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Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Rep. Schiff: “You Might Think It’s Okay” – Excerpt from Address to Congress on the Issue of Collusion

01 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Russia, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Adam Schiff, Donald Trump, Kompromat, Russian Collusion


Screen capture April 1, 2019.

Related on BackChannels: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2018/09/07/mafia-don-laundering-the-authoritarian-presidents-image/ – 9/7/2018.

Related: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/08/16/craig_unger_untold_story_of_trump_russia_partnership_laundered_money_via_his_real_estate.html – 8/16/2018. Craig Unger: “Trump says he has no contacts with Russia. I found 59 people who were intermediaries between Trump and Russia, and I traced them over the years and found not just hundreds of millions, perhaps, but billions of dollars in money laundering from the Russian mafia using Trump properties. But you had criminals living in Trump Towers, and the FBI was chasing mobsters and found they weren’t living in Brooklyn. They were living in Trump Tower.”

Also related: https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate – Craig Unger, 7/13/2017.


Take one big step back to get the larger picture.

According to Karen Dawisha, recently deceased, the Soviet as administered by the Party Nomenklatura had in place in the mid-1980s a contingency plan for its own dissolution (just in case) — source: Putin’s Kleptocracy — so when the state dissolved (Dec. 25, 1991), the assets it had controlled were released to the “privileged of the The Party”. While the state transitioned into its federated form, the state was essentially lawless and without power to impose order on the chaos that ensued. (Aside: the power of the sovereign to police Russia has been always weak in terms of recognized police assets x area x population — the space has been historically underserved in that regard). The “Vory” coming out of the Gulag would present an especially egregious challenge to the new state and, so BackChannels believes, would be incorporated into the “mafia state“, effectively centralizing organized crime in the shadows beneath Vladimir Putin’s full sweep of power.

Now take in Craig Unger’s observations and blend with Russia’s Soviet / post-Soviet obligations and relationships involving all but support for Communism, which ideology was effectively neutralized by the official disempowerment of “The Party” at the end of the Cold War: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria | PLFP, PLO, Hezbollah, et al. | other former Communist Party alignments and former Loyalist (White Russian) extensions from the Imperial Period.

Add, perhaps, al Qaeda: http://www.businessinsider.com/exploring-al-qaedas-murky-connection-to-russian-intelligence-2014-6 | John Schinder – “Exploring Al Qaeda’s Murky Connection To Russian Intelligence” – 6-10/2014

Russia’s mafia state, narcoterrorism, integration with big “transnational crime organizations (TCOs)” . . . — Oh! Add a few other states with their active criminal and terrorist funding portions and then imagine the money sloshing about in the pockets of the middlemen — the facilitators, the smugglers — who can’t spend all that dirty loot without cleaning it up some.

NOW, good civic minded citizen (who knows not to ask too many questions), imagine receiving it clean.

What would you do with it?

What if it stopped arriving?



In recent years and now weeks, money laundering scandals have surfaced in various ways: “Panama Papers”; HSBC; Danske Bank; Norde Bank.

The gum shoes and journos do their investigative things; we get the information and the infotainment; and we cluck: “How awful!

Wait a minute — that cash, indecipherable from other cash — is in someone’s economy serving as capital or reserves or as loose dough attractive to business, charity, labor . . . everyone for everything.


Is there a price? A benefit?

One generation does the crime — and behold: Las Vegas.

And the next: good educations; good businesses; good jobs; decent enough rule of law.

Good people.


Delivered every which way: America’s Addicted: 2.5 million souls.

In the pipeline and driven by corporeal and financial insecurity associated with corruption, crime, and related impoverishment and violence: Central and South American mass migration.


Reference for Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) diatribe: https://www.c-span.org/video/?459258-1/house-intelligence-committee-examines-russian-election-interference-tactics (13:07)


# # #

FTAC: After the Mueller Report, The Tarring Will Stick

25 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, American Domestic Affairs, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Collusion with Russia, Donald Trump

While the Democrats have some post-Soviet issues on the Far Left — and the Republicans seem to draw the White Far Right — I believe Americans are perceiving a deeply paranoid, aggressive, and vindictive Administration freighted with shady figures (like Manafort) on the ride in and packed with sycophants (like Stephan Moore, the latest nomination for the Fed), today.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2018/09/07/mafia-don-laundering-the-authoritarian-presidents-image/

It was just one book (by a liberal) and may be let go, but since its publication, there have been many others, each researched and defended by its author, most with impeccable credentials. Now even the Mueller Report is being redacted — whatever the “eyes only”, the public isn’t getting the whole story, so there has to be something of value in the volume worth keeping from the public.


