Motto: Death from Below, Keeps Safety from Above? Mors ab Inferis. Salues Desuper. Or… Bravery for a Free Space? Fortitudo Ad Liberum Spatium. Or… Death and Bravery for a Free Space? Mors et fortitudo, pro spatio libero. (Note, I used Google Translate, so this may not be proper Latin)
Beret: Carolina Blue
New Space Force uniform.
Photo credit: A U.S. Soldier participates in a night raid training mission during Emerald Warrior 2012, an exercise put together by U.S. Special Operations Command. Photo: USAFA U.S. soldier participates in a night-raid training mission during Emerald Warrior 2012, an exercise put together by U.S. Special Operations Command. Photo: USAF
This is just a fun post. I’m in no way Rambo, Soldier of Fortune, etc.
But, if the US Space Force had special forces, I would assume it would fall under a newly created US Space Force Special Operations Command (USSF-SOC) that falls under the Unified Combatant Command, with the new command either based out of the Colorado Springs area (able to cross train with local USAF, US Army and US Space Force facilities); Huntsville, AL area, or potentially somewhere in Florida such as Hulbert Field next to existing USAF Special Ops, or Patrick Air Force Base/Cape Canaveral Space Station or MacDill AFB.
But what would they do?
USSFSOC would be the shock force that protects terrestrial satellite stations for sustainment of the Defense Satellite Communication System (DSCS), performs Counter terrorism/CBRNE counter measures, retakes US or allied terrestrial satellite stations, while also incapacitating and taking over enemy ones with hand-to-hand combat, small arms, assault rifles, ordnance, calling in close air support strikes, etc.
A USSFSOC personnel would be like the Air Force Tactical Control Party (TAC-P) mixed with USAF Combat Control (Air Commando) , but this would be a Space Combat Control Party, i.e., Space CCP, i.e., Space Commando.
Similar to how CCTs are FAA certified Air Traffic Controllers, a Space CCP would be a NASA certified Flight Controller taught at the Christopher C. Kraft Jr., Mission Control Center Houston (MCC-H)
They go behind enemy lines, take out or take over enemy communication stations, extract USSF or allied personnel, repair satellites, conduct Flight Controller duties.
Teams would be led by an officer in person or remotely who has an Electrical Engineering background but supported by a cadre of enlisted personnel who are capable of hacking into or retrieving elements of an enemy’s servers located at satellite stations, or setting up /repairing remote satellite stations, etc.
Enlisted members will be designated as warrant officers so they can operate above enlisted but be subordinate to officers.
This will give the US and allies vital intelligence but also the ability to disrupt enemy satellite operations in space thus throwing off an enemy’s GPS targeting systems, etc. Also, USSF-SOC operators can establish/repair remote satellite stations.
Training would essentially be “capture the flag”, i.e., taking over enemy facilities and defending allied facilities.
HALO/HAHO (High Altitude, Low Opening/High Opening) parachuting. Using littoral waterway entrance methods (infiltration via beaches by sea or river) to enter into enemy territory. Using SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) tactics to successful bypass/neutralize enemy combatants. Surveil enemies using SALUTE reporting (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, and Equipment). Direct close air support via Joint Terminal Attack Controller methodology to destroy enemy satellite stations. Defend and evacuate US Space Force or other DOD or Allied personnel at satellite stations in combat zones. Establish/repair remote satellite outposts. Physically take over enemy satellite stations either for destruction or for cooption.
Training may consist of (1) selection, (2) SERE school at Fairchild AFB, WA; (3) Ranger School; (4) US Army Airborne School (Parachute Badge) at Fort Benning, GA for Static Line qualification & Army Military Free Fall Parachutist School, Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona for HALO qualification; (5) Cold Weather orientation and Basic Military Mountaineering Course at the Northern Warfare Training Center at Ft. Wainwright Alaska, (6) Combat Diver/ Underwater Egress School at NAS Pensacola, FL, (7) Jungle Warfare at US Jungle Operations Training Center at Schofield Barracks, (8) Desert Warrior Course at Ft Bliss, also advanced training notably with satellite systems at the Jet Propulsion Lab Space Flight Operator Facility, .
Pararescuemen from the 38th Rescue Squadron and the 58th Rescue Squadron, Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., jump from a HC-130P/N for a High Altitude Low Opening free fall drop from 12,999 feet in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. PJs use a variety of jumps depending on the mission. / USAF Photograph by Staff Sgt. Jeremy T. Lock.
In this March 1, 2017, photo, soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team participate in jungle warfare training at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. The Army has set up a jungle training course amid a renewed focus on Asia and the Pacific after more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Daniel Lin)
In the future a person who qualifies for USSF SOC Space CCP could qualify for a NASA mission, meaning they’d be the first US Space Force Commando in space.
II. How does fraud happen, without it really “happening”?
III. Boring, Boring, Boring
IV. Basics I.
V. Basics II.
VI. Basics III.
VII. Basics IV.
VIII. Basics V.
IX. Some applicable laws
I. (a). Introduction into the Military Complex
Today, as of 14 March 2023, President Biden suggested his upcoming military budget of $886 Billion dollars. As a veteran (no Rambo) who served myself, an Army brat (ex-military dependent), and having worked for a contractor I can assure you that nothing makes sense, while simultaneously making total sense at the same time regarding the budget. At this point, the US spends so much on the military not because the military is “pound per pound” more efficient as compared to other combatant nations (I only shot a gun once in basic training and not while on active duty), but rather it is mostly a vestige of the World War II Military Complex that was established under FDR, with roots dating back as early as the Lincoln and Grant during and after the Civil War.
It’s basically a Keynesian “demand side economics” jobs program paid for with a mix of taxes, but mostly debt, where the United States can’t escape the addiction because to escape the addiction means to end the Empire, because a contraction is more of a sign to other nations, and signs in a world of image is everything.
For example, have you ever been to Lima, Ohio? No? I haven’t. Exactly. But, guess what, the Lima Army Tank Plant is there. The military complex is everywhere. It’s not simply Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Boeing, Saab, Leonardo Spa, Textron, etc., but a web of medium size or small vendors ranging from janitorial services, food vendors, laundry services, mail services (Pitney Bowes), cafeteria vendors (US Foods, Sodexho, etc.), universities who perform testing services, even entertainment via MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Readiness) which is were Hollywood comes into play. Coca-Cola is a military contractor. That seemingly boring office park you see might be full of contractors doing everything for sensitive document disposal, to architectural designs, to urinalysis testing, etc.
It’s everywhere.
In other words, we can’t stop upping the annual military budget because so much of our domestic economy is dependent upon it, as well as our international foreign policy which entails selling our technical expertise to our allies, who in return give us access to their airspace, land, and ports, but also purchases (props up) our debts by buying Treasuries, not debating the petrodollar scheme, etc. We are stuck as the “world’s mercenaries” who provide the best “science fair” productions, i.e., weapon systems.
I. (b). America’s faltering foreign policy
The interesting thing is that the United States is giving up these weapon systems to nations who are playing their own “Games of Thrones” such as Saudi Arabia, i.e., the home of the 9/11 hijackers or Israel, where Israel I would argue has capture US foreign policy, such as preventing the United States from engaging in direct diplomacy, which would theoretically cut China off from Europe since Iran is a land land-bridge connecting China via Pakistan, especially now that the United States is not in Afghanistan, which is Catch 22, because if we staying in Afghanistan we would be spending just as much money/endangering American lives in a nation incapable of being “reformed”. Yet, by leaving Afghanistan, which I hate to admit, per the theory of Zbigniew Brzezinski in The Grand Chessboard the United States is essentially a sideline player, because per the theory of Brzezinski, whomever controls the Central Asian Steppes effectively cuts the world in half, thus “ruling the world”, i.e., the pivot point or bulkhead between West and East.
The irony is that Israel has its own ties with China, so even if the USA is bumped out of “important conversations” (as seen by a growing number of UN votes in China’s favor), the Israelis still can jump to their new “boyfriend” with the Chinese and Russia, etc. China will therefore simply replace the USA as the arbiter of peace negotiations with them financing the Muslim world but the Israelis wanting the lucrative Chinese market to sell their expertise (ironically, partially funded by US joint ventures in the Silicon Wadi for example).
Disclaimer: My opinions on Israel are not meant to be misconstrued as antisemitic because I want Israel to exist, but Netanyahu has been a bane to America’s existence. The Jews deserve to be back in the Holy Land, even though we can of course disagree on the current state of Israeli and Palestinian relations.
The United States toppled Saddam in Iraq, Gaddafi in Libya, nearly took out Assad in Syria, and even disable Iran’s alleged nuclear program with the Stuxtnet Program (where General James Cartwright mysteriously being given the “David Petraeus” Treatment, i.e., accused of sexual misconduct as a means of getting rid of him), but it is still not enough for Israel. At this point, why doesn’t the US have a military base in Israel if we are so needed to kill off Israel’s enemies, which is basically elements within each Muslim and even Christian nation on Earth – let’s be real.
I. (c). Corruption Examples
Yet, it is easy to say the federal government is corrupt regarding contracting such as with the Military Industrial Complex (trust me, I get the frustration). First, let’s define contracting as the process of dealing with contractors/vendors/merchants, i.e., the process of conducting acquisitions, buying, purchasing, etc.. But getting “no bid contracts” without following any rules is possible but harder than expected, luckily thanks to whistleblower protection laws. Basically, if you are stupid enough to defraud at the federal level you deserve what comes to you because it is scary to do contracting for the Federal government.
The stereotype of corrupt politicians meeting at fancy DC steakhouses where you can get cigars and high paid escorts. But, does this happen? I don’t know; however, I would argue that corrupt contracting/procurement/acquisition/buying practices happens at lower levels of government, e.g., cousin Jedediah with the city purchasing card giving an award for parks and recreation clean up to his niece’s fiancé, or the Brett Farve situation in Mississippi where he was tapping into welfare funds. It is much easier to get away with corrupt contracting practices at local municipal and city government levels because of lack of centralized oversight, which is the same reason America’s policing policies have so many issues, i.e., there’s a separation of federal and state, so local governments are largely shielded from oversight unless they break federal law, i.e., mail or wire fraud, tax evasion, violations of intersection commerce, etc.
However, the federal government has arrested my Contracting Officers for abusing their powers such as the process of getting Kickbacks. I would say that corruption at the federal level happens outside the actual procurement process most of the time but rather during the vendor selection process, particularly no major weapon system programs, i.e., your major international tradeshow and airshow levels.
I. (d). America’s Military Recruitment Problem
America is allegedly undergoing a military requirement problem and I call it baloney. I don’t believe it. The Pentagon which essentially is a hive mind that calculates manpower and strategy, created this supposed problem by doing aggressive “force reductions” even before our withdrawal from Afghanistan. When I served, they let people leave the military before their Military Service Obligations (MSO). The US military thinks an updated version of “Be All you Can be” from our Cold War childhoods will somehow solve this “problem”. Let prior service members join, as well as expand the Reserves and National Guard.
The military has bad recruitment practices. Why are we still asking recruits or pre-service re-entries about marijuana usage when most US states now have it legal, as well our Canadian allies to the north (including for active duty)?
The military literally still asks about something we all know most people do, but if you lie, you’re breaking the law, but if you tell the truth, you need waivers which go on your record. It’s foolish. The military is still asking about marijuana use, yet there is no way of screening for sexual predators based on a questionnaire, which is way worst, e.g., remember the Venessa Guillen case, which is just one case of violence against women that got major media coverage [See: Murder of Vanessa Guillén – Wikipedia].
Further, most jobs in the military I would argue don’t feel like “warriors”, but rather paper pushers or administrators dealing with NCOs and officers who have a culture of “let the sh-t roll downhill”.
I shot a gun once in 4 years, but ironically the military budget is going up. It makes no sense. How are we going to call Airmen, “Airmen”, for example, when most never even ride on a military aircraft (think a C-130 Hercules) such as for trainings to simulate deployments or even being a part of an airborne mission, e.g., doing translation work or Air Battle Manager work on an actual plane for training?
The Taliban and Vietcong did warfare without nearly as much spending as the Americans, and still gave us hell. Instead of saying we’re at a lack of manpower, we need to empower those already in, those in the reserves/National Guard, and even Inactive Ready Reservists to feel like…warriors. I would argue that small NATO nations have more lethal troops as a percentage than the US military does. US Special Forces is a very small community and aviator jobs flying expensive aircraft are reserved for the officer class, with some exceptions for Warrant Officers and enlisted positions. The United States Air Force doesn’t even have a Warrant Officer tier meaning that skilled NCOs are eventually relegated to administrative jobs as opposed to staying has seasoned experts.
The sad truth in my opinion is that people don’t do twenty years because of “patriotism” but because the military provides benefits. There are people getting pensions for 20 years who never saw combat, versus people who saw combat but got out, and their VA compensation may not be as lucrative.
It’s just simply easier to do “raises” rather than to do structural reform in the US military.
II. How does fraud happen, without it really “happening”?
But they get away with the actual procurement via the “evaluation process”, where you can’t buy quality always at the “Lowest Price, Technically Acceptable”, i.e., the lowest price as determined by a competitive acquisition where multiple vendors compete in a “sealed bid” type of process, and where the winning bid feels the criteria of a Statement of Work (SOW) or Statement of Objectives (SOO).
In other words, they know that the big players will always win. So, they are playing by the rules, but the rules of the game are rigged for the big guys, since they are often evaluation on criteria outside of price via “Best Value” Source Selection evaluation criteria such as Past Performance (they’ve done it before), Technical Expertise, the best and most advantageous Warranty, Financial health, etc. Yet, the government does require that contracts comply with Small Business Administration requirements thus ensuring that the “little guy” is looked out for, yet, on certain important requirements, these firms simply can’t compete.
I would not say that federal government is corrupt per se, but rather it’s the equivalent of a Cohen Brother’s movie, i.e., a sort of Burn After Reading, Lost in Translation, Kafka-esque process, where the sheer size of the federal government with its various branches, departments, agencies, federal corporations, etc., are all speaking the same language but via different dialects. Sometimes you get corruption, sure, but mostly higher costs come from sloppy contracting or exhaustion from burdensome processes or cultures of fear within organizations where people are “afraid to raise their hands” for fear of being perceived an “inept” or making a small fire into a large fire.
III. Boring, Boring, Boring
Buying in the federal government is boring and burdensome, but this is a good thing because the slower you go the more likely you are to find errors or to have better bargaining power against suppliers who may want quick awards. Yet, buyers aren’t truly “empowered”. For example, let’s say you have a competition for a fleet of Jeeps for the Secret Service. You compete against five (5) dealerships, where some are registered small businesses, meaning you are sharing the love. You provide a Statement of Work with all the specifications you require, and you have also received questions from various dealerships. You then share these clarifications with all parties so no one has an advantage over the other. You eventually get the quotes back, you share them with the end users who sign off whether they meet the specifications or not, you disqualify some, but you land at the LPTA.
The thing is after you come to the LPTA, sure, you can still negotiate and ask for discounts, but you can’t make the suppliers fight against each other. For example, you go back to the second lowest LPTA and say, “Can you beat $x price”. The second may come back and say sure I can do that or, I can’t meet the price point, but I can give you a two-year warranty as opposed to a 6-month warranty as defined by your specification, and this is better than anything we give to civilian customers (you verify this is true). Or, let’s say the second LPTA comes back with a lower price. You can’t then say to both remaining competent vendors, “This is the last round. Can you beat $x price”, i.e., assuming $x price is the second LPTA. In theory both might go lower, or one might say, “Hey I can’t meet that price”, but at least the buyer would know that he left it all on the field for the benefit of the taxpayer.
You essentially can’t “haggle” like you can in the real world.
IV. Basics I.
The basis of federal contracting is the Federal Acquisition Regulation, but the certain agencies have their own specific supplements to the FAR, for example, you have the FAR, the DFARs (Defense Acquisition Regulation), the AFFARs (the Air Force Acquisition Regulations), etc. Further, if the government is awarding a federally funded taxpayer contract to contractor, who can thereon have its own various subcontractors, the government will require these businesses include “flow-downs”, i.e., certain selected FAR based clauses to be applied into their contracts, which are uniquely selected by the Contracting Officer.
The Contracting Officer (CO) may be one of the most powerful positions you have never heard of, but there’s offices full of them throughout the various agencies and departments. From NASA to the Department of Education, FEMA, the Treasury Department, etc., you have COs.
A CO will likely run their own contract, but in more complex acquisitions you may have a PCO, ACO, or TCO, i.e., a Procurement Contracting Officer, Administrating Contracting Officer, and Termination Contracting Officer.
A CO is granted their authority through delegation of the Executive, i.e., the President, like how a military office is granted their commission by the President. Of course, you never meet the president, but the theory is that all government workers are effectively extensions of the Executive who delegates explicit and implied authority to his workers in the various administrative agencies.
V. Basics II.
Prospective COs on behalf whichever Department they will be working for will takes courses as assigned by an Acquisition Career Manager (like a counselor) from accredited federal bodies such as the Federal Acquisitions Institute (FAI) which is for all federal agencies (except the DOD), which therefore technically falls under the General Services Administration (GSA), or the DAU (Defense Acquisition University) for DOD members, where the DAU trains COs to be in alignment with agencies such as the DCMA (Defense Contract Management Agency) and DCAA (Defense Contracting Auditing Agency). [See: FAI Home | FAI.GOV; DAU Home]
After training, career development courses (CDCs), etc., a person will get their certification such as the FAC-C (Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting) Level I-III series from the FAI or an APDP (Acquisition Professional Development Program) Level I-III from the DAU.
Once a person becomes a CO, they will be awarded a Warrant, i.e., a Delegation of Authority, which states up to what level of money they are authorized to spend by themselves. Newer buyers of course start low while more seasoned buyers may have multi-million dollar or unlimited warrants. For example, in active-duty military a Contracting Squadron commander might have a very high dollar warrant even though they don’t deal with contracting directly, but rather high-level government-civilian workers or enlisted personnel (the technical experts) do the actual contracting process. Essentially, the commander might serve as the final stamp and oversight, but not really involved in all the details, even though they are being briefed on “hot requirements” which have higher level visibility.
All contracts entered by the federal government are input into the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) which also falls under General Services Administration (GSA) – think of GSA as the “Amazon of the Federal Government. [See: Federal Procurement Data System – Wikipedia]
VII. Basics IV.
So, when a buyer is buying something they to think about the Bona Fid Needs Rule which means that a federal procurement must be for an actual and immediate/foreseeable need, i.e., you can’t spend money necessarily on things because you feel a need, but rather there has to be an actual need; Misappropriation Act which requires that buyers use the correct “Color of Money” when buying something. Finance Departments help with this by coding “Lines of Accounting” with the proper pool of funds, fiscal year, location, etc.; the Anti-deficiency Act of 1982 which is asking “Do you actually have money”, and you can’t spend more than you are given.
Funding is also dependent upon the Federal government’s fiscal calendar which ends every 30th of September and begins every 1st of October. In theory, how it works, (I am assuming here) that by 15th April is when taxes are due, but between then and Oct 1st, I would assume that the Treasury sees how much “liquid cash” it can collect and how much debt it needs to underwrites, and for the debt it underwrites (Treasuries) then get sold at “auctions” with most purchased by the central bank to “insure” the “printing” of new money if necessary, then from there we have a fresh sources of cash comprised of a bundle of tax money and money printed (new debt), to be spent, i.e., recycled within the system – thus giving that currency “life” – to keep the next year going. When Treasuries mature, the Treasury then pays the Federal Reserve which helps the Fed Reserve clear the bonds off its balance sheet, if necessary, if the Fed Reserve hasn’t already sold them for profit elsewhere, i.e., such as to other central banks, mutual funds, etc.
The government is very strict about not crossing fiscal years because after each year expires, the appropriate funds are returned to Congress. Three questions of do you have funds?, and are you using the right bucket of money?, and is the need immediate? For multi-year contracts that span multiple fiscal years, contracts are designed to have “options” (think of it like a sports contract), e.g., Base Plus Three means you have a base year with three potential option years (where proposals are evaluated en masse prior to award), where Procurement Offices will either exercise or not exercise an upcoming year by notifying a supplier within an agreed upon time-frame. Once October 1st comes, the Contracting Officer will issue a modification to add the new years money, etc.
VIII. Basics V.
Once the buyer establishes these criteria, then it’s about how do you buy? Technically an RFQ is different than a RFP, i.e., Request for Quote versus Request for Proposal, where an RFP will fall under FAR 15 for Source Selection (higher dollar PO’s – purchase orders, typically services, where there’s complex evaluation criteria, including the possibility of needing a Source Selection Board), whereas an RFQ will fall under FAR Part 13 for Simplified Acquisition Procedures, i.e., falling under the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (varies from year to year sometimes).
A construction-based Invitation for Bid (IFB) will fall under FAR Part 14 relating to the Sealed Bidding process. Further, FAR 8 relates to Mandatory Sources of Supply which establishes the order of precedence for which to by from, with the first source of supply technically being Agency Inventories, i.e., if the Army has extra desks, then technically the USAF should be getting those; however, no one really follows this and instead agencies go with other sources, such as General Services Administration, Federal Prison Industries (now called Unicor), Ability One (a successor to the National Institute for the Blind and Severely Handicapped, i.e., NIB NISH), and then General Service Administration schedules found on sites such as GSA e-Buy, GSA Advantage, etc.
Then if you can’t find your items or services via these services then you can go into the “marketplace” by position a notice, solicitation, or combination of both (FAR Part 13) via the Government Point of Entry (GPE), i.e., Federal Business Opportunities.
Oral quotes are often looked down upon, but simple acquisitions can include all solicitation details in an email, where as more complex acquisitions require forms such as SF 1442 (construction) or SF 1449s (commodities and services).
For suppliers to get access to federal bids they need to register for codes such as NAICS Codes (North American Industrial Classification Standards) which determines what type of industry they truly fall into, CAGE (Contractor and/or Commercial and Government Entity codes), Federal Supply Codes (FSC), PSC (Product Supply Codes), etc.
Davis Bacon Act of 1931 which relates to federal construction contracts to ensure workers are being paid fair “prevailing” “at a minimum” wages [See: Davis–Bacon Act of 1931 – Wikipedia]
The Miller Act of 1935 which requires contractors doing construction to government real property post surety bonds, i.e., bonds which allows a party to seek damages in the event of nonperformance, to insure they can finish projects (performance bonds) and pay workers and subcontractors (payment bonds), etc. [See: Miller Act – Wikipedia]
The Barry Amendment of 1941 which requires certain sources be sourced (shopped for) from domestic sources only [See: Berry Amendment – Wikipedia]
The Brooks Act of 1972 which requires that Architecture and Engineering services be based on quality, expertise, design, etc., and not price. A&E contracts come before construction which will then fall thereafter to Davis Bacon, Miller Act, etc. [See: Brooks Act – Wikipedia]
False Claims Act, which prevents contractors from submitting false claims for damages against the Federal government, i.e., think Medicare Fraud by shady Florida doctors, etc. [See: False Claims Act – Wikipedia]
Support for or against the Ukraine War is diverse. It’s not a simple case of “Ukrainian Nazis” versus “Russian National Bolshevik…Nazis”. There are anti-war sides within both nations, with some Russians fleeing the United States to get away from the drafts, but there is also anti-war sentiment within nations that fall under each of the combatant nation’s hegemonic sphere of influence, i.e., you may have anti-war sentiment in the land-locked Steppe (-stan) nations more aligned – either willingly or out of fear – to Russia because they may be more vulnerable to inflationary pressure and high commodity prices such as on oil or grain, just as you have anti-war voices within the developed West such England or Canada. But, there’s also pro-war sides on both, yet these pro-war sides might be coming from hard ethno-nationalism, whereas others are coming from a general sense of national pride (patriotism for the idea of the state, not necessary fully dependent upon one’s blood or ancestry). Yet, there is also a mix of both, i.e., those who support fighting for whichever side yet wanting some sort of truce to come sooner than later. Then you have those who are indifferent to the conflict since it seems so far away.
In our world of social media from YouTube video essayists, to known actors or unknown actors on platforms like Twitter or Meta (Facebook), it is hard to get a clear picture. Technology and the general state of evolution in which we live is best defined en masse as the “postmodern epoch”, and this epoch is not political, but rather a landscape where it is hard distinguish real from fake, i.e., the Jean Baudrillard concept of the Simulacra and Simulation, i.e., when hyperreality produced from the state-subsidized capitalist, technological, and pop culture machine becomes indistinguishable from the physical world, where culture may or may not mutate into spliced anachronisms of style, symbols (semiotics), and iconography.
Yet, so as not to get too lost in discussions of postmodernity, many thinkers argued that postmodernity was dead and should stay dead, but as we’re seeing now, it is not dead, but rather we live in a world that physically allows us to experience it. This is not the 1960s through 1980s where most postmodernity was understood through literature, fiction, science fiction, and film, as a fun “thought experiment” or transgressive look into human nature, but we now have the actual tools they could only dream of, e.g., deep fakes, social media, avatars, the metaverse, Virtual Reality companions, cybercrime, “techno-terrorism” and espionage, etc. The worlds of William Gibson, Thomas Pynchon, Orson Scott Card, Don DeLillo, Bret Easton Ellis, Robert Heinlein, and Philip K. Dick, seem real, palpable., and the effects of this lingering postmodernity – which is not innately bad since it is essentially a tool or lens to analyze society if done with caution and for the right purposes, i.e., analyzing systems of oppression to establish humanist reform – is that it is affecting…warfare. The modern battlefield where tactics are executed, to the think tanks and closed door “FOUO” “Top Secret” meetings where strategy is formulated, the modern world must factor in topics like memetic warfare, co-opted YouTubers whose main “patrons” are foreign governments, etc.
Hence, everything is fuzzy. And, a little depressing. It is easy to just want to watch streaming apps, watch porn, get drunk, and go through the motions of work as we penny pinch our wallets to pay our bills. It is easy to see Ukraine as a waste of time, but Ukraine represents in part the sustainment of the American Way of Life, while also the freedom of Ukraine. Think of it like concept of the universe expanding. There needs to be some sort of expansion to maintain relevancy, because the worse option, i.e., contraction, is terrifying, i.e., it’s better to have never-ending expansion, than a violent Big Crunch (i.e., just think about the fall of the British Empire). Complaining about returning to the old days and how younger generations are “soft” aren’t productive, because they did not set this train of events in motion.
II. The Factions:
Regarding the Ukraine War based my personal observations the below camps exist:
(1) The Dove “Down with the Man” Anti-NATO Left which encompasses figures such as Max Blumenthal, Andrew Mate, Jackson Hinkle, Katie Halper, Matt Taibbi [who is of Russian descent], Jimmy Dore – who often seems more comfortable with Tucker Carlson – similarly as Tulsi Gabbard, etc. This camp is often influenced by Noam Chomsky with Manufacturing Consent, Michael Parenti with To Kill a Nation, John Perkins with Confessions of an Economic Hitman, etc. Yet, as far as individuals there are a range of ideologies spanning from Marxist-Leninist Communists (i.e., called Tankies), other variants of Communists that may not entirely agree with Marxist ideology (think Rosa Luxemburg), Anarcho-Socialists – some may even say “Libertarian Socialists”, Democratic Socialists, Social Democrats, Centre-Left Liberals (i.e., traditional American Democrats or British Liberal Democrats), etc., with all claiming to some degree – at least in the USA to be “Progressive”.
Yet, conservatives on the right wing, indifferent to providing any nuance to the Left, often lumps everyone as “progressives” while insinuating all progressives are communists., and to be fair, the Left does this often to the right-wing labeling all people as “Fascists”, yet, I would argue that Right Wing politics typically is more “lockstep” cohesive, often because as far as the West it represents the “colonial and/or imperial class”, i.e., the right-leaning predominately white majority (e.g., the Republican Party as far as policy and aesthetics derives it mythology from American settlers, i.e., Manifest Destiny, White Zionism, “Home on the Range”, etc., while British conservatives are nostalgic for the British “Queen Jubilee” Imperium of Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian England). For example, the American “Redneck”, South African Boer, Australian “Bogan”, Canadian “prairie homesteader”, etc., are all essentially the same thing, i.e., the white racial buffer class to the white colonial elite.
This Dovish Left side of the house has merit traditionally speaking, such as calling out the Bush Administration with the Global War on Terrorism, the Patriot Act, FISA Court warrants, and has supported freedom for Julian Assange (some say he’s a Russian asset), Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden – with Snowden having fled to Russia.
But there is also a “counterculture” aspect with intersections that can easily bleed into conspiracy theory, e.g., the “con-spiritualist” scene, i.e., green and healthy living mixed with Ancient Alien or Antediluvian theories, Gaia Theory, Wiccan or Heathen thought, and the anti-vaccine theories such as those Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (who instantly invokes conspiracies about the assassinations of his father and his uncle, JFK, which typically leads to theories about the mafia, CIA, Allen Dulles, etc.).
The utopian ideals of the “hippie Left” though honorable and good intentioned does not have a coherent foreign policy and often in its utopianism, often lacking constant effort and work by its adherents (protesting, yes, but with the boring, consistent, and dirty work such as volunteering, the results are iffy).
This dilemma often sets the Left up to be blamed for society’s ills, e.g., how Fox News is blaming homelessness caused by narcoterrorism from Mexican Cartels and Chinese Chemicals on anti-fascists who protested police during the BLM protests, or how conservatives blame crime rates on the Left despite police officers still collecting paychecks and pensions (and, with no actual federal level police reform bill passed).
“Peace, man…” or being a know-it-all on America’s follies is not a coherent foreign policy, considering many of the countries this Leftist side stands up for as they decry American Imperialism are often funding hostile activities towards Americans, and might have cultures that are not open to progressivism. This side of the house has a tendency to blanketly blame the CIA and USA for all the ills of the world (they are no saints), yet, the Left needs to understand that many friends and foes respect realpolitik, strength through force, etc.
This “far out” conspiracy culture, which is fun to engage in from time to time, seems to have been co-opted by America’s enemies, and merged with the right-wing to undermine America (a flanking strategy of left and right).
To finish up on the “Dove Left”, notably about the “Tankies” I spoke about above, they have this idea that Russia is still this romanticized worker’s republic of the Soviets. I would rather deal with the Soviets than Putin’s Right-Wing Russia where his neoliberal reforms have resulted in rampant corruption and wealth disparity.
Instagram for example has very interesting pages about life in the Soviet Union, brutalist architectural pages, pages dedicated to Soviet cosmonauts, etc. Yet, the Tankies are the byproduct of being disenchanted with the avarice of boom-and-bust cycle capitalism and billionaires like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, etc., with this mood having spilled over from the 2008 Financial Crash and the decade long recession thereafter.
Socialism is popular now, and I don’t mind that in theory at all, because it offers a good analysis about how our system works and how to improve it. Socialism is popular largely because the US educational system bent on creating capitalists didn’t fully explain the true and complex history of it, but rather demonized it fully. Conservatives for example use to call centrists Democrats, as being Communists, which is ridiculous, so, well, you get what you ask for.
