A NATION PULLED LOW BY HATRED OF MR TRUMP

“Let no man pull you down so low as to hate him.”  Martin Luther King jr. 

“In time we hate that which we fear.” W. Shakespeare,  Antony and Cleopatra,

“Me hate Donald Trump?  I don’t hate anyone!!  I’m a Catholic. Don’t mess with me.,,,,  I wasn’t raised that way.” US Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (2020)  

I can not say that I have watched the on-going Impeachment Trial of President Donald Trump much.  It is all too repetitive and boring.  But what I have seen so far has revealed  much more about the politicians  who are prosecuting the case,  than the alleged “crimes” of Mr. Trump.  The Democrat  prosecutors in the Senate (as well as in many others in general) are so consumed by virulent hatred of President Trump that they often seem to have left logic, reason, mental stability behind.  They appear controlled by primitive survival emotions rather than higher levels of thought.  What is the origin of this hatred that has so consumed our nation ? 

Aristotle the 3^rd Century BC Greek philosopher  and organizer of ancient knowledge, (see: Wikipedia) described hatred as distinct from anger and rage.  He categorized it as an emotion that generated a powerful desire to annihilate the hated object.  Furthermore, he viewed it as an incurable condition. 

Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis described  hatred as a mental state that directs the individual to destroy the source of its unhappiness. He hypothesized  that hatred may have evolved in early hominids as one of the means of self-preservation . 

In a Scientific American article, entitled: “the Origin of Hate” (2009), neuroscientists at University College, London report on a 2008 brain scan study of 17 adults.  The results suggest the existence of what the authors term: a brain  “hate circuit”, i.e.  structures within the brain activated by hate. They scanned the brains of individuals as these subjects  gazed at images of persons they professed to hate.  (The “hate” circuitry seems to connect the putamen at the base of the forebrain, the medial sulcus and a part of the frontal cortex. ) The research suggests that the “hate circuit” is involved in initiating aggressive behaviors.  Though, the  authors note that,  anger, danger and fear, as well as aggression itself have different circuit patterns than the hate circuit 

In an article entitled: “Why We Hate” (Sage Journal, Emotion Review (2018) : psychologists  A Fischer, E. Halperin et al  state: “We hate persons or groups more because of who they are than what they do. Hate has the goal of eliminating the target. When shared with group members hate can spread fast....Hate can be reassuring and self-protective, because its message is simple and helps confirm peoples’s belief in a just world”   Interestingly most subject simply deny that they experience hate.  The authors document the strong social inappropriateness of hate and the fact that when interviewed most people will flatly deny that they have ever experienced “hate”. Yet when given specific  examples of conflict or sources of anger they clearly reveal thoughts or actions that were clearly explained by hatred. 

The Impeachment and trial of President Trump is in effect the result of hatred of the man as a person, not for his policies.  He is not a politician but in 2016 he defeated “the most exquisitely prepared candidate” in our nation’s history MsClinton who was supported  by all the power structures of the political system and even outspent Trump almost two to one, Yet this brash, unsophisticated novice politician brought her down in an embarrassing defeat. He is hated for that. He is a businessman who has gained a position well out of the “acceptable” “ tribal” sphere of politicians .  He is an  interloper feared in the same way that male heterosexuals fear ( and hate) the homosexual, or how ancient Christians feared and hated the Jew, or how Jews fear Palestinians as potential threats to their state—and vice versa ,  The Democrats fear Trump—and that fear has grown into all consuming hate that has infected the Democrat Party and those elements which support it such as the main stream media. 

Thus it is fear and  hatred which brought our nation and it’s polity to a sad and dangerous impasse.   As Rev. Martin Luther King so eloquently warned how hate diminishes us but too many have succumbed to its evil effects.  Our nation is being pulled down by hatred. 

One wonders is the all so obvious hatred of Mr Trump by Democrats a form of  prosecutable “hate crime”?  

