Zionism and anti-Semitism - for Dummies

Zionism and anti-Semitism - for Dummies
Ali Wasti·Saturday, 30 April
Because today even people on the left are confused and disoriented by this topic, I present.....
Zionism and anti-Semitism - for Dummies

1. Is being anti-Zionist, racist?

Zionism is not a race or ethnic group. It is a political ideology. There are anti-Zionist Jews and Zionist non-Jews. Being anti-Zionist is not a racist position.
If most Germans were Nazis at some point, does that make opposing Nazism 'anti-German'? Does opposing British bombing of Syria or Iraq make you an anti-British racist? Does opposing the Saudi regime make you an Islamophobe?

2. Isn't Zionism the voice of the Jewish people?

Zionism does not represent all Jews - any more than Republicanism represents all Americans, or Toryism all British. And worse, unlike the Republicans and Tories, no one voted for the self-appointed Zionists who claim to speak 'on behalf of all Jews'.

3. Yes, but aren't all Jews Zionists?

Zionism was a tiny current within the Jewish diaspora before the Holocaust. More Jews supported socialist currents, like the Bund. Today there are large numbers of Jews disavowing support for Israel and its politicians: For example, Jewish Voice for Peace in the US has been growing rapidly, in opposition to the Zionist AIPAC.

4. Isn't Zionism just the national liberation movement of Jews?

A liberation movement was one that traditionally sought to expel foreign occupiers. Zionism was, on the contrary, a movement that sought to expel the native Palestinians and to colonize Palestine. It is more like the European colonization of Africa, North America and Australia, than anything to do with liberation. Furthermore, as a movement it had no interest in fighting anti-Semitism. In fact the German Zionists saw the rise of the Nazi party as an opportunity.

5. Oh, so now you're just saying Zionism=Nazism?

No, it clearly doesn't. However, both ideologies have common roots: 19th century notions of 'race'; the belief that different races could not live together; the desire to have states and laws based on ethnic identity; the belief that colonization was acceptable. In Nazi Germany, both movements shared a common goal: get Jews out of Europe. That's why there was a symbiotic relationship between the Zionist movement and the Nazis. Goebbels even had a medal minted with the Swastika on one side and the star of David on the other.

6. But isn't Zionism just a response to anti-Semitism?

Yes, its a response. But one that counterposes fighting anti-Semitism to colonizing Palestine. Its the wrong response. In the West today, there is rampant Islamophobia. Does that mean Islamic fundamentalism must be supported? Or maybe socialists should encourage Muslims to give up the fight against racism and flee to the safety of Muslim countries? Its a response to Islamophobia, after all. English people suffering under years of Tory austerity can respond in two ways: join the Labour party and vote for Corbyn, or they can join the fascist EDL. Both are not equally laudable as responses to economic deprivation. Zionism was a right-wing, reactionary response to anti-Semitism.

7. Isn't it unfair to pick on Israel all the time? Isn't that a reflection of your latent anti-Semitism?

Israel IS getting special treatment - but not because it is singled out by anti-Semites.
* It is never attacked for violating UN resolutions - 66 in total.
* It is not a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and, according to Wikipedia, it has somewhere between 75-400 nuclear weapons - and yet that is never discussed in polite company or by politicians. Compare that to the pressure put on Iran, which doesn't have even one.
*It s leaders have never been tried for war crimes - despite the wars on Gazan civilians, the use of human shields, white phosphorus or the massacres stretching from Dier Yassin to Sabra and Chatilla.
* It receives between $3 and $4 billion in 'aid' from the US, despite having the 16th highest per capita income in the world. And it gets another $1 to $1.5 billion in private donations which are tax deductible - a privilege given to no other nation.
*It even got paid to NOT join in the war against Saddam Hussain.

8. Doesn't Israel have a right to exist?

Not in its current racist form. The South African state and the Rhodesian state also didn't have the right to exist. Current Israeli citizens, however, should be free to live in a non-racial state in Palestine - just like Whites continued to live in post-apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia.

9. Doesn't Israel's legitimacy derive from the UN mandate that created it?

Yes, that's what Israel claims. The truth is that the creation of Israel was a typical act of imperial high handedness. Once the British Mandate ended, Palestine should have become a self-governed state. Instead, the UN, decreed the creation of 2 states, despite many member states at the time arguing that the UN had no legal authority to do so.
That was resolution 181. One year later, resolution 194 was also passed. We don't hear much about it, even though it is reaffirmed ever year since 1949 by the UN. It called for "“refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”
Multiple subsequent resolutions from the United Nations have reaffirmed the right of return, including General Assembly Resolution 169 (1980), and Security Council Resolution 237 (1967).
Israel has ignored every UN resolution since 181, the one that it claims gives it legal authority. And yet, there are never any threats, no wars, no sanctions. So, yes, Israel is singled out for special treatment.