Whatever this report says, here’s what I know: when I was at Cambridge Analytica, the company hired known Russian agents, had data researchers in St Petersburg, tested US voter opinion on Putin’s leadership, and hired hackers from Russia – all while Bannon was in charge.

Christopher Wylie in the below displayed tweet.

Whatever this report says, here’s what I know: when I was at Cambridge Analytica, the company hired known Russian agents, had data researchers in St Petersburg, tested US voter opinion on Putin’s leadership, and hired hackers from Russia – all while Bannon was in charge.

— Christopher Wylie 🏳️‍🌈 (@chrisinsilico) March 25, 2019

In the way of communists and fascists alike, Bannon, the “populist”, has decamped himself into an Italian monastery befitting his own self-concept.

It’s a nice place.

https://www.dw.com/en/italian-monastery-turns-into-hotbed-of-bannon-fueled-nationalism/a-47930804


Such impressions add up, albeit among those who follow the news and query the Internet. The image of the President and his helper has not been authentically “populist”.

With Donald Trump, his once-trusted lawyer, his once-esteemed campaign manager, his brag, “I just you all a lot richer”, his Miami real estate, one of the world’s dirtiest / most glamorous markets, the story’s just not going to wash away, not matter how loud he may be about vindication.


https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-bannon-ties-to-cambridge-analytica-facebook-data-run-deep-2018-3

Bannon has said he doesn’t remember buying the data . . . .


Also Related Online

https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate – 7/13/2017.

I own it, haven’t read it, but it’s the kind of thing that pops up on Amazon with the search string, “Trump, Collusion” — there are also Trump collusion dismissals, but in that category, Roger Stone places high — I’d rather read (and trust) Guardian veteran Luke Harding.

BackChannels cited a BackChannels post on Craig Unger’s book. Here’s the direct link to the book on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/House-Trump-Putin-Untold-Russian/dp/152474350X/ – 8/14/2018

# # #

Immoderate Bern and Don and Narcissistic Supply

03 Sunday Mar 2019

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, North America, Politics, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Elections 2020, Narcissistic Supply, political narcissism, Presidential Campaigns 2020

The Donald goes off script and holds forth like Castro, delivering two hours of rambling, crowd loving, rambunctious showmanship; and the Bern, ever more to the point, tells his lovers of his intent to turn the American enterprise system — our realpolitik mix of public functions and private incentives x specific U.S. geopolitical area — upside-down.

What compassionate, moderate, and reasoning American constituency wants to have to choose between the demagogue on the Far (Out) Left and the reactionary on the Far (Mostly White) Right?

While it may be too soon to fix the 2020 contest as “Sanders v Trump”, it’s not too soon to question the off-the-wall egotism and narcissistic motivation of leaders to whom applause from their respective mobs — the “narcissistic supply”; the love that heals all wrongs; the love that affirms their manhood or sense of personal and political efficacy and messianic self-concept and value; the love that is for each politician like no other drug on earth — may be more important than the practical adjusting of policies to create or obtain nationwide improvements in bottom-to-top American qualities of living.

After writing off the several preceding elected Administrations as “an old ruling class”, making the claims that “America is winning again; America is respected again”; moseying around the “Great Tariff Debate of 1938”; making fun of the Democrat’s “New Green Deal”; mocking the press, “Please Russia get the e-mail” he whines sarcastically while the crowd chants “Lock her up! Lock her up!”; viciously firing at “Shifty Schiff” and “The Collusion Delusion”, reliably turning his targets into cartoon caricatures and episodes; and slinging a few more arrows along the lines of, “You leave people in certain positions, and suddenly they’re all trying to take you out with bullshit” (big applause for that nasty note), Trump gets around to what it’s really all about:

We’re in the swamp of Washington, D.C., but you know what? We’re winning and they’re not . . . .

