In this special report to Consortium News from the Syrian capital, Jeff Klein describes a people getting back on their feet after the defeat of jihadists in Ghouta, while explosives remain a part of daily life.
By Jeff Klein Special to Consortium News
In Damascus
A loud and persistent booming woke everyone up here in the early hours of the morning on Saturday, April 14. To a visitor from Boston it sounded like Fourth of July fireworks over the Charles River. But this was Damascus and the thunder was from exploding missiles in the long-awaited attack by Donald Trump and his British and French allies.
The bombardments started precisely at 4am local time and continued for the better part of an hour. Only the timing was a surprise here, as Trump had been threatening a reprisal attack for the alleged use by the Syrian government of chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus the previous week.
By all accounts, most Syrians were unfazed by the missile attack. There were videos of Damascenes cheering from rooftops as air defense rockets were launched over the city to intercept the US, French and British missiles.
Trump’s tweet that the attack had been “perfectly carried out” is likely an overstatement. The Russian and Syrian militaries claim that the majority of the incoming missiles were shot down or diverted electronically from their targets, although this is impossible to verify. But it is being reported that two unexploded missiles were handed over to the Russians for technical examination.
In any case, before and after photos of the alleged military/chemical research center in Damascus show pretty thoroughgoing destruction. But the US attacks had been so fully telegraphed – there were claims that the Russians were informed in advance of the targets – that the buildings were empty and there were no reported fatalities.
Of course, if these Damascus targets had actually been chemical weapons facilities as charged there would have been massive civilian casualties from the fallout. There were none.
A ‘Fake’ Chemical Attack
Syrians I spoke to here all derided the chemical attack charge as fake news. Nearly everyone else I met in the region, of varying political views, shared the same opinion. In fact it is hard for anyone to fathom why the Syrian army would use chemical weapons when they were on the verge of military victory in Ghouta. To the question of cui bono?(who benefits) it was hard to avoid the sense that only the so-called rebels and the enemies of Syria could gain any advantage from this alleged chemical attack—such as bringing in Western air strikes.
It was an ironic time for an American to be in Syria. Arriving on Friday the 13th from Beirut with a group of international activists, including Americans, Canadians, Brits, Irish, Germans, one Swiss and one Dutch, we passed with some tension and delay at the Syrian-Lebanese border. But ultimately we received our visas after some intervention from the authorities in Damascus.
Our hotel, Beit al Wali, is a beautifully restored Ottoman period mansion in the Bab Touma quarter of the Old City. Syrians had invested heavily in the tourist sector before the war in the expectation of attracting badly needed hard currency, but of course these days there are hardly any foreign visitors apart from a small number of well-to-do Lebanese.
Defending Secular Syria
Bab Touma is a traditionally Christian part of town, but there are also many mosques here, in some cases directly neighboring churches of the 12 Christian denominations said to exist in Syria. Orthodox (Greek, Syrian and Catholic Melchite) are the majority, but there are also Roman Catholic, Maronite, Armenian and even evangelical churches. The restaurants in Bab Touma are frequented by mixed crowds of Muslims and Christians, drinking beer or Arak and smoking shisha (water pipes). Liquor stores and bars are commonplace here.
The morning following the missile attack, after a mostly sleepless night, we were led around the neighborhood by our Syrian translator and guide. Abdul-Razzaq, who had worked in the tourist industry for 25 years, was knowledgeable and professional.
Abdul-Razzaq: Wants reforms.
Like many Syrians, Abdul-Razzaq readily acknowledged the need for reforms in the country and is critical of high-level corruption. But he also believes that winning the war is the immediate priority. He tells us “You don’t argue about what color to paint the walls while your house is burning down.” He adds: “This is not a war of Syrians, but an attack by the enemies of Syria.” That was a very common sentiment in Syria, but falls into the category of Syrian voices which are rarely heard in the US.