Yet, regarding Ukraine, some Tankies side with Russia out of some foregone nostalgia, where most were not even alive when the USSR was around. I’m almost 40 years old (born an Army brat) and I barely remember the Cold War as it came to an end in the late 1980s. The problem with American Tankies is they are relying on a foreign source to define their ideology instead of looking internally to previous American Left Wing movements, i.e., it is OK to be a Communist if that is your persuasion but it is OK to also be patriotic because one would think that adhering to such a drastic ideology would hopefully be for…love on one’s county, and not merely the destruction it because its “imperialist”, and the CIA is “boogeyman, bad”.
I, as a black man have every reason to be angry at the US but America is in my blood and I’d rather define it and improve it rather than tear it down.
Even if one thinks that nation-states are bad, as if they are some sort of internationalist Trotskyite, then at least focus on your backyard before thinking about saving the world in full.
The next group with opinions about Ukraine is…
(2) The predominately white demographic, fear based Pro-Russia camp that is also anti-NATO, anti-CIA. This is a surprising shift because they use to be about both but now with their “racial replacement fear” they are against it because they see NATO as a reason for refugees, etc. These types of Right Wingers are a mix of conspiracy culture ranging from the Great Replacement, allegedly via plans such as Kalegri Plan to replace white Europeans by “flooding” the Northern hemisphere with people from the Southern Hemisphere – which is a theory embroiled in white privilege thinking considering the West and USA needed immigration to keep growing and immigrants do the jobs that the elevated the white “native populations” from poverty and since these “nativists” won’t downsize to lower wage job, for fear of losing the fancier things in life. But, now suddenly, they wish to reject those fancier things (allegedly), returning to some sort of “Indo-European, cough – Aryan” culture (German paganism, etc.) or medieval monarchism after spending decades gloating about their fancier things/superior civilization at the expense of other cultures. This is to say the least, hypocritical.
Sure, rampant or emergency based refugee crises or immigration isn’t ideal or comfortable, and certain cultures may have issues such as Sharia Islam in relation to Western secularism. However, instead of hate, there needs to be bridges. If one’s idea is better, supposedly, then sell that idea. I am a firm believer in the Melting Pot theory as opposed to multiculturalism.
Further, there is the Great Reset Theory which is from people interpreting thinkers like Alvin Toffler with his book The Third Wave, the book The Fourth Industrial Revolution by the World Economic Forum founder, etc., where people believe a the New World Order is using “shock doctrine” (the topic of a book by the same name by Naomi Klein), “manufactured austerity”, “merging genders”, “transhumanism”, and biological warfare – such as the Coronavirus 19 – to “terraform” the world into a one-world, integrated, genetically modified, and borderless system ruled by a powerful elite using digital currency, but by which all of it threatens white supremacy, i.e., very similar to old theories such as ZOG, i.e., Zionist Occupied Government, which is an outgrowth of the antisemitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The one currency concept is ironic since most Pro-crypto thought comes from these Jeffersonian, libertarian, Ron Paul, I hate government types, but the truth is most crypto has already been mined by the rich or anti-American nation states.
The World Economic Forum, as well as Davos, have become the poster children of what people see as a sort of Eyes Wide Shut amoral class of technocrats who are undemocratically designing the world in their own liking. Is there truth here? Yes! But, to what degree is debatable and such a large cabal requires way too much coordination. The only such coordination can only be possible with Elon Musk types.
The criticisms of this camp, same as that of the No.1 with the Dove Left are not entirely unfounded because there are problems with the existing technocratic world order where the common man or woman better understands topics such as World Bank, Bank of International Settlements, or World Trade Organization corruption, International Monetary Fund predatory lending, regime change, and the fact the rich seem to get richer after each catastrophe, etc.
The sad truth is that there ARE actual conspiracies that people see but little seems to get done about it, and if so, the punishments are often lite. For example, think of the relationship of NXIVM via Sara Bronfman whose husband, Swiss based wheeler, and dealer, Basit Igtet lead peace talks in the wake of the Libyan Revolution that toppled Gaddafi. There’s no denying a link between the two people, even though the events themselves were separate.
If anything, both No. 1 and No. 2., are responding to a sense of helplessness in the face of a very real machine, and America’s shameful history, ranging from giving amnesty to Nazis in World War II to the truths behind real experiments such as MK Ultra has led many to go off the deep end, trapped in nihilistic malaise. Movements such as Qanon exploited this fact, manipulating No. 2’s animus that centers around white exceptionalism while also being conservative on the surface as means of preserving their pleasure seeking and hedonism that goes on behind closed doors. I am no Freudian, but his emphasis on sex as the root of all things seems to explain these Alt-Right minions, because their affinity for movements like the Men’s Right movement is the result of feeling sexually repressed or unlucky, especially with boys raised on Instagram and with free pornography, where studies have shown social media beauty standards has also had negative effects on young girls.
Yet, this Qanon movement seems to have been highly manufactured by an international cabal of American conservatives, Russians, and possibly even Israeli Zionists, who blended everything from Millennialism and eschatology, Manifest Destiny, Zionism, Cold War Anti-Communism, the 1980s Satanic Panic, Nietzsche & nihilism (the need for struggle, the concept of eternal recurrence, etc.), Soldier of Fortune “Timothy McVeigh” type militia culture, racism (every Right Wing group involved at Charlottesville), homophobia, transphobia, sexism, Western exceptionalism, antisemitism, paganism, esoteric and occult thought (i.e., memes as form of tarot or alchemical spell to influence people), Alex Jones (serving as one of many “circuit board operators” of this movement), American and British Puritanism, Catholic “Deus Vult” fascism (ranging from the talking points of figures such as Michael J. Matt, all the way to the Pepe The Frog cynicism of Alt-Right/Neo Nazi figures like Nick Fuentes and the Goyim Defense League), Eastern Orthodox Christianity (such as the musings of Jay Dyer who is an avowed monarchist that rejects democracy, but also Jonathan Pageau), conspiracy theory, “Reject Modernity, Embrace Tradition” callings, etc.
Qanon was essentially a “thought bomb” or informational warfare where some element might rub off on a person’s subconscious making them pay attention to the messaging. It appealed to older generations who didn’t have the best grasp of emergent technology, while also catering to younger naïve people who weren’t around for previous events to fully understand their contexts.
Most regular everyday people don’t see what the Right Wing is doing because they’ve fled off the traditional platforms and onto websites like Rockfin, Telegram, Gab, Rumble, etc.
For example, KKK leader David Duke had an apartment in Moscow and met with Russian Eurasianist theorist Aleksandr Dugin. Dugin later was a guest on InfoWars, same as Jay Dyer who with his wife Jamie Hanshaw were featured on 2.19.2023 (with Dyer contributing to InfoWars multiple times and he too interviewed Aleksandr Dugin. Jay Dyer was on Warski Live (a podcast) with Lauren Southern, who also interviewed Dugin in Russia, but later became a contributor to SkyNews Australia, under the Murdoch Media empire, which of course owns Fox News in the USA. Southern was also an associated of Proud Boy’s Founder and ex-Vice founder, Gavin McInnes, with both being Canadian (like other “Intellectual Dark Web” Figures such as Jordan B. Peterson and Stefan Molyneux). Neo Nazis have been known to go to Russia, as well as other Eastern European nations.
(3) There is a new demographic that I would call the Pro-War or Realpolitik Left or Liberal, where the common person who falls on this side of the political spectrum supports military action against Russia because they see Russian as representing an anti-progressive and/or anti-democratic threat to the West and the freedoms it enjoys. This is why you often notice Pro-Ukraine Flags in liberal cities or college towns, etc. They see Russia has an anti-democratic dictatorship that oppresses marginalized groups and who meddled in US politics, going as far as empowering the United States own Right-Wing movements which has resulted in influencing domestic terrorism, notably white nationalist domestic terrorism.
For example, Fox News has always been criticized for its hyper-partisan and hyperbolic approach to reporting on the news cycle, but Fox News has also backed pro-Russian sentiments.
This seems hypocritical because pundits including Tucker Carlson himself supported the Middle East Wars but now suddenly becomes a pacifist regarding a “white” country that seems to enjoy oppressing women [wife beating is legal], etc.
The things about this Realpolitik Left or Liberal is that even before the Ukraine War, many were sympathetic to the refugees caused by NATO intervention in Syria and Libya, with some going as far as sponsoring refugees to live in their homes. So, this sides isn’t as “ideological” than that of current conservatives, but rather pragmatic., i.e., they saw the hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern and African refugees as a consequence of not only despotic governments but also the West’s inability to engage in diplomacy with said governments, yet, there’s more sympathy for engaging in war with Russia because Russia is seen as an existential threat with a proven track record of hostility towards the West (e.g., poisoning journalists, our traditional Cold War nemesis where Putin can’t let the loss go, creating a parallel foreign policy to that of the USA so they can butt into American diplomatic missions as a means of recapturing their lost glory after the fall of the Berlin Wall).
Next, we have…
(4) The traditional Hawkish, Neoconservative Republican Camp, which due to be taken over by the populism of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, which was in part a reaction to the Neoconservatism of the Bush-Cheney and Clinton Eras, have largely fallen in line with the Pro-Russia Camp. This is where Meaghan McCain, Liz Cheney, Lindsey Graham, Adam Kinzinger, etc., reside at., yet, Kinzinger resisted the January 6th Insurrectionists, same as Cheney, but by doing so, both Kingzinger and Cheney lost their Congressional seats, showing how deeply entrenched MAGA was and still is. Figures like Tucker Carlson threads the line between No. 4 and No. 2., but is slipping more No. 2 because of more vitriolic competition from agencies like OAN and Newsmax.
Then of course we have…
(5) Non-Far Right Ukrainians, and international expatriates living abroad in the US, Canada, etc., simply wanting national autonomy from Russia, who see their relatives being killed as a result of Russian aggression. Most Americans were unaware of the Ukrainian community but the Western “bread basket” provinces have a rich history.
I know a woman who is of Ukrainian descent and is a very nice person, a Democrat, a feminist who is raising two strong daughters who often perform traditional Ukrainian dances to raise funds for charity, etc., but I had to watch her social media as she showed her hometown being raised by Russian troops.
Also, we have…
(6) Far Right Nationalist Ukrainians wanting freedom from Russia, but these types feed into the Anti-NATO Far Right who point to the Azov Battalion, etc., as proof of rampant Nazism in Ukraine. Are there Nazis in Ukraine? Absolutely, but there are Nazis in the United States as we speak (some in our military), such as Atomwaffen which has attempted to blow up power plants, etc.
The irony of the Anti-NATO Right Wing is they are soft or dismissive of Nazis riding the coattails of the Republican Party, but then anti-Nazi because NATO is going after their beloved Vladmir Putin, i.e., daddy.
Yet, having nationalist sentiments isn’t always bad, but it’s bad when nationalism explicitly becomes an exclusionary and supremacist ideology. Being patriotic in a socially acceptable way is not bad. Yet, there is truth to the Ukrainian Nazi accusation but to what is extent is debatable. It is true that going back as far as World War II that the OSS, i.e., the later CIA, did recruit former Nazi collaborating Ukrainians as cadres, i.e., cells, to combat Communist forces in post war Europe. The CIA even admits this on its own website. However, Ukraine, like Finland with Carl Gustaf Mannerheim was in a precarious position in WWII. The Ukrainians nor the Fins didn’t want to be conquered by the Reds (Communists), so they sided with the Nazis (with the Allied Powers not giving much if any military assistance against the Nazis), but there were cases of Ukrainians murdering their Nazi officers, considering the Germans wanted to eventually make the Slavs into literal slaves. A complicated case of the “enemy of my enemy is my friend”. However, real war crimes were committed.
(7) Ukrainian based separatist Russians, with their international Russian ex-patriate comrades – many living in the United States, Canada, etc. – who seem themselves similar to “Germans”, where Germans during nationalistic eras of old acted like a “race” (ethnicity in reality) of people fighting for their civilization and felt they needed expansion (lebensraum) to preserve themselves, but this tendency in some modern day Russians – largely fostered by Putin himself – destabilizes now independent nations freed form the ex-Soviet Union, such as Eastern Ukraine, possibly the Baltic States, and as of March 2023 we are seeing “Pan Slavic””Z” protests in the Czech Republic and Moldova asking for the West to the stop the war. [1] An anti-government protest in Czech capital draws thousands | Stars and Stripes, [2] Moldova police arrest members of Russian-backed network over unrest plot | Moldova | The Guardian
About me: Everyday guy. US Air Force veteran (honorable discharge). AmeriCorps alumus. BA in Business, Associates in Applied Science in Contracts Management, and Master of Science in Management with Operations Management focus. I’m black American, but supposedly with some Muskogee Creek heritage (allegedly) but my last name is Scottish (crazy story). I was raised a US Army military brat having lived in Florida, Kansas, Germany, Washington State, and Georgia. My grandads fought in World War II and Korea. I’m a pro-military, patriotic, Progessive who enjoys Left Wing thought but I’m more of a 3rd way thinker, i.e., I see capitalism as a tool rather than something to worship. My socialist sympathies actually comes from being raised in the military. I used to be in the Young Democrats but grew up in Ronald Reagan suburbia (interesting upbringing). I was raised all over from truck driving, gun owning Georgians to Seattle or Olympia Hippies to Washington DC civil servants. I was born “poor” or “lower middle class” but my parents worked hard to make it upper middle class.
Cheers.
Read the full list since there’s no order to it.
Be a little weird and think outside the box.
Participatory Budgeting where citizens vote on what percentage they want their taxes going, everyone’s submissions are averaged out, but then legislators do the same thing. Both are averaged and used as a baseline for Budgeting.
Merge the census with tax returns to cut costs if not by law then by executive order
Review federal acquisition procedures to ensure procurement practices are optimal
Better publicize what the federal government does in fun commercials such as what’s going on in science, agriculture, historic preservation, national parks, environmental efforts like the restoring animals on the Endagered Species List, Army Corps of Engineers, NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration)
Instill a spirit of customer service amongst public (civil) servants so the general public improves their perception of government
The possibility of using Enterprise Resource Planning system tools like SAP in government agencies to better coordinate finance (as to comply with rules such as the bona fide need rule, Misappropriation Act, colors-of-money), procurement offices, auditors, senior leadership, etc. One government, one language as far as ERP, SaaS (Software as a Service), Asset Management Tools, freight carrier guides with 3PLs (third party logistics).
Establish a Loving Day based on the Loving Supreme Court case to celebrate multiracial families where celebrities of biracial or multiracial heritage talk about their lives such as Derek Jeter, Pete Wentz, Patrick Mahomes, Mariah Carey, Halle Barry, Blake Griffin, Zach LaVine, The Rock, Meghan Markle, Cameron Champ, etc. See article: https://andscape.com/features/black-pga-golfer-cameron-champ-is-going-places-his-grandfather-wasnt-allowed
Encourage telework and refurbish commercial space into residential space
Deflate the College Cost Bubble by using the Department of Labor to challenge hiring criteria of businesses where many require expensive advanced degrees when jobs might require less costly education, i.e., increasing the value of a high school diploma again, etc; requiring schools getting federal assistance or whom have had past substantial federal assistance on financial brink to consolidate to cut costs
Allow negotiation of Medicare drug costs
Establish a federal corporation that invests in prescription drug stocks because by doing so this agency can better negotiate by buying or selling shares
Medicare Now! Let people use thru Medicare earlier before retirement
Lay the ground work for single-payer Healthcare by flipping the FICA formula so out of the 7.65% where 6.20% goes to Social Security and the rest, 1.45%, towards Medicare/Medicaid (where your employes matches your contribution), you flip it but you do it slowly so those who paid into Social Security and are near retirement can get their full benefits (unless they opt for more Medicare). Raise the overall 7.65% to 8-10%.
E.U. style data protection for US consumers
Regulate crypto currency such as requiring exhanges to obtain private insurance and to get rated by rating agencies, apply Glass Steagall Act like regulations such as Banning a merging of crypto exchanges with hedge funds or banks, but ban federal insurance or bailouts altogether.
Also require digital currencies be backed by some sort of convertible asset like gold or silver
Issue a Defense Production Act edict to gold miners to mine more gold and silver to continue increasing our vault reserves
Presidential Council of Elders where ex Presidents convene yearly to show unity across political lines and for them to consult and come to consensus where they feel laws should go or issues to address. More of an opinion panel.
Not to Exceed Age Limits for Justices such as 70 or 80 as opposed to term limits so we don’t get activist judges who constantly flip on laws as one judge takes over from the other, etc. Yet, we don’t get judges who are always in the hospital once very old
A Total Energy Policy that includes both green and fossil fuels including converting nuclear weapons into energy fuel for reactors, while handing over fuselages to the aerospace industry such as to send satellites into in orbit
Full Legalization of Cannabis and help with military recruitment by disallowing the asking about prior or post service (in the case of re-entry) Marijuana usage.
End the Cuban Trade Embargo, allow remittance payments thru Western Union, allow travel, etc., but with conditions such as distancing themselves from China and Russia
The possible establishment of a US Space Force Academy in a place like Cape Canaveral or Daytona Beach (near Embry Riddle Aeronautical University), Houston, Hunstville AL, or Santa Barbara (even if it has to still fall under the guidance of the USAFA and Air Education Training Command). Even if the school has to start off as a two year school for junior and seniors who do their first two years at the USAFA. An academy size comparable to smaller academies such as US Coast Guard Academy or US Merchant Marine Academy. Name facilities after famous astronauts.
Operation Gerbil or Gerbil Maze with NASA and companies like Blue Origin, SpaceX, Astra, etc. Replace nodes on the International Space Station with new sections but send the old ones to the Moon so we have materials to establish a small research facility. Scrap junk missions to land materials on the moon such as wiring, aluminum, etc.
Re-establish mental asylums with funds and grants to states via DHHS to help with the mentally ill homeless population.
Separate mental asylums, drug rehab, and jail where in many cases these are merge to cut costs especially as jails become more privatized
Fund clean needle exchanges and promote one-time use needles.
Urge cities that have lax policies on homeless peoples to encourage these people to clean their areas, aka, you can stay here if you clean the streets. This can be done by coordinating with non profit organizations, local police, etc.
Urge ISP service providers to require adult sites have Two Factor Authentication to prevent minors from accessing pornography
Reform federal sugar subsidies
Transition After Training (TAT) for Transgender service people where recruits after basic training, completing trade school and upon reaching a rank that permits off base living or single quarters will have the ability to transition.
Department of Justice mandate to protect Trans people if jailed be it local, state, or federal such as solitary confinement or protective custody to prevent them being abused or harassed
Artic Defense Pact as an extension of NATO, NORAD, and AFNORTH with Canada, US, Denmark, UK, Japan and Nordic countries to exercise and coordinate defense of the arctic especially as climate change opens waterways
Expand the early commissioning program at Junior Military Colleges but also schools like Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
Expand the pay out for Enlisted College Loan Repayment Plans
Expand the Segal Education Award for the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Teach America
House arrests for petty crimes as opposed to jailing
Policies to end racial segregation in jails such as isolating violent criminals from inmates capable of rehab.
Segregate based on crimes committed and character (not race) instead of bunching all types of criminals together.
STD testing for all inmates before entry, while incarcerated, and before exit (added 12/19/22)
Encourage the expansion of open stock market exchanges on Eastern Time to close on West Coast or Central (Chicago) Time so trading hours are extended a little bit
Include Mexico’s top universities into the Association of American Universities with the US and Canada to promote goodwill
Use Border Wall funding as leverage for increased gun control (not confiscation)
Return parts of federal land to Native Tribes and Native Hawaiians
Fly the flags of Native Tribes on federal property
Investigate Highway of Tears Native femicides with Canada
Free or very cheap HBCUs and 0% federally insured fixed rate mortgages as a reparations package for black Americans similar to the GI Bill and VA Home Loan
Require truck drivers submit DNA swabs since many unsolved crimes were submitted by truckers. Also, pilots such as those who use smaller off the radar air strips (added 12/19/22)
I believe in the United States. I want it to succeed. I believe that any issue can be solved if you put effort into it. I considering myself a “patriot”. My ancestors were slaves, we worked this land without respect, my family served in major battles such as World War II and Korea, The Cold War, but also the Iraq-Afghanistan conflicts, I served, and I consider myself a proud American. Yet, I am a Leftist (a Sound Money, cautious Keynesian, market democratic socialist – in my head) because based on my patriotism, I side with the working classes. I have no patience for racism or sexism, and I generally want everyone to live a content happy life confident in their identity no matter what race, gender, sexual orientation, sexual assignment, religion or lack thereof, ethnicity, physical ability, etc., they happen to be. I am proud to be “woke” because I see all the criticism against it, and I realize that people are getting in the way of progress because of fear. They fear losing whatever idea of social privileges they think they have, yet elevating others who were pushed to the margins of society is not a threat to anyone and if anything will help to get over the closeted issues that conservatism helps perpetuate since conservatism doesn’t adequately deal with issues, yet, instead it tries to cover them up, e.g., conservatives demonizing gay people thus denying their very being and thus subjecting them danger such as lack of health care access. One can easily say the same thing for minorities such Native Americans who live in rural ghettos or women who have always been second class citizens when relating to the egos of men. I don’t hate conservatives and in many ways I admire the Norman Rockwell-esque iconography of the United States which I grew up in even as a black man, but this country includes other people.
I am happy that Biden is President. I sleep better at night. I function better during the day knowing that there isn’t as much drama as what happened under Trump. Being in my now mid-thirties, an older Millennial, my entire adult life has been defined by drama from 9/11, to the wars in the Middle East, to stock market crashes, to the fall of with in institutions regarding topics such as spying which helped to create a rampant online conspiracy theory culture, to new discussion around race or gender, etc. I am a progressive. I am a Leftist, but I do accept Realpolitik and pragmatism, so Biden despite being the “system” is in theory the best we can have at this point. It’s not necessarily inspiring, but at least
‘There’s a lot of hate of President Biden but considering most of it is the residue of the Qanon MAGA verse but also even from progressives within his own party because he’s not progressive enough. Yet, I see myself as an average American guy, college educated, decent job, a home, and I’m glad Biden is president because I feel like 2016-2020 destroyed the United States. A very depressing time seeing Far Right racist with Russian sympathies be platformed, but also my mind being constantly prodded by the postmodern assault of social media, the news, etc. I see Biden as a boring sense of peace and stability after a time of intense over-thinking, philosophical thinking, adapting to new technology, etc. It’s ok to take a “chill pill”, yet, Biden does need to push forward, i.e., the time IS NOW, to push forward with Green Energy, police reform, reinvigorating the labor movement in a new paradigm of technological innovation (e.g., computer programmers are often not unionized despite working a very stressful job, but there are also people within traditional industries such as manufacturing or production who aren’t unionized despite federal mandated wages not rising since 2008).
Yet, as a former economics student in college in my youth, I do think about macroeconomic policy and the future of the USA. I’m not a doomsday person. I feel that doomsday people often using fear to enrich themselves such as pushing up the price of gold for their own benefit or even pushing crypto-currency. I joke, I am a “fiat bro”, i.e., I do support the “paper money regime” because…this is what runs the global economy. Why would I bet against something I get paid in? Why would I bet against something that the world uses? I find it funny that people who championed gold or silvers, are not crypto advocates but to me digital currency is even worst than paper dollars, i.e., I can’t hold it.
Who will be a strong enough leader to do the right thing? No President be they Democrat or Republican wants to raise taxes to help pay down the national debt. Sometimes in my head I think what if were to implement the “Economic Crucible”? By this I mean higher taxes, higher interest rates, slashing spending, but to cover the harder environment we de-regulate, legalize, and/or privatize certain aspects of the economy? Yet, I am sure this would have dire consequences at this point. However, debt isn’t entirely bad, considering all industrialized nations are in debt and most of these nations are allies who vouch for each other’s debt. It’s not like the US is some weak nation who can’t stand up for itself in the face of creditors and many nations would never even dare to stand up to the United States on debt, e.g., a strong military with global scope, a consumer population who buys goods and services, relative political stability, and safety, etc.
Debt to the average person is bad, i.e., you trying to pay of a credit card (revolving credit), but to a nation it’s not the same thing, because the state is the state, i.e., the state is the law, can use force, and represents the entirety of its citizens. Debt levels may be high, but all other strong nations have a similar situation, yet, no country has the global leadership role that the United States does and many of our allies have consented to the US having such a role of global leadership, i.e., we do the dirty work that other nations don’t want to do, and the US can be the key negotiator between other parties. One could even argue that the ability to rack up large amounts of debt is a special privilege granted to industrialized nations because they have the geo-strategic alliances, assets, core competencies/intellectual property when it comes to producing advanced goods and are the consumer base of the world.
So, I’m not a doomsday person when it comes national debt (I am not a hardcore Austrian economics gold-standard lover or anarcho-capitalist “down with the system” Bitcoin bro), however, to sustain the global economic system between the major powers, one does have to show good faith payments on their debt, and therefore taxes need to go up. Even though all the allies are friends in this debt exchange system that affects foreign exchange rates and trade, there still is a level of mistrust as far as one’s ability to effectively pay their bills. Taxes are needed to reduce the amount of deficit spending already on the books but also show creditors (our allies) that we are willing to do the hard thing to show good faith. Sure, they won’t call our debt, but the ability to make good faith payments with taxes doesn’t help to restore a sense of faith, i.e., it reduces the sweating of our lenders, i.e., bond holders.
Yet, what has Biden does so far?
Passed a 1.2 trillion Infrastructure Bill where according to Lobosco & Luhby (2021) of CNN, “the bill will deliver $550 billion of new federal investments in America’s infrastructure over five years, touching everything from bridges and roads to the nation’s broadband, water and energy systems. Experts say the money is sorely needed to ensure safe travel, as well as the efficient transport of goods and produce across the country. The nation’s infrastructure system earned a C- score from the American Society of Civil Engineers earlier this year.” Yet, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the package would add $256 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years (Lobosco & Luhby, 2021).
Passed the 1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan
Will sign the nearly 800 billion annual National Defense Authorization Act funding the military, special forces operations, intelligence, etc.
Will sign the I Am Venessa Guillen Bill which is a provision in the NDAA which takes sexual assault investigations away from military Chain of Commands, and instead creates a separate investigative board since Chain of Commands such as those at Fort Hood helped bury sexual assault cases.
With NATO Leadership support, President Biden followed on the Trump Era Doha Agreement between the US and Taliban and withdrew US forces from Afghanistan (Liptak and Sullivan, 2021, CNN). This withdrawal from one perspective was just in that the war in Afghanistan did achieve some things such as helping women, but overall, the war was very costly to US taxpayers considering it was funded on debt as opposed to tax increases, so the war bill will continue to grow with interests’ payments. Yet, one could argue withdrawing from Afghanistan has remove the US from The Grand Chessboard, i.e., the strategic location of Central Asia near Russia, Iran, China, and Pakistan. Therefore in my opinion even liberal outlets decried Biden’s removal of troops, and they used “social justice”, i.e., “tear jerking tactics”, e.g., Vice News showing aggrieved veterans who felt the war wasn’t won or showing the blight of Afghan women, to convince the President to stay in the region, yet, these goals aren’t necessarily from humanitarianism but a way to continue militarism in the region, i.e., funding the military industrial complex and its contractors. One could argue that leaving Afghanistan makes the region more of a security threat to the Russians, Chinese, and Pakistanis, i.e., them focusing on Taliban or their enemies with ISIS in the region will keep them preoccupied. For example, Russia can’t just focus on the Eastern European theater but now must worry about their vast border with Central Asian nations, i.e., this help divert Russian resources away from Eastern Europe and towards Central Asia (where the Russians didn’t have much luck such with the Soviet Afghan War).
Biden has threatened Russia with sanctions such as sanctions relating to the SWIFT (The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) system if Russia continues military action in Ukraine and decides to conduct a second wave of invasions into the country.
Sources vary but around 65,000 to 70,000 Afghan refugees were brought to the United States. When Joe Biden withdrew from Afghanistan both sides of the political spectrum have Biden criticism, yet surprisingly even certain figures on the political-right tried to use the humanitarian catastrophe card. Yet, according to Hennessey-Fiske (2021), of the LA Times, “Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August, 124,000 people have been evacuated to the U.S., including 67,000 Afghan allies. Of those Afghans, 10,000 have been resettled with the help of nonprofit agencies in communities across the nation, according to the Biden administration.”. Lastly, under the Biden Administration, $6.3 Billion has been allocated to resettlement efforts (Hennessey-Fiske, 2021, LA Times). Yet, according to Caitlin Doornbos (2021) of Military.com, as of December 7, 2021, only 34,000 refugees remained on US bases such as Fort Bliss in Texas, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, Camp Atterbury in Indiana, Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, and Fort Pickett and Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
Opened Cops Hiring Program (CHP) applications worth ~$139 million to police agencies across the country
Opened nearly 80k acres of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico
Yet, Biden has also re-entered the Paris Climate Accord after Trump withdrew from the agreement, largely with Trump feeding off his base’s climate change skepticism, but also his view that the US would fall behind if nations like China or India would continue to use dirty energy. Yet, when you see Biden’s offshore drilling policy, it calls into question his honest intentions around combating climate change and hitting carbon emission reduction targets. According to Matt McGrath (2021) of the BBC, “This new target, possibly for 2030, and President Biden’s commitment to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, will be the guide rails for the US economy and society for decades to come.”
Convinced Australia to purchase US submarines as opposed to French submarines
Extended the moratorium on student loan payments and interests’ payments into spring 2022
Kept the Trump Era Title 42 health risk loophole to maintain the Stay in Mexico asylum seeking policy, i.e., asylum seekers must claim asylum from their own country or from Mexico (where many Central American refugees travel to)
Made Juneteenth, i.e., the official day that slavery in the United States ended (not to be confused with the Emancipation Proclamation) a Federal Holiday
What needs to be done?
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Bill needs to be signed considering police are still getting funding, and systemically one could argue the justice system hasn’t reformed much. This bill passing is something that BIPOC peoples but also many white people want, despite the police issue often being framed through a black liberation versus the system framework. Passing the bill, I would argue would help evolve policing and even help police officers, i.e., I see the potential passage of it as continuous improvement, and restoring trust equates to civilians not being so fearful when approached by police. With the First Step Act passed under Trump alongside the hopeful passage of the MORE Act and George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the United States will still have police officers but society will have a more progressive criminal justice system such as people not being arrested for marijuana offenses, people who have used marijuana be given the change to seek better paying employment or military service (helping recruiting), and the public will feel the system actually listens to them.
