A Sentence Deserved!!

Avowed neo-Nazi James Fields sentenced to life in prison for Charlottesville hate crimes https://news.yahoo.com/neo-nazi-faces-murdered-heather-120824665.html

Putin Has Not Made Russia Great Again

 I gave great thought to Putin and his interference in the 2016 US elections. Some claim that his help to Trump "tipped the scales" and made Trump president. In any event, Putin invested a lot of time and money in this project. He wanted a better deal with sanctions and he had a pathological hatred for Hillary Clinton. What did Putin get for his big investment? He got more sanctions. He got access to Western capital blocked and technology blocked. He got a bad image in the world. I have a dear friend who lives in Moscow. Before all the sanctions she had an incredible high-paying job in the Russian technology industry. After the sanctions, she struggles to survive in a mediocre job paying low wages. Many Russians will tell you the same story.

   Russia used to be the hated and feared Soviet Union that wanted to take over the world. Russia still has a large land mass and 170,000,000 people. It is armed with very sophisticated nuclear weapons and other armaments. Yet if we look at Gross Domestic Product, its economy is about the size of Italy's. California and Brasil have richer economies. Russia's population is dropping. The country does not attract new immigrants like the US, Europe, Brasil and Chile do. Putin has not made Russia great again.

A Settlement Is Coming Here- No 20-Year Sentences!

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/06/21/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-fraud-trial-may-not-start-until-september-2020/

A Stupid War With Iran

The devil is in the detail. Trump had US aircraft in the air to attack Iranian targets. He said that he did not want to have it on his conscience that he had 150 people killed during the air strike. What a stupid man! Iran has a very sophisticated air defense system. Many US airmen would have died in the attack; even if they were using standoff weapons. Until the Iranian air defense system is knocked down, cruise missile would be the only way to attack. Even that attack with the missiles coming in at very low altitude would result in many of these unmanned weapons being shot down. Any political leader needs to read history and understand history. Trump should review the war in the 1980's between Iraq and Iran. One million people died. Iraq got massive US military aid but could not defeat the Iranians. The Iranians will fight if attacked and are not to be underestimated. Our roads, bridges, airports, etc are falling apart. We need to spend money on these repairs and not on stupid and unnecessary wars.

One Of My Heroes-Doug Casey Talks About War With Iran

Pretexts for the Next War

by Doug Casey

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International Man: People who look outside the mainstream narrative of historical events often encounter the term "false flag" attack. What does this mean exactly? Who uses this tactic?

Doug Casey: Let’s define this term exactly. The Oxford Dictionary defines a false flag as "A political or military act orchestrated in such a way that it appears to have been carried out by a party that is not in fact responsible."

The concept of false flags has gotten a bad reputation in media and government circles and perhaps with the population in general, because they’ve come to be associated with conspiracy theories. And "conspiracy theory," whether valid or not, is used as a pejorative. While there are definitely some people out there with tin foil hats, the establishment likes to label any beliefs that don’t follow the party line as conspiracy theory.

In fact, false flags make all the sense in the world for someone who wants to start a war or who needs a cover for some other criminal enterprise. You never want to be seen as the aggressor or the bad guy. You always want to be able to blame what happens on the other guy. If you’re going to start a war, you want to look like the innocent aggrieved party in order to get the population on your side.

It’s been said that in war, truth is the first casualty. Using a false flag to disguise criminality is an essential part of that. And it’s not just one of the two major parties in a war who uses false flags. It can be a third interested party that is looking to create trouble between the other two.

I’ll use a schoolyard analogy. Sometimes a third party goes to Billy and says that Joey is badmouthing him. He’ll then go to Joey and say that Billy is badmouthing him. A "third party" can create a lot of mutual antagonism where it didn’t exist before. There are plenty of variations on the false flag routine.

I’d go so far as to say that most wars are started with false flags in one way or another, where the real bad guy is disguised.

The people who run nation states are never of the highest moral character. In fact, when it comes to political leaders, the scum rise to the top. These people are necessarily Machiavellian and capable of anything; they have to be in order to claw their way to the top of the political snake pit. Even if a person is basically decent when he gets into politics, he’ll inevitably be corrupted by his environment—and the fact he’s expected to exert power and use force to preserve the interests of the State. You can expect mainly duplicity and sanctimony from them.

International Man: There have been many instances of false flag events that have changed the course of history—by leading to wars, military interventions, and political upheavals. What do you think are some of the most notable historical examples, like the Gulf of Tonkin for instance?

