Month: May 2019

Combat Training For Blacks?

I read a news report and thought that it was a historical piece from the 60s and 70s…..

OMG! I remember back in those days the word on the streets were that blacks were hoarding guns and were waiting for the word to start the revolution.

Well the word never came. And the paranoid whites wait for the time when the prophecy will come true.

Now back to the news report…….

NBC news reported “Russian documents reveal desire to sow racial discord and violence in the US.” The claim is that these documents are communications between associates of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is described as a “Kremlin linked oligarch indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller.” The documents were obtained by the Dossier Center, a London based investigative project funded by exiled Russian opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky. NBC News admitted they have not independently verified the documents.

These communications, which NBC says are light on detail, suggest a plan to recruit African Americans and transport them to camps in Africa “for combat prep and training in sabotage.”

The plan, entitled “Development Strategy of a Pan-African State on U.S. Territory,” proposed to recruit poor and disenfranchised African Americans “who have experience in organized crime groups” and members of “radical black movements for participation in civil disobedience actions.”

https://original.antiwar.com/Dave_DeCamp/2019/05/23/nbc-claims-russians-plan-to-give-african-americans-combat-training/
 
As usual this is short on specifics……I ask what did it serve to report on something with few facts?
 
Was this merely a news report to fuel the anti-black sentiment?  Was this a serious news story?
 
But there is this….maybe this is where the Russians got the idea……uber conserv commentator Ann Coulter thinks blacks should arm themselves…..

Did you ever think you’d live to see the day when you could make a Venn diagram for ultraconservative commentator Ann Coulter and historic Black leader Malcolm X? Well, if you’re reading this, you’ve lived to see that day.

In an interview on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News program last week, Coulter said that, in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, African-Americans should begin arming themselves.

Here’s the full context of the conversation:

I cannot see where this report on NBC was necessary…what was the purpose?

Maybe to generate hate of one sort or another?

In “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media,” published in 1988, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky exposed the techniques that the commercial media used to promote and defend the economic, social and political agendas of the ruling elites. These techniques included portraying victims as either worthy or unworthy of sympathy. A Catholic priest such as Jerzy Popiełuszko, for example, murdered by the communist regime in Poland in 1984, was deified, but four Catholic missionaries who were raped and murdered in 1980 in El Salvador by U.S.-backed death squads were slandered as fellow travelers of the “Marxist” rebel movement. The techniques also included both narrowing the debate in a way that buttressed the elite consensus and intentionally failing to challenge the intentions of the ruling elites or the actual structures of power.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/05/28/mass-media-poisoning-us-hate

This is something that I have been saying for 40+ years……I wish my readers would educate themselves…..I do not care if you agree with me or not….just learn what is what….

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

Those Chemical Attacks

Everything that has happened in Syria in the last decade is the rest of those dastardly chemical attacks….the US build up and the US attacks to punish this dastardly affront to civilization….the attacks of which I wrote in 2018……https://lobotero.com/2018/05/02/syria-saga-continues/

Now a MIT rocket scientist writes about those attacks….

 “The evidence is overwhelming that the gas attacks were staged,” Award-winning scientist and MIT professor emeritus Theodore Postol told The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté in a newly published interview.

The interview with the noted MIT rocket scientist comes after Fox’s Tucker Carlson featured rare mainstream coverage of the bombshell leaked OPCW report on his show Thursday night.

The “smoking gun” memo refutes key events surrounding the April 2018 alleged chemical gas attack in Douma, Syria – which resulted at the time in massive US and allied airstrikes on Damascus, including the launch of over one hundred Tomahawk cruise missiles.

As we summarized previously of the leaked chemical weapons engineer report from the world’s chief international chemical weapons watchdog group:

The document, whose authenticity the OPCW has confirmed, contends that the official story which was used to justify an air strike by the US, UK and France about poison gas being dropped on civilians from Syrian government helicopters is scientifically implausible, saying “In summary, observations at the scene of the two locations, together with subsequent analysis, suggest that there is a higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed at those two locations rather than being delivered from aircraft.” 

Watch the interview below:

MIT Rocket Scientist: Leaked Document Shows Syrian Chemical Attacks Were Staged

I bring up this history because they are at it again……this from 23May19……https://consortiumnews.com/2019/05/22/us-accuses-syria-of-more-chemical-attacks-just-as-chemical-weapons-narrative-crumbles/

Most people are not aware of just how involved the MSM is in the selling of military action……it is the best propaganda tool the government has at its disposal.

