If the free world fails in our efforts to support Ukraine’s self-defense & enforce this agreement signed by the United States, future prospects for peace in the world will be significantly diminished
Thanks for reminding us of the Budapest Accords. We saw the liberation of Eastern Europe countries 1992=94 coming years earlier when working with the Russians on joint environmental science projects...internal signs that the Wall would come down, and it did. Yet chronically short-term memory seems to be common to nations and people. History really matters and has to be continually remembered, restated, honored and enlarged with truth, not lies.
Thank you Thom for this very pertinent information . No wonder Putins lie about Ukraine attacking Russia first has been put forth .
Vladimir Putin is a treacherously manipulative individual, who appears to have no conscience at all .
No wonder he and trump have been so easily familiar .
Im disappointed that no action was taken in 2014 by President Obama. It may have been different if the line was drawn then . So for all Russias posturing as victim ...everyone knows otherwise.
As far as authoritarian moves go , it applies across the board even with the budding authoritarian Trump,
I share your disappointment with Obama. But truthfully, and I don't say this lightly, but being politically active since theJFK v Nixon campaign of 1960. I have come to the disturbing opinion that the Democratic candidate/President is managed/advised by a cabal of oligarchs who have trusted personnel appointed to the various cabinets and as advisors. Thus we have real enemies of the people like Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner Rahm Emanuel, Robert Rubin.
Take Clinton, besides being a horn dog, he had no experience in governing, no interest or knowledge in economic, financial or world affairs. As governor of Arkansas he had the state police running errands, including women, and I totally believe the Jennifer Flowers story, because of Monica Lewinsky. The man sat behind the Resolute desk, day in and day out with nothing to do except sign papers brought to him by the oligarch henchmen that staffed the White House, and thus easy prey to be ensnared in a honey trap, which the oligarchs then used via their Republican toadies, to have him sign the laws that they wanted passed, such as the Telecommunications act which abolished the fairness doctrine and permitted monopolization of telecomunications, NAFTA and a revised GAAT, which gave manufacturers incentive to move their companies to Mexico, thus creating the rust belt, which turned out to be swing states, The Defense of Marriage Act, the Omnibus Crime Bill, which was designed to create legal slaves(13th Amendment) the majority of which were American Descendants of Slaves (ADOS), which kicked into overdrive the Nixonian War on Drugs, which was targeted to ADOS and "Hippies".
The coup de grace, was revoking Glass Steagall, that's when the financial sector fell in love with Clinton. You might not recall, but I do, the excessive number of times that Clinton praised international financial institutions. It was they, who were the major donors and probably why he was reelected. Most certainly they were his main supporters of his Clinton Global Initiative. When he left office, he was broke but initiative changed all of that. One of Clinton's initiative was to convince clothing manufacturers, in particular shoes, to off shore to Haiti, because the labor was cheap, and cheap labor most certainly led to the economic and political problems that has plagued Haiti ever since.
Obama was a tool of the Oligarchs as well, bailing out the banks and giving a virtual finger to those entrapped by Adjustable Rate Mortgages via sub prime loans, most of whom are poor whites, ADOS and Hispanics. and of course sitting back and letting Putin take the Crimea without even a whimper.
Obama's "When they go low, we go high" ceded the political battleground to the Republicans, whose only tactic is to go low. Despite James Carville's, err Clinton's, "it's the economy stupid"
Clinton was re elected because Newt Gingrich, who led the charge to impeach Clinton, and Bob Dole and Jack Kemp were mouth breathing milquetoasts. Dole was basically a nice guy. The oligarchs learned and began funding more strident candidates who would gladly lower their taxes and deregulate industries. Especially financial.
It is because I know all of this,that I don't trust the Democratic party, and bemoan the fact that I have no choice but to vote Democratic, because the Republican party is even worse when it comes to granting favors and privilege to the oligarchs, and on the wrong side of the culture war.
And voting independent is not an option, except at the local and state level, at the national level an independent vote, by me, is a vote for the Republican's culture war.
I remember there was no joy in our (relatively informed) house when Obama announced "Goldman Sachs Geithner" and "Goldman Sachs Summers." But I'd forgotten about "Goldman Sachs Rubin." I've often wondered whether Obama just wimped out under pressure that the first black guy had to be way to the right to avoid being portrayed as "Black Che'," (well, that didn't work), or whether he internalized cooption by the Harvard Club. It is still sad to contemplate that he was just a sellout. He could hardly have been demonized more if he had put on the red bere't and let 'er rip!
Obama is a genuinely nice guy, but he was out of his element in D.C.. He had not cultivated any progressive experts in governing, much less finance, regulation and economics, so he was at the mercy of the oligarchs, who quickly stepped in, Larry Summers leading the charge, to take over the administration,using Obama as a sock puppet. Same thing with Clinton and I fear with Biden. Biden is also a genuine nice guy, but was known in the Senate as the Senator from Wall Street, he has been around long enough to know who the real power players are, to know what they can do the country and what is good for him.
Senators are ill prepared to govern. Governors have the skills and knowledge it takes to govern (even if the results are deleterious), Senators skill set and experience is in amelioration, compromise, bipartisanship, when what is needed is the heavy hand of governing. So far, at least since FDR, the only governing had been in the Republican party.
Napoleon said that every soldier carries a field marshall's baton in his knapsack, so it is with Senators, most of them have grand designs on becoming president, though they lack the skill set.
Unfortunately the ones with the skill set are neo fascist, bigots and racists like DeSantis. Trump was out of his league. He thought the Presidency was like his Trump tower penthouse, staffed with yes men who would bring him a Diet Coke when he rang the bell, and bend over so he could kick them in the butt. And that is the way he ran the office, he staffed it with sniveling ass kissers, who knew how to play him to achieve their goals, like that Jewish white nationalist Steven Miller, his Secret Service, his entire staff.
America’s commitments to its treaties hasn’t changed one iota since we made the first treaty with the Native Americans. We sign them, then forget them.
Excellent analysis of Budepest memorandum and its importance in maintaining a free and independent Ukraine 🇺🇦 .
Every member of Congress should have to read this article and the details of the memorandum, especially the radical insurrectionists who are clamoring to cut off any type of aid to Ukraine 🇺🇦 in the future. It would be well worth the Democratic leadership to be more acquainted with this article 👍 in order to combat the seditious activities under the current clown 🤡 show in the House
Thom -- I'm not so good with computers. I simply googled " F.W de Klerk.explains why SA rid itself of its nuclear weapons". He says they were nevsr to be used, tbey were "merely a deterrent".
Too: as with Ukraine, former Soviet republics Kazakstan and Belarus also had nukes, which were shipped.back to Mother Russia, with.our support.
F.W. DeKlerk, in this 2013 op-ed, stated that “South Africa produced six fairly simple Hiroshima-type atom bombs”, and that “In 1989, as president, I made the decision to dismantle South Africa’s atom bombs.”
Also, from a 1994 statement by the IAEA: “A new dimension was added in March 1993, when President de Klerk declared that South Africa had previously developed a limited nuclear capability which had been dismantled and destroyed before South Africa acceded to the NPT. The Agency was invited to examine that South Africa's nuclear weapons programme had been terminated and that all the nuclear material used in it had been placed under safeguards.”
Yeah, my head was spinning on this a bit. Wikipedia says: "Iraq actively researched and later employed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) from 1962 to 1991, when it destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile and halted its biological and nuclear weapon programs as required by the United Nations Security Council." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction Nuke "program" whole different thing from arsenal of ICBM's.
A little story about wikipedia. Anyone can edit wikipedia, it is an all volunteer staff, including review committees. However edits must meet the standards of policy and guidance, which includes statements being referenced by reliable secondary sources. Virtually every page is watched by one or more editors, and they are notified of any change.
Page watchers are those with an emotional or professorial investment in the subject.
For instance I tried to edit pages on Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, both were guilty of treason. Nixon interfered in the Vietnam war by telling President Thieu not to sign the Paris Accord, as he would give him a better deal when he was elected. That is treason.
Reagan struck a deal with the Ayaollah Khomeini, offering him a deal to supply weapons of war, if he held the hostages until after the election., No sooner than Reagan took the oath, thatKhomini released the hostages. More treason. On top of which Congress refused to fund the weapons transfer so Reagan used the CIA to import cocaine, which was sold mainly at first in California, in the black community, to buy weapons for Iran. There is a TV series called Snowfall, which is ending this week, about the sordid affair.
Basically Cocaine would fly into Nicarauga, the CIA would fly small arms to the Contras, by contract pilots, pick up he cocainef, fly it to the states, sell it to drug pushers, use that money to buy aircraft and weapons, via Israel, delivered to Iran for use in the war against Saddam, which was using American supplied weapons.
Both of these edits were reverted by right wing page watchers, and if you revert a revert, then the page watcher accuses you of a revert war, and escalates to a committee. At that point is over, because most often, page watchers like that have formed relationships with review committees, and are trusted
The articles on Donald Trump are interesting and informative if you read the tab, talk on the left side of the page.
The default from google or wikipedia is to the article, virtually no one reads the talk page,
but the talk page is where the interesting stuff happens. It is where discussions about the article and reverts happen, it gets emotionally charged
here are the tabs you see on an article
Article talk Read View Source View History (of edits) tools
History will show you edits and by whom, talk will show you discussions about edits including reverts.
There was a dude, obviously a descendant from a puritan, who zealously guarded any article about "Pilgrims", Puritans, He would revert any edit that he felt showed the so called Pilgrims in an unfavorable light, including the reason they stopped in Massachusetts bay (to replace the beer which had been depleted. The only reliable potable liquid in the 16th century was mead, wine or beer, the alcohol killed the bacteria, but this dude felt like drinking beer was a sin, me thinks he is religiously uptight.
I am pretty sure that the Bush, Iraq war and Saddam articles are watched over by Republicans, who zealously monitor the pages to ensure that they conform to conservative heterodoxy.
If you want to see behind the curtain. Go to the talk page on Donald Trump and notice that it is "protected" (protected by Trump humpers of course)
Thank you! I will be saving this education about how Wikipedia works. Fortunately, I hardly ever go there on any subjects obviously "sensitive," but your anecdote about the "pure Puritans" watchdog is a hilarious/sad classic. Meanwhile, I am satisfactorily challenged by the Hartmann contributors.
Thanks Thom; now I understand why the U.S. and U.K. are so involved in this conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Future generations will see Putin, not as the restorer of Russian greatness, but as a madman. And Trump & the GOP as traitors for siding with him.
WE hope, I worry that SCOTUS will rule favorably for Moore in Moore v Harper, which will legitimize the independent legislature theory. SCOTUS has heard the case, but has not issued a ruling, it is sitting on the ruling until the 2024 election is well underway. It will rule in favor of Moore, hence the independent legislature, because if had not, they would have refused to hear it (shadow document). Any appeal sent to SCOTUS, if heard by SCOTUS will be ruled in favor of the plaintiff, just like Dobbs
With legislatures able to choose their own electors and ignore the popular vote, SCOTUS has rung the death knell for democracy. The Blue states control only 188 electoral votes, the rest are in red states or swing states, that are controlled by Republican legislatures, with Democratic governors.
And governors have no veto power over legislatures choosing their own electors and ignoring the popular vote. In fact the constitution does not provide relief either, not does it specify how electors are selected.
Very complicated, but your analysis makes sense. Let's hope something will happen before 2024 that will interfere with the GOP's schemes; at least, that's what I'll be praying for.
We should not lose sight of China. Xi Jinping, who looks more like some mild backroom accountant wearing a visor, is a technical (detailed) totalitarian who has digital mechanisms to control populations beyond the technical means of any totalitarians before. And he means to carry out total control, regardless. Make no mistake, mild-looking Xi is a predator.
I do not doubt for a second that Xi will hesitate to go full in to take Taiwan. That may be his takeaway from Ukraine. Like any predator, similar to a boxer at the start of a fight, Xi is simply bouncing around until he thinks he has his opening figured out. And it will not just be a security loss, as in chips made in Taiwan. It will mean the subjugation of an independent country. This will also mean a loss of information independence we have not seen here yet, despite some alarms and genuine message control, propaganda and censorship.
