Tag Archives: political absolutism

FTAC: Medieval v Modern – A Short Passage

09 Monday Nov 2020

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

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From the Awesome Conversation

I don’t support Fascism on the Left.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/meet-the-trump-officials-making-government-a-family-business

Why support it on the right?

Escape the echo chamber you’ve been in and get a breath of fresh air.
Some additional reading, not necessarily for you but any curious about bridging the worlds of medieval absolute and modern democratic power –>
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-orban-balaton-procurement-exc/exclusive-hungary-premiers-friends-and-family-win-more-and-more-public-business-idUSKCN1GR213 – 3/15/2018

https://theblacksea.eu/stories/malta-files/erdogan-family-in-secret-offshore-ship-deal/ – 5/26/2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/us/politics/trump-erdogan-family-turkey.html – 11/12/2019

In the way of some older men growing gray and tired, my patience for writing longer copy — and responding to endless online arguments — may be growing thin, so above I hope I’ve telegraphed a statement about political bullying, the sometimes ironic destruction of freedom by those who most pretend to represent it, and the related plundering of states by their own leaders. The “by any means” Far Out Left has indeed shouted down its favored targets, time and again, and it has carried forward from Russian anti-Semitic traditions its own brand of Jew-hate (reading recommended from other history: Michael Kellogg’s The Russian Roots of Nazism, Cambridge UP, 2009), but Orwellian Left seems to me far from the moderate liberalism known to the best of America’s Democratic and Republican Parties.

Similarly, one cannot overlook the effects of 9/11 (2001 for kiddies) on both the promotion of necessary state security organizations and (less necessary) reactionary nationalists. On that tack, Erdogan, Orban, and Trump suffice for examples of a want of return to a medieval and frequently ugly political absolutism. All who would become dictators cannot wait to get their mitts on a state’s army and treasury — and then have at it with their perceived competitions — while “the people”, Left or Right leaning, may be seduced by dogma and made ready for plundering and damnation, and much to the delight of breathtakingly enriched family and friends.

Related online from 2017: https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-opccrp-report-inner-circle-wealth/28814462.html.

I will have to find again historian Richard Pipes’ observations on Russia’s struggle with constitutional monarchy and with the concept of sovereignty. For the most part, Russia’s assertion of sovereignty considered property and persons alike in its dominion, and proof would be the right to destroy either at will and with impunity.

Think of that when you reflect, if ever, on Russia’s behavior across the so far long nine years of the Syrian Tragedy.

Europe chose a different direction in its comprehension and — in the end — consideration of others.

–33–

A Note on the Far Right’s Epoch Times

09 Monday Nov 2020

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

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For those who have encountered the wild disinformation at times disseminated by The Epoch Times and either swallowed the bait, as with QAnon Conspiracy agitation and propaganda, or confronted and dismissed the same but didn’t fight, here’s a short list of additional reference online –>

https://magazine.atavist.com/stranger-than-fiction-epoch-times-falun-gong-trump-election-2020 – 10/23/2020

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/epoch-times-begins-hiding-its-connection-huge-pro-trump-ad-n1045416 – 8/22/2019
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/epoch-times-coronavirus-bioweapon-1.5548217 – 4/29/2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-reviews-incident-involving-epoch-times-photographer-handing-a-folder-to-trump/2018/09/18/e9d8b8ba-bac5-11e8-bdc0-90f81cc58c5d_story.html – 9/18/2018
https://www.westword.com/news/why-is-far-right-conspiracist-newspaper-epoch-times-being-stocked-at-colorado-capitol-11537390 – 10/29/2019
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-epoch-times/ – 11/9/2020
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/verify-unsolicited-paper-spreads-outlandish-covid-claims/103-9290495e-a501-44fa-b7df-0bb0e385328b – 5/20/2020

https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2020/jun/27/fake-news-what-epoch-times-and-why-did-it-arrive-m/ – 6/27/????