The MSM is not a neutral purveyor of the news of the day……it is nothing more than propaganda on a daily basis to condition the American public to accept whatever issue the government feels is important.

So you want example…..okay…Israel!  Military involvement! Pick an issue…any issue…..if it is a major story of the day then it is spun to get the reaction that is wanted……and the American people walk along as if in a trance and accept whatever they, MSM, is spinning.

A Haven For Warmongers

I have been preaching a message of antiwar for 40+ years, since 1972 and I will admit it has been a long hard road because most Americans could care less since it does not apply to them at all.

The problem is we should send people to Washington that will do all they can to keep Americans out of harms way in the many small wars raging at any given time.

US foreign policy should be…Do No Harm!

But these days DC has become a haven for warmongers and their handlers…..the situation with Iran illustrates this point…..

The current crisis atmosphere in U.S.-Iranian relations, in which the risk of open warfare appears greater than it has been in years, is solely, unequivocally due to the policies and actions of the Trump administration. To point this out does not mean that actions of the Iranian regime have not come to be part of the crisis atmosphere as well. It instead means that such an atmosphere would never have existed in the first place if the administration had not turned its obsession with Iran into the relentless campaign of stoking hostility and tension that has become one of the single most prominent threads of the administration’s foreign policy.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/paul-pillar/washington-has-become-warmongers-paradise-58832

A recent letter from Congress illustrates how deep the warmongers are entrenched in DC….

Nearly 400 Congress members from both chambers — roughly 75 percent of all federal US lawmakers — have signed an open letter calling on President Trump to escalate the war in Syria, in the name of countering Iran, Russia, and Lebanese Hezbollah.

Top Democratic Party leaders have joined hawkish Republicans in a bipartisan demand that the far-right president “address threats in Syria” and “demonstrate American leadership in resolving the prolonged conflict.”

https://thegrayzone.com/2019/05/24/bipartisan-war-congress-trump-syria-iran-russia-hezbollah/
 
After reading that article….I came upon a couple points….”augment our support for Israel”…so our troops are there to protect Israel?  Then to confront Hezbollah…why?  Hezbollah is NO threat to the US…oh wait sorry…it is that Israel thing again.
 
400 Congresspeople signed this letter……who pays their salary?  Apparently not the people they will send to fight their goddamn stupid wars.
 
We need people in Congress that do not want this country embroiled in conflict after conflict with no end in sight.
 
Vote to end continuous war…..
 
Learn Stuff!
 
Now VOTE!

Closing Thought–28May19

We hear more these days about the rise of hate groups and hate incidents of attack…..but just how bad is it?

US counties where President Donald Trump held a campaign rally saw a 226% increase in reported hate crimes over similar counties that did not hold a rally, political scientists at the University of North Texas said in an analysis published in The Washington Post.

According to a study done by University of North Texas professors Regina Branton and Valerie Martinez-Ebers, and PhD candidate Ayal Feinberg, the scientists found that Trump’s statements during the 2016 campaign “may encourage hate crimes” in the respective counties.

The study measured the correlation between counties that hosted a 2016 campaign rally and the crime rates in the months that followed. The scientists used the Anti-Defamation League’s map that measures acts of violence and compared the counties that hosted a rally with others that had similar characteristics, including minority population, location, and active hate groups.

Branton, Martinez-Ebers, and Feinberg noted that their study “cannot be certain” that the marked increase was solely attributed to Trump’s rhetoric. But they also shut down the suggestion that the reported hate crimes were fake.

“In fact, this charge is frequently used as a political tool to dismiss concerns about hate crimes,” the analysis said. “Research shows it is far more likely that hate crime statistics are considerably lower because of underreporting.”

(businessinsider.com)

No matter which way you want to cut the info…the fact is that hate crimes are on the rise…blame who you like….but that does not change the facts.(you know those silly things that most people want to ignore in pursuit of political correctness).

Suicide…The Other “S” Word

There is never good news when I read about a suicide…this time it is an American serving in Israel…..(do not get me started on that deal….the serving not the suicide)……

A 19-year-old American woman serving as a combat soldier in the Israeli army died by suicide last week.

Michaela Levit, 19, is the third Israeli “lone soldier” to die by suicide this year. Lone soldiers are largely expatriates who serve in the Israel Defense Forces while their parents live overseas.