Here, I decided to look up Xi Jinping Thought and the app for it (from Alibaba). I hadn’t heard anything recently and sure enough most of the articles I found on Google were from 2019, a couple in 2021 and 2022. Other than that, nada to speak of. This is the “educational” application designed to be used to train people in Xi’s thoughts, with quizzes and pressure to sign up for the app and to make regular good scores on tests.
The seemingly innocent and fun TikTok is a Trojan horse. I still remember near 24-hours days for almost a week in early 2002 when, at a company I was working for in IT, was hit by malware carried via an infected Napster. One of the secretaries had installed Napster on her machine so she could enjoy music (harmless, surely) on earphones while typing. It wiped out our servers. We had backups, good ones, but couldn’t trust the machines, so, we had to overnight server machines and routers (we were our own ISP) and reconfigure them with replacement database software, server software and then copy in the backup. The IP addresses in the logs on the infected machines indicated China. It was not the first time Chinese viruses had wiped out servers for ISPs I was using, but the earlier ones had been ISPs for my own personal website. They were knocked out of business (1997-2001).
We are already seeing China controlling content on social media in China but maybe less seen elsewhere. And, the ideological control is addressed in this October 2022 article: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/terminology-10202022103107.html - (Note: check the side links and the app links in the article).
"We must ... root out any elements that would harm the party’s advanced nature and purity and any viruses that would erode its health," Xi warned.
He also once more asserted the CCP's direct control over the administrations of Hong Kong and Macau, as well as claiming "unshakable commitment" to the annexation of democratic Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China, and which, at the time of the CCP's founding, was ruled by Japan.
"No one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Xi said.
Anyway, this is faaarrrr longer than I intended, my apologies. Maybe you have more recent information on the app or maybe on why we aren’t seeing much about it.
The Taiwan Semi Conductor Manufacturing (TSDM) is the world's premier manufacturer of advanced semi conductors, they outpaced Intel who was satisfied sitting on it's profitable monopoly which it enjoyed in ConUS, and which delighted the Board of Directors and shareholders whose only concern is a positive return on investment.
China wants, badly, TSDM, however I've read that TSDM has plans to blow up the factory if China invades, that is probably the biggest deterrent ,China has against invading. As it stands they benefit from TSDM, and are hesitant to kill the golden goose.
Uh, I hate to bust your bubbles but, those nukes never went anywhere. Ukraine was a highly corrupt state and was still joined at the hip with Russia through its oligarchs. I doubt that those missiles ever left Ukraine and even if they did go to Russia, the firing infrastructure was left in place and maintained. Ukraine also happens to be quite rich in uranium as a natural resource. Ha! So, here's how this really went down, Clinton and the U.K. knew the nukes would stay and Russia would have control of them. Russia must have some serious 'compromat' on both countries - I never thought Clinton stopped at serially raping young women.... We forget that Ukraine was governed by the most corrupt, Putin puppets right up until Zelensky got elected. Putin just wants his nukes and his uranium back. Why all this over Ukraine? Trump is all up in it, too. Don't you think that Trump was puppeted by Putin, as well? Trump tipped off Putin that we were sending special forces into Yemen. The Yemenis were back by Russia and our guys went into a slaughter. A Navy Seal was killed. Compromat, again.
That makes no sense. Totally made up. I've never seen anything anywhere of this particular fabulation. You can get an idea of Putin's concerns by reading his very own authored, near 7,000 word article on the Kremlin's very own website, English translation page, titled
"Article by Vladimir Putin 'On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians'.” Dated July 12, 2021 - 17:00 – seven months before the invasion of 24 Feb 2022.
I copied all into Word and used Word to count the words from the start of the title to the end (the last word in the article) and did a text search for "NATO." Then a little simple arithmetic. Here is what I got.
Length (headline and text): 6,901 words - 42,899 characters
Length of paragraph with “NATO” statement: 94 words – 635 characters
Distance down the document: starts after 6,047 words – 37,744 characters
Counting number of words: 94/6,901 = 0.01362 == 1.36% (percent of content about NATO concerns) rounding to 1.4%
Counting number of words: 6047/6901 = 0.8762 == starts 87.6% of the way down the page – rounding to 88%
……….……….……….……….……….……….……….……(.).……….
The 100 dots represent 100% of the article length. The dot at the 88th position, in parentheses, represents the paragraph with “NATO” listed (two times).
Putin waits until almost the end of his speech to bring up NATO and when he does bring up NATO it is a tiny 1.4% of the whole. The other 98.6% is denying Ukraine’s right to exist as an independent nation or that it has a language. This is a clear indication of Putin’s real stated reasons in July 2021 for his invasion of 7 months later.
And, in the language of the paragraph (the 1.4% of the whole) his “concern” he writes, is for Ukraine being dominated by Nazis and controlled by NATO. So, he is rescuing “the Ukraine” area. Note, he comes at the NATO concerns from an oblique angle. Not once does Putin state this specifically as a threat to Russia or of NATO pushing or crowding Russia.
Uh, do you really think Putin believes that Nazis are trying to take over Ukraine? Putin is a very smart sociopath; he knows there's no Nazis, at least none with any power. Just like Trump spins his constituency up all out of control with his conspiracy theories. That's just the subterfuge he uses to convince his citizens.... It's all smoke and mirrors. I think I am right; maybe not completely right on all the players but, I know high-level scientists (very personally) who confided in me.... May sound a bit cloak and dagger but, once they retire and are out of the game, they tend to at least agree silently with my suppositions.
If Ukraine had nuclear weapons they would have presented Russia with an ultimatum in 2014. If your hypothesis was correct, Russia wouldn't have invaded Ukraine in 2014.
Yup. And there are Nazis in our military too. I've written this before but, when I was in High school I did a paper on subversive organizations - Cicero, IL Neo-Nazis (of Blues Brothers fame) and the KKK. So I convinced my Dad to take me to the Nazi headquarters and ... we joined to get 'intel.' - I was a real pisser as a kid. Got their 'White Power' newspaper, too. I even had a tape recorder in my purse. So, it's sad, actually. These guys were all Vietnam Vets who wore their US military medals on their Nazi uniforms, carried their Colt - US Army issued .45's.... The head Nazi had a Purple Heart from Vietnam. The headquarters looked just like an Am. Legion hall except the flags were Nazi flags and not U.S. They had Confederate flags, too. Huge bar that ran the length of the place and they were drinking at 10:00 on a Saturday. So much PTSD, paranoia, hated everyone, probably alcoholic. FBI visited my house months later, wondering why I was getting the 'White Power' newspaper. My Mom told them about my research. They just shook their heads and left. I got an A+ on my paper and used that research in college, law school too.