The Epoch Times opposes the Chinese Communist Party,[20] and promotes far-right politicians in Europe,[3][5] and backs President Donald Trump in the U.S.;[21] a 2019 report by NBC News showed it to be the second-largest funder of pro-Trump Facebook advertising after the Trump campaign.[22][23][24] The Epoch Media Group’s news sites and YouTube channels have spread conspiracy theories such as QAnon and anti-vaccination propaganda.[18][25][26] The organization frequently promotes other Falun Gong affiliated groups, such as the performing arts company, Shen Yun.[14][21]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Epoch_Times

Soviet Era Communist Party power gave up the ghost at noon on December 25, 1991 when the Soviet Union officially acknowledged its dissolving in bankruptcy and Party nomenklatura (elites) turned into jackals tearing away the assets of the former state piece by piece. While the Communist Party persists in Russia, it is no longer a power there. President Vladimir Putin has made himself a “Vertical of Power” surrounded by politically enfeebled but immensely wealthy and otherwise powerful oligarchs, quite a few of which have made the sanctions list of the United States government.

Regarding China’s Communist Party: it has proven helpful in the minting of billionaires.

Posted to YouTube September 29, 2019.

Loyalty to Party | Loyalty to Putin | Loyalty to Trump

The most important loyalty of all: the worship of money.

Where are The Communists?

China’s zeitgeist — from predatory international lending to its passion for totalitarian political, religious, and social control — is troubling for the west, and I will have a post out on that soon. In the meantime, true American conservatives would do well to shift their talk away from communists and globalists and a horde of made-up and talked-up bogeys and move toward engagement with more authentic and challenging domestic and global issues and themes.

China produced nearly four in every 10 new billionaires this year, outpacing the number of new faces in the US and allowing Shanghai to leapfrog Hong Kong for the first time in terms of the number of super-rich, Hurun Report Inc said.

The world’s second-largest economy added 182 of 479 new billionaires, taking the tally in China to 799, according to the latest Hurun Global Rich List 2020. The US minted 59 new ones to raise its total to 626.

SCMP – “China produces 182 new billionaires, triple the new faces in the US, while Shanghai overtakes Hong Kong for the first time: Huron Report” – 2/26/2020

Klett said that during his stint at the Epoch Times, he had a front-row seat to the epistemic crisis triggered by Trump’s ascendancy, one that has made distinguishing truth from political fiction increasingly difficult. “In that first interview, I was being honest when I said I could be neutral. I really believed that was possible,” Klett admitted, hands shoved deep into his pockets as we walked down a Brooklyn street in search of a quieter bar. “By the time I left, just a few days before the election, I realized what everyone is still coming to terms with.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“That there’s no difference between the news and propaganda. That objectivity is about who has power.”

https://magazine.atavist.com/stranger-than-fiction-epoch-times-falun-gong-trump-election-2020 – 10/23/2020

–33–

Ai Fen, Chinese Authorities, and the Shame of Hiding Shame

01 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, China, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, COVID-19, Epistemology, Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy, Political Psychology, Psychology

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While C19 moves around the world, the sudden disappearance of Chinese whistle blower Dr. Ai Fen has been moving across the World Wide Web as well.

Carr, Jemma. “Wuhan doctor who was among the first to alert other medics to the spread of coronavirus ‘goes missing’ amid fears she has been detained for speaking out.” Daily Mail, April 1, 2020.

From the Awesome Conversation

What are China’s authorities hiding or trying to hide?

It’s remarkable watching the hiding of shame (or guilt) play out on the global stage.

There are people who believe — and when they’re leaders, they may be the worst of people — that any show of damage, fear, or sentiment weakens them in relation to public perception when, in fact, it is their own “inner eye” (the way the may be forced to view themselves) that cannot stand being seen as weak. In that may be the soul of “malignant narcissism” and related “civilizational narcissism”.

Such types embarrass and shame themselves, for what seems right to them looks wrong to everyone else.

