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Saturday, February 17, 2024

Extra! Putin Murders Novalny! Biden Copycats! Read All About It!

Extra! Putin Murders Navalny! Biden Copycats! Read All About it!

It’s the headline you will never read. Proof is required and there is none. Of course, there is none. Russian murderers are professional killers acting under the guise of the highest authority in Russia. It’s the same as the mysterious explosion of Prigozhin’s jet and the murders of journalists on the Kremlin bridge. Proof? What do you mean by proof? We said it. That’s the proof.

Do you remember reporter, truth teller and author Anna Politkovskaya? You can’t be  braver than Anna. She told the truth about Chechnya and Putin and she couldn’t be ignored. Anna was murdered in her apartment elevator for telling the truth. Ponder that for a moment. Murdered for telling the truth. Murder in an elevator is a crime novel staple. For her, it was real.

Before that, Anna was poisoned en route to Beslan to assist in hostage negotiations for the children who were eventually murdered there. The poison didn’t quite work. Poisoned.

Alexander Litvinenko, the KGB/FSB defector, was poisoned in London for telling the truth about the Russian secret state. He accused it of blowing up Moscow apartments, murdering a Russian oligarch, poisoning Politkovskaya and much more. He was an insider telling truths we would otherwise never hear. Poisoned.

The other day, Alexander Navalny, an outspoken critic of the Putin regime, was taking a walk in his gulag camp, Polar Wolf. He fell ill and was taken to the camp hospital where he died. The government won’t release the body for an autopsy. They made that mistake with Litvinenko, where they eventually found the poison. Poisoned.

Eliminating the competition is a timeless strategy. Poisoning is harder to get away with in the US, with our reasonably open and very sophisticated medical technology. Poisoning is ugly and reporters notice, if they’re any good, and it makes good press. If it bleeds, it leads.

You don’t have to kill your political opposition in America, especially if you’re the party in power. Jail is a popular tool of American repression. Always has been. Its spinoff is accusations.

If Biden can orchestrate massive accusations of Trump in multiple jurisdictions, that can work in his favor in four ways:

First, it can cast public doubt on his character, costing him votes;

Second, by keeping Trump busy in court he has less time for campaigning;

Third, prosecutors are on the public fisc with nearly unlimited funding. Defendants must pay-as-you-go and it’s very expensive;

Fourth, it might just anger and frustrate Trump so much that he gives up his efforts at nomination and election victory. That, of course, is Biden’s ultimate goal.

I hope not. Biden jumped the shark here and he’s terrified of the results.

Sunday, January 7, 2024

Am I an Anti-Semite? A Reconsideration

Am I an Anti-Semite?
A Reconsideration

 

Merriam Webster: “a person who has a hostile, prejudiced attitude toward Jews.” 

 

Honest self-appraisals are hard. They are suggested to us in Alcoholics Anonymous, not just when we work the twelve steps, Step 4, but ongoing self-appraisals, Step 10. We don’t know what to fix unless we know who we are. That applies here.

 

What am I, if I don’t support unlimited military aid to Israel? Anti-Israel? I don’t think so but I forgive you if you disagree. Hamas is despicable but our endless money drain isn’t doing anything to Hamas leadership, living in their mansions in Lebanon or Iran. We’re paying for the lifestyles of the rich and hostile.

 

Israel is killing a lot of Gazans, that’s for sure. Have you seen the explosions when some of those Israeli bombs go off? Especially the bunker-busters. Apocalyptic. The thing that sticks in my craw (you may have to look that one up) is that many of those bombs are American bombs. We either provide them directly as military aid or we provide huge sums of money to Israel to buy them… from us. A difference without a distinction.

 

Those Gazans who invaded Israel on Oct. 7 deserve no less. I have no pity for them, even while I see Gaza destroyed. But what about the remaining universe of Gazan citizens? Do they deserve the death penalty?

 

I have written “Gaza = Hamas,” based on a long-ago vote and the apparent support of Hamas among Gazans. Now I think the correct equation is “Gaza = people threatened by Hamas.”

 

May I substitute “Israel” for Gaza? Thus, “Israel = people threatened by Hamas.” In both cases, people threatened by Hamas.

 

Imagine yourself in a tented market in what remains of Gaza City today. You announce, “Did I mention that I’m a Jew?” Most shoppers would ignore you while they go about their business of survival shopping. They can no longer buy essential goods and services in Israel like they used to, back when they liked living side-by-side. Clean water was plentiful then.

