The Martinshushu Blog

The Day of Wonder Woman

2017-07-05T17:10:00.002-07:00

The Day of Wonder Woman

by Jean Claire Dy

Now that the dust of the entertainment that is Wonder Woman has settled, I'm posting some thoughts...

What I think ails our society is the constant competition that is hoisted on women. Some fag hag used to say to me "everyday is a beauty pageant." And it is true, a woman is considered great if she can be EVERYTHING: Beautiful, strong, smart, and on top of that a womb bearer who can raise beautiful progeny. She has to be first and foremost a mother and not just one but the best one. All these other criteria and gender roles are important to follow lest you be judged as lacking.

So I understand that for some, the amazon or the real wonder woman is an image of Diana Prince in warrior attire and weapons and carrying babies. But there is a reason why the amazons never had babies. They were warriors. And they fulfilled that role to the best of their abilities sans men, sans children. And that is okay.

Child birth is a CHOICE. Motherhood is a choice. And all other roles should be choices. But MULTIPLE BURDEN isn't. In feminist and gender sensitivity talk, multiple burden is best imaged by exactly that picture of a female warrior carrying babies and possibly having more than one arm to do other things at the same time. All that reproductive and domestic and social work that's unpaid labor. Including other work and community management to ensure the survival of a family. Emotional labor as well.

What feminism tries to change is our own demands from women. To erase multiple burden, what is encourage is a sharing of load. So it is okay if say a woman is taking care of a baby, and the man does the household chores. Labor in all forms must be shared even fighting to save the world.

And you can still be called A WONDER.

Note about the author: Jean Claire Dy learned the craft of writing at the New School New York City. She has lived and travelled all over Asia and Europe and the Americas. Now she calls Mindanao, Philippines her base camp.

The Tomahawk War

2017-05-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

19th Century Native American Tomahawk

The Tomahawk War

Mick Kleber

Our federal legislators should be up in arms about Trump's un-Constitutional authorization of Tomahawk missile airstrikes against Syria without Congressional approval. While the strikes may have been morally justifiable, they were indisputably an act of war. But in our nation only Congress has the power to authorize such acts. The strikes were also in direct violation of the prohibition of unilateral attacks under the United Nations charter.

Granted, Presidents Truman (Korea), Clinton (Kosovo), Obama (Libya) and others have also violated the Constitutional process, but repeated violation does not make these acts legal. When the Assad regime used chemical weapons in 2013, President Obama followed the rules, asking Congress to authorize a U.S. military response. Congress demurred. Ironically, Donald Trump tweeted at the time: "The President must get Congressional approval before attacking Syria -- big mistake if he does not!" Yet Trump sought no Congressional approval and claimed that Obama's inaction was in part to blame for Assad's atrocities. Of course, self-serving hypocrisy is a sickening Trump trademark that now passes for business as usual.

Unfortunately, the majority of our Congressional "leaders" have given Trump a dangerously irresponsible pass on the un-Constitutional bombings because the general public believes Assad should be punished (no argument here). But the $80 million dollars worth of airstrikes failed without question to achieve that purpose.

Within hours the military airfield was back in operation because the strikes intentionally avoided damaging the runways. Secretary of State Tillerson confirmed that the attacks specifically targeted only Syrian aircraft -- 20 were destroyed, most of them non-operational -- and refueling capability, and that the timing of the strikes was intended to avoid human casualties. Of the 15 reported fatalities, nine were civilians in nearby villages, four of them children. The Pentagon confirmed that the Russians were warned an hour in advance of the strikes, and no Russian aircraft or personnel were at the airfield when the strikes took place. Syrian intelligence also received prior warning, and much of the facility's equipment was relocated prior to the attack.

Thus, the missile strikes were a totally symbolic show of force with no significant damage to Syria's airstrike capability and no other discernible tactical or strategic military effect. The White House and Tillerson subsequently stated that our national policy with regard to Syria remains unchanged.

Last week, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross jokingly characterized the strikes as free after-dinner entertainment at Trump's Mar-a-Lago summit with China's president Xi Jinping. Xi reportedly told Trump he understood the rationale for the airstrikes because children had been killed or injured by Assad's heinous indulgence in chemical warfare.

But the Chinese media immediately pegged the strikes as a blatant attempt by Trump to distance him from mounting accusations of a cozy bromance with Putin's regime. Subsequent statements by Trump and Tillerson that US-Russian relations are "probably at an all-time low" appeared to be an extension of this tactic. Many world leaders, as well as Congressional figures from both sides of the aisle, applauded the strikes, and media pundits have largely agreed that Trump succeeded in positioning himself as "more Presidential" and less pro-Russian.

Now several weeks later, has the Assad regime been weakened or chastened in any significant way by the airstrikes? No.

And is our country any safer? Just the opposite. Dangerous threats to our national security -- such as North Korea's impetuous Kim Jong-un and cagier players like Putin -- are only emboldened to use military force with impunity by what can convincingly be deemed an unlawful act of international aggression by the United States.

21st Century United States Navy Tomahawk

Bashar al-Assad

Note about the author: Mick Kleber is a graduate of both the United States Army and Yale University.

MAD Math and the Zero Sum Nuclear Weapons Game

2017-04-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

Resist

Today a political expert talking head on BBC said that President and Commander Donald Trump's attack on Bashar al-Assad's airfield in Syria was good because it shows any other opponents that Commander Trump is unpredictable. In other words no one can tell where or when Commander Trump may attack next.

This may be a good thing if a state of war existed between the United States of America and some other little nation like Syria or Iraq. No such war is declared. The really, really, really bad thing to consider for Commander Trump and his military is the effect of unpredictability on the mutually assured destruction strategy (MAD) still operative and current from the days of the Soviet Union.

For those who chose to forget, here's an excerpt as refresher from Wiki, "The strategic balance between the United States and Russia is becoming less stable, and the objective, technical possibility of a first strike by the United States is increasing. At a time of crisis, this instability could lead to an accidental nuclear war. For example, if Russia feared a U.S. nuclear attack, Moscow might make rash moves (such as putting its forces on alert) that would provoke a U.S. preemptive strike." Very smart scientists and mathematicians of the 1950's like RAND corporation’s Herman Kahn and MIT’s John Von Neumann engraved all the dogma of MAD. The whimsical Von Neumann created the acronym.

The whole thing is based on the zero sum game of nuclear weapons. Say side one has two thousand fifty megaton missiles and side two has about the same. If side one launches a first strike sending missiles at their side two opponent, side two will reply with more missiles and on and on until the missiles are all used, and thereby both sides are assured of destruction. The entire planet would of course be put into a nuclear winter and billions would die, but side one would be declared the winner by the few hiding out in some bunker in the mountains. Of course no sane human wants this scenario to happen… ever.

First strike refers to the act of launching thermonuclear missiles first. The dogma is math, and the math relies on perfection for a win. Actual nuclear war must be imperfect and corrupt and messy and emotionally intolerable. If a commander and the staff only consider the MAD math, the fog surrounding decision trees clear up. Some things throw askew the whole MAD math calculation like the numbers and accuracy of the missiles deployed by both sides of warriors. Notice the use of “game” for Tom Clancy who wrote about a “game changing” nuclear missile sub in his little scary book and movie called “The Hunt For Red October.” The Red October had a new kind of engine that can’t be detected allowing for a first strike capability. In the Wiki quote above note "instability.” Instability can also throw the MAD math into a tizzy and commanders and staff are more prone to make a mistake.

The new Trump doctrine of unpredictability is adding instability into the MAD math. Do the MAD math. Do we as a nation want an unstable warrior in the nuclear MAD math arena? The Trump doctrine edges our nation closer into just such a MAD math nuclear conflict. In the big game, the side two opponent, Russia considers a first strike as viable because of the instability of the side one commander, President Trump.

The game needs to end now.

Ground War in Vietnam as imagined by Francis Ford Coppola "Apocalypse Now" 1979
Sam Bottoms as Lance and Robert Duvall as Kilgore.
Kilgore- Smell that? You smell that?
Lance- What?
Kilgore- Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that.

Acts of War

2017-04-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

Wait a minute, please all Trump people and all republicans.

And here I thought the US Congress was the only way the US government and our nation could declare war?

Just now a story came on the news that President Trump ordered cruise missile strikes in Syria. That is an act of war.

A story was also posted that President Trump has decided to go it alone in dealing with North Korea? The North Koreans then launch a missile as President Trump meets with Xi Jinping of China. Another story came out that Assad gassed civilians in Syria! Looks like the Big Trump got conned by both Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad and Kim Jong-un. So the Big Trump blamed it all on Obama.

Neither Donald Trump nor Mike Pence nor Mitch McConnell nor Paul Ryan has ever served one day in active military service to America. They know nothing about security. No republican since George Bush, Senior or Eisenhower has had a clue about security or how to carry on a war. Look at Iraq since 9/11. Look at Afghanistan. It is not Obama who set up the war in those places. It was republican egotists. Remember Donald Rumsfeld’s unforgettable media line “Shock and Awe!” used to describe the bombings and killings of thousands of civilians and enemy soldiers. Ike had respect for the dead. Rumsfeld and Cheney and the Bush gang did not. The Trump and Pence gang have even less integrity. In the Pay-Per-Vote™ Congress the budget for “defense” spending grows geometrically.

Now, why is there so much anger these days? And stupidity? Sadly, blindly, millions voted their anger and their stupids. Is this the reason we have little but falsehood and fake Christian dogma coming from the White House media muppets.

And the other day someone said, "What exactly is the 'Christian dogma?' No doubt I would prefer Christian dogma to Islamic dogma any day."

Martin Pitts reply, "You are correct. Any fool can see it must be better to be burned at the stake than to be beheaded."

