America - Fact vs Fiction

I have been thinking about terrorism a bit and things do not add up. We are supposed to, according to the media, the President, and assorted pundits, be terrified. Instead, lets be rational. I know that is nearly unthinkable these days, but come on and give it a try; it'll be fun.

In the dark period after 9/11, not a whole lot happened in this country. The, in London, Madrid and Indonesia, there were horrific bombings, carried out in a sophisticated style by Al Qaida Okay, things got a bit scary. Here in the USA, we had some failed efforts. Look at them. About the most serious was 'the Underwear Bombe, who, as it turned out could not even blow up his own underwear. Since then, we have had a few multiple shootings and a few knife attacks. Awful? Yes, but remember a few things. We have for the last 50 years been plagued by mass and serial killings. Does  no one remember Charles Whitman, Richard Speck, Manson, the Son of Sam and the Zodiac Killer. Ted Bundy? The Green River killer and the Hillside Stranglers. The point is, for reasons never known, (actually, we have fairly good idea what happened, but this is not the place for that discussion)Americans were slaughtering each other at a furious clip before we heard of Islamic Terrorists. In fact, the monsters just mentioned were far more effective at their ghoulish business than any of our recent terrorist have ever dreamed of being.

Look at recent attacks in England. They were, of course, horrible, but think a minute. There was one bomb in one attack. The other 2 involved guys in vans, plowing into crowds and then waving knives around. Really? Is that the best the dreaded ISIS can do" Then. look at Sandy Hook and Columbine where kids walked in armed to the teeth and killed a lot of other kids.

Yet, instead of coming to grips with the causes of this manic urge some have to randomly kill their fellow humans, we immediately start dropping vast amounts of bombs on the Middle East.
Yes, ISIS and their kind are based in Islamic lands but no one in anything resembling their right mind, believes that all Moslems living in Europe and America want to kill all Westerners. Some of these folks have lived among us for long years and gotten along just fine.

And no number of bombs dropped, which by the way have killed 10s of 1000s of innocent people, can explain our own, homegrown, monstrous killers. Even the monster who killed the folks at the gay club in Orlando seemed more upset by his own closeted sexuality that ant Western oppression, and, we should remember, he was a US citizen.

I have made it clear that I am not fond of importing people from Islamic lands but that his because of costs and culture shock, not fear that they will kill us all.

Who should we be nervous about? A seldom mentioned group, the White Supremacists, the Militia groups, the neo-Nazis and Klan. These people are heavily armed, fiercely violent, and pretty well organized and they are becoming more vocal every day. If you think they are not dangerous, remember the Oklahoma City bombings. We fight in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan while ignoring the monsters we ar breeding at home.

America and the Latest Bombing - Enough is Enough

Well, it's happened again. Another terror attack in the USA. Blessedly, no one has been killed but, come on, enough already.

First, let's get politics out of the way. Ms. Clinton came on, after the first explosion and cautioned that we had to wait for confirmation that it was a bomb. Now, I have not heard and seen everything, but I don't think that I am the only one who has never heard of a dumpster flying through the air, spewing shrapnel, without the aid of a bomb. In addition, her demeanor was deplorable. She looked bored to tears and annoyed that she was being disturbed. She is not fit to be President.

Second, the events that have just unfolded leading to the capture of the suspect. We are told that he left finger prints, DNA and a traceable cell phone. Since he was not a suicide bomber, he must have been exceptionally incompetent, or, something funny is going on. Also, he was seen sleeping in the doorway of a bar, began shooting, then got in a car and drove off, only to stop a short while later and start another shootout. If he had a car, why was he sleeping in a doorway? Did someone pick hum up? Something very funny is happening and we likely will never get a straight answer.

It seems that authorities had knowledge of this man and had watched him a bit. That is what we heard about the Orlando shooter and the San Bernardino shooter. Again, something is wrong.

Do we not have enough cops to watch people? Do we need money to hire more? If so, then why the hell don't we stop spending countless billions to make Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria safe? Why are we defending S. Korea? They are a prosperous nation, let them defend themselves. And, why are we keeping NATO forces? Do we really think Putin is going to invade Germany? Hell, he hasn't even invaded the Ukraine and seems rather timid about doing so. If we cannot make our own Nation at least relatively safe, why do we think we can safeguard Nations that don't even like us?

