Trafficking opium is what funded the French colonial forces in SE Asia and the Viet Minh.

Agents from both sides would sell the drugs to organized crime in Bangkok.

They didn't target each other in the neutral country of Thailand if they spotted each other.

To cut off the Vietminh's source of income, the French set up a remote outpost in Diem Bien Phu to attack opium traffickers.

CIA's first two casualties were aviators supporting the French fortress during the 1954 siege.

After the fortress surrendered, the French finally gave up on Vietnam.

Just look at all of the foreign interference in Georgia's elections:

"...loons, buffoons, and human baboons..."

The makings of a song in there.

Hi Doc Sarvis:

When JFK was POTUS, he occasionally called Ike and HST for advice on foreign policy issues and spoke with his rival Richard Nixon, as well.

In 1961, JFK asked a man with 52 years military experience-- most of it in the Pacific Theater-- for advice on Vietnam.

Retired five-star US Army General Douglas MacArthur told JFK to make Japan, Formosa, and the Philippines his "red lines," not Vietnam, and to focus on "domestic issues" instead. That may have meant civil rights or the economy.

When LBJ was getting overwhelmed with the Vietnam issue, he called HST, who advised him: "When the enemy hits you, hit'em back twice as hard!" But HST's Korean War experience was a far cry from the jungle and urban insurgency being fought against the deeply unpopular Diem regime in Vietnam (which "Mac" recognized as well). Nevertheless, LBJ called out for advice.

So, who would Dummkopf Trumpf call for advice?

Vladimir Putin? Benjamin Netanyahu?

Trumpf also purged the National Security Council, DOD, CIA, DIA, FBI, and NSA, losing sharp people.

One definition of the word "burke" is to murder, as by suffocation, so as to leave no or few marks of violence. The word "burke" comes from an infamous ghoul named William Burke, who along with William Hare, murdered people and robbed graves in Scotland in the late 1820s.

And thanks to Congress and the NDAA, starting in Dec 2026 every American or Permanent Resident male between the ages of 18 and 25 will be automatically registered with the Selective Service System (the draft), whether the person wants to or not.

Pick one. If your Spanish is good, head south like Sarah Connor. If you like hockey, go north. Marry a local. Claim asylum. Shang-Hai someone's identity like in the Talented Mr Ripley.

America is so broke-dick in a few years we'll be like scavengers out of a Mad Max film.

I know a fellow who moved to Israel. He married and converted to Judaism, all to get world class universal healthcare. The happy couple spent their first year on a kibbutz, farming and tending chickens and goats.

Links:

Like I wrote, USSECSTATE Marco Rubio is a vapid Empty Suit.

Here he is aboard Air Force One cosplaying the abducted President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro.

TYPO fixed: "You can read about Hollywood's purposeful post-1967 campaign to demonize Muslims, like Democrat Zohran Mamdani, in this book."

I thought LegallyYourDead lived in California.

Hi Clownshack

Thanks for that bit of terrible news.

A woman in NYC tear-gassed her Uber driver because he said "Bismallah" while making a turn. She cried out "OMG! You're a jihadist!" and emptied her can of mace in his face.

You can hear pious Muslims saying "Bismallah" (like Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody) before the simplest chore, like slicing bread.

This hatred of Muslims is the product of decades of Islamophobia in American media after the 1967 Israeli Six-Day War.

Prior to that, American films and TV shows did not vilify or demonize Muslims as the perennial bad guys.

Elvis Presley played an Arab prince and Barbara Eden played a comely, innocent Arab Djinn.

When you watch 1960s episodes of The FBI or Mission Impossible, the adversaries are neo-Nazis, gangsters, Third World despots, drug traffickers, the KKK-- not jihadists.

Minimizing Muslims and Arabs in the media makes it easier to hate and dispose of them, as we have seen in Israel and the US.

And Muslims only make up a mere 1.34% of the US population.

Laura Loomer, Alan Dershowitz, ad nauseum do a terrific job of vilifying Muslims in America for Israel's sake.

You can read about Hollywood's purposeful post-1867 campaign to demonize Muslims, like Democrat Zohran Mamdani, in this book.

As a US Senator, JFK was unable to pass a simple litmus test for Eleanor Roosevelt by him not publicly condemning Senator Joe McCarthy's (R-WI) rabid and vile witch-hunt against alleged "communists." The Irish Kennedy clan were friends with the Irish McCarthy family. Consequently, some progressive Democrats did not vote for JFK in Nov 1960.

See my OP on JFK.

US Senator Chuck Schumer (D-Israel) never endorsed fellow Democrat Zohran "the Muslim guy" Mamdani for NYC Mayor last year and doesn't admit who he voted for. But all New Yorkers know he uselessly voted for Andrew "Judas Iscariot" Cuomo.

We can't wait until Andrew Cuomo, Chuck Schumer, George Santos, and Alan Dershowitz make their final journey to the 'undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.'

Israel is one hundred years too late in the colonial race that benefitted the US, the UK, France or Russia (Moscow's eastward expansion against Central Asian tribes).

Israel is simply trying to accomplish its nation building (via ethnic cleansing)-- just as the Great Powers did in the 1800s-- except the Israelis are operating in era of the UN, the internet, and the ICC-- something which the US didn't have to deal with.

Today's Benjamin Netanyahu is yesteryear's Andrew Jackson.

Today's "terrorists" are yesteryear's "savages."

And unlike the Great Powers who funded their own ethnic cleansing in the 1800s, the hardworking American taxpayer is funding today's genocide in Gaza.

AIPAC-ers hate James Talarico (D-TX), AOC (D-NY), the "Squad," US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Graham Platner (D-ME), and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D-NYC).

AIPAC-ers adore US Senator John Fetterman (D-Israel), US Senator Chuck Schumer (D-Israel), Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Israel), House Majority Leader Mike Johnson (R-Israel), Jeffrey Epstein defender Alan Dershowitz, and Dummkopf Trumpf (R-Israel).

And for years, AIPAC-ers have simply loved House Speaker multi-millionairess Nancy Pelosi (D-Israel).

Hi Zed

This article surprised me too. But Michael Wolff is an SME on Dummkopf Trumpf, so we'll see what happens.

There is a backlash against SW Asian Indians in MAGA right now. The hi-tech oligarch Vivek Rams-Ass-Phony somesuch is drawing heavy fire, which may help sink Kashap Pramod Vinod Patel and JD Vance who wore a saree when he married Usha.

Hi DBT2:

These social protocols are what these people expect or demand, but I guess it's up to the supplicant to proffer it. Joseph P. Kennedy Sr demanded to be called "Ambassador" his entire life after serving in that capacity for less than two years.

A retired NYS judge drinks and eats at a resto-saloon that I frequent and I always address him as "Your Honor."

During the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, the governor of Tennessee appointed William Jennings Bryan a Colonel in the State Militia, just so Bryan would be addressed as "Colonel" in court and Clarence Darrow may have asked for the same appointment to equalize the social situation.

Then there's always this fellow: