Two days ago Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Valaam Monastery for a service celebrating the memory of Saints Sergius and German, the Valaam Miracle Workers. Yesterday Fox News reported thousands of Russians fasting because Putin had banned evangelism. Let that sink in.
The digital story was embossed with video of an interview with retired Admiral James Stavridis, who is being promoted as Hillary Clinton’s presidential running mate. A lead that concocts a negative religious connotation is then transformed into a dual message with tough talk about Putin authoritarianism and Russia aggression militarily. Fox News has gone so far over the top.
What makes this Fox report so disturbing is the clear implication it represents. Russia is the new terror, Hillary Clinton is the chosen stooge for the next phase of American hegemony, and pulling in distinguished US military authority is the capper. Stavridis, as crazy and war mongering as he may seem, is on idiot stooge. What he does represent is the hard line militarist core of American and NATO policy forward. If Clinton chooses Admiral Stavidis as her running mate, then the best the world can hope for is a deeper and darker version of the Cold War. If you listen to the interview with Stavridis, there is even rhetoric to the effect of recreating Ronald Reagan’s arms race escalation. It is my belief that this has been a primary goal of the Obama administration. The military industrial complexes around the world can only survive with another Cold War. Growth is impossible otherwise.
I won’t get into Admiral Stavridis’s qualifications, I will just acquiesce that naval commanders at this level are truly the best and brightest. For Clinton, naming him would also cement the notion the Democrats are not complete idiots. Clinton is a witless opportunist compared to the Chairman of the Board of the US Naval Academy. Take my word on this, I served aboard the pride of Ronald Reagan’s 600 ship navy, on USS Iowa. Stavridis, at the time, was the commander of the Ticonderoga Class Aegis cruiser Valley Forge. As fate has it, Valley Forge and Iowa were tied up across from one another at Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. I include these points for this reason, officers like my own commanding officer, retired Rear Admiral Gerald E. Gneckow, are not to be underestimated. I would not ordinarily mention my skipper in a story of negative connotation, but it is crucial to understand legitimately courageous military leaders here. Where the military is concerned, duty is paramount. It was my duty to obey Gerald E. Gneckow, even if he was wrong. It was his duty to obey the Secretary of the Navy, even if he was wrong. But this dilemma is exacerbated today.
Like Gneckow, Stavridis will do whatever is necessary to protect and to further what policy makers deem “in the best interests” of the United States. The problem with the Clinton- Stavridis potential is the obvious conflict of interest. Clinton is going to try and use Stavridis as a bridge, in the same way all previous presidents used military leaders. The difference now is the capability, morality, and underlying intelligence of the prospective Commander in Chief.
What I am driving at here is that the people of the world, and especially Americans, need to be diligent in their actions in light of all that is going on. There are three distinct warnings the reader of this report should look at, and ramifications to look out for. First and foremost, the American people may well elect a totally amoral president in November. Hillary Clinton is a liar like almost all politicians, but her arrogance and relative insulation from responsibility make her rather unique. The world knows she and Bill Clinton, along with the Clinton Foundation, are all about money. At best she is a rampaging opportunist, and at worst an incompetent and narcissistic psychopath. This is the fear anyway. Factoring in the fact Fox News and other mainstream media simply fabricate not just news, but policy, and you have two out of three components of a totalitarian fission bomb. Now add in the top militarist of a span along with his inherent network, credibility, and mind set. This combination could truly prove lethal.
The media controls the people, the government regulates the people, and the military is the hammer. I do not want to cast dispersion on either Stavridis or my former commander, so let me approach you with what I know of them. Stavridis believes that Putin and Russia are our enemies, he has trained for this scenario all his life. My captain back in the 80s, Admiral Gneckow and his crew were ready and prepared for similar America-USSR war scenarios. Back then the crisis was Lebanon. I recall my shipmates echoing what command chanted, for better or worse. “We will turn Beirut into a parking lot”, this was the dogma. We were dedicated, sailors like me were bred to follow leaders like Gneckow. All of us would have followed blindly, wherever this extraordinary man led us. Like us, Captain Gneckow always followed orders dutifully and with exuberance.
Right here I need to differentiate in between my Captain, and the main reasons I left the military instead of retiring an old salt. It was not the fighting or even the killing of enemies that seemed conflictual to me, but the callousness and lack of thought inherent in allowing politicians decide who the enemy was. America is about to put in office an unscrupulous politician, supported by an unquestioning military man, with the immense power of all the media on the team. By comparison, Ronald Reagan was a decent man, a brilliant politician, and not nearly as arrogant or callous as today’s leaders. As wrong as his policies ended up being, Americans did thrive under his administration.
Finally, there is one more component to the fearsome message being broadcast to America today. I should say, the “subliminal message”, perhaps. The revelations about then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s wanton and irresponsible use of communications by utilizing personal mail servers are well known now. Her part in helping orchestrate the various wheelings and dealings of Obama administration policy are too. Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street connectives seem to matter little to Americans. Ties to billionaire interests, her stock market playing, and the fact she has really never kept any campaign promise make Hillary Clinton seem “teflon coated” even by Bill Clinton standards. But the one characteristic everyone sees is her arrogance and nonchalance. Clinton is not an idiot in the clinical sense. She is incompetent and narcissistic on a level that is dangerous though. The video above is damning, if you are looking for proof national security is a joke to this woman. This is before a CBS show made famous for her laughing about killing Muammar Gaddafi. It’s clear here that her blackberry SMS containing intel on Libyan strongman’s situation. I am utterly amazed that nobody so far has grasped the significance of a Clinton assistant handing her a message about Gaddafi either being taken prisoner, or killed, and right in front of the media. This video should be Exhibit A in a trial for treason, or at least a federal case for malfeasance while Secretary of State. But it is not.
So what is criminal? If the Constitution of the United States makes freedom of the press the law, then how can the press be controlled by a few billionaires? If it is against the law for key government officials to risk giving enemies vital strategic intelligence, then how is Hillary Clinton out of prison today? Furthermore, if we know that the military industrial complex must grow in order to appease stockholders, how can we not understand the subversion going on in Washington? Our government has gone of the range. America is about to elect a team of people comprised of lifelong warfighters, media liars, Wall Street bankers, led by the most unscrupulous politician of the last 40 years. When they are in office, America will breath her last gasps of free air. This is my prediction. 32 years ago I offered a last proud solute to then Captain Gerald E. Gneckow, truly a man of honor. I was his driver, and USS Iowa’s only 4.0 sailor, and meritoriously advanced 3 times in my short career. Any of us would have died for Gerry Gneckow, please understand. I tell you this not for my own gratification, but so that you will understand the sadness hundreds of thousands of honorable military people feel, as they observe what is happening to our once great country. The scoundrels stand tall, on the shoulders of great men and women. If we allow it, America is done.