History Channel: CIA Used Prostitutes to Drug US Victims With LSD for Mind Control Project

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Your government will, indeed, perform experiments on you if it so chooses, and while some are undertaken with Nazi-esque malevolence — like the atrocities committed in the Tuskegee Study, a 40-year operation infecting innocent Black men with syphilis — others, like Midnight Climax, out the State’s utterly twisted flirtation with mind control.

Part of the notorious MKULTRA program, Midnight Climax — every bit as lascivious as one would expect from an agency founded in duplicity — might be one of the CIA’s most revealing experiments in thought control through substances, as well as its lesser-known entrée into the business of drugs and prostitution.

And now the corporate, mainstream media has finally decided to address the abhorrent crimes committed under the green light by nefarious CIA Director Allen Dulles — who signed off on MKULTRA and, thus, its iterations, on April 13, 1953.

One part in a series on the History Channel, America’s War on Drugs, reveals in documents and interviews how the CIA paid prostitutes to entice unwitting, working-class johns with illicit sex in order to dose them unknowingly with pure LSD — acid, lysergic acid diethylamide, one of the psychedelics exploding into America’s drug scene in the 1960s — for the project known as Midnight Climax.

Amid fears The Russians might perfect mind control before the United States government could manage to do so, the CIA turned unapologetically to experiments with LSD, leaving victims none the wiser — setting up fake brothels in San Francisco and, later, Marin County, where hired prostitutes would bring the agency’s prey: the unremarkable men of the lower and working classes who would be unlikely to retaliate if anything went awry.

“The CIA was scared stiff the KGB was going to get all this LSD and come over and start dosing people,” Richard Stratton, a former hippie pot kingpin ultimately caught and imprisoned, explains of Midnight Climax for a preview of the History Channel show. “So, we bought every drop of LSD in existence at that point.

“They gave it to George White, and let George White start dosing people.”

George Hunter White, a federal narcotics agent and covert captain with the CIA precursor agency, Office of Strategic Services, sought to develop or discover a substance with potential to control the minds of prisoners-of-war — a reportedly failed attempt to best the KGB — so they would reveal privy and classified information upon interrogation.

“American chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the brains behind White’s brawn,” Troy Hooper wrote for SF Weekly in 2012. “It was the height of McCarthyism in the early ’50s, and government intelligence leaders, claiming fear of communist regimes, were using hallucinogens to induce confessions from prisoners of war held in Korea, and brainwash spies into changing allegiances. What better way to examine the effects of LSD than to dose unsuspecting citizens in New York City and San Francisco?”

Stocked with booze and attempting to mimic a “French whorehouse,” rooms in the agency’s bogus brothels — replete with images of women in bondage and prints by artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec — also came complete with two-way mirrors for operatives to kick back with martinis, watch the drug-fogged sexual activity, and scribble notes on what they observed.

“It was supposed to look rich, but it was furnished like crap,” a narcotics agent and frequent visitor to one of the elaborate brothels told John Marks, who authored, The Search for the ‘Manchurian Candidate:’ The CIA and Mind Control.

“An unsuspecting john would think he had bought a night of pleasure,” Marks penned, but would “go back to a strange apartment, and wind up zonked.”

Employing various code words and the sterile terminology to be expected of the CIA, agents recorded the encounters diligently — and although the bulk of those documents were destroyed in a purge of information on MKULTRA and Midnight Climax, seven boxes escaped the agency’s attention, surviving to provide insight into both those programs and the psychology of the agency.

One example, quoted by LewRockwell.com, states plainly,

Certain individuals [the prostitutes] would covertly administer this material [the drugs] to other people [the johns] in accordance with [White’s] instructions.

Knowing the prostitutes faced inherent risks in the operation and that the program could be derailed easily — particularly as its illegal nature might raise eyebrows around the agency and elsewhere — the CIA’s hired sex workers were not required to keep receipts or otherwise account for spent funds.

As such untenable toeing of the lines tends to do, Midnight Climax quickly devolved into an authoritarian operation, devoid of medical screening and care for its forced test subjects, and ultimately expanding to multiple brothels — and myriad drugs.

In fact, one of the first brothels set up by the CIA in New York City saw the program’s first tragedy — U.S. biological warfare specialist Frank Olson either leapt or was pushed from a tenth-story window in 1953.

