Sunday, February 02, 2020

The Emperor is Stark Raving Nude


I’ve just come back from a Chinese New Year holiday in Vietnam and I’ve gone back to an old hobby – watching Youtube Videos. My two favourite topics on Youtube are the Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump and the announcement of the “Deal of the Century” between the Israeli’s and the Palestinians. These two topics bring me back to the story of the “Emperors New Cloths,” where everyone is so caught up in the appearance of trying to appear clever that they miss the obvious point – the emperor has been conned into buying nothing at all.

OK, as per all articles where I’m about to express my opinion, I will disclose that I loath Donald Trump. The man is weakling who only knows how to take on the vulnerable and the only way he knows how to get and stay in power is by finding a scapegoat. I am also going to declare that I have a soft spot for the Palestinians and its not because some of my best friends happen to be Muslim. While the Palestinians have not been blessed with the most benevolent leadership, they’ve been perpetually screwed by the powers that be – namely the Western world, whether it be Great Britain or the USA.

Let’s start with the Impeachment Trial. The facts of the case are clear, and much has been reported about the trial, so I’m not going to go into detail as the public facts are well known. It’s also clear that the process of impeachment has been far more partisan than anything else in history (including the Clinton Impeachment in 1998). As of writing, every republican senator has announced that they have no intention of voting to remove the Trump from office

To an extent, that was always expected. Impeachment is as much as a political process as it is a legal one. The key to “removal” is the 100 Senators, who are acting as jury in the trial. The Republicans have the majority and one can expect the party line to hold.

Where the Senate Trial falls is the fact that the Republicans have voted to have “no witnesses” in a trial. Thus far they’ve only had a Q&A sessions for the senators to pass up their questions to be read by the Chief Justice. Yet, the Republican party has refused to allow any witnesses to be called. The timing could not be more relevant in as much one of the key people who witnessed the events, namely the former National Security Advisor, John Bolton has written a book where he has said that he was present when the President said he wanted to withhold aid to Ukraine in return for dishing up dirt on a political rival and Mr. Bolton is not the only person with a story to tell.

Even without legal training, it seems rather suspicious that you’d want to have a trial without any witnesses, particularly when you have the power to get people to testify under oath and there are “real witnesses.” The verdict it seems, is a foregone conclusion and the side with the most votes is going to base its entire argument on – “We can do what the heck we want – so screw you.” The most obvious point came from former Harvard Law Professor, Alan Dershowtiz, who argued the as long as the President could do whatever he wanted as long as he believed it was a in the public interest. More on Professor Dershowtiz’s legal brilliance that the less educated might find hard to understand can be found at:


Another example of the Emperor being stark raving nude was the “Deal of the Century” where you had an example of the US and Israel slapping themselves on the back after agreeing to allow the Palestinians to have a few slivers of land in return for a few bucks. The deal was apparently written by the Donald’s son-in-law, Jarred Kushner. After the Trump and Bibi called a press conference to slap themselves on the back for solving a complicated issue.

There was a minor problem with this. The Palestinians were not part of the deal. Neither the Palestinian Authority or Hamas were asked to sit down to chat about anything at all. The Israeli government would get to keep its illegal settlements and young Mr. Kushner went onto TV to tell the Palestinians that they should be bloody well grateful for the shit lot that they were being handed.

You can view details of the Israeli government’s points on how it intends to occupy “All” the land at:


I remember former Saudi Ambassador, Dr. Amin Kurdi saying, “We gave the Israelis an answer to their security [this was after the late King Abdullah had proposed Israel return to their 1967 borders in return for diplomatic recognition from the Arab League] and they threw it in our faces.”

The Ambassador is right. The Israelis have shown that they have no interest in not expanding their land. It’s only a deal of the Century when they got to negotiate without the other party.

What’s more worrying is that we have a US President who has decided that America’s role as honest broker is no longer something to be treasured. Here is a leader who has shown himself to be corrupt and having no respect for the rule of law. As bad as it is to have him running his own country, its worse when he gangs up with another dubious world leader against a smaller group.

So, what do we do with naked Emperors who expect us to acknowledge they are well dressed? The answer is to find more little boys like journalist like Medhi Hassan, who challenges known pundits on a regular basis. You can see a sample of his work at:


It’s time to encourage curious little boys in our journalistic community.


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Maira Gall