Greatest Contribution “Separation of Church and State…”

Modern Era Remembrance 

Attributed to Lowell Weicker 

Separation of church and state is the United States’ “greatest contribution to world civilization.”

“The United States is not a Christian nation. It is a great nation with Christians, among others, in it.

“The time has come to knock off this religion business in American politics. There’s no end to the mischief that can occur—it is like putting nitroglycerine in a Warring blender.…

 “Our greatness is based on the fact that there is no official religion.”

Honorable Lowell P. Weicker Jr. 

He gained national recognition as a U.S. Senator during the period of congressional hearings considering charges brought against the thirty-seventh President of the United States Richard Milhous Nixon.

The United States Senate Watergate Committee (officially, the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities) considering the case of President Nixon was formed February 7, 1973; and dissolved after publication of its final report June 27, 1974.

Senate Watergate Committee SENATORS

Members of Democratic Party Sam Ervin (Chairman-North Carolina) Daniel Inouye (Hawaii) Joseph Montoya (New Mexico) Herman Talmadge (Georgia)

Members of Republican Party Howard Baker (Ranking Member-Tennessee) Edward Gurney (Florida) Lowell Weicker (Connecticut)

https://watergate.info/impeachment/members-of-the-house-judiciary-committee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Watergate_Committee#Members
https://watergate.info/chronology/1974-chronology
https://www.azquotes.com/author/41224-Lowell_P_Weicker_Jr

Paris, France1931 - Middletown, Connecticut 2023

Lowell Palmer Weicker Jr. was born 1931 in Paris, France, of American parents. His membership in political parties included Republican (before 1990); Connecticut Party (1990–1995); Independent (1995–2023)

National, Governmental Service

• Active duty and reserve U.S. Army (1950s and 1960s)
• First Selectman of the Connecticut town of Greenwich (1964–1968)
• Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives (January 1963 – January 1969)
• Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (January 3, 1969 – January 3, 1971)
• Member of the U.S. Senate (January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1989)
• Governor of Connecticut (January 9, 1991 – January 4, 1995)

Advice and Self Perception
Weicker in interview with Hartford Courant

To the young and to Contenders

“Don’t be afraid to lose.” “If you’re not afraid to lose, you’re the most dangerous man or woman on the field.

“You can speak the truth. … Maybe, if you tell the truth, you’ll lose. It is also true (that) maybe… you’ll win.”

“Forget the party.… You’ve got to value the state of Connecticut more than your political party.”

In office, there must be “negotiations” with officials who hold membership political parties other than your own.

Legacy as Perceived by Weicker 

“I think the income tax was probably the toughest governmental exercise I had ever been through.”

“I would like to think my … crowning achievement was I wrote most of the disabilities laws in the country, Watergate, oceans research. I can’t say I enjoyed Watergate, but I think I did a fair job.”


June 28, 2023, News
Remembered

“I admire his independent way of leading …”

He “never ducked a tough battle, absolutely convinced that he was right, and he usually was. He was always bigger than life, and he always will be. …” 

— Current Governor of Connecticut Edward “Ned” Miner Lamont Jr—

His “service to our nation and state was always driven by the public good, whether it was caring for the disabled or defending our democracy and the constitution— (he never shied away) from entering ‘the arena’ of public affairs….”

— Former Member of the Connecticut State House and current Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Joseph “Joe” David Courtney—

As Connecticut’s governor, he “helped create the state income tax while becoming one of the most dominant figures in Connecticut politics for decades.” 

—Hartford Courant—

Context: Exemplary of Modern Era’s True Blue

Weicker's passing opens a moment to reflect on U.S. eras and particularly the Modern era, which at present has the look and feel of a regressive era.

Major Eras catalogued in U.S. history…
according to some historians and journalists, are:

• The Age of Exploration (1492-1585)
• The Colonial Era (1607-1754)
• The Federalist Period (1788 -1800)
• The Era of Westward Expansion (1801-1861) [including Age of Jackson 1815-1840 and 1830s “Trail of Tears” forced removal of Native American tribes]
• The Reconstruction Era (1866-1877)
• The Prohibition Era (1920 to 1933)
• The Cold War Era (1945/1947-1991) and
• The Second Cold War Era (Cold War II or New Cold War beginning with U.S.-led NATO expansion to incorporate Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic from late 1990s, or from U.S. launched Global War on Terrorism in 2001).

Modern or Medieval 

The U.S. Modern era—meaning a time “still within living memory”— is dated by researchers, historians, thinkers as beginning at the end of World War II in 1945 and extending through the present day.

In terms of quality of being or all-round conditions—more advanced than earlier ancient and medieval times—the Modern Era is characterized by substantive forward movement not mere frivolity, fad, self-absorption, backwardness in act or attitude.

The Modern era is known for marked progress driven by deliberate human effort—and aimed at bettering the human condition through advances in a variety of sectors: politics, industry, society, economics, commerce, transport, communication, mechanization, automation, science, medicine, technology, and culture—that transform an Old World into a Modern or New World.

Whatever is the nature of the individual religion, in Weicker’s words The swing left or right is too extreme to hold the center, to mend and uphold the Union.

The time has come to remove religion (no matter how “religion” is defined or expressed) from American politics. Retaining religion subjective and divisive by definition “is like putting nitroglycerine in a Warring blender,” Lowell Weicker said.

“The United States is not a Christian nation. It is a great nation with Christians among others in it. But our greatness is based on the fact that there is no official religion.”

Sources

Connecticut Mirror June 28, 2023 “Connecticut reacts to the death of Lowell Weicker: The former Connecticut governor and U.S. senator played an outsized role in state politics during his career” Mark Pazniokas and Erica E. Phillips https://ctmirror.org/2023/06/28/lowell-weicker-death/

Hartford Courant, June 28, 2023“Former Connecticut Gov. and U.S. Sen. Lowell P. Weicker dies at 92” Author Christopher Keating | Reporter https://www.courant.com/2023/06/28/former-connecticut-lowell-p-weicker-dies-at-92/

Encyclopedia sources
Quote source

https://www.azquotes.com/author/41224-Lowell_P_Weicker_Jr

Composition and Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images

Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett

Author’s links: www.BennettsAmericanEpitaph.com

https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett

https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/

https://www.xlibris.com/en/search?query=Carolyn+LaDelle+Bennett

https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/828689-epitaph

Unconscionable Impunity Conveniently Forgotten Dons High-handed Disingenuousness

Long-term, Indelibly Dire Consequences of handing Global Leadership to Weakness  

The Manipulatable and corruptible, unprincipled, unlearned, inept unfit for purpose.