Levit, whose parents reside in Miami, moved to Israel in 2017 and served in a mixed-gender combat battalion.

The Israeli military and soldiers’ advocates denied reports of a “worrying trend” of rising suicide rates among the lone soldiers following two suicides and a deadly drug overdose this year. 

The report I read states that there is a rise in suicides among young girls……

Boys are still more likely to kill themselves than girls are, but a new study has found a change in the established patterns, CNN reports. Suicide rates among girls are climbing faster. An analysis of a database run by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that, starting in 2007, the suicide rate for girls age 10 to 14 rose 12.7% per year, compared with 7.1% for boys the same age. For those age 15 to 19, the rate went up 7.9% for girls and 3.5% for boys, said the study, published Friday in JAMA. Suicide is the No. 2 cause of death among those 10 to 19 years old, per the CDC, after accidents and unintentional injuries. Rates of suicide have historically been higher for boys than girls across all age groups, and that remains the case now.

And boys age 15 to 19 still kill themselves with guns much more often than girls do. But girls employ hanging and suffocation in rates nearing those of boys. “What we’re seeing is alarming,” says Donna Ruch, one of the study’s authors, per Time. “On top of the fact that females are thinking about suicide more and attempting suicide more, now they’re actually completing suicide.” The reasons aren’t clear, but the findings illustrate the need for gender-specific suicide prevention strategies, Ruch says. An accompanying editorial also questions whether the rise of social media is playing a role, reports Bloomberg.

It is sad when a young person is so desperate that they think suicide is the only answer….

I sincerely wish there was an easy answer but there is not……we need to do more with our mental health policies and maybe we could help some of these young people before it is too late…..maybe not in Israel but in this country.

An Unpleasant Surprise

AS Memorial Day approached the US Army thought it would try something new….it ran a survey that asked veterans on Twitter a simple question…..the answers were not what the Army was hoping to get…..

……..the US Army asked veterans on twitter a simple question, “How has serving impacted you?” As Memorial Day approaches, whoever is in charge of the Army’s social media was probably hoping for some nice responses about all the benefits they think come with serving, college education, the bonds formed with fellow soldiers or the invaluable life experience. But the sad reality that our nations veterans and their families face showed itself in the thousands of heart-breaking replies to the question.

Michael J Neel replied, “26 brothers dead. Only 8 in theater. Psyche ward myself after 3 attempts. Everything we accomplished in Mosul was wasted. Every life we gave was spat on. That’s how serving impacted me.” Veteran Drew Turner said, “Let’s see. Lost the functional use of a hand, developed a rare movement disorder and cancer both likely from burn pit exposure, enjoy sleeping 3 to 4 hours most nights due to nightmares and during the day random anxiety attacks all due to PTSD, 7 herniated discs, arthritis…”

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/05/26/us-army-unpleasantly-surprised-after-asking-veterans-about-impact-of-serving/
 
These veterans are begging for help….IS ANYONE LISTENING?
 
AS I wrote…not exactly what the Army intended……these are the stories the media needs to report and stop cheer leading for war and aggression and adventurism.
 
And then forgotten heroes that are with us and we choose to look away…..

Every Memorial Day, we remember the great heroes who perished, from Gettysburg to Normandy to the streets of Basra. Our country was founded, defended and defined on the backs of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our nation and our freedoms.

We think today of the lives that were cut short. Of the men and women in their twenties who never made it home. The children they never had, or the birthdays and graduations they never saw. We must pause to reflect on those lives that were shortened in the name of letting the rest of us live on. We remember their sacrifice on the battlefields in defense of our nation, as we rightfully should.

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-the-casualties-of-war-we-often-forget-20190527-nht36h46kvcjnej3lasew5bstu-story.html

Once again these are the stories that should make the news nightly…instead of what a royal baby is named or what shoes some model wore in Cannes.

None of that is life changing or will make a difference in society….so why bother?

A closing thought is mine and mine alone……

Be a hero and resist the warmongers among us.

Remember The Gulf Of Tonkin?

I sincerely hope that all my American visitors had a great Memorial Day……

Back to work, Professor!

I’ll bet that if you are not an old fart then you have no idea what I mean by the title…..for you ‘younguns’…..

