Tag: Assassination

A Martyr Is Born

Stop the Presses!

Biden’s age is no longer the major news fodder!

I interrupt my normally whimsical Sunday posting for something of a big deal…..Trump shot at a rally on Saturday…..

The shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania Saturday is being investigated as an attempted assassination of the former president and presumptive Republican nominee, law enforcement officials tell the AP. Trump’s campaign said in a statement that the former president was “fine” after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. The suspected gunman and a rally attendee are dead, and two attendees were reportedly injured, authorities say. “President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act,” spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility.

Two officials who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity said the shooter was not an attendee at the rally and was killed by Secret Service agents. Trump was showing off a chart of border crossing numbers during his last rally before the Republican National Convention opens Monday when the gunfire began. As Trump was talking, a popping sound was heard. Trump said, “Oh,” and put his right hand up to his right ear as people in the stands behind him appeared to be shocked. Two more pops could be quickly heard and he crouched down.

Updated….

Donald Trump was indeed hit by a bullet Saturday when gunshots rang out during his rally in Pennsylvania. The president himself wrote about the incident hours later on Truth Social, reports the Washington Post.

  • “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” he wrote. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.”
  • Trump offered his condolences to the family of the unidentified rally attendee who was killed. (Two other attendees were injured.) He also thanked the Secret Service and police for their quick response.
  • “It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country,” wrote Trump.

His son Donald Trump Jr. issued a statement Saturday night: “I just spoke to my father on the phone and he is in great spirits,” he said, per the New York Post. “He will never stop fighting to save America, no matter what the radical left throws at him.” The shooting is being investigated as an assassination attempt, reports the New York Times. No details have surfaced about the gunman, who was killed by Secret Service agents.

Multiple reports following the apparent assassination attempt at a Trump rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, indicate that the shooter may have been on a nearby roof. The incident left one rally attendee dead, two others critically injured, and Donald Trump shot in the ear.

  • A man who was listening to the rally from a spot outside the venue says he saw a suspicious man cross from one side of a nearby roof to the other. He didn’t see a gun, but still informed police, and a few minutes later, shots rang out. The man tells the Wall Street Journal he then saw officers on the roof, apparently standing over the shooter’s body. It was only when he got home that he found out from his wife Trump had been shot.
  • Another witness tells the BBC a similar story, claiming he was listening from outside the venue when he saw a man with a rifle “bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us.” He also told police what he saw, shortly before the gunfire broke out, and he says he saw Secret Service agents shoot the gunman.
  • Sources tell the New York Post the shooter was on the roof of a manufacturing plant more than 130 yards away from the stage at the rally venue, the Butler Farm Show grounds. Those sources say a counter-sniper team opened fire from a different roof, killing the shooter.
  • CNN has video that appears to show the suspect on a roof near the venue.

I admit I am not a big fan of Trump but this is not the way to handle him and his candidacy.

In the back of my mind I was wondering when this type of thing would happen.

Does anyone remember George Wallace?  (Probably not)  He was a third party candidate back in the Dark Ages, 1972….

On May 15, 1972, he was shot four times by Arthur Bremer while campaigning at the Laurel Shopping Center in Laurel, Maryland, at a time when he was receiving high ratings in national opinion polls.  Bremer was seen at a Wallace rally in Wheaton, Maryland, earlier that day and two days earlier at a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Wallace was hit in the abdomen and chest, and one of the bullets lodged in Wallace’s spinal column, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life.

Will this incident change the tune of the pro-gun violence GOP?

After all their fearless leader has been targeted.

Please, any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Zelensky In The Crosshairs

A report has come out of Ukraine that a couple of Army officers have been implicated in a plot to assassinate Zelensky….

Two of Volodymyr Zelensky’s own colonels are accused of joining a Russian plot to assassinate him. Multiple assassination plots have surfaced previously, but the BBC notes this one stands apart because of the military officers involved. They were allegedly working with Russia’s FSB—successor to the KGB—and had been recruited before the war began, per the New York Times. The colonels worked in the Ukraine agency responsible for keeping top officials safe.

Among other things, they’re accused of trying to recruit men willing to kidnap and kill Zelensky from among his bodyguards. Both are charged with treason, and one with preparing a terrorist act, reports CNN. Other high-profile targets were Vasyl Maliuk, who runs Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency, and Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of military intelligence.

