Will Putin Seize Ukraine, And If So When?

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Russia’s killer Vladimir Putin is expected to attend Xi Jinping’s Winter Olympics in Beijing[2], and then all bets are off.  As I wrote in 2015:

The world must never forget that Putin left the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing to launch his aggression against Georgia.  Then, he left the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and launched his aggression against Crimea and the rest of Ukraine.  Also, the world must never forget that in addition to downing Malaysia Airlines Flight 17—and killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board—Putin killed Alexander Litvinenko and countless others.[3]

Exploiting America’s humiliating defeat in Afghanistan, both Putin and Xi are “chess masters” who may move simultaneously to inflict heavy losses—both psychologically and militarily—against the United States and the American people.  In short, the “axis of evil” may strike on multiple fronts before our elections occur later this year.

Larry Kudlow—the Director of the National Economic Council during the Trump Administration from 2018 to 2021[4]—has written an article entitled “A Perfect Storm Engulfs Biden Over Economy, Europe, and Asia,” which is worth reading:

Almost immediately following President Biden’s blundering news conference on Wednesday, a near-perfect storm has descended.  Stock markets are selling off with their worst performance in many years.  Interest rates and oil prices are rising.  High inflation is embedded in the economy, and the Federal Reserve is about to launch a monetary tightening cycle.

Russia shows absolutely no signs of de-escalating in the Ukraine. If anything, it has gotten more aggressive by moving troops into Belarus and ships into the Black Sea, effectively surrounding Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Mr. Biden’s domestic agenda has collapsed, and the very essence of his presidency is hanging by a thread.  He has never recovered from the catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal.

Nor has he recovered from his launch of a radical left big-government socialist domestic policy.

Polls unanimously show the public is simply not buying the product Mr. Biden is selling.  He doubled down on his failed woke product last Wednesday, another huge mistake.

Now, in a futile attempt to recoup his failed diplomacy with Russia, Mr. Biden’s Administration is suddenly saber-rattling an increase of American GIs into Eastern Europe under the NATO flag.  This after telling the country he would not deploy American troops.

Right now, I am completely unconvinced and uncomfortable with putting another 8,500 Yanks into Eastern Europe.

For one thing, Putin couldn’t care less. He’s got about a couple hundred [thousand] troops around the area—8,500 is an ankle bite.

For another thing, President Biden and his team have been so far behind the curve on this Ukraine story that it looks as if they can never catch up.  Our own diplomats, intel people and even Defense Department sources, expect Russia to invade Ukraine.

Look, I’m no isolationist and I’m always America First in international relations, but the way to deal with Mr. Putin is by closing down his Nord Stream pipeline and shutting Russia out of the dollar-based international banking system.

These kinds of brute economic sanctions are something that would surely get Mr. Putin’s attention and do great damage to his economy.  Close down the Russian central bank and their larger commercial banks from using the SWIFT electronic funds transfer system.

The dollar is the world’s reserve currency. About 90% of foreign exchange transactions are denominated in dollars. Take Russia out of that system and their economy is literally sunk. S-u-n-k. They can fiddle around with some Chinese banks, but China and its capital controls are a small sideshow digression in world finance.

Say to Mr. Putin: No oil, no natural gas, no dollars, no banking. Then pour a larger and larger weapons arsenal into Ukraine. That’s a tough policy. That’s what Mr. Biden should have done the minute he learned of the Russian troop buildup.

Many weeks have been wasted.  America has been reacting to Mr. Putin, not defending its own agenda.  And now, the Bidens are digging a deeper hole by putting in more American soldiers, which will prove to be extremely unpopular and ineffectual.

By the way, I hate to say it, but the current Pentagon and national security group in this Administration has not earned any spurs after the Afghanistan fiasco.  At the moment, I don’t think we want them to expand their military horizon.

I don’t know if we are appeasing Mr. Putin. That’s such a toxic word. I do know that we have been enabling Mr. Putin.  The former KGB officer now turned presidential autocrat understands this full well.  We are playing his game, on his turf, with his narrative.

Instead of talking about NATO flags, backed by the unreliable Germany, I wish we were talking about American flags and American interests in freedom, democracy, and free-enterprise capitalism.

One final thought.  This is just in, and it blows my mind.  Apparently, the Biden Administration has arranged for the payment of Iran’s dues at the United Nations.

Can you believe this?  The Bidens have arranged to release $18 million of blocked Iranian funds, to be released to the Iranians so they can pay their dues, and—get this—have a vote in the United Nations, so that John Kerry and the State Department could once again bypass Congress and make a new deal with Iran.  Like I said, a perfect storm.[5]

Kudlow’s advocacy for the use of stringent economic sanctions is consistent with my earlier articles.[6]

© 2022, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See, e.g., https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59663827 (“Beijing 2022: Putin tells Xi he will attend Winter Olympics”)

[3]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2015/11/29/the-death-of-putin-and-russia-the-final-chapter-of-the-cold-war/ (“The Death Of Putin And Russia: The Final Chapter Of The Cold War”)

[4]  See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Kudlow (“Larry Kudlow”)

[5]  See https://www.nysun.com/national/a-perfect-storm-engulfs-biden-over-economy-europe/91975/ (“A Perfect Storm Engulfs Biden Over Economy, Europe, and Asia”); see also https://www.gingrich360.com/2022/01/25/ukraine-taiwan-and-a-weak-commander-in-chief/ (“Ukraine, Taiwan, and a Weak Commander in Chief”) and https://theloudobbsshow.libsyn.com/president-trump-on-bidens-blunders-rinos-winning (“The Great America Show with Lou Dobbs: PRESIDENT TRUMP ON BIDEN’S BLUNDERS, RINOS & WINNING”)

[6]  See, e.g., supra n.3.

Unspoken in all of these discussions, but hanging like a dark cloud over all of the world today, is China’s Coronavirus pandemic.  Perhaps its impact is described best in an article by Meghan McCain, the former Senator and presidential contender’s daughter, which is worth reading.

See https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10443695/MEGHAN-MCCAIN-got-Covid-doubt-America-recover-not-Biden.html (“MEGHAN MCCAIN: I finally got Covid and it was so horrible it made me doubt if America will ever recover from this pandemic. It WILL but not with moronic Biden in charge”)

I was not a fan of her father, but I voted for him.  I know little or nothing about her, except she was anti-Trump.  The latest Coronavirus mutation, Omicron, is overriding the vaccines and boosters.

Will Americans Have A Country When Biden And His Democrats Are Finished With It?

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

If Donald Trump had served a second consecutive four-year term as our President, it is possible that China would have been forced to pay enormous reparations and/or restitution.  Amounting to trillions of dollars—and paid to Americans and others for having unleashed the devastating Coronavirus pandemic that has killed so many, and hurt so many others—China has sowed chaos in the United States and globally.  This is consistent with Xi Jinping’s goal of achieving global domination.[2]

Americans are split between those who has been vaccinated fully, and anticipate periodic “boosters” in the future like our yearly flu shots; and “anti-vaxxers,” many of whom are intelligent, well-educated and believe “devoutly” that we will not know for years (if not decades) what the long-term effects of the vaccines really are.  After all, more than 100 years have passed since the Spanish flu ended; and an estimated 50-100 million died from it, with the exact number still being undetermined.[3]

Meanwhile, Xi and his lapdog—Russia’s killer Vladimir Putin—continue to oppress their own people; threaten war against Taiwan and Ukraine, respectively; and sow the seeds of global chaos.  They have willing accomplices or handmaidens in America’s Left, who see this as an opportunity to further their own radical beliefs and agendas, and subjugate the masses.

