Potent and deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl – which is often mixed with heroin without the knowledge of drug users – contributed to this dismal development together with the ongoing crisis of prescription pain killer misuse.
The U.S. experienced 105,000 overdose deaths in 2023, down from 2022 after a severe uptick during the coronavirus pandemic.
The most likely cause of death in the U.S. continues to be heart disease with lifetime odds of 1 in 6, followed by cancer and stroke.
Covid-19 lifetime odds were similar to those of stroke in previous years, but are no longer reported by the source.
Despite being a common fear, the chances of dying due to gun assault stand at only one in 238, but are still greater than drowning or choking to death, which have odds of around one in 1,000 and one in 2,500, respectively.
Dying in a dog attack remains highly unlikely with the chances of that happening at one in 44,499.
Dying in a hurricane or tornado or any other storm event is actually more likely at one in 39,192.
The Treasury Department has confirmed a national security and public safety disaster: Chinese money-laundering networks have pushed more than $312 billion in illicit transactions through U.S. financial institutions in recent years.
That money financed Mexican drug cartels, enabled human traffickers, and supported organized criminal networks that have left tens of thousands of Americans dead from fentanyl overdoses and other cartel-driven violence.
According to FINCEN.gov, financial institutions filed 1,675 BSA reports in the dataset indicating suspicious activity potentially involving human trafficking or human smuggling.
FINCEN.gov also discovered funds potentially associated with healthcare fraud, elder abuse, and suspicious gaming activity.
What makes these Chinese Money Laundering Networks (CMLNs) especially dangerous is their coordination with Mexico’s most violent cartels, including the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation organizations.
Mexico’s strict limits on U.S. dollar deposits force cartels to look abroad, while China’s own capital controls make moving money out of the country nearly impossible through legal channels.
Criminals found the perfect solution: CMLNs convert cartel drug profits in dollars into Chinese renminbi and then cycle those funds back into the U.S. banking system.
The cartels get clean money. China’s elites get access to American assets. And Americans pay the price in drug overdoses, gang violence, and financial corruption.
The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) announced a stunning seizure of illicit narcotics seized from “transnational criminal organizations,” including 23 million potentially lethal doses of cocaine, offloading the massive haul in Port Everglades — the largest quantity in Coast Guard history.
The USCG seized 76,140 pounds of illicit narcotics, valued at $473 million, in 19 interdictions conducted in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, according to the USCG announcement Monday. The haul constituted 61,740 pounds of cocaine and around 14,400 pounds of marijuana, with patrols intercepting drug-laden vessels as far away as the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador and other remote parts of the Pacific.
“The U.S. Coast Guard in partnership with our federal, DoD, and international partners are offloading 61,740 pounds of cocaine, and this represents a significant victory in the fight against transnational criminal organizations, highlighting our unwavering commitment to safeguarding the nation from illicit trafficking and its devastating impacts,” Rear Adm. Adam Chamie, Coast Guard Southeast District commander, said in the announcement. “To put this into perspective, the potential 23 million lethal doses of cocaine seized by the U.S. Coast Guard and our partners, are enough to fatally overdose the entire population of the state of Florida, underscoring the immense threat posed by transnational drug trafficking to our nation.”
As fireworks light up skies across America this Fourth of July, George Zambelli, owner of Zambelli Fireworks, urged people on Newsmax on Friday to leave the explosions to the professionals — and to never handle fireworks while under the influence of alcohol.
Zambelli has seen nearly everything in his decadeslong career running one of the nation’s largest fireworks companies. But as Independence Day celebrations get underway, he’s sounding a familiar alarm: Fireworks and alcohol do not mix.
Who would have thought that those 2 don’t mix well
Antifa militants targeted an ICE detention center in Portland, Oregon, on Monday night, just hours after President Donald Trump was sworn into office. The incident was in retaliation to the Trump administration’s mass deportation operations and crackdown on illegal immigration. No arrests were made and the far-left extremist group vowed to carry out more acts of violence against federal immigration officials and facilities, according to social media posts.
Video footage posted to X, formerly Twitter, shows a group of roughly 15 Antifa militants dressed in black bloc riot gear igniting fires and squaring off with federal law enforcement outside the ICE detention center located at 4310 S Macadam Road in Portland. The clip was filmed by an anarchist and uploaded to X under the username @comradecamera at 11:08 pm.
