Tiger carrying silent wingman in Master's quest

Tiger Woods electrified the golf world; indeed, the general public yesterday, by shooting 1 under par in the first round of the Master's, just 14 months after his near crippling, potentially fatal car crash.

Should Woods capture his 6th Master's it may still not be the greatest comeback for a golf legend. I still recall hearing back in ’53 about the remarkable comeback of golf great Ben Hogan, who won the ’53 Master’s, U.S. and British Opens four years after a car crash worse than Tiger’s.

Hogan collided head on with a bus, only surviving because he threw himself over his wife next to him. That kept the steering wheel, which penetrated the vacated seat, from killing him instantly. Hogan, 36, suffered a double pelvis fracture, broken collar bone, broken ankle, chipped rib and near fatal blood clots. Doctors told him his walking days were over.

Fifty-nine days later Hogan walked out of the hospital and into his rehabilitation regimen. Seven months later he won the U.S. Open in an 18 hole playoff, the first of 11 tournaments, including 6 Majors he won after the accident.

One spectator to Tiger's heroic quest this weekend won't be visible to Woods. Up in Golf Heaven, Bantam Ben will be coaching him silently on every shot.

Machine Gun America: You ain’t seen nothing yet.

America is the only industrialized country in the world that manufactures, sells and distributes machine guns to just about any citizen who has the money and inclination to acquire one or more. Over 20 million are in circulation. Dozens, maybe hundreds are used every year in mass shootings, killing scores of people among over 45,000 that die annually from lead poisoning.

That alone makes America the worst industrialized nation on the planet. A country that allows; indeed encourages and celebrates such acquisition, is committing genocide on its own people.


The reasons are many, from grotesque capitalist greed, to politicians selling their soul to those gun capitalists, to delusional culture warriors wallowing in the mud of hate with their machine gun around their shoulder.


On 24/7 news coverage of each of the many atrocities enabled by our government charged with keeping us safe, one will only hear the cries of anguish, horror and disgust from the majority of citizens who want this carnage ended.


What one will never hear are the crazed thoughts and plans of dozens, hundreds, possibly even thousands of disturbed individuals being inspired to commit the next mass shooting to fulfill a psychotic need to kill. What the good folks never see is how incredibly easy it is for some of those persons to acquire their machine gun for the next mass tragedy.


We must stop calling these body obliterating weapons assault rifles, semiautomatic or automatic weapons. Listen to the 70 plus shots fired in Highland Park that sounded like a war documentary, and call them what their really are: machine guns for mass murder.


And the next one, ten, fifty, possibly even a hundred, are lurking just around the corner.

Only American happier than Biden with budget deal

 Only American happier than Biden with budget deal

Everyone knows President Biden is ecstatic over the budget deal which prevents another default crisis during his last 2 years

But few knew the guy even happier than Biden, Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet. He’s super ecstatic the deal provided a 3% bump to $886 billion in defense spending, while other areas of discretionary spending are frozen at current year levels.

Taiclet wasn’t bashful about bragging over the victory garnered in part by $13 million Taiclet speeds every year lobbying Congress to keep defense spending racing upwards toward a trillion bucks in blood money.

He told defense investors at the Annual Strategic Decisions Conference after the fix was in for weapons makers:

“The current agreement…is 3 percent growth for two years in defense where other areas of the budget are being reduced. And I think, again, that’s as good an outcome as our industry or our company could ask for at this point.”

Lockheed Martin, America’s largest defense contractor, receives 73% of its $66 billion annual sales net sales from the U.S. government. Taiclet is equally thrilled personally as well as for his shareholders. His $24 million in annual compensating largely consists of performance related bonuses.

There you have it folks. Galloping defense spending on perpetual warfare and 835 overseas bases, enriching James Taiclet and his defense CEO comrades. Meanwhile every decent, life enhancing aspect of American life gets the scrapes leftover.

Why he runs

 Why he runs

Hundreds, likely over a thousand persons, have announced for president over the past 234 years since George Washington was unanimously elected in 1789.

But Donald Trump is the only one who ever ran for president for one overriding purpose….to stay out of prison.

Now under indictment on state and federal charges with a couple of more percolating in prosecutors’ offices, Trump’s Hail Mary, check that, Hail Devil gambit is that delaying any trial till after his election will insulate him from skating into the hoosegow penalty box.

I can envision his campaign pitch:

“A Vote for Trump will keep me out of prison so I can continue to Make America Great Again as a free man. I’m Donald trump and I desperately approved this message.”

