Category Archives: FTAC – From The Awesome Conversation

If — in my own head — I hit a universal note just about right in Facebook or other conversation, I may simply wrench it from context and publish it here in this category as a mix of observation and, I hope, a writer’s wisdom.

FTAC – A Comment on ‘Uranium One’ and ‘Trump-Manafort’

06 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, International Development, Politics

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Were we at war with Russia through the years that “Uranium One” was in development? What was the tone of the American-Russian relationship at that time?

Perhaps December, 26, 1991 — the day the Russian tricolor was once again flown above the Kremlin — was both too good to be true and too good to last.

As regards “tribute” and so many other forms of corruption now associated with governance (and perhaps business) in the United States, I, you, and we are no longer happy campers.

Are the worlds of international business and international affairs so inherently criminal that our executives and politicians have had to “play ball” themselves to get things done?

Perhaps so, and our acclimatizing to the World Wide Web where so much may be finally seen is part of a great national and global “coming of age”.

Or not.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/10/06/american-election-2016-him-or-her-two-tales-for-two-scoundrels/

We’re not through the elections yet, but when we are, we’ll have been treated to possibly the slimiest mud fest in American election history. As much cannot be what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they set out the lofty ideals on which we have thrived. With that said, a look back at the Civil War, which reminders are all around my neighborhood, tells that we’re a rough people and we make deals behind closed doors — or perhaps over drinks — for both private and public purpose.

In retrospect, how should one feel about the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the “black budgeted” “Charlie Wilson’s War” developed to enable the indigenous of the region to halt and eject Russia’s military advance?

Mission accomplished.

Rather than take a strong partisan position — especially with this election! — I’ve chosen observation from the sidelines. Clearly, Moscow has renewed Russia’s identification as a “mafia state” or centralized “security state” — a state run by secret police. And then one looks at Moscow’s shaping of the Syrian Conflict and what it has done to that state and, possibly, how it has used terrorism to create unstable conditions in our own politics (Brown vs Red-Green x large portions of the Republican and Democratic Parties’ makeup respectively).

Is today’s Moscow the same as that with which we encouraged cooperation 25 years ago?

I don’t think it is.

The more recent “Trump-Manafort-Yanukovych-Putin” arc in relationship has bothered me more than the much earlier “Uranium One” deal, but with both, too much in the way of mixed personal and business and political behaviors seems indeed disheartening.

My fellow Americans — and those just visiting from elsewhere — the system may be broken and corrupt, and we can’t fix it right away.  However, we know the difference between bunkum and plain good responsible and responsive government — so God help us should we ever have another election season like the one that will be over (and God willing on that too) in two days.

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FTAC -America’s Election and Putin’s Opera – ‘Phantoms of the Soviet’

04 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Russia

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For the “Kingdom”, al-Qaeda and others represent challenges to royal authority. In that too much takes place “behind the curtains” in the medieval states, it’s hard to defend the whole “family”, but certainly the official position has for some time been one of enmity toward the Brotherhood umbrella. Basically: we’re not at war with Saudi Arabia.

Another approach to the same matter would stem from my pet peeves with Soviet / post-Soviet political manipulation and Moscow’s history of encouragement for terrorism going back to the 1920s and forward to the grand old time had in the 1970s with the PFLP and so many others aligned or working with winks from the Soviet enterprise. Today, of course, Hezbollah is in Syria fighting on behalf of Moscow, Damascus, and Tehran; Hamas remains okey dokey as far as Mikhail Bogdanov is concerned, and as often noted in my tout for Back-Channels, ISIL itself may unwitting serve Moscow-Damascus-Tehran by having been less bombed and combated than western-associated rebel organizations and Syrian noncombatants throughout the earlier years of that civil war.

Given my take on Putin’s world, which is turning out fairly awful by humanist standards, much less western ones, Trump’s earlier relationship with Paul Manafort and what he has going today with Sergei Millian — http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-suffers-bout-russian-amnesia/story?id=42325517 — should be as troubling to the public as Hillary Clinton’s taking of tribute in relation shepherding law and policy.

Things are never so simple as they may look, but the public may look twice — and needs to look twice — online to better comprehend true states of affairs.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/11/04/ftac-trumps-entanglements/

The thing to really keep in mind on Trump vs Clinton | Moscow is Putin’s timing between the dissolving of the Soviet Union 25 years ago and his transforming the nascent democracy into a fascistic ultra-nationalist enterprise. Syria may be turning out one of those “hinges of history”, and the American position should be to lay to rest the barbarism and totalitarianism represented through Putin today in Syria and other phantoms associated with Soviet behavior.

