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Showing posts from January, 2016

Baghdad-by-the-Bay

Public Firing Squad, San Francisco. Two of five trigger-pullers were previously disciplined for "excessive force". To wit: " Cuevas allegedly fired his gun at three men in 2009 when he was an Antioch police officer, hitting two of them in the back, according to a federal lawsuit which is still pending in court" ( SF Examiner ) What is happening in Super Bowl City? Top line, the  2016 city budget will be approximately $9B ( Mayor's Office Budget PDF ) for 880K people - in a state of 55M with $122B budget ( SF Chronicle, 1/7 ). The 2016 San Francisco city figure is up from $6.6B  in just 2009, when local alt-press lovingly documented San Francisco as the worst-run city in America ( SF Weekly ). Flash forward to 2015, Washington DC based  WalletHub.com found: In an effort to determine the "Best Run City in America," Bay Area cities ranked near the bottom. Not only did Fremont come in last at No. 65, Oakland comes in at No. 60, San Jose at No. 59,

Lake Water

This story is about American Great Lakes geopolitics. Last few years. The geopolitical priorities between Detroit, Michigan and Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan. The Chicago White House that bought and sold Detroit GM, securing Great Lakes capital markets. Tamir Rice in Cleveland. The Flint water that corroded car parts and lead poisoned folks. The 2015 and  2016 Chicago shooting spree . Markers signify cities with high density of homicide. Details . The political economies of Great Lakes cities are historically linked. Today, international treaties with Canada govern water rights and obligations.  Chicago started as an outpost of the United States Army: Fort Dearborn in 1803. (Today, Dearborn Michigan of metro Detroit is the headquarters of Ford Motor Company.) Fort Dearborn became  Town of Chicago  August 12, 1833, incorporated with 350 people that got busy. By 1848, they completed the  Illinois-Michigan Canal ,  linking the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River - the n

Queen H

American theology tends towards the premise that USA invented liberty and midwifed modernity. The New World left behind The Old World. The European empires retreated. Emancipation proclaimed; destiny manifest. The European kings fell. The Nazis fell. The East/West Wall fell. (In Berlin.) The New World Order came to be, the last man emerged, and history ended  in 1989. A quarter century later, Time Magazine ( among others ) invoked 1968 to document American pain in the wake of Baltimore PD's killing repeat opioid offender and "son of an illiterate heroin addict" ( CNN ) Freddie Gray; the Time cover portrayed a young black man running from "an army" of BPD.  1968 is the year Chicago's own Hillary Rodham observed her city torn during the Democratic primary just four months after King's assassination in Memphis - just a few hours south down the Mississippi River watershed. Provided evidence of the 2016 Chicago Mayor suppressing evidence of extra

Blue Magic

Southern Command's boss, Marine John Kelly, stepped down Friday, 1/8/2016 ( CSPAN ). He gave his final press conference at the Pentagon. Kelly toured Iraq and lost a son to combat i n  Sangin, Afghanistan,  Nov. 9, 2010.  The man put skin in the game for USA and lost. He bravely and h onorably answered questions about his personal pain as a parent. His support for Gold Star families . By my count, Kelly fielded 16 questions. 6 concerned Guantanamo Bay detainee transfer operations. Prisoner logistics. People movement. To/from Cuba. 3 questions concerned Kelly's POV on Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He discussed women in combat. Fighting in Sangin, Afghanistan. Photo attributed to Marines November 2010 . The same month Kelly's son was killed.  " They had called it “Sangingrad.” American forces rotated in because UK public refused to accept the casualty count. A question about Colombia. Venezuela. UAV. Kelly's opening statement emphasized the "great" 2

Blue Faces

"Over-homogenized accounts risk being misleading. With CJ reform, makes something fragile and local appear more stable and global." - John Pfaff ( twitter ) " We all came on the  boat  looking for  hope  / And all you can say is that you're looking for  dope" -  Kendrick Lamar,  Compton, "Untitled 2" ( listen ) For much of this first week Election Year 2016, " black market " films captured Entertainment market share. First, a story about irregular, x-border USA combat operations contra Mexican "black markets". Second, political economics of "black markets" - speech, guns - in Ronald Reagan Era Los Angeles. "Sicario" appeared #1 movie at iTunes. "Straight Outta Compton" #2. Sean Penn's badly-scripted Hollywood Chapo opera hit the top of Twitter Saturday night. During daytime, primetime TV, Chicago's POTUS personally put "guns in America" on TV. Twice. First, Tuesday at the Wh