ON CORONAVIRUS,& POLITICALLY CORRECT in LA

According the the lexicon of political correctness a person with an impairment or a disease should not be defined by their condition or state of mind, or in any way described by  using terminology that would state the condition in a negative way.    Thus a person with a deadly communicable disease should not be stopped, examined by a physician and  quarantined—that would have a negative impact on the individual that could impair the self perception(if they survive the infection).  These individuals not be described as “stricken by disease”,  “infected” or “sick”— these are negative terms to be avoided at all costs for the politically correct speaker.  No these individuals should be described as “challenged with a foreign viral agent”    

Here we go again.  A new Chinese coronavirus strain arising again from animal to human  contacts in China. This one  has arisen in central China and in only a few months has spread fear and anxiety around the world.  The strain,  known as: “2019 Novel coronavirus” is a pathogen  which causes a form of viral  pneumonia, against which our extensive  arsenal of antibiotics is  of no use.  It has proved be deadly.  It’s estimated that more than 4000 have been infected in Wuhan, a city in central China.  The origin or source of the virus  appears to have been human contact with diseased, live,  wild animals being sold for food.   Many of the wild animals the Chinese consume such as wild snakes, rats and even wild wolf pups were illegally on sale in the a Wuhan food mart.  (It  is disgusting—I really don’t care if some folks see rats as edible morsels—there are plenty of them—but what I find reprehensible is catching and caging up wild wolf pups as eventual table fare!  Yes you can note my lack of cultural propriety )  

I have followed the virtual  explosion of this  latest horrible virus that the Chinese have foisted on the rest of the world.  ( Recall SARS? ).  This new outbreak began in late 2019 in Wuhan city in central rural China —then the virus, mutating as it spread turned up in other cities in China. It was quickly carried to  Japan, Thailand and to Mexico and now even the USA.  There is one case reported in Washington State and another suspected case in Los Angels CA.  This latter case is of interest to us here. 

There in Los Angeles the specter of being politically correct vs being simply correct raised its ugly head. (The politically correct must use language in a way that avoids describing others in negative terms.  These PC folks  view all circumstances not as an unbiased observer but from the perspective  of the “victim” and how the “feelings” of the victim vs the reality of the situation).  On Wednesday night (9-22-20) an American Airlines flight from China ( $+# 2546) arrived at LAX (Los Angeles Airport) and was met by an ambulance which transported a very  sick  passenger to a local hospital.  Immediately afterward, the LA Fire Department followed the ambulance with a “deep contamination process” of the plane and the airport area where the patient had been examined.   

A day or so earlier the US Center For Disease Control and Prevention had initiated “health screenings” of  passengers arriving from China at LAX, San Francisco and NY airports.  These are little more than a questionnaire and a cursory glance.  If the passenger  claims he or she is  OK and can walk and breath the screener lets you pass on into the public.  But the person coming in from China on flight 2546 was sick enough to be immediately hospitalized and the officials were worried enough to require a “deep” contamination conducted by the hazmat team of the Fire Department.  

But it was the comments of the LA public health officials on site that I underscore here. Based on their comments they are more concerned about being politically correct rather than correctly assessing the sick passenger as a potential virus vector and effectively protecting the city and county from deadly disease-carrying visitors from China.  

Does this official’s comments (following) give you any sense of confidence that they are effectively  protecting the 10 million Angelenos  who reside in LA county?  One of the top officials of the LA County Department of Public health was quoted as stating:  “Many people travel (to and from China)....We don’t want people saying ...”Oh you’ve been to China you cant come to school or work—..no we don’t want that”    Another concerned politically correct LA public health official added: “ Just because someone may have visited China or even Wuhan City (were the outbreak is centered) does not mean that person  presents a health risk.”  

How do these offices  know this ?  They do not.  The facts about how the virus is transmitted and how virulent it is as well as its morbidity and mortality rates are still being assessed.  These officials simply do not know.  Yet they are ready to toss the dice for the many Angelo’s to protect the few passengers—as they act in a way not to “victimize” these possible disease vectors. .  

But to my mind when you call yourself a “health official” and you are tasked with the well being of ten million people would you not be wise to err on the side of the millions of residents rather than the potential minor and temporary discomfort of a visiting Chinese traveler who has likely  been exposed?  

Apparently for these LA officials they would rather be politically correct.  They would rather put the health and lives of the people who pay their salaries on the line than acting responsibly.   

This is so typical California!    

