BBC’s ‘America First?’ series sent Aleem Maqbool, a North America correspondent, to the inner city of Atlanta, Georgia, where he uncovered a rather shocking statistic in which 46% of the inner city residents suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a rate that is much higher than U.S. soldiers (10-20%).
Maqbool describes Atlanta’s inner city environment as a “war zone”, where death and destruction are contributing to high levels of PTSD in adults and children. He further quoted researchers and said levels of PTSD in America’s inner cities are comparable to refugee populations around the world.
To make matters worse, the video makes the claim: gun murder rates (per 100,000) in the US are at astronomical levels when compared to other countries. A startling find, when considering the US, the richest country in the world, does not perform well in the international rankings.
As the crisis spreads, PTSD in children and young adults are sparking a public health crisis, where traumatic events are negatively influencing brain development.
This is already having a significant effect on inner-city youth, who already suffer from broken families, drug abuse, education inequality, and wealth inequality.
Back in 2016, President Trump told the American people the true state of the inner cities. He correctly labeled the areas across the country, a “war zone” (see below).
"The Democrats have failed completely in the inner cities,” Trump said. “For those hurting the most, who have been failed and failed by their politicians, year after year, failure after failure, worse numbers after worse numbers, poverty, rejection, horrible education, no houses, no homes, no ownership, crime at levels that nobody has seen. You could go to war zones in countries that we’re fighting and it’s safer than living in some of our inner cities that are run by the Democrats.”
“It is a disaster the way African-Americans are living in many cases and in many cases the way Hispanics are living,” Trump continued. “And I say it with such a deep felt feeling, what do you have to lose? I’ll straighten it out. I’ll bring jobs back, We’ll bring spirit back. I’ll get rid of the crime, so you’ll be able to walk down the street without getting shot. Right now, you walk down the street, you get shot.”
America’s once hustling and bustling inner cities are contracting in terms of economic productivity and in some cases population. Atlanta’s inner city war zone is not the only city dealing with death and destruction, which raises our eyebrow because children who are suffering from war zone PTSD is much more widespread than thought, making it an unrecognized national public health crisis. As per MSN, America’s most dangerous inner cities:
DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Violent crime rate: 2,047 per 100,000
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: Violent crime rate: 1,913 per 100,000
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE: Violent crime rate: 1,820 per 100,000
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND: Violent crime rate: 1,780 per 100,000
ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS: Violent crime rate: 1,659 per 100,000
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: Violent crime rate: 1,655 per 100,000
CLEVELAND, OHIO: Violent crime rate: 1,631 per 100,000
Like Alcoholics Anonymous, President Trump submitted the inner cities into America Anonymous, a 12 step program to get the country back on the right path. The first step is admitting there is a problem, which was completed in 2016, with eleven more steps to go, who said this was going to be an easy rebuild?
It’s time the American people awaken from their decades’ long sleep and learn the truth about the disastrous mistakes government has made in governing this country.
In the medium range, Americans will have to start stomaching the consequences of bad policies in the form of an entire generation of children who are suffering from PTSD and the ramifications surrounding brain development.
There’s a very simple principle that helps form the bedrock of any prosperous and civilized society. When people do bad things, they should be punished for it. The moment that rule is turned upside down, and the wicked and weak are rewarded for their behavior, society will crumble. There’s no way around it. Every society that rewards bad behavior is on the fast track to destruction.
You might think that would be obvious, but there are plenty of nations throughout history that have fallen under the weight of corruption, in one form or another. Our species has made this mistake countless times. We never learn, and we always pay for it.
Denmark’s second largest city is attempting to tackle terrorism by offering jihadists “empathy” in a programme dubbed “hug a terrorist.”
Whilst Danes who have fought against Islamic State have been threatened with jail on their return from Syria, terrorists are being offered enormous privileges, including apartments, education, and jobs, to encourage them to rejoin society.
Proponents of the police-run scheme in Aarhus say that jihadists are “isolated” and struggling to integrate, and claim that offering them kindness and forgiveness will deter them from their murderous ideology.
Aarhus Police Superintendent Allan Aarsley explains how troubled Muslim youths were invited to come to the police station for a chat,
"...so they could get some kind of help having a good life here in the city with education, a place to live and things like that."
Danish politician Naser Khader, a Muslim born in Syria, says it sends the wrong message and rewards terrorists who have effectively made war on the West and its values.
He told Australian news programme Dateline the “hug a terrorist” model tells young Muslims: “Go out and do something criminal, be jihadis, you will get a lot of privilege from the society. That’s wrong in my opinion.”
During an appearance on Fox and Friends,Dr. James Mitchell, a former CIA agent who interrogated the mastermind behind 9/11, called the program “extremely naïve.”
