Tag Archives: America

Death of a Cigar Shop: A Smoke Shop Mirror for America – From TPC

06 Thursday Jun 2019

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Not the best, but what it is, this week:

 

This one is a little short by my standards. My ultra-secret project is winding down and, honestly, I’m worn out. A new short work of fiction is materializing. As much time as it’s consumed, it’s still not quite ready.

 

Several ideas for this week presented themselves in due order. One kinda sorta made it, here, today. But, I needed a context. And, brothers and sisters, I found it, in a most unlikely manner, in a most likely place.

 

I have, for many years now, been a frequent fixture at various cigar shops, from Florida to New Hampshire. This afternoon, with a rare bit of “time off,” I decided to visit one of my former favorites. My purposes were two-fold: to have a smoke and to work on this column. Of the two, the smoking might be going more smoothly:

 

Picture by Perrin.

 

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Illegal Invaders Have More Legal Rights Than You Do

06 Thursday Jun 2019

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Literally. This is what happens when the rule of law leaves a failed nation. As your rights are trampled, as you are filmed, poked, prodded, x-rayed, and interrogated, invaders from afar breeze through in admitted (further) violation of the law.

The federal agency tasked with overseeing security at transportation hubs has been violating its own policy by allowing migrants who have been released from federal custody onto flights despite not having required documents, according to several Department of Homeland Security officials.

For the past six months, the Transportation Security Administration has allowed migrants released from the custody of other Homeland Security agencies to board flights to other parts of the country despite the passengers lacking any of the 15 documents it states are the only acceptable forms of identification.

Since early December, the agency has avoided temporarily changing federal policy and also not introduced a permanent solution to address this new phenomenon, despite no indication border apprehensions and mass releases are slowing down any time soon.

This is the permanent solution. The new normal in an abnormal age. Y’all need to vote harder or something.

Western Civ is Going Already

31 Friday May 2019

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PCR has some observations to cheer a 60’s radical. Sorry if you’re not one of those. Part of this is oddly similar to the opposite of my plan to end terrorism, namely by 1) not bothering them, over there, and 2) by just leaving them over there.

What we are experiencing is the failure of government at all levels. Huge sums are being spent on wars and the fomenting of wars while Los Angeles faces the prediction of a typhus epidemic. For two decades the US has spent trillions of dollars on wars in the Middle East in behalf of Israel. Washington calls it “the war on terror,” which is a cover story that hides the real agenda and motivation of violence that has killed, maimed, orphaned and displaced millions of Muslims. One consequence of these senseless wars has been to radicalize Muslims against Americans and Europeans even as the US and Europe import millions of displaced Muslims into their countries.

Countries without a homogeneous population are already disadvantaged by disunity, but to bring in massive numbers of peoples who have every reason to hate you is insanity. Once here, the hatred is weaponized against white people by Identity Politics.

If a country decided to self-destruct, it would do precisely what the US and Europe have done. This is the serious problem, not Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Syria, Russia, China. It is likely the case that Identity Politics is now so entrenched in American institutions, such as the New York school system ( https://nypost.com/2019/05/28/bombshell-suit-claims-carranzas-toxic-whiteness-purge-cost-doe-execs-their-jobs/ ), that disunity is now a permanent feature of the United States.

The largely unacknowledged problems that the US faces would overwhelm even a unified country. For a country as disunited as America, it is difficult to see any favorable odds.

Just something to think about, maybe live with/in, this Friday morning. Happy final day of May!

An Understandable Shift

25 Saturday May 2019

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All things 1860’s “Civil” War are losing the interest of an increasingly vapid public.

FORT OGLETHORPE, Ga.—Is Civil War tourism history?

Once a tourism staple for many Southern states and a few Northern ones, destinations related to the 1860s war are drawing fewer visitors. Historians point to recent fights over Confederate monuments and a lack of interest by younger generations as some of the reasons.