Sans sufficient scientific controls and medical pre-screening, a 1976 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities asserted,

Paradoxically, greater care seemed to have been taken for the safety of foreign nations against whom LSD was used abroad. In several cases [overseas] medical examinations were performed prior to the use of LSD. The [domestic] program … demonstrates a failure of the CIA’s leadership to pay adequate attention to the rights of individuals and to provide effective guidance to CIA employees. Though it was known that the testing was dangerous, the lives of subjects were placed in jeopardy and their rights were ignored during the 10 years of testing that followed Dr. Olson’s death.

Indeed, Midnight Climax failed — and miserably, shamefully so.

No employable tactics in LSD were discovered and no efficacious counter-intelligence operations or methods were ever derived — but the program, and its parent MKULTRA certainly succeeded in ruining the lives of many of the program’s unfortunate victims.

SF Weekly reported,

Testing of unwitting individuals was suspended in 1964 [after the discovery and outrage over the program by the CIA’s Inspector General the previous year], at least officially. Still, the CIA safe houses in San Francisco and New York City continued to operate for a year and a half longer. Scrutiny of the program intensified at CIA headquarters in Virginia, and subsequently the Bay Area safe houses shut down in 1965. New York City’s operation stopped in 1966. Intelligence officers conceded that the drug-testing exposed the agency to a serious ‘moral problem.’

Considering the wholly egregious manifestation of Midnight Climax — its mendacious premise, disgustingly manipulative facets, and the eagerness with which depraved operatives carried out their tasks — it’s a wonder the CIA managed to concede it had dismissed scruples to carry out these human experiments.

It must be noted that psychedelics, in themselves, are not necessarily harmful substances — it was the surreptitious slipping of LSD to victims without their knowledge and without medical screening or care which led to deleterious effects for an untold number of people which caused direct harm by the CIA.

Programs like MKULTRA might have officially ended decades ago, but given the current climate of heightened xenophobia, Red Scare-anoia, and ruthless and unforgiving domestic surveillance, it would be imprudent — if not foolhardy — to grant the U.S. government a clean slate of trust.

To wit — and to what should be the consternation of the American public and a remarkably inarguable cause for citizen vigilance — White, who died in 1975, later recalled of the odious attempts at mind control,

I toiled wholeheartedly in the vineyards because it was fun, fun, fun. Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill, cheat, steal, rape and pillage with the sanction and blessing of the All-Highest?

(For more from the author of “History Channel: CIA Used Prostitutes to Drug Victims With LSD for Mind Control Project” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Massive Escalation in Syria: Iran Fires Missiles at ISIS, US Warplane Shoots Down SU-22

/0 Comments/in , /by

Iran Fires Multiple Missiles Into Syria

By Artemis Moshtaghian. Iran’s military said Sunday that it has launched several missiles into eastern Syria, targeting Islamic State fighters in retaliation for the twin attacks that rocked Tehran on June 7.

The strikes are the first time Iran has fired missiles at another country in three decades and represent a major escalation of Iran’s role in the war in Syria.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on its official news website, Sepah News, that several “ground-to-ground, mid-range missiles” were fired from bases in Kermanshah province, western Iran. (Read more from this story, “Iran Fires Multiple Missiles Into Syria”, HERE)

_________________________________________________


Navy Fighter Shoots Down Syrian SU-22 After US Says its Allies Were Attacked

By Jeff Schogol. A Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet shot down a Syrian SU-22 on Sunday, giving the U.S. military its first air-to-air kill since 1999.

This is the latest example of tension between the Russian-backed Syrian regime and U.S.-led coalition forces, who are partnering with Arab and Kurdish forces to destroy ISIS.

“The Coalition’s mission is to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” the U.S. task force in charge of operations in Syria and Iraq announced on Sunday. “The Coalition does not seek to fight Syrian regime, Russian, or pro-regime forces partnered with them, but will not hesitate to defend Coalition or partner forces from any threat.”

