THIS...Is CNN

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I haven't watched TV News in ages, though I DO comb through YouTube, etc (LOVE Mark Dice, Candace Owens & Colin Flaherty, among others), and I do read a wide array of print media.

Many Americans don't understand that ALL the actual "news" on the U.S. "Newsmedia" are the SAME. ALL the same stories covered and in the exact same way. ALL our outlets AND print media reports are "vetted" (actually edited and often fictionalized by the FBI (domestic) & CIA (foreign).

ONLY the COMMENTARY differs.

Fox News, CNN, MSNBC all air the SAME "news" accounts, the SAME way. They ONLY differ as to OPINION, or COMMENTARY.

Yes, I'll acknowledge that the Wall Street Journal's & Fox News' commentary resonates much more with me and I revile that of ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC/MSNBC, the NY Times, WaPo, etc. BUT I still distrust ALL the "news" we get fed by all of these sources.

Politics is NOT "news."

ALL politics is viewpoint/opinion...or COMMENTARY.

Here's a great example of CNN rigging a "Trump voter panel," with a CNN plant. (https://youtu.be/buMab0eGAjk)

This IS important because it shows CNN; (1) offering political commentary as "news" and (2) putting in a plant to offer Corporately owned CNN's editorial opinions as that of some American citizens.

I've previously posted the hilarious bit of Don Lemon actually outing a CNN cameraman forced into action as an on-camera interviewee, to again give CNN's Corporatist editorial opinion (https://youtu.be/7ClR5yHBfks). ANYONE who puts any faith in THIS media...is a fool.

THIS is a LIE.

THIS is FAKE "news."

THIS is CNN.
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Epidemics?...

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CNN is at it again.

More FAKE NEWS!

Yesterday CNN's John Blake wrote a piece focused on a few recent examples of white EDP's calling the police on blacks who committed no crimes. (https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/08/10/us/white-flight-911-calls/index.html)

He wrongly included a Philadelphia Starbucks incident in which two black loiterers were asked to leave the store after refusing to purchase anything.

Contrary to media reports, UNTIL that event, patrons were allowed to stay as long as they wished, even if they bought a single item. People of all backgrounds had been expelled from Starbucks stores over refusing to buy items.

Since then, apparently "loitering is allowed" in Starbucks.

I don't go to any Starbucks, so I really don't care if they suffer a massive influx of loiterers.

In many of the cases where people have called police without cause, the caller was cited. I've said that such calls SHOULD BE charged as "filing/making a false police report."

Now, CNN and John Blake have an agenda...that is, "Anti-black bigotry by whites is rampant."

Of course, this is the network that ran with the deliberate "Hands up, don't shoot" LIE, perpetrated ONLY by Michael Brown's accomplice, Dorian Johnson and contradicted by virtually every other witness at the scene. In other words, CNN deliberately sought out that false account, knowing it was contradicted by the other (less biased) witnesses and ran with THAT.

Likewise here, the focus is on a handful (I've looked hard and found five) of white EDP's calling the police on black people committing no crimes. Most of the callers were clearly hysterical and could easily be classified as Emotionally Disturbed Persons.

Making a false complaint IS a crime. It's "making/filing a false report." That can be criminally charged.

What is conveniently ignored, is the rash of black motorists, a number who don't appear as EDP's, a pastor, an apparently educated woman, a state legislator posting videos on social media claimimg cops who stopped them were intimidating and "racist," only to have their accounts be debunked by police Body Cam and Dashboard Cam video. A number of charges have been made in those cases. (https://youtu.be/uD_AnaFlyUA)

The TRUTH is there is NO epidemic...in either case.

There have always been EDP's, from all backgrounds, who call the police for any...or no reason at all and if you look hard enough, you'd always find some white EDP's,  some black and some "other," calling police on people from another group. That's gone on forever.

SAME with police stops. People of every background have lied about police interactions.

Now, in the age of social media, it's easier than ever to put such videos "out there."