"I want you to imagine Rob O"Neill, the guy who shot bin Laden, kicking open the door in his compound, and he"s armed with warm cookies and a "Let"s Cuddle" t-shirt. And he goes, "Get on over here, you rascal. I got lots of hugs for you,"" said Mitchell. "It"s a ridiculous idea."
"You can"t raise a child in a stove-piped community where they"re taught that the entire culture that they"re supposed to assimilate in is evil and out to hold them down, and then when they become an adult expect them to do anything except rebel," he said.
If you applied this approach to literally any other crime you would be heavily criticized by everyone else in society, and for good reason. You wouldn’t give a thief a job, a rapist a free education, or a murderer an apartment. In any decent society these people are thrown in prison. Only after they’ve paid for their crimes, should you even consider helping them readjust to society. Furthermore, if you’re going to reward terrorism, then why bother punishing anyone for anything? Why bother keeping any bad behavior in check?
It’s just common sense. Unfortunately, common sense is quickly dwindling in the Western world.
The Trump administration continues to demonize Iran, advocating regime change even as the U.S. acknowledges that the country is complying with the nuclear deal.
Defying Western perceptions, however, the Middle Eastern nation recently announced its plans to move toward decriminalizing drugs in order to combat addiction and weaken the power of drug traffickers. If the plan receives final approval, the country will join a handful of other nations that have opted to help addicts rather than punish them.
The Independentreports that “[b]y allowing the government to give out diluted drugs to addicts, the proposal aims to cut the relationship between drug addicts and drug traffickers.”
The plan would allow the government to distribute methadone to addicts in place of heroin, cannabis, and other commonly used drugs in Iran. It would also allow the government to provide addicts with diluted forms of these commonly used drugs to help wean them off the substances.
Hassan Norouzi, a spokesperson for the Parliament’s Judicial and Legal Commission, said that in order to undermine the relationship between addicts and traffickers, “we decided that the government hand out diluted drugs to addicts, so that they will be able to give up their addiction gradually and, instead of being drawn to drug-traffickers, turn to the Establishment and meet their needs through official channels,” Iranian government-approved outlet IFPNewsreported.
“These drugs include methadone and substances more diluted than previous ones, and the authority to decide on that rests with bylaws which are to be jointly drawn up by the Ministry of Justice and [Iran’s] Drug Enforcement HQ, and which could come into effect after getting the all clear from the Cabinet,” Norouzi said.
Norouzi noted that “The plan to distribute [low-grade] drugs is similar to what used to be implemented before the [1979 Iran’s Islamic] Revolution.”
IFP reports that Norouzi said “all relevant authorities have given the go-ahead to the proposal,” though it has not been finalized.
The Independent reported that “The judicial committee has also proposed a draft law halting the death penalty for carrying and distributing less than 100kg of traditional drugs such as opium or less than two kilograms of synthetic drugs.”
Iran has employed militarized anti-narcotic measures against traffickers in the past, even while showing some sympathy to addicts. Human Rights Watch previously reported that authorities often obtained forced confessions for traffickinf and also imposed the death penalty on indivuals possessing large quantities of drugs.
The latest measures come in response to skyrocketing rates of addiction in Iran in recent years, particularly in regard to opium. According to Iran’s Drug Control Organization, there are roughly 2.8 million people in the country consistently using drugs.
Despite Western perceptions that Iran is country doomed to the dark ages, some of its relatively progressive stances on drug addiction prove otherwise. In 2015, Maziyar Ghiabi, an Iranian-Italian Ph.D. candidate at Oxford University discussed rumors that the Iranian government would legalize cannabis and opium.
“This is an actual possibility but not in the short term,” Ghiabi, who focuses on drug policy and use in Iran, toldSalon two years ago.
“One institution is really discussing measures to regulate the drug market. By regulation of the drug market, we can mean many different things. One of the ideas is to allow certain substances, in this case cannabis and opium, to be used under specific circumstances. It hasn’t been clearly stated what these circumstances are. What is interesting to me is that the discussion is open. It is a very interesting fact that in the Islamic Republic such discussions are taking place.”
Though Iran is far from completely ending its war on drugs — and its government is indisputably repressive in a variety of ways — its openness to a more lenient policy mirrors some Western nations like Portugal, which decriminalized all drugs in 2001, and parts of Canada, where injection centers have been established to allow addicts to consume drugs like heroin in safe environments. The Iranian government already has some 8,000 rehab clinics that offer methadone treatment for opium addicts (however, it has been reported that addicts are tennis forcibly admitted to these clinics and arrests still occur).
Norouzi said the Judicial and Legal Commission will continue work to finalize the latest policy change.
"More buggered than an alter boy at the Vatican". This is a witch hunt against the clergy. Can"t you see that? You perpetuate the lies and I hope God punishes you for it. What"s more I"m British, and proud of it and your article is racist. I"ve unsubscribed from your stupid discriminating blog.