A few examples will suffice.  They are changing the voting rules; opening our borders wide to illegal aliens (including human traffickers and other criminals), and rewarding them with financial and other benefits; making us dependent on oil from the volatile Middle East again; weakening our global alliances after our humiliating defeat in Afghanistan, where Americans were killed while others are still left behind; and blessing crimes that were prosecuted until recently.[4]

Lots of us began as Democrats but abandoned that political party years ago, when it veered so far to the Left that it became unrecognizable.  Today, it’s as if the bowels of Hell have opened wide and unleashed a host of devils on our great nation, which are determined to destroy or “cancel” everything that we have held dear and sacred.  To say that they are Godless is to be kind and forgiving, with respect to what they really are.  They are the Devil incarnate; that much is crystal clear.

For example, anyone who doubts this—or is offended by such an assertion—needs to read Barack Obama’s “Dreams from My Father.”[5] It is all there, in his own words: unbridled racism, and a hatred of America.  For those who scoff at this, one needs to realize that he grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, and never lived on the American mainland until he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles.

His mother lived in Indonesia, and essentially raised her “second family” without him; and he only spent one month of his lifetime with his father, who visited Hawaii from Kenya.  His unbridled anger toward America has sowed racial divisions between blacks and whites; the lawlessness that is almost nonstop and an epidemic; and hatreds that have been festering, like a wound that never heals.[6]  All of this inures to the benefit of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and our other enemies, who are bent on America’s destruction.

Conspiracy theorists aside, Barack Obama, Brain Dead Joe Biden[7], Willie Brown’s ho Kamala Harris[8], Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, and their fellow travelers of America’s Left are fulfilling the goals of Xi Jinping and China’s other rulers.  They are tearing apart the very fabric of our great nation.  Unless they are stopped in their tracks—for example, in our congressional elections later this year—the United States’ future may be imperiled.[9] 

© 2022, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/timothy-d.-naegele.pdf (Timothy D. Naegele, “The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them”)

[3]  See supra n.2.

[4]  See, e.g., https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10391037/Nearly-100-people-charged-murder-free-walk-streets-Chicago-thanks-woke-bail-reform.html (“Nearly 100 people charged with murder are free on bail in Chicago”)

[5]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/is-barack-obama-a-racist/ (“Is Barack Obama A Racist?”)

[6]  See supra n.5.

[7]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/08/biden-is-brain-dead/ (“Biden Is Brain Dead”)

[8]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/11/brain-dead-joe-biden-has-picked-willie-browns-ho-as-our-next-president/ (“Brain Dead Joe Biden Has Picked Willie Brown’s Ho As Our Next President”)

[9]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2022/01/07/january-6-2021-in-perspective/ (“January 6, 2021, In Perspective”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/12/30/2021-annus-horribilis/ (“2021 Annus Horribilis”)

January 6, 2021, In Perspective

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

The violence that occurred on January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.—where I spent so many years—never should have happened, period.  Before working there, I served as an Army officer in The Pentagon, where I was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency when it was headquartered there.[2]

While memories fade with the passage of time, many of us were glued to our TVs on the morning of September 11, 2001—or the infamous “9/11″—when our great nation was attacked by thugs from abroad.  They had hijacked our own airliners, which slammed into the Twin Towers in New York City, The Pentagon, and another that was brought down by courageous passengers in a Shanksville, Pennsylvania field.  The latter flight might have targeted our White House or Capitol.[3]

I was in California that day, and had gotten up early to watch Laura Bush testify at a hearing on Capitol Hill, when I saw the horrors unfold. Before 9/11, I had eaten dinner at the “Windows on the World” restaurant, atop one of the World Trade Center’s towers that were destroyed by the terrorists.[4]

Because of my work, I knew the security at The Pentagon and at our Capitol well, and had to pass security checks when I entered either building.  What happened at the Capitol on January 6th of last year is mind-boggling for me, especially in light of the fact that the FBI and other government agencies were apparently tipped off ahead of time about possible violence at the Capitol, yet they failed to respond.

Having tried to destroy Donald Trump from the moment his quest for the presidency began—in bogus impeachment attempts, and other concerted efforts masterminded by Barack Obama and his Democrats[5]—it is not surprising that they would try to pin the Capitol attacks on him too.  It is a convenient ruse to divert attention from the colossal failures of the Biden-Harris administration, which may result in the Democrats’ loss of the House in our elections later this year.[6]

I began as a Democrat in a devoutly-Republican family, but became an Independent when I left the Senate.  I had seen too much “dirt” on Capitol Hill[7], and I have been an Independent ever since.  Indeed, I concluded that the Democrats were “evil” but smart, while the Republicans were “Neanderthals” and dumb.  I have never changed that conclusion.[8]

Today, the Democrats and their Leftist cohorts in the media are trying to blame last year’s Capitol attacks on Trump and the Republicans, in a pathetic effort to salvage their likely-failing election prospects.  Some Republican “RINOs” are playing along with this ruse.  One is the “architect” of the George W. Bush presidency, Karl Rove, who was there when Bush invaded Afghanistan, and then embarked on the tragic Iraq War—in which 5,000 Americans died and many more were maimed, and trillions of dollars were wasted, for nothing.[9]

Our great nation is divided because of the Coronavirus pandemic and other factors[10]; and we need to heal, not engage in more divisiveness . . . and yes, lawlessness.  To incarcerate those who were there a year ago, without trials or other constitutionally-guaranteed rights, is repugnant unto itself.  This is especially true when the thugs, slugs, hoods and mongrels of “Black Lives Matter,” Antifa and other far-Left groups—who burned our cities, killed or hurt innocent Americans including our police, and destroyed black and other businesses—have never been brought to justice.[11]

© 2022, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6 and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/

[3]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/09/13/9-11-every-american-should-read-this/ (“9/11—Every American Should Read This”)

[4]  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_on_the_World (“Windows on the World”)

[5]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/30/impeachment-may-become-the-singular-obsession-in-washington-and-dominate-news-coverage/ (“Impeachment May Become The Singular Obsession In Washington, And Dominate News Coverage”)

[6]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/12/30/2021-annus-horribilis/ (“2021 Annus Horribilis”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/12/20/have-woke-anti-americanism-and-china-risen-to-take-the-place-of-the-soviet-union-which-replaced-the-nazis-third-reich/ (“Have Woke Anti-Americanism And China Risen To Take The Place Of The Soviet Union, Which Replaced The Nazis’ Third Reich?”)

