Thursday Stuff

Like you I’m sure, I was taught when I was brought up not to celebrate misfortune. And normally I would abide by that. But for this occasion, I think I should make an exception.

HE’S FINALLY GONE!!!

The Eternal Molly Ivins reminded us in December 2002 that “Dr.” Henry Kissinger “cannot travel to Britain, Brazil, and many other countries because they cannot guarantee his immunity from legal proceedings.” Ivins also pointed out that “Kissinger is wanted for questioning about the international terrorist network called Operation Condor, which conducted killings, kidnappings, and bombings in several countries, including (the U.S.), such as the 1976 bombing in Washington, D.C. that killed a noted Chilean dissident and his companion.” (stuff is all behind a paywall now). Also, as Ivins noted here, the noted political satirist Tom Lehrer basically gave up when Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.

Continuing (as noted by journalist Christopher Hitchens), Kissinger and President Gerald Ford traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia in December 1975 (Kissinger was Ford’s Secretary of State); at the time, the U.S. was the primary supplier of Indonesian military hardware. After the visit concluded, Indonesia launched an invasion of nearby East Timor, which included a massacre in the capital of Dili affecting a quarter of the Timorese population. The U.S. announced a doubling of military aid to the region soon after the conflict began; according to Amnesty International, Asia Watch and even the Indonesian miliary, 200,000 people were killed in a conflict that lasted for 24 years until East Timor voted for independence.

Additionally, Kissinger was responsible for the infamous “salted peanuts” memo to Tricky Dick that he mentioned to Dubya in response to the quite logical calls to get us the hell out of #43’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Iraq, noted here (the memo was written by Kissinger in ’69 in response to calls to get us out of Vietnam).

I have no doubt that there will be a lot of Kissinger hagiography coming our way for a little while, but I would only ask that you consider all of this also (in addition to what is presented in this clip...there’s probably a bit of repetition, but I think that’s good under the circumstances...and let's not forget this too...more Kissinger stuff is here and here)...



Update: More here, here, here, and here.

Update 12/3/23: More also here.

...and turning to domestic matters, Brian Tyler Cohen tells us that Sen. Cornpone Kennedy of Louisiana recently confronted Dr. Megan Ranney about gun violence in Chicago; yeah, pretend hicks like Kennedy and his Repug party playmates just love to yammer on about how allegedly evil those dastardly blue states are...and yeah, gun violence is a problem all over this country, but try cleaning up the mess in your own backyard first before you try to talk down to anybody else (more here)...



...and given the prior clip, it may come as a bit of a shock (well, maybe not really) to learn that the “party of Lincoln” is running out of dough...yeah, as Farron Cousins sez, they haven’t done anything to benefit most of this country, which they just don’t do anymore anyway and haven’t done for awhile, but they haven’t even done anything to benefit their fat cat donors either, and that is REALLY the point of no return when it comes to financing these clowns, though I’m sure those sweet dark money donations will arrive in time for the next election cycle...



...and apologies for being a little behind on this clip, but Leeja Miller discusses the pros and cons of term limits...and I agree with a good bit of what she says, but let’s not forget that Robert Bork got a vote in the Senate, which he lost...meanwhile, Obama’s SCOTUS pick Merrick Garland COULDN’T EVEN GET A FREAKING HEARING IN THE SENATE BECAUSE OF “GRIM REAPER” McCONNELL!...and I have to admit that it does give pause to yours truly to realize what Miller is saying about Bernie Sanders, AOC and term limits; great argument in her favor I must say, as well as what that would mean for congressional staffers and having to turn to lobbyists even more than we do already...and I think mandatory retirement ages for Congress and the judiciary on the federal level are something we should move forward on, to be honest, but good luck with that given the octogenarians in those bodies...and yes, our inability to amend the Constitution over about the last 50 years is very definitely baked in by the “one percent” and the “party of Lincoln,” and “Cancun Cruz’s” antics are part and parcel of that IMO...and boy, is she ever right about the corrupting influence of $$ in politics; I almost threw up when I heard that $10 million was spent on “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh (NSFW/H also at the end)...



...and here are more seasonal tunes.