Or, is all of this just a game? A very deadly shadow play of smoke and mirrors designed to keep us all off balance and on edge, and, thus in line. Will all of this be a pretense for gun control and a tightening, if not outright censorship, severe censorship. of the internet? Or, are our current batch of leaders just a band of totally inept buffoons, a confederacy of nincompoops who cannot do a damn thing, unless you dangle a bundle of cash in front of them. Enough is enough.

My advice? Sit tight, hold what you have, roll with whatever punches get thrown at you and be ready for anything. For now, vaya con Dios, mi amigos.

America, Terror, and Orlando

I had to think a bit about the horror in Orlando before writing. The entire incident is just weird. Something is missing from the narrative we are being given. Oh well, more and more, I get the feeling that we are not being told even a fraction of the whole story.

Let's start with the killer's job, security. Those guys are supposed to be carefully screened and in his case, he had worked for a pretty high level company. Well, being questioned twice by the FBI should have showed up on his background check and raised a caution flag, but I guess not. Second, what kind of security did this club have? In this day and age I am afraid all clubs are going to need professional, armed security. Sorry, that's just the way things are now. Third, how can 1 person, even armed, subdue 300. I know that among the folks I have known, if it seemed likely that we were about to get shot, we would have moved on the guy. Yes, some would still get shot but they were anyway. If a lot of people move at the shooter from all directions, some will get through and be able to subdue him (you can't shoot in 3 directions at once). Fewer would have died.

But, all that aside, let's talk about how to prevent future such events. Some say gun control. Let's be clear. You will never eliminate guns in our society. They are now an ingrained part of American society. There are just too many of them. Any idea that everybody will turn theirs in is foolish and any thought of the Government confiscating them is dangerous since many gun owners will use those guns to keep them. Make them illegal and people will simply find illegal sources, like they do with drugs (we all know how well that war on drugs has gone).

Tolerance of those who differ from the norm would be useful and there is some movement in that direction. That is a very good thing but such change is slow. That's just the way humans are and it is not helped when you have people clinging to archaic belief systems. The killer seems to have deliberately targeted a gay club. Well, the kind of extreme Islamic beliefs he chose to follow teaches that gays should be killed, but, lest anyone lay this solely at the feet of Islam, let me remind one and all that there are still a few extreme Christian sects who feel the same way, thankfully fewer all the time but, still some.

William Burroughs said that by the time a situation had become a problem, there was no good solution, you just had to let the scenario play itself out. Maybe he was right. All I can suggest is that everyone use a bit of caution. Watch your surroundings, learn a few ways of defending yourself, and be ready  to call authorities any time you see something weird going on. That sounds really lame. It is, but for the life of me, I cannot come up with anything better, in the short run.

In the long run? We need to examine the 'whys' behind terrorism. Not the politics, but the mind set that seems to keep turning out these terrorists. That's what the next post will deal with. I think I have an idea that may be worth considering. 

Americans Paying Attention to What Matters

I was wrong. It happens every now and then but this surprised me, pleasantly so. It seems that exit polls in Wisconsin show that terrorism is not the main concern of voters. I believed that the recent bombings in Belgium would trigger a reaction in the US but, no.

It seems that the economy is the key issue. Both Parties agree that the stagnant economy is a big problem. Republicans are second most concerned with high taxes while Democrats are upset about the rapidly increasing disparity between the rich and the rest of us. In both Parties, terrorism is third.

I was sure terrorism would be the big thing and push a surge toward the tough talking Cruz or the even tougher talking Trump. I am very pleased that Americans are keeping their eye on the ball and not falling for distractions.

There are many who would argue that terrorist incidents are not solely the work of those proclaiming themselves terrorists. We know, without question, that the CIA (not the whole Agency but rogue elements within it) created Al Qaida and the Taliban, and there is  considerable evidence that they have some kind of contact with ISIL Some think that these incidents are set up just to elicit a panic response from ordinary citizens, which will, in turn pave the way to tighter government control. Maybe, but I do not think so. I am sure of the CIAs manipulation of Al Qaida and the Taliban but I think that ISIL is like the Frankenstein monster, morphing from its parent organizations into something no one controls. Having said that, I am positive that the Powers that run things love to take advantage of these monstrous attacks to tighten their noose of control.

