watch the Trump-video half way down, too much, too true.  I am laughing.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/hillary-huma-abedin-trump-anthony-weiner/2015/08/29/id/672546/?ns_mail_uid=95421024&ns_mail_job=1633845_08292015&s=al&dkt_nbr=5lv3pjzr

Hillary Clinton Threatens Joe Biden and Becomes The “Sad Sack” Figure of the Democratic Party!

It’s time for Bill to Start the Razzle Dazzle Routine

As Hillary Clinton becomes increasingly mired in the self-inflicted wounds of corruption and disgrace, she has committed the gravest sin of all, being boring. No one can watch her without having a sense of pity for her exceedingly boring explorations of nonsensical policies that everyone knows she would never implement. She has become a political bore—in all it’s varied connotations.

She blusters through Q&A’s, responding with the blunted insights of a short-sighted Elmer Fudd. Even her speech is faltering, searching for words that seem to be appropriate to questions that were never asked or never even would be considered. She has made her inept showing in the 2008 race against Barack Obama look like a virtuoso performance.

On a very practical matter, whoever donated over $100M better think seriously about bringing in the likes of a Richard Gere in the musical, “Chicago.” We need some fancy tap dance and some smarmy vocals to brighten up Hillary’s abysmal performance.  We all know that no one can touch Bill Clinton in the fancy footwork department. Whatever agreement between Hillary and Bill that keeps him out of her campaign should be immediately rescinded, if she wants to have a chance to win her party’s nomination.

Why?

Nothing is more vitriolic in a political performance than the absence of emotion, humor or vitality.

Hillary is the master of contrivance. She forces facial and bodily postures that simulate important political variables like approachability; being liked; or trust. She has the lowest ratings across the polls on all such factors. Hillary comes across as a matronly android simulating human emotions. In contrast, Bill oozes emotion and charm.  In the best and worst sense, he is truly an entertaining politician. He loves the crowd and the crowd loves him. I have never met anyone who had not been charmed or seemingly seduced by Bill’s personal attention and amazing recall of specific facts relating to that individual person. Decades after the fact, I see pictures of Bill and certain women pasted on the refrigerator doors.

  No, I am not jealous, merely observing.  These women were charmed by this man and they remembered it for years, who knows if they even voted for him??!

Here is some simple advice to the Democratic braintrust:

If you ever want to see Hillary anywhere near a number which might indicate that she is true presidential contender, then recruit the peripatetic ex POTUS and let him start to razzle dazzle the American audience. Even if she were to lose, no one could say that the Democrats did not do their best to make the election as entertaining as the Donald has done.

Let’s be honest, nothing turns us off more than a ‘talking head’ who does not mean a word that she says or will say. Hillary: re-introduce your charming, entertaining husband and admit for the first time that you do not have the charisma to win even a seat in the audience for the TV show,  “American Idol.” Democratic operatives: deal with it. Even Carville says he can’t get enough of Donald.

The alternative: the $100M investment in the Hillary Show will bomb before it gets to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Let us bring back to the American Political Stage—The Silver Tongued Prince, Bill Clinton, singing something like ‘all I care is about love….” Americans will be entertained by the newly created TV/Cable Show—“Trump Bill!”

That’s show business for which we pay our entrance tickets or as they say in Washington DC: TAXES.

Turn Out the Lights Night Watchmen!

The Intelligence Community No Longer Needs You Anymore.
So they think….

I have just recently returned from a reunion of intelligence officers who have served this country for the past forty years. Since I was trained by CIA/DARPA/Military components of our country at both Harvard Medical College and more importantly at M.I.T [DARPA/CIA funding], I wanted to show my gratitude for a career  in and out of several different administrations working in policy/intel matters. For the most part, I would have to say that the reunion was well organized and quite moving as the major speakers, including DCI John Brennan, were personable, hospitable, and informative.

For most of my professional life, people thought I was a CIA operative. This was not true yet I was quite proud to have worked with many outstanding CIA Station Chiefs, DCIs and Operatives. The names are legendary: Stanfield Turner, William Casey, Don Gregg, Jim Little, Paul Redmond, Fritz Ermath and many others. 

At this particular meeting, Brennan revealed the outline of his new reorganization chart which included the creation of new “Directors” for functional bureaus like digital media and cyber warfare. Next, a man who will remain unidentified gave a brief but excellent analysis as to why the Iran Treaty to limit nuclear weapons was sanctioned by the CIA and other members of the intelligence community. I did not have time to query him further, his basic point is that the IC had thoroughly vetted the nuclear issues from a strictly scientific perspective and found it quite realistic because of the half-life of radioactive elements lasting so long that no one could really escape or avoid detection.