[7]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/washington-is-sick-and-the-american-people-know-it/ (“Washington Is Sick And The American People Know It”)

[8]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/the-democrats-are-evil-but-smart-while-the-republicans-are-neanderthals-and-dumb/ (“The Democrats Are Evil But Smart, While The Republicans Are Neanderthals And Dumb”)

[9]  See https://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-jan-6-responsibility-anniversary-riot-storm-capitol-trump-protesters-investigation-11641417707 (“Republicans’ Jan. 6 Responsibility”)

[10]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/timothy-d.-naegele.pdf (Timothy D. Naegele, “The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them”)

[11]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/02/history-repeats-itself-thugs-riot-in-america/ (“History Repeats Itself: Thugs Riot In America”)

2021 Annus Horribilis

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1][2]

Clearly, the Coronavirus and its mutations are not following the trajectory of the Spanish flu, which killed an estimated 50-100 million globally, and came and went within 18 months.[3]  As 2021 comes to a close, the United States and other countries are shutting down again, with even worse predicted in the future.[4]  Time-honored events such as American college football’s bowl games are being canceled, because of the virus.[5]

Americans do not trust their government with respect to information about the virus.  And our already-stressed healthcare system may be overwhelmed, as more Americans seek critical help for Coronavirus-related medical needs.  Medical professionals have not recovered fully from the effects of the first rounds of the Coronavirus pandemic; and many have taken early retirements or just quit because of the stress.  Also, Americans with non-Coronavirus medical needs are being turned away again.[6]

China and Russia may be on the verge of striking at Taiwan and Ukraine, respectively; and Brain Dead Joe Biden and his Vice President, Willie Brown’s former ho Kamala Harris, seem more out of touch than ever.  Lots of Americans have lost faith in our great nation, which is not limited to supporters of former President Donald Trump.  They include vast numbers of Independents, who constitute an estimated 41 percent of the American electorate.[7]  Many have become devout “anti-vaxxers,” who do not believe the directives issued by our federal government, state governments or local governments.  As the days pass, more evidence is mounting that governments at all levels are incompetent, and incapable of addressing the problems created by the Coronavirus pandemic and its mutations.

My last article here—entitled “Have Woke Anti-Americanism And China Risen To Take The Place Of The Soviet Union, Which Replaced The Nazis’ Third Reich?”—concluded with rays of hope and optimism.  It referenced another article on the subject by Conrad Black, a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher and writer.[8]  I have not changed my belief that Black may be correct, and there are reasons for long-term optimism.  However, in the interim, Americans may go through even more pain and suffering, before there is a light at the proverbial “end of the tunnel.”  Indeed, I concluded:

As Americans seem mired down with the reemergence of Coronavirus lockdowns and fears, and the ineptitude—if not downright dishonesty—of the Biden-Harris administration as it implodes, they need to heed what Conrad Black has written above.  A powerful backlash is building against woke anti-Americanism, which will likely overwhelm it and consign it to the dustbin of history.[9]

This and other factors may temper our enemies’ actions against us.

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  Last year at this time, I wrote a similar article assessing what had happened during the year.  Tragically, the assessment this year may be even worse.

See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/22/2020-annus-horribilis/ (“2020 Annus Horribilis”)

[3]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/timothy-d.-naegele.pdf (Timothy D. Naegele, “The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them”), p. 286.

[4]  See, e.g., https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10355849/US-hits-record-nearly-500-000-Covid-cases-24-hours-Experts-says-viral-blizzard.html (“US sets WORLD record 489,267 COVID cases in 24 hours as country risks grinding to a HALT: ‘Incoming viral blizzard will make it hard to keep everyday life operating'”); see also n.6 infra.

[5]  See, e.g., https://www.si.com/college/2021/12/29/holiday-bowl-canceled-nc-state-ucla-covid-19-outbreak-official (“Holiday Bowl Officially Canceled, NC State Won’t Play in a Bowl Game”)

[6]  See, e.g., https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/30/hospitals-staffing-shortages-omicron/ (“First they ran short of PPE, then ventilators. Now, the shortage is hospital staff”)

[7]  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_U.S._states

[8]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/12/20/have-woke-anti-americanism-and-china-risen-to-take-the-place-of-the-soviet-union-which-replaced-the-nazis-third-reich/ (Timothy D. Naegele, “Have Woke Anti-Americanism And China Risen To Take The Place Of The Soviet Union, Which Replaced The Nazis’ Third Reich?”); see also https://www.nysun.com/national/powerful-backlash-building-against-woke-anti/91833/ (“Powerful Backlash Building Against Woke Anti-Americanism”) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Black (“Conrad Black”)

[9]  See id.

Have Woke Anti-Americanism And China Risen To Take The Place Of The Soviet Union, Which Replaced The Nazis’ Third Reich?

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Conrad Black—a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher and writer—has written an article entitled “Powerful Backlash Building Against Woke Anti-Americanism,” which is worth reading and heeding:

December 26 will mark the 30th anniversary of the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and with it, the collapse of international communism. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama spoke for many when he said that we were “at the end of history” and that there would be no political evolution beyond what appeared to be the total triumph of liberal democracy.

This can clearly be seen now as a hopeful view inflated by triumphalism. China has risen to take the place of the Soviet Union, which itself replaced the Nazi German Third Reich as the principal rival to western democracy. One could easily imagine, looking at the feeble and inadequate regime now in office in Washington and imagine that the West, haltingly led by the United States and infested by appeasers and defeatists, was once again under severe challenge by a transoceanic, totalitarian power.

Showing unsuspected powers of improvisation, the international left that was completely defeated in the Cold War vanished into the undergrowth, but almost spontaneously returned as champions of environmentalism. If capitalism could not be defeated by a competitive economic system, Marxism, it shortly found itself in mortal combat with the old left now in alliance with the authentic, if often tedious, conservationists in a holy assault on capitalism as an environmental threat to the future of the planet itself.

We appear to be in a more dangerous confrontation with China and other countries conniving with it — especially Russia, Iran and North Korea — than we really are. China is aggressively posturing and claiming international waters as its own and threatening to accelerate reunification with Taiwan. Russia, having lost nearly half its population in the fall of the Soviet Union, is openly threatening to annex at least the predominantly Russian parts of Ukraine.

The enfeeblement of the American administration invites the inference that America is in irreversible decline. In fact, while China has enjoyed astonishing success as a development story, bootstrapping itself up from the socioeconomic depths, its institutions are untrustworthy, its government still maintains a high degree of control over the economy and the country’s largest businesses, and it is run by an odious and corrupt dictatorship. It is a country with few natural resources and an aging population due to its long-standing previous one-child policy.

All this obscures the fact that the Cold War and the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. were the greatest and most bloodless strategic victories in the history of the world. The greatest consequence of them is the triumph of capitalism in the world, in particular in China and Russia. It is the best system because it is the only one that is aligned with the almost universal human ambition to have more.

Because it incentivizes competition, it inevitably leads to an overheated and potentially self-destructive economic frenzy, but since the Second World War, capitalism has demonstrated its ability to lift countries out of poverty and make advanced economies more prosperous, including formerly communist China, formerly fascist Spain, almost all of central and western Europe, South Korea, Israel, Chile, Singapore and much of Latin America. India is making unprecedented progress.

This is the triumph of capitalism: the peace dividend at the end of the Cold War and the demonstration of the absolute superiority of the American over the Soviet system as the Americans outdistanced the Soviet Union militarily while spending far less on military matters. The triumph of capitalism was earned, even if pure capitalism is not for everybody.

The waffling generated by a sharp change in prevailing currents of public policy in the United States should not be mistaken for a reversal in the fortunes of capitalism, whose benefits are sweeping over almost all the world.