The National Park Service’s five major Civil War battlefield parks—Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, Chickamauga/Chattanooga and Vicksburg—had a combined 3.1 million visitors in 2018, down from about 10.2 million in 1970, according to park-service data. Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, the most famous battle site, had about 950,000 visitors last year, just 14% of how many it had in 1970 and the lowest annual number of visitors since 1959. Only one of these parks, Antietam, in Maryland, saw an increase from 1970.

When Louis Varnell opened a military-memorabilia store near Chickamauga Battlefield here in the 2000s, he had several competitors. Today, his store is the only one left. Only about 10% to 20% of his sales are Civil War-related; he mostly sells stuff from World War II or other conflicts, he said.

Read all about it.

It may be that subconsciously the sheeple begin to suspect that the next civil war is much closer, temporally, than the last one. Tick, tick, tick…

Russia Extends the Olive Branch

15 Wednesday May 2019

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Now that the Russia, Russia, Russia! hoax has been exposed and laid to rest, the Russians would like to get back to “better.” Will Washington be wise enough to understand?

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday it was time for Moscow and Washington to put aside years of mistrust and find a way to work together constructively.

One wonders if DC can do anything constructively anymore. Let’s hope so.

 

Shouting About The Big Stick

13 Monday May 2019

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So much for avoiding foreign entanglements. USSOCOM is advising and bragging about overthrowing governments.

No kidding – this is not our headline, but Newsweek’s: “US Special Forces School Publishes New Guide For Overthrowing Foreign Governments” – and as far as we can tell they are the only major mainstream outlet to have picked up on the fact that the US military is now essentially openly bragging on past and future capabilities to foster covert regime change operations.

The 250-page study entitled “Support to Resistance: Strategic Purpose and Effectiveness” was put out by the Joint Special Operations University under US Special Operations Command, which is the Army’s official unified command center which overseas all joint covert and clandestine missions out of MacDill AFB, Florida.

“This work will serve as a benchmark reference on resistance movements for the benefit of the special operations community and its civilian leadership,” the report introduces.

The study examines 47 instances of US special forces trying to intervene in various countries from 1941-2003, thus special attention is given to the Cold War, but it doesn’t include coups which lacked “legitimate resistance movements” — such as the case of ‘Operation AJAX’ in 1953 which overthrew Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.

Read all about it, HERE.

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Bu, bu, but, muh Russians…

No Border, No Nation

08 Wednesday May 2019

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The flood pours in.

The government is so overwhelmed by the border surge that it’s already released 168,000 illegal immigrant family members directly into communities, the government said Wednesday.

An ICE official made the revelation at a Senate hearing where she and other top immigration officials pleaded with Congress to do something to stop the surge of migrants that’s overwhelming the system.

April set new records, with the Border Patrol nabbing more than 58,000 illegal immigrants traveling as families in that month alone.

That was part of more than 109,000 illegal immigrants nabbed border wide, including at or between the ports of entry.

And for the first time in history, nearly half of the adults arriving are bringing children with them, looking to take advantage of the loopholes in U.S. policy that they believe — usually correctly — will earn them a foothold in the U.S.

Was releasing them back to where they came from not possible? And, why, how were they allowed in, in the first place?

Oh, look! It’s Iran or something.

They’ve Wanted This for a While

06 Monday May 2019

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The neocons Trump administration dispatched an aircraft carrier to Iran…

The United States is deploying an aircraft carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East on short notice in response to “clear indications” Iran and Iranian proxies were planning an attack on U.S. forces in the region, a U.S. official said.

Late Sunday night, the White House made a surprise announcement that the USS Abraham Lincoln and a bomber task force were being deployed in response to unspecified “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings.”

A statement from National Security Adviser John Bolton said the deployments were intended “to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.”

“The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces,” the statement continued.

Clear indications from whom? Oh, of course.

Israel passed information on an alleged Iranian plot to attack U.S. interests in the Gulf to the U.S. before national security adviser John Bolton threatened Iran with “unrelenting force” last night, senior Israeli officials told me.

