Friday, January 31, 2025

The Americas Respond to Washington’s Irrational Utterances

Insecure (unqualified) Head of State’s Actions in Haste Americans will Regret in Leisure



USA SOVEREIGNTY pretext FOR AGGRESSION Posting January 20, 2025, at White House website under “Presidential Actions Declaring a National Emergency at The Southern Border of The United States” declaring … 
… “America’s Sovereignty is under attack” and “it is my responsibility as President to ensure that the illegal entry of aliens into the United States via the southern border be immediately and entirely stopped.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/declaring-a-national-emergency-at-the-southern-border-of-the-united-states/

USA DEMONIZATION AND DEPORTATION Posting January 20, 2025, at White House website under issues “Trump-Vance Administration Priorities Make America Safe Again” prefacing President Trump’s 
“Unprecedented slate of executive orders for rescission” and a “deportation operation” addressing “the record border crossings of criminal aliens under the prior administration” and ordering the “Department of Justice (to) seek the death penalty as the appropriate punishment for heinous crimes against humanity, including those who kill law enforcement officers and illegal migrants who maim and murder Americans.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/

USA augmentation of AGGRESSION AGAINST THE AMERICAS (disregard of their sovereignty): Posting January 20, 2025, at White House website under Presidential Actions “Executive Order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-american-people-against-invasion/ …
“Recalcitrant Countries” (“Section 13”): “The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all appropriate action to: (a) Cooperate and effectively implement, as appropriate, the sanctions provided by section 243(d) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1253(d))… to the maximum extent permitted by law, ensuring that diplomatic efforts and negotiations with foreign states include the foreign states’ acceptance of their nationals who are subject to removal from the United States; and (b) Eliminate all documentary barriers, dilatory tactics, or other restrictions that prevent the prompt repatriation of aliens to any foreign state. 
Any failure or delay by a foreign state to verify the identity of a national of that state shall be considered in carrying out subsection (a) … and shall also be considered regarding the issuance of any other sanctions that may be available to the United States.”

TORTURE CAMP POPULATION EXPANDED: Posting January 29, 2025, at White House website as “Memorandum” for “Secretary of Defense (and) Secretary 2025, Homeland Security” directing these offices 
“To take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States” under “Presidential Actions Expanding Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Full Capacity” https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/expanding-migrant-operations-center-at-naval-station-guantanamo-bay-to-full-capacity/

Trump administration’s January 26 declared Sanctions singling out the Republic of Colombia include

  • “25% tariffs on all goods entering the United States… effective within a week, the 25% tariffs will rise to 50%.
  • “Travel ban, immediate visa revocations for Colombian government officials and all allies and supporters.
  • “Visa sanctions for all party members, family members and supporters of the Colombian government.
  • “Enhanced Customs and Border Protection inspections of all Colombian citizens and cargo for national security reasons
  • IEEPA Treasury, Banking and Financial Sanctions to be imposed in full

The White House Press Secretary’s January 26, 2025, version of the USA-Colombia issue asserts 

“The Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay. Based on this agreement, the fully drafted IEEPA tariffs and sanctions will be held in reserve, and not signed, unless Colombia fails to honor this agreement. The visa sanctions issued by the State Department, and enhanced inspections from Customs and Border Protection, will remain in effect until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned. Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/01/statement-from-the-press-secretary/

Congressional Research Service explains IEEPA in a January 31 update 

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), previously used by the Nixon administration, presumably is to be employed by the Trump Government, has the intention of imposing “a 10%-20% tariff on all imports”; and imposing “tariffs on specific countries to achieve foreign policy goals, such as pressuring Mexico and Canada (through a 25% tariff) to aid the United States in reducing undocumented immigration (a strategy he used in 2019) and pressuring China (through an additional 10% tariff) to address illicit exports of fentanyl.”


There was what might be a useful SIDEBAR to this affair posted by Helena: 

“FENTANYL: Made in The USA – Pharma’s TEVA, Pfizer, &, J&J” Posted on January 21, 2025 “Not by China” (but) “by Prescriptions filled by US Doctors” …:

“Which Pharmaceuticals make Fentanyl today?”
“… Cephalon a US based company was making two versions of fentanyl under the names, Atiq and Fentora. In 2011, TEVA, an Israel-based drug manufacturer bought Cephalon. TEVA manufactures fentanyl and several generic opioids like oxycodone.” “Anesta partners founded by … William Moeller and Theodore Stanley took fentanyl a step further and developed a fentanyl lollipop. In 2000, they merged with Cephalon which was purchased by TEVA in 2011 and relabeled Actiq billed as a seizure medication.”
“EQT IX…,” headquartered “in Sweden…” with “manufacturing facilities in Israel, India, Europe and North America…, produces Fentanyl tablets…. Up until 2019, (Arizona-based) Insys … produced fentanyl sublingual tablets. They were sued and shut down for the same criminal practices employed by Purdue” (Sackler Family). Janssen-Cilag, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson manufactures a fentanyl patch and injectable. They are located in Germany. Johnson & Johnson continues to operate in China without restrictions. Merck is based in the US, outside of the US and Canada it is known as “Merck Sharp & Dohme”. They manufacture fentanyl in China, South America and Europe. … Pfizer manufactures fentanyl citrate, via a syringe Carpuject in the US.… TEVA has facilities in New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania.”
“In the 1970’s the WHO (World Health Organization) listed fentanyl within the List of Essential Medications. It now lists over 400 ‘essential drugs’ for all adults and 300 drugs for children up to age 12. In a 2023 study, WHO discovered China was not up to par in selling these essential drugs and has asked China to expand their drug feeds.”
The author concludes
“It would appear the fentanyl crisis is actually promulgated via the pharmaceutical companies operating in the US! China is once again – a distraction.” https://helenaglass.net/2025/01/21/fentanyl-is-made-in-the-us-via-teva-pfizer-an