US trying to outdo UK in race to provoke nuclear war in Ukraine

 US trying to outdo UK in race to provoke nuclear war in Ukraine

When it comes to supplying Ukraine with provocative weapons that could trigger nuclear war with Russia, the UK has taken the lead from Uncle Sam.

Tired of playing the poodle to the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, the UK morphed into America’s pit bull in Ukraine.

Starting under former PM Boris Johnson and continuing under successor Rishi Sunak, Britain has led the charge in Europe to line up support, endless weapons, training and intelligence to keep the war going in perpetuity with only Ukrainians dying.

British weapons keep crossing Russian red lines that could lead to wider war. They’ve sent tanks and thousands of shells, many containing depleted uranium which can kill long after the war ends, if ever. To strike Russia, something the US has opposed, Britain has supplied hundreds of long range attack drones, and Storm Shadow cruise missiles with a range of 190 miles. Unlike America, which keep’s Ukraine’s Zelensky on a short lease, the UK gives Mr. Z a blank check to attack Russia directly.

Newbie PM Sunak has assumed the role of Ukraine weapons broker, urging European nations to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters, capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

US congressional hawks, furious the Brits out weaponizing the US in Ukraine, are demanding the US retake the lead in stoking wider war. A bipartisan congressional coalition has urged President Biden to expedite delivery of Abram tanks, including depleted uranium shells, and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) that can match the UK Storm Shadow missiles’ 190 mile range. Training of Ukraine pilots on F-16’s will also be expedited.

The only thing off the table for war loving congresspersons is US troops to Ukraine. Dying in Ukraine to weaken Russia and preserve US/NATO dominance in Europe is reserved exclusively for Ukrainians.

The US and UK, battling to see who can most weaponize Ukraine without igniting WWIII, are in a contest neither can win, and the whole world might lose.

Weapons makers cash in on Quigley’s plea for ‘humanitarian aid’.

 Weapons makers cash in on Quigley’s plea for ‘humanitarian aid’.

Illinois 5th District Mike Quigley, in his Sun Times op-ed ‘U.S. must ramp up arms production for Ukraine to send a message to foes of democracy’ reveals his total support of US weapons manufacturers who are reaping the benefits of all those political donations sent his way.

Quigley flunks bases history when he poses the Russo Ukraine war as democracy v. authoritarianism. Neither Ukraine nor America showed any interest in democracy when both conspired to overthrow democratically elected president Victor Yanukovych in 2014. The US inspired and supported the coup which was a criminal war against Ukrainian democracy.

That ignited a separatist revolt in Ukraine Donbas to end Kyiv’s destruction of that Ukraine area which happens to be culturally Russian. The resulting civil war solidified Ukraine’s descent into a failed democracy obsessed with destroying a faction of its own people largely responsible for the election of Yanukovych, who had their back. Yanukovych’s successors put targets on those Ukrainian backs. Apparently, Ukraine democracy does not apply to Ukrainians not in tune with Kyiv’s ultra-nationalism.

Quigley quickly pivots from supporting an imaginary Ukrainian democracy to supporting a massive increase in US weapons manufacturing to allow the Ukrainians to do all the dying while US weapons makers do all the profit taking. It also ensures Quigley will stay high up on the weapons maker donation list.

Mike Quigley came to Congress in 2009, the year after the US and NATO first floated Ukraine membership in NATO to help keep Russia out of the European political economy. He’s supported every nefarious US effort to keep Russia down and out in Europe, in spite of its cheap natural resources badly needed there.

Fourteen years of provocations including the 2014 coup, hundreds of millions in weapons for Kyiv to destroy Donbas Ukrainians, and refusal to negotiate a single one on innumerable Russian requests for dialogue instead of proxy war, led us to the unfolding catastrophe in Ukraine. Several hundred thousand dead, millions fled or relocated, a shattered economy, and no chance of winning short of American nukes.

Mike Quigley is precisely the political leader in warfare practicing ‘doublespeak’ George Orwell had in mind in his novel ‘1984’ and essay ‘Politics and the English Language.  Orwell would be rolling in his grave if he could hear Representative Quigley claim that US weapons of grotesque death were really “humanitarian aid… that give Ukraine its best chance of victory.”

No Congressman Quigley, they give Ukraine its best chance to add hundreds of thousands more dead that could be saved by promoting a negotiated peace rather than your doublespeak version of humanitarian aid.

Is Bobby only candidate to stop Trump’s re-election?