Why it matters: Bolton’s unusual and aggressive statement included news that the U.S. would move an aircraft carrier to the region. The officials said intelligence gathered by Israel, primarily by the Mossad intelligence agency, is understood to be part of the reason for Bolton’s announcement.

Behind the scenes: Information about possible Iranian plots against the U.S. or its allies in the Gulf were raised two weeks ago in talks held at the White House between an Israeli delegation headed by national security adviser Meir Ben Shabbat and a U.S. team led by Bolton, the Israeli officials told me.

  • The intelligence about a possible Iranian plot is not very specific at this stage, but the officials said it was clear the threat was against a U.S. target in the Gulf or U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia or the UAE.

Does this not smell a little like yellowcake?

“straight up Venezuela flipping”

05 Sunday May 2019

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Yo, G! Straight up. Pompeo. Word! Bolton.

A rapper might be able to come up with better ideas than the neocons about what to do with Venezuela. Last week, on the morning of the big “coup,” I talked to a sweet woman from VEN. She was naturally worried about her elderly parents in Caracas. I pondered whether the regime would assassinate Guaido.

In the aftermath of a faltering opposition uprising in Venezuela, the Trump administration is looking at imposing new individual sanctions against the Maduro government and also scrambling for ideas that can have a greater impact on the ground, including military options.

The White House is calling for relevant departments to produce more options for the president to consider on Venezuela. The National Security Council is pushing the Defense Department for military ideas and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is seeking ways to entice Russia to pull away from Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Current and former officials recognize there are not many more options other than military action or some type of internal revolt.

“It’s more sanctions, military or straight up Venezuela flipping,” said a senior administration official on condition of anonymity. “And that’s a problem. All they have to do is delay, delay, delay and they’re still in power.”

Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Navy Adm. Craig Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command, met Friday morning and discussed different options to increase pressure on the Maduro government, including military participation.

I’m not as worried now. Notice that Maduro hasn’t even threatened to arrest the US’s “legitimate” choice as president. I suspect that’s because the regime views him (and his neocon nut backers) as harmless objects of fun. That’s how low US foreign “policy” has fallen – Washington levels a gun at someone and all they do in response is laugh.

And, what of these options? Is one of them to simply leave it the hell alone? Or, how about just offering whoever is in charge that we will just keep buying the oil at market prices? Probably not.

This is a repeat of Syria. Russia, with a handful of troops and one or two ships, has checked US imperial aggression. Next, they’ll likely offer VEN a way out of depression via a switch to BRIC’s monetary policy and advice on tapering off the Bernie-esque domestic socialism. Then, they might offer a better internet alternative.

The options cons may well abandon that plan and move on. People of Nicaragua, watch out.

Demographic Destination Looks Like War

30 Tuesday Apr 2019

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War, it will be – sooner or later (probably sooner); even the media is beginning to admit the reality.

Why it matters: The U.S. faces two possible futures: A thriving nation that embraces its new demographic makeup, or an escalation of fighting, racism and xenophobia.

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By the numbers: Since 2010, non-Hispanic white people have become the minority in 32 more U.S. counties — for a total of 372 counties, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The trends are largely due to a rise in Hispanic and Asian immigrants as well as slightly higher birth rates among non-whites.

Next year, the entire under 18 population will be majority non-white, according to William Frey, a Brookings Institution demographer and author of “Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America.”

In less than a decade, the population under 30 will be majority non-white.

The demographic shifts are already having an impact on our national identity, politics and the generational gap, according to sociologists and demographers who have studied the trends.

National identity: The U.S. has made significant strides toward structurally equal rights, but in practice, there’s still a long way to go.

 

The key part of this whatever it is article is: “an escalation of fighting, racism and xenophobia.” I strongly suspect the escalation will lead to heavy bombings of the larger cities. I don’t mean car bombs or crude IEDs. I mean B-52s doing what they do. I suspect a decent chance of nuclear conflict. High. Death. Toll.

Odds are, we’ll find out how this works within the next 10 to 15 years. Consider vacating the urban areas or any place with any high-value targets. Get away from the people.

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