Twelve Step Towards Understanding Our World

This might help get people awake:

".. 12. The push towards truth always starts with yourself.

You can’t out-manipulate seasoned manipulators. The main error most people make when trying to deal with a sociopath is to try and manipulate them back. Don’t even try. They have years of experience on you because they literally have done nothing else. While you were laughing and crying and worrying and connecting and relating to people, they were working out how to play humans like Garry Kasparov worked out how to play chess. And when you have literal teams of sociopaths collaborating together to amass power, you my dear child, do not have a chance. Don’t play their game. You will lose.

The only way to win this is to set your compass resolutely to “true.” Always be honest with yourself. Find all the different ways that you are manipulating others and see them and acknowledge them. Find your tribal allegiances and your desire to be right, and tip your hat to their existence. The more self-aware we are, the less levers we have to be manipulated by. If you are blindly partisan or loyal to a particular faction, that makes you gullible to propaganda because your wishful thinking and your desire to be right come into play. Get honest with yourself about who you are and what you want, and you will start to become an un-playable piece on the board.

If we can’t beat these bastards with truth, we don’t deserve to win."

http://theantimedia.com/understanding-the-world/

How Rich - Republican Who Doesn't Remember

Think about it in historical context, the VERY day after the Confederate Congress set their tariff rate at 2% to effectively become a free trade zone, Lincoln's Congress UPPED their tariff to even 60% on some items .. economic war can easily lead to a shooting war .. Republicans and Democrats (w/ Japan ala 1941) should know that well.

".. the White House trade council chief launching an attack on the Canadian PM, saying there is a "special place in hell" for anyone who double-crosses his boss.

Director of the White House National Trade Council Peter Navarro preached against the Canadian Prime Minister during an interview with Fox News Sunday when asked whether US President Donald Trump’s very personal attack on Trudeau was warranted, given that Canada is the second biggest trading partner of the US..."

Stupid little man!
https://www.rt.com/usa/429360-place-in-hell-trudeau-trump-adviser/

Truth 360

".. Regarding the condition of the Church in America, it is my studied opinion that both the 501c3 tax-exempt status and State nonprofit corporation status have, in effect, castrated America’s pastors and churches to the point that most churches are spiritually impotent and irrelevant to the preservation of liberty in our country. Instead of preaching the liberating Gospel of Christ and the empowering message of Christian non-conformity, they are preaching an enslaving message of bondage to the state via their preoccupation with the misinterpretation of Romans 13..."

Bingo, Jesus knew first hand the dangers of wedding religion with politics .. they will put to death the innocent and call it good.

".. I believe abortion is legalized murder. If the blood of murdered Abel cried out to God from the ground, imagine how the blood of over 60 million innocent unborn babies is crying out to God.

I believe marriage is, by definition, only between a man and a woman. I further believe that the State has absolutely no business sanctioning or licensing marriage. All of the civil court rulings in the country cannot redefine marriage. The current civil corruption of marriage should serve notice to all pastors, churches, and Christian people to divorce their marriage ceremonies from State licensure..."

Again, the State will poison society every time in time ..

".. I believe Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson were two of the finest Christian gentlemen America has ever produced, and the current politically correct assault against their name and character—along with the incessant attacks against the monuments memorializing them—is not only shameful and reprehensible, it is an attempt by big-government fascists to further erase the Jeffersonian principle of State sovereignty from the minds and hearts of the American people..."

Fascists and marxists always want to erase history, whereas political parties will always tell only their Narrative of history packed with lies and half truths .. the victors write history books .. novels is what they are = fiction!

".. I believe in the right of the people to keep and bear arms. I further believe this is a God-ordained duty and should not be subject to State licensure or infringement. The Second Amendment does not grant us the right to keep and bear arms; it merely protects the duty to keep and bear arms that was given to us by our Creator..."

Bingo, Jesus said in times of peril, sell your property and buy an AR (21st century paraphrase)

".. I believe there is a conspiracy of powerful elitists to surrender America’s independence and national sovereignty to a globalist New World Order. I believe the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, and Bilderbergs are especially culpable in this evil subterfuge of our liberties. I had hoped that Donald Trump would honor his word to “drain the swamp” of establishment insiders, but he hasn’t. As with every President of both major parties before him, Trump has littered his administration with CFR globalists. In fact, Trump has already appointed more CFR members and fellow travelers than Barack Obama..."

Trump is as much a swamp monster as Obama or Bush II

".. I believe that the national news media purposely keeps the American people in the dark about what is really going on. I believe the media deliberately covered up the truth about 9/11, Waco, Ruby Ridge, TWA Flight 800, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Sandy Hook school shootings, the Las Vegas and Parkland school shootings, etc., ad infinitum. Heck, I believe the media covered up what really happened in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. For all intents and purposes, the national news media is little more than a propaganda ministry for the Warfare/Welfare State in Washington, D.C. .."

BINGO!

".. I am also convinced that there is a blatant attempt underfoot to turn the United States into a police-state-style surveillance society, to which personal freedoms and liberties are being quickly and deliberately sacrificed. Passage of the USA Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act, and the Indefinite Detention clauses of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) are examples of this flagrant betrayal of freedom. And the Democrat and Republican parties in Washington, D.C., are equally culpable in this blatant usurpation of our liberties..."

Germany 1930s is their model .. SMH

".. I opposed the preemptive invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan by G.W. Bush, the bombings of Libya, along with the current bombings and drone attacks going on in countries throughout the Middle East—including Trump’s bombing of Syria and his decision to increase the number of U.S. ground forces in foreign countries. It should be obvious to everyone that the Barack Obama administration did nothing to change the perpetual war/preemptive war doctrine introduced by George W. Bush. And it should be equally obvious that Donald Trump is continuing to escalate America’s unconstitutional wars of aggression around the world..."

Exactly!!!

".. I am  personally convinced that ISIS, al-Nusra, etc., are contrivances of Dark (illegal) Operations of America’s CIA, British Intelligence, and Israel’s Mossad. Saudi Arabia and Turkey are also partners in this nefarious activity. I believe it was the American/British/Israeli/Saudi Arabian “war on terror” that deliberately created the massive illegal immigration invasions taking place in Europe and the United States. I’ll say it flat out: The “war on terror” is totally the creation of the Deep State in the West to keep America in a state of perpetual war and to keep the people of America in a state of perpetual fear and anger..."

Right on target Chuck!

".. I believe the international “war on terror” is a ruse to assist the goals of the central banks to create global government. All of the talk about Iran and Syria (and even North Korea) being a threat to the world is a bunch of hysterical propaganda. And FOX News (along with many pastors and churches) is at the heart of the pro-war propaganda machine. Neocons and globalists are using the Muslim people especially as the proverbial red herring to give the American people an enemy to hate so that they will accept perpetual war abroad and police-state measures here at home..."

Yup, distraction on Muslims to limit the ability to look at Israeli role in this region ..

".. I believe G.W. Bush and Dick Cheney should be in prison for committing international war crimes against humanity and Hillary Clinton should be in prison for selling access to the Secretary of State’s office to foreign interests and for facilitating (or maybe even directly causing) the death of America’s Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. I believe politicians such as Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi are enemies of freedom..."

True .. but a corrupt justice system will NEVER indite these criminals because for each of those convictions would ripple to thousands more touching 98% of government officials.