CRS Trump tariffs matter continued, noting that 
“President Trump has not given details on how he intends to impose those tariffs; (but) he has indicated that, in some circumstances, he intends to do so through an executive order” (i.e., bypassing the Congress and the advise-and-consent constitutionally mandated process).  CRS “The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and Tariffs: Historical Background and Key Issues” Updated January 31, 2025, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11129



The Americas Respond to
US administration's Aggression
Oronoco Tribune reports 

 

Republic of Colombia President (since 2022) Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego (economist and politician) formerly Member Chamber of Representatives (1991-1994; 1998 – 2006 two constituencies); Member Colombia Senate (2006 – 2010; 2018 – 2022); Mayor of Bogotá (2014 –2015); holds baccalaureate degree and graduate studies in economics
The Colombian president requested that the United States “apply a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants” before deporting them to their country of origin. “We have never refused to receive migrants, and we have tried to stop migration…. 

“But do not demand that I receive those deported from the US, handcuffed and on a military plane. We are not anyone’s colony” (emphasis added). 

Republic of Honduras President (since 2022) Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento (politician and businesswoman) formerly First Lady of Honduras 2006 –2009); Member of the National Popular Resistance Front (2009-2011); President pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (2024 -); holds baccalaureate degree in business administration.

“Faced with a hostile attitude of massive expulsion of our brothers and sisters,” Honduran President Castro responded to US actions, “we would have to reconsider our policies of cooperation with the United States, especially in the military field…, consider closing US military bases on Honduran soil if Trump follows through with his mass deportation plan.” Also, in her capacity as pro tempore president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), she announced “the convening of an emergency meeting with heads of state of the region to address migration, the environmental crisis, and Latin American unity.”


United Mexican States President (since 2024) Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (politician, scientist, author and academic) formerly Secretary of the Environment of Mexico City (2000-2006); Mayor of Tlalpan (2015 –2017); Head of Government of Mexico City (2018- 2023); holds baccalaureate and graduate degrees in physics and energy engineering

Responding to US media claims about alleged “rejection of landing permits to deportation flights,” the government of Mexico (Foreign Affairs) said

“When it comes to repatriations, we will always accept the arrival of Mexicans to our territory with open arms. Mexico embraces you.
“Mexico has a very good relationship with the United States government, and we cooperate on a wide range of issues, including migration; but always with respect for our sovereignty” (emphasis added). Orinoco Tribune “Trump Sanctions Colombia for Rejecting Dehumanizing Deportation Flights (+Urgent CELAC Summit) January 27, 2025, https://orinocotribune.com/trump-sanctions-colombia-for-rejecting-dehumanizing-deportation-flights-urgent-celac-summit/


Color the Potomac regime not only irrational and belligerent, but terminally arrogant, incompetent and contemptuous.

Apparently, according to the Brazilians, people deported (on the 24th of January) by the United States
 “arrived in Brazil in handcuffs” and some of the “passengers” reported having been mistreated “during the flight.”
The country’s foreign ministry reportedly “announced that it would ask for explanations from the US government regarding the ‘degrading treatment’ of Brazilians on a deportation flight; (and the) deportation flight heading to Belo Horizonte that, unexpectedly and suspiciously, had to land in Manaus near the border with Venezuela.” (Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff OT/JRE/SC January 27, 2025, “Trump Sanctions Colombia for Rejecting Dehumanizing Deportation Flights (+Urgent CELAC Summit)” https://orinocotribune.com/trump-sanctions-colombia-for-rejecting-dehumanizing-deportation-flights-urgent-celac-summit/)
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com) —
“The president of the United States, Donald Trump, ordered a series of sanctions against the government of Colombia, in retaliation” against Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s protest of the dehumanizing manner” in which the deported passengers had been treated.  
President Petro’s protest was his refusal to allow entry of the US planes carrying the migrants.

###

PROLIFIC SOUTHERN-BORN AMERICAN WRITER Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett focuses on People, Press, Politics USA; Domestic and Foreign Affairs (no copyright claimed in direct quotes and individual image)
https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett
https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/
Latest book: Are There No Champions? Yes and No
(live limited) https://www.bennettsareherenochampions.com/
https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/859250-are-there-no-champions-yes-and-no
https://www.xlibris.com
Email: Nolandanisland@hotmail.com or Authorswork@gmail.com

Thursday, January 30, 2025

Evidence of USA Breakdown Blazes, Media and Government Personalities Trade BARBS and Cast BLAME