Another CIA professional stood out. His name [it’s safe to reveal] is David Robarge, CIA Chief Historian. Throughout two days of meetings, he presented a very accurate and often critical historical perspective of the rise of our first civilian intelligence operations, the OSS which spawned the CIA through several presidencies. Many of his key points and insights can be read on the CIA website.

I particularly found the elan vital of these old operatives [including myself] to be convivial and often jovial and reflective. No one was really puffed-up about what he/she had done in the past. It was simply a group of us sharing different insights and faux pas that we had made at different times in our careers. Contrary to the image of Jack Ryan or Jason Bourne, most of the operatives were modest, earnest and proud of their service over thirty years. There was no discussion of kinetic wars or Hollywood-type escapades. The sobriety present among my colleagues was appreciated yet it was constantly punctuated with a sharp, incisive wit that I have often associated with CIA operatives in particular. Most of them, some married to their partners in the service, found quite meaningful lives after the CIA.

For a brief moment on the second day,  I realized why I felt I had to come to this reunion of intelligence officers, most of whom I did not know or would not know. I understood that my hegira to Langley Va, to a building which I had visited twice in my life as DAS, was a final moment of gratitude to a DCI whom I did not know—John McCone. McCone created the Center for International Studies at MIT where I had learned my psychological political tradecraft. If it had not been for visionaries like Walter Lacquer [psychoanalyst], Ruth Benedict [anthropologist], Harold Laswel [Psychopathology and Politics] and Prof. Lucian Pye, I would never have had my unique, exciting career serving five Presidents as well as DOD and others.

However, my stay did not end on a happy note, in part due to my own moment of discontent. A British journalist who claimed to be not a spy decided to lecture us on the end of HUMINT in the IC. That was a premise that was at best faulty if not completely erroneous. Making matters worse, this person started his talk by stating that one of his British ancestors had developed the “Grey Massacre” of 1777 where Colonel Grey of the British Cavaliers thought it moral and expedient to silence their flintlocks so that they would make no noise when they bayoneted and massacred American Revolutionaries in their beds. 

I found this quite offensive. In my usual brusque and intolerant way, I dismissed his handler [a former CIA operative who made a living protecting ‘action jockey’ wannabe journalists] while I reprimanded the British speaker for his inane comments. I stated that he and his countrymen were “Forlorn Hope” for recent American Intelligence/Diplomatic achievements including the regime changes in the Soviet Union and the recent economic warfare in Russia. After scolding the Brit and absorbing what I thought was enough, I left to go back to my home in the South. My home, where Americans fight every day to make an honest buck and no one cares about the CIA or what would become of its future.
I wrote this blog as a tribute to my fellow operatives who had served valiantly and quietly during the worst of times in the Cold War and the present eruptions of worldwide terrorist attacks. Yet there is one more point that I have to emphasize. Whatever happened in the attack in 9/11, which many of you know was a homegrown fiasco by Bush Jr/Cheney/Rumsfeld, the CIA really inadvertently dug it’s own grave. 

What I had finally realized when I looked back on 9/11, is that the CIA [whether collusive or incompetent] had given birth to the Director of National Intelligence who would one day relegate the CIA to the one job that they were so well qualified to do: HUMINT!  Yet for some bureaucratic misconceptions, they refused to continue their basic utility of HUMINT which came from the CIA’s very foundations after WWII. This is what they did: the collection and development of HUMAN ASSETS all over the world using psychological/ cultural determinants. However, under John Brennan, the CIA became Operational using drones to create ersatz wars all over South Asia and the Middle East. They had failed to develop the very core expertise that set them aside at MIT and other learned institutions—HUMINT!
I bid the ‘Night-Watchmen’ [CIA operatives] a fond farewell and wish them the best of luck. For they have become just another bureaucracy buried beneath the greater funded, increasingly more important, MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SERVICES, implemented by 15 other agencies. Binary numbers have replaced the basic concepts of psychological determinism. For that, Americans will pay a very heavy price. I am certain that Russia, China, Vietnam, Korea, Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia,  Japan and the EU are still using personality profiles and psyop programs to eventually co-opt our manifest destiny.

We will need new leadership to think-out-of-the-box. Perhaps, one day in the future, a “Wild Bill Donovan”, the founder of the OSS/CIA, will arise at the least likely of all places and times.

How's this for scary, 3 teenagers from Central America at a "state run school" in Homestead Fl. hack another teenager to death w/ machetes.  Does this sound like a nice place? http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article32305635.html

Donald wows them in New Hampsha https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w0MD0-vbu8

Peggy Hubbard speaks the truth on CNN http://www.newsmax.com/US/black-lives-matter-protesters-peggy-hubbard-ferguson/2015/08/25/id/671785/?ns_mail_uid=95421024&ns_mail_job=1633246_08252015&s=al&dkt_nbr=ktjr22sx

A Cautionary Political Tale to the American Public: 

“The Morton Downey Jr. Story” –The Meteoric Rise of Shock/Shlock/ Reality TV on CNN [Magnolia Films].