".. From a theological perspective, I believe the doctrine of the Rapture is being used by too many pastors and Christians as an excuse to not resist the many attacks against our liberties. I further believe that too many pastors and churches have become passive, timid, and politically correct, and are, therefore, “good for nothing” (Matthew 5:13) when it comes to preserving liberty. I also believe that the teaching of dispensationalism (prophetic futurism) is egregious doctrinal error that has spiritually corrupted several generations of Christians and is ultimately responsible for the rise of America’s Warfare State (contributing to the deaths of millions of people around the world) and the spiritual demise of America’s Christian heritage and culture.

And after much study, I have come to the conclusion that the current State of Israel—the one created on May 14, 1948, by the Rothschilds—has nothing to do with the Israel of the Bible. I further believe that the Zionist government in Israel illegally invaded and continues to illegally occupy the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and West Bank (including the rebuilt Roman city of Aelia Capitolina, a.k.a. “Jerusalem”): acts that should be regarded as flagrant violations of international law and heinous war crimes against the Palestinian people (many of whom are Christians); acts which continue unto the present hour. I also believe that Israel should be held accountable for its attack against the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967, that resulted in the deaths of 34 American Sailors and Marines.."

Spot on Chuck .. with you on this insight as well.

Total article link is below:

https://chuckbaldwinlive.com/Articles/tabid/109/ID/3737/Strictly-Personal.aspx

The Press and the State: Demanding Flattery Since 1970s

Alexander Solzhenitsyn .. you need to know this man's story ... and philosophy.

Seems that this hero against communism was rightly critical of the West in the 70s and the press targetted him while not printing his speech at Harvard. The Press in the 20th century became the mouthpiece of the State.

The link below has an excerpt reprinted from Book 1 of Solzhenitsyn’s memoir Between Two Millstones: Sketches of Exile, with permission from University of Notre Dame Press, © 2018 by University of Notre Dame. The chapter excerpted here was written in autumn 1978, shortly after the Harvard address that it describes.

".. had given my speech the title “A World Split Apart,” and it was with this idea that I had opened the speech, that mankind is separated into original and distinct worlds, distinct independent cultures that are often far removed from one another and frequently unfamiliar with one another (I had then listed some of them). One has to renounce the arrogant blindness of evaluating these different worlds merely within the context of their development toward the Western model. Such a benchmark is the result of a misunderstanding of the essence of those different worlds. Also, one has to stand back and look soberly at one’s own system.

Western society in principle is based on a legal level that is far lower than the true moral yardstick, and besides, this legal way of thinking has a tendency to ossify. In principle, moral imperatives are not adhered to in politics, and often not in public life either. The notion of freedom has been diverted to unbridled passion, in other words, in the direction of the forces of evil (so that nobody’s “freedom” would be limited!). A sense of responsibility before God and society has fallen away. “Human rights” have been so exalted that the rights of society are being oppressed and destroyed. And above all, the press, not elected by anyone, acts high-handedly and has amassed more power than the legislative, executive, or judicial power. And in this free press itself, it is not true freedom of opinion that dominates, but the dictates of the political fashion of the moment, which lead to a surprising uniformity of opinion. (It was on this point that I had irritated them most.) The whole social system does not contribute to advancing outstanding individuals to the highest echelons. The reigning ideology, that prosperity and the accumulation of material riches are to be valued above all else, is leading to a weakening of character in the West, and also to a massive decline in courage and the will to defend itself, as was clearly seen in the Vietnam War, not to mention a perplexity in the face of terror. But the roots of this social condition spring from the Enlightenment, from rationalist humanism, from the notion that man is the center of all that exists, and that there is no Higher Power above him. And these roots of irreligious humanism are common to the current Western world and to Communism, and that is what has led the Western intelligentsia to such strong and dogged sympathy for Communism .."

Called it .. and the State/main stream media never likes criticism .. EVER!

".. Before my Harvard speech, I naïvely believed that I had found myself in a society where one can say what one thinks, without having to flatter that society. It turns out that democracy expects to be flattered. When I called out “Live not by lies!” in the Soviet Union, that was fair enough, but when I called out “Live not by lies!” in the United States, I was told to go take a hike..."

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2018/06/10/my-harvard-speech-in-retrospect/

What Happens When Truth is Spoken in the Empire

But.. Trump IS a dictator .. like Obama .. like most presidents at least back to Lincoln!

Think about it, the US Congress has not declared war on any nation since WWII .. but we have been at war most years since 1941 .. PLUS, Lincoln called up 75,000 troops WELL before he called Congress into secession on July 4th, 1861 .. and engaged in military action against another country without Congressional approval.

How about Bush II and Afghanistan, Iraq .. and Obama in Libya, Yemen and Syria .. and Trump launching Tomahawks into Syria .. all tyrants .. just like NK dictator.

Fox host calls Trump & Kim 2 dictators, Twitter erupts https://www.rt.com/usa/429357-fox-news-trump-dictator/

Anthony Bourdain Quote

His travels included Gaza and Iran (he did not pretend they didn't exist) and he would bear truth based on his travels ... this one is priceless .. like Hillary, and Bush II .. Kissinger should be behind bars ..

".. Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia — the fruits of his genius for statesmanship — and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević.”.."

https://www.thecut.com/2018/06/anthony-bourdain-best-quotes.html

Will Truth-Telling Prevail?

Not if the elites have their way. The surfs can handle the truth in their minds. They have already considered de-popululation options.

".. It is not easy to be optimistic that truth will prevail. Everyone has been scared, especially Americans who have witnessed the utter destruction of the civil liberties guaranteed by the US Constitution. Americans know that as a people they are powerless in the face of the evil that is Washington. The police/warfare state has Americans on the run. If they do not turn and fight, they will lose the truth and become the slaves that the ruling elite intends them to be, along with the Europeans, British, Canadians, Venezuelans, Ecuadorans, Australians, Brazilians, Japanese, Koreans, and even Russians and Chinese. Yes, the arrogance of “American exceptionalism” goes that far..."

Yes, between the elite, deep state and the military (and clueless politicians) .. they all want what they want at your expense and even your death. This is the resolve that evil has in the US and globally.

".. Truth is under assault everywhere in the Western world. It is difficult to speak truth in America, where it is protected by the First Amendment. In European countries where it is not constitutionally protected, speaking the truth can put a person in prison. For example, in Italy criticism of the president can be declared “villification of the head of state” and send a person to prison for 15 years. In England it can be “slander” and “libel” and can bankrupt you. France is joining the suppression of free speech with a “fake news law” that will protect official explanations from challenge ..."

FREE TOMMY!!!

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2018/06/09/telling-the-truth-is-more-expensive-than-a-ferrari/

The Truth on Alpha Males / Lone Wolves

".. male alpha wolves don’t gain their status through aggression and the dominance of other males, but because the other wolves in the pack are his mate and kiddos. He’s the pack patriarch. The Pater Familias. Dear Old Dad..."

Researchers used to observe bringing wild wolves into captivity to form their theories on Alpha wolves, but this article points out what really happens in the wild.

Know too that today most of us live in a zoo .. it is high time to prepare for that wilderness experience IMHO.

As promised .. THIS article should "deliver" so we'll needed wisdom in this day and age.

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/how-to-really-be-alpha-like-the-wolf/

Team or Lone Wolf (or Both)

Being unique is cool .. having thoughts that not many others understand is OK .. you are probably a critical thinker. You see red flags where others don't, you tend to read people well and know who to trust and who not to trust.