The Obama administration's reign of global terror exceeded past administrations.

Specifically, against Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, the rage of 44 set the pattern and permission for 45 and all succeeding United States Federal Washington administrations of mentally, morally and experientially weak men and women.

Barack Hussein Obama II is a Pacific Island-born son of East African (Somalia-bordering Kenya) and USA Midwestern (Kansas) parentage-turned Ivy Leaguer who never offered his service to the United States of America in volunteer or conscript civilian or military work. When seated as U.S. Head of State, he issued orders for the 

Devastating, Unprovoked Bombing of

Syrian Arabic Republic and 

Islamic countries: Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

Over the period of occupancy in the presidential palace in Washington, D.C., the Obama Group ordered the unleashing on the world of an estimated “26,171 bombs.”

At least since 2014 a United States-led active military operation in Western Asia reportedly has involved (without specifying regular or mercenary) militaries of three of five permanent UN Security Council Members (USA, UK and France) plus non-UNSC-5: Jordan, Turkey, Canada, and Australia.

Of “30,743 bombs” (2016 U.S. report) dropped by a U.S.-led “coalition”— 79 percent (or 24,287 bombs) were dispatched by USA agents or entities.

By the end of an eight-year tenure, this president’s “U.S. ‘special operators’ (aggressors) could be found in 

138 countries—70 percent of the world’s nations.”

Viewed in comparative terms with the 193 Member States composing the United Nations, the percentage reaches 72 percent of the world’s sovereign nations.

A partial list of U.S. Targeted countries (all in proximity to major waterways) include 

• in East Africa Somalia (Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean); 
• in West Asia Syria, Iraq, and Yemen (Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Indian Ocean); 
• in South Asia Afghanistan and Pakistan (Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea).

High-handedness Meets Criminal Impunity

Why would anyone listen to those who order massacres of thousands of Muslims?

Former U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama II 
CNN interviewer Christiane Amanpour

Editorialized questions by AMANPOUR: “The prime minister of India, Modi, who is considered autocratic …, how should a (U.S.) president engage with those kinds of leaders…You want to name names?” [Emphasis added]

Disingenuous answers by OBAMA “… [I]f the President (of the United States) meets with Prime Minister Modi (of India) …, the protection of the Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India (would be) something worth mentioning…. 

“[I]f I had a conversation with Prime Minister Modi, who I know well, part of my argument would be…: if you do not protect the rights of ethnic minorities in India, there’s a strong possibility that India, at some point, (would) start pulling apart.

“We’ve seen what happens when you start getting those kinds of large internal conflicts. [Says the creator of global and regional conflicts, chaos, slaughter from Ukraine to Yemen!] …

“[T]hat would be contrary to the interests not just of Muslim India but also Hindu India.” Source CNN Rush Transcript of Video clip: Christiane Amanpour Interview with former U.S. President Barack Obama aired June 23, 2023 https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/ampr/date/2023-06-23/segment/01

The Honorable Nirmala Sitharaman of India

“He [former U.S. President Obama] was commenting on Indian Muslims … (when his administration) bombed Muslim-majority countries from Syria to Yemen …

“Why would anyone listen to any allegations from such people?”

Nirmala Sitharaman is an economist, cabinet official, and lawmaker; educated at Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College (BA) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (MA, MPhil) with post graduate studies in Economics focusing on Indo-Europe trade; recipient of Jawaharlal Nehru University’s “Distinguished Alumni Award,” and Forbes Magazine’s 34th ranking among “100 most powerful women in the world.”

Government Service of Nirmala Sitharaman

• Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs May – November 2014
• Member of Rajya Sabha (Council of States: India’s Upper House of Parliament) 2016 – (Incumbent)
• Minister of State for Ministry of Commerce and Industry 2014 – 2017
• Minister of Defense 2017 – 2019
• Minister of Corporate Affairs 2019 – (Incumbent)
• Minister of Finance 2019 – (Incumbent)

Further Noted in Beyond the Beltway Press

 

Around the world on June 28, Muslims celebrate Eid Ul Adha, a festival of sacrifice highlighting “Shared values of compassion, sacrifice, service to others”

“A light guiding toward unity, empathy and understanding”

A powerful expression uniting people “across religious, cultural and ideological differences”

“A reminder of the world’s “common humanity”

Sources

 
Logically: a group self-described as a group having been established in 2017 to work “with governments and organizations around the globe to proactively limit the harms associated with mis- and disinformation.” The website lists “Research Partners” as HT Delhi, The University of Sheffield, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, University of Waterloo, and Council for Strategic and Defense Research; and locations: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Republic of India, United States of America (Washington, DC Metro: Northern Virginia)
https://www.logically.ai/research-partnerships
https://www.logically.ai/contact-us
https://www.logically.ai/mission
https://www.logically.ai/factchecks/library/cf47c62f

Encyclopedic Sources

News peg

Al Jazeera News June 26, 2023, “‘Bombed Muslim nations’: BJP ministers to Obama over Modi remark Former US President Barack Obama last week said Indian PM Narendra Modi’s government should do more to protect Muslims.”

“Prominent ministers from India’s ruling party have derided comments by former US President Barack Obama that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government should protect the rights of minority Muslims, accusing him of being hypocritical.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/26/indian-minister-mocks-obama-comment-on-protecting-muslims

The Guardian (Reuters in Delhi), June 26, 2023 “Obama remarks on India’s treatment of Muslims ‘hypocritical’ – minister: Indian finance minister hits out after former US president said Modi government should protect rights of Muslims,” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/26/obama-remarks-on-indias-treatment-of-muslims-hypocritical-minister

RT News (excerpt from headlines) June 27, 2023, “India’s finance minister calls out Barack Obama over his criticism of minority issues in India, reminding the former US president of the trail of destruction that he left in the Middle East during his term in office” https://www.rt.com/shows/news/578731-rtnews-june-27-20msk/

Composition and Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images

Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett

Author’s links: www.BennettsAmericanEpitaph.com

https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett

https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/

https://www.xlibris.com/en/search?query=Carolyn+LaDelle+Bennett

https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/828689-epitaph

Uniparty Malevolence, Criminal Wrongheadedness a Global Death Knell

The Biden-Graham Imprint

At public expense, these men sit in chambers or hold forth on this or that telecommunications instrument. 

They take leisurely flights around the globe orchestrating chaos, crime and suffering.

