As IF Times

Source: Minority candidates see both success and veiled racism

Of course it is. It’s nice to have a default excuse when things don’t go your way. It must be horrific to try to exist in such a state of constant oppression.  Like the Cleveland Browns.  Or the San Francisco 49’ers.  Both of these NFL teams have seen their fortunes decline to abysmal levels over the years.  The Browns produced a perfect winless season last year and the 49’ers were  only marginally better.  Oddly, racism was never invoked as a reason for their futility.  On the other hand, the New England Patriots had another seemingly perennial season of winning, managing to once again reach the Super Bowl.

While there is a quasi socialist mechanism of parity in the league via the annual draft, teams are left to their own devices as to how to improve their lot.  Rather than just dwell in the basement, moan about the Patriots and invoke some kind of unfairness bleat, teams are forced to act to ensure their survival. Accordingly, the 49’ers traded for the Patriots’ star quarterback, Jimmy Garapallo last year in an effort to change their fortunes.  The L.A. Raiders paid Jon Gruden $100 million over 10 years to rebuild their team.

Hmm.

What if nations did that? There are numerous impoverished and needy nations in the world, many on the African continent that could trade for some star players.  Think of The Congo, Zimbabwe, Burundi and such, all with less than $600 per capita GDP.  On the other hand, think of the wealth of star players that the United States have including some of the wealthiest, most famous and influential sports and media personalities in the world. Think of the influence of Oprah, Kanye, LeBron, Snoop and many others that feel racism continues to oppress them.

Why wouldn’t the impoverished nations propose a trade? The stars could bring money, expertise, enthusiasm and fame to lift them from poverty!  Of course the poor nations wouldn’t have much to offer; maybe some hilltop view properties, some farm animals and a tropical climate, but the glitterati would have a blank slate to build a country and improve the fortunes of an impoverished nation while at the same time leaving their oppressive host nation behind.  They could literally be nation builders and change the path of history for the poor nations….like Garapallo could for the ‘Niners.

In the NFL, when a player expresses disgruntlement at his playing time or his working conditions, he is usually granted a trade to a team that’s expected to provide a more benign working environment and which welcomes his contribution.  Grousing constantly about present circumstances is neither good for the player nor the team he plays for.  When he moves on, the world can truly see the extent of his genius.  That’ll learn ’em.

Source: Migrant caravan re-forms in Mexico, members vow to reach US

If people believe that the ‘migrant’ caravan currently on route to the US via the southern Mexican border is a spontaneous movement of refugees, then we have a free health care plan to sell you.  We haven’t read anywhere in the media of the circumstances which would cause thousands of people to spontaneously form a collective mob and head to the US border as if it was a seasonal migration of ducks.  There’s no war in Central America, nor famine, nor pestilence.

While we can’t dismiss the idea of a road trip embarked upon out of boredom, it usually occurs among a few friends, never in my recollection including an entire village of 5000.  That would create a problem of who’s going to drive.  In the circumstance at hand, driving isn’t an issue, they’ve decided to walk the thousand miles instead.  But instead of staying in Mexico, or heading the other way to South America, the US is the target destination.

Anyone who’s ever been part of a road trip is aware of the simple logistics involved: food, accommodations, bathrooms and of course Starbucks locales. Think of arranging that for 5000 people. Either this is a very intelligent mob, in which case they would have taken a train at least, or else someone is shepherding the process and paying for all the bottled water and Subway sandwiches for the trip.  Who would have an interest in that we wonder?  Purely by coincidence, the arrival of this mob is scheduled to arrive…just around the time of the American mid term elections. Throughout the coverage of this event, the media characterizes the mob as migrants.  That’s like saying a home invader is a visitor.  As usual, the opposite speak of the left is used to obfuscate the reality observed by our own lying eyes.

The other newsworthy event being pushed by the news outlets is the murder of the Saudi ‘journalist’ Jamal Khashoggi. While the guy probably had an unpleasant demise, the narrative surrounding the circumstances are eye rollingly absurd.  The Saudis claim he got into a fist fight….with 18 combatants, which he somehow lost…and then subsequently sawed into pieces by the sore winners.  The media reports that this innocent, benign journalist was tortured because he wrote unflatteringly about the Saudis and yada yada yada, Trump.

Like the characterization of the ‘migrants’ in the caravan, Khasshogi is portrayed as a ‘journalist’. This is like saying Elizabeth Warren is a Cherokee.  Ex White House adviser Sebastian Gorka stated it best when he wrote:

“…This is a man who was a fully paid up member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the ideological mothership that gave us Hamas, al-Qaeda, and, eventually, the Islamic State. He is the same man who, under the banner of his organization, DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World), was providing the glide path for Islamists to pervert and subvert any nascent structures of representative government in the Middle East. Shades of Orwell and 1984’s “War is Peace” Newspeak. But this time it’s “Democracy is Salafist Theocracy…”

But he did contribute the odd article for that paragon of truth, The Washington Post and so a journalist he is.  Coincidently again, this ‘crisis’ with the Saudis comes at the same time as the American mid term elections.  Boy, what are the odds?