Those were not US Army issued Colt 45's. Weapons are picked up every day from a secure storage facility,usually you leave your ID card in exchange, and turned back in at the end of your training or function.
You certainly don't take them with you when you are discharged. On the other hand weapons are frequently stolen, but the government has the serial numbers of those that are missing.
The 1911 Colt 45 is not hard to come by, you can purchase it at a gun ship or even a pawn shop, provided the shop has a dealers license.
Not all vets are Neo NAZI's, though racism and right wing extremism runs deep in the military.
Right wing ideology runs so deep in the military today, that I don't trust them anymore, especially in special ops units. Spec ops really went right wing with Donald Rumsfeld, he used them to overthrow the Taliban, and wage war against "terror", to fully utilize them he elevated them and made sure that they had all of the equipment and training that their hearts desired. I think the SEAs are the very worst of the lot, Eric Prince the founder of Blackwater now Xi was a SEAL.
FYI I am a retired Regular Officer, whatis known in the service as a Mustang, meaning former enlisted, who came up through the ranks and got a commission. Graduated in the top 7% of Officer Training and was offered a commission as a Regular officer, otherwise the 93% of my class were commissioned as Reserve officers. Reserve officers serve on active duty, they just have a different career and promotion path, and unlike Reserve Oficers are forever on the rolls, but as retired, still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, as as retired Lt General Michael Flynn, and I can only surmise that it is fear and corruption that he hasn't been recalled and court martialed for, among other things, treason.
My cousin who was a Marine Vet came to stay with us when he was discharged from 'Nam (I think it was '68 - he went early) and brought his guns with him. I don't think the military was very careful with them. He came to stay with us and used his service revolver to make my brother and I play Russian roulette. I remember that gun like it was yesterday. Anyhow, I did not say that all vets were Nazis, the Neo-Nazis that I met were, tho. Anyhow, I agree with you on Eric Prince and SEALS.
Good reminder of the Budapest Memorandum, but Ukraine was not the only former Soviet republic to give up nuclear weapons on its territory. Belarus and Kazakhstan also ended up possessing Soviet weapons after the USSR broke up, and like Ukraine, they also turned them over to Russia. The Russian military had the launch codes and operational command & control of these weapons, so it’s unlikely that Ukraine, Belarus, or Kazakhstan could have actually launched or retargeted them.
South Africa is another country that relinquished nuclear weapons in its possession, having built six devices before dismantling their program in anticipation of transitioning from apartheid to democracy.
They kept The Budapest Memorandum simple, but enter a psychopath like Putin and it's out the window.
People truly need to understand there is no why. There is no logical way to deal with Putin's mental condition. We are doing the right thing by sticking together, building-up NATO, and squeezing the Russians with sanctions.
People that think we ever will be or ever were secure concerning nuclear weapons are delusional---they don't know the statistics. People who expect the Ukrainians to negotiate with or capitulate to the psychopath next door have lost their moral compass. Those decisions are for the Ukrainians to work out. Asking them to save the rest of the world from annihilation is adding insult to injury.
Freedom and sovereignty for Ukraine and all nations!
It is scary to contemplate history repeating itself in this context. The model looks a lot like pre-WWII, with a broad isolationist sentiment in the US population, and a lot of out-and-out admirers of a foreign tyrant thriving on demonization of The Usual Scapegoats. (T.Carlson fawning over Orban rings too much of a bell, not to mention Putin.) The movie "Darkest Hour" was the last one I saw in a theater, very good; portraying Churchill's pleading for more support from Roosevelt, sympathetic but politically stymied domestically. The scary thing is, what did it take, long after Hitler invaded Poland (analagous to the time frame from Crimea to now) for America to suddenly realize, wow, this is a "world" war? Only now, anything that happens will make Pearl Harbor look like a mosquito bite.
I do not see how your cousin could have gotten hold of government issue firearms.. Being discharged early, means he was separated under Other than Honorable conditions, or discharged because of a physical disability. in that case he certainly would not have been able to lay his mitts on weapons. They are kept under lock and key
As team leader of a spec ops unit, I was responsible for safeguarding all equipment from rifles and pistols to parachutes, radios, ammo and smoke grenades. Ammo and smoke grenades were kept in an concrete ammo bunker. The military doesn't play around with that stuff. If something is stolen, it is ripped off in the supply chain, and that results in a massive searchand investigation. All weapons have serial numbers and they are routinely checked when they change hands.
There has recently been thefts at Camp Pendleton, but they happened in transport. Highly unusual.
Given that you were young and impressionable, you cousin obviously spun a tall tale.
BTW I served in Vietnam from 67-68, have an interesting war story about the night of the tet offensive. I was living in a Vietnamese sergeants house in Ap Chien Luoc khom nam, (Strategic Hamlet roof or number 5). I already had 9 years service when I was stationed in Nam.
By the way Vietnam is not what they call their country. When I was there, the locals called it Nam Viet or South Viet), the north was Bach Viet (North Viet).
Marines and infantry didn't carry service revolvers. any who carried a side arm, carried the 1911 Colt. 45 semi automatic pistol.
Thanks for reminding us of the Budapest Accords. We saw the liberation of Eastern Europe countries 1992=94 coming years earlier when working with the Russians on joint environmental science projects...internal signs that the Wall would come down, and it did. Yet chronically short-term memory seems to be common to nations and people. History really matters and has to be continually remembered, restated, honored and enlarged with truth, not lies.
Thank you Thom for this very pertinent information . No wonder Putins lie about Ukraine attacking Russia first has been put forth .
Vladimir Putin is a treacherously manipulative individual, who appears to have no conscience at all .
No wonder he and trump have been so easily familiar .
Im disappointed that no action was taken in 2014 by President Obama. It may have been different if the line was drawn then . So for all Russias posturing as victim ...everyone knows otherwise.
