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#Post#: 953--------------------------------------------------
Reagan’s Treason, Two Bushes and the $23 Million Payoff
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: March 21, 2023, 6:32 pm
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March 21, 2023 by Greg Palast
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HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202719-14071062.gif<br
/>[glow=red,2,300]Reagan’s[/glow] Treason,
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/>Two Bushes[/glow] and the $23 Million 😈💰
Payoff[/center]
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This week, a Texas pol, 🐍 [glow=brown,2,300]Ben
Barnes[/glow], confessed that he was personally involved—and
therefore an eyewitness to–[glow=maroon,2,300]high
treason[/glow]: The Ronald Reagan campaign’s successful
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/>[glow=red,2,300]secret deal[/glow] with the Iranian government
to hold 52 Americans hostages so that Reagan could defeat Jimmy
Carter.
Reagan’s skanky deal worked. In 1980, Carter’s failure to bring
home the hostages destroyed his chance of reelection. Reagan
ultimately would repay the favor from Iran’s murder-crats with
weapons and even, for the Ayatollah Khomeini, a birthday cake
from Reagan advisor Oliver North.
The question is, why now? Why did Barnes suddenly blow the
whistle on this crime—and a crime it is—four decades late? His
cute excuse, reported without question by the New York Times, is
that, “History needs to know that this happened.”
Wrong. “History” doesn’t need to know—American voters needed to
know about [glow=red,2,300] Reagan’s treason[/glow] before the
1980 election.
So, then, why did Barnes squirrel away the truth for decades?
Follow the money.
It’s a money trail that leads to two Bushes who would not have
become president if not for Barnes’ silence about Iran—and
Barnes’ omertà about another creepy Bush scheme.
In 1999, for The Guardian, I discovered that Barnes, in his
previous role as Lt. Governor of Texas, used his political juice
to get Congressman George Bush Sr.’s son, “Dubya” into the Texas
Air Guard—over literally thousands of far-more-qualified
applicants. (Little Bush scored 25 out of 100 on the test, just
one point above “too dumb to fly.”)
And so, 😈 [glow=red,2,300]Dubya[/glow] dodged the draft
and Vietnam.
Barnes hid the truth despite pleas from Texas Gov. 🗽 Ann
Richards, who, in 1994, lost a squeaker of an election too.
In Austin, Texas, I received unshakeable evidence that Barnes
was the fixer who got Congressman Bush’s son out of the Vietnam
draft. (This, while Bush Sr. was voting to send other men’s sons
to Vietnam.)
What did Barnes get for his burial of Reagan’s deal with Iran
and Bush Jr.’s draft dodging? Did $23 million do it?
In 1999, I was investigating a company, GTech, which ran both
the British and Texas lotteries. Texas had disqualified GTech
from operating the state lottery based on strong evidence of
corruption. But oddly, the new Governor of Texas, George W.
Bush, fired the lottery director who banned GTEch. Then Bush’s
new lottery commissioner gave GTech back its
multi-billion-dollar contract, no bidding.
Notably, Bush’s firing of the state’s lottery director came two
days after a meeting with GTech’s lobbyist—Ben Barnes.
Barnes’ fees from GTech? $23 million.
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I wasn’t in the Bush-Barnes little tête-à-tête: the info came
from a confidential memo from the lottery director that was well
buried inside Justice Department files.
In a civil suit, Barnes supposedly denied any quid pro quo with
Gov. Bush. Maybe. A nice payment from GTech to the wronged
lottery director sealed Barnes’ testimony from the public.
Maybe Bush met with Barnes just to reminisce
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-280622170247.jpeg.<br
/>But if Barnes had the Bush family’s entire political fortune
in
his pocket, did he really need to remind Dubya of the
consequences if the Governor did not take care of Barnes’
client?
*
Secretly conspiring with a foreign power to keep Americans
imprisoned, secretly negotiating with and providing weapons to a
foreign enemy is the definition of treason—and so would a
cover-up for cash.
This was another example, I wrote in The Guardian, how the
Bushes turned America into “the best
[glow=red,2,300]democracy[/glow] money can buy.”
*
I then wrote a book of that title and made a film, Bush Family
Fortunes, detailing the [glow=red,2,300]Bush Family
crime-wave[/glow], for BBC Television.
Today, you can [glow=blue,2,300]download that
documentary[/glow], [shadow=red,left]Bush Family
Fortunes[/shadow], [glow=green,2,300]free[/glow] of charge
HTML https://gregpalast.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33e4ec877eed6a43863a4a92e&id=4c003588c2&e=0b7857deba.<br
/>(If you want to throw in a tax-deductible donation, hey, we
won’t say ‘no.’ Our investigations continue: The cast of
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/>[glow=red,2,300]characters[/glow] has changed, but not the
[glow=maroon,2,300]crimes[/glow].)
*
And a word about the [glow=maroon,2,300]🐍 creeps,
🐒 cowards[/glow] and 🦀
[glow=red,2,300]conmen[/glow] who call themselves “journalists.”
Let’s start with a trivia question: Who is
[glow=red,2,300]🐉 Dan Rather[/glow]? He’s a former TV
star and one-time reporter who took my story of Bush’s draft
dodging, stuck it on 60 Minutes and, in violation of any sense
of ethics and decency, exposed a whistleblower, Texas Air Guard
Col. 🗽 Bill Burkett 🦅, a man of inestimable
courage and integrity.
Rather’s exposure ruined Burkett. No Texan would sell him feed.
His cattle were dying, so he lost his ranch.
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Dan Rather was fired by CBS for getting the network in hot water
with the Bush White House. Then, by his own admission, Rather
agreed to backtrack on the story of Bush the draft dodger in
return for a promise of a return to the CBS airwaves. CBS
screwed Rather—but that often happens to feckless recreants.
Neither I nor the BBC nor The Guardian retracted a single word
of our story of Dubya the Draft Dodger nor the tale of the $23
million questionable payment.
There are zeroes—and there are 🗽heroes. The story of
Reagan and his “October Surprise” was first busted open by
🦅 Robert Parry – who also uncovered the Iran-Contra
scandal. Instead of getting a Pulitzer, Parry’s career was
destroyed. For uncovering too many uncomfortable truths, he was
bounced from the Associated Press, Newsweek, Bloomberg, and The
Nation.
Parry died in 2018, in journalistic exile.
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#Post#: 964--------------------------------------------------
The Donald Trump Problem
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: March 27, 2023, 3:10 pm
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