According to the video, Antifa militants encircled officers as they attempted to extinguish one of the fires, with a few of them utilizing megaphones to issue threats and harassment. “I’m so glad you signed up for this,” one Antifa member could be heard yelling, mocking authorities.
I’ve been there a bunch over the years due to relatives. It gets worse every time. It started with make Portland weird, but now it’s just make Portland suck more.
People shit on the street. Businesses board up windows, crazies yell at you in the street and the homeless and drugs are everywhere. They don’t do anything to improve it and it decays every day. I’ve stopped going. I stopped wanting to go years ago, but finally put my foot down.
I don’t go anymore because of the state of the city. It’s due to liberals running things into the ground. It’s not even recognizable as part of the rest of the United States. It’s become it’s own country
It’s one thing to send the text to the wrong number, but it’s a whole other thing when you accidentally text law enforcement, thinking it’s someone who will supply you with narcotics.
A Florida woman was busted after accidentally texting a sheriff, thinking it was her drug dealer.
Because we don’t have secure borders, the biggest cause of death for a large swath of Americans is Fentanyl from China that gets processed in Mexico and comes across to the US.
It’s not so much the people flooding across the southern border affecting Arizonans, as what some of the illegal immigrants carry with them.
Illegal aliens don’t stay in the state, according to Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Mark Lamb. Instead, they travel to “California, Massachusetts, New York, Chicago, Iowa, Alabama,” he says, adding, “But what we are feeling is, just like every state and every American family, we’re feeling the effects of fentanyl.”
Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“I don’t want to take away from 9/11, but I want to put it into perspective,” Lamb says. “On 9/11 we lost, I think, about 3,600 American lives that day … and we went to war for 20 years for that.”
An estimated 74,702 people died from fentanyl poisoning in America in 2023, a slight decline from the 76,226 fentanyl-related deaths in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Right now, China is putting fentanyl in the hands of the [Mexican drug] cartels,” Lamb explained.
Many of the precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl originate in China. On Oct. 24, the Justice Department announced “charges against eight China-based companies and eight individuals we allege are responsible for trafficking precursor chemicals that cartels use to manufacture lethal fentanyl,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
The Chinese don’t have to shoot at us. They supply the drugs that are killing Americans from within. Don’t forget when you vote that Democrats are replacing Americans who won’t vote for them with illegals bringing this in.
The Sept 16 footage from police in Reston, VA shows crisis intervention-trained officer Peter Liu responding to 33-year-old Sydney Wilson’s apartment on Sunrise Valley Drive after her doctor raised concerns about her mental health. Wilson is a former NAACP activist and played college basketball for Georgetown University.
Breaking: Fairfax County, Va. Police have released the body camera footage of the Asian-American officer who shot dead a 6’5” black assailant who surprise attacked him with a knife on Sept. 16. The shooting renewed calls for action by BLM activists. pic.twitter.com/zzOq1u2ZJA
Of Course it is. It’s awash with everything that money can buy and now they are afraid everyone will be exposed as to their debauchary. Anyone remember Richard Pryor setting himself on fire when freebasing?
Hollywood has been shaken to its core over the investigation into why Matthew Perrydied. After it was ruled that the Friends star’s passing in October 2023 was due to the “acute effects of ketamine” allegedly supplied to him by “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha, the rest of her A-list clients fear their names could be brought into the case.
Sangha, along with Perry’s longtime assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who allegedly administered three doses of the drug on the day of his demise, and his doctor Salvador Plasencia were all recently charged in connection to the 17 Again actor’s death.
A source told The Mirror, “There is widespread panic at who else can be dragged into this… she catered for a lot of famous people, and they could easily all be collateral damage.”
“Hollywood is awash with drugs. There are a lot of very anxious people, from agents, publicists, to celebs themselves. Everything could come crashing down. Her list of clients will be hoping she takes a plea deal – like that taken by Perry’s assistant – if offered by federal prosecutors to avoid an embarrassing courtroom expose,” the insider added.
One of America’s richest cities sinks in massive hotel debt – as tourists stop choosing it for their vacations.
San Francisco’s glitzy hotels have been plunged into massive debt following a dramatic drop off in tourism to the Golden Gate City.
The Californian city’s two biggest hotels, the Hilton Parc 55 and Hilton San Francisco Union Square, have lost a combined $1billion in value, according to the Kroll Bond Rating Agency.
Their worth is now $553.8 million.