During a casual Saturday evening meal of turkey [and cranberry sauce], my friend, the hostess, started an effortless conversation which spun off from Donald Trump’s triumphant gathering in Mobile, Alabama.

 The guests, consisting of former Vietnam Veterans and their spouses, agreed that Trump was skyrocketing through the presidential race like a meteorite that hopefully would not burn out before the election. My hostess, an extremely well-versed reader and former health professional, started talking about someone that I had heard about but really did not know much about: Morton Downey Jr.

The table was silent as she described in her usual logical manner how Morton Downey Jr reminded her of Donald Trump and some other political narcissists whose personality pre-empts any consideration for substantive discussion of policy. She then added that CNN was replaying the film underwritten by Magnolia Films entitled, “Evocateur” which portrayed the beginning of Downey’s rise as the “King of Shock/Shlock Reality TV”.

As I watched the unnecessarily long film, replete with annoying commercials, I became quite disturbed by what I was witnessing. Morton Downey Jr, the son of a famous Irish tenor/ film star, tried his whole life to attain the fame and notoriety of his father. However, the son chose a path based on completely inflated narcissism, lies, deceptions and ‘in your face anger’.

For the most part, his TV producers who had facilitated Morton’s meteoric rise in the TV ratings aided and abetted what they euphemistically called a ‘Shock TV Personality’; eager to encourage the narrative that outside of the TV set, Morton was a decent kind man who loved his family. Yet like most hucksters, be they on TV or in politics, their persona becomes the message [Marshal McLuhan].

In the case of Morton, his persona knew no bounds of reality. He affiliated with other sociopaths of any color or message, including the obese Al Sharpton, after he had performed his greatest scam involving a black teenager who claimed she was raped and sodomized by white boys. Of course, Sharpton and Downey knew this was a lie. However, both of them used this tragic case as ‘ratings booster’. 

Sound familiar?
Ironically we see pictures of Morton Downey Jr consorting with a very young Donald Trump at one of his palatial condominiums, Trump Towers in NYC. Whether the producers of the Magnolia film had intended to make this association between a young Trump and a decaying Downey intentionally is up for conjecture. After seeing Evocateur, I decide to write this blog as a cautionary tale to my readers and others that the self-inflated narcissist, be it a business man or politician, can distort any semblance of a rational narrative by simply acting boorish and inappropriately.

Downey and Trump understand all too well that politics and TV shows are literally entertainment where ‘shock and shlock’ created by any side of the political spectrum will override any attempt at a rational, fair give-and-take discussion on any matters of state.

Back in 1976, the brilliant screenwriter, Paddy Chayefsky, wrote the foreboding Academy Award film “Network”. This film delineates the cynical use of TV for increasing ratings by showing the blended evolution of reality and reality shows. He predicted that real terrorist/hostage sieges would become part and parcel of daily TV watching. Boy, was he right. Starting wars and crises gained legitimacy in creating increased TV viewing and ratings. 

Two stellar thoughts arose from that film:
“We know things are bad, worse than bad.”

“TV will never be the same.”

You all know that I like Trump. I like the idea of him as a presidential candidate and evidently, a lot of other people do as well. Yet, Trump and other TV personalities, who garner and manipulate mass attention have an inherent destructive element built within their hysteria, eventually they can self-destruct. Continuous ranting and raving about the decrepit nature of our political situation in America will not result helpful solutions. There is an underlying anger and discontent of the political citizenry that is rallying around Trump.  However, if the crowd turns their anger against Caesar, then the Republic must once again dissolve in a coup or into the ashes of history. Morton Downey Jr could not, at the end of his career, discern the difference between his narcissistic fantasies and the reality of every day living.

Democracy demands a certain modicum of psychological sophistication which I believe the American public possess when they have shut off their respective TV sets.

Let me quote my former boss, Dr. Henry Kissinger:
“Now when I bore people at a party, they think it’s their fault.”

Or let me a bit more crass and let one of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, explain fame more clearly:
“The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse.”  

North and South Korea Enter their Ritual of Mutual Deprecation, Once Again!
It’s been a while since we have heard from either Koreas. However, the Swiss-Boarding school educated leader of NK, Kim Jung Un, has found the time and need to address the problem of the enduring silence on the DMZ border. He has just announced to his people and to the world that he has placed his rundown military on full alert; presumably ready for war with SK. For the most part, everyone in South Korea, especially in the wealthy, beautiful city of Seoul have been ignoring his words.