Today’s Disaster Headlines did not begin Today


“Deadly training crashes stateside with the UH-60 Black Hawk have happened several times in recent years, including two incidents in 2023 alone that led to 11 deaths,” Thomas Novelly writes at Military dot com.
The latest Wednesday night January 29, 2025, a “UH-60 helicopter” (manufactured by Lockheed Martin) was en route from Wichita, Kansas, to National Airport in Washington, DC, when it collided with an American Airlines subsidiary Flight 5342 American Eagle (manufactured by Boeing and Airbus). Novelly, Thomas (Military News Military.com) January 30, 2025 “3 Army Soldiers Feared Dead in Tragic Collision with Passenger Plane Near DC Airport” https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/01/30/3-army-soldiers-feared-dead-tragic-collision-passenger-plane-near-dc-airport.html


Deregulation, Follow the Money
(or the Bribes)


Pandering Supplants Governing
Chaos overrules Regulation for the Public Good


Lockheed Martin Connections


Top Affiliates:

COMSAT Corp ·

Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control

Coherent Technologies

 

Related Organizations:

Loral Corp

Martin Marietta Corp

COMSAT Corp

 

 

Lockheed Martin 2024 cycle with US Government Officials

 

CONTRIBUTIONS

$5,246,096

 

LOBBYING

2023 $14,066,565

2024 $9,508,940

 

REVOLVING DOOR 2023: 48 out of 65 Lockheed Martin lobbyists in 2023 have previously held government jobs.

 

REVOLVING DOOR 2024: 39 out of 52 Lockheed Martin lobbyists in 2024 have previously held government jobs.

 

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/lockheed-martin/summary?id=D000000104


Boeing Connections

Boeing Co

Top Affiliates:

Insitu Inc

Boeing Global Services

Liquid Robotics Inc

 

Related Organizations:

McDonnell Douglas

Argon ST

Coherent Systems International

 



BOEING 2024 cycle with US Government Officials 


CONTRIBUTIONS

$5,444,846

 

LOBBYING

2023 $14,490,000

2024 $9,420,000

 

2023 REVOLVING DOOR: 80 out of 111 Boeing Co lobbyists in 2023 have previously held government jobs.

 

2024 REVOLVING DOOR: 80 out of 114 Boeing Co lobbyists in 2024 have previously held government jobs.

 

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/boeing-co/summary?id=d000000100


Airbus Group Connections


Top Affiliates:

Airbus DS Communications

Airbus Helicopters

EADS North America

 

Related Organizations:

Airbus Americas

 



Airbus Group 2024 cycle with US Government Officials 


CONTRIBUTIONS

$310,102

 

LOBBYING

2023 $3,070,000

2024 $2,730,000

 

2023 REVOLVING DOOR: 27 out of 32 Airbus Group lobbyists in 2023 have previously held government jobs.

 

2024 REVOLVING DOOR: 27 out of 34 Airbus Group lobbyists in 2024 have previously held government jobs.

 




Military Aircraft Accidents and Incidents reported in recent years


December 4, 2015, Texas and Tennessee/Kentucky border The US Army’s Helicopter Fleet is grounded after crashes that resulted in two deaths.

“Gen. Abe Abrams ordered the grounding of the Army’s U.S. rotary fleet after two fatal crashes at Fort Hood and Fort Campbell.”
December 29, 2022 (Texas) US Military grounds Lockheed Martin manufactured “F-35 Lightning II” following Texas crash.

“Texas Base-Failed Landing”: “Some models of the F-35 Lightning II (were) being investigated and grounded by the military services following a crash in Texas” https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/12/29/military-grounds-some-f-35s-following-crash-texas-month.html
March 30, 2023 (Kentucky) nine soldiers in the cash of two “UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopters.”

The incident, occurring at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was reported as “one of the Army’s Deadliest Training Accidents” The Lockheed Martin manufactured UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopters were “assigned to the Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Armored Division.” https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/03/30/9-soldiers-killed-pair-of-helicopters-crash-one-of-armys-deadliest-training-accidents.html
April 28, 2023, Two Deadly Helicopter Crashes result in “all aircraft” grounding

“Gen. James McConville ordered a safety stand-down, directing all aviation units to go over the maintenance of their aircrafts, pilot training and safety precautions.” https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/04/28/army-grounds-all-aircraft-following-two-deadly-helicopter-crashes.html
February 27, 2024 (Mississippi) twice in one month Army National Guard piloted planes crash (one incident with survivors the other with fatalities) resulting in a temporary grounding of all U.S. Army (Boeing AH-64 Apache) planes.”

“The stand-down” was “to ‘review safety policies and procedures” and it came “less than a year” after another US military grounding of “its aircraft following a March mid-air collision of two Black Hawk helicopters that killed nine soldiers based out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky.”
January 29, 2025 (Washington, DC) “UH-60 helicopter from Bravo Company, 12th Aviation Battalion, out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia (collides) with American Eagle Flight 5342, which was en route from Wichita, Kansas, to Ronald Reagan Washington.” Onboard the aircrafts were “60 passengers and four crew members.” https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/01/30/3-army-soldiers-feared-dead-tragic-collision-passenger-plane-near-dc-airport.html
Further reporting shows “PSA Airlines,” an American regional airline headquartered at Dayton International Airport in Dayton, Ohio; the airline a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Airlines Group, paid by …American Airlines to staff, operate and maintain aircraft used on American Eagle flights that are scheduled, marketed and sold by American Airlines.”