Our guide seemed to know everyone in the old city. He questioned dozens of people we met on the streets and in the shops on their response to Trump’s missile attack. My Arabic is good enough to understand the questions and answers, so there was no question of mistranslation. Nor was there any sign of coerced response.
Most locals in Bab Touma were buoyed by the recent government recapture of Eastern Ghouta, where the neighboring rebel-held town of Jobar had been the source of daily rockets and mortars launched against this part of the city. We were shown many sites of these attacks on the walls and roads of the area, including the locations where people had been “martyred.” More than a hundred Damascus civilians had been killed by these attacks in recent months – of course little reported in the Western press – and the residents were clearly relieved that their town was now safe.
The American Donkey
Compared to this, Trump’s missiles were a minor annoyance. Nearly everyone ridiculed the attack as a “show” from that American “donkey.” The atmosphere in the city was much more relaxed than it had been when I visited two years ago, reflecting a string of government military advances since then.
Of course, the missile attack was also derided by many war cheerleaders of both parties in Washington as “insufficient.” Israel and rebel supporters inside and outside the country expressed their disappointment. Sadly, the justification for the attack was also given credence by many self-described US progressives. Anyone who doubted the veracity of the supposed chemical attack in Duma, or whose first priority was to oppose illegal attacks on Syria has been smeared viciously.
Pearson Sharp, a reporter for the right-wing libertarian One America News Network and former Trump supporter was accused, in effect, of being a Russian agent by the progressive media for his on-the-scene reporting from Duma; at the same time he was being relentlessly attacked by viewers of his network for being disloyal to Trump.
The evening after the missile attack, hotel Beit al-Wali prepared a festive dinner for us – it was the birthday of Mario, one of the Germans among our group. Present also was the British journalist Vanessa Beeley, who has exposed much of the phony Western propaganda coming out of Syria – and been vilified for it – together with some locals, including the very colorful Syrian comic who goes by the name of “Treka.” Treka grew up in Nigeria among the Syrian expat business community there, sports long dreads and speaks in very colloquial but accented English. He defies all stereotypes about Arabs and Syrians. Treka has posted many videos critical of the MSM narrative abroad, and his latest, deriding the claim of the government chemical attack in Ghouta, is here.
On the Road Back to Damascus
Living with bombs in Bab Touma,Damascus. (Photo: Jeff Klein).
Returning to Damascus on Thursday April 19 after a visit to Aleppo, we were met this time by the roar of jets over the city and the continuous thunder of bombs and artillery. The Syrian army and their Russian ally were attacking the neighborhoods and Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk on the southern outskirts of the city. It was strange to be driving along roads in Damascus less than a kilometer away from the bombing. Few residents of the capital seemed to pay any attention at all, the nonchalant routine of 7 years of war.
Yarmouk had been long held by elements of terrorist groups Daesh (ISIS) and the al-Qaeda affiliated Nusra Front (now known under the name Jabhat Fateh al-Sham). Nearly all the original Palestinians had long gone, becoming refugees for the second time elsewhere in Syria or in Lebanon. Some of them were fighting in Palestinian units alongside the Syrian army.
After the recapture of Eastern Ghouta, this was an effort by the government to clear out the last remaining opposition-held zone near the capital. Reports are that the rebels have agreed to evacuate, though as this is being written the air and artillery attacks are continuing.
If Yarmouk is retaken in its entirety it will represent another major military victory for the Syrian government and a key step toward defeating the remains of the armed insurgency.
In fact, the comprehensive military defeat of the rebels, now overwhelmingly dominated by sectarian religious extremists, remains the principle hope for peace and reconciliation within the country. This was the fervent wish of nearly all the Syrians we spoke with — in the government-held areas to be sure, but this now represents more than 80% of the population.
The task of reconstruction will be immense. As we drove back to Damascus on Thursday we passed mile after mile of devastated landscape just outside the capital in what had shortly before been territory held by the armed insurgents in Eastern Ghouta. As in Aleppo, rebuilding has already begun, but it will take an enormous amount of resources to complete.