On Weaponising Impeachment, Irony and Playing With Fire

The ugly head of impeachment has reached the Senate.  The weak and poorly led Democrats have turned this sacred and unsettling act into a cheap political weapon and a disgusting display of partisan politics run amuck.  History will pillory them for their malevolence, hatred, and acts which border on treason 

My father was a staunch Democrat.  In his day it was the Democrat party of Roosevelt and Truman that  supported the working man and woman of all races and creeds.  In those days the international threat of communism encouraged capitalists into a more moderate mellow form of that economic system. This mellow capitalism  worked very well for all citizens into the 70s .  

But with the collapse of the USSR, the threat of Marxism dissipated and for capitalists there remained no need  to compromise with the American wage earners and workers.  As well, at that time was the development of technologies that made it possible for industries  to expand markets  globally.  Cheap forms of transportation and rapid communications permitted corporations to expand internationally .  These once “US companies” abandoned their compact with their home cities and moved jobs and factories to China and Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor and billions of foreign consumers. Great wealth was at hand for them. They used that wealth to lobby Congress and control government policies.  Unions disappeared with the well - paying factory jobs.  Millions of jobs and factories were sent abroad..leaving behind ghost cities and rust belts —and poverty—in  much of our hinterlands.  

The Republicans and Democrats were both responsible for this hollowing out of America.  But it was the Democrats who abandoned the mostly white workers, those who kept their faith, and  guns and sent their young to fight and die in America’s wars of choice  in the restive Middle East.   These American workers now without jobs and with no demand  for their labor and expertise  had no leverage in  Congress.  They were of no interest to the Democrats who now focused their attention on the teeming cities of our coasts.  In these last decades the Democrats have fully painted themselves into the dusty dark corners where fringe radicalism prospers. There they generated their support from recent immigrants (both legal and illegals), the elites of academia, the “we know better than you rustics” media, the “entertainment” industry, and  those disaffected with or having no connection or antipathy  to American culture and history.  

Ignoring those who live traditional family lives, who attend our churches, who swear allegations to our flag, the Democrats have become the party of the wild-eyed leftist fringe.   The party of the few and strange, of the anti-Christian and baby killers, of the sexually deviant and whiners,  

With these elements as their constituency they know that they will never win a national election  huddled  up under this tiny little tent they have raised in a tiny corner of left field.  They had to become as deviant as their constituency 

First,  the Democrats are acutely aware of the weakness of the slate of candidates they have fielded for the 2020 election. The four poll leaders are: a gay, kid-mayor from a small town in Indiana with practically no governing experience, a doctrinaire socialist- Marxist  (almost) octogenarian  Senator who has just suffered a heart attack, a sharp-tongued, truth challenged, energetic old harpy with pie-in-the-sky plans to bulldoze the US economy and make paupers of us all, and Don Quixote-like, old and gaff-prone professional politician with explosive “baggage”  so extensive a circus train is needed to transport it.   The party big wigs  know there is not one among this “slate of candidates” who not beat President Trump.  

Second, they are so shot through with hatred and vengeance for their deserved loss in 2016 and realizing that they face failure again in the up coming election they have settled on a destructive and dangerous policy.  Ms Pelosi and her team have decided to weaponize the most sacred and most dangerous of the powers that the Founders only reluctantly awarded to the House of Representatives.  The power to impeach the President.  That is the power to impeach—to bring charges which would invalidate the manifest will of millions of voters and unseat a President. Yes to take away from the electorate it’s power to chose its government. 

   

What are the charges agaisnt the President?  Laughable. Its ironical that the President is charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.  As FBI agent Strozk so famously noted about the Russian collusion allegation—“there is no there there”.  In fact the charge of abuse of power can be more logically lodged against Ms Pelosi and the House leadership. This is the branch of government that is truly abusing the power that the Founders awarded them.

This power has been used only three times in all of our history.  The Democrats have now sadly attempted to turn that power into a political tool for short term gain.  Their obvious goal is to either  unseat a sitting President and take away the validity of 63 million citizen votes or to manipulate and control the circumstances for 2020 by weakening President Trump for the coming election only ten months away. 

The Democrats  play with fire in the ship’s powder magazine.  

ON IRAN AND OTHER USA DISASTERS IN THE MAKING

One must ask oneself (as a USA citizen) is the world safer and better for the  actions of our nation? And for the trillions upon trillions of US tax dollars spent in pursuit of “regime change”, “teaching them a lesson”, “standing up to tyranny” and “building democracy”, as well as that old favorite:  hitting  “terrorists abroad so they don’t come here”.   Almost all of these quests are and were Quixotic, expensive,  and unproductive.  In retrospect we find that the windmills of La Mancha continue to rotate as well and as fast as they were when we started our journey of death and destruction.   Often we only make things worse than they were.  Yet we persist.  