On the other hand are the benefits of tribes, of community (healthy ones) .. many hand make light work is what I have heard and experienced. A healthy team is an awesome experience!

There is a lot to learn in nature about true visionary/leader wolves who sacrificially circle on the outside of the pack .. (more on that in another post).

Here is a stat that shows what happens sometimes POST "team":

"..In the case of US veterans, they’re committing suicide at the rate of over 20 deaths per day — nearly one every hour. And they’re dying of opioid drug overdoses at twice the rate of the civilian population. While there are many reasons behind this, Junger is convinced from his research that “leaving the tribal closeness of the military and returning to an alienating and bitterly divided modern society” is a root cause..."

".. Does anyone else in your life share your concerns for the future?

Is there someone you talk with regularly about the unsustainability of our current economic and ecological trajectories?

Do you have friends and/or family members who support your efforts to develop a more resilient lifestyle?.. "

We we're designed for community BUT don't grab the 1st one that comes along!

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2018/06/09/feeling-isolated/

Daddy US, Mommy Israel = Baby ISIS

The US, Israel and Saudi Arabia have a lot invested in ISIS .. so while they plan for the next area ISIS will be exported to (nation's nextdoor to Russia) they will hang out in Syria protected by US air power and direct ground and logistics support. Geez!

".. "All the remaining pockets of resistance of ISIS terrorists in Syria are only in areas controlled by the United States,” 

Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a defense ministry spokesman, said on Saturday.

Earlier, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a bold statement that pulling out of the Arab Republic “must avoid leaving a vacuum in Syria that can be exploited by the Assad regime or its supporters,” in apparent reference to Iran and Russia.

Russia has been fighting terrorists in the country on the invitation of the Syrian government, while the US presence there has been deemed aggressive by Damascus..."

All remaining ISIS resistance zones in Syria are in US-controlled areas – Russian MoD https://www.rt.com/news/429255-isis-us-zones-syria/

Are We Born Equal? NEVER Can Man Make Everyone Equal? NEVER .. What CAN We Do?

Tom Woods points out:

"The point of the passage I quoted yesterday was that no matter how much you redistribute, some people will always be wealthier than others. Meanwhile, you have empowered a merciless machine of coercion and compulsion, and opened the floodgates to some of the most horrific crimes of the 20th century."

If your goal is to make the poor better off, just say that. Don't say you're pursuing "equality."

Some people will be more talented than others, some will have better luck, and some will be raised in more engaged families. To bring about "equality," you will have to go to war with all of these things.

Fruits of your talents:

A great many left-liberal philosophers absolutely do insist that you are not entitled to the fruits of your talents. You are certainly not entitled to the fruits of luck. (There is a whole literature on this!)

Values of family:

And as for the family, John Rawls could barely bring himself to assure people that he doesn't really think he needs to advocate abolishing the family.

History helps .. REAL history:

Try as you might to put a lid on it, the idea of equality takes on a life of its own. It was even used to justify busing kids 90 minutes each way in order to achieve "racial balance" in schools. Result: schools became war zones, the students hated each other, the local patriotisms built up around local schools atrophied, and eventually even the NAACP declared this to be a stupid and destructive idea that should be discontinued immediately.

Bottom line .. what we CAN do:

The only sense in which "equality" can be useful is this: everyone is equally forbidden to initiate physical force against anyone else.

Just Know - You Need to start Thinking and Planning with This in Mind!

"..I've sat right in front of someone in broad daylight motionless in plain sight at 20 yards while they, even with binoculars and looking intently, didn't see us, in our MARPAT green. We were taking pictures of him, he was calling his cartel boss to tell them "there is no one watching here". We were close enough to hear his side of the cell phone convo. 
MARPAT works..."

Among other things in this article .. it is high time you get out in nature and take a walk and be observant of the nature around you .. and how others may see you in the future:

If you can be seen, you can be shot. 

If you can be shot, you can be killed.

True story ...

Concealment:

Anything that keeps anyone else from seeing you or detecting your presence. And nowadays, as the tech percolates down to even sport hunters, you need to be thinking in terms of visible light, heat image, and near-infrared night vision

Yes, IR sensors pick up body heat and that will need to be minimized

Cover:

Cover is concealment, with a special difference: it not only blocks you from being seen, but far more importantly, other people can't shoot through it... What stops shrapnel, and most bullets not fired from cannon, is 2-3' of dirt, gravel, or solid rock. Six inches of reinforced concrete wall will stop most shrapnel and nearly all forms of 5.56 to 7.62 slugs; unless there's also a lot of other bullets flying in behind the first one. Two to three feet of sandbags or heavy soil stops just about everything but artillery blasts.

Very important to understand the basic physics here ..

Camouflage:

Concealment or cover are what you find. Camouflage is something you can do to help yourself.

Ten things give you away, and you have to defeat each of them to be truly camouflaged.

1. Movement

2. Shape

3. Shadow

4. Shine

5. Contrast

6. Color

7. Noise

8. Smell

9. Tracks

10. Trash

REMEMBER:

Lead cancer from incoming will kill you much faster than skin cancer.

From:  https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2018/05/basic-training-camouflage-concealment.html

After 17 Years of War: No Christians in Afghanistan

Mission Accomplished!

The US ensured that Afghanistan remains in extended conflict so CIA Opium Black Budget revenue remains intact. BONUS: ZERO ability to practice Christianity publically in this region ..

Thanks Bush II, Bush III (Obama), Bush IV (Trump)

".. Afghanistan is a brutal Islamic state. The results of the U.S. war in Afghanistan are: One practicing Jew, one synagogue that is inactive, one Jewish cemetery that is used as an unofficial dump, no public Christian churches, and harsh penalties for crimes such as apostasy, conversion, proselytizing, and blasphemy..."

https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/the-results-of-the-u-s-war-in-afghanistan/

Confederate West Virginia, Why?

Notice June 1861 Confederate States of America in gray. Look closely and you will see a part of Virginia that reaches within 100 miles of Canada almost slitting what is left of the "Union" in two.

If you could look closer you would see the railroad lines that go through that region that connect the east with the west (current Midwest) ... and now you start to see how nervous Lincoln was about this area. Lincoln already had cannon aimed at Dover, DE to prevent that state from considering secession, and in MD Lincoln placed all who were suspected of voting for secession in jail. Dealing with those counties in Virginia that had the railroad lines, coal and timber would take a little bit longer. However, being a new dictator has its privileges.

To know why Virginia seceded, you have to know what happened. The first time Virginia voted, they said NO to secession. Then Lincoln attempted to resupply two southern forts still under his control (Fort Sumter in South Carolina and Fort Pickens in Alabama) there was cannon fire in Charleston Harbor BUT no one was killed. The fort surrendured and then Lincoln called up 75,000 volunteers from all his states (36 minus 7) to "put down an insurrection" (he took care not to call them states) and he did not fathom the fallout from that fateful decision. Four more states left the union with Virginia voting again and this time in favor of leaving. If the reason was to keep slavery, don't you think the vote would have been the same both times? If it was the high tariffs, the vote should have been the same as well. Maybe, just maybe, these regions did not want to be a colony of another empire yet again!!!

One look at the demographics will reveal a lot about the area south of Wheeling that had ZERO say in what happened next.