Hypothesizing with a Crayon

When the Soviet dissolved, western businessmen and diplomats may have been quick to get in (early) and forgive.  The general lawlessness of the stateless state then quickly dampened that enthusiasm but not the hope for the development of a capitalist open democracy with a modern approach to law.  Blame Berezovsky — who would come to blame himself — but that’s not how things developed even though the thaw produced unprecedented cooperation in the Moscow-Washington relationship.

We are today in a different place, and Syria and Crimea may stand signal of exactly where that is in political time.

The response within the Awesome Conversation began with a rejection of official Saudi collusion in events leading to 9/11.

As the Kingdom regards itself as the truest authority on Islam and with that the imprimatur to rule by divine right, the Brotherhood organizations may be regarded primarily as challengers to the authority of the royals.  As noted, much may go on “behind the curtains” or just plain out of sight.

By far, in any case, Moscow has long developed the greater track record as regards support for terrorism on general principles, and, to this day, neutral to positive relations with Hamas, Hezbollah, and PFLP, if not others.

In reference below, the reader will find in Andrei Soldatov’s writing for Foreign Policy a recap of Putin’s most recent reconstruction of a KGB-like organization.  Add to Soldatov’s observations the demonstration of a merciless barbarism in Syria — long commented on by this blog — and an aggression, as unjustified as it has been plain sneaky, exhibited in Crimea.  Credit such handiwork to the “phantoms of the Soviet” brought back to life by none other than Putin.

Related Reference

Fox, Wesley.  “The new Russian MGB looks a lot like the KGB–coups included.”  American Enterprise Institute, October 4, 2016.

Since Peter the Great, Russia demonstrated a highly selective approach to utilizing the European experience in various fields. For more than three centuries Russian rulers from the Romanov’s dynasty to Politburo members, tried to borrow from Europe the needed technologies, experts and managerial models without importing European social and political practices. This approach produced mixed results: the Russian modernization trajectory had its historic highs and lows; it was constantly criticized from both liberal and conservative sides, but in most cases it reflected an attempt by the authorities to keep a delicate balance between the urgent economic needs and the commitment to a political and social status quo.

Kortunov, Andrey.  “Seven Phantoms of the Russia’s Policy Toward the European Union.”  Russian International Affairs Council, April 6, 2016.

The KGB, it should be remembered, was not a traditional security service in the Western sense — that is, an agency charged with protecting the interests of a country and its citizens. Its primary task was protecting the regime. Its activities included hunting down spies and dissidents and supervising media, sports, and even the church. It ran operations both inside and outside the country, but in both spheres the main task was always to protect the interests of whoever currently resided in the Kremlin. With this new agency, we’re seeing a return to form — one that’s been a long time in the making.

Soldatov, Andrei.  “Putin Has Finally Reincarnated the KGB.”  Foreign Policy, September 21, 2016.

Whitmore, Brian.  “Power Vertical Podcast: Putin’s Sword and Shield”.  RFE/RL, September 23, 2016.

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FTAC – ‘Trump’s Entanglements’

04 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics, Russia

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https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/anthropolitical-psychology/malignant-narcissism/

The medieval way of doing business — commercial or political — may have relied on a kind of personality that we today call “authoritarian” or “autocratic” and possessed of some predictable characteristics especially when found demonstrably bullying and strutting. By contrast, the America mid-west ethic favors hard work, humility, and a quiet if firm demeanor.

Putin’s lines of power — Putin-Assad-Khamenei — and of influence — Putin-Orban, Putin-Erdogan – leverage the affinity between authoritarian leaders, who, not so surprisingly, aggrandize themselves at great cost to the finances and freedoms of their constituents.

From Washington’s standpoint, both Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump present “strong personalities”, but Trump’s earlier association with Paul Manafort, a major political consultant to the world’s dictators, and Sergei Millian, a Russian businessman — http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russia-trump-political-conflict-zone/story?id=42263092 (“Trump, Millian” is also an easy look-up online) — signals the idea that a kind of authority may present to the public, in old socialist language, “the masses”, a public reality that masks off personal interests.