Dogma may no longer serve to cover or excuse less savory designs.

Our species evolves not only physically but psychologically, and we have reached an age with sufficient global and open communications in which authoritarians, criminals, and dictators may no longer brush aside or suppress essentially truthful criticism and data. The same may not stop “black programs” and conversations “behind the curtains” — that kind of feudal and medieval egotism and power may be always with us — but by and large BackChannels believes the world evolves toward greater complexity, interdependence, and freedom. The global public may still be misled, but not for long provided the journalists have integrity and do their work.

Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2020/03/19/note-covid-19-biological-warfare-and-the-odds-and-ambiguities/

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

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

https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/anthropolitical-psychology/paranoid-delusional-narcissistic-reflection-of-motivation/

Perspective: Related Online and With the Truth About COVID-19 in the United States

This first preliminary description of outcomes among patients with COVID-19 in the United States indicates that fatality was highest in persons aged =85, ranging from 10% to 27%, followed by 3% to 11% among persons aged 65–84 years, 1% to 3% among persons aged 55-64 years, <1% among persons aged 20–54 years, and no fatalities among persons aged =19 years.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6912e2.htm

Annual Rate of Death for the United States of America

Number of deaths: 2,813,503
Death rate: 863.8 deaths per 100,000 population
Life expectancy: 78.6 years
Infant Mortality rate: 5.79 deaths per 1,000 live births

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:

Heart disease: 647,457
Cancer: 599,108
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
Diabetes: 83,564
Influenza and Pneumonia: 55,672
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 50,633
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

Between the people of the United States and the nation’s most prominent authority on infectious disease and pandemic, the Centers of Disease Control, hide nothing, sugarcoat nothing but report accurately, plainly, clearly, empirically, completely–and that may be the best cure this editor might know for panic and state-driven perceptual control of “the masses”.

In America, at least, democracy has just become more directly responsive and responsible to the People.

–33–

All Shook Up! A Comment on President Trump’s Foreign Policy and Not So ‘Musical Chairs’ with Washington’s Most Senior Executives in Intelligence and Security

11 Wednesday Sep 2019

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

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To the Side, A Comment on Iran’s Presence in Iraq

After so many years of American investment in trying to build a stable Iraq, the United States has effectively enabled an Iranian takeover of the country. I know, because I was there and saw it with my own eyes. That the Obama administration is not opposing the rising influence of Iran, as the White House prepares a historic deal to leave Iran with nuclear weapons just beyond its fingertips, is especially alarming, and a recipe for increasing regional conflict.

Pregent, Michael.  “I Saw the U.S. Hand Iraq Over to the Iranians.  Is the Whole Region Next?”  The Tower, February 2015.

Across the country, Iranian-sponsored militias are hard at work establishing a corridor to move men and guns to proxy forces in Syria and Lebanon. And in the halls of power in Baghdad, even the most senior Iraqi cabinet officials have been blessed, or bounced out, by Iran’s leadership.

Arango, Tim.  “Iran Dominates in Iraq After U.S. ‘Handed the Country Over'”.  The New York Times, July 15, 2017.

An Aside More Front and Center as Regards President Trump’s Now Many “Shake-Ups”

On this day, perhaps especially this one day of the year, September 11, the outside-looking-in assessment of America’s place in the world and its strength becomes of singular interest in light of “East” (Authoritarian-Kleptocratic) v “West” (Democratic and Lawful) rivalry.  The departure yesterday of National Security Advisor John Bolton may highlight that issue by leaving in the White House a President surrounded (ah, but perhaps not) by more pliant personalities.  Today, the President has in Bolton’s stead yesterday’s “United States Deputy National Security Advisor” who has overnight become the “Acting National Security Advisor” in the figure of Charles Kupperman, a Bolton protege.

Will the political realities — international states of affairs — surrounding President Trump have changed with the exchange of experienced officials?

Probably not.