By rights, the nations who have intervened to destroy Syria – the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel – should bear the cost of reconstruction, but this this is unlikely to occur. These same countries have not stopped their attacks on Syria, nor are there any signs that the US is planning to give up its illegal occupation of the east of the country. Nevertheless, justice demands a reckoning.
The reckoning should also include Leftists or progressives inside and outside Syria who enthusiastically echo the MSM propaganda war and even clamor for more attacks in the name of a “revolution” that had ceased to be a plausible reality years ago.
Not so far back, those who opposed the Iraq War were smeared as supporters of Saddam Hussein, a charge that honest anti-war activists easily dismissed. Today, defending Syria from foreign aggression and advocating the right of Syrians to choose their own future apparently makes one an “Assad apologist” in some Progressive circles. These same commentators seem to ignore civilian casualties from the US-led aerial destruction of Mosul and Raqqa, while rarely even mentioning the ongoing US and Turkish illegal occupation of Syrian territory.
Syria has not been the proudest moment for the international Left.
Jeff Klein is an anti-war activist who has written and spoken frequently on the Middle East
This whole concept of a war against a secular nation in the Middle East in order to let the fundamentalist extremists take over is not at all new. It was begun by the British back in the twenties with their backing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The idea was to stop any kind of secular, progressive wave from sweeping the area. And also to prevent any kind of Pan Arabism from creating a federation led by those kinds of leaders. The strategy was to keep the area as much as possible in the hands of monarchs since they would be easier to deal with for British Petroleum.
The only leader who came close to this pan Arab progressivism was Nasser, who wiped out the Brotherhood in Egypt. This is why Kennedy backed Nasser in his war against Saudi Arabia in Yemen, reversing the Dulles brothers’ backing of the Saudis, and a CIA attempt to assassinate Nasser. When Kennedy was killed, Nasser went into a depression and ordered his funeral shown four times in one month on national TV.
Good to read this piece on Syrians attempting to return to peace in their lives. The warmongers of the West, however, will not give up until they have to.
A great story about your reconnection to your roots, Joe!
“Like many Syrians, Abdul-Razzaq readily acknowledged the need for reforms in the country and is critical of high-level corruption.”
Here in the exceptional nation I think the same thing every day.
“Like many Americans, I readily acknowledged the need for reforms in this country and I am critical of high-level corruption.”
Therein is the REAL problem in this world!
Thanx, CN. You almost never get to hear the other side of the story in Syria.
let’s not make Assad into somebody “good.” Rather, he’s the current, and likely future, “least bad” option.
let’s also not forget that there was, briefly at least, an actual Arab spring in Syria, unmanipulated by either Gulf states or Islamicists. Then crushed by Assad.
And, while Putin is reacting to nearly 25 years of neo-imperialism, or Cold War 2, started by the Slickster breaking words not to expand NATO eastward, he likely would be a thug of some sort even without that. Don’t forget he’s ex-KGB. Don’t forget his many Litvinenkos; i can hit you with a Polonium-210 pellet.
Oh, please! “….. unmanipulated by either Gulf states or Islamicists….” Sorry, the violent militants were there from the beginning. First deaths were unarmed Syrian police. The US had been nurturing dissent for years, CIA was training and arming “rebels” in Turkey, and Obama immediately implied more support with his “Assad must go” rhetoric.
“Let’s not forget,” indeed, that this backhanded “least bad” nonsense is just velvet hate speech. Put your Litvinenkos with your Skripals and your White Helmets and your Bill Browders and your Alexandra Chalupas.
Le the who hasn’t sinned throw the first stone.
Assad, Good? or Bad? see this clip and then decide. a bit of an eye opener…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byg0uwtb8_o&lc=z13diprikk3nsxoax04ce5mbapbljrtwcd4.1502599788247888&feature=em-comments
Thanks David that was very revealing. Joe
What is your point?
are you referring to my post?
Socratic;
“let’s also not forget that there was, briefly at least, an actual Arab spring in Syria, unmanipulated by either Gulf states or Islamicists. Then crushed by Assad.”
That is a very good re-write of history and since it is repeated over and over, it has become “truth”.
Despite some good arguments, Socrates’ specialty was making bad arguments appear plausible.
He combined vague analogies and logic errors to generate false arguments for obviously false conclusions.
There is nothing Socratic about your statements.
Stop stealing someone else’s name to try and justify yourself.
You’re not fit enuff to lick Socrates’ smelly sandals.
Methinks you should abbreviate your name to “fly”, ‘coz that the best you can be.
Let’s not pretend that Assad is more vicious than Donald Trump would be if he was faced with defending DC from well armed Islamic terrorists on the outskirts of the city. Trump AND Obama would make Assad look like Richard Simmons.
“The task of reconstruction will be immense. … As in Aleppo, rebuilding has already begun, but it will take an enormous amount of resources to complete.”
This week I saw part of an interview on RT with an ICRC official who pointed out that, relative to recent decades, conflicts are increasingly happening in places – like Yemen and Syria – that had a lot of infrastructure before the destruction began, and therefore need much more than the mere end of hostilities to resume something like a normal national life.
Jeff Klein observes that meaningful reconstruction assistance from the wealthy countries that sponsored the madness in Syria is unlikely – surely true, if we excuse his polite fiction of “unlikely” rather than the more accurate “no chance in hell”.
As order gradually returns to Syria, I think the advanced countries outside the U.S. puppet theater need to start coordinating seriously, with one another and with the Syrians, on a recovery strategy.
This isn’t kids stuff: we’re talking about several hundred billion dollars, and there would have to be tough discussions about how economic burdens and rewards would be distributed. Even such a basic thing as freeing Syria from the obscene sanctions regime it labors under will require a broad diplomatic effort against Western and Gulf Arab dead-enders.
It is an error to think this would just be goody-goody charity. Allowing a place like Syria to languish indefinitely in post-war poverty would be giving the U.S. and its gang at least half a victory; the countries who want to build a prosperous, integrated Eurasia resistant to U.S. wrecking – China and Russia foremost – need to see solidarity with Syria as part of the larger program.
Meanwhile, Syria’s own effort to regain all its territory (aside from the Golan, which doesn’t seem to be in the cards for now) will now be shifting from the military to the political, as it mops up rump rebel-held areas around Damascus but confronts the fact of northern and eastern areas that benefit from the direct, on-the-ground protection of the U.S. and Turkey, powers that the Syrian Arab Army can’t – and the Russian military won’t – take on directly.
That remains a daunting task, but I wonder whether there might be more hope for progress than is currently obvious. We’ve all heard about the many historic Western betrayals of the Kurds, so maybe it’s time for the Kurds to turn the tables. Do the Rojava Kurds really want to live as a pitiful, isolated, unrecognized statelet hosting a few thousand U.S. troops, with Turkey always glowering just over the fence? Or might they prefer to negotiate a reasonable autonomy (and oil drilling and pipeline revenue sharing) arrangement with Damascus, rendering the U.S. presence in eastern Syria ridiculous, if not untenable?
Of course, political progress will depend on Turkish participation, and Erdogan’s Sunni chauvinism and neo-Ottoman pretensions doubtless make owning a chunk of Syria through Salafi/FSA proxies appealing to him. But even he may long for a return to pre-war normality, and while he won’t really like any Rojava autonomy, he might prefer limited Kurdish self-government there, with Damascus in overall control – and with the side benefit of frustrating the machinations of the U.S. and Western Europe – to the de facto “terrorist” (as Erdogan calls them) Kurdish independence he confronts now.
Diplomatic, political, and economic lessons learned in a serious, sustained, multinational recovery effort for Syria could then be applied to other victims of the U.S. imperial meat grinder – such as Yemen and Libya – as local conditions, with any luck, eventually improve to where people can think about winning the peace.
