COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Tet Offensive: 50 Years Ago

Why this man deserved to die - but the photo of his execution helped America to lose the Vietnam War: MAX HASTINGS explains how the bloody Tet offensive humiliated U.S. troops



At 2.47 on the morning of January 31, 1968, an American military policeman sent an emergency radio message from his post outside a U.S. embassy on the far side of the world: ‘Signal 300! They’re coming in! Help me! Help me!’ — before being shot dead, along with another guard.

The soldier’s terrified warning, out of the darkness half a century ago, signalled the onset of the most devastating attack on American pride and prestige since Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Viet Cong commandos spilled out of a taxi and a small truck in front of the embassy compound in Saigon, used a satchel charge to blast a hole in its perimeter wall, then dashed inside firing AK-47 assault rifles.

Here was the most spectacular event of the so-called Tet Offensive 50 years ago — co-ordinated attacks by 67,000 guerillas and regular North Vietnamese troops, taking advantage of the annual lunar New Year ‘Tet’ holiday and truce to catch the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies unprepared.

Photographer Eddie Adams¿s now-famous image of Loan shooting Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem  cost the Americans a heavy price in propaganda
Photographer Eddie Adams’s now-famous image of Loan shooting Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem cost the Americans a heavy price in propaganda
During the occupation of the city of Hue, the Viet Cong had murdered in cold blood more than 3,000 men, women and children
During the occupation of the city of Hue, the Viet Cong had murdered in cold blood more than 3,000 men, women and children

Only a handful of Americans were sleeping in the embassy building when the Viet Cong struck. As the attackers ran into the compound, a quick-thinking Marine sergeant, Ron Harper, closed and barred the chancery’s heavy teak doors, which survived a rocket explosion that blew the United States seal off the wall.
A long gun battle then began between Communists in the courtyard and a small number of Americans on the perimeter, throughout which embassy night duty officer Allan Wendt said he thought he was living his ‘last moments’.
He rang U.S. Army headquarters and begged for help. Officers assured him that troops would get to him eventually, but were responding to multiple concurrent attacks around the Saigon area.
Wendt protested, emotionally but accurately: ‘This place is the very symbol of American power in Vietnam.’
An official in the situation room at the White House — then occupied by president Lyndon Johnson — phoned the diplomat after hearing garbled reports of the drama.
What in hell was going on out there, an official demanded of the lonely, petrified Wendt. He simply held up the telephone mouthpiece so that Washington could hear the rattle of automatic fire just yards away.
Even as the drama unfolded at the embassy, on scores of other battlefields American and South Vietnamese troops were fighting for their lives against their Communist attackers.
Max Hastings is pictured on the right during the Vietnam War. The Tet Offensive - co-ordinated attacks by  67,000 guerillas and North Vietnamese troops - caught the Americans unprepared
Max Hastings is pictured on the right during the Vietnam War. The Tet Offensive - co-ordinated attacks by 67,000 guerillas and North Vietnamese troops - caught the Americans unprepared
A doctor pictured treating the wounds of Private First Class D.A. Crum, "H" Company, 2nd Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, during Operation Hue City in Vietnam in 1968
A doctor pictured treating the wounds of Private First Class D.A. Crum, "H" Company, 2nd Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, during Operation Hue City in Vietnam in 1968

What stunned the world, and U.S. Army commander General William Westmoreland, was that the enemy — supposedly a mob of barefoot, raggedy-ass Asian peasants — had revealed the capability to stage a synchronised offensive of such magnitude.
Only weeks earlier, Westmoreland had returned to the States to stage a media blitz in which he told the American people the war was almost won: ‘The enemy has not won a major battle in more than a year . . . he can fight his large forces only at the edges of his sanctuaries . . . his guerilla force is declining.’
There were now 492,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam, together with 61,000 allied soldiers and 650,000 uniformed South Vietnamese, supported by 2,600 aircraft, 3,000 helicopters and 3,500 armoured vehicles.
Yet now the communists had dared to engage this array of firepower on the streets of Saigon, where 4,000 Viet Cong deployed; in the old Vietnamese capital of Hue; and in more than a hundred district and provincial capitals.
What was going on?