The story line is that they were acting on orders from Russia.

But were they?

Is this a story concocted to garner some sympathy since Ukraine sees to think we are not doing our part in their war with Russia.

Or could this have been an attempted coup?

Or could it be two disgruntle commanders that are tired of seeing their troops die needlessly and were taking matters in the their own hands?

Or could this be just another bullshit line from the War Department to keep the media on their side?

Whichever it is I want to see more details but I guess they may not be forthcoming.

Waiting….waiting….

If this was such an attempt by Russia why is the news and the sources so thin?

Was this just another government lie like the yellow cake uranium in the early 2000s?

I will be watching and reading for more information….but I fear this is all we may get.

The two Ukrainian officials are being held on suspicion of treason and of preparing a terrorist act.

The SBU said three FSB employees oversaw the organisation and the attack.

One of them, named as Dmytro Perlin, had been recruiting “moles” since before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Another FSB employee, Oleksiy Kornev, reportedly held “conspiratorial” meetings “in neighbouring European states” before the invasion with one of the Ukrainian colonels arrested.

In a released interrogation with one of the suspects, they can be heard describing how they were paid thousands of dollars directly by parcels or indirectly through their relatives. It is not clear whether he was speaking under duress or not.

(bbc.com)

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The JFK Assassination

I know we have heard all the wild theories and conspiracies that have grown up around the infamous assassination of JFK on the fateful day day in November.

Think you have heard or read all of the conspiracies?

Think again.

Surprise….surprise…..

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy as he rode in a motorcade with his wife Jackie through Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, is one of the defining moments of 20th-century American history. Kennedy’s murder was one of those time-stopping news stories: as the old saying goes, everyone who was alive at the time can remember just where they were when they heard the news that the president had been shot.

The nation was gripped as news broke that the security services had apprehended the gunman, ex-Marine Lee Harvey Oswald, who had seemingly fired multiple rifle rounds from the window of the nearby Texas School Book Depository. However, Oswald was shot and killed before his trial, meaning he never received justice or made his exact motives known on the stand. Ever since, the nation has been divided as to what exactly happened that day and who was responsible, with the findings of the subsequent Warren Commission continuing to be scrutinized even today.

Over the years countless conspiracy theorists have studied the footage, talked to the people who were there, and examined the location firsthand, and while many versions of what actually happened that day have since emerged, none have successfully supplanted the official explanation that Kennedy was murdered by the deranged Oswald, who was acting alone. But in September 2023, a new detail emerged from someone who was there at the scene, ex-Secret Service agent Paul Landis, that arguably challenges how the assassination has been interpreted for the last six decades.

https://www.grunge.com/1392797/everything-we-know-about-new-john-f-kennedy-assassination-revelations/

I realize that most people already have an idea what they think really happened on the day in 1963….but I just wanted to throw some new wood on the fire of a conspiracy.

Is there enough room for even more assassination theories or conspiracies?

Whatcha think?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Haiti–Another Intervention?

Over the weekend the news out of Haiti is that the president has been assassinated and Americans were at the heart of the deed.

A judge in Haiti said Friday that the two Americans arrested after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse told him they served as translators for the conspirators. Judge Clément Noël said he interviewed James Solages and Joseph Vincent shortly after they were taken into custody, the New York Times reports. They said their only job was translating, though they admitted to meeting with other plotters at a hotel to plan the raid. The planning picked up in the past month, the judge said. Noël said the two had weapons and other items used in the crime on them when they were arrested after a shootout with police. He said Solages and Vincent said the plan was to take Moïse to the national palace, not to kill him. Neither of the Americans was hurt in the shoutout, the judge said. Moïse was shot to death at home early Wednesday; Solages and Vincent said they were not in the room when he was killed.

Government officials said they’ve asked the US for troops. With the situation in the streets becoming more chaotic, the government wants to ensure infrastructure such as airports, gasoline reserves and ports are guarded. The US State Department did not confirm the request, but the White House said FBI and Homeland Security officials will be going to Haiti to assess the situation. There’s a power void in the country now, per CNN, without a sitting parliament and with two leaders claiming to be prime minister. Ariel Henry was about to ascend to the post, replacing Claude Joseph. He said in an interview that “Claude Joseph is not prime minister, he is part of my government.” A leading judge said the order of succession is unclear. After Moïse repeatedly failed to hold national and local elections, many offices up and down government—including the parliament—are vacant.