Not too long ago, the Russian state could have been described as “post-Soviet” and on its way toward democracy as known in the open societies of the west. Putin’s more evident narrative starts out that way, and in fact with the endorsement of a powerful Russian billionaire — Berezovsky. The west was back then quick to forgive and get in, but adjustments by Putin over time — this December will mark the 25th anniversary since the dissolving of the Soviet Union — have transformed the state into a familiar authoritarian system, this time ultra-nationalist and imperial in its actions and intents. Trump, hardly alone in this, may have been inveigled in the earlier “glasnost” state of affairs — the same in which the “Uranium One” deal developed — but even so soon after so much east-west cooperation, today is very different as regards Moscow’s resurgent anti-western stance and Trump’s entanglements.

The piece looks a little off-hand as to how Americans prefer themselves as personalities and, by extension, what may have been preferred in those most divisive and raucous of election seasons.  If there had been a Harry Truman in the mix (or if ever there was)  — someone who shouldered responsibility quietly and returned to a modest life — he would have been steamrolled and buried beneath the machinery of Big Politics (say, whatever happened to Rubio?).

An Aside on the Coming Election

Syndicate Red Brown Green has made a loud appearance in this election round, and BackChannels interprets the color code this way:

Brown – New Nationalists – Trump – Representative Portion of Loud Republican Moral Authoritarianism

Red–Green – Old Comrades and Neo-Islamists – Clinton’s Party and Its Portion of the Fascists on the Far Left

The extreme divisions in America’s body politic serves Moscow, and BackChannels wonders to what extent over time (decades) and today KGB-style FSB “Active Measures” (Wikipedia) have contributed to the nation’s very own mud fest of an election season.  As regards that suspicion, let it include the cultivation of the Far Left on campus and in the think-tanks across decades, as the Wikipedia page referenced asserts the following: “According to Stanislav Lunev, GRU alone spent more than $1 billion for the peace movements against Vietnam War, which was a “hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost”.[3] Lunev claimed that “the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad”.[3]”

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FTAC -A Progressing Jerusalem

30 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Gaza, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Philology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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The other writer stated the following:

“Jews who deny Muslim and Christian attachment to Jerusalem pave the way for Muslims and Christians to deny Jewish attachment to Jerusalem.”

—

Hmm.

“Muslims who deny Jewish and Christian attachments to Jerusalem pave the way for Jews and Christians to deny Muslim attachment to Jerusalem.”

“Christians who deny Jewish and Muslim attachments to Jerusalem pave the way for Jews and Muslims to deny Christian attachment to Jerusalem.”

It’s funny how the assignment of culpability works within such a statement.

Truth to tell: in 12th Century Christian Hungary, laws devised to discriminate against Jews were upon activation applied equally to Muslims (source: Raphael Patai, _The Jews of Hungary_).

The bogey: jealousy and resentment (perhaps) and supersessionary ambition (no question).

What is it about the medieval world and worldview — apart from concentrating ill-gotten wealth in thuggish elites — that keeps so many of the Soviet / post-Soviet arc trapped within it?

Perhaps post-Holocaust, the arguments are shifting from hidden and shameful supersessionary wishes (I thought that was done with in 1964) and “recognition of ‘the other'” (who isn’t “other” for somebody?) to the differences between medieval perception and rhetoric (and absolute power) toward the modern comprehension of political conditions, greater recognition of mutual obligations, and interest in the peaceful interweaving of complex and varied cultural and economic systems.

What may the medieval world have looked like?

Crimea.

Syria.

And thank the same system of thought so slyly — ah, but obviously — singles out the Hebrews as the source of all troubles.

Leadership, cultural mentality, and political power have a relationship in which the medieval of mind invests energy in the command and control of mobs.  Frame-ups, innuendos, lies, rumors: snookering the marks is what political dishonesty has been all about.

In and around the Middle East Conflict, the Palestinians — who having suffered Arab apartheid and gross isolation and misguidance for decades — have paid the highest price for their once unwitting subordination to a mixture of Nazi- and Soviet-promoted images of the surrounding world, and that starting with the demonizing and scapegoating of the Jews.

Soviet cartoons distributed in the Middle East to leverage “the masses” into the Soviet camp.
Soviet cartoons distributed in the Middle East to leverage “the masses” into the Soviet camp.

The Soviet Era cartoons from the late 1960s and early 1970s suggest what Moscow used to inveigle the Arab World in its unholy designs, for back then, Russia was avowedly and godlessly communist as well as deeply anti-Semitic.

Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/10/03/palestinian-kgb/ – 10/3/2016

Related on the Internet

Timmerman, Kenneth R.  “Former Soviet Spy Sees the Long Arm of the KGB in Today’s Muslim Anti-Semitism.”  Tablet, August 7, 2013.

