Day: September 11, 2020

Least We Forget

Closing Thought–11Sep20

I know that there is a lot of news to digest these days….but today is the anniversary of the dastardly attack on the US by those barbarians in AQ……the 9/11 attacks.

My friend Kim had a good post today……https://cadburypom.wordpress.com/2020/09/11/9-11-19th-anniversary/

It seems that most Americans are too self-adsorb to notice any more….unless it somehow benefits them personally.  So let me take you through a few things that you may not know about the attacks………

Monday marks the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that killed 2,977 people in New York, the Pentagon and in a field in rural Pennsylvania. The attacks and the reaction to them have shaped U.S. policy for more than 15 years, leaving a nation that is far more vigilant and jittery about terrorism. Yet for all of the talk about 9/11, many elements of the attacks and the actions leading up to them have receded from the public memory. Here are 10 things you may have forgotten about 9/11:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/10/10-things-you-may-have-forgotten-911/90007376/

There are things that changed after then attacks of  9/11……

We deported half the number of people we do today. Our surveillance state was a fraction of its current size. And — perhaps hardest to believe — we didn’t have to take off our shoes to go through airport security.

America’s involvement in the War on Terror — prompted by the 9/11 terrorist attacks — resulted in a dramatic change in our nation’s attitudes and concerns about safety, vigilance and privacy.

It ushered in a new generation of policies like the USA Patriot Act,  prioritizing national security and defense, often at the expense of civil liberties.

These changes continue to have ripple effects across the globe, particularly in the Middle East, where American-led military operations helped foment rebellions and ongoing warfare throughout the region.

Below are four of the many dramatic impacts — nationwide and in California — resulting from the events of that one tragic day.

https://www.kqed.org/lowdown/14066/13-years-later-four-major-lasting-impacts-of-911

Our lives changed and not for the better…..our lives became more militaristic….and the world became a more dangerous place.

Please take a moment to remember those who died on 9/11.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Those Damn Crusades

There is lots of opinions about the Crusades…..BTW there were 8 total but there were many minor battles that some could call Crusades.

We in the West know mostly about those Crusades that were successful…..for no one here wants to admit failure…..

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns organised by Christian powers in order to retake Jerusalem and the Holy Land back from Muslim control. There would be eight officially sanctioned crusades between 1095 CE and 1270 CE and many more unofficial ones. Each campaign met with varying successes and failures but, ultimately, the wider objective of keeping Jerusalem and the Holy Land in Christian hands failed. Nevertheless, the appeal of the crusading ideal continued right up to the 16th century CE, and the purpose of this article is to consider what were the motivating factors for crusaders, from the Pope to the humblest warrior, especially for the very first campaign which established a model to be followed thereafter.

https://www.ancient.eu/article/1249/the-crusades-causes–goals/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/crus/hd_crus.htm

Can anyone name the first clash of Muslim-Christian forces in the First Crusade?

The Battle of Dorylaeum, fought on July 1, 1097, marked the first full-scale military clash between the Christian armies of the West and the Muslim armies of the East. As such, it would prove to be an educational experience for both armies, one whose final outcome would have an extreme influence on the course of the First Crusade.

Dorylaeum: The First Christian-Muslim Clash of the Crusades

All the blood and death….were the Crusades a success or not?

To answer the question is this link to a book…..https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/168393

For those allergic to the printed word and reading…I have a short video for your education….

Not too late to Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Time To Reclaim Civics

Time ism running out to pick our next president…but first brush up on some civics…..chuq

Gulf South Free Press

This country is in deep do-do…….we have collectively lost our grasp of what civics is all about.

For the most part civics is not a big subject in our schools any more……that needs to change and change NOW!

Our current divide within the co8untry is an perfect illustration how shit happens when civics education is ignored….

It will be natural for each side, energized by the unrest, to resort to thinking of civic education in its same standardized, partisan forms. For the Left, civics is more or less synonymous with activism. Democratic activities are held up as the paragon of patriotism, leaving students inclined to protesting, marching, and voting as the peak of political virtue.