This was an attack by North Vietnam on two naval vessels cruising off their shores….and this incident lead to the mash up that cost 50,000+ American lives……

More information on the incident…..

https://youtu.be/HODxnUrFX6k

That is enough history for you….I bring this up because I said that the attacks on the tankers in the Persian Gulf smelled like a new “Tonkin Incident”…..

But to refresh your memory…..

With the US having signed off on another 1,500 ground troops being sent to the Middle East, some justification is needed. A top Pentagon official is relying on previous speculation to make this all look very official.

Vice Admiral Michael Gilday told reporters that the US has “very high confidence” that recent sabotage of oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates was done by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. He also claimed rockets recent fired ib Baghdad were fired by “Iranian proxies.“

(antiwar.com)

Then the president order more troops to the region….and now he, Trump, is using an unclear threat to help sell weapons, that the Congress has said no to, to the Saudis and their lackeys…..

In a move predicted earlier this week by members of Congress, President Trump has declared a “national emergency” for the sole reason of circumventing Congressional restrictions on arms sales, and using it to rush shipments of arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Under the Arms Export Control Act, Congress is supposed to get a 30 day notice ahead of any sales, and can then block shipments. Concerns about war crimes in Yemen mean Saudi arms would be likely to face some effort to block them.

But the law has a loophole in it, which allows the president to declare an “emergency” of any sort he wants, with no oversight on that declaration, and then send the arms over without Congressional notification.

This is a notoriously cheap way to circumvent Congress on arms exports, but several Senators said they expected Trump to make such a move as soon as next week. It appears he decided to get out in front of that move with a declaration on Friday going into the holiday weekend.

Officially, the “national emergency” is tensions with Iran, though several in Congress have pointed out that the US has had nonstop tensions with Iran for decades, and that’s not a reason to suddenly declare a new emergency.

(antiwar.com)

We have an emergency according to Trump…..The Trump administration on Friday invoked a rarely used provision in federal law to bypass congressional review of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, citing threats the kingdom faces from Iran. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo notified Congress of the decision to use an emergency loophole in the Arms Export Control Act to move ahead with sales of $7 billion in precision guided munitions, other bombs and ammunition and aircraft maintenance support to Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, without lawmakers’ approval. Pompeo said, the AP reports, “that an emergency exists which requires the immediate sale” of the weapons “to deter further the malign influence of the government of Iran throughout the Middle East region.” He said the transfers “must occur as quickly as possible in order to deter further Iranian adventurism.”  (If anybody can recognize “adventurism” it is the American war machine….we have been committing it for over 5 decades)…….

So the weapons could be sold….the State Department withheld info from Congress……

The US State Department missed a deadline today to explain to the heads of multiple Congressional committees why the Iran section of their arms control report contradicted all available information from US intelligence agencies.

The report came out in mid-April, and was immediately contested by a number of officials. Intelligence officials said the report was “skewed” in such a way as to justify military action against Iran. They also said that the text indicated that the State Department had totally ignored all intelligence assessments on Iran, and just wrote the report in a way that would fit the narrative.

At the time, the State Department refused to address the allegations from other officials, and claimed the report included “all relevant information,” suggesting they didn’t consider intelligence reports that didn’t agree with the conclusion they were supposed to come up with relevant enough to mention.

Ignoring Congressional calls for clarification is a growing problem throughout the administration. Repeatedly, the administration has been given direct questions by Congress, or members thereof, with specific deadlines, and just let those deadlines go with neither a response, nor an explanation as to why they didn’t respond.

(antiwar.com)

Could it be missed because the intel will not confirm that lie being sold?

A piece of evidence in the Trump administration’s case against Iran may be less than it seems.

The Trump administration announced Friday that it is sending 1,500 new troops to the Persian Gulf and authorizing new arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in order to counter a rising Iranian threat in the region. But satellite images provided exclusively to The Daily Beast by the company Planet Labs show that a component of the administration’s description of Iran’s aggressive behavior—an apparent positioning of Iranian missiles onto boats—may not be as clear in commercial imagery as anonymous administration officials claimed it to be in statements to other publications.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/satellite-images-raise-questions-about-iran-threat-experts-say

Sorry, but I have heard all this before….and it did not end well for 50,000+ Americans…..we cannot let it happen yet again!

Memorial Day 2019

Today we Americans celebrate our war dead…..those brave souls that put country above their personal interests…..we, as a nation, cannot thank these people enough.