".. In 1860 the mountainous counties of northwestern Virginia cared little about slavery. Even in the southern counties McDowell had 10% slaves, Mercer 150 of a total population of 4500. .... The B & O Railroad, running across northwestern Virginia, provided a vital link between the Yankee states and the West. This explains why the first battle of the War took place at Philippi ‘West’ Virginia..."

People generally can tell when the weather is changing .. no different by 1860 when those in western sections of Virginia and the rest of the south saw this:

"... western Virginians were horrified by the hijacking of the federal government by Northern industrialists and bankers in 1860. Money had totally bought out the law. A railroad corporate lawyer, Abraham Lincoln, president, swore to defeat the Democratic states even in the North, i.e., New York State, Ohio and the so-called Copperhead states in the West. To the so-called Radical Republicans this was a real civil war. They had to subjugate the Democratic Party representing the workers’ interests. The world was shocked. Even the pope called Lincoln a “tyrant and a usurper” and sent President Jefferson Davis a crown of thorns..."

Yes, they sensed what had been coming for several generations, something Patrick Henry prophesied about that rule by a corrupt majority to the north was coming true.

Then, the fallout continued as key US Army personnel had to make some big decisions based on selfish interests OR on principle:

".. General Lee (today called a traitor in the national media) had to resign his commission in the US Army so as not to help subject his native Virginia to the rule of Northern bankers. In the Sound of Music, Captain von Trapp was similarly forced to flee the Nazis..."

Since this "Union" that Lincoln professed to keep seemed so very fragile (actually, it was his party's inability to hold on to political power indefinitely) it was decided to manufacturer another state for electoral votes needed in 1864 (they admitted Nevada prematurely for the same reason). The method they used is found no where in the Constitution .. but like all things of the Republican party at that time .. you just make things up because the ends justify the means.

".. Just create a “Restored Government of Virginia” in federally controlled areas near Washington. Appoint a governor, Francis Pierpont, and of course an ad hoc legislature. Propose one bill, devoted to the question of secession of the northwestern counties. Vote for it, get paid and go home. Democracy was somewhat crushed, of course. Twenty-two counties did not vote. One county “sent” one representative, some guy who elected himself, etc. But the whole thing worked like a charm, at least in the Union media. The cover-up was well under way. As of June 20, 1863 the federal government declared West Virginia a new state. .."

So even after the war, West Virginia was kept from being part of Virginia again .. politics:

"... In legal limbo, ‘West’ Virginia did not democratically or legally secede. Neither was it annexed with any real popular support. Like India as a British colony, our people are seen as second-class citizens, if that. We are berated for our accents and behavior. And we are blamed for a system we did not create. Like the rest of the Confederate states we are in fact a colony..."

I contend that except in the big political power centers of major metro areas, the rest of this country is treated as colonies ... taxed to feed the federal beast. The American Empire.

Confederate West Virginia | Abbeville Institute

List of American Towns Burned / Pillaged

List of towns burnt or pillaged by Confederate forces:

ZERO

List of towns burnt or pillaged by Union forces:

Osceola, Missouri, burned to the ground, September 24, 1861 – The town of 3,000 people was plundered and burned to the ground, 200 slaves were freed and nine local citizens were executed.
Platte City – December 16, 1861 – “Colonel W. James Morgan marches from St. Joseph to Platte City. Once there, Morgan burns the city and takes three prisoners — all furloughed or discharged Confederate soldiers. Morgan leads the prisoners to Bee Creek, where one is shot and a second is bayonetted, while the third is released. ”
Dayton, Missouri, burned, January 1 to 3, 1862
Columbus, Missouri, burned, reported on January 13, 1862
Bentonville, Arkansas, partly burned, February 23, 1862 – a Federal search party set fire to the town after finding a dead Union soldier, burning most of it to the ground
Winton, North Carolina, burned, reported on February 21, 1862 – first NC town burned by the Union, and completely burned to the ground
Bledsoe’s Landing, Arkansas, burned, October 21, 1862
Hamblin’s, Arkansas, burned, October 21, 1862
Donaldsonville, Louisiana, partly burned, August 10, 1862
Athens, Alabama, partly burned, August 30, 1862
Randolph, Tennessee, burned, September 26, 1862
Elm Grove and Hopefield, Arkansas, burned, October 18, 1862
Fredericksburg December 11–15, 1862 – town not destroyed, but the Union army threw shells into a town full of civilians
Napoleon, Arkansas, partly burned, January 17, 1863
Mound City, Arkansas, partly burned, January 13, 1863
Hopefield, Arkansas, burned, February 21, 1863 – “Captain Lemon allowed residents one hour to remove personal items, and the men then burned every house in the village.”
Eunice, Arkansas, burned, June 14, 1863
Gaines Landing, Arkansas, burned, June 15, 1863
Bluffton, South Carolina, burned, reported June 6, 1863 – ”
Union troops, about 1,000 strong, crossed Calibogue Sound and eased up the May River in the pre-dawn fog, surprising ineffective pickets and having their way in an unoccupied village. Rebel troops put up a bit of a fight, but gunboats blasted away as two-thirds of the town was burned in less than four hours. After the Yankees looted furniture and left, about two-thirds of the town’s 60 homes were destroyed.”
Sibley, Missouri, burned June 28, 1863
Hernando, Mississippi, partly burned, April 21, 1863
Austin, Mississippi, burned, May 24, 1863 – “On May 24, a detachment of Union marines landed near Austin. They quickly marched to the town, ordered all of the townpeople out and burned down the town.”
Columbus, Tennessee, burned, reported February 10, 1864
Meridian, Mississippi, destroyed, February 3 to March 6, 1864 (burned multiple times)
Washington, North Carolina, sacked and burned, April 20, 1864
Hallowell’s Landing, Alabama, burned, reported May 14, 1864
Newtown, Virginia, May 30, 1864
Rome, Georgia, partly burned, November 11, 1864 – “Union soldiers were told to burn buildings the Confederacy could use in its war effort: railroad depots, storehouses, mills, foundries, factories and bridges. Despite orders to respect private property, some soldiers had their own idea. They ran through the city bearing firebrands, setting fire to what George M. Battey Jr. called harmless places.”
Atlanta, Georgia, burned, November 15, 1864
Camden Point, Missouri, burned, July 14, 1864 –
Kendal’s Grist-Mill, Arkansas, burned, September 3, 1864
Shenandoah Valley, devastated, reported October 1, 1864 by Sheridan. Washington College was sacked and burned during this campaign.
Griswoldville, Georgia, burned, November 21, 1864
Somerville, Alabama, burned, January 17, 1865
McPhersonville, South Carolina, burned, January 30, 1865
Barnwell, South Carolina, burned, reported February 9, 1865
Columbia, South Carolina, burned, reported February 17, 1865
Winnsborough, South Carolina, pillaged and partly burned, February 21, 1865
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, burned, April 4, 1865

.. and more to be added as the author learns of archived reports.

Quite a legacy .. seen replicated in Germany, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya.


https://civilwarchat.wordpress.com/2018/06/03/war-against-southern-civilians/

Randolph of Roanoke - Why the USA Marginalized Him and His Writings

Straight talker, truth talker and follower of men only to a point when their principles gave way and he could no longer follow them (i.e. Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and even Jackson disappointed him).

I have said, on a former occasion, and if I were Philip, 1 would employ a man to say it every day, that the people of this country, if ever they lose their liber­ties, will do it by sacrificing some great principle of government to temporary passion. There are certain great principles, which if they be not held inviolate, at all seasons, our liberty is gone. If we give them up, it is perfectly immaterial what is the character of our Sovereign; whether he be King or President, elec­tive or hereditary—it is perfectly immaterial what is his character—we shall be slaves. It is not an elective government which will preserve us.