As far as authoritarian moves go , it applies across the board even with the budding authoritarian Trump,
He too is a victim. Allegedly.
I share your disappointment with Obama. But truthfully, and I don't say this lightly, but being politically active since theJFK v Nixon campaign of 1960. I have come to the disturbing opinion that the Democratic candidate/President is managed/advised by a cabal of oligarchs who have trusted personnel appointed to the various cabinets and as advisors. Thus we have real enemies of the people like Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner Rahm Emanuel, Robert Rubin.
Take Clinton, besides being a horn dog, he had no experience in governing, no interest or knowledge in economic, financial or world affairs. As governor of Arkansas he had the state police running errands, including women, and I totally believe the Jennifer Flowers story, because of Monica Lewinsky. The man sat behind the Resolute desk, day in and day out with nothing to do except sign papers brought to him by the oligarch henchmen that staffed the White House, and thus easy prey to be ensnared in a honey trap, which the oligarchs then used via their Republican toadies, to have him sign the laws that they wanted passed, such as the Telecommunications act which abolished the fairness doctrine and permitted monopolization of telecomunications, NAFTA and a revised GAAT, which gave manufacturers incentive to move their companies to Mexico, thus creating the rust belt, which turned out to be swing states, The Defense of Marriage Act, the Omnibus Crime Bill, which was designed to create legal slaves(13th Amendment) the majority of which were American Descendants of Slaves (ADOS), which kicked into overdrive the Nixonian War on Drugs, which was targeted to ADOS and "Hippies".
The coup de grace, was revoking Glass Steagall, that's when the financial sector fell in love with Clinton. You might not recall, but I do, the excessive number of times that Clinton praised international financial institutions. It was they, who were the major donors and probably why he was reelected. Most certainly they were his main supporters of his Clinton Global Initiative. When he left office, he was broke but initiative changed all of that. One of Clinton's initiative was to convince clothing manufacturers, in particular shoes, to off shore to Haiti, because the labor was cheap, and cheap labor most certainly led to the economic and political problems that has plagued Haiti ever since.
Obama was a tool of the Oligarchs as well, bailing out the banks and giving a virtual finger to those entrapped by Adjustable Rate Mortgages via sub prime loans, most of whom are poor whites, ADOS and Hispanics. and of course sitting back and letting Putin take the Crimea without even a whimper.
Obama's "When they go low, we go high" ceded the political battleground to the Republicans, whose only tactic is to go low. Despite James Carville's, err Clinton's, "it's the economy stupid"
Clinton was re elected because Newt Gingrich, who led the charge to impeach Clinton, and Bob Dole and Jack Kemp were mouth breathing milquetoasts. Dole was basically a nice guy. The oligarchs learned and began funding more strident candidates who would gladly lower their taxes and deregulate industries. Especially financial.
It is because I know all of this,that I don't trust the Democratic party, and bemoan the fact that I have no choice but to vote Democratic, because the Republican party is even worse when it comes to granting favors and privilege to the oligarchs, and on the wrong side of the culture war.
And voting independent is not an option, except at the local and state level, at the national level an independent vote, by me, is a vote for the Republican's culture war.
I remember there was no joy in our (relatively informed) house when Obama announced "Goldman Sachs Geithner" and "Goldman Sachs Summers." But I'd forgotten about "Goldman Sachs Rubin." I've often wondered whether Obama just wimped out under pressure that the first black guy had to be way to the right to avoid being portrayed as "Black Che'," (well, that didn't work), or whether he internalized cooption by the Harvard Club. It is still sad to contemplate that he was just a sellout. He could hardly have been demonized more if he had put on the red bere't and let 'er rip!
Obama is a genuinely nice guy, but he was out of his element in D.C.. He had not cultivated any progressive experts in governing, much less finance, regulation and economics, so he was at the mercy of the oligarchs, who quickly stepped in, Larry Summers leading the charge, to take over the administration,using Obama as a sock puppet. Same thing with Clinton and I fear with Biden. Biden is also a genuine nice guy, but was known in the Senate as the Senator from Wall Street, he has been around long enough to know who the real power players are, to know what they can do the country and what is good for him.
Senators are ill prepared to govern. Governors have the skills and knowledge it takes to govern (even if the results are deleterious), Senators skill set and experience is in amelioration, compromise, bipartisanship, when what is needed is the heavy hand of governing. So far, at least since FDR, the only governing had been in the Republican party.
Napoleon said that every soldier carries a field marshall's baton in his knapsack, so it is with Senators, most of them have grand designs on becoming president, though they lack the skill set.
Unfortunately the ones with the skill set are neo fascist, bigots and racists like DeSantis. Trump was out of his league. He thought the Presidency was like his Trump tower penthouse, staffed with yes men who would bring him a Diet Coke when he rang the bell, and bend over so he could kick them in the butt. And that is the way he ran the office, he staffed it with sniveling ass kissers, who knew how to play him to achieve their goals, like that Jewish white nationalist Steven Miller, his Secret Service, his entire staff.
America’s commitments to its treaties hasn’t changed one iota since we made the first treaty with the Native Americans. We sign them, then forget them.
Most recently the Paris Climate Agreement (restored by President Biden) and the Iran Nuclear Agreement.
Excellent analysis of Budepest memorandum and its importance in maintaining a free and independent Ukraine 🇺🇦 .
Every member of Congress should have to read this article and the details of the memorandum, especially the radical insurrectionists who are clamoring to cut off any type of aid to Ukraine 🇺🇦 in the future. It would be well worth the Democratic leadership to be more acquainted with this article 👍 in order to combat the seditious activities under the current clown 🤡 show in the House
Slavi Ukraine 🇺🇦 ♥️
Thom --
Respectfully, South Africa also " gave up their nukes"; they even "offered Saddam help to rid himself of 'his' nuclear weapons."
Dr. Randall Speer
Wilson, NC
Do you have a link? I didn't think they ever got that far (just like Saddam didn't)
Thom -- I'm not so good with computers. I simply googled " F.W de Klerk.explains why SA rid itself of its nuclear weapons". He says they were nevsr to be used, tbey were "merely a deterrent".
Too: as with Ukraine, former Soviet republics Kazakstan and Belarus also had nukes, which were shipped.back to Mother Russia, with.our support.