10. But why do you call Israel racist? Shouldn't Jews have a homeland too?

In order to create an everlasting Jewish majority, Israel has to implement racist laws, and - a demand becoming increasingly vocal in Israel - move to the expulsion of the remaining non-Jews. Any state based on ethnic identity is structurally racist. It has to be. That was true of Nazi Germany, that was true of Apartheid South Africa and its true of Israel. The states that Israel likes to compare itself to, in Europe and the US, are democratic, secular states by and large. Citizenship is generally based on residence, not ethnic identity.
To put the issue starkly, imagine if you took the immigration, housing, welfare and citizenship laws of Israel and changed it from Jewish and non-Jewish to White and non-white. Imagine a state where anyone who was White - from anywhere in the world - had an automatic right to citizenship. And anyone who was nt white had no such right, by law - indeed was actively discriminated against. Would you call it racist?

11. But surely, most Jews want to live in Israel?

Not according to the numbers. By some estimates there are as many Jews living in the US (a democratic, secular state) as in Israel. The majority of Jews today vote with their feet and choose to live outside of Israel.

12. But the holocaust, the pogroms, the eternal persecution of the Jews means they deserve a safe haven, don't they?

The idea that anti-Semitism is eternal, is baked into the DNA of gentiles, is itself a deeply anti-Semitic idea and propounded by Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism: "In Paris... I achieved a freer attitude toward anti-Semitism, which I now began to understand historically and to pardon. Above all, I recognized the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-Semitism."
Because if it were true, you'd have to ask the question, Why? Why does everyone through all of time hate Jews? IF its indeed eternal,inevitable and uncontrollable, then the obvious conclusion would be it must be the fault of the Jews. But its not true.
It is ahistorical nonsense to say that anti-Semitism has always existed or is inevitable or that it has always taken the same form. Today, Jews outside of Israel are well integrated in most countries. No politician in the USA, however rabidly racist they are towards Muslims and Mexicans, dares to utter an anti-Semitic word. And Jews in the USA and Europe today are a minority, but not an *oppressed* minority - by any socio-economic indicators. Even the fascists oozing out of the pores of European society have largely turned their attention to Muslims and Arabs and, at least in public, downplayed the anti-Semitism.
Israel, far from being a 'safe haven' for Jews, is probably the most dangerous place on earth for Jews to live. You can't live in peace when your presence demands continuous discrimination and oppression of the native population. Indeed the rhetoric and politics in Israel are moving ever rightwards. With genuinely fascist groups appearing. Israel is today and for evermore condemned to be an armed fortress in a hostile region. And the propagandist claim by Zionists that Zionism = Judaism does nothing but spread anti-Semitism around the world. It is ironic while Muslims are encouraged to distance themselves from the actions of fundamentalist extremists, Zionists are lauded for attempting to associate all Jews with the actions of Israel. Small wonder then, that some people accept that at face value and blame all Jews for the actions of Israel.
Only true democracy, one person, one vote and a single democratic state of Palestine, with equal rights for all, will bring peace to Jews in Israel. And that demands the destruction of Zionism.

