Day: May 31, 2017

Closing Thought–31May17

Behind Every Tree!

We have had yet another terrorist attack on the civilian population this time it was a concert on Manchester, England.

You know those dolts on the right that see a Islamic terrorist behind every tree…they even suspect anyone, not white, as a future jihadist even though they may have known the person for years……. the fact that they “look” Middle Eastern is enough to send them into a cowardly episode…..

Since 9/11 there have been many attacks, even some here in the good old US of A…..but you know what?

Even with all their prediction of a terrorist behind every tree most of the deaths through terrorism are not from those darn “jihadists”…..

In the 14 years since Al Qaeda carried out attacks on New York and the Pentagon, extremists have regularly executed smaller lethal assaults in the United States, explaining their motives in online manifestoes or social media rants.

But the breakdown of extremist ideologies behind those attacks may come as a surprise. Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, antigovernment fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims: 48 have been killed by extremists who are not Muslim, including the recent mass killing in Charleston, S.C., compared with 26 by self-proclaimed jihadists, according to a count by New America, a Washington research center.

But there will be NO acknowledging this simple fact…..because it is NOT what they want to hear…these ass scratchers want to keep lies alive it fits their paradigm and no amount of facts will change their pea sized brains.

Maybe they need a diaper change.

Peace out my friends….tomorrow will be a new day with more stuff…..chuq

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The Real-Life “Americans”

I have been bored with the news and have decided to watch “The Americans”….a TV show set in the 1980’s and the work of Soviet spies to gleam intel out of the American citizens….

I bring this up because the news is starting to look like an episode of the Americans…..all the intrigue and role playing going on in DC these days….I mean according to the news reports it has been one attempt after another to involve Russia in the governing of the US……(I am not saying that all this “news” is true….just that it is just too unbelievable….)

I mean look at the news these days…..

Well as it turns out. not only did the retired Lt. General Mike Flynn tell the republican President Donald Trump transition team all about his work with foreign governments, before the president’s inauguration date, but it just so happens that he and/ or others made at least 18 contacts with Russian officials. And yet, he still became the president’s national security adviser. It has become obvious that the Vice President Mike Pense who was in charge of the vetting process failed to follow protocol.

Source: Flynn And Others Made Contact With Russians At Least 18 Times ‹ Gronda Morin ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

Washington Post reported the Russia investigation was zeroing in on Jared Kushner. On Friday, the Post explained why that might be: Kushner reportedly proposed setting up a secret communications line between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin during a meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The Post cites “US officials briefed on intelligence reports.” Kushner is said to have wanted a secure line and suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the US in order to avoid having communications monitored.

President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser reportedly made the pitch to Kislyak during a meeting in early December at Trump Tower that Michael Flynn also attended. Despite apparently being “taken aback” by Kushner’s proposal, Kislyak reported it to Moscow. Officials learned of it from intercepts of Russian communications. The White House has declined to comment on the report. Read the full Post story here.

There is more……

There is more news on the republican President Donald Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner’s contacts with Russian operatives. It is only after there are leaks and public disclosure that Jared Kushner has admitted to these meetings. Why the deception?

Any desire to want to give a family member, Jared Kushner the benefit of the doubt in the hopes that he was at least a modifying influence on the president, has been completely diminished.

Source: Additional Data On Kushner’s Previously Undisclosed Contacts With Russian Operatives ‹ Gronda Morin ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

President Trump had only kind words for Jared Kushner in a statement issued Sunday night: “Jared is doing a great job for the country. I have total confidence in him. He is respected by virtually everyone and is working on programs that will save our country billions of dollars. In addition to that, and perhaps more importantly, he is a very good person.” The New York Times paints a far less rosy picture of Kushner’s position in the White House in the wake of the news that Kushner allegedly tried to set up a secret communications line between the Kremlin and the Trump transition team. The latest:

  • Among the Times’ more damning lines: “In recent weeks, the Trump-Kushner relationship, the most stable partnership in an often unstable West Wing, is showing unmistakable signs of strain. … It has been duly noted in the White House that Mr. Trump … has increasingly included Mr. Kushner when he dresses down aides and officials, a rarity earlier in his administration.”
  • At the root of it: The Times reports things began to sour slightly after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, a move Kushner pushed for, but says the president’s biggest bone to pick with Kushner relates to his sister, who was filmed trying to woo Chinese investment in a Kushner Companies condo project in Jersey City by trumpeting the availability of EB-5 visas.

 

  • What’s next: In a column for the Guardian, Walter Shapiro suggests “strain” with the president is nothing compared to what’s coming due to the FBI scrutiny the White House senior adviser is now under. Kushner’s “life in the coming months and maybe years will be a study in misery,” he writes. “He will probably spend more time with his personal lawyer … than with Ivanka or his children. Whether it is an appearance under oath on Capitol Hill or the inevitable FBI interview, every sentence Kushner utters will bring with it possible legal jeopardy.”
  • “Lay low”: NBC News quotes a source who says Kushner is being advised by other officials that he “lay low” for a while.
  • Poking at him: Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California has called for Kushner to be prosecuted over omissions on his security clearance form, reports the Hill, and he poked at Kushner in a Sunday tweet: “Dear Jared: I have been told that Siberia, Russia has lovely weather this time of the year. You can backpack and back-channel all you want.”
  • Others weigh in: Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Sunday he sees no “big issues” related to Kushner; former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper took an opposite stance.

Come on….even the dullest person can see that this stuff is writing itself……even if all this turns out to be some sort of hoax…..it still would make a great episode of the “Americans”.