Sunday’s incident came after Syrian aircraft attacked Syrian Democratic Forces earlier in the day, wounding several of the fighters, who are allies of the U.S.-led coalition to destroy ISIS, Combined Joint Task Force -Operation Inherent Resolve announced in a news release. (Read more from this story about the US shooting down the Syrian jet right before Iran fires missiles into the same region, HERE)

Who Is the Cop-Killer Trump Said He Wants Extradited From Cuba?

/0 Comments/in , /by

During his speech in Miami on Friday, President Trump called on the regime in Cuba to extradite wanted terrorist Joanne Chesimard (who goes by the name Assata Shakur) to the United States.

“Return the fugitives from American justice. Including the return of the cop-killer, Joanne Chesimard,” Trump demanded of the regime in Cuba.

Chesimard is a well-known, infamous figure in the law enforcement community. But many outside of that community, especially millennials, may not be so familiar with her case.

A convicted murderer, Chesimard was a prominent member of the ruthless Black Liberation Army (BLA), a splinter group comprised of the most radical members of the Black Panthers. Shakur was the leader of a notorious New York City BLA cell that hunted down police officers for brutal assassinations.

Chesimard has become a folk hero among the fringe Left. Because of her background in far-left activism, some in movements like Black Lives Matter see her as a hero, and not the terrorist cop-killer that she really is.

The Black Liberation Army, which rose to prominence in the 1970s, was known for its ruthless methods. In one incident showcasing their carnage, three BLA militants killed two NYPD officers in the East Village. But that wasn’t the worst part. The assailants stood over the officers and continued to shoot into their bodies repeatedly.

By 1973, Shakur was the subject of a multi-state manhunt. The FBI labeled her the “revolutionary mother hen” of the cell that had carried out the murders of NYPD officers. Later that year, Shakur bolted New York City with fellow BLA members.

On her escape down the New Jersey turnpike, she was pulled over by state troopers. At that time, her accomplice, Zayd Shakur, was killed in a gunfire battle. A police officer was also killed in the incident, with help from Chesimard, who again sped away in her vehicle

But ultimately, she was captured sitting on the side of the highway after being wounded in the gun battle.

In 1977, Chesimard was charged with murder and convicted of firing the shots that killed New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster. She was also convicted of seven other felonies. She was sentenced to life in prison plus thirty years for her crimes.

She was later transferred to a lax security prison facility. The facility did not screen guests, so anyone was able to visit her. This allowed Chesimard to plot with members of the BLA to break her out. And on Nov. 2, 1979, three militants held a correctional officer hostage and proceeded to break Chesimard out of prison, with getaway cars waiting outside.

Two years later, she surfaced in Cuba. A wanted fugitive, Fidel Castro’s dictatorial regime provided Chesimard with asylum. Her path from prison to Cuba is largely unknown, and has baffled even the experts who traced every step of her case. Some speculate that she made her way to the Bahamas and was later picked up by a Cuban patrol boat. There are as many as 70 American fugitives living in Cuba under protection of the tyrannical Castro regime.

In 2013, the FBI placed Chesimard on its most wanted terrorists list, giving her the distinct honor of becoming the first woman to ever be placed on the FBI fugitive roster.

As former President Obama opened up diplomatic relations with Cuba, many had hoped that Chesimard would be on his list of priorities for extradition. This turned out not to be the case. Obama ignored the pleas of the law enforcement community and her victims families’ who sought to bring Chesimard to justice.

Many in the law enforcement community hoped that President Trump would act on behalf of their slain colleagues, and get to the bottom of Chesimard’s case. Today, they are surely thankful that the president demanded the Cuban regime extradite her back to America to face justice. (For more from the author of “Who Is the Cop-Killer Trump Said He Wants Extradited From Cuba?” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Is Today’s Far Left “Possessed”?

/0 Comments/in , /by

During the primaries it was all the rage among some conservative pundits to cite the 2006 comedy Idiocracy as prescient of the election. The joke was on Trump supporters, who supposedly were as clueless as the characters in that movie. Some of those Tweets were funny, if mean.

But recent months have spoiled the humor. Between the relentless efforts by Deep State actors to sabotage a presidency, and the rising frenzy of hatred that has burst forth from the left, one thing is clear. We’ve stumbled from farce to the blackest kind of satire, the kind that bleeds over sometimes into the tragic. We’re not living out Idiocracy. Instead we’re re-enacting Dostoevsky’s The Possessed.

