We Meddle Too
Ant Antoine
Antoine is at the Stove
Good Morning Breakfastpoppers. Today is Sunday, July 22, 2018. Our industrious friend, Ant Antoine, Is busy in the kitchen preparing Eggs au Gratin for our taste buds. I am hard at work mixing up French lattes to add to the fun. Antoine is fed up with the constant chatter about Russian interference in our election. The Russians meddle in elections. That's what they do, but we meddle too. It's time to move on and attend to more important matters. Please join us for breakfast this morning. Your input on this subject would be greatly appreciated. We hope to see you soon.
Games Nations Play
Thanks so much for coming to the breakfast table this morning. If I hear one more word about Russian meddling, I think I may totally lose my cool. Yes, the Russians tried to interfere in our last election. This point is not up for debate. They did it, they usually do it, we know it and there is no surprise in any of this. What is not being discussed is the fact that our nation meddles in foreign elections all the time. Of course, if government officials would be pressed on the issue, and if they admitted anything, they would say it is done in the interests of democracy. Be that as it may, it is still meddling.
Checkmate
Thirteen Russians and and three Russian groups have been indicted for trying to influence our 2016 presidential election. This isn't the first time the Russians tried this and it probably won't be the last. The good news is that their interference didn't affect the outcome of the election. Donald Trump became president and the left lost their collective minds. It is actually quite comical listening to lawmakers rant and rave about the Russians. The indictments came out at a very curious time. President Trump was about to meet with Putin and boom, Mueller's team indicts some Russians. In any case, the toothless indictments served to bring pressure on President Trump to call Putin out. The indictments also gave the left a new dead horse to beat in their unrelenting efforts to bring down President Trump. Why does the subject of our meddling never come up when the left rants and raves about Russia. Meddling is old hat. Our nation and other Western nations are knee deep in meddling in the elections of other countries. We support military coups, we spread political propaganda and we funnel money to insure that events in other countries go the way we want them to. It's a chess game where strategy is everything. I guess talking about it would make Congress cringe, so instead we persist in focusing all our attention on Russia. They say the truth will set us free, so let's get to the truth.
Gotcha!
The United States has intervened in the business of independent countries for years and years. Some of our meddling was very public, in that we made it known that we supported one candidate over another. Most, however, were done in secret. Unlike the Russian meddling, our interventions may have actually affected the outcome of elections. Research from the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University has revealed that our country interfered in elections in Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Haiti, Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Italy, Malta, Slovakia, Greece, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, Japan, South Vietnam, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.
While we were poking around trying to influence elections, Russia was also hard at work in France, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Japan, India, West Germany, Pakistan, Bangladesh Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, the Congo and the United States.
Just imagine the full scope of all this meddling. There must be hundreds of other instances that are so covert that we know nothing about them. This is what nations do. All the over the top outrage about Russia, is just that, over the top. Of course, we should do everything possible to make sure foreign entities stay out of our business, but we really have bigger fish to fry right now. If only our nation could address and solve our immigration problem. We could if the left really had any interest in doing so, but if it was solved what would they have to scream about? Instead, it's the big bad wolf, Putin. They love the subject because it gives them a chance to slam President Trump for being too nice to the leader of Russia. They call his meeting treason. I call their assertions idiotic.
The Bottom Line
Our nation has a long history of interfering in the workings of other governments. In Italy's 1948 election, the CIA helped the Christian Democrats defeat the Communist Party. We did it by handing over loads of money to certain politicians to help with their expenses. This is what we do. This is what other nations do. This is what the Russians do. We need to defend ourselves as best we can against these kinds of intrusions, as do other nations. This kind of trouble is just par for the course. The left would have us all believe that the world is coming to an end, and that President Trump is the cause of it.
The reverse is true. President Trump is trying to get us back on course. He is trying to solve long neglected problems, and he is succeeding. Can you imagine what wonderful things would happen if Congress loved America as much as President Trump and his supporters do? It is time to get realistic about how the world works. The naysayers on the left are proud to say that America was never great. They are wearing out their welcome in our nation. The Russia story has to die. Mueller's witch hunt has to end. The empty violent rhetoric of the left has to stop. It is time to get back to the business of making America great again.
Antoine's Song
Let's go children of the homeland
The day of reckoning is upon us
Against you tyranny's ugly flag is raised...