All this is a bit humorous because if it were anyone but Trump those nut hugging supporters would be having a stroke over these incidents….and yet they see NOTHING out of the ordinary….that is what happens when they are being tea bagged by their leader.

If you are scratching your head then I suggest that you watch an episode of the “Americans” and you will see what I mean.

Iran: A “What If”

Iran has been in the news lately….it seems that some in the Trump power cliche is not happy with the Iranian nuke deal and the chest thumping has started…..and since I do like my history I thought I would propose a ‘what if’ scenario…..

In 1954 the US was involved in a coup in Guatemala and most people think that it was our first attempted coup….they would be wrong.  Iran was the US first successful coup lead by the CIA.  But for the same reason as the first…to protect American business profits and control.  Guatemala was to protect Standard Fruit and their monopoly…Iran it was to protect American oil interests…..

What lead up to the coup?
In 1951, Iran’s Parliament voted to nationalize the oil industry, and legislators backing the law elected its leading advocate, Dr. Mosaddeq, as prime minister. Britain responded with threats and sanctions.

Dr. Mosaddeq, a European-educated lawyer then in his early 70’s, prone to tears and outbursts, refused to back down. In meetings in November and December 1952, the secret history says, British intelligence officials startled their American counterparts with a plan for a joint operation to oust the nettlesome prime minister.

To many Iranians, Mossadegh was a national hero, not only because he had stood up to Britain, but also because he was the only Iranian politician who could challenge the authority of the ambitious young shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. When the US and Britain overthrew Mossadegh, they brought about an extended period of dictatorship under the shah that lasted until the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

That was an oversimplification of the events that leads up to the coup of 1953…..for further fleshing out the scheme there is a good summation……

Source: The 1953 Coup D’etat in Iran

So the question is…..would we be at this point in history if the US had let the events of 1953 play on there own?  Would the religious upheaval had come about if the popularly elected PM had been allowed to serve his term?

The coup of 1953 is still used today to rampant up anti-American sentiment.

In essence it was the US that set up the situation that allowed the revolution of 1979 to become active…..the “Iron Fist” of the Shah fed the idea of revolition.

We have no way of saying that if things were allowed to progress normally without interference that everything would be different today….the one thing we can say is the US was partially to blame for the revolution that led to the hostages and the rest is history, as they say…..

My students like these types of things for they like talking….and that makes teaching easier…..

Anybody got a “what if”?

Who Killed JFK?

Since JFK’s death in Dallas there have been so many theories about his death….from the Mafia to the Cubans to the Russians to….well you pick someone and they have been  implicated in his death….

Does anyone really know the truth?  Does anyone know who was behind the assassination of an American president?

John F. Kennedy buffs are awaiting the release of documents about June Cobb, a little-known CIA operative working in Cuba and Mexico around the time of the president’s assassination.

She may have been one of the bravest and best-placed American spies in the history of the Cold War, but few people outside the CIA know the mysterious story of June Cobb.

The existing information in the spy agency’s declassified files depicts Cobb as an American Mata Hari—an adventure-loving, death-defying globetrotter who moved to Cuba to work for Fidel Castro, the country’s newly installed strongman, then found herself recruited to spy for the CIA after growing disenchanted with Castro’s revolution. The era’s rampant sexism is obvious in her job evaluation reports: Cobb’s CIA handlers wrote down speculation about her sex life and her failed romance in the 1950s with an opium farmer in the jungles of South America. And the reports are filled with appraisals of Cobb’s looks, noting especially her fetching blue eyes. “Miss Cobb is not unattractive,” her CIA recruiter wrote in 1960. “She is blonde, has a slender figure, although she has a somewhat hard look, making her appear somewhat older than her 33 years.”

Source: What Could a Mysterious U.S. Spy Know About the JFK Assassination? – POLITICO Magazine

This should give those conspiracy nuts something to do…..unbtil they get bored…LOL

Who do you think killed JFK?

The Armenian Genocide

During the Great War (World War One) there was an incident that many want to forget and others choose to ignore….that incident became known as the Armenian Genocide.

I bring this up because for too long it has been ignored….and incident that killed about a million people and some want to pretend that it never happened.

But thanks to the film industry a couple of films have been made that should bring this event to the forefront and let the debate once again begin……

But for those that are not sure of what I write…….

In 1915, leaders of the Turkish government set in motion a plan to expel and massacre Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. Though reports vary, most sources agree that there were about 2 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire at the time of the massacre. By the early 1920s, when the massacres and deportations finally ended, some 1.5 million of Turkey’s Armenians were dead, with many more forcibly removed from the country. Today, most historians call this event a genocide–a premeditated and systematic campaign to exterminate an entire people. However, the Turkish government does not acknowledge the enormity or scope of these events. Despite pressure from Armenians and social justice advocates throughout the world, it is still illegal in Turkey to talk about what happened to Armenians during this era.

Source: Armenian Genocide – Facts & Summary – HISTORY.com

Asa I have said…thanks to the film industry the controversy has once again opened up to the world……

This piece originally appeared on BillMoyers.com.

Here’s a different kind of story about media and politics.

It demonstrates how the monstrosity of a crime a century old still divides and scorches the world. And it’s one more example of how digital technology is changing geopolitics at every level, from interfering with other nation’s elections to the current wave of ransomware cyberattacks and even the release of motion pictures.

Source: The internet won’t let Armenia go away – Salon.com

The internet is proving a valuable source for the history of this genocide…..