Of course the saner elements of our Nation and the rest of the World are concerned about terrorism and do what can be done to stop it but, to be honest, if people are willing to blow themselves to bits in order to kill a few others, there really is not a hell of a lot anyone can do and what can be done, pretty much is being done. No doubt it can be done better, but such efforts will never be 100% effective.

In the meantime, we all have lives to live and, quite rightly, we need to get a grip on our fairly dead economy. The American people are not panicking over terrorism and are focusing on matters that concern them on an every day basis. I am pleasantly surprised.

America: Calm Down

I think, and I can be as guilty as anyone, that we occasionally, well, okay, quite often, get a mite hysterical. On and on go our politicians and news pundits about the dangers of terrorism. I want you consider a few things.

First, the nature of terrorism. We seem to think that this phenomenon has sprung, fully grown, in the recent years. No, it is old, very old. At the time of the Crusades, there was a group who specialized in terrorist actions and assassinations. It was formed out of one of the many strange offshoots of Islam and was run by Hassan I Sabbah, the Old Man of the Mountain. He, using a slick mind control technique that involved promises of eternal pleasure, mixed with heavy doses of hashish, programmed hit squads which sent terror into the hearts of all who opposed them. They were called Assassins, from the word hashish.

The Vietnamese defeated the Mongols by planting booby traps and picking off soldiers caught in them. Native Americans waged a constant series of harassing attacks against settlers which we, today, world call terrorism. Heck, the war we fought against the British in 1776 was a campaign of terror, beginning with the Boston Tea Party.

Anytime a small force fights a larger and stronger one, they can only do so through acts of terror, quick raids, planted explosives, kidnapping, harassing attacks. This is a simple tactic and, objectively speaking, it's a darn effective one.

However, it only works if the party attacked loses perspective, if they panic. Al Qaida, or whoever, the facts are a bit cloudy, but let's go with the official story for the sake of argument, destroyed the World Trade Center. It was a horrific act. But, then, not much. Yes, here and there, there have been attacks in other countries, and that is a horror that should be stopped, but, here, in the US? Again, not much.

There have been more incidents of domestic terror than those perpetrated by radical Islam. We tend to forget the Oklahoma City bombing, the Atlanta Olympics bombing, the many abortion clinics blown up and the DC Snipers. We forget the Weather Underground bombings of the 60s, which might have been worse had they not blown themselves up.

From Al Qaida, since 9/11? Nothing but talk. Now, we are beset with the threats of ISIL. So far? One attack by two people who sympathized with ISIL and managed to kill 14 and wound 17. I am not in the least making light of that horror but, that's 31 people out of a Nation of 350,000,000. Cause for concern? Yes, of course. But, reason to panic, to run frantically in circles, bemoaning the fate of the Land. No. We will not succumb to such organizations. We may succumb to our own greed, sloth and stupidity, but not to terrorism, unless we turn a blind eye to the most dangerous groups in the Land. I am speaking of the White Supremacist/Christian Identity Groups. They have been fairly quiet but do not, for an instant, think we have heard the last of them.

What happens in America When the Lights Go Out

I love technology. I love the conveniences of modern life. But, stop and think a minute. we are now almost entirely dependent on a web of electrical connections. This morning I was in a Walmart and the registers went off line. You might have thought that the Apocalypse had just been announced, and that was just a temporary glitch.

Webs, by their very nature, are delicate things. Well, you might say, there are always backups to everything on the Internet and many ways to rout power around the electrical grids. True enough, but not foolproof.

Recently, Russian subs were seen hovering in the Atlantic near the undersea cables that link the Internet. Now, Putin is a trickster and seems to greatly enjoy tormenting us, but what if, in some kind of snit, he ordered those cables destroyed. Or worse, what if one of the many terrorist groups got hold of a sub and started hacking at those cables. How would businesses and cities cope?