Biden has been effective but not the most effective, but he’s keeping the lights on, and things are improving slowly. I am trying to write this objectively, i.e., above progressivism and conservatism. In many ways, Biden is quite boring. Yet, Biden is doing what needs to be done in certain regards such as trying to restore faith in alliances that Donald Trump in theory helped to jeopardize such as Biden meeting with NATO leaders, considering the United States doesn’t want to lose a foothold over the historically nationalistic, multi-ethnic, and multi-lingual region (remembering WWI, WWII, the Napoleonic Wars, Thirty Years Wars, various wars of successions, etc.) especially as ambitious leaders such as France’s Emmanuel Macon (who isn’t anti-American, but more so, competitive) wants to assert French primacy. The fact that France and Germany can use their economic leverage to balance the West versus Russia increases if NATO fails and this in theory might be great for those who are dovish on foreign policy, yet in theory, a Europe without a strong unified bond with the United States to take the bad publicity for Europe could unleash a chaotic mix of nationalistic sentiments as Europeans don’t see themselves as living in solidarity with mutual interests, but rather might start seeing themselves as competitors where such competition can be easily exploited by emergent or wannabe emergent superpowers such as China and Russia (remembering that China has heavily invested in European infrastructure projects and Russia also has a near monopoly on natural gas pipelines). For example, the Far Right “ethno-nationalist” ideology coming from Kremlin through thinkers such as Aleksandr Dugin, has affect European politics, but the truth is that an “ethno-state” would effectively isolate a nation to be exploited or bribed by a nation such as Russia. In other words, if NATO ever fails, which is what Russia and China wants, sure, this could help Germany or France become the de-facto leaders of the European Union (which in theory they already are, i.e., Germany and France providing most of the bailout money via the European Central Bank during the Greek sovereign debt crisis), yet the erosion of the NATO alliance which does force cooperation between the various ethnic states, could lead to unleashing old-fashioned nationalistic tensions, which could therefore be exploited by the Russian Kremlin’s hope of returning to its former glory days, and potentially in-debt now isolated European states to Chinese financing. In theory if NATO fails, so would the European Unions, and thus the European Central Banks, and this would have major consequences on international financing and markets, e.g., if the Euro Dollar were to go away and nations started adopting their own nationalistic currencies, this could not only make currency conversion/trade more problematic but could also pose a risk for smaller nations would suffer currency short selling by speculators.
Yet, what I wrote above is such a microcosm of the various issues that the United States has to juggle, and I would argue that Biden is helping to catch up on certain domestic needs (like roads), but there was hope he would be more ambitious in his vision to not just catch up but to rocket forward, considering he won off the energy of progressive populism who do want green energy, police reform, women’s rights, the rich paying higher taxes to fund society, etc. Progressives don’t want faux progressivism, such as the military or intelligence community keeping things the same but simply adding “woke recruiting campaigns”, but they want material (real world) change.
Yet, Biden (or, even let’s say a Republican in an alternative universe) has a decent excuse to go at the pace he’s going at because with COVID-19 still railing, Biden does have an excuse to sell moderate temperance to the public. So, considering the situation he’s doing decent, but one can say the opposite, e.g., this dire situation should have been a way to redistribute the wealth/debt of the nation to the working classes instead of focusing on hedge funds like BlackRock, etc. COVID-19 revealed many issues such as a lack of affordable housing, the fact that the US minimum wage hasn’t been raised and adjusted to inflation since 2008 despite an increase the money supply, and that offshoring US labor has made the United States too dependent upon volatile global supply chains.
But objectively, Biden isn’t the worst president, nor is he doing a horrific job. He’s just “business as usual”, yet many might appreciate this “business as usual” because people are burnt out of all the social arguments that occurred under the Trump Era. In theory, Trump going Far Right gave Centrist Democrats a good alibi to not push forward, i.e., Democrats are saying “we might be boring, but at least we’re not as terrifying and paranoid as the conservatism that Trump unleashed”.
Biden is returning a sense of peace and calm on the global stage with our very needed allies who buy our weapons – and, yes, I know this is problematic, but it is a fact of life, yet, our allies grant us access to their airspace/ports, and vouch for our debt, e.g., Japan is one of the largest holders of US Treasuries as they attempt to fund their pension system for their elderly population, but Japan is also geo-strategically important in Pacific, creating a triangle with South Korea and Taiwan/The Philippines near the South China Sea versus China.
Even with the Build, Back, Better Act dead in negotiations, I am not personally stressing over BBB, even though it would have been awesome if it passed. A perk to BBB failing is that we can all agree that Manchin, as well as Sinema, can’t be trusted. Biden is exercising a different managerial approach as compared to Trump. Trump used a micro-manager authoritarian approach to managing power often using Executive Orders to circumvent the legislative process, but Biden is using a traditional balance-of-power approach by following the constitution, i.e., relying on the legislative branch to create laws, the judicial branch to review and approve laws, and the executive branch to sign laws after they garner the required votes in Congress. You can judge Biden on this though. If Trump was a strongman leader, then why doesn’t Biden do the same across the board and not just on COVID-19 mitigation? It’s my opinion that Biden doesn’t want to continue the precedent set by Trump as far as authoritarian rule by the Executive Branch, so he’s being “boring” yet constitutional by relying on the other two branch of government. Yet, this is good, but also gives the administration an excuse to go slow, and this slowness doesn’t equate to progress, and gives an alibi to not fulfill campaign promises.
Yet, despite thinking on the negative, I decided to write out what has been accomplished so far. Even with BBB dead in the water as of 2021, it doesn’t mean something akin to it can’t be passed soon or through other bills or strategies, i.e., breaking up BBB and padding other bills with its provisions. The Democrats, who I support aren’t in a bad situation but are in a vulnerable situation considering 2022 Congressional elections especially those in the Senate are on the horizon. Unless the Democrats get a large majority to sure up power, then they’re left with negotiating or developing different strategies to pass progressive policy. In theory, Biden could use ideas that Steve Bannon on behalf of Trump tried to do but in a progressive way. For example, Bannon if my memory is correct (I’m searching for the article that vividly remember seeing) tried to use the Defense Priority Act to subsidize the coal industry and nuclear energy. So, if this idea was floated, then why use it for green energy, i.e., green energy is a national defense priority?
Yet, despite BBB failing, the United States is and isn’t in as dire of situation, yet President Biden has been doing a decent job of keeping the lights on and signing bills that invest in America’s future. Even as a person who sympathizes with Leftism, I could easily be angry at Biden if I wanted, but I’m already such a skeptic that I figure “eh” at least the lights are on, and the Democrats have power to a degree. Anything is better than conservatism. It sucks it comes down to that, but in the face of 3rd Way corporatism (a type of fascism) there’s not much one can hope for since the ruling classes dictate democracy.
President Biden signed the $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill (11/15/2021) into law and is expected to sign the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which passed the Senate on (12/15/2021) which has a price tag of $778 Billion which is a $23.9 Billion top-line increase from the previous NDAA. So, our roads/bridges/ports/airports/levies and military will be funded. I consider that win. Sure, there’s many pacificist and Leftist decrying the Military Industrial Complex, but every nation needs a military where we like it or not (a sad truth of the human species), and even as a Leftist, I do support the military and American primacy. Sure, I know all about the crimes of the CIA and can still call them out and would pray we could figure out better ways of doing diplomacy besides hardcore covert overthrowing government operations, yet, still I support the troops considering most of the troops are of the proletariat. I can support socialism from a Western and American perspective while still detesting Chinese socialism for example.
We are also still living under the $2.2 Trillion CARE Act (3/27/2020) which was supplemented with the $484 Billion PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) & Health Care Enhancement Act (4/24/2020), and the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2021 at $2.3 Trillion (signed on 12/27/20, which merged $900 Billion with a $1.4 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill) which were passed under Donald Trump, yet President Biden supplemented these with a $1.9 Trillion American Rescue Plan (3/11/2021). Note: An omnibus spending bill is a type of bill in the United States that packages many of the smaller ordinary appropriations bills into one larger single bill that can be passed with only one vote in each house. There are twelve different ordinary appropriations bills that need to be passed each year (one for each appropriations sub-committee) to fund the federal government and avoid a government shutdown.
= 8,862,000,000,000 in appropriate spending since 3/27/2020, yet, appropriate spending doesn’t mean it will be charged at once, but rather a lot of the money such will be divvied up over fiscal years, and after viewing the National Debt Clock, I’m assuming that all the bills I listed above from the Infrastructure Bill and previous are factored into this national debt number in some way, shape, or form.
Yet, according to National Debt Clock,
$29 Trillion in Debt vs $23 Trillion in GDP vs $4 Trillion in Tax Revenues, and these numbers were pulled on 12/24/21 at 6:25 AM EST, but I’m unsure if the $1.2 Trillion is already factored into this number, but if not then we may be around $30.9 Trillion since the Infrastructure Bill was passed before I checked the Debt Clock. So, roughly we’re at about a $7 Trillion detriment as far as Debt vs GDP, and we’re not nearly paying the amount of money need in taxes at $4 Trillion to really dent the $29 Trillion in debt, or in other words taxes amount to around 13.9% out of the national debt (4/29 * 100). This 13.9% is odd because this means that even though the highest marginal tax rate bracket is 37%, effectively on average, i.e., the average of effective tax rates, is only 13.9%, meaning that someone isn’t pay thing taxes, i.e., even though on paper it says the highest you can pay is 37%, in reality only 13.9% is being paid by all taxpayers (billionaires included), meaning there’s a tax rate detriment of 23.1%. Everyday people, from the lower working classes to the high middle class like a successful business owner might pay the highest 37% rate on all their total earned income, yet, billionaires are likely avoiding so much in taxes that the average of all tax revenue received is 13.9%. If I take the $30.9 Trillion and compare that to the $4 Trillion in taxes raised, it’s even worst at 12.9%.
So, assuming the $8 trillion in bills from the CARE Act to the Infrastructure Bill is factored into the standing $29 Trillion as shown on the Debt Clock, or even assuming they are not thus making the debt 30.9 trillion, the taxes being raised in relation to debt is only 12.9-13.9%, making the tax revenue pulled in fall short of the highest tax rate that can be charged at 37%, thus making a tax revenue detriment in relation to national debt be 23.1-24.1%.
This means that the government is borrowing to cover this spread somehow on top of what it already borrows but is also not effectively taxing those who should be paying at a minimum 37%.
The government has a few options. Better enforcing existing tax laws especially on higher income earners, raising tax rates so you have a better chance of catching tax revenues, and/or revising the tax code. Even if let’s say we add that 23-24% detriment I speak of to the 37% highest tax rate, then we get a 60-61% rate, which interestingly would not be the highest historical marginal tax rate. The harsh truth is…we’ve been slacking on paying taxes collectively in relation to the type of first-world society we live in. We use credit more than taxation. Yet, older generations, whom we consider to be “tougher” actually paid higher taxes and the Golden Era of Democratic Capitalism occurred under higher taxation to pay for society so that future generations wouldn’t incur as much debt, or their money be less valuable. Yet, the Boomer generation once they entered the workforce in the late 70s despite having initially higher taxes, actually ended paying on average lower taxes than their parents and likely even their children who will have to bear the burden of higher taxes (to pay for entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, etc.).
Yet, all this money from these bills…what are the people truly getting from it? The realized impact among the people I would argue is minimal. Sure, some people got COVID relief checks but those checks truly don’t cover the cost of living such as housing or rent, food, gas, education, debt principal or interests, expenses. We’re spending all this money, but the truth is that most is going to large businesses or corporations who win grants, awards, contracts, and direct payments, etc., via contracts by the federal government under the Federal Procurement Data System, Federal Acquisition Regulation, etc.
President Biden has accomplished things by signing legislation into law that gives support to business, individuals, and will help repair/rebuild America’s declining and crumbling infrastructure.
As far as national security, Joe Biden has met with Pacific nations and even snubbed France over a submarine deal between Australia, thus tightening Australia’s bond with the USA via the AUKUS Alliance as China becomes more ambitious regarding Taiwan (a major source of semiconductors), The Belt and Road Project, The South China Sea (the world’s most vital shipping lane), etc. The submarine deal will sell $153 billion and USD $171 billion worth of US military equipment according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) (NDTV.com., 12/15/21).
Also, within the NDAA there is the I am Venessa Guillen Bill, which will take away the military’s authority to prosecute sexual assault and harassment cases and instead, create an independent investigation separate from the chain of command (Grace White, KHOU-11, 12/22/21).
In addition, despite Blue Lives Matter being a Trump adjacent movement, The Department of Justice under President Biden has announced $139 million in grant funding through the department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) COPS Hiring Program (CHP). The awards provide direct funding to 183 law enforcement agencies across the nation, allowing those agencies to hire 1,066 additional full-time law enforcement professionals (The Department of Justice, 11/18/21). Further, within the NDAA which is due to be signed soon by President Biden, there still exists the controversial Program 1033 where the military gives surplus military equipment to police agencies. Even, though I support police reform, it is a lie to state that President Biden isn’t funding cops.
Further, according to Annie Nova (2021) of CNBC, “Amid concerns about the new omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus, the Biden administration will extend the payment pause for federal student loan borrowers until May 1.” This extension allows people to stop paying student loan debt without incurring interests.
Biden released 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to auction for drilling, despite him attempting to use an Executive Order to pause drilling, but this pause was blocked in court by 13 oil/natural gas friendly states (Ella Nilsen, CNN, 11/17/21). So, with Biden opening 80 million acres for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, from a progressive perspective this is horrible and a deviation from his campaign promises to help fight Climate Change and start encouraging higher green energy investing, yet, from a conservative or at least let’s say business perspective, opening offshore drilling could help keep energy prices low, and lower energy prices might help to stave off the inflationary pressures hitting the USA. Lower energy costs is the foundation that affects many aspects of the supply chain such as more affordable utility energy costs which could help divert rising costs for consumers but also commercial entities, cheaper transportation costs, generating revenues for manufacturers of tools and machinery related to the oil and natural gas industry, and maintaining employment. Yet, Biden is likely opening up the oil leases because the truth is that Big Oil and Gas has a lot of influence, so Biden is really trying to garner favor, considering many rich people can fund bad publicity against a President who goes against their business interests.
Biden has also kept Title 42 restrictions relating to immigration and asylum seekers. Biden is using the Trump Area Title 42 loophole that restricts entry into the US on the grounds of preventing the spread of contagious health risks, to keep asylum seekers out of the United States under the Remain in Mexico asylum seeker policy. It’s controversial, yet, it’s interesting that conservatives don’t give Biden much credit for maintaining this nativist Trumpian policy.
Such a policy was brought into further controversy after Haitian refugees fleeing earthquakes, hurricanes, and a government coup, migrated through Mexico and attempted to enter the USA. Border Agents, at this time under the leadership of Biden, used controversial tactics to keep the Haitian immigrants out of the United States. Yet, Biden later started removing restrictions on travel from eight African countries, where these the travel restriction was originally implemented to monitor the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Yet, this move to remove travel restrictions on African countries raises the question as to why the Haitian refugees weren’t allowed to claim asylum which is a right under international law.
But, despite Joe Biden doing things such as supporting the military and bolstering the economy in relation to COVID-19 and its variants, he is falling behind on what he promised to do for those who voted for him. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act has failed in negotiations as of the fall of 2021, and this bill was introduced twice by Democrats but no success largely due lack of Republican support (zero vote for the second attempt at the reform bill).
There’s also issues such as 800,000+ Americans having died from COVID related illnesses while there is a universe of conspiracy theory and misinformation regarding vaccines; there is a homelessness epidemic largely caused by drug addiction (such as Feytanyl coming from South of the Border)/mental health and workers being priced out of real estate markets such as Seattle, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area; a “Crime Wave” as life normalizes after the initial COVID-19 lock-downs where crime could be traced to the lack of job opportunities/rising cost of living among the working classes; a very hot housing market where foreign investors are unfairly buying multiple homes (if not entire communities) and pricing out first-time homeowners; Roe v. Wade as always is under attack from Republicans; Trans people still lack legal protections over employment, healthcare access, and being protected if incarcerated; there is a threat of domestic terrorism such as by White Supremacy Extremists (WSEs); outstanding student loan debt in the U.S. has surpassed $1.7 trillion and burdens Americans more than credit card and auto debt (Nova, 2021, CNBC), and generally, there is lack of trust in institutions including the media.
Yet, from all this spending, where the money isn’t truly reaching the working classes, despite whatever sort of COVID stimulus checks or PPP Loans that individuals, families, and small-to-medium size businesses have received. The sheer amount of money spent so far since COVID started around March 2020 is…insane, and it could be argued that it is just another form of “trickle down” corporatism, rather that direct social investments in the people. It’s as if the government spends money just to say to the working classes that “we can’t afford this now”. The Buy Back Better Bill was intended to be a way for the people to get a cut of all this debt creations and deficit spending. It is disheartening that the American public will foot the bill for all this spending, yet, not really get a direct “in their pocket” benefit, granted the NDAA does stimulate employment across the thousands of contractors supporting the defense industry in the web we call the Military Industrial Complex, paying soldiers, and the Infrastructure Bill will help create employment with construction jobs, engineering projects, and improving roads/bridges/ports that naturally stimulate economies.
Revising policies and forms, such as AF Form 2030 Drug and Alcohol Abuse Certificates (or equal) and Standard Form 86 Background Investigation Questionnaire (or equal), relating to questions about cannabis use asked by the federal government (notably the Department of Defense, Office of Personnel Management, etc.) and its contractors.
Providing supporting arguments for how cannabis revenues are a force-multiplier that supports National Security.
Uncovering possible racial disparity in grants of Security Clearances.
Short Title: Revising forms relating to questions involving cannabis and how cannabis is a force-multiplier for National Security
Contractor in this letter is meant to be any business, corporation, self-proprietor, etc., who has received federal funds, thus creating a legal contract between contractor and government, to perform work, services, construction, and/or to provide equipment or materials to the Federal Government, and/or any business, corporation, self-proprietor, etc., who is a part of the Federal Procurement Data Systems (FPDS) and/or registered or having been registered in systems such as the Systems for Award Management (SAM.gov), Central Contractor Registration (CCR), Online Representations and Certification Application (ORCA), etc.
Marijuana or Cannabis (genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae) used throughout this letter are meant to be interchangeable but also include any other word or variant of Marijuana such as Cannabis Indica, Cannabis Salvia, CBD (Cannabidiol), Pot, Hemp, Hash, Hashish, Kief, Keef, Ganja, etc.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Definitions 1
Images & Figures 1
Keywords 1
Methodology 1
Abstract & Highlights 2
Forward 4
Introduction 4
Disclaimer 5
Purpose 5
Section I – Revising Forms and Policies Relating to Marijuana Questions, etc. 5
Section II – The State Argument, Increases in Cannabis Lobbying, Decreases in Prison Lobbying 10
Section III – Our Canadian Allies 12
Section IV – Veteran Support of Cannabis 13
Section V – Current Pro-Cannabis Legislation & Section 528 of the NDAA FY20 14
Section VI – Other Supporting Arguments (the right to not Self-Incriminate) 16
Section VII – Possible hypocrisies Section 16
Section VIII – Cannabis a Force Multiplier, National Guard Argument 19
Section IX – Welfare Argument 24
Section X – Ideas and Arguments Continued 24
24 Section XI – Race and Civil Rights 26
Images & Figures:
Figure 1 – AF Form 2030 Section II Question Relating to Marijuana ………………………. p. 6
Figure 2 – SF 86 Section 23 Question Relating to Marijuana……………………… …………p. 8
Figure 3 – Center for Responsive Politics estimates of Pro-Cannabis Lobbying Funds….…. p. 11
Figure 4 – Section 528 of the National Defense Reauthorization Act……………………….. p. 15
Figure 5 – Washington State’s Liquor and Cannabis Board Annual Fiscal Report (2019) ….. p. 21
Methodology: This paper uses a qualitative approach of searching various online sources for supporting facts, but also utilizes quantitative data pulled from publications, reports, etc.
Abstract & Highlights:
There is no value added in asking for use of marijuana not attached to criminal convictions such as on AF Force Form 2030 Drug and Alcohol Abuse Certificates (or equal across the Service Branches), relating to entry or re-entry into the Armed Services, seeking employment with a federal contractor (such as those attached to the Department of Defense), or when a recruit/employee/potential employee either of the federal government or a federal contractor is seeking a Security Clearance (Standard Form 86).
There might exist a disparity regarding rejection of Security Clearances between minorities and white federal employees, contractors, and military service members, relating to criminally charged marijuana offenses or admission of marijuana use not attached to criminal charges. White Americans report a higher lifetime use of marijuana, but black people make up a higher percentage of arrests cases (ACLU, 2020) and this disparity can lead to rejection of security clearances/loss of employment/rejection of employment, thus resulting in lower levels of minority representation, which thus violates the vision of the Civil Rights Act despite many states finding marijuana to be a commodity with economic, medicinal, and therapeutic properties. My claim is supported by a Department of the Air Force Inspector General (DAF IG) Report (December 2020), titled: Report of Inquiry (S8918P) -Independent Racial Disparity Review (No. S8918P).
Pro-Marijuana Lobbying Funding saw an estimated increase of 16,357.1% from 2011 to 2020, meaning supporting Pro-Marijuana policies is great for re-election campaigns.
According to Pew Research, Americans favor cannabis legalization at 67% (Daniller, 2019).
In states where marijuana is legal and taxed, these marijuana taxes might be funding the Total Force Structure of the United States military, thus making marijuana revenues a force multiplier for National Security, such as construction/infrastructure projects funded by state-accounts or social programs (e.g., educational programs which produce component recruits or officers, facilities used by Active Duty Troops utilizing Tuition Assistance, or educational facilities which house Reserve Officer Training Corps, i.e., ROTC units), which directly & indirectly supports the overall Department of Defense. State National Guard Units are de-facto a part of the federal military due to the Montgomery Amendment, because of Perpich v. Department of Defense, 496 U.S. 334 (1990). Taxation of state legal cannabis is having a positive economic and social effect on the military despite the military’s antiquated stance on marijuana.
Marijuana offers the potential to be a positive external variable towards force multiplication that can help pay for military equipment, etc., where force multiplication is defined in Joint Publication (JP) 3-05.1 (published 26 April 2007) as a capability that, when added to and employed by a combat force, significantly increases the combat potential of that force, and thus enhances the probability of successful mission accomplishment (p. 394).
US States such as Washington State collected a total of $395.5 million in legal marijuana income and license fees in fiscal year 2019 up from 2018 numbers (Washington State Treasury, 2020). California has possibly generated $1 Billion since January 2018 (Staggs, 2020). Wall Street analysts estimate cannabis could become an $85 billion industry by 2030 (Business Insider Prime, 2020).
When thinking about aircraft for example when compared to Washington State’s 2019 fiscal year cannabis revenues of $395.5 million.
The F-35A by Lockheed Martin – the most common variant of the weapon system – has/will have a cost of $82.4 million in 2020, $79.17 million in 2021 and $77.9 million in 2022 (Stone, 2019). Dividing WA State Marijuana Revenues by the F-35A cost, we get 4.79 aircraft (FY20), 4.89 aircraft (FY21), and 5.07 aircraft (FY22). In other words, 4 aircraft with $65.1 Million remaining FY20 (.79 or 79% of 1 aircraft cost is the remaining value), 4 aircraft with $73.36 Million remaining in FY21 (.89 or 89% of 1 aircraft cost is the remaining value), 5 aircraft with $5.54 Million remaining in FY22 (.07 or 7% 1 aircraft cost is the remaining value). That is 13 theoretical F-35A aircraft, or (1) F-35A squadron (12 aircraft is a squadron) plus one funded by marijuana tax revenues. Total residual (remaining) balance across the three fiscal years is $144 Million ($48 Million per year), which can lead to additional aircraft purchases, spare part Purchase Orders, sustainment contracts, calibration/maintenance, fueling, training, etc. Granted this is theoretical since most of the marijuana tax revenues goes to education, public health, law enforcement (ironic), etc. However, it is possible that marijuana tax revenue can support the military mission, particularly with Federal Fiscal concerns relating to the debt ceiling, risk of sequestration (government shutdowns, compensation payments to contractors), etc. Essentially the states raising revenue from marijuana for the public good is a cost savings to the Federal government since the states might ask for less money from agencies such as the Department of Education, Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, etc.
Interestingly, according to Losey (2020) of the Air Force Times, the State of Oregon where marijuana is fully legal, two bases in Oregon — Kingsley Field and Portland Air National Guard Base — will be among the first to host the F-15EX, the updated and upgraded version of the Strike Eagle now under production. Losey (2020) also states that Jacksonville Air National Guard Base in Florida will receive the F-35A in 2024, the guard said in an Aug. 14 release (end quote). Florida has decriminalized marijuana for medicinal purposes.
There is no substantial evidence that use of marijuana makes it harder for military recruits or people wishing re-entry into the Armed Forces from learning their job specialty, nor is there any evidence proving that use of marijuana not connected with criminal charges or connected with criminal charges possess a security risk, since moderate or casual alcohol use has no proof of increasing security risks. Troops are tested at MEPs, randomly tested while serving, and in lockdown during Basic Military Training.
Waivers for Marijuana use not attached to criminal convictions should not be needed and the requirement for waivers connected to criminal charges tied to marijuana use, should be loosened, especially if a member with charges was charged in a state where marijuana is now legal.
Many states including our largest states have legal marijuana, and these states hold strong Electoral College and Popular Vote power.
Forward: I understand that making bills is not an easy task, but the idea which I am presenting and arguing for in this letter/paper, I feel should follow the strategy of the successful passage of Section 528 within the current year National Defense Authorization Act (in which I feel Section 528 does not do enough but it is a great step in the right direction). I understand that bills must be drafted, be recommended to committees, may require Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimates, be voted for upon the floor, and then be passed by the United Senates before signature by the President (although, if he or she doesn’t sign within 10 days of receipt and Congress does not “sine die”, i.e., for good, adjourn prior to the 10-day limit, the bill becomes law, alleviating the “pocket veto” scenario, i.e., the bill was on his or her desk, while Congress was open, thus the bill becomes law after 10 days). However, I do know that certain sections of laws do not seem to require as much groundwork to be inserted into legislation.
Also, with soon-to-be out of office, President Donald J. Trump, vetoing the upcoming NDAA, this might be a convenient time to insert my idea. If not, my idea could also influence an Executive Order of the upcoming Biden Harris Administration while the legislative process works itself out. Yet, with the Supreme Court majority conservative, the time to act is now. Yet, I think I have a good idea and make decent arguments. For example, marijuana is a cash commodity that helps states generate tax revenues which goes to public works, education, law enforcement, etc., and in direct and indirect ways, legal marijuana tax revenues are supporting the Total Force Structure of the US Department of Defense (Federal Force, State National Guard, etc.). Further, since our laws create disparity among the races and ethnicities of the United States, I feel that the current federal criminalization of marijuana has led to increased administrative burdens since waivers are required for military entry/re-entry, but also possible disparities in the granting of Security Clearances.
Disclaimer: I respect you. I respect our country. I respect authority. I respect the military. Yet, I also consider myself a Progressive. I am a Progressive Veteran and Patriot. I support unwavering defense for the USA and its allies, but I believe in progressive social policy, inclusion, diversity, and welfare that enables people to have a fair shot. So, nothing in this is letter/paper is intended to be perceived as a personal attack to you at all.
Purpose: I am writing you this letter to offer what I consider is a good idea which should be easy to pass until more legislation on progressive policies on marijuana are passed or an Executive Order reflecting pro-marijuana policies is signed by the President. My idea is inspired to (A) continue to support our Government and its Armed Forces (and its prime contractors) by ensuring we have a large selection pool of diverse people with a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy concerning marijuana use not attached to criminal convictions for new recruits, members who wish to seek re-entry to the Armed forces, or external/internal applicants of federal contractors, thus not requiring waivers and not requiring admissions of use not attached to criminal charges on Federal Background Checks, (B) to reform recruiting/hiring policies relating to marijuana use not attached to criminal charges, (C) to show how marijuana tax revenues are a force multiplier that helps National Defense and Security, and (D) to hopefully raise the current minimum in Section 528 of the current NDAA so that more than one criminal charge for marijuana use isn’t a disqualifier for entry or re-entry into the Armed Services.
Section I – Revising Forms and Policies Relating to Marijuana Questions on the SF86, etc. I feel that Congress should pass an amendment or bill, or, the Executive Branch should sign an Executive Order until legislation is signed (or bring back Coles Memo of the Obama Administration with new caveats based on points I am presenting), which will revise military forms, e.g., Air Force Form 2030 Drug and Alcohol Abuse Certificate (and any equivalent forms among military Sister Branches, including the United States Coast Guard which falls under Homeland Security, the U.S Merchant Marines under the Department of the Navy & Department of Transportation, etc.); revise questionnaires regarding questions asking about marijuana use not attached to criminal convictions; revise recruiting questions regarding marijuana use not attached to criminal convictions that are given either verbally, electronically, and/or written either by contractors working for recruiters, i.e., call center personnel, or actual recruiters/volunteer recruiters of the Armed Services, and revise questions asked on SF86 Background Investigation Questionnaires OMB No. 32006 0005 (or equal), so that only criminal convictions relating to marijuana is asked rather than the current policy of simply asking for “use”.
Figure 1 – AF Form 2030 Section II Question Relating to Marijuana
As you can see above in AF Form 2030, AF Drug and Alcohol Abuse Certificate, Section II, the question asks for “use not attached to criminal charges”, but instead states, “have you ever used or experimented with marijuana?”, yet, it has a caveat stating, “prior marijuana use is not a disqualifying for enlistment or appointment, unless you are determined to be a chronic user or psychologically dependent….”, and further it states, “Preservice marijuana use may render you ineligible for certain skills.”.
The question should be revised to only state, “Do you have any criminal convictions related to marijuana, please do not state use not attached to documented criminal charges.”, and there should be special instructions for recruits who are from/have lived in States or municipalities where marijuana is legal and/or decriminalized.
Further, it states a person can be disqualified if determined to be a chronic user or psychologically dependent, which to me seems subjective, because how the Air Force determines this is not stated in the form; studies to determine if marijuana is an addictive substance that is somehow worst than legal Schedule II or III drugs are debatable or non-existent due to federal restrictions on further studies; many States have legalized marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes (some of our largest states as far as population, Electoral College Power, economic output, etc.), and most Americans favor cannabis legalization at 67% (Daniller, 2019) meaning the general public deems marijuana to be acceptable.
Further, the statement “Preservice marijuana use may render your ineligible for certain skills”, is an “interesting” statement to put into the form. This question seems to dissuade recruits and seems to state that the Department of Defense is not entirely confident in its abilities to reshape and reform individuals who come from diverse backgrounds, unique life situations, etc. Even if there are limited peer-reviewed studies relating to the effects of chronic marijuana use which might insinuate fractions of a percentage loss in IQ levels, the thing is that the military requires aptitude testing prior to even going to MEPS (Medical Examination Processing Stations) and Basic Training such as the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), Officer Aptitude Rating Test (OAR Test) of the US Marine Corps, US Navy, and United States Coast Guard, or the AFOQT (Air Force Officer Qualification Test). Thus, cannabis use – not attached to criminal charges or attached to charges – cannot realistically be used to disqualify a person from a certain job specialty when the military gauges mental competency with the ASVAB (or equivalent), and even if the military were to make the argument that cannabis has long-term detrimental cognitive side-effects, the Federal Government has limited the possibilities of expanded research, and the same arguments could be made for environment, educational funding, poverty, income level, etc. Yet, we rightfully do not disqualify candidates because of economic origins, income levels, if they were born in an area with underfunded schools, etc.
When a recruit attends Basic Military Training (BMT), Basic Combat Training (BCT), Officer Candidate School (OCS), Officer Training School (OTS), or equivalent, recruits are often not learning any skills related to their future job skill or specialty. Rather, they are undergoing intensive physical training and learning basic military culture and protocol.
According to Military.com (2019), the timespans of military trainings are 9 weeks (2 months and 1 week) for the US Army, 10 weeks for the US Air Force (it was 8 weeks but an additional 2 weeks were added on), the US Navy is 8 Weeks (technically 7 weeks but it includes an additional week, typically referred to in military culture as Zero Week), the US Marine Corps is 12 Weeks (3 months, not including 4-days of in-processing time), and the US Coast Guard is 7.5 Weeks (a little less than 2 months).