What may have changed is the gateway given the will of the President to act on his own instincts — coupled with his imagination — less tempered by either the discipline, experience, knowledge, or respect associated with yet another of the nation’s established senior intelligence and security community officials.

Last month —

One of America’s most seasoned intelligence officials is leaving the building. Sue Gordon, who spent more than 25 years in the CIA before becoming second-in-command at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), was confirmed to be departing on Thursday by President Trump.

Gordon was next in line to serve as acting director after current director Dan Coats announced his resignation effective Aug. 15.

Woodruff, Betsy.  “Deputy Intel Chief Sue Gordon Is Out After Trump Snub.”  Daily Beast, August 8, 2019.

Dan Coats, Sue Gordon, John Bolton — who else experienced in standing behind Presidents (in defense of the Constitution of the United States — see “Basic Training” on this blog) is missing from today’s action and diplomacy with Moscow and Tehran as America’s President appears to prefer standing on his own (elected but less experienced) authority?

BackChannels may here thank God for its not having to reinvent any wheels.  By title, publication, and date —

“List of Trump Administration dismissals and resignations”. Wikipedia.

“Who has left Trump’s administration and orbit?” CNN Politics, September 10, 2019.

“The Turnover at the Top of the Trump Administration.”  The New York Times, Updated September 10, 2019.

While perusing the above three web pages, BackChannels came across this gem of a Wikipedia entry: “Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity“.  The Presidential Commission charged with investigating voter fraud, i.e., Trump’s claims that millions of illegal immigrants had voted in the 2016 election, opened shop on May 11, 2017 and closed without results on January 3, 2018.  The following quotation represents the results of a separate study as relayed by Wikipedia:

In an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law looked at 42 jurisdictions, focusing on ones with large population of noncitizens. Of 23.5 million votes surveyed, election officials referred an estimated 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voting for further investigation, or about 0.0001% of votes cast. Douglas Keith, the counsel in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program and co-author of the analysis, said, “President Trump has said repeatedly that millions of people voted illegally in 2016, but our interviews with local election administrators made clear that rampant noncitizen voting simply did not occur. Any claims to the contrary make their job harder and distract from progress toward needed improvements like automatic voter registration.”

America could not and would not — would never — capitulate to Al Qaeda on September 11, 2001, nor would it “work with” their cousins in “Islamist” associated crime and mass murder worldwide.  Not eighteen years ago; not today; never.

However, here is a different question: would the United States today bend itself toward authoritarian and totalitarian regimes?

China?

Iran?

North Korea?

Russia?

Given one singular elected head of state or another, would the United States embark on the discouragement or encouragement of  authoritarianism, confusion, corruption, kleptocracy, and related totalitarian political control from within?

With an authoritarian, nationalist, and populist President in the White House and one moving the bodies and minds in, out, and all around (so we do the national “Hokey Pokey”), that question should become (after this Day of Remembrance) of greater general and public national interest.

–33–

 

Bothersomes

28 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, American Domestic Affairs, Syria, United States of America

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Rule of the Ruthless — And We Did Next to Nothing

AFP, July 26, 2019.

“Assad v The Terrorists” – A KGB Theater Presentation

Barrel Bombs, Chemical Weapons, “Red Lines” — The United States chose to sponsor pro-democracy forces against the Assad regime while repeatedly failing to apply force itself to ending the atrocities and injustices meted by that regime through the long course of now eight years of continuous destruction, depopulation, and horror.

Last week, Canada’s National Post published “Terry Glavin: Russia and Assad are butchering Syrian civilians again. No one seems to mind” (July 24, 2019) — and no one seemed to mind.

Perhaps the west has become inured to mindless sadism after experiencing so many images and so much footage recording Assad the Tyrant’s infinite obscenities. Either way, and whatever our reasoning or weaknesses otherwise, it appears evil has prevailed in Syria.