This photo shows terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc as they run down Route 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places in 1972
This photo shows terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc as they run down Route 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places in 1972
The Americans were caught largely unawares, because logic suggested that the Tet offensive was military madness. Pictured: U.S. Marines scatter after a helicopter is shot down in Vietnam
The Americans were caught largely unawares, because logic suggested that the Tet offensive was military madness. Pictured: U.S. Marines scatter after a helicopter is shot down in Vietnam

An amazing aspect of the Vietnam War was how little the Americans knew about their enemies. They believed the legendary revolutionary Ho Chi Minh ruled North Vietnam, and General Nguyen Vo Giap ran the war. In truth, the 76-year-old Ho had become marginalised, and Giap — victor over the French occupying forces in 1954 — had been elbowed aside by a new generation of radicals.
The real ruler of North Vietnam in 1968 was the almost unknown Le Duan. It was he who, against the wishes of Ho, Giap and most of the military, insisted that the time was ripe to throw everything the Communists could muster into an attack on the South, where he predicted that half a million sympathisers would rally to expel the ‘long-noses’ from the country.
The Americans were caught largely unawares, because logic suggested that the Tet offensive was military madness.

As a result, within a few hours of its start, 10,000 Communist troops had marched into the old citadel at Hue and occupied large parts of the city, almost without meeting resistance.