What could possibly be wrong with these young South Koreans who have one of the lowest unemployment rates in Asia?

Are they spoiled?

Are they ignorant of the threat?
Or are they just inured to the boisterous flatulence proclaimed by Kim Jung Un, a contemporary of theirs who had more of a privileged upbringing than anyone in South or North Korea? Most of you know the answer by now.

No one takes Kim Jung Un seriously, not even his own people. They too have become used to the yearly ritual of threats and ultimatums thrown at the South Korean government for one or another reason. Why does Kim Jung Un continue this useless yearly rituals? One reason is that his grandfather, Kim IL Sung and his father, Kim Jung In, had made this a practice in order to keep their people under a presumed threat of war and terror. Most of the North Koreans know that there will be no war for the simple reason that they also know that no one can or will win a war between North and South Korea. So the North Korean people acted accordingly, making believe that they have been insulted by the propaganda statements of South Korea and then warning the world of imminent war.

The only country that must worry about North Korea is not South Korea or the USA.

It’s China. 

Since WWII, North Korea has been a client state of China. Nothing gets done domestically or externally without China having blessed that particular action. Occasionally the Chinese operatives will deny this, like the time they had personally told me that they have ‘no control over North Korea’ and, then they dismissed that notion outright.

The reality of the North-South Korean problem is basic. Contrary to the American critics untutored in psychology, who have claimed that the Kim Jung Un or NK in general ‘are crazies’, the truth is far simpler. There has been no insanity demonstrated in the actions of the North Korean leaders over the past half-a-century. What we see is the helpless outcry and acting-out behavior of a country mired in poverty and repression. Unlike SK, where the youth indulges in the excesses of capitalism, NK people can barely live through a day’s work without some financial hardship.

NK is not only a failed state, it is also a geopolitical entity that serves the purpose of legitimizing our naval presence in the South China Sea as well as allowing over thirty thousand American soldiers to remain in Seoul as a ‘trip wire’ to possible war. Yes, ‘possible war’. Not actual war; because if one looked at the map of SK, one can clearly see how close Seoul is to the DMZ. This makes it almost impossible for both American and South Korean troops to amass a sufficiently large enough force structure to deter the theoretical might of 2.2 million North Korean troops only a few miles from the heart of SK.

The nonsensical ritual of deprecation continues between both sides as if there were two babies spitting at each other in two aligned cribs. SK raises its country’s flag to seven feet on the DMZ. Next NK has to raise it to seven feet one inch in order to instigate a rivalry of sorts which leads to nothing more than a fruitless round of negotiations.Old habits die hard.  Neither side wants to concede defeat in this constant antagonism.
One day when North Korea has been able to improve its’ GDP after having worked with South Korean factories in the south of NK, they will finally realize that there is  difference in their respective cultures divided now by an artificial financial barrier of the ‘have nots’ and ‘haves’. The dirty secret is that SK uses North Korean labor as a cheap working force in their respective factories located on the border of the DMZ. When NK attains a more impressive economy and the financial discrepancy is not that large, then NK and SK will be one again.

At this point in time, SK feels a bit like West Germany before East Germany, the crippled state, was integrated into WG. SK cannot afford that type of integration now. It would drain the SK economy and possibly implode both states financially. So the merger has to accrue over time as one entity become worthy of an acquisition.

These two entities are like two companies that want to seek a merger at the appropriate time in the fiscal cycle.

Who will be the intervening bankers to arrange this merger?
You guessed right!
America, China, and a few other states that could benefit from this new financial giant called, “KOREA!”

It might do the leaders of both countries well to remember the words of the great Greek philosopher, Heraclitus:

“There is nothing permanent except change.”
  

Here's the whole article plus videos on Trump.  http://time.com/trump/

Some international humor for you, watch for a laugh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hIz_vkZH5k

This is why the GOP is dead, they eat their own.  http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/RNC-Republican-National-Convention-Roger-Stone/2015/08/20/id/671111/?ns_mail_uid=95421024&ns_mail_job=1632713_08212015&s=al&dkt_nbr=rsnmuudr

Jared Fogle “Subway Sociopath” 

Busted by FBI/ Indiana State Police on Charges of Child Pornography/Pedophilia!

My suspicion is that this particular Jewish bullshitter, who had a Bar Mitzvah in Israel and is the failed son of a successful physician and school teacher, is a compulsive liar and an inveterate sociopath who never really lost the weight that was claimed by Subway.  We now see a man of a particular background who has committed one of the venal sins of Judeo-Christian society—Pedophilia and it’s sub-variant medical diagnosis. Thanks to the effective work of both the FBI and the Indiana State Police, they were able to uncover a far greater child pornography enterprise undertaken by Fogle and his compatriot, Russell Tyler. 

