Thoughts of an old steelworker.

[Leo123]

Kids today don't know what its like to have nuclear missiles as a real threat.
I remember those nuclear drills in school.
Every time I hear a long fire siren I think about nuclear missiles could be on their way here.

Remember this? (Circa 1951)

 

[DarthTrader]

They didn't have 50 billion in investments in Cuba.
My father inspected the Esso refinery there.
He was also an observer at Bikini Atoll. We talked about that. I have heard that conspiracy theory of why Kennedy was killed. Doesn't quite wash. The US government drove Cuba into the arms of the Soviets because of the Sugar Beet lobby.

It could be that dumb. I mean last I checked the US claims "$50 billion" or thereabouts in reparations from Cuba for US investor claims.

But it could be that dumb about the sugar beets. Spain reaped HUGE profits from Cuban sugar.

 

[Rigby5]

That'd a fallacy. We gave Kruschev what looked like a win. But had we not have that....we may have found ourselves in a very weak position had be made that move.

Traditionally thought the Russian mind is very conservative and defensive.

US is very offensive. We are usually the aggressor. But we see it as better than being on the defensive all the time.

We did not advertise that we gave in to the Soviets over the missiles in Turkey.
Everyone in the US still thinks Khrushchev backed down by himself.

{...
After several days of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between Kennedy and Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a US public declaration and agreement to not invade Cuba again. Secretly, the United States agreed that it would dismantle all of the Jupiter MRBMs, which had been deployed in Turkey against the Soviet Union.
...}

Cuban Missile Crisis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Rigby5]

It could be that dumb. I mean last I checked the US claims "$50 billion" or thereabouts in reparations from Cuba for US investor claims.

But it could be that dumb about the sugar beets. Spain reaped HUGE profits from Cuban sugar.

The funny part is that the Cuban ex-patriots stole the Cuban treasury and took it to Miami, so actually the US owed Cuba about $80 billion.

 

[surada]

It could be that dumb. I mean last I checked the US claims "$50 billion" or thereabouts in reparations from Cuba for US investor claims.

But it could be that dumb about the sugar beets. Spain reaped HUGE profits from Cuban sugar.

The US bought all Cuban sugar. But then we cut them off and the Soviets bought their whole crop until 1989.

 

[Rigby5]

The US bought all Cuban sugar. But then we cut them off and the Soviets bought their whole crop until 1989.

The Cubans themselves never wanted to grow sugar, but that is what Domino demanded as the highest profits.
You can't eat sugar instead of real food.
Its main use for making rum, again just for export and high colonial profits.

 

[surada]

The Cubans themselves never wanted to grow sugar, but that is what Domino demanded as the highest profits.
You can't eat sugar instead of real food.
Its main use for making rum, again just for export and high colonial profits.

Whatever. The sugar plantations date to 1600.

 

[DarthTrader]

The funny part is that the Cuban ex-patriots stole the Cuban treasury and took it to Miami, so actually the US owed Cuba about $80 billion.

This is also pretty common.

US stole about 70 tonnes of Gold from Ukraine.

US also stole gold from Russia during the Russian civil war in operation archangelsk.

US is pretty dastardly

 

[Esdraelon]

Kids today don't know what its like to have nuclear missiles as a real threat.
I remember those nuclear drills in school.
Every time I hear a long fire siren I think about nuclear missiles could be on their way here.

I recall those monthly drills with the air raid sirens. Frankly, if our fate is to be oppressed and enslaved by DC, I'd just as soon take the nuke and leave here knowing that the crowd in the Beltway will never have the same level of power and influence again.

 

[scruffy]

But if Oswald was a Russian sympathizer as claimed, he would not have killed Kennedy.
Kennedy was an improvement as far as Russia went.
So either Oswald was fake or was not the shooter?

Oswald was probably "a" shooter. He probably missed, though.

That mess was a lot like J6, everyone and their brother was in there trying to stir up trouble.

 

[Likkmee]

Those days of "duck and cover" thinking a small school desk would protect from a nuclear blast. thank goodness the bombs never came

Problem was there desks weren't aMerrykin made !

 

[Dragonlady]

Kids today don't know what its like to have nuclear missiles as a real threat.
I remember those nuclear drills in school.
Every time I hear a long fire siren I think about nuclear missiles could be on their way here.

I remember being in Grade 6 and having nuclear missile drills, where we were supposed to climb under our desks for "protection" in the event of a nuclear blast. I suppose the desk would have provided kindling to reduce our bodies to ashes in the blast, but as for protection, what a joke!

 

[Hutch Starskey]

In 1962 I was fifteen years old with a shovel in my hand helping my dad bury canned food in our back yard. The Russians, led by Nikita Khrushchev, were erecting missile bases in Cuba just 90 miles from the coast of Florida. John F. Kennedy had presided over the botched Bay of Pigs invasion which American intelligence naively believed would inspire the Cuban people to overthrow Fidel Castro when an invasion force of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the US landed on Cuban shores. It did not go that way.