Over the last decades any informed and honest person must wonder—what would the world be like without an America with an aggressive international agenda?  Could it possibly have been better? 

In 2003 George Bush invaded Iraq on the lie of WMD. His policies destroyed and destabilized that nation, and initiated a wave of death and destruction which surged  through the entire region upending governments, killing thousands upon thousands of innocent non-combatants and displacing millions.  The millions of homeless fleeing  the carnage began perilous —often deadly—migrations across the Mediterranean into Europe.  There their presence elicited even more disruptions, but of a political and economic nature.  These events of the past continue to harm as they reverberate in the halls of governments in the EU and elsewhere. 

In Syria our CIA —under Obama and Clinton— actually helped precipitate the long and deadly civil war in that nation—where strife continues to this day.  The Obama government policy of using initial Syrian demonstrations over food shortages as an “opportunity” to undermine the Assad regime and eliminate it was a terrible mistake.  The Obama  “regime change enthusiasts”  were ignorant or dismissive of the the fact that Assad —like other dictators in that region—held power because they were the lesser of the other possible evils.  So we forged ahead using CIA cash and arms deliveries to support the “even more evil” opponents of Assad. In doing so we  helped extend the war, add to the deaths and create another failed state.    In these and other matters  Americans have proved over and over again that we are simply not sophisticated enough to be effective world hegemons.

So here we are again in early January 2020 now with Iran in our sights —for regime change—and apparently ignoring the smoldering swath of devastation and death we created around  that nation in the ME.

Let’s understand this.  Iran was an ally and a virtual colony of the USA prior to 1979.  Our entrepreneurs and investors were happy as pigs in slop in That nation.  We developed their oil fields, sold them farm products, armed their military and air force.  We developed their nuclear infrastructure and propped up the corrupt “Shah of Iran” as their powerful but USA compliant leader.  As per usual, we did some “bad stuff” there too.  We eliminated any Iranian leadership that did not toe to the US line.  In 1953 the CIA  planned and executed a violent and deadly coup against the legitimately elected democratic   Mossedegh government and in his place installed the unpopular, corrupt but pro-American Shah Pahlavi regime.  

One of our presidential historians  (M. Beschloss) presciently noted in a review of Iran policies that “the chaos that the agency (CIA) had created in the streets of Tehran would return to haunt the United States”,  As we review our history with Iran  today almost seven decades later we may understand the terrible cost of that miscalculation by the CIA and the Eisenhower government.  Evil events have a nasty way of reverberating through time and continue to have their costly and unpredictable consequences.

Under Shah Pahlavi, after twenty six years of corruption, terror, US-trained-secret-police, torture  chambers and corruption the Iranians in 1979, under their religious Islamic leadership they threw over the pro American Shah and imprisoned 52 of our US diplomats in our embassy in Tehran as they  installed an anti-western Islamic republic.   

The USA never forgave Iranians for the embarrassment, the “dents” to US reputation in the ME and the financial losses we “suffered” as a result of the Iranian revolution which deposed the American controlled Shah.  

After 1979 to 2015 a Cold War reigned between the USA and the Islamic Republic of Iran with  conflicts too numerous to detail here.  But finally in 2015, after years of concern about the development of Iranian nuclear capability in Iran the Obama Administration completed a deal with five other nations which promised to ease relations, eliminate sanctions of Iran, return the bulk of impounded cash bank reserves in return for Iran limiting its nuclear development and submitting to inspections of its facilities. Thus by 2015, the USA had a nuclear treaty in place with Iran (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action of 2015) that effectively blocked Iran from developing nuclear weapons for decades.  

Soon after his election President Trump walked away from that agreement, leaving the other signers China, Russia, France,  UK  and EU holding the bag.  While Iran remained in compliance these nations were unable to maintain provisions of the agreement—which held out relief from the onerous sanctions on Iran-if the USA would not agree to the relief.  In fact, soon after summarily breaking the treaty and  tantamount to a declaration of economic war on Iran the President placed more sanctions( 2018 )on Iran as well as preventing them  from marketing their  major source of income —oil.  The intention of this plan was claimed to be to “force Iran back to the bargaining table for a “better deal”.  But that never happened.  Only more sanctions and more   tense interactions . 