What do I make of this particular incident right now?

I thought about what type of man was this Jared Fogle and how did he become a spokesperson for Subway – a very successful franchise that was inspired by a physician at Georgetown Hospital in Wash. D.C. I read in Wikipedia and elsewhere, the disturbing words that “Fogle’s roommate had written an article in the school [Indiana] newspaper about his weight loss.” Then the rest became history. The Subway franchises in Chicago and elsewhere then entered into a collusive relationship with Fogle to create a  convincing narrative [probably false] that Fogle lost 200 plus weight eating only Turkey and vegetable sandwiches at Subway.

Sounds convincing?

Except for the fact that I have eaten Subway sandwiches for decades (usually on the highways of Montana, California and Florida) when I could find nothing but McDonald’s or Wendy’s and I didn’t lose weight?! In my mind, I convinced myself that I was eating healthfully when in fact I was eating bread and mayonnaise with maybe a bit of tuna. The point is that from the very beginning of the Fogle story onward we had nothing but corporate America using a sociopath to promote what most of them like to promote –themselves with a cautionary tale of weight loss. In the Jared story, we have a full blown sociopath who lies with little children because he is completely inadequate physically and mentally to deal with mature women or even men [if he were homosexual]. Even if he were Muslim where child brides are accepted, I would still have to question Fogle’s behavior and even more importantly the integrity of a company like Subway which prided itself on transparency and truth—informing all of us about the hidden calories embedded in the food we eat.

What I suspect is that from the very beginning of the Fogle “Subway Man” creation, the corporation was blinded intentionally by the ching-a-ling of the coins dropping into the massive franchise all over the world. They even promoted him using ersatz props like oversized pants that they claimed, without any verification, that these were the pants that “Fatso Fogle” wore before becoming slim and trim. Subway in the classical American flim-flam corporate manner propagated a completely disingenuous narrative and performance in order to enhance their paltry profits.

I would even go further to claim that certain senior corporate executives knew about Fogle and his perfidious sexual activities and the non-profit foundation that Fogle had created to fight childhood obesity; but they were hoping that the FBI and law enforcement agents would not catch up with their collusive scam with Fogle. My past experiences with sociopathic individuals, especially Fat Jewish Boys who could not measure up to their physician father, is that they end up destroying themselves through lies, deceits and miscreant behavior [just like our politicians].

What is to be done now?
I would strongly suggest that Fogle remain in prison for a far longer time than he was given. He should donate the fifteen million dollars he gained while lying through those Subway commercials. As for his partner, if he attempts suicide again—let him be.

Subway has a real problem.

They have to hire an outside investigator [not Freeh, the ex-FBI Director] to completely vet Subway of any possible illegal activities or false advertisements. Let’s listen carefully to the words of Axl Rose’s song:

“Oh Sweet Child Of Mine…”    

Pump Up the Volume: Bernard Sanders and Donald Trump!

Please Get Lost: Bush and Clinton

Just as we had discussed for some time now, America is ready for a new type of President. One who is not tutored or scripted by the retread idiot-savants of previous failed administrations [read Clinton, Bush Jr]. This new breed of political species is born of rage and frustration –the two crucial elements that constitute an effective, non-violent revolution.

Sanders. to my complete surprise and ignorance, [I never really followed him-shame on me] drew thousands of young, black, Hispanic Americans to rallies on the west coast and New Hampshire that $100M could not buy for Jeb Bush. Similarly, Trump is storming across the goal line time and time again. He is the superman of a new type of politics –called, ‘Internet Populism’.  Without having to spend so much money, Donald is streaming across the country, annunciating tough-love sound bites of hope and possibility, in contrast to Bernie who has denounced financial inequality and doomsday scenario.

Both candidates complement each other. Bernie has worked as an independent in the highly partisan legislature for the longest time in the history of the U.S. On the flip side of the coin, is Donald who has been an independent entrepreneur, neither beholden to banks, legislators or anyone other than himself. The forces of American discontent fueled by the inadequacies of past Presidents and politicians has come to full fruition where everyone has gasped with one last breathe – “We Want Change”!

“No more Political Dynasties [Bush /Clinton]”
“No more political chicanery at the expense of the American taxpayer!”

The message was received loud and clear.

Even the tempered boyish disingenuous Anderson Cooper of the left leaning CNN has literally dominated his full hour for over seven weeks- to try to understand the political/psychological dynamics of a phenomenon like “Donald Trump”. The studious and learned David Gergen, JKF Harvard School, gave a fair discussion of Donald’s narcissism and explained why he is not going away from the presidential race.

