Global

This week we observe the end of the `War to End All Wars,’ also known as World War I. The memorial week will be filled with the usual platitudes and patriotic guff designed to benefit the politicians who sent millions of young men to their deaths in this most stupid of all wars. I consider World War I as the greatest tragedy to befall civilization. World War II killed more civilians but World War I killed or wounded more soldiers and it destroyed much of Europe after a century of glittering civilization. We still feel the consequences of this brutal conflict today: the war in Ukraine, the butchery in Gaza, high tensions in the Balkans. WWI led to the collapse of the Russian Empire and the advent of Communism that killed millions in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This included six million Ukrainians starved or shot by the Soviets. The rapacious Treaty of Versailles led directly to the rise of National Socialism in Germany and, in part, to fascism in Italy. Europe’s Jews became the main target of hatred after being blamed for the crimes and mass murder caused by Communism.

"The attack on the Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam was not because they were Jews but because they were thugs who started provoking everyone until they received their punishment. The ugly truth about the Amsterdam incident is the Western media has adopted and promoted the Israeli narrative that the attack was anti-Semitic and a pogrom against Jews. Even the Jewish Forward editorial today took issues with Israeli and global leaders today who denounced the attack on the hooligans as a modern-day pogrom. The editorial argued, "The Merriam-Webster Dictionary is more blatant. It defines a pogrom as 'an organized massacre of helpless people, specifically: such a massacre of Jews.'” Only five people reported being injured, and one of them refused to get medical treatment by saying, "I want to be treated in Israel."  62 suspects were arrested with 10 still in custody but they were not identified if they were local or Israeli fans. What really happened to the Israeli hooligans in Amsterdam? I first learned about it today through The Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) email.

At the risk of sounding like a voter conspiracy theorist, I forward the following facts and observations about the presidential election that we have just endured for the perusal of you, the readers. In the spirit of full disclosure, it should be noted that I firmly believe that a few particular conspiracy theories - more than one person involved, which constitutes a "conspiracy", as opposed to "lone nut shooters" - provided to avid readers and serious historians over the past 60 years by numerous investigative authors concerning the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Reverend Martin Luther King, have proven to be true. However, I did not at the time, and do not to this day, believe the voter conspiracy theories that were perpetrated by former President Donald J. Trump and his lawyers and advisors in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. There was no proof whatsoever that any significant number of people who were not supposed to vote, did so. That was proven 60+ times in courts of law in 2020. That, of course, did not stop Trump and his people from claiming the opposite to be true.