For those of you who didn’t work as night doormen in college, reading Russian lit in a polyester uniform, here’s what happens in that novel: A band of youthful “nihilists” emerge in a sleepy provincial town. They have no positive program for reform, or even revolution. Instead, they focus solely on tearing down what’s around them — everything from the family to the church, from private property to linear modes of rational thought. They’ve decided that the world as it really exists is so hopelessly tainted and evil, that only “pure” destruction can offer the clean slate needed to start again.

Those who oppose them are hapless, clueless, frightened or confused. Both conservatives and old-fashioned liberals resort to denial. They can’t face the truth of how their young people have turned out, can’t admit that when “idealists” call for annihilating paroxysms of violence, they really mean it. So the defenders of the old order do nothing. They make little concessions, which only feeds the beast. They lie to themselves, to get just one more good night’s sleep. Surely these young people will come to their senses before it’s too late… . Won’t they?

Dostoevsky Saw 2017 Coming

In Europe today, elites are taking just this approach to radical Islam. Surely there really can’t be millions of people living in Western countries who yearn for a seventh-century theocracy, along the lines of ISIS or Saudi Arabia. Who wish to repay the hospitality of secular Swedes, Germans, and Frenchmen by imposing sharia on them. Only some hateful Western extremist would say such a thing. Best to silence those “intolerant” alarmists, and go back to getting some rest in your tasteful, climate-controlled and peacefully childless house.

The attack on the U.S. Congress reminds us that Dostoevsky was right. People don’t rant on and on about “resistance” and revolution without any consequences. Without provoking real violence, which can escalate very quickly. Remember that Lebanon, Yugoslavia, and Venezuela were each once peaceful vacation spots. Citizens couldn’t imagine how bad things might really get. Until it hit them square in the face.

We must prepare ourselves, especially spiritually. Because multiculturalism really has morphed into a kind of cult. Andrew Sullivan laid out its elaborate system of dogmas and stigmas. It has no positive aim, no set of demands that we could ever possibly meet. No surrender will be sufficient.

For Souls, It’s a Buyer’s Market

In Britain, former Liberal Democratic leader Tim Farron learned that. An evangelical Christian in his private life, he tried to hold onto his position in politics by embracing legal abortion and same-sex marriage. It didn’t matter. The fact that in the quiet of his heart he might know better, might still hold to Christian principles, was absolutely intolerable. And so even after those sellouts, Farron was forced to resign. The lesson: Don’t bother trying to sell your soul. The market’s so flooded with them, it has run down the price to zero.

What spirit is it that demands at the same time that the British public accept millions of prescriptively intolerant orthodox Muslims, whose leaders demand sharia — but won’t let a pro-choice, pro-gay politician privately cling to Christian precepts? It’s the spirit of pure destruction, straight out of The Possessed.

The same spirit goads the comfortable, middle class white kids who put on hoods to help Antifa swing metal poles at visiting scholars. It drives some Jesuit priests to deny that Satan really exists — and then to go on to demonize those who dare to disagree. It compels the same people who think that “meat is murder” to defend Planned Parenthood, when it sells baby parts in buckets like KFC.

Pray for the Maniacs

We’re not just dealing with bad ideas, but evil spirits. Nor are you and I immune to their attractions. They will tempt us to cruelty, callousness, and fantasies of vengeance. They will drive us to treat our fellow men as if they were demons. But they aren’t. They are those demons’ victims — as surely as some drug-addled or psychotic hobo who screams at us in the park. (Where I live, this happens to me, late at night.)

When you meet such a scary homeless person, do you hate him? Should you? You might need to rouse some anger, in case you need to defend yourself. But on a deeper level, you know that he’s not in control. That his mind is no longer his own. Maybe you can’t help lure him back to sanity or sobriety. You might need to call the cops. But you feel that deep human kinship with him we should all feel as children of God.