Because of bags of money in our elections and enraptured leaders, 21st Century America is both a 20th Century Banana Republic and a bigoted human rights wasteland. Money talks and ethics walks for the republicans and all of their shills in the Pay-Per-Vote™ Congress, the Courts and in state governments!

What would a trickle down originalist like Judge Neil Gorsuch say about this? Syria did not attack us. Syria and Assad are killing their own people, not ours. The International Court of Justice (Cour internationale de justice) at the Hague in the Netherlands is empowered to prosecute war criminals like Bashar al-Assad. Both the USA and Russia are signatories at the ICJ, since 1945. It is treason to carry out a war without the direct declaration of the US Congress.

The US Constitution Article I Section. 8.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

…

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

…

Tchoupitoulas Street Uptown New Orleans 1968
Vietnam War Military Ambulances ready for lading
Photo Copyright © 1969 Martin Pitts

Boosting Neil Gorsuch

2017-04-04T23:08:00.000-07:00

Neither the mouse nor the corporation is a human.

Do god and Paper Citizens we call corporations have human rights?

A staunch warrior for the dogma of corporate Paper Citizens and everything libertarian and god and trickle down justice, Neil Gorsuch is soon be inserted into our Supreme Court.

The other never ending booster of corporate Paper Citizens, Justice Antonin Scalia is long gone. Scalia enjoyed gunshot killing small animals and hanging out in five star hotels on the tabs of the big money owners of corporate Paper Citizens. As solemnly promised to all the god and libertarian cults last fall, the Trump White House PR Hive worked successfully on to install Neil Gorsuch as a great and biblical replacement. The other day the White House PR Hive proclaimed that Scalia was not recognized for legal scholarship like the precisely positioned Chief Justice Roberts. But here now is a sterling silver-haired medallion for the best of the best libertarian and god judicial savants, Neil Gorsuch.

Since the Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific decision of 1886 our nation's highest court has continuously affirmed the idea of "Corporate Personhood" or corporate Paper Citizenship. In addition to recognition by the Supreme Court, a corporate Paper Citizen must be dutifully registered and birthed by the federal and state tax codes.  Libertarian and religious judges believe in the idea that a corporate Paper Citizen exists and thereby it must have a certain kind of right to life in court almost like a human. Perhaps Neil Gorsuch knows this with the same deep rapture with which he imagines god and Jesus during his prayers. Corporate Paper Citizens are secure in the codices of our common law America. And as a sacred public relations promise a big corporate Paper Citizen will allow justice and wealth to trickle down to the little humans in America.

Antonin Scalia and others on the court handed down the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission 558 U.S. 310 (2010) giving corporate Paper Citizens the untouchable right to spend as much money in our elections as they wish. Even worse any Paper Citizen can go and buy secretly thousands of hours of TV and Internet commercials for their favorite candidate. Because of it's mockery of fair play in our elections the Citizens United ruling has been compared to the ethical horror of the Dred Scott Decision of 1857 that reaffirmed slaves as property with no rights as citizens of the United States.

Antonin Scalia lived a very good life as a human
because he devoutly respected the canons of Paper Citizens.

A devout promise of trickle down justice and wealth by Paper Citizens is what Neil Gorsuch will extend for a few more decades on our Supreme Court. Yes, the rancid inviolate secrecy for bags of money in our elections is un-American and unethical. It may be time for those corporate Paper Citizens, those corporations, to register to vote at the booth and to come out of the Super PAC closets and do their duty as new Paper Citizens of the USA. Called up and anointed by the White House, Neil Gorsuch's primary mission is to secure even more power on paper for any corporation that votes with their bags of libertarian and god money. That money is the utmost power in our elections is an American tradition. Sadly, those corrupting bags of money inflate the power of the Paper Citizens. Corporate Paper Citizens can and do dishonor human rights with their bags of money. A regular citizen is not as equal as a Paper Citizen in our USA.

As an additional travesty of our democracy, the personal Neil Gorsuch is a John Birch Society Member. Dead-Eye Dick Cheney is a card carrying member. Papa Fred Koch of Koch Industries founded the John Birch Society. In the Civil Rights days of the old south 1960s everyone knew that if you scratch a Bircher in a suit and tie you'll find the dark rotten blood of a Klu Klux Klansman in a white sheet. Here's some ungodly lies on this poster from the Birchers that was circulated with Koch money around Dallas November 1963.

The White House PR Hive and the Power of Money

2017-03-17T21:44:00.002-07:00

Probable Cause in Glastonbury by Banksy

It is only a lie if the media PR Hive at the White House says it's a lie.  Lately the smell of lies like rotten seafood is all over the White House and the Capitol dome.

From artist Carol Leake, an old and dear friend in New Orleans, about the state of our government, “Actually, I think Paul Ryan is revealing his ideological obsession with getting rid of government.  New Orleanians had an up close and personal experience 12 1/2 years ago of how things go when government is sabotaged by republicans.  We never recovered.  At the time, I thought that the outing of the republican agenda would be the only silver lining that Katrina had to offer."  Why this destructive ideology from Speaker Ryan and most of the republican Congress?  Put aside the money for the Super PAC.  Put aside the aspirations of lobbyists like Grover Norquist and his bosses at the NRA who whisper in the ears of their shills like Speaker Ryan and Mitch McConnell.  Let's simply follow the taxes for the why.  

The carious Koch Brothers have their hands in bags of money for elections all over America.  So do hundreds of others with dogmas ranging from abject racist despotism to fake Christian boosterism.  Think checks and balances for a moment.  Look it up, especially if your elementary education was home bible school.  The Heritage Foundation and ALEC and the Cato Institute and the Fund for Growth and other billionaire funded PR pods for dogma, all have deeply influenced America for the past twenty years.  These billionaires literally have no check on their power of money.  If Charlie Koch wants burn a hundred square miles of Grand Teton National Park to get a better view for his place in Jackson Hole, he wants no one to tell him he can't do this!  His gigantic power of money is absolute.  But the Federal Government has guns and tanks and lawyers who are equal to Charlie's.  So Charlie is frustrated.  He talks to his boys at Heritage and Cato, "The highest goal is to eliminate taxes... all taxes!  We get rid of taxes and we get rid of my enemy, the government!"  Thereby they'll erase the power of government.  Government is the big boss!  Only government can tell Charlie what he can and cannot do.  Old Charlie will not tolerate this.  It becomes an obsession for any billionaire that some big government can tell them what to do.  If Charlie does not like it, he'll change it.  Look at the gas stations in Palm Springs.  There used to be all brands there.  But it now looks like old Charlie got rid of all the competition for his own little Valero Petrol brand.  It's practically a monopoly for Valero out there in the desert.  Charlie wants to get rid of that competing brand we call the government.  

Charlie Koch got all of this vision from his bible upbringing in Oklahoma and his study of Ayn Rand as a teenager.  To this day Ayn Rand's little books are like bibles for all those pubescent minded billionaires who need some pump-me-up with their morning cappuccinos and croissants.  When the caffeine kicks in Charlie Koch feels better about his life and his work, and he runs the glorious self-made man image of John Galt through his mind.  Christians in Nashville and Iowa do the same.  They repeat and repeat the image of a white boy blue-eyed Jesus doing powerful things in their minds.  Those things they could never do in reality because the government just would not allow it.  Therefore Charlie Koch and the Nashville Christians and the Iowa Christians have the same enemy, the government!  The government can't be more powerful than Jesus!  Jesus is the boss!  The government can't be more powerful than god!  God is the boss!  If the government acts like Jesus or god then we've got to destroy it!  Onward Christians soldiers!  But wait!  There's a problem here!  Our government has a plan.  It's called our constitution.  The people put this source in charge.  Not the money.  Not god or Jesus or John Galt or any billionaire including Charlie Koch and our President Big Trump and our US Congress and our White House crew.  The people have the power.  We are many more than you despite the enlargement of your power given you by your PR hives.  The people have the power.  
King Louis XVI was guillotined 
January 21st, 1793
The White House PR Hive

Senior Chief Petty Officer William Ryan Owens and the Cruelty of Big Time Media Tactics.

2017-03-04T19:05:00.001-08:00

Hey America, are you asleep? Wake up and let's examine that "Presidential speech" for the joint session of our Congress the other night. Most of the glowing reviews by print and broadcast journalists completely overlooked the fact that the speech was a cruel and heinous use of a dead soldier for media spin. There was nothing patriotic or brave about arranging the furious applause at President Donald Trump's mention of the grieving wife of a good soldier.

Trump's people flew wife Carryn Owens into Washington to bravely smile for the live feed C-SPAN and network video cameras in the chamber. This little piece of reality TV was a disgusting play out of some unknown publicity manual. The body of SCPO Owens became a shill for the Trump White House public relations strategy.

There's something very, very wrong about hundreds of smiling people standing and cheering over the battle death of a man in uniform. Trump intended the Yemen operation to further justify the continuing republican war to stoke fear in the people of his little banana republic of America. SCPO Owens was the first United States combatant to die under the authority of President Donald Trump as Commander-in-Chief. Repeat: There's something very, very wrong about hundreds of smiling people standing and cheering over the combat death of a man in uniform.

Only an enemy cheers the death of one of our own.

President Eisenhower said it many years ago, "The heart of darkest America is in the mid-west." Those dark hearts have now elected the Donald and the Pence based on the promise of stopping abortions. Because of deviant republicans we have been in a middle east war for over thirty years. Now the White House busboys and President Trump may want to extend the war to other borders!

