By Liza Featherstone
Information Clearing House
January 28, 2020
Adam Schiff, the liberal hero of impeachment, is a wholly owned
subsidiary of the military-industrial complex and a fervent exponent
of permanent war.
To some Democrats and journalists, Representative Adam Schiff
(D-CA) is a hero. All over the internet, people are thanking him for
defending the Constitution, hoping he’ll run for president someday.
After his performance during this week’s impeachment hearing,
the worship was especially intense; a letter writer to the New
York Times called it, “brilliant” and a, “tour de force” while the
conservative Washington Times made fun of all the blue-checked
Twitter accounts losing their objectivity in ecstatic praise.
As the face of the impeachment effort, especially for liberals
disengaged from the election process, Schiff represents a glimmer
of hope for domestic regime change.
Adam Schiff is a dangerous warmonger and his efforts to fuel
paranoia about Russia only serve to feed that agenda.
He wants a proxy war in Ukraine with Russia and he has
for some time.
Adam Schiff physically resembles a prosperity preacher.
That is to say, he looks like a classic dodgy American salesman,
but with a beatific glow of righteousness.
This creepily wholesome look lends a corny Cold War ambiance
to his constant fulmination about, “The Russians.”
It’s hard not to listen to him without thinking of Allen Ginsberg’s
1956 poem, “America”:
"America, it’s them bad Russians
Them Russians, them Russians and them Chinamen.
And them Russians."
Assuring us that he is aware, actually, of what century this is,
Schiff said in 2015, “Now, we’re not seeing the same bipolar
world we had between communism and capitalism.”
He then added, “But we are seeing a new bipolar world, I think,
where you have democracy versus authoritarianism.”
Schiff has not viewed this as a mere contest of ideas: he constantly
advocated for Obama to impose tougher sanctions on Russia and
give more weapons to Ukraine.
This isn’t the only war Schiff has championed.
He supported the Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya wars, greater
US intervention in Syria, as well as the Saudi war with Yemen
(although he has, in the past year, turned against the latter
adventure, seeming to draw the line at sawing up journalists
with bonesaws — he is a moderate after all, plus very popular
with the media), and he has voted for nearly every possible
increase in the defense budget.
As Jacobin’s own Branko Marcetic observed two years ago, Schiff’s
bellicosity is extensively funded by arms manufacturers and military
contractors.
A Ukrainian arms dealer named Igor Pasternak held a $2,500 per
head fundraiser for Schiff in 2013, as the late Justin Raimondo
reported in a terrific analysis on Antiwar.com in 2017 at a time
when Ukraine was desperately trying to counter the Obama
administration’s disinterest in funding its war with Russia.
Despite that disinterest, the State Department approved some very
profitable dealings for Pasternak in Ukraine after that fundraiser.
And that’s only one example.
In the current cycle, donations from the war industry
have continued to flood his coffers.
Many come from employees of firms with extensive Department of
Defense contracts, including Radiance Technologies and Raytheon.
PACs representing the defense industry also make a robust showing
among Schiff’s contributors, according to data on Open Secrets.org;
companies funneling money to Schiff — sorry, contributing to those
PACs — include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon,
Radiance, and others, including L3Harris Technologies (which got in
big trouble with the State Department in September and had to pay
$13 million in penalties for illegal arms dealing).
Guess what these companies want?
War with Ukraine.
Why wouldn’t they?
Last October, the United States approved a $39 million sale of anti-
tank missiles to Ukraine, a joint contract between Raytheon and
Lockheed Martin.
The previous year, Ukraine bought $37 million worth of missiles
from the same two companies.
As a missile-maker, Zacks Equity Research has noted, Northrop
Grumman also benefits richly from conflict in Ukraine, as missiles
are heavily used in cross-border wars.
Despite his enthusiastic support for state violence and cozy ties
to the makers of deadly weaponry, Schiff, an Alexander Hamilton
quoting, "Windbag" doesn’t have much crossover appeal to the
sort of people who put, “These Colors Don’t Run” stickers on
their trucks.
His impeachment crusade only seems to reinforce Trump’s support
among the faithful.
At the time of this writing, 93 percent of Republicans oppose the
President’s removal from office.
Welcome to the #Resistance.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52903.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.