False Flag is a concept that goes back centuries. It was considered to be a legitimate ploy by the Greeks and Romans, where a military force would pretend to be friendly to get close to an enemy before dropping the pretense and raising its banners to reveal its own affiliation just before launching an attack. In the sea battles of the eighteenth century among Spain, France and Britain hoisting an enemy flag instead of one’s own to confuse the opponent was considered to be a legitimate ruse de guerre, but it was only “honorable” if one reverted to one’s own flag before engaging in combat.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- North Korea's Kim Jong Un learned from Saddam
Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi that nuclear weapons protect his survival,
and will disarm only if President Trump withdraws American forces and
ends the U.S.-South Korea defense treaty, said James Trottier who led
diplomatic efforts in Pyongyang.

North Korea agreed to "site closure, & no more testing!" Mr. Trump
tweeted on April 23 after Pyongyang announced on April 21 it would
halt developing and testing nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang however made no mention of dismantling thermonuclear
warheads and developmental ICBMs it supposedly possesses.

"North Korea views its nuclear capacity as a deterrent, not as a means
to launch a suicidal strike resulting in their total destruction. The
North Koreans are not jihadists seeking some afterlife," Mr. Trottier
said.

"For Kim, basically nuclear weapons are key to his survival. He's
learned the lessons of Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi -- what
happens when WMDs [weapons of mass destruction] are bargained away."

It may almost seem too obvious to mention, but I don’t think that’s why we so seldom mention it. I don’t mean being male, or being mentally disturbed, or having been cruel to women, or living in places like the United States where it’s easy to acquire weapons of war. These and many other factors are very significant and very often discussed, as they should be, when we consider mass killings.

Around 9 a.m., a helicopter began circling overhead. Moments later, as Jonathan Blitzer wrote recently in the New Yorker, a fleet of cars pulled up outside the meat-processing plant in Bean Station, Tenn. . . .

And the SS guys stepped out.

Oh wait, I mean the ICE agents, who swarmed through the plant and wound up arresting 97 “illegals.”

Ronan Farrow’s book War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence recounts episodes from the Obama-Trump militarization of U.S. foreign policy. While the book begins with and has been marketed with the story of Trump firing lots of key diplomats and leaving positions unfilled, much of its content is from the pre-Trump, Obama-era and even Bush-era erosion of diplomacy as something distinct from war and weapons sales.

The distinction between employing diplomats whose opinions are allowed to matter only when they agree with the Pentagon and not employing them at all is not as sharp a distinction as people may imagine. As with the distinction between drones that fire on unknown people when some poor schmuck is ordered to push a button and drones that decide when to fire all on their own, the question of whether or not you have diplomats sounds dramatic but can make little actual difference on the ground.

In Joseph Hickman’s book Murder at Camp Delta, he describes a hideous death camp in which guards were trained to view the prisoners as sub-human and much greater care was taken to protect the well-being of iguanas than homo sapiens. Chaos was the norm, and physical abuse of the prisoners was standard. ColMike Bumgarner made it a top priority that everyone stand in formation when he entered his office in the morning to the sounds of Beethoven’s Fifth or “Bad Boys.” Hickman relates that certain vans were permitted to drive in and out of the camp uninspected, making a mockery of elaborate attempts at security. He didn’t know the reasoning behind this until he happened to discover a secret camp not included on any maps, a place he called Camp No but the CIA called Penny Lane.

White man with a helmet on a big smile, and a camouflage jacket

Bruce Thomas Duncanson “General Bruce” born December 20, 1958, passed on to peace and glory April 15, 2018. He was a passionate peace and environmental activist, loving son, brother and friend to all. He was a familiar face at the Free Press Second Saturday Salons and at Comfest each year. 

Bruce first got started with peace activism while living in Minnesota. He was a part of the anti-nuclear movement that was working to prevent nuclear war and eliminate the threat of nuclear bombs. It was here that he also came up with the idea for a Peace Army. Bruce had struggled with mental health and he realized the value that people who had mental health problems could contribute to society rather than being marginalized. His idea the Peace Army for Mental Health was one of the many inspirational ideas he came up with over his lifetime of activism. His work as an advocate for the peace army is how he became known as General Bruce to many in the anti-war movement. See Bruce describe it himself on YouTube at – https://youtu.be/kLL2_IOjdBs

Blue silhouette of the state of Ohio with words Humanist Community of Central Ohio and a drawing of a person

Saturday, April 28, 5pm
MCL Kingsdale, 3154 Kingsdale Center, Upper Arlington, Ohio
Come out and join us for dinner and conversation! We’ll be in the back room unless there’s a special event going on in that room.

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