Neither Donald Trump nor Mike Pence nor Mitch McConnell nor Paul Ryan have ever served one day in active military service to America. They know very little about real national security. No republican since Eisenhower seems to have had a clue about national security or how to carry on a war. Look at Iraq. Look at Afghanistan. It is not Obama who set up the war in those places. It was republican egotists. Remember Donald Rumsfeld’s unforgettable media line “Shock and Awe!” used to describe the bombings and killings of thousands of civilians and enemy soldiers.

Ike had respect for the dead. Rumsfeld and Cheney and the Bush gang did not. The Trump and Pence crew have even less integrity. For them war is a media tactic. Even worse, in the Pay-Per-Vote™ Congress the budget for “defense” spending grows geometrically while our national security remains in peril. Combat casualties are of little consequence compared to tithes for the Super PAC.

Senior Chief Petty Officer William Ryan Owens
March 5, 1980 - January 29, 2017
Rest in Peace CPO Owens

Both of SCPO Owens' parents were police officers in Florida. His Mother, Patricia Ann Treutle was a detective who died in 2013. Owens' father, William Owens is an honored military veteran.

The Chicago Tribune reported President Trump had a conversation with SCPO Owens' "relatives." So President Trump spoke to the Father and asked him to come up to D.C. with widow Carryn Owens for the grand meeting of Congress. The Father realized the potential cruelty of TV cameras and the media limelight at the joint session, and he refused to meet with President Trump. The Father asked for an investigation into his son's death.

"We're very comfortable with how the mission was executed and we'll let the Department of Defense go through that review process and then see where that leads us," White House press officer Sean Spicer stated soon afterwards.

When SCPO William Ryan Owens was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetary there was only scant coverage by the media. What more can we as a nation ask from this family? How President Trump and his staff and the US Congress contrived to squeeze cheap publicity from this family of true patriots is criminal and treasonous betrayal of all things American.

Secretary Betsy DeVos, "There's no free lunch!"

2017-02-26T18:12:00.000-08:00

Secretary Betsy DeVos
of the United States Department of Education

About the state of the public schools system in the USA, Secretary of the United States Department of Education Betsy DeVos said the other day, "There's no free lunch!" DeVos decreed that her Department of Education will erase free school lunches for poor kids. Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Paul Ryan of Wisconsin cuts funds for food stamps. The State of Arizona also cuts aid for kids. Meanwhile, the State of California votes funds to help end poverty. Thank you, California. As for those sadistic republicans in California who just say no to this: So you want more stupid people in your state? Then move to Mississippi or Texas or Kentucky or Wisconsin or Kansas. Protein deficiency in ages birth to three years old stunts mental development. Permanently! In the USA in the 1960s, Dr. Donald Gatch researched and proved this in South Carolina.

Hey Secretary DeVos! Say what you must for the White House media playbook, but remember that damaging our children is treason. How about the real damage caused by lack of food for millions of poor American children?

Do you understand this, Secretary DeVos and all the republican media muppets in our congress? If you cut funding for food stamps, you will starve those kids into stupidity for life. Their brains are damaged permanently by lack of food.

Read this Secretary DeVos. After all these years not much has changed for kids without a hedge fund in the USA. Look up the title “Still Hungry in America" and read it. The photographs were by USMC Veteran Al Clayton.

<http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1971/mar/11/the-hunger-doctor/>

The brutal racist politics of the times led to Dr. Gatch being seen as a pariah in his little community in South Carolina of the late 1960s. And he was getting noticed by the press in New York because of his work against hunger in early childhood. Fearing the media, the plebeian Congress of the United States of America investigated Dr. Gatch and his photographer, Al Clayton in a cliched and vain attempt to discredit the findings.

Not one to ignore a problem Dr. Gatch, "... complained of discriminatory medical practices against poor and black people: 'Well, just a typical example, a mother brought a nine-year-old girl to my office Monday. She apparently had had a ruptured appendix since Friday. We took her into the operating room. Again, I kinda snuck her in because it’s against the rules to admit a patient without money. And when we got her on the surgical table one of the surgeons said, without any comment especially, 'This child has rickets.' And when we got in the abdomen and were doing the appendectomy we found some roundworms. And he said, 'Of course, in these colored children the closer we get up the ilium in the stomach the more worms we will find because these kids don’t have much to eat.' And this is where they head, they get the food before the kids do, and whether the kid will live or not, I don’t know. The mother didn’t want to bring the kid to the doctor because she didn’t have any money."

Secretary DeVos has a yacht at her winter home in Florida. DeVos has a portfolio worth north of a billion dollars. Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin has a Leadership Super PAC and he can use that money any way he wants. Ryan could buy a condo in the Caymans or an apartment in Paris. Or just fly to Tahiti for a month vacation. Never over their entire sheltered lives have DeVos and Ryan needed food because they didn't have any money.

Secretary DeVos the Seal for your Department depicts a rising sun with a giant healthy oak tree that grew from a tiny acorn. Growth for kids can be stunted or it can be nurtured. This is not science. It only takes some caring by people in power and some food for kids to grow.

A Tapestry of Corruption: FBI Director James Comey and Exxon Mobil CEO Rex W. Tillerson and Russia.

2016-12-10T20:49:00.001-08:00

Exxon Mobil CEO Rex W. Tillerson Meets with Vladimir Putin 2012
Tillerson was awarded Russian Order of Friendship Medal
(Photo by premier.gov.ru)

The Order of Friendship Medal
Russian Federation

This is a complex tapestry of intertwined political corruption in the United States and in the Russian Federation.  So let's follow the chain of facts and see where they lead us.  It is now known that the Russians were hacking into some of the voting data for the Presidential Election of the USA this past November.  What was done by the Russians with the data is not known for sure.  FBI Director James Comey knew about the Russian corruption and hacking, but he kept it secret.  Apparently US Senate leader Mitch McConnell also knew of the Russian hacking.  Prior to the November voting, not one reporter in any news media anywhere mentioned that FBI Director James Comey was a lawyer for the failed US Senate republican investigation into Hillary Clinton's real estate legal work in Arkansas 1996 known as the Whitewater Committee.  Nothing unethical or illegal was found by the Committee after thousands of hours and millions of dollars of failed investigation just like the recent waste of money on the Benghazi murders.  So FBI Director James Comey was "investigating" Hillary Clinton for more than twenty years.  But FBI Director James Comey took the risk of committing a criminal violation of the Hatch Act when he went public with the old/new/Weiner emails.  So all you reporters out there, answer me this.  Who got to FBI Director James Comey and with what?  It looks like FBI Director James Comey may even be a mole for the Republican National Committee.  

Now look at the Republican nominee for Secretary of State, Rex W. Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil the biggest American oil company. In 2012 Tillerson travelled to Moscow for a meet with Valdimir Putin, now the Russian President for his third term. The Russian connection is important because of Putin's family business in Russian oil and gas companies like Gazprom and Rosneft. One thing to note here is the non-profit Putin Consulting Ltd. founded by Roman Putin, Vladimir's cousin and like his dear Uncle, once a KGB agent. Putin Consulting Ltd. promises businesses "special protection" while operating in Russia. Western investors do need advice navigating the sometimes arcane Russian business rules and practices. Even though it is non-profit, Putin Consulting Ltd. through Roman Putin owns an island in the Bahamas, vineyards in Napa Valley, California, other properties in Russia, a villa in London, UK, and a US$90 million yacht in Monaco. Vladimir Putin's personal wealth is unknown for sure, but has been estimated at US$ 40 billion. Even though his personal worth is less than Putin's, Tillerson as Exxon Mobil CEO controls about US$400 billion in assets.

Only on news shows this morning have reporters mentioned that in 2013 Tillerson returned to Russia and he was awarded the Russian Order of Friendship Medal by Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Not one reporter in any news media anywhere has mentioned that another historic person who got a Medal like that was a Cold War mole, George Blake (born George Behar November 11, 1922), the former British spy who worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union. Blake was discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison. Somehow Blake escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and safely fled to Russia, then the USSR. Another winner of note was Milorad Dodik, President of the Serbian Republic. In March 2016, Dodik named a student dormitory in Pale in honor of the wartime Serb leader Radovan Karadžić. The event took place only a few days before Karadžić was convicted for genocide, other war crimes and sex slavery by International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Only this morning have reporters mentioned that the actual reason for Russia getting in the middle of our election may be the economic sanctions we have in place because of Putin's Crimean take-over and Putin's invasion and continuing military operations in the Eastern Ukraine. If Putin can get those sanctions lifted then he and Tillerson can go forward on at least two separate deals with Tillerson and Exxon Mobil for drilling in the Russian Arctic and Exxon Neftegas Limited gas wells on Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East.

Not one reporter in any news media anywhere has mentioned that FBI Director James Comey wrote a sympathetic senior thesis paper on televangelist Jerry Falwell. Not one reporter in any news media anywhere has mentioned that maybe FBI Director James Comey was infused with Scalia law at the University of Chicago, the fountainhead for both trickle down justice and trickle down economics. Not one reporter in any news media anywhere has mentioned that FBI Director James Comey was on the Board of Directors for HSBC Holdings PLC until July 2013. HSBC was founded in Hong Kong in 1865 to service the British opium trade. Not one reporter in any news media anywhere has mentioned that until early 2013 HSBC Holdings was under investigation for money laundering for drug smuggling operations in Mexico and aiding countries like Iran and Sudan and North Korea to evade economic sanctions. HSBC was simply carrying on the highly profitable traditions of their founders.

So our tapestry displays patterns of giant oil companies and giant banking companies. The tapestry is not transparent. The tapestry is woven with very dark threads of corruption. These threads need to be unraveled to see the truth.

Flag of the Russian Federation

FBI Director, James Comey

Flag of the United States of America

The Rope-A-Dope Debate v1.0

2016-09-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

A peaceful protestor is maced by "Law and Order" security

at event for the Donald in San Jose last May 2016. Photo by CNN.