These training times do not include the date a recruit or candidate seeking entry goes to MEPS (Military Examination Processing Station) and travels to Basic Military Training (or equal), etc. So, for 2-months to 3-months, plus the time from MEPS to Training, the recruit is not learning a skill attached to their MOS (Military Occupational Specialty Code) for the US Army and US Marine Corps, AFSC (Air Force Specialty Code) for the United States Air Force or Space Force, or Job Category as Listed in Rating Systems in the case of the US Navy or US Coast Guard.
Basic Military Training (or equal) is effectively a time for rehabilitation and to insinuate that use of marijuana not attached to criminal charges or even attached to criminal charges, especially when recruits are tested for aptitude prior to going to Basic Training, will somehow make a recruit ineligible for a skill is debatable, and it is on the Service Branches to justify with evidence and proof of such a claim. The statement provided in the AF Form 2030 (or equal) seems highly subjective, judgmental, biased, and grandfathered into the present day. For example, the stigma around marijuana is being dictated by older people in higher ranks, e.g., roughly 30% in 1989 supported legal cannabis versus 67% support for legal cannabis in 2019 (Daniller, 2019), in which marijuana was demonized or turned into a drug of caricature, i.e., Cheech and Chong culture, Dazed and Confused imagery, etc. Further, there could possibly be a sense of generational disdain or envy considering older generations who typically see younger generations as “weaker”, might simply be barring access to entry because of their own personal beliefs/experiences which are not backed by science, facts, and the current political realities of the day, but rather propaganda attached to political agendas. While in BMT, I can attest that I did not drink caffeine (which is a stimulant with addictive properties, and is a Schedule III drug that is common for workers, troops, etc., to assist with job performance, studying, etc.), had little to no sugar (no Gatorade, juice, etc.), was forbade from tobacco, etc. BMT was a total mind and body restructuring, so to assume that previous marijuana use either attached or not attached to criminal charges, somehow makes a person ineligible for entry and unable to learn a job specialty is highly debatable. Our Canadian allies permit marijuana use with pilots included (Burns, 2018). I am not saying that US troops should be smoking marijuana (until policy can change after laws are reformed), but forms such as the AF Form 2030 Drug and Alcohol Abuse Certificate need to be reformed based on the logic I am presenting.
Figure 2 – SF 86 Section 23 Question Relating to Marijuana for Federal Background Checks
Above you can see the question within the Standard Form 86 (SF86) which is the Federal Background Check or Investigation Questionnaire, which can be found online at (https://nbib.opm.gov/e-qip-background-investigations/) and this form is used for granting Security Clearances. Since marijuana (cannabis) is legal and/or decriminalized in many states, cities, municipalities, and even allied nations to the United States, asking for “use not attached to criminal charges” has no value.
For example, what about Canadian troops (our allies going back as far as the World Wars in which Canada under Major General Rod Keller bravely sacrificed themselves at Juno Beach to achieve Allied objectives at Normandy) who are currently permitted to use marijuana (which is good policy in my opinion), happened to work on a Joint Force effort with the United States, but they require a Security Clearances and Canada defends the sovereign rights of its own citizens?
Regardless, what is one really gaining from knowing a person has used marijuana, especially when it is not attached to criminal charges? Criminally charged use of marijuana might help make better Security Clearance determinations, for any array of reasons (which in themselves could be argued as debatable), because it could insinuate a problem with law enforcement or criminal activity with a gang (which in many communities people are forced to be in as a means of surviving), but if there is no recorded criminal use for marijuana, which restated is legal in many places (some of the most economically powerful places in the United States who also have strong military/federal presences), then this question has no value. I can understand keeping the other drugs on the questionnaire (until policy reform occurs), yet, for marijuana which is helping to fund the public good (education, infrastructure, law enforcement, etc.), it is time to reform or remove this question. There is no proof to my knowledge of someone smoking marijuana becoming a security risk, no different than legal alcohol used moderately as not posing a risk. A Myers-Briggs personality test might have better insight as to whether a person “will spill the beans”, rather than asking for use of a substance that many states find to be acceptable.
Powell (2020) of the Harvard Gazette interviewed Kevin Hill, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and regarding marijuana (cannabis), he stated, “It’s less addictive than alcohol, less addictive than opioids, but just because it’s less addictive doesn’t mean that it’s not addictive.” Further. Dr. Hill in the Powell (2020) interview in the Harvard Gazette stated, “Schedule 1 really means two things. Number one, does it have addictive potential? Cannabis does, clearly. But it also means that there is no medical value. I think you are hard-pressed at this point to say that cannabis and cannabinoids have no medical value. So, I do not think it should be a Schedule 1 substance and changing that really would make it a lot easier to study. Funding is a bigger barrier.”
Further, a question asking for marijuana use not attached to criminal charges, especially when many states – some of our most economically dynamic states and largest as far as population – deem marijuana to be legal and socially acceptable, when the Department of Defense, Office of Personnel Management, etc., asks a person about use not attached to criminal charges, yet, makes determinations about a person which insinuates they are possibly a criminal, this seems a violation of Constitutional Rights of a person. The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution allows people to not self-incriminate themselves and further parts of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) has similar protections, so asking for use of marijuana not attached to criminal charges, especially when a person who is seeking entry into the military (when they will be tested anyways at MEPs and randomly and/or routinely while in service), re-entry into the military, or seeking employment with a federal contractor (especially if the position requires a Security Clearance), seems a casual violation of a person’s privacy and their ability to not self-incriminate under The United States Constitution. I repeat this is only for marijuana because the many of the States have expressed legality of the drug.
I am only saying marijuana largely since as a nation founded on federalism (a balance between centralized and decentralized authorities, i.e., the Federal Government and States), which is a reason why we have Representatives and Senators, marijuana is fully legal (decriminalized) in more than a dozen states and growing. Currently only six (6) states have marijuana as fully illegal (criminalized), i.e., only 12% of the States. According to DISA Global Solutions (2020), fifteen (15) states (and the District of Columbia where our laws are created & the where the Pentagon is housed) have full decriminalization for recreational and medicinal use (end quote). Guam and the Northern Marina Islands also have full legalization for recreational use. Additionally, out of these 15 states, California has 55 Electoral College votes, New York has 29 Electoral College Votes, Illinois has 20 Electoral College Votes, Michigan has 16 Electoral College Votes, and states such as Nevada and Arizona helped to swing the 2020 Presidential Election, insinuating the momentum for marijuana legalization is gaining more traction.
Even the states with mixed approaches such as Pennsylvania (20 Electoral College Votes) and even the conservative-leaning state of Georgia (16 Electoral College Votes. Note: The City of Atlanta decriminalized under one ounce of cannabis, Source: Hawkins Spizman Trial Lawyers, n.d.) are playing a major role in current 2020 politics, with Georgia going so far as resulting in two Congressional Senate Run-Off elections, meaning in the case of The State of Georgia (an agricultural state), that voting for conservative anti-marijuana politicians is no longer a given, i.e., times are changing. Many of these states are the largest economies of our nation and they hold most of the electoral college votes and provide the bulk of the popular vote due to population, e.g., California (39,512,223 people est.), Florida (21,477,737 people est.), New York (19,453,561 people est.), Illinois (12,671,821 people est.), etc. Thus, the politicians who support marijuana reform, have a higher chance of re-election for a multitude of reasons.
In 2011 according to the Center for Responsive Politics (2020), pro-cannabis lobbying was only a marginal $35,000.00 USD but in 2020 it was estimated the total of pro-cannabis lobbying investments increased to $5,760,000.00 USD, which is a 16,357.1% increase. When compared to lobbying funds for controversial private prisons, according to Center for Responsive Politics (2020), in 2019 total spend was estimated at $4.3 Million and $3.2 Million in 2020. CoreCivic Group contributed $1,310,000.00, GEO Group contributed $1,100,000 etc., to politicians for private prisons (Center for Responsive Politics, 2020). In these Center for Responsive Politics (2020) findings, 19 out of 20 reported politicians (Donald Trump included as well as Georgia Senator David Perdue who is facing a Senate run-off election race) accepted funds from private prisons. 19 politicians were Republicans with only 1 being Democrat (from the State of Texas).
Figure 3 – Center for Responsive Politics estimates of Pro-Cannabis Lobbying Funds
Despite the unfortunate existence of private prisons, the 2020 estimated lobbying donations for this industry amount to $3.2 Million which is 44% less than the $5.76 Million that went to the cannabis industry in 2020. This means that it is less lucrative to take money from an industry (prisons) which tries to further enrich itself by arresting/fining people (resulting in loss of employment, displacement, increased risks of disease and STD transmission, strain on single parents, and inflated costs in poorly audited and administered contracts), than it is to support a growing industry of marijuana which produces jobs, taxes, reduces black market crime, etc. Supporting marijuana is pragmatic, progressive and realist politics.
My idea can be quite simple to do and have bipartisan support, e.g., leveraging Republican support from former House Speaker and House Minority Leader John Boehner, who currently is chair of the National Cannabis Roundtable, an organization which spent $428,000 on pro-cannabis lobbying efforts in Fiscal Year 2020 (Center for Responsive Politics, 2020.). Also, there is former Republican Governor of Massachusetts Bill Weld who sits on Acreage Holding’s board with John Boehner which is a marijuana investment company which has helped create jobs in Flint, Michigan, according to Breana Noble, Detroit Times (2018). Current Republicans in Congress who supported cannabis legalization are Matt Gaetz (Fla.) — the only GOP co-sponsor on the MORE Act —, Denver Riggleman (Va.) who stated he voted for it because his brother was jailed for a marijuana offense, Don Young (Alaska), Tom McClintock (Calif.) and Brian Mast (Fla.) according to Julie-Grace Brufke (2020) of The Hill. There are also more Republicans as well (see page 17, para 2).
Further, our neighbor to the North in Canada, which is a NATO (North American Treaty Organization), NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), Five Eyes Partner (intelligence gathering) and AFNORTH/USNORTHCOM member, has full legalization of cannabis across the board and Canadian cannabis firms can be sold on stock exchanges such as Toronto Stock Exchange (which can be sold legally in the United States on exchanges such as E-Trade, owned by Morgan Stanley, by way of the Over-the-Counter Market). On October 17, 2018, Canada passed Bill C-45, which made recreational use of marijuana (cannabis) totally legal (Kestler-D’Amours, 2018). Relating to passage of Canada’s Bill C-45, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau established a Task Force to pave the way for cannabis legalization and used US States such as Colorado and Washington State as a model (Kestler-D’Amours, 2018).
Think about that, Canada, our military ally, a member of the prestigious NATO Alliance, legalized weed by basing their policy on Washington State and Colorado’s pro-cannabis policies, and these US States have a strong military presence ranging from Joint Base Fort Lewis – McChord (JBLM); Camp Murray National Guard Center; Fairchild Air Force Base; Everett Naval Base; Naval Air Station Whidbey Island; Bremerton Naval Base and Submarine Base; the Western Air Defense Sector (WADS); Fort Carson; Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station; Peterson Air Force Base (Home to the US Space Command, i.e., the predecessor of the newly created United States Space Force); Schriever Air Force Base and Buckley Air Force Base.
Relating to Peterson-Schriever Garrison (P-S GAR) in Colorado (where cannabis is legal), the United States Space Command (formerly the United States Air Force Space Command) operates Geographically Separated Units (GSUs) such as New Boston Air (Space) Force Station in New Hampshire (where cannabis is decriminalized); Cape Code Air (Space) Force Station (where in Massachusetts, cannabis is fully legal for both recreational and medicinal purposes); Kaena Point Air (Space) Force Station (where in Hawaii marijuana is decriminalized in a mixed approach); Clear Air (Space) Force Station (where in Alaska, marijuana is fully decriminalized) [Clear Air Force (Space) Station also houses Royal Canadian Air Force Units, where Canadian forces are legally allowed to use marijuana], and Cavalier Air (Space) Force Station (where in North Dakota, cannabis is decriminalized and able to be used for medicinal purposes), etc.
Burns (2018) wrote an article about how the Government of Canada (or, Gouvernement du Canada in French) issued a directive, Defence (the British/Canadian spelling) Administrative Orders and Directives (DAOD) – 9000, which permits Canadian military service members to use marijuana, i.e., cannabis. Under the new policy, members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) will be prohibited from using recreational cannabis within eight hours of a duty shift, and within 24 hours of work that involves operating weapons or vehicles (Burns, 2018). Cannabis use will additionally be barred within 28 days of duty that includes service on a military aircraft, operation in a hyperbaric environment, or high-altitude parachuting (Burns, 2018). Somewhat understandably, service members will not be allowed to use recreational cannabis during work hours or carry it with them on international operations, either (Burns, 2018). Effectively, Canadian troops are safely allowed to use marijuana within the time stipulations listed above but most likely in the safe zone while on leave or Rest and Relaxation (R&R), so they do not violate the time minimums listed above.
According to the Veterans Cannabis Project (n.d.), 34 States Allow Medical Marijuana, 83% of Veterans support Medical Marijuana Programs, yet 0% of Veteran Administration facilities provide medical cannabis (though HR712 or the separate MORE Act might and should correct this fact).
Further, According to DiGiovanni (2018) decorated veterans are supporting the legalization of marijuana efforts such as retired Lieutenant Colonel Todd Scattini, i.e., The Hemp Colonel, who is a United States West Point Academy graduate, and is the current CEO of Harvest 360 and the European representative of CW Hemp. According to the article by the DiGiovanni (2018) on the Veterans Cannabis Project’s website, Scattini served in combat arms roles, including Tank & Scout platoon leader and Cavalry troop commander. His language skills and passion for foreign service led to positions overseas, including at the US Embassies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia (DiGiovanni, 2018). But it was his assignment in 2011, as a senior advisor to the commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, that opened his eyes to the both the opportunity of hemp and the healing power of medical cannabis (DiGiovanni, 2018).
Current pro-cannabis legalization laws of recent that I have read into are the SAFE Banking Act (S. 1200), sponsored by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), which strives to improve safety for cannabis businesses, employees, and consumers by prohibiting a federal banking regulator from penalizing a depository institution for providing banking services to a legitimate marijuana-related business (Status: Senate – 04/11/2019 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs); Small Business Tax Equity Act (H.R.1118 & S.422), sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) which would allow compliant, tax-paying cannabis businesses to deduct normal business expenses and access tax credits that are available to other lawful businesses (Status: Senate – 02/07/2019 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance); Marijuana Justice Act(S. 597 & H.R. 1456), sponsored by Representative Barbara Lee (D-California-13th District) strives to remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances and expunging the convictions of those who have served federal time for marijuana use and possession offenses (Status: House – 04/08/2019 Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security); Realizing Equitable & Sustainable Participation in Emerging Cannabis Trades (RESPECT) Resolution (H.Res.163), sponsored by Representative Barbara Lee (D-California-13th District), offers best practices and recommended steps for states and localities to reduce financial barriers to entry relating to cannabis businesses, eliminate constrained licensing frameworks that perpetuate disadvantages relating to cannabis businesses, encourages automated expungement and resentencing for prior cannabis offenses (Status: House – 03/25/2019 Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security); Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act(H.R. 3884. S. 2227), sponsored by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-10th District), is bipartisan legislation that removes marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, thus decriminalizing the substance at the federal level and enabling states to set their own policies (Status: Senate – 12/07/2020 Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance), and HR712 VA (Veterans Administration) Medicinal Cannabis Research Act of 2019, sponsored by Representative Luis J. Correa (D-CA-46th District) which would direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out a clinical trial of the effects of cannabis on certain health outcomes of adults with chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder, and for other purposes (Status: House – 03/12/2020 Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote).
Relating to H.R. 712, the Congressional Budget Office as ordered by the House Committee on Veteran Affairs on March 12, 2020 (The United States Congress, n.d.), issued a Cost Estimate by Ann E. Futrell on April 13, 2020. On February 1, 2019, VA began a 5-year research study at its medical center in San Diego, California, to evaluate effects of the use of medical cannabis among 136 participants with PTSD and other health conditions (Futrell, 2020). The department plans to spend $1 million to conduct the study (Futrell, 2020). CBO expects that trial would satisfy the bill’s requirement for research. Satisfying the reporting requirement would cost less than $500,000 over the 2020-2025 period, CBO estimates (Futrell, 2020). That spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds (Futrell, 2020). Ms. Futrell’s Cost Estimate was reviewed by Leo Lex, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
Further, we have 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Sec. 528. Reenlistment waivers for persons separated from the Armed Forces who commit one misdemeanor cannabis offense. This is a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough, yet, what I am arguing in this paper is for the federal government (and its contractors) to not ask about use not attached to federal charges, but also, the minimum threshold as specified in Section 528 must be raised considering the relationship of states to the federal government.
Figure 4 – Section 528 of the National Defense Reauthorization Act
Section 528 which was helped passed by House Representative Ruben Gallego of Arizona’s 7th Congressional District (a US Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq) is great and a proper step forward, yet I feel it doesn’t go far enough (e.g., a misdemeanor can be very marginal), because the military (and its contractors where workers often have to do SF 86 Background Investigation Questionnaires) are still asking if new recruits, former military members who wish to rejoin, or applicants for employment with federal contracts, if they have used marijuana even if it is not attached to any criminal conviction. It seems the military’s forms such AF Form 2030 or equal (and Standard Form 86 or any other agency equivalent) are still asking these statements to new recruits/members who seek re-entry, employees of federal contractors. Regarding, the military it is still requiring waivers (or possible rejections of clearances relating to contractors or troops).
Based on my ideas and evidence presented so far, the military/federal government should not be asking for marijuana use that is not attached to criminal charges, largely (but not limited to the fact) that Section 528 of the FY20 NDAA, it only speaks to convictions by a court of a competent jurisdiction. Considering that the Office of Personnel Management via its e-QIP System which does background checks for the government and its contractors, I feel the question on the SF 86 relating to marijuana use not relating to criminally convicted charges in courts of competent jurisdiction should be removed from the questionnaire since its relevance is waning. Further, people who do have criminal convictions relating to marijuana such a possession should not fear having a clearance revoked.
There does not seem to be coherent and publicly published logic that is readily available to the public and published in a way which is palpable for the general public to understand that details how the OPM or equivalent makes it security clearance determinations, thus preventing the person who may have had their clearances revoked or employment terminated, from having all the cognizant facts to utilize their constitutional right to challenge such determinations, e.g., obtain legal representation, appeal, etc.
Further, since the vast array of questions on Background Checks can incidentally lead to subjective determinations, many good people have possibly suffered simply because of human bias which is not an exceptional look for the Federal Government; however, I am sure investigators do their jobs to the best of their abilities. For example, if a highly paid non-elected GS Civil Servant has had three DUIs, missed alimony payments, has domestic dispute charges, has had frequent travel outside of the United States, and has a higher debt-to-asset ratio (insinuating higher risk of financial default, i.e., bankruptcy), but they get to keep their job and/or get a Security Clearance. Why should a person, such as a recently college graduate, person who has been seeking employment, person from an underrepresented group and/or low-income area, or your average worker have to admit use of marijuana use not attached to criminal charges, when stating use not attached to criminal convictions, could possibly result in getting a Security Clearance revoked, which could mean loss of employment, having to seek another internal opportunity, increased unemployment insurance registration, destitution, falling behind on bills, etc.?
That is why the SF86 must be reformed. SF86 questions relating to marijuana should be changed to only ask about cannabis use for convicted charges, yet, convicted charges should not be a barrier to employment or gaining a clearance, due to 1) the general shift of perception within the public that supports legalization of cannabis, 2) there is no proof that marijuana/cannabis use leads to any sort of Security Breaches, 3) many States where it is legal have a strong federal employment and military presence, etc.I am not saying the Federal Agencies including the Department of Defense or its contractors cannot test for marijuana (until policy shifts), but rather asking for use not attached to criminal charges does not provide any value.
To reiterate, my idea is that the Department of Defense, Office of Personnel Management (who manages the SF86 Screening Process), or any other agency, or contractor to the federal government, can only ask for use for marijuana related to criminal offenses, and not just “use”. Further, recruiters, contractors who work with recruiters (such as call center staff), and the Human Resource Departments of federal contractors should be educated that they legally can only ask for criminally charged marijuana convictions and not simple use, and any statement made voluntarily of use, either in the past or present, that is not attached to a criminal conviction cannot be used against a military recruit, person who wishes to re-enter the military, or applicant to the federal government or its contractors. Further, if a person has had their record cleared, sometimes charges can still show up on background checks and such charges should not be asked for either.
Once a law, amendment to a law (or revision that expands upon Section 528), or Executive Order based on my idea is approved, I also feel it should be retroactively applied to anyone who was rejected for entry or re-entry into the military (or disqualified for a Security Clearance), or disbarred from employment either as federal civil servant or contractor, so when they try again, they do not have to say anything about use not attached to criminal convictions (even if they admitted on a previous government form), and if even they do admit use voluntarily, it does not matter, because…the military (or employer) will test you regardless upon entry or re-entry and while serving (or working) [until policy changes such as full legalization of cannabis]. It as if it did not happen.
Relating to military recruitment, there should be no requirement of a military waiver for marijuana use not attached to criminal charges and any waivers that are on record for people who admitted marijuana use not attached to criminal charges before active duty or even after active duty who wish to rejoin (regardless if they used within the inactive portion of their Military Service Obligation which aligns to Section 528 of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act, considering the section insinuates that waivers are only needed for “active duty”, i.e., not “inactive duty”), should be expunged immediately.
I added on, “within the inactive portion of their Military Service Obligation” is because once a person separates from active-duty service, they are not getting active-duty benefits, they typically fall under Non-Participating Inactive Reserve Status which is effectively back to Selective Service status of the general public, they receive no BAH (Housing Allowance) from the military, no BAS (Sustenance or Food Allowance) from the military, no uniform stipend from the military, perform no military Physical Tests (PT) or Fitness Tests, likely do not receive Tri-Care Health Insurance from the military, and most fall under the jurisdiction of the Veterans Administration, i.e., once you start drawing Veteran Benefits you can’t receive active-duty benefits.
Further, my idea is good, because The United States only has roughly 300 to 330 Million people; however, we have vast responsibilities covering the globe spanning Eurasia, Eastern Europe, the South China Sea, etc., where our adversaries have populations of 1 Billion and that is not including their own allies. So, to limit the candidate pool because of stigma over something that many states deem to be acceptable, same as many people serving in Congress find it to be acceptable, is simply bad policy of an antiquated time that has systemically embedded itself into negative stereotypes, mass arrests, ruined lives, administrative burdens, and ruined futures, etc.
I see no value to the military (Department of Defense), federal contractors, or the taxpayers who fund the military in asking military recruits, people who wish to seek re-entry into the military, civilian federal employees, or employees of federal contractors, if they have used marijuana, especially if it not attached to any recorded criminal conviction.
For now, the military should only care about criminal charges relating to marijuana – until Congress can reschedule cannabis in the Controlled Substances Act and/or pass legislation such as the MORE Act or equivalent – since criminal charges could possibly create liability issues, e.g., possible outstanding warrants. Criminal convictions pose more of a constraint on logistics and planning for the military, e.g., dates in which recruits can go to Basic Military Training, Officer Training/Candidate School, etc. However, even criminal convictions do not disqualify a person from service (which is good since the military can reshape lives), but simply asking for use without any criminal record has no value and should require no waiver.
Think of it as the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” regarding Marijuana use for initial entry or re-entry into the Armed Forces (or even relating to Security Clearances for troops and contractors). “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was acceptable for decades, but we finally progressed passed that, and now it is time for marijuana, which is a commodity which is traded on stock market via the Over-the-Counter Market which is readily available on commercial exchanges such as E-Trade (owned my Morgan Stanley), taxed by states, creates jobs, reduces black-market crime and trafficking, and was legal for most of our nation’s history. In other words, The Founding Fathers and Revolutionaries had more leeway than people in 2020.
According to Booker (2018) of NPR (National Public Radio), “For the first time in what historians say could be centuries, hemp has been grown and harvested at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s historic estate. In the 1760s, Washington predicted that hemp could be a more profitable crop than tobacco and grew it across his farm. At the time, hemp was abundant in Virginia and elsewhere in the U.S. This summer, horticulturists at Mount Vernon partnered with the University of Virginia and planted hemp once again. “To bring this crop back it just really helps complete our agricultural story,” says Dean Norton, the director of horticulture at the estate. The push to bring back hemp came from a Charlottesville, Va., farmer, Brian Walden, who considers himself a “hemp patriot.””.
Regarding that fact about Mount Vernon, Virginia, i.e., George and Martha Washington’s estate, Mount Vernon is registered with the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, U.S. National Historic Landmarks, and Virginia Landmarks Register. The U.S. National Register of Historic Places is operated by the National Park Service which falls under the Department of Interior, giving further support to the fact that Federal Government does support the growth of marijuana, which in this case, has historical basis considering cannabis was legal for most of the United States’ history.
It is… useless to ask for “use” of marijuana. The military should care for criminal convictions (which is debatable in itself) for cannabis (until the United States reschedules cannabis) because A) the military should only care for use while in Active Status – emphasis on active status – due to readiness, investment, troops get paid, etc., B) the military test randomly all the time such as at MEPS and during active service C) asking for use not tied to criminal convictions encourages people to shy away from the military, and D) the trend of legalization is already here in which many states have full decriminalization for recreational and medicinal use.
For example, if a person lives or has lived in a state, city, locality, municipality, etc., where cannabis (marijuana) is legal and/or decriminalized, but they end up wanting to serve the United States in the military or as a civil servant or contractor, or a former member wants to come back and serve some more, why would a person need a waiver or be asked about “use not attached to criminal convictions”, especially when many states say it is legal and these states contribute to the Total Force Structure of the Department of Defense via the National Guard?
Part of the military is state driven; thus, part of the military is de-facto sovereign (despite the controversial Montgomery Amendment) where the State Governor is Commander-in-Chief (unless under federal orders). Many states with these National Guard Units are fine with marijuana thus meaning the Commander-in-Chief is fine with marijuana; taxes from marijuana might be directly and indirectly funding National Guard units such as roads, air strips, utilities, etc.; state marijuana tax revenues free up federal funds (less money states request from the federal government), and marijuana taxes fund social programs such as education. State marijuana tax revenues thus supports the overall Total Force Structure of the Department of Defense in direct and indirect ways.
States that tax marijuana and distribute funds throughout their state support the Total Force Structure of the military both federally and at the state level (National Guard). Many states with legal marijuana use that money to fund educational programs such as colleges which house ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) units. Since marijuana tax revenue is going to education, this possibly increases the cognitive competencies of workers and potential recruits or service-member who wish to seek re-entry.
For example:
A state might fund a community college system with marijuana tax revenues (or, by other means enabled by diverting funds from elsewhere only made possible by marijuana taxes), but a troop using Tuition Assistance might be taking classes at that facility.
A state library system might be sharing resources with a military base library.
A State University system by expanding construction projects produces direct benefits for ROTC units, such expanded fitness facilities, classrooms, etc.
Further, marijuana tax revenue is going to fund law enforcement in these states and local law enforcement works in unison with the military and Military Police when it comes to legal matters such as responding to emergencies. In addition, marijuana tax revenue is going towards public health efforts which also helps to protect the military, civil servants, and workers for federal contractors. Public Health has always been a concern of the military going back as far as the military educating troops about diseases such as a Syphilis during the World Wars. By states increasing public health funding, enabling testing services, providing contraception, tracking viral outbreaks, offering clean needle exchanges, providing family planning services, etc., this provides an extra level of protection to service members, civil servants, and federal contractors.
Further, many Air National Guard Units are cohabiting with civilian airports which are used as runways, and I am confident that tax revenues from marijuana is helping to fund infrastructure which supports the State National Guard Units but also upstream to the Federal forces of the Department of Defense and Pentagon. In support of this claim, Washington State Treasury (2020), led by Duane A. Davidson who reports to Washington State’s Governor and National Guard Commander-in-Chief, Jay Inslee (Democrat), referenced statistics from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Control Board’s Fiscal Year 2019 Annual Report. Statistics provided by the Washington State Treasury (2020) included that fact that Washington State collected a total of $395.5 million in legal marijuana income and license fees in fiscal year 2019, all but $5.2 million of it from the state’s marijuana excise, or sales tax. Further Washington State Treasury (2020) stated that the report also shows that the marijuana revenues were $172 million more than that of liquor, and that the marijuana tax income of the state for fiscal year 2019 of $395.5 million grew by slightly more than $28 million from the prior fiscal year. Lastly, based on the statistics provided by the Washington State Treasurer (2020) the General Fund received $116.5 million.
Figure 5 – Washington State’s Liquor and Cannabis Board Annual Fiscal Report (2019)
Marijuana tax allocation to public services in Washington State has a positive social benefit, particularly for a state which lacks a state income tax. Relating to how Washington State distributes its revenues generated from taxation on marijuana, in RCW (Revised Code of Washington) 69.50.540, Titled: Dedicated marijuana account—Appropriations, per section (g), at the end of each fiscal year, the treasurer must transfer any amounts in the dedicated marijuana account that are not appropriated pursuant to subsection (1) of this section and this subsection (2) into the general fund. Later sections of RCW 69.50.540 states that revenues that go into the general funds are distributed to counties, cities, and towns where licensed marijuana retailers are physically located, etc.
Speaking back to the $116.5 million in Washington State’s General Fund which was funded by taxation on legal marijuana per RCW 69.50.540 Section (g), I went to Washington States Office of Financial Management which published the Governor Inslee’s 2019-2021 Proposed Biennial Budget. The Military Department (which includes the Air and Army National Guard Units of Washington State) was allocated $14.7 Million in which $5 Million goes to Shake-Alert Monitoring System for the procurement of seismic monitoring stations and global navigation satellite systems which integrates with the overall Shake-Alert System; $928,000 for Tsunami Sirens for Coast Cities which involves the procurement of sixteen (16 each) All-Hazard Alert Broadcast (AHAB) Systems; $750,000 to National Guard Wildfire Pay which pays State Active Duty Wages for service members with firefighter certifications to that of their civilian counter-parts, etc.
Further, while I was searching Washington State’s Office of Financial Management’s website relating to General Fund allocations (which seems to align with marijuana tax revenues allocated through RCW 69.50.540 Section (g)), I found a document Titled: Agency Information Technology Budget Detail, authorized by RCW 43.88.092, Appendix A – IT Projects with OCIO Oversight: Completed for Fiscal Year 2018, where on page 47 of this Appendix, the Military Department (National Guard, etc.) received or will receive a new contract for Next Generation 911 (NG911) Emergency Services IP Network Re-procurement since the current CenturyLink contract is due to expire or has expired. The CenturyLink contract was a transitional system that was awarded before national-standards were implemented and the new NG911 System provides complete call-maker to call-taker Turn-Key services that meets the national standard. [Source: Washington State Office of Financial Management (2019)].
Looking elsewhere on the Office of Financial Management’s website, I found Transportation Projects that directly tied to the U.S. Military, and we can assume that marijuana tax revenues in one shape or another directly or indirectly helps fund these projects.
