The following headline and story, by Corinne Ramey and Alex Leary, was updated March 24, 2023, 5:17 pm ET. I found written confirmation of what I thought I heard on a news report earlier in the day.

Trump Suggests New York Indictment Could Bring ‘Potential Death and Destruction’ — Former president urges supporters to fight back, while GOP allies call for any protests to be peaceful

NEW YORK — Donald Trump is escalating threatening rhetoric as a Manhattan grand jury hearing evidence about his role in paying hush money to a porn star is set to reconvene next week and many of his GOP allies have suggested any protests should be peaceful.

The former president and 2024 White House candidate early Friday lashed out on social media at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and questioned why he would be charged, “when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?”

What a narcissistic statement. If he is indicted, he suggests “potential death & destruction…could be catastrophic for our Country.” Trump is suggesting another Civil War in America. From his perspective, if he can’t have America on his terms, then there will be no America. This is white privilege, hopefully in its final hour of destruction.

I know it’s rhetorical, but who the fuck does Donald Trump think he is? I met him once, when he and Stephen M. Ross were owners of the New Jersey Generals, so I know who he is. Needless to say, he was an arrogant, condescending narcissist then, and he has only mellowed with age.

He dismissed the prosecutor as “a degenerate psychopath” who “hates the USA!”

It appears that the only one who is “a degenerate psychopath” who “hates the USA” is Donald Trump. He is willing to foment, and have American endure American Civil War II, if, like a spoiled child, he can’t have it his way.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Bragg declined to comment. Mr. Bragg has previously said, “we are investigating thoroughly and following the facts without fear or favor.”

The brother doesn’t appear to be afraid; he appears to be determined, as he should be. And it’s good to see him with law enforcement protection.

The suggestion of violence ratchets up earlier calls by Mr. Trump for his supporters to protest should he face indictment. On Saturday, he said he would be arrested this past Tuesday, though aides quickly conceded that was speculative and there had been no notification from the district attorney’s office.

So far only small groups have demonstrated in New York and near Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound in Florida, but authorities are closely monitoring the situation should an indictment come.

Democratic officials in New York and elsewhere have rallied around Mr. Bragg as Mr. Trump’s threats have increased. On Friday, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D., N.Y.) and others in a joint statement called Mr. Bragg a “​​respected, courageous, ethical and thoughtful lawyer.”

“These ugly, hateful and anti-American attacks on our judicial system must be universally condemned without equivocation or hesitation,” they said.

Asked about Friday’s rhetoric, a spokesman for Mr. Trump said, “What Alvin Bragg is doing represents the death and destruction of the justice system.”

Trump and his people are really pushing the line ‘death and destruction,’ a new ‘dog’ whistle.

No former U.S. president has faced criminal charges. Mr. Trump has said he would continue his presidential campaign no matter what happens and he has a rally planned Saturday in Waco, Texas, which lands amid the 30th anniversary of the deadly standoff between federal authorities and Branch Davidian leader David Koresh, a moment that helped intensify far-right mistrust of the government.

The statements fit a familiar pattern for Mr. Trump, who has for years unleashed slashing attacks on his critics and the justice system, portraying himself as a victim of a widespread conspiracy to end his political career. Earlier this week, he posted a photo of himself holding a baseball bat next to a photo of Mr. Bragg’s head.

That photo, which he has since deleted, is why I ask the question, have Black folks lost their mind? A crass former U.S. President ignorantly displays his intellect with a baseball bat. I would love to tell you what I would like to do with that bat.

I am angry. My brother Alvin Bragg, while doing his job, is threatened by a ‘mob’ tool, and it incenses me, as it should incense and anger all black folks. Trump’s real problem is that a sister in Atlanta, and a brother in New York have the nerve, and audacity, to label him a criminal, with the facts to back up their claims of wrongdoing.

Black folks need to issue our own statement suggesting that any harm coming to our Brother Bragg, will bring about ‘death and destruction.’ If a black person makes that statement, they are arrested. Pallor-ass Donald Trump makes the statement and he is applauded and worshipped.

Only crazy people who have lost their mind would tolerate the inhuman suffering the masses of our folk continue to endure in the United States of America. Brothers and Sister, please tell me you haven’t lost your mind. Please acknowledge, as hard as it may be, that America doesn’t work for CHOSSA (Children Of Stolen And Sold Africans).

