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Joe Biden’s State of the Union address last Thursday March 7, 2024, and the made-for-Saturday-Night-Live Republican response from Alabama junior Senator Katie Britt has provided comic relief for a politically divided country. Scarlett Johansson was brilliant as the easy-target Britt.
As she first came on, I thought she WAS Britt, and SNL was playing the recorded response with edited segments to be added in. SNL did its best make-up job on the woman whose ‘films have grossed over $14.3 billion worldwide, making her the highest-grossing box office star of all time,’ quoting Wikipedia. Her performance in this open was one of the best ever on one of our longest-running comedy shows. She exceeded her potential and then some.
The below link is to the Weekend Update, which also reached into the superlative zone, up there with the best Weekend Updates ever. Michael Che and Colin Jost were the hosts who play off each other’s reporting/comments. Incidentally, for those who don’t know, Mr. Jost is the husband of Scarlet Johansson. He also was the editor of the Harvard Lampoon magazine while he attended Harvard (source: Wikipedia). Che and Jost are both apparently NY Mets baseball fans as evidenced by their photos used on Wikipedia.
Weekend New SNL 3-9-24
And why not a bit of reporting/commentary by the inimitable Jordan Klepper:
Malcolm Gladwell is one of the 21st century’s great writers and storytellers. He takes complicated topics, extensively researches them, then distills the information into easy-to-read, graceful, interesting prose. This is what he has done for us in ‘The Bomber Mafia,’ published in 2021.
‘The Bomber Mafia’ by Malcolm Gladwell[/caption]
Gladwell reminds us that in World War I, 37 million people were wounded or killed. Most of the fighting was done on the ground, in the trenches. ‘There were over a million casualties in the Battle of the Somme, a single battle that had no discernible point or impact on the course of the war,’ he points out.[i]
Harold George and a few other pilots passionate about the airplane, reckoned that ‘better wars’ could be fought, killing less people, if the airplane was deployed more primarily to fight them. George was an instructor at the Air Corps Tactical School, whose leaders ‘were labeled “the Bomber Mafia.” ‘It was not intended as a compliment – these were the days of Al Capone and Lucky Luciano and shoot-outs in the streets. But the Air Corps faculty thought the outcast label quite suited them. And it stuck.’
As ‘one of the spiritual leaders of the Bomber Mafia, [George] put it like this: “We were highly enthusiastic; we were starting on, like, a crusade…knowing that there were a dozen of us and the only opposition we had was ten thousand officers and the rest of the Army, rest of the Navy.”’
Gladwell goes on to describe what Harold George did with his life, rising to the rank of general during World War II, working with Howard Hughes, ending the descriptive paragraph with ‘And this is my favorite part: he was twice elected mayor of Beverly Hills.’[ii] Vintage Gladwell flavoring.
The Bomber Mafia was part of the improvement in the airplane’s fighting capabilities. Noting the flying vehicle that appeared in World War I had two wings, one seat and ‘a machine gun facing forward, synchronized to fire through the propeller’…that could kill a novice pilot flying it; …[Gladwell mentions that] ‘the most famous’ fighter plane of the war was named ‘the Sopwith Camel. (That’s the one that Snoopy flew in the old Peanuts comic strip.),’[iii]
Gladwell goes on to England where the question of precision bombing was given a chance to prove itself. A cumbersome 55-pound device called the Norden bombsight was heralded by the Bomber Mafia to be the answer. It helped you to focus on, and theoretically hit your target from miles high in air. But ‘The English…never got tantalized by the possibility of dropping a bomb into a pickle barrel from thirty thousand feet.’[iv]
Now comes one of the most precious non-violent interesting parts of the book. Winston Churchill’s trusted friend, advisor, and confidante, Frederick ‘Lindemann was a great believer in the idea that the surest way to break the will of the enemy was by bombing its cities indiscriminately. Now, did Lindemann have any evidence to support his idea? No…. Lindemann was eccentric and brilliant. But his greatest claim to fame was that he was Winston Churchill’s best friend.
The two men had met each other in 1921 at a dinner arranged by the Duke and Duchess of Westminster. Churchill was an aristocrat, and Lindemann was really rich. So the two moved in the same circles. They hit it off. As for Churchill, if you read some of the letters he wrote Lindemann, they are almost worshipful.
The psychologist Daniel Wegner has this beautiful concept called transactive memory, which is the observation that we don’t just store information in our minds or in specific places. We also store memories and understanding in the minds of people we love. You don’t need to remember your child’s emotional relationship to her teacher because you know your wife will; you don’t have to remember how to work the remote because you know your daughter will. That’s transactive memory. Little bits of ourselves reside in other people’s minds. Wegner has a heartbreaking riff about what one member of a couple will often say when the other one dies – that some part of him or her died with the partner. That, Wegner says, is literally true. When your partner dies, everything that you have stored in that person’s brain is gone.
Churchill’s personality is important here. He was a man of the big picture. A visionary. He had a deep, intuitive understanding of human psychology and history. But he struggled with depression. He had mood swings. He was impulsive, a gambler. He had no head for figures. Throughout his life he was always losing huge amounts of money on foolish investments. In 1935, Churchill spent the modern equivalent of more than $60,000 on alcohol – in one year. Within a month of becoming prime minister, he was broke.
Here we have a man with very little common sense, no ability to handle numbers, no way to bring order to his life. And so whom does he become fast friends with? Someone disciplined, almost fanatically consistent. Someone who ate the same three things at every meal, every day. Someone so naturally at home in the world of numbers that, as a child, he would read newspapers and recite back reams and reams of statistics from memory.
Churchill stored all the thinking that had to do with the quantitative world inside Lindemann’s brain. And when Churchill became prime minister, in 1940, just after the war broke out, he took Lindemann with him. Lindemann served in Churchill’s cabinet as a kind of gatekeeper to Churchill’s mind. He went with Churchill to conferences. He dined with him. Lindemann never drank unless he was eating with Churchill, who was a big drinker. Then he drank. He went to Churchill’s country house on the weekends. People spotted them at 3:00 a.m., sitting by the fire, reading the newspaper together.’[v]
However, despite Lindemann’s preference for indiscriminate bombing in large volume, the Bomber Mafia convinced England and the allies to try the Norden Bombsight to precision bomb three ball-bearing factories in Germany. No ball-bearings, no working of many machines, including those intended for transportation and war. But, the Norden did not work in the dark of night. A daytime mission was required. Which was arranged.
The way it was to happen was Curtis LeMay, later Air Force Chief of Staff under JFK, would lead a decoy mission of B-17 bomber planes toward Regensburg, where Messerschmitt fighter planes were made. This would attract the German air defenses. Ten minutes after LeMay’s convoy departed, the 150 or so bombers that would head in a more northerly direction toward the Schweinfurt ball-bearing factories, would take off.
Gladwell plucked this unforgettable paragraph from an article written by ‘one of [Curtis] LeMay’s pilots, Beirne Lay, [published] in the Saturday Evening Post a few months later, describing the Regensburg raid. And it’s harrowing.
A shining silver rectangle of metal sailed past over our right wing. I recognized it as a main-exit door. Seconds later, a black lump came hurtling through the formation, barely missing several propellers. It was a man, clasping his knees to his head, revolving like a diver in a triple somersault, shooting by us so close that I saw a piece of paper blow out of his leather jacket…Now that we had been under constant attack for more than an hour, it appeared certain that our group was faced with extinction. The sky was still mottled with rising fighters. Target time was thirty-five minutes away. I doubt if a man in the group visualized the possibility of our getting much farther without 100 percent loss.’[vi]
You’ll have to read the book to find out what happened next. I haven’t read all of Gladwell’s works, but I think this may be his best-written, most-striking book.
Airplanes and Pilots Today
So what are all our military and civilian trained pilots doing today? Unfortunately, many of them are perpetrating two of the worst environmental misbehaviors about and above the planet. First is the flying in the skies of airplanes laden with chemicals, nanoparticles, polymers, defoliants, graphene, aluminum, strontium, barium, and other heavy metals. These are being sprayed without apparent regulation in the name of weather modification. Of course, all these toxins fall back to Earth to pollute, alter and kill lifeforms down here below, in the water, soil, air, and more ethereal atmospheres.
Dr. Rosalind Peterson, founder of the Agriculture Defense Coalition, told the world at a United Nations hearing in 2006 that the ‘contrails’ filled with these toxins can expand to cover an area of 4000 kilometers, and last 20 hours.[vii]
You should know that former president of the USA, Lyndon B. Johnson, prominently said, in his cap and gown, that developing a weather satellite “…will permit man to determine the world cloud layer…and ultimately to control the weather; and he who controls the weather, will control the world.” This statement can be heard in the movie ‘The Dimming,’ which is a good overall presentation of the story of contrails – also called ‘chemtrails.’ It also starts off most weekly climate engineering reports at www.geoengineeringwatch.org, available for free on that website.[viii]
‘The Dimming’ is available currently on youtube, and also on the geoengineeringwatch.org website – which has a vast store of other information, interviews, reports.
If you haven’t been looking, and think our government would never allow anything like this to ever happen, be aware that ‘the U.S. [has] staged more than 200 domestic tests aimed at assessing national vulnerabilities to biological warfare.’[ix]
Airplanes were used in 1950’s to test/deliver microbes/chemicals over USA cities[/caption]
For example, to go along with Dr. Peterson’s above warning:
‘The first Large Area Concept experiment, in 1957, involved dispersing microorganisms over a swath from South Dakota to Minnesota; monitoring revealed that some of the particles eventually traveled some 1200 miles away. Further tests covered areas from Ohio to Texas and Michigan to Kansas. In the Army’s words, these experiments “proved the feasibility of covering large areas of the country with [biological weapons] agents.”’[xi]
Also, associated with governmental/military/profiteering motives, please read this document that the CIA allowed to be released in 2000 quoting Vice-Admiral William F. Raborn: [You can enlarge w fingers if u have a touchscreen]
Weather Warfare’s Next Weapon — Wm A Raborn CIA Released Yr 2000[/caption]
More information will be posted about this, on this website in the upcoming weeks.
Chemtrails, Morning Sky — White streaks are chemtrails that will expand to cover the sky[/caption]
The second very significant misbehavior of Earthly pilots is the widespread spraying of glyphosate all about the planet. Unfortunately, this toxic chemical and its sister formulations, are considered the ‘most widely used [weedkillers] by conventional agriculture around the world,’ according to the Environmental Working Group.[xii]
Stephanie Seneff PhD and Chief Researcher at MIT, states that 150,000 tons, or one pound of glyphosate per American, is sprayed on USA crops every year.[xiii]
If you don’t know glyphosate yet, you probably do know Roundup. That is the herbicide around which most of our GMOs [Genetically Modified Organisms] are engineered to be resistant to. It is supposed to kill weeds, so GMO crops have less competition to impede their thriving in our non-organic fields.
Unfortunately, resistant or not, glyphosate-surviving GMO crops like Roundup Ready corn, soybeans, canola, cottonseed, alfalfa (hay), sugar beets, though they may survive, will be contaminated by glyphosate. As will our water, air and soil, along with all-important lifeforms upon which the human body depends, along with the Earthly network-of-life.
In her book ‘Toxic Legacy,’ which has been compared to Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ due to its environmental importance, Dr. Stephanie Seneff informs us that glyphosate and its other formulations can cross the blood-brain barrier once ingested, to wreak havoc and cause death of brain cells.[xiv] This can translate to dementia, autism, brain fog, and cancer via severe DNA damage and disruption of normal brain function.
Breast cancer and non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma also can result from exposure and ingestion of glyphosate.[xv]
If you watch the Jeffrey Smith movies ‘Secret Ingredients’ and ‘Don’t Let The Gene Out Of The Bottle’ you will see, very graphically portrayed, the potent powers of glyphosate. It was originally invented to clean out boilers and pipes. Then, when someone saw how the runoff water laden with glyphosate killed all the grass and flowers where it ran-off onto, Monsanto knew they had a winner. Which eventually was used to kill weeds that could bother the genetically engineered crops they would develop and patent around their new poison chemical, that would be immune to the glyphosate/Roundup…[xvi]
Don’t despair too much. If you watch ‘Secret Ingredients’ you will see a family of five that has a child who becomes autistic. The next two children are born autistic. Then the mother, who has been a triathlete, deteriorates to having difficulty walking, as does her husband to a lesser degree.
Then they all go on a very organic diet, the children come out of their autism, and the parents go back to running and other forms of exercise. A very inspiring movie![xvii] Were the family’s maladies all due to glyphosate? Or partially? Be aware that between 70 and 100 percent of Americans tested for glyphosate (e.g., in the urine) are showing positive presence of it these days.[xviii] And honey tested by the FDA of the USA, and government scientists in Canada, found glyphosate in nearly 100 percent of samples tested.[xix]
A most disturbing phenomenon about spraying crops with Roundup/glyphosate is that many of our crops are undergoing a toxic drenching within a week of harvest and you are not being notified about this. The reason for this toxic drenching is to dry out the crops, make them ripen more uniformly, and eliminate mold.
I don’t have the breakdown of what percent are being sprayed by airplane, and what percent are being sprayed by unfortunate farmworkers in Hazmat suits walking on the ground. However, I do have a list for you of crops that are being sprayed so you can avoid them, protest to your supermarket manager and produce stocker about them, and buy organic versions of these crops. Or grow your own!
Wheat, oats, legumes, garbonzo beans, barley, rye; ‘oily crops like canola, safflower, sunflower, linseed, flax that are used for vegetable oil production;’ sugarcane. I will add to this list as time goes along.
Please let me add that Dr. Seneff states: “the highest levels of glyphosate have consistently been found in non-GMO foods derived from wheat, oats, and legumes.”[xx] Remember, ‘non-GMO’ does NOT mean free of herbicides, pesticides, chemicals, etc. Organic food theoretically excludes these entities, along with GMOs, irradiated products, and sewage-treated crops.
Also be aware that Dr. Seneff tells us that the USA uses “more glyphosate per capita than any other industrialized nation.”[xxi]
As for gathering information on airplane spraying of Roundup/glyphosate, I was informed by a friend out of Australia, that pilots there have been spraying it on crops in western Australia for a decade. Any information of spraying you can share relative to where this practice exists would be gratefully received. Then I can share what you provide along with other reports of use, in future posts or versions of this one.
Glyphosate Logo On Your Organic Oat Milk & Other Organic Foods — People ARE Aware!![/caption]
You see, something like this logo exists! That means that the consciousness about the evils of glyphosate is out there. Now you can help spread the word, and the logo.
It has been 36 years now since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster began with an explosion that “couldn’t happen,” and a resulting radioactive fire that continued to burn for over one week.
Chernobyl, by the way, is located in Ukraine, where that 1986-devastated nuclear plant continues to cause problems today, while a reeling country is embroiled in defending itself from Russia’s invasion. One re-covering-of-a-leaking sarcophagus later, the cesium and other life-threatening radionuclides lingering in the dangerous zone surrounding the nuclear plant are still present. The cesium has a half life of 30 years. With 10-20 half-lives considered the “hazardous life” of any radionuclide, that would mean we have to worry about cesium for 300-600 years. It can cause cancer, birth defects, mutations, debilitation, as can any and all radionuclides. Strontium tends to collect in bones and bone marrow and can cause leukemia, amongst other maladies. It has a similar half-life to cesium of 30 years. A “half-life” means the length of time half of an amount of a radionuclide remains radioactive.
There are hundreds of radionuclides that result from the fissioning or splitting of uranium to produce heat to boil water to turn a turbine and produce the fleeting entity we know as electricity. But once the electricity disappears, the nuclear waste in the form of these radionuclides continues to pollute the environment where they deposit, for hundreds, or hundreds of thousands of years. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,000 years! and a mere one millionth of one gram can cause lung cancer. There are 454 grams in one pound.
Theoretically if dispersed in small enough particles to enter the lung, one pound of plutonium-239 could produce 454 MILLION lung cancers. And 20 pounds could produce a lung cancer in every human being on Earth. And what about the innocent animals? And the Earth’s plants?
Meanwhile, with COVID-19, and now the Ukraine genocide going on today thanks to the murderous Vladimir Putin, Russia’s dictator, many of the people alive today may be totally unaware about what’s currently going on at Chernobyl. Many do not know what happened there, how tragic it was and still is, and that includes Russia’s invading troops.
Many young adults today were not alive in 1986. The fading away of events into the dust of history can leave us ignorant of very important factors still ongoing and developing today.
Here is what California artist Mary Lou Dauray writes relative to Russia’s young invading soldiers in Ukraine, and Chernobyl today:
“Clouds of highly contaminated radioactive dust swirl around two nuclear plant disasters thousands of miles apart. The dust, stirred by powerfully destructive nuclear explosions, resulted from the triple meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plants in Japan in 2011 and the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine.
Today, we unbelievably witness Russian troops, bowing to Putin’s heartless dictates, digging trenches, handling radioactive rotting machinery, and driving tanks through the highly contaminated “Red Forest” forbidden exclusion zone in Chernobyl. These soldiers had no idea about Chernobyl, the worst nuclear disaster of our lifetime. Tramping through the area without wearing any protective coating against radiation, they were not even dressed in essential winter gear. Recently, the Russian soldiers suddenly left the Chernobyl war zone. Many reports stated they had become ill with radiation sickness caused by inhalation of radioactive nuclides coming from the highly contaminated dirt and dust airborne by tramping soldiers’ feet. Every vital organ and system of their bodies are being affected.”
Fukushima actually produced a greater amount of nuclear waste than did Chernobyl, but we know more about what happened to people in especially the areas downwind of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear explosions and fires than we do about people in the surrounding area about the Fukushima plant in Japan. Political repression affecting medical information especially, has run rampant in both affected populations. Fukushima’s three nuclear plant explosions/devastation occurred 11 years ago, starting with a tidal wave that struck the plant on March 11, 2011.
