Month: October 2017

While You Were Worried About Stupid Stuff

Twitter battle with a Gold star widow, and a senior Senator……all the back and forth and with all that no one has noticed…….

U.S.-backed militias in Syria declared victory over Islamic State in its capital Raqqa on Tuesday, raising flags over the last jihadist footholds after a four-month battle.

The fighting was over and the alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias was clearing the city’s stadium of mines and any remaining militants, said Rojda Felat, commander of the Raqqa campaign for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

A formal declaration of victory in Raqqa will soon be made, once the city has been cleared of mines and any possible Islamic State sleeper cells, said SDF spokesman Talal Selo.

Source: Islamic State defeated in its Syrian capital Raqqa

According to that headline ISIS is all but defeated………..the truth is more subtle than the headlines….

Raqqa has crumbled far more quickly than anyone imagined. In just over four months, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with Western air support, have liberated most of the city from Islamic State (IS). The de facto capital of the so-called caliphate, Raqqa was tightly controlled by its rulers, but it was a bustling hub of activity and urban life. For the hordes of foreign fighters who joined IS, it was almost enough to make them forget the virtues of the afterlife.

The fall of the city to SDF forces is a particularly bitter blow to IS, coming so soon after it lost control of its other main base, Mosul, across the border in Iraq. Yet the Islamic State message remains as defiant as ever. The terror group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, released a 46-minute audio message in September lauding the efforts of his fighters in Mosul. Yes, they lost the city but, Baghdadi insisted, this was only after sacrificing their flesh and blood. “Thus, they were excused,” Baghdadi said.

e: Islamic State is not beaten and will return

ISIS has a bloody nose and that is NOT  defeat…..they will be back and we will match up against them

Hospital Story

Hello my friends. Time for another foot update.

It looks like things are going well…..doctors impressed to the point that I may get to escape this Hell.  But to return for different treatments.  Will know more later.

Thank you guys for hanging in with me during this ordeal……I could not ask for better friends…….thank you ……thank you……thank you.

First Suicide Attack—Recalling the deadly 1983 attack

Reagan cut and run and it embolden the terrorist to this day…they believe that we do not have the stomach of a war of attrition.

Thirty years ago today, Americans were devastated by the news of a massive terrorist attack in Lebanon that killed 241 American servicemen. Early on a Sunday morning terrorists drove an explosive laden truck….

 

Source: Recalling the deadly 1983 attack on the Marine barracks

Slowly the creeping tentacle of terrorism clawed itself to the US……and the rest,as they say, is history.

hospital update

Still lying here. Foot not doing well. No news when I can leave this place. More tesrs today. Oh goody.

Thanx for the comments. Wish I could do more but I am doing this from my phone and it gets diffcult.

I appreciate all the concern and the kind words. Thanx and much love. chuq

America’s Long History of Warfare

The Us ever since its inception has been at war somewhere in the world.  If a truthful history was to ever be written then one would see that how many wars we fight and how many Americans have died.

PBS has aired a Vietnam War series…a look back at the history oi that war….the series is a good series from all I have heard….have a watched it?  NO.  I cannot watch much on that War at any given time…..the problem is that some say that the point is missed….that the issue of war should be looked at from the beginning to now….even the future.

The below article tackles that oversight….

Americans like to view their country as a force for peace in the world when the historical reality is almost the opposite, a reality ignored by the PBS Vietnam War documentary.

f you go to the Wikipedia page that gives a timeline of U.S. foreign military operations between 1775 and 2010, you are likely to come away in shock. It seems that ever since the founding of the country, the United States has been at war. It is as if Americans just could not (and still cannot) sit still, but had to (and still have to) force themselves on others through military action.

Often this is aimed at controlling foreign resources, thus forcing upon others the consequences of their own capitalist avarice. At other times the violence is spurred on by an ideology that confuses U.S. interests with civilization and freedom. Only very rarely is Washington out there on the side of the angels. Regardless, the bottom line seems to be that peace has never been a deeply ingrained cultural value for the citizens of the United States. As pertains to foreign policy, America’s national culture is a war culture.

Source: America’s Long History of Warfare – Consortiumnews

WE Americans need to know our history, especially when it comes to war, it helps explain the present and even the future.

The US would not be the world leader it is today without war….

Oh No He Didn’t!

Today is Sunday, 22Oct17, and the US Gran Prix.

I am a big fan of Formula One racing ever since in 1959 I was at the French Gran Prix….even though some of the best drivers in the world were American, especially in Formula One….Penske, Gurney, Andretti, as a matter of fact Andretti was the world champion in Formula One driving for Ferrari……the sport does not have much of a following here in the US any more.  Needlessly to say that means not much PR here in the states….but that could change today.