Thereafter, it took U.S. forces and the South Vietnamese three weeks of wholesale destruction, killing and dying, to recapture Hue.
Captain Charles Krohn, an officer of the 2/12th Cavalry, compared the fate of his own unit, insouciantly ordered south towards the city, with that of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War.
‘We only had to advance 200 yards, but both we and the Light Brigade offered human-wave targets that put the defenders at little risk . . . there was no satisfactory or compelling reason for a U.S. battalion to assault a fortified North Vietnamese Army (NVA) force over an open field,’ he said.
Of an encounter at a hamlet four miles north of Hue on February 4, he wrote: ‘Four hundred of us got up to charge. A few never made it past the first step. By the time we got to the other side of the clearing, nine were dead and 48 wounded . . . we killed only eight NVA (at best) and took four prisoners . . . we reported higher figures to [officers at] Brigade, based on wishful thinking that made us feel better. Privately we knew that the enemy had scarcely been scratched.’
Krohn watched the body of a medic named Johnny Lau being loaded aboard a helicopter: ‘We had spoken before the attack, and he said his family was in the grocery business. We broke off our conversation about the best way to prepare beef with ginger when the attack started, but promised each other to pick it up later.’ They never did.
In six weeks the battalion’s fighting strength would fall from 500 to less than 200. Krohn wrote bitterly: ‘The NVA had better senior leadership than we did.’
There were 492,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam, together with 61,000 allied soldiers and 650,000 uniformed South Vietnamese. Pictured: U.S. riflemen charge towards Viet Cong positions
There were 492,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam, together with 61,000 allied soldiers and 650,000 uniformed South Vietnamese. Pictured: U.S. riflemen charge towards Viet Cong positions
Much of the accustomed daily business of the U.S. 3rd Field Hospital had been to fix Saigon civilians’ terrible teeth. Now the facility was plunged into a maelstrom.
American surgeons were working on a wounded Viet Cong when a nurse put his head around the door and said: ‘They’ve just hit the embassy.’
Disbelieving voices muttered: ‘Yeah, right.’
Medical aide William Drummond said: ‘The marathon started at that point . . . we worked continuously for 40 hours.’
There were harsh decisions made to abandon some bad cases because resources had to be prioritised. A few medics buckled: Drummond described the collapse of the head of surgery: ‘He just seemed like an inadequate person who couldn’t deal with it.’
The American people, already sceptical about the war, were traumatised by the revelation of the Communists¿ capability to wreak wholesale death and destruction. Pictured: a wreath laying ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, in 2016
The American people, already sceptical about the war, were traumatised by the revelation of the Communists’ capability to wreak wholesale death and destruction. Pictured: a wreath laying ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, in 2016
When Drummond stepped outside, he was confronted by a two-and-a-half-ton truck carrying a dozen American corpses. Junior ranks’ quarters were commandeered as a morgue, which at one time was occupied by 600 bodies, Vietnamese and American. The hospital had 150 beds, and, at the height of the offensive, held 500 patients.
Drummond found his job toughest among ‘expectants’ — the doomed men: ‘It was real hard to see somebody that could have been my brother, same age, who was talking to me and we knew was going to die.’
The hospital’s chief nurse and her assistant were motherly women in their 50s. One of them saw a Marine jump from a truck with an elbow bone protruding. The nurse said: ‘Poor boy, you lost your arm.’ He responded: ‘That ain’t nothing, honey; they shot me in the balls, too!’
The confrontation at the U.S. embassy in Saigon ended six hours after it began, when the last of 19 attackers was killed or captured. None had penetrated the main embassy building, but the story was broadcast to the world that they had stormed this citadel of U.S. power in South-East Asia.
The confrontation at the U.S. embassy in Saigon ended six hours after it began, when the last of 19 attackers was killed or captured
The confrontation at the U.S. embassy in Saigon ended six hours after it began, when the last of 19 attackers was killed or captured
Turning point: US troops withdrawing from South Vietnam during the conflict 
Turning point: US troops withdrawing from South Vietnam during the conflict 
The blow to American prestige, to the credibility of U.S. Army commander General Westmoreland and of President Johnson himself, was devastating.
Yet the irony was that the Tet offensive was a military failure. It petered out during the spring, with the Communists expelled from every one of the places they had briefly occupied. They had suffered 20,000 killed, far more than the Americans and South Vietnamese. The Viet Cong, who had hitherto borne the brunt of the war, were shattered as a fighting force.
During their occupation of the city of Hue, the Viet Cong had murdered in cold blood more than 3,000 men, women and children, alleged supporters of the Saigon government. Yet it was to be that the death of just one man received far more world attention than the mass murders — because it was recorded on film.
In Saigon, Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem had personally cut the throats of captured South Vietnamese Lt. Col. Nguyen Tuan, his wife, six children and 80-year-old mother.
On February 1, Lem himself was taken prisoner and brought before Saigon’s police chief, Brigadier Nguyen Ngoc Loan, a friend of the dead colonel. Loan drew a Smith & Wesson and shot Lem in the head. The murders committed by the Communist justified his execution. Nonetheless, the Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams’s now-famous image of Loan shooting Lem — which won Adams a Pulitzer prize — cost the Americans a heavy price in propaganda.
In Saigon, Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem had personally cut the throats of captured South Vietnamese Lt. Col. Nguyen Tuan, his wife, six children and 80-year-old mother 
In Saigon, Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem had personally cut the throats of captured South Vietnamese Lt. Col. Nguyen Tuan, his wife, six children and 80-year-old mother 
South Vietnam’s vice president Nguyen Cao Ky wrote: ‘In the click of a shutter, our struggle for independence and self-determination was transformed into an image of a seemingly senseless and brutal execution.’
However, in the immediate wake of the battles, the Viet Cong felt like the losers. Their military chief Tran Do said: ‘Tet was a “go for broke” attack. We set inappropriate, unattainable goals . . . because the words “finish them off” sounded so wonderful. We lapsed into a period of tremendous difficulties.’
He frankly admitted that the guerillas forfeited control of most of the country.
In a free society, North Vietnam’s leader Le Duan would have been disgraced and discredited by the abysmal failure of his great gamble at Tet. Instead, its biggest political victim proved to be U.S. president Lyndon Johnson.
The American people, already sceptical about the war, were traumatised by the revelation of the Communists’ capability to wreak wholesale death and destruction, and by the symbolic humiliation of the embassy attack.
The day after the Hue citadel was secured, an American official wrote bitterly to a colleague: ‘South of the river every house is shot up. Burned cars, tanks and trees litter the streets. Rocket and 8in artillery holes are all over the place . . . All of the houses and shops around the big market, where the sampans were always parked, are destroyed. Napalm, CS, 8in and 500-pounder bombs are used every day.
‘Those bastards in Saigon have no idea of the magnitude of the problem . . . What makes me so mad is those f***ing generals of ours who say “we knew it was coming”, as though they let it happen. And now, with a stunning defeat on their hands, are claiming a body count victory.’
Just before Tet, I was among a group of foreign journalists who visited the White House to hear an impassioned 40-minute harangue from Lyndon Johnson about his determination to hang on in there in Vietnam.
An exhausted looking US Marine on patrol with his squad  during the Vietnam War
An exhausted looking US Marine on patrol with his squad during the Vietnam War

