Category Archives: Person of Interest

Contra NRA

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Oliver North is about to become the head of the NRA. He will be trying for even more political clout and more members, and of course, less gun control.

You can find out about that here, among other places.

Oliver North avoided jail by testifying before Congress about the scheme involving Iran and the  Contras and Nicaragua. Partly to get hostages back, US weapons were sold (illegally) to Iran. North’s brilliant addition to the scheme was to use the money (illegally) to fund the Contras operating out of Honduras against the government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. I might note that Ortega is still in power there. You can find out more about this at this page.

Allow me to pontificate / rant here for a sentence or two.

One is not offered immunity from prosecution, nor does one need to accept it, if one is innocent. I can be forgiven for considering North to be a self-demonstrated criminal.

It was North who advised the Contras, to be more successful in their incursions into Nicaragua, to hit ‘soft targets:’ hospitals, markets, and schools. These tactics continue to be used today, for example in Syria and Yemen.

The NRA has made an ‘interesting’ choice of leader. North is media-famous and clearly a weapons hawk. Just what we need, after the Florida school shooting: contra-publicity for the NRA.

Who is this person?

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Here is one link where you can find out. I’ll content myself with a few small quotes. Emphasis mine, as always.

The New Mexico native graduated university with degrees in biology and agribusiness before joining the US Navy.

Biology is a tough subject. I know. I got Grade 13 biology after going to work. I am an armchair biologist today. The more you learn, the more you learn you don’t know much.

She was among the first cohort of female fighter pilots to transition tactical aircraft, the US Navy has confirmed.

Mrs Shults served in the US Navy for 10 years and flew fighter jets.

Now you know who she is. She safely landed a passenger airplane with an exploded engine.

Tammie Jo Schults, the pilot came back to speak to each of us personally. This is a true American Hero.

US Navy? Fighter jets? I think that means aircraft carrier take-offs and landings.

Thank God those skills were in the WestJet cabin.

One passenger died, as a result of her window being smashed. She was a banking vice president with two children. I will not name her here, but extend my condolences to her remaining loved ones. An atrocious stroke of bad luck. I am so sorry.

At least in heaven there’s food

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Bashar Assad is killing his own people. The Russian five-hour-daily cease-fire for humanitarian aid and civilian exit is just hot air.

(The advice given to the Honduran Contras attacking Nicaragua was, go for soft targets. Markets, schools, and hospitals. This ‘strategy’ is a gift of Richard Nixon and Oliver North. It is now standard practice.)

The Syrian regime is bombing hospitals, homes, whatever in Eastern Ghouta.

You can google the title phrase of this post. Or you can click here and scroll down to the ‘disturbing’ video.

Trump, Change!

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Some quotes:

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

Albert Einstein.

Lest anyone gain the impression that President Donald Trump is feeling any regret over his recent provocations of North Korea — calling its leader “Rocket Man” and threatening to “totally destroy” the country with “fire and fury” — recent days have only seen an intensification of the president’s rhetoric.

FP quote.  (http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/11/trumps-empty-north-korea-threats-will-lead-to-humiliation-or-war/)

The NRA should wake up here. If warfare ‘degenerates’ to sticks and stones, there won’t be anyone making new bullets (or assault rifles, either.) (me.)

Here’s more:

For the next six months, [Democratic presidential candidate and then-Vice President of the United States, Al Gore] is going to smear you as the enemy. He will slander you as gun-toting, knuckle-dragging, bloodthirsty maniacs who stand in the way of a safer America. Will you remain silent? I will not remain silent. If we are going to stop this, then it is vital to every law-abiding gun owner in America to register to vote and show up at the polls on Election Day.
So, as we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those fighting words for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Gore: ‘From my cold, dead hands!’

Charlton Heston.

No, Mr. Heston. From your fried dead hands. They may glow in the dark. You won’t be able to buy bullets.

So here’s today’s dumb question:

Who do you trust and believe?

  • A self-identified NRA puppet and ex-actor?
  • A psychopathic POTUS?
  • Albert Einstein?

Have a nice life, what’s left of it.

Not Needed: US Government ‘posts’

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Here you will find an interesting analysis of appointments by POTUS that require Senate confirmation. I will summarize:

Some 268 posts have not even started the confirmation process. 261 have no nominee.

POTUS, a.k.a. Donald Trump, has an explanation which you can find here.

I will content myself with a single quote, emphasis mine:

President Trump says: “I’m the only one that matters” in setting U.S. foreign policy, thus downplaying the importance of high-level jobs such as the assistant secretary of state, which is currently vacant.

“Let me tell you, the one that matters is me,” Trump said in an interview that aired on Fox News on Thursday night. “I’m the only one that matters, because when it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be. You’ve seen that, you’ve seen it strongly.”

The president was responding to a question from Fox’s Laura Ingraham, who asked him, “Are you worried that the State Department doesn’t have enough Donald Trump nominees in there to push your vision through?”