Not everyone wants me dead, though... which is nice:
"God, I love these essays!"
And:
Hi Chris
Just a quick thanks to you and your team for all the updates and your insights. Having a feed of well thought through investment advice mixed with highly entertaining commentaries which cut through the thickest layers of the BS right to the essence of the matter is more than I had expected when I signed up for this and I really appreciate it.
Regards
And:
"I just shared this around the office here in London, where I have to tell you...we"re having a cup of tea:-) Love your take on the world and your unashamed way of dealing with reality. I first came across your work when a friend forwarded this one to me. It is so rare to find clarity of thinking and I really appreciate your ability to bring together the complexity of economics, human behaviour, history and everything in between. Keep up the fantastic truly insightful work."
I"m reminded that you can"t please everyone... and neither should you try. It"s also useful to weed out morons so it"s got that going for it.
As much as I find amusement from hate mail and am humbled by well wishers, it made me think about this problem of political correctness. It"s an incredibly important topic and, in fact, was a significant factor in correctly predicting the ascension of Trump to the throne.
The people, like the disgruntled Brit above, who refuse to acknowledge things like the epidemic of pedophilia in the church are dangerous. The selective bias is appalling. They look at themselves and others not as individual human beings... which is how we should interact with one another, but rather as some group. Everything to them is pigeon holed into some category: white, black, male, female, left, right, capitalist, globalist, and so on.
They actually define themselves and others as a class, not as an individual. It"s lazy thinking at its finest. This is seriously problematic for a simple reason: it subjugates the individual in favour of the group. Some humour about Brits (who I secretly love) is immediately classed as racist. It"s completely absurd to the point of bordering on mentally ill.
Everything that doesn"t fit into their world view finds a label with "discrimination" being extremely popular. This is because it"s so loosely defined - literally anything can (and is) jammed into the discriminatory jar.
Have you ever bought a new car and then found that everywhere you look you seem to see the same car and colour?
In a similar fashion, these people search for discrimination, find it everywhere, and then attack it.
Say after me: we need discrimination. It is what keeps society ordered and civilised.
An example:
Some time ago my wife and I were out having dinner with a group of friends - 3 other couples. One of the guests, who I"ll call Harry (not his real name), had shoddy manners, cut people off in mid-conversation in order to put his point across, and was generally overbearing, loud, and obnoxious. Even when I cut him down and told him, in no uncertain terms, that he was being rude and offensive, this washed over him like water off a duck"s back. When a shared plate of food arrived, Harry proceeded to scoop literally half of the plate straight onto his own plate and eat it... without the slightest acknowledgement that his bahaviour may not be exactly acceptable.
Have we and the other couples subsequently discriminated against Harry? Hell, yeah! We won"t be inviting him and his poor wife over anytime soon.
Discrimination? Sure.
Necessary? Absolutely.
It"s what keeps society civilised. It comes as no surprise that Harry has few friends, is constantly "in between" jobs, and survives, as far as I can tell, by the grace of his wife, who for whatever reason, continues to support him. That, too, may at some point become too much, and Harry will find that, in order for him to not starve, he"ll need to change his ways. This is how things should work.
Do you discriminate when you steer clear of a group of young men with an aggressive swagger walking at night?
I sure hope so. This is not prejudice it"s bloody prudence.
Multiculturalism
It"s got such a nice ring to it but those using it don"t actually understand its true meaning. The dictionary tells us it"s thepreservationofdifferentculturesorculturalidentitieswithina unifiedsociety.
Discrimination is closely tied with multiculturalism, which is easily one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted terms in our modern lexicon. From my experience - and I"ve lived in 7 different countries, traveled to over 50, and do business with, have employees, colleagues, and business associates that traverse not only the globe but all the major religions and ethic groups - I can tell you this: those who live and work with many cultures and across geographies never, and I mean never, have an issue with this.
Those who do are inevitably the ones who have never traveled or travel little, and they wish to actually enforce on others their own world view. These are the worst sort of people. Those who not only believe things which are false but are not content until you, too, adhere to their beliefs. It"s an ideology, and ideologies are more dangerous than nuclear weapons.
Peter Thiel saw this coming a full 20 years ago. I would urge you to spend 15 minutes and listen to this speech he gave:
He quite correctly mentions that
"Multiculturalism has nothing to do with the study of other cultures." He goes on to say that "You do not see students protesting on college campuses demanding missionary postings in third world countries, to learn more about other societies. You do not have people protesting to learn Chinese or Swahili."
"You cannot have diversity on a college campus with people who look different but think alike."