April 30, 2016, 06:00 am

New UN database of companies complicit in Israel's occupation

Last month, in a landmark decision, the United Nations Human Rights Council decided to establish a database of all companies implicated in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, including the city of East Jerusalem.
Finally, after years of toothless UN condemnations of settlements – which are a flagrant violation of international law and a major obstacle to justice and peace in the region - there will be an official UN list that names and exposes businesses that have for decades enabled and profited from Israel’s theft of Palestinian land and other human rights abuses.
Establishment of such a UN database is long overdue. Already in the 1970s and 1980s, the UN Security Council called on all states to not recognize or provide assistance, economic or otherwise, to Israel’s illegal annexation and settlement policy. In 1982 the General Assembly called for sanctions against Israel for the same reason.
ADVERTISEMENT
This decision by the Human Rights Council, nearly 50 years after Israel began its settlement enterprise, is certainly too little, too late. There are currently approximately 650,000 Israeli settlers living illegally in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, confining Palestinians to less than 40% of their land. However, it is still an important victory for Palestinians and the human rights community at large, who are struggling against US and European government policies that protect Israel from censure in the Security Council and undermine efforts to hold Israeli officials accountable.
Legally speaking, all UN-listed companies are to immediately stop their dealings with Israeli settlements and member states are to ensure that they do so. Additionally, investors and contractors, whether governments, local authorities or private entities, have repeatedly been urged by UN experts to avoid engagement with such companies until they end their illegal business dealings in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Companies that will be listed in this UN database are not only those based or operating inside Israeli settlements, but basically all companies doing business with the state of Israel or private Israeli actors operating in occupied Palestinian land, including East Jerusalem. This is because, in the framework of the UN, “Israeli settlements” is shorthand for the wide range of Israeli activities that contribute to the annexation and exploitation of Palestinian land and natural resources, demographic change through population transfer, and denial of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, all of which contravene international law. Companies will be listed if they provide equipment, supplies, services or other support to any of these Israeli activities.
Israel’s relentlessly expanding settlement enterprise has had an enormous detrimental impact on the lives of millions of Palestinians. We have had our land stolen, our homes and crops destroyed, and our towns and villages cut off from one another and the outside world, turned into easily-controlled Bantustans divided by Israeli settlements, military bases, walls, and Israeli-only roads. In effect, Israel has created an apartheid colonial regime where Palestinians under occupation have no rights while Israeli settlers living nearby enjoy all the right and privileges of Israeli citizenship. Action against the settlements is imperative for this reason.
The Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) together with the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights will be tasked with compiling the database of companies involved with the occupation, with a first list to be presented in June 2016. Having abstained from the decision, European states and the EU are unlikely to provide active support to the work on the database. Thankfully, professional databases of a large number of companies implicated in Israel’s occupation and settlement activity have already been compiled by NGOs offering ethical investing screens, such as Who Profits and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).
The U.S. opposed the list, though it is not currently on the Human Rights Council. During his two terms in office, President Obama has repeatedly made clear his belief that settlements are a major impediment to peace and the two-state solution, while at the same time continuing America’s virtually unconditional support for Israel and its settler-beholden extreme right-wing government. Now in his final year, President Obama should finally put his words into action and take concrete steps to stop settlement expansion.
The most important step towards halting and reversing Israel’s destructive and illegal settlement enterprise that the US has done so much to enable, would be for President Obama to suspend military aid to Israel rather than negotiating an increase as he is reportedly doing, at least until Israel abides by international law and longstanding US policy by ending illegal settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land. This would be in accordance with calls from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International for an arms embargo against Israel until it begins respecting international humanitarian law.
And if he really wants to send a message to Israel regarding how seriously the U.S. takes its shortsighted and dangerous settlement policy, he should certainly support other concrete measures, such as the UN’s efforts to stop companies from facilitating and profiting from Israel’s settlement enterprise and other violations of international law.
Ingrid Jaradat is a legal analyst and one of the founders of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality

Indiana Governor Bans Boys from Wearing Clothes with ‘Gay’ Colors

Indiana Governor Bans Boys from Wearing Clothes with ‘Gay’ Colors

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed an executive order Wednesday that bans what he called “gay colors” to be worn by boys in public elementary and secondary schools in the state.
Pence referred to pink, chartreuse, teal and magenta, in particular, as “gateway colors” for young boys who might have an inclination toward homosexuality.
“Governor Pence believes that if boys wear clothes with colors traditionally worn by young girls, this can cause gender confusion for the boy,” said Hugh Strait, a spokesman for the governor.
Pence’s announcement comes as the state prepares for Tuesday’s presidential primary.
The executive order comes as other states have passed laws that critics say discriminate against gays and LGBTs.
In recent weeks, North Carolina passed a law that says that LGBTs must use public restrooms that conform to the gender on their birth certificates. Mississippi passed a law protecting business owners who don’t want to serve same-sex couples.
The Tennessee Legislature approved a bill that allows counselors and therapists to reject gay patients if their homosexuality runs contrary to their religious beliefs. The state’s governor has not yet signed the measure.
Pence’s spokesman said that the governor wanted to remind Hoosiers that he was supporting discriminatory laws long before other states.
“The governor wants to emphasize to people in his state and to the rest of the country his commitment to intolerance, whenever and wherever it exists,” Strait said.
A year ago, Pence signed the so-called “religious freedom“ law that allows business owners to refuse to serve customers such as gays who offend their religious beliefs.
The law was criticized throughout the 21st century.
Pence’s executive order bans boys from wearing clothing with bright colors in public elementary and secondary schools because of a concern, he said, they act as “gateway colors.”
“There are boy colors and there are girl colors,” Pence said, “Once we started letting boys wear girl colors, what’s next? I don’t want to think about it.”
The governor’s spokesman was asked who would decide what is or is not a “gay” color.
“The governor knows a ‘gay color’ when he sees it,” Strait said.
The executive order comes several months after political conservatives criticized Frito-Lay for offering rainbow-colored Doritos — in green, blue, purple, red, and orange — to benefit a non-profit LGBT group, It Gets Better.
In late September, Mike Huckabee, then a Republican presidential candidate, called on Frito Lay to quit offering the “gay” snack food. In addition, another conservative commentator called Doritos a “gateway snack“ designed to introduce children to homosexuality.