 

Is Bobby only candidate to stop Trump’s re-election?

Trump has garnered 2 indictments, one federal, one state, with 2 more possible this year.

Yet, Trump will likely breeze to the GOP nomination 13 months from now. He’s way ahead, and with a dozen or more jumping in, will win overwhelmingly.

Once nominated, Trump has a good chance of being re-elected, replicating Grover Cleveland’s non-consecutive re-election in 1892.

President Biden could press 300 lbs and walk on water and still lose to Trump. Twenty-five of the 30 states Trump won ’16 stuck with him in ’20, and likely will in ’24 with Biden his opponent. Those five states Biden peeled off in ’20 to dump Trump, were narrowly won. It is very possible Trump could claw them back to regain the White House.

Trial and conviction will not derail him. Only imprisonment, unlikely due to judicial and legalistic delays.

While Biden could still barely win, only one candidate can clearly win. Bobby Kennedy.

Bobby has about 20% of the Democratic primary vote. Adding in Marianne Williamson’s 10% means nearly a third of Democratic voters are looking for new Democratic leadership. This is particularly so with the issue of perpetual war sucking America’s treasure to fuel futile military ventures senselessly killing thousands. Bobby and Marianne have both taped into growing revulsion over American’s rampant militarism preventing domestic American renewal.

If Biden stays healthy, he’s still the likely Democratic nominee. But it’s not a lock. If Bobby’s stock keeps rising, resulting in a dramatic upset or near upset in an early primary, Biden could find himself in the same bind Lyndon Johnson suffered to Gene McCarthy in ’68. But for an assassin’s bullet, Bobby Sr. would likely have been elected and ended the Vietnam War early on.

The wild card of course is Biden’s health. Just one serious health issue could knock the octogenarian president from the race. In that case, with no establishment Democrat, other than VP Kamala Harris, even daydreaming about running, Bobby has a decent shot at the nomination.

Head to head, Bobby could trounce Trump. Due to Bobby’s cross political populist appeal, even some of those 25 solid Trump states could be in play. If you pay attention to Bobby’s campaign, he’s largely ditched his most controversial views driving progressives apoplectic. Credit new wife and fellow celebrity Cheryl Hines for some of that moderation.

There’s only 2 ways to ensure keeping Trump from the White House. The first is imprisonment. Since that will not happen, the fallback, Plan B, is a Bobby v. Donald match race. And like the most famous match race in history, Bobby’s Nashua will leave Trump’s Swaps in his dust.

West Suburban Peace Coalition to examine extensive US African military operations at June 20 Educational Forum on Zoom.

West Suburban Peace Coalition to examine extensive US African military operations at June 20 Educational Forum on Zoom.

While, Ukraine, Russia, China, Taiwan, Iran, and Syria receive most of the news on US military operations overseas, our numerous military incursions in a number of African countries get scant coverage in mainstream news. This Forum will provide a strong antidote of relevant news on this neglected foreign policy topic.

Topic: US African Command (AFRI-COM): US military operations in Africa

Speaker: Mohammed Abunahel, Ph.D. scholar at University of Mysore, India in mass communications. Mr. Abunahel also works as a journalist with World Beyond War researching US bases worldwide with a focus on Africa.

West Suburban Peace Coalition Educational Forum via Zoom on Tuesday, June 20, from 7:00 to 8:00 PM (Chicago time)

Zoom Link:

US02WEB.ZOOM.US

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

Cool congressional law name

 Cool congressional law name

Many laws proposed by Congress have long, sactimoneous names.

One that doesn't was recently introduced by Senators Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Mike Braun and J.D. Vance...all Republicans.

It's simply and humanely titled the 'End Endless War Act'.

The End Endless War Act calls for repeal of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) which has used since the 911 attacks to bomb wherever and whoever the US wants to avenge those attacks. That AUMF is a grotesque betrayal of America's responsibility to practice peace, not war, around the world.

The End Endless War Act is not only designed to end endless war, it's intended to reclaim for Congress the power to declare war, usurped by every president, starting with George W. Bush after 911.

Sen Paul put it bluntly: “If there exists any desire to reclaim our Constitutional power and send a message to the world that we are a nation of peace, Congress should pass this bill and repeal the 2001 Authorization for war. After all, the 2001 AUMF never intended to authorize worldwide war, all the time, everywhere, forever.”

Every person of peace should call/write their senators to pass this bill, send it the to House, and eventually the President. Time for the US to dump 'all war all the time' to practive peace all the time.