By Martin Love

GOP debate matters and two “winners”. For now: Trump and Ramaswany…

August 27, 2023 - 11:6

Off the cuff one can say that most all of the Republicans who “debated” their candidacies on August 23 to become the GOP nominee for President next year in the U.S. are a bunch of clownish political hacks who have been on the political scene way too long for years in one undistinguished capacity or another and this was well demonstrated.

Former President Trump stayed out of the fray on Fox News, remains way ahead in polls of anyone in the group for the nomination next year, and at the same exact time appeared on Twitter where he was interviewed by Tucker Carlson in what turned out to be the most widely heard interview perhaps in all of modern history — scores of millions of people watched on Twitter. Not a single GOP candidate but one had anything smart to say, repeating the same old platitudes about American exceptionalism, reflecting disdain for all the damage the militant  U.S. “empire” has done for decades — almost seamlessly since the end of World War 2 but especially since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

The candidate who did have the freshest posture was Vivek Ramaswany, a 38-year-old American of Indian parentage with a degree in biology from Harvard, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a law degree from Yale University. He has also been an entrepreneur in various biomedical related business ventures and has amassed a fortune of nearly a billion U.S. (fiat) dollars.

Ramaswany was the sole candidate of eight seen on Fox News who called for the end of U.S. financial and military support for the Zelensky regime in Ukraine. Hallelujah to that! He asserted climate change is a hoax. He proposed to scrap the FBI and other federal agencies. He was combative and critical. Above all he asserted that Americans live in a very “dark moment” fraught with a cold cultural civil war in the U.S. that must be recognized and dealt with. He also said that if Donald Trump became the GOP nominee he would support him… despite Trump’s several outstanding indictments for alleged criminality related to the January 6th, 2021, insurrection or the riotous behaviors in Washington after Biden was elected in 2020 in what may have been a rigged election, and for other alleged misdeeds. The bottom line of the dash for the GOP nomination so far and at its start is that Vivek is the most interesting of the Republicans and he has even claimed he likes Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Democrat, and might support him if were not aiming for the White House himself.

There was no specific discussion during the “debate” of the Middle East or West Asia. Not a word about the extreme troubles in Palestine, but Americans have long known about Nikki Haley, one of the eight contenders at the “debate”, as a fervent supporter of Apartheid Israel who has claimed the U.S. needs Israel even more than the Zionists need the U.S. This alone is hard to fathom but one can reliably bet the other GOP contenders for the nomination more or less agree with Haley’s assertion. As for RFK Jr, he has said some wise things on the Democratic side, but one with any sense is inclined to discount him for his overblown support for Israel. Maybe he’s afraid of his own possible assassination by Israeli interests? It’s no secret to Robert Kennedy Jr. that the Zionists may have had a hand in the 1963 murder of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, who objected to Israel becoming a nuclear power, and also a hand in the murder of his father in 1968.

As for Trump with his huge lead as the GOP nominee for the election next year, in his appearance with Tucker Carlson, he at least appeared unusually relaxed and not as shrill as he can often seem, and was clearly capable of discussion with Carlson and the capacity to put sentences together, unlike senile, demented Joe Biden who belongs in jail or a nursing home or an asylum. 

The looming immediate question about Trump, who did huge damage as President with his unilateral trashing of the JCPOA and especially the assassination of the revered General Qasem Soleimani, clearly at the urgings of the Zionists, is whether Trump MAY have become wiser and more knowledgeable about foreign policies and the dangers of current and former U.S. policies in Asia to U.S. interests? Is he aware enough going forward that the U.S. has clearly undercut its welcome in the Arab world, that China and Russia have been driven together closely, that Saudi Arabia has begun to restore healthy ties with Iran and that overall, in effect, U.S. “divide and conquer” moves across the globe have spelled the erosion if not yet the complete end of U.S. influence in the Global South, including in South America?

Saudi Arabia, by the way, it has been suggested, is being bribed by the Biden Administration not to sell oil for anything but dollars and stay on the U.S. “side”. With what offering? Is the U.S. offering Saudi Arabia and headstrong MBS nuclear technology and would the U.S. look the other way if the Saudis somehow created their own nuclear weapon?

For the moment, hail to the Saudis for joining BRICS and to Iran, too. Does this mean MBS will not be swayed by the Biden Administration? It does seem the “petrodollar” is on the way out given the BRICS expansion.