2001-2025 Ten Commercial Aviation Incidents Occurring within the United States


265 deaths November 12, 2001 New York City, New York (Belle Harbor, Queens) AIRCRAFT Airbus A300B4-60

 

1 death 12 injured December 8, 2005 Chicago, Illinois AIRCRAFT Boeing 737-700

 

20 deaths December 19, 2005 Government Cut channel off Miami Beach, Florida; AIRCRAFT Grumman G-73 Mallard

 

49 deaths August 27, 2006 Lexington, Kentucky; AIRCRAFT Bombardier CRJ 100ER

 

50 deaths February 12, 2009 Clarence Center, New York; AIRCRAFT Bombardier Dash 8 Q400

 

3 deaths 187 injured July 6, 2013 San Francisco, California; AIRCRAFT Boeing 777-200E

 

1 death 8 injured April 17, 2018 nr Bernville, Pennsylvania; AIRCRAFT Boeing 737-700

 

9 deaths January 26, 2020 Calabasas Los Angeles County, California; AIRCRAFT Sikorsky S-76B

 

10 deaths September 4, 2022 Mutiny Bay near Whidbey Island, Washington State; AIRCRAFT de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter

 

67 deaths January 29, 2025 over the Potomac River; AIRCRAFT Bombardier CRJ700 and Blackhawk VH-60M

 

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









###

PROLIFIC SOUTHERN-BORN AMERICAN WRITER DR. CAROLYN LADELLE BENNETT focuses on People, Press, Politics USA; Domestic and Foreign Affairs (no copyright claimed in direct quotes and individual image)
Latest book: Are There No Champions? Yes and No
Links: https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett
https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/
(live limited) https://www.bennettsareherenochampions.com/
https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/859250-are-there-no-champions-yes-and-no
https://www.xlibris.com
Email: Nolandanisland@hotmail.com or Authorswork@gmail.com

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Make America a Colony Again!

Demonstration of Neocolonialists’ Club Exclusive

No ordinary Mortals Allowed Entry or Benefit



Playmates of the FORTY-SEVENTH


“PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS THE FIRST 100 HOURS: HISTORIC ACTION TO KICK OFF AMERICA’S GOLDEN AGE” - January 24, 2025, “President Donald Trump’s second term is off to an historic start” https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/the-first-100-hours-historic-action-to-kick-off-americas-golden-age/

QUOTE: 
“President Trump is securing historic investments just days after being sworn in.”

“President Trump secured $500 billion in private sector investment for the largest AI infrastructure project in history, with Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman all stating that it would not have been possible if not for President Trump’s election victory and leadership.”

Saudi Arabia ‘wants to invest $600 billion in the United States over the next four years.’”
“Stellantis announced it will restart an assembly plant in Illinois and build the new Dodge Durango in Detroit” … company Chairman John Elkann … met … with President Donald Trump before his (January 20) inauguration…”.


Playmates’ Profile 


Saudi Arabia

Multi-BILLIONAIRE Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Absolute Monarch (personal Net worth of King $18 billion; Net worth of KSA Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud $25 billion, Net worth of House of Saud / KSA royal family, including the King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud $1.4 trillion). NOTE: KSA nationals reportedly implicated in “1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa,” “2000 USS Cole bombing near the port of Aden, Yemen,” 2001 buildings destruction and deaths in US states of New York and Virginia (Northern Virginia)


South Africa

Multi-BILLIONAIRE (Net worth $422.7 billion) SpaceX founder, CEO, and chief engineer, Tesla, Inc. CEO and product architect, X (formerly Twitter) owner / CTO / executive chairman, Neuralink, OpenAI, Zip2, and X.com (part of PayPal) co-founder Elon Reeve MUSK (South African) NOTE: Mr. Musk reportedly has been named tp[ administrator of President Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (formerly known as the United States Digital Service), a temporary organization under the United States DOGE Service; not a federal executive department (as federal executive department nominees under the US Constitution are subject to the advise and consent process of the US Congress). Further NOTE: Mr. Musk reportedly “contributed personally” more than “$130 million to the former ‘Apprentice’ host’s (2024 US presidential) campaign” and an additional amount exceeding $200 million from “Musk’s America PAC” (political action committee).


North Pacific

Multi-Billionaire owner (98 percent) of Hawaii’s sixth-largest island, the world’s second wealthiest individual (estimated Net worth of “$237 billion”) capitalist / investor, Oracle co-founder / executive chairman / CTO Lawrence Joseph Ellison


East Asia

Multi-BILLIONAIRE (Net worth 2025 $32.9 Billion (Forbes)) Japanese) technology capitalist / investor; Chairman / CEO SoftBank, Chairman Arm Holdings, Chairman Stargate LLC, Masayoshi SON


Africa and Non-Human (Artificial) Intelligence

Multi-BILLIONAIRE (Net worth 2025 $11 Billion) OpenAI CEO, Oklo Inc, Helion Energy Chairman capitalist / investor Samuel Harris ALTMAN


Kingdom of the Netherlands (Western Europe and Caribbean)

Multi-BILLIONAIRE Italian Agnelli Family heir (Net worth $2.5 billion), multinational automotive manufacturing company Stellantis N.V. Stellantis (formed from 2021 merger, total assets, 2023 estimates, $210.7 billion, headquartered in The Netherlands, chairman John ELKANN (vice chairman Robert Peugeot); Owners of Stellantis: Exor (13.99 percent) - Holding Company of Italian Agnelli Family; Peugeot Invest (6.98 percent) - Holding Company of Peugeot family; Bpifrance (6 percent) - French public sector investment bank, joint venture of two state owned enterprises: the Caisse des dépôts et consignations and EPIC BPI-Groupe (formerly EPIC OSEO).