On the radio, I heard Rush Limbaugh discuss in a very logical sequence why Bernie was leading and why Hillary would not drop out of the race because she could not. I agree with him that she is indentured to so many people that she may have no choice but to run out of the money which she and Bill would never reimburse [again another 100 Million Dollars].

The media has turned around in fast time to accommodate the pumped volume of the public’s reactions to both Bernie and Donald. Contrary to the pronouncements of the other losing candidates in both parties, the American people are responding rationally and vocally to what they correctly perceive to be a major shift in the body politic. Donald and Bernie are extremely healthy representatives of an American narrative that has permeated our society since the Founding Fathers started the kinetic Revolution in 1776. On one hand, we had the firebrands who were willing to upset the status quo, like John Adams and “The Boston Tea Party”. On the other hand, we had the ersatz populist, Thomas Jefferson, who was Governor of Virginia doing almost nothing while the British soldiers were raping Richmond.  Then as now, Americans accepted a narrative slightly different from the reality of the times.

We are in a new era where people are voicing their discontent with social media and rallying to see the real candidate and more importantly, learn how history is being made. One can feel the excitement in the air! Gone are the staid platforms of propped up stick figures and what do we get instead? A famous John Hopkins Neurosurgeon who can best most of them by simply stating that ‘he has to learn about the problem and then try to solve it –logically’. No more BS about position papers and deceptive pronouncements about ‘peace in our time’  a la Cretin- George Bush Jr --when all along he was planning for the Iraq War. Even more dastardly than Geo W. is his younger brother –Jeb Bush –who had the audacity to state the Iraq War arose from an ‘INTELLIGENCE/ MILITARY FAILURES!!!” To which part of the Military did Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condolezza Rice belong?

We no longer have to pretend that no honorable men/women were killed in action because of the compounding incompetence of the former Presidents. Now we have those leaders who can articulate our major discontents. What they will do next, it’s up to them.

As for now…. JUST PUMP UP THE VOLUME!!!  

  

Note to FBI /Federal Prosecutors:  No Doubt that Ex-Sec. State Hillary Clinton “Did Not Follow Proper Procedures”

Just ask Under Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy.
He has been lying to cover-up for the inveterate mendicant Hillary since the beginning of her tenure. For some time now, we, Americans have been exposed to the Hillary pathological tendency to lie. Yet, how do I know that the Under Secretary for Management, Patrick Kennedy, is covering up for her lies and in the process has committed a criminal offense? Pat worked for me [Under Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger] when I was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Management under Sec States Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance. 

When I went overseas on official business, Pat was an extremely conscientious administrator who wanted my expense sheet asap upon my return. I recall one particular assignment in Panama, where I was being ‘hunted down’ by General Noriega’s PDF soldiers. I had to hide and move about Panama in order to create the necessary conditions to allow Noriega to leave involuntarily. When I presented my official expense sheet for a small sum of money, Pat was correct in denying me any reimbursement because I could not  produce any receipts.  It slipped my mind while I was being chased by the PDF. That is Pat Kennedy—a professional Foreign Service officer who had acted accordingly to the rules of the State Department—no receipts, no reimbursements.

Remember during the Benghazi affair when two FSOs had to resign with pay? They were Eric Boswell [Diplomatic Security] and Pat Kennedy [Management].  I had warned then that if the State Department personnel felt that they must break the rules to suite Hillary, then these FSOs must be held accountable. Like all good bureaucrats, Pat is a decent, hardworking individual garnering a government salary that was significantly less than what one could earn in private practice. Nevertheless, Pat knows very well that no one sends unclassified documents to the Secretary of State, all correspondence that is inherently ‘confidential’. 

Certainly any information related to the CIA  has to be marked with an appropriate security designation.  In effect, Hillary as she is wont to do – creates a web of cover-up on all her past miscreant deeds and in the process compromises the entire system for which she was supposed to be the effective leader. Hillary tends to be a ‘walking disaster’ insinuating herself in places and positions to which she has neither the skill nor knowledge to function in a professional, transparent fashion.

Pat Kennedy, along with Hillary should be spending some jail time otherwise, security clearances will mean absolutely nothing. On the other hand, what value are they when the Chinese and Russians can hack into our porous cyber systems and reveal the identity and backgrounds of millions of American civil servants and spies?
Let me end by quote the British mathematician/philosopher about knowing/ignorance:

“Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance is the death of knowledge”.

   

Very funny video, watch it for a laugh. (scroll down half way to grab video)
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/08/12/video-klintonerdammerung/

Recent Devaluation of Chinese Yuan:  “Mama-Hoohoo”! Half-Tiger/Half-Zebra!

Chinese President Xi Jinping assumed control of his failing economy then he suddenly devalued the Yuan by 4%. What does it really mean for China and the world currencies? What does that mean to me and to us?