These men bring the same orchestration of chaos, crime and suffering to the homeland.

Killing Russians and Ukrainians

Lindsey Graham hangs out with Comedian among Nazis head of Ukraine declaring “Free or Death … the best money ‘we’ve’ ever spent.” Albawaba May 28, 2023 “Lindsey Graham praises spending money to ‘kill Russians’” https://www.albawaba.com/node/lindsey-graham-praises-spending-money-kill-russians-1520529 (also https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12133561/Lindsey-Graham-says-Russians-dying-best-money-spent-meeting-Zelensky.html)

“An outrageous remark by US Senator Lindsey Graham during a meeting with head of the Kiev regime Zelensky— ‘And the Russians are dying. The best money we’ve ever spent stunned the international public not just with its Neanderthal Russophobia, but with its truly human-hating underlying message.” Press Service Rebuttals “Anti-Fake of the Day: A cynical attempt to justify US Senator Lindsey Graham and his cannibalistic remarks” May 29, 2023 https://mid.ru/en/press_service/articles_and_rebuttals/rebuttals/nedostovernie-publikacii/1872822/

Killing Americans

WARS OF TERROR, The Homeland Plundered and Deserted

US leaders and their partnering mercenaries, NGO and War industrialists for more than 20 years have hemorrhaged the US treasury of some “$8 trillion,” sucked down “the sinkhole of disastrous wars.” (June 11, 2023 Andrea Mazzarino at Tomgram “The Wound of the War on Terror Up Close and Personal” https://tomdispatch.com/americans-in-pain/)

BLEEDING in the cause of Inbred tribal Malevolence

United States D/R Uniparty officials’ 2022 (Ukraine proxy anti-Russia) waste/fraud/abuse log showed approvals of 

• $13.6 billion in March
• $40.1 billion in May
• $12.3 billion in September
• $45 billion in December— totaling (as shown in non-secret files) 

$111 billion. 

(Politifact article posted at Costs of War Project https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jan/27/instagram-posts/us-spending-afghanistan-dwarfs-aid-ukraine/)

The Nation’s Capital (where Joseph Biden and Lindsey Graham live high and mighty) June 26, 2023 — McPherson Square — 

Authorities forcibly removed “scores of homeless (people)… then kept evicting them.” In this one area where the number of homeless people rises toward 100, the street dwellers lack permanent shelter. (Source: Washington Post, Marissa J. Lang, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/06/26/mcpherson-homeless-where-are-they-now/

Callously Criminal Neglect creates and perpetuates Needless Suffering. In the June 26, Lang article, one American without permanent shelter was quoted saying: 

“They just came out here yesterday and told me I had to leave. I didn’t even know who was ordering me out.”… “Where do they expect people to go?” “I have no help, nowhere to go…. Please, help me.”

Another fellow American without proper housing was quoted saying: 

“We’re … just sitting ducks. … “It’s dangerous … out here. I’m scared every day, especially for my girl.”

Coast to Coast Overt Suffering

Well over half a million people (582,462 estimated) are homeless (without permanent shelter) in the United States of America (72 percent individual adults, 28 percent in families with children).

• Chronically homeless individuals (or people with disabilities who have experienced long-term or repeated incidents of homelessness): 22 percent. 

• Veterans (people who have served in some capacity in U.S. military forces): 6 percent. 

• Unaccompanied Young People (particularly vulnerable) under the age of twenty-five: 5 percent. National Alliance to End Homelessness “The State of Homelessness: 2023 Edition” NAEH Data sources: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): 2022 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count, and Housing Inventory Count https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/

Longevity, Entrenchment

Neither fitness for purpose

Nor reason for celebration

let alone reelection.

Long overdue for Pasture

Lindsey Olin Graham has had 35 years of living at the Public’s Expense: South Carolina public offices 1988-1994; Washington, D.C.: U.S. House of Representatives 1995-2003; U.S. Senate 2002 term ending 2027.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has had 53 years of living at the Public’s Expense: Delaware public office New Castle County Council 1970-1972; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Senate 1972-2009; U.S. Vice Presidency 2009-2016; U.S. Presidency 2021 – present

Composition and Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images

Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett

Author’s links: www.BennettsAmericanEpitaph.com

https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett

https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/

https://www.xlibris.com/en/search?query=Carolyn+LaDelle+Bennett

https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/828689-epitaph

Big 3 Colonialists Force their Will SITLL thru UNSC

Sahel to the Caribbean Sea

Third World Speaks

HAITI

“Migration will continue as long as the planet has both wealthy areas whilst most of the world’s population lives in poverty—even extreme poverty—without any prospects of a better life” said Prime Minister of Haiti Ariel Henry September 25, 2021, addressing the United Nations General Assembly’s 76th session Debate. 

“[H]uman beings (fathers and mothers), who have children are always going to flee poverty and conflict.”

Prime Minister HENRY

Neurosurgeon Ariel Henry studied with the faculty of medicine at the University of Montpellier (France) and later international health at U.S. universities in Massachusetts and California. In the period 2015 through 2022 Henry held positions in Haiti’s administrative cabinet

(Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, Minister of Interior and Territorial Communities) and at various times Acting President or Acting Prime Minister (the last July 20, 2021) (General reference)

SAINT VINCENT and the GRENADINES

Our United Nations “reform agenda—including UN Security Council reform—demand renewed impetus. … [I]t is evident to all reasonable persons that the stranglehold of ‘the [UNSC] Permanent Five’ [People’s Republic of China, French Republic, Russian Federation, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and United States of America 1945-present] … ought to be appropriately loosened or broken in these times so different from in 1945….” said Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph E. Gonsalves, September 25, 2021, addressing the 76th UN General Assembly Debate.

“[O]ur forebears crafted this multilateral institution called the United Nations to provide hope and stability to all of humanity. This labor is incomplete. The pervasive inequalities that defined the pre-COVID political and socioeconomic order must not become tomorrow’s nightmarish reality.… [W]e must reorganize ourselves—locally, regionally, nationally and globally—in a quest to provide in novel ways and with fresh initiatives peace, security, and development to all countries and peoples.… We must rise collectively to address sensibly the requisite fresh imperatives in these our most challenging times.”