Linking warmongering to reconstruction costs requires a government that cares and admits mistakes, which is the opposite of a warmonger government. International organizations must isolate and neutralize warmongers and provide independent aid.
Warmonger states like the US have had their political systems and public information corrupted by money. The problem is that economic power has not been regulated so as to preserve democracy. It has reduced Western democratic institutions to a propaganda show for dictatorships of the rich. Former western democracies like the US must be subjected to conditions that will restore democracy: international organization for containment of their aggressions, economic embargo, denial of membership in international organizations.
This is an inherent problem because the economic power that corrupted the former democracies into warmonger states makes dependents of other states and international organizations. So reconstruction is likely to be done by opposing alliances that contain the warmongers, ensuring a front against western aggression.
I have worked in very many groups, but I never identified myself as a member of any of them, which did not mean I didn’t develop close relations with others in them.
It is always a mistake to identify oneself with the “left’ or the “right”, or with any particular faction. Help the world any way you can, but avoid being labeled. Your freedom depends on this. By being unaligned, you can choose your commitments on a short term, situational basis, and be free to work with all kinds of people whatever labels they may sport, as long as they meet your criterion of good and useful for all. Citizen of the world is OK, as long as you don’t make it a badge or a label.
Good to hear from someone on the scene in Damascus. Very balanced reporting.
I agree, it was refreshing.
The progressive left is being driven by a hatred of all things Putin. Let’s not kid ourselves these phony leftist are very misled with the Pussy Riot, and supposed Russian Gay Bashing, that these ill informed liberals, if that’s what they call themselves, are driving us to war with the world’s other largest nuclear power, and I ask you for what? These limousine liberals have been strung along by a vicious propaganda campaign demonizing Putin and his Russian people. In fact Gays in Russia in many ways have it better than their counterparts in America.
Read this….
http://static.prisonplanet.com/p/images/february2014/white_paper.pdf
Pretty lame bombing attack when the enemy stands back in order for you to bomb them… I mean, who does that?
God bless the Syrian people. Okay I’m done.
https://journal-neo.org/2018/04/27/the-simple-truth-of-vladimir-putin-s-diabolical-plan/
Also refreshing. Good write-up by Phil Butler.
Quite. Thanks, Joe. But look who’s misleading them. Remember when Code Pink was lionizing Pussy Riot, and jumped on the gay bandwagon to smear the Sochi Olympics? This was a response, I believe, to Lavrov and Putin’s deft handling of Syria’s chemical weapons, thus averting a 2013 bombing by Obama. WOW, that really spoiled the regime-changers’ day! And Code Pink had come under the spell of the Deep State’s Syrian-American clients.
These erstwhile “thought leaders” are more dangerous than honest adversaries. Just look at Amy Goodman now! Treachery and treason.
Yes whether it be bribe money or blackmail that captures the souls of the American liberal left is a matter of deep concern. Regardless we who search for the truth must be critical thinkers on every news item.
Thanks for your input. Joe
Joe, Apart from the immense degree of physical destruction in Iraq, Libya, Syria which will take many decades to repair, the damage done to the secular cultures of these countries, Iraq and Syria will be hard to repair. Along with The West, behind all this carnage is Saudi Arabia and its Wahabi Fundamentalism, with all these Terrorists organizations/groups affiliated with it let loose in Syria. This is what these limousine liberals are supporting.
Actually, it started with Afghanistan in 1978-79, when U.S started arming the Taliban against a left progressive, secular government there that wanted to be friends with Soviet Union. Then after 1991 it was Yugoslavia. And now after 2001, this is going on nonstop.
Another casualty are the people here at home in U.S. With this 24/7 lies and other garbage being fed to them about Russia and evil Putin in just about all Media, and going on for a long tome now, it has messed up the minds of much of the population. I can see the damage done in my home. My wife thinks that I am reading all these fake articles on CN and does not want me to do it any more. Our liberal social circle friends are the same. Just like in our home, all their information comes from CNN, MSNBC, PBS News hour and documentaries.