For Example, per Washington State’s Office of Financial Management’s (2019) documented, titled: OFM Transportation Document 19GOV001 as developed December 10, 2018 – Hwy Mgmt. & Facilities Program (D), one project listed was the I-5 JBLM (Joint Base Lewis McChord) Corridor Improvements under Project No. M00100R.
Further, according to the Washington State Office of Financial Management (2019), on their website in a section titled, 2019-21Governor’s proposed budgets, 2019-29 capital plan, Agency capital project detail, Military Department, I also found National Guard construction projects issued by the Washington State Military Department based out of Camp Murray under RFP-19-GS-006 which was funded by the State Building Construction Account such as $75,000.00 going towards Project No. 40000004 (per the Office of Financial Management) for Anacortes Readiness Center Major Renovation, where the Readiness Center is a National Guard Center that was badly in need of upgrades. Per the Office of Financial Management (2019), The Anacortes Readiness Center is one of the smallest facilities in the Washington National Guard inventory. It has no female restrooms, showers, and locker rooms; lacks office space and classrooms for training purposes; has an inadequate supply room for necessary equipment; and is not ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant. This project will perform predesign for an ADA compliant facility, which will add 6,000 square feet of new space; renovate offices, classrooms, the kitchen, and supply and storage areas; and create a new locker room, restrooms, and showers for female members.
Lastly, at the Washington State Office of Financial Management (2019) 2019-21Governor’s proposed budgets, 2019-29 capital plan, Agency capital project detail, Military Department, I found Camp Murray Building 33 Addition/Alteration funded by the State Building Construction Account funded at an amount of $1,000,000 to $4,000,000.00. Camp Murray is the National Guard Center for the Washington State National Guard and is right across I-5 from Joint Base Lewis McChord, which is a place I am familiar with since I lived in Fort Lewis and DuPont, WA as a pre-teen.
Looking at these projects I noticed some were listed as federal funded whereas others were listed as state funded, meaning that state marijuana tax revenues which affect the state fund (either directly, or indirectly, i.e., freed up funds from one account made possible by marijuana taxes) for construction projects might be helping to fund military infrastructure.
According to a report titled, Oregon Marijuana Tax Statistics: Accounting Information by Oregon.gov (2020), the State of Oregon as of September 2020 collected $15,765,218 of state taxes and $2,445,050 from local taxes, yet only some local marijuana taxes are collected by the state; those collected locally are not counted here. Actual state and local amounts will be known when quarterly tax returns are filed.
So, based on the report listed above, the total of marijuana tax revenues is $18,210,268.00, yet, on the same Oregon.gov website, there is another report titled, Oregon Marijuana Tax: Distribution Information, which calculated a total of $29,832,637 in which 40% went to the State School Fund, 20% Mental Health, Alcoholism, and Drug Services, Oregon State Police (15%), Oregon Health Authority, for Drug Treatment and Prevention (5%), and 20% went back to the City and Local Governments.
Staggs (2020) of the Orange County Register stated that California has raised $1 billion in cannabis tax revenue since the industry kicked into gear in January 2018, according to figures recently released by the state. The bulk of that $1.03 billion in tax money, after covering regulatory costs, has been spent on programs such as childcare for low-income families, cannabis research, public safety grants and cleaning up public lands harmed by illegal marijuana grows (Staggs, 2020). Yet, for concrete numbers, the State of California Department of Tax and Fee Administration issued a public news release by Wells (2020) which stated that total tax revenue reported by the cannabis industry is $172.7 million for 4th quarter returns due by January 31, 2020 and this does not include tax revenue collected by each jurisdiction.
Section IX – Welfare Argument
Speaking to the Stagg (2020) article, in which he speaks of programs for low-income families, I am confident that some troops, especially lower enlisted troops, might be using State Welfare programs to help supplement income, such as WIC (Women, Infant, and Children Special Nutritional Supplemental programs), childcare support services, etc. These programs are sustaining themselves in part with marijuana tax revenues.
The data shows that during the 2018-19 school year, a third of children at DOD-run schools on military bases in the United States — more than 6,500 children — were eligible for free or reduced lunches. At one base — Georgia’s Fort Stewart — 65 percent were eligible (McFadden, Romo, & Abou-Sabe, 2019).
In 2016, the Government Accountability Office published a report recommending that the Defense Department start tracking data on service members’ and their families’ use of food assistance programs such as SNAP and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, but aid groups and lawmakers question whether the department is collecting meaningful data (McFadden, Romo, & Abou-Sabe, 2019).
Section X – Ideas and Arguments Continued
It serves no use to ask for use of marijuana not attached to criminal convictions for new recruits, people who wish to re-enter the military, federal contractors seeking employment, federal civil servants seeking employment, etc. I do respect that the military can test while on active duty considering the importance of the mission, but it is time to progress.
Here is another argument for my idea. For example, does the military ask if you have ever had a beer or glass of wine when wanting to serve? No, they do not, even though alcoholism and social drinking are a part of military life (I grew up around it), even though the reported statistics likely do not state that, because many troops likely do not state the accurate facts for fear of having marks on their record (which might not to be actual policy) or being sent to rehabilitation, which could (even though it is not stated) influence a troop in thinking they might not be successful at promotion levels where character & social politics plays an important role in interviews at board selection committees. Does the military ask if a recruit or person who wishes to seek re-entry ever touched a person in an inappropriate manner? No, they do not, even though – lets be frank – the military does not have the best track record with assault, despite its efforts to combat it. So, we make a big deal about marijuana use not attached to criminal charges, even though prior service or out-of-service marijuana use does not create a bruised eye for the military, yet we do not ask questions or require waivers that relate to alcohol use that is not tied to criminal charges, nor does the military have means to search for improper sexual misconduct that is not reported, etc.
Regarding marijuana, there are stereotypes and stigmas, and even if there were studies, they are likely are so antiquated and outdated, that their relevancy has no sway considering such studies were most likely highly biased based on the times (such as previous times being more racist such as against African Americans and Hispanics, most notably Mexican Americans – note: Hispanic participation in the military is growing and African Americans have served in each conflict of the United States).
Further, stigma in part comes from the social change in the 1960s and 1970s in which the outcome of the Vietnam War was likely blamed in the social consciousness on drug use to hide the mismanagement of the Nixon and Johnson Administrations. The War on Drugs was arguably a strategy to quell the anti-Vietnam War and pro-Civil Rights efforts, even though the real drug culprit was opium, not marijuana, yet, ironically, for nearly two decades we had a legal opium market via prescription drugs (in which company stock were common in every-day Americans 401ks, possibly even military or government Thrift Savings Plans (TSP), i.e., the American public profited from opium addiction which is far more dangerous than marijuana).
The only reason why marijuana is considered a “gateway drug” as you know is because our policies push people to the gatekeepers, i.e., drug dealers (traditionally speaking, since many states with decriminalization efforts have functional, safe, and regulated commercial enterprises where people do not have to go into the black market for cannabis).
Even, Republicans such as former House Speaker and House Minority Leader, John Boehner is profiting from it and that is fine. Are people really going to convince me that he or people associated with him have lost Security Clearances or do not grant commission to Service Academies, or write recommendations, etc.? Presidents from both major parties have admitted using marijuana. Think about that. Our Commander-in-Chiefs have used marijuana but also ironically incarcerated others for it or have disbarred or rejected people because of marijuana. Note: I understand that politics is not easy, but still, there is the moral behind what I am saying.
I am not stating that active-duty troops should be using marijuana until policy changes occurs (which could be modeled on the Canadian model which in itself is based in part from American States where marijuana is legal) but asking newcomers to the military, people who rotated into civilian life and wish to serve again, civil servants or employees of federal contractors, etc., if they’ve use marijuana when there is no criminal record of it is a waste of time. Time is money. Only worry about criminal charges, yet even criminal charges are debatable because of disparities along racial, ethnic, and income lines. To my analogy of alcohol or sexual content, there is plenty of abuse of alcohol at all ranks and there has been plenty of sexual predators who have slipped through the cracks who have no record, but irresponsible alcohol use and assault of any kind, but particularly that of a sexual nature, are way more of a threat than marijuana ever could be, especially since many states have made cannabis legal (and these states have Guard Units that are a part of the Total Force Structure which supports the Department of Defense).
A measure which reforms military Drug and Alcohol Abuse Certificates (or equivalent) across the Sister Service Branches of the Department of Defense for entry or re-entry into the military and which revises forms (questions asked on applications, Standard Form 86s, etc.) of Federal contractors to only ask for criminal convictions relating to marijuana until an Executive Order from the President and/or legislation from the Congress relating to legalization and/or rescheduling of marijuana to a decriminalized category is needed. The measure will reform forms and practices for the federal government and its contractors to only ask for use relating to recorded convictions, rather than asking any question relating to simple “use”. Candidates, recruits, applicants, etc., do not have to state whether they have used marijuana if not attached to criminal convictions, considering the government and many companies have robust drug testing policies.
Asking for marijuana use not attached to criminal charges on forms such as AF Form 2030 Drug and Alcohol Abuse Forms (or equal across Sister Service Branches) and SF 86, are also systemically racist, even if incidental by nature, and thus violates the goals of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which has provisions such as Title VII which strives on increase minority and woman representation within government. Title VII provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are expressed in Federal Acquisition Regulation Clause FAR 52.222-25 Affirmative Action Compliance, meaning that federal contractors must follow this clause, which further means that asking questions about marijuana use not attached to criminal charges increasingly violates the goals of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Effectively the Controlled Substance Act is hampering Civil Rights, particularly through the judicial system via policing policies, etc.
According the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) website section, titled: Marijuana Arrest by Numbers, 52% of all drug arrests in 2010 were for marijuana, and that most people that people are arresting are not kingpins but rather people with small amounts of pot (end quote). Further, the ACLU (2020) issued a more recent report, titled: Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform, which details marijuana arrests from 2010 to 2018 and examines racial disparities at the national, state, and county levels. Two key findings that I will point out in the ACLU (2020) report is that Marijuana Arrests Decreased after Legalization or Decriminalization, yet Racial Disparities in Arrests Persist Even in States That Legalized or Decriminalized Marijuana. Many of these states (which some are the whitest states in America) also have a strong military presence. For example, F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming, Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, Hill AFB in Utah, Mountain Home AFB in Idaho, Minot or Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota, Offutt AFB in Nebraska, etc. These states in our current political environment are not immune to the national debates, especially those relating to race, so being an African American or Hispanic American (or, any minority group), it is my impression that troops of
Figure 8 – Use of Marijuana Between Blacks and Whites for Ages 12+ (2018)
color, or civil servants or federal contractors, can be singled out or targeted, thus increasing risk of judicial punishment (thus, loss of security clearances). For example, there is an intersection between Blue Lives Matters and the fringes of the Alternative Right.
There might exist a disparity regarding rejections of Security Clearances between minorities and white federal employees and military service members, relating to criminally charged marijuana offenses or admission of marijuana use not attached to criminal charges. White Americans report a higher use of marijuana over a lifetime as compared to blacks at 50.7% white versus 42.4% black (ACLU, 2020, p. 30), but black people make up a higher percentage of arrests cases and this disparity can lead to rejection of security clearances/loss of employment/rejection of employment, thus resulting in lower levels of minority representation, which thus violates the vision of the Civil Rights Act considering many states find marijuana to be a commodity with economic, medicinal, and therapeutic properties.
The ACLU (2020) issued a report titled, Tale Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform, in which the ACLU presented data sourced from Uniform Crime Reporting Data (p. 15), the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, i.e., NACJD (p.15) and the US Census Bureau (p. 15) proving disparity between white versus black arrests regarding marijuana, and the findings still found a higher level of arrests for African Americans even in states where it is legal. Further, the report stated that its focus was primarily on African Americans in relation to White Americans, and per the report ,the ACLU (2020) were not able to compare marijuana for the Latin (Latinx) community since the FBI Uniform Criminal Reporting system (UCR) does not racially categorize the Latin (Latinx) community since it is comprised of different races, making it impossible to distinguish between Latinx and non-Latinx individuals in the Black and white populations arrest rates for Latinx individuals the report (ACLU, 2020, p. 11). However, the report by the ACLU (2020) does state that it is critical to continue examining the extent of racial bias in the enforcement of marijuana laws, specifically against Black and Latinx populations, but also that of Native and Indigenous populations, Arab and Middle Eastern populations, Asian populations, Pacific Islander populations, and those with multiple racial/ethnic identities (e.g., biracial populations) (p. 30).
Further, ACLU (2020) stated that The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a federal branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, conducts nationally representative annual surveys of marijuana use over respondents’ lifetime, over the past year, and over the past month. SAMSHA survey data consistently finds that rates of ever use and recent use by race do not significantly differ between Black and white populations (ACLU, 2020, p. 31, para 2). Therefore, the wide racial disparities in marijuana possession arrest rates cannot be explained by differences in marijuana usage rates between Black and white people (ACLU, 2020, p. 31, para 2). In other words, there is something else going on.
In 2018, there were almost 700,000 marijuana arrests, which accounted for more than 43% of all drug arrests (ACLU, 2020, p 7). In fact, in 2018, police made more marijuana arrests than for all violent crimes combined, according to the FBI. Further, it is not clear that marijuana arrests are trending down—they have actually risen in the past few years, with almost 100,000 more arrests in 2018 than 2015 (ACLU, 2020, p 7). On average, a Black person is 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates (ACLU, 2020, p 7). Black people are still more likely to be arrested for possession than white people (ACLU, 2020, p 10). (See Next Page)
Figure 10 – Figure 12 within the ACLU (2020) Report (p. 33), titled: A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform.
How do the facts presented by the ACLU (2020) affect the United States Military, federal government, or government contractors, particularly relating to Security Clearances, employment, recruitment, etc.?
Dickstein (2020) of Stars and Stripes presented a story on how African American troops in the United States Air Force and Space Force are not treated the same as white troops based on a four-month investigation by the Department of the Air Force Inspector General (DAF IG), Lt. General Sami Said. Based on data presented in DAF IG Lt. General Sami Said’s 150-page report, which is careful to note that the identification of racial disparity does not automatically mean racial bias or racism is present, Dickstein (2020) extracted the below bullet-points for his Stars and Stripes article:
Enlisted Black airmen and guardians were 72% more likely than whites to be punished through the Uniform Code of Military Justice or through nonjudicial punishment measures. (Dickstein, 2020).
Enlisted Black airmen and guardians were 57% more likely than whites to face a court-martial. (Dickstein, 2020).
Black junior enlisted Air Force and Space Force troops are twice as likely to be involuntarily discharged for misconduct than white troops. (Dickstein, 2020).
Black Air Force and Space Force service members are 1.64 times more likely to be named suspects in Air Force Office of Special Investigations criminal cases than white service members. (Dickstein, 2020).
Black airmen and guardians are twice as likely be apprehended by Air Force security forces than white airmen and guardians. (Dickstein, 2020).
Black officers are less likely than white officers to be designated to attend professional military education courses. (Dickstein, 2020). ** Note: This bullet is interesting because it doesn’t seem attached to crime, suspicion of crime, or punishment, but rather perception regarding race, yet, the DAF IG is saying that the data doesn’t mean that there is racism?”
Looking at the report myself, although there is an up to 2% racial disparity in overall testing rate for black service members from 2015 to 2019, when broken down by rank, the numbers show black E1-E4s are underrepresented in random testing when compared to their white peers, which indicates there was no inappropriate targeting of young black enlisted members for drug testing. Overall, this report revealed enlisted members were tested at a higher rate than officers consistently from 2015 to 2019, as depicted below (The Department of the Air Force Inspector General, p. 13).
The Inspector General Department of the Air Force (2020) states, objective investigation data from OSI and Security Forces indicate some of the disparity in NJP (Non-Judicial Punishment) results from a disparity in behavior rather than race (The Department of the Air Force Inspector General, p. 11). Accessions data show that members who joined the service with moral waivers are more likely to receive military discipline during their time in service (The Department of the Air Force Inspector General, p. 11). Finally, the disparity in population numbers between demographic groups disproportionally impacts the RPT (Rates Per Thousand) data (The Department of the Air Force Inspector General, p. 11). Because there are fewer black service members than white service members (ratio of about 1:5 overall and 1:13 for officers), even one additional individual disciplinary action will have a far greater impact on the RPT for black service members (The Department of the Air Force Inspector General, p. 11).
Racial disparities in military justice actions against black service members is a complex issue that has been reviewed in-depth by the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps (AFJAG) (The Department of the Air Force Inspector General, p. 11). A 20-year analysis of Air Force NJP data and courts-martial revealed the following: For every single year between 1999 and 2019, black Airmen were more likely to receive NJP than white service members, in terms of RPT. Black service members were 1.74 times more likely than white service members to receive NJP (Non-Judicial Punishment) and 1.60 times more likely than white service members to be court-martialed (The Department of the Air Force Inspector General, p.11). For every single year, black service members were more likely to face courts-martial than white service members. Black service members were court-martialed at an average RPT of 3.39, compared with white service members at an average RPT of 2.12. This data reveals that black Airmen were 60% more likely to face court-martial than white service members (The Department of the Air Force Inspector General, p.11).
The report released by the Department of the Air Force (2020), i.e., DAF IG (2020) relating to racial disparity in Air Force disciplinary action, got me thinking because the DAF IG (2020) talks about “behavior”. What are they really saying with this statement? Is this statement a sort of passive way of insinuating that African Americans have issues? And, if so, are we being sympathetic to the struggles of the African American community and its history, but also the current realities, in which there is a historic and present condition of oppression, imprisonment, laws created to explicitly target African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Indigenous Native Americans (First Peoples), etc.? However, I am not saying the Air Force is not taking the proper steps forward to address racial disparity issues, but one thing they could do is the ideas I am presenting through this paper. Also, they might have to better weigh where they are stationing troops of color by establishing some sort of index which accounts for local hate crimes, political atmosphere, demography, etc. Being a veteran of the United States Air Force, I can attest that most of my experience were positive and I received no disciplinary action (no UCMJ Court Martial, no Non-Judicial Punishments, etc.). I walked a straight line. Yet, I can also attest that the general culture of America where dealing with militarism is largely still dictated and catered to the majority (white) class of the United States. There is an intersectionality between country culture, Republicanism, YouTube military videos, trucks, guns, Soldier of Fortune culture, police, etc. In a way, militarism can be co-opted to be a force for silent white supremacy. When is the last time you have seen an authentic Hollywood blockbuster that showed minorities in a patriotic light while factoring in their pre-military living situations, the social pressures they face both external and internal, the systemic oppression external to the military, etc.?
Yet, I assume that a disparity exists because of marijuana in part, though not entirely (reducing the African American experience to marijuana would be stereotypical in itself). To my understanding, alcohol culture is very Eurocentric whereas cannabis smoking is not (though stats prove otherwise), thus, our nation’s view of alcohol is largely dictated by ethnocentrism, supremacy, etc. However, facts provided by the ACLU (2020) shows that white America consumes the same amount, if not more, cannabis than African Americans do, despite the imagery or stereotypes we see on television.
So, where is this disparity, such as that of the DAF IG (2020) coming from? Likely from a combination of factors, such as what I call “amplification”, i.e., minorities stand out, whereas the majority ironically fades into the background. The DAF IG (2020) did mention the same concept. Further, our there is our criminal justice system. Being a teenager from highly policed urban area is much different than a white teenager from a rural, exurban, or suburban environment.
This got me thinking further. Black Americans, i.e., African Americans, did not have fair voting rights for 77% of the time the United States has been in existence as an officially independent nation. In other words, African Americans were disbarred from law creation, and these laws in many ways have had negative consequences on the community, i.e., African Americans were unable to put their cultural viewpoint or how they view certain issues or substances, on the table. Transatlantic Slavery existed from the late fifteen-hundreds to the late eighteen-hundreds (not including the continuation of sharecropping policies, Jim Crow Apartheid Policies, etc.). 2020 to 1776 (Independence Day) is 244 years. 1776 to 1964 (Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed on July 2, 1964) is 188 years. 188/244 is 0.77 or 77%, i.e., African Americans did not have full Civil Rights protections for 77% of the time since the United States declared independence.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed on August 6, 1965 which means 189 years since 1776, i.e., 189/244 is 0.774 or 77.4%. African Americans did not have full Voting or Civil Rights protections for 77%-77.4% of the time the United States has officially been in existence.
The first record black African slaves were brought to what is now the United States of America, to Jamestown Colony on August 20, 1619 after being kidnapped from Angola (History Channel.com Editors, 2020).
2020 from 1619 is 401 years. 1619 to 1964 (the year the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed) is 345 years. 345/401 is .86%. 1619 to 1965 (the year the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed) is 346 years. 346/401 is 86.2%. So, the from the time the first Africans stepped foot on US soil (that is officially recorded), descendants of black African slaves have not had full civil or voting rights protections for 86-86.2% of the time from colonial America to the modern era.
1965 to 2020 is 55 years and 1964 to 2020 is 56 years. Many if not most Black Baby Boomers were born without having Civil or Voting Rights, i.e., my father was born in 1959, meaning his developmental years were formed in a segregated environment, i.e., Southern Georgia.
Think about that,86-77% of Black America’s existence, we were disenfranchised without Civil or Voting Rights protections, and by the time we had full legal protections, most of the economic wealth was already consolidated, such as during the eighteen-hundreds. From 1860 to 1900, the wealthiest 2% of American households owned more than a third (33%) of the nation’s wealth, while the top 10% owned roughly three quarters (75%) of it (Tindall & Shi, 2012, p. 589). The bottom 40% had no wealth at all (Fraser, 2015, p. 66).
So, 1619 to 1900 is 281 years and 1776 to 1900 is 124 years. 281/401 (70%) and 124/401 (30.9%), meaning that from the first time a recorded African stepped foot on what is now the United States or from the later date of American Independence, African Americans by the 1900s were excluded from wealth creation for 70% of the time, later down to 30% of the time, and it would take 64 to 65 additional years to even be granted the Civil and Voting Rights protections they were disbarred from for 86-77% of the time of the United States’ existence.
To amplify the levels of oppression, we must realize that African Americans, according to Bennett, Martin, & Debarros (1993) of the US Census Bureau noted that in 1900, African Americans only made up 11.6% of the population (p.4), and by 1910, 90% of African Americans lived in the Southern United States (p. 4), i.e., the worst place for African Americans to live (though after the Great Migrations, the North proved it was not a good place either, and the West Coast was being settled by many ex-Confederates). Our law policy (drug policy included) is inseparable from race in this county unless we do something about it.
A population making up 11.6-13% of the United States population, has not had Voting or Civil Rights protections for 86-77% of the time the US (and its predecessor colonies) have been in existence, and further, this 11.6-13% was disbarred from the largest centralization of wealth from Founding to the Gilded Age (70-30% of the time since the Colonial Era and Independence), and the bulk of this population (90%) by the early twentieth century still lived in the American South, and on average, per the ACLU (2020) a Black person is 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though black and white people use marijuana at similar rates.
African Americans, similarly, to Hispanic Americans (which is an ethnicity with a racial spectrum, so some get labeled as “white” whereas others not), Indigenous Native Americans (First Peoples), etc., need help, though we have this notion of “we are all equal”, yet I would argue that a stark view of equality is an inequality, because a moral view of equality does not make up for the real lack of equality (structural, legal, perceptual, etc.) that exists.
Conclusion
A bill, amendment to a bill, rider amendment, or Executive Order should be passed which states that Federal Agencies (the Department of Defense included) should reform forms such as AF Form 2030 (or an equivalent among current or previous Sister Service Branches) and forms such as Standard Form 86 for Federal Background Checks, so that these forms only ask for marijuana use attached to criminal charges (though criminal charges for marijuana should not be ranked as a high disqualifying factor), rather than the current policy of asking for use not attached to criminal charges. This should be done immediately and applied retroactively to any person who was denied entry into the military, denied re-entry into the military, denied employment by for a civil servant position, denied employment by a federal contractor, or denied a Security Clearance regardless if for military employment, federal civilian employment, or employment within a federal contractor.
Bennett, C. E., Martin, B. M., & Debarros, K. (1993, September). We the Americans: Blacks [PDF]. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office on behalf of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics & Statistics Administration, Bureau of the Census. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/wepeople/we-1.pdf
Fraser, S. (2015). The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power (Edition Unstated ed.). Little, Brown, and Company
Futrell, A. E. (2020, April). Congressional Budget Office, Cost Estimate: H.R. 712, a bill to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out a clinical trial of the effects of cannabis on certain health outcomes of adults with chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder, and for other purposes, As ordered reported by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on March 12, 2020 (No. 56329). Congressional Budget Office. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56329
The United States Congress. (n.d.). H.R.712 – 116th Congress (2019-2020): VA Medicinal Cannabis Research Act of 2019. Congress.Gov | Library of Congress. Retrieved December 26, 2020, from https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/712
Tindall, G. B., & Shi, D. E. (2012). America: A Narrative History (Brief Ninth Edition) (Vol. 2) (Brief Ninth ed., Vol. 2). W. W. Norton & Company.
Wells, C. (2020, March 6). California Department of Tax and Fee Administration Reports Cannabis Tax Revenues for the Fourth Quarter of 2019 [Press release]. https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/news/20-03.htm
Key Words: Oxford, Technology, Semi-conductors, software, defense, military, UK, USA
The more I understand Star Wars it seems to have laid the ground work for the current and future mission of the United States Space Force, e.g., having outer-space capabilities (lasers, microwave, photon weapons, etc.) in sync with terrestrial based locations to detect high altitude or outer orbit enemy defense systems and disable energy satellite systems, by linking state of the art of satellite and radar facilities.
Disclaimer: All information in this post is public information freely available to the public. It’s a bit confusing, but these people did die. The question to ask, well, the one that no one seems to asks is, who was the Secretary of Defense during the Star Wars Program? That key paints a larger picture of the world at large in which these people died. It’s a little strange to thing that all these people who were government contractors working in part in support of a secret US program would die without it being known to the intel community. There are a lot of odd coincidences that paints a picture that leads to today. For example, Caspar Weinberger had ties to Iran Contra which had ties to Adnan Khashoggi, who had ties to Ghislaine Maxwell, and Caspar Weinberger would go to Oxford (home of the Maxwells) to find the American Rothermere Institute at Oxford University with President Bill Clinton (who has ties to Maxwell and Epstein, who in turn has ties to Trump), and the Rothermere name comes from a notable newspaper owner involved in the unfolding situation that led to WWII…and this paper was later acquired by the Maxwells. The coincidences are too much.
The nineteen eighties was beyond clandestine (sometimes sloppy) and people to this day got their start in this era such as William Barr (whose father employed Jeffrey Epstein), John Kerry (who investigated Iran Contra), Bob Mueller (who investigated Iran Contra and later Russia Gate), Donald Trump (friends of Ghislaine and Jeffrey), Bill Clinton (same as Trump), Jeffrey Epstein himself, etc. It seems the Maxwell’s trafficked in “information”, hence why his daughter and lover, Jeffrey, peddled into elite circles. Information is power, regardless of what it is. Who is sleeping with who? What is a person’s sexual proclivities? What are new emerging trends in technology be it computing, satellite, defense, etc.? By infiltrating key industries such as entertainment (fashion, modeling, movies), academia, business (Industrial espionage), and politics, this information can be sold to the highest bidder if it proves to be actually valuable, yet, it can also prove dangerous if certain promises are made which are not kept, or people realize you have to much information that’s hard to determine but makes people nervous.
Notes: So we know Caspar Weinberger was the Secretary of Defense in the US, but the scientists died mostly in the UK, but also in Germany, Sweden (if my memory is right), etc. What is the benefit of killing these scientists? 1. They knew too much, but these people seemed like family people or young people with promising future careers who wouldn’t want to jeopardize that. I can get a few scientists going rogue but the volume of scientists killed is disturbing. 2. A enemy foreign actor or actors killed these people. For example Soviets and to this day the Russians are known for being able to kill targets in places such as the UK and there’s a large Eastern European population in Britain. As the Cold War was on overdrive, killing scientists would have bought the Soviets more time in theory in hampering any sort of Anti Nuclear Weapon system, since such a system would result in the Russians losing in the Mutually Assured Destruction balance of power. 3. It seems there were no reprisals for the killings of these people, meaning, that it’s possible British or American intel at the time in the 1980s knew of this but saw it as convenient, in that possible leaks are taken out and then you can blame the Soviets, i.e., killing two birds with one stone. 4. Such deaths would scare other workers into silence 5. It could have been another actor posing as either Western or Eastern intel taking this people out, in order to extract information but get away scotch free in the tug of war between the superpowers, e.g., Israel or another Middle Eastern actor.
COMPANIES THAT EXISTS TODAY THAT ACQUIRED GEC-MACRONI ASSETS: GEC MACRONI STRATEGY: Ericsson as ERIC and ERIXF (acquired parts of Marconi Communications, i.e., Marconi PLC., and Ericsson owns the name rights), Telent (acquired parts of Marconi Communications, i.e., Marconi PLC), BAE Systems as BASY and BAESF (British Aerospace bough General Electric Company’s, GEC, defense arm to create BAE Systems), TransDigm as TDG (acquired Esterline Technologies which is subsidiary, in which Esterline Technologies was parent to CMC Electronics, i.e., Canadian Marconi Company), Alstom S.A. as ALSMY (formed when parts of GEC merged with Alstom), Osram (formed from GEC and Osram falls are ams AG as AMSSY and AUKUF), Otis as OTIS (acquired parts of GEC. Interesting fact that Otis bought parts of United Technologies which appears in the Bolshwing Fthenakis section), Cobham (Marconi Instruments was sold to IFR Systems which was then sold to Aeroflex but then sold to Cobham but then parts of this were sold by Cobham to Viavi Solutions as VIAV which interestingly makes sensors for Microsoft connect and Microsoft will appear in the Maxwell and Bolschwing Fthenakis section, but Cobham was bought by private equity firm Advent International), Leonardo SpA (via GEC’s radar merger with Leonardo’s as FINMY and FINMF predecessor, Finmeccanica).
Macroni today exists as part of BAE, Ericsson, and Telent.
Star Wars was first thought of in 1983 but became an actual program in 1984 under President Ronald Reagan.
Secretary of Defense while these deaths happened was Caspar Weinberger in the USA under Reagan and in the UK under Margaret Thatcher there were (3) Defense Ministers in the 1980s which were Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine (Pembroke College, Oxford), George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie (New College, Oxford), and Tom King, Baron King of Bridgwater (Emmanuel College, Cambridge)
Secretary of Defense charged with overseeing it was Caspar Weinberger
Caspar Weinberger was indicted during the Iran Contra Situation in which the Reagan Administration sold arms illegally to Iran and with proceeds for the sale going to Contra Death Squads in Nicaragua, violating the Boland Amendment, who were fighting the Sandinista faction, but these groups were also trafficking Cocaine such as that of the Medellin Cartel, which thus made it into the USA, and would play a role in the 1980s crack epidemic, the destruction of inner city communities such as the African American community (War on Drugs, mass incarceration, etc.). This drug industry was known by the authorities and involved characters such as Freeway Ricky Ross.