US Troops for Haiti?

Not like that would be something new…..there is a history there….

Increased instability in Haiti in the years before 1915 led to heightened action by the United States to deter foreign influence. Between 1911 and 1915, seven presidents were assassinated or overthrown in Haiti, increasing U.S. policymakers’ fear of foreign intervention. In 1914, the Wilson Administration sent marines into Haiti who removed $500,000 from the Haitian National Bank in December of 1914 for safe-keeping in New York, thus giving the U.S. control of the bank. In 1915, Haitian president Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam was assassinated and the situation in Haiti quickly became unstable. In response, President Wilson sent the U.S. Marines to Haiti, claiming the invasion was an attempt to prevent anarchy. In reality the Wilson administration was protecting U.S. assets in the area and preventing a possible German invasion.

https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwi/88275.htm

That was a 19 year occupation….does that sound at all familiar?

And now the Pentagon under Biden is considering an intervention (of ciurse they will sell this under some sort of ‘good’ sounding BS)….

While the Biden Administration says they have no plans to get militarily involved in Haiti at this time, the Pentagon says they are analyzing the idea, and that no decision has yet been made.

Following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, Haiti is facing another crisis, the latest in seemingly countless crises over the past several decades. This could serve as yet another excuse for US intervention.

Haiti’s current government seems on board with the idea of having US troops ensure their ongoing rule. Not everyone is so comfortable with another foreign intervention, however.

Opposition leader Andre Michel argues that the solution to the latest crisis needs to be Haitian, and that there needs to be serious debate on what to do next. Many argue that the international community has for too long kept Haitians from making their own decisions, and that what’s left of the government has no legitimacy to call in foreign troops.

For now, the US has sent FBI and Homeland Security officials to Haiti, but it’s to be seen if they are the replacement for a military intervention or simply the advanced guard to oversee their arrival.

History is not on the side of intervention doing Haiti any real favors. The most US and UN interventions can say is that they brought relative stability while they were there, but time and again they left and watched as Haiti fell apart.

(antiwar.com)

Will this be the US next long term intervention and occupation?

The US needs to keep our troops at home….we have had enough intervention of a lifetime….

Haiti offers a larger foreign policy caution. In recent years Washington seemed to take the Monroe Doctrine worldwide. America acted like it was entitled to intervene everywhere on earth and treat the entire globe like the Western Hemisphere. Hence the almost fanatical obsession with at nation-building and regime change, no matter how unsuccessful previous attempts.

That US involvement in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq were disasters should surprise no one. Social engineering gets harder as differences in history, religion, culture, geography, and politics grow. Yet Washington had ample warning nearer home, having failed to do much better in its own neighborhood.

The Tragedy of Haiti: Washington Should Keep Its Troops at Home

I agree!

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The Khashoggi Death

Sorry for the break in tradition for IST on weekends but some stories are too important to wait.

Back in 2018 the Saudi government murdered a journalist because he was a staunch critic of the Saudi royals…….

Pres. Biden has done something that Trump refused to do and released the intel report that points the finger at the crown prince of KSA as the instigator of the murder.

The US released an intelligence report on Friday that directly implicates Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The central conclusion of the report was widely expected given that intelligence officials were said to have reached it soon after the brutal killing of Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s authoritarian consolidation of power, per the AP. Still, since the finding had not been officially released until now, the public assignment of responsibility amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of the 35-year-old crown prince. US intelligence officials concluded that bin Salman approved the operation that led to Khashoggi’s killing, per the Washington Post. (The US-based Khashoggi was a columnist for the Post.) The move could escalate pressure on the Biden administration to hold the kingdom accountable. 

The report was released one day after a later-than-usual courtesy call from President Biden to Saudi King Salman, though it wasn’t clear whether they discussed the killing. On the day of his death, Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate in Turkey to pick up documents for his wedding. Once inside, he died at the hands of more than a dozen Saudi security and intelligence officials who had assembled ahead of his arrival. Surveillance cameras had tracked his route and those of his alleged killers in Istanbul in the hours leading up to his killing. A Turkish bug planted at the consulate reportedly captured the sound of a saw dismembering Khashoggi’s body within an hour of his entering the building. His remains have not been found. The prince said in 2019 he took “full responsibility” for the killing since it happened on his watch, but denied ordering it.

Read a summary of the report for yourself….