It's also easier, thanks to Dashboard Cameras and Body Cams for Police Departments to debunk these lies.

So, in conclusion, CNN LIES...yet AGAIN!

Tell me you're not surprised...please.
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Tribalism, Agrarianism and Socialism...

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The American Indians, like the Celts, Sub-Saharan Africans, Pacific Islanders and other tribal people made Socialism/Collectivism "work," the same way that the American South made its agrarian economy work...mostly via chattel slavery.

The American Indian tribes were constantly at war with each other. The Sioux were originally a coastal tribe that traded along the Potomac River. They were first chased north and West by the Iriquois, then chased from Minnesota by the Chippewa and Shoshoni. In the Plains, they warred with the Cheyenne, Black Foot and Crow.

If you look at those tribal structures, NONE of our modern day politicians would want anything like that system. Among American Indians, the Chief usually very quickly became the poorest man in the tribe, as others could come to him with needs and he'd have to supply, as best he could, a practice that usually left the Chief destitute, unless the tribe was constantly supplied with plunder.

The Industrial Revolution eradicated chattel slavery, but initially replaced it with an equivalent, "Company Towns," etc. where workers were effectively owned by the company they worked for.

Socialism is a failed economic system.

What's needed is a better, or a more improved social system, but humans are still too flawed for that.

Today, Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world...AND an ultra Leftist (owner of the Washington Post), HOWEVER, Amazon, like Walmart and some other corporations, pays workers so little, they qualify for Food Stamps and Section 8 Housing, etc., meaning WE, the taxpayers, pay a large part of their worker's tabs.

Socialism's Command Economy wouldn't help those workers, nor the beleagured taxpayers, BUT charging these companies for the social services tabs of their own workers....might.

Such policies WOULD NOT make those owners, nor any of us, "better people," but they'd remove some of the profit in acting badly.
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A Prophetic Voice From 120 Years Ago... .

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Today, we know April 15th as "Tax Day."

It's also the day the Titanic sunk, some note, killing some of the biggest, and richest opponents of the Federal Reserve and sparing one of its primary American supporters, in J.P. Morgan, who's holdings included the White Star Line, the Titanic's builder, along with his good friend, Milton Hershey, both avoiding the voyage at the last minute.

Even more interestingly, a little known writer, named Morgan Robertson, wrote a story that could've been a news account of the sinking of the Titanic, complete with an "unsinkable" ship, with too few life boats and an experienced Captain who believed the massive ship's hype, some 14 years before the actual event.

Today, Morgan Robertson, if remembered at all, is most recalled for his short novella, "Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan," ("Futility, or Wreck of the Titan": https://www.amazon.com/dp/0848814614/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_LNmZAb01R8H9F) first published in 1898. This story features an enormous British passenger liner called the SS Titan, which, deemed to be unsinkable, carries an insufficient number of lifeboats and on a voyage in the month of April, the Titan hits an iceberg and sinks in the North Atlantic.

There are many remarkable similarities between Morgan's story and the real-life disaster of the RMS Titanic, 14 years later, which also carried an insufficient number of lifeboats, and sped through an iceberg field, hitting an iceberg in the early hours of April 15th, 1912 and sank in the North Atlantic, killing most of the people on board. The incredible similarities between the two has lent credibility to conspiracy theories regarding the Titanic.

Right before the RMS Titanic was set to sail, JP Morgan canceled his reservation at the last minute, due to health concerns. A close friend of JP Morgan's, Milton Hershey, also canceled at the last moment and survived to build the Hershey food empire.

A number of very wealthy, prominent men, who were at the time opposed to the formation of the Federal Reserve, did, in fact, get on the ship and didn’t survive.

There were no red flares on board the Titanic used to signal any nearby boats that a rescue was required. The Titanic was only stocked with white flares, used to signal a party was in progress.

The Titanic was the first ship of its kind with the ability to seal decks electromagnetically which could also seal people below deck.

Interestingly enough, the author of the book died after being poisoned, in 1915, a few years after the Titanic sank. Morgan Robertson died in Atlantic City, NJ from the effects of Paraldehyde, which was used in some cough medicines at the time.