Many of the people in the area around the Japanese plant were evacuated. Most of those now suffering the after-effects of Chernobyl, and those who died prematurely, were either imported “liquidators” transported into Chernobyl to control the fire, and dig out contaminated material; or were subjected to drifted/deposited radiation/radionuclides many miles downwind from the nuclear plant, and were not evacuated.
Besides invading Ukraine, and apparently not really caring about his own soldiers bungling their efforts around the Chernobyl plant and exclusion zone, we should know how crazy Putin is. He has pushed for the production of floating nuclear plants everywhere and anywhere to create electricity. Who would monitor them? What happens when they leak nuclear waste/radionuclides? or they are operated irresponsibly?
Power-intoxicated fools like Putin, and Americans feeding at the nuclear money trough to prolong the life of geriatric nuclear plants that were supposed to be shut long ago, should make us wonder how smart our human race is. It’s April 26th again, ladies and gentlemen. We don’t need a next Fukushima or Chernobyl to destroy another crucial region of the world we live in. What if a nuclear plant goes BOOM!! again in one of our major cities? Or a major city in another country? When will we learn not to be so trusting of technology? Especially nuclear technology?
It is time to engage ourselves in less dangerous forms of energy creation, including wind, solar, utilization of water movement, etc. Not act as if we had amnesia concerning nuclear power, deploying it arrogantly while making more nuclear waste — which we still do not know how to store safely for the thousands of years it would be necessary to do so.
Dear Readers and Fans, I have been working on a new book, a very short one, about Covid-19, ‘How Covid-19 Attacks Our Body (Pandemic Pointers and Guidelines)’ During these past months I have been doing a lot of research, reading a lot of Medscape and other medical journals/articles plus watching videos especially on the Vu Medi website. Here is a letter/comment I posted today:
Re the Akiko Iwasaki VuMedi Nov 13, 2020 Video Concerning: Covid Re-Infection:
Thank you for the presentation. On the question of the re-infections that you mentioned, only 4. Of course, there are others in the world. Were your four patients re-infected by the same strain? I believe the D614 was the first strain in the USA of Covid-19 coronavirus. Then along came D614G as the taking-over summer strain that was responsible for about 70% of the new cases, mostly in the USA in the southwest. A Florida PhD from FAU stated that that new strain was more infectious, but less deadly. I just read a Medscape article a few minutes ago, that said that Covid-19 right now is 30% less deadly, though the authors reasoned it was because of better medical care, and more knowledge about the offending coronavirus – they made NO mention of it being possibly another strain, whether D614G or another strain with totally different lettering/numbering.
I am very interested to know about someone who has been exposed to Covid, gotten slightly sick or maybe had no symptoms and perhaps tested positive either via nasal test or antibody – or never was tested – and then is re-exposed to a new viral load. What happens with that new viral load, that say would be sufficient inoculum (no, we do not know what the inoculum dose is for Covid-19 SARSCoV2) to cause disease? Can the body’s immune system martial the troops, the T and B Cells and the macrophages and the antibody platoon and prevent sufficient bodycell takeover to prevent significant reproduction & transmission of that new viral load to other humans? Can our immune system do that? as you seem to have intimated in the beginning of this talk? Kimberly Prather PhD out of Scripps in San Diego who has been working with aerosols for ?20 years now claims that the reason asymptomatic people can transmit Covid is because the virus gets into the nose or respiratory tree circumventing the immune system while it sneakily multiplies, without necessarily sickening the exposed individual, yet multiplying in that respiratory tree to such numbers as to be a significant reservoir for the virus to be talked or breathed or coughed or sneezed out to infect other individuals and nobody knowing it is happening or happened. She also thinks it could take only one viral particle to cause Covid syndrome, and that aerosols on a deserted beach necessitate wearing a facemask. [All very questionable.]
Wikipedia does say in its section on Norovirus that the inoculum for this cruise ship virus is less than 20 viral particles, and possibly as low as 5. Any comments on this?
Also, a report in mid-July fyi stated on the Medium platform, and elsewhere – that there had been 353,000 mutations of the coronavirus already. Many/most had no effect in terms of functionality/infectiousness/etc. Some produced ‘variants’ that withered out into oblivion; others eventuated in ‘strains’ most of these less infectious or virulent than the predominant D614, and then the D614G. Any comment on that?
I am writing a very short book on Covid, how we get attacked via the ACE2 receptors in our body from the roof of our nasal cavity to endothelial cells all over our body; plus Pandemic Pointers & Guidelines. Thank you for your work, Conrad Miller MD
Two New Corrupt / Crazy Trump Nominees (Potential, Currently, For Fred Fleitz)
What could happen that would be even worse than Trump’s ongoing series of acts harming our country and it’s integrity? Two and a half years, but don’t expect that Donald Trump couldn’t top (or ‘bottom’) out our nation at an extraordinary level. Amongst the hundreds of embarrassments and thousands of lies, Donald the ConMan, continues to impugn our USA on the world stage, and here at home. Believing Putin over our intelligence community about Russia interfering in our elections, announcing this at Helsinki, that was a very low point. And then don’t forget that he seriously considered Putin’s idea that weekend, to turn over Americans to Putin, including
our former Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul!
Michael McFaul, former USA Ambassador To Russia, Almost Turned Over To Putin In Grand Trump Betrayal Post-Helsinki[/caption]
I know, there’s so much bizarreness, and replacement of offending actions by another subsequent bizarre action,
or actions, on a daily basis, that it wears out the brain to try to follow Trump administration horrors. Please imagine Ambassador McFaul having to have spend several terribly anxious nights worrying about Donald Trump betraying him via fulfilling Putin’s proposed ridiculous transaction. Unfortunately, that episode is a drop in the bucket, of our President’s ignominious behavior in office.
Now we have two new low incidences of Trump replacing current administration officials, that you should know about, including Alex Acosta, resigned Secretary of Labor, and also possibly Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) with candidates excruciatingly worse than the men who preceded them.
Patrick Pizzella, new acting Secretary of Labor, was a lobbyist for slave labor in the Mariana Islands archipelago back at the beginning of this century. In his new job, he is supposed to be an advocate for worker rights. Be aware that his lobbying in 2001, for extending exemption to all USA labor laws in the Marianas, has not stopped Trump from picking him to replace Alex Acosta. His work led to Asian and other workers being abused, living in guarded quarters overrun by rats, incurring coerced abortions, and other atrocities. While he arranged expensive junkets for business people to enjoy luxury and a tropical atmosphere, in the Tom Delay-labelled “petri dish of capitalism’ that the Marianas was becoming. Video segment with discussion about Patrick Pizzella in the first few minutes:
Also be aware that human-trafficking is something that the Secretary of Labor is responsible for. Which should be linked in our minds with the reason Acosta had to resign, related to the Jeff Epstein human trafficking/sex offender case, involving hundreds, or thousands of underage girl victims. Incidentally, fyi, the name of Epstein’s private jet is, believe it or not: the Lolita Express! And while we are on the level of flight consciousness, the Lolita Express taking many predatored victims to the Epstein Caribbean private island dubbed ‘Pedophile Island,’ Trump’s next travesty of a nomination to sink us deeper and deeper into his swamp could be his nomination to replace Dan Coats, Fred Fleitz.
Fred Fleitz, Another Loco Trump Possible Nominee, Who Claims USA Is Secretly Run By Muslim Brotherhood[/caption]
Who is this bozo? The information that follows should amaze and depress you at the same time. Please, allow me to share with you the transcript from Friday’s July 12, 2019 Rachel Maddow segment about him, lasting 5 minutes, starting at the 12:45 minute mark:
“What Axios and then NBC News today reported is that President Trump may
be taking initial steps toward firing the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats
Now Dan Coats, the DNI, is one of the people in the President’s cabinet who the president
regularly and openly complains about all the time
But the thrust of this new reporting about Dan Coats potentially being fired
Is that the White House basically is floating a trial balloon about who they might want to replace Dan Coats
If in fact Trump fires him
According to Axios and NBC News today
Trump wants for his new Director of National Intelligence, this guy . . .
Seriously he wants
The author of the book Obamabomb to be the new Director of National Intelligence
According to today’s reports
His name is Fred Fleitz – he’s not a famous person – it’s OK if you don’t remember that name
He did briefly make headlines last year when
Trump’s newest national security advisor, John Bolton, tried to bring Fred Fleitz onto the national security council
for about five minutes – the freakout in national security circles around that was palpable, and it did give rise to
some sort of lurid stories about Mr. Fleitz
but now it was one thing for them to try to put this guy in a staff job working for John Bolton, even
if it was a staff job on the National Security Council,
which is an important thing – that caused enough of a freakout in national security circles – but if
these reports are correct today that Trump is now going to try to put him in the Senate-confirmable position of Director of National Intelligence, that’s gonna be …
‘Hilarious’ is not the right word, I know – this is gonna be something if they actually try to do this
This is a guy from [national intelligence] from the job he has now
The job he has now is he works as the senior vice-president for policy and programs at a
think tank [Center For Security Policy]
That think tank where he runs his policy and programs
Is the leading proponent of the crackpot theory that the
US government is secretly being run by the Muslim Brotherhood
Which has infiltrated the highest ranks of American government
(and we just don’t know it . . . )
He has argued that we need to have a new House UnAmerican Activities Committee
We need to revise that committee from back in the ‘50s – except this time
We won’t be rooting out pinkos and commies; this time we need that committee back that
needs to root out the secret Muslims that are operating inside the US government
Do you believe that!?