Click to access Assessment-Saudi-Gov-Role-in-JK-Death-20210226v2.pdf

Now we have the culprit responsible brutal murder of Khashoggi……;what did Biden do?

US sanctioned Saudi officials over the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi after the release of a US intelligence report that said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, ordered the killing. Although MBS, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, was absent from the list of blacklisted Saudis.

In response to the report, the State Department announced a new visa restriction called the “Khashoggi Ban.” The ban allows the US to impose visa restrictions on individuals who engage in “extraterritorial counter-dissident activities” against journalists or activists. Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The first Khashoggi Ban restrictions were implemented on 76 Saudis. The State Department described them as “individuals believed to have been engaged in threatening dissidents overseas, including but not limited to the Khashoggi killing.”

The Treasury Department also announced sanctions on Saudi operatives believed to be responsible for Khashoggi’s death. The measures targeted members of Saudi Arabia’s Rapid Intervention Force that were sent to kill Khashoggi.

The Treasury Department also targeted Ahmad Hassan Mohammed al Asiri, the former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Presidency, who the US says was assigned to carry out the Khashoggi hit.

The Biden administration is facing calls from Congress to take action against MBS for the killing. A Biden administration official told Politico that the White House decided against sanctioning MBS, fearing that it would put the US in an extremely “hostile” position with Saudi Arabia.

For their part, Saudi Arabia said it “completely rejects” the US intelligence assessment. Riyadh’s story has been that Khashoggi was killed by rogue operatives and that MBS had no knowledge of the plan.

The Biden administration has said it will reevaluate the US-Saudi relationship. Besides the sanctions, President Biden has also announced an end to US support for Saudi Arabia’s “offensive” operations in Yemen. The US suspended some Saudi arms sales, and a report from Reuters on Friday said the administration is considering stopping sales for “defensive” weapons as well.

NOTHING for the culprit, MbS……why?

Just another incident that we are kowtowing to the Saudis for some damn reason….and I thought it was pathetic the way we do that with Israel but now we have another nation that we feel we must massage their egos to keep them buying stuff from our defense industries.

Once again we care nothing for human rights as long as we keep our hand in their pockets.

It is a pathetic response….and I expect more of the same from the Biden administration.

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“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–21Dec20

All this threat of violence from the Far Right has a lot of us Americans worried about the possibility that these idiots will actually start a wave of violence. I mean they have threatened many government officials and even had there plans to kidnap and possibly kill the governor of Michigan thwarted by law enforcement.

The more the calls get louder the closer we get to this type of violence……

The former Governor of Mexico’s “violence-wracked” state of Jalisco died early Friday morning after being shot in the back while in a restaurant bathroom, the Guardian reports. Authorities say that Aristóteles Sandoval, 46, was vacationing in Puerto Vallarta when he was gunned down, per the New York Times. No suspects had been identified as of Friday, but some security experts tell the Times that the killing could be the work of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Security analyst Eduardo Guerrero says the cartel has “complete dominion” over the resort city located on Mexico’s Pacific coast: “No other group has the reach of these guys to assassinate a former governor,” he adds. “They are a cartel of great audacity, that isn’t intimidated, that aims at the highest levels.”

Sandoval, who was at the restaurant with four others, went to use the bathroom about 1:40am and was shot, according to reports. His two bodyguards attempted to evacuate him, but were met by more gunmen outside, and a bodyguard was seriously injured when shooting began. Sandoval died soon after at a hospital. The attack was “not a fortuitous or circumstantial act,” Jalisco Attorney General Gerardo Solís said, per the BBC. “There was a synchronization of events to find the former governor in his most vulnerable moment.” Sandoval’s killing may indicate that cartels are becoming more involved in local politics, the Times notes. “There are still questions to be asked about how separate politics and organized crime really are,” says analyst Falko Ernst. “This unleashes the beast.” Guerrero tells the paper that Mexico is going to see “unprecedented levels of electoral political violence” in the coming months.

Is this what these idiots have in store if they finally get the way and grow some spine to act?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is It An Assassination?

The recent assassination of an Iranian scientist made me think about the term and the use of the policy by the US (and yes I know the latest assassination was carried out by Israel…get over it)…..I have written about this policy before….https://lobotero.com/2017/05/19/is-assassination-by-another-name-the-same/

It all began with Pres. Ford in 1976…..