CLUB Exclusive
Main Man’s Outside USA Empire


The Center for Responsible Politics’ OpenSecrets, in 2019, listed more than 26 countries (excluding the United States of America) in which businessman / entertainer Donald John Trump had business interests stretching South America to Eurasia.

Argentina

Azerbaijan

Bermuda

Brazil

Canada

China

Dominican Republic

Georgia

India

Indonesia

Ireland

Israel

Mexico

Panama

Philippines

Qatar

Russia

Saudi Arabia

Scotland

South Korea

St. Martin

St. Vincent

Turkey

United Arab Emirates

Uruguay

 

 

 

 Other Countries in which Trump reportedly held trademarks and other interests

Australia

Egypt

European Union (EU)

Chile

New Zealand

 

Malaysia

Morocco

South Africa

Massoglia, Anna and Karl Evers-Hillstrom OpenSecrets June 4, 2019 “World of Influence: A guide to Trump’s foreign business interests”

As Donald John Trump begins his term as the forty-seventh president of the United States and as America is in breakdown and more than half a million of its people are languishing

  • in squalor 
  • in refugee-like camps (homeless) 
  • on the streets, 
  • under bridges, 
  • in tunnels, 
  • underground car parks and 
  • in other unsuitable spaces and places 
As the lead man in Club Exclusive International, he is holding a net worth (not including countless perks) in the neighborhood of $6 billion.” (The Street quoting Forbes https://www.thestreet.com/personalities/donald-trump-net-worth).

 


###
PROLIFIC SOUTHERN-BORN AMERICAN WRITER DR. CAROLYN LADELLE BENNETT focuses on People, Press, Politics USA; Domestic and Foreign Affairs (no copyright claimed in direct quotes and individual image)
Latest book: Are There No Champions? Yes and No
Links: https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett
https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/
(live limited) https://www.bennettsareherenochampions.com/
https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/859250-are-there-no-champions-yes-and-no
https://www.xlibris.com
Email: Nolandanisland@hotmail.com or Authorswork@gmail.com

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Never Entrust the Welfare of Nations or Citizenry to Saviors, Braggarts, Platitudinarians

Dissection of the Second Coming Inaugural
A January 20, 2025, Performance on the Potomac


Beware would-be leaders whose words are soaked in anachronisms and loaded with repetitious phrases and platitudes—bringing to mind a child’s cuttings from a pre-school notebook. 

Thoughtful audiences are given cause to wonder “Who writes this stuff?”

How is it possible for a grown man (presumably a man with great experience in the world) — except for a grown man lacking in discernment, self-awareness, and even a rudimentary knowledge of the history of the United States of America (not to mention Biblical texts) — to stand before a public audience and perform such drivel that insults not only the intelligence of the people of the United States of America but also the intelligence of all nations and peoples of the world.


Excerpts 
From the Horse’s Mouth


Speaker self describes (1st person) as Victim (poor me)

“… tested and challenged more than any president in (the nation’s) 250-year history”

Speaker describes Nation (USA) as Victim (poor us)

“… glorious destiny … (long) denied”

“We have been treated very badly…”

“American ships are being severely overcharged …, not treated fairly in any way, shape, or form.”

Speaker manifests as
Braggart
Savior
Deliverer
Victor Victorious

“… January 20th, 2025, is Liberation Day.” “…we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history”

“…saved by God to make America great again…, make dream(s) come true,” “my … election… a mandate ….”

“… victory (i.e., recipient of most votes of Americans who voted during vote-casting period) showed … national unity is now returning to America, and confidence and pride is soaring like never before….”

Speaker Performs
Platitudes, clichés, well-worn phrases
Irresponsible utterances, Half-truths, Blatant falsehoods
Repetition and Contradictions

Consume, Waste; Don’t Conserve: “We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.” “… Instead of taxing (US) citizens to enrich other countries, we will … tax foreign countries to enrich (US) citizens. … (However, it is) “American ships (that) are being severely overcharged …, not treated fairly in any way, shape, or form.”

“The American dream will soon be back…”

(IT IS) “… time for us to once again act with courage, vigor, and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization.”

(WE WILL)

“… meet every crisis with dignity and power and strength…, move with purpose and speed to bring back hope, prosperity, safety, and peace for citizens….”

“… never believe that something is impossible …. In America, the impossible is what we do best.”

“… not forget our country …, not forget our Constitution, and … not forget our God”


A Glimpse of Consumerist Culture
Poverty
Street violence
Drug Trafficking


Over the years, as the twentieth century crossed into the twentieth-first century, more and more rural populations, “whether (because of forced displacement, outsider takeovers or) out of necessity or illusions of easy wealth, abandoned their roots (farms, small towns and villages) and migrated into big cities, “where they had no support network and needed money to survive….” Bruna Frascolla is writing in a late January 2025 piece “What neo-Pentecostals and drug dealers have in common.”

Though focused on Brazil, truth rings true across nations.