Palestinians and others — and this plainly demonstrated in Syria, and nowhere more so than with Yarmouk, the once Palestinian camp and refuge — will never know authentic freedom and self-determination while bent to the will of a still medieval and excessively controlling — and kleptocratic (and today “ultra-nationalist”) — Moscow.

Additional Reference

Corre, Addam.  “Hamas Leaders Worth Millions of Dollars from Allegedly Skimming Donations and Extortion: Is Anyone Surprised?”  Inquisitr, July 18, 2014 (updated July 22, 2014).

Danan, Deborah.  “Gaza’s Millionaires and Billionaires — How Hamas’s Leaders Got Rich Quick.”  Algemeiner, July 28, 2014.

Mitsotakis, Spyridon.  “Russia: Hamas and Hezbollah are Democratic, Not Terrorists.”  Breitbart, November 17, 2015.

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FTAC -Solomon’s Folly and the Middle East Conflict

24 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Palestinia, Russia

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Third-party adoptions take place too, but let’s not add complications to the retelling of a parable involving the difference between authentic and inauthentic claims.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_gist/1997/05/selling_land_to_jews.html offers a brief look at the Arab sale of land to the Jewish State for the development of a new agricultural economy. As with most facets of the Middle East Conflict, the depth of the bickering has no bottom, lol, but the western principle elevating integrity in the telling of history should stand. The peaceful processes involved in the development of Israel, including the chartering by the United Nations (which then Soviet Russia, among a majority of other states, approved) should not be omitted from accounts of the “baby’s” birth.

As geopolitical space worldwide naturally compartments into politically separable and potentially distinct units — x nation, region, state, county, district, city, neighborhood, township, and individual private property — nonetheless sharing the earth, Solomon’s method fails for immediate relevance: the “baby” — the land — is greater than the “mothers”. In effect and regarding the basic service required for life, common security (policing), and for trade are in fact already co-administered.

The People — either, en masse, or by more parochial organization — may “see” things differently, but that, again (coming from me), devolves to methods in misinformation continuously driven by the “carrot” that is (reward for) tribal loyalty and the “stick’ that is intimidation.

As long as a loyal ruse trumps an inconvenient truth, that is as long as the conflict will last.

However, the conflict is already . . . tired. Old.  Perhaps while the mothers were arguing, the baby grew up.

Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, founder of Islam’s moderate Wasatia Movement, had posted a lovely personal history and parable about the middle east conflict and the biblical Solomon’s famous discerning of the birth mother of an infant laid claim to by another woman.  The true mother, so Solomon decided, was the one who would rather give up her baby than see him divided in two.

Daoudi’s suggestion on behalf of the Palestinian Cause and peace: perhaps both mothers should raise the baby.

There’s probably no need here to suggest that one of the two moms would batter the other over the next step: naming the baby.

🙂

So, up top, there’s the response.

The truth of the matter, now long publicized on BackChannels, involves Soviet manipulation and misinformation in its efforts to use the Arab world through the refugees of 1948 to block the further western liberalization that would threaten the political absolutism and totalitarianism on which authoritarian, despotic, and tyrannical regimes sustain themselves in power.

If there’s an appropriate counterpoint, it would be this: all civil societies require principles of organization, and the spectrum most certainly includes elite authority — experienced, knowledgeable, and wise — in several forms, including royalty (rule by divine right).  Even so, other principles involving ethics, human development, and morals needs must apply against the suite of politically criminal behaviors known to unbridled or “unchecked” authorities: capricious justice; corruption; kleptocracy.

Basically, the Palestinians cannot get to their oasis of peace through an ocean of lies, a body of speech that must include not only its fabrications but its own sins of omission.

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FTAC – Election 2016 – The Tortured American

11 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, Politics, United States of America

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Oh what a tangled web we weave!

This is on my wall —

https://www.theguardian.com/world/1992/oct/09/usa.martinwalker (“Bush challenges Clinton over 1969 week in Moscow”)

I would expect Americans to vote their judgment of character and their ideals, and neither candidate has appeal in character. That may be a function of this election’s relentless negative campaigning.

Think about it a moment.

The campaigners are the kind of people who would go microscopically digging in the past to scrape up a few moments of locker room braggadocio with which to scuttle a presidential contender’s campaign.

Vote Donald J. Trump!