Slaves we are .. and John Randolph said this in 1813 when he was marginalized for being against that war with England.

Later he would say:

These principles are on record; they are engraved upon it indelibly by the press and will live as long as the art of printing is suffered to exist. It is not for any man at this day to undertake to change them; it is not for any men, who then professed them, by any guise or circumspection, to conceal apostasy from them, for they are there—there in the book…. What are they? Love of peace, hatred of offen­sive war, jealousy of the state governments toward the general government; a dread of standing armies; a loathing of public debt, taxes, and excises; ten­derness for the liberty of the citizen; jealousy, Argus-eyed jealousy, of the patronage of the President.

This high political courage to say these things is missing I tell you among the politicians of today .. and were missing for a vast majority of statemen of the years John was alive.

One more quote .. this one from 1829:

“The country is ruined past redemption,” Randolph wrote to Dr. Brockenbrough in 1829; “it is ruined in the spirit and character of the people.”

Yup, a truth-teller extraordinaire ... a prophet .. that the masses refuse to listen to ... because there is money and power to be made to go the other direction.

See link below for the full article:

Randolph of Roanoke | Abbeville Institute

BTW .. for you snowflakes out there .. try on some of this:

"You will find no instance in history where two distinct races have occupied the soil except in the relation of master and slave." - John Randolph

While Randolph remained dependent on hundreds of slaves to work his tobacco plantation,  he provided for their manumission and resettlement in the free state of Ohio in his will, providing monies for the purchase of land and supplies. They founded Rossville, now part of Piqua, Ohio and Rumley, Ohio.

Truth-teller!

What Changed?

Most people today can't comprehend why:
1) Black slaves did not full scale revolt, especially after all the men left the plantations to fight in Lincoln's war
2) That thousands of Black slaves travelled with their masters to the front lines and even fought as Confederate soldiers (for the SAME pay as whites, blacks in Union army did not get that benefit) AND received pensions for their service.
3) That 200 blacks in Richmond, VA volunteered to fight on the SOUTHERN SIDE in 1861 after they heard Lincoln called UP 75,000 volunteers to invade the seven southern states South of VA and NC.
4) Even as slaves, a majority of blacks saw the North not as liberators (remember, the North had just offered the South guaranteed perpetual slavery) but as Invaders!

".. the 13th Amendment to the Constitution proposed in early 1861. This Amendment would have prohibited the abolition of slavery and made the practice permanent. It was approved by both the House and the Senate and endorsed by the new president, Abraham Lincoln. But when Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor was fired on by Confederate artillery, this 13th Amendment was shelved. In December 1865, roughly a year after the South surrendered, a second 13th Amendment, this one outlawing slavery, was ratified and this is the one usually reported by historians..."

Why would the SAME people/party want permanent slavery .. and four years later, no slavery? In 1861 their power / position and revenue was threatened, in 1865 after bringing an extremely violent war against BOTH southern armies AND innocent civilians and had total control did they make slavery illegal. Note that there was little migration of ex-slaves north after the war, this same people / party didn't want them competing for jobs with whites in the north SO they were promised power and control .. but we're actually puppets of these same pet / party until the end of Reconstruction in 1877.

So the war was about .... money and control. When the southern seven states left the united States Confederacy, the remaining states felt threatened economically about their future and offered perpetual slavery to temp them to return. Not one state took that bait.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/the-wrong-side-of-history/

US Redeploying ISIS to Afghanistan

John McCain and Hillary Clinton can be so proud of their baby. The US, UK, Saudi Arabia and Israel are fond of their creation as well:

".. The main objective of ISIS in Afghanistan is not only destabilizing the country, but a full-scale invasion of post-soviet Central Asian Republics –Turkmenistan,  Uzbekistan and Tajikistan – in order to heighten tension at Russia’s southern border..."

They go where ever they are paid to go for their US / Saudi / Israeli bosses

https://russia-insider.com/en/node/23642

In a Police State, Police are Teflon

".. Florida jury has decided there was really no problem with cops shooting and killing Gregory Vaughn Hill Jr., 30, in 2014 because he was playing music too loudly in his own garage while drunk .. St. Lucie County sheriff deputies turned up at Hill’s house in Fort Pierce following complaints he’d been playing loud “F.U. music” in his garage as a nearby middle school was letting out for the day.

When Hill heard the cops knock, he opened the garage door, saw them, and began closing it again, at which point deputy Christopher Newman shot him three times – once in the head, twice in the abdomen – through the door, because everyone knows that according to the impeccable standards of American jurisprudence, getting drunk, playing music and closing a garage door are punishable by death without a trial. Police later claimed he’d had a gun they told him to drop – a claim never proved – and then said they’d found a gun (unloaded) in Hill’s back pocket; they also determined his blood alcohol level was almost five times the legal limit for driving, though probably pretty close to that of many people getting drunk in their garage while listening to music... Jurors were also asked to determine the amount of compensation to award Hill’s three children for their loss; the family was seeking $500,000, but jurors instead opted to give them $4 total – $1 to his mother for his funeral expenses, and $1 to each of his children.

The grievous punchline: The jury unfathomably found Hill 99% liable for his own murder because “under the influence of alcoholic beverages to the extent that his normal faculties were impaired” – that death penalty offense again – thus reducing the family’s award, and law enforcement’s liability, to pennies..."

Police are teflon in this age of the Police State .. zero justice US judicial system and a nation of sheep.


http://theantimedia.com/gregory-vaughn-hill-jr/

Who Do You Know Better? FDR or Lindbergh?

Simply awesome article, worth the time to read IF you are a real Patriot, you will be able to identify with Charles.

".. Having personally confronted the true horrors of war in the Pacific, though, Lindbergh bitterly denounced it in his private journal: “As the awful truth of the German crimes against the Jewish people came out, here we were, doing the same thing to the Japs.” He wrote about the attitudes he encountered: “‘They really are lower than beasts. Every one of ’em ought to be exterminated.’ How many times I heard American officers in the Pacific say those very words!… And ‘Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?’”

He chronicled the shooting of Japanese soldiers attempting to surrender so that other Japanese soldiers would remain in the jungle and slowly starve; Marines firing on unarmed Japanese swimming ashore at Midway; troops machine-gunning prisoners on a Hollandia airstrip; Australians shoving captured Japanese out of transport planes over the New Guinea mountains; Japanese shinbones carved off for letter openers and pen trays; Japanese heads buried in ant hills “to get them clean for souvenirs”; and “the infantry’s favorite occupation” of poking through the mouths of Japanese corpses for gold-filled teeth. He added, “What is barbaric on one side of the earth is still barbaric on the other.”

“Judge not that ye be not judged,” he continued. “It is not the Germans alone, or the Japs, but the men of all nations to whom this war has brought shame and degradation.” He also wrote of the legacy of using violence to solve mankind’s ills: lynchings, witch-burnings, “burnings at the stake for the benefit of Christ and God.” ...