But on the evening of March 31, the President delivered a national television address that began: ‘Good evening my fellow Americans. Tonight I want to speak to you of peace in Vietnam.’ He announced a unilateral cessation of bombing the North, and his commitment to negotiations.
Earlier, when speechwriter Harry Macpherson saw the president reworking the draft, he asked a White House colleague: ‘Is he going to say “sayonara” [‘goodbye’ in Japanese]?’.
Yes, he was. Johnson concluded his TV speech: ‘I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.’
The Tet offensive broke the will of the American people, as well as that of Lyndon Johnson — and the North Vietnamese leader Le Duan’s military disaster was transformed into a triumph in the long run as U.S. casualties mounted.
When Richard Nixon succeeded Johnson as president in January 1969, he fulfilled the overwhelming wishes of his countrymen by starting a progressive removal of troops from Indochina, a retreat branded as ‘Vietnamisation’. In Paris in January 1973, the U.S. and North Vietnam signed a peace treaty, whereby the last Americans quit the country while Communist forces held their ground.
Two years later, with Nixon banished from office by Watergate, the North Vietnamese judged the U.S. too weak and demoralised to resist the massive new offensive unleashed by the Communists, which overwhelmed the army of South Vietnam. The U.S. defeat that the Tet devastation made inevitable was completed with the April 1975 fall of Saigon.
Here is a lesson for all modern wars: generals can sometimes claim victory — as the West did after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 and in the 2003 invasion of Iraq — yet find that is far from the end of the story.
The suicidal Viet Cong attackers who died in their tens of thousands in 1968 showed their fanatical Islamic successors how insurgents can snatch victory from defeat, even up against the mightiest military machine on earth.

Max Hastings’s new book Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy 1945-75 will be published in the autumn by HarperCollins. 

54 comments:

  1. .

    Well, That Explains It

    Hillary Clinton took to Twitter to weigh in on the controversy that emerged from her 2008 presidential campaign.

    Earlier in the day, The New York Times reported that her campaign spiritual advisor Burns Strider was accused of sexual harassment at the time by a young female staffer. Clinton’s campaign manager recommended Strider’s firing but Clinton wanted to keep him on. So Strider was docked several weeks’ pay and underwent counseling while she moved to a new job.

    Strider’s behavior reportedly reoccurred while working at Clinton ally David Brock’s group “Correct the Record” during the 2016 election.

    Well, the failed presidential candidate finally broke her silence Friday night.

    “A story appeared today about something that happened in 2008. I was dismayed when it occurred, but was heartened the young woman came forward, was heard, and had her concerns taken seriously and addressed,” Clinton tweeted. “I called her today to tell her how proud I am of her and to make sure she knows what all women should: we deserve to be heard.”

    It’s worth noting that the young woman who had been harassed signed a non-disclosure agreement.


    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hillary-clinton-breaks-silence-on-2008-campaign-harasser-‘we-deserve-to-be-heard’/ar-BBIi3F3?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

    .

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  2. .

    Speaking of Islamic insurgents...

    I thought ISIS had been defeated in Iraq

    Iraqi officers say US plane mistakenly kills 7


    BAGHDAD (AP) — A coalition air strike mistakenly hit friendly Iraqi forces and civilians in western Anbar Saturday, according to senior Iraqi officers, but the U.S.-led coalition said the matter is still under investigation.

    The military aircraft mistakenly fired at a gathering of Iraqi tribal fighters allied with the central government and civilians in western Anbar, killing seven and wounding 11 others, according to two senior Iraqi officers...


    .

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    1. .

      Are we doing Iran's job for them?

      Iraqi Shiite firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr condemned the attack as a "flagrant violation" against the Iraqi government and its independence and sovereignty. Al-Sadr called for "immediately punishing the aggressors," in a statement posted to Twitter.

      .

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    2. .

      "While returning to their base the force noticed an unknown armed formation," the statement continued, "Coalition air assets responded at 0200 and engaged the unknown group."

      The mistaken strike occurred because "coordination was not at the required level," said the ministry of defense spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, without elaborating.

      The Iraqi prime minister's office also confirmed Saturday that an investigation is underway...


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  3. .

    US High Command

    WASHINGTON—Saying that the mission had met all its objectives, the U.S. military announced Tuesday that it had launched a successful airstrike that had killed 30 Iraqis who may as well have been terrorists. “I am pleased to confirm that at 1400 hours yesterday afternoon, U.S. forces carried out an air raid on a site 20 miles from Mosul that, for all intents and purposes, serves as a terrorist training ground,” said Central

    Command spokesperson Major Josh Jacques, adding that, who knows, the Iraqis targeted could very well have been high-ranking members of ISIS. “Fortunately, we were able to hit the location with pinpoint accuracy, ensuring that those inside—who for all we know were some of the most dangerous jihadists on the planet—would no longer be able to carry out a series of devastating attacks. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if our nation is far, far safer than it was 24 hours ago.” Jacques went on to say that the military would continue utilizing this strategy, as there was no way to totally disprove the Islamic State wasn’t being brought to its knees.


    https://www.theonion.com/successful-u-s-airstrike-kills-30-iraqis-who-may-as-we-1820636516

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  4. .