Keys or locks.....

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.

~Doug Larson~

A bargain......

I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.

~Adlai Stevenson, 1952~

Anyone can.......

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.

~Clarence Darrow~

Politicians......

Politicians are the same all over.  They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.

~Nikita Khrushchev~

B.C. Woman Accused Of Terrorism Sues Feds For $21M

B.C. Woman Accused Of Terrorism Sues Feds For $21M

She's seeking at least $21 million in damages. Read more.

The Logic of Murder in Israel: A Culture of Impunity in Full View of the Entire World

There is a culture of impunity that exists in the Israeli army. (File)

By Ramzy Baroud 

"Whether he made a mistake or not, is a trivial question," said an Israeli Jewish man who joined large protests throughout Israel in support of a soldier who calmly, and with precision, killed a wounded Palestinian man in al-Khalil (Hebron). The protesting Jewish man described Palestinians as 'barbaric', 'bestial', who should not be perceived as people.

This is hardly a fringe view in Israel. The vast majority of Israelis, 68%, support the killing of Abdel Fatah Yusri al-Sharif, 21, by the solider who had reportedly announced before firing at the wounded Palestinian that the "terrorist had to die."

The killing scene would have been relegated to the annals of the many 'contested' killings by Israeli soldiers, were it not for a Palestinian field worker with Israel's human rights group,B'Tselem, who filmed the bloody event.

The incident, once more, highlights a culture of impunity that exists in the Israeli army, which is not a new phenomenon.

Not only is Israeli society supportive of the soldier behind this particular bloody incident, almost a vast majority is in support of field executions as well.

In fact, the culture of impunity in Israel is linked both to political leanings and religious beliefs. According to the latest Peace Index released by Tel Aviv University's Israel Democracy Institute, nearly 67% of the country's Jewish population believes that "it is a commandment to kill a terrorist who comes at you with a knife".

Killing Palestinians as a form of religious duty goes back to the early days of the Jewish state, and such beliefs are constantly corroborated by the country's high spiritual institutions, similar to the recent decree issued by the country's Chief Sephardic Rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef. While 94% of ultra-Orthodox agree with the murder edict of Yosef, 52% of the country's secularists do, too.

In fact, dehumanizing Palestinians - describing them as 'beasts', 'cockroaches', or treating them as dispensable inferiors - has historically been a common denominator in Israeli society, uniting Jews from various political, ideological and religious backgrounds.

Rabbi Yosef's decree, for example, is not much different from statements made by Israeli Defense Minister, Moshe Ya'alon, and other army and government official,who made similar calls, albeit without utilizing a strongly worded religious discourse.

Using the same logic, the quote above describing Palestinians as beasts is not divergent from a recent statement made by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. "At the end, in the State of Israel, as I see it, there will be a fence that spans it all," Netanyahu said in February. "In the area that we live, we must defend ourselves against the wild beasts," he added.

While pro-Israeli pundits labor to explain the widespread Israeli perception of Palestinians - and Arabs, in general - on rational grounds, logic and commonsense continues to evade them. For instance, Netanyahu's last war on Gaza in the summer of 2014 killed a total of 2,251 Palestinians - including 1,462 civilians, among them 551 children, according to areport prepared by the UN Human Rights Council. During that war, only six Israeli civilians were killed, and 60 soldiers.

Who, then, is truly the 'wild beast'?

However, Palestinians are not made into beasts because of their supposedly murderous intent for, not once, statistically, in the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict did Palestinians ever kill more Israelis, as opposed to the other way round. The ailment is not the number, but a common Israeli cultural perception that is utterly racist and dehumanizing.

Nor is the Israeli perception of Palestinians ever linked to a specific period of time, for example, a popular uprising or a war. Consider this eyewitness account from August 2012, cited in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, years before the current uprising in the West Bank and Jerusalem:

"Today I saw a lynch with my own eyes, in Zion Square, the center of the city of Jerusalem ... and shouts of 'A Jew is a soul and Arab is a son of a -,' were shouted loudly and dozens of youths ran and gathered and started to really beat to death three Arab youths who were walking quietly in the Ben Yehuda street," the witness wrote.

"When one of the Palestinian youths fell to the ground, the youths continued to hit him in the head; he lost consciousness, his eyes rolled, his angled head twitched, and then those who were kicking him fled while the rest gathered around in a circle, with some still shouting with hate in their eyes."

Imagine this graphic account repeated, in different manifestations, every day in Occupied Palestine, and consider this: rarely does anyone pay a price for it. Indeed, this is how Israel's culture of impunity has evolved over the years.