The invasion plan had little to do with freeing the Cuban people, it was really to protect corrupt US corporate interests that made it impossible for average Cuban citizens to escape poverty. Much like today where Washington is nearly wholly owned by the People’s Republic of China, in those days Cuba was a bonanza for American business interests, and Castro was driven into the arms of the Soviet Union by US capitalist greed and congressional mischief. Of course, it was not presented that way. Washington propaganda went into high gear to protect itself by blaming Castro as a threat to democracy when in truth Castro was a creation of the US government. Castro could have been dealt with much differently but instead Cuba became an unfortunate poster child for Democracy Vs. Communism which was the plan in Washington all along.

The failed Cuban invasion fiasco showed weakness and incompetence to Khrushchev, and he quickly moved to take advantage of the situation. Kennedy’s jack-leg leadership provided Khrushchev with the perfect excuse to paint Cuba as an embattled ally under attack from US imperialistic expansion. So, US intelligence and the Kennedy administration nearly started World War Three with presidential ineptitude eerily comparable to what is happening today. Most boomers remember where they were when they got the news that CIA operative Lee Oswald and others assassinated Kennedy in Texas on November 22, 1963. There was no time to impeach Kennedy, so the government had to act fast.

To be fair, Kennedy inherited the plan from Dwight Eisenhower’s intelligence apparatus, but it was his failure to carry it out competently instead giving it a half-baked effort that walked right into Russia’s wheelhouse. Surveillance photos clearly showed Russian nuclear missiles stacked up in staging areas aimed at the US. US propaganda platforms went into action and Kennedy died a hero’s death after he came remarkably close to ending humanity. Washington then made use of another individual with CIA connections, Jack Ruby, and Oswald was dispatched on live TV just two days later to keep him from implicating US intelligence. But Kennedy is remembered as a great leader because he fit a narrative of young, good-looking example of what was proper and desirable for the people and the people were blinded beyond reason to see it that way even if it meant their adoration could bring about the end of civilization.

How is this relevant? It is relevant because we find ourselves in the same position today. Washington is like a club that fools the people into believing that there is a difference between political parties. The truth is that Washington has no connection at all with average people on any side of its existing power structure. Washington exists for Washington’s sake and nothing else. When the people get hip to this and intuitively reject Washington by choosing an outsider like Donald Trump then the club is threatened. The new danger today is that there is no buffer between Washington and the people consisting of a free press questioning the motives of Washington as there was in the past. The American press has been corroded into a public relations arm of Washington and acts that way.

Expanding technology that gives us Facebook, twitter, and Tik Tok make it possible to empower propaganda in unprecedented ways that join forces with toxically recruited print media weaponizing and manipulating information disguised as legitimate news reporting. This is how an entirely absurd story of Russian Collusion was reported to the people while dissenting opinions were smeared as conspiracy theories and automatically blocked as dangerous Russian disinformation. This is precisely how the former Soviet Union functioned prior to 1989.

Incredibly, many contemporary Americans acted just like those of the past. They fell prey to propaganda that caused them to focus completely on Donald Trump’s form while totally ignoring his function. His function was to supply an alternative to Washington’s sellout of the working population. Washington is willing to risk nuclear war to protect itself and the people need to understand that. Given the extent to which America has been degraded by Washington corruption it is not surprising that it was able to preside over a fraudulent presidential election to remove the outsider that threatened it. It is what replaced the threat that mirrors the Cuban Missile Crisis today. The physics of an atomic bomb blast is the same today as it was in 1962. Readers are encouraged to research the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and realize that thermonuclear bombs today dwarf those.

Joe Biden is a mentally disabled figurehead installed by Washington and he has no awareness of what is happening. Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine for the same reason that Nikita Khrushchev put missiles in Cuba. He saw weakness and confusion in an enemy. But there is a difference with a distinction. Putin is being backed into a corner like a wounded bear. He has his finger on a button he could press at any time. One nuclear missile launched purposely or in error could cause the dominoes to fall.

My dad is long gone but I still have that shovel.

Do you find yourself burying canned goods in your yard? No. Because you have the experience and insight to know better. The gift that time gives. While similar, it’s in no way the same. There are no duck and cover drills. There are sadly, active shooter drills. The problems are still big. Just not as well defined.

 

[Hutch Starskey]

I remember being in Grade 6 and having nuclear missile drills, where we were supposed to climb under our desks for "protection" in the event of a nuclear blast. I suppose the desk would have provided kindling to reduce our bodies to ashes in the blast, but as for protection, what a joke!

It was more about an orderly end than protection.