    US Ambassador Nicki Haley says Trump Policy in Afghanistan is working, great progress being made, and talks between the government and Taliban, and a peace process, are closer than ever.


    In other news,

    Kabul: Taliban bomb hidden in ambulance kills dozens

    A bomb hidden in an ambulance in Kabul has killed at least 95 people and injured more than 150, the latest in a string of high-profile attacks in Afghanistan.

    The explosives were detonated at a police checkpoint where the streets are often crowded with people waiting to visit nearby offices, and vendors serving them. Witnesses said bodies were strewn across the pavement.
    It was the deadliest blast in the capital since May 2017, when a truck bomb killed 150 near the German embassy, not far from from Saturday’s attack...


    ----------------

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    1. {...}

      The attack came a week after Taliban attackers stormed the city’s high-end Intercontinental hotel, killing at least 22 people, and four days after an Isis suicide bomber attacked the offices of the Save the Children charity in eastern Afghanistan.

      It raises serious questions about security, more than three years after then US president Barack Obama officially declared the end of the US’s war in Afghanistan.

      After the Taliban and Isis made inroads on territory around the country, repeatedly threatening and occasionally overrunning even provincial capitals, the US stepped up support for Afghan forces on the ground and increased airstrikes.

      The general in charge of the mission, Gen John Nicholson, described the greater US role as a “gamechanger”, and said Afghanistan had “turned the corner” in its long fight against extremists.

      But the recent assaults on a charity, a high-profile hotel and the heart of Kabul shows Afghan insurgents are still capable of complex attacks that are damaging to both morale and infrastructure.

      Many of those killed in the Intercontinental hotel worked for Afghanistan’s Kam Air; the company has been crippled by the losses and air travel bridges, vital in a country where insurgents control many roads, have been suspended.

      The attack on Save the Children also halted health and education projects that serve millions of Afghans, although the charity has vowed to resume its work as soon as safely possible.

      An interior ministry spokesman blamed Saturday’s attack on the Haqqani network, a Taliban-linked group which has long been considered responsible for some of the bloodiest and most sophisticated attacks in Afghanistan.


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  5. These twins were born 4 minutes apart. But only one is a U.S. citizen

    A couple alleges that the government’s policy of granting birthright citizenship based on blood ties discriminates against LGBTQ couples.

    http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-twins-citizenship-20180127-story.html

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Quirk will explain the sperms, eggs, and surrogates and such for the rest of us.
      Above my pay grade.

      Delete
    2. .

      Birds do it.

      Bees do it.

      Even educated fleas do it.


      Surely, you can noodle your way through it, Big D.

      .

      Delete
  6. Europe’s populist movement was given a shot in the arm on Saturday when Czech Republic President Milos Zeman, running primarily on an anti-migration platform, fended off a challenge from political neophyte Jiri Drahos.

    Zeman won 51.4 percent of the vote from the two-day runoff while opponent Jiri Drahos won 48.6 percent.
    Czech Radio reports that Drahos won in most of the main cities, while Zeman scored big with smaller towns and the countryside, with analysts saying Zeman’s “common touch” made the difference.

    Zeman, a former left-wing prime minister who ascended to the presidency in 2013, had been widely criticized for what critics described as Islamophobic rhetoric, and had also raised concerns in Western Europe by taking a distinctly pro-Russian approach on questions such as the annexation of Crimea.

    Zeman, who has warned of an “organized invasion” of migrants and asked why young men fleeing their country didn’t take up arms and fight back home, had embraced the populist wave that swept through the West in 2016.

    He was one of very few European leader to endorse President Donald Trump’s bid for the White House and by calling for a referendum on the Republic’s membership of the European Union, has taken a page from the British “Brexit” vote.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Naked running crying girl made it through it all.

    I saw her interviewed some years ago and she looks fine, healthy, pleasant, middleaged and unscarred.