F.W. DeKlerk, in this 2013 op-ed, stated that “South Africa produced six fairly simple Hiroshima-type atom bombs”, and that “In 1989, as president, I made the decision to dismantle South Africa’s atom bombs.”
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-deklerk-south-africa-nukes-20131222-story.html
Also, from a 1994 statement by the IAEA: “A new dimension was added in March 1993, when President de Klerk declared that South Africa had previously developed a limited nuclear capability which had been dismantled and destroyed before South Africa acceded to the NPT. The Agency was invited to examine that South Africa's nuclear weapons programme had been terminated and that all the nuclear material used in it had been placed under safeguards.”
https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/statements/director-generals-statement-occasion-presentation-minister-foreign-affairs-south-africa
IIRC Saddam had no nukes, hence Dubya's lies to justify his war with Iraq.
Yeah, my head was spinning on this a bit. Wikipedia says: "Iraq actively researched and later employed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) from 1962 to 1991, when it destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile and halted its biological and nuclear weapon programs as required by the United Nations Security Council." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction Nuke "program" whole different thing from arsenal of ICBM's.
A little story about wikipedia. Anyone can edit wikipedia, it is an all volunteer staff, including review committees. However edits must meet the standards of policy and guidance, which includes statements being referenced by reliable secondary sources. Virtually every page is watched by one or more editors, and they are notified of any change.
Page watchers are those with an emotional or professorial investment in the subject.
For instance I tried to edit pages on Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, both were guilty of treason. Nixon interfered in the Vietnam war by telling President Thieu not to sign the Paris Accord, as he would give him a better deal when he was elected. That is treason.
Reagan struck a deal with the Ayaollah Khomeini, offering him a deal to supply weapons of war, if he held the hostages until after the election., No sooner than Reagan took the oath, thatKhomini released the hostages. More treason. On top of which Congress refused to fund the weapons transfer so Reagan used the CIA to import cocaine, which was sold mainly at first in California, in the black community, to buy weapons for Iran. There is a TV series called Snowfall, which is ending this week, about the sordid affair.
Basically Cocaine would fly into Nicarauga, the CIA would fly small arms to the Contras, by contract pilots, pick up he cocainef, fly it to the states, sell it to drug pushers, use that money to buy aircraft and weapons, via Israel, delivered to Iran for use in the war against Saddam, which was using American supplied weapons.
Both of these edits were reverted by right wing page watchers, and if you revert a revert, then the page watcher accuses you of a revert war, and escalates to a committee. At that point is over, because most often, page watchers like that have formed relationships with review committees, and are trusted
The articles on Donald Trump are interesting and informative if you read the tab, talk on the left side of the page.
The default from google or wikipedia is to the article, virtually no one reads the talk page,
but the talk page is where the interesting stuff happens. It is where discussions about the article and reverts happen, it gets emotionally charged
here are the tabs you see on an article
Article talk Read View Source View History (of edits) tools
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan
History will show you edits and by whom, talk will show you discussions about edits including reverts.
There was a dude, obviously a descendant from a puritan, who zealously guarded any article about "Pilgrims", Puritans, He would revert any edit that he felt showed the so called Pilgrims in an unfavorable light, including the reason they stopped in Massachusetts bay (to replace the beer which had been depleted. The only reliable potable liquid in the 16th century was mead, wine or beer, the alcohol killed the bacteria, but this dude felt like drinking beer was a sin, me thinks he is religiously uptight.
I am pretty sure that the Bush, Iraq war and Saddam articles are watched over by Republicans, who zealously monitor the pages to ensure that they conform to conservative heterodoxy.
If you want to see behind the curtain. Go to the talk page on Donald Trump and notice that it is "protected" (protected by Trump humpers of course)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Donald_Trump
Thank you! I will be saving this education about how Wikipedia works. Fortunately, I hardly ever go there on any subjects obviously "sensitive," but your anecdote about the "pure Puritans" watchdog is a hilarious/sad classic. Meanwhile, I am satisfactorily challenged by the Hartmann contributors.
Thanks Thom; now I understand why the U.S. and U.K. are so involved in this conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Future generations will see Putin, not as the restorer of Russian greatness, but as a madman. And Trump & the GOP as traitors for siding with him.
WE hope, I worry that SCOTUS will rule favorably for Moore in Moore v Harper, which will legitimize the independent legislature theory. SCOTUS has heard the case, but has not issued a ruling, it is sitting on the ruling until the 2024 election is well underway. It will rule in favor of Moore, hence the independent legislature, because if had not, they would have refused to hear it (shadow document). Any appeal sent to SCOTUS, if heard by SCOTUS will be ruled in favor of the plaintiff, just like Dobbs
With legislatures able to choose their own electors and ignore the popular vote, SCOTUS has rung the death knell for democracy. The Blue states control only 188 electoral votes, the rest are in red states or swing states, that are controlled by Republican legislatures, with Democratic governors.
And governors have no veto power over legislatures choosing their own electors and ignoring the popular vote. In fact the constitution does not provide relief either, not does it specify how electors are selected.
Very complicated, but your analysis makes sense. Let's hope something will happen before 2024 that will interfere with the GOP's schemes; at least, that's what I'll be praying for.
We should not lose sight of China. Xi Jinping, who looks more like some mild backroom accountant wearing a visor, is a technical (detailed) totalitarian who has digital mechanisms to control populations beyond the technical means of any totalitarians before. And he means to carry out total control, regardless. Make no mistake, mild-looking Xi is a predator.
I do not doubt for a second that Xi will hesitate to go full in to take Taiwan. That may be his takeaway from Ukraine. Like any predator, similar to a boxer at the start of a fight, Xi is simply bouncing around until he thinks he has his opening figured out. And it will not just be a security loss, as in chips made in Taiwan. It will mean the subjugation of an independent country. This will also mean a loss of information independence we have not seen here yet, despite some alarms and genuine message control, propaganda and censorship.
Here, I decided to look up Xi Jinping Thought and the app for it (from Alibaba). I hadn’t heard anything recently and sure enough most of the articles I found on Google were from 2019, a couple in 2021 and 2022. Other than that, nada to speak of. This is the “educational” application designed to be used to train people in Xi’s thoughts, with quizzes and pressure to sign up for the app and to make regular good scores on tests.