Holding government jobs while also being Muslim!
That must obviously be stopped!!
This is also a group I should mention
That said the Oklahoma City bombing back in 1995, that was not the work of Timothy McVeigh
Eh, don’t believe everything you’ve heard!
Obviously that was a Muslim who did that
It was like, Saddam Hussein, or some other Muslim, we’re not sure, but it was
Definitely a Muslim and it wasn’t Timothy McVeigh that blew up the Federal Building
In Oklahoma City
That’s his think tank
He also has made a name for himself on the Fox News Channel in the Trump era
By going on TV and saying that the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered
in the election in 2016, that was – his words: “rigged.” He’s not saying that Russia tried to
rig the election in 2016, no Fred Fleitz says that when the intelligence community assessed that Russia was trying to intervene in the election
That assessment was rigged
Because the intelligence community is rigged
Because Russia wasn’t doin’ nuthin
Well now according to Axios and NBC News
Trump wants to make him Director of National Intelligence
And he wants to fire Dan Coats in order to make room for him
Again these are just initial reports
But given the way turnover works at the highest levels of the Trump Administration
Like including in the cabinet
This could blossom forth at any moment
And I think it is worth keeping an eye on that possibility before it happens
Because it really would be an amazing thing for them to try
That would be a good test of whether or not the US Senate
Lives and breathes, if they were confronted with an ask to confirm somebody like that, to a job like that
But as I said in the Trump cabinet there is always room to move”
– – Rachel Maddow July 12 2019 MSNBC
How much more stupid can America stand? Not to mention the denigration of our people and our
institutions? Of course, Trump likes this fool Fleitz, as he contends there was no
Russian intervention in the 2016 elections, which Trump loves to hear, from another
beckoning sycophant. Trump btw has called Jeff Epstein “a terrific guy” in the past when they used to party
together over a period of about 15 years. Were the females served up at various celebrations these two powerful men organized and attended, populated by underage innocents? Who were manipulated and molested by either or both of them? Will the truth ever come out?
Interesting William Barr fact: this wheedling Attorney General of Donald Trump’s, has
actually recused himself from something! Yes, the early Epstein case; not the latest incarnation however! If you didn’t know, William Barr’s father for some reason, gave Jeff Epstein a job teaching at his Dalton School in NY back in the 1970s, though he had never even graduated from college. Stories about him walking around the school halls in a fur coat, wearing gold chains, with his shirt buttons unbuttoned have surfaced. He lasted about a year at this teaching position.
Meanwhile, here are some links and videos that may interest you concerning the above, especially including
Epstein and our corrupted government, gamed by the very rich:
Virginia Roberts – Jeff Epstein victim via Mar-A-Lago
introduced to Epstein by socialite daughter of Robert Maxwell – of Daily News ownership fame –
Plane was called the Lolita Express [Epstein’s]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9BHuaQlvTs democracy now show on Epstein/Acosta w Amy Goodman
Epstein’s $77 Million Mansion Raided July 2019 NYC 7-Story Bldg – – Young Turks
Acosta in charge of human trafficking as secy of Labor; MSNBC July 2019 [below link here]
Alan Dershowitz denies knowing anything or doing anything besides defending Epstein in 2008
Fred Fleitz – Think Tank Coo-Coo claiming that the USA secretly being run by Muslim Brotherhood; wrote Obamabomb; Timothy McVeigh innocent of bombing fed’l building in Oklahoma City; Rigged’ eval that Russia intervened in 2016 elections; Axios report [link will die shortly; I did record this show/made above transcript of it from 12:50 to 17:10 on the show] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UahaFwikOTk
Axios article on DNI Replace Coats w Fred Fleitz; quotes:
https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-remove-dan-coats-director-of-national-intelligence-2ba4275d-7624-4f4b-9026-ee0d0606ce32.html
• ‘Fleitz was previously a CIA analyst and a staff member of the House Intelligence Committee.
He is currently the president of the Center for Security Policy.
• Trump has told people that he likes Fleitz and has “heard great things.” Fleitz has publicly criticized Coats
and even called for Trump to fire Coats on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business program after Coats’ Senate testimony.
Fleitz accused Coats of undermining and “second-guessing” the president.’
Vladimir Putin and Russia put out their ‘read-out’ first, as usual in the Trump years, creating their version of the narrative of Friday May 3rd 2019’s hour-and-a-half telephone conversation between the two leaders. Apparently absent in those 90 minutes was any admonishing or warning from Trump threatening Putin to halt any further intervention in our elections. Trump acted befuddled and stressed when asked directly about his lack of fortitude vs. Putin by the press after the phonecall yesterday.
From TASS, the Russian publication providing the readout:
‘[Sarah] Sanders informed that the two leaders had discussed the outcomes of the investigation by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the situation in Venezuela and North Korea, as well as the prospects of prolonging the New START and signing a new nuclear disarmament treaty between Russia, the US and China. “They [Putin and Trump] discussed a nuclear agreement, both new and extended, and the possibility of having conversations with China on that as well,” she stated. The White House press secretary hailed the phone call as “overall positive”. “They also talked about North Korea. They also spoke about Ukraine and Venezuela – an overall positive conversation,” Sanders said, adding that the leaders have noted an increased level of trade between Russia and the USA. Trump…stressed the need for a peaceful transition of power in Venezuela, Sarah Sanders stated.’
Then we heard that though John Bolton and Mike Pompeo were continuing their propaganda campaign toward a successful coup of Venezuela’s elected President Nicolas Maduro, stating that Russia was involving itself in supporting Maduro, and telling Maduro not to get onto a plane going to Cuba, Trump said that he believed Putin telling him Russia was not involved with what was going on in Venezuela. ??? Helsinki all over again! Trump believing Putin over our intelligence community. The Mueller Report saying ‘The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.’ Putin denying Russia interfered in our 2016 elections.
What were these two buddies talking about really during their conversation? Why didn’t the USA put out OUR version in a readout? Why are Russia and Putin always at least one step ahead of our fawning President when it comes to displaying intelligent propaganda, putting the USA story out first to gain the advantage over Russia? Trump did this via William Barr casting the Mueller Report in a false light, so people would not be moved to read it and discover what was actually revealed in detail in its 448 pages. Then Barr lied to Congress about what he knew about Mueller’s reaction to his 3/24/2019 four-page summary of the Report. As now we know Mueller was not happy and formally for-the-record wrote a letter stating that Barr’s summary ‘did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of this Office’s work and conclusions,’ in his March 27, 2019 letter of reaction to Barr. Yet Barr pretended in April questioning in Congress that he did not know what Mueller thought of his summary, as if he never received or read Mueller’s 3-27-19 letter. That is called lying. Which Barr is very proficient at, but perhaps a chump rookie compared to his President who has now surpassed the 10,000 false claims threshold as tallied by the Washington Post, since Trump assumed the office of President.
Lest we forget, Barr has done this sort of thing before, perhaps saving both Presidents Reagan and George HW Bush jailtime for their criminal activity in the IranContra affair by advising the issue of 6 pardons in 1992. As headlined in the NY Times in this article:
Watch out for future pardons issued by Trump to today’s Russia-complicit criminals.
Meanwhile Trump and his legal team are deciding not to cooperate with the House of Representatives investigations into his sordid affairs, and Russia attacking us via cyberwarfare in 2016, now, and in the future. Recent news is that in Florida, Russia hacked into voting machines in 2016, and could have changed or deleted voter information, and voting choices! Also, be aware, that Russia was not just attacking Democrats and their computers. Republican computers in two districts in southern Florida were also infiltrated by Russian hackers back in 2016, though this is not being re-reported for some reason.
Trump is following the game plan of non-cooperation, and stop-this-investigation-now, that Richard Nixon prototyped in the early 1970’s re his involvement with the Watergate burglary. And we know how that worked out.
Our President Trump: he needs people to like him. Despite science or intelligence information, he goes ‘with his gut.’ That guy Kim Jong-un, the dictator of North Korea, he felt liked him. So, instead of dealing with him in a disciplined carefully organized way, he told us Americans right after their first meeting in Singapore, that Kim told him North Korea would start denuclearizing “Immediately.” And then in the last two weeks or less, North Korea tested two short-range missiles. And North Korea has been doing work on improving nuclear facilities in that country, not denuclearizing as Trump was tricked into ‘thinking [??]. Similarly, his interactions with Putin seem to be premised on Putin ‘liking him.’ That’s OK on facebook, but not in our world of nuclear dangers and political strategy, that Putin deploys much more expertly than our doltish Donald.