Meanwhile, the delinquency rate among commercial mortgage-backed security loans for the sector jumped to 41.6 percent in June from 5.7 percent the same time last year, according to data from real estate analytics firm Trepp.
Ana Kasparian Exposes Where The Money California Is Spending On Homelessness Is Going
It’s being funneled into NGO’s & Executives are making $500k a year each
“Just experiencing what I've seen on the ground in California has made me question a lot about left wing ideology”
Police have arrested and now charged two women, Tiffany Taylor Gray and Audrey Miller, for the April murder of Fasil Teklemariam, a 53-year-old man from Washington, D.C., who was hit over the head, stabbed repeatedly and then had his thumb cut off and allegedly used by his killers to access his accounts and spend his money on Uber ride-shares, marijuana and alcohol.
Gray, 22, a resident of Prince George’s County, Maryland, was arrested on July 1 and charged with first-degree murder and armed felony murder. She is currently being detained in Maryland and is expected to be extradited to Washington, D.C., to face the charges.
Publicly available court records show Miller, 19, was arrested on June 21 for first-degree murder and armed felony murder as well. Though a preliminary hearing was scheduled for Miller on Tuesday, court records show it was vacated and rescheduled for July 30. She is being detained in Washington, D.C.
An ex-NYPD cop arrested in October for hawking heroin and fentanyl while on duty has been indicted.
Grace Rosa Baez, who was arrested along with Cesar Martinez, of Yonkers, were charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics and distribution of narcotics, U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said.
Baez, 37, and Martinez, 42, allegedly tried to sell the narcotics to a federal informant between Oct. 9 and Oct. 19, according to the indictment, which was filed March 20 in Manhattan federal court.
Some of those taking Ozempic or Wegovy are learning that too much of a good thing is never good.
Semaglutide, the medication prescribed under the brand names Ozempic, for treating Type 2 diabetes, and Wegovy, for weight management, works by mimicking the hormone GLP-1, which is released by the gut after eating. The hormone has several effects in the body, such as stimulating insulin production, slowing gastric emptying and lowering blood sugar.
It has been hailed for its weight-loss benefits, most conspicuously among celebrities. Oprah Winfrey recently said she uses weight-loss medication and lauded “the fact that there’s a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime.” She said it felt “like a gift.”
But between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30 this year, at least 2,941 Americans reported overdose exposures to semaglutide, according to a recent report from America’s Poison Centers, a national nonprofit representing 55 poison centers in the United States.
I’m sure there are plenty more. It’s getting harder for the media to keep the lid on it.
Here goes with a link below to the entire story.
After Joe Biden was elected to the White House, Democrat pundits hailed the return of “adults in charge” in Washington.
However, since his election, there has been no shortage of scandals exposing Democrat degeneracy and perversion — including in the halls of power in D.C. and in the White House.
Here are the top most recent Democrat scandals under Joe Biden’s presidency:
1. Democrat Staffer Having Sex in the Senate
A graphic video emerged on December 15 of a Democrat staffer for Democrat Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) having anal sex with someone in a United States Senate hearing room in the U.S. Capitol, which is government property and American taxpayer funded. The video showed the staffer naked and on all fours on a table where senators conduct their business. He has since been fired.
2. Porn Web Cam Democrat Virginia Senate Candidate Susanna Gibson
In September, the Washington Post revealed that Susanna Gibson, a Democrat candidate for a Virginia Senate seat and a nurse practitioner, had performed sex acts with her husband for a live online audience on a website called Chaturbate and encouraged viewers to request sex acts and pay them with tips. Some of the videos archived online were as recent as September 30, 2022. Gibson lost her race by fewer than 1,000 votes.
3. Baggy of Cocaine Found in the White House
In July, a baggy of cocaine was found inside the White House West Wing by a Secret Service agent. The Secret Service later claimed there was “insufficient DNA” present and that they could not identify the owner of the baggy. Fox News’s Jesse Watters later claimed documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request showed there were three vials of DNA from the investigation.
4. Trans Influencer Rose Montoya Flashes Breasts at White House Picnic
Just a month before Cocaine-Gate, a trans influencer at a Pride event at the White House flashed his fake breasts at a White House event that also hosted children. The trans influencer, Rose Montoya, pulled down his dress and grabbed his fake breasts, according to a video that was widely circulated on social media. The White House was forced to condemn the act and ban Montoya from visiting the White House again.