Executive Order 11905, executive order issued February 19, 1976, by U.S. President Gerald Ford, which prohibited any member of the U.S. government from engaging or conspiring to engage in any political assassination anywhere in the world. Promulgated in the wake of revelations that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had attempted to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro in the 1960s, it was the first executive order to ban assassinations. It was successively superseded by Executive Order 12036 (issued by President Jimmy Carter on January 26, 1978) and Executive Order 12333 (issued by President Ronald Reagan on December 4, 1981), both of which affirmed the ban in the same language, which differed only slightly from that of Ford’s order.

Because none of the three orders defined the term assassination, the scope of the prohibition has been variously interpreted, some interpretations implying that it is operative only during peacetime. That reading was supported by Ford’s Special Message to the Congress, which accompanied his executive order, in which he stated that he would “support legislation making it a crime to assassinate or attempt or conspire to assassinate a foreign official in peacetime.” It is worth noting that only Ford’s order referred to “political assassination,” whereas Carter’s and Reagan’s used the term assassination only. It is unclear whether that change in language indicated any change in the scope of the ban.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Executive-Order-11905

Since none of the EOs defined what an assassination is…..I will step forward and do it for you…..

The official definition is…”the act of assassinating someone”…..vague huh?

Then how about assassinate?  It is a verb….to kill suddenly or secretively, especially a politically prominent person; murder premeditatedly and treacherously.

Now you have a grasp at what the definition of the term/s means……we shall continue…..

I bring all this up to help my reader understand that the US and its allies have sunk into the realm of gangsterism with their assassinations of people…..it has become one of the US major foreign policy situations…..

“Targeted killings” on an individual or mass basis may appear to be a way of tipping the balance towards whatever country has decided to go into the assassination business. The killing of Yitzhak Rabin did matter for the future of the Israelis and the Palestinians, but this was the act of a single fanatic and not of a government. Few other assassinations in the Middle East have had much long-term impact, contrary to the cinematic view of a world where Mr Bigs, like Goldfinger or Dr No, are evil masterminds whose elimination will make a difference. In the real world, figures like Fakhrizadeh and Soleimani can always be replaced.

Generals and politicians once imagined that campaigns to kill the local leaders of insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq would open the door to victory. But they found that “night raids” enraged local communities and dead leaders were swiftly replaced by angrier and more aggressive substitutes. One such campaign in Iraq led to a sharp jump in attacks on American forces. State-sponsored assassinations employ the methods of gangsterism and discredit and delegitimise those who use them.

Gangsterism as Foreign Policy: Assassinations are Becoming the New Norm

My opinion the state-sponsored murder is not lawful and should be  referred to the International court……there should be NO justification of wanton murder…..and there are those laws that should prevail…..

Murder is not justifiable…..

Murder is not morally justifiable. Self-defense may be argued if the victim has knowledge which may destroy the resistance organization if divulged. Assassination of persons responsible for atrocities or reprisals may be regarded as just puni shment. Killing a political leader whose burgeoning career is a clear and present danger to the cause of freedom may be held necessary.

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/ciaguat2.html

There are those, like me, that want some form of legal action…..

https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1601&context=yjil

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Warmongers Press

After the assassination of the Iranian scientist I have been saying and writing that it was all an attempt to get Trump to start a war with Iran.

For at least 20 years Israel has been lying about Iran’s search for nukes….some times they are months away and others they are a few years away….in other words there is NO consistency t the accusations.

Israel has wanted the US to solve their Iranian problem for decades….so they take small steps to try and push a reaction by Iran that would justify an all out attack.

As time has elapsed since the killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on 27 November, the chances for quick retaliation are fading away.

After the assassination, in an operation east of Tehran attributed to Israel’s Mossad, senior Iranian leaders have used harsh language to promise revenge, not only against Israel but also the United States and Israel’s new allies in the region, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Among those vowing retribution were President Hassan Rouhani and military confidants of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, including former Defence Minister Ahmad Wahidi.

But the inflammatory rhetoric subdsided. Gut feelings made room for cool-headed decisions. The first question to be asked is, why? Why did Israel decide to kill him?

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-scientist-killing-israel-lure-war-failed

Warmongers who have the president’s ear like Cotton and other diehard war enthusiast they keep pushing as well…..

Since Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in an apparent Israeli plot, the US and Israel have been warning about threats in the region. Despite Iran’s clear desire to make it to January 20th without a military confrontation with the US, anonymous officials are hyping the threat of Iranian retaliation for Fakhrizadeh’s death.