As in years past a new period of “Cold War”” ensued during the Trump presidency in which the USA acted in concert with other anti-Iran states such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Gulf Emirates to oppose Iranian influence in the region. The two major combatants, the USA and Iran like boxers simply feinting at each other as they circled the ring, punched at the air, but no leather landed.  Then —one combatant moved too close and flicked a glove that struck a light and glancing blow which precipitated a greater response . 

During the Syrian Civil War Iran supported Assad. That often place pro-Iranian and pro USA (anti Assad) forces on opposite sides. During this period President Trump placed the Iranian Quds force on the US “terrorist” list in effect isolating a branch of the Iranian government for targeting killing.   The Iranians pushed back by interfering with shipping in the Gulf and other provocations.

These problems came to a head in December 2019 just after Christmas when a Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia attacked an air base in northern Iraq that was occupied by Iraqi and US advisor troops.  The rocket attack killed a US contractor and wounded several Iraqi troops.  

Two days later on December 29,  President Trump in retaliation sent a flight of F15 jets to bomb several pro Iranian milita  bases in Syria and Iraq killing 25 and wounding 50 islamists.  

In  response to this —some called a US over reaction—a few days later,  groups of relatives and supporters of the pro Iranian Hezbollah  militia group attacked the massive fort-like US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.  They demonstrated outside, defaced the walls, broke into the outer compound and set fires.  No one inside —staff or defenders—were hurt or wounded.  The demonstrators left a few days later.  But the attack was too much for President Trump to accept with a measured response.  This attack was too similar to Benghazi. 

The attack on Baghdad’s US embassy was too similar to the now infamous and deadly attack on the Benghazi embassy in Libya which occurred during the Obama Administration and which candidate Trump and President Trump had criticized repeatedly as an example of Obama’s weakness.  In what this author suspects was a means of foiling any damaging attacks from his supporters on the right and his detractors on the left, as well as creating a smoke screen to ameliorate the bad publicity of his ongoing impeachment —but mainly for not wanting to appear weak, he was forced to react —or overreact. .  

On January 3 2020 President Trump authorized a drone strike against Iranian General Quasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Quds Force and Iran’s top field general.  Soleimani who was killed by a US Reaper Drone in the outskirts of the Ba ghdad airport is known to have been in charge of Iran’s  irregular allies in Syria and Iraq as a way of projecting its power in the region. 

There is little to defend in this action of the President. It was illegal.  It was an act of war without congressional approval .  It was probably unjustified and it will have unintended consequences.  It also opens the door to other nations deciding that any of their political enemies -not on a battlefield or in a military context, but anyone anywhere may be subject to “termination”.  If President Trump decides that Pope Francis is somehow a threat to his presidency would the Pope become a target for a reaper drone?  Well that is where we are at. 

The unintended consequences of the killing are now rolling in.

The Iranians were forced to respond to this outright  murder of their top general and act of war.  They did so a few nights later (January 8, 2020)  launching 15 or 20 ballistic missiles against known US occupied bases in Iraq and Syria.  There were no US deaths or casualties. 

But sadly about six hours after the last Iranian rockets were launched,   a defensive missile battery on high alert in Teheran mistook a commercial jet liner taking off from Teheran airport for an incoming cruise missile and shot it down.   The target was a Ukrainian commercial flight with 176 on board,  all died in a fiery crash.

The delay in response for the shoot down from Iran officials who  originally claimed the plane suffered an “on board fire” was heavily and sharply attacked in the press by the USA and the Trump government. 

Few have mentioned that Iran itself suffered a similar fate in 1988  when the USS Vincennes operating illegally in Iranian coastal waters (directly below Iranian commercial flight routes) shot down an Iranian commercial jet by accident— misidentifying it as an Iranian  F14 fighter jet.  The Iranian liner went down with the loss of 290 lives.  The USA denied accountability and never apologized for the loss of life.  Though ten years later monetary compensation was paid to settle a suit in the International Court. 