Prime Minister GONSALVES

Ralph E. Gonsalves studied economics and government through the doctoral level in Jamaica (University of the West Indies) and England (University of Manchester) and has held several government and regional positions before rising to the premiership in 2001: Member of Parliament, Chairman of the Caribbean Community, and Minister of Finance. (General Reference)

Republic of MALI

In March of 2012, there was a coup d’état in the country followed by the descent of UN “peacekeepers.” However “despite international support and the presence of a UN peace operation (MINUSMA) and other international forces…, the situation has hardly improved” said Republic of Mali Prime Minister (interim) Choguel Kokalla Maïga September 25, 2021, in addressing the 76th UN General Assembly Debate.

The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was established April 25, 2013, under UN Security Council resolution 2100 with the apparent purpose of occupation: the deployment of an in-country presence, in the words of the agency’s UN website to “support” Mali’s “political processes” and to conduct “a number of security-related tasks.”

Prime Minister Maïga emphasized that the situation had “continued to deteriorate steadily, to the point that entire sections of the national territory are beyond the control of the Government” and Malians were living “under the grip of terrorist and armed groups, and with their most basic rights denied.” Because of the “weakened presence of the State,” citizens’ “access to basic services remains problematical.”

States of the Sahel (Mali and the region) are being “severely affected by the piling up of crises.”

Prime Minister MAIGA

Choguel Kokalla Maiga (real name is Chouaïbou Issoufi Souleymane) Doctor of Telecommunications Engineering (Belarusian State University (in the former USSR) and the Moscow Institute of Telecommunications)

Work: Civil Service exam and soldier in Malian Army; various communications positions in and out of government before premiership: Société des Télécommunications du Mali (SOTELMA) including project manager; Directorate of Studies and Planning; National Coordinator of the National Program for the Implementation of the Telecommunications Master Plan and the Development of the 20-Year Radio and Television Broadcasting Master Plan of the Republic of Mali; Director of the National School of Posts and Telecommunications; Director General of the Malian Telecommunications/ICT and Posts Regulatory Authority (AMRTP). Ministerial positions: Minister of Industry and Trade 2002–2007; Minister of the Digital Economy, Information and Communication 2015–2016; Prime Minister 2021 -

The “Third World”?

Third World countries by and large “were at one time colonial possessions of European powers” whose administrators threw up borders (e.g., in Africa and West/Central Asia), forcefully assembling territorial entities, carelessly disregarding local populations or national aspirations. Thus, when the colonies (dependencies) “gained independence,” they were awash in varieties of ethnic and religious groups all competing for their individual interests—a situation made for perpetual conflict; and impossible movement forward social, essential economic, educational, institutional development.

Third World countries were manipulated during the Cold War, plundered, ravage and callously abused (their native inhabitants held in contempt by colonialists and neocolonialist) before and after the Cold War. These countries (now euphemistically labeled “the Global South”) and their inhabitants are the world’s poorest, most chaotic, and institutionally weakest.

Colonial Imprint

Republic of Haiti part of the Caribbean Sea Island of Hispaniola

• Colonized by the Spanish and the French
• Occupied by the United States of America
• Independence (despite historic interim resolutions) QUESTIONABLE
• Official language French
• Dominant religion Christianity

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Caribbean Island

• Colonized by the French and the British
• Independence from Britain 1979
• Official language English
• Dominant religion Christianity

Republic of Mali (main natural resource gold; reputed home “to the richest man who ever lived”)

• Colonized by the French
• Independence from France 1960
• National Language French
• Dominant religion Islam

Mali is situated in Africa’s Sahel (Sahara Desert-north to Sudanian savanna-south) comprising (west to east) parts of northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, central Mali, northern Burkina Faso, the extreme south of Algeria, Niger, the extreme north of Nigeria, Cameroon and Central African Republic, central Chad, central and southern Sudan, the extreme north of South Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia

World’s Least-Developed Countries 2019 (UN Data)

Niger

Central African Republic

Chad

Burundi (tie w/ South Sudan)

South Sudan (tie w/ Burundi)

Mali

Burkina Faso (tie w/ Sierra Leone)

Sierra Leone (tie w/ Burkina Faso)

Mozambique

Eritrea

Among Least-Developed Countries 2023

Afghanistan

Burkina Faso

Haiti

Mali

Somalia

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/least-developed-countries

This Month’s News out of Mali

Malian officials shout the end of their patience with Big 3 UNSC Colonialists’ Occupation and Disruption

This past week Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop addressed the UN Security Council demanding that the MINUSMA (Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali) “stabilization mission” be withdrawn from their country.

The occupying entity “seems to have become a part of the problem in fueling inter-community tensions,” the Malian diplomat said. The UN forces are “begetting mistrust among the Malian population,” and creating a “crisis of confidence” within the government.

Last year and early this year Malian authorities were reportedly forced to expel MINUSMA’s spokesman Olivier Salgado for deploying military units from Mali’s neighbors; and MINUSMA’s human rights office director Guillaume Ngefa Atonodok Andali for in-country “destabilizing and subversive actions.”




Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Henry
UNGA https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/09/1101252
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Gonsalves
UNGA https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/09/1101262
https://primature.ml/team/dr-choguel-kokalla-maiga/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choguel_Kokalla_Ma%C3%AFga
https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/09/1101322
https://minusma.unmissions.org/en

RT news “Mali demands that UN troops leave: Bamako’s top diplomat said the international peacekeeping mission has become ‘part of the problem” June 17, 2023 https://www.rt.com/africa/578183-mali-un-peacekeepers-leave/

Related

June 18, 2023 “Mali votes on new constitution.” On Sunday Malians “cast ballots on a new draft constitution that the West African country’s military leadership says is a step towards elections for a return to civilian rule in 2024” RT news https://www.rt.com/news/578254-africa-mali-constitution-election/

Composition and Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images

Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett

Author’s links: www.BennettsAmericanEpitaph.com

https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett

https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/

https://www.xlibris.com/en/search?query=Carolyn+LaDelle+Bennett

https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/828689-epitaph

Builders of Something Better Ordered Slain

Saddam Hussein to Muammar al Qaddafi to Qassem Soleimani - GW Bush to BH Obama to DJ Trump

George W. BUSH (son of George HW) ♦ Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein (son of a shepherd) became a military advisor or Marshal, major political party leader and head of state who was party to serial off-on U.S.-Iraqi alliances until he was eliminated.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Iraq was the United States’ “anti Communism” buttress enjoying U.S. favoritism. In the 1970s (early) Iraq nationalizes U.S. petroleum interests and partners with the Soviet Union “to develop its oil capacity” in the interests of the Iraqi people; and U.S. officials covertly equip Kurdish rebels aimed at weakening the Iraqi government. In 1979 through the 1980s (U.S. administrations of Carter through Reagan) armored with paranoia about “Communism” and “Iran,” U.S. powers throw weapons, military presence from the Gulf and other favors into the camp of Saddam Hussein.