Legacies

Interestingly, the two great adversaries met in person one time, on April 20, 1939, early in their conflict over the coming war, and even then Lindbergh saw through Roosevelt’s façade of charm. Roosevelt invited Lindbergh to his office following circulation of the latter’s momentous reports on German aviation. FDR kept Lindbergh waiting 45 minutes, then met with him for 15. Lindbergh wrote of the cordial visit in his journal: “I liked him and feel that I could get along with him well…. But there was something about him I did not trust, something a little too suave, too pleasant, too easy…. It is better to work together as long as we can; yet somehow I have a feeling that it may not be for long.”

Despite no animus on the part of Lindbergh toward Roosevelt and Lindbergh’s correct discernment of the state of international politics, Roosevelt’s campaign to vilify him was largely a success, though Lindbergh was a celebrity in his own right. Thus, Franklin Roosevelt graduated onto the front of textbooks, currency, and best presidents’ lists. Charles Lindbergh, meanwhile, won the laurels of hatred and slander reserved for the truest patriot, he who loves his country enough to criticize her for her own good — a lesson that patriots of today know only too well is repeated almost daily in America through the cooperation of likeminded media and politicians..."

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2018/06/01/fdr-vs-lindbergh-setting-the-record-straight/

Found Another Goldmine Online Resource ..

Van Schendel was a Belgian artist of Dutch origin, a painter of portraits and genre pictures, most notably nocturnes in the Romanticist style. He was also an inventor and father of fifteen children. Van Schendel was born in 1806 and lived until age 64.

The dark and dangerous times following a catastrophic collapse are often imagined as violence without direction or purpose, save momentary advantage and survival. For most it serves well as a working assumption when norms, violated more than observed, cease to be norms. But like anything else, chaos comes in grades and flavors. There is survival value in knowing what they've been in the past.

Roaming refugees. These are the locusts that swarm after a collapse, able to strip a community by weight of numbers. Typically hungry, desperate, leaderless and abandoned by leadership material, they're drifters and opportunists. Small communities are overrun and looted in the manner of a flash mob. Bug-in preppers are the bon bons of preference for the more capable among them. Well sited survival communities are unlikely to be in the path of roaming refugees.

Gangs. Existing gangs are specialists dependent on a functioning urban environment. Once the cities and suburbs are stripped, "street smarts" are useless and they become parasites without a host. Surviving famine and scarcity takes a different set of skills, and the learning curve is steep. Ethnocentric gangs are most likely to remain intact, but most likely to attack each other. Pointlessly aggressive and impatient by nature, they're a more dangerous subset of roaming refugees. The more ambitious gangs are marauders in the making. A survival community should overestimate their capabilities.

Marauders. In war, marauders are bands of military adventurers that strike at unexpected targets from an unexpected direction in unexpected ways. Unlike commandos deployed against high value targets, the marauder has a general mandate best described as "extreme cost effectiveness". Seasoned marauders are inventive, patient, and have an almost otherworldly ability to sniff out opportunity. The safer a survival community believes itself to be, the more vulnerable it is to marauders.

Partisans. At the outset these will be existing militia, typically modelled as light infantry except without recourse to heavy weapons support, self-armed and trained primarily as skirmishers. Their first task is likely to be defending their home community from roaming refugees and gangs. As the emergency devolves other partisans will arise, some as patriotic resistance outfits, some as mercenaries for war lords with territorial ambitions, some warranting response in kind and some qualifying as candidates for an alliance. Partisans see a survival community as a source of supplies and recruits, either theirs or their enemy's.

Government and quasi-government. Drastic downsizing will pressure fiefdoms with overlapping authority to battle for supremacy. Even within government no one will be sure who is king and who is not king. Subjugating and exploiting the productive territories that sustain them will be government's only real job. The classic morphing of government will accelerate—every bureaucracy wants to be a police force, every police force wants to be an army. Martial law is a given, there will be no civil liberties. A survival community careless enough to draw their attention will have some hard times ahead.

Yes, we are all in for a bad day .. and here we sit behind our computers with the US government logging our every keystoke .. for "evidence" later of treason no doubt. That is how they work. SMH

The above is from Ol' Remus ... guess I will be looking at his 500+ reports going back to 2004

Now ... About Those Military That DID Make it Home Alive (or Partially Alive)

Having grieved the loss of lives due to the lies the US government has pedaled the last 200 years .. we turn to those who, either were drafted (i.e. Vietnam era and prior) or volunteered to:

Returning from these wars or covert ops based on lies, requires that these participants in the government's programs of regime change around the world (as well as the amoral tasks these soldiers, sailors and airmen have obeyed to carry out) reflect on their actions and words while in these roles.

For decades, honorable US servicemen have returned only to figure out that they have been deceived:

[see the famous speech in context here]

It is one thing for the US government to deceive millions of young people to use for their agenda, BUT when they return home ravaged by physical or mental wounds it is the same government that refuses to treat these who have given of themselves.

Lately we have experienced a suicide rate of 22 vets a day and yet the US government VA program refuses to treat these people with natural Rx that could alleviate the PTSD they live with daily:

America’s prolonged military conflicts over the past 17 years have exposed an aging and ineffective health care system, ill-prepared for the type and severity of the latest round of war-related injuries. Upwards of 20 percent of the 2.7 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will experience post-traumatic stress or depression, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA is not equipped to effectively or comprehensively treat the complexity of every veteran’s mental and physical wounds, leaving former service members to cope with limited and inadequate treatment options. Veterans are often placated with “cocktails” of prescription drugs, including powerful and addictive opiates. The current arrangement is not meeting veterans’ healthcare needs.

Not only this, should vets be treated, they risk losing the ability to defend themselves, their family and their property!

A determination of mental incompetence by the VA, tied to the management of monetary benefits through the VA’s fiduciary program, bars the beneficiary from possessing or buying a gun because of a provision in the “Brady Bill.”

Despite this possibility, the VA maintains that the fears are misplaced.

A spokesperson for the agency said that concerns about losing firearms due to a PTSD diagnosis are “unfounded.”

But the article provides evidence to the contrary, describing the experience of Sergeant Eddie Montoya, who was present during a bombing near Mosul in 2004 that killed 22 people.

Montoya later received a PTSD diagnosis, before ending up in a psychiatric hold during a stay at a VA clinic where he sought help for alcohol abuse.

After Montoya sought to increase his benefits, a subsequent evaluation led the agency to consider designating him incompetent and having a guardian manage his benefits.

Later, he was denied a concealed carry permit by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

“I was reaching out to a ‘trusted’ source’ and got penalized for it,” said Montoya. “This is why vets won’t reach out.”

Even though the VA and various lawyer firms SAY there is no cause for alarm, once you are a veteran, you KNOW you can never trust the US Government .. fact!

This is not right nor is it moral .. but that is government (1 Sam 8:9-18):

For me, I would rather have anarchy .. an environment without rulers (not without rules duh) .. like the Farmer's Market below:

What if... (Timeless 3.5 min Video)

Fixated on Another Government Worship Day? You Bet .. the Lies of Memorial Day

I hate lies. I love truth. Friends don't let friends believe in lies .. but they also allow someone that process .. towards truth .. it is a different timeline for everyone .. everyone is unique and ultimately have to own their own beliefs, values, mission, etc.

By the way, I detest the way the Lincoln administration chose to bury their dead on an honorable man's private property .. a man who had 100x the character of Lincoln himself when it came to principles. Lincoln's words in 1848 about a very Jefferson idea about the consent of the governed would have been something that Robert E. Lee would have agreed with .. and when Lee acted on this belief, Lincoln made sure Lee could never return to his home.