Worse yet, suppose a terrorist group finally gets its hands on a nuclear device, a big one. Then suppose that they found a plane big enough to deliver it or a missile that can carry it (and that they can control). Or suppose China, which has such capabilities, decides they are just fed up with the way the World is going. The sensible thing to do with such a weapon, if you only have one, is not to hit a land target, but to detonate it in the upper atmosphere. The electromagnetic pulse would fry every circuit on Earth. No Internet, no communications, no electricity.

Or Nature may get testy. We are protected from solar flares by our electromagnetic field. From time to time, that field shifts and weakens. If our Sun releases a flare at one of those times, again, all circuits are gone (not too mention a whole lot of other problems. for now, let's stick to electrical woes).

Of course there are generators, but those will not do a lot of good if all the circuits are fried and rewiring complex systems is a lengthy process.

None of these scenarios are all that far fetched. So again I ask you, what would you do? I can guarantee that very few would be ready for that. Heck, I am not sure most people can even make change in a store without the register telling them what to do. But, there are a few basic skills that anyone can and should learn. I am not talking about becoming a hard-core survivalist, just becoming marginally competent in working without power, skills that most people had not all that long ago. In future bogs, I am going to give a few tips.

Is Paris Burning - Part 3

9/11 changed everything, but we need to remember its roots. Step back to the days of the Carter White House when the Soviet Union did something that I still don't understand, they invaded Afghanistan. The reason I always have heard is that they wished to build and control an oil pipeline across that poor country. That would make sense except that Russia has fine ports on the Black Sea and can move all the oil it wants through there. But, whether it makes sense or not, they did it. We, of course were upset, but we had no intention of starting WW3 over this so we used an old tactic. We got another group to do our fighting.

Our CIA began financing and training the Afghani Mujahedeen, which later became known as the Taliban. However, they were woefully outmanned so we got them help. Remember earlier, I mentioned Egypt's Moslem Brotherhood. After WW2, we took over the Nazi intelligence network. This is not 'conspiracy theory,' our government acknowledges this. They hated us and we hated them, but that never stopped groups from working together, so we armed and trained them and sent them to Afghanistan. One particular recruit stood out, a Saudi named Osama ben Lauden. We did get them to change their name, since the Moslem Brotherhood was not much loved. They became al-Qaida. They did the impossible, they fought and finally ousted the Soviet troops. We were thrilled with this and offered to help modernize that backward country. They said, no thanks and told us to leave and told us that while we were at it, we should just get out of every Islamic nation. It seems that while they love some modern appliances, they want to keep their people's minds back in the 10th century. We, of course disagreed and here is where things got really weird.

Kuwait owed Sadam money and Iraq was broke, so he decided to use force to get his cash, not a surprising tactic for a thug. Bush 1, himself a CIA man, invaded, showed the world our muscle, and left. I think that was the only point, a display of power. At least he then pulled out, but the damage was done.

In the meantime, Israel was still fighting with the Palestinians, Iran began working on its nuclear program, and throughout the rest of the Islamic world, leaders still lived high and seemed to delight in brutalizing their people. Libya funded some terrorist activities, as did the Saudis and the UAE. Then, while Clinton was in office, a plot to bomb the World Trade Towers was foiled. Of course the would be bombers were Islamic and tensions just kept climbing. Then, shortly after Bush 2 took over, the planes hit the Twin Towers.

We likely will never know exactly what happened on that day, but no one in their right mind buys the official story. We know that a lot of good intelligence was ignored, or at least down played. Some suggest that there was more going than this obvious incompetence. Were there US Government officials involved in this attack? I don't think so, not in the way most think of the government, but we have long known that there are people who function in a shadow world behind the Government and they believe that the ends justify the means. They will advance their agenda at any cost and they seem to be able to stop the overt government from exposing them, probably through bribes, blackmail and just plain threats. Remember, and these are things we know, not suspicions, that certain elements in the CIA ran heroin from SE Asia to fund Cuban exiles opposing Castro and we know Ollie North and his merry band flew mountains of cocaine into Mena, Arkansas to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. We also know that, in violation of International Treaties, these same folks have sponsored coups and carried out assassination's in countries such as Guatemala, the Congo, and Chile. I am not saying that all of the CIA or all of Military Intelligence are involved in black ops, but there is a certain rogue faction.