I think it’s a mixed picture hence the blog header: half tiger/half zebra. It’s not indicative of anything in particular except for the following considerations:

▪ a highly inflated Yuan had to drop against the dollar in order to realign it’s true value for spot market [denominated in dollars].

▪ US exports will decrease markedly as the dollar climbs in value making all products sold to China and Asia in general exceedingly expensive.

▪ Yuan dropped in anticipation of the Chinese President’s impending visit to POTUS.

▪ Yuan drop is an attempt to break away from the worldwide dollar-based currencies created by the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire.

▪ China wants Yuan to be considered by the IMF as part of the universal sovereign funds consisting of the Euros, Yen and the US dollar.

The above list is a rational assessment of what China thinks it is doing as a one-off depreciation. However, I am not all that impressed by how President Xi has been able to manage a highly restricted, manipulated economy that has been based on political favors, subsidized by State Owned Entities [SOE’s] and which has changed from an export driven to a domestic consumption economy. I believe that China is in a very serious financial and possibly political trouble.

Why do I think that right now?

China has a top down artificial economy based on exports and false numbers related to growth [average GDP about 6-7%]. Such figures were all highly exaggerated from the very beginning as Deng Xiaoping encouraged his 1.2 billion former Communists to become ‘more capitalistic’. From the beginning, the Central Banks of China had created a structured economy that could not endure for more than a few decades. The past and present economic concerns have never been the free flow of capital or profits. China’s primary concern has always been it’s transformation to a ‘free market’ economy; providing jobs for hundreds of millions of people.

That initial hypothesis was correct –up to a point.

When the workers became successful a strong middle class arose which like America demanded high quality consumer goods. For a period of time that Middle Class acted appropriately. They worked limited hours. They bought their houses and even bought second ones for investments.

However, China was no longer able to export quality goods at a cheap enough prices to USA [primary client]. Instead, our manufacturers who had shipped their respective factories to China realized that the quality of Chinese goods were poor and relatively expensive when one considers the cost of shipping, handling and delayed deliveries.

So what did our  manufacturers do? 

They went to Mexico where they could build cheaper factories which in turn produced cheaper cars which did not need to be shipped over the expansive Pacific Ocean.

The Yuan was no longer attractive to American industrialists who also left China because of severe pollution and restrictive trading practices and realigned their central offices to the more friendly, financial oriented states like Singapore and Vietnam.

What is the state of the Yuan today?
The cheaper Yuan will create a massive deflationary spiral all over Asia and possibly throw China into a severe recession if not depression.

But what do I know?

I have owned a few banks here and there. Lately, I found that banks were outdated modes of currency exchange as the internet created such powerful virtual entities as Pay Pal and Lending Tree. I see a major restructuring of the financial markets all over the worlds where the Euro, the Ruble and other weaker currencies will have to be seriously devaluated if not eliminated, as in the case of the Euro. As most of you know by now, I feel that the Euro entity/currency is not sustainable politically/financially because it was an artificial construct initiated by the French in an attempt to control Germany’s rise after WWII. We all know how that turned out. I would say that Germany should pull out of the Euro and introduce its powerful Deutschmark once again.

For those of you who are worried about the Dollar, don’t! The idiot pundits in the Washington who are screaming that “American xenophobia will be destructive” are completely wrong. Our economy will continue to grow at a 2-3% level with the present administration if the Federal Reserve does not do something stupid like ‘choke off’ our dollar liquidity in the name of a non-existent ‘inflation’ –by raising interest rates.

America’s exceptionalism resides in one simple fact. We are an ‘Entrepreneurial State’ which means that we depend on the ability of many of our citizens to create and implement small businesses of all types which in the aggregate create economic growth. Even if our dollar is too strong we can offset our trade inbalances with creative financing which is what sophisticated manufacturers will have to do in the course of doing business.

If we elect candidates who are attuned to specifically creating a growth economy based on sound principles of business, then we will become an even stronger economic, political entity. America first! That will continue to sustain us as the Financial Tiger of the World….

From the Forward, picked up by NYTimes, a Jewish voice of sanity regarding Iran.
http://forward.com/news/318930/a-jewish-journalists-exclusive-look-inside-iran/?utm_content=daily_Newsletter_TopSpot_Title_Position-1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Daily%202015-08-12&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20%28Monday-Friday%29

Syria Implodes in its Endless Civil War ….

Turkey Attacks Syria and the Kurds,

America Negotiates and Builds Effective Coalitions!
To all you cynics, it just may work. As the Republican race for the presidency mounts in tempo, heated discussions without much thought have been thrown out to the public regarding resolving the problem of ISIS and the Syrian Civil War. We hear the cries for more U.S. boots on the ground and greater fire power. Neither one is a viable solution for many reasons, the least of which is that we are dealing with a multi-faceted problem with over one hundred different competing fighting groups in both Iraq/Syria.

