by B. R. GOWANI
Pelosi, a “progressive?”
In February, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Senator Ed Markey announced a program called Green New Deal (GND) to tackle economic, social, financial, and environmental issues with the aim of reducing inequality and making people’s lives better.
(The full GND resolution is here. Watch the video about GND,”A Message From the Future,” over here.)
The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not interested in the Green New Deal and thus dismissed it with contempt:
“The green dream or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they’re for it right?”
AOC handled Pelosi slight diplomatically:
“No, I think it is a green dream.” “I think that all great American programs, everything from the Great Society to the New Deal, started with a vision for our future, and I don’t consider that to be a dismissive term. I think it’s a great term.”
In her heart, AOC seems aware Pelosi has got nothing in common with people like her and the people she (AOC) represents; AOC knows that if the presidential race was between Trump and her (AOC), Pelosi would support Trump wholeheartedly and would oppose her vehemently. AOC got elected with money from little people; Pelosi gets lots of money from giant corporations (see the list). Occasionally, when the situation forces her, such as the CNN “town hall” meeting where Pelosi answering a question, talked about “income inequality” as an “immorality” by pointing “the disparity between the CEO and the worker in the shareholder capitalism” which is now “more like 350 to 400 to 1.” But still:
“I don’t think we have to change from capitalism. We’re a capitalist system. The free market is a place that can do good things.”
Pelosi is a hardcore capitalist – her net worth is $196 million. AOC’s position on the economy, on the other hand, is people-oriented: she wants to tax each dollar earned over 10 million at the rate of about 70%.
(Watch AOC’s video on corruption here.)
The establishment Democrat Pelosi who wants to maintain status quo had no shame in claiming she is a progressive, too. On CBS’s program “60 Minutes” of April 14, 2019, Leslie Stahl asked for a response from Nancy Pelosi about the challenge she faces from the progressive group of Congresspersons. Pelosi shot back:
As the Speaker of the US Congress, Pelosi is the third most powerful person in the United States.
The multimillionaire Pelosi who brazenly defends humongous inequality creating system of capitalism cannot be a progressive; a progressive would have agreed with the GND program or would have showed her willingness to discuss it.
Who can make the corrupt queen Pelosi understand that green color in advertisements, bags, logos, buildings, clothes, cars, etc. does not make those things environmentally suitable. For that, ingredients, parts, materials used in those things should meet guidelines prescribed that are harmless to the environment.
In the same way, declaring oneself a progressive does not make that person a progressive. In order to be one, the person has to fight and enact socially, politically, and economically progressive laws that benefit 100% of the population and not the top 1% to which she belongs.
Like husband, like wife
Maneka Gandhi, the estranged daughter-in-law of former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, of the Hindu nationalist party BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) is contesting the national election in Sultanpur. There she openly warned the Muslims voters to vote for her or face the consequences.
“This is important. I am winning. I am winning because of the love and support of people. But if my victory is without Muslims, I won’t feel that good. Dil khatta ho jayega (Things will become sour). Then when a Muslim comes to me for work, I think let it be, how does it matter. It’s all give and take, isn’t it? We aren’t all sons of Mahatma Gandhi, are we? (laughter). It’s not that we keep on giving and then losing in the election. This victory will happen with or without you.”
Later, as usual, she clarified:
“I love Muslims… I only meant to say that I am winning the elections and their participation would be like ‘daal pe chaunka‘ (seasoning).”
She intensified her lie by saying she loves “minorities very very much.”
Maneka is a goon like her late husband Sanjay Gandhi. Sanjay was the younger of Indira’s two children. The older son was Rajiv Gandhi who became Prime Minister after Indira’s assassination in 1984. He was assassinated in 1991. Sanjay died in 1980 when the plane he was flying crashed.)