Just so, we must look at the people now drunk with demonstrable madness, at intellectuals who hate reason, professors who silence discussion, and students who spit on learning. We must face them down firmly. We must use the ordered force of law to protect ourselves and our institutions. But we can’t let them tempt us into sharing their spiritual disorder. They must be rebuked and restrained. But they also deserve our pity. Something deep inside them even hungers for our prayers. (For more from the author of “Is Today’s Far Left “Possessed”?” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Good News: Scalise Upgraded From ‘Critical’ to ‘Serious’ Condition

/0 Comments/in , /by

Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise was upgraded from “critical” to “serious condition” Saturday and continued to show signs of improvement after he was wounded in a shooting at a Republican baseball practice outside Washington. Medstar Washington Hospital Center released the update on behalf of the Scalise family . . .

The man who shot Scalise and others at the baseball practice had with him a piece of paper with doodles and the names of three lawmakers, according to a person familiar with the case.

The person told The Associated Press on Saturday that investigators aren’t sure of the significance of the names and don’t know if it was a list of people he was targeting. This person was not authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The person did not disclose the names, but said those listed had been briefed. (Read more from “Good News: Scalise Upgraded From ‘Critical’ to ‘Serious’ Condition” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Three Sick Responses to the Murder of an Israeli Policewoman

/0 Comments/in , /by

How did the BBC, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority respond to the premeditated, terrorist murder of a 23-year-old Israeli policewoman? The answer is: true to form.

The BBC has a long history of biased, anti-Israel (and even anti-Semitic) reporting, as documented on BBCWatch.org and other sites. The bias is commonly seen in BBC’s headlines.

For example, in 2013, Labour’s Lord Ahmed “was suspended for claiming that Jews were responsible for his imprisonment after driving offences.” How did the BBC report this? “Labour peer Lord Ahmed suspended after ‘Jewish claims.’” What in the world are “Jewish claims”?

As one reader commented, “There were no ‘Jewish claims’ – it was antisemitism.”

Why, then, didn’t the BBC properly identify this as “anti-Semitism”? The word, they explained, is “too long”!

More commonly, BBC headlines mislead the reader in terms of guilt and responsibility. Compare these two headlines, one when a Palestinian is killed by Israeli soldiers and the other when an Israeli is killed Palestinian terrorists. The headlines are: “Israeli attack kills baby girl” vs. “Israeli baby killed by gunfire.”

In the former, Israel is to blame; in the latter, it is just “gunfire” that is to blame. How the gun was fired and who fired it is a mystery.

Other acts of Palestinian terrorism have been reported with headlines like this: “Bomb stokes Mid-East tension.”

Yes, just a generic bomb that somehow went off. Those bombs can be so independent and nasty.

BBC on the Murder of Israeli Policewoman

How, then, did the BBC report the terrorist slaying of this young Israeli policewoman? Brace yourself. It’s as ugly as it gets for a major news outlet like the BBC. The headline read, “Three Palestinians killed after deadly stabbing in Jerusalem.” That is outrageous.

There is no mention of the cold-blooded murder of a young Israeli woman. No mention that the deadly stabbing was a Palestinian terrorist attack. No mention that the three Palestinians killed were the terrorist murderers. And the emphasis, inexcusably, is put on the rightful killing of terrorists armed with an assault rifle and knives.

BBC’s apology was too little too late: “We accept that our original headline did not appropriately reflect the nature of the events and subsequently changed it. Whilst there was no intention to mislead our audiences, we regret any offense caused.”

Yes, just another innocent error.

Hamas Reacts to the Murder

Hamas reminded us that its anti-Israel hatred is as deep as ever, despite recent claims that it had softened its tone. Prime Minister Netanyahu literally threw such claims into the trash can last month.

Like the BBC, Hamas is consistent. In April, Hamas hailed the vehicular ramming attack that killed one Israeli and wounded another. “We bless this heroic ramming attack at the Ofra intersection near Ramallah, which is a response to the continued crimes of the Zionist occupation at the expense of our people,” said Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanou.

Now, both Hamas and ISIS are claiming responsibility for Friday’s murder. (Heaven forbid that ISIS gets the credit for such a good kill.) A Hamas spokesman described the killers as “three hero martyrs.” Yes, three hero martyrs who attacked Israelis before the Sabbath, wounding one and stabbing the other to death. How heroic.

Palestinian Authority is Outraged … That the Terrorists Were Killed

As for the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s supposed peace partner, they too have proven true to form.

It has often been documented that the PA names children’s schools and city squares after mass-murdering terrorists. And the fact that the PA pays the salaries of imprisoned terrorists is a point of contention now with the Trump administration.