However, because we just don't know enough, let's pretend to believe the official story of 9/11.  Responsibility was claimed by al-Qaida. After a brief period of negotiation with the Taliban, who turned down our request for them to turn over ben Lauden, we invaded, and have been there ever since. We are still fighting against a determined group of Afghanis, forgetting how much these folks love to fight. So far, we have gained only one thing, cheap heroin.

When the Taliban threw out the Soviets, they destroyed the poppy fields, wanting nothing to do with the heroin trade. When we invaded, they replanted, understandable since they had to fund the fight somehow. At the same time, drug manufacturers in this country began pushing a new pain killer, OxyContin, saying that is was nor only effective, it had almost no risk of addiction. They knew that was nonsense since, in fact, it was an old drug, invented by the Germans in the 30s. It was then called Eukodol and it was known to be horribly addictive. Oddly enough, when the cheap heroin started hitting American streets, doctors suddenly realized that Oxy was awful and cut way back on prescriptions, leaving a lot of strung out citizens hunting relief. Well, there it was cheap, easily available heroin and it is a seldom mentioned, but extremely serious problem. Junkies are no longer ghetto dwellers and old hippies, Grandma and Grandpa and suburban parents are often strung out and, again, this nightmare is pretty much ignored by our news media.

At about the same time, we blamed Sadam for the attacks. This must have surprised him, since he hated ben Lauden. We also swore that he had the infamous weapons-of-mass-destruction. Setting aside the fact that we gave him those weapons, we knew that he had used up his supply in the attacks on the Iranians and the Kurds. He allowed UN inspectors in, they said that there were no such weapons present. Bush 2 said that he just didn't believe that and in we went. We seemed to have won until a strange thing happened. Our old buddies al-Qaida set up shop in Iraq and started a seemingly endless string of bombings. We finally were asked by the Iraqi government to leave and we did, sort of, and it seemed that maybe things would die down.

Across the Islamic world, things were not calm. In Africa, Boko Haram reared its head. However, this area has seen so much horrific tribal conflict, that their activities probably seemed like business as usual, and, to be blunt, Americans are not much concerned with Africa. Arab countries, oddly, all seemed to, at the same time, rose up and threw out old dictators. I am sure al-Qaida had a large hand in this, and the people were successful. However, they had not thought past revolution and these countries are all now chaotic messes. The Saudis and the UAE have held on by continuing to brutalize their population and Iran, while beset with internal conflict, has kept a lid on their simmering citizens. In Syria, however, Assad has hung tough. And then, up popped the Devil.

While al-Qaida still was effective in pulling off small actions, it was fading a bit. Since their glory days of 9/11, the Madrid train bombings and the London attacks, they had done nothing spectacular. The came ISIL, a fresh, young and, to give the Devil his due, very effective group of brutal psychopaths. They know how to use social media to recruit, how to rapidly train and deploy those recruits and they can really make videos that appeal to budding, murderous creeps. They have taken large chunks of Iraq, even larger chunks of Syria and have extended their reach into Europe. This brings us up to the current attack on Paris.

There are those who say that we control al-Qaida and ISIL, that this is all a set up by US intelligence to justify military action and foment terror in the land. I don't believe this. For sure, we created al-Qaida, just as Victor Frankenstein created his monster. Like the doctor, we have lost control of our monster, don't know how to kill it, and it wants to kill its creator. There may be, in fact it is likely that, there are a few deep black ops people who have a hand in this, but I don't think you can lay this madness at the feet of the CIA or Military Intelligence. You can however deplore their lack of any ability to get a grip on this nightmare.

We are learning that ISIL has operatives in much of the Middle East, Europe, and SW Asia. They are responsible for bringing down a Russian airliner, and there is no doubt that they are recruiting in the lands south of Russia, countries like Chechnya, where there is long standing animosity toward the Russians. There is also no doubt that they are in America and that they are coming after us.