A number of GOP leaders have tried to mitigate Mr. Trump’s actions, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) who called for protests to be peaceful. “We want calmness out there,” he said Sunday. Mr. Trump responded Thursday in an all-caps message.

“Everybody knows I’m 100% innocent, including Bragg, but he doesn’t care,” he wrote. “He is just carrying out the plans of the radical left lunatics. Our country is being destroyed, as they tell us to be peaceful!”

It sounds like Donald Trump wants a fight. I know that he really doesn’t want to fight because he is the anatomical void that only exists between a woman’s legs. I would love to accommodate him. I actually fantasize about me, being in a one on one fight with Donald. He and I are the same age even though I am 3–4 months older than him, he is 30–40 pounds heavier than me, so that’s a wash. There was no need for a purse nor financial award for the winner. I get the satisfaction and enjoyment of kicking his ass, unmercifully, until the referee stops me.

Fiction Isn’t Self-generating

Fiction Is An Artist’s Reaction to Reality

Reality Creates Fiction

Fiction is An Artist’s Response to Reality

All A Perpetual Helix

Spiraling

Under Whose Control?

Let It Be Ours

Not the Adversaries’ — Kojo Lumumba Bandele, March 25, 2023

Have you ever come across news story that raises more questions than it answers?  An article published by nbcnews.com on March 10, 2022, was written by Johnathan Allen, Stephanie Ruhle, and Charlie Herman, is such an article.  It begins,

“Goldman Sachs, the giant New York investment bank, is cashing in on the war in Ukraine by selling Russian debt to U.S. hedge funds — and using a legal loophole in the Biden administration’s sanctions to do it.”

A shareholder of the New York Federal Reserve Bank is engaged in the business of selling Russian debt to U.S. hedge funds during the present Russian-Ukrainian ‘war’/’conflict’? 

That activity raises a few questions, and only because the New York Federal Reserve Bank, one of twelve Federal Reserve Banks in the United States, and the most powerful, even though privately owned and operated, is the Central Bank of the United States of America, and therefore: the “ Central Bank of the World”. 

Why would a member of the Central Bank of the USA, while America is engaged in a ‘cold’ war with Russia, assist the Russian war effort by arranging the sale of Russian debt to U. S. hedge funds? 

Before I go any further, let me dispel a few notions, and deal with a few definitions so we are on the same page.  My son’s first response to my initial draft of this piece was accusatory, “here you go again dad, dealing with conspiracy theories.”  What does it mean to conspire?  One definition is:

“To act in harmony toward a common end.” – Merriam-Webster Dictionary

That is not a bad thing.  That is something all humans should do, but only some do. 

A synonym for conspire is collude.  The Latin prefix col-, meaning “together,” and the verb ludere, “to play,” come together to form collude.  “Together, to play.”  (The very nature of humanity, remember; we are animals). 

The related noun collusion has the specific meaning, “secret agreement or cooperation.”  Despite their playful history, collude and collusion have always suggested deceit or trickery rather than good-natured fun.  Another synonym for conspire is scheme which means, “a plan or program of action especially a crafty or secret one; a systematic or organized configuration; a concise statement or table; a graphic sketch or outline.”  Just because something is crafty or secret, doesn’t mean that it has to be bad.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am clear that most conspiracies are bad, and only benefit the perpetrators, not the victims.  Unfortunately, Western Civilization (European culture) has given the word it’s present meaning of “bad.”  The article continues.

“In interviews with a dozen investors, current and former U.S. government officials and financial analysts, a recurring theme emerged: The Biden administration’s concern for U.S. investors, including major companies that broker deals for a buck, has stopped it from cracking down harder on Russia and left open the possibility that unsanctioned Putin cronies could gain access to cash by selling debt through Goldman Sachs.

Goldman’s effort to profit from the war highlights the complexities the Biden administration faces in trying to punish Russia without harming Wall Street and the economies of the U.S. and its allies. And it is a stark reminder that no asset is too toxic to be traded when there are willing buyers, sellers and brokers.

As the Western world scrambles to defend Ukraine by locking down Russian money, the company is acting as a broker between Moscow’s creditors and U.S. investors, pitching clients on the opportunity to take advantage of Russia’s war-crippled economy by buying its debt securities low now and selling them high later, according to four financial world sources familiar with the strategy.” 

It is a strategy they have employed for the past few centuries (The Battle of Waterloo comes to mind).

“…That does not violate the U.S. sanctions regime, but it is very different from the public face Goldman is putting on its relationship with Russia. In an emailed statement, Goldman is telling the public that it is “winding down” its business in Russia, portraying its actions as supportive of America’s effort to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin.