At the turn of the next decade (1990s), a U.S.-emboldened Saddam Hussein copies the old expansionism tactic and moves against Kuwait to which the GW Bush administration responds by bombing Iraq and attempting to take down by the divide and conquer method (inciting Iraq’s Sunni Muslim elite to attack Hussein), which ended up causing brutal attacks on the Sunnis.

Nevertheless, the regime change tactic prevailed (ally Hussein had become demon aka “dictator”- out-of-favor Hussein) through the William Jefferson Blythe III (Bill Clinton) and George W. Bush presidencies:

• Blythe III / Clinton endorsed the removal of Hussein in 1998; and
• Bush’s inauguration lit the fuse that would culminate in the 2003 obliteration of Iraq and its head of state.

Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein’s life ended with a December 30, 2006, predetermined public hanging.

Barack Hussein OBAMA Jr. ♦ Muammar Gaddafi

Muammar al Qaddafi (Moammar Gadhafi) was a devout Muslim and son of an itinerant Bedouin farmer; a military officer who graduated from the Libyan military academy and rose steadily through the ranks.

Throughout his life, Col. Qaddafi had been credited with trying to unify the Arab world. In the 1970s in support of his people and his nation’s sovereignty, he removed the U.S. and British military bases from Libya and nationalized all foreign-owned petroleum assets. Under his interpretation of Islamic principles, he outlawed alcoholic beverages and gambling.

Col. Qaddafi had been credited with being a statesman and able leader in his country and region. In his later years, Libya’s head of state had, in effect, served the Western Collective’s relentless wars (acting as buffer for Europe) by giving shelter and refuge, housing and work to thousands of migrants who had been forced from their homelands by U.S. and European wars.

Like the U.S. pattern with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Libya’s Gaddafi was a once convenient ally turned convenient enemy, who was eliminated. October 20, 2011, saw United States and European governments-supported chaos and armed uprising that plunged the country into a civil war. And amid the roar, assailants seized and brutally murdered Libya’s Champion Col. Muammar al Qaddafi.

The Syrian-born British journalist Richard Medhurst wrote in 2021 “Muammar Gaddafi led his nation to become the wealthiest in all of Africa.” And decade after the death of their leader, Libya has been torn “by tribalism, terrorism and slavery—all because the West could not allow an Arab leader to succeed.”

 

Journalist Medhurst’s Eyewitness to

Libya during and after Gaddafi

Thriving country becomes a Failed State

Gaddafi’s 42 years of Service to Libya

Literacy rate rose 25 percent to 88 percent
Libyans enjoyed free healthcare, free education, a high standard of living
Basic necessities such as electricity and gas were cheap

In the 1980s, he built the world’s largest irrigation project, the ‘Great Man-Made River’, a project whose pipe network provides 70 percent of Libya’s fresh water— a project entirely self-financed, without any loans or credits from foreign banks.

A country grown very wealthy country, without external debt

NATO/USA’s Unspeakable Imprint

“Bombing of the Great Man-Made River, destroying key civilian infrastructure”

• Country taken over by terrorists, opportunists and thieves, and has plunged into chaos; open slave-trade markets.

• Smugglers and human traffickers take advantage of migrants and refugees passing through to Europe, selling them off into bondage.

• Rival tribes, political factions quest for power; fight over oil and other precious resources

• Healthcare system collapsed
• No infrastructure
• No functioning central government

Donald John TRUMP ♦ General Qassem Soleimani

General Soleimani was a man of modest beginnings who in his youth had done construction work “to help repay his father’s agricultural debts.”

He was a military man of longstanding service to his country (1979-2020), a respected Shia Muslim, and a soldier beloved by his countrymen. Like Col. Qaddafi, he had worked for security against “terrorists” and for regional, Muslim and Arab Unity. Gen. Soleimani is credited with spearheading “Iran’s advisory mission in Syria, at the request of the Damascus government, to rid the nation of Daesh terrorists.” In continued progress (after U.S. agents killed Soleimani), a majority of member states of the Arab League voted to return Syrian Arab Republic to the Arab League.

After the September 11, 2001, events in the New York and Washington areas, Iranian diplomats under Commander Soleimani’s direction “cooperated with U.S. forces in the fight the Taliban in Afghanistan.” As he was ending his presidency, U.S. President Donald Trump wantonly ordered the assassination of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s beloved son.

Motivation or Madness 

What motivates some men to do good while others, claiming to do “good,” commit reprehensible, unspeakable acts? And get away with their crimes. 

Why do the world’s peoples permit (tolerate, acquiesce to) the status quo, the existing state of affairs?

Sources

Medhurst, Richard “Orinoco Tribune “The Killing of Gaddafi 10 Years ago has Resulted in the Death of the Nation of Libya and the Destruction of its People,” October 20, 2021

https://orinocotribune.com/the-killing-of-gaddafi-10-years-ago-has-resulted-in-the-death-of-the-nation-of-libya-and-the-destruction-of-its-people/

Press TV news online “Iran seriously pursuing Gen. Soleimani’s 30-year effort towards Muslim unity: FM” [General Qassem Soleimani, the martyred commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)] June 18, 2023 https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/06/18/705525/Iran-foreign-minister-Qassem-Soleimani

Press TV news online “Up to 1 million people ‘disappeared’ in Iraq over past five decades: UN” April 4, 2023 https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/04/04/700970/Iraq-UN-report-enforced-disappearances-victims-Daesh-US-occupation-Saddam-Hussein-rule

Alsmadi, Fatima Ahmad opinion, “The mystification of Qassem Soleimani,” January 26, 2020, Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/1/26/the-mystification-of-qassem-soleimani

Hahn, Peter “A Century of U.S. Relations with Iraq,” April 2012 Stanton Foundation, The Ohio State University, https://origins.osu.edu/article/century-us-relations-iraq?language_content_entity=en

Peter Hahn is an expert on the history of U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East; and examines this century of interaction between the two nations

Global Policy Forum “US and British Support for Hussein Regime,” updated: April 14, 2021,
https://archive.globalpolicy.org/iraq-conflict-the-historical-background-/us-and-british-support-for-huss-

Saddam Hussein Biography “Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq for more than two decades and is seen as a figurehead of the country’s military conflicts with Iran and the United,
https://www.biography.com/political-figures/saddam-hussein

General References

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Venality Trumps Joy, Anything Goes

When Money Plays Enabling Brutes, Betting, Booze Abuse
Out Goes Discipline, Principles, Order, Healthy Youth

Pampered BIGMAN 

2004 (June 8) Fairfax, Ohio

• Subject is arrested for “driving under the influence”
• Judge orders $350-fine, court costs, 3-day attendance at state-certified intervention program
• Subject (University of Cincinnati head coach) pleads “no contest”

• 2005 (spring) University of Cincinnati assistant coach and 2 players and a recruit are arrested
• 2005 (August) University of Cincinnati president notes athletic program under Huggins unfit, besmirching of academic reputation, firing imminent
• 2005 University of Cincinnati Head Coach Huggins pockets $3M buyout, resigns, takes a rest, and moves on to another college coaching gig.