According to Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din, "approximately 94% of criminal investigations launched by the IDF against soldiers suspected of criminal violent activity against Palestinians and their property are closed without any indictments. In the rare cases that indictments are served, conviction leads to very light sentencing."

And no one is immune. Israel's 972Mag wrote in December 2015 about the hundreds of violent incidents of Israeli forces targeting Palestinian medical staff. Palestinian rights group, Al-Haq, documented 56 cases in which "ambulances were attacked", and 116 assaults against medical staff while on duty.

How about violence meted out by illegal settlers whose population in the Occupied Territories is constantly on the increase?

Armed settlers rampage daily through villages of the Occupied West Bank and the neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. The number of their violent crimes has grown tremendously in recent years, and even doubled since 2009.

In August 2015, months before the current uprising, Human Rights Watch senior researcher,Bill Van Esveld, wrote:

"Settlers attack Palestinians and their property on a near-daily basis - there were more than 300 such attacks last year, but few attackers faced justice. In the past decade, less than two percent of investigations into settler attacks ended with convictions."

In case one is still fooled by the 'rational' argument used to justify the murder of militarily occupied, oppressed and besieged Palestinians, Batzalel Smotrich, from the Jewish Home Party, which is part of Netanyhu's ruling coalition, protested via twitter that his wife was expected to give birth in the same hospital room where Arab babies are born.

His written 'rationale', after declaring that his wife "is not a racist', "It's natural that my wife wouldn't want to lie next to someone whose baby son might want to murder my son."

The likes of Smotrich, and the majority of Israelis are morally blind to their own wrongdoing. They have long been sold on the idea that Israel, despite its brutality is a 'villa in the jungle'. According to a recent Pew survey, nearly half of Israelis want to expel Palestinians Arabs - Muslims and Christians, from their ancestral homeland.

The danger of impunity is not merely the lack of legal accountability, but the fact that it is the very foundation of most violent crimes against humanity, including genocide.

This impunity began seven decades ago and it will not end without international intervention, with concerted efforts to hold Israel accountable in order to bring the agony of Palestinians to a halt.

- Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books include "Searching Jenin", "The Second Palestinian Intifada" and his latest "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story". His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/logic-murder-israel-culture-impunity-full-view-entire-world/

Trans woman raped 2,000 times in male prison during four year sentence

Trans woman raped 2,000 times in male prison during four year sentence

Trans woman tried to escape prison three times to escape her daily sexual attacks

41 men arrested in ‘gay raid’ of Kuwait massage parlor

41 men arrested in ‘gay raid’ of Kuwait massage parlor

Homosexuality is effectively illegal in Kuwait

Uganda’s Speaker will bring back Anti-Homosexuality law

Uganda’s Speaker will bring back Anti-Homosexuality law

Ugandan law, repealed by the Constitutional Court, punished homosexuality with life in prison

Pre-school sticks by decision to exclude pupil whose parents wanted to opt out of education about gay relationships

Pre-school sticks by decision to exclude pupil whose parents wanted to opt out of education about gay relationships

Montview Community Preschool & Kindergarten in Denver, Colorado, tells Gay Star News that anti-bias education is a ‘school wide philosophy’

Secrets of a gay Jehovah’s Witness: how I escaped the religion and rebuilt my life

Secrets of a gay Jehovah’s Witness: how I escaped the religion and rebuilt my life

The family of Josh Gutteridge, the MD of a web and branding agency, told him to be a 'non-practicing homosexual' – he had other ideas

The post Secrets of a gay Jehovah’s Witness: how I escaped the religion and rebuilt my life appeared first on Gay Star News.

Trump staffers face threat of blacklist: fear of being shunned by other Republicans.

Trump staffers face threat of blacklist: fear of being shunned by other Republicans.
politico.com ^ | 04/19/16 05:16 AM EDT | Kenneth P. Vogel and Shane Goldmacher 

When Matt Braynard signed on to run Donald Trump’s data team last fall, he got an email from a veteran GOP operative to whom he was close warning, “You realize once you go Trumptard, your career in GOP politics is over?”

Braynard took the job anyway, explaining that he believed in Trump, and that he wasn’t worried about being blacklisted. “This isn't a career, it's a vocation, and only God can take that away,” he said he responded.

But according to interviews with more than a dozen operatives — including several who oppose Trump, some who support him and the leaders of some prominent D.C. political shops — some of those who go to work for Trump face an implicit, and occasionally overt, threat: Help Trump, and you’ll never work in this town again.

It may be unenforceable, but the push to stigmatize Trump’s aides, advisers and vendors is among the last remaining pieces of ammunition available to a Republican establishment that has tried just about everything else to block the billionaire from taking over of the GOP. And, critically, it has complicated Trump’s efforts in recent weeks to hire top-tier operatives, according to sources familiar with Trump’s campaign.