You know what I like about this?

Number one, I’m in love, and you’re in love, we’re all in love together.

We’ve done something nobody has ever done, right? It’s easy . . . .

There’s so much love in this room, it’s easy to talk. You can talk your heart out. You really can. There’s love in this room.

27:20 -> 19:48 “President Trump takes the state at CPAC”. Breitbart YouTube video displayed below.

Here’s Bernie:

. . . thank you all for being part of a political revolution that is going to transform America

(Chanting: “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!) –

No, no, no — it is not Bernie, it you. It’s us together.

We are going to transform this country and finally create an economy and a government which works for all of us, not just the one percent.

3:30 –> 4:47 – “Bernie Sanders’ FULL Brooklyn speech”, Rebel HQ YouTube video as displayed.

Bernie’s crowd loves the way he panders to them, and it’s not too bad, for who would not be for economic, social, racial, and environmental justice?

Bernie and his followers have perhaps been seeing America’s regulated capitalist system become unbridled: “We will no longer tolerate the greed of corporate America and the billionaire class . . . greed which has resulted in this country having more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on earth” (6:35 -> 6:55).

However, who is going to pay for that guaranteed health care?

What anti-social steps may Big Pharma take to reduce the cost of prescription drugs (hint: offer less tested — and cheap — generics?); how will that heightened minimum wage avoid becoming simply inflationary? The eternal “crumbling infrastructure” issue (that’s been on BC’s plate since Lester Brown’s heyday) — Trump offered it too: any progress?

Tuition free public college and university educations: whose pockets, how, and how soon?

Of the two Big Dreamers, BC believes one far more social and concerned with the general American experience, but wonders as well whether applause has been more the motivation for heightened American messianism on the campaign trail than perception of the much needed nuts-and-bolts adjustments that would treat the nation’s land base and people with the care and respect required for better-than-functional politically coherent national survival.




Related: “Castro Speech Database”, Latin American Network Information Center. One page on that site features the Department of State Foreign Service dispatch for “Speeches Made at October 26, 1959 Mass Demenstration” and carries the following remark: “Castro spoke for over three hours. When he made his appearance on the speakers platform, he received an eight minute ovation. As is no [STET] frequently the case, the speech was rambling, disjointed, and repetitive, with Castro getting quite frantic and incoherent towards the end.”


Generally related to this post: https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/02/politics/fact-checking-cpac/index.html ; https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/12/you-all-just-got-a-lot-richer-trump-tells-friends-at-mar-a-lago-after-signing-tax-overhaul\ ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Act ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff_in_United_States_history – a brief glance online turns up nothing special about American tariff police in 1938, so the President’s mention of the “Great Tariff Debate of 1938” rhymes nicely but with questionable substance).

–33–


Saturday’s Ambush – U.S. Elections 2020 – NOW . . . .

02 Saturday Mar 2019

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Events and Other PSA's

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2020 Presidential Elections, Bernie Sanders, Candidates' Saturday Ambush, Donald Trump, LIVE!

Had I kept the Sabbath, not booted the computer, not glanced at Facebook, I’d have been spared this episode of Saturday Afternoon Gladiators:

https://www.facebook.com/BackChannels/ – March 2, 2019 at about 12:55 p.m.

Both speakers, two ears, center channel, both together — and equally surreal.

Sigh.


B: ” . . . comprehensive immigration reform . . . .”

D: “. . . we have people in Congress who hate our country . . . . “

1 p.m. — they’re both talking about immigration reform at the same time!

How is that happening?



# # #

US | RF | Bikers, Clubs, Presidents | Impression

12 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bikers, Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, feudalism, medieval v modern, patriotism, political absolutism v democracy, political impression, Russo-American relations, The Night Wolves, traditional values, Vladimir Putin

bikers-trump-Putin-one-BackChannels



In the order of screenshot appearance:

Pierce, Charles P. “The Russia Scandal Was Desperately Missing a Biker Gang Subplot. Well, Here It Is: Paging Hunter S. Thompson.” Esquire, June 28, 2017.