Rooting out ROT (an attempt)
Twenty years ago, Educational Leader Nancy L. Zimpher curtailed a bit of Huggins’ influence on youth.

She is a native of the southeastern Ohio village of Gallipolis (44 miles from Charleston, West Virginia) and an Ohio State University undergraduate through doctoral level); a prolific author, researcher and educational leader “recognized for work in teacher preparation, urban education, and university-community engagement.”

Dr. Zimpher is currently said to be serving on the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences and the National Association of System Heads.

Brief Resume` Excerpt 

• Ohio State University professorship, executive dean of Professional Colleges, dean of College of Education (circa 1979-1993-1998)
• University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (1998-2003) Chancellor
• University of Cincinnati (2003-2009) President
• State University of New York (2009-2017) Chancellor

https://www.suny.edu/about/leadership/chancellor-nancy-zimpher/biography/

https://news.osu.edu/?q=Zimpher&search.x=0&search.y=0

https://news.osu.edu/board-appoints-deans-to-key-roles/

ROT Tough to Uproot

2010 Reporting from West Virginia

• (Subject holds 10-year-$20M contract threatening firing “for substance abuse affecting his job performance”)

• 2008, Huggins “tripped on a cone on an airport tarmac while checking phone messages and fell and hit his head.”

• 2009 (summer), “Huggins got two black eyes when he walked into a door in the middle of the night.”

• 2010 (week of July 2) “in Las Vegas” Huggins was “hospitalized” “for several days”

Excuses yield Impunity

West Virginia University athletic director Oliver Luck: (Charleston Daily Mail reported): “Huggins had taken medication on an empty stomach …before breaking seven ribs falling into the coffee table in a Las Vegas hotel room” ‘Believe me … Coach Huggins could care less …, as could I, in terms of what other people think.’”

West Virginia University President: The UWV head coach is “‘just a fellow who worked too hard or wasn’t rested right and he fell. It happens to everybody.’”

(News “West Virginia blames coach Bob Huggins’ fall on medication” by Jeff Eisenberg July 30, 2010, https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-jeff-eisenberg/west-virginia-blames-coach-bob-huggins-fall-medication.html)

Twenty-plus years on

After Cincinnati then Blowing through Kansas State University (2006-2007) and West Virginia University (2007-June 2023) Robert Edward Huggins returns to a Police Blotter (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

June 16, 2023, arrest and charge Driving under the influence of alcohol

• Scene: subject in vehicle (SUV) with “flat and shredded tire,’ door on driver’s side partly open, vehicle blocking traffic; interior of vehicle “bags of empty beer containers”

• Breathalyzer finding: subject’s “blood alcohol content” more than twice 0.08 percent legal limit: “0.21 percent”

• Police officers report the subject’s mentioning “Columbus, Ohio a few times” and unclear response to their query about “what city he was in.”

The distance between Morgantown, West Virginia (home of WVU) and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 75 miles and the distance between Morgantown, West Virginia, and Columbus, Ohio is 205 miles.

June 17 and 18, 2023 Reporting 

“Robert Edward Huggins” filed at Wikipedia under “Resignation and Retirement”

“On June 17, 2023, Huggins released a statement announcing his resignation from West Virginia (and) his retirement.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Huggins

News

“Bob Huggins’ relationship with alcohol cost him everything.” Sam Snelling, June 18, 2023 https://www.rockmnation.com/2023/6/18/23764929/bob-huggins-relationship-with-alcohol-cost-him-everything

Venality and Impunity Rarely Mate 

with Common Sense

Health and Welfare, Individual and Societal Imperatives
Principled Teachers including Coaches (frequently tested exemplary modelers, influencers)
Education and Reeducation, on-the-job training and retraining

“Athletes [including coaches] should abstain from alcohol to avoid the negative impact this drug may have on recovery and sporting performance.”

However, the current state of affairs s that athletes “often consume greater volumes of alcohol through bingeing behavior (than is evident in) the general population.”

Therefore, people who are responsible for the wellbeing of athletes (educators, coaches, managers, administrators)—including the athletes themselves—should carefully monitor habitual alcohol consumption so that the generic negative health and social outcomes associated with heavy alcohol use are avoided.”

Associate Professor Matthew Barnes PhD, BSc (Hons) is Massey University (New Zealand) is Deputy Head of the School of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition whose research interests include “Alcohol and sports performance,” “Skeletal muscle recovery,” “Resistance exercise,” and “Sports performance” https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/expertise/profile.cfm?stref=710050

Barnes, Matthew J. “Alcohol: impact on sports performance and recovery in male athletes.” PMID: 24748461 DOI: 10.1007/s40279-014-0192-8 Abstract https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24748461/

Unleashing a chronic abuser (as teacher, coach, trainer, modeler, influencer) onto experimenting, impressionable minds—indeed, enabling a “chosen” one and instilling in younger generations the expectation of enabling, excuses, impunity—is committing a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Athletics (and other sectors) characterized by self-indulgence and venality (all things purchasable, all reduced to stakes and wagers); criminal carelessness feeding on itself has serious consequences in arresting (stunting) healthy mental and physical growth in the young, denying of appreciation of sport as art for its own sake and discipline; and in the whole society, destroying or removing humanity’s essential consciousness of pure joy.

Composition and Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images

Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett

Author’s links: www.BennettsAmericanEpitaph.com

https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett

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Trafficking Lambaste or Lauded: “Investigative” Journalism Laughable in its Deceitfulness

Mingled in with a whole lot of repetition, these investigative writers and editors seem to spend too much time telling tales of one of their own “do-gooders” posing as rescuer of those pitiful folks from the jaws of “wrongdoers”; and too little effort respecting the subject matter and audience with due diligence, hard evidence and straightforward analysis; adequate subjects and credible (not questionable NGO industrialist) storytellers.