There is nothing illegal about brokering Russian debt trades. In fact, the Biden administration gave investment firms a green light to trade in Russian assets.

Why is it not illegal, and why did the Biden Administration green light the trade?

A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs said in an email Thursday: “Winding down our operations in Russia and supporting our clients around the globe in managing and closing out their market obligations are not mutually exclusive. 

When U.S. officials sanctioned Russian banks this month, it became illegal for U.S. companies to do business directly with major Russian financial institutions. But the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, issued a memo affirming the legal legitimacy of trading Russian assets in “secondary markets” — those not directly involving the Russian banks. That’s why Goldman can act as a broker.

The sanctions action “does not prohibit trading in the secondary markets for debt or equity” of the Russian central bank, the Russian national wealth fund or the Russian Finance Ministry, as long as those institutions aren’t parties to the trades and the debts were issued before March 1, OFAC wrote.

Why is Goldman Sachs not publicly disclosing the truth about their personal conflict of interests in the matter?  Who are the Moscow creditors referred to in the article?  Who does Moscow owe money to?  Who are the U.S. investors purchasing Russian debt?  Why would U.S. investors purchase bonds from persons or entities in a nation that their country is at ‘war’ with?  According to the story, here is one thing to consider.

“Russian sovereign debt is awash throughout our economy,” said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to explain the administration’s reluctance to ban the trading of Russian debt. “It’s just infused into our economy. It’s so pervasive.

Most of the sovereign debt in question is in Russian bonds issued through government channels, including the Russian central bank. Government bonds are tools for countries to raise money from investors. While the crumbling Russian economy has made Russian debt of little current value, some investors believe it will rebound at some point in the future, allowing them to turn a profit.”

Why are countries, including Russia and the United States, borrowing money; and from whom?  As a sovereign entity, why don’t nations mint, print, and issue their own currency?  The news story continues.

“The official said blocking all Russian debt trades could mess — the official used a different four-letter word — with financial markets in the U.S. and other countries in unintended ways.

“We can sanction new sovereign debt,” the official said, pointing to the recent ban on trading assets created after March 1. “We have not gotten into the game — and the Hill is looking into this — of how you could sanction debt that’s already in the marketplace.”

And speaking of sanctions,

“The sanctions against Russia are more lenient than those the Trump administration imposed on Venezuela, which included a broad ban on trading government debt — with exemptions to allow for divestment — according to investors and former U.S. officials familiar with the policy.

…But a current U.S. official and a former U.S. official said an all-out ban could hurt U.S. investors — including major pension funds — that bought sovereign debt before the invasion of Ukraine.

Most investors have shied away from the obvious public relations risk of profiting from Russia’s war, but Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and many hedge funds have gotten in on the action. In most cases, the buyers do not know the identities of the sellers, and no regulation requires brokers to disclose the identities publicly.

That means the public may never know whether profits are derived by pumping money into the pockets of Putin’s cronies when Russia faces a cash crunch. In other words, it is more clear that U.S. investors — and middlemen like Goldman Sachs — are profiting from the cheap cost of Russian debt and less clear who is benefiting from the sales.

While Goldman is dealing mostly in Russian government debts, JPMorgan Chase has brokered deals for the debt of private Russian companies as a “recovery play,” Bloomberg News reported.”

JPMorgan Chase, another large shareholder of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, has managed to avoid the spotlight but is still a major financial player in the ‘war’.

“JPMorgan announced late Thursday that it is also” winding down” its business in Russia while acknowledging that it has been assisting clients in Russia-related trades. On March 4, as Russia was attacking Ukraine, the investment bank’s research team issued a report recommending that clients buy Russian corporate bonds.”

Do you want answers to the questions this news story raises?

Please continue to watch this space.

And remember, humans do “act in harmony toward a common end.”

Let’s you and I get started.

Please hit me back with your thoughts.

The headline of an article that posted on nbcnews.com, June 17, 2022, 9:46 AM EDT, by Patrick Smith and Kevin Collier, not only caught my attention, but it also ‘blew my mind.’

“The previous world order is finished,” the Russian leader said in an address to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday.

“A defiant Vladimir Putin declared Friday that the Western order was collapsing, brushing aside the economic and diplomatic fallout from his invasion of Ukraine in a speech the Kremlin billed as “extremely important.”