So how did Fatah, the PA’s political faction, respond to Friday’s terrorist attack? It condemned Israel for killing the terrorists, calling it a “war crime”! Here’s the official statement from spokesperson Osama al- Kawasm: Fatah “condemns the war crime carried out by Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem against three Palestinian teens.” (The terrorists were 17, 18, and 19.) Fatah added that “the international community’s silence emboldened Israel to further spill the blood of Palestinians.”

Yes, those evil Israelis did it again. They, and they alone bear the guilt.

And so, as a beautiful young woman named Hadas Malka succumbed to multiple stabbing wounds, the BBC misreported the murder, Hamas praised it, and Fatah condemned Israel for killing the young murderers. Do you see now why I described their responses as “sick”?

In reality, the responses of Hamas and Fatah in particular only provoke further bloodshed, thereby bereaving the families of both Palestinians and Israelis. This is beyond sick. (For more from the author of “Three Sick Responses to the Murder of an Israeli Policewoman” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

How Dissidents Are Responding to Trump’s Change in Cuba Policy

/0 Comments/in , /by

The letter sent by Cuba’s main dissident group to President Donald Trump thanking him for his decision to prohibit U.S. trade with the military, security and intelligence services on the island—their tormentors—serves as a timely rebuke of President Barack Obama’s warm embrace of the Castro regime and those still defending it.

The letter was sent by Berta Soler on behalf of the group she leads, The Ladies in White. These brave, mostly Afro-Cuban women suffer constant harassment, beatings, and incarcerations at the hand of the Castro regime when they attempt to march on the streets of Havana on Sundays.

“These days, Mr. President, when most of the world responds with a deafening silence to the harassment, arbitrary detentions, beatings, house searches, and robberies against peaceful opponents, human rights activists and defenseless women, your words of encouragement are most welcomed,” Soler wrote.

“We will continue to fight for our rights because we recognize it is our duty to free ourselves, but we can’t do it alone. It is also the duty of the freedom loving peoples of the world. The United States must continue to be the first defender of those who lack rights and freedoms in the world,” she added.

Sent Saturday, one day after Trump unveiled in Miami his new restrictions, the letter crystalizes what is at stake. One can believe these women’s intimate understanding of the vicious nature of the Cuban regime, or those who have come out in support of Obama’s policy, who minimize the brutality and economic devastation unleashed upon Cuba by the communist regime.

Perhaps the most acidic critic of the Trump doctrine has been the architect of Obama’s policy, his former deputy Ben Rhodes. In op-eds and tweets since last week, Rhodes has zigzagged between insisting that Trump’s changes won’t matter and warning that they will have a chilling effect on trade.

He has been joined by a cadre of progressive journalists, especially at NPR and MSNBC, whose leading defender of relations with Raul Castro’s Cuba, Andrea Mitchell, reported her show from Havana last week.

Trump was unstinting in his attacks on the Castros’s nearly six decade uninterrupted military dictatorship of Cuba.

“For nearly six decades, the Cuban people have suffered under communist domination. To this day, Cuba is ruled by the same people who killed tens of thousands of their own citizens, who sought to spread their repressive and failed ideology throughout our hemisphere, and who once tried to host enemy nuclear weapons 90 miles from our shores,” said Trump in Miami.

“The Castro regime has shipped arms to North Korea and fueled chaos in Venezuela. While imprisoning innocents, it has harbored cop-killers, hijackers, and terrorists. It has supported human trafficking, forced labor, and exploitation all around the globe. This is the simple truth of the Castro regime,” he added.

“My administration will not hide from it, excuse it, or glamorize it. And we will never, ever be blind to it. We know what’s going on and we remember what happened,” said the president, in a clear reference to his predecessor.

Obama not only unilaterally ended many restrictions on trade and travel with Cuba after he announced on Dec. 17, 2014 that he would undo the adversarial approach toward Castro of his 10 predecessors, Obama went out of his way to extend his hand to those who pummel people like Soler.

He traveled to Havana last May with his entire family, went to a baseball game with the dictator Raul Castro, and even did the wave with him while in the stands. At no time did he make his warmth contingent on Castro promising to ease up on dissidents.