As a combat veteran and an antiwar person I was going to take this opportunity to make the case for opposition to our many wars….I have decided to hold that for another day……but the act of remembering is antiwar in itself……

Today is a day for remembrance……

 

Take some time to think about all their service gives this country…and their sacrifice…….then do what needs to be done…..

Enjoy your day……food, fun and family…..and remember.

No Way To Honor Memorial Day

Today is the day set aside to honor those that gave all for their country……and to remember those who did not return from war…..

Not a day for controversy……Our president is talking about using his pardon power yet again…..this time will be a mistake……

How are you spending Memorial Day?  Ordinary people may attend parades, host cookouts, or take the long weekend to visit loved ones……but not our beloved supreme leader……

Donald Trump, on the other hand, may pardon a few war criminals.

The president recently requested the files of several accused and convicted U.S. war criminals, a possible step toward expedited pardons for individuals who’ve done unspeakable things.

There’s SEAL chief Edward Gallagher, who senselessly shot to death a teenage girl and an elderly man in Iraq. Gallagher also brutally stabbed a wounded 15-year-old to death – and then posed for photos with the body, which he texted to friends.

https://original.antiwar.com/Peter-Certo/2019/05/26/pardoning-war-criminals-is-a-monstrous-way-to-honor-memorial-day/
 
Even members of Congress do not want the president to step into the middle of military justice…..

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) on Sunday urged President Trump to be “careful” in his reported plans to pardon a number of military servicemen who were accused of war crimes.

Ernst told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” that she doesn’t “know the details” of the prosecution for Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher or others but urged the president to “be very careful” in making a determination on pardons.

The president should not interfere with military justice……there is a code of conduct for service people…that code should not be questioned or overturned.
 
The president will do little to remember our fallen heroes if he goes through with this idea.
 
Today we observe and honor our war dead….it should be about NOTHING but that.
 
 
A Closing Thought…..I do not think this would be a story if the president had done his duty and served in the military (that is an idea for another post)……

A Sunday Thought

The big news for the last week has been the votes on abortion in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi…..speaking for Mississippi a Federal judge has crapped on the religious right’s parade…..

A federal judge on Friday issued a strongly worded preliminary injunction blocking Mississippi’s “heartbeat” abortion law, that would have banned abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat is detected.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves’ order will combine the lawsuit against Mississippi’s fetal heartbeat ban with an ongoing one against the state’s previous 15-week abortion ban.

“Here we go again,” Reeves wrote. “Mississippi has passed another law banning abortions prior to viability. The latest interpretation (Mississippi’s new law) bans abortions in Mississippi after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is as early as 6 weeks.”

The Center for Reproductive Rights had filed a lawsuit challenging Mississippi’s latest abortion ban, which was set to become law July 1.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/24/heartbeat-abortion-federal-judge-blocks-mississippis-law/1227710001/

I am sure that Mississippi is not alone and there will be many more challenges to these outrageous “laws”…….

Before I go any further (there is more to be said) I need to let my feelings be known…..

I am against abortion….but I have nothing to say about it for I cannot give birth……NO man should have control over a woman’s decisions or her body…..

That said……these newest “laws” are what is known as the “heart beat laws”…….but are these laws a con job?

Within the last few years, six U.S. states — Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Georgia, Iowa, and North Dakota — have passed so-called “heartbeat bills,” a term that’s become shorthand for a proposed ban on abortions beginning six weeks into a pregnancy, or the point at which a “fetal heartbeat” can be detected. Four more states have similar bills pending. Anti-abortion activists have doubled down on “heartbeat” messaging — in a recent news release regarding the ACLU’s legal challenge of the Ohio bill, the state’s leading anti-abortion group, Ohio Right to Life, used the term eight times in 300 words.

But obstetricians say the term “fetal heartbeat” is misleading, and that this scientific misunderstanding, among countless others, may contribute to negative public opinion toward abortion.

https://www.thecut.com/2019/05/embryos-dont-have-hearts.html

Not to worry this issue does not let facts get in the way of the con.

I understand that this is an emotional issue……but what part of it moves the country forward?  This is not a political issue and does not belong in the discourse of the nation.  When this issue builds a new bridge then I may alter my thinking but until then I shall keep my opinion.

I even wrote my thoughts on the question awhile a go…….https://lobotero.com/2019/05/17/what-part-of-this-moves-the-country-forward/