The United States is in the midst of a complicated process of renovation. Six years ago, Donald Trump was practically the only prominent American who saw how disillusioned people were over being mired in fruitless Middle Eastern wars, seeing the steady exportation of American jobs to cheap labour markets and the importation of the resulting unemployment, and the fact that those in the middle class had seen virtually no increase in the purchasing power of their incomes for decades.

Mr. Trump led an assault on the complacent bipartisan governing political class. Despite being harassed by false allegations of colluding with Russia to rig the 2016 election and a spurious impeachment trial over an unexceptionable conversation with the president of Ukraine, he effectively eliminated unemployment, increased domestic oil production while reducing foreign imports and cracked down on illegal immigration.

Only the coronavirus gave the Democrats the opportunity they needed to terrorize the population and deprive Trump of what appeared to be his probable re-election.

The Biden administration has made an almost complete shambles of every policy area: immigration, inflation, Covid, crime, and the unprecedented and shameful debacle in Afghanistan. It is increasingly obvious that either Mr. Trump or a candidate supported by him and endorsing most of his policies will be elected in 2024, and the renovation of America will resume.

There will be a new and more purposeful political elite and a powerful backlash against woke anti-Americanism in the schools and universities, the self-serving hypocrisy of limousine liberals on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, and the narcissistic hypocrisy of Hollywood and Big Sport. In these circumstances, the status of the United States as the world’s most important and influential country will be re-established.

China is fundamentally not remotely as strong a country as the United States. Its institutions are not credible and are universally mistrusted; it has the political instability of dictatorships where succession is always uncertain. Russia has a smaller GDP than Canada and is desperately trying to regain shards of its former empire after the sudden secession of nearly half the Soviet population.

The West can accommodate Russian ambitions up to a point. The key is to avoid driving a truncated and demoralized Russia into the arms of China and effectively giving the Chinese the right to develop the vast territory of Russian Siberia. As long as this can be avoided, the resumption of American national renovation will re-establish the unambiguous superiority of American influence in the world, and particularly its economic model. Capitalism is imperfect, but it is invincible, as was demonstrated 30 years ago.[2]

Are we as Americans descending into Hitler-esque times, when our thoughts, words and actions are constantly monitored?  Have George Orwell’s predictions in his prescient “Animal Farm” come true, where all of the animals were equal until the Pigs reigned supreme and subjugated the other animals?[3]

Those who live in China today are subjected to such regimens, and seem used to them.  After all, Hong Kong’s fledgling democracy has been snuffed out already; and more than 1 million ethnic minorities including the Uyghurs are enslaved in “reeducation” camps that are not dissimilar to the Nazi death camps of the past.

One must never forget that China launched the deadly Coronavirus pandemic—inadvertently or as a bioweapon—which has killed or hurt millions globally, with even more deaths to come.  Yet, China has not paid one penny in reparations.[4] And arguably, America’s Left and its “fellow travelers” are doing the bidding and handiwork of China today.

The American and global eco-Nazis ignore the facts that (1) the planet has undergone warming and cooling periods for millions of years, which will continue after all of us are long gone; and (2) while pollution is a legitimate concern, China and India are the biggest polluters in the world, by far.  Yet, China pays lip service to the issue.

As Americans seem mired down with the reemergence of Coronavirus lockdowns and fears, and the ineptitude—if not downright dishonesty—of the Biden-Harris administration as it implodes, they need to heed what Conrad Black has written above.  A powerful backlash is building against woke anti-Americanism, which will likely overwhelm it and consign it to the dustbin of history.

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2] See https://www.nysun.com/national/powerful-backlash-building-against-woke-anti/91833/ (“Powerful Backlash Building Against Woke Anti-Americanism”); see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Black (“Conrad Black”)

[3]  See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm (“Animal Farm”)

[4]  See https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/timothy-d.-naegele.pdf (Timothy D. Naegele, “The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them”)

 

A Coward’s Approach To Russia’s Pygmy Putin?

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Russia’s killer Vladimir Putin is an “old school” thug and despot, whose reign of terror will come to an end when he is dead and buried, and Russia implodes like the Soviet Union did.  He rose up through the ranks of KGB in East Germany—or the DDR, as it was known before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Erich Honecker’s government, which was one of the most repressive regimes in the Soviet Union’s orbit, or the Evil Empire.  As I have written previously:

Russia’s dictator-for-life Vladimir Putin is every bit as sinister and evil as Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Mao Tse-tung.  He is a ruthless killer—of his own people and others, and of the human spirit.  Recently, he warned against despotism and chaos in Russia, which is equivalent to Hitler warning against the death camps, or Stalin and Mao warning against the ravages of communism.  Putin is the face of America’s enemies today, personified, as well as the enemy of free peoples everywhere. He is responsible for the dismantling of Russia’s incipient democracy.  Despots like him are destroyed ultimately.  However, in the interim, the death and destruction they bring about are savage, barbaric and tragic.  Like a Mob boss, Putin is apt to die a cruel and horrible death, mirroring the cruelty that he and his ex-KGB lackeys have brought to so many in Russia and elsewhere.

. . .

Russia spans nine time zones, and consists of many diverse ethnic and religious groups and cultures.

After Putin’s demise, Russia may be “dismembered,” with China taking part (e.g., Siberia) and the rest becoming independent states like the former Yugoslavia.[2]

As history has shown repeatedly, the appeasement of thugs and dictators will only fuel their ravenous appetites, which in the case of Putin are essentially insatiable.  Yet, Pat Buchanan—an adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, and a former GOP presidential aspirant himself—has written an article entitled “Putin to Biden: Finlandize Ukraine, or We Will”:

Either the U.S. and NATO provide us with “legal guarantees” that Ukraine will never join NATO or become a base for weapons that can threaten Russia — or we will go in and guarantee it ourselves.

This is the message Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending, backed by the 100,000 troops Russia has amassed on Ukraine’s borders.

At the Kremlin last week, Putin drew his red line:

“The threat on our western borders is … rising, as we have said multiple times. … In our dialogue with the United States and its allies, we will insist on developing concrete agreements prohibiting any further eastward expansion of NATO and the placement there of weapons systems in the immediate vicinity of Russian territory.”

That comes close to an ultimatum. And NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg backhanded the President of Russia for issuing it:

“It’s only Ukraine and 30 NATO allies that decide when Ukraine is ready to join NATO. … Russia has no veto, Russia has no say, and Russia has no right to establish a sphere of influence trying to control their neighbors.”

Yet, great powers have always established spheres of influence. Chinese President Xi Jinping claims virtually the entire South China Sea that is bordered by half a dozen nations. For 200 years, the United States has declared a Monroe Doctrine that puts our hemisphere off-limits to new colonizations.

Moreover, Putin wants to speak to the real decider of the question as to whether Ukraine joins NATO or receives weapons that can threaten Russia. And the decider is not Jens Stoltenberg but President Joe Biden.

In the missile crisis of 60 years ago, the U.S., with its “quarantine” of Cuba and strategic and tactical superiority in the Caribbean, forced Nikita Khrushchev to pull his intermediate-range ballistic missiles, which could reach Washington, off of Fidel Castro’s island.

If it did not do so, Moscow was led to understand, we would use our air and naval supremacy to destroy his missiles and send in the Marines to finish the job.

