Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz

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johnkarls
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Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz

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Question 1

“It’s the economy, stupid” was, according to legend, taped to the shaving mirror of what U.S. President during his entire 8 years in the White House 1993-2001?

Answer 1

Bill Clinton.

Question 2

Did his daily reminder prevent him from, over the objections of labor unions, negotiating and signing NAFTA (aka the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement pursuant to which so many American jobs have been exported to Mexico), from negotiating and signing a free-trade agreement with China, and from negotiating and signing the worldwide free-trade agreement creating the World Trade Organization -- among the total of approximately 300 free-trade agreements he negotiated and signed with other countries?

Answer 2

No.

Question 3

What is “The Establishment” of the Republican Party? What is “The Establishment” of the Democrat Party?

Answer 3

Virtually all of the members of the national news media love to proclaim that “The Establishment” can NOT be defined, regardless of the political party involved.

It is respectfully suggested that a perfectly-good definition of “The Establishment” (regardless of political party) would be the billionaires who “own” virtually all of the pols of both political parties as a result of campaign contributions.

Though “The Establishment” could easily be expanded to include the pols that they “own” as well as the many members of the media and the many members of academia that they “own,” in addition to the “think tanks” that they “own.”

Question 4

Do the billionaires who “own” virtually all of the pols of both parties as a result of their campaign contributions act in the best interests of blue-collar workers? Much less in the best interests of America’s Permanent “Untouchable” Under-Caste which comprises approximately 30% of our population?

Answer 4

No. No.

Question 5

Indeed, don’t “The Establishments” of both parties (if, indeed, the same billionaires do NOT “own” the pols of both parties) overwhelmingly dictate that American jobs should be exported?

Answer 5

Yes.

Question 6

And don’t “The Establishments” of both parties overwhelmingly dictate that illegal aliens should flood the American labor market to compete for American jobs that cannot be exported geographically?

Answer 6

Yes.

Question 7

And haven’t we studied on numerous occasions how illegal aliens are de facto slaves because their labor is NOT subject to any minimum-wage laws as a practical matter because (A) employers are free to deduct from the minimum wage whatever they please for meals and housing, and (B) illegal aliens cannot, as a practical matter, complain about anything for fear their employers will report them to Immigration?

Answer 7

Yes.

Question 8

Didn’t we just study for our 8/12/2015 meeting “What Is The Matter With White People” which focuses on the exodus of blue-collar workers from the Democrat Party because all of the Democrat Party pols have been screwing American workers (please pardon “my French”) by exporting their jobs and importing illegal aliens to compete for the remaining jobs?

Answer 8

Yes.

Question 9

And aren’t we currently witnessing the rejection of those blue-collar workers by “The Establishment” of the Republican Party and the pols they “own” because they also want to continue screwing American workers?

Answer 9

Yes.

Question 10

Why have the members of America’s Permanent “Untouchable” Under-Caste been so loyal to the Democrat Party when the Democrat party refuses (as do the Republicans) to lift a finger to mainstream the Permanent “Untouchable” Under-Caste by providing its children with a decent education?

Answer 10

God only knows!!!

Question 11

Since most of the 30% of America’s Permanent “Untouchable” Under-Caste subsist (to the extent they are able to subsist) in America’s inner-city ghettos, why haven’t they revolted like we see the residents of Europe’s Islamic ghettos doing?

Answer 11

This is probably the greatest mystery of the universe!!!

And the American News Media obviously is dead wrong once again as they currently busy themselves telling each other that America does not have the same problem that Europe has in being unable to assimilate its minorities!!!

By way of background, http://www.CIA.gov’s World Factbook states that the Muslim population of France is only 7-9%, of The Netherlands is only 5%, and of the entire European Union is only 2%!!!

Far below the 30% of America’s population comprising its Permanent “Untouchable” Under-Caste WHICH AMERICA HAS FAILED TO ASSIMILATE FOR WELL MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY!!!

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Momentary Digression

There are several reasons for listing the Muslim populations of only France and The Netherlands, in addition to the entire European Union.

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France was listed for two reasons.

First, of course, because of the ISIS attacks on Paris 4 months ago.

Second because, without checking, France probably has the highest Muslim population in Europe.

Because, following World War II, it annexed Algeria completely -- not only confirming that Algeria was an integral part of France (which it had been since 1848) but making all Algerians (even Muslims) French citizens.

Indeed, General Charles de Gaulle became the Premiere of the Fourth French Republic on 6/1/1958 with Emergency Powers for Six Months, pursuant to which he conducted a national referendum on 9/28/1958 which received 79.2% approval for a New Constitution creating the Fifth French Republic (whose first President was Charles de Gaulle taking office 1/8/1959). BUT MORE INTERESTINGLY, Charles de Gaulle’s referendum granted all French colonies a choice of independence.