But then . . . what does one do with Trump’s bankruptcies, “tax freedom” (one might call it), and the near routine stiffing of vendors who have delivered their work and then have had to sue to hold Trump’s side to its contract obligations?!

Vote Hillary Clinton!

Then li’l ol’ me goes dredging up — I’m a humble blogger, lowest of the low in journalism, a bum, so I’m allowed to go dredging (or is it “Drudging”?) — something out of Bill’s past, and there’s the Moscow connection.

Vote Donald J. Trump!

But Trump had the temerity or naivete to hire Paul Manafort, consultant to the world’s bloodiest dictators and political mafia, including Viktor Yanukovych whom Ukrainians ousted from power, so disgusted were they with the corruption associated with the regime. Yanukovych went crying to Moscow; Moscow sent in the “Little Green Men” and annexed Crimea against old agreements to leave Ukraine independent . . . .

Vote Hillary Clinton!

Feeling screwed either way?

Many of my fellow Americans may feel the same way.

Directly Related on BackChannels:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/10/06/american-election-2016-him-or-her-two-tales-for-two-scoundrels/

On the 2016 American Elections, BackChannels has striven to either stay out of it or stay balanced, and it has possibly succeeded at both.

Come the day, many voters may feel they’re not voting for Clinton or Trump but rather voting against one or the other, i.e., blocking a perceived threat to America’s “domestic tranquility” — perhaps the entire election should be perceived as and rendered unconstitutional! — and its independent foreign affairs policies and practices.

Eenie meenie miney mo .  . . .

Addendum – Additional Reference

Alabama (news media).  “Endorsement: We’re with Hillary Clinton.  Frankly, Donald Trump’s dangerous.”  October 9, 2016.

Bederman, Diane Weber.  “The Crude and the Corrupt in American Politics.”  Dianebederman.com, October 11, 2016.

Bittner, Jochen.  “The New Ideology of the New Cold War.”  The New York Times, August 1, 2016.

Caldwell, Leigh Ann.  “Major GOP Donors are Asking Trump for Their Money Back.”  NBC News, October 12, 2016.

Ruth, Joel.  “Clinton’s Czech-Communist Connection.”  WND, April 30, 1999.

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FTAC -Of Potential “False Flag Operation” in the Beating of a Ukrainian Rabbi

08 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology

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http://forward.com/culture/202181/my-hunt-for-the-cossacks-in-ukraine/

The “Maidan” was deeply integrated as regards Christian and Jewish relations in the effort to oust the President Yanukovych.

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/1.577114

Ukraine – “Russia and The Jews” – Dueling Attitudes

As we live in the age of “false flag operations” — e.g., http://www.nationalreview.com/article/439060/vladimir-putin-1999-russian-apartment-house-bombings-was-putin-responsible !!! — I would suggest this may be the kind of crime designed to whip up fear of Ukrainian Cossacks to weaken western resolve in opposition to Putin’s invasion of Crimea.

Source of inspiration:

https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/10/07/chabad-rabbi-found-unconscious-bleeding-after-brutal-beating-at-ukrainian-train-station/ – 10/7/2016:

He has previously served Jewish communities in France and Israel, and, according to the report, has been instrumental in aiding Jews of the former Soviet Union. He is believed to have been in Haditch at the gravesite over Rosh Hashanah.

The motive for the attack remains unknown. According to the report, violent antisemitic attacks in Ukraine are rare, and there is no indication at this time that the assault was antisemitic in nature.

BackChannels wishes not to become “Yellow Press”, but given the mysterious elements in the crime described in The Algemeiner, both Ukrainian detectives and global public now need to be aware of the possibility of being fooled by old KGB method in placing a cooked-up image before “the masses”.

Let the detectives do their work, and may they do it with exemplary conscience and integrity.

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FTAC – Narcoterrorism, Hezbollah, and Human Rights in a Nutshell

08 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Lebanon

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“Narcoterrorism” is the term and a large part of what has become transnational crime.

From the blog some time ago: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2013/11/11/reference-pakistani-political-attitudes-taliban-arab-influence-heroin-cash-uae-and-the-marines/

This is the stuff of political thrillers in films and novels.

In general, both Hezbollah and Hamas may be interpreted as the advanced troops of Tehran as ultimately backed by Moscow. Again, the prize: political absolute power and destruction of democracies and the decimation of the concept — as demonstrated in Syria — of human rights.

Inspiration: The Jerusalem Post.  “Analysis: Hezbollah’s drug trail.” October 7, 2016.

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