September 2015, at Trump Tower New York City

"Law and Order" security beats up a Mexican protestor. Photo by CNN.

Note the little cliché from last evening's Debate v1.0, "Law and Order!" Repeat, "Law and Order!" Repeat again, "Law and Order!" Clichés are not bad and TV shows and movies often like to use them as titles. Clichés are hooks for most advertising and for all political speech writers and thereby politicians like the Donald. During the Debate v1.0 recall, the Donald frowned a bit and faced us all with last election's cliché of fake "gravitas" or more correctly with an extended lower Wall Street pouting lip. Then he honks, "I have two words for you. Law and Order. Law and Order!"

Put aside that the phrase is actually three words. Let's talk about what the Donald meant to say. "Order" is the operative word in the phrase. That's order the old way we had in the civil rights times south and all over America. Black and brown people and women had their place or they certainly would suffer a dire penalty. "Law and Order" for our society is at the top of the minds of the people who adore the Donald. If some deranged soul violates "Law and Order" our police must put them in jail or maybe even simply gunshot murder them.

Sadly the Donald's "Law and Order" is the law and order of his security guards who beat up protesters in front of his ironclad Bauhaus home base in Manhattan. Other libertarian republican rallies for the Donald across America often had a violence that reminded me of the deadly concert in Altamont, California 1969 when a guy was stabbed to death by the anything goes security detail provided by Hells Angels, Oakland. In Debate v1.0, the Donald mentioned the terrible demonstrations and social unrest in his beloved Charlotte, North Carolina. For the Donald "Law and Order" would certainly prevent such "terrible" civil unrest. But the Donald made no mention of the reason for the riots in Charlotte. That a Charlotte cop gunshot lynched a black man had nothing to do with the Donald's "Law and Order."

Sure cops have a tough job and sometimes need to protect themselves from deadly force. But the good old tea party libertarian anything goes Donald wants police in America to be mostly unregulated. So one Police union gave him their loving endorsement. Hey Donald, even if you are a cop you need to obey "Law and Order" just like you say! But Donald, we have a constitution and the “Rule of Law” that's pretty good at protecting regular people from the abusive forces of tin pot brown shirts and murderous sociopaths. If we follow the "Rule of Law" rather than "Law and Order" our America would be a much better place. If our police follow “Rule of Law,” we can save thousands of lives from gunshot murder and thousands more from gunshot injury. We can respect each other, and we can genuinely deal with the corruption of some few of our police. So Donald and the tea party and the republican party listen up. We need to follow the better and less violent cliché, "Rule of Law" okay? In our America please understand that the “Rule of Law” overruled and supplanted the old cliché “Law and Order” back in 1781 when we drove the Redcoats out of our budding nation.

People raise arms pledging to vote for Trump
March 5, 2016 in Orlando. Photo from Slate.com.

“Heil Drumpf”
by the amazing and beloved Carol Leake of New Orleans.

All Democrats: Beware Turkey!

2016-07-24T20:40:00.001-07:00

His Excellency, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Beware Turkey.

For the coming months until the vote in November the desperate RNC back room spooks are going for the jugular of Hillary Clinton and the entire Democratic ticket. The spooks want a disaster either in the USA or anywhere really. That way the Donald can use the disaster as proof that the USA is going down the drain. Think about how they got their icon Ronald Reagan elected. Reagan or some spook of those days probably cut a deal with the Ayatollah in Iran to not free the hostages until the surrounding media could destroy Jimmy Carter's campaign.

Yes, the spooks and spin weenies have worked very hard for the Donald over the past year. They consider the Donald is the new Ronald. This sounds stupid, but we all know the tea party spooks don't care what we think. They just want the spin about "crooked and incompetent" Hillary Clinton to continue on and on and on until November.

So what sordid stuff is out there that can give the republicans what they really, really want? It looks like the most fertile ground is in Turkey and lies with the regime of His Excellency, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Erdoğan is literally locking up all the opposition because of a failed coup d'état. Generally the tea party faithful don’t care a whit about some dictatorship in Asia’s problems. But Turkey under Erdoğan is sliding more and more down the slope of hatred for America. His Excellency could transform into the iconic Mullah without the turban but spouting "Death to America!" The tea party faithful don’t really worry about that hatred either.

But within Islamic Law Turkey is one really big and exciting potential media typhoon. On US and NATO bases in Turkey are literally dozens of atomic weapons. Erdoğan may decide he needs the weapons to secure his regime. The resulting media storm would get those red state soldiers and god warriors out to the polls for another giant win for the Donald.

Beware. This could happen.

Brexit: What would David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve and Henry VIII say?

2016-06-26T15:28:00.001-07:00


David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve in 1982 Photo by Jean-Claude Deutsch

The photo above shows David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve in Tony Scott's "The Hunger" movie. She played an immortal vampire who wanted only blood from the handsome British man who carried a brutal torch for la belle dame sans merci. The next fall, David released his anthem for youth and romance, "Modern Love." The song foresees the angst of the Brexit vote.

...

Puts my trust in God and Man

(Chorus) God and Man

No confessions!

(Chorus) God and Man

No religion

(Chorus) God and Man

Don't believe In Modern Love

It's not really work

It's just the power to charm

I'm still standing in the wind

But I never wave bye bye

But I try, I try

Never gonna fall for

(Chorus) Modern Love

...

With deep sadness we know the brilliant and aware David Bowie is gone now. But we can say without doubt that both David and Catherine would be on the Remain side of the question. With their extraordinary artistry and planetary good looks they became international in a stratospheric sense.

Now let's look at Henry. Yes, for god and man, Henry VIII would have ordered the UK to vote to Exit. It is helpful to consider the entire Brexit movement as retro Henry without any actual beheadings. Please recall that Henry got all astir because the Pope in Rome wouldn’t grant him a divorce. In retort, Henry decided to start his own church and told the Pope to back off. The English people loved that ancient stiff upper lip. You can almost hear his resolve, "Hey Pope, you can't push me or my brilliant people around!" Henry also invaded France, and he was a paranoid and dictatorial type who ordered quick execution for any suspected traitors just like he beheaded those wives.

A sturdy confident portrait of Henry VIII
by the workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger ≈ 1497

Now let’s all remember one of my favorite English Pop groups from 1965, Herman’s Hermits. Long before The Knack, long before Abba, and long, long before Brittny Spears the Hermits got the number one slot in Billboard with their cover of a 1910 piece of doggerel called “I’m Henry VIII, I Am.” It was a snarky takedown of Henry and his doomed wives. Some of the old band are still touring around as recently as last year.

Now that Brexit leader Boris Johnson has decisively won the Exit, this former Mayor of London will certainly run for Prime Minister to replace David Cameron. So you heard it her first, this is certainly going to be Boris Johnson’s Campaign anthem! Here’s the basic lyrics, to be expressed with the same blustery confidence of the Brexit leader, Boris Johnson. Recite the song to yourself using your best East London mouthings.

...

I’m 'Enery the Eighth, I am, 'Enery the Eighth I am, I am!

I got married to the widow next door!

She's been married seven times before!

And every one was an 'Enery. She wouldn't have a Willie nor a Sam!

I'm her eighth old man named 'Enery, ‘Enery the Eighth, I am!

...

And because the original song’s copyright has now expired, the Boris’s campaign can use it for free.

One more thing, in this photo the gorgeous Boris and his normal hairdo calls to mind the Make America Great Again, Donald Trump.

Can the Boris make England great again?

The Boris Johnson: Ready steady go!

Gunshot Murder in Mississippi 1964

2016-06-21T11:22:00.001-07:00

From the top, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner Gunshot Murdered in Mississippi June 21, 1964
The FBI finally closed their case today in Washington

Having grown up in the South of Civil Rights times, the hatred of racism was in my face from my earliest memories.

During the Nixon campaign the GOP was desperate and turned their once grand party into lapdogs for the white racist gunland minority of the Southern States. That sickness thrives today.

Gun controls to stop the spread of deadly military weapons would save lives all over America immediately.

The NRA will pump up any sewerage that sells more deadly weapons into America.

We the people of the United States are sick and tired of the media playbook by NRA gun fools, and how American murder by gunshot has become so quaint and so everyday.

Guns are like cigarettes and we need to curtail all guns and ammunition in our nation.

Guns and ammunition do not have constitutional immunity.

Guns have no more rights than your blow dryer.

The NRA constantly lies to America. The NRA and Wayne LaPierre and Grover Norquist and Tom Selleck aid and abet gunshot murder and injury every hour all over America!

Opt for life rather than death.

We are Orlando and we do not forget!

The Forty-Nine Gunshot Murdered in Orlando

Gunshot Mass Murder in America

2016-06-20T20:51:00.001-07:00

The Forty-Nine Gunshot Murdered in Orlando

Try smelling a hundred dollar bill. That's the smell of the US Congress today!

That vote against all, or any gun controls in the US Congress is more than shameful or spineless. It is treason to allow gunshot mass murders.

Here are the names of the Fifty-Six US Senators who voted to allow more gunshot mass murders.

Hey Mitch McConnell! Hey all republicans in Congress! Hey Paul Ryan! Forty nine men and women were gunshot murdered with a military weapon the other night in Orlando.

Hey Mitch McConnell! Hey all republicans in Congress! Hey Paul Ryan! As you command with vigor your obstruction, does it ever make you feel uneasy to know you were part of these gunshot murders?

You aided and abetted the crime of gunshot murder by your inaction on any gun legislation, even the simplest background checks!

These gunshot murders had little to do with some deranged brain stem religion or some enrapturing god. The Orlando gunshot murders were carried out by one male psychopath who was able to buy a military assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. A simple background check could have prevented those forty-nine gunshot murders.