The quote Lee and Lincoln would agree to:

“Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right, a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people, that can, may revolutionize, and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with, or near about them, who may oppose their movements.” ~ Lincoln January 12 1848, expressing the near-universally held Jeffersonian principle

Anyway, Jacob Hornberger at FFF shares this timely article:

Today, Memorial Day, Americans across the land will hear the same message: that U.S. soldiers who have died in America’s foreign wars and foreign interventions have done so in the defense of our rights and freedoms. It is a message that will be heard in sporting events, memorial services, airports, churches, and everywhere else that Memorial Day is being commemorated.

There is one big thing wrong, however. It’s a lie. None of those soldiers died protecting our rights and freedoms. That’s because our rights and freedoms were never being threatened by the enemy forces that killed those soldiers.

Let’s work our way backwards...

Yes, lets look at how the US military defended our rights and freedoms ... it should not take long and you will see that it has been a LONG time since they actually did that:

Syria. The Syrian government has never invaded the United States and tried to take away our rights and freedoms. Therefore, any U.S. soldier who has died in Syria was not killed protecting our rights and freedoms.

Niger. The Niger government has never invaded the United States and tried to take away our freedoms. Therefore, any U.S. soldier who has died in Niger was not killed protecting our rights and freedoms.

Iraq. The Iraq government never invaded the United States and tried to take away our rights and freedoms. Therefore, any U.S. soldier who has died in Iraq was not killed protecting our rights and freedoms.

Afghanistan. The Afghan government never invaded the United States and tried to take away our rights and freedoms. Therefore, any U.S. soldier who has died in Afghanistan was not killed protecting our rights and freedoms. Even al-Qaeda never invaded the United States and tried to take away our rights and freedoms. Its terrorist attacks, including the one on 9/11, were retaliation for U.S. interventionism in the Middle East.

Panama. The Panama government never invaded the United States and tried to take away our rights freedoms. Therefore, any U.S. soldier who died in Panama was not killed protecting our rights and freedoms.

Grenada. The Grenada government never invaded the United States and tried to take away our rights freedoms. Therefore, any U.S. soldier who died in Grenada was not killed protecting our rights and freedoms.

Vietnam. The North Vietnam government never invaded the United States and tried to take away our rights and freedoms. Therefore, any U.S. soldier who died in Vietnam was not killed protecting our rights and freedoms.

Korea. The North Korean government never invaded the United States and tried to take away our rights freedoms. Therefore, any U.S. soldier who died in Korea was not killed protecting our rights and freedoms.

World War II.

The Japanese government never invaded the United States and tried to take away our rights and freedoms. Therefore, any U.S. soldier who died in the Pacific theater in World War II was not killed protecting our rights and freedoms. The Japanese attack on U.S. Naval forces on Hawaii was intended solely to prevent the U.S. Navy from interfering with Japanese attempts to acquire oil in the Dutch East Indies in response to President Roosevelt’s oil embargo, whose aim was to provoke the Japanese into attacking the United States so that the U.S. could get into the European part of war.

The German government never invaded the United States and try to take away our rights and freedoms. Therefore, any U.S. soldier who died in the European theater in World War II was not killed protecting our rights and freedoms. Germany wasn’t even able to cross the English Channel to invade England, much less the Atlantic Ocean to invade the United States. In fact, the last thing that Germany wanted was war with the United States, as reflected by Germany’s refusal to react to President Roosevelt’s repeated provocations to get Germany to attack the United States. Germany only declared war on the United States after FDR successfully provoked the Japanese into attacking the U.S. Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor, in the hope that this would provide a back door to entry into the war in Europe.

World War I. The German government never invaded the United States and tried to take away our rights freedoms. Therefore, any U.S. soldier who died in World War I was not killed protecting our rights and freedoms, especially given the ridiculous aims of U.S. intervention into the war: to “end all wars” and to “make the world safe for democracy,” a word that isn’t even in the U.S. Constitution. In fact, it is perversely ironic that it was U.S. interventionism into the conflict that contributed to the rise of Nazi Germany and World War II.

The Spanish-American War. The Spanish government never invaded the United States and tried to take away our rights freedoms. Therefore, any soldier who died in the Spanish-American War was not killed protecting our rights and freedoms.

 I will add the following:

The War Against Southern Independence (of seven states originally, wrongly called a civil war, wrong because the southern states did not want any other territory, PERIOD).

The South Carolina militia in Dec 1860 to April 1861 never invaded the United States and try to take away the rights of those in other states. As a sovereign entity (reclaiming what it had before the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation) it said LEAVE US ALONE.

The Confederate States of America from Feb to April 1861 never invaded the United States and try to take away the rights of those in other states. While after the US Army detachment in Fort Moultrie violated the agreement in place since Dec 1860 when it agreed NOT to take any action in Charleston Harbor and remained at peace in what was now South Carolina territory (seceded from USA), Gen. Anderson, in the cover of night moved his troops to Fort Sumter. When Lincoln attempted to resupply the fort with provisions AND troops was when the forces around Charleston Harbor chose to fire on Fort Sumter .. KILLING NO ONE.

The Confederate States of America (now 11 states) from April - July 1861 never invaded the United States and try to take away the rights of those in other states.

CASE CLOSED! Why celebrate Memorial Day when the reason for its existence is based on lies .. it is yet another government piece of propaganda that when repeated enough get into the heads of the sheep!

Bottom line is that while the defense of the United States in the War of 1812 was honorable, even that war was entered into under questionable circumstances and outright lies. Know that by 1814 the NORTH was ready to secede from the United States (peacefully) .. you might want to Google the "Hartford Convention of 1814"

"... the Hartford Convention began a three-week debate about the relationship between the then 18 states and the federal government. The meeting was held in secret by New England members of the Federalist Party and there were nationwide fears that the Hartford Convention would call for New England's secession from the Union.

New Englanders were unhappy over political concerns that they were being badly treated by the Union. Since Thomas Jefferson's election in 1800, the president had been a Southerner chosen by an electoral system that allowed the slave-holding Southern states to count each slave as 60 percent of a free person for their allocation of congressional seats and the number of presidential electors..."

Did the southern states invade the north to keep this from happening? No! As early as 1804, sensing that New England was not happy with things (this time it was the Louisiana Purchase, another time when secession was discussed in the north.):

“Whether we remain in one confederacy, or form into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I believe not very important to the happiness of either part.  Those of the western confederacy will be as much our children & descendants as those of the eastern, and I feel myself as much identified with that country, in future time, as with this; and did I now foresee a separation at some future day, yet I should feel the duty & the desire to promote the western interests as zealously as the eastern, doing all the good for both portions of our future family which should fall within my power.”

–Letter from President Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Joseph Priestly, Jan. 29, 1804

So maybe the American Revolutionary War was really the last time the government's troops fought for our freedom and for our rights. Think about that!

PS Also, if you think George Washington was really the tactical hero of Yorktown, just know that when the French general Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau told Washington to move his troops to Yorktown as the French fleet was coming to contain the British troops under Cornwallis there, Washington had a melt-down and at first refused the thought thinking as he had the last few years that the decisive battle HAD to take place against the British in New York harbor. [Do your own research!]

ISIS Dying as Its Dad (McCain) is Dying - and US/Israel Tries to Find a Home for It

Can't get more obvious .. you KNOW that ISIS left a LOT behind in Syria and now Russia, Syria and Iran know what the US, UK, Israel and Saudi Arabia have been up to the last decade.