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

Rule by the Rich — Trump’s Tax Cut Legislation Largest Contributor to $4.1 Trillion Added to the National Debt

The biggest contributor to the $4.1 trillion that will be added to the national debt through 2029 is the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This signature tax cut legislation signed by Trump in 2017 single-handedly increased the debt by $1.8 trillion, according to CRFB.

Marcellus, Sibile. “Trump adds $4.1 trillion to national debt. Here’s where the money went.” Yahoo Finance, July 26, 2019.

Is our governance — the governance of the United States of America — modern?

Is it representative, responsive, responsible?

Rule by the Vicious — Trump’s Remarks Sting West Baltimore

Screenshot – https://twitter.com/JS_Oppenheim – July 27, 2019

President Trump applied to “West Baltimore” one of his favorite words for those places not up to his standards (and perhaps not likely to be helped by him either): “infestation”. He applies it in proximity to people — or how he imagines people — he doesn’t particularly like as well. In this instance, he called Rep. Elijah Cummings, Democratic head of the House Oversight Committee, a “brutal bully” — and in the words of The Wall Street Journal — “for criticizing conditions at the Southern border and declared his district—which includes a large part of Baltimore—as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” (https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-portrays-baltimore-district-of-democratic-rep-cummings-as-rodent-infested-mess-11564248241 – July 27, 2019).

Fairly, a personal source suggested that Baltimore has become the heroin capital of America, but still the President’s vitriol was neither matched nor softened by any offer of greater Federal assistance or support in the addressing of the problems besetting Rep. Cummings’ district.

Baltimore fought back.

Off the headlines —

Dubbed the “heroin capital” by the Drug Enforcement Agency, there are estimates that put the rate of drug addicts in the city as high as 1 in 10 residents. Baltimore is now designated a High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area by the federal government so that local police receive more funding to try to combat the issue.

http://raylozano.com/top-5-cities-biggest-heroin-problems/

Despite the better and more practical relationship between “West Baltimore” and the Federal government, the impression made by the President’s belittling and contemptuous mouth for all who are not his nor his adoring base would seem to be paving the way for the ascent of the vicious (and surreal) in American politics.

CNN, Victor Blackwell, July 27, 2019.

Rule by the Immune?

Rep. Ken Buck (R) Colorado: Could you charge the President with a crime after he left office?

Robert Mueller: Yes.

Buck: You believe he committed . . . you could charge the President of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?

Mueller: Yes.

Who says the President has to leave office (ever)?

The true test for Americans would seem to be that of appreciating the Constitution and supporting its intents and its work in the creation and sustaining of the nation’s so far authentic and fully working democracy. Bullies, demagogues, malignant narcissists were not meant to last long in power in this nation, but where such do or may, one might suggest that the constituents themselves allowed that to happen.

–33–

Mafia “Don”? Laundering the Authoritarian President’s Image

07 Friday Sep 2018

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

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Trump-Helsinki2018-moment

all I can do is ask the question my people came to me dan coates came to me and some others they said they think it’s Russia I have president putin he just said it’s not russia i will say this i don’t see any reason why it would be I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is an incredible offer he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the people I think that’s an incredible offer

Guardian News. “Key moments from the Trump-Putin press conference.” Start: 0:0:07.  Transcript machine generated.  July 16, 2018.

BackChannels has lived long enough to see “Active Measures” become a movie, “alternative facts” obtain traction in the arguments of some lost souls, and the “Fake News!” rise up en masse to denounce the source of the accusation.  Now the whole ugly stain attending the deeply foreign influenced election of America’s president has begun to seep and spread from the infernal nucleus of the Russian marriage between State and Mob and now a hint of the presence of the same in the United States of America.

How soon will the journalists be asking of the Russian mafia — and mafia generally — in America, “How broad, how deep, how high, how powerful?”

cover-HouseOfTrumpHouseOfPutin

“Dear friends, respected colleagues!” Nikonov said.  “Three minutes ago Hillary Clinton admitted her defeat in US presidential elections and a second ago Trump started his speech as an elected president of the United States of America and I congratulate you on this.”