Iran Contra involved characters such Adnan Khashoggi, an arms dealer and one of the wealthiest men alive in the 1980 (his yacht was sold later to Donald Trump), and he was the uncle to recently murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the late Dodi Fayed who was the lover of the late Princess Diana, with Diana of course being the sister-in-law to Prince Andrew (who was later incriminated in the Jeffrey Epstein case).
Also, Ivana Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell were friends with ties to Adnan.
Further, the investigation into Iran Contra was oversaw in part in the Southern District of New York under Judge Robert Morgenthau, and the Morgenthau Family is related the Lehman Family (Lehman Brothers Financial Firm involved in the 2008 Financial Crisis) and the Bronfman Family, in which the Bronfman’s involve:
Edgar Bronfman, Sr., who was the CEO of Seagram Empire and was the President of the World Jewish Coalition (WJC). Edgar Bronfman Sr. advocated for closer ties of Israel to the Soviet Union and to this day this relationship still exists, and Russian is the second most spoken language in Israel.
Further, Edgar Bronfman Jr. was in Jeffrey Epstein’s “Black Book” and he was the former president of Warner Music Group.
Sara and Claire Bronfman were indicted in the NVIUM Sex Scandal.
Sara Bronfman’s husband is Igtet Basit, who was the special UN enjoy to the Libya after the fall of Qaddafi (which corresponded with the Benghazi situation).
Lastly, John Kerry and Robert Mueller were involved as the investigation team during Iran Contra, but Kerry and Mueller (later involved in investigating Russia-Gate) were prep school friends.
William Barr, the now Chief Justice, was also involved during this era and he was an CIA operative working in the Reagan Administration. William Barr’s dad, Donald Barr, was a teacher at an exclusive girl’s prep school in New York, which of course hired Jeffrey Epstein.
Caspar Weinberger was later pardoned by George H.W. Bush (former CIA Director and Skull and Bones Member from Yale University – also, ties of course to the energy sector).
Caspar later goes to find the American Rothermere Institute with President Bill Clinton (also a Rhodes Scholar) in Oxford, England.
Oxford was the home to Robert Maxwell and Ghislaine Maxwell (alumni of Balliol College, Oxford)
According to Tatler, (Ghislaine) Maxwell recalled that her father installed computers at Headington in 1973 and her first job was training to use a Wang and later programming code. https://www.tatler.com/article/tatler-archives-maxwell-family-interview (Wang is now owned by Getronics, a Dutch IT Firm).
Rothermere is named after the Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere who was a newspaper tycoon associated with the Daily Mirror and Daily Mail, with his brother Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, but also was a fascist and associated with Nazi spy seductress, princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe
Stephanie Hohenlohe received an award from Hitler, was purportedly of Jewish ancestry in part, and also was involved with the Habsburg family since she had an affair with Archduke Franz Joseph’s son-in-law, thus making her a few degrees of separation removed from Archduke Franz Ferdinand who was shot by Serbian nationalists, the Black Hand, documented by French British spy Henry Pozzi, thus sparking World War I. So, she has always been around political intrigue involving the major World Wars.
The Daily Mirror and Daily Mail were acquired by media tycoon Robert Maxwell, father of Ghislaine Maxwell, i.e., the associate to child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, under the name the Mirror Group, which know goes by Reach PLC. Robert also owned half of MTV Europe. NOTE: Maxwell was snubbed for a take over of another paper, The News of the World, and this paper was given to Rupert Murdoch, i.e., the later founder of the Fox Media Empire (which later merged with Disney).
NOTE: Britain’s “Silicon Valley”, i.e., the Silicon Fen located in Cambridge (reminds me of the firm Cambridge Analytica) is tied to Sinclair Computer. The interest in technology in the area started with Sinclair Research and Acorn Computers(the British IBM and Apple at their times).
Note: Cambridge Analytica was run by SCL Group under CEOs Nigel and Alexander Oakes and Alexander Nix. The company focused on “global election management” with an emphasis on the developing world but was later vital in the election Trump and the Brexit campaign. Cambridge Analytica had ties to Steve Bannon and Erik Prince, i.e., the son of Elsa Prince a member of the conservative Council on National Policy which had ties to the John Birch Society and Western Goals Foundation set up by General John K. Singlaub involved in the Iran Contra Scandal, etc.
The chief investors in Cambridge Analytica were Robert Mercer, a former co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund, started with James Simons (who was involved in the Panama Papers). Robert Mercer was involved in setting up the Super Pac, Make American Number 1 which supported Donald Trump, and the right-wing outlet Breitbart, etc. The Mercers introduced Steve Bannon (formerly of Goldman Sachs) to Trump. The Mercers have donated millions to climate change denial (Source: Pogrebin, Robin; Sengupta, Somini (2018). “A Science Denier at the Natural History Museum? Scientists Rebel”).
Cambridge Analytica became Emerdata, ran by a lady who as associated with the Mercer Family Foundation, but also had ties to Frontier Service Group worker Johnson Chun Shun Ko of Hong Kong, linked to Erik Prince of Blackwater, in which Erik Prince was doing security work for the Pro-Chinese infrastructure project the New Silk Road Project, i.e., Belt and Road Initiative. https://www.forbes.com/profile/johnson-ko/#6ac63c20670a. So, why is an American mercenary helping a Pro-China infrastructure project if something bigger isn’t being planned, such as the full integration of a possibly capitalist democratic china into the global economy, which would be the last domino in full global economic integration, and with a nation like Israel as the chief IT state of the world?
It is interesting because Steven Bannon is no stranger to Hong Kong, having set up a scam company called “Internet Gaming Entertainment, or IGE, had found a novel way to make millions of dollars each month in the exploding online video-game industry. Working from the 19th floor of a skyscraper in Hong Kong, the company sold virtual goods for real money” (Shawn Boburg and Emily Rauhala, August 4, 2017). Bannon had invested in IGE which was being ran by former Disney Star, Brock Pierce, in Hong Kong, but Brock Piece was incriminated as being involved in a rape case in Los Angeles with Michael Rector (who fled the United States as a result) who hosted lavish gay parties in LA which featured people like Brian Singer.
Brock Pierce was a guest to Jeffrey Epstein at his island during Epstein’s “Science Fairs”. According to Kim Masters (2019) “In early 2011, about a decade after the Digital Entertainment Network imploded, Pierce visited the Virgin Islands to attend “Mindshift,” a conference of top scientists hosted by Epstein.” Further Kim Masters (2019) stated that Epstein also invited a NASA computer engineer, an MIT professor of electrical engineering and a Nobel laureate in theoretical physics.
Sinclair sold its computer rights to Amstad in India but this falls under Sky Group which is controlled by Comcast.
Acorn exists today as Broadcom after being bought by Morgan Stanley restructured, renamed, etc.
NOTE: Robert Maxwell was also known for possibly being a double-spy or triple spy (UKUS, Israel, USSR). He is buried in Israel. He purported helped sell arms to a young Israel after WW2, and as we can see his media firms were also involved in Software.
NOTE: There was a software scandal with an Israeli American company known ad Amdocs, who were reported by Fox News as having phone records of high US government officials. Eavesdropping software.
NOTE: Israel has units such as Unit 8200 and programs such as the Talpiot Program which are focused on cyber security, sending Israelis to US universities and to work in industry.
UNDERSTANDING THE MAXWELL IT STRATEGY AND THAT OF….ISRAEL (NO HATE TO ISRAEL BY THE WAY)
The GEC-Marconi Scientists Murders involved the Strategic Defense Initiative which fell under US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger who would later go to find a policy center in Oxford called the Rothermere American Institute, Israel’s potential role in the Stuxnet Program, the Jonathan Pollard spy case, the Amdocs scandal, Unit 8200 and the Talpiot Program, the rise and fall of WeWork which was set up by an ex-Israeli naval veteran, Yuri Miler’s connection to Jared Kushner and his ties to Facebook, and Robert & Ghislaine Maxwell’s and Jeffrey Epstein’s interest in technology such as Robert Maxwell’s attempt to procure Sinclair Research’s home computer….
It is all about the high-stakes world of intellectual property and scientific trade secrets particularly those relating to software, hardware, and what would later become the internet. It seems the Israelis and other states such as Russia in the Cold War, but particularly Israel, are interested in stealing or acquiring Western IT products, ranging from eavesdropping software, software related to rocketry/ballistics, and the list goes on.
Israel seems to have (3) main goals. (1) Consolidation of lands back to Israel’s Biblical Borders under King David and this is because of the strong Messianic religious devotion of the Jews, or., cultural bonds for secular Jews, (2) Swinging above its weight by leveraging cyber and IT to defend itself, such as Industrial sabotage software, eavesdropping software, analytics, Artificial Intelligence, fiber optics, data mining, crypto currency, and military technology spanning satellites and nuclear capabilities, and (3) ensuring economic prosperity by juggling itself between the main super-powers such as the US, Russia, and China, and it seems that Israel might be looking Eastward for future prosperity by working with Russia and China particularly over economic catalysts such as the New Silk Road project. (4) The acquisition of technology secrets and IP which is where actors such as Robert Maxwell comes into play, but this baton was picked up by his daughter Ghislaine and her associate Jeffrey Epstein, after Robert’s death.
Companies still in existence which had ties to Robert Maxwell:
Main Companies today: (Directly) Apollo Management Group, Reed Elsevier, Viacom CBS, Reach PLC, Future PLC, Pearson PLC, Benesse Corporation (Indirectly, i.e., attempted buys which failed by Maxwell or illicit use of software, etc.) Comcast which acquired Armstad under its Sky Group in which Armstad was owned by Sinclair Research and Maxwell attempted to but their PC division, Adobe Inc., Autodesk, and Microsoft via Maxwell’s Mirror Groups illicit use of their software. Disney via their acquisition of 21st Century Fox of Fox owned by Rupert Murdoch in which Murdoch successfully acquired the News of the World paper from the Carr Family over Maxwell.
Maxwell Communication Corporation > in 1991 after his death the assets were sold to McGraw Hill which is one of the Big 3 Educational Book Publishers (now owned by Apollo Management Group), Reed Elsevier, and Simon & Schuster (subsidiary of Viacom CBS).
The Mirror Group, i.e., under Maxwell’s Pergmaon Holdings > The Mirror Group was a newspaper and media firm which owned the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, which were founded in the early twentieth century by Lord Rothermere and his brother Lord Northcliffe. The Mirror Group now goes by Reach PLC which publishes over 83 print publications. In 1991 the company was due to be investigated via an Anton Piller order for alleged theft of software from companies including Adobe Inc., Autodesk, and Microsoft., Action was delayed as it coincided with the death of Robert Maxwell. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/pc-pirates-who-sail-the-software-seas-rogue-programs-are-bad-news-for-supplier-and-user-alike-warns-1556890.html
IPC Media > bought in 1987 by Maxwell > became TI Media which is now owned by Future PLC which publishes more than 50 magazines in fields such as video games, technology, films, music, photography, home, and knowledge.
Pentice Hall > s an American major educational publisher owned by Pearson plc. Pearson plc purchased the education division of Simon & Schuster (including Prentice Hall and Allyn & Bacon) from Viacom.
Berlitz Corporation > is a Japanese-owned language education and leadership training company, which is based in Princeton, New Jersey. The company was founded in 1878 by Maximilian Berlitz in Providence, Rhode Island in the United States. Berlitz Corporation is now a member of the Benesse Group (also known has Benesse Corporation or Benesse Holdings Company), a Japanese company, with more than 547 company-owned and franchised locations in more than 70 countries
MTV Europe > Maxwell owned a 50% stake in MTV Europe (meaning ties to the music industry of course). MTV is now owned by ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks falling under Viacom CBS in the same division hilariously as Mirage Studios which gave us Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Sinclair Research > Sinclair was kind of like the Apple of the UK. Maxwell attempted to buy their personal computer division in 1985 through his Pergamon company but the deal was aborted in 1985 > Sinclair Research was later sold to Amstrad which falls under Sky Group which falls under Comcast (which owns NBCUniversal, etc.) and Armstad’s current role is making satellite receivers since Sky was able to in-source this needed equipment thus cutting out middle-men in hardware, which is a similar business model that Comcast employs itself, i.e., owns hardware but also media content. But Armstad just exists as name, not really a company anymore. https://www.itpro.co.uk/121394/end-of-an-era-as-sky-buys-amstrad
If you’re new to this, I would recommend reading some of my previous posts, such as Tears on the Western Horizon and my analysis of what I call the ACZ or ACZS (Anglo Continental Zionist Saud) Network.
This paper, I will explore the other angle to Jeffrey Epstein’s ties which spans back by degrees-of-separation to the BCCI Bank, a bank which was incriminated for drug and weapons laundering during the Iran-Contra Scandal. Familiar names from now pop up back then, such as Robert Mueller, John Kerry, the Morgenthau Family which is related to the Bronfman Family currently embroiled by the NXIVM case, Saudis, Trump, Clinton, it goes on and on. Thus, Jeffrey Epstein will not be central to this paper but he is a periphery character in explaining a larger network in how the world really runs, which is controlling black markets, regime changes, incrimination, and laundering by the elites in both business and government – one in the same, really. In today’s time frame, from 2016 to 2020 we’ve witnessed MeToo, Las Vegas Shooting, Russiagate, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and unveiling of Jeffrey Epstein. These seems unrelated but the deeper you dig and more you think…they’re interrelated, in many cases directly but others by degrees-of-separation. You add on unrelated but endemic crises such as mass shootings or if you can get the public to fall into political bickering, then it’s easy to steer the public from the truth. It’s as if the media tried to isolate them but they’re not.
(Stream of thoughts) Ghislaine Maxwell knew Ivana Trump but also knew Adnan Khashoggi who was implicated with BCCI Bank during the Iran-Contra Scandal. Khashoggi’s nephew, Jamal Khashoggi was killed recently by Saudi Arabians close to the Trump Administration. Adnan’s other nephew, Dodi Fayed, dated and was killed with Princess Diana. We know, Maxwell dated Epstein who was close to Prince Andrew, thus Andrew was the brother-in-law to Diana, though Diana had fallen out of favor with the family, and the US and UK is very deeply in bed with Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia is actually an ally to Israel despite Saudi Arabia being bastion of the funds going to terrorism. The BCCI case was investigated by… Robert Mueller and then Senator, John Kerry (later the Secretary of State who replaced Hillary after Benghazi), and both these guys went to prep school together. The judge over BCCI’s indictment was Robert Morgenthau, of the Morgenthau Family which is related to…the Lehman Family (Wall Street Crash of 2008) and Bronfman Family involved in NXVIUM via Clare and Sara Bronfman but also the Ira Einhorn murder via Phyllis Bronfman. Adnan’s BCCI Bank had known CIA affiliation, but it also had ties to the Nation of Islam via Libya’s Qaddafi, and the Nation of Islam had a close relationship with the Black P Stone Nation street gang known for drug dealing.
John Kerry and Robert Mueller
(Stream of thoughts) Iran Contra involved drug dealing and firearms under the CIA’s purview to Latin American death-squads, i.e., the Contras versus Sandinistas, during the Reagan Administration to sell illegal arms to Iran in exchange for American prisoners. Iran Contra involved the right-wing group founded by Major General John K. Singlaub called Western Goals Foundation which had ties to the John Birch Society, which was a radical far-right organization, which largely dictated what we consider the “right wing, conservative, racist, anti-government” “Soldier of Fortune” rhetoric associated with white nationalist and white terrorists, i.e., this links to Neo Nazis. An interesting fact is that Neo Nazis typically inhabit areas involved in the Military Industrial Complex (Orange and LA Counties for example houses many major Defense and Space contractors), which you could assume is due to right-leaning politics, white flight, rabid Cold War antics, but during the Cold War this type of activity might have been promoted through fake organizations such as the JBS.
(Steam of thoughts) Neo Nazis are also caught up in the gun and drug running game, particularly through Biker networks notorious for vice running, and just like black gangs such as Almighty Black P Stone nation, or even Mexican Cartels, they’re essentially assets even without knowing it themselves. They’re the movers and pushers to create black markets which can be controlled and tapped into for dirty money by the government, e.g., the crack and heroin epidemic in America helped fight communism and terrorism. John K. Singlaub was a part of the early OSS and was a veteran of World War 2, a military-observer in China who monitored the Chinese Civil War, managed the Secret War in Vietnam and Cambodia, trained the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan (when Al Qaeda was a US ally against Russia), and was implicated during the Contra Affair. What’s the common denominator between Vietnam, China, Afghanistan, and Latin American? They’re all know for drugs such as heroin. For example, the Turkish group, the Grey Wolves, are a right-wing paramilitary group once associated with NATO Stay Behind Units, i.e., they were trained terrorist to supposedly fight communism, but they also sold Turkish heroin. Turkish and Chinese heroin dealing by the USA goes back times after the Revolutionary War, called Old China Trade, which made East Coast elites vastly wealthy and in part helped finance the Ivy League. One of the descendants of this is John Forbes Kerry of the Forbes Family. Trump’s advisor was Ray Cohn and he was a prosecutor and bully during the McCarthy Era and the McCarthy Era is where a young Ronald Reagan got it start snitching on suspected Communist in Hollywood. Nixon and Reagan did the War on Drugs despite knowing the government was in bed with gangs, the mobs, etc., even going so far as
Jeffrey Epstein fits into a lot of things. One facet is his relationship with MIT, his friendships with world leaders such as Prince Andres, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump, his early Bitcoin interests, his association with top scientists at his island for summits, but, as we all know, his international underage sex ring which had ties to fashion elites in places such as New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Paris. However, for, the general public was exposed to a few major events. These include (1) Russia-gate which made Robert Mueller a household name; (2) the Las Vegas Shooting where I did some research on the Filipino connection and discovered a long history of gun smuggling, casinos, prostitution, FBI/ATF/DOJ and Homeland Security involvement, and the Philippine’s crucial role in American foreign policy such as hedging China by making American presences needed to fight a possibly American-created Islamic terrorist situation where the former leader of Abu Sayyaf was a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan War on the American side; (3) Me Too, which was a hallmark victory for women’s rights, yet, Harvey Weinstein going down might have simply covered up darker behavior going on in Hollywood, such as that relating to the possible abuse of children and human trafficking victims. Essentially, in my opinion, Me Too was important but the media used it as a diversion by using our larger Culture War relating to gender, to steer attention away from Hollywood, but also possibly silence actors who had dirt on them from engaging in political activism. Isn’t is strange how low-key so many Hollywood actors and actresses are now? (4) the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabia, where Saudi Arabia is a key ally to the Trump administration but interestingly the Israeli state. Saudi Arabia has played a key role in US foreign policy but is also involved in Jared Kushner’s supposed peace plan (5) Operation Varsity Blues, which was the take down of a college admission’s racket where elites paid a man to cheat their rich children into college. Essentially, it was a direct yet passive way to show certain elites that they can be taken care of it need be, such as Jared Kushner whom despite bad grades was admitted to Harvard after his father gave a large financial donation. Finally, at number five (5), we have the death of Jeffrey Epstein.
It is my opinion that either directly or by degrees-of separation that all these events are connected and I feel this because each event could easily be the story of a generation, if the media wanted them to, yet, each were showcased and passed without true resolution. It’s as if the media wanted to show us just to seem like they were doing their job but no true follow up was done afterwards. Further, the sociological effects of showcasing these events led to nothing more than bipartisan bickering or identity-politic warfare to divert the public from the “true glass ceiling”.
A scene for Goldfinger (1964), copyright of United Artists. Ian Fleming’s fictitious SPECTRE is an analogy for the world runs. Factions of various groups with the same agenda.
We’ve been here before, haven’t we? I’m tired and finding the truth seems like a matter of endurance and this is something I struggle with, as I stare into this truth that I suspect.
What tipped me off to this was the fact that Erik Price of Blackwater is working for a Chinese based contractor called Frontier Services Group, which is in part helping clear the way for the Sino-Russian economic joint venture, The Belt and Road Project. This is odd because Prince donated and networked for Trump, so why is a Gung-ho US mercenary helping China despite the Trump administration’s economic nationalism against China? Also, this leads me back to the shadowy history of China in the final day of World War 2 where the CIA under Bill Donovan was conducting operations. This fact, reminds me of the current Hong Kong protests, which thus points light on Steve Bannon’s Goldman Sachs dealings in Hong Kong regarding digital currency. It seems that a type of 4d chess is being played, by playing both sides (hence why I use the James Bond image of SPECTRE), and the powers at be, such as banks and corporations are prepping for a new order, i.e., the inevitable goal of linking a democratic China into the global network. A new global order of larger economic blocs ran by corporations and banks that will link China, Russia, the USA, but Israel will have a very important managerial and religious role. This sounds crazy but I suspect Trump of being a New World Order president hiding behind the facade of a nationalist, but his nationalism and Russian apologetic is an attempt at sustaining old Anglo-Continental-Zionist supremacy for the new system that will come, likely after a large showdown such as World War 3 in the future. This is similar to how the order as is came into being after WW2 and there were many double-play intrigues leading up to both WW1 and WW2.
So, if you read this, take it for yourself. It’s not about me. It’s not about “good job, pat on the back, you deserve a prize”. Go out there and go find the truth. By the way, the ACZ Network is something I use to describe the Anglo-Continental Zionist network. It’s an odd collective of elites for the Anglo and American stock, European nobility and bankers, and Zionist Jews all working in unison, despite the surface appearance of tensions, e.g., in many cases Zionist organizations fund right-wing organizations who you would think are at odds with Zionist but they use this top-cover to increase Zionist power. For example in the United States within the right-wing, despite being a bastion of old white supremacy and antisemitism, there is a support for Zionism via Evangelical Christianity. Further, the right-wing is often militaristic with all of its glib of Soldier of Fortune or hunter aesthetics, is often used to fight Zion’s enemies, tapping into the aesthetic of the “Germanic Anglo-Saxon Teutonic Knight”, or be pawns within a larger global struggle in which they’re simply actors supporting the things they claim to hate, i.e., Iran Contra involving drug selling for arms by anti-communist right-wing organizations such as Western Goals Foundation of John K. Singlaub and Oliver North. Fun Fact: This deep-state heroin dealing was reference in the film, Lethal Weapon (1987).
It sounds strange. It sounds like the ramblings of another lost male musing in cyberspace. But, it’s not. It’s my personal belief, based on comparisons to history, that it’s all rigged. I suspect that the dynamite is being laid by a powerful cabal of people, to instigate the big fight between the major powers, just so a new order equivalent to that which arose after World War 2 can rise. I can see a future where China is Balkanized but not destroyed, because that’s not in the game-plan. The game-plan is to integrate a capitalist and democratic China, or “Chinas” divided along ethnic lines, into the Global economy via the Belt and Road project, which would then give globalism a major push across the finish line of a de-facto world government. A democratic capitalist China, just imagine. The consumption, spending, building, and waste such as that found in the American Way of Life. Do we really think that international banks from Goldman Sachs, UBS, Deutsche Bank, HBSC, ING, Softbank, Mistubishi Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, add Russian, Chinese banks too, and the list goes on, don’t want endless profits and immense global power? Multi-national companies have no allegiance to a country, but only profits, and economic nationalism might preserve a culture, but it will also put that culture at the detriment of other culture’s who “play the game” of innovation on the constant quests of profits. In other words, all of this is inevitable, a sign of human social evolution.
Or is it? Do we really think that Donald Trump or people in his camp don’t know of Prince’s work with Frontier Services Group? Of course most typical Republicans would never see this because they don’t want to. They’re lost in a sense of nostalgic fading white fear based America.
The issue with all of this is that it needs lies to sustain itself for top-cover as paid actors, i.e., top politicians at the services of banks and think-tanks like the Council of Foreign Policy or Trilateral Commission, have to put on a show of global conflict, which does require that people die. The world is ran like a mafia network of factions, and despite “street level goons” getting into turf wars, behind the scenes the top brass or Dons are in cahoots. Fighting wars for example isn’t always as simply as nationalist propaganda but it’s a matter of fighting for concessions or to create a new order by making it appear that it all seem like a simplistic us versus them scenario. Nations such as Germany and Japan knew they didn’t have the resources to win a victory, though they made up for it with innovation and cruelty, but a part of starting the wars was to carve out space in the new order that would later come. It’s arguable that parties in Japan and Germany had ties to the West before the war and WW2 was largely true, but there’s also a shadowy behind the scene agenda which is hard to make out. Many Nazis wanted to negotiate with the Allies, almost is if they knew the game went too far, but Hitler knowing he was betrayed by people in the West (Cliveden Set. Note: Hitler was a fan of Cecil Rhodes, the British Imperialist, namesake for the Rhodes Scholarship and Rhodesia, who worked for DeBeers Diamonds which was a Rothschild financed company), to keep fighting on.
Germany was fighting a war which couldn’t be won and the only reason to think it had the gall to fight such as war is that many in the Nazi elite though they had support from outside of Germany. The goal seems to have been the implementation of fascism, which was one of the Big Three democratic theoretical models which found support within the West, and the Nazi elite thought they had support for fascism under Hitler within the USA and UK, considering there was Anglo-American support prior to Germany’s invasions of its neighbors, such as the well-known relationships with the Koch Family, Watson Family of IBM, Coca-Cola, Henry Ford, the British Cliveden Set, the Imperial Fascist League of Arnold Leese, the British Union of Fascist under Oswald Mosley (where the BUF has the support of Lord Rothermere who will be discussed later), the American Bund (known for its infamous Madison Square Guard rally in 1939), and even the support of Hollywood through studios such as MGM which was owned by Russian Jew, Louis B. Mayer. Mayer would later become a staunch Republican, especially as the Neoconservative movement rose (which was highly Jewish), and oversaw the McCarthy Red Scare Witch Hunts of actors led by a young Ronald Reagan (later of Bohemian Grove with Richard Nixon). The Hollywood connections to Hitler can be found The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler by Ben Urwand (2013), by the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
The resultant damage to Germany due to Hitler, allowed the powers to carve the world in half during the Cold War, which soon thereafter morphed into the Middle Eastern conflicts regarding oil, the establishment of OPEC, etc. It seems the Cold War in part was a way to carve the Earth in half, manage the populations of Earth under two dialectical economic opposites, but also control energy prices via a cabal of international companies and banks. There was tension between the USA and USSR, of course, but also instances where the truth was revealed, such as (1) the revelation of the Cambridge Five scandal that included Kim Philby, where five British intelligence officers were caught sharing information with the Soviet Union, (2) The US USSR Esalen Institute Exchanges in the early nineteen-eighties, and (3) the fact that Chase Bank under David Rockefeller, the heir to the Standard Oil Dynasty, and with close ties to the OSS (CIA), opened a bank office in Communist Russia in the nineteen-seventies. This was when the Cold War was still on overdrive, despite it being after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Since, they couldn’t talk directly, otherwise the entire global order would fall, certain nations such as Israel and India have a history of being back-doors between the USSR and USA.
A Soviet stamp with British Intelligence Officer, Kim PhilbyThe Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler by Ben Urwand (2013) by the Harvard Press
People like Stalin and Hitler didn’t simply rise from the ashes, but were possibly pulled from the gutters or scouted to play a role, though they were able to control their respective mob faction accordingly to keep the “game alive”.
Speaking to the unfolding One Belt One Road Initiative, if you add, the eventual inclusion of digital currency (in theory the IMF has the power to print money or sanction money), in the wake of the US dollar falling as the world’s reserve currency (though I’m sure it will still be a respectable currency similar to how the Pound was to the Dollar), then not only do we have a world of larger economic blocs, but we have a common world currency. Many developing nations prefer crypto-currency because its more accessible than US dollars, and they’re already used to chaotic currencies. The world will thus be smaller and more interconnected via a technotronic model akin to Zbigniew Brzezinski’s “In Between Two Ages” (digital money, digital payment systems able to be cancelled if a person gets out of line, surveillance states, etc.) with international bodies for governorship – either existing as is, i.e., the United Nations, World Bank, IMF, Interpol, or, shifting to new bodies in places such as Israel (some consider the center of the world).
An excerpt from Zbigniew Brzezinski’s The Grand Chessboard
Think about it this way, Trump and the MAGA Camp, which is full of not only white-identity politics apologist and Jewish Zionists, has tried repeatedly to improve relations with Russia, despite Russia under the “esoteric guidance” of Aleksandr Dugin wanting to expand former Soviet territory lost after the Cold War. Russia also has deep relations with China with China being their main creditor and Russia being China’s main natural gas supplier. So, by Trump trying to be get cozy with Russia, in essence he’s getting cozy with China, and the fact that Erik Price is working with Frontier Services Group on the Belt and Road Project – despite Trump’s economic sanctions – indicates that Trump, in theory is supporting Sino-Russian relations, which gives Israel leverage due to its international Chabad networks in Moscow, the USA, etc. Is Trump simply another chaos agent laying the dynamite underneath the facade of America First patriotism, hypnotizing the white majority of the US in its never-ending Culture War? Smoke and mirrors?
The Belt and Road Initiative map by the Mercator Institute of Chinese Studies Map of Eurasia showing the trade network of the Radhanites (in blue), c. 870, as reported in the account of ibn Khordadbeh in the Book of Roads and Kingdoms. Other trade routes of the period shown in purple. The Radhanites (also Radanites, Arabic: الرذنية, romanized: ar-Raðaniyya; Hebrew sing. רדהני Radhani, pl. רדהנים Radhanim) were medieval merchants, some of Jewish origin. Only a limited number of primary sources use the term, and it remains unclear whether they referred to a specific guild, or to a clan, or generically to Jewish merchants in the trans-Eurasian trade network. Jewish merchants operated in trade between the Christian and Islamic worlds during the early Middle Ages (approximately 500–1000). Many trade routes previously established under the Roman Empire continued to function during that period – largely through their efforts. Their trade network covered much of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of India and China
Add, to this that Russia and China have close economic ties regarding Central Asia, i.e., The Grand Chessboard as stated by Zbigniew Brzezinski, via the Belt and Road Project, yet, Israel has close ties to both Sino-Russian relations and US-UK (Anglo-American) relations. Despite, being the smallest actor in this unfolding game, Israel oddly has leveraged its size to play a larger role in such as plausible new global order. For example, Israel via religion can play the Old Testament card, i.e., Judeo-Christian, but also can play into End Times prophecy revelation in which many Evangelical Christians believe in, hence, why Islam has been put at odds against Christendom. As the game unfolds, I noticed one similarity between all the major players of Russia, China, the USA, and Israel. This is they all have Muslims in their shooting sights, e.g., the Chechens of Russia, the Uyghurs of China, the Palestinians with Israel, and the Americans which every nation, save Saudi Arabia, though Saudi Arabia is an actor in the global already. Further, Israel can spread a global religion called Noahide, particularly in developing nations, which is a Christian form of Israel worship. Many Noahide Laws have been implemented already without the general public even knowing such as Trump’s staunch Zionist rhetoric.