The Federal Reserve was formed just 20 months after the Titanic sunk. It was rushed through, along with the 16th Amendment (The Income Tax), on December 23rd, 1913.

At that time, the Astor Family was one of the richest families in the world and John Astor IV vehemently opposed the Federal Reserve.

John Jacob Astor IV was a friend of Nikola Tesla, and an outspoken opponent of the creation of the Federal Reserve. Astor gained his wealth, in part, as a real estate builder, investor, and inventor.

Astor supported Thomas Jefferson's view, opposing a Central Bank comprised of a consortium of privately owned banks. Jefferson said, "If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless.... The issuing power of money should be taken from the banks and restored to Congress and the people to whom it belongs. I sincerely believe the banking institutions (having the power to issue money) are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies. My zeal against these institutions was so warm and open at the establishment of the Bank of the United States (Hamilton's foreign system), that I was derided as a maniac by the tribe of bank mongers who were seeking to filch from the public." (Thomas Jefferson)

Such sentiments are mostly dead now, so dead as to seem antiquated, but on that score, "More's the pity."

Other prominent Federal Reserve detractors, such as Benjamin Guggenheim and Isidor Strauss, also died on board the doomed Titanic.

It should be noted that along with Guggenheim and Strauss, some of the most vigorous opponents of such a Central Banking system were, in fact, Jewish, which you might think would undermine other "Jewish banking conspiracies," but of course, they do not. Facts rarely pierce hate.

The character of Benjamin Guggenheim, John Astor IV and Isidor Strauss deserves some attention.

According to reports, "Although Isidor (Strauss) was offered a seat in a lifeboat to accompany (his wife) Ida, he refused seating while there were still women and children aboard and refused to be made an exception. According to friend and Titanic survivor Colonel Archibald Gracie IV, upon seeing that Ida was refusing to leave her husband, he offered to ask a deck officer if Isidor and Ida could both enter a lifeboat together. Isidor was reported to have told Colonel Gracie in a firm tone: "I will not go before the other men". Ida insisted her newly hired English maid, Ellen Bird, get into lifeboat #8. She gave Ellen her fur coat, stating she would not be needing it. Ida is reported to have said, "I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together." Isidor and Ida were last seen on deck arm in arm. Eyewitnesses described the scene as a "most remarkable exhibition of love and devotion." Both died on April 15 when the ship sank at 2:20 am."

As for Benjamin Guggenheim, reports claim, "Titanic survivor Rose Amelie Icard wrote in a letter, "The billionaire Benjamin Guggenheim after having helped the rescue of women and children got dressed, a rose at his buttonhole, to die."

"Guggenheim and his longtime valet, Victor Giglio were seen heading into the Grand Staircase, closing the door behind them. Guggenheim was heard to remark, "We've dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen." He also gave Bedroom Steward Henry Samuel Etches, who survived the sinking, a message, which Etches wrote down: "If anything should happen to me, tell my wife in New York that I've done my best in doing my duty." Etches reported that "shortly after the last few boats were lowered and I was ordered by the deck officer to man an oar, I waved good-bye to Mr. Guggenheim, and that was the last I saw of him and Giglio."

"Guggenheim and Giglio were last seen seated in deck chairs in the foyer of the Grand Staircase sipping brandy and smoking cigars.

John Astor IV, concerned over the state of his wife (she was pregnant) also allegedly displayed the chivalry of that age, "According to child survivor Betty, as quoted on Children on the Titanic (2014), Astor was boarding the final lifeboat with his pregnant wife when he saw two scared children on deck and stepped aside, giving his place to them."

As astounding as that chivalry seems in our current unchivalrous age, it's also an amazing story, in and of itself, that a little known writer could effectively predict the future in a fictional sea tale about man's hubris.

Since It's STILL St Patrick's Day Weekend...One More Celtic Post on; The Irish Roots in the Caribbean

Montserrat

Yesterday, I posted about the Irish in Latin America, so today, I figure the Caribbean might be another destination worth looking at, since it was the hub of England's "Irish Slave Trade."