Yet, here is a disturbing (to me and probably to many of you, I am sure) Quinnipiac poll May 2, 2019 result: approval vs disapproval of Trump’s handling of his job as President:
Men voted 48-46% in favor of approval! While women polled 34% approval vs 62% disapproval. What does this mean? Men approve of his rough manly unscientific approach to doing his job? But women abhor his misogynistic bullying ignorant performance in office? How will this translate to voting? Women are in the majority of voters. Will Republicans focus on voter-suppression of women in 2020, besides attempting to suppress minorities, millennials, senior citizens, and potential or actual Democrats-in-general? That remains to be seen. Read the interesting Quinnipiac poll results for yourself. Note that in total: 55% disapprove of Trump’s performance vs. 41% approve. These numbers are most pronounced in young (57% disapprove), black (87% disapprove) and hispanic (63% disapprove), while Republicans approve 88%; and Democrats disapprove 96%. The all-important Independent voter spread came out to be: 55% disapprove vs. 37% approve. Here’s the link:
Be ready for the Russia hack-hack henceforward, as Trump doth not protest to his superior-brained antagonist, Vladimir Putin, while Russian intelligence, Russian hackers and cyberwarriors continue tallying-HO! – All these Russians should be considered Trump’s enemy and the enemy of the American people, while Trump believes Putin again, as Rome continues burning, and America is not being made great again.
For more information about Venezuela outside of the Bolton/Elliot Abrams/Mike Pompeo/Pence narrative:
One thing to remember about current USA policy sanctions/blockade regarding Venezuela: if we care so much about the Venezuelan people, and not stealing their greatest-oil-reserves-in-the-world, why do we have INSULIN on the taboo list? If type-1 insulin-dependent diabetics can’t get their insulin, they will die, and ‘we’ Americans have killed them! Think about that while you ponder the imperial narrative being spewed by everyone about Venezuela from the Trump administration to the NY Times to Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy.
The devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant 150 miles north of Tokyo is still leaking highly contaminated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean at the rate of 80-150 TONS per day. Fukushima Prefecture is still far too radioactive for human habitation, yet the Japanese Olympics 2020 Committee is scheduling Olympics events in Fukushima!! and daring to start the Olympics Torch Run IN FUKUSHIMA!!! This will threaten the athletes and the visitors needlessly with long-lived microparticles of radionuclides that they may inhale, or ingest while eating, that could eventually cause cancer. Plutonium, strontium, cesium, iodine are some of the names of the hundreds of radioactive radionuclides that potential victims will be exposed to.
Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,000 years and a ‘hazardous life’ (equal to 10-20 ‘half lives’) of 240,000 to 480,000 years – and only one millionth of one gram is the lung-cancer causing dose (454 grams in one pound). See more in the description under the youtube video you have the link to click on above. There have been over 47,000 views of the video thus far (4-16-19). I will add more to this post in the future. Also, I have started a petition with moveon.org to Stop Japan Scheduling Olympics 2020 Events In Fukushima, that you are able to sign. People have requested this amidst the over-1500 comments on the video.
(C) 2019 Conrad Miller M.D.
The post image of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Explosion by Charles LeBlanc on Flickr, image-191637-panoVqfree-vfij from 3-14-2011, license with no changes made is Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Rosatom – Russia’s Atomic Corporation, Now Controlling 60% of World’s Nuclear Technology[/caption]
While we have been distracted by the Trump chaos affecting the entire world over the past few years, Vladimir Putin and his nuclear ambitions have taken over 60% of the world’s nuclear technology. This includes his brilliant idea of developing and selling FLOATING nuclear reactors. Where will their waste end up? Who will possibly monitor it? There is bribery and corruption in the tale, spread across the planet from Egypt to Bangladesh to South Africa to Finland and Egypt, as only the murderous dictator Vladimir Putin could create. Michael Flynn wanted to be part of the sales team, as we now know.
Putin’s Nuclear Ambitions Now Threaten Planet Earth[/caption]
Here are the details, provided by California’s Ace Hoffman, anti-nuclear archivist and activist:
November 15th, 2018
Dear Readers,
Rosatom (formerly known as the Federal Agency on Atomic Energy, and now also known as the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, or the Rosatom State Corporation (1)), is the state-controlled Russian nuclear energy company that builds nuclear reactors (including icebreakers and — upcoming — floating power reactors, several of which are under construction at this time (2018)) (2). Rosatom also mines, refines, enriches and reprocesses uranium, and — big surprise here — makes Russia’s nuclear weapons. Established in 2007, its headquarters are in Moscow. Rosatom currently has over a quarter of a million employees (3).
Rosatom is the world’s largest exporter of nuclear technology, with roughly 60% of the current market (4). Rosatom is building, operating or has approval for approximately three dozen reactors in Bangladesh, Belarus, China, Egypt, Finland, Hungary, India, Iran, Turkey and elsewhere (5). Expected service life for their current large power reactor series, the AES-2006, is a minimum of 60 years (6). In 60 years one reactor will produce approximately six million pounds of high level nuclear waste.
It is reasonable to assume that most, if not all of Rosatom’s foreign and domestic (Russia) reactors are approved through the payment of bribes. The resulting costs are usually far higher than they would be otherwise.
For example, in Bangladesh, where a “deep-rooted and widespread corruption culture” exists, all types of power plant cost far more than elsewhere in the world. One study estimated the average price of a power plant in Bangladesh was double the global average. Russia is building two units in Bangladesh (Rooppur 1 & 2), due to go online in 2030, currently estimated to cost 45% more than the same style of plant would cost in Russia (7).
In Saudi Arabia, where “corruption is widespread” (8): “Two committees in the US House of Representatives are investigating efforts by former US National Security Advisor Mike Flynn to enlist Russia’s Rosatom in a deal to deliver nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia” (9). Mr. Flynn recently pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials and faces up to five years in prison (10). Rosatom doesn’t yet have a deal in Saudi Arabia, but is on the “short list” to build the first two reactors there (11). (Apparently, solar and oil are not considered viable options for the sun-rich and oil-rich nation.)
Another country plagued by corruption — and building and operating Rosatom reactors — is China. China and Rosatom recently (June, 2018) signed “the biggest package of contracts in the history of the two countries’ nuclear partnership” (12) to build four “Gen III+” VVER-1200 units as well as a CFR-600 fast reactor pilot project, and to supply Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators and Radionuclide Heater Units for China’s “lunar exploration program” (13). The space nuclear units will use Plutonium-238, one of the most toxic substances known, nearly 300 times *more* toxic than weapons-grade plutonium-239 (Pu-238’s decay cycle is correspondingly less than Pu-239’s 24,100 year half-life).
How corrupt is China? “At least 12 senior-level NEA [National Energy Administration] officials have been investigated or charged with corruption in the past decade, including two directors and four deputy directors” (14). The NEA agency is only one decade old! In 2010 the former head of China’s main nuclear energy company was jailed for life over bribes (15). At the current pace, China will be the leading producer of nuclear energy by 2030 (16). China will thus also be the leading producer of nuclear waste. After Fukushima, China decided to place most of its new nuclear reactors along its coast, not at interior sites, presumably so that if/when there are meltdowns, most of the radiation will be spread globally, with a much smaller proportion poisoning China itself.
Fukushima Nuclear Reactor Unit 3 Destroyed March 2011 Tsunami/Earthquake/Explosion; China Wants To Now Place Their New Reactors Close To The Ocean So That Any Radioactive Leakage/Accidents Would Flow Into The Ocean, Rather Than Forever Contaminate Much Of Their Land[/caption]
In 2017 Rosatom signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” with the nuclear power division of Brazil’s state-owned energy companies (Eletrobras and an affiliate of Eletrobras), with the plan of building at least two reactors there (17). Brazil is now governed by a far right-wing racist president, Jair Bolsonaro, considered by many (for example, his son) to be “just like Trump” (18). Bolsonaro ran on an “anti-corruption” platform; however his campaign was accused of fraud, spreading fake news, and violating campaign finance laws (19).
Recently Rosatom signed deals with Egypt to build the first nuclear power plants in North Africa. Russia will provide 85% of the projected $21+ Billion cost. Four 1200 Megawatt reactors will be located about 100 miles south of Cairo (20). The cost of Russia’s loan to Egypt could swell to over $70 Billion during the 35-year life of the loan, and cost overruns are typical with all Rosatom deals (21).
In India, where Rosatom has contracted to build a dozen reactors (22), India’s former chief regulator was concerned that substandard parts were being supplied by Rosatom subsidiary Zio-Podolsk, after one of Z-P’s directors was arrested on charges of corruption, fraud, and supplying “cheap Ukrainian steel blanks and steam generators” for the reactors at Kudankulam (23).
In Finland, Rosatom took over partial ownership of the Hanhikivi 1 reactor after financial problems nearly sunk the project before it even began. It is “the biggest investment project in Finland” (24). Construction is expected to start in 2020. Originally claiming the project would cost around $5 Billion, current estimates put the total cost nearing double that, with completion optimistically expected in 2024 (25). Doubling (or worse) of the cost of nuclear reactors is so frequent it can’t be accidental — therefore it should be considered a form of corruption.
