Newt Gingrich Tears Into Nancy Pelosi for Tearing Donald Trump's 2020 SOTU Speech

By way of full disclosure, Newt Gingrich is not one of my favorite people. Nevertheless, out of respect for those of you who may be members of his "Inner Circle," I read his essay on Nancy Pelosi and the "petty, nasty Democrats." First, as a “thought piece” on the coming 2020 Election, it lacks any original, let alone objective insight. Here’s a much more insightful analysis of what’s happening in American political discourse by McKay Coppins in the Atlantic.

Second, Gingrich criticizing Pelosi for ignoring tradition and protocol in how she behaved during Trump’s SOTU speech once again demonstrates how little Republicans seem to know or care about irony. In 1978 Gingrich lectured a group of young student Republicans, “One of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don’t encourage you to be nasty.” McKay Coppins credits, if that's the right word, Gingrich with turning politics into a blood sport.

Trump has broken every rule in the book when it comes to how one behaves in the highest office in the land. Two days ago in a publicly televised rambling diatribe in the East Room of the White House he used profanity to yet again denounce the Russia probe, and to claim that he did nothing wrong in his call with Ukraine President Zelensky.

At the National Prayer Breakfast last Thursday, Trump told Arthur C. Brooks, who spoke on the theme of his book, “Love Your Enemies,” that he didn’t agree with him, and proceeded to turn the communion into a pejorative-laced rant against his enemies, real and those yet to come. Trump has undermined faith in the Intelligence Community, the FBI, the DOJ, the Media, and now in faith itself.

 If you watched the SOTU speech, which I did, you saw Speaker Pelosi read through the speech as Trump gave it — easy to do, since Republicans made sure to applaud Trump’s pronouncements as often as possible without looking totally absurd. Pelosi was clearly angered by the blatant lies and exaggerations layered throughout the speech, but she kept her cool and waited until Trump had accepted his accolades from his assembled sycophants before she gave the speech its due, and tore it to shreds. Here’s what David Frum of the Atlantic (2/5/2020) said of the speech:

“The president crammed his speech with blatant and aggressive lies. The Trump administration is not committed to protecting patients with pre-existing conditions; it has repeatedly sought to end this protection and is in court right now trying again. The U.S.’s position as the world leader in oil and gas production is not thanks to any action of Trump’s; the country moved into first place in 2012. Trump has not presided over any kind of “comeback” of the economy, which grew faster in the three years before he took office than in the three years since. Manufacturing employment has not recovered under Trump; because of his trade wars, manufacturing employment has crashed on his watch. Trump’s untruthfulness is notorious, but it’s still a departure to lie and mislead so often and so brazenly before all the assembled Congress.”

For myself, I find it Orwellian that Gingrich and other Republican blowhards pretend outrage over Pelosi tearing up Trump’s SOTU speech while at the same time pretending that it’s okay to withhold military aid appropriated by Congress in order to coerce Ukraine to announce an investigation into a political rival.

I have to wonder if Gingrich or these other Republican snowflakes will feel the same outrage as Trump exacts his vengeance against those who obeyed Congressional subpoenas and testified during the House impeachment hearings, such as LTC Alexander Vindman, along with his brother LTC Yevgeny Vindman, both of whom were escorted from the White House, and U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland. Fiona Hill, who spoke at the hearings in defense of Vindman, is gone, Jennifer Williams, a Pence advisor, is gone, of course Marie Yovanovitch is gone, and William B. Taylor Jr., who served in the Vietnam War and earned a Bronze Star and an Air Medal with a V device for valor, is gone.

So, in my view, the damage that Nancy Pelosi may have done to the solemn honor and privilege of the Chamber and the Chief Executive is nothing compared to the damage Donald John Trump and his minions, including Newt Gingrich, are doing to truth and decency, to the Constitution, and to the country.

Who is Sheldon Adelson and Why Should You Care?

If the United States of America goes to war with Iran, or becomes embroiled in a war with Iran started by Israel, a man named Sheldon Adelson will have played a significant role in making it happen.

Sheldon Adelson built the world's most expensive hotel-casino, the Marina Bay Sands. With its indoor canal, opulent art, dazzling casino, outdoor plaza, convention centre, theatre, crystal pavilion, lotus flower-shaped museum, and 150-meter long infinity pool at the top of the complex 55 stories up, the Marina Bay Sands is the world’s most expensive paean to indulgence.