Accepting a counteroffer for the U.S. withdrawal of Jupiter missiles from Turkey, Khrushchev complied with President John F. Kennedy’s demand. Russia’s missiles came out. And Kennedy was seen as having won a Cold War victory.

Now it is we who are being told to comply with Russia’s demands in Ukraine, or Russia will go in to Ukraine and neutralize the threat itself.

The history?

When the Warsaw Pact collapsed and the USSR came apart three decades ago, Russia withdrew all of its military forces from Central and Eastern Europe. Moscow believed it had an agreed-upon understanding with the Americans.

Under the deal, the two Germanys would be reunited. Russian troops would be removed from East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. And there would be no NATO expansion into Eastern Europe.

If America made that commitment, it was a promise broken. For, within 20 years, NATO had brought every Warsaw Pact nation into the alliance along with the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Neocons and Republican hawks such as the late John McCain sought to bring Ukraine and two other ex-Soviet republics, Georgia and Moldova, into NATO.

Putin, who served in the KGB in the late Soviet era and calls the breakup of the USSR the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century, is now saying: Enough is enough.

Translation: “Thus far and no further! Ukraine is not going to be a member of NATO or a military ally and partner of the United States, nor a base for weapons that can strike Russia in minutes. For us, that crosses a red line. And if NATO proceeds with arming Ukraine for conflict with Russia, we reserve the right to act first. Finlandize Ukraine, or we will!”

The problem for Biden?

In Ukraine and in Georgia, as we saw in the 2008 war, Russia has the tactical and strategic superiority we had in 1962 in Cuba. Moreover, while Ukraine is vital to Russia, it has never been vital to us.

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt recognized Joseph Stalin’s USSR in 1933, Moscow was engaged in the forced collectivization of the farms of Ukraine, which had caused a famine and the deaths of millions. We Americans did nothing to stop it.

During the Cold War, America never insisted on the independence of Ukraine. Though we celebrated when the Baltic states and Ukraine broke free of Moscow, we never regarded their independence as vital interests for which America should be willing to go to war.

A U.S. war with Russia over Ukraine would be a disaster for all three nations. Nor could the U.S. indefinitely guarantee the independence of a country 5,000 miles away that shares not only a lengthy border with Mother Russia but also a history, language, religion, ethnicity and culture.

Forced to choose between accepting Russia’s demand that NATO stay out of Ukraine and Russia going in, the U.S. is not going to war.

Biden should tell Putin: The U.S. will not be issuing any NATO war guarantees to fight for Ukraine.[3]

Clearly, what Buchanan is proposing is appeasement—there is no other way to describe it—which will not only fuel Putin’s appetite, but that of China’s Xi Jinping.  Both are on the cusp of acting globally to fill the vacuum created by Brain Dead Joe Biden’s retreat from Afghanistan, and our humiliating defeat globally.[4][5]

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/russias-putin-is-a-killer/ (“Russia’s Putin Is A Killer”) (citations omitted) (see also the comments beneath the article)

[3] See https://buchanan.org/blog/putin-to-biden-finlandize-ukraine-or-we-will-158813 (“Putin to Biden: Finlandize Ukraine, or We Will”)

[4]  There is no question that China launched the deadly Coronavirus pandemic—inadvertently or as a bioweapon—which has killed or hurt millions globally, with even more deaths to come.  It may be years, if not decades, before accurate figures will be available with respect to the number of deaths.

See https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/timothy-d.-naegele.pdf (Timothy D. Naegele, “The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them”)

[5]. This article is being published on the 80th anniversary of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt aptly described as a “a date which will live in infamy.”  Are Russia and/or China planning similar preemptive strikes against us today?

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Pearl_Harbor_Remembrance_Day (“National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day”)

Imagine Being The Greatest Killers In History

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Adolf Hitler is usually described as one of history’s greatest killers—of Jews in the Holocaust, and others.  However, his Nazi death machines were dwarfed by the number of those who were killed by China’s Mao Tse Tung and the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin.[2][3]

Eclipsing all of them are the so-called “Justices” of our Supreme Court, who have single-handedly been responsible for the deaths of more than 55 million Americans since Roe v. Wade, as part of their judiciary-sanctioned killing of human beings—or Infanticide.[4]

How can any of them sleep at night?  Shouldn’t they be paraded before the world like the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials?  Shouldn’t they be hung for their actions against humanity?[5]  What vile, despicable and God-less human beings they must be. Surely, like Hitler, Mao and Stalin, they will be welcomed at the Gates of Hell.

As the Court considers its next decisions with respect to abortions, its tragic legacy of massive killings overshadows everything else.  When will they stop?[6]

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com   

[2] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/the-silent-voices-of-stalin%E2%80%99s-soviet-holocaust-and-mao%E2%80%99s-chinese-holocaust/ (“The Silent Voices Of Stalin’s Soviet Holocaust And Mao’s Chinese Holocaust”) (see also the comments beneath the article)

[3]  There is no question that China launched the deadly Coronavirus pandemic—inadvertently or as a bioweapon—which has killed or hurt millions globally, with even more deaths to come.  It may be years, if not decades, before accurate figures will be available with respect to the number of deaths.

See https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/timothy-d.-naegele.pdf (Timothy D. Naegele, “The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them”)

[4]  See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/abortions-and-autos-kill-more-in-america-than-guns/ (“Abortions And Autos Kill More In America Than Guns”) (see also the extensive comments beneath the article)

[5]  See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials (“Nuremberg trials”)

[6]  See, e.g., https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/30/roe-wade-strategy-scotus-abortion-523488 (“‘A post-Roe strategy’: The next phase of the abortion fight has already begun”) and https://www.nysun.com/editorials/a-political-explosion-on-abortion-might-be-what/91780/ (“A ‘Political Explosion’ on Abortion Might Be What We Need”)

Where Does One Begin, When Describing The Collapse Of America?

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Pat Buchanan—an adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, and a former GOP presidential aspirant himself—has written an article entitled “Virginia Secedes From Biden’s Party:  

“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

With this remark — arrogant, dismissive, contemptuous — in his debate with Glenn Youngkin, Terry McAuliffe committed a historic gaffe.

From that debate forward, his poll numbers steadily sank until McAuliffe lost his lead, and with it, the election.

And going down to defeat, McAuliffe dragged with him his fellow Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general and watched Virginia’s House of Delegates revert to Republican rule.

What was McAuliffe saying, and what were Virginians hearing, in his remark? McAuliffe was saying that, in deciding what should be taught in its public schools, Virginia parents should just sit down and shut up.

Thus, a year after Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 points did McAuliffe lose the state by three, a 13-point turnaround. In New Jersey, which Biden had won by 16, the popular Democratic governor barely survived a cliffhanger.

These dramatic shifts in voter behavior testify to a serious misreading by Democrats of the presidential election returns of 2020.

Biden’s total of 81 million votes, with a 7-million vote margin over former President Donald Trump, had been hailed as testament that his time had come and that the American people had both rejected Trumpism and embraced the liberal policies and politics of good old Uncle Joe.

But the 2020 election was in reality a referendum on a single simple question: Do you want four more years of Trump? Yes or no?

Some 74 million people came out and voted to keep Trump in the White House, the largest number of voters ever won by a president.

However, an even larger number of voters were saying, “Enough!”