 

Hamas supporters would be summoned and they would kill you, just for being a Jew. For being a self-declared Jew. They did it on Oct.7, 30 miles away, and they’re on their home turf now. Home field murder advantage.

 

Am I an anti-Semite if I don’t want to further drain the American treasury on behalf of Israel? I maintain that I am not and that it isn’t necessary in the first place. 

 

Am I pro-Russia if I don’t want to further drain the American treasury on behalf of Ukraine? I maintain that I am not and that it isn’t necessary in the first place. 

 

Am I anti-American if I don’t want to further drain the American treasury on foreign entanglements? Korea, anyone? Taiwan? I maintain that I am not and that it isn’t necessary in the first place. 

 

Am I anti-American if I demand accountability for the billions of dollars we spend overseas on projects we don’t understand and whose outcomes are not in line with the outcomes and values we want for America?

 

It’s time for me to be loudly pro-America. Come with me. Husband our limited treasury and use it to make our lives better. Reduce our reliance on foreign goods (hello, Chinese meds) and restore our own economy (hello, American oil).

 

You don’t have to be anti-ANYTHING to be pro-America. My family paid for my share of America, just like yours did, and we have continued paying, in the face of corruption on a scale never before seen here. 


I am loyal to our flag and to the republic for which it stands. I have paid the price and I can stand with my forebearers. I demand to be heard.

 

Come with me. I’m not an anti-Semite.

Saturday, December 9, 2023

Gay in Moscow

Sexual Ethnic Cleansing

 

I wrote Gay in Uganda on May 30th last. I thought it to be a one-off essay because Uganda is so obscenely corrupt and twisted and, of course, a third world, non-white country. All fair reasons to respond that I don’t have the knowledge to comment further.

 

I also wrote there, "I seldom write about gay rights or related controversies, mostly because I don’t understand them and I don’t care that much.” All true. I do not campaign for causes, I do not march, I do not seek a spotlight for any cause. I do understand repression and cruelty and authoritarianism and that’s what I choose to write about.

 

Thus, I am moved to write about the further repression of gays in Russia. Further, because it is already ingrained in much of the populace but now it has the cloak of law. The Russian Supreme Court, rubber stamp toadies of Vladimir Putin, has identified a great enemy of Russia, the “global LGBTQ+ movement.” As if Russia doesn’t have enough external enemies, now they have identified a great internal enemy. Gays. “People who aren’t like us.” Sexual ethnic cleansing. Hello, Uganda.

 

ABC News writes. “Activists have noted the lawsuit was lodged against a movement that is not an official entity, and that under its broad and vague definition authorities could crack down on any individuals or groups deemed to be part of it.” 

 

In America, it would be like suing “the Left” or “the Right,” depending on who is in office.

 

“I deem you queer. You’re under arrest. Prove you’re not.”

 

Reminiscent of, “You look Jewish. You’re under arrest.”

 

It’s a national movement in Russia now. It has to be. It’s the law, permission for every lazy cop in the country to say, “I got a few more again today, chief,” and expect a reward for doing his job. An observer might say, “But at least they aren’t putting them in gas chambers.” A distinction without a difference.

 

The gulags didn’t have gas chambers either but they murdered ten million Russians and others before and during WWII and long thereafter. It’s easy for a Russian leader to murder millions of people. See Poland, Ukraine, Georgia and Chechnya. A few hundred thousand in a country no one has ever heard of here, a few hundred thousand more there and you’re in the big leagues of murder. Tyrant prestige. You rule by fear. “Make it happen or you’re next.” And it happens.

 

Americans tend to have an aversion to over-the-top LGBTQ+ antics. I give you gay clowns performing in grade schools as an example. But being gay? I know of no one who begrudges gays the joys of life. Yes, I know there are some, but few. As I wrote in the same essay, “I’m in the camp of ‘You be you and I’ll be me and let’s both go in peace.’” 

 

Still, I recognize an anti-gay bias in America. I think it has to do with conflating the few who offend with the many normal gays who just want to live in peace. And the fact that it’s so easy to hate those who are different than us.

 

Today, after that odious ruling by the Russian Supreme Court, gays have to hide. Again. They are no longer welcome in “polite society.” Their contributions are unwelcome and ignored. It remains to be seen whether they will be rooted out of their esteemed scientific, intellectual and academic positions. They must be, mustn’t they, to comport with the law? The answer, of course, is yes. But what will happen is a version of “Well, we didn’t mean you. We meant those people outside.”

