By Caitlin Johnstone
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
has left Taiwan after a brief but
diplomatically corrosive visit, the
aftereffects from which may be felt for
years to come.
Toward the end of her
speech alongside Taiwan's President Tsai
Ing-wen, Pelosi's brain underwent one of its
increasingly common software glitches,
causing her to begin babbling
inarticulately.
Here is a transcript of what Nancy
Pelosi's brain
said:
"In our earliest days at our
founding of our country, Benjamin Franklin,
our presidency, said, freedom and democracy.
Freedom and democracy, one thing, security
here. If we don't have- we can't have
either, if we don't have both."
Of course Benjamin Franklin was neither a
president of the United States nor a
"presidency", and the quote Nancy's
floundering brain was reaching for was
"Those who would give up essential liberty
to purchase a little temporary safety,
deserve neither liberty nor safety.” These
are not difficult things to remember or
articulate for someone with functioning gray
matter.
This is right up there with other famous
neural malfunctions by the speaker, like her
"Bernie
loves hearing" gibberish from last year
or her bizarre "Good
morning, Sunday morning" restart in the
middle of an interview a couple of years
ago, and it calls to mind a DC pharmacist's
casual remark in 2017 that he had filled
prescriptions to treat Alzheimer's disease
for some powerful decision makers on Capitol
Hill.
None of which would be a problem, if we
were talking about some little old lady
whiling away her twilight years at a
retirement home in Florida. But we are not;
we are talking about one of the most
powerful elected officials in the most
powerful government on earth, third in the
line of succession to the presidency after
the vice president.
More importantly, we are talking about
someone who just participated in an
incendiary visit to Taiwan which has ensured
the escalation of dangerous cold war
tensions between major world powers, and
could potentially have triggered a hot war
with China.
US war machinery, including aircraft
carriers and large planes,
were mobilized to provide security for
Pelosi's visit ahead of her arrival. The
United States military was literally just
used to help a dementia patient try to start
World War Three.
China's response to Pelosi's provocation
has thankfully been relatively measured,
though we're about to see Taiwan
fully encircled by the Chinese navy for
a show of force unlike anything we've seen
in decades, and
Chinese sanctions upon Taiwanese
commerce are
still being
announced. There will be political
pressure in Beijing to escalate tensions
with the US so as not to look weak, and the
intensity of the new cold war has certainly
been ratcheted up a notch, but when it comes
to hot war it looks like humanity's better
angels have prevailed for now.
None of this makes it acceptable for the
world's most powerful government to send a
politician whose brains are leaking out her
ears to try to stir up hostilities under
cover of its military forces.
The world is a worse place now than it
was before Pelosi's plane touched down. Less
safe, less wealthy, less kind, and more
frightening. Not one ordinary person has
benefitted from her insanely hawkish
provocation made in her final years on this
earth, especially not the people of
Taiwan.
The US empire is sick, and it is playing
sick games with all our lives. As far as I'm
concerned, its downfall can't come soon
enough.