Doug Casey: That’s an excellent one. The Gulf of Tonkin was entirely fabricated by the Johnson administration, which was looking for an excuse to invade Vietnam.

In recent history, when the Japanese needed an excuse to invade China in 1931, they fabricated what’s known as the Mukden Incident, the destruction of a railroad line in Manchuria. When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, they fabricated what’s known as the Gleiwitz Incident, dressing up German soldiers in Polish uniforms to make it look like the Poles were the aggressors. In 1962 the US created Operation Northwoods, which plotted all kinds of incidents—shooting down a US airliner, sinking US ships—to blame it on Cuba. That plot was, fortunately, never executed.

This is standard operating procedure when you want to start a war. You need a casus belli—a cause of war—but you want to blame it on the other guy.

More recently, take the 1991 Gulf War, which was simply an issue of criminals in Iraq trying to oust the criminals running Kuwait, mainly the Sabah family. The media immediately circulated a meme that Iraqi soldiers were taking Kuwaiti babies from their incubators in hospitals and putting them on a cold floor so they could send the incubators back to Iraq.

Then it was discovered that the source of this information was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador, who never gave a subsequent interview. It was all a lie, but before the truth came out, the damage was done.

You can’t believe anything that you hear regarding a war, nor any of the reporting regarding a war. Psychological warfare is as important as the kinetic warfare, certainly in today’s world.

In Two Weeks I Celebrate 20 Years Out Of Homelessness

In two weeks, I will celebrate the 20 year anniversary of my permanent escape from homelessness. On July 4, 1999, I moved into a two-bedroom apartment at the Glen Willow apartments. I didn't even have a bed. I had just a sleeping bag on the floor. But I finally had my own place to live and some dignity in life.
What had been the price of admission to this apartment?

Rent: $1,200 per month
Damage Deposit: $400 provided by a grant
Income verification: None-just proof that I was employed. At that time my income was $1,396 per month or $16,752 per year.

Let us fast forward 20 years and see what my price of admission to the two-bedroom apartment at the Glen Willow apartments would be today as follows:

Rent: $2,450.00 per month
Damage Deposit: $1,000.00
Required income: $6,125 per month or $73,500 per year.

I would not have been able to afford this apartment and escape homelessness in San Jose, California.

Dogs: I Feel You

I Feel You

Scientists recently discovered that dogs are able to understand their owners’ feelings and empathize with them.

In a recent study, they found that dogs and their owners can experience synchronized emotions and stress levels, particularly in intense activities and situations.

“If the owner is stressed, then the dog is also likely to mirror that stress,” study lead author Lina Roth told NPR.

Roth and her team studied the personality traits and profiles of 58 dogs and their owners and took hair samples from both to analyze the stress-related hormone cortisol.

The results revealed that the canine cortisol levels matched with the personality traits of their owners, and this link was more present between owners and pets that compete together.

“When it comes to competing dogs, it could actually be that they spend more time together, and that this training could increase this emotional closeness,” Roth added.

Roth’s study primarily focused on two dog breeds and their female owners, and she hopes that future studies can reveal more how dogs and humans influence each other emotionally.

In the meantime, she suggested that owners shouldn’t feel worried if their stress levels affect their pooch.

“I don’t think you should be anxious that, if you’re stressed, you might harm your dog,” Roth said. “Instead, your dog is a social support for you, and you are a social support for the dog.”

The “Launch on Warning” Nuclear Strategy and Its Insider Critics | National Security Archive

The “Launch on Warning” Nuclear Strategy and Its Insider Critics | National Security Archive

One of My Most Unforgettable Basketball Games-Warriors vs Raptors June 10. 2019

The Warriors game last night was unforgettable. Steph Curry is not just a great athlete; he is a great leader. He leads by example. He never loses hope. He remains calm and resolute under the greatest pressure.

Salada's Cafe Is Closing After 19 Years in Pacifica

I just talked to Tatiana, one of the owners of Salada's. They're closing for good on 15 June. It was not a landlord issue. One of the partners decided to quit after 19 years. It is unclear what will take its place.

Private Citizens To Fly To ISS

NASA to allow private citizens to fly to the International Space Station https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/07/nasa-allow-private-citizens-fly-international-space-station/

Some 70,000 French Civilians Died During The Normandy Invasion in 1944

https://www.thedailybeast.com/romanticizing-d-day-ignores-thousands-of-civilian-deaths

Tiananmen Massacre 30th Anniversary | National Security Archive

Tiananmen Massacre 30th Anniversary | National Security Archive