A map of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Far East in Russia the borders China. Near the Belt and Road Initiative. If the project sees manifests itself, in theory, this would give the Chabad Lubavitch community quite a bit of economic power, considering Israel is on the Mediterranean coast and the JAO is near China. “There are, however, some Chinese renting land in places like the Jewish Autonomous Region, where Chinese farmers are tenants on up to 80% of the land in the tiny province. At the same time, these farmers are the only mass producers of vegetables and grains for the local market, so it’s a win-win situation wherein Russian residents of the region benefit from lower prices for agricultural products, and the Chinese farmers can export the surplus.” (Gabuev & Greg, 2016)
On the other hand, China is Russia’s largest creditor (apart from Cyprus, which acts as an offshore money center for round-trip investment into the Russian economy). Russia has become the largest supplier of oil to China over the last three months, bumping Saudi Arabia from the top spot. (Gabuev & Greg, 2016)
So while there are some developments that might be the beginning of something bigger, more mature, and more ambitious, the end result will still be asymmetrical as long as Russia clearly needs China much more than China needs Russia. China has a diversified economy, including multiple sources of hydrocarbons, and therefore Russia is definitely the dependent partner. (Gabuev & Greg, 2016)
Regarding the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Andrei Muchnik (2017) stated, “The so-called Red Zion was established in the 1930s as a Soviet alternative to British Mandatory Palestine. The first official Jewish entity managed to attract a fair few prominent Jews in its heyday – including Yiddish poet Peretz Markish. The settlers didn’t come only from the Soviet Union, but also from such far-flung places as Argentina and Mandatory Palestine itself. Further, describing Stalin’s reason for creating the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Muchnik (2017) states, another reason was an attempt to try to cozy up to overseas Jews and attract investment. It was also intended to connect the Trans-Siberian Railroad and Amur River Valley. The Chabad.org Staff (2017) stated, “Rejecting the “bourgeoisie nationalism” of the Zionist movement—with its focus on the land of Israel—the Soviet government pushed this remote section of Siberia on the Chinese border as an alternative Zion, where working Jews from all over the world could freely settle and make an honest living working the land.”
Gabuev & Greg (2016) of the Carnegie Moscow Center, stated, “There are, however, some Chinese renting land in places like the Jewish Autonomous Region, where Chinese farmers are tenants on up to 80% of the land in the tiny province. At the same time, these farmers are the only mass producers of vegetables and grains for the local market, so it’s a win-win situation wherein Russian residents of the region benefit from lower prices for agricultural products, and the Chinese farmers can export the surplus.”. Regarding the JAO’s relationship to Belt and Road project, Junya, Yue, Hao, & Bingqing (2018), stated, “As part of it, two cross-border bridges to be completed in 2019 will link China’s Heilongjiang Province with Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Oblast and Amur region, while two international transport corridors are under construction in the Primorsky Territory.”. Further, Junya, et al (2018), states, “In fact, China has become the Russian Far East’s biggest investment source. Primorsky’s capital and port Vladivostok is now home to many Chinese enterprises. In particular, China’s northeastern provinces, known as the “rust belt,” are too looking to bilateral cooperation in securing easy access to seaports and reviving their economies. Agriculture and transborder logistics are currently the two leading sectors in China-Russia cooperation in the Far East.”.
A picture of Aleksandr Dugin’s grand Eurasian ideologyThe Second Warsaw Pact written by Orson Scott Card in Shadow of the Hegemon. This pact ominously reflects Putin’s and Dugin’s strategy of Eurasianism for expanding former Soviet power to areas lost after the Cold War. Promoting anti-NATO, ant-Western sentiments is a cornerstone of Russian psychological operations within the West which was been absorbed into the American Right Wing via pundits such as Alex Jones. Jones’ disinformation war keeps the light off the Trump administration in its attempt to link with Russia, even as far as the Trump administration’s treason regarding the Ukraine. Card writes about the Second Warsaw Pact which is Russian expanding its borders back to Soviet heights with the help of China, thus, this fictional pact by Card reflects real-world Sino-Russian relations. While Russia and China coordinate over Eurasia (with Israelis in the mix), Russia is conducting psychological operations into the West via the American Right Wing such as extremists such as Lauren Southern, Alex Jones, Red Ice TV, etc.
“As if this vat redrawing of the world’s map were not enough, Russia announced that it had joined China as its ally, and that it considered the nations of eastern Europe that were not loyal members of the New Warsaw Pact to be provinces in rebellion. Without firing a shot, Russia was able, simply by promising not to be as dreadful an overlord as China, to rewrite the Warsaw Pact until it was more or less the constitution of an empire that included all of Europe east of Germany, Austria, and Italy in the south, and east of Sweden and Norway in the north” (Shadow of the Hegemon, Card, p. 428, para. 2)
“The weary nations of western Europe were quick to “welcome” and “discipline” that Russia would bring to Europe, and Russia was immediately given full membership in the European Community. Because Russia now controlled the votes of more than half the members of that community, it would require constant tug of war to keep some semblance of independence, and rather than play that game, Great Britain, Ireland, Iceland, and Portugal left the European Community. But even they took great pains to assure the Russian bear that this was purely over economic issues and they really welcomed this renewed Russian interest in the West” (Shadow of the Hegemon, Card, p. 428)
“Indeed, the only force that stood firm against China and Russia while facing them across heavily defended borders were the Muslim nations. Iran generously forgot how threateningly Pakistani troops had loom along their borders in the month before India’s fall, and Arabs joined with Turks in Muslim solidarity against any Russian encroachment across the Caucus into the vast steppes of central Asia. No one seriously thought that Muslim military might could stand for long against a serious attack from China, and Russia was only scarcely less dangerous, but the Muslims laid aside their grievances, trusted in Allah, and kept their bodies bristling with the warning that this nestle would be hard to grasp.” (Shadow of the Hegemon, Card, p. 428-429, para. 4)
“What Bean saw as the driving force of history, however, was the resurgent Russian Empire. Where the Chinese simply took for granted that they were and should be the center of the universe, the Russians, led by a series of ambitious demagogues and authoritarian generals, felt that history had cheated them out of their rightful place, century after century, and it was time for that to end” (Ender’s Shadow, Card, p. 400, para. 2)
“It was Russia that forced the creation of the of the New Warsaw Pact, bringing its effective borders back to the peak of Soviet power – and beyond, for this Greece was its ally, and an intimidated Turkey was neutralized. Europe was on the verge of being neutralized, the Russian dram of hegemony from Pacific to the Atlantic at last within reach” (Ender’s Shadow, Card, p. 400, para. 2) The Russo-Anglo-American Alliance was stated by Robert Heinlein in 1959. It is oddly similar to Brexit under Boris Johnson, Trump with MAGA, and Right Wing Russia with Putin. You can add Jair Bolsanaro of Brazil if you were to draw Right Wing Latin American themes from the film adaption by Paul Verhoeven (1997), e.g., the film takes places in Buenos Aires in the future which was inspired by real-world Euro-Latin fascism after WW2 (Nazi Rat Lines, Right Wing Dictators often of German or Italian heritage). The Cold War after WW2 relating to Latin America was largely dictated by Neoconservatives. Neoconservatives actually got their start from Jewish Trotsky followers who joined the GOP which explained the Jewish domination of Neo-conservatism in this era. Barry Goldwater, Milton Friedman, Henry Kissinger, etc. All of these leaders are committed Zionists.
Heinlein has odd connections to Jack Parsons, thus Alaister Crowley, but also L. Ron Hubbard via the Manana Literary Society. Heinlein’s political ideology meshes Marxism and Libertarian ideologies, i.e., it merges dialectical opposites into a Platonic society of Citizens and Civilians. Heinlein when he was a Marxist supported the Social Credit, which is Universal Basic Income. Heinlein later turned Right Wing Libertarian in response to the Nuclear Cold War, yet, he postulated a world that merged both socialism and Libertarian ideology. Both Marxism and Libertarian ideology come from a common democratic origin in the Renaissance and later in the factions during the French Revolution as the Jacobin movement fractured. This fracturing of the Jacobin movement into Girondins and Montagnards, where reflected in Masonic Clubs. The British and Americans via the Grand Lodge of England, York and Scottish Rites, took on the Girondin model of private property which later evolved into monopoly capitalsm, while the Montagnards took on Marxism via the Grand Lodge of France.
Does anyone think it’s strange that Rex Tillerson with Exxon Mobil, i.e., Standard Oil of the Rockefellers, had a very cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin and Russian oil company, Rosneft? Maybe, Putin knows strategically that he’s outmatched and the Kremlin’s attempts at infiltrating the West is Russia trying to figure out which superpower it will side with during the inevitable showdown? Maybe, Putin is simply in the pockets of those who already run the world and is effectively the paid-for boogeyman, considering he has the means to make money in the West, such as with oil/natural gas with Exxon Mobil, real-estate, the Russian mob, oligarchs who own sports teams in the Premier League, or his son-in-law’s, Yuri Milner’s, investments with Facebook.
I say this because when it comes to warfare, it’s not always about fighting to win or total annihilation, but rather fighting to lose but still have enough bargaining power at the table of the new order.
Does anyone find it strange, that despite Trump’s “economic populist” rhetoric against China, that one of his close allies and donors in Erik Prince, is doing defense contractor work for Frontier Services Group, a Chinese based firm assisting with the economic juggernaut project, the Belt and Road Initiative? Or, does anyone find it odd that Steve Bannon, despite all his “patriotic rhetoric”, has close ties to Hong Kong via his days as Goldman Sachs, but also his dealings with early Bitcoin and Bitcoin pushers such as Brock Pierson. Pierson was later invited to Epstein’s Island for a science forum. All these clues are right in our faces, but the disorienting part is how they’re never connected, especially by those with the supposed intellect to do so, e.g., the mainstream media. Does anyone not find it odd that Ghislaine Maxwell’s acted with near impunity as the madam of the “elite global managerial class”, hasn’t been charged with anything, despite her father being a double if not triple-agent between the Mossad, MI5, and KGB?
We’ve been here before, haven’t we?
The same international banking interests rearranging the global landscape, so an explosion happens, so a new order, i.e., symbolic of the Phoenix, rises. The political intrigues of what occurred before World War 2 seems to be going on now, but this is “higher level strategy” above what we would see on television, lost in identity politics, zoning out to social media. In the past we know all this real-life historical oddities such as The Cliveden Set with the Astor Family and this “Sects” relationship via Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere. Rothermere was a prominent newspaper propagandist in the UK who supported the Nazis but had a relationship with Jewish-born Nazi spy Stephanie von Hohenloe. Hohenloe would later work for the OSS (CIA); The Neville Chamberlain appeasement of Hitler, which allowed him to invade Poland, and thus compel the Allies to enter the War; Josef Stalin’s early work in the old-fields owned by the French Rothschild’s, Royal Dutch Shell, and the Noble Family, as a Marxist rabble-rouser but people suspected him of being a government agent.
Was the Cold War simply a way to divide the world in half to control energy production and prices, but Marxism and Capitalism were funded by the same international banks who simply coopted and manipulated early organic and grassroots movements? Think about that, what soon unfolded after WW2 and the establishment of the Cold War order? Oil and the Middle East such as the inclusion of the Saud Family with Getty Oil, the CIA and MI5s overthrow of the Iranian government which is rich in crude oil; the fact that the British won the land of Palestine which would later become Israel, after King George and the British Rothschilds dethroned George’s cousins, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany (thus his allies in the Ottoman Turks who controlled Palestine), but also Czar Nicholas through the Bolshevik Revolution; the fact that Marxism was financed by Engels, who was the heir to a wealthy Anglo-British industrial company; the Bronfman Family’s (NXVIUM) relation to the Lehman Family, i.e., Lehman Brothers investment house, and the Morgenthau Family. Henry Morgenthau Jr., was the United States Secretary of the Treasury under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who shaped the Lend-Lease Program, support for China in WW2, and proposing the Morgenthau Plan, with the latter being the plan to destroy German military capacity but this was seized by the Nazis to keep fighting on; the OSS and US Army Counterintelligence Agency’s faux trials of Nazi War Criminals just to absorb them into the new West Germany intelligence apparatus and US nuclear research program, which included Reinhard Gehlen of Gehlen Organization – the precursor to the modern German BND; we all know about Mossad’s work with Otto Sorkzeny, Hitler’s favorite commando to take out Egyptian nuclear scientists, but also the fact that there many Nazis with Jewish blood. Would Israel not exist without Nazis?
Stephanie Von Hohenlohe was Jewish and a Nazi Spy. Is it possible, she was working both sides, offering communication between Hitler and his supposed Anglo-American contacts such as the Cliveden Set, just to betray Hitler (which was always the goal) so Israel would be created after the war? 2003 Colby Award Winner, Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers: The untold story of Nazi racial laws and the men of Jewish descent in the German Military by Bryan Mark Rigg. Rigg received his B.A. with honors from Yale University and his Ph.D. in history from Cambridge University. He served as a volunteer in the Israeli army and as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. The book was cited by the New York Times, “Rigg has turned up an unexplored and confounding in the history of the Holocasut” (Warren Hoge).
Regarding, the Nazi connection it is well-known that the US used Nazi scientists for weapon’s research. However, JD Salinger was actually one of the people charged to hunt down these Nazis when he was attached the US Army’s Counterintelligence Command. Salinger had a nervous breakdown and checked himself into a mental hospital in Germany which was being ran by a Nazi in hiding. Even though Salinger is included within many conspiracy theories, it is my suspicion that Salinger and his magnum opus, A Catcher in the Rye, was an analogy about his time in Germany in World War 2, and the cynicism he felt when he learned the truth that the Allies were recruiting Nazis. It is my suspicion that Salinger’s use of the word phonies by the story’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield, was a jab at Army and OSS top-brass. Salinger’s Jewish identity was thus called into question, i.e., he has a severe existential crisis, knowing that he was in part assisting people who wanted to exterminate his people, and I suspect the bleakness of Holden depicted his sadness. The impact of Catcher in the Rye wasn’t some “mind control” story as alleged, but rather it was a story inspired by true events that touched upon the most extreme fringes of Western existentialism and nihilism, juxtaposed by the innocence of youth, and this in part sparked a social revolution. The copy-cat violence of some readers inspired by Catcher in the Rye was a social phenomenon similar – allegedly – to that of the Sorrow of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which started a string of copy-cat suicides. Eberhard Alsen (2018), through the University of Wisconsin Press, published, J.D. Salinger and the Nazis, provided an objective analysis of claims relating to JD Salinger. In many ways the book disproves many conspiracies regarding Salinger, and instead shows him as a Jewish-American man with an identity-crisis, i.e., to be Jewish or to be a man of the West, a.ka., an All American guy indifferent to Zionism, who found himself doing lowly enlisted Intel work (never becoming in Officer) but possibly came upon a higher truth as he hunted Nazis that was too much to bare.
“The US Army’s Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency falsified the political and employment records of Braun and his team of engineers so they could continue their work on ballistic missiles for the United States. In short, the US Army deliberately hoodwinked the president” (Alsen, 2018, p.118).
“While the Army resettled (Werner von) Braun and over fifteen hundred other whitewashed Nazis in the United States to do weapons research, Salinger was expected to track down lesser Nazis in Germany so they could be denazified. This double standard must have reinforced Salinger’s negative opinion of the US Army leadership and confirmed his opinion that his job as a Nazi hunter was a ridiculous waste of time” (Alsen, 2018, p.118).
Before I move on from from Salinger, I just want to state that Salinger was a part of the Ritchie Boys, who were a predominately Jewish group of US troopers who were recruited for their German language skills. They were used for interrogation of Nazi prisoners. One, notable member of the Ritchie Boys as Henry Kissinger who would take over as Secretary of State, overseeing the right-wing overthrows of many democracies, and also was a part of the Neoconservative movement which was largely Jewish and/or Trotsky followers who joined the GOP. For example, Trotsky’s notion of international revolution would be absorbed into the US military apparatus under the guise of freedom, and instead of a worker’s revolution, instead it was replaces with spreading democracy, i.e., constant war for the war-machine. This period of time also saw a young Israel find itself becoming cozy with US foreign policy due to its strategic location but also the possibility that many neoconservatives were Jewish and this was a part of the plan to prop up and fund Israel. The Necons later tapped into Evangelical Christianity to further deepen ties with Israel in the political-right which is known for being more patriotic and willing to use military force.
Even though, Salinger isn’t vital to this paper, his CIC link is notable in that it was brought up in a CIA Archived piece, titled, Cold War Allies: The Origins of CIA’s Relationship with Ukrainian Nationalists, by Kevin C. Ruffner (1998). In this article it went into detail about how the SSU (Strategic Services Unit), i.e., the OSS and later CIA, recruited Ukrainian nationalists to form emirges, i.e., cells, to help fight Communism in the West. Frank Wisner of the CIA had a close professional relationship with Kim Philby of the Cambridge Five Double-Spy Scandal. In the article by Ruffner (1998) it was stated that Wisner backed his conclusions for the setting up cells based on information drawn from the CIC, which is where Salinger worked. So, there was a relationship with the CIA and the CIA, and the CIA in certain cases had contacts with moles who had contact with the Soviets; however, I’m not drawing a clear straight connection here, but rather its a case of degrees of separation in a very confusing spy landscape of Cold War, i.e., no one knew who to trust. I’ll share some quotes from Ruffner (1998) below:
“The Strategic Services Unit (SSU), the successor to the wartime Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, and the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency learned about anti-Soviet Ukrainian resistance movements that continued after the war in Western Europe” (Ruffner, 1998)
“Boleslav A. Holtsmann, SSU’s X-2 (Counter-Intelligence) representative in Munich, became the primary American contacts with Ukrainian leaders in the American Zone in Germany” (Ruffner, 1998)
“There were some setbacks between this collaboration of the SSU and Ukrainian emigres. SSU Director, William Quinn, wanted more research into the Ukrainian factions before they could become CIA Assets” (Ruffner, 1998)
“Ukrainians had served in the German Army and had been linked to Nazi atrocities on the Eastern Front” (Ruffner, 1998)
“Zsolt Aradi, a Hungarian consultant within the SSU, was instrumental in establishing American intelligence contacts with the Ukrainians. Aradi had written the Ukrainian nationalist movement for the SSU in October 1946, and used his ties with Ukrainian church officials and the Vatican to meet emirge leaders in Germany” (Ruffner, 1998)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R), Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar (L) and Russia’s Jewish Communities Federation President Alexander Boroda (C) attend a ceremony marking moving the Schneerson library at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre in Moscow, Russia, 13 June 2013. Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar called the decision to transfer the disputed Jewish archive to the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre a ‘Solomon’s decision’ and promised to provide availability of the books to people. EPA/ALEXEY NIKOLSKY / RIA NOVOSTI / KREMLIN POOLBoris Johnson with members of Chabad after his victory in the UK. https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/general/1763414/boris-johnson-wins-rce-to-become-uks-next-prime-minister.htmlTrump with Chabad during National Education Day. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner is close to the Chabad communityPresident Barack Obama presents a ceremonial copy of the Education and Sharing Day Proclamation that he issued on March 31, 2015 to a delegation from the American Friends of Lubavitch in the Oval Office, April 27, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.https://www.worldcrunch.com/ culture-society/baku039s-oil- glory-from-stalin-to-the-rothschilds-and-nobels
It’s interesting to note that in the Baku Oil fields, the main players were Branobel (an oil company owned by the Nobel Family – yes, the same ones who made dynamite and where the Nobel Prize gets its name from), the French Rothschild, and Royal Dutch Shell. Yet, according to Levine (2007), On 28 April 1920, the Bolsheviks seized power in Baku and Branobel’s oil business in Azerbaijan was nationalized. In May 1920, the Nobel family sold almost half the Branobel’s shares in its possession to Standard Oil of New Jersey.
So, think about that, after the Communist Revolution, the largest oil company in the world ran by the Rockefeller’s absorbed their competition, becoming even bigger. Further, the Bolshevik revolution dethroned King George’s competitor and cousin, Czar Nicholas. It sound’s like grand mafia politics of taking over territory and controlling the political landscape to spur more conflict, thus gain more control. Where did the Bolsheviks get their weapons from? Wasn’t Communism in part created by Fredrich Engels? Who was a British-German rich kid whose parents had a successful textile company. It seems that Communism was in part funded by Anglo-American and banking interests to destabilize competition and centralize resources. Yet, whenever the powers props up an actor like Stalin or Hitler, they don’t have full control of those people, so there’s a power-play between all parties. Hitler thought he had a truce with Stalin during the Ribbentrob and Molotov negotiations leading to the Molotov Pact, but the Allies and Stalin always planned on joined forces, like mobs, and carving Germany in half to start the Cold War.
Erik Prince of Blackwater
Israel’s Black Cube intelligence firm
Prince’s work on the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative with Chinese based Frontier Services Group to jail the Uyghur people on the Western Desert, despite Prince donating to Trump and negotiating with Saudi and Emirate princes in the Seychelles (as proved in the MSM and Mueller Report)
Bannon’s Goldman Sachs history with Hong Kong which included early Bitcoin, i.e., global currency, including work with Brock Pierson (accused rapist) who was at Epstein’s Island.
Israel’s Sino-Russian relations from the time of Ben-Gurion and how they can profit from the Belt and Road Initiative via the Russian territory of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast;
Sheldon Adelson’s (Trump Super Donor) Chinese gambling business with Macau;
The Philippines crucial role in Pacific defense policy, yet, there’s a shadowy underworld of prostitution, gun running, the FBI/ATF/DOJ/Homeland Security, DOD counter-terrorism against Abu Sayyaf where the former leader of Abu Sayyaf was a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan War on the side of the Americans. The Las Vegas shooter’s Filipino connections oddly pointed the spotlight on what’s going on in the Philippines.
Prince’s relationship with the conservative Council for National Policy which included his “avatar”, Major General John K Singlaub (WW2, China, The Secret War in Laos, Afghanistan, [the latter two known for Heroin), and Iran Contra) aka Right Wing PMC drug dealing to funnel guns for revolutionary forces;
Similarities between Blackwater and Western Goals Foundation;
Prince’s relationship with Left Behind (a Christian Right book) author Tim LeHaye thus linking Prince to the Zionist such as Jared Kushner and thus the Chabad Lubavitch community.
The history of the CIA in China after WW2 before the propping up of Mao who was a bookkeeper in the Yale China missions – an organization built by Yale East Coast elite families dating back to the Old China Opium Trade (John Forbes Kerry is a descendant) which was formed to smuggle heroin out of China after the Boxer Rebellion and Nationalist backlash. The Americans muscled and won the old Heroin networks of the British Empire and French Empire, i.e., British India owned Pakistan and knew of the heroin fields of Afghanistan, where a certain region was called Kafiristan and Nuristan. Nuristan means “Land of Light”, i.e., Land of Illumination. The Americans after the Revolutionary War had already developed heroin networks with Turkey and China.
and how the Hong Kong Protests might be MI5 and CIA supported considering Hong Kong is former British territory.
It seems Prince might be the “chaos agent”, laying the groundwork for the “NWO”, i.e., imploding China and starting a war, just to do a strategic rebuild of China via the Belt and Road so a democratic China can be controlled by foreign global banks and multinationals.
John D. Rockefeller, loved Mao, and opened banking offices in Russia and China in the 70s in the height of the Cold War.
Erik Prince could be compared strongly to Major General John K. Singluab. He headed CIA operations in postwar Manchuria during the Chinese Communist revolution, led troops in the Korean War, managed the secret war along the Ho Chi Minh trail in the Kingdom of Laos and Vietnam, worked with the Contras in Nicaragua, and Afghan resistance during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In 1979, Singlaub founded the Western Goals Foundation, a private intelligence network that was implicated for supplying weapons to the Contras during the Iran–Contra affair. According to the Special Operations Command (n.d.), “As one of a handful of Special Operations Branch personnel retained the Strategic Services Unit (successor to the OSS), Singlaub stayed in China to report on the Civil War.” So, think about that… Yale and the East Coast elite, also known as the Boston Brahmin, has a long history with China going back to Old China Trade opium dealing, but later Yale opens the Yale China Association in China and Mao Zedung has frequent contacts with this organization. The CIA was in China in the final days of WW2 and after during the confusing times of Kai-Shek versus Mao. Considering David Rockefeller opened a bank in China in the 1970s, seems to show that Mao was in part propped up by the Americans, likely as a hedge against Russia, but also to prep China for eventually inclusion into the global economy as the “totalitarian factory” of the world. Kai-Shek was propped in Tiawan as a hedge against Mao just in case he ever got too far out of line, yet, the Americans have never given full public support to Taiwan. Essentially, funding both sides of the Chinese Civil War was a way to save face that the Americans were fighting communism, but also not fighting the Communist harder, was a part of the plan to divide the world among Cold War partisan lines. China was always the goal of the globalist. Winthrop Rockefeller was the Governor of Arkansas. Another Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton – a Rhodes Scholar and Yale alumni – with the Walton Family would see China finally integrated into the global supply chain. The relationship was that China would vouch for the American’s exorbitant debts to fund its empire, in exchange for the Americans buying cheap Chinese products. A symbiotic relationship that kept two of the world’s strongest powers in bed with each other. I suspect the current Freedom Protests are in part a way to keep China on the globalist agenda without them venturing off to far and acting unilaterally. https://www.soc.mil/ARSOF_History/icons/singlaub.html
David Rockefeller in 1973 published the famous article in the New York Times called From a China Traveler. Rockefeller shows admiration for the Chinese country which was still under Maoist Communist ideology. Rockefeller through Chase Bank, now JP Morgan & Chase, opened one of the first American bank offices in China since the Chinese Civil War, in the nineteen-seventies. This was at a time when the United States was supposedly a staunch anti-communist advocate. Considering the vast history of the American East Coast elite in China dating back to the post-Revolutionary era of opium dealing with China, and the creation of the Yale-China Association (where Mao worked at), it seems that China was always the goal of the globalist. Rockefeller (1973) states, “One is impressed immediately by the sense of national harmony. From the loud patriotic music at the border onward, there is very real and pervasive dedication to Chairman Mao and Maoist principles. Whatever the price of the Chinese Revolution, it has obviously succeeded not only in producing more efficient and dedicated administration, but also in fostering high morale and community of purpose.” Further, “The social experiment in China under. Chairman Mao’s leadership is one of the most important and successful in human history.” (Rockefeller, 1973). Regarding banks in China and Russia by the Rockefeller Dynasty, David Rockefeller opened one of the first Western bankers in Russia during the Cold War. According to JP Morgan Chase & Co. (2017), “In the 1970s, Chase added nearly 40 new branches, representative offices, affiliates, subsidiaries and joint ventures outside the United States, including two historic firsts in 1973: Chase opened a representative office in Moscow, the first presence for a U.S. bank in the Soviet Union since the 1920s” (p. 13). Further, JP Morgan Chase & Co. (2017), “In 1973, Chase Manhattan Bank Chairman David Rockefeller visited China and met with Chinese Prime Minister Chou En-Lai. Chase became the first U.S. correspondent to the Bank of China since the 1949 Chinese Revolution.” (p. 13).
David Rockefeller’s “From a China Traveler” after his trip to China in the New York Times archive. The Rockefeller’s through Chase Bank would open one of the first Western banks in China after the Communist Revolution. https://www.yalechina.org/. We have to remember that Yale has long ties to China going back to Old China Trade which were the post-Revolutionary War trading houses in China. The main commodity of choice was Opium trading, which was hurt by Chinese backlash during the Boxer Rebellion. One prominent trading house was Russell & Company, founded by Samuel Russell. Samuel Russell’s cousin was William Huntingdon Russell, who founded Skull & Bones at Yale University. Notable partners were Warren Delano, Jr., the grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who in turn had Henry Morgenthau Jr., as his Treasury Secretary. Henry Morgenthau, Jr., was the first and only Jew in the Presidential line of succession. Morgenthau is related to the Bronfman Family (NXVIUM via Sara and Claire Bronfman; Edgar Bronfman of Warner Music Group was in Jeffrey Epstein’s Black Book, and Phyllis Lambert nee Bronfman who provided bail money to murderer, Ira Einhorn) and Lehman Family of former Lehman Brothers – the firm which in part started the 2008 Financial Crisis. Another partner in Russell & Company was John Murray Forbes, an ancestors of John Forbes Kerry, the former Secretary of State. Public information about the Yale China AssociationAn article showing growing Jewish and Chinese ties. Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore (2014) ” Jews likely first arrived in China via the Silk Road almost 1,000 years ago. In the mid-19th century, following the Opium Wars, Iraqi Jews settled alongside British traders in Shanghai, where many made their fortunes. China later accepted Jews taking flight from Russia, who made their homes in the bleak snowy landscapes of northern Harbin. In World War II, tens of thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany flooded Shanghai: Most left for Australia, America, or Israel when the Communists gained power in 1949. Chinese state media has long championed positive portrayals of the Jews, in part because Judaism, with its ethnically based and non-evangelical nature, has proved less of a threat to the Communist Party than other foreign monotheistic religions, like Christianity or Islam. (China’s own Jewish population, the Kaifeng Jews, have being almost completely assimilated.) High-profile Jewish figures in the Chinese Communist Party’s own history include Sidney Rittenberg, the first American citizen to join the party, and the journalist Israel Epstein, whose funeral was attended by former Chinese President Hu Jintao and former Premier Wen Jiabao. https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/167289/nanjing-jewish-studiesSheldon Adelson’s Chinese casino projects stated in the Wall Street JournalA photo of Sheldon Adelson, Trump’s super donor, with Chinese and Las Vegas casino holdingsExamples of Russian psychological operations into the West and many are through Zionist outlets such as Rebel Media, which once employed racist Lauren Southern. Southern went to Russia to interview Dugin. Also, Jay Dyer, an Orthodox convert, sometimes called the “Redneck Socrates”, constantly pushes Anti-Western conspiracy yet refuses to objectively analyze anything coming from Russia. Another example of Russian infiltration into the United States. Relating back to Jay Dyer’s Orthodoxy and his interview with Dugin, we can see a photo of Dugin with a radical sect of Russian Orthodox Church. Dugin has repeatedly spoken about the destruction of the United States and West. Other photos includes racist Richard Spencer which is his now ex-wife of Russian decent. She filed for divorce based on domestic violence accusations. The other photo is Lana Lokteff of RedIce TV who brags about Russian heritage and advocates for an ethno-state. She also identifies as pagan, which aligns with the Russian Hyperborean movement – a movement that is a sub-sect of the Russian Cosmist movement. It is an esoteric movement that claims that life started in Russia. Alex Jones interviewing and platforming Alexandr Dugin. The American “Alt Right” has been co-opted by Russian psychological operations. Jones is a very suspicious character. He has ties to the Disinformation Company and was frequently hosted on the Joe Rogan Podcast. A podcast which actively showcased the Intellectual Dark Web, before Rogan and Jones had a “fall out” and the podcast went back to normal. Jones is very close with MAGA particularly Roger Stone. Jones has consistently defended Trump despite claiming being an objective “conspiracy theorist”. For such a “prominent” conspiracy theorist, Jones rarely objectively analyzes Israel, Russia, or MAGA. His strategy is to be the “Redneck talking head” to tap into paranoia within the conservative white majority to steer them away from the truth, while also weaponizing this demographic will old Republican talking tropes. Alex Jones might have been compromised into being a die hard MAGA and Zionist supporter. His friendship with sexual adventurist Roger Stone might have been the fall of Alex Jones as he fell deeper into his own vices such as escorts and drugs. The MAGA Camp knew the power of Alex Jones over the minds of mostly conservative or right-leaning white males in the backlash to the Obama Administration. That was a powerful voice via YouTube to help push anti-left conspiracies theories, considering the Democratic establishment and Republican Establish (up until Trump) kept a pragmatic policy on Israel and Russia. Trump reversed this course of action by laying down for Israel and consistently trying to network with Russia, even at the expense of the Ukraine. The anti-UN anti-NATO rhetoric of traditional right-wing circles has been used by foreign adversaries to stir conspiracy against the United States. Two Jewish political consultants in George Birnbaum and Arthur Finklestein helped push the George Soros conspiracy which is a staple in Right-Wing Pro-Trump conspiracies. Even Trump referenced Soros during the US crisis. But why would two Jews do such a thing which obviously pushed antisemitism? By pushing antisemitism it allows Jewish elites to play both sides. Antisemitism allows for the cracking down of free speech and investigative journalism, put it is also pushes people into the Right-Wing by blaming all the issues of the world on liberalism. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hnsgrassegger/george-soros-conspiracy-finkelstein-birnbaum-orban-netanyahuSo, it’s not treason for Trump to get Ukraine to pull up dirt on political opponents by holding Congressionally approved arms sales from Ukraine, but Trump since then is still pandering to Vladimir Putin. Another example of the normalization of Putin’s Russia by the MAGA Camp via their favorite outlet, Fox News with a target audience of predominately white (not a crime) and elderly. Jason Jorjani, an Iranian scholar and member of the Alt-Right via Arktos Media which he edited (and, distributed Aleksandr Dugin’s The Fourth Political Theory), was analyzed by The Intercept. Jorjani is frequently showcased on paranormal YouTube site, New Thinking Allowed with Jeremy Mishlove, whom, interestingly, is the only person with a Ph.D in Paranormal Studies from UC Berkley. This goes to show the pseudo-science roots within the Alt-Right, which has historical contexts going back as far as the Nazi Ahnenerbe on its quests to search for Aryan Origins in the Far East and Central Asia, i.e., The Grand Chessboard of Zbigniew Brzezinski. Jorjani’s Iran interests is important because it actually links to the esoteric ideology guiding Russian Neo-Nationalists such as Aleksandr Dugin. Jorjani was also interestingly linked Zionism within his Iranian studies, and Zionism is also a key aspect in Dugin’s esoteric ideology. This was provided in The Russian Cosmists (2012) by George M. Young, a professor at the University of New England. The Intercept article can be found at https://theintercept.com/2018/03/18/alt-right-jason-jorjani/Jason Reza Jorjani speaking about…IQ testing of embryos… on New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove. Paranormal studies are a part of the Far Right and always has been. It is typically linked to Grand Origin Story theories used to justify warfare and expansionism, e.g., the Nazis looking for Far Eastern roots was a justification to push East to the resource rich areas, or, Russia’s attempt at Grand Origin mythology such as Hyperborea myths creates a justification for expanded operations in Central Asia and aligns with Dugin’s Eurasianism ideology. Jason Reza Jorjani speaking about Zionism’s roots in Iranian. Think about that… Zionism, i.e., Jewish. Russian esoteric thinkers link Russian with Iran. The strong connection of Chabad in Russia, the USA, and Israel. Russia’s relation with China on the Belt and Road, plus Israel’s ability to profit from the project in Israel and the far East with the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. Or, the fact that there’s many Jews in the MAGA Administration which is linked or associated with the concept of White Supremacy, which thus echoes back to research does by Bryan Mark Riggs in “Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers” (2002). There’s a deeper level of strategy and playing both sides going on. A great book by George M. Young that goes into roots of Russian Cosmists
“George Vendasky, for example, sees Russian pre-Christian pagan religion as a development from both Zoroastrianism and Mithraism. And Aleksandr Dugin and other current Russian neo-Eurasianists and neonationalists point to ancient Russia’s religious and cultural kinship with ancient Iran to support their calls for a new Russo-Iranian Eurasian continental alliance to counter NATO power and culture”. (p. 83, Young, 2012).