In the big city, Bruna Frascolla writes, in addition to the precarious conditions, there existed “a change in values: … juvenile delinquents were born in (the big city), while the vigilantes born in the northeastern region of Brazil “‘cleaned up’ their slums.” While the migrants wanted to find a job to support their families, a new generation growing up “under the influence of (media)… aspired to consume branded goods” — things “that would be within their reach only through crime.”

The author opines that violence (in this context) is often explained by “left-wing authors” basically in terms of “poverty”; and while “criticism of consumer society appears (sometimes in these writings), few authors emphasize that (consumerism) implies a crisis of values.”

Consumer society is incapable of generating social cohesion or giving meaning to the lives of the poor.” “Desperate” to consume, the street criminals will “kill and die in droves in senseless fights.”

The wealthy consumerist-criminal, however, is highly unlikely to meet these ends. 


Man-made Poverty and Inequality
OXFAM International Reporting  

  • 2024 “Billionaire wealth surges by $2 trillion…, three times faster than the year before, while the number of people living in poverty has barely changed since 1990 (update January 20, 2025). In this year alone, their growth in wealth was “equivalent to roughly $5.7 billion a day…, a rate three times faster than the year before” (2023); averaging “nearly four new billionaires … minted every week.” However, “the number of people living in poverty has barely changed since 1990” (World Bank data).
  • 2025 The world’s richest one percent “burned through their entire annual carbon limit in just ten days”— i.e., “within the first ten days of 2025… they burned through their share of the annual global carbon budget (the amount of CO2 that can be added to the atmosphere without pushing the world beyond 1.5°C of warming)” (update January 10, 2025)

“In countries around the world, a small elite are taking an ever-increasing share of individual nation’s income” — “while hundreds of millions of people” are suffering “without access to clean water, and without enough food to feed their families.”

Extreme inequality hurts the whole world, OXFAM notes. But the world’s poorest people (especially women and girls) bear the brunt of (rabid wealth, criminal plunder and consumerism, forced) inequality.  “Extreme inequality is not inevitable or accidental. It is the result of deliberate political and economic choices.” Extreme inequality “can be reversed.” OXFAM International https://www.oxfam.org/en/what-we-do/issues/extreme-inequality-and-essential-services

However, even the religionists get in on criminal cult of consumerism and its man-made consequences 

In Brazil, Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) is the country’s largest criminal organization that boasts among its members “religious” “leaders” and poor people – all in search of “branded goods” This drug-trafficking organization (the PCC) was reportedly “created in prisons” and operates from (but not only from) prisons.
“Evangelical churches” (partners in crime) “coexist with this drug trafficking” organization, and “mix with it”— often furthering their criminality by engaging in “laundering money.” The cabal is said to strut its wealth, exalt a drug trafficking subculture, and beckon the slum-dweller to get rich; “the poor to reach the wonders of the consumer society.”
“Neo-Pentecostalism provided the ingredients for evangelicals to live in a holy war against their neighbors,” Frascolla writes. And for their participation in crime, the preaching of a gospel of crime, and the causation of far-reaching consequences of criminal behavior, these preachers reward themselves with filthy lucre, super wealth. 

The reward imposed on slum dwellers is subsistence in interminable poverty or permanent incarceration in a prison cell.


Back to the 47th

Forget Diplomacy
“WINNING” by any means (usually by violence) is what counts
(First person “We” or “I”; possessive “my,” USA “our”)

“… Instead of taxing (US) citizens to enrich other countries, we will … tax foreign countries to enrich (US) citizens.” (However, it is) “American ships (that) are being severely overcharged …, not treated fairly in any way, shape, or form.”

Instead of diplomacy and respect among nations, speaker promised continued belligerence, animosity, contempt for other nations and peoples:
  • In North America (proposed) changing the name Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America.”
  • In the Central America / Caribbean, (proposed) taking ownership and administration of the Panama Canal (connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow Isthmus of Panama) from the Republic of Panama.
YET 
“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier” … (perhaps something was lost in the translation from babytalk). 

“Our country was forged … by the generations of patriots who gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom…” (convenient to have others serve while you claim deferrals from service); cowboys … who pushed onward, marched forward, and let no obstacle defeat their spirit or their pride. … won the Wild West…, won two world wars.”

Belligerence R' US 
“(We will) …build the strongest military the world has ever seen… We will not be conquered, we will not be intimidated, we will not be broken, and we will not fail. …
“We will be a nation … full of compassion, courage, and exceptionalism. …

“We will be prosperous, we will be proud, we will be strong, and we will win like never before.” … 

“We will stand bravely …, live proudly …, dream boldly …; nothing will stand in our way because we are Americans.” 

“The future is ours, and our golden age has just begun.”


PLEASE 
Deliver all of us 
from this “Deliverer!” 



