europe.
What I see is a naval war in the Pacific that the United States will lose. There will be a moment when the sinking of an American aircraft carrier or two by a Chinese hypersonic missile barrage will kill more Americans in an instant than were killed in 20 years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The young Americans who will fight will be the cohort born in the first decade of the 21st century.
They will be my children and their friends and yours.
Some say we are hopelessly divided, and that we share nothing in common anymore as an American people. Perhaps it is a bit more complicated. Maybe what we have lost is the ability to share gratitude for America together and tolerance for differences that make us stronger together.
Maybe what will remind us of what it means to share this country together is the pain of shared loss.
Let me tell you who’s coming back in those caskets: black boys and white boys. Black women and white women. Hispanic men and women. Asian Americans, gay Americans, and every other hyphenated group that you can think to imagine.
The caskets will have the bodies and body parts of Italian Americans, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Buddhists, Protestants and atheists in them.
Irish Americans will die screaming next to the child of a Somali immigrant wearing the same uniform with an American flag on their arm.
This is the future being worked out at a table in Moscow.
The consequences are soon to be at hand for everything.
I look at my kids when I hear their dreams and their hopes, and on some days, I am filled with a profound sadness because they don’t yet see how badly they have been failed by their parents and grandparents:
We gave them Trump, and Trump will give them war.
Read Judd Legum’s article. Read mine too.
Understand the corruption, but know that the story isn’t really about what is being stolen.
It’s about the death.
It’s about mass death moving closer.
Remember this picture:
It’s the beginning of something — not the end.
It’s the first true photograph of the beginning of World War III.
It will be very famous one day. There will be no one who says that it was a photo of a peace conference.
They will recall it like this:
Our children will pay the bill.
A good indicator for a future that people can control will be whether two men win their elections next year.
Tommy Tuberville is running for Governor of Alabama. As a Senator, he put a hold on military promotions for two years — personally wreaking havoc on our people serving. Whose bidding was he doing? Lindsey Graham is running for re-election. One of the worst Trump toadies in the country, who is facing an honorable and respected physician.
Their wins will be our loss.
Since the Joe and Mika debacle bending the knee to tRUMP, I have turned off the TV for any MSM....but today I'll make the exception to be able to listen to you speaking the truth over the airwaves......thxxx Steve....wishing you and yours a happy New Year, if that's possible after '25.