Pro-democracy protesters give the three-finger salute outside a station in Bangkok as rallies continued [Lillian Suwanrumpha/ AFP]
Unedited morning thoughts:
Recently, I was an expert witness on arbitration for a situation involving Hong Kong. During proceedings, someone asked the difference between insurrection and insurgency. Answer: depends on who is answering. Same with "terrorism." Ten people, ten answers.
Of course, someone will fall back and say, "But this dictionary says..."
Today, dictionaries are rewritten in real time. "The dictionary" -- of which there are many -- is not a final arbiter on anything. Dictionary publishers are like police sketch-artists trying to describe a subject based on a thousand separate witness statements, and then pretending the sketch describing the subject is the new truth.
But "the law says" "terrorism" is such-and-such. Whose law? When? Canadian law? Mexican?
And so, this preface to acknowledge that the moment I introduce the word insurrection, someone will invariably reach for a dictionary and say, "No! This is not insurrection -- here is dictionary proof." From a dictionary that was changed ten minutes ago. Next year, same dictionary may say something else after a powerful politician waves a magic wand.
Define COVID death. Firstly, start by calling it China virus. What shall we include? Suicides related to lockdown stress?
Iraq was an interesting war: In early 2005, I started saying Iraq was in civil war. Many people reached for dictionaries to argue Iraq was not in civil war. Civil war brought political implications. It's just a headache. Take two aspirin and call me in the morning. But what if this really is CIVIL WAR. A brain tumor.
To be sure, most of Iraq was peaceful, and many of the parts that were at war were not in civil war. I correctly diagnosed in early 2005 that Iraq was in civil war in PLACES. Interesting thing about brain tumors, insurgencies, insurrections, and civil wars: Most of the body can be completely healthy, but that tiny little tumor... We must properly identify while it's still treatable.
But my saying Iraq was in Civil War was taken as direct affront to Rumsfeld and Bush. None was intended by me. I was just calling a tumor a tumor. And besides -- if I were right, and it really was growing, you would know soon enough and would become impossible to hide from informed observers.
The Iraq tumor exploded. Massive casualties resulted. Many of them our own. In early 2005, signal-to-noise on the civil war was low. It was hard to sniff out the civil war because the insurgency woven into it was so strong. The US administration wanted to hide the civil war fearing Americans would abandon efforts if this were Iraqi-on-Iraqi.
Importantly: insurgency and civil war can be two separate threads woven into one cord, and there will be other threads. Insurgency nearly always brings civil war components. Separate threads can require custom treatment.
The civil war component of the Iraq war was a component that would burn with or without the presence of US troops. Even if we pulled out completely, the civil war would continue. And did. (Which, in part, led to the growth of ISIS.)
After politicians and commanders actually admitted to the civil war -- 18 months after I was alerting on it --and began to specifically treat civil war, especially in 2007, we greatly tamped it down. Admitting to the problem allowed us to openly treat it by, as an example, building walls between warring neighborhoods. These walls and other measures turned down the gas.
By late 2007, the civil war and the various insurgencies dramatically abated. We were allowed to treat the conditions after we admitted they exist.
Various civil wars and insurgencies are brewing in United States. Prognosis remains unclear. I am working to sort this out. Takes much time and effort.
One giant problem is trust. We do not trust media. We do not trust government. We do not trust our own elections.
State governments run flawless lotteries, yet we refuse verified voting for the naked cause of cheating. This can spark war. Real war. The sort that leads to closed highways and trains blown off tracks. The sort that leads to Dresden-like firestorms. Will it come to that? Diagnose early. Treat early.
We must open the economy. Accept that we will take casualties from the China virus. China unleashed this thing. We will deal with it.
The United States is a big place. We have tumors here and there. Most are benign. Normal background noise. But there is a reason I flew straight to Portland. Portland has a malignant tumor.
Real communists are fighting against police. If the communists manage to run off the police, they can install their own. The communists are making progress in Portland.
Portland residents who are apathetic risk everything. Act now, or pay soon. Voting against communism is your last line of civilized defense.
In Thailand, the growing 'protests' fall into the category of insurrection. Revolt. This is serious for Thailand. A revolt against the current government, and the King. These are not mere protests in Thailand.
Portland, Oregon, is in clear insurgency. A local insurgency, but clear. A local communist revolution. A tumor on the larger body of America.
The communist Sarah Iannarone openly supports ANTIFA and is running for mayor of Portland. ANTIFA in Portland already has assassinated someone in plain view. ANTIFA is a terrorist organization committing hundreds of acts of violence per month.
Sarah Iannarone clearly states her intention to defund the police. Anyone who thinks this will end nicely does not know much about communists. Communists, as they seize the reins of power and budget, will use those same resources to create their own enforcers. Portland is in a state of revolution. Insurgency. The goal is not simply to elect a new Mayor but to fundamentally transform the city into a communist base.
Many people in Portland realize the danger and are no longer in Portland. They are in Boise, or at least somewhere else. Others are preparing to jump from Portland like Hong Kongers leaping to Taiwan or Canada. Like Cubans fleeing to Florida, or East Germans making an escape. At least there is no wall and they are free to leave.
I must get to work. Much research to sort this out and I must buy a mobile communications/media vehicle that I will use to travel around America.
My apologies for this unedited train of thought. Much going on today.