Apparently, when you’re Donald Trump, you don’t worry, especially about facts.

George H. W. Bush – a pat on the back (side) – or not?

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The former president of the United States of America apparently has been confined to a wheelchair for some five years.

Apparently he likes patting women’s backsides.

For women who don’t like this, don’t stand there. If you need that photo-op that badly, accept that weird things might happen. Decide.

For reporters, I suggest we assume GHWB is senile. Leave him alone.

Now for the dumb question:

Has anyone threatened to sue GHWB? Other executives are being sued left and right for similarly inappropriate behaviour.

Mutiny: on the Bounty

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We have the video of POTUS Donald Trump tossing paper towels into the crowd on Puerto Rico.

Fortunately, Bounty is made by Proctor & Gamble, a fine US (continent) company.

Puerto Rico is broke (to put it nicely; roughly eighty billion dollars in debt with no real assets) and now their crops are gone (and their houses.)

But, thanks to Donald Trump, they now have very nice paper towels. Perhaps Mister Trump believes the commercials: that the paper towels can clean up any mess.

That makes him today’s Person of Interest.

United? Nations?

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This post is about Justin Trudeau, today’s Person of Interest.

Here you will find one (of many) analyses of Trudeau’s speech to the UN. I will content myself with these observations:

  • Given the large number of international concerns running right now, it is odd that Trudeau would talk about how badly we’ve treated our aboriginal people.
  • Given that the UN will have no part in fixing a purely Canadian internal problem, it is odd that Trudeau would mention it on this particular stage.
  • A cynic might think that, by exposing our ‘dirty underwear’ Trudeau is trying to distract public attention from other real problems, including: broken voting reform promise; blowback on tax reform; dealing with Donald Trump.

There are, imho, many things Trudeau could have tried for progress or at least consensus on, including these:

  • Cholera in Yemen
  • Bombing of citizens in Serbia
  • Isolation of Qatar (mostly by Saudi Arabia)
  • North Korea with rockets and h-bombs
  • Hurricanes and Global Warming, and warming nay-sayers
  • Earthquakes in Mexico
  • The continuing fiasco in Haiti, where years later, little has been accomplished despite large amounts of money going to NGOs there, and a lot going to the US Army there (research this if you don’t believe me.)
  • Political and economic disaster in Venezuela, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Argentina.

Oh well. Sunny ways here, and dirty laundry at the UN.

Pete Seeger and Donald Trump

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Here is a hotlink to a YouTube (sound only) recording of Pete Seeger: Last Train to Nuremberg. You may wonder what this has to do with anything.

I saw this performed live in a taping of the Tommy Hunter show, decades ago. Seeger came out and said something like: “I’m going to play some songs for you, and we’re going to ignore all these technical people milling about.” He did, and they did. At one point some twit kept saying, ‘cut, Pete,’ and he didn’t.

Seeger played and sang Last Train to Nuremberg, explaining that he, in all honesty, played this song in every engagement. Simple as that.

Of course the Pete Seeger segment of the Tommy Hunter Show was short, and omitted the protest song. Of course.

Nuremberg was (you maybe knew this already) the site of war criminal trials. Listen to the song a few times; it’s free: Seeger’s song tells us that we are all complicit. Simple as that.

Donald Trump got elected. We are all complicit. Simple as that.

Donald Trump will tear the USA apart. We are all complicit. Simple as that.

The American magazine Atlantic has a couple of articles (among many) about this.

I expect readers of this blog to click on hotlinks and think for themselves. I’ll content myself with one quote from each, emphasis mine:

The trick here is that the administration and this shadow government are one and the same. Even as the public government sputters, other elements of the Trump administration are quietly remaking the nation’s regulatory landscape, especially on the environment and criminal justice.

The 45th president, Donald Trump, might pose the gravest threat to the constitutional order since the 37th. Of course, he might not. Perhaps we’ll get Grown-up Trump, an unorthodox and controversial president who, whatever one may think of his policies and personality, proves to be responsible and effective as a chief executive. But we might get Infantile Trump, an undisciplined narcissist who throws tantrums and governs haphazardly. Or perhaps, worse yet, we’ll get Strongman Trump, who turns out to have been telegraphing his real intentions when, during the campaign, he spread innuendo and misinformation, winked at political violence, and proposed multiple violations of the Constitution and basic decency. Quite probably we’ll get some combination of all three (and possibly others).

The Atlantic rejected my poems decades ago. I once owned an issue which dealt with the gun used in a massacre in the USA. (Loaned the mag and lost it. Damn!) Atlantic is a very fine magazine and I have no reason to trumpet it. No special interest. They don’t like me.

Pete Seeger is deceased. If you click on the hotlink at left, you’ll find out what else he did as a protest songwriter/singer.

Donald Trump is very much alive. If you google search for Trump News, you’ll see his/our latest folly.

We are all culpible. If we let this go on.

OK, dumb question?

What will you (personally) do about this?