In the next part, we will look at the deep reasons why all of this mess has gone on so long and why it keeps getting worse, but I have to make one comment first. If you look around the Internet, you will see the term 'false flag' tossed around. This means that the event in question was phony, that it was just a sham to scare people, or that the accusing party actually did the deed and is framing the other group. Do not fall for that. These attacks are real, people were slaughtered. Are there phony events? Occasionally, sure, but rarely, because if they are ever exposed, the parties responsible lose the power to shock and remember, this is all about power. Besides, it is easier to let a bunch of psychos carry out a real attack than it is to stage a fake, especially when you have no qualms about letting a bunch of folks get killed. Plus, there are plenty of murderous lunatics ready to kill.

Is Paris Burning? and is America Next

Is Paris burning is the question Hitler asked after the Nazi invasion of France and the question is now relevant again. For the first time since WW2, the borders of France were closed and the country is all but under military rule. This is perfectly understandable in the wake of the most recent nightmare of terror.

I was going to write about business in America, but that can wait. Americans need to come to grips with the world's reality. To do that we need to understand history.

The world has been a bloody mess since, well, the beginning of the human race. Wars of conquest have been the rule since a few men decided that they should take charge of the tribes they lived in. Why? Power, something far more addictive than heroin.  Why should that be? I am sure Freudians would search personal histories for clues, while Jungians would cite over identification with archetypes. Hindus would say that some people get stuck in a lower chakra and Eric von Danikkan would blame Ancient Aliens. David Ickes and his ilk would say that power mad rulers carry alien blood and are really Reptilian Shape-shifters. Staunch Christians would blame the Prince of Darkness and tell tales of Satanic rites. Personally, I do believe dark spirits are influencing the power mad, but we, for now at least, stay on the Earth and in the four dimensions of space and time.

For this discussion we will stick to the Middle East. Long ago, city states formed and quickly began to fight over territory, eventually evolving into Empires. Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Hittites, all rose and fell. What is seldom mentioned is the continuing quarrelling among the smaller tribes. The large Empires cared little about internal fighting as long as they got their taxes. All of these smaller groups fought frequently, among them the Hebrews, Edomites, Moabites, Canaanites. All of the battles covered in the Bible were simply minor spats among neighboring tribes.

This idiotic fighting was not just restricted to the Levant. All through an area stretching from Mediterranean to Kashmir and north to Southern Russia. Greece, Persia and Rome conquered the whole mess and imposed a very uneasy peace. However, no empire lasts and after the slow fall of Rome, Islam took control. As to be expected, all sides in this never ending tribal conflict jockeyed for position, factions rose and fell, and eventually, as we entered the modern era, the Ottoman Empire took over the region. Yes, I know this is a very simple view of a massively complex history, but I do not intend to spend the rest of my life on this, and to be honest, this sketchy background is enough to set the stage for more modern developments.

Oil has been the king of commodities for well over a century and for some reason, millions of years ago, many dinosaurs very courteously decided to die in the Middle East and leave an ocean of oil under the sand. The British quite kindly offered to start removing it and in the ancient land of Persia, started drilling. A few years later, WW1 broke out and here is where things started getting weird.

Germany was kicking English rear end and England wanted the US to bail them out, however, President Wilson had twice promised to keep us out. The German House of Rothschild Bank contacted a British leader and said, hey, we know a close advisor of Wilson who will change his mind if you English will promise to create a Jewish state in Palestine. Thus was born the Balfour resolution.

After the war, which the US did enter and win, the world descended into the Great Depression and the resolution was put on hold. Germany found out what Rothschild had pulled and, understandably upset, started restricting Jewish financial activity. Jews responded by instigating a world wide boycott of German products, which was very effective and hurt the already crippled German economy. This fed the fire that was being set by one of histories true madmen, Adolf Hitler, who played the German people like a fine violin and WW2 and the Holocaust followed.

Oddly enough, during WW2, a group of Muslims, the Muslim Brotherhood, fell in love with der Fuhrer, and the first of the radical Islamic groups was born.

There you have a basic and overly simple view of what started our current wave of madness, In the next installment, we will look at the rise of extremism and the role the US played in all of this. We are certainly not blameless.