Damascus is more than two thousand years old city, and still has a very secular society. But this French President was here and is working on some type of schemes to intervene in Syria. It seems like that he still thinks in terms of those Colonial days. Let us hope that good sense will prevail and that they would not destroy this old city, its secular culture and its people.
I used to email family members copies of articles from CN, ICN, CP, etc. They would never read them. Would never even acknowledge receiving them. I guess they feared being exposed to dangerous infectious ideas. Normally, people apply logic and facts to their everyday decision making, such as which products to buy, what movies to see, what bank accounts to open or what investments to make. None of that applies to questions of religion or politics. You walk into the arena totally brainwashed and will do everything within your power to avoid having to change your mind because, since everything in this universe is connected to everything else, the necessary adjustments to your world view become totally unpredictable and people don’t want the aggravation. They’d rather wallow in ignorance and error than have to constantly adjust to the world in real time. Amirite?
Maybe they are smarter than we are. They can see how fucked up the Red Pill makes us, condemned to perpetual cognitive dissonance, swearing at the TV and radio, avoided by neighbors who fear our latest rant, being the lone dissenting voice in every conversation. The stress is wearing. They’d rather be comfortable in the herd.
Maybe they’re just smarter than we are, and have better self-preservation instincts. They don’t want 24/7 cognitive dissonance. Taking the Red Pill is very stressful. :)
I agree wholeheartedly, but I would add that American ignorance of Russian history is virtually total. The Crimea, for example, was a part of Imperial Russia, was the scene of battles against the Nazis in World War Two, and rightfully belongs to Russia now. The attacks by the West on Russia have a long history, going back to Napoleon’s invasion in 1812. Few Americans today know that it was the Soviet Union, with 27 million deaths of civilians and military, that destroyed Nazi Germany. Stupidus Americanus.
You obviously have not watched enough Hollywood movies.
They claim it was the Yanks that won WWII in the European theatre (and elsewhere for that matter).
And the Yanks believe it.
Dave I hear you concerning our finding likeminded people who see the world events the way you and I do. Although surprisingly I sense those around me are coming about. Our one daughter who is 46 with 3 teenage kids has come over to my camp. A couple others I know through frustration of this constant bashing of Russia, and continually at war in several places seems to be taking its effect on those I know. Are my loved ones and friends completely in my corner? No, but I see them coming a long way to their beginning to see the light.
Dave I’ve had a heck of a month starting on March 26th when out of the blue I was united with my biological family. I was adopted 68 years ago by my parents who were the two best parents ever. Both my parents have been gone for between 14 and 20 years, and my mother who raised me always wanted me to find my biological family. Well that’s happened. I went from being an Only Child to becoming a Middle Child. I have 2 sisters, and 3 brothers, and the 1 brother passed away last year.
I also am reunited with my two daughters from a previous marriage. Recently I got to hold our newest baby who is only 4 months old, and upon my daughter handing over the baby to me the baby let out a loud laugh when being received into my grandfatherly arms… smart baby girl, and her mother, my daughter, said that was the first time the baby laughed out loud.
So you will need to excuse me, because suddenly my world is at least for now a rather happy one.
The tough part is the MSM propaganda machine is immensely large, and with that immensely large mega-phone the largest part of our population is fooled into believing anything this monster deceiver expounds. The only thing I see happening of late, is people are growing weary of the childish nick picking and the forever investigations. Americans are tired of war, so let’s hope that means Americans will take to the streets in protest. Then with that I would recommend you don’t get your hopes up Dave. Joe
Joe,
Isn’t the White Helmets’ sloppy staging of the “gas attack” in Douma a real breakthrough moment? Can we “Red Pill” our half-woke relations with the revelation that White Helmets are a terrorist affiliated, US/UK sponsored, regime-change PR operation?