Already, the conservative digital firm Targeted Victory has fielded questions about its relationship with Trump’s campaign, for which it has been paid nearly $106,000 for processing online payments. And the venerable law firm Jones Day has faced internal grumbling about its work for the Trump campaign (which has paid the firm $672,000 for legal consulting). Multiple staffers at the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity turned down Trump’s entreaties, in part because they were “concerned about what that would do to their reputation in professional circles going forward,” as one staffer familiar with the entreaties explained.

Meanwhile, the board of directors of the multipartisan American Association of Political Consultants quietly debated whether to publicly call out Trump for capitalizing on racial and religious tensions and the ethics of those working to elect him. (They ultimately decided against weighing in.)

Juleanna Glover, a longtime GOP operative who is now a corporate consultant in D.C., said of people choosing to work for Trump: “In the world Fortune 100 companies, their careers would be severely curtailed.”

Katie Packer, who served as Mitt Romney’s deputy campaign manager and now runs an anti-Trump super PAC, said: “I know that I would never hire or want to work with somebody who tried to help Trump. It would be disqualifying.”

Trump’s opponents have been the loudest and most outspoken voices in amplifying talk of a blacklist, but, Packer said, “there are a lot of people who share my view.”

The blacklist talk is among several factors that Republicans cite to explain Trump’s difficulty in attracting top talent, along with his campaign’s reputation for stingy salaries and his lack of grounding in Republican politics or policies. Early on, the campaign made entreaties to several veteran operatives who did not pursue the opportunity, including Jeff Roe, who went on to become the campaign manager for Trump rival Ted Cruz, and R.C. Hammond, who decided to sit out the presidential race entirely.

Instead, Trump’s campaign initially relied on a small core of anti-establishment operatives and political neophytes. Eventually, the billionaire brought in a pair of operatives, Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley, with high-level — albeit dated (Bob Dole and Gerald Ford) or embarrassingly unsuccessful (Scott Walker) — presidential campaign experience.

"I don’t know that he’s hired people who had much of a future in the Republican Party anyway,” Packer said.

It’s notable that Trump’s campaign is the subject of peer pressure and condemnation at all, especially from a D.C. consulting class that tends to forgive — and even sometimes celebrate — contracts with repressive governments or corporations accused of bad behavior.

But the anti-Trump stigma may lose some potency if Trump wins big in New York on Tuesday, and, especially, if he ultimately claims the GOP nomination.

Then, Trump’s allies would have the power to steer tens of millions of dollars in consulting work, through both his campaign and the Republican Party apparatus itself, for a wide array of services, from direct mail to voter data to advertising. That cash flow is the life blood of many a Washington-based consultant, and for many it would be difficult to turn down contracts out of concern over Trump’s bombastic style or scattershot ideology.

“That’s how these consultants make a living,” said veteran GOP fundraiser Fred Malek. “I don’t think anyone is going to resent any consultant who goes to work for any of the candidates.”

If Trump were to win the White House, he would control that consulting cash flow for at least four years and operatives who signed on early would have the inside track to become the new elite in a reordered GOP consulting class. Those who actively opposed him — Trump has said he has a long memory — could face dire career implications. Of course, a Trump general election loss in which Republicans are swept from power on Capitol Hill could cause serious recriminations for those seen as facilitating his rise.

In that case, a blacklist for his operatives and consultants could extend for years. That’s what happened to conservative consultants who worked on Ross Perot’s 1992 independent presidential campaign, which Republicans blamed for President George H.W. Bush’s reelection loss.

“People call me a Republican pollster, and they don’t realize that to this day there is still hostility for me because of Perot,” said Frank Luntz, the pioneering conservative messaging guru who worked for Perot.

Since that campaign, Luntz said, he has done only a handful of projects for the GOP party committees (including notably 1994’s historic Contract with America), instead earning his living doing corporate and media work, and projects for mostly conservative outside groups. “I couldn’t make any money from the parties and it allowed me to be independent,” Luntz said.

But in 2016, with the weakened party apparatus of the post-Citizen United era, it’s not clear how a Trump blacklist would even work, or even if there is enough of an establishment left to enforce such a thing.

In the previous election cycle, the National Republican Senatorial Committee tried to blacklist a GOP consulting firm, Jamestown Associates, for working to unseat Republican incumbents, including Mitch McConnell. But outside groups and tea party candidates kept hiring Jamestown and now one of the firm’s then-partners is a top adviser to Cruz — the candidate, in a twist, with the best shot at stopping Trump.

One anti-Trump GOP consultant was doubtful of the long-term impact of a blacklist, especially should Trump become the nominee. “Nobody ever really faces consequences,” this person said. “People have pretty short memories in this space.”

Some operatives in D.C. said different levels of work for Trump would be treated differently, with the most scorn heaped on high-level strategists and leniency for lower-level aides and vendors simply selling products.

Typically, lawyers, like Don McGahn, Trump’s election law attorney and a partner at Jones Day, have received more slack, out of deference to the tenet that everyone has a right to legal representation. But after Jones Day hosted a recent Trump summit in D.C., some attorneys complained anonymously about the firm’s prominent role in Trump's campaign. McGahn did not respond to a request for comment.

And when Packer was launching the anti-Trump Our Principles PAC, she said she asked Targeted Victory, which processes payments on Trump’s website, to detail the extent of their work for him. She was satisfied with the answer that they were simply selling a tool — like Google or Facebook selling ads — available to all GOP campaigns.

Zac Moffatt, co-founder of Targeted Victory and a former top Romney digital operative, told POLITICO, “We do not currently have a campaign strategy relationship with the Trump campaign.” The firm works far more extensively with Cruz, who has paid the company nearly $3.5 million.

Objections to Trump typically are about not just policy but his broader political posture, most notably his divisive rhetoric on racial and religious matters. His comments about Muslims late in 2015 are part of what spurred a discussion among board members of the AAPC over whether the organization should condemn Trump’s comments, and even say working for him would amount to a breach of the AAPC’s code of ethics. The bipartisan board ultimately decided it would be poor precedent to intervene in the midst of a heated political campaign.

Braynard, the Trump tech guy who was warned not to take the job, has since parted ways with the campaign, but he said he still supports Trump and has seen no evidence of a blacklist.

“Down-ballot campaigns have started reaching out to me, so I don’t believe in the taint,” Braynard said. “If you’re good at your job, the cream rises.”

Report: 15 of the 19 “hijackers” on 9/11 were CIA agents, never on the plane

Posted by Shepard Ambellas

9/11 hijackers now thought to be CIA agents; actual details of government sponsored plan emerging

(INTELLIHUB) — According to a newly released report, 15 of the 19 Saudi Arabian “hijackers” were actually CIA agents who were, at the time, covertly working with rogue factions of the U.S. Military Industrial Complex to carry out a sinister multifaceted, multi-vectored, plot to loot billions if not trillions of taxpayer dollars from the Corporation of the United States, later funneling the loot into private corporations through defense appropriated funding and numerous no-bid contracts related to the roll-out of the PATRIOT Act.

Additionally the report concludes that the hijackers never physically boarded any the alleged “hijacked” airliners, which were purported to have crashed into the Pentagon and Towers 1 and 2 of the World Trade Center, which at the time was an iconic American monument in New York.

Press TV reports:

“We know that the 15 hijackers who were Saudis, the alleged hijackers, because they were not on those planes – not one of the 19 hijackers, or any Arabs, were on any of the four planes, according to the passenger list, and according to all of the evidence that would be there if they were on the planes, but has not been produced,” Dr. Barrett said.

“So these 15 Saudi patsies, who were set up to take the blame for 9/11, were in fact CIA agents. We know this – I had this confirmed directly by a CIA source that these 15 Saudis entered, and repeatedly reentered on these supposedly – they call them employment visas, but there’s a special number for employment visas that are only given to CIA assets as a reward for their service to the Central Intelligence Agency, and this visa allows them to come to the US. Typically they’re paid for their work for the CIA in Saudi Arabia, and then they are given this special kind of visa which is disguised as an employment visa but it’s of particular type,” he stated.

“And all 15 of these guys had that visa. That shows that they were in fact Central Intelligence Agency agents.  Some of them were living with FBI people in California. So these 15 Saudis were not working against the United States government, they were working for the United States government, and they were set up so that Saudi Arabia could be potentially blamed for the September 11 attacks, which were actually perpetrated by Israel and its American assets,” he pointed out.

While the report goes on to point out that the sole purpose of 9/11 “was to destroy the seven countries in five years,” it fails to link the funding and involvement of key U.S. assets and officials who were deeply involved with the operational aspects of the attack and a subsequent cover-up of the events, which additionally may include the detonation of nuclear munitions inside a major U.S. city as I reported previously.

Additionally for the haters who say Press TV is not credible and that there is no way the hijackers were CIA operatives funded by the U.S. Government — here is an excerpt from a ‘mainstream’ Newsweek article released on Sept. 14, 2001, three days after the attacks, which shows the hijackers were trained on U.S. military installations:

U.S. military sources have given the FBI information that suggests five of the alleged hijackers of the planes that were used in Tuesday’s terror attacks received training at secure U.S. military installations in the 1990s.

Three of the alleged hijackers listed their address on drivers licenses and car registrations as the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla.-known as the “Cradle of U.S. Navy Aviation,” according to a high-ranking U.S. Navy source.