These gunshot murders were a direct result of you and your people in the US Senate and US House who fear and revere the bags of money of the NRA.

In 2016 there were 15,093 gunshot deaths.

Hey Mitch McConnell! Hey republicans in Congress! Hey Paul Ryan! Hey NRA! There will certainly be even more gunshot murders soon because of you and your treason.

We are Orlando and we do not forget!

******************************************************************

Thank you Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl

for the powerful Florida GRFX!

British Labor MP Jo Cox Gunshot Murdered

2016-06-17T10:28:00.001-07:00

MP Jo Cox
Represented West Yorkshire, UK

British Labor Party MP Jo Cox was gunshot murdered yesterday. Jo Cox was married to Brendan Cox. They had two children aged three and five.

Rest in Peace and Love, Jo Cox.

Jo Cox was gunshot murdered by a right wing radical who was partly financed by neo-nazis and the KKK in the USA.

Gun muppets here in America are no doubt using this crime to show how stringent British gun laws don't work.

Those American politicians and gun muppets just don't get it. If these radical right brownshirts start killing politicians like this young woman in the UK, those gun muppet US Senators and Speakers in the US House will be next on the list. The organization is international. The neo-nazis and the KKK are rivals of the ISIL gang of terrorists. The leaders of such terror gangs like to operate in the USA because of the cheap and ready availability of all kinds of weapons.

So far in 2016 there have been more than 6,153 gunshot deaths including the forty-nine murdered in Orlando.

Gunshot deaths in the USA as of 06/17/2016
From <www.gunviolencearchive.org>

From Brendan Cox for all of us.

The Trickle Down Jurist™ Is Buried

2016-03-03T19:17:00.001-08:00

Antonin Scalia
Visiting University of San Francisco School of Law

Antonin Scalia once said, "Originalism says that when you consult the text, you give it the meaning it had when it was adopted, not some later modern meaning."  By that paper thin theory of law, modern gun muppets could only rely on the protection of the 2nd Amendment for black powder muskets of 1787. 

The "Originalist" interpretation arose from the University of Chicago that gave us both Justice Scalia and the master economist Milton Friedman, guru for the upper classes of big money and gigantic corporations. The darling of the Reagan conservatives and Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, Milton Friedman invented the Trickle Down theory of economics. Basically Trickle Down economics says the wealthy few of a society will let their spare money trickle down to the less lucky.  Friedman won a Noble Prize for his efforts, and he spent the rest of his life lecturing on this sure fire theory of wealth.

The one big problem with Trickle Down economics is that it focuses myopically only on money and interest rates and banking for controlling and boosting and trimming the giant economy of the nation. Anyone can see that such a theory ignores humans and their everyday needs like food and healthcare and clothing. Such single-minded economics gave us the breakdown of 2007 and all the banks and the stock brokers who were just too big to fail. The failure and inhumanity of Trickle Down economic theory can be easily seen in the destruction of the once grand American city of Detroit, Michigan. 

Trickle Down jurisprudence allowed the present Michigan Governor to demolish fresh water supplies for the nearby City of Flint. 

Human Rights like money do not really Trickle Down from on high. 

Why did this happen? There is an old Southern expression, "Rich as a Crooked Judge" that applies well here. 

Antonin Scalia and some of the other Justices lived like jet set kings for many, many years. A few months ago the Koch brothers were flying Scalia and Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito around to their places in Vail and in Aspen and even Palm Springs for little meets and greets and schmoozes. The Kochs would also send Scalia on little hunting weekends. 

That Scalia liked to hunt and kill small animals says a lot about his character.  So Scalia died down in Texas at Cibolo Creek Ranch as a guest of brave huntsman billionaire Tom Poindexter. All these patrons all had monetary and political interests in decisions to be made by the Court. Just two weeks ago, Scalia was hanging out in Hong Kong on who knows whose tab. 

Yes, living the high life paid for by a potential litigant in your court is grossly unethical. But why not, since the Supreme Court has no formal ethical standards. The Supreme Court may never have any rules because of their very own Citizens United decision, and the resulting fringe benefits from the Koch Koch Klan™ and the like. 

California and New York and most other states have written rules of ethics for all judges. The American Bar Association published a "Model Code of Judicial Conduct." Look it up and read it. Using a phrase from the Trickle Down Jurist Scalia, the Code is not "gobbledygook." You do not have to have legal training to understand the rules. The Code is an ethical template for all American Judges. The Code makes rules of ethics based on the western morality of all Americans. Here's the rules, or canons, of the Code from the ABA pages.

CANON 1  A judge shall uphold and promote the, independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary, and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.

CANON 2  A judge shall perform the duties of judicial office impartially, competently, and diligently.

CANON 3  A judge shall conduct the judge’s personal and extrajudicial activities to minimize the risk of conflict with the obligations of judicial office.

CANON 4  A judge or candidate for judicial office shall not engage in political or campaign activity that is inconsistent with the integrity, or impartiality of the judiciary.

©2010 by the American Bar Association. All rights reserved.

The Supreme Court has no such Code. Justice Samuel Alito recently said that the US Senate should not appoint a replacement for Justice Scalia. By making such a public declaration Alito was clearly engaging in political activity. And thereby Alito was in violation of the ABA's Code. See Canon 4 above. But there's no problem for Alito because there's no Code for the members of the Supreme Court to follow.
Justice Clarence Thomas wife, Virginia Lamp Thomas is also a lawyer. For several years, Mrs. Thomas worked for the Koch Brothers and Karl Rove at the Heritage Foundation. Then she decided to start up her very own non-profit, LibertyCentral.org, to extoll the Tea Party, that in turn was a creation of the Koch Brothers and Karl Rove. According to reports Mrs. Thomas has earned almost a million dollars from these organizations over the past decade. By Canon 3 above, Justice Thomas is thereby in violation because his close family member, Mrs. Thomas causes Justice Thomas to be in direct conflict over decisions made that may benefit the Koch Brothers and their Tea Party.
The Citizens Untied decision that allowed unlimited secret money to be used in American elections is only one such example of a conflict benefiting the Koch Brothers and Karl Rove. And that decision reaffirmed the legal concept of any corporation having the same equal rights granted any individual human being by our US Constitution. 
It has been lovingly reported by tea party media muppets that “Antonin Scalia Was a True Wit and the Best Comic on the Supreme Court!” Antonin Scalia and the other male partisans on the Supreme Court were placed there to overthrow Roe v Wade by embedding theocratic law into our legal system.
That cruel plan has not yet played out, and hopefully the passing of the Trickle Down Jurist Scalia will stall the theocracy for another decade or two. 
So our Supreme Court decided there should be no limits on the cash in American politics and that Corporate ephemera are people!
Let's get some written ethical standards for the Supreme Court! 
This story will be told far into the future about those corrupt Trickle Down times of the Supreme Court's five to four majority kowtowing to corporate and religious doctrine. 


Once a Family Home in Detroit, Michigan
Now a Victim of Both Trickle Down Economics
and Trickle Down Justice

The War On Drugs

2016-01-08T14:29:00.002-08:00

My El Chapo Cap DTLA

Geez, is El Chapo on the NRA board? When El Chapo was captured he was armed with machine guns and assault rifles and pistols along with thousands of rounds of ammunition. Was El Chapo invited to speak at the next NRA convention? Just like El Chapo, the NRA is entwined in the cluster of intrigue and violence of the "War on Drugs" that began in the past century.

For many decades the NRA has been an essential advocate of the US arming up for the failed "War on Drugs." The "War on Drugs" was splattered on the world in 1971 by the despotic and racist cabal of the Nixon Kissinger Whitehouse. Of course, the NRA gets 100% behind anything that sells more guns.

The "War on Drugs" was part of the Nixon Kissinger propaganda spin to distract the American rubes from their own heinous criminal acts including paying for murder in Southeast Asia and in Chile and Argentina and later in Columbia and El Salvador.

Just like redneck speed traps in southern towns, the DEA and other federal and local police agencies have quotas to keep the money coming in. Local cops confiscate everything found in drug arrests including homes and even the silverware in "Drug Houses." After the conviction the agencies auction off the bounty.

An additional benefit was how the "War on Drugs" could be used by local law enforcement and judiciary to lock up brown and black people to stop them from voting. The felony convictions for drug possession for millions of Americans prevented them from voting in elections. In most Southern and Mid-Western states, to regain voting rights requires a lengthy process and legal fees out of the reach of most poor black or brown people.

And are we in America not sick of the fear factor of the tea party republicans and their shills? Again listen to what Gore Vidal said about the "War on Terrorism" that is exactly the same scam as the "War on Drugs:"

"You can't have a war on terrorism because that's not an actual enemy, it's an abstract. It's like having a war on dandruff. That war will be eternal and pointless. It's idiotic. It's not a war. It's a slogan. It's a lie. It's advertising, which is the only art form we ever invented in America. And we use it to sell soap, wars and presidential candidates in the same fashion."

Money transforms lies into truths. Thank you tea party libertarian Pay-Per-Vote™ republicans all over America.

The "War on Drugs" and the "War on Terror" are both dire sicknesses caused by ruinous billionaires who don't want to pay their taxes and the criminals they put in positions of power.

The "War on Drugs" is a war on freedom and human values.

The abuse of drugs, all and any drug, is an illness.

It is a horrible illness. But Illness is not a war.

Gunshot Murder and Religion in America

2015-11-28T22:48:00.000-08:00

Gunshot Murder and Religion in America

Dateline: November 29, 2015

Put aside for a moment the terrorist horrors in Paris and in San Bernadino and in Orlando a few days ago. The tragic event in 2015 Colorado reveals some very cruel truths about our America.