One deal that Rosatom tried to make apparently fell through — a $76 Billion scam to build ten nuclear reactors in South Africa. The arrangement “reeked of corruption” and would have represented 1/4 of South Africa’s GDP (26).
Rosatom makes deals that involve loaning massive sums of money to cash-poor countries, and requiring payback even if the projects are not completed on time (or ever). Most of the financial arrangements are kept secret and — as can be seen from the above examples and many others — most probably involve corruption, mismanagement, bribes, and other scandals. Once a deal is in place, the Russian government uses the arrangement to exercise political pressure, stopping construction until the country bends to their demands or — as in the case in 2014 in Ukraine — threatening to cut off nuclear fuel supplies for their Soviet-built reactors (27).
And even in countries without a Rosatom nuclear power plant deal, Rosatom corruption runs deep. According to a New York Times article from 2015, Rosatom “had taken over a Canadian company with uranium-mining stakes stretching from Central Asia to the American West” (28). The sale gave Rosatom control of 1/5th of all U.S. uranium capacity in a deal signed off by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who’s Clinton Foundation then received over $2.35 million in donations from four family members of the Russian company known as Uranium One (which became a fully-owned Rosatom subsidiary in 2013). Tens of millions more dollars were donated to the Clinton Foundation by “a constellation of people with ties to Uranium One or UrAsia” (UrAsia merged with Uranium One in 2007). These donations were not properly disclosed in a timely manner, despite Hillary Clinton’s signing of a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to do so (29).
Rosatom pushes nuclear technology in all forms, including having built more than 120 “research” reactors around the world, representing nearly half of all research reactors (30). So-called “research” reactors, more often than not, merely train reactor operators for future jobs in industry, and many are fueled with uranium enriched to up to 20% U-235, instead of the 4% to 5% enrichment for most power reactors. Such enriched fuel is more easily converted to bomb material.
In an undated page at Rosatom’s web site, they claim to have adopted an anti-corruption and anti-embezzlement program which “has already contributed to building a corruption-free environment within ROSATOM” (31).
Maybe.
But meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin, through his security forces and rabid supporters, continues to assassinate political opponents, reporters, whistleblowers, lawyers, and former security agents, even those who have left the country and sought asylum in Western democracies.
Life isn’t always kind. Things happen. Choices are made, some terrifically gratifying,
some unexpectedly tragic as the years roll by. We have goals,
projects we dream of completing, starting, that don’t always hit the runway.
Then you see that big number 70 on the computer screen amongst the ages of
other patients, and that does not seem to be you – but an initial weight of possible
problems that an individual might have that you will be expected to encounter and solve.
Tom Petty, Rockin’ American Tunesmith[/caption]
It’s inspiring from the late Tom Petty, that he sang “You’ve got to stay in the game,
Or you’ve only got yourself to blame.” Or the Payolas singing about not playing dead
when your number is called. So we have to go on, even though the lights are getting
dimmer, time is getting shorter, who knows when the end will come, like Tom suddenly
dying from a heart attack when he was so skinny, and you thought he’d be around forever
(but then you discover that he smoked, and had had a bad acquaintance with heroin
that he’d overcome by 2005).
So, there is the day to day, when what you do and enjoy doing fulfills you, although
the world is contracting around your soul, with Trump and idiotic Republicans and
the Nazis and KKK brutes emerging out of the wormholes, rallying around the country.
America In The Time Of Trump – Manafort, Gates, Vladimir Putin Interfering In USA Democracy[/caption]
The USA. Not quite the country we’ve been sold on, not with all these morons
supporting one of the greatest con-men in history. But then there’s baseball,
our national sport (though many contend football is really America’s most popular
sport…but then there are the white people who can’t fathom what it is to be black
in America, and now hate the NFL without compassion for black Americans taking
a knee to express their fear about the lack of justice being served from the
plantation minds of those with white privilege controlling the chains of power.)
Yes, we all have our troubles, BUT it’s World Series time! Autumn in America.
And Sunday night gave us one of the most engrossing fantastic baseball games
ever played. Between the Houston Astros from their hurricane decimated city,
and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have not been to the World Series since 1988.
Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers Great Pitcher (But Maybe Not So Much In Postseason)[/caption]
Clayton Kershaw, the farmboy greatest pitcher (in the ‘regular season’) of his era
started the game versus Dallas Keuchel (pronounced Kike-ill) whom Kershaw had
bested in game one of the best of seven games series. The Dodgers get off to a
great start in game 5, garnering 4 runs,, with Kershaw on the mound, it looking
like this game was over already, and then the Dodgers would only have to win
one more game in Los Angeles on either Tuesday or Wednesday, and they would
be crowned World Champions.
Jose Altuve & Clayton Kershaw, Faces of the Franchises of Astros & Dodgers[/caption]
But these are two talented teams, and it turned out that Kershaw didn’t have his slider
working that well, and before you knew it, Jose Altuve and his Astros had tied the game,
and Kershaw was out, sitting on the bench in the dugout staring depressedly into
nothingness by inning number five, with the score tied 7-7.
Cody Bellinger, Dodgers’ Rookie Slugger First Baseman[/caption]
However, the Dodgers are the team with the best record in baseball for 2017, and they
showed us the reason for that. Collin McHugh (an ex-Met > I’m a Met fan from the
beginning in 1962 when both the Mets and the Astros were created, entering the
National League as its two new ‘expansion teams’ in that year.) had relieved Keuchel.
McHugh was rusty as he hadn’t pitched but twice since the beginning of October, and
he walked the first two batters to face him. Then up came probably the rookie-of-the-year
for the National League, Cody Bellinger, who had struck out ten times in the first four games,
but then had hit the two doubles in game four that had been the most crucial hits in a game
that the Dodgers had then won to even the series 2-2. Would he strike out again? Would
McHugh walk him to load the bases? Would AJ Hinch, the Astro’s manager come out to the
mound and yank him? The Astros bullpen not doing that well in the Series so far…? McHugh
threw a breaking ball that fooled Bellinger, making him seem off-balance as he leaned forward
and somehow launched the pitch just over the wall into the stands in right center field, and BAM!!!
the Dodgers pushed back ahead to be winning 7-4! McHugh survived the rest of the inning, relying
on his fast ball to get the job done, as he too could not command his breaking balls.
Now could the Dodgers bullpen corral the rest of the game, acting the part of the
well-hyped best relief pitching team in baseball?
The Astros were the best offensive team in baseball in 2017.
The Dodgers had brought in Kenta Maeda, who up to then had been very successful
in the post-season as a long-reliever, but the 5’ 6” 3-time batting champion Jose Altuve hit Maeda’s
most fateful pitch of the game (up to then), a 450 foot home run, to tie the game in the bottom of the 5th.
McHugh calmed down and relying only on his fastball pitched a scoreless 6th. Maeda did the same
in the bottom of the inning.
Justin Turner, Dodgers’All-Star Big Veteran Bat, Tough Out[/caption]
Then the Astros, desperate for someone else to be a reliable reliever, bring in
Brad Peacock who had just pitched almost 4 innings to save game 3. He was
not sharp, giving up a near homer to the Dodgers Justin Turner (ex-Met, who the
Mets let get away for nothing) that hit the wall about 9 inches below the yellow
home run line in right center field. Kiki Hernandez (not Keith, our greatest everyday
Met player 1983-1989) then is asked to bunt Turner over to third, after he had been
called out on a third strike that was inside and never crossed over home plate, in his
previous at bat. His bunt was too hard, going straight back to pitcher Peacock, who,
directed loudly and astutely by catcher Brian McCann, fielded the ball and fired sharply
to third, where Alex Bregman firmly applied the tag, knocking off Turner’s cap, his long red hair
flying in his face as he belly flopped behind the base.
Now up comes Bellinger again. Peacock’s breaking stuff wasn’t working, as most of the
beleaguered relievers on both sides were experiencing, so his fast ball was smartly
struck by Bellinger on a line drive into left center field that center fielder George Stringer
gravitated toward, but couldn’t catch as he dove for it, not even touching the ball. Which
rolled way behind him to the warning track where another outfielder belatedly picked it up
and threw back into the infielder. Kiki Hernandez scores from first, Bellinger ends up on
third. Making it 8-7 now, Dodgers in the lead.
After Kiki had scored, he was captured by the camera, very very happily clapping his hands,
certainly thinking he had gained retribution on the umpire and the Houston fans for that
earlier strikeout he had been charged with. Peacock managed to end the scoring there.
For the bottom of the seventh, the Dodgers bring in Brandon Morrow, who had been
the ‘set-up’ man for Kenley Jansen, the big powerful closer during the regular season,
Morrow usually pitching the eighth inning, with Jansen usually mopping up the ninth inning,
as manager Dave Roberts’ formula to help win over 100 games for the Dodgers in a 162 game
season. Alas, Morrow had never pitched three days in a row during this 2017 season and
his upper 90-miles-an-hour fastball wasn’t as electric as it should have been.