And indeed, human rights groups report that political beatings and arrests (nearly 10,000 in 2016 alone) have increased.

The arguments made by Rhodes, Mitchell et al basically boil down to “sure, Mr. Castro ain’t no Thomas Jefferson, but there are worse people.”

In an op-ed in The Atlantic on Friday, Rhodes laid much of the blame for Cuba’s ruined economy on the U.S. embargo of the past six decades, rather than on the fact that communism has been a failed system everywhere it has been tried.

“Yes, the Cuban government shoulders its share of the blame,” Rhodes allows in passing. “But there are dozens of authoritarian governments; we do not impose embargoes on China or Vietnam, Kazakhstan or Egypt.” He refers to the dissidents once in his piece, damning them by calling them “the dissidents that the United States supports.”

Mitchell made similar comments last week, suggesting at one point that though Castro may not hold elections, world leaders like Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte are worse.

These comments and others make clear why Castro gets a pass. Erdogan and Duterte represent threats to democracy in their countries, but both were democratically elected, whether we like it or not, and lead nations that are treaty allies, which makes things tricky.

The Castro brothers have not had elections since they took over in 1959 and lead a virulently anti-American regime, which as Trump said, continue to destabilize our region.

One can only decry that the Obama opening to the Castros has been reversed if one is blind to the brutality of the Castro government and the threat it represents to American interests and Cuban lives. (For more from the author of “How Dissidents Are Responding to Trump’s Change in Cuba Policy” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

ICE Arrests in Metro Detroit Terrify Iraqi Christians

/0 Comments/in , /by

A family Sunday at the beach turned out to be a nightmare for the Barash family and for metro Detroit’s Chaldean population — Catholics who hail from Iraq.

Authorities seized Moayad Barash, 47, and whisked him away, his daughter Cynthia, 18, said.

Barash, a Baghdad native, was one of 30 to 40 people seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Sunday — all of whom face the threat of deportation.

“My dad is Christian and Donald Trump is sending him back to a place that is not safe whatsoever,” Cynthia Barash said, referring to the persecution of Christians in Baghdad, Mosul and across the largely Muslim nation. (Read more from “ICE Arrests in Metro Detroit Terrify Iraqi Christians” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

In the Divided States of America, There’s Only One Way To “Unite”

/0 Comments/in , /by

Following the attempted political assassination of several GOP members of Congress this week, calls for “unity” echoed through the halls of power.

Democratic and Republican leaders alike offered up their ruminations on the matter — ”ruminating” not in the sense of offering profound thoughts on the latest tragedy, but rather, as cows “ruminate” on regurgitated cud. That an American citizen would take the ruling class’ dishonest and hyperbolic partisanship seriously enough to actually start shooting congressmen is tough for the political class to stomach, so for now, they chew on their hopes for national unity while promising to temper their rhetoric.

Such calls for “national unity” in the wake of violence are nothing new, and as I heard this latest chorus of “Kumbaya” reverberate around the country, I couldn’t help but snicker. I couldn’t hold back my laughter because I suspect too much about American government, too much about the meanness and bad faith of contemporary American politics, too much about the very nature of human beings’ relationship to political power to take American politicos’ calls for unity, love, and respect seriously. I have nothing against unity, love, kindness, and respect (and I certainly do not condone citizens randomly shooting members of Congress), but I cannot take the power-hungry seriously when they use the language of peace and community to advance their national ambitions of political control.

Political invective, per se, is not the problem — the drive for national solutions is. Even if the political class softens their rhetoric for a time (don’t hold your breath), they will sooner or later find themselves at one another’s throats again as long as they continue to nationalize every political issue under the sun. There is too much power at stake to behave otherwise. In fact, I expect we will soon see that rhetorical game whereby partisan “uniters” criticize anyone who disagrees with their political projects as “dividers.”

Contrary to popular political opinion, “national unity” is not synonymous with basic human decency and peace among men. Quite the opposite. But as long as “our” political leaders continue to conflate the two, a cruel irony will be at work here. The more America’s political leaders try to “unite” the nation through political power at the federal level, nationalizing every issue in the process, the more divided the nation will become. The United States is too diverse to be treated as one big happy family ready to march in lockstep.