HOWEVER, since Algeria was an integral part of France RATHER THAN A COLONY, it was NOT given the choice of independence. Accordingly, Charles de Gaulle was NOT able to grant Algeria its independence until 3/19/1962, bringing to a close the Algerian War of Independence 1954-1962 (as it was known).

Movie buffs might remember The Day Of The Jackal, a famous 1973 movie about an attempt to assassinate President de Gaulle by opponents of his policy of granting Algeria its independence.

The casual reader will be forgiven for confusing The Day Of The Jackal with its 1997 re-make entitled simply The Jackal, which starred Bruce Willis, Richard Gere and Sidney Poitier with the small plot change of First Lady Hillary Clinton being the assassination target.

But, back to the main point of France probably having the largest Muslim population in Europe, at the end of the Algerian War of Independence 1954-1962, many of the Algerian Muslims who had supported the French side in the war decided to re-settle in the European portion of France (which had suddenly become 100% of France as a result of Algeria seceding) and those Algerian Muslims were able to do so as a result of their French citizenship.

*****
Belgium was not listed.

Even though it was the target of last week’s ISIS bombings of the Brussels airport and the Brussels subway.

Because http://www.CIA.gov’s World Factbook, incredibly, does NOT provide any statistics on Belgium’s Muslim population.

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The Netherlands and Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The CIA Factbook does disclose the Muslim population of The Netherlands.

And our focus book for our 6/11/2008 meeting 8 years ago was Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali came to the attention of the wider world in an extraordinary way. In 2004 a Muslim fanatic, after shooting the filmmaker Theo van Gogh dead on an Amsterdam street, stabbed a letter to Mr. van Gogh’s chest with a knife. Addressed to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the letter called for holy war against the West and, more specifically, for her death.

A Somali by birth and a recently elected member of the Dutch Parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali had waged a personal crusade to improve the lot of Muslim women. Her warnings about the dangers posed to the Netherlands by unassimilated Muslims made her Public Enemy No. 1 for Muslim extremists, a feminist counterpart to Salman Rushdie.

The circuitous, violence-filled path that led Ayaan Hirsi Ali from Somalia to The Netherlands was the subject of “Infidel,” her brave, inspiring and beautifully written memoir. Both a Somali and a Muslim by birth and up-bringing, she left Mogadishu to live in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya before fleeing to The Netherlands to escape an arranged marriage.

There, she joined the Dutch Parliament as a member of the newly-formed political party of Pim Fortuyn which/who was questioning whether it was really “liberal” to permit what had become the Muslim majority of every major Dutch city to exercise “religious freedom” in the form of honor killings, female genital mutilation, etc., etc., ON DUTCH SOIL!!!

Pim Fortuyn was assassinated 5/6/2002, only 9 days before his newly-formed political party captured 17% of the seats in the Dutch Parliament which enabled it to form a governing coalition which soon collapsed because of Fortuyn’s absence at the helm.

Theo van Gogh’s 11/2/2004 assassination by a Dutch-Moroccan Muslin followed his 10-minute short film entitled Submission (which is the English translation of Islam) which focused on Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s efforts and on 4 abused Muslim women praying to Allah (the Arabic word for the God of Abraham and Moses) about the abuse they had suffered in the name of Islam.

The theologically-based reason for the death threat stabbed to the chest of Theo van Gogh was that Ayaan Hirsi Ali had, for years, been accused by many Muslims of being an apostate which is a Muslim who has left the faith. The solemn religious duty of EVERY Muslim (not just Radical Islamic Terrorists) is to kill every apostate.

So Ayaan Hirsi Ali had to enter the equivalent of America’s “witness protection program” even though she always maintained that she had never left the Muslim faith despite her criticisms of honor killings, genital mutilation, etc.

In the last several years, Ayaan Hirsi Ali has become partially visible once more (only “partially” because of heavy security) as a faculty member of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a frequent speaker on Islam’s treatment of women.

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Back to Answer 11

The sad but probably-inescapable answer to Question 11 of why America’s Permanent “Untouchable” Under-Caste of 30% of its population has NOT revolted like the SINGE-DIGIT Muslim populations in Europe is religion.

As we have studied many times in the past, Islam contains the concept of a Fearsome Judgment Day -- and the belief that a Martyr and 70 close relatives will by-pass The Judgment Day.

[See, for example, Osama bin Laden’s 1996 fatwā entitled “Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places" which states: “A martyr’s privileges are guaranteed by Allah: forgiveness with the first gush of his blood, he will be shown his seat in paradise…..and his intercession on the behalf of seventy of his relatives will be accepted.” (translation courtesy of the PBS Newshour at pbs.org/newshour/updates/military-july-dec96-fatwