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Tulsi Gabbard for President

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Tulsi Gabbard for President

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Tulsi 2020 is the official website of her candidacy for US president - so far with no information other than saying:

“When we stand united, motivated by our love for each other and for our country, there is no challenge we cannot overcome. Will you stand with me?”

On Friday, she said “I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week,” adding:

“There are a lot of reasons for me to make this decision. There are a lot of challenges that are facing the American people that I’m concerned about and that I want to help solve.” 

Besides access to healthcare for all Americans, criminal justice reform, and climate change, (t)here is one main issue that is central to the rest, and that is the issue of war and peace,” she stressed. More on this below.

“I look forward to being able to get into this and to talk about it in depth when we make our announcement.”

Gabbard’s record is mixed at best, things to like, others of concern, including her Dem affiliation. She formerly served as DNC vice chair, resigning in February 2016 to support Russophobe undemocratic Dem Bernie Sanders over Hillary.

Throughout his political career, he’s been progressive in name only, his rhetoric and voting record most often at odds with each other. He’ll likely run again in 2020.

After Hillary used dirty tricks in primary elections to steal the Dem nomination, Gabbard supported her candidacy - a figure I called the most ruthlessly dangerous presidential aspirant in US history, backing it up with cold, hard facts about her deplorable record as first lady, US senator and secretary of state.

Elizabeth Warren already announced her 2020 candidacy. She’s con man Sanders clone with a gender difference.

A consumer rights champion in name only, she did nothing to oversee predatory banking practices responsibly, nothing to urge prosecution of Wall Street crooks as Obama’s interim Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP) head.

She failed to criticize his wars on humanity at home and abroad, terror-bombing seven countries in eight years, force-feeding neoliberal harshness on America’s most disadvantaged, letting protracted main street Depression conditions fester - supporting what demanded condemnation.

She one-sidedly supports Israel, failing to denounce its apartheid ruthlessness, its Gaza wars on defenseless civilians.

Like Sanders and other undemocratic Dems, she considers naked aggression humanitarian intervention and democracy building.

Her agenda is all about perpetuating dirty business as usual - based on going along with the imperial, neoliberal GOP and Dem agenda, supported by the vast majority of officials in Washington.

Gore Vidal explained how the dirty system works, saying no one gets to be presidential material unless they’ve “been bought over 10 times.” The same goes for top congressional posts.

Gabbard is suspect for similar reasons, voting along party lines too often since elected to represent Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district in November 2012.

After the Obama regime’s coup in Ukraine, replacing democratic governance with fascist tyranny, she supported supplying the illegitimate, Nazi-infested, putschist regime with military assistance, shamefully saying America can’t stand “idly by while Russia continues to degrade the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

No “Russian aggression” existed then or now. Yet Gabbard disgracefully claimed otherwise, urging “more painful economic sanctions” on Moscow, pretending the regime in Kiev is a “peaceful, sovereign neighbor.”

In July 2017, she unjustifiably supported legislation imposing illegal unilateral US sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea.

She’s for US phony war on terrorism, the scourge Republicans and most Dems support while claiming otherwise. She’s against what she called “counterproductive wars of regime change,” including in Syria.

She earlier said targeting Bashar al-Assad for regime change was “a thinly veiled attempt to use the rationale of ‘humanitarianism’ as a justification to escalate our illegal, counterproductive war,” adding:

“Under US law, it is illegal for any American to provide money or assistance to al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist groups.” 

“If you or I gave money, weapons or support to al-Qaeda or ISIS, we would be thrown in jail. Yet the US government has been violating this law for years, quietly supporting allies and partners of al-Qaeda, ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al Sham and other terrorist groups with money, weapons, and intelligence support, in their fight to overthrow the Syrian government.”

“The CIA has also been funneling weapons and money through Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and others who provide direct and indirect support to groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda.” 

She may be the only congressional member boldly stating the above remarks publicly to her credit.

In January 2017, she met with Assad in Damascus, toured parts of Syria, seeing firsthand how US aggression harmed millions of civilians.

She called all anti-government forces terrorists, saying so-called moderate rebels don’t exist, stressing “(t)hat is a fact,” on return home expressing “even greater resolve to end our illegal war to overthrow the Syrian government.”

She considers US wars not authorized by Congress impeachable high crimes. She should have explained that only Security Council members may authorize war by one or more countries on other sovereign states - not US presidents, Congress or the courts.

That’s the law of the land under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause (Article 6, Clause 2). All treaties, conventions, and other international agreements to which the US is a signatory automatically become binding US law.

To her credit in October 2017, Gabbard opposed reimposing sanctions on Iran, at the time saying the Islamic Republic is fully complying with JCPOA provisions.

At the same time, she co-sponsored legislation opposing Iran’s legitimate ballistic missile program, imposing illegal sanctions on the country,

In 2015, she supported legislation endorsing extreme vetting of Syrian and Iraqi war refugees, designed to deny them refugee status. The measure failed to get enough Senate support for passage.

She opposed the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2019, 2018, and earlier, opposed reforming US border security and immigration, opposed a proposed constitutional balanced budget amendment, opposed the GOP great tax cut heist, supported CATSA.

The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CATSA) illegally imposed sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea. It passed the House and Senate near-unanimously - shameful legislation demanding opposition, not support.

Hold the cheers on Gabbard and all other Republican and Dem presidential aspirants with a chance to be party standard bearers.

The bottom line on them all is simple, no exceptions. If nominated and elected, either go along with the dirty system or be replaced by someone else who will - by impeachment or something more sinister.

Washington’s deeply corrupted system is too debauched to fix. The only solution is popular revolution, voting a waste of time.

No matter who’s elected president and to key congressional posts, dirty business as usual always wins.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].

 

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

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