Even though Nikonov did not add what many in the Kremlin already knew, his brief statement was greeted by enthusiastic applause.  Donald J. Trump had just become Vladimir Putin’s man in the White House.

Unger, Craig. House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia. Page 1.  New York: Dutton, 2018.

While readers may not find evidence quite so “hard” as a memo or recording between “Don” and “Vlad”, the darkly glittering atmosphere brewed by dirty or shady businesses, related events, FBI and other investigations, and innumerable lawsuits in all directions (with Trump Administration scandals, even the lawyers have needed lawyers) the preponderance of the evidence — in the worlds of investigators and journalists alike, the character of personal associations and relationship — becomes inescapable.

***

The art of reading has been changed by “broadband Internet”: these days, one may snooze between the hardcovers but also depart from any event or noun mentioned to find source and related materials online — or to chat with the “journo” should the same be so nice and unhurried as regards giving up a piece of his time o’ day.  With a book as rich in coverage as Craig Unger’s, there are mentions aplenty for mining.  Page 147, for example, a simple flip-open (it could have been any other page or chapter), makes mention of somebody “Nogueira” and a Reuters investigation — and a minute later, now listed in reference, Brad Brooks’ piece comes up (and may be read separately).  Of the man noted, here’s one more excerpt from Unger’s new book:

According to conversations secretly recorded by a former business partner, in 2013 Nogueira said he had laundered tens of millions of dollars through real estate.  “More important than the money from real estate was being able to launder the drug money — there were much larger amounts involved,” he said in the recording.  “When I was in Panama I was regularly laundering money for more than a dozen companies.”

Nogueira told Reuters that he became the leading broker for the project thanks in part to the support of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who appeared in a promotional video with him.

What did Donald Trump do?

Trump licensed his name — attractive and synonymous with glamour, power, and wealth — to the project of interest and many others worldwide.  What crime could there have been in that?  His organization also held management contracts on real estate projects, but here BackChannels will leave the details to the curious among readers; however, the same litmus applies: he nailed a service contract: so what?

On the other hand, perhaps the “so what?” is in the “with whom” and the true “for what”.

At the end of his book, Unger notes, “Donald Trump has repeatedly said he has nothing to do with Russia.  Below are fifty-nine Trump connections to Russia” (p. 265).  “Below” begins with Roman Abramovich and ends with Viktor Yanukovych.

Reference

Brooks, Brad. “Former broker in Trump Panama project under investigation in Brazil.” Reuters, November 17, 2017.

Drehle, David Von. ” Trump resume is rife with mob connections.” Op-ed. The Washington Post, August 10, 2018.

Goldberg, Jeffrey. “Donald Trump’s Mafia Mind-Set: Listening to a legendary American mobster and hearing the president of the United States.” The Atlantic, August 23, 2018.

Graham, David A. “The Many Scandals of Donald Trump: A Cheat Sheet.” The Atlantic, January 23, 2017.

Hettena, Seth. “Michael Cohen, Lanny Davis and the Russian Mafia.” Rolling Stone, August 28, 2018.

Johnston, David Cay. “Just What Were Donald Trump’s Ties to the Mob?” Politico Magazine, May 22, 2016.

Layne, Nathan, Ned Parker, Svetlana Reiter, Stephen Grey, and Ryan McNeill.  “Russian elite invested nearly $100 million in Trump buildings.”  Reuters Investigates, March 17, 2017.

Locker, Ray. “New book looks into ties between Donald Trump, Russia, but there’s more smoke than fire.” Review. USA Today, August 14, 2018.

O’Harrow, Jr. Robert and Shawn Boburg. “The man who showed Donald Trump how to exploit power and instill fear.” The Washington Post, June 17, 2016.

Unger, Craig. House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia. New York: Dutton, 2018.