Main source

Trump, Donald, January 20, 2025, U.S. Capitol - Washington, D.C. - 12:10 P.M. EST, “THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS” (transcript) https://www.whitehouse.gov/remarks/2025/01/the-inaugural-address/


Not Unrelated

Perhaps a Cautionary Tale for Elected and Appointed Tyrannical Elephant-Donkey Inmates on the Potomac

XINHUANET English January 26, 2025, “S. Korean prosecution indicts President Yoon on insurrection charge” Source: XinhuaEditor: huaxia2025-01-26 18:53:30 https://english.news.cn/20250126/6f03a445557648e3a391f53911acff3b/c.html
“SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korea’s prosecution indicted arrested President Yoon Suk-yeol on an insurrection charge, multiple media outlets reported on Sunday. … Yoon was accused of conspiring with former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who had already been indicted under detention, to declare unconstitutional, illegal martial law and dispatch armed forces into the National Assembly…. Yoon was apprehended in the presidential office on Jan. 15…. A warrant to keep Yoon in custody for up to 20 days, including the arrest period, was issued by another Seoul court on Jan. 19.
“After receiving Yoon’s case from the anti-corruption agency, the prosecution requested Yoon’s extended arrest twice for supplementary investigation, but the Seoul Central District Court repeatedly rejected it to bring Yoon to trial as early as possible.” https://english.news.cn/20250126/6f03a445557648e3a391f53911acff3b/c.html

Added Sources

FRASCOLLA, Bruna January 22, 2025“What neo-Pentecostals and drug dealers have in common” … “neo-Pentecostalism provided the ingredients for evangelicals to live in a holy war against their neighbors. Their victory … consisted of being wealthy.” Translated from Portuguese (Brazil) to English: Bruna Frascolla is a historian of philosophy, PhD from UFBA, and essayist. https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/01/22/what-neo-pentecostals-and-drug-dealers-have-in-common/

World Atlas: Brazil’s Northeast Region: “the first region in Brazil to be discovered and colonized by Europeans” is “associated with rich history and culture.” The region’s economy is primarily dependant “on cocoa, cotton, and coffee production, and livestock breeding.” 

The Southeast Region’s São Paulo city “is the country’s richest city and the ninth wealthiest in the world based on GDP. It is “Brazil’s major export center, especially for commodities such as soybean, coffee, raw sugar, and corn”; and is “regarded as Brazil’s financial capital,” featuring Latin America’s largest stock exchange; headquarters of most of Brazil’s top corporations and financial institutions; and branch offices of many foreign corporations.” A multicultural city, São Paulo is “the world’s largest Portuguese-speaking city”; and is home to Brazil’s “largest Arab, Japanese, and Italian populations.” 
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-five-regions-of-brazil.html
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/sao-paulo-the-capital-of-sao-paulo-state-of-brazil.html

Also https://www.riotimesonline.com/pccs-global-expansion-brazilian-crime-syndicate-infiltrates-the-united-states/





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Prolific Southern-Born American Writer Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett focuses on People, Press, Politics USA; Domestic and Foreign Affairs (no copyright claimed in direct quotes and individual image)
Latest book: Are There No Champions? Yes and No
Links: https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett
https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/
(live limited) https://www.bennettsareherenochampions.com/
https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/859250-are-there-no-champions-yes-and-no
https://www.xlibris.com
Email: Nolandanisland@hotmail.com or Authorswork@gmail.com

Thursday, January 23, 2025

Critical Moment to Pause for Insightful Truth telling


Beware
Age
of
Nothingness


A “typical politician” is a person without principles, ideas, or values. A panderer aka a politician does not govern. A panderer “has clientele with private interests” (to which he or she is beholden): 
a lobby for the poor who want personal benefits”
a lobby for the wealthy who want to continue having leniency to do shady business” writes Historian of philosophy Bruna Frascolla about conditions in another America but which rings true for North America's USA.
Frascolla, Bruna January 22, 2025 “What neo-Pentecostals and drug dealers have in common” … “Their victory… consisted of being wealthy.” https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/01/22/what-neo-pentecostals-and-drug-dealers-have-in-common/
Translated from Portuguese (Brazil) to English: Bruna Frascolla is a historian of philosophy, PhD from UFBA, and essayist.



“What really matters is access (or not) to wealth,” João Carlos GRAÇA writes. 
In the United States of America, “the ability to make any subject a topic of political debate as well as the capacity to make any opinion prevail in this regard… are directly dependent on economic influences or on the weight of wealth.” 
Affluence “can transform its concerns into a topic of debate and usually manage to make its dominant opinion succeed in (that) debate.” Those who are “not rich” are simply stymied.



NON-Democracy
From the pen of 
Lisbon University Professor of Sociology 
João Carlos Graça



The United States of America is “not substantively a democracy,” wrote Lisbon University Professor of Sociology João Carlos Graça in a mid-January 2025 article.

Like it or not, this is a reality that is “imperative to recognize and from which it is necessary to start.”
The United States of America is “not substantively a democracy”; nor is the USA — in any way — a propagator of democracies, liberal or otherwise.…”
This understanding must be thorough, in-depth, and comprehensive to enable effective action, “whatever that may be.”


Made in the USA (Stateside) 


The United States of America is, “in essence, a plutocracy” (defined as a controlling class of the wealthy, a government by the wealthy). 

“Universal suffrage… “for the lower house of the legislature and for the presidency,” stretching back to the “1830s,” was (inherently, “legally”) an exclusive privilege; not “universal” “suffrage” (i.e., inclusive of or covering all, a whole collectively, distributive without limit or exception…, suffrage available without exception to all members of a society). 