Adelson is the Chief Executive Officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns and operates the Venetian and Palazzo hotel-casinos in Las Vegas, the Sands Casino-Resort Bethlehem, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, several properties in Macao, including the Macao Sands, and the Mariana Bay Sands in Singapore. Adelson has been listed as anywhere from the 3rd richest to the 16th richest man in America and has been called the “world’s richest Jew” by the Jewish Virtual Library, and at times, by himself.

Adelson’s American success story makes the Horatio Alger fictional success story look meager by comparison. Whereas Alger’s “Ragged Dick” made the climb from poverty to middle-class success through hard work and grit, Adelson worked harder, smarter, and some have claimed fraudulently (he was sued by his adopted sons in 1997 over the COMDEX deal), to rise from abject poverty to astronomical wealth. As his wealth has increased, so has his involvement in and influence over American and world foreign policy. And with the 2010 US Supreme Court Citizen’s United decision, Adelson’s money has become a dominant factor in American and Israeli politics, as well as a factor in China’s exploding capitalism.

Shelley Berkley, who once worked for Adelson, and is now a Democratic congresswoman for Nevada, said, “I have unique personal knowledge of how Mr. Adelson seeks to dominate politics and public policy through the raw power of money.

Most Americans who are paying any attention at all to Republican campaigns for their party's presidential nominee know by now that Sheldon Adelson is to Newt Gingrich as Newt Gingrich is to Tiffany's.

Federal records show that since 1999, Adelson and his wife have made disclosed political contributions of $21.6 million, and 82 percent of it has been for the benefit of Gingrich. Gingrich told NBC News in January 2012 that Adelson, "Knows I'm very pro-Israel, and that's the central value of his life."

The bond between Adelson and Gingrich goes back to the 1990s, when Gingrich was speaker of the House. Adelson wanted Congress to require that the U.S. Embassy in Israel be moved to Jerusalem. Gingrich not only spearheaded the effort; he's campaigning on it now."As president, on my first day in office, I will issue an executive order directing the U.S. Embassy in Israel to be moved to Jerusalem as provided for in the legislation I introduced in Congress in 1995," Gingrich said in a December speech in Beverly Hills, California.

But the key thing to know about Sheldon Adelson is that he is an ultra-conservative, right-wing supporter of all things Israel. Talk to Action (TTA) reports that the Institute for Policy Studies' Right Web has said that Adelson "is an important financial backer of right-wing `pro-Israel' groups in the United States and elsewhere in the world, as well as a prominent supporter of key Likud Party officials," prominently, Netanyahu.

According to The Daily Beast's Aram Roston, Adelson is "a staunch supporter of groups such as the Zionist Organization of America and other such groups, which believe Palestinians have no valid claims. Adelson sponsored a seminar in 2008 provocatively titled the `Islamic Jihad in America: What You Need to Know about Radical Muslim Infiltration of American Culture, Finance, Education, and Life,'" and in November of last year, "Adelson appeared on the stage of the Zionist Organization of America to present ... Glenn Beck with a `Defender of Israel' Award.

Adelson supports a number of ultra-conservative Jewish lobbying groups; groups who are now pushing for "retaliation" against Iran for that nation's refusal to back down on their pursuit of nuclear capabilities that may include nuclear weapons development. These are the same groups that promoted war with Iraq, and managed to seed the Bush Administration with men like Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and David Wurmser. Their mission was described in a policy paper -- A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm -- authored primarily by Wurmser, that advocated pre-emptive strikes against Iran and Syria, the removal of Saddam Hussein from power, and the abandonment of traditional "land for peace" negotiations with Palestinians.

It isn't much of stretch to say that Sheldon Adelson is responsible as much as anyone for Benjamin Netanyahu regaining the office of Prime Minister of Israel.

In his speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington DC on March 6, 2012, Netanyahu made it clear that he is perfectly comfortable with and capable of attacking Iran, with or without Washington’s approval. He said, “We are determined to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons; we leave all options on the table; and containment is definitely not an option.

Netanyahu went on to say, “The Jewish state will not allow those who seek our destruction to possess the means to achieve that goal. A nuclear armed Iran must be stopped.”

In case anyone had any doubts that Netanyahu was ready to go it alone, he elaborated, saying that, “Israel has waited patiently for the international community to resolve this issue. We've waited for diplomacy to work. We've waited for sanctions to work. None of us can afford to wait much longer.”

Sheldon Adelson