As moderate Democrats, desperate to halt the progress of Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primaries, had voted for Biden to prevent a socialist from winning their nomination, voters who wanted an end to the Trump era cast their votes for the other name on the ballot, which was also Biden.

In 2020, Biden lit no fires in the primaries and spent most of the general election sheltering in the basement of his Wilmington, Delaware, home.

A vote for Biden was a mandate to replace Trump, not to overturn Trump’s signature policies of no more wars, secure the border, cut taxes, rebuild the manufacturing base, reduce trade deficits, deregulate the economy and unleash the power of the U.S. free market system.

The Biden victory was a rejection of Trump, not a mandate for the agenda of Biden’s party, which, with its left-wing core dominant, is outside the mainstream of America.

When the American people voted for Biden, they were voting for competence and an end to the daily conflict and chaos, not a Second Great Society.

They were not voting for $6 trillion or $3.5 trillion for cradle-to-grave socialism. They were not voting to “Defund the Police!” or tear down statues of Christopher Columbus and Confederate soldiers, or rename schools carrying the names of George Washington, Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Robert E. Lee.

They were certainly not voting to abandon Trump’s wall and throw open the nation’s borders to anyone who can make it through Mexico to the Rio Grande — or to give $450,000 in reparations for migrant families who were separated from their children after breaching our border.

They were not voting to have their children taught in public schools that the country they love is shot through with “systemic racism,” and most children in America are born into “white privilege” and belong to an oppressor class whose victims are children of color.

The message to the Democratic Party Virginia sent was this:

“You can indulge the crazies in your party, but if the American people come to believe you share their ideas and intend to implement them, we are going to relieve you of control of Congress in 2022 and of the White House in 2024. Rely upon it.”

Biden, who is today 10 points down from where he began his presidency, is facing some seemingly insurmountable problems.

More than 1 million people have illegally crossed the U.S. border into our country since he took office. The debacle of the early days of our withdrawal from Afghanistan are indelibly fixed in the public mind and identified with him.

Prices of food and gas and other necessities have risen even more rapidly than the 4-5% inflation that shows no sign of abating.

Supply chains for U.S. goods from abroad, from autos to appliances, are clogged, with container ships backed up in the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors. And Biden is himself a portrait in confusion and contradiction.

Daily he loses his train of thought in public fora, forgetting places and names. While shutting down pipelines from Canada into our country to save the planet from the scourge of fossil fuels, Biden is calling on the Saudis to pump more oil to cut gasoline prices at the pump in the USA.

Having lost Virginia, Biden and his party look today like they are beginning to lose America.[2]  

What Pat Buchanan has written in this article is true.  And yes, a fair question to ask is: “Where Does One Begin, When Describing The Collapse Of America?”[3]  

As Buchanan stated, one might discuss the notion of paying illegal aliens a half million dollars for their “injuries,” while vast numbers of our fellow American citizens are struggling to make ends meet and to avoid—or deal with—chronic homelessness. Or we might discuss how our already-blighted, crime-ridden and dangerous cities are becoming even more lawless as police officers and firefighters are sent home because they refuse to be vaccinated.

For many years now, the thugs, slugs, hoods and mongrels of “Black Lives Matter,” Antifa and other far-Left groups have burned our cities; killed or hurt innocent Americans including our police; and destroyed black and other businesses. Yet, thugs like George Floyd are lionized, and treated as heroes. And Leftists describe themselves as “Progressives,” which is the farthest thing from the truth.

Or one might discuss how mothers and fathers of young children are petrified at the thought of them being vaccinated because of the risks involved. Many are seriously considering the idea of homeschooling their kids for the first time. Or how little kids are being taught things that the parents find abhorrent, and the parents are told to “butt out” of their kids’ educations.

Or we might discuss how oil and other prices have soared as the Keystone Pipeline was scrapped and thousands of American jobs were lost; and our realistic goal of energy independence is trashed, and we are dependent on oil from the volatile Middle East again.

Or how the lots of auto dealerships are bare because of the shortage of chips and other parts that are essential to new state-of-the-art vehicles. And how ports on our west and east coasts have been crowded with ships offshore because of the shortage of workers to unload them and truckers to transport their contents. 

Or we might discuss how China unleashed the deadly Coronavirus, which has killed or hurt millions globally. Yet that Communist-run country has not paid any reparations for doing so, much less trillions of dollars. And how China’s goal of global domination by the end of this decade is not a pipe dream anymore.

As I concluded in an article that I wrote about the Coronavirus:

This is a bizarre new Orwellian world in which we are living—as if in a dream (or nightmare), or straight out of a horror movie—surreal. But it is real, and each of us is living in it.[4]

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com   

[2] See https://buchanan.org/blog/virginia-secedes-from-bidens-party-158712 (“Virginia Secedes From Biden’s Party”)

[3] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/09/14/who-and-what-is-tearing-the-us-apart/ (“Who and What Is Tearing the US Apart?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/30/the-taliban-are-victorious/ (“The Taliban Are Victorious”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/27/censorship-at-dia-no-wonder-we-lost-afghanistan/ (“Censorship At DIA, No Wonder We Lost Afghanistan”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/20/afghanistan-the-future-looks-grim-for-those-left-behind/ (“Afghanistan, The Future Looks Grim For Those Left Behind”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/15/the-tragedy-of-afghanistan/ (“The Tragedy Of Afghanistan”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/12/is-america-becoming-a-failed-state/ (“Is America Becoming a Failed State?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/07/26/will-the-coronavirus-mutations-cripple-america-when-it-is-becoming-clear-to-the-world-that-joe-biden-is-not-fit-to-serve-as-president/ (“Will The Coronavirus’ Mutations Cripple America When It Is Becoming Clear To The World That Joe Biden Is Not Fit To Serve As President?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/03/12/war-with-china/ (“War With China?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/13/the-day-america-died/ (“The Day America Died?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/22/2020-annus-horribilis/ (“2020 Annus Horribilis”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/08/biden-is-brain-dead/ (“Biden Is Brain Dead”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/chinas-goal-is-global-domination-and-it-must-suffer-the-soviet-unions-fate/ (“China’s Goal Is Global Domination, And It Must Suffer The Soviet Union’s Fate”) (see also the comments beneath each of these articles)

[4] See https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/timothy-d.-naegele.pdf (Timothy D. Naegele, “The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them”), p. 305.

Who And What Is Tearing The US Apart?

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Pat Buchanan—an adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, and a former GOP presidential aspirant himself—has written a sobering article that asks this ominous question, as follows:  

In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, former President George W. Bush’s theme was national unity — and how it has been lost over these past 20 years.

“In the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks,” said Bush, “I was proud to lead an amazing, resilient, united people. When it comes to the unity of America, those days seem distant from our own. A malign force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument, and every argument into a clash of cultures.”

Though he surely did not realize it, Bush had himself, moments before, given us an example of how that unity was destroyed when he drew a parallel between the terrorists of 9/11 and the Trump protesters of Jan 6. Said Bush:

“There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit.”

What is Bush saying here?

That Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran shot to death trying to enter the House chamber on Jan. 6, and Mohamed Atta, who drove an airliner into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in a massacre of close to 3,000 people, are “children of the same foul spirit.”

Query: Was not Bush himself here giving us an example of the “malign force” that “turns every disagreement … into a clash of cultures”?