As this author has stated elsewhere, President Trump was elected on the basis of his claims of ending interminable expensive, resource and tax dollar gobbling foreign wars and foreign entanglements.  His recent bellicosity toward Iran can only lead one place to a hot war.  In fact were it not for the restraint of the “mullahs” in charge in Tehran war would be raging now.   So President Trump has damaged his own election chances with his recent tough guy tactics.  Tweeting in Farsi and encouraging dissent in Iran can only push leadership to the wall where there is no out but a long bloody conflict. 

Think again Mr President. O

ON FAKE NEWS, THE NYT AND DEMISE OF JOURNALISM

Propaganda:  information of a biased or misleading nature used to promote a particular political point of view or cause. 

I often recall a statement made by German PM, Angela Merkel, concerning her early life behind the Iron Curtain in Communist East Germany.  Ms Merkel recalled that one of the most distressing aspects of life under Communism was the lack of “news”.  At that time, the official Communist propaganda sheet “Neues Deutschland” (ND) served East Germany. And being the official organ of the communist party, published what the party decided  people should think and say.   As an example of its “news” in 1953 on the death of USSR dictator Josep Stalin, ND ran the headline—“The Death of the Greatest Human Being of Our Era, J W. Stalin.”  Ms Merkel recalled that at that time \ she read ND “between the lines”, knowing that the actual words did not relate to reality.  She added, if you were aware of that, you could learn something by teasing out bits of real news from what the paper printed, by  making presumptions of what probably prompted the editors to write what they did.  

At the time—1950s—we in the west were not so burdened.  Our news papers employed real journalists who took seriously the essential role of  journalists in a democracy to inform the citizenry.   These professionals  by and large attempted to record what was really happening, rather  than attempting to promote some particular point of view or support some cause or political party. . 

Well sadly that was then...things change.  In the Era of Hysterical Trump Hatred (EHTH) we find our news outlets act less as sources of information and more as purveyors of propaganda.  These modern main stream media entities are in the business of molding thought—presenting “fake news” , cherry-picking facts to model information to control and influence  the way people think and vote.  They no longer see their role as simply informing a free people in a free society.    Rather descending to the level of propagandists generating screeds which have no respect for their readers, believing that they (the journalists and editors) know better, they  mislead with the object of  promoting a particular political point of view or cause.  Today in the USA we seem burdened  with  our own  propaganda sheets like Communist  Neues Deutschland of the 1950s. 

Anyone reading the NYT these days begins to suspect that thought control has become a prime motive of the editors.  Recently, that suspicion has been verified.    In August 2019, Dean Baquet the Times’ executive editor,  called  a meeting with the entire staff.   A transcript of that event (look it up) was leaked to the public.  The document revealed the depths to which the NYT has descended away from professional  journalism into political conspiracy, collusion with a political party and propaganda generation under this executive editor.    

Just two months before the August staff meeting, in July 2019, Robert Mueller presented his long awaited report to Congress on “his” Russian-collusion investigation.  Mueller’s revelation of “no collusion”was a huge disappointment  for the Times and other MSM news outlets.   Baquet explained to his staff  that the  Times had been “heavily focused” (a more valid  description  would have been “obsessed”) on the Russia-Trump-collusion story.  He noted that they won two Pulitzer Prizes on that story alone and sales, subscriptions and advertisement profits were soaring. But in light of the final Mueller report of “no collusion” these profits and prize-winning stories, which were based on unfounded allegations (and now disproved allegations)  would have to end. (Perhaps the NYT should have printed retractions and an apology to the President.  But that was no to be.) 

Baquet actually stated: “We built our newsroom to cover this one story.” (That Mr. Trump was colluding with Russia and was a traitor). But in April 2019 when Robert Mueller gave his long awaited report to Congress, he did not come up with the goods.  At the moment  Mueller left the witness stand Baquet states: “we realized that Mueller was not going to make Trump go away”.  Baquet asks his staff in effect “what do we do now?”  How do we continue to attack Trump for the next two years?

 In subsequent remarks Baquet proposes that the Times has to “regroup” and take on a new story.   He asks, “How (do we)... take on a guy who makes these kinds of remarks?”  The transcript reveals that Baquet directs the staff  to “refocus”  on what he refers to as  the 1619 Project. 