    The Vietnamese are slowly becoming friends to USA.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Obviously concerned about the inscrutable slant eyes to their north.

      Your master conflict theorist predicted USA warships would be parked in Vietnamese ports soon.....meaning one of these sweet days....

      Delete
    2. Good day for bobbo yesterday. Secured backup financing for my development project for this summer from a extremely familiar source. Guy was my lawyer for years. Quirk I invite you to the ribbon cutting ceremony. Chance of a life time and you get your picture if the local rag too. Also the two Dougs, Duece, anyone here except The Unwanted One.

      HO ho !

      Feeling good today.

      Delete
    3. Special invites to Sam and WiO.

      Delete
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      Delete
    5. Thanks !

      Was almost ready to give it up.

      Yes, you can wear you clown suit if you want.

      There is no standard 'apparel'.

      Last picture in the local rag we had was when my son got his first haircut by Clarence The Barber.

      That made four generations of us males that has used Clarence as barber.

      He wasn't Mafia, though.

      Greatgrandfather, father, me, son

      Kind of fun, too.

      Pic came out well. We still have it in our family album.

      Clarence was a Swede, often played the push box at events.

      Delete
    6. If you wear your clown suit, Quirk, it's got to be the one with the big red bulby nose that beeps when someone squeezes it.

      Delete
    7. Me-Me DaDaFelonyMisDemenoirThatGalSal and othersSat Jan 27, 08:29:00 PM EST

      Can we all come too ????

      Delete
    8. Certainly, you can all come with Quirk.

      Delete
    9. Me-Me DaDaFelonyMisDemenoirThatGalSal and othersSat Jan 27, 08:31:00 PM EST

      Yipppeeeeeyahoooooo!!!!

      We LOVE happy celebrations !

      Delete
    10. Well done Bob. It beats retirement chasing a ball around.

      Delete
  8. .

    Big enough for 3000 Hungry Man dinners a day

    Donald Trump's refrigerator upgrade for Air Force One set to cost $24m

    Note: It comes with extra ice cube trays.

    .


    ReplyDelete
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    1. Chump change.

      The Donald and his Air Force One guest deserve nothing lesss !

      Delete
  9. The Sheriff/Saigon police chief shoe blew the brain out of that Vietcong was within his rights given the emergency nature of the times.

    Made a good propaganda pic against the South Vietnamese though.

    What's missing are those iconic photos of the Buddhists monks casually and slowly burning themselves to death.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. If you are able to do that you have truly transcended your body in some manner.

      Delete


  10. Trump decries 'murderous attack' that left scores dead and injured in Kabul


    But ...

    He stands mute while the Turkish military continues its assault amupon the Kurdish force representing US National Interests in Syria.

    What has and is being said ..confused anf chaotic.

    The Turks Foreign Minister Cavusoglu criticized the U.S. for sending conflicting messages and said:
    “The President says something, the Pentagon says something else. There are people, U.S. soldiers, who are interweaved with them ... (YPG) in the field and they say something else.”


    The Montengard never were treated so shabbily by US, even while we were in full retreat, as Donald Trump is treating the Kurds today.

    ReplyDelete

  11. Count now is six deaths in 9 days!

    The incident follows the death of two California men, a 50-year-old man from Oakland, California on Jan. 18, and a 67-year-old visitor from Castro Valley, California on Jan. 20 at Kamaʻole Beach Park III; the death of a 66-year-old visitor from Saskatchewan, Canada on Monday, Jan. 22, at Ulua Beach in Wailea; and a 57-year-old man from Montgomery, Texas was pulled unresponsive from waters at Oneuli Beach while scuba diving on Wednesday morning.

    It was one of two scuba deaths on Maui on Friday. The other involved 62-year-old male visitor from Salem, Oregon who died after he was found floating face down in the ocean in Kā‘anapali while snorkeling with a friend on Friday afternoon.

    Also, on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018, a 71-year-old man from Berkeley, California was revived and transported to the hospital in critical condition after he was found floating face down while snorkeling in South Maui waters on Saturday.

    http://mauinow.com/2018/01/27/minnesota-man-dies-on-snorkel-cruise-in-olowalu/

    ReplyDelete
  12. "The systems are two of five such “chillers” aboard Air Force One, which must be equipped with a refrigeration capacity to handle 3,000 meals, according to military specifications.

    That’s enough to feed the president and 50 of his closest friends three meals a day for three weeks. And that’s assuming the president never indulged in his favorite plane fare: fast food."