The gunshot murders and injuries at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs are the direct result of screams for media attention by all of America’s republican candidates for President. Words are wolves.

The gunshot murders and injuries at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs are equally the direct result of many, many years of effort by the National Rifle Association, or the NRA, our premier gun lobby in Washington. Guns cause gunshot murder.

The gunshot murders and injuries at a Planned Parenthood office silenced all of America’s republican Presidential candidates for a few days. For the first time in over a year, they halted the dog whistles and open rage for encouraging violence and the closing all Planned Parenthood offices.

Borrowing a tactical move from the NRA, all the candidates take a break while the media sturm und drang subsides over the gunshot deaths of three and the gunshot injuries of nine others.

Gunshot murdered Policeman Garrett Swasey, was once an Olympic class athlete. Officer Swasey died trying to protect others in the Planned Parenthood offices.

Gunshot murdered Jennifer Markovsky was simply a good neighbor at the clinic with a friend.

Gunshot murdered Ke'Arre Stewart was an Iraq War veteran.

Each of the dead victims had two children. That's four fatherless and two motherless children.

Maybe it is because our America has been at a corrupt and misguided war off and on since 1991, and human life is not as sacred as in the past. Our America has more people in prison than any other nation. Our best friends the Saudi Arabians beheaded more than thirty people last year. Only last summer the Saudis ordered a girl to be stoned to death for infidelity. The Saudis recently ordered 200 lashes for a girl who was gang raped. The Saudis also privately help fund the ISIL gang. Our collateral damage rate for drone strikes must be in the range of thirty bystanders killed for every target identified dead.

Stoked by screams of Christian pastors, state and local legislatures and governors create laws to precisely regulate all birth control methods and thereby all women’s bodies.

Before Roe vs. Wade in 1973 gave America legal abortions, Our Bodies Ourselves the women’s organization, estimates about five thousand women died each year from abortion attempts. Many religious people all over America vehemently advocate a return to those murderous days.

Over twelve thousand Americans died from gunshot over the past year excluding gunshot deaths by police and gunshot deaths by suicide. Americans privately own over three hundred million guns adding up to about one gun for every man, woman and child in our America. The hospital costs for gunshot injuries are approaching a billion dollars a year. Many of the pious religious who fume about birth control and abortion, encourage the patriotic ownership of firearms for all.

Guns are like cigarettes. Guns maim people and we all pay for it. Guns kill people and we all pay for that also. Because of multiple gunshot injuries every day, Americans pay for treatment in emergency rooms everywhere. So we all are paying a hospital tax for some gun manufacturer in Europe? How much do we taxpayers spend on police investigations and ER's for gunshot violence?

Most Americans are sick and tired of the media playbook by NRA gun fools, and how American murder by gunshot has become so quaint and so everyday.

The NRA and all their shills aid and abet gunshot murder every hour in our America!

Religious zealots endorsing violence by dog whistle or by sermon are directly responsible for more and more gunshot murder and injury in our America!

Likewise, at first all the republican candidates bide their time and wait off camera, shrewdly preparing to delight their base inhumane and racist faithful. Every single one of the chosen then leap into close ups all over the dime store cable TV channels where they scream for more and more biblical payback.

This is not acceptable, America!

**********************************************

Gunshot Murdered at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs

University of Colorado Police Officer Garrett Swasey

Jennifer Markovsky and Ke'Arre Stewart

**********************************************

Where is the Marshall Plan?

2015-09-11T22:51:00.001-07:00

Marshal Plan Logo 1948

The War on Terrorism is like the War on Drugs. It is an advertising ploy. "It's like a war on dandruff," said Gore Vidal. It is a completely planned and constructed media matrix.

One more thing is an old rule about wars: When a nation destroys another nation in war, the victor must put in place an enormous program to rebuild the conquered nation. This is to prevent a repeat. Remember the Weimar Republic in Germany in the years after WWI? The Germans were required to pay heinous amounts of money as reparations to all the victor countries. That little scheme and it's consequential social and economic disaster gave the world Adolf Hitler. It took another ten years to vanquish that evil doer. Despite the tens of millions murdered and maimed, some small good for America came of this. General Eisenhower later led our nation as President. The last helpful republican to hold the Oval Office, Eisenhower certainly knew about the rules for conquest and giant wars, and so did Ike's predecessor Harry Truman.

Named for the Secretary of State, George Marshall, the Marshal Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was originated under democratic President Truman with both US State Department officials, William L. Clayton and George F. Kennan, and Brookings Institution and the republican Senator from Michigan, Arthur H. Vandenberg who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Please note how the Senators of the opposition actually wanted to make some good for our nation and the world. Not so in the present congress.

The Plan was huge. The money was in the hundreds of billions in present day money. The Plan worked incredibly well. Counter to present day dogmas of the tea party republicans, the Plan endorsed productivity with ethical business methods and the Plan encouraged labor union membership. Unlike Afganistan and Iraq, the Plan did not sub-contract with American front corporations like Haliburton and others for rebuilding infrastructure. All the money ended up in the hands of the Europeans.

If we won the War against the USSR, where was the Marshall Plan? If we won the War in Afganistan, where was the Marshal Plan for rebuilding democracy like we did in WWII Europe? If we won the war in Iraq, where was the Marshall Plan. When Russia transformed from the dictatorship of seventy years, there was nothing other than advice from the smug gang of pre-tea party republicans running things. There was no Marshall Plan at all. For Afganistan there have been a few projects to help, but not a Marshall plan. The same in Iraq. In the Middle East building a few bridges and a school or two is a spit in the desert.

Why does our US Congress not know this? Why did not the Reagan-Bush v1.0-Bush v2.0-Cheney-Rumsfeld victors in Russia and Afganistan and Iraq know this? Oh, it must be those old "anything goes" libertarian tea party fools in power and their myopic dogmas for solving economic and social disasters with even more disaster.

As I said a couple of months ago, "How many libertarian tea party fools does it take to make a destroyed economy work? Answer: None the free market and god will take care of it."

Well, now we have the free market Putin who is a throwback to Krushchev. Most importantly, we have the god of ISIS taking care of things in Iraq and Syria. Thank you tea party republican fools in our US Congress.

THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS, THE LEAGUE, AND DEFLATE GATE

2015-08-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

Patriot Tom Brady

NFL INSIGHT
by Christopher Tracy, a former NFL player.

The game of football is a microcosm of the society. NFL Football is a sport of strategic violence with people of multiple backgrounds competing for their right to succeed in the game. Amidst this ultimate team sport, you find joy, pain, love, hate, happiness, sadness, purpose, hard work, complex emotions, personal development, and yes, racism. Let's consider each team an independent State. All the States joined together for a league, or the Shield. Since each State employs its own president, we'll deem commissioner Roger Goodell the Emperor.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

For a little over one million dollars per year, each so-called State employs the Emperor to do their bidding. The goal of his Highness is to make certain the Occupants abide by a particular set of rules, all of which ensure the prosperity of each State, and the Shield itself. Behind the Shield, the Emperor boasts of authenticity and integrity. As it relates to our Real World, that notion too, is not entirely true.

Canton Bulldog Jim Thorpe

The Shield is comprised of flawed men. From Jim Thorpe to Ray Rice. Like our Real World, there are more good people than bad. As well, our Real World loves to see its citizens built up, only to be broken down. In the year two thousand and one, our Real World needed a boost for the people after the tragedies in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania. Nothing unites us quite like a sporting event. In this time of battle, it's hard pressed to find any negative emotions within our existence, unless of course your State is losing. With the necessity of a moral boost, no word resonates with our citizens in these Americas quite like a New England Patriot.

Free Agent Ray Rice

We witnessed the rise of a Prince one snowy night in Boston, as a new "tuck rule" was created. That night spawned "Tom Terrific." Mr. Terrific was none other than a poster boy for this Emperor. A winner, an articulate leader, and a good man. We've witnessed the protection of Mr. Terrific and the State that chose him, from spying on other States to yet another rule change that requires defensive players to tackle the Prince and others like him above the knees.

Throughout the years, this plan was flawless. This particular State amassed multiple championships, respect, along with a seemingly unbreakable bond between the State Leader and the Emperor. The Shield was flourishing, and the Emperor had no reason to change a thing. The Occupants of the Shield saw the Emperor as less than authentic, and soon it spoiled over to our Real World occupants.

After multiple questionable decisions, something short of a revolution began. Real World citizens joined State Occupants in questioning the Emperor's judgement. This, of course led to the Emperor propelling into action, all in the name of protecting the Shield. Multiple States have been accused of cheating the Shield's rules. With each offence, a reasonable fine was levied, with virtually no ill word heard about it. In his desperate state of being, amidst a tumultuous year, the Emperor chose to exploit the reputation of the State that helped bolster his reign.

As other States have manipulated footballs for their personal gain, the Patriots elected to follow suit. This act of defiance gave the Emperor ammunition to somehow rectify his failing reputation, and express to Real World citizens that no State is above the Shield. His reaction was completely over board as it relates to the punishment other States have endured. But since the Shield is much like the Real World, someone has to pay. And this similarity resonates with the fall guy. Who is better to make an example out of than Mr. Terrific himself?

Did Tom Brady and the Patriots know the football's were being deflated? Of course. Did Mr. Goodell overreact in his punishment? Absolutely. The game of football is pure, the man in charge corrupts it. There's a line in Spike Lee's movie Malcom X: "That's too much power for one man to have." This is plainly evident in regards to Mr. Goodell and the league. But in this capitalistic society, the man has generated up to nine billion dollars annually for the league, and is arguably the greatest sport in the world, so what's the problem? He's successfully kept his sport in the media for an entire calendar year, by using his best friend and one of the most respected sports figures in the world, only to generate more money. God bless America.