The 1619 Project began as a series in the Times magazine. It was an historic retrospective about the first African slaves who landed in 1619 (the qutrocentential “anniversary )  in the colony of Virginia.   Baquet proposes that the Times writers turn to the history of racism in the USA as an alternative to the now defunct Mueller Russian-collusion story.  Baquet proposes that all staff writers link their stories —those that refer to culture,  science, politics and other matters—in such a way as to somehow frame them so as to relate back to the underlying goal of teaching their readership how “racism and white supremacy (are) .... the foundation of this country.” 

Thus at this meeting Baquet and the Times staff revealed how for two years they built their subscription and copy-sales on what turned out to be a false story, a political smear job, which had no factual basis.  They misled the nation and won two Pulitzer Prizes for fake news.  Now that that story was dead in the water they had to construct another fake news story.  (Did they ever think of printing a retraction for all the lies that they foisted on the public?  No.)  What they did instead was to conspire to generate a new fake news story about race in America, with the intention—not that it was true—but that it would be a new means of attacking the President —now with a new charge— racism.

So readership—when President Trump calls out our main-stream media with misleading or “fake news” realize, in his blunt, unsophisticated way he is presenting the truth.  Just as the young Miss Angela Merkel living in dreary, news-starved East Berlin in the 1950s during the Cold War was forced to read “between the lines” to glean some facts about what was really happening in the world, it seems we, like her, must learn  to read between the lines to get at the truth.

As for the 1619 Project, this replacement for the Russian Collusion story is of similar status as other fake news.  This is abject historical revisionism as practiced in the USSR and Communist China in the Cold War Era.  In the style of the ND in East Germany calling Stalin “the greatest human being in our era”, the  1619 project attempts to portray our nation’s glorious history as if it was somehow initiated and driven  solely on the concept of white supremacy, and economic  exploitation of African slaves— not what all our historic documents clearly reveal regarding 18^th century economics, unfair taxation without representation, and the mis-rule and blunders of the British Monarchy.  

Now the New York Times—after misleading you for two years regarding Russian Collusion and President Trump as an agent of Russia—wants you to forget their lies and misinformation and focus on the evils of white supremacism, racism and exploitation of other human beings.  You must forget your history of the Revolutionary War, the courage and genius of George Washington, and the  Founding Fathers.  All the sacrifices, heroism  and loss of life made for the birth of a nation are to be ignored. Now the Times —who think they know better than you—want you to  think only of the African slaves who landed in 1619 in the colony of Virginia as the initiation of our nation and the basis of our history.  

Reading-between-the-lines-conclusion: This is propaganda designed to mislead or promote some particular point of view or cause. In this case it would be an attack on Mr. Trump who is often falsely claimed to have white supremacist views. It is also an attempt to activate and engage  the Afro American voting block to support a Democrat candidate.  The Times knows that without an almost clean sweep of the black vote...as President Obama was able to do in 20018— Democrats may win the popular vote but can not take a majority of the Electoral College.   

So do you get the picture?  Keep reading between the lines.  Don’t bother with the words—- they lie.                                

ON IRAN, ASSASSINATION, AND POLICY BLUNDERS

IF WAR —IT’S TRUMP’S WAR

Yesterday afternoon, while we were all recovering from New Year celebrations, President Trump was agreeing to plans for assassinating General Suleimani in Baghdad.  Suleimani died in a fiery USA  drone attack near the Baghdad airport.

President Trump began his presidency with the promise of no more “dumb” wasteful wars in the Middle East. But he has not been able to fully restrain the War Hawks in his party to keep this promise.  Sadly, these are the same folks who led naive and malleable young Bush junior—into the colossal disaster of the Iraq War—the biggest foreign policy blunder in US history.  Incredibly these same incompetents are still with us —unbelievably  some continue to be influential in making present foreign policy.

Even after misleading “junior Bush” so far astray,  somehow these same elements remained influential in the Obama Administration.  Rasputin-like  they held sway over the “smartest-guy-in-the -room”, canny, polished, and politically sophisticated President Obama. In part preventing him from extricating us from the on going trap of lost lives,  and more trillions of US lost tax dollars in Middle East conflicts. Obama was “so smart” he even expanded the awful. counter productive, deadly  drone war, actually  keeping an “assassination list” as he widened these dumb wars into Libya and Yemen.