Unger, Craig. “Trump’s Russian Laundromat.” The New Republic, July 13, 2017.

Vesoulis, Abby. “Trump’s Team Keeps Using Mafia-Inspired Language — to Defend Itself.” Time, August 1, 2018.

Waldman, Paul. “President Trump brings mafia ethics to the GOP.” Op-ed. The Washington Post, August 23, 2018.

Addendum

Keatinge, Tom. “We cannot fight cross-border laundering with local tools.” Op-ed. Financial Times, September 9, 2018.

Unger, Craig. “Understanding Trump vs. Bruce Ohr: Think Russia’s top crime boss, Semion Mogilevich.” Just Security, August 30, 2018.

–33–

FTAC: Essential Truth and the Palestinians

12 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, A Little Wisdom, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Gaza, Israel, Middle East, Palestinia, Philology, Philosophy, Political Psychology

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Prompt: the host had assigned a loose title about “ethnic cleansing” to historian Benny Morris.  “Thought leaders” on the web will either traffic in earnest speech (when earnest) or make themselves worthless with disingenuous and false claims.

Cultures engage in “magical thinking” in their fairy tales, legends, and myths. They are part of the spirit of the place. Engaging in the same in the context of study produces only “revisionism” favorable either to the narcissist in the mirror or the one in power. Differentiation between what is true — and what a joy it would be for Palestinians to know what is true! — and what seems (!) flattering and patronizing plays a major part in the installation and maintenance of the world’s dictatorships. Among the _malign_, the narcissist can never be wrong.

From other and prior portions of the same conversation:

_The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine_ was authored by Ilan Pappe — this represents his reputation today:

https://newrepublic.com/article/85344/ilan-pappe-sloppy-dishonest-historian

***

Benny Morris, by comparison, has been a tough “New Historian”. This is his page on Amazon (USA): https://www.amazon.com/Benny-Morris/e/B001IQX8V8/

I have been through _1948_, not the others, but even so it mentions the Jewish neighbors who begged Arabs to stay home while Arab forces encouraged flight before their own onslaught.

Efraim Karsh — _Palestine Betrayed_ — may be worth a mention as well.

Again, the Russo-Arabian “framing” of the conflict would seem after 70 years of insistent repetition on the way to being . . . found out.

Related on BackChannels: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2018/02/06/set-palestinian-kgb-and-other-backchannels-observations-related-to-the-middle-east-conflict/

In the same ballpark

” . . . to hate and resist occupation and occupiers . . .” would be to hate and resist Fatah and Hamas who insist on their own power while depriving Palestinians of their vote, their right to assemble in opposition to either, and of their right to speak freely, openly, without fear.

–33–

Read and Weep: Signal of the Return of Endemic Russian Anti-Semitism: Bausman: Russia Insider: January 15, 2018

17 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Extreme Brown vs Red-Green, Fast News Share, Political Psychology, Russia

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Bausman, Charles.  “It’s Time to Drop the Jew Taboo.”  Russia Insider, January 15, 2018.

Chosen link for a look-see: “Hostility to Putin’s Russia is largely a Jewish phenomenon”:

Russia Insider’s mission is to explain and describe Russia and her role in the world. As soon as you begin to drill into how other nations relate to Russia, and Russian history, it becomes obvious that the unreasonable hostility towards Putin’s Russia, particularly coming from the US and the UK, is very much a Jewish phenomenon, and has been for centuries.

And yes, ‘Jewish’ is the only term that accurately describes it, and not one of the many euphemisms we frequently see used.

The most vitriolic and obsessive Russia-bashing journalists in the media are mostly Jewish. The publications which push these writers most energetically are ALL Jewish-owned, and as a publisher, I know very well, that is where the buck stops.

BackChannels most respectfully suggests that Colonel President Emperor and Pharaoh Putler — if that is how he wishes to be known — may consider either disassociating his godliness from so cliche and puerile a revanche of the Imperial style in Jew Hate or now let the world know now he endorses it!  