The work of these investigative journalists begs the question when is "is?"  

• When is trafficking "trafficking" and when is trafficking not trafficking? 
• When is rape "rape" and not rape?  
• When theft "theft" and when is theft not theft?  
• Does the label or charge depend on the perpetrator? 
• Does the perpetrator decide or determine: does he or she get to choose the charge or label? 

An examination of the overall slant of this supposed investigative piece reveals insidious biases against the Emirates, against “wealthy” “Nigerian” “women,” against Islam, and against perceived cultural differences. There is also an air of contempt, condescension, and deliberate ignorance and professional laziness. The article also censors essential context. It fails account for or elucidate:  

(a) perverted or criminal behavior (trafficking, rape, plunder, wage theft, torture alleged or confirmed) in situations of debilitating poverty; and

 

(b) same behaviors in places of wealth or where debilitating poverty is nonexistent.

PROSTITUTION

On U.S. college campuses (including Ivy Leagues) and on U.S. military bases young women are raped and murdered (with impunity, perpetrators often getting away with it and awarded medals!). On these same campuses young women engage in prostitution (“sex work” and related activities). These campuses are also well-known dins of permissive substance abuse and often related suicides (the same is true of U.S. military bases at home and abroad).

JUJU

The investigative piece points to “juju” involving oath or pledge-taking and forced ingestion of vile liquids as exclusive to Nigerian culture. However, it is well known that on U.S. college campuses, fraternity organizations commit the same detestable acts against pledges or perspective inductees often involving forced ingesting of toxic levels of mind-altering substances—often with suicidal results. U.S. military personnel are often used as guinea pigs, mandated to ingest off-market pharmaceuticals. The only difference when practiced by the Western Collective is that pledge-taking is not labeled cultural “juju.”

PLUNDER

Beyond U.S. campuses is the brutal practice of U.S. foreign policy. U.S. entities and individuals have ordered, legislated and actively participated in the theft and plunder of land, labor, resources, income and access to essentials (forced by bombs, imposed by strangling, starving, impoverishing economic and financial sanctions that impede development, breach sovereignty and deny self-determination)—pushing back inhabitants all across Asia and Africa, the Americas, central and eastern Europe.

RAPE (with impunity)

American (and U.S.-led NATO / Western Collective) entities, agents, individuals, and government apparatuses and sundry contractors have raped and razed peoples (including but not only women), lands and countries from Okinawa (Japan) to Somalia to Sierra Leone, West Africa; from the Caribbean Islands to the Crimean Peninsula. Unchecked and unchastened have been U.S. atrocities at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib; the Blythe-HR Clinton abuses (and extending scores of years before) against Haiti and other places, the Obama-HR Clinton assassinations across the world including the leadership of Libya causing its decent into human trafficking and slavery. U.S. wars and other acts of aggression have forced massive and relentless migrations (and related crimes of human trafficking). The infamous Jeffrey Epstein got away with his crimes. He was lauded by American institutions and individuals who pocketed his blood money and swam in his cesspool until his usefulness morphed into threat against his partners and patrons.

Why do countries languish in poverty and hunger, suffer brain drain and disease, and are stymied for scores even hundreds of years in development that is appropriate for their countries and cultures? 

To a great degree their languishing in want is a direct result of U.S. rape and ruin, U.S. interference, domination and brute force. They languish because media such as those involved in the construction of this piece fail the tests of due diligence: fail to incorporate essential depth, breath, and context. They ignore or fail to see the elephant standing before them. They present U.S. barbarism as “humanitarianism” and U.S. barbarians as humanitarians. When U.S. barbarism bleeds through, they cast it (falsely) as “normal,” “civilized,” “acceptable.”

Clearly the writers and editors of this piece are far more intelligent that I. But their insidiousness and treachery camouflaged as investigative journalism disgusts me.

Worth Considering

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federated state consisting of seven emirates (Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain, Ras-Al Khaimah and Dubai (Muslim population 72 percent). The capital of the Emirate of Dubai is the City of Dubai situated along the coast of the Persian Gulf, reportedly a popular tourist destination; the “world’s 22nd most expansive city” and “among the world’s most modern cities, with excellent infrastructure and transport systems.”

The Federal Republic of Nigeria is situated on the Atlantic Ocean and between Benin and Cameroon; its capital city Abuja and largest city Lagos (one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, second-largest metro area in Africa); 47 to 49 percent of its population is Muslim; 40 percent of its inhabitants reportedly live “below the poverty line.” (32 percent live in “extreme poverty” that worsened during the 2019 pandemic).

The investigative piece in question 

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ Trafficking Inc) and Reuters’ investigation results titled “How torture, deception and inaction underpin the UAE’s thriving sex trafficking industry,” featuring a “Nigerian woman … Christy Gold (referred to in court records as Christiana Jacob Uadiale) (who) showcases her glamorous lifestyle on social media…;” and “on a pleasure boat cruising Gulf waters near Dubai’s glittering skyline, (she is) dressed in a white dress and gold jewelry, (and nods and sways) as a gathering sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her” by Maggie Michael, June 12, 2023, https://www.icij.org/investigations/trafficking-inc/how-torture-deception-and-inaction-underpin-the-uaes-thriving-sex-trafficking-industry/

News Source As entered in the article: ICIJ “How torture, deception and inaction underpin the UAE’s thriving sex trafficking industry: An underground network of suspected sex traffickers has taken refuge in the wealthy Gulf nation. The U.S. State Department says efforts to identify and protect victims have fallen short.” By Maggie Michael June 12, 2023, https://www.icij.org/investigations/trafficking-inc/how-torture-deception-and-inaction-underpin-the-uaes-thriving-sex-trafficking-industry/

Additional reference sources

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RW Reagan to JR Biden Era Americans abstracted, careless of smoke and mirrors

Bamboozled, hoodwinked, duped, swindled!

At least two contemporary-era U.S. presidents, Ronald Wilson Reagan (40th) and Donald John Trump (45th), were actors involved in large and small screen film; and thus, would be (or would have been) intimately familiar, in more than one sense, with act and concept of smoke and mirrors.

 

Image examined closely proves illusion

Washington and Co Powers That Be (pageantries of puppet and puppeteers) in perpetual disguise (hiding their true face, covering their unspeakable acts) draw public attention away from hard facts, unpleasant reality; high crimes and consequences; deliberate causation of social, economic, political, governmental, health and educational, human and interpersonal, global crises.