    ===

    Bob: Please explain this "necessity."

    ReplyDelete
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    1. It's necessary to keep all those abound Air Force One well filled and aquaed to as to proved all with a jolly good time.

      It is Air Force One.

      Delete
    2. I hear McDonald's Corporation is seeking permission to build a mini McDonald's right on Air Force One itself.

      I hope this meets with Presidential Approval.

      Delete

    3. Gotta keep Cadet Bone Spur supplied with soda pop

      Delete
  13. One thing we don't have to worry about is the Turks assaulting the Air Base in Turkey and running off with our nukes.

    That is not going to happen.

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    8. 1.8 MILION DACA Dreamers will be US Citizens ...

      Thanks th Amnesty Don


      Promises Made Promises Broken.

      Delete

  14. As the noose of obstruction tightens around Cadet Bone Spur we must all remember. ..

    The Criminal Conspiracy that originated the investigation.

    It HAS NOT gone away.

    Not at all.


    The punchline to the Mueller joke draws ever nearer.

    Har de har har.

    ReplyDelete


  15. Just heard that "Little" Chuckie Shumer has invited "Anal Angel" Stormy Danials to the State of the Union address.


    Har de har har

    ReplyDelete
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    1. The Obstruction Case against Amnesty Don grows ever stronger ... and that's the 'Side Show'

      Trump ordered aides to smear possible FBI witnesses: report

      President Trump not only sought to have special counsel Robert Mueller fired, he also sought to discredit top FBI officials out of fear that they could be witnesses against him.

      Following former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate intelligence committee last June, Trump ordered aides to smear three potential FBI witnesses who could confirm that the President tried to end or influence Mueller’s investigation, Foreign Policy reported on Friday.
      ...
      Trump targeted former acting and current deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Comey’s chief of staff Jim Rybicki and former FBI general counsel James Baker, after Comey mentioned them in his testimony, according to Foreign Policy.



      http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-ordered-aides-smear-fbi-witnesses-report-article-1.3782875


      Yeppers Amnesty Don is a big part of the up and coming punchline of Mr Mueller's joke.


      Har de har hhar

      Delete
  18. ONE DEMOCRAT THAT CAN READ THE SCENE

    Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), appearing on CNN Sunday morning, slammed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for calling President Donald Trump’s new immigration proposal a plan to “make America white again” on Friday.

    “You know what? We don’t need that type of rhetoric on either side,” Manchin told CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union. Asked whether that meant he “condemned” Pelosi’s remark, Manchin replied that his criticism would apply to both sides: “I’m condemning all this crazy rhetoric that goes on. Just because someone’s a Republican — it’s not my enemy. And we have to work together.”

    On Friday, Pelosi said:

    Since I’m on the subject of Dreamers, since last night, the president put forth a plan. Let me just say what I said last night, that plan is a campaign to make America white again. It is a plan that says over 50 percent of the current legal immigration will be cut back. … They are changing the character of our country by what they are putting forth. They bring a tear to the eye of the Statue of Liberty.

    Pelosi also defended “sanctuary cities” such as her home town of San Francisco.

    Trump’s proposal, revealed on Thursday, would grant a “path to citizenship” to 1.8 million so-called “Dreamers” — illegal aliens brought to the country as minors — even if they were not among the roughly 800,000 who applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. In return, Trump is demanding $25 billion for border security (including a border wall along most of the U.S.-Mexico border), an end to chain migration, and the cancellation of the diversity visa lottery.

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  19. Point of fact:

    The United States of America was built by white Christian Englishman, Irish and Europeans from every European country, Eastern European and Russian Jews, black African slaves and their free black descendants (Christians), Asian laborers, and American Christians of Native American ancestry.

    Their group contribution to every aspect of western civilization and global advancements by this group cannot be overstated to every aspect of western civilization and global advancement.

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  20. Pelosi is a scurrilous putrid sewer of a human being.

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  21. Joe Manchin would be smart to leave the Democratic Party, declare as an independent and caucus with the Republicans.

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  22. Jill McCabe received no money directly from Hillary Clinton.

    Andrew McCabe helped oversee the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server. FBI ethics officials cleared McCabe’s involvement in the case, which occurred long after his wife’s political campaign was over.

    After it was reported that McCabe planned to retire later this year, Trump tweeted: “FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!”

    ReplyDelete