I cannot not say anything.


* * * * *

"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
—Martin Niemöller
* * * * *
I cannot stand by quietly.
--Then they came for the gays and I did not speak out--because I was not gay.-- 

Who will speak for me?
—Charles Stromme

* * * * *

Poor Russia. 

 

“Let the denunciations begin... again.”


“Let the pogroms begin… again.”

 

“If I were a rich man… 

 

Poor us.

 


Monday, October 16, 2023

Hating America



The hatred is working. You can see it in Congress, on campuses and among your neighbors. They hate because everyone is hating.

 

Neighbors? Yes. Someone had to vote in those scurrilous members of The Squad and their sycophants. They were your neighbors, at least somebody’s neighbors in America. 

 

Where did our neighbors’ hatred come from? We went to the same schools, we read the same books, we go to the same churches, we intermarry. Yet some are rabid haters, anti-American by any definition. They are not like us, we imagine. 

 

Yet they are us. Molded of the same clay as we, but they burn with the need to hate someone or something. If they could just hate hard enough or long enough, their lives would be better and they could have the things they want and they could be at peace. If you have to pay the cost of their hatred, well, so what?

 

They are American Narcissists. “Everything for me, I as long as I don’t have to pay. We deserve it. Our moms and our friends told us so. You? Well, no. You’re different.”

 

Many of the American Narcissists have never worked, never created, never farmed or ranched or raised or grown. They still want stuff, though. They still need to feed their broken families. They still need to prove they are worthy; they are good enough; they are as good as… you. But without the work and sweat and sacrifice you endured. The things you suffered to get what you have. Those things are quite inconvenient to them, and why bother if the subsistence checks keep coming? 

 

In AOC’s case, I suspect an insatiable ego coupled with the burden of being cutesy. It’s difficult for her to believe the world doesn’t revolve around her. It always has, from being a cutesy bartender to being a cutesy Congresswoman. But she is still the lightest of Congressional lightweights, a cutesy nonentity among entities, her vote counting only on spending and pork projects.

 

To put a finer point on it, where did AOC’s hatred come from? The Squad’s hatred, their apparent hatred of America?

 

I can almost understand the goofy anti-semite Ilhan Omar, the one who supposedly married her brother. Ilhan is a refugee who sought a better life in the America she hates. She was brought up on hatred and used it to achieve power by hating America. Hitler used it to achieve power, too.

 

Hatred wrecks things, people things, relationships, promises, understandings. The United States of America is a people thing, too. 

 

Enough hatred will wreck the United States. That’s the plan. It’s working.


EDIT: Ron DeSantis, on behalf of the State of Florida, DID send a plane to evacuate Americans. Couple other Americans did, too. The USA? Well, not yet. Same for the billionaires. Too busy?




Thursday, October 12, 2023

 National Policy Under Biden


It's not really a policy decision but in its absence, it is. 

The US hasn't yet sent planes to evacuate its citizens trapped in Israel. Not its poor, doomed kidnapped citizens, that's a story for another day. 

This is about Americans who are inside Israel and who desperately want to come home. Their lives are in danger. They can't get out because no airline will fly to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. 

TWENTY other countries have already sent in rescue planes to evacuate their citizens. Twenty. Including nations that we might consider "lesser" nations than mighty America. 

Nigeria, for instance. But not the USA. Oh, no. If you're an American citizen trapped in a cellar in Jerusalem, hunker down, boy. "We stand with Israel" doesn't mean we care about you.

This is a perfect opportunity for a presidential candidate to show that "our thoughts and prayers" are not enough. YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING. 

For those few of you old enough to remember, billionaire H. Ross Perot flew a Boeing 707 full of badly needed supplies to North Vietnam in the middle of a war just to help our POWs. To help them. I'll never forget that gesture of compassion, paid for out of his own pocket.

So Trump, out of your own pocket. DeSantis, on behalf of the State of Florida. Or any American billionaire anywhere. The time has come for you to share your riches. I'm talking to you, Jeff Bezos, and you, Larry Ellison, Warren Buffett, Larry Page, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. You each have more than one hundred billion dollars! That's $100,000,000,000 for those of you who don't know how many zeroes it is. 

Okay, ride into space, that's fine and fun. But do something merciful here on earth, too. Help some stranded Americans get home alive. It's not too much to ask. It's one small gesture. 