By contrast, the Right often places greater emphasis on content civics, implying that a clear account of one’s history and an understanding of American institutions is sufficient for cultivating civic virtue.

Both approaches to…

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Can Lies Protect?

Surely we all know about the games Trump has played with the pandemic and the news of such…..

We know about the lie that it would be short lived or that it would be gone by Summer or that bleach would be a cure and that a vaccine would be ready by November……lie upon lie…..the crap just got deeper and deeper….

and now we have another side of the tale of woe…..Donald the Orange lied to protect us…..

President Trump admitted Wednesday that he may have misled the public about the threat COVID-19—but he said he had good reasons. His remarks followed the release of recordings from earlier this year in which he told Bob Woodward he had downplayed the virus threat. Asked Wednesday afternoon if he had misled the public, the president said, “Well, I think if you said in order to reduce panic, perhaps that’s so,” per the Washington Post. “The fact is, I’m a cheerleader for this country. I love our country and I don’t want people to be frightened. I don’t want to create panic.” In a Feb.7 phone call, Trump told Woodward that the coronavirus is “deadly stuff” that “goes through the air.” Publicly, he said the virus was no worse than the flu and predicted that it would soon disappear.

“We want to show confidence. We want to show strength. We want to show strength as a nation,” Trump said Wednesday, describing Woodward’s upcoming book Rage as “just another political hit job.” He said he was “very open” to the Washington Post associate editor, “but whether it was Woodward or anybody else, you cannot show a sense of panic or you’re going to have bigger than you ever had before.” Trump also defended his administration’s handling of the pandemic Wednesday and wondered why officials hadn’t received more praise for doing an “incredible job,” the Hill reports.

Let’s be honest…..there is no party immune from not caring about the people……

The Democrats, just like Trump, speak for a ruling class that has been totally indifferent to the loss of life caused by the pandemic, caring exclusively for the impact on the stock portfolios of the superrich.

Is it any coincidence, then, that Woodward’s employer, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, has had his wealth nearly double over the past year, becoming the first human being with a net worth of over $200 billion?

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/10/pers-s10.html

The question for me is….could this all have been prevented?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Iraq In The Rear View Mirror

Out man in Washington has decided to bring US troops home from Iraq….that is a promise that has been wanting to be fulfilled….and now some will leave the country…..

CENTCOM officials say that the process has been considered for months, and confirmed Wednesday what the administration has said recently, that there will be a US drawdown in Iraq before the election. 2,200 troops will leave Iraq by the end of this month.

At times the Pentagon has resisted major troop cuts by the administration, but seems resigned to it this time, emphasizing that the US has made a “great sacrifice” in decades of Iraqi war, and vowing that the US would continue supporting the Iraqi government.

That is not a small point for them to emphasize, either. When the Iraqi parliament asked the US to withdraw, there was talk of the US cutting ties with Iraq entirely to punish them. That no longer seems to be contemplated


With a pro-US premier now, Iraq isn’t pushing for an immediate pullout, and the US may want to lower troop levels this month, but probably won’t be out of Iraq entirely by the election either, leaving open whether the US is on their way out of Iraq until 2021.

(antiwar.com)

A friend asked me who would fill the void created by the departure of US troops……the answer to that question is….France.

French President Emmanuel Macron has declared a raft of aid and support packages to assist the beleaguered Iraqi government, as reports indicate that the United States is planning further troop reductions in the embattled country.

…

President Macron arrived in Iraq last Wednesday as the first foreign head of state to visit the war-ravaged country since Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi took office in May. 

Speaking from Baghdad, Macron said that Iraq had to assert its “sovereignty” despite being caught up in US-Iran tensions. “Iraq has been going through a challenging time for several years, with war and terrorism,” Macron said.

He noted that the country was still struggling to revive its economy, improve its education system and bring “military elements and militias” under state control. 

https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2020/9/9/the-iraq-report-france-asserts-itself-as-us-withdraws

France has been asserted itself into the region again…..Macron is trying to fill the hole that US is creating by its departure.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”