The hysterical effort to discredit journalists like premier researcher Vanessa Beeley and newcomer Pearson Sharp just shows how desperate the establishment is to maintain their narrative. Conclusion: WE ARE ON TARGET !!!
The White Helmets psy-op is at the nexus of the globalist war machine and the lying media. The Deep State anxiety is that the naked Empire aggression will unravel if the White Helmets fraud is exposed.
The war is being most fought in the distribution of propaganda up against the struggling to be heard truth tellers. Yes b the White Helmets are a psy-op unit created and controlled by the British. I don’t care how many Oscars these false flag providers win, they are still despicable by any human beings standards of all that’s right and decent. One can only hope the screen will be pulled back far enough so as we all may see what’s behind the curtain. Thanks for your input b. Joe
Gratifying to hear of your blessings and grandfatherly ways Joe. Very fitting you elicited your granddaughter’s first LOL!
Thanks Gregory, you are always a refreshing voice in the wilderness… I got to use the word ‘refreshing’ once again, but I really mean it. Thanks Gregory. Joe
Yes, Joe, it’s a propaganda war, and MSM are the Deep State’s heavy guns.
People have tweeted, “Why is the US still funding the White Helmets?” And it is, through the State Dept., via USAID.
The question is, why aren’t we demanding our gov’t. STOP Funding the White Helmets ?!?
Messages can be left 24/7 with Senators and Reps.
For both Houses, phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121
I’ll call that number. Thanks b. Joe
Aha! I thought you were preoccupied with other matters lately, though not my place to pry. Well, congratulations! It’s not often one uncovers an entire family tree one was oblivious to for most of one’s life. Now you can have new adventures discovering what each of your newfound siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins and other relatives have done in this world. Maybe you will even discover some who think as you do!
That is truly cool, Joe.
All my unanswered questions are now being answered. Like, I’m really Italian. My grandmother who was from Italy drove a car, insisted on speaking English, and she made Moonshine during the Prohibition. Another great grandmother was orphaned in Naples Italy coming from Spain. We have 6% Middle East genes, and I suspect the grandmother from Spain may have been that link. No matter, I have now many relatives within and outside my gene pool to love, and that’s what I’m going to do…. love them all. Thanks Realist you are a priceless gem among the many rare jewels we find on this comment board. Joe
Joe,
I very well understand your happiness of being united with all your family members; I grew up during 1940’s and 50’s in a large joint family in the village. Good for you; there is nothing like extended family and sharing. I am always looking forward to visits of friends or relatives. Or else I go to the bars on the beach here, have a beer or two and do some sharing there.
On this MSM propaganda machine which goes on 24/7, there is another very unhealthy side effect. At our age, we do not have much time left. I ask my wife why is she wasting all this time watching all this nonsense – lies, disinformation, sometimes utter garbage – on CNN, MSNBC, and PBS when it is not good for your health; and it is better that you go for a walk on the beach. I think that people are addicted to this propaganda on TV, demonizing Russia, and Putin and putting Trump in there with that too. The good news is that my wife has cut down on it, at least when I am around the house.
Dave you and I have been wrestling with this subject of people around us being captured by the MSM big lie machine for so long now, that we have grown to comfort each other over this predicament of us having no allies for with to find refuge with our opinions. It’s rather simple Dave considering we citizens are all reading fake news. Yes, Dave even you and I could be said to be under the influence of the hidden hand. Are we? Not necessarily, but that’s the way our culture has been misdirected over these hard to figure out times. No one believes the other one, because our news is correct, while the other guys isn’t. This too can be blamed on the big propaganda masters, and their corrupt ways of twisting and turning every news item there is until confusion sets in to reap the rewards for the Oz behind the curtain.
Just keep being ourselves Dave, and let the rest fall where it may. Also call that number that b left us to contact the Capitol switchboard 202-224-3121, because that’s where our opinion should be heard. Joe