Because Russia is a Western nation and part of the ‘Western order’, Putin has a front row seat to the economic ‘collapse’ that is coming; but why is he announcing it to the world, particularly at an International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia?    

“…Putin argued that the era of America’s global dominance was at an end and claimed that the sanctions “blitzkrieg” imposed on Moscow’s economy by Washington and its allies had failed.”

During that speech Putin also said,

“The current crises on the global economy, which is due to the ill-conceived and selfish actions of some countries who use financial mechanisms to blame others the world over for their own macroeconomic policy faults…” – Vladimir Putin via CNN

Putin was referring to Capitalism, and the work of the Fed, the privately owned and controlled Central Bank of the United States.  The collapsing ‘world order’ Putin speaks of is poised to throw the US economy, and therefore the world economy, into a resounding recession/depression that will surpass the economic devastation created by the Great Depression that began with the Stock Market collapse in 1929.  On the same CNN broadcast, Putin, referring to America said,

“They live in the past on their own under their own delusions…They think that…they have won and that everything else is a colony, a backyard…And the people living there are second class citizens.”

Putin feels disrespected but has maintained his vision for the future of Russia.  He has one fatal flaw.  Putin’s error is in equating ‘America’s global dominance’ with the ‘previous world order’, which is the present world order.  America’s ‘global dominance’ is a subset of the ‘present world order’.  Russia is also a part of the ‘previous/present world order’ but not a major player, much to Putin’s chagrin. They are connected because America is a subset of the present world order, but America is not ‘the’ world order, and that is Putin’s error. 

Presently, Capitalism/White Supremacy, is the prevailing economic paradigm, but it is larger than just America.  The economic failure of America will not ultimately damage the wealth of the ‘ruling elite’.  In my book Capitalism Birthed Racism: When Will Racism End, and What Will Replace Capitalism? Equism is the Harbinger, c2022  I offer that Capitalism/White Supremacy, has existed for the past 2,300 years.  Today, Capitalism is the reason why 1/10 of 1% of the world’s population (7,000,000 people) own and control 90% of the Earth’s resources and its human population.  Putin continued,

“The previous world order is finished — irrespective of all the efforts to preserve it, it’s a natural way of history,” he told the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, an annual business meeting launched in 1997 as a Russian alternative to the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland.” 

“A situation with “One strong power with a limited circle of countries [in support]” was “not stable,” he said, adding that it was a mistake for the U.S. to have claimed victory in the Cold War and to have treated other countries “like colonies.” 

The mistake is Putin’s. He is tired of Russia being a colony without realizing that America is still a colony.  The economic paradigm Capitalism now operates in both America and Russia, and they are still ‘colonies’ of the ruling elite.  Communism was an experiment that failed, as Capitalism has failed today.

“…to have treated other countries ‘like colonies” is an incredible revelation.  What is Putin’s motive for raising this issue?  Putin sees America collapsing economically, without realizing that Russia is now operating under the same “financial mechanisms” controlled by the ruling elite.  Maybe Putin only wants Russia to take America’s place at the ‘Table’? 

Putin doesn’t want to overturn the ‘Table’ that Capitalism has ‘set’, he just wants a seat at the ‘Table’; and America’s seat will do him fine.  Capitalism works for Putin, as long as he is the political leader of the perceived seat of power.  Vladimir feels he proved his ability in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea, and now again with the Ukraine war.

Putin said the war in Ukraine, which he maintains was launched to protect Russian-speaking people in the country’s east, was the decision of a sovereign country based on the right to defend its security.

“All the objectives of the special military operation will be implemented, there’s no doubt about it,” he added.

Will Putin achieve his objective?  Will Russia (90% Caucasian) replace America (50% Caucasian and losing ground) and become the new seat of perceived European/Caucasian power, while the ‘ruling elite’ and their economic paradigm Capitalism continues to dominate Earth?   Everything has a life and death, including Capitalism; the deadly scourge that is still enslaving people of color world-wide (90% of Earth’s population).  The article continues.

The U.S. has helped build an alliance to aid Ukraine’s defensive war with military supplies while hitting Russia’s economy with severe sanctions. Putin said his country was withstanding those efforts and pointed to increasing price inflation and energy costs across the West as evidence that those sanctions had backfired.

Costs were rising in the West “long before we launched the special military operation in the Donbas,” he added, scoffing at the idea of a “Putin price rise.”…U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned last week that dwindling food supplies caused by the war in Ukraine, the pandemic and climate change could lead to global unrest.  “If we do not feed people, we feed conflict,” he said. 