So...how did the Irish wind up in the Caribbean?

Krystal D’Costa of Scientific American notes that after the Battle of Kinsale, in 1601, the Irish clan system was abolished and around 30,000 prisoners of war were shipped off and sold as laborers to the colonies of the Caribbean and United States.

“The first Irish slaves were sold to a settlement on the Amazon River In South America in 1612. It would probably be more accurate to say that the first “recorded” sale of Irish slaves was in 1612, because the English, who were noted for their meticulous record-keeping, simply did not keep track of things Irish, whether it be goods or people, unless such was being shipped to England.”

“In 1629 a large group of Irish men and women were sent to Guiana, and by 1632, Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat in the West Indies. By 1637 a census showed that 69% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves, which records show was a cause of concern to the English planters.”

The Irish were a more desirable “slave stock” than Africans, who had to be bought, or bartered for, because the Irish could be obtained for free and sold at a profit. The term "kidnapping" was coined during the period, to describe the British practice of abducting Irish women and children on Ireland's roadways.

Because they were “cheaper” the Irish would often suffer harsher punishments from their plantation masters.

So, today, a lot of different groups have some Irish admixture. It's a good thing to keep in mind....and a sad, but real truth that out of this period of Colonial abuse, came this mixing of diverse people's that should serve to unify various segments of humanity. ((https://www.google.com/…/irish-roots-in-the-caribbean-run-d…

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The Irish Celtic Legacy...

Bernardo O’Higgins

One of the more endearing traits of the Irish is that they rarely take themselves...or anyone, else too seriously.

One of the things the Irish DO take seriously is freedom/independence and they generally do so with a revolutionary fervor. They did so at home and they've done so elsewhere. (https://www.google.com/…/the-irish-who-fought-for-latin-ame…

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While most people are familiar with the Irish diaspora, many mistakenly believe that it was largely confined to America and Australia. That's not the case at all, as the Irish have been a presence in Latin America for eons, thanks to their being welcomed by places like Chile and Argentina. (https://www.google.com/…/ten-things-you-might-not-know-abou…

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Chillán, a village in Chile is famous for being the birthplace of Bernardo O’Higgins, one of the country’s founding fathers, who'd played a major role in that nations wars against the Spanish in the early nineteenth century and served as Supreme Director of Chile for six years.

Bernardo was the illegitimate son of Ambrose O’Higgins, who'd scrambled up the social ladder from rural poverty, as a tenant farmer’s son in Ballynary, County Sligo, to become the Viceroy of Peru, the most powerful Spanish governor in South America.

Bernardo’s mother was Isabel Riquelme, born in Chile to a family of Basque ancestry.

Ambrose O’Higgins sent his son to Europe. It was there that the young Bernardo, still intensely proud of his Irish ancestry despite his poor relationship with his father, he became infused with the revolutionary spirit that was pulsing throughout the continent at the time. He resolved to return home to free Chile from Spanish control.

In the nation of Uruguay, a frigate is named after Peter Campbell of County Tipperary. The memory of Daniel Florence O’Leary, the son of a butter merchant from County Cork, who left Ireland to fight with Simón Bolívar in the jungles, plains and mountains of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, is recalled in a city-centre plaza in Caracas.

Burdett O’Connor province in Bolivia is named after Francis Burdett O’Connor, from Bandon, who fought to secure the independence of his adopted country.

The founder of the Argentinian navy, William Brown, from Foxford, Co Mayo, is another South American hero of Irish descent.

As author Tim Fanning notes, "...I realised that for every Bernardo O’Higgins or William Brown, whose fame carries across oceans and centuries, there were thousands more less well-known but equally fascinating stories of Irish men and women who came to Latin America during the independence era in the first decades of the nineteenth century. They were emigrants and soldiers, merchants and spies, priests and farmers."