Bush did not mention his own contribution to our national divide: his invasion of a country, Iraq, that did not threaten us, did not attack us, and did not want war with us — to disarm it of weapons it did not even have.

Which contributed more to the loss of America’s national unity?

The four hours of mob violence in the Capitol the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, or the 18-year war in Iraq that Bush launched in 2003?

“In those fateful hours” after 9/11, said Bush, “Many Americans struggled to understand why an enemy would hate us with such zeal.”

Yet, well before 9/11, Osama bin Laden, in his declaration of war on us, listed his grievances. Our sanctions were starving the children of Iraq. Our military presence on the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia, home to Mecca, was a national insult and a blasphemous outrage to Islam.

After 9/11, Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. President Barack Obama attacked Libya and plunged us into the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars.

Thus, over 20 years, we have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands — Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, Yemenis, soldiers and civilians alike — and driven hundreds of thousands more from their homes and their countries.

Are Americans really as oblivious, as Bush suggests, as to why it was that our enemies “hate us with such zeal”?

Many of these peoples want us out of their countries for the same reason that 18th- and 19th-century Americans wanted the French, British and Spanish out of our country and out of our hemisphere.

Yet, it is not only the Bush and Obama wars that have made us so many enemies abroad and so deeply divided us at home.

Our southern border is being overrun by illegal immigrants whose number, since President Joe Biden took office, has been running at close to 2 million a year, with 30,000 “get-aways” a month. These last are mostly males who never make contact with the Border Patrol as they move on to their chosen destinations. They are coming now not only from Mexico and the northern tier countries of Central America but also from some 100 countries around the world.

Americans fear they are losing their country to the uninvited and invading millions of the Global South coming to dispossess them of their patrimony. They never voted for this invasion and have wanted their chosen leaders to stop it.

Former President Donald Trump earned their trust because he tried and, to a great degree, succeeded.

Unlike previous generations, our 21st-century divisions are far broader — not just economic and political, but social, moral, cultural and racial.

Abortion, same-sex marriage and transgender rights divide us. Socialism and capitalism divide us. Affirmative action, Black Lives Matter, urban crime, gun violence and critical race theory divide us. Allegations of white privilege and white supremacy, and demands that equality of opportunity give way to equity of rewards, divide us. In the COVID-19 pandemic, the wearing of masks and vaccine mandates divide us.

Demands to tear down monuments and memorials to those who were, until lately, America’s greats — from Christopher Columbus to George Washington to Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, from Abraham Lincoln to Robert E. Lee to Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson — divide us.

We are even divided today on the most fundamental of questions:

Is America now, and has it always been, a good and great country, worthy of the loyalty and love of all its children, of all its citizens?

And are we Americans proceeding toward that “more perfect union” or heading for a reenactment of our previous violent disunion?[2]  

Everything that Pat Buchanan has said in this article is true.  I have written about these and similar issues, over and over again; and about the corruption of our organs of government, and the traitors within.[3]. What is our fate, and the fate of the great American experiment of which each of us is a part?  Is it inevitable that our nation will be torn asunder, and spin off like whirling dervishes into the great unknown? 

The 20th anniversary of 9/11 has come and gone, with remembrances of that tragic day in our history and those who suffered so—and our heroes—taking place across our land and abroad.[4].  One thing is certain: we are all Americans, regardless of our skin colors, faiths or backgrounds.  Indeed, almost 12 years ago, I concluded:

I believe in this country, and I believe in Americans of all colors, faiths and backgrounds. The United States is the only true melting pot in the world, with its populace representing a United Nations of the world’s peoples. Yes, we fight and we even discriminate, but when times are tough—like after 9/11—we come together as one nation, which makes this country so great and special. Also, all of us or our ancestors came here from somewhere else. Even the American Indians are descended from those who crossed the Bering Strait—or the “Bering land bridge”—according to anthropologists.[5] 

I have not changed that conclusion.  

 

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams; and he can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com   

[2] See https://buchanan.org/blog/who-and-what-is-tearing-the-us-apart-158535 (“Who and What Is Tearing the US Apart?”)

[3] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/30/the-taliban-are-victorious/ (“The Taliban Are Victorious”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/27/censorship-at-dia-no-wonder-we-lost-afghanistan/ (“Censorship At DIA, No Wonder We Lost Afghanistan”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/20/afghanistan-the-future-looks-grim-for-those-left-behind/ (“Afghanistan, The Future Looks Grim For Those Left Behind”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/15/the-tragedy-of-afghanistan/ (“The Tragedy Of Afghanistan”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/12/is-america-becoming-a-failed-state/ (“Is America Becoming a Failed State?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/07/26/will-the-coronavirus-mutations-cripple-america-when-it-is-becoming-clear-to-the-world-that-joe-biden-is-not-fit-to-serve-as-president/ (“Will The Coronavirus’ Mutations Cripple America When It Is Becoming Clear To The World That Joe Biden Is Not Fit To Serve As President?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/03/12/war-with-china/ (“War With China?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/13/the-day-america-died/ (“The Day America Died?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/22/2020-annus-horribilis/ (“2020 Annus Horribilis”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/08/biden-is-brain-dead/ (“Biden Is Brain Dead”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/chinas-goal-is-global-domination-and-it-must-suffer-the-soviet-unions-fate/ (“China’s Goal Is Global Domination, And It Must Suffer The Soviet Union’s Fate”) (see also the comments beneath each of these articles)

[4] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/09/13/9-11-every-american-should-read-this/ (“9/11—Every American Should Read This”)

[5] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/america-a-rich-tapestry-of-life/ (“America: A Rich Tapestry Of Life”); see also https://www.philstockworld.com/2009/10/11/greenspan%E2%80%99s-legacy-more-suffering-to-come/ (“Greenspan’s legacy: more suffering to come”—Interview with Timothy D. Naegele)

9/11—Every American Should Read This

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

What follows is the transcript of a recorded call on 9/11 between Todd Beamer, a passenger aboard United Airlines flight 93 between the Newark International Airport in New Jersey and the San Francisco International Airport in California; Lisa Jefferson, a telephone supervisor for GTE; and a FBI agent named Goodwin.  It should be read by every American to understand fully what happened on 9/11.[2]  

I had visited the “Windows on the World” restaurant on the top floors (106th and 107th) of the North Tower of the World Trade Center[3].  I had served as an Army Captain assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where across the hall from the door to our offices were massive windows that looked out on the garden at the center of the Pentagon.  And I was in California on that fateful day, and got up early to watch First Lady Laura Bush testify on Capitol Hill, where I had worked.  Then it happened; and it is a day that I will never forget.

Lots of Americans were born and raised after September 11, 2001; and like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu in the Pacific, 9/11 is not personal to them, which is understandable.  Yet, it is personal to me; and I urge every American to read the following transcript.  

Todd: Hello… Operator…listen to me…I can’t speak very loud. – This is an emergency. I’m a passenger on a United flight to San Francisco..  We have a situation here….Our plane has been hijacked…..can you understand me?

Lisa: (exhaling a deep breath to herself) I understand… Can the hijackers see you talking on the phone?

Todd: No

Lisa: Can you tell me how many hijackers are on the plane?

Todd: There are three that we know of.

Lisa: Can you see any weapons? What kind of weapons do they have?