The Donald and The Great Debate 1.00

2015-08-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

Donald Trump

The Donald Goes On TV Tonight

The Donald will finesse this little burp of TV media.

Give the Donald some slack. He's better qualified than any other republican so far. I know, I know, I know the bar is pretty damn low... like a centimeter from the deck, but listen.

Do not underestimate Donald Trump. Why? Because the Donald is perfect!

Perfect! Perfect! Perfect! Donald Trump is the perfect republican candidate!

Of course Trump would make a terrible POTUS, but no true republican really cares whether their candidate is a good President. QED.

Most true and faithful republicans watch the candidates with basically three different questions in mind. First, has the candidate a feverish god-fearing attitude and shivering need to abolish abortions and destroy any of the people involved? Second, has the candidate a hatred of all things to do with the false science of climate change? Third, as the current tea party republican candidate polls say, "No more lawyers! Only nice regular people just like George W. Bush!"

All these requirements are the Donald! The Donald is a good god-fearer! He is a church man since childhood! But most important the Donald said this on TV, "I am pro-life and I pledge to fight for the reversal of ObamaCare, which contains abortion funding loopholes."

The Donald hates climate change! This past February he declared snow as proof that there's no climate change.

Lastly the Donald went to Business school at Penn. George W. went to Business school at Harvard. The Donald is as regular as George W!

So it is proven positively! The Donald is the one!

Wait! Wait, is Donald playing the media like no one else! He's playing all those tea party cable TV celebrities like a Star-Wars HD video game machine.

But wait. Donald may be a red herring distracting us from something unknown. So what ruse is this?

Trump met last month with Karl Rove's boss, the top tea party republican spin weenie* Roger Ailes, who runs Fox TV?

Then the Donald shakes things up by trashing John McCain! Then ironically, Trump comes out with the McCain Desperation Move by coupling with Sarah Palin! Then he sports a baseball cap to hide his bad hair days!  It's like 2008 and 2012 all over again! In January the Donald practically called Mitt Romney a loser. And then the Donald dissed Jeb Bush because of Jeb's immigration stands.

The Donald Goes to Fox TV

If we use our imaginations we can hear old Roger Ailes telling the Donald what needs to be done and how the Mitten Romney blew it and how the Koch Brothers are watching him.

The Donald, "Roger, I'm here because I want you to feel comfortable with me running."

Roger Ailes sipping a Jamba coconut juice smoothie, "Sure and I want you to know I'm completely okay with that. As a matter of fact I'm very comfortable with you rousing the press and waking up the bedrock core of our party."

The Donald's eyes tighten, "Which party is that Roger? The tea party? The State's Rights Party" The Koch Koch Klan™? Or the republicans? I'm the republican, and I always have been! I'm the foundation! I'm the everything! I'm it Roger! I'm the Donald!"

Roger's eyes open wider, "Yes, the Donald. We all know that! We need a POTUS win and we can change the world! The Mitten has left a very sour taste in our mouths here at Command Center. Don't make the same mistakes Donald! David Koch told me today that you never return his calls. Or Charlie Koch's either! Don't think you are better than the Kochs! They are our friends to the grave! You need to love them! I love them! Karl Rove loves them too!"

The Donald smirks, "Yes, I'll return his calls, Roger. I must be going now. CBS wants to interview me. So does NBC. Goodbye Roger. See you around town."

Roger purses his lips and bows his head a little and jiggles his shoulder as if he's shaking off a dust bunny.


The Donald and The Job

Hey the Donald! Will all those republican rubes vote for you, Donald? God surely spoke to you and told you to run for the job? If not god then Fox TV and Karl Rove and Ayn Rand spoke to you. Those republican rubes are grand! They will believe in you! The Donald is hired!

Perfect Donald Trump! You are the perfect tea party republican candidate! You are more perfect than John McCain. You are even more perfect than Mitt Romney. Of course, you must remember that Romney's family lived in Mexico for years. You could send the boys down there to hunt for rapists and smugglers!

One more thing: All you tea party and republican wannabe's, you are out of your league.

Don't even try to trump Trump!  The Donald is the Media Master!

Go the Donald! Go the Donald! Go the Donald! Go, go, go….

The Donald's Signature

* At this update 07/27/2016, Roger Ailes has now been fired at Fox News. Having no more future in tea party imaginary media at Fox maybe Ailes could get hired at the Noah's ark roadside attraction down in Kentucky as a greeter. About spin weenies: generally any master of deceit in media and politics who tries to damage and disparage our nation is a spin weenie. For an expanded definition see the earlier blog post, "How the Spin Weenies Damage & Disparage America."

What Now Netanyahu?

2015-07-20T11:48:00.004-07:00

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano with
Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ali Akhbar Salehi

Flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran

There's a TV commercial airing on all the major US networks from a group called "Citizens For A Nuclear Free Iran" (CFANFI). The commercial bangs the drum with stunning patriotic visuals and a movie trailer voice-over plus dire symphonic music. The spot declares that the proposed Iran nuclear agreement is a fraud. Network TV commercial time like this costs millions of dollars.

The Israeli lobby, the non-profit "American Israel Public Affairs Committee" (AIPAC) founded the non-profit CFANFI. Just like other religious based lobby operations including Scientology and Jehovah's Witness, AIPAC has branches all over America.

So let's ask the question to both AIPAC and to Bibi Netanyahu.

With the Iran agreement, can Israel come out of the nuclear closet and sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?

How many inspectors from the IAEA have been allowed in Israel?

Answer: None.

In the spring of 1965 famed columnist, Drew Pearson ran a story about the Israeli Nuclear Weapons factory in the Negev desert. Strangely almost nothing has been noted about the Israeli nukes anywhere in American media since. Israeli media spin weenies have been hard at work for all these years.

Hey Netanyahu and hey AIPAC! You must realize that Israel unlike most nations has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty? And Netanyahu calls for war against Iran who doesn't even have nukes yet? Virtually every nation on planet earth has signed the treaty or pledged to abide by it's provisions save these: Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, India, and South Sudan.

Hey citizens of planet earth, it is time for Israel to come out of the nuclear closet and face the music.

The Fox TV media spin weenies keep on twirling. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Citizens For A Nuclear Free Iran spin weenies keep on turning out propaganda for the TV networks.

Hey Israel and Netanyahu! Hey AIPAC! Hey John Boehner! You keep on shouting war, do you know nothing else for your children?

John Boehner Posing with Binyamin Netanyahu

Israeli Kids with Uzis

Mental Nightfall In America and the Coming War Against God Encrusted Libertarians

2015-05-02T12:45:00.001-07:00

Ayn Rand
"Youthfully Yours"

This is a coming war. It is a war against dogma and all things Un-American. An old friend in Berlin, Axel Melzener said a German phrase for the current plight of the USA is "Geistige Umnachtung," meaning mental nightfall.

It is not democratic or federal or benign what the republican tea party libertarians like Rand Paul and Scott Walker and Ted Cruz and Mike Pence rigidly accept as their calling. These men are disrupting our America.

Libertarian dogma has been infused in every decision made by the scant male majority of the Supreme Court of the United States in the last ten years. Both Scalia and Thomas tout Ayn Rand's influence on their paper-thin contortions of the United States Constitution. Using Ayn Rand to interpret the Constitution is destructive to our America.

Just like the Scientologist L. Ron Hubbard, all of Ayn Rand's novellas are Science Fiction salve for teen age angst. Atlas Shrugged is the republican Mein Kampf. And the Krupps... well, now we have the Kochs. This has become another savage tea party republican joke on America.

The libertarians are the intellectual fountainheads for the tea party. Young Rand Paul was even named after Ayn Rand by millionaire Poppa Ron Paul. The libertarian creed demands social and economic Darwinism that could only be described as sociopathic. Government controlled by business destroys free society. In America we have seen the effects of giant inhumane companies that make profit the only goal. Historically, look up the Ludlow Colorado massacre in tents in the night of women and children protesting for better wages and working conditions. For modern times look up the actions by overzealous cops against rioting black people or drugstore cowboy vigilantes who murder without regret or consequence like George Zimmerman. Some of the poseur politicians like Scott Walker and Ted Cruz and Rand Paul and Mike Pence and and Paul Ryan plus captains of industry like David and Charles Koch read Rand's work as the torah for their thousand year republic.

Thomas Jefferson
Official Presidential Portrait
by Rembrandt Peale 1800

Thomas Jefferson warned the American people, "... the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered...I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies... "

Academics back in the cold war days of the 1950's declared that the USSR communism of Stalin and Krushchev was a radical religion with all of the formal dogma and doctrine of any faith. It's pretty much true that dogma and doctrine of any kind can be seen as a religion. With the exception of communism, Americans have always been very tolerant of religion. Over our entire history as a nation, dogma and doctrine flourished in various cults that rose up and found a zealous following. In the 1800's Joseph Smith founded the Church of the Latter Day Saints based on the Book of Mormon. An angel gave Elder Smith the entire Book of Mormon in a revelation in the woods near Harmony, Pennsylvania. Elder Smith discovered that Jesus came over to the Mexicans and taught them the way to salvation and the afterlife after his time in Jerusalem. A bit later, Mary Baker Glover Eddy discovered in her revelation that one's own mind can cure all ailments that come along. Mrs. Eddy founded the Church of Christ Scientist. By this cult's dogma and doctrine there's no need to get vaccinations for disease because no disease can be more powerful than the human mind helped along by Jesus or some other god. The Krishnas. Aimee Semple McPherson. L. Ron Hubbard.
Yogananda. The Klu Klux Klan. There are dozens more.