The political class’ appeals to American ‘family’ and ‘unity’ is merely a means to obscure what’s really on the agenda— an agenda that goes far beyond the purview of our actual families, villages, townships, cities, and states. The political establishment continues to falsely believe a diverse nation of 300 million-plus people, a nation of nearly 20,000 actual cities, as well as countless families and cultures, can be managed like a singular political body without negative consequences. If only we surrender more of our liberties and governing decisions to Washington D.C., says the political class, “the people” of the United States can be prodded into unity — as long as we are allowed to chew on a bit of happy talk and watch a charity baseball game.

No doubt, how we speak to one another as fellow human beings is important. Indeed, culture and rhetoric are important. And, yes, though politics may often be downstream from culture, politics can also pollute the river of culture and discourse if allowed to become too pervasive. Immense political power has a way of rendering men suspicious and jealous of one another. And once politics comes to define a people through the power of a central state, all that is left is an impending battle over whose culture will be imposed through the power of that state.

In the face of such a looming war, it is no surprise that people often despair only to hurl invective, material threats, and people see actual bullets towards “the others” as the source of their angst. In such a world dominated by national political power, it is understandable that politicos, whether elected officials or disgruntled campaign volunteers, see anyone who opposes their national projects as a threat to humanity.

But the tyrant in you is the tyrant in me, and if we are not careful — if we keep offering the American people the immense national power to command and control their fellows — even our reactions against tyranny and violence will tend to mutate into movements to destroy one another for power’s sake.

If we truly wish to unite the American people, we must abandon our greedy nationalist daydreams. We must decentralize political power away from Washington D.C. and truly embrace the diversity of the American populace. We must reduce the potential power we have over one another so that tolerance for those we disagree with may flourish absent the threat of political coercion. Let California be California. Let Texas be Texas. Let Vermont go their own way and Alabama go another way, and so on. (For more from the author of “In the Divided States of America, There’s Only One Way To “Unite” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Battle for the Permanent Fund and PFD Heats up as New Special Session Called by Gov. Walker

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Alaskans are facing historic decisions on the Permanent Fund and PFD that affect every citizen in the state. The Legislature’s plans to restructure the Permanent Fund and PFD for government spending remain on the table into another Special Session. And, another decision on the PFD is on the way in the Alaska Supreme Court with the lawsuit challenging Gov. Walker’s PFD veto in 2016 scheduled for a hearing next week, June 20th in Anchorage at the Boney Courthouse.

The lawsuit was filed last September by Sen. Bill Wielechowski and former State Senators, Clem Tillion and Rick Halford against the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation and the State of Alaska. The case hinges on whether it’s legal for the Governor to veto a law that provides an automatic transfer of funds that go directly to Alaskans. If the veto challenge wins, the money cut from PFD in 2016 by the Governor’s veto will be returned to eligible Alaskans – $1032 per resident.

Besides the Governor’s veto, the PFD and Fund are also under threat from the Governor and Legislature’s restructure plans that have not been approved by a public vote. In 1999, an advisory vote was held when similar restructure plans were proposed by lawmakers. The voters rejected the restructure plan by 83%.

As owners of the Permanent Fund, Alaskans’ input and approval of changes to the Fund system is critical to protecting the Permanent Fund from government spending and mismanagement. Clem Tillion, PFD lawsuit plaintiff and former legislator, commented on this in a recent video interview. He said, “Many people who’ve moved to Alaska and received the dividend don’t realize they actually own the resource. We are a land grant state, we received 100 million acres and the People own it. The Fund is yours. If you allow it to be taken away by politicians who want to change the law, then you deserve to lose it. You should have to fight for what you have (if you are able to do so). And the fight is now. Do not let the legislators steal your dividend.”

In response to these attacks on the PFD, Alaskans are taking action with a Save the PFD Rally next week (Tues., June 20 from 11am-1pm) in front of the Boney Courthouse, 303 K. Street in Anchorage before the PFD lawsuit hearing at the Boney Courthouse (1:30pm, 5th floor). Join this family-friendly, non-partisan, rally to defend Alaskans’ shareholder rights as resource owners.

For more information on protecting the PFD and Fund to share with your neighbors, visit Permanent Fund Defenders’ website at www.pfdak.com and Facebook.

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.