Scott Horton: Anti-War.com

Scott Horton of Anti-War.com

At first it seemed odd to include a commentary about the debased P. Diddy sex and human trafficking story with an intense but learned foreign policy lesson from Scott Horton — a Libertarian and beloved anti-war expert. But the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. Both are about the debasement of human beings at the hands of the powerful and in a sense, both sex crime parties and war are dirty secrets that happen in plain sight. Perhaps more importantly, people enable these beastly events while looking the other way — this includes the average citizen who has been trained to accept fake celebrity news coverage/cheerleading and the party guests who kept the secret. I hope this explains the closing monologue on this week’s show.

The reality is that Diddy and other hip hop artists have written lyrics that read like crime scenes, describing an absolute hatred of women and praising a culture of drugs and violence. Remember Tupac and Biggie Smalls? I learned yesterday that the FBI are now studying Diddy’s lyrics as if they contain a confession.

The grotesque fables legacy media invent to invert the moral highs and lows of the West’s foreign policy and state sanctioned violence are no different than People Magazine slobbering over the entertainment industry and ignoring it’s moral bankruptcy.

There is dissonance, too around our relationship with Bobby Kennedy, for instance. I was thrilled beyond words when he joined the Trump campaign and for his staunch positions against Big Pharma and our crippling industrial food matrix. I was all in until I heard him speak about the Palestinians in a fashion so foolish, at first I thought he was was joking. His opening salvo on the topic was to suggest that the Palestinians are “the most pampered people in the world.” I’ve been there. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. And even though I might disagree, there are more thoughtful ways to defend Israel’s military campaign. Bobby’s reliance on the eccentric Rabbi Shmuley was surprising to say the least. It made no sense. But Trump is better with Bobby than without him and he has been brave on so many important issues.

So what do we do? I feel strongly that people I admire got this one wrong or ignored it. I was so destabilized I reviewed what I’d read and what I’d seen as a journalist in the West Bank and elsewhere in the region with my own eyes. I studied the output of experts I trust. I stand by my reporting. I do regret my, at times strident delivery and understand that it hurt some people who believed I had turned my back on the suffering of October 7th and of Jewish people more generally. On big stories I have a tendency to slip into reporter mode; perhaps too detached.

There are other, bigger podcasters like Jimmy Dore holding positions very similar to mine who have asked Bobby to debate Max Blumenthal, a reporter with more knowledge than most. Blumenthal’s book, Goliath sits on my bookshelf.

Right now I’m diving back into the late Robert Fisk’s Pity the Nation, a history of Lebanon’s civil war and ruin in the 1980s — including the rise of Hezbollah, the retreat of the PLO, the Israeli ground invasion and the massacre of thousands of Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by Israeli backed Phalange militias. If you want to understand the volatile history of the the ME - there is no better book.

Bobby so far, refuses to debate Max, so Dore put together a show of Bobby’s clips, allowing Max to respond to his reasoning. Here is the YouTube link. It is unsettling to behold but do we throw the RFK baby out with the bath water over a single, yet very important issue? Of course, not.

As I said to Scott Horton on the show this week, I hope that Bobby and Donald Trump are both fibbing about their blind support for Israel’s military campaign. Perhaps they are taking AIPAC and Miriam Adelson’s money intending to betray them both. Awful, I know but this is where we are because America’s political system runs on donor money.

Yesterday, in DC there was a big, highly publicized event called Rescue the Republic with some of the most articulate speakers on our side of the line. I admire and love the few that I know but none have been very outspoken about pulling us back from the brink. A few are still cheering Israel on. Others condemn funding Ukraine but say nothing about the Middle East.

The first pillar on the organization’s webpage lists them as anti-war and yet aside from Douglas Macgregor and Jimmy Dore, both of whom have been on my podcast, it seems none of the speakers is on record as demanding a peaceful end to the Middle East horror. Our biggest issue, above anything we’ve dealt with in our dystopian new world is the threat of nukes. The temperature needs to be dialled back on many fronts before the unthinkable happens.

Rescue the Republic’s pillars:

Why not platform Annie Jacobson who wrote Nuclear War: A Scenario? Or Medea Benjamin of Code Pink — who has been after the military industrial complex for decades and whom I met when I worked in DC. Or Veteran’s for Peace? I would have suggested my old boss, Robert Muller— a paralyzed Marine and one of the leaders of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. His banning landmines campaign won a Nobel Peace Prize.

On Saturday, Blumenthal called out RFK for his word salad defences of Israel and remarked on the irony that Bobby would be appearing at yesterday’s rally that also, in part, bills itself as anti-war. I understand Max’s frustration but I’ve learned how difficult it is to traverse this moral minefield. I don’t think Bobby is bad. I think he is being pragmatic but where does that leave us? Why can’t well meaning people speak honestly about this?

Preventing a dangerous further escalation that could end us faster than a bad vaccine or censorship — should be paramount. Courage is required and we must find it.

Update: Reports from DC — Tulsi gave a great speech warning about the military industrial complex without mentioning the Middle East — currently on fire. Jimmy Dore snuck in a minute about Israel/Palestine.

This morning, American troops are being readied, Israel is preparing another ground invasion of Lebanon, Yemen has been shelled and Joe Biden, who has the power to influence a step-back, is out of it. When asked about the Yemen situation yesterday he said this — reporter: "Any comment on the strikes in Yemen?" Biden: "I've spoken to both sides. They gotta settle the strike. I'm supporting the collective bargaining effort. I think they'll settle the strike." The leader of the free world — I use the term loosely - thinks the strikes on Yemen are a labour issue.

We are so screwed.

Update: Jimmy Dore YouTube link is fixed.