5. Navy Enlists Drag Queen Influencer to Recruit More Sailors
In May, the Navy revealed that it recruited a “drag queen influencer” as part of a pilot program to help recruit more people. The influencer, who is an active duty sailor named Joshua Kelley, goes by the name “Harpy Daniels” and had performed for other service members during deployments on ships.
6. Democrat Mayor Arrested on Child-Porn Related Charges
In March the former Democrat mayor of College Park, Maryland, was arrested on dozens of charges of possessing and distributing child porn. The former mayor — reportedly a mentee of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — has been photographed with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and other high-profile Democrats. He resigned prior to his arrest. He was sentenced to 30 years in jail last month.
The now-former mayor of College Park, Maryland, Patrick Wojahn, was arrested on 56 child pornography possession and distribution charges. (Prince George’s County Police Department)
7. Non-Binary Biden Senior Official and BDSM-Practitioner Caught Stealing Luggage
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), right, and Sam Brinton, speaking, are seen during a news conference outside the Capitol on Thursday, June 13, 2019. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
8. Army Colonel Exposed in Pup-Play
In December 2022, it was exposed that an Army colonel had taken photos of himself in uniform in a dog mask, including in what appeared to be an official Army photo. An account called @Nova_Campaigns exposed the colonel, who had since retired. The retired colonel had numerous photos of himself in a dog mask and uniform, posing with junior service members. The Army said it was investigating the photos, but the outcome of that investigation is not known.
9. Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo Faced Allegations of Sexual Misconduct
In 2021, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced allegations of sexual harassment, including that he groped former female staffers. Cuomo resigned over the allegations. Investigators said he “subjected women to unwanted kisses; groped their breasts or buttocks or otherwise touched them inappropriately; made insinuating remarks about their looks and their sex lives; and created a work environment ‘rife with fear and intimidation.’”
There is also no shortage of Democrat sex scandals predating the Biden administration.
In December 2020, Axios revealed that an alleged Chinese Communist Party spy named Fang Fang had targeted Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) — getting so close that she was able to place interns in his office. Swalwell has never addressed allegations that his relationship with the alleged Chinese spy was sexual.
In March 2020, former Democrat Florida governor candidate Andrew Gillum was found inebriated in a Miami Beach hotel room with a man who had overdosed. Police found three bags of drugs suspected to be crystal meth. Photos of Gillum later emerged, showing Gillum lying in his own vomit on the floor. He later said he was bisexual.
In 2019, Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) was revealed to have been engaging in a “throuple” with her then-husband and a former female staffer. Numerous photos of Hill emerged, including one of her nude and brushing her former staffer’s hair. Hill resigned amid the controversy.
Other famous Democrats embroiled in scandal include former Rep. Anthony Weiner, who was busted for sending women sexually suggestive photos of himself in underwear, and embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who has faced allegations of not paying prostitutes and patronizing underage prostitutes.
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in 2008 after it was revealed that he had patronized a prostitution ring, and former President Bill Clinton was impeached after his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky was revealed in 1998 after Clinton was sued by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, in 1997.
I had a relative move there in the early 2010’s. The theme was keep Portland weird (look out Austin who has adopted that phrase) and I knew it was going down the toilet right then. I saw the beginnings of anarchy, homeless people defecating on the street and mentally unstable people yelling at us as we walked to the foodie places. Everything was so hip, but the crumbling of the infrastructure was there at night in the tent cities. They thought they were the elite and upper crust because they were against what was morally right.
Drugs were made legal and the flush began to swirl faster.
Ted Wheeler, the mayor who let it self destruct did nothing to save it. He embraced everything liberal and now you see what is happening.
Little did I know how far down the sewer it would go. After occupy, antifa, homelessness, drugs, crime, shoplifting and control by the left who wouldn’t uphold the law, it is a shithole like San Fransisco now.
They want to refund the police, but it’s too far gone. The city is so indoctrinated in what they feel it should be rather than right vs wrong that it would take burning it down and starting over.
Half of the state has voted to join Idaho. Even they want to get away from Portland.
Back in 2020 when Democratic-run cities decided it would be a good idea to give in to angry mobs of protestors and defund local police and other authoritative agencies, no city’s voice seemed louder than that of Portland. The city’s leaders cut police funding by $15 million leaving the city largely in the hands of the angry, violent mobs that had forced the move.