That speech, in St. Petersburg, had “…added significance for Putin. As well as being his home city, it is named after Peter the Great, the 18th-century modernizing but militant czar to whom Putin favorably compared himself to earlier this month.”

The following is an article posted on nbcnews.com on June 10, 2022, 7:35 AM EDT by Patrick Smith.  It provides additional information on Putin which may help in understanding his motives.

LONDON — President Vladimir Putin has compared himself to Peter the Great, saying he shares the 18th-century czar’s goal of returning “Russian lands” to a greater empire.

Speaking after visiting an exhibition to celebrate the 350th anniversary of Peter’s birth on Thursday, Putin drew a parallel to his invasion of Ukraine.

Referring to the Ukraine invasion he said: “Apparently, it also fell to us to return [what is Russia’s] and strengthen [the country]. And if we proceed from the fact that these basic values form the basis of our existence, we will certainly succeed in solving the tasks that we face.”

Peter the First, or Peter the Great, is credited with expanding Russia into an empire and a major European power. He is also remembered for ending the supremacy of the Swedish navy in the Baltic region and expanding Russia’s borders with the seizure of Swedish land and several Baltic countries. The city named in his honor, St Petersburg, was founded on captured Swedish land. It is also Putin’s hometown.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised fears that Putin is intent not only on claiming its neighbor and former Soviet republic, but potentially has his eye on Poland, Finland and the Baltics, among others.  [Sounds like Hitler’s plan to me.]

All one need do is to read Peter Alexander’s title to understand Putin’s objective.  According to Wikipedia, the imperial title of Peter the Great was the following:

“By the grace of God, the most excellent and great sovereign emperor Pyotr Alekseevich the ruler of all the Russias: of Moscow, of Kyiv, of Vladimir, of Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan and Tsar of Siberia, sovereign of Pskov, great prince of Smolensk, of Tver, of Yugorsh, of Perm, of Vyatka, of Bulgaria and others, sovereign and great prince of the Novgorod Lower lands, of Chernigov, of Ryazan, of Rostov, of Yaroslavl, of Belozersk , of Udora, of Kondia,  and the sovereign of all the northern lands, and the sovereign of the Iverian lands, of the Kartlian and Georgian Kings, of the Kabardin lands, of the Circassian and Mountain princes and many other states and lands western and eastern here and there and the successor and sovereign and ruler.”

I guess you get the picture.  Back to Mr. Smith’s article.

“Putin has been tearing off a lot of masks — what he’s revealing rather consistently is Russia’s new imperial ambitions,” said Rory Finnin, associate professor of Ukraine studies at Cambridge University.  “Russia’s war against Ukraine is now clearly a war of imperial conquest,” he added.  [Putin learned that from American ‘his-story’.]

“The Kremlin’s expansion plan involves either seizing territory and replacing populations, as in the Ukrainian cities of Kherson and Mariupol, or by toppling democratic regimes to create “vassal states,” Finnin said.

Carl Bildt, a former prime minister of Sweden, said, “That’s how he sees his mission — to take back what once was claimed by Russia.”  Putin has a keen interest in history and has admitted that historic precedent informs his foreign policies.

“Kyiv is the mother of Russian cities,” Putin said in a speech in March 2014, arguing that Russia and Ukraine were historically inseparable. “Ancient Rus is our common source and we cannot live without each other.”  A few days later Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

In July 2021, Putin again argued that Russia and Ukraine were part of one nation, seven months before the full Ukraine invasion began…Simon Sebag Montefiore, an acclaimed popular historian who [has] written extensively on the Romanov dynasty that ruled Russia for 300 years, said successive Russian leaders have sought to emulate Peter.

Every Romanov tsar, every Soviet leader, and here Putin, dreams of being the first emperor who managed to be [a] statesman, general conqueror, builder [and] reformer.

Let’s be clear, Peter was a tool and instrument of the ‘money’ brokers, as Putin is today.  If the ruling elite believe it is in their best interests to allow Putin to ‘dream’, and to act like his behavior is acceptable, Putin is safe.  He should remember though, that  Sadaam Hussein thought the very same thing when Iraq invaded Kuwait, until someone didn’t like the optics, changed their mind on the issue, and decided he was dispensable.

Will Putin and Russia be admitted to the ‘club’, or will Russia remain a ‘colony’, and Putin a ‘vassal’? 

What do you think?