SPETSNAZMC.ORG



Dobrovolskaya, Lily and Nicholas Nehamas. “Russian official linked to South Florida biker club spent millions on Trump condos.” Miami Herald, June 22, 2017.



American-based, humanist, and classically liberal and democratic BackChannels here adds just one more biker video:


BackChannels Frame

Feudal-Medieval Political Absolutism

v

Modern Democratic Checked and Distributed Power

Between “Active Measures” and America’s inherent internal tensions, citizens may feel channeled toward a fascistic Far Right new nationalism or a dippy Far Left socialist revival, but BackChannels reminds that there may be — there should be — a more grounded and spacious Middle American Way and some wish to rediscover and renew that more coherent nation.

American Basic Training

–33–

Iran’s Protesters Appeal to President Trump for Support Against Dictatorship

30 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Fast News Share, Iran, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Politics

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

2017, Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Iran, protests, Revolution

Iran Protests, Dec 30, 2017 – chanting slogans against Khamenei in Tehran University – NCRI


Demonstrators were reportedly heard yelling slogans like “The people are begging, the clerics act like God”. Protests have even been held in Qom, a holy city home to powerful clerics.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42519054 – 12/30/2017

Other demonstrators chanted “leave Syria, think about us” in videos posted online. Iran is a key provider of military support to the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.


Twenty-one hours ago:

#Update7 :protesters attacked the governor office of #Hamedan, chanting: “ Death to the Islamic Republic”, “We don’t want Islamic Republic”.#Qom chanting “Death to the Islamic Republic “, “Death to Hezbollah”, we don’t want an Islamic Republic”#Iranprotests #RegimeChange pic.twitter.com/GlsovMmygg

— Raman Ghavami (@Raman_Ghavami) December 29, 2017


 

#IranProtests that have rocked the Islamic Republic over past 48 hours signal the beginning of the decline of Iran's dictatorial regime. The process will be a long one. But with the support of President @realDonaldTrump, the people of Iran will eventually be free #AdelleTruthBomb

— Adelle Nazarian (@AdelleNaz) December 30, 2017


One theme emerging from the protests: faith in President Trump’s determination to battle back dictatorships and groom democracies.


#DonaldTrump should immediately support #Iranian people, doesn't like the Obama who diceived #Iran 's nation. Don't forget, throwing out @VOAIran 's manager who #censure s #RezaPahlavi 's slogan. #Iranprotests #Iranprotest #FreeIran #iranfreedom #freedom

— Cyrus The Great (@CyrusTheGreat09) December 30, 2017


US President Donald Trump has repeatedly taken aim at Iran, denouncing its government as a “fanatical regime” and accusing it of violating an international agreement aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program, refusing to certify its compliance with the deal.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert also addressed the protests.

“The United States strongly condemns the arrest of peaceful protesters. We urge all nations to publicly support the Iranian people and their demands for basic rights and an end to corruption,” she said in a statement.

https://dailytimes.com.pk/170424/trump-condemns-arrest-demonstrators-iran/

–33–

Also in Media: “When The Left Longed For Russian Political Interference” – The Daily Beast – January 29, 2017

29 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by commart in Also in Media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Cold War, defense of democracy, Donald Trump, political cohesion, political history, Ted Kennedy, United States, Vladimir Putin

Today, tweets from the President of the United States Donald J. Trump seem to suggest both trust of and a growing friendship for today’s Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Of course, Putin was himself a former KGB agent, who obviously learned well the methods of disinformation and propaganda taught him in KGB school decades ago. Now he used these techniques to, as the CIA report put it, to order “an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.”

Source: When The Left Longed For Russian Political Interference – The Daily Beast

–33–

FTAC: America – The Robust Democracy

19 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, Politics, Syndicate Red Brown Green

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

alternative-fact, critical reading and reasoning, Donald Trump, empiricism, fact, integrity in journalism, political credibility, political integrity, post-fact

Old saw: “Democracies elect the governments they deserve.”

I’m with those invested in the “checks and balances” of our Democracy and hope that neither legislature nor judiciary cave to Administrative fiat in actions or policies inimical to an authentic political freedom.

Of course, I’m going to dig Moscow for the other kind of “freedom”.