Now, 3 years later with the city sinking under skyrocketing crime rates, a shrinking tax base, and shuttered businesses, Portland seems to have finally realized that it needs police, but replacing the force it all but threw away is proving to be an uphill battle. The city is struggling to attract new officers, DAs, and investigators given its leaders’ recent history of turning their backs on law enforcement. Potential replacements know better than to go where they’re not wanted.
The lack of candidates for its underfunded and under-appreciated police force and court system is making it difficult for a newly launched task force to fulfill its purpose and crack down on retail and vehicle theft in what now appears to be a lawless city.
Crime rates have risen so drastically since 2020, that Portland residents are now 3 times more likely to be the victim of a property crime than the average U.S. citizen, according to data from Neighborhood Scout. Portland had 63,000 property thefts in 2022 along with roughly 11,000 stolen vehicles – a new record for the city that doesn’t need police.
Now, residents who have the means to do so are fleeing the city and taking their businesses with them. Public data has shown that since the pandemic, more than 2,600 businesses left downtown Portland and filed for changes of address with USPS.
Not only has the city been left trying to replace the $15 million it cut from its budget for police and the officers themselves, but now Portland is having to find a way to reinstate its police force with limited funding as its tax base continues to shrink as more residents pack up and leave.
Meanwhile, according to a report by Zerohedge, most of the remaining local police officers have been doing everything they can to get off the force. Officers have not only been quitting at an alarmingly fast pace but there has also been a substantial uptick in early retirements and transfer requests to other municipalities.
To complicate matters further, the police who have survived the past 3 years have become discouraged by liberal prosecutors who never take cases to court, instead opting to return criminals to the streets.
Meanwhile, it is unlikely that defunding the police, which was done wholeheartedly and briskly, can be undone as quickly and thoroughly. It is far easier to cut $15 million than it is to raise it – a lesson the Portland City Council and the city’s residents have had to learn the hard way.
It’s a tough time to be a Portland resident, but a great time to be a criminal. As for the city’s police force, it will take years, possibly decades, to rebuild what the City Council destroyed in a matter of months.
Where is this coming from? It’s supplied by China and coming across the Mexican border. Is there anyone who doubts this other than the NYT? Are any of the alphabet networks reporting this fact? No and no.
The fentanyl boom in recent years represents a third wave of the opioid epidemic, following first an increase in the abuse of prescription painkillers around the turn of the century and then a rise in heroin use. But the fentanyl phase is different in that it involves an international operation of people in multiple countries working together to produce and transport the drugs and then secretly shuttle the profits across U.S. borders.
Chinese money launderers and fentanyl-makers have gone into business with Mexican drug cartels, teaming up to make billions of dollars a year trafficking the powerful opioid that is killing thousands of people in the U.S.
The fentanyl ingredients are sent from labs in Wuhan, China, to Mexico, where the final product is made. It is then sneaked over the U.S.-Mexico border and dispersed nationwide, often put into other drugs in an attempt to hook a user of meth or cocaine on this new substance.
Through the decades, federal law enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border has seized millions of pounds of drugs that cartels attempted to smuggle into the U.S. Nearly all of the drugs seized were marijuana, but marijuana seizures have significantly declined in recent years. Unlike marijuana, fentanyl can be produced year-round and is more profitable, part of the reason cartels are abandoning marijuana.
I wonder why the government doesn’t react to this to put a stop to it. Still, why aren’t they doing something about it?
I get that the current group in charge is trying to undo anything that the last regime put into place, but how about trying to protect the US citizen’s.
Here is the amount of Fentanyl it takes to kill someone. They are shipping in tons of the stuff.
Can we stop this please? Protect us from the CCP and the Mexican Cartels.
Here is a little Friday humor, inspired by all the recent going’s on in the news about housing prices, immigration, pot, high taxes, overburdensome government regulation and the usual stuff you read about.
1. Your coworker has 8 body piercings and none are visible.
2. You make over $300,000 and still can’t afford a house.
3. You take a bus and are shocked at two people carrying on a conversation in English.
4. Your child’s 3rd-grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring, and is named Flower.
5. You can’t remember . . . is pot illegal?
6. You’ve been to a baby shower that has two mothers and a sperm donor.
7. You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown, and you can taste the difference between Sumatran and Ethiopian.