URL on Wikipedia on the thoughts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping_Thought
URL on Wikipedia on the app: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuexi_Qiangguo
The Guardian (2019) on the app: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/15/chinas-most-popular-app-brings-xi-jinping-to-your-pocket
The seemingly innocent and fun TikTok is a Trojan horse. I still remember near 24-hours days for almost a week in early 2002 when, at a company I was working for in IT, was hit by malware carried via an infected Napster. One of the secretaries had installed Napster on her machine so she could enjoy music (harmless, surely) on earphones while typing. It wiped out our servers. We had backups, good ones, but couldn’t trust the machines, so, we had to overnight server machines and routers (we were our own ISP) and reconfigure them with replacement database software, server software and then copy in the backup. The IP addresses in the logs on the infected machines indicated China. It was not the first time Chinese viruses had wiped out servers for ISPs I was using, but the earlier ones had been ISPs for my own personal website. They were knocked out of business (1997-2001).
We are already seeing China controlling content on social media in China but maybe less seen elsewhere. And, the ideological control is addressed in this October 2022 article: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/terminology-10202022103107.html - (Note: check the side links and the app links in the article).
In a July 2021 speech ( https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/ccp-100th-xi-07012021100119.html ) Xi is quoted as:
"We must ... root out any elements that would harm the party’s advanced nature and purity and any viruses that would erode its health," Xi warned.
He also once more asserted the CCP's direct control over the administrations of Hong Kong and Macau, as well as claiming "unshakable commitment" to the annexation of democratic Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China, and which, at the time of the CCP's founding, was ruled by Japan.
"No one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Xi said.
Anyway, this is faaarrrr longer than I intended, my apologies. Maybe you have more recent information on the app or maybe on why we aren’t seeing much about it.
The Taiwan Semi Conductor Manufacturing (TSDM) is the world's premier manufacturer of advanced semi conductors, they outpaced Intel who was satisfied sitting on it's profitable monopoly which it enjoyed in ConUS, and which delighted the Board of Directors and shareholders whose only concern is a positive return on investment.
China wants, badly, TSDM, however I've read that TSDM has plans to blow up the factory if China invades, that is probably the biggest deterrent ,China has against invading. As it stands they benefit from TSDM, and are hesitant to kill the golden goose.
Uh, I hate to bust your bubbles but, those nukes never went anywhere. Ukraine was a highly corrupt state and was still joined at the hip with Russia through its oligarchs. I doubt that those missiles ever left Ukraine and even if they did go to Russia, the firing infrastructure was left in place and maintained. Ukraine also happens to be quite rich in uranium as a natural resource. Ha! So, here's how this really went down, Clinton and the U.K. knew the nukes would stay and Russia would have control of them. Russia must have some serious 'compromat' on both countries - I never thought Clinton stopped at serially raping young women.... We forget that Ukraine was governed by the most corrupt, Putin puppets right up until Zelensky got elected. Putin just wants his nukes and his uranium back. Why all this over Ukraine? Trump is all up in it, too. Don't you think that Trump was puppeted by Putin, as well? Trump tipped off Putin that we were sending special forces into Yemen. The Yemenis were back by Russia and our guys went into a slaughter. A Navy Seal was killed. Compromat, again.
That makes no sense. Totally made up. I've never seen anything anywhere of this particular fabulation. You can get an idea of Putin's concerns by reading his very own authored, near 7,000 word article on the Kremlin's very own website, English translation page, titled
"Article by Vladimir Putin 'On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians'.” Dated July 12, 2021 - 17:00 – seven months before the invasion of 24 Feb 2022.
Source URL: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181
I copied all into Word and used Word to count the words from the start of the title to the end (the last word in the article) and did a text search for "NATO." Then a little simple arithmetic. Here is what I got.
Length (headline and text): 6,901 words - 42,899 characters
Length of paragraph with “NATO” statement: 94 words – 635 characters
Distance down the document: starts after 6,047 words – 37,744 characters
Counting number of words: 94/6,901 = 0.01362 == 1.36% (percent of content about NATO concerns) rounding to 1.4%
Counting number of words: 6047/6901 = 0.8762 == starts 87.6% of the way down the page – rounding to 88%
……….……….……….……….……….……….……….……(.).……….
The 100 dots represent 100% of the article length. The dot at the 88th position, in parentheses, represents the paragraph with “NATO” listed (two times).
Putin waits until almost the end of his speech to bring up NATO and when he does bring up NATO it is a tiny 1.4% of the whole. The other 98.6% is denying Ukraine’s right to exist as an independent nation or that it has a language. This is a clear indication of Putin’s real stated reasons in July 2021 for his invasion of 7 months later.
And, in the language of the paragraph (the 1.4% of the whole) his “concern” he writes, is for Ukraine being dominated by Nazis and controlled by NATO. So, he is rescuing “the Ukraine” area. Note, he comes at the NATO concerns from an oblique angle. Not once does Putin state this specifically as a threat to Russia or of NATO pushing or crowding Russia.
Uh, do you really think Putin believes that Nazis are trying to take over Ukraine? Putin is a very smart sociopath; he knows there's no Nazis, at least none with any power. Just like Trump spins his constituency up all out of control with his conspiracy theories. That's just the subterfuge he uses to convince his citizens.... It's all smoke and mirrors. I think I am right; maybe not completely right on all the players but, I know high-level scientists (very personally) who confided in me.... May sound a bit cloak and dagger but, once they retire and are out of the game, they tend to at least agree silently with my suppositions.
If Ukraine had nuclear weapons they would have presented Russia with an ultimatum in 2014. If your hypothesis was correct, Russia wouldn't have invaded Ukraine in 2014.
Yes, they would have. I don't know who had control of the Nukes in 2014. We're 20 years after the Budapest Agreement. Maybe we did.
Control of the Soviet nuclear weapons located in Ukraine was always in Moscow.
Actually there are more NAZI's in Russia, and in their Army than in Ukraine or Euope.
https://www.google.com/search?q=russian+soldiers+with+nazi+insignia&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS751US751&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjp7o-W85X-AhU8ElkFHZmVCD4Q0pQJegQIBRAC&biw=1536&bih=723&dpr=1.25
Even theAzov Battalion in Ukraine has dropped NAZI insignia, (it was essentially obliterated at Mariupol.