On Monday, an anonymous US official told The Associated Press that Washington fears Iran may take advantage of US troop drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan. For this reason, the official said the US might have to hold off on the planned departure of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz from the Persian Gulf.

In September, the Nimitz was deployed to the Persian Gulf to send a message to Iran. The US official said the ship must remain in the region “for some time to come.” The official added that an additional fighter squadron might be sent to the Middle East. The US recently deployed B-52 bombers to the region and moved a fleet of F-16 fighter jets from Germany to the UAE.

US and Its Allies Stoking Fears of Possible Iranian Attacks

So the question is….will Trump take the bait and help Israel and start a new endless war?

What are the chances?

Following his election loss Donald Trump reportedly sought options to strike Iran. The president’s senior advisors dissuaded him from doing so, though it’s unclear if he settled on a different option. Then, on 17 November, both Israel and Saudi Arabia reinforced their agreed message that that Iran can never possess nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities. Netanyahu spoke to Biden by phone about Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s repeated offer that Iran was willing to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, which was negotiating during the Obama-Biden administration. At that point, nothing appeared out of the ordinary when it came to Iran. There also appeared to be a coalescence of interests between Trump (for his remaining days in office), Israel and Saudi Arabia against Iran.

Opinion – Is the Next Middle East War on the Horizon?

Will there be a 2021 surprise?

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RFK Dead!

There is lots of history happening around us but we should not lose sight of the history that preceded today’s situations….

Today 06 June 1968…the probable next president was shot and killed…

Senator Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Immediately after he announced to his cheering supporters that the country was ready to end its fractious divisions, Kennedy was shot several times by 22-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. He was pronounced dead a day later, on June 6, 1968.

The summer of 1968 was a tempestuous time in American history. Both the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement were peaking. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in the spring, igniting riots across the country. In the face of this unrest, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to seek a second term in the upcoming presidential election. Robert Kennedy, John’s younger brother and former U.S. Attorney General, stepped into this breach and experienced a groundswell of support.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bobby-kennedy-is-assassinated

Americans lost their best chance of ending the war when RFK was killed.

Let us look into the possibilities if he had lived and become the president….

Historians have long wondered what would have happened had Robert F. Kennedy lived. What if he had continued his 1968 presidential campaign 50 years ago? Could he have forged a working-class political coalition that might have cauterized the nation’s racial wounds, arrested the slide into polarization and won working-class white support for the Democratic Party? Could RFK have built a multi-racial coalition featuring African-Americans and working-class whites?

These what-ifs have received more than modest attention from historians. In 1968, RFK was “the last liberal who could reach both races as well as both generations,” wrote historian John Morton Blum. At the time of his murder, Kennedy was beginning to construct “coalitions of supporters that cut across race and class lines,” historian James T. Patterson has argued. But beyond animating decades of historical scholarship and political analysis, the questions also emerged from a series of developments in 1968 that had begun to make Kennedy the unlikely face of a black-white lower-income political coalition.

https://www.history.com/news/rfk-what-if-he-lived

More thoughts of a what if…..

Most of us take history as a given, that things had to turn out as they did. But that assumption ignores the question, “What might have been?”

What might have happened if America had continued its World War II alliance with Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam instead of siding with French colonialists in the postwar world? What if President Eisenhower had embraced the Brown vs. Board of Education decision the day after it was issued and ordered school desegregation to start within a year? And would there have been an invasion of Iraq if Al Gore had been elected president in 2000?

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/390629-what-would-the-world-look-like-if-robert-kennedy-had-lived

I believe the world would look a lot different if RFK had lived and made it to the presidency.

Thoughts?

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Death Of MLK, Jr

An important day in American history was basically ignored.  I realize that history is the furthest thing from most people’s minds…..but some of it is just too important….

The virus is sucking all the knowledge out of the days…yesterday we overlooked an important day….a day we should never forget…..the assassination of MLK. Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, an event that sent shock waves reverberating around the world. A Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of impassioned speeches and nonviolent protests to fight segregation and achieve significant civil rights advances for African Americans. His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era.

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr-assassination

Further Reading:

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/assassination-martin-luther-king-jr

This day should never be pushed aside…no matter the crisis….MLK’s memory is too important to the nation to be marginalized for any reason.

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