8. You can’t remember . . . . is pot illegal?
9. A really great parking space can totally move you to tears.
10. Gas costs $1.00 per gallon more than anywhere else in the U.S.
11. Unlike back home, the guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney really IS George Clooney.
12. Your car insurance costs as much as your house payment.
13. You can’t remember . . . .is pot illegal?
14. It’s barely sprinkling rain and there’s a report on every news station: “STORM WATCH.”
15. You pass an elementary school playground and the children are all busy with their cell phones.
16. Or it’s barely sprinkling rain outside, so you leave for work an hour early to avoid all the weather-related accidents.
17. HEY!!!! Is pot illegal????
18. Both you AND your dog have therapists, psychics, personal trainers and cosmetic surgeons.
19 The Terminator was your governor.
20. If you drive illegally, they take your driver’s license. If you’re here illegally, they want to give you one.
Revelations of what happened leading up to and following this tragic day inform us of a backstory of the events that took place in Washington.
Let me go on record to state that I am patriotic and an avid admirer of what the men of our nation did to overcome the tyranny of the Japanese and Germans in WWII. If you click on the military category of my posts, you will see that when I get cut, I bleed red, white and blue. I believe in the greatness and considerable achievements of the United States as well as it being the largest contributor for the betterment of others by any country in history.
However, as an amateur historian and an observer of the (in)competency and motives of bureaucrats in Washington, what our government did leading up to and on that day shows the weaknesses of humans. It should be noted that the Americans and more especially the soldiers who fought the war are held as honorable in my opinion. This post is not written to tear down any of the bravery accomplished during the war. They fought valiantly and protected freedom with the Allies.
This event brought together the country so that good overcame evil and I have the utmost respect for what was accomplished in that war.
Much of this was inspired by “History Honors Pearl Harbor” on the History Channel as well as other documented sources.
On the day of the attack, Roosevelt was viewed by his son as frozen at times because of the thought of what it would do to his legacy. Just like the 42nd and 44th president, their legacy was more important than the nation. The worst attack on American soil would be under his watch and he would be unprepared to deal with it. Fortunately, by 8 am on 12/9/41, brave young men around the country were lined up at the draft offices, but it would take the monumental effort of the country to overcome the government’s lack of responsibility to have a force that could protect our borders.
Next was the communications between Pearl Harbor and Washington. Roosevelt couldn’t get information about what was happening. Granted, the communications infrastructure was not what it is today, but there weren’t even secure lines or even direct lines to Washington. The Naval commander in Hawaii who tried to communicate information to the Chief Naval officer Admiral Stark at the War Department couldn’t give specifics as he wasn’t sure if the Japanese were listening in.
Further, the American leadership greatly underestimated the mental acuity of the Japanese thinking that they weren’t technologically capable of such an attack. It was speculated that the Germans had given them assistance. Hitler later admitted he had no idea that the Japanese were planning to, or had attacked Pearl Harbor despite what was taught at Faber College.
Douglas MacArthur couldn’t be reached in the Philippines for most of the day. General Marshal of the Army tried for the better part of the day to warn him of the happenings in Hawaii and to prepare for a similar attack. Washington wasn’t sure of where he even was or if the Japanese had already attacked. MacArthur boasted that he had special insight into the oriental mind. When he finally was reached, his response was that he was on full alert and that “We are ready, we have our tails in the air”. History documents that the Japanese attacked and drove him out of the Philipines shortly thereafter as MacArthur did virtually nothing and lost the islands in an embarrassing defeat. He was woefully unprepared, but his ego wouldn’t let him admit it.
Finally, the government couldn’t spend more than $750 on an automobile so they couldn’t get a bullet proof car for the President to be transported from the White House to the Capitol to give the speech. The Treasury Department had confiscated Al Capone’s car earlier so that one was used instead as they couldn’t be bothered to have proper protection for the leader of the free world. That would haunt Washington as recently as November 22, 1963.
Roughly 6 hours after the attack, FDR approved Executive Order 9066 which imprisoned 92,000 Japanese to internment camps for no reason other than their might be a fifth column attack within. It was supposed to be limited in scope to arrest any spies but morphed into what was one of the lowest points of FDR’s term of leadership. Little to no evidence is ever recorded that there was any treason on their part and no one was convicted of espionage or disloyalty.
They were deemed guilty rather than innocent in one of the greatest acts of prejudice by an administration.