In 2016 President Trump was elected in good part on his promise to bring some common sense to a corrupt Washington swamp where politicians, lobbyists, industrialists and military elements all rub shoulders and conspire to expand and continue profit-making “kinetic” operations (war) abroad.  Trump , the candidate, promised to get  our nation out of the quicksand of— always-expanding-deadly and costly ME conflicts and focus our efforts at home. The trillions we spent in Iraq —he reminded us—would have built our southern wall and solved the immigration mess.    President Trump  actually tried to pull troops out of Iraq and elsewhere.  But bold, brutish  and blustery as he is—he was not tough enough to punch back against the powerful concatenation of military, political  and industrial forces who thrive in DC on war and death.  These chair-bound warriors who—from the safety of their figurative bomb shelters love to kill and maim innocents and terrorists alike in the name of “freedom” all over the world. They, in self interest, conspired against Trump, and he weakly acquiesced.

In respect to Iran, President Trump, without good reason, abrogated a major,  functioning, multi national nuclear pact with Iran.  For no good reason, he also imposed stiff sanctions, and waged open economic warfare by preventing Iran from selling its oil on the world market.  This in the name of  a “maximum pressure” campaign ostensibly imposed to get Iran to agree to a new “better” nuclear arms treaty.  But the pressure campaign only exacerbated the problem and deepened the divide between the two nations.

The recent attack by a pro-Iranian militia in Iraq on a base where several US “trainer” troops were stationed elicited an over reaction by President Trump.  There was little evidence to suggest that Iran had any direct responsibility for the militia attack. The few US troops at the base in NW  Iraq (Kirkuk)were those that Trump had tried to remove earlier in the year—but had to back down when neocons and war mongers objected. .  Hard line  advisors forced him to capitulate and leave these troops in place —as a tripwire (target) force.  We can now see how effective they were indeed as “trip wires”.  Ironically the Iraqi militia force involved was one which had allied with US forces against ISIS.   The militia attack resulted in the death of one American contractor. In response President Trump  sent in F15 fighter jets which bombed several militia camps in the region, killing 25 pro-Iranian militia and wounding 50 more.  That again seems an over reaction.  in response to these deaths relatives  of those Iraqis killed as well as other shia militia  massed outside of the USA Baghdad Embassy in Iraq in an anti USA demonstration.  Iraq’s leadership also protested the USA bombings in their territory as a violation of Iraq sovereignty.  The US embassy demonstrations grew violent. This was too much like the Benghazi demonstrations for  President Trump to accept.  Again,  he over reacted.  Claiming that Iranian Gen Suleimani was “planning more attacks” but offering no proof or even that Iran had instigated the Embassy attacks, Trump gave the go ahead for  the assassination of General Suleimani. in Baghdad on Friday.  Have the Iranians been pushed to the point at which they must respond in kind? If war breaks out—it is clear our President precipitated it.  If disaster results, it will be his fault.  The Iran War will be “Trump’s War”.

If President Trump thinks that conflict  with Iran (like another Bush-style $3 trillion dollar fiasco) will gain him a second term—he is sadly mistaken.  The people of this nation are simply sick of and tired of the waste in blood and treasure such foreign adventurism  involves.  Trump promised us “America first” and here we are -again—on the brink of  another quagmire in the ME.

My only hope is that  President Trump will pull a rabbit out of the hat, or as in Ancient Greek theaters a “deus ex machina” in which somehow generated peace talks with the Iranians and comes out a peace making winner.   After the murder of Soleimani —this is only a tfaint glimmer of hope.  Stupidity in Washington  is much too rampant in our times.

If not the ”deus ex machina” then— expect conflict.

My last thought: Somehow, the miasma emanating up from decay and corruption swirling around the booted feet of the DC swamp denizens must affect their mental capacity. The vapors of corruption rise up and are drawn into the lungs and thus into the  blood stream of swamp critters.  These dissolved gases seem to acts on neural functions in the brain—seeming to  limit synaptic transmissions from groups of cerebellar neurons so that memories of past mistakes —even the recent past—  which led to horrible disasters like Iraq—are blocked out of the DC denizen’s consciousness. Thus the slime-coated residents of the swamp, like Sisyphus, ancient  King of Corinth, are faced with  continually repeating  the errors of the past  over and over again.

Our only hope for  ationsl survival is to drain the swamp.