Another of the alleged hijackers may have been trained in strategy and tactics at the Air War College in Montgomery, Ala., said another high-ranking Pentagon official. The fifth man may have received language instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Tex. Both were former Saudi Air Force pilots who had come to the United States, according to the Pentagon source.

So that’s what’s up. Now if you still want to believe the official story be my guest.

Shepard Ambellas is a journalist, filmmaker, film producer, radio talk show host and the founder and editor-in-chief of Intellihub News & Politics. Established in 2013, Intellihub.com is ranked in the upper 1% traffic tier on the World Wide Web. Read more from Shep’s World.

Tennessee's governor vetoes Bible as state book

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, vetoed a measure to make the Bible the state book. (Mark Humphrey / Associated Press)

Matt PearceContact Reporter

 

The official rock of Tennessee is limestone. Tennessee's official wild animal: the rascally raccoon.
The official book? The Volunteer State doesn't have one yet, and a Christian governor and Christian lawmakers are locked in a battle over whether it should be the Bible.
On Thursday, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam vetoed a bill that would have added Christianity's holy book to Tennessee's list of official state symbols, and lawmakers have already threatened to override his decision.
Haslam likes the Bible perfectly fine. On his Facebook page, he lists his favorite books as "anything by Eugene Peterson or Philip Yancey," two best-selling Christian authors.

 

In Haslam's veto message to the Republican lawmakers who sponsored the bill, he wrote in defense of Christian beliefs, noting, "I strongly disagree with those who are trying to drive religion out of the public square."

See the most-read stories this hour >>

However, Haslam said, there's that matter of constitutional law — the separation of church and state.
"If we are recognizing the Bible as a sacred text, then we are violating the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee by designating it as the official book," Haslam wrote. "Our founders recognized that when the church and state were combined, it was the church that suffered in the long run."
(Haslam's veto came a little more than a week after Idaho Republican Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter vetoed a bill that would have allowed the Bible to be used in public schools for instruction, also citing constitutional concerns.)

Church, meet state: Tennessee Legislature passes bill to make the Bible its official state book

In Tennessee, all it takes to override a veto are majority votes in both chambers of the Legislature, and the bill's two Republican sponsors already signaled their intent to go around the governor.
Eighty-one percent of Tennessee's adults are Christians, according to the Pew Research Center, and the state is familiar with battles over church and state. It was home to the legendary 1925 Scopes trial of a teacher on charges of illegally teaching evolution in school. He was convicted.
The Bible bill was introduced in 2015 but stalled in the Legislature. The attorney general issued an opinion saying it would be unconstitutional. The bill reemerged this March and was approved 55 to 38 in the House and 19 to 8 in the Senate.
An amendment suggested a preamble for the bill, which states that the Bible has "great historical and cultural significance" in Tennessee.
A series of "whereas" statements extols the Bible's importance to the state, as in "whereas, printing the Bible is a multimillion-dollar industry for the state with many top Bible publishers headquartered in Nashville, including Thomas Nelson, Gideons International and United Methodist Publishing House."
The amendment even alludes to this newspaper's coverage: "whereas, even the Los Angeles Times has acknowledged the economic impact of the Bible in Tennessee."
Conservative religious groups such as the Family Action Council of Tennessee supported the bill. "If the state cannot recognize its religious heritage without supposedly violating the Constitution, then our heritage will be lost and hostility toward religion will have replaced tolerance," President David Fowler said in a statement.
The measure drew opposition based on spiritual grounds as well as constitutional ones. Haslam said that if the book is embraced as a cultural item rather than as a holy one, "my personal feeling is that this bill trivializes the Bible." (If the Bible is approved as a state symbol, it would be added to a list that includes the Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifle, the official state gun.)
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee also objected. "Our position has always been that religion thrives when it's left in the hands of families and faith communities," said executive director Hedy Weinberg.
But if not the Bible, what tome would be appropriate for Tennessee's state book? The Los Angeles Times asked some Tennessee literary figures for some recommendations.
Randy Mackin, director of the Tennessee Literary Project, suggested classics from Tennessee natives, including James Agee's "A Death in the Family," T.S. Stribling's "The Store," or something by poet Charles Wright. All three men won Pulitzers.
Niki Coffman, director of events and marketing at the independent bookstore Parnassus Books in Nashville, had a suggestion that all Tennessee might be able to embrace: "King of the Wild Frontier: An Autobiography by Davy Crockett."
"He was born on a mountaintop in Tennessee and brought acclaim to the state," Coffman said of the legendary congressman and frontiersman, who died at the Battle of the Alamo. "Davy Crockett. That's the answer."
matt.pearce@latimes.com
Twitter: @mattdpearce