MORE INCOMPETENCE AND DID WASHINGTON KNOW ABOUT THE ATTACK BEFOREHAND?
As I’ve stated, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I am for facts. FDR ordered an investigation headed by Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts of the attack 18 days after the attack. Some interesting things were revealed. You can read further about it in the book A Matter of Honor, Betrayal, Blame and a Family’s Quest for Justice.
Admiral Kimmel, head of the Navy in the Pacific had asked Chief of Naval Operations Harold Stark six months before the attack to keep him apprised of latest intelligence regarding what the Japanese were up to. Washington knew that Pearl Harbor was vulnerable to attack as early as November 1940.
Stark held back the information that aerial torpedos capable of being deployed in waters shallower than at Pearl were being used, despite Stark reassuring Kimmel that the water in the harbor was too shallow for a torpedo attack. How this wasn’t an act of treason is curious.
The FBI had intercepted information that the Japanese had made inquiries as to the depth at Pearl and whether anti-torpedo nets had been deployed there, but again Kimmel was never informed. Not sharing this with the command was grossly incompetent or an act of political chess.
Code-breaker Lawrence Safford visited Kimmel after he had resigned. He then told Kimmel about project Magic that broke coded Japanese diplomatic messages. Washington failed to inform Kimmel what they knew prior to the attack. It reveals the Japanese had spies informing the Imperial Forces where the exact location of the ships anchored as recently as 3 months before the attack. The code breakers who discovered this in Magic was only shared by as few as 10 men who couldn’t or wouldn’t tell anyone else. It was a power play by political operatives in Washington instead of military strategists who would have warned the fleet in Oahu and had the capability to defend against a surprise attack.
A message to the Japanese embassy was decoded instructing them to move to negotiations that had to be completed by 11/5/41, or things will happen automatically beyond that.
The Japanese fleet set sail on November 25th. There was no turning back at this point.
FDR was aware that the Japanese were going to break off negotiations and 10 days prior to the attack, Admiral Stark issued a warning that there could be an attack, unfortunately not mentioning or notifying the Hawaiian Islands that they were a possible target.
Three hours prior to the attack, Stark received a message that indicated what was about to happen but failed to notify Kimmel. By the time the message was placed into Kimmel’s hands, it was 8 hours after the attack and was not marked priority.
The intelligence was available, but Washington failed to connect the dots.
I hope that the administration which has meandered it’s way around the safety of our country hasn’t set the table for a repeat by those who have lost their respect for our capability to defend ourselves.
SEX
Missy LaHand, FDR’s assistant for 21 years contacted him on December 7th. She was closer to the president than Eleanor during that time, some speculate in many ways other than a secretary. With everything that was going on, the last thing he needed was to hear from a woman he’d had a relationship with. Eleanor allegedly pushed for a divorce after discovering hat FDR had an affair with her social secretary, so the last thing he wanted to do was push the envelope unnecessarily by contacting her. With the decisions that would change the world in front of him, all he needed was additional drama from his wife and another woman. He decided not to return her call from Warm Springs where she was recovering and it devastated her so greatly that she attempted suicide shortly thereafter. Presidents have had trouble keeping their pants zipped.
As a side note, but belonging in the sex category, Edward R. Murrow interviewed FDR that night. Not that it has anything to affect the situation, Murrow carried on a wartime affair with Churchill’s daughter-in-law Pamela Digby Churchill when he was a reporter in London. He had a close relationship with the Leaders of the Free World and an even closer relationship with some of their relatives.
DRUGS
Roosevelt had a chronic sinus condition from which he suffered most of his life. Shortly after the attack, he had a headache and was congested, so he was wheeled into the office of his physician, Dr. Ross Macintyre where he was treated with cocaine. It can be argued that it may have affected his decision-making that day. Since it was legal, it wasn’t an issue. Drugs used to be a political show stopper until Obama, who admitted he snorted it got elected.
ROCK AND ROLL
Fortunately, the attack woke up the nation and kick-started the industrial might the US. Some of the greatest human, scientific and technological achievements happened during the war.
Most important though was the lesson on how wars should be fought and won, something that has been lost on the leadership today. You fight to win and settle only for unconditional surrender. At that point, you set the terms of how the relationship will proceed. Germany and Japan have become industrial and world leaders, built up by the USA after the war unlike Vietnam and the middle east where our troops were strangled by congress rather than let soldiers fight the war.
Delusions of Adequacy 