“The ancient Iranians, to whom Fedorov believes the Slavs are related, were continental rather than insular and peninsular in outland, land tillers rather than land seekers, and in their close relationship to the earth recognized that life is won only by constant struggle against nature. Evil, for the Zendo-Slavic peoples, is not an inescapable condition of existence, as in India, but can be overcome by concerted human effort.” (pg. 83, Young, 2012).
George Vendasky, for example, sees Russian pre-Christian pagan religion as a development from both Zoroastrianism and Mithraism. And Aleksandr Dugin and other current Russian neo-Eurasianists and neonationalists point to ancient Russia’s religious and cultural kinship with ancient Iran to support their calls for a new Russo-Iranian Eurasian continental alliance to counter NATO power and culture”. (p. 83)
“Fedorov viewed Russian culture as a continuation of ancient Aryan Iran, a combination of Eastern and Western principles, struggling against a hostile natural environment, wary of Greco-Roman power to the west and Turan to the East. Similarly, Gumilev views Russia as an absorber and continuation of the great steppe powers of ancient Eurasia, different from and strong than both Western Europe and eastern Asia. For Gumilev, the Mongol invasion by Genghis Khan was not a curse but a blessing for Russia, saving the entire Eurasian heartland from the aggressive clutches of the Catholic West, then presented by Poland and the Baltic Teutonic Knights. Under the khans, Russian Orthodox spirituality was tolerated and allowed to mature, whereas medieval Orthodox spirituality would’ve been crushed under the heels of Teutonic Knights, and the Eurasian heartland would eventually have become simply an extended version of the European spiritual and political battleground of Catholics versus Protestants.” (p. 228)
“In recent times, Gumilev’s theories have proved especially useful to Russian neonationalists, neo-Eurasianists and other with an anti-Western, anti-Atlanticist political bias, the most prominent of whom is the ideologist, Alexander Dugin – and, some might add, Vladimir Putin.” (p. 228)
References:
Alsen, E. (2018). J.D. Salinger and the Nazis. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press.
The purpose
of this paper is to A) show the important Defense Industry angle to Katie Hill’s
district. The district she represented is a major player regarding the Military
Complex and this district was recently held by an ardent Trump supporter. Katie
winning that seat probably gave the Trump Administration (and, possibly even
the neoliberal side of the DNC that supports war) and the Defense Lobby a
person who wouldn’t simply vote for pro-military legislation for the sake of
doing so, even though Katie Hill has voted for pro-military and veteran legislation.
Katie Hill also voted against sending military arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE
which brings to light Jared Kushner, the supposed Peace Plan, Donald Trump, and
even Jamal Khashoggi, and B) to show the socio-political climate of the
Antelope Valley in her district which has a history of drugs, white nationalist
gangs, and is very sensitive to Recessions, meaning there’s a higher risk of
right-wing reactionary politics.
With Katie
Hill out of office, Johnson (2019) of The Hill, stated, “California Gov. Gavin
Newsom (D) on Friday set the date for the special election to decide who will
replace former Rep. Katie Hill (D), who announced her resignation last month amid
allegations she had affairs with campaign and congressional staffers. The
special election for the 25th Congressional District seat will take
place March 3, and if no candidate wins the majority, then a run-off will be
held on May 12, the governor’s office said.”
Regarding the
upcoming election, Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks is running, well,
possibly. According to Martin (2019), “The race to replace Katie Hill in
California’s 25th District keeps getting wilder, Cenk Uygur, a
former MSNBC personality and found of The Young Turks, a progressive
activism website, has announced his intent to run for the seat.” Further,
Martin (2019) states, “And while he’s clearly fired up, there might a couple of
things standing in his way. For one, he doesn’t live in or have any apparent
connection to the 25th. Uygur resides in West L.A. and, when asked
about the issue, responded, “People are obsessed with geography over the
issues.”” The article by Martin (2019) also discusses Cenk’s past comments
regarding women, which will certainly hound him, either with the right-wing calling
hypocrisy for the left being wishy-washy on the issue when its politically
convenient, or, he’ll meet stiff resistance from women voters, or, it won’t be
an issue because he said these comments so long ago and his platform has stood
up for women and advocated for progressive causes.
Regardless, the 25th District is also important for the Military and Aerospace Industry with Lockheed Martin having a facility in Palmdale, AeroVironment in Simi Valley, etc. The overall Southern California area has Edwards AFB; Vandenberg AFB under the Space Command and thus NASA; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ; March Air Force Base (defunct); Los Angeles Air Force Base which houses the Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile System Center; Fort MacArthur in the San Pedro district of LA which still falls under LA AFB; Camp Pendleton; the Pomona Colleges and Caltech as far as research is concerned; The Aerospace Corporation, and all the major defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, BAE Systems, ViaSat, Airbus, etc.
Katie had
a hard job to balance. She had to actively support a vital economic engine for
her region, despite the New Left constantly attacking the Military Complex,
yet, she had to vote in a way that morally aligned that support for the
military with progressive ideology. Essentially, you can be a leftist or
liberal and support the military, despite the perception in the media that the
left hates the military and the right-wing is military obsessed. There is a
vast spectrum regarding this matter. There’s plenty of Democrats or Leftist in
the United States military and I can attest to that because I served myself
(honorable discharge), but I also grew up in the US Army during my father’s twenty-three-year
Army career.
Further,
you have to realize the “Military Complex” isn’t purely mega-corporations hated
by the political-left but it’s a web or ecosystem comprising an array of
federally recognized small businesses spanning categories such as Woman-Owned
Small Businesses, Service Disabled Veteran Small businesses, Minority-owned
etc. It involves politicians who want to help their districts get jobs, NAICS
codes, General Service Administration schedules, federal research grants with
universities, etc. Federal contracting is universe of its own. Besides the
major prime-contractors such as Boeing, you have smaller suppliers provide
everything from specialty parts, composite moldings, scientific testing, clothing,
food services, cleaning services, IT help, and the furnishing of commercial-off-the-shelf
items such as office supplies, computers, and construction services to facilities.
So, the
military-complex employs more people than the general public understands and it’s
not all some boogeyman evil Robocop corporation. A small mom and pop shop in
Anaheim might win an award to deliver printers to some A.B.C.X.Y.G office in a government
facility, or a furniture store in a predominately minority HUB zone (opportunity
zone) might win an award to furnish a command posts’ briefing room or install
lights at your local US Postal Office. Contracting, even that not relating to
the military (all government agencies require contracting, i.e., people who
spend money and issue service contracts), and the Military Complex essentially beefs
up the American economy with direct suppliers in supply-chains or
contract-by-contract awards to small-to-medium size businesses all over the country
who are praying they get a phone call for a chance to submit proposals for a
federal, state, or local project.
She
unseated Steve Knight who is an 18 year LAPD veteran who oversaw a program
called CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) which one could
contrast to Katie’s participation in PATH (People Assisting the Homeless),
served in the US Army, was born in Palmdale and attended Palmdale High School,
and while in the House he served on the Committee on Armed Services
(Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Lanced Forces and Subcommittee on Sea-power
and Projection Forces); Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (Subcommittee
on Energy as Vice Chair, Subcommittee on Space, and Subcommittee on
Contracting and Workforce as Chair,
and Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight, and Regulations).
According
to infographic developed by Bycotte & Silver (2019) Knight voted for Trump’s
policies 99% of the time and was the seventh most partisan Trump supporter in
the House.
Katie Hill
despite being on the opposite side of the political spectrum, did serve on the
Committee on Armed Services (as well as the same subcommittees as Knight) and
on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The difference is that
Katie served on the Committee on Oversight and Reform as Vice Chair and served under
its subcommittees of Economic and Consumer Policy and the United States House
Oversight Subcommittee on Environment. The Oversight committee is the committee
looking into Trump. As far as Caucus Membership she was on the LGBT Equality Caucus,
Congressional Progressive Caucus, and the New Democrat Coalition.
Knight sat
on the House Aerospace Caucus, Climate Solutions Caucus, Alzheimer Disease Task
Force, Republican Law Enforcement Task Force, Congressional Lupus Caucus,
Congressional Military Family Caucus, NASA Caucus, Congressional Unmanned Systems
Caucus, etc. Despite both Katie and Steve being in different parties, their
Congressional committee and caucus memberships seem aligned in many ways with
the district they represent, but then differ in certain ways based on their party
affiliation.
Both Hill
and Knight represent areas that value veterans, relies on the defense &
aerospace industry or contracting for employment, but there’s an array of
social issues from being tough on crime and California’s affordable housing
crisis. The district is effectively a swing district with an arguably diverse
population where voters seem issue-based despite standard-political affiliations.
People will vote outside of party lines if a certain issue is relevant. Do you
want to lose your job if federal money dries up or a recession happens? Or, do
you want to lose your house if housing prices keep soaring? These are two major
issues effecting Katie Hill’s area.
With the
military-complex being important in this case and Knight losing to Hill…is it
possible that the revenge porn leak was partially inspired to get her out of
power and to help Knight comeback so the GOP could have a die-hard Pro-Trump
voter to vote for defense spending bills? Not to mention, hedging the House which
is responsible for drafting articles of impeachment. There’s no proof of that a
foreign power hacked her husband or he was conned based on anger in leaking her
photos, but Katie probably angered a lot of people by voting against arms sales
to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It’s not even out of the question to think that
the pro-Israel lobby could’ve thrown her under the bus, considering Jared Kushner
and Israel are allies to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. So, with Katie Hill voting
in favor to combat issues such as antisemitism, she could’ve been betrayed for
going against a larger geopolitical game with Israel, Saudi Arabia, etc.
Let’s look
at a few of Katie Hill’s votes regarding the military and security while in the
House and I got her voting record from Vote Smart (2019) [Note: See Reference
Section]:
She voted
(Yes) to the National Defense Authorization Act on 7/12/2019
She voted (Yes)
to Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th
Victim Compensation Fund Act on 7/12/2019
She voted (Yes)
to the NATO Support Act of 01/22/2019
Yet, she
may have angered certain lobbies by voting (Yes) to
S J Res
38 – A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the proposed
export to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of certain defense
articles and services on 7/17/2019, and,
S J Res 37 – A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of
the proposed export to the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of France of certain
defense articles and services on 7/17/2019.
So, think
about that…she did her job in supporting US patriots and veterans but also
supported NATO, yet, she went against Saudi Arabia and the UAE. These countries
are very close to Donald Trump and Jared Kushner. So, Katie unseated Knight and
she voted against two of Donald Trump’s key allies as the chaotic unfolding situation
in the Middle East gets worst. Remember the controversy with Trump and the murder
to Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia? Or, Erik Prince of Blackwater being called
out for having a meeting in the Seychelles with representatives from the UAE on
behalf of Trump? Remember Jared Kushner’s supposed Middle East Peace Plan. If
this is the case, there’s a higher level of political intrigue, but also
betrayal, considering Katie also voted from pro-Israel, Anti-Defamation League,
and AIPAC backed legislation denouncing Antisemitism.
Further,
keeping this voting record in mind, considering she voted against an arms-sales
to Trump and Kushner allies, Saudi Arabia and UAE, she was also on the “Trump
Watchdog” committee, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In
a paper from her hometown of Santa Clarita, Painter (2019), stated, “Hill sits
on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which, according to
the representative, has launched multiple investigations into the president’s
administration on issues that were not fully examined in the Mueller report,
including White House security clearance policies, family separations at the
southern border and alleged sharing of nuclear information with Saudi
Arabia.”
“There’s
so many issues that we’ve got to continue our investigations on and it’s just
not related to the Mueller report,” she said (Painter, 2019).
Katie Hill
even on her Twitter account on February 19, 2019 at 9:13 AM and mentioned the
previous of possible national security by the Trump Administration with Saudi
Arabia.
Let’s get
to the point.
I don’t
really want to focus on her personal relationship with her husband because it’s
not my business. I really don’t know what to make of it or say about her
personal life. My focus in this paper is A) The Military Complex Angle and B)
An understanding of her mysterious “tattoo”, which doesn’t necessarily
implicate Kate Hill with white supremacy, since I’ve heard or read no
explanation from her, but the possibility that her tattoo is an Iron Cross, sheds
light on the economic and racial situation of the Antelope Valley.
On a
positive note, in a brilliant campaign, Katie was able to modify the sense of
patriotism people in her district expect and which she believes in, but with
progressive ideology more in alignment with what we see in an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
She won.
Katie Hill
represented the 25th District of California which encompasses the cities/towns/Census-Designed
places of Santa Clarita, Simi Valley, Palmdale, Lancaster, and the northern
part of the San Fernando Valley. The median income is $76,866 according to a
basic Google Search, which looks good on paper, but for California standards
that probably puts you in the dead-middle middle-class, so I am assuming this area
is mostly exurban, not suburban in the traditional sense, of working commuter
families. She was a part of the Blue Wave, predominately female revolution of
newly elected politicians in the wake of events such as Donald Trump’s
election, the MeToo movement, Stormy Daniel’s circus events, and the controversial
Ford vs. Kavanaugh SCOTUS hearings.
But let’s get this next question out of the way before is Katie Hill a Nazi?
I would say… No. Why? She voted for House Resolution
489 – Condemning President Trump’s Racist Comments Directed at Members of
Congress on 7/16/2019.
She voted for House
Resolution 312 – Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act. She voted H.R 1585 – Violence
Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019 on 4/4/2019. She voted for House Resolution
183 – Condemning Antisemitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the
values and aspirations that define the people of the United States and
condemning anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities as hateful
expressions of intolerance that are contrary to the values and aspirations of
the United States on 03/07/2019. She voted for H.Res.124 – Expressing opposition to
banning service in the Armed Forces by openly transgender individuals.
And…She voted (Yes) to House Resolution 41 –
Rejecting White Nationalism and White Supremacy – National Key Vote on 1/15/2019.
After her
nude photos were leaked in what has been called revenge porn, which I do believe,
it was revealed she had an Iron Cross tattoo. To my knowledge Katie Hill hasn’t
explained the tattoo. From my view it could be some sort of Nazi symbol, which
will be discussed down below, or it could be something akin to “Hot Topic,
angry Avril Lavigne teenage girl” tattoo of Independent Trucks company. Yet,
her current voting record refutes any claim that she is a Nazi.
Katie grew
up in Santa Clarita, which was ranked by Money Magazine in 2006 as the 18th
best place to live on their list out of 100 cities/towns. The area also voted
for Hillary Clinton in 2016 despite traditionally being Republican, and in
2016, 6.14% voted for Third Party candidates, which reflects a historical
trend, since in 1992, 29.18% voted Third Party and in 1993, 13.24% voted Third Party.
So the area is very prone to swings it seems, though traditionally its
conservative, and I would assume the third-party vote comes a sense of populist
ideology such as that of Ross Perot in 1992, or libertarian based politics
considering the areas rancher and rural heritage. Santa Clarita is an
agglomeration of four former rural towns, with Saugus being one of them, and this
is where Katie went to high school. She also comes from an education family,
where here grandfather was a Political Science professor at UCLA, her grandmother
was educated as an Anthropologist, and her father was a police-lieutenant with
a degree from Katie’s alma mater of Cal-State Northridge with Organizational
System Management (Herstein, 2018).
However, the
issue is that the nearby Antelope Valley and areas like Lancaster were known
for having Neo-Nazi elements going back way before the 2000s but was increased after
2000 during the Financial Crisis where many California cities faced bankruptcy
while the State Government was in economic disarray. The desert towns outside
of Los Angeles that were predominately working-class white based on California’s
often unspoken history of racist laws and segregation, where blue collar white communities
despite being die-hard Republicans and unrepentant followers of the LAPD (such
as during the Rodney King Trials and acquittal of white officers) had biker
gangs, Neo Nazis, meth labs, etc.
Finnegan
(1997) of The New Yorker, published an article titled: The Unwanted:
In a Los Angeles suburb where schools and parents faltered, the American Dream
was replaced by drugs, neo-Nazism, and despair. The Hardest hit were Mindy
Turner and her friends. The piece details the life of Mindy Turner of the Antelope
Valley, who lived in a working-class blue-collar home in Lancaster, but by the
ninth grade was a Nazi, meth addicted, sexually active (with much older men),
and became a “skin bitch” (per the article) of the Nazi Low Rider gang of
Lancaster. Eventually, with the help of her mother she was able to breakaway,
but the Nazi group wasn’t letting her go. “The N.L.R.s were into tattoos: swastikas,
skulls, Iron Crosses, lighting bolts – through lightening bolts were permitted
to be worn only by those who had killed a black person” (Finnegan, 1997, para.
16)
“In 1980,
the combined population of Lancaster and Palmdale, the Valley’s two main
cities, was sixty thousand. By 1994, their combined population was two hundred
and twenty-two thousand, and today estimates of the Valley’s total population
range as high as four hundred thousand. This hyper-expansion was first sparked
by housing prices in Los Angeles and its nearer suburbs, which soared during
the nineteen-eighties, and by white flight from an increasingly Latino and
Asian city. The Antelope Valley had been considered too remote for commuters,
but the completion of the Antelope Freeway, snaking over the San Gabriel
Mountains, helped change that.” (para. 2). Finnegan (1997), also stated, “Then,
in the 1990s, the Southern California economy, staggered by cutbacks in the
aerospace and defense industries, fell into a deep recession” (para. 3); “In
the Antelope Valley, abandoned housing tracts began to dot the subdivided
desert. Boarded-up shopping centers and bankrupt school districts followed,
along with a wave of personal financial disasters so severe that USA Today
dubbed Palmdale “the foreclosure capital of California”” (para. 3); “For anyone
who has spent time there lately, this is a scary thought – if only because
growing up these days in the Antelope Valley seems to be, for many kids, a
pretty harrowing, dispiriting affairs” (para. 5); “…the Valley’s supersonic
growth has led to overcrowded, often chaotic schools; according to the high-school
district’s superintendent, nearly forty-five percent of the entering students do
not finish their class”; “The teen pregnancy rate is alarmingly high” (para.
5), and “A sheriff’s-department spokesman in Lancaster estimated that fully half
the Valley’s children are unsupervised after school. He also said that there
are now, not coincidentally, more than two hundred youth gangs represented in
the Valley” (para. 5).
“There was
a street war raging in Lancaster between white-supremacist skinhead gang known
as the Nazi Low Riders and a rival gang of antiracist skinheads who called themselves
the Sharps” (Finnegan, 1997, para. 6).
These
economic factors compounded by the nativism mixed with demographic changes from
immigration, and the general racist backlash against President Obama in
right-wing circles, made working class areas prime targets for increases in hate
groups. Many African Americans for example facing gentrification found themselves
migrating to more affordable areas such as the Inland Empire and Antelope Valley,
just to find themselves targeted by hate crimes in the 1980s and 1990s.
Maybe,
Katie before she became her current progressive self, was hanging out with the
wrong crowd (or, the wrong boyfriend), or maybe the tattoo is ironic, or as I
said previously, something more aligned to extreme sports like skateboarding
with companies like Independent Trucks. Yet, let’s say that Kate was hanging
out with the wrong crowds being a rebellious young woman getting tattoos, etc.
If a
former Nazi past is true, maybe this a type of American History X situation? A
person who was born into a privileged-class of people, despite the reality that
many are not privileged within this class, and as she grew into herself, she
refuted any association with her former beliefs/friends and became an advocate for
the LGBTQ community, minorities, veterans, Indigenous First Peoples – Native Americans,
and immigrants. Maybe, I don’t know.
When
dealing with politics you’re not sure where the daggers are coming from and
despite Katie being young, she held a quite powerful and important district.
Katie Hill
is from my generation. We’re the same age, 32, who grew up in the Bart Simpson,
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, TGIF, MTV (when they played music videos), summer
Hollywood blockbuster nineteen-nineties, but came of age during the War on Terrorism
where Myspace was actually popular, had rap music blasting, saw hyper-sexualized
pop stars and pornography, listened to death growl screamo or emo or metalcore
or hardcore, the list goes on.
All of
this before the election of Barack Obama, yet after his election we then
experienced our free twenties as underemployed college-graduates in the service-sector
in a county which A) felt like we were making progress as far as rights and
culture was very engaging and experimental, but B) we saw the birth of a type
of “postmodern”, super-intense, conspiracy-based conservatism under the likes
of people such as Alex Jones, whom in another light, sounds like the voice from
Hotel Rwanda urging Hutus to pick up machetes.
Like
Katie, myself and people of our generation sort of grew up on the lightspeed trajectory
of post-MLK racial harmony, unfettered globalist capitalism, mega media conglomerates
creating culture, but also experienced growing pains in a nation still
organized around what is effectively our post-colonial racial-caste system, which
still annoyingly dictates the masses for politics, marketing, sales,
advertising, box-office ticket sales, etc.
We’re a
generation of postmodern kids where cultures merged into new aesthetics. We’re baby
Gen X who are now adults entering managerial and leadership positions, tired
and hyperaware of the latent defects within the psychology of the United States
despite being the target of “Millennial Studies” in click-bait online articles
for Baby Boomers who don’t retire since they have no pensions and fear losing
all their money in their 401ks if the economy tanks.
Katie is
white. I am black. Who cares? Yet, like many minorities who climbed up the
economic ladder from the 1970s to now, and found ourselves in suburbia, my
racial engagement with different races was A) not a problem at all 95% of the
time – I considered my white friends as family, but B) I still witnessed the
sociological vestiges of white supremacy such as a caricature view to
minorities with minorities being the boogeyman on the late night news, feeling
in between a rock and a hard place as I juggled whether to ace the SAT or to
emulate black celebrities on TV or in rap videos, and witnessing the eye-balls
follow people who were in interracial relationships where women were not only
slut-shamed but also the target of passive racism.
However,
being in my thirties, I actually see the younger generations as way more
progressive, open-minded, and post-racial while still being sensitive to racial
issues and conversations (more willing to listen than to deflect claims of
racism or sexism), more so, than mine and Katie’s generation. When I look at younger
generations, I’m shocked how much more “woke” they are compared to mine and we’re
not that far away from each other in age.
However,
with the rise of Donald Trump and the Alt-Right ecosystem of outlets such as
YouTube or BitChute (though it’s painful, we must support free speech), it
seems that there might be a regression in progress, with young, curious, and existential
minds going down the rabbit hole to find purpose but then find themselves in
the far-right, first with Jordan B. Petersen maybe via the Joe Rogan Podcast
which features members of the Intellectual Dark Web such as Sam Harris brining
back notions of racial IQ levels, then Stefan Molyneaux or Lauren Southern,
then they’re gone.
So, a part
of me, being the black kid in school, had a sense of possible understanding to
who Katie is and where she comes from. Instead of judging at first glance, I
try to visualize a young, insecure, confused girl in a toxic environment such
as public school who may have projected hate as a form of defense, but she was
really…scared. All teens are a little scared. People can change and when you’re
young and stupid, you’re insecure and afraid. She may be the casualty of an unspoken
racially segregated high school inflicted with juvenile tribalism, where white
teenagers who are educated to feel responsible for the past, get fed up, and
violently reject it. They may actually accept the fact that white supremacy
exists, but then they may have bad encounters with people of different races
who effectively bully them. For all I know, Katie could be a suburban white
girl, from a racially segregated education system with plenty of socio-economic
problems, who grew up conservative, and by proxy gravitated towards white
cliques who felt they needed to group up like we’re living in a prison system,
and was exposed to Nazi-like ideas. Maybe they came to her and that was all she
had being a young, scared, body conscious female in an American public school
which can at times resemble a Corrections Facility.
It is not
uncommon to see a type of “white rights” response by white people who see
minorities getting rights and some minorities might target white people or
whites might be “clowned on”. It’s complicated. I’ve witnessed it myself as a
black man, while I’ve also experienced racism myself. We live in a country
where racism is real in both overt and covert ways, yet, white people carry the
target of being the symbol of hate, so anyone not white might agree on one
thing…white people are the racist. This is probably frustrating for many white youths
and the decent into racism isn’t simply from home or friends, but from a sense
of frustration of not being judged on actions but being judged on their race. The
truth about America is that anyone can be the victim of racism, so to get over
racism we must acknowledge that and defend people. If black kids are bullying a
white kid, then its up to black kids to stand up for that white kid. If white
kids are saying racist things to a black kid, then it is up to white kids to
stand up for that black kid. You can insert any race you want, since racism isn’t
restricted to the standard notions of black and white.
This is a country
where even people of color are being encouraged to enter racial-safe spaces, to
perceive most of their reality with race at the center, and to essentially be
paranoid while they constantly scan for microaggressions. To relate this to
Katie being caught with a bong, this racial climate on college campuses reminds
me of the class-scene from the film How High with Redman and Method Man,
where a white professor eggs on his students of color to attack him, while the
professor belittles the black students who simply…go to class. However, we live
in a nation where we have a President who dog-whistles to actual racists. To
me, both sides are in complete LaLa land.
Even for
an older Millennial like myself this intersectional racial climate was
confusing, not because I don’t see value in this framework, but rather it often
denies all the positive racial harmony that many Americans grew up with. It
seems very clinical and intellectual over humanist and connecting. A lazy
solution. Race relations in the United States went slightly in reverse because
of the traditional political-right with its covert John Birch Society antics
posited on denialism and willful ignorance, but also the political-left which
has employed a coalition-revolt campaign which tends to treat groups as militaristic
battalions, commanded by unelected political pundits – tip toe, stay in line, everyone
in your unit act the same…
However,
identity-politics and intersectionality from the standpoint of analysis is a
powerful and important tool but the issue is the scope of how much we use it.
The collateral damage that can happen. It could be said that if we were to
objectively stand back and analyze both sides, is that we’d probably see we’re
living in a perverted rigged system of color-based dialectics. A confusing sociological
experiment bent on tension under the auspices of conservatism or liberalism. Yet,
there is a true, harsh, reality to these issues, so we must acknowledge them,
but we probably should rethink about how we’re combating racism so it’s
inclusive to those who feel historically linked to its reason for existing. The
Democrats have an election to win in 2020, don’t they?
Katie Hill’s
mysterious “Iron Cross” tattoo insinuates a world which has lost context, forgiveness
if guilty, and understanding. Wasn’t Malcom X nothing more than a petty
criminal before he became the activist we remember today? I’m sure many gangbangers
and Aryan Brotherhood followers have left the corrections system and refuted
their former lives, despite having scars such as tattoos, which painfully
reminds them of who they were, and in certain cases, I would assume people have
these tattoos as a reminder of who they aren’t anymore (considering tattoo laser
removal surgery is expensive). There’s not a fixed rubric or lexicon when it
comes to context. It’s a delicate process of fact-finding, gauging recent
behaviors, etc. Further, peoples’ reactions to Katie Hill represents a type of subconscious
vengeance where people are happy Katie got canned because it kicked down the “high
horse” morality of feminism (as far as perception goes) and the political left.
Because of these social factors, the actual context and hard facts of the Hill
case have been buried under perception, political vengeance, etc.
Yet, Katie
is a progressive, leftist, pro-feminist, pro-LGBTQ(IA) female, who lived with a
woman of color while in Congress (Lauren Underwood), actively supported
Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez and The Squad, stood up for immigrants, voted against
White Nationalism and Antisemitism, and became a vocal anti-Trump advocate.
What we can learn from all of this, if let’s say the Nazi accusations are true,
is that people…can change.
Finnegan,
W. (2019, February 28). THE UNWANTED: In a Los Angeles suburb where schools and
parents faltered, the American Dream was replaced by drugs, neo-Nazism, and
despair. The hardest hit were Mindy Turner and her friends. Retrieved November
24, 2019, from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1997/12/01/the-unwanted.
Mitchell Research Group 