Yup. And there are Nazis in our military too. I've written this before but, when I was in High school I did a paper on subversive organizations - Cicero, IL Neo-Nazis (of Blues Brothers fame) and the KKK. So I convinced my Dad to take me to the Nazi headquarters and ... we joined to get 'intel.' - I was a real pisser as a kid. Got their 'White Power' newspaper, too. I even had a tape recorder in my purse. So, it's sad, actually. These guys were all Vietnam Vets who wore their US military medals on their Nazi uniforms, carried their Colt - US Army issued .45's.... The head Nazi had a Purple Heart from Vietnam. The headquarters looked just like an Am. Legion hall except the flags were Nazi flags and not U.S. They had Confederate flags, too. Huge bar that ran the length of the place and they were drinking at 10:00 on a Saturday. So much PTSD, paranoia, hated everyone, probably alcoholic. FBI visited my house months later, wondering why I was getting the 'White Power' newspaper. My Mom told them about my research. They just shook their heads and left. I got an A+ on my paper and used that research in college, law school too.
Those were not US Army issued Colt 45's. Weapons are picked up every day from a secure storage facility,usually you leave your ID card in exchange, and turned back in at the end of your training or function.
You certainly don't take them with you when you are discharged. On the other hand weapons are frequently stolen, but the government has the serial numbers of those that are missing.
The 1911 Colt 45 is not hard to come by, you can purchase it at a gun ship or even a pawn shop, provided the shop has a dealers license.
Not all vets are Neo NAZI's, though racism and right wing extremism runs deep in the military.
Right wing ideology runs so deep in the military today, that I don't trust them anymore, especially in special ops units. Spec ops really went right wing with Donald Rumsfeld, he used them to overthrow the Taliban, and wage war against "terror", to fully utilize them he elevated them and made sure that they had all of the equipment and training that their hearts desired. I think the SEAs are the very worst of the lot, Eric Prince the founder of Blackwater now Xi was a SEAL.
FYI I am a retired Regular Officer, whatis known in the service as a Mustang, meaning former enlisted, who came up through the ranks and got a commission. Graduated in the top 7% of Officer Training and was offered a commission as a Regular officer, otherwise the 93% of my class were commissioned as Reserve officers. Reserve officers serve on active duty, they just have a different career and promotion path, and unlike Reserve Oficers are forever on the rolls, but as retired, still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, as as retired Lt General Michael Flynn, and I can only surmise that it is fear and corruption that he hasn't been recalled and court martialed for, among other things, treason.
My cousin who was a Marine Vet came to stay with us when he was discharged from 'Nam (I think it was '68 - he went early) and brought his guns with him. I don't think the military was very careful with them. He came to stay with us and used his service revolver to make my brother and I play Russian roulette. I remember that gun like it was yesterday. Anyhow, I did not say that all vets were Nazis, the Neo-Nazis that I met were, tho. Anyhow, I agree with you on Eric Prince and SEALS.
Good reminder of the Budapest Memorandum, but Ukraine was not the only former Soviet republic to give up nuclear weapons on its territory. Belarus and Kazakhstan also ended up possessing Soviet weapons after the USSR broke up, and like Ukraine, they also turned them over to Russia. The Russian military had the launch codes and operational command & control of these weapons, so it’s unlikely that Ukraine, Belarus, or Kazakhstan could have actually launched or retargeted them.
South Africa is another country that relinquished nuclear weapons in its possession, having built six devices before dismantling their program in anticipation of transitioning from apartheid to democracy.
They kept The Budapest Memorandum simple, but enter a psychopath like Putin and it's out the window.
People truly need to understand there is no why. There is no logical way to deal with Putin's mental condition. We are doing the right thing by sticking together, building-up NATO, and squeezing the Russians with sanctions.
People that think we ever will be or ever were secure concerning nuclear weapons are delusional---they don't know the statistics. People who expect the Ukrainians to negotiate with or capitulate to the psychopath next door have lost their moral compass. Those decisions are for the Ukrainians to work out. Asking them to save the rest of the world from annihilation is adding insult to injury.
Freedom and sovereignty for Ukraine and all nations!
It is scary to contemplate history repeating itself in this context. The model looks a lot like pre-WWII, with a broad isolationist sentiment in the US population, and a lot of out-and-out admirers of a foreign tyrant thriving on demonization of The Usual Scapegoats. (T.Carlson fawning over Orban rings too much of a bell, not to mention Putin.) The movie "Darkest Hour" was the last one I saw in a theater, very good; portraying Churchill's pleading for more support from Roosevelt, sympathetic but politically stymied domestically. The scary thing is, what did it take, long after Hitler invaded Poland (analagous to the time frame from Crimea to now) for America to suddenly realize, wow, this is a "world" war? Only now, anything that happens will make Pearl Harbor look like a mosquito bite.
I do not see how your cousin could have gotten hold of government issue firearms.. Being discharged early, means he was separated under Other than Honorable conditions, or discharged because of a physical disability. in that case he certainly would not have been able to lay his mitts on weapons. They are kept under lock and key
As team leader of a spec ops unit, I was responsible for safeguarding all equipment from rifles and pistols to parachutes, radios, ammo and smoke grenades. Ammo and smoke grenades were kept in an concrete ammo bunker. The military doesn't play around with that stuff. If something is stolen, it is ripped off in the supply chain, and that results in a massive searchand investigation. All weapons have serial numbers and they are routinely checked when they change hands.
There has recently been thefts at Camp Pendleton, but they happened in transport. Highly unusual.
Given that you were young and impressionable, you cousin obviously spun a tall tale.
BTW I served in Vietnam from 67-68, have an interesting war story about the night of the tet offensive. I was living in a Vietnamese sergeants house in Ap Chien Luoc khom nam, (Strategic Hamlet roof or number 5). I already had 9 years service when I was stationed in Nam.
By the way Vietnam is not what they call their country. When I was there, the locals called it Nam Viet or South Viet), the north was Bach Viet (North Viet).
Marines and infantry didn't carry service revolvers. any who carried a side arm, carried the 1911 Colt. 45 semi automatic pistol.