Excerpt About the Forgery that Became Through the Agency of Russia’s 19th Century Okhrana — Tsar Nicholas II’s Secret Police — The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

A few months ago he bought a number of old books from a former officer of the “Okhrana” (Political Police) who had fled to Constantinople. Among these books was a small volume in French, lacking the title-page, with dimensions of 5½in. by 3¾in. It had been cheaply rebound. On the leather back is printed in Latin capitals the word Joli. The preface, entitled “Simple avertissement,” is dated Geneva, October 15, 1864. The book contains 324 pages, of which numbers 315-322 inclusive follow page 24 in the only copy known to Mr. X, perhaps owing to a mistake when the book was rebound. Both the paper and the type are characteristic of the “sixties and seventies” of the last century. These details are given in the hope that they may lead to the discovery of the title of the book [See Preface]. Mr. X. believes it must be rare, since, had it not been so, the “Protocols” would have speedily been recognized as a plagiarism by anyone who had read the original.

That the latter is a “fake” could not be maintained for an instant by anyone who had seen it. Its original possessor, the old Okhrana officer, did not remember where he obtained it, and attached no importance to it. Mr. X, glancing at it one day, was struck by a resemblance between a passage which had caught his eye and a phrase in the French edition of the “Protocols” (Edition de la Vieille France, 1920, 5, Rue du Préaux-Clercs, 5, Paris 7th Arrondissement). He followed up the clue, and soon realized that the “Protocols” were to a very large extent as much a paraphrase of the Geneva original as the published version of a War Office or Foreign Office telegram is a paraphrase of the ciphered original.

Before receiving the book from Mr. X, I was, as I have said, incredulous. I did not believe that Sergei Nilus’s “Protocols” were authentic; they explained too much by the theory of a vast Jewish conspiracy. Professor Nilus’s account of how they were obtained was too melodramatic to be credible, and it was hard to believe that real “Learned Elders of Sion” would not have produced a more intelligent political scheme than the crude and theatrical subtilties of the Protocols. But I could not have believed, had I not seen, that the writer who supplied Nilus with his originals was a careless and shameless plagiarist.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_truth_about_The_Protocols

Related on BackChannels in No Particular Order

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

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/09/23/ftac-these-too-are-palestinians/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/03/08/bds-cult-modules/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/10/12/ftac-tip-to-the-kgbs-amplification-of-middle-eastern-anti-semitism/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/12/27/excerpt-1920s-the-spread-of-hate-russia-germany-laqueur/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/07/29/ftac-antidote-to-what-poisoned-the-palestinians/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/12/29/ftac-middle-east-conflict-back-to-max-erwin-von-scheubner-richter-and-forward-to-the-plundering-of-palestinian-misery-by-palestinian-leadership-elites/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/12/16/excerpt-first-political-terrorist-organization-in-history/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/11/23/moscows-rules-a-module/

Related Reference

StopFake.  “Is Russia Insider sponsored by a Russian oligarch with the ties to the European far right?”  November 23, 2015.

Update: January 19, 2018: Lavrov Speaks Out Against Anti-Semitism

Source of First Encounter: Hanish, Seraphim.  “Russia’s top diplomat SLAMS anti-Semitism, calling it ‘the most horrible crime against humanity.”  The Duran, January 19, 2018.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov seems unable to separate the good intent shown in producing this overdue course correction from the seeking of advantage yet against Ukraine and the nationalist posture once taken against the Jews.  In fact, the Scheubner-Richter and Hitler relationship tells of a larger Russian history in the generation and dissemination of anti-Semitic libel and myth.  Nonetheless, Lavrov’s stern comments may pave the way for a long overdue pivot westward and away from the crimes against humanity of the Stalin years, the Soviet Era, and, most recently the same delivered with horrific brutality by Assad — as flanked by Putin and Khamenei –to noncombatant Syrians across the course of the civil war.

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