Cemented in America, while inaccurately named “democracy,” a mantra often heard across the land, is a political system comprised of (as Professor João Carlos Graça puts it): 
  • Weak ideologically defined dominating duo, i.e., two partnering tyrannical political parties
  • “Gross promiscuous … relationship between parties and economic power…
  • “Absence of limits to private funding and the full legalization of lobbying…
  • Weakened “state institutions in the face of the so-called ‘civil society’ making the political system less a true res publica” (a republic, serving the general welfare) and more “… a condominium of the rich…
  • “Majority electoral system in the first round (first past the post), preventing effective multi-party rule (or substantive participation) and instead inducing a de facto (two-party exclusive) domination…
  • “Arbitrary definition of constituencies (gerrymandering)…
  • “Impossibility of … any possible third parties’ … access (blockading or otherwise obstructing their access) to the media…
  • “Fragmentation and precariousness of the systems of electoral registration and control of the counting of votes….” (among other clear illustrations of US plutocracy)
Yet, “from a formal point of view,” this “does not prevent” the USA “from being classified as a ‘democracy… even if admittedly suffering from countless weaknesses and diseases.” (emphasis added)


Made in the USA (Abroad)


Notwithstanding the prevailing mantra to the contrary, “US foreign policy …” is not guided by “the spread of democracy.” 

The foreign policy of the United States of America, “far from being doctrinally inspired by any ideas more-or-less remotely founded on a democratic or Enlightenment ideology, seems to be thinkable rather as an illustration of the powerlessness of reason in universal history.”

The Americas


U.S. relations with neighboring Latin America… indicate a systematic sociological affinity … with … the exact opposite (of) democratic forces or tendencies (even if merely formal) …
Small independent countries (usually of the tropics) “are markedly oligarchic in their deep social texture and very little inclined toward effective democracy… largely as a consequence of (US) malevolent influence, inducing the systematic destruction of any inclinations through which Latinos might (or may) be tempted to threaten the domination of the respective oligarchies, usually leaning toward the patronage of the northern Big Brother” (USA).
Acts often at odds with what may be “considered a minimum of decency,” the US hides its hand (essentially approves) “through an operation of radical symbolic distancing of North America from the set of societies south of the Rio Grande” all the while conveniently picking and choosing among and partnering with those “other” “undesirables.”

The Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia, Mediterranean Sea


In the “so-called Middle East…,” there has been a “capitulation of one republican and secular regime after another, accompanied by the near disappearance of socialist tendencies, the same going for the pan-Arabist ideals.” 

In the Palestinian Territory exists “a medium- and long-term reinforcement of the … Zionist ethnocracy, the Israeli Rassenstaat (racial state) remaining untouchable in its enterprise not only of consistent ethno-racial discrimination”; but illegal, immoral, self-interestedly sadistic “extermination and/or expulsion of the (indigenous, original inhabitants of the land).”

Particularly regarding US foreign relations with countries within this region of the world, there exists “something fundamentally analogous, in the results,” to US foreign relations in the Americas — “though not necessarily in the deep motivations.” 

Some examples are found in US-orchestrated forced failures of “republican and secular regimes” together with the “collapse of state institutions.” (an interesting phenomenon evident also stateside USA)
  • The Severing “of the secular and socialist republic of Afghanistan” 20th into 21st century
  • The Severing “of the secular state of Iraq” 2003
  • The Devastation of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 2011
  • The Severing of the Syrian Arab Republic 2024
Graça concludes that recent events in Syria represent perhaps “the closing episode of a cycle” but the story is “unfinished”: 
a story of the United States’ “arrogant” and dangerous “pretense” in domestic and foreign affairs — masquerading as emblem, exemplar and preeminent champion “of human rights, secularism, enlightenment, and democracy all the while undermining and working to destroy all possibility of these.

Independent geopolitical analyst and journalist Pepe Escobar concludes in the same headline news window in which loose talk and quotes are flying high in and around the new or rather warmed-over regime on the Potomac. 

“In this new golden era” embracing “the new, brutally benign Empire” …, “the land of the free home of the brave… will be ‘far more exceptional than ever before.’”

Says Escobar “Never underestimate” the unspeakable audacity of “this year’s model” … to “rebrand a genocide (as) a great real estate opportunity in a ‘phenomenal location’.” “Welcome to Interplanetary Exceptionalism. Embrace the new, brutally benign Empire. Or else.”





Sources

Graça, João Carlos. January 22, 2025, “Kant versus Khan: the events in Syria and U.S. foreign policy… The U.S. is unquestionably a very effective destroyer of states that it considers enemies: Immanuel Kant; but definitely Genghis Khan.” https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/01/22/kant-versus-khan-events-syria-and-us-foreign-policy/

Escobar, Pepe January 22, 2025. “The age of interplanetary exceptionalism… Only the U.S. can rebrand a genocide into a great real estate opportunity in a ‘phenomenal location’”
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/01/22/the-age-of-interplanetary-exceptionalism/



###

PROLIFIC SOUTHERN-BORN AMERICAN WRITER DR. CAROLYN LADELLE BENNETT focuses on People, Press, Politics USA; Domestic and Foreign Affairs (no copyright claimed in direct quotes and individual image)
Latest book: Are There No Champions? Yes and No
Links: https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett
https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/
(live limited) https://www.bennettsareherenochampions.com/
https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/859250-are-there-no-champions-yes-and-no
https://www.xlibris.com
Email: Nolandanisland@hotmail.com or Authorswork@gmail.com

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