🙂

The not-so-secret secret about politics anywhere / any context / any time: if or when it is discovered that it stinks, people will walk away from it.

The powerful of the Fourth Estate have proven time and again their tenacity for getting at the truth given sufficient import for motivation, so more will continue to emerge as regards the character of Trump’s Administration and the way he works it. The opposed public may have to accept his earnest goodness; his supporters may be forced to reconsider how they made their choice.

As noted elsewhere in this thread, WE have all got to tackle how we ourselves accept, evaluate, and redistribute / repackage information. Despite the hip claims, the world is not “post-fact”: the world may be bamboozled, confused, and driven toward extremes by its own continuous bombardment by or consumption of information, but we have also the opportunity to slow down, reflect, and research what ails us as we get down the road together.

One more cliche that I’ve come to call “Pogo Effect”: “We have met the enemy, and it is us.”

If Americans hew to traditional true ideals and values and then read and write responsibly themselves, then, indeed, the system will survive whatever gets up in the cab and tries to jam its gears.


We’re all a little nervous about who’s getting up in the cab of the big freight liner “America”.

🙂

It’s not only President Elect Trump’s detractors that have cause for worry — and they certainly know their own worries — but Trump’s fans now have an investment in Trump’s defending their own best traditional American ideals, principles, and values, and if they find their own assumptions and freedoms, much less other interests, chipped away by the new president, those in the President’s middle ranks will also start to back away from any proto-fascist display of character that comes to pass.

However, as I type, nothing has come to pass in relation to a Trump Presidency.

The President Elect is not quite there yet (be patient) and all bets are off.


Senior Justice Writer for The New York Daily News Shaun King has had the following posted to his Facebook page since January 11, 2017:

I want you to view this video from 4 years ago in 2013 in light of recent events.

In it, Trump calmly, cooly, and confidently states that he has a relationship with Vladimir Putin. Then, it gets very weird. Trump then confidently states that Putin is following his every move, was likely even interested in the conversation they were having, and would likely be watching it later.

How did Trump know all of that?

See, this was off of the campaign trail, long before Trump announced his intentions to run. This was before he felt the pressure to say 6 different times “I don’t know Putin” and “I don’t know anything about Putin.”

This seems to be a clearer version of the truth. What’s going on here?

Posted by Shaun King on Wednesday, January 11, 2017


BackChannels regulars may wish to check out yesterday’s “Trust Putin?” post, where the same has been posted as an addendum.

Addendum: Additional Reference

Fandos, Nicholas.  “White House Pushes ‘Alternative Facts.’ Here are the Real Ones.”  The New York Times, January 22, 2017.

–33–

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Epigram

Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?"

"Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Oriana Fallaci
"Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon...I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born."

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
"Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).

Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
"Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

Douglas Adams
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.

Thucydides
"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

Milan Kundera
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Malala Yousafzai
“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Tanit Nima Tinat
"Who could die of love?"

What I Have Said About the Jews

My people, not that I speak for them, I nonetheless describe as a "global ethnic commune with its heart in Jerusalem and soul in the Land of Israel."

We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

Most of all, through 5,773 years, wherever life has taken us, through the greatest triumphs and the most awful tragedies, we have preserved our tribal identity and soul, and so shall we continue eternally.

Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

I may suggest that anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism are signal (a little bit) of fascist urges, and the Left -- I'm an old liberal: I know my heart -- has been vulnerable to manipulation by what appears to me as a "Red Brown Green Alliance" driven by a handful of powerful autocrats intent on sustaining a medieval worldview in service to their own glorification. (And there I will stop).
One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

“Revisionism” is the most contemptible path that power takes to abet theft and hide shame by attempting to alter public perception of past events.

On Press Freedom, Commentary, and Journalism

In the free world, talent -- editors, graphic artists, researchers, writers -- gravitate toward the organizations that suit their interests and values. The result: high integrity and highly reliable reportage and both responsible and thoughtful reasoning.

This is not to suggest that partisan presses don't exist or that propaganda doesn't exist in the west, but any reader possessed of critical thinking ability and genuine independence -- not bought, not programmed -- is certainly free to evaluate the works of earnest reporters and scholars.

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