After some convincing and cajoling, Erdogan agreed to allow U.S. fighter jets into a base in Turkey to pursue the continuing kinetic degradation of ISIS. Yet this bouillabaisse of problems is so convoluted. On one hand, we are supported by a group of Kurds in Syria and Iraq while we overlook the Turkish enmity to the Kurdish PKK front. Without looking at the big picture, its easy to opt for a simplistic solution like more force; however, the real questions are: 

▪ how much more?

▪ when?

▪ which of the 100 member groups, even within ISIS  should be attacked?

So far this administration has chosen an effective weapon with the blessing of our military/intelligence community [IC]. Such a choice is extremely difficult to pursue and implement but it may prove out to be the most lethal weapons of all—NEGOTIATIONS and BUILDING COALITIONS! Sounds airy-fairy but believe me, it is far more difficult to accomplish and implement than a useless kinetic war.

Why?
Contrary to common wisdom, Russia has turned out to be one of our more crucial allies in the Middle East. Putin and his extremely talented Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, have made a concerted effort to engage the Iranians through the good services of IRG General Suliemani as well as Syria’s President Bashar Assad to negotiate an end to this useless civil war. Alongside these efforts, the USG went out of its way to co-opt the Turkish President Erdogan to help us destroy the enemy that we both inadvertently created-ISIS/ISIL. In that latter process, we have been able to work with two different Kurdish groups – the Pesh Merga in Iraq [Tirkrit] and YPG [primarily women fighters] in Northern Syria. At the same time, we have allowed the mercurial leader Erdogan to have his way in fighting his primary nemesis –the PKK [the head of the Kurdish Liberation Movement].

How the outcome of these conflicting alliances might turn out, I am not certain. I do know that this type of coalition building is complicated, tedious and very labor intensive [if not psychologically demanding]. For those Republicans and Hawkish Democrats who think that we should have more bombings and American boots on the ground, I say no American citizens has vouchsafed for this expensive undertaking nor has military leadership proposed a more intensive kinetic war.

We are in an age where war is fought in areas of the ethos that no one could have predicted decades ago, let alone prior to WWII. We are now engaged in conflicts where binary numbers are going to determine the outcome of some battle on social media. We have the limited resource of water in both Iraq/Syria as a most effective weapon. What happens when both the citizenry and the combat elements have no more water? That is what is happening in Syria.

For many of you who don’t remember why the civil war started in Syria, it had nothing to do with religion but rather the horrible truth that the Sunni farmers of Homs [Sunni stronghold] had no water. They could no longer farm their land. So they all descended onto Damascus, looking for work and water. Neither appropriate work nor water was conveniently available so social instability with the unsolicited aid from Saudi Arabia [seeking to place a foothold into Syria against its arch enemy Iran] flared up into what we now call  a “Humanitarian Disaster”. Over 4 Million Syrians have been displaced from their homes and over a quarter of million were killed by the conflict. As usual, the UN stepped into the scenario and performed accordingly, a fiasco.

Russia, US, Iran, Turkey and an assortment of different parties, including the Israelis, who have maintained a decent modicum of silence with regards to the Syrian conflict –have helped this burgeoning coalition to succeed. In the beginning, I was hoping that Bashar Assad could hold onto the reins of power. I was wrong. I did not misread his intentions or ruthlessness. I just underestimated the degree to which he would want to decimate his own Syrian citizens utilizing gas warfare and “barrel bombs” [they are more deadly than regular bombs because they splay out deadly metal debris].

I have come to the sad conclusion that the beautiful country of Syria where Aleppo, Damascus and Palmyra stood in my mind as enticing respites from the endless deadly arid deserts, is now gone. Whatever is left of Syria is a swath of useless land somewhere in the coast line of the Mediterranean waters. The conclusion of this unwarranted civil war is yet to be set in writing. My suspicion is that Bashar and family will have to leave Syria for either Russia or England where Bashar trained as an Ophthalmologist; and the interim ruling party will consist of a coalition of different parties acting as proxies of the major powers.

I am certain that Russia, Turkey, Iran, and the USA will have to provide some guarantee for this eventual peace. Perhaps it could be in the way Lawrence Eagleburger and I  set up the initial peace-keeping force in the Sinai Peninsula, creating an effective buffer zone between Egypt and Israel. Or, it could look like the interim peace agreement that I helped to set up in Cambodia under Secretary of State James Baker.

In either case, patient negotiation with all the parties involved in the conflict is the best weapon of peace that we have for now.

In the words of John Lennon:
“Let’s Give Peace A Chance!”

Everything else has failed up to this point.