Charter a plane or two, stock them up, send them over, bring our brothers and sisters home. Our government isn't doing doing it yet, but the need is immediate and critical. You won't even miss the couple hunded thousand dollars it will cost you.

Call me. 541-767-2659. I'll donate the first hundred bucks.





Thursday, September 28, 2023

The National Debt, Redux

I haven't written about the national debt in a while. I wrote about it several times in my old blog, Alibiforignorance.blogspot.com. Just search for debt and you'll find a host of my scribblings.

You remember (the) Simpson-Bowles (Commission), don't you?
"The final plan, released on December 1, 2010 reduced the federal deficit by nearly $4 trillion, stabilizing the growth of debt held by the public by 2014, reduce debt 60% by 2023 and 40% by 2035. The deficit would be eliminated by 2035." (Thank you, Wiki.)

It wasn't implemented because it couldn't get a super majority in committee. Too bad. If you go to my aforementioned blog, search for the post "The National Debt... and Us." It's one of my best.

The gummint spent $1.45 TRILLION more than it took in from all sources in FY 2022.
In 1981, the national debt was $908 BILLION
Today, 2023, the national debt is $33 TRILLION

Now, we're OVERspending an amount that exceeds by 150% the amount of national debt the yeyar my daughter was born. In other words, within living memory

NB: There's not enough money IN THE WORLD to pay off our debt.

If you owed someone more than you could pay, what would you do? Maybe you would sell some of your assets, the ones your creditors want the most. Your vacation home, your second Tesla, your gold bars (Thank you, Sen. Menendez). Anything to stave off hungry creditors.

What has President Biden done? Well, he sold off land near our military bases, or allowed it to be sold, in violation of national policy. He (and some of his forebearers) have looted the Federal Pension Reserve. There was real money there but they promised to repay it. How's that going, federal pensioners? Seen any repayments? He and Congress have done NOTHING to cut back on discretionary spending.

They can, of course. They just won't. Remember the money you couldn't repay? Well, you could cut down your discretionary spending, couldn't you? Wouldn't that free up some cash? Why can't the gummint do that? Well, the first thing you'll hear is that a large part of gummint money is untouchable. Nice touch, that.
But not ALL of the gummint's money is untouchable. They can cut back on SOME of it, can't they? Yes, they can, but they won't. Don't see the need. They might want to give some of it away to buy votes in swing states. Keep your eye out for large sums of money going to swing states in the next 14 months. You'll know why. 

You'll also see government agencies scrambling to spend any leftover money in their budget. Have to, they say, or they might not get as much next year. 'Oh, dear, our budget might get cut. Can't have that. SPEND!"

Stay tuned. I'm going to post something about MY plan for reducing the national debt. Until next time, I'm your humble correspondent.

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Biden Visits Lahaina

Biden Visits Lahaina


"Oh, you poor Lahainers. (Well, who knows, Jill?) Here's $700 for every single house. Yes, sign up at that table and tell us where to mail it. 

"Oh. What? What happened? A fire? Is that what this was? Hot, I bet. And dirty, too. And kinda crunchy. Cap'n Crunch, get it? Are those bones? Where'd the houses go?

"I used to eat Cap'n Crunch when I was growing up here on the island. Big pirate on the box? Parrott? Was there a parrott, Jill? I love parrotts, could talk about them for hours. OK, I'm back. Never left. Before, you know, the big, um, what do they call it? Oh, thanks Jill. Hurricane.

"A few of you walk with me and pretend we're talking. Jill and I gotta be wheels up in two hours. Give my people your particulars and we'll have someone deliver the checks. To where? Where? That's not my problem. See my people. We gotta get back to Lake Tahoe in ninety minutes. No joke.

"On the way to the airport we're going to stop at the FEMA conference in Kaanapali. Costs that agency $1,500 bucks a day and more per person to stay there with all those pools and spas, plus meals!  I bet they're good, those meals. No Cap'n Crunch, probably. 

"I wonder if I could get a chocolate chip ice cream cone? Hey, you, have one waiting at FEMA. Yeah, I can order things like that. I forgot. Convenient as hell, being president.

"FEMA's only gonna be there a week, though, unless they extend, which I think they are gonna do. They're entitled. Thank God Kaanapali was spared and we can get the hell out of here and, uhhh, oh yeah, that FEMA is still with us. They've got a lot of emergencies to manage. Maybe those Lahainers could volunteer to help 'em, do you think, Jill? Or maybe pay 'em a little?"