Peter discusses the threat to Western civilisation, which ironically is not posed by any other civilisation but rather comes from within. Those who have been reared in the warm bosom of Western civilisation providing freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and a host of freedoms, which have allowed for unparalleled wealth and opportunity. This is where the threat comes from. It"s not unlike a spoilt child who has been given too much by well-meaning parents... only to invite drug dealers and gangsters into the homestead to destroy it and rape and pillage.
This is not non-Western but anti-Western and advocating the destruction of Western civilisation.
Multiculturalism joins the ranks of a long list of junk words that have crawled into popular vocabulary but which infest our brain and are used by self-righteous pompous pseudo intellectuals to further goals which have little to do with what we"re told they do.
Words such as "islamophobia", a nonsensical word if ever there was one (which I"ll write about in a separate article... because nobody else will)... and another pet hate: "marginalized", which if you look carefully, is a term used to describe any minority group that enjoys support from multimillion dollar lobby groups where the objective is to destroy criticism of the particular group and to garner favours which would, if the group couldn"t muster being "marginalised" would NOT receive largess. Interestingly, these "marginalised" groups cannot ever be white and male. Think about why that is.
Be careful of using these rubbish euphemisms and fight back against those who throw them out as accusations, because they are the epitome of lazy thinking and are being used as weapons to destroy what is often common sense. In this world or irrationality, when a rational statement is made that it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, society runs the risk of being to afraid to say that yes, it"s a duck. That, my friends, is dangerous territory indeed.
- Chris
"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn"t thinking." — George S. Patton
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Liked this article? Then you"ll probably like my other missives on
Giving credit where credit is due (while the bile rises into the back of my throat).
Ramirez draws good propaganda while pushing the neocon agenda.
I"m sure he gets the double-digit IQ morons to go into knee-slapping, hysterical fits of laughter whenever he posts one of his absurd political cartoons.
"Yep! Herp a derp! He"s right! Murrca! Fuck yeah!"
Too bad for them that Ramirez is laughing hysterically at those same morons while he counts his filthy shekels.
Does the following description remind anyone of a current small-handed US politician?
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic Staff
(November 2014)
If you have narcissistic personality disorder, you may come across as conceited, boastful or pretentious. You often monopolize conversations. You may belittle or look down on people you perceive as inferior. You may feel a sense of entitlement — and when you don"t receive special treatment, you may become impatient or angry. You may insist on having "the best" of everything — for instance, the best car, athletic club or medical care.
At the same time, you have trouble handling anything that may be perceived as criticism. You may have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability and humiliation. To feel better, you may react with rage or contempt and try to belittle the other person to make yourself appear superior. Or you may feel depressed and moody because you fall short of perfection.
Many experts use the criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published by the American Psychiatric Association, to diagnose mental conditions. This manual is also used by insurance companies to reimburse for treatment.
DSM-5 criteria for narcissistic personality disorder include these features:
Having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
Expecting to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it
Exaggerating your achievements and talents
Being preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate
Believing that you are superior and can only be understood by or associate with equally special people
Requiring constant admiration
Having a sense of entitlement
Expecting special favors and unquestioning compliance with your expectations
Taking advantage of others to get what you want
Having an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others
Being envious of others and believing others envy you
Behaving in an arrogant or haughty manner
Although some features of narcissistic personality disorder may seem like having confidence, it"s not the same. Narcissistic personality disorder crosses the border of healthy confidence into thinking so highly of yourself that you put yourself on a pedestal and value yourself more than you value others.
Risk Factors
Narcissistic personality disorder is rare. During childhood and teen years, children may show traits of narcissism, but this may simply be typical of their age and doesn"t mean they"ll go on to develop narcissistic personality disorder.
Narcissistic personality disorder affects more males than females, and it often begins in the teens or early adulthood.
Although the cause of narcissistic personality disorder isn"t known, some researchers think that in biologically vulnerable children, parenting styles that overemphasize the child"s specialness and criticize fears and failures may be partially responsible. The child may hide low self-esteem by developing a superficial sense of perfection and behavior that shows a need for constant admiration.”
“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal.
“Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does.
"They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.”
-Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited
The Fed’s balance sheet will not be growing unless we have another market crash.
GDP barely grew in the 1st quarter.
Stock valuations are at all-time highs.
The auto industry has begun to implode.
Corporate profits are falling.
Retailers are declaring bankruptcies and closing stores like we’re in the midst of a depression.
Wages for the average person are stagnant. Real household income is declining when using real inflation numbers.
Hope can work for awhile but it eventually runs head on into reality.
We are living in a hope driven, profoundly abnormal society.
“Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.”
-Red – The Shawshank Redemption
“Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective. A lot of hope is dangerous. A spark is fine, as long as it’s contained.”
President Snow – Hunger Games
People don’t realize it, but danger is lurking just over the horizon.