Todd: Yes…. they don’t have guns….they have knives – they took over the plane with knives.

Lisa: Do you mean…like steak knives?

Todd: No, these are razor knives…like box cutters.

Lisa: Can you tell what country these people are from?

Todd: No…..I don’t know. They sound like they’re from the mid-east.

Lisa: Have they said what they want?

Todd: Someone announced from the cockpit that there was a bomb on board.  He said he was the captain and to stay in our seats and stay quiet.  He said that they were meeting these men’s demands and returning to the airport… It was very broken English, and… I’m telling you…it sounded fake!

Lisa: Ok sir, please give me your name.

Todd: My name is Todd Beamer.

Lisa: Ok Todd….my name is Lisa…Do you know your flight number? If you can’t remember, it’s on your ticket.

Todd: It’s United Flight 93.

Lisa: Now Todd, can you try to tell me exactly what happened?

Todd: Two of the hijackers were sitting in first class near the cockpit.  A third one was sitting near the back of the coach section. The two up. front got into the cockpit somehow; there was shouting. The third hijacker said he had a bomb. It looks like a bomb. He’s got it tied to his waist with a red belt of some kind.

Lisa: So is the door to the cockpit open?

Todd: No, the hijackers shut it behind them.

Lisa: Has anyone been injured?

Todd: Yes, ..they…they killed one passenger sitting in first class. There’s been lots of shouting. We don’t know if the pilots are dead or alive. A flight attendant told me that the pilot and copilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded.

Lisa: Where is the 3rd hijacker now Todd?

Todd: He’s near the back of the plane. They forced most of the passengers into first class. There are fourteen of us here in the back. Five are flight attendants. He hasn’t noticed that I slipped into this pantry to get the phone. The guy with the bomb ordered us to sit on the floor in the rear of the plane……….oh Jesus.. Help!

Lisa: Todd….are you ok? Tell me what’s happening!

Todd: Hello…..We’re going down….I think we’re going to crash……Wait – wait a minute. No, we’re leveling off….we’re ok. I think we may be turning around…..That’s it – we changed directions.  Do you hear me….we’re flying east again.

Lisa: Ok Todd…. What’s going on with the other passengers?

Todd: Everyone is… really scared. A few passengers with cell phones have made calls to relatives. A guy, Jeremy, was talking to his wife just before the hijacking started. She told him that hijackers had crashed two planes into the World Trade Center……Lisa is that true??

Lisa: Todd…..I have to tell you the truth…..it’s very bad.  The World Trade Center is gone. Both of the towers have been destroyed.

Todd: Oh God —help us!

Lisa: A third plane was taken over by terrorists. It crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC. Our country is under attack….and I’m afraid that your plane may be part of their plan.

Todd: Oh dear God. Dear God…….Lisa, will you do something for me?

Lisa: I’ll try….if I can….Yes.

Todd: I want you to call my wife and my kids for me and tell them what’s happened. Promise me you’ll call..

Lisa: I promise – I’ll call.

Todd: Our home number is 201 353-1073…….You have the same name as my wife…Lisa….We’ve been married for 10 years. She’s pregnant with our 3rd child. Tell her that I love her…….(choking up)..I’ll always love her..(clearing throat) We have two boys.. David, he’s 3 and Andrew, he’s 1…..Tell them……(choking) tell them that their daddy loves them and that he is so proud of them. (clearing throat again) Our baby is due January 12th…..I saw an ultra sound…..it was great….we still don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy………Lisa?

Lisa: (barely able to speak) I’ll tell them, I promise Todd.

Todd: I’m going back to the group—if I can get back I will…

Lisa: Todd, leave this line open…are you still there?……

Lisa: (dials the phone..) Hello, FBI, my name is Lisa Jefferson, I’m a telephone supervisor for GTE. I need to report a terrorist hijacking of a United Airlines Flight 93….Yes I’ll hold.

Goodwin: Hello, this is Agent Goodwin.. I understand you have a hijacking situation?

Lisa: Yes sir, I’ve been talking with a passenger, a Todd Beamer, on Flight 93 who managed to get to an air phone unnoticed.

Goodwin: Where did this flight originate, and what was its destination?

Lisa: The flight left Newark New Jersey at 8 A.M. departing for San Francisco. The hijackers took over the plane shortly after takeoff, and several minutes later the plane changed course – it is now flying east.

Goodwin: Ms. Jefferson…I need to talk to someone aboard that plane. Can you get me thru to the planes phone?

Lisa: I still have that line open sir, I can patch you through on a conference call…hold a mo…..

Todd: Hello Lisa, Lisa are you there?

Lisa: Yes, I’m here. Todd, I made a call to the FBI, Agent Goodwin is on the line and will be talking to you as well.

Todd: The others all know that this isn’t your normal hijacking. Jeremy called his wife again on his cell phone. She told him more about the World Trade Center and all.

Goodwin: Hello Todd. This is Agent Goodwin with the FBI. We have been monitoring your flight. Your plane is on a course for Washington, DC. These terrorists sent two planes into the World Trade Center and one plane into the Pentagon. Our best guess is that they plan to fly your plane into either the White House or the United States Capital Building.

Todd: I understand…hold on……I’ll…….I’ll be back..

Lisa: Mr. Goodwin, how much time do they have before they get to Washington?

Goodwin: Not long ma’am. They changed course over Cleveland; they’re approaching Pittsburgh now. Washington may be twenty minutes away.

Todd: (breathing a little heavier) The plane seems to be changing directions just a little. It’s getting pretty rough up here. The plane is flying real erratic….We’re not going to make it out of here. Listen to me….I want you to hear this….I have talked with the others….we have decided we would not be pawns in these hijackers suicidal plot.

Lisa: Todd, what are you going to do?

Todd: We’ve hatched a plan. Four of us are going to rush the hijacker with the bomb. After we take him out, we’ll break into the cockpit. A stewardess is getting some boiling water to throw on the hijackers at the controls. We’ll get them….and we’ll take them out. Lisa, …..will you do one last thing for me?

Lisa: Yes…What is it?

Todd: Would you pray with me?

They pray: Our father which art in Heaven

Hallowed be thy name,

Thy kingdom come,

thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive our trespassers,

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory

Forever…..Amen

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…

He makes me to lie down in green pastures

He leads me beside the still waters

He restores my soul

He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

I will fear no evil, for thou art with me…..

Todd: (softer) God help me…Jesus help me….(clears throat and louder)

Are you guys ready?……..
Let’s Roll……………………

As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 recedes into the memories of many or most Americans, each of us should read and reread this transcript periodically to appreciate the heroism of our fellow citizens on that fateful day. 

If anyone believes that such a day cannot occur again—here in the United States, or affecting our allies—they are naive.  The collapse of Afghanistan, and the humiliation of the United States, underscored this in spades.[4]

This is a disturbing realization for all of us, certainly in the midst of so many American deaths and so much suffering from China’s Coronavirus and its mutations—physically, psychologically and economically—with more to come.

 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

_____

 

[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams; and he can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com   

[2] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks (“September 11 attacks”) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93 (“United Airlines Flight 93”) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Beamer (“Todd Beamer”)

[3] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_on_the_World (“Windows on the World”)

[4] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/30/the-taliban-are-victorious/ (“The Taliban Are Victorious”)