So Syria aims to clean up the southwest corridor to open the M5 highway to Jordan which would be great for both economies .. trade is a good thing, sanctions is the first stage of wars!

Here is the situation articulated from Moon of Alabama's site:

The Syrian government and its Russian ally plan to clean up the southwest region of Syria around the city of Daraa. The move should open the M5 highway, Syria's lifeline, between Damascus and Jordan and secure the border with Jordan as well as the demarcation line with the Israel occupied Golan Heights.

This can only be seen for what it is .. trying to find a home for AlQ/ISIS .. seems that typical of "agreements", that the US and ISIS/AlQ are defaulting on them when it is convienanct for them to do so to delay extraction VIA Israel to yet another area in the ME

On July 7 2017 The U.S, Russia and Jordan agreed to set up a de-escalation zone in southwest Syria. The parameters were not publicized and the implementation lagged. Russia had offered to let its military police supervise the zone but the U.S. rejected that. The opening of the important M5 highway to Jordan which was originally part of the plan did likewise not happen. The ceasefire in the region was broken several times. There was also infighting between ISIS and al-Qaeda

In November 2017 the presidents of the United States and Russia met and agreed to a Memorandum of Principals which covered southwest Syria. The memorandum was not published

The neo-conservatives at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) disliked the agreement. It headlined Southern Syria Deal Fails to Constrain Iran, al Qaeda. Israel had demanded that no groups associated with Iran should come near the zone, but no such rule was agreed upon. ISW also noted

Al Qaeda has exploited the ‘de-escalation zone’ to develop a new durable safe haven along the Syrian-Jordanian border.

Neither al-Qaeda nor the Islamic State are covered by the de-escalation and ceasefire agreement. UN Security Council resolutions 2249 and 2254 demand that all UN members fight Al Qaeda, ISIS and individuals and groups associate with them. It calls upon UN member states "to eradicate the safe haven they have established over significant parts of Syria".

We may see this yet again under the cover of its protectors:

Wonder when these forces go through Israel what flag they will be holding?

The Iranian ambassador to Jordan Mojtaba Ferdowsi-pour publicly declared that Iran has no role in any military operation in south of Syria. He added:

'After ending its mission in Syria, Iran will not remain in Syria and whenever Syrian government ask us, Iran will leave the country.'

It is obvious that the Syrian government and its Russian allies have all rights to fight ISIS and al-Qaeda independent of any de-escalation agreement. The UNSC resolutions even demand that. But the U.S. thinks different.

The US is delaying .. trying to cover-up the AlQ/ISIS extraction effort ... US forces have ZERO reason to be there in Syria. Bullies don't care .. but blowback will be a bitch!!!

US/Trump Position on Syria - Reflections on 1861-1865 (War that Created Decoration/Memorial Day)

You can't have it both ways now can you? Or is this different? Or is THIS really different?

VS.

Case #1: A sovereign government is in place in a defined territory. Foreign countries (Israel, UK, US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) attempt to destabilize this country by relocating its militia (called ISIS) from Iraq to Syria. Now the Syrian government with assistance from Russia and Iran are beating back this EXTERNAL influence and the USA says STOP IT!

".. “As a guarantor of this de-escalation area with Russia and Jordan, the United States will take firm and appropriate measures in response to Assad regime violations,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement late on Friday [25MAY2018] ..."

Reuters news service goes on to spin: 

".. A war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported on Wednesday that Syrian government forces fresh from their victory this week against an Islamic State pocket in south Damascus were moving into the southern province of Deraa..."

What is the problem with this?

The fact is that Syrian state-run media have reported that government aircraft have dropped leaflets on rebel-held areas in Deraa urging fighters to disarm. (is this not proper?) The U.S. warning comes weeks after a similar attack on a de-escalation zone in northeastern Syria held by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. U.S. ground and air forces repelled the more than four-hour attack, killing perhaps as many as 300 pro-Assad militia members, many of them Russian mercenaries. 

Reuters continues the spin:

"... Backed by Russian warplanes, ground forces from Iran and allied militia, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, have helped Assad drive rebels from Syria’s biggest cities, putting him in an unassailable military position..."

Seriously? The SAA is in fact allowing those serving as early as 2010 to leave the army. The Syrian government is in the home stretch of getting those illegals OUT of Syrian territory. That includes US troops as well as their buddies ISIS.

Case #2 A sovereign country that is a confederation of 33 states (in their original configuration, they ONLY gave up enough of their sovereignty to allow for regional security and internal free trade). The northern states started to become more powerful in the 1830s and therefore utilized the government to favor their regions (North and "West"(Midwest)) by being the beneficiary of taxes and tariffs (on particular products) collected mainly at southern ports and being configured in a way that disadvantaged the south. (anyone that knows US history knows of the "Tariff of Abominations" right?

Starting in December 1860, some of these states held legal proceedings and voting towards peacefully exiting the confederation EVEN when the promise of a constitutional amendment would have allowed perpetual slavery. These states knew as well, that being OUT of this union of states meant that their run-a-way slaves could NOT be captured in the northern states and returned to them. Despite this, EACH state chose what to do. Some states chose to stay (Virginia, etc.) and others (7) chose to leave and remain outside this "marriage". Thirty plus years of abuse was enough.

In case #2, this was INTERNAL peoples desiring to exit a contract, not unlike what happened in 1776 with the American colonies and the British Empire. It seems that ever since 1776 the US has wavered on whether to support the will of the people in lands far from its shore. In the 1970s the US encouraged and funded the Mujihideen in Afghanistan (Bin Laden and crew) .. but in Crimea, there is a constitutional secession from Ukraine to Russia and the USA goes nuts. 

The US government (as always) does not operate on principle, but on selfish desires while it sees the world as its responsibility. Even Abraham Lincoln was bi-polar like this when he said in December 1846: "Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable,—most sacred right—a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world." In April of 1861 he no longer believed this.

[NOTE: In this resource, the above quote is conveniently left out .. REALLY?]

The myth making of Abraham Lincoln and at times the outright deification is nauseating .. but I digress.

Also in case #2 there were forces at work in the remaining 26 states (a minority of the general population of these states were Pro-War in fact as of March 1861 when Lincoln was inaugurated as President of the United States .. getting only 39% of the vote and not one vote in most southern states) that spread a panic of the financial fallout and fear of a future with a "free trade zone" to their south. This minority would use fear of the future to further its goals. New England's internal exports of goods would dry up, Western farmers saw the path of their products to the world via the Mississippi River getting worse case blocked or best case taxed. The government itself saw revenues from tariffs from cotton exports severely diminished as the newspapers went from assuming peaceful separation towards calling on a FORCED effort to stop the secessions.

The secession did NOT start the war. In fact, Lincoln carefully avoided acknowledging the secessions, kept the stars on the flag all because he used an "insurrection" law from the 1790s to justify his calling up 75,000 troops and NOT calling Congress to session until July 4th 1861 .. so that he could get the preparation for war and its natural momentum in place. People and presses that were not for Lincoln were shut down and imprisoned without trial, legislatures in Maryland and Delaware were threatened should they even consider meeting to discuss secession. THESE Lincoln actions caused four more states to officially secede from the union.

In summary, in case #1, the US participated in the war in Syria .. in case #2 the US participated in the war against its own people .. for ITS OWN SELFISH DESIRES.

Government is evil.

Case #1 source material

Case #2 source material is up to you to research .. it is out there!