First pitch Houston’s George Springer sees, he smacks a monster home run tying the game
at 8-8. Which relieved the center fielder of much of the guilt he may have felt for the error he had
made in the top of the inning, giving the Dodgers the lead. Then 3rd baseman Alex Bregman hits
Morrow’s second pitch for a single, Jose Altuve, the probable MVP (Most Valuable Players) for the
American League, strokes a double, Morrow throws a wild pitch, giving Altuve third base, Carlos
Correa makes that moot as he blasts another gigantic Astros home run, and after a total of
just seven pitches, Morrow has taken the Dodgers from a one run lead that normally would
win the game for the mighty Dodgers via their impregnable bullpen, to an 11-8 deficit.
More weary relievers, a Brian McCann insurance solo home run, and more drama later, we are
in the 9th inning. Dodgers last chance – score 12-9 in favor of the Astros. Exhausted Houston
fans are standing expecting to have beaten the Dodgers, despite this being a game started
by the GREAT Clayton Kershaw, which most pundits had put into the Dodgers win column
before game 5 had even begun.
Yasiel Puig then manages another mindblowing feat of
strength, lifting the ball into the left field seats off Houston’s Chris Devenski, the Astros
usual 8th inning set-up man, with a one-hand swing, making the score 12-11. Cody Bellinger,
who had walked before Puig’s at-bat, scored run number 10.
Austin Barnes, manager Roberts’ Yogi Berra, for his doggedness and smartness as the
Dodgers’ catcher, then doubles. We get down to two out, two strikes, with the ever-battling
Chris Taylor at bat. He had had great at-bats and hits during the National League Championship
series with the Yankees, earning co-MVP status along with Justin Turner for that series. And
now…he pokes a hit right up the middle to score Barnes and the game is tied! 12-12! The inning
ends at that score. It has been the longest nine-inning game in World Series history, in terms
of time played. People were falling asleep all over the country; Astros fans disappointedly plopped
back into their seats. Extra innings!
I’m stopping here. I’ll leave you with the drama of who won the game and a few links to
watch the rest of the game right here. You may want to watch the whole game!
Or more condensed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDnfOJUfVGY
Condensed into 28 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXWp_gUSxHw
Condensed into 14 minutes, more highlights per second:
It may have been the most dramatic game ever played in the history of baseball, certainly
in the World Series, on the teeter-totter offensive front!
Justin Verlander pitches game 6 tonight for Astros[/caption]
Game 6 comes up tonight. Justin Verlander pitches for the Astros. He has not lost a
game since he came over to the Astros at the trading deadline in July. However, he
was supposed to win game 2 in Los Angeles, but that didn’t happen. So, you have
to play the game. I’ll be watching again tonight. No Mets, but I love watching both
these teams. I’m a little guy, so I am rooting for the Altuve-blessed Astros. I also love
Alex Bregman, Gifted Astros Third Baseman[/caption]
the disciplined determined quiet Alex Bregman, and his family history of escaping
Russia going back to his great grandfather, and the way he plays, and that unforgettable
play/pinpoint throw in game 7 he made to essentially earn the victory in the
National League Championship series. (Yankees on both first and third when ball was hit.)
More game 7 Astros/Yankees series 2017 with the Bregman throw
Life goes on. There are small and big joys to experience, even as the curtain begins to go down.
Baseball in Trump’s America.
George Papadopoulos, First Confessing Guilty Trump Campaign Russia-Colluder[/caption]
George Papadopoulos has pled guilty as the first colluder with the
Russians to be convicted. Paul Manafort has been indicted. More shoes will fall. Meanwhile it’s
baseball cleats tonight and another terrific game is expected in the 2017 World Series. Hope I
gave you a good heads-up to excite you to tune in at 8:20 PM eastern standard time for game 6.
It’s been a beautiful show of our national pastime so far.
P.S. We shall see how the dynamics of the managing eventuates during the next 2 games
(if there are two). Dave Roberts may have overdone his relievers, pulling out starter Rich Hill
in game 2 before the fifth inning finished and stuffing his bullpen staff onto the mound prematurely,
relying on analytics.
A.J. Hinch, Houston Astros Manager Working More With A Hunch Not Analytics To Excess[/caption]
AJ Hinch has been managing more with his eyeballs on what he sees from his
pitchers. I think Peacock has been surprisingly great, but probably not for tonight. Giles the
supposed Astros closer has been so bad, he can’t snap off any of his finesse pitches with any command.
His ERA is above 11, so Hinch said he won’t be closing. But could that change. Lefty Francisco Liriano
has not appeared in the World Series yet, so watch for him somewhere tonight. Starters tonight are
Verlander for the Astros, and Rich Hill for the Dodgers. Both have been terrific this year, at least
for the last few months . Base-a-ball has-a-been good to me!
We have another big firestorm distracting America, involving the ever-unapologetic Donald Trump.
This time it is over a poorly communicated condolence call to the wife of a black soldier killed in battle
in Niger three weeks ago, on October 4 2017.
The Late Sgt. La David Johnson Killed In Niger[/caption]
Trump finally telephoned the wife of La David Johnson of
Miami, Florida, twelve days after the soldier died, making the call October 16th. Johnson’s widow was riding
to the airport to meet the body of her late husband when the President’s call came into the cellphone
of Master Sergeant Neil, the military service member assigned to her. Mrs. Johnson states that
she asked “Neil to put his phone on speaker” so the other people in the car could hear what would
be said. Accompanying her in the car were Florida Congresswoman and friend of the family, Frederica Wilson,
Sgt. Johnson’s aunt and uncle, ‘who raised him [La David Johnson] after his mother died when
he was a small child,’ Sgt. Neil, plus the driver.
Remember non-millennials, this is 2017. Utilizing the speakerphone option is very common today,
especially if you’re not a fan of developing a brain cancer. Unfortunately, Mr. Trump insensitively
told the aggrieved pregnant Mrs. Johnson ““you know that this could happen when you signed
up for it… but it still hurts.” These words caused additional hurt and anger in Mrs. Johnson “at his tone of
voice and how he said it.” Mrs. Johnson stated in an ABC ‘Good Morning America’ interview
with George Stephanopoulus on Monday morning October 23. (Congresswoman Wilson said
that the tone sounded almost like that of someone making a joke.)
Congresswoman Wilson also stated that Myeshia Johnson cried throughout the phonecall.
Mrs. Johnson in the Oct. 23 interview, stated that she did not say anything to the President, she ‘listened.’
This seems to belie the claim from Trump that they had “a very nice conversation.” Conversation
means two people conversing, talking. Conversation.
““And when she [Myeshia Johnson] hung up the phone, she looked at me and said, ‘He didn’t even
remember his name.’ That’s the hurting part,” Wilson said. “It was horrible. It was insensitive. It
was absolutely crazy.””
“Trump on Wednesday 10-18-17 claimed Wilson’s account was “totally fabricated,” and claimed he had “proof.”
“What was the proof, Mr. President?” a reporter asked Trump.
“Let her make her statement again and you’ll find out,” he replied, and, pressed again,
repeated, “Let her make her statement again and you’ll find out.”
Cowanda Jones-Johnson, Johnson’s aunt, told the Washington Post on Wednesday that
Trump “did disrespect” Sgt. Johnson, Myeshia Johnson, herself and her husband. Asked whether
Wilson’s account of Trump’s conversation with Myeshia Johnson was accurate, Jones-Johnson said, “Yes.””*
So Trump, the pathological liar, reflexively reacts to such claims by lying, saying:
““I had a very nice conversation with the woman, with the wife, who sounded like a lovely woman.
Did not say what the congresswoman said, and most people aren’t too surprised to hear that.””
A normal person would have shut up and not falsely tweeted about this unfortunate episode, but not Donald Trump.
Instead, this President goes on the offensive, tweeting ‘The Fake News is going crazy with wacky
Congresswoman Wilson (D), who was SECRETLY on a very personal call, and gave a total lie on content!’
[capitalized SECRETLY is Trump’s tweeted case].
Congresswoman Frederica Wilson Called ‘Empty Barrell’ by General John Kelly[/caption]
A normal person would have called the widow back, out of respect for her and her husband, who had made
the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and softened the blow, apologized for his insensitive communication
with her, made it right. Instead he tweets/calls the Congresswoman ‘wacky’ to degrade her, capitalizes the
word SECRETLY in his tweet, and calls HER a liar! Again, this is 2017 and many people would have put that
condolence call on speakerphone to better diffuse the pain of what might be said, amongst several intimate loved ones.
Meanwhile, we now know that several people were listening in to the call on the other side of the conversation,
physically situated nearby Donald Trump on this ‘very personal call.’
Now as an Emergency Room (ER) doctor, I know how difficult it is to tell members of a family that their loved one
did not survive the emergency that brought them to the ER. In fact, after 45 years in the ER, I eventually
determined that of all the things I had to do, this act was the most stressful, terrible responsibility I had to perform.