One writer reflected on the current headline-grabbing, social and traditional media madmen (madwomen) promoting spectacle of indicters and indicted (accusers and accused, proponents and opponents). 

Don’t be fooled.

Essayist Eric London warns the working class about taking sides “in the conflict within the ruling elite.” It is necessary, he advises, “that the working class elaborates a clear and independent position by refusing to take sides in this crisis between two reactionary factions of US imperialism.”

The 38-count federal criminal indictment against the forty-fifth President of the United States neither references nor upholds “democratic rights” or laws enshrined in the Constitution of the United States (or focuses on the violation of these).

This latest indictment of convenience (lodged not many years ago against U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning and Australian journalist Julian Assange, also the same section used against a U.S. National Guard intelligence officer “for disclosing classified documents related to US involvement in preparing and prosecuting [undeclared] war in Ukraine”) is harnessed to “US imperialism’s most powerful statutory tool for guarding high-level secrets”: the 1917 Espionage Act.

In its original definition, dating at least a century (long before Woodrow Wilson or World War I), Espionage meant spying: “the practice of spying or using spies to obtain information about the plans and activities especially of a foreign government.”

Espionage Act 1917

Rooted in paranoia and exploited fear of “internal threats” (left-right / red-blue / difference-dissent in today's but not only today's terms) — “posed especially by foreign-born Americans,” the 28th U.S. President more than a year before the U.S. entry into World War I pressured the Congress to pass the “Espionage Act” whose enactment in 1917 became governmental entities and individuals’ catchall for targeting almost anyone (“including pacifists, neutralists, communists, anarchists, and socialists”) “who opposed war.”

Setting aside paranoia for the moment, it would appear that the Espionage Act, in its original intent, was to be used in a time of declared war, which means a formal document (a “formal declaration” catalogued by the federal register, congressional record, national archives and other official libraries) had been issued by the Government of the United States comprised of three branches documented and including the Executive signature and advice and consent of the Legislative Branch, stating outright that a state of war exists between the USA and some other nation.

The truth is the United States has not declared war in more than 80 years (the last time in 1942 war was declared against Axis-allied Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania).

This means that for all the years after 1942, United States entities and individuals have commanded, committed and acquiesced to criminal (extra judicial) acts of aggression against nations. 

Not only that. They have done so wantonly, recklessly and with impunity against nations, leaders, peoples, various individuals who have never (not ever) in any way shape or form attacked or threatened the United States of America or its people.

Espionage Act (Silencer) 1918-2013 Debs to Snowden

World War I ended in 1918 and prominent labor leader, five-time Socialist Party of America presidential candidate, and staunch critic of U.S. involvement in the war (including speaking out against registration for military draft) Eugene V. Debs was charged and convicted under the 1917 Espionage Act.

• 1973 RAND Corporation think tank employee and military analyst Daniel Ellsberg (who exposed to the press the 37th President’s “decision-making process in conducting and continuing the U.S. participation in the Vietnam War”) was charged under the Act.

• 2010 U.S. Army Private First Class (born Bradley Edward Manning) Chelsea Manning (concerning disclosure to the press of “classified or sensitive military documents” regarding U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) was charged and (2013) convicted by a military tribunal under the Act.

• 2013(June) Former CIA employee and U.S. government contractor Edward Snowden (involving leaks to journalists of “classified National Security Agency (NSA) documents dealing with U.S. global surveillance programs”) was charged under the Act.
• 
  

Espionage Act Today 

Today, the Espionage Act of 1917 continues to be used to criminalize “spying” or other acts interpreted as “aiding an enemy of the United States.” In what seems to be an acceleration of serial carelessness or individual convenience, the Act is being used against people “who, for any reason, divulge or share classified government information without permission.”

The current indictment barrage “is based entirely on defending the prerogatives of the military-intelligence apparatus…,” London writes. The cast of performers—promoters and detractors (left-right-center, indicted and indicters)—are equally “ruthless imperialist politicians” differing only in their choice of “tactics.”

Exposed in the prosecutorial charging narrative—heretofore hidden from the body politic, the people of the United States, the populace, the public and deliberately ignored by complicit media and press— is “advanced-stage planning for world war, including war involving strategic nuclear weapons.”

London explains:

“Behind the backs of the population—in rooms to which the public is barred from entering and without any serious inquiry from the corporate media—leading military and intelligence officials are gaming the impact of nuclear exchanges and tallying the cost to human life of various military options being planned in American imperialism’s desperate struggle for world domination.”

 

The problem (or rather part of a multifaceted problem) we have in the United States is this.

We are trying to run (stand tall and run) with one leg amputated sans prosthesis or crutch and one arm tied behind our back. We are hampered in being Americans, in performing (and taking pride in performing) our civic duties as citizens of the United States of America Americans because of the ideology, actions, the unprincipled and indeed anti-American nature an inbred gerontocratic, kleptocratic uniparty (and friends). 

Younger Americans never having been taught the meaning of citizenship give no thought to their citizenry duty. 

Older Americans are bitter, cynical, submissive; or all three. 

Incestuous anachronistic leadership and dominating noise in various media have sucked the life blood out of otherwise able-bodied citizens. 

Narcissistic actors and dreamers of world domination show themselves to be equally contemptuous and uncaring of America and Americans as they are of other nations and peoples.

London is right. Americans must not be fooled by the pageantry. Do not succumb to smoke and mirrors. Do not take sides with the destroyers. 

Instead, work out in detail and with other workers “a clear and independent position, refusing to take sides in the crisis between two reactionary factions of US imperialism.”


Sources

London, Eric, “Justice Department indicts Trump for retaining top secret military plans.” June 10, 2023, https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/06/10/pxrz-j10.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/authors/Eric-London

Longley, Robert. “The Espionage Act of 1917: Definition, Summary, and History.” ThoughtCo, December 6, 2021, thoughtco.com/1917-espionage-act-4177012 https://www.thoughtco.com/1917-espionage-act-4177012

Related
Kishore, Joseph (perspective). “The indictment of Donald Trump: A politically bankrupt diversion.” March 31, 2023, https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/04/01/pers-a01.html
Martin, Patrick. “Trump indicted on seven federal charges in documents case.” June 9, 2023
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/06/09/gnso-j09.html

Other general reference sources

Composition and Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images

Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett

Author’s links: www.BennettsAmericanEpitaph.com

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https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/

https://www.xlibris.com/en/search?query=Carolyn+LaDelle+Bennett

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