In my time, the FDNY introduced me to many exceptional men of Celtic descent; Eddie Keating, Mike Finer, John L Sullivan, Jimmy Graney, Paul Mannix, Paul Rogers, Ed Hefele, Vinnie Halloran, Pat Concannon, Brendan Manning, the late Brian McCarthy, to name only a few.

Eddie Keating, the late Captain of Engine 50 in the South Bronx, was one of my favorite figures among many I met in the FDNY. When I was in 43 Engine, he was in "the R group," covering occasional tours in that Company.

Every time Ed entered the firehouse he'd yell out, "2,000 YEARS! Never AGAIN!"

I'm 3rd generation American, part Irish, part Italian and a bunch of other things thrown in. I was not raised ethnic in any way, so I was curious about the Captain's routine refrain.

One day, I asked him directly, "Cap, what's that mean? Is that some kind of Holocaust reference"? That was the only reference I'd ever heard the phrase, "Never again," associated with.

He looked at the Irish name sewn on my uniform and stared at me balefully and crestfallen, then asked, "Son, you don't even know your own heritage"?

I was going to reply, "My heritage is American," but he looked so doleful, I merely shook my head. He went on to regale me with the mournful history of the Irish Celts, and of Oliver Cromwell's attempted genocide, culminating in the Irish slave trade to the America's, mostly the Caribbean.

I came away from that encounter stunned and doubtful. I'd never heard of such things. I vowed to look them up and found he was right and his historical accounts were well documented in books like, "White Cargo" (White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America https://www.amazon.com/…/B…/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i3tRAb796HQJV

), "To Hell, or Barbados" (To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland https://www.amazon.com/…/0…/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_V5tRAbPG0ZSM8

), and many other accounts.

It was a group nearly exterminated by Cromwell, who brought Ireland's population from 1.7 million to under 500,000 during the 17th Century. It was a country torn apart, its people exiled across the globe, BUT the Irish story ISN'T just one of despair, of oppression and man's inhumanity to man, it's also one of redemption and transformation and the ability to overcome and adapt.

In that regard, it is a universal story.

It's humanity's story. One EVERYONE can relate to and celebrate.

St Patrick; The Slave Who Became a Saint

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According to his own work, "The Confessio of Patrick," he was born to a well-off Roman-Britain family. His exact birthplace and date of birth is unknown. However it's believed he was born around 375AD in Scotland. His parents were Calpurnius and Conchessa. They were Romans living in Britain, in charge of the colonies.

His real name is believed to have been Maewyn Succat. He allegedly took on the name Patrick (Patricius) upon being ordained a priest.

At about age 16, he tells of being kidnapped by Celtic pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland to herd and tend sheep on Slemish mountain, in County Antrim.

During his six-year captivity, he became fluent in the Irish language and turned to God in prayer.

He escaped captivity after having a dream, he believed was sent from God in which he was told to leave Ireland by going to the coast where he would find a ship that would return him to Britain.

He's believed to have found his parents again in Wales before travelling on to France where he became a priest and later a bishop.

Later, Patrick would had another dream in which the people of Ireland were calling to him to "come and walk among them once more."

He began traveling Ireland, teaching Christianity to the polytheistic Irish and building Churches.

Patrick preached and converted all over Ireland for 40 years. The date often cited for when Ireland was converted to Christianity is 432.

There's still debate over when and where he died. It's believed he died on March 17th, 461 AD at Saul, Downpatrick. Which is why Saint Patrick's day is celebrated on March 17th. Some have also suggested that he was also born on March 17th, though that seems unlikely.

It's said that, "After 40 years of living in poverty, teaching, traveling and working tirelessly, Patrick died on March 17, 461 in Saul, where he had built his first church."

Today, St Patrick's Day has morphed into a global celebration of Irish culture that often obscures the history of the man who so aptly represents the Irish passion for transformation, as he was the wealthy son who became a slave, a slave who became a priest and a priest who became a Saint...and the Patron of his adopted country.

In that regard, St Patrick's tale of transformation is the transformational story of mankind itself.