However, I had to this in person, usually in a ‘family room’ where anguished loved ones were waiting in various stages
of hope for word on the status of the patient. In person, I had to deliver the news of the fate of a human being – –
that had died. Obviously, this stresses the soul of all people concerned. But in person, being a professional,
I learned to deliver this news in as empathetic a way as was possible, listening to the survivors’ words and
sensing their feelings. Leaving a few beats between what I said initially, and how anyone in the room reacted.
Mainly helping those involved understand what had happened, consoling them. Very occasionally I did
lose it myself, despite all my experience in trying to be a professional rock for the grieving family.
Doing this via telephone is more difficult. Especially if you are lacking in empathy in the first place, like
our apparently ill-prepared President. But maybe he became too nervous and could not say the right thing?
Maybe Mrs. Johnson’s crying dissembled his thoughts so that he forgot to mention La David Johnson’s name?
Or did he just do this job perfunctorily, poorly, not getting everything together in front of himself, so he
would say the right thing? Was there any racism involved? Does he have difficulty
relating to other-than-straight-white people fawning at his feet and praising him to the sky???
Bad as this all was, then we have General Kelly coming out to clean up the mess.
He did very well for a few minutes on October 19 2017, relating his experiences with his two soldier sons, one
who died while proudly serving America in the military. “He was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he
was killed,” in 2010, Kelly volunteered. Kelly’s other son is serving active duty now.
But then out comes his reasons for being in the White House, supporting Trump.
He berates Congresswoman Wilson as an ‘empty barrel’ making so much noise – never mentioning her by name.
Also claiming (erroneously, we have discovered after fact checking) that she heinously claimed
responsibility for garnering the funds for an FBI building erected in her Florida district.
He was “stunned” by such self-aggrandizing behavior, he revealed. (Here is a link to a video
of General Kelly’s speech – from the Lawrence O’Donnell show Oct. 19 2017:)
And his now famous quote from October 19, 2017 [stunned!! Again]: “It stuns me
that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation. Absolutely stuns me.
I would have thought that was sacred.”**
We can see that the General is hypocritical and tone deaf. Other people were listening in the room
where Trump was speaking on the other end of the telephone line. Speakerphone mode is a common
option used in our current social media world, to help share experiences, and, in this case, share imminent pain.
After Kelly’s un-sacred remark about notification-of-soldier-death phonecalls, he subsequently threw in how
he thought that Gold Star soldiers and women were amongst what “this country used to hold
sacred,” as they were in his Boston Catholic childhood white world of the 1950’s, when husband-beaten wives
would go to confession and be told by the priest that despite their husband’s abusive behavior
there could be no divorce – as same-generation, same-home-town-Boston boy Lawrence O’Donnell
related that very October 19th night on his 10 o’clock show on MSNBC (check above link). For all of
Kelly’s words about women being sacred, and being respected, Kelly then disrespected the black
Congresswoman, misremembering what she said in her speech in 2015 (aired on the Joy Reid show in the
8-9 PM slot on MSNBC October 20, 2017), 3 minutes plus of which you can view / check via this link:
General Kelly accused Congresswoman Wilson of something she never said,
calling her an ‘empty barrel,’ not respecting her enough to
mention her name. Of course, we have to ask how much racism is in Kelly’s heart, how
much misogyny governs his behavior, and how does he get it so wrong re what he actually
remembers of Congresswoman Wilson’s speech commemorating the erection of the FBI building.
In which she thanked John Boehner for so quickly facilitating getting the logistics together for naming the
building after two deceased FBI agents. Congresswoman Wilson made no mention about
herself having anything to do with the funding for erecting the building, as you can hear
when you listen to her speech. (She states that she was not a Congressperson in 2009, when
the funding had actually been secured.)
Then Sarah Huckabee Sanders, current White House Press Secretary, carries out more
insulting insensitive anti-democratic B.S. stating that it would be ‘highly inappropriate’
to dispute what a “4-Star marine General” claims. Patriotic angered members of the
Press and the common citizenry are taking exception to such an extreme point of view.
Which is obviously highly inappropriate in its wrong right, but perhaps not for those
who see military officers as the highest infallible form of mankind, even if they now
are working for the government in the role of a civilian servant.
Then we have to wonder how these four young men died in Niger, and what they were
doing there. Two were Green Berets: Bryan Black, 35; and Dustin Wright, 29.
Sergeant La David Johnson was 25; Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Johnson was 39.
It may have been related to a political act that several diplomats have called
‘incomprehensible.’ In the latest edition of the Travel or Muslim Ban of September 2017,
the nation of Chad was added to the prohibited countries list. Chad is a large country in
Sub-Saharan Africa bordering Niger on the east, which has been relied upon by both the
USA and France, as a staunch ally in the fight against Isis and Islamic militants in Central Africa.
Niger Lies Between Chad On The East & Mali On The West[/caption]
Once the news arrived that the Trump administration was in the act of banning Chad citizens from
entering the USA, Chad began withdrawing their well-trained soldiers from Niger in the
last week of September. The battle in which the four soldiers were killed occurred
on October 4 2017. President Trump had not reached out to any of the families of
the four fallen soldiers until the beginning of the past week of October 16 2017,
nor had mentioned anything about it to the press or the citizens of the USA, though
it was the most serious military killing episode of his administration’s existence.
Chad is ruled by a dictator, according to Rachel Maddow (see below – link to her show of October 19 2017).
Oil is one of Chad’s great resources, and Maddow mentioned that a $74 Billion fine
was levied upon EXXON for not paying agreed-upon royalties/taxes within the last two years.
She could not discover exactly how the dispute was settled, or if it has been settled entirely,
but it might have upset EXXON and its former CEO Rex Tillerson, who is now the
Secretary of State of our country, heading our pitifully undermanned State Department.
Could this have led to the Chad inclusion in the Travel/Muslim Ban? Was it all a rookie mistake
on the part of the Trump administration? If so, is it impossible to admit to any mistake, or
ever apologize, if you are a member of the Trump administration, following the behavior
of our stubborn un-empathetic President?
As Oliver Hardy would commonly say to Stan Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy): ‘This is a fine mess you’ve gotten
me into!” Trump sends out Kelly to clean up his mess, and true to form, lying for a liar, the
General shows his true colors, both negative and positive, and digs the hole deeper and deeper,
with the nauseating assistance of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and an embarrassing crew
of psychological/ideological (?logical??) misfit sycophants populating OUR White House.
You would think the Trump administration would have quit being stupid here, but no.
At 5:30 AM Monday morning October 23 Trump has to tweet out: ‘I had a very respectful
conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from
beginning, without hesitation!’ which he has to know he did NOT do. But there he is,
pathologically lying. He can’t stop himself! Has to put that exclamation point there, after
the word ‘hesitation!’
During Mrs. Johnson’s ABC morning interview a few hours later, Mrs. Johnson stated
Congresswoman Wilson’s statement about Trump’s phonecall was “100% correct.” That
Trump did not know her husband’s name until about halfway through the call, he was finally
“stumbling” to say it.
Can we figure out what is going on here? Is this the typical misogyny we have to endure,
living like an infective virus inside the soul of our President? Is this the typical bullying of
an arrogant white man and his General old-school surrogate, of two black women, whom
they think they can outflank with the bluster of white privilege discrediting Congresswoman
Wilson and Mrs. Johnson in the eyes and minds of supportive white people, like those
who populate Trump’s ‘base?’ What he says being ‘truth’ to them; what the black women say
being inconsequential and unreliable?
Notice also that Trump has reverted to his perverted namecall-game, now capitalizing
the word Wacky when referring to Congresswoman Wilson in his newer tweets
referring to her, so that the three-word moniker has that alliterative
sound deploying those three ‘w’s. Wacky Congresswoman Wilson. Has a distinct
tang to it, doesn’t it? Great for the high school bully in the schoolyard, but not
for someone who is supposed to be behaving as our President.
P.S. Even with all this, the right things to do would be for both Trump and Kelly to call
widow Johnson, and Congresswoman Wilson, respectively, to apologize and correct
any misunderstanding, confess that each man made a mistake, resurrect whatever integrity
is resurrectable from this obscene episode. This could be done privately, without any
big bluster or public relations to-do, out of respect for a fallen American soldier, his family,
and a dedicated Congresswoman. It would be the right thing to do, don’t you think?
Additional information: We have 800 troops in Niger currently, more than in any country
in western Africa. Most Congresspeople, including Senators Lindsey Graham and
John McCain, were not aware of this, had not been informed of such military deployment.
Africom, our command center for Africa, is located right on site: in
Stuttgart, Germany.
General Joseph Dunford Discusses Niger; States Wife Of Sgt La David Johnson Not Being Able To View Body Is “Family Decision”[/caption]
General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in his
hour-long session with the press at the Pentagon yesterday, October 23, related that
though Mrs. Wilson in her morning ABC interview complained about not being allowed
to see her husband’s body locked into its casket, Dunford stated of her viewing of it:
“It’s the family’s decision.”
We’ll see what the actual story on that is, possibly, in the next few days.