In our times the media hype attending the tea party republican cult is a never-ending stream of disinformation that aids and abets murder and mayhem all over our America. It is not benign what the Scott Walker and Rick Scott et al stand for. Their tea party creed demands social and economic Darwinism that could only be described as sociopathic. The doyenne and reputed founder of the tea party, Ayn Rand concealed the code of objectivism under the veil of "libertarianism."

In her book Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand saw herself as a savior for Americans who wanted no interference by the rule of law or government: "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." This is a pristine version of the republican's "American Exceptionalism" accenting the hubris of the all-important agendas of god and business and profit destined to prevail and to rule over all our local and state and national governments.

Sadly the United States of America has made a giant exceptional cult out of our Thirty Years War against "terrorism" all over the planet since 1991 when we invaded Iraq. The cult of our Thirty Years War is good for some businesses and parts of our economy. Thomas Jefferson warned us that government controlled by business is "more dangerous than standing armies." To date our Thirty Years War has cost us trillions of dollars in debt and thousands of lives of our children.

About the money debts of our Thirty Years War, let's remember that libertarian, Grover Norquist? Grover Norquist is the single-minded lobbyist for curtailing the federal government by eliminating all taxation. Grover knows well the end effect of his obsession is private everything in America. Here's Grover's solemn prayer, "The free market will solve all our problems, and for everything else, god will quickly cover!"

Grover's paychecks come from branches of the House of Koch in Wichita like the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity plus a national board member status from the NRA lobby in Washington. If Ayn Rand is a make-believe Catherine the Great of the tea party then Grover Norquist is an American Grigory Rasputin who whispers into the ears and thickens the wallets of all the Pay-Per-Vote™ powerful in the Capitol Dome.

An international example of such a libertarian cult gives us the Russian icon, Vadimir Putin. Putin's recent moves in the Ukraine are very much libertarian and anything-goes tea party. It's almost like Putin had read about John Galt and then took on the personality. Maybe that's why some tea party candidates for President rail on and on about the Putin invasions and how we need to stop them with all our armies. The American libertarian tea party is simply jealous of the power that their Russian doppelganger Putin has achieved.

We Americans can be thankful for the short memories of our voters, and thereby our cults may have short timelines.

If we are lucky, all the rubes and the media will soon catch on to the tea party cult of our Thirty Years War and turn away! But for now this is war! We'll keep fighting the war against our Thirty Years War and all of these cruel cults, America! Thomas Jefferson is our heroic warrior!

Sincere thanks Bill O'Reilly, but really I wish you'd credited me in the text of your 2014 book on Patton

2015-04-14T13:57:00.002-07:00

Lt. Gen. George S. Patton talking it over
with Lt. Col. Lyle Bernard, CO, 30th Inf. Regiment.
Near Brolo, Italy 1943

Let's Talk About My 2008 Book Target: Patton

By Robert K. Wilcox

Fox TV’s Bill O’Reilly has yet another best-seller in Killing Patton, his new book titled to herald the suspicious death of General George S. Patton.

Readers of my 2008 book Target: Patton are emailing me, "Did he contact you? It looks like he’s using your information." My reply, "Yes, it does. At least about Patton’s suspicious death."

I’ve now read Killing Patton. Placed piecemeal in the book, the parts about Patton’s possible murder are almost exactly what is in Target:Patton, minus the details. The main evidence, the confession of OSS assassin Douglas Bazata, is exclusive to my book. Bazata, who died in 1998, confessed only to me, not to O’Reilly, or even "The Spotlight" newspaper, as Killing Patton alleges.

"So no," I respond to the question, "neither O’Reilly nor his co-author, Martin Dugard, contacted me." I didn’t know about Killing Patton until O’Reilly announced it on his television show shortly before publication. He gives me credit in the rear sources (on page 335): “For specifics about the conspiracy theories surrounding Patton’s death, the writing of Robert K. Wilcox (Target:Patton) was very helpful.”

I thank him for that. I worked long and hard on Target: Patton. It wasn’t easy. I would have preferred he credit me in the text and list me in the index, both more visible to readers. This isn’t sour grapes. Target: Patton is benefiting. Sales have increased. The important mystery of Patton’s death is gaining credence. Still, the record should be set straight. The main points about Patton’s probable murder in Killing Patton are all in Target: Patton, published six years earlier. Killing Patton only repeats them, and not totally accurately.

Let me stress I like Killing Patton. It's a good book, well-written with needed, little-known history. But, in my opinion, it’s mostly about the end of World War II, the large personalities who ran the war like FDR, Churchill, Montgomery, Stalin and Hitler and the horror of the taking of Berlin, not Patton’s suspicious death. General George S. Patton, one of those big personalities, is certainly front-and-center. But there’s nothing about his suspicious death that isn't in Target: Patton. In fact, there is less.

Let me back that up:

The main evidence for Patton’s probable murder in Killing Patton, all in Target: Patton, basically amounts to three aspects:

The confession of Douglas Bazata, the OSS agent involved in causing Patton’s “accident” that killed him.

The witness of Stephen J. Skubik, an American intelligence officer who claimed to discover the plot to kill Patton and tried to stop it.

A meeting between Bazata and “Wild Bill” Donovan, head of the OSS, whom Bazata claims asked him to murder Patton.

Now lets take each as listed:

The confession of Douglas Bazata about causing Patton’s “accident” is exclusive to Target: Patton. Publicly, Bazata only confessed to me. Killing Patton says he confessed to "The Spotlight," a Washington, D.C. weekly far-right newspaper, in 1979. Close, but that's not correct. He told "The Spotlight" he had been asked to kill Patton, but he had not done so. The matter died with that at least publicly until Target: Patton. Twenty years after the two "Spotlight" articles, I interviewed Bazata at his home for over a week. He was sick and feeling remorseful. That is when he confessed. He died shortly afterward. All of this is thoroughly discussed in Target: Patton. I’m sure O’Reilly, having read my book, knew this. I don’t know why he didn’t just quote me from Target: Patton. I think the point would have been stronger.

Stephen J. Skubik is also exclusive to Target: Patton, at least in making what Skubik knew public. Until Target: Patton, hardly anyone beyond Skubik’s family knew of his witness. Skubik had written it in a privately published work titled The Murder of General Patton. It remained publicly unknown for decades until, in my research, I encountered it. It turned out to be very important. Skubik, like Bazata, checked out very credible. He died in 1996. I worked with his family to be as accurate as I could in synthesizing his very densely-written witness. Killing Patton contains, in several boiled down pages, the gist of what is only in Skubik’s private book and Target: Patton. There was much research and verification put into that. Again, no sourcing in O'Reilly's text.

The meeting between Donovan and Bazata, the other important evidence of Patton’s possible murder in Killing Patton, is also in Target: Patton. O’Reilly credits it to a Bazata letter he says they found. Bazata did write letters. But that specific meeting, like others between Donovan and Bazata, is detailed in Target:Patton. Since my book is heavily sourced, back searching my research could easily have yielded the letter. I don’t know if that was what happened, but it would have been the easiest thing to do. And O’Reilly does credit me on the “conspiracy.”

There are other duplications including, for instance, what appears to be an attempt on Patton’s life while he was flying in peaceful airspace. A small plane he was in was attacked by a Spitfire believed to have been Polish under Soviet control. The retelling of the incident is almost identical in Killing Patton as it is in Target: Patton. My source was mainly Patton’s diary, War As I Knew It, and a Polish military pilot who did research for me. Killing Patton gives no source. There are general aspects of Patton’s career in both books to show why he might have been targeted. That story is generally known. He bucked his superiors, wanted to fight the Soviets, whom FDR naively thought would be peacemakers. With the acquiescence of Churchill, FDR gave Eastern Europe to Stalin and thus precipitated the Cold War.

O’Reilly and Dugard do a nice job of painting that little-known, little-taught history. Patton stands out as a great patriot in their work. Again, absent the sourcing I wish they had put in the text, it’s a highly readable and interesting book. I recommend it. In my opinion, the suspicious death of Patton is best described in Target: Patton. Hopefully, the publicity that only having a television show like O’Reilly can provide will keep Killing Patton at number one on the best-seller lists and force the powers that be to solve the Patton mystery. What really happened was covered up.

Robert K. Wilcox

Robert K. Wilcox is a bestselling author, journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He specializes in mysteries and military history. He began as a reporter and then religion editor of the Miami News, winning the Supple Memorial Award as the best religion writer in the nation. He went on to write for the Miami Herald, New York Times and other major newspapers and magazines before becoming a television writer and story editor. He has written over thirty produced teleplays plus eleven books. When not writing books or screenplays he specializes in political articles. Recent articles have appeared in the New York Post, American Thinker, Breitbart and other national publications. He lives in Los Angeles. His website is: www.robertkwilcox.com

Admiral Mike Mullen

2015-04-04T12:45:00.002-07:00

Admiral Mike Mullen

Last night on Charlie Rose, former Chair of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mullen said, “The two things to really worry about in this modern world are number one, Nuclear weapons and number two, Cyber Security.”

Mullen also noted that we have Putin cornered over Crimea and Ukraine with the sanctions. "Kiev was the birthplace of modern Russia and Putin is enormously popular all over that nation." That’s why we need to let diplomacy work on Putin and stop rattling rockets in Russia’s face.

One more thing from Mullen about the USSR break up in the 1980s and 90s: the unctuous fake patriots in the White House "gloated." To help the Russians transition to a capitalist society, the USA and the allies should have put in place a Marshall plan like Truman and Ike did in Germany and Europe after WWII. Egotists in positions of power rarely see beyond next week in their vanity.

Maybe this guy should run for President next time. I don't care what party, as long as it's not republican, I'd vote for him. It is sickening to see the coverage all of our media gives to the very meager people who are Elmer Gantry's and god fools and fake patriots seeking the oval office.

Most of the Republican Candidates