I bring all this up because of something that has been reported for this race.

By now every American knows about the “takin a knee” in protest….it is possible that it will make international news today.  Why?

Formula 1 championship leader Lewis Hamilton says he might take a knee in protest when the national anthem is played prior to the United States Grand Prix later this month.

The Mercedes ace has already spoken out against racism and voiced concern for the current political climate in the USA. President Donald Trump has recently criticized NFL players for what he calls a lack of respect in kneeling during the anthem.

Hamilton suggested, in an interview with The Sunday Times out of the United Kingdom, that he could very well do the same on Oct. 22.

“I’ve not even thought about that race, but of course I will have to start to think about it — what would be right for me to do, or do I even need to get involved?

“It’s not my national anthem, but the issue that is in the States … well, it’s not just in the States, it is a global thing. It’s more focused and probably at its worst perhaps in America. I think we all do need to stand together.”

This could be the only report of the United Stats Gran Prix….that is if he carries forth his threat.  That should make F1 the talk of the town and Lewis Hamilton as well……
We will see if this Mercedes driver has the cajones to go through with the protest.
Personally, I will enjoy the race with or without this show of defiance.

Woodrow Wilson Is America’s Worst President

Recently I did a post on a list of the top 10 worst presidents, I believe……their list was different than mine….every president has his ups and downs and each of those could weigh heavy on one’s perception of who was the worst.

Thew list will be re-written many times and I am sure that there is another name that will be added in the coming years…..

All that aside my worst president is the same as the one in an article written for the National Interest……

Woodrow Wilson is my pick…..simply….he was an educated racist (an oxymoron), warmonger just to mention a few of his more detestable characteristics……

Making the case

If you wanted to identify, with confidence, the very worst president in American history, how would you go about it? One approach would be to consult the various academic polls on presidential rankings that have been conducted from time to time since Harvard’s Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. pioneered this particular survey scholarship in 1948. Bad idea.

 

Source: Why Woodrow Wilson Is America’s Worst President Ever | The National Interest Blog

Why The US Lost The Vietnam War

When one gets into a conversation about the Vietnam War there is always an armchair general that knows all there is as to why the US lost that war.

Ken Burns new documentary on the Vietnam War has given rise to more analysis of this conflict.

This is a good opportunity to discuss the War….a discussion that should have been had 40 years ago.

The U.S was not simply outfought. It was out-thought. .. For all of the self-satisfied voyeurism surrounding the Vietnam War, it’s hard to find a concrete idea about why the U.S. lost.  For more than a decade, the U.S. had declared that it would not let Vietnam fall to the communists.  Yet, Vietnam fell to the communists.  Why?The absence of a clear explanation is not an accident.  None of the institutions that led the U.S. into the War or prosecuted the War want to be tarred with having lost the War.   They would rather its loss be left ambiguous, murky.  Or worse, blamed on others.

Source: Why the US Lost the Vietnam War | By | Common Dreams

Hospital Update

Things are going well. And kindness is still flowing in. Does the old professor heart good. Such great friends.

Ihave been in hyperbaric tubes way tt much. LOL

Still no timeline for me to go home. Imiss my ‘puter.

Again I cannot thank all you for your kindness. Hopefully I will be back soon.

When Did We Ever Have A Secret President?

Political History is a fascinating subject of study…..and if done correctly then the student can learn some fantastic information.

Last election the US came as close as we ever have to electing a woman as president …..but it was not to be.

But did you know that almost a century ago….the US was controlled by a woman in the White House…..you see our president at the time, Woodrow Wilson, suffered a stroke….a severe stroke.

Woodrow Wilson may have been one of our hardest-working chief executives and by the fall of 1919, he looked it.

For most of the six months between late Dec. 1918 and June 1919, our 28th president was in Europe negotiating the Treaty of Versailles and planning for the nascent League of Nations, efforts for which he was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize (an award he did not officially receive until 1920). Back home, however, the ratification of the treaty met with mixed public support and strong opposition from Republican senators, led by Henry Cabot Lodge (R-Mass.), as well as Irish Catholic Democrats. As the summer progressed, President Wilson worried that defeat was in the air.

Bone-tired but determined to wage peace, on Sept. 3, 1919, Woodrow Wilson embarked on a national speaking tour across the United States so that he could make his case directly to the American people. For the next three and a half weeks, the president, his wife Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, assorted aides, servants, cooks, Secret Service men and members of the press rode the rails. The presidential train car, quaintly named the Mayflower, served as a rolling White House. Also joining the party was the president’s personal physician, Cary T. Grayson, who had grave concerns over his patient’s health.

Source: When a secret president ran the country | PBS NewsHour

AS usual your history lesson for the day is complete…..now use it the next time someone wants a debate…..