Sanjay who was known as the “Prince” committed many horrific acts, especially during the March 1975 to June 1977 Emergency imposed by Indira. In 1976, Sanjay, accompanied by Jagmohan Malhotra of the DDA (Delhi Development Authority), on one of his Delhi tours was at the Turkman Gate in the old Delhi neighborhood. Sanjay couldn’t see the Jama Masjid because of a maze of tenements and so he ordered their demolition. The ensuing protests were quelled with police firing that killed 150 people. Several hundred shops, shacks, and houses belonging to Muslims were bulldozed.
The wild “Prince” considered heir to Indira also had a plan to control India’s rising population; so he opted for a sterilization program. People who failed to produce sterilization certificates were denied free medical care in government hospitals; were asked to pay for the treatment. The first five months of the Emergency saw 3.7 million victims of the sterilization program. Majority of the people coerced were Dalits or untouchables and Muslims.
Indira’s excessive love for her son overwhelmed her thinking process; thus overlooking the unelected Sanjay’s excesses. One can say Sanjay Gandhi was running a kind of parallel government.
Pompeo’s “Lord is at work”
“I am confident that the Lord is at work here,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said of President Donald Trump’s policy toward Israel during an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on Thursday. PHOTO/Amir Cohen/Pool via AP/Politico
Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talking to televangelist Pat Robertson’s CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) invoked God’s hand behind Trump’s openly and wrongly siding with Israel.
“As a Christian, I certainly believe [that President Trump is out there to save the Jewish people from Iranians the way Queen Esther did 2500 hundred years ago] that’s possible. … I am confident that the Lord is at work here.”
That the Lord would appoint an SOB to fuck up an already fucked up Middle East, and that the archangel God chose to convey this message is also an SOB, and the founder of the CBN channel which broadcasted it, also an SOB, is much open for interpretation.
Trump on Ivanka
It’s a known fact that out of all his children Trump considers Ivanka the most important; he thinks her opponents would have tough time defeating Ivanka if she decided to run for the highest office. Also, according to him, she is “a very honest person.” Trump chose her and her husband Jared Kushner as senior advisors.
Talking to Elaina Plott of The Atlantic magazine, Trump bullshitted that charges of nepotism prevented him from appointing Ivanka as the US ambassador to the UN
“She’s a natural diplomat.” “She would’ve been great at the United Nations, as an example.”
The reason must be something else; Trump doesn’t give a damn to any of the charges, he does what he wants to, most of the time.
Businessman Trump also thought of putting businesswoman Ivanka at the World Bank for a very simple reason.
“I even thought of Ivanka for the World Bank … She would’ve been great at that because she’s very good with numbers.”
The reasoning makes perfect sense for a businessman who wants nothing but an exponential growth in his business and wealth. In 2006, on Howard Stern’s radio show, Trump’s answer to a math question 17×6 was 1,112 instead of 102, which is understandable as he likes everything inflated. Ivanka’s products are made in China with cheap labor and so her profits are of monstrous proportions. Same is true with the World Bank (and IMF) who coerces underdeveloped and developing countries to open up their markets, and lends them loans with unbearable interest.
Ivanka is not much concerned about the victims of his father’s policies. When the immigrant children were being snatched from their parents, Ivanka put a photo of her lovingly holding her son on social media. She is a phony like her dad, the only difference is that she rarely opens her mouth and so the chances of her being caught, as such, are rare. She works hard “cultivating authenticity,” in her own words.
“There are very few things we can control in life, but how we project ourselves is one of them.”
Ivanka calls herself a “pragmatist,” which in business and political world means looking after your own interest and being flexible with your values – if there are any. Her bother Don Jr. put it correctly:
“You can put Ivanka in virtually any environment and she’ll thrive.”
One thing she tried unsuccessfully was to convince her Dad and some people from his administration to not leave the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. It was a half-hearted attempt; she wanted the US to stay within the deal without paying the billions promised by the Obama government. Someone close to Ivanka described Trump’s then chief of staff John Kelly’s thoughts on seeing Ivanka:
“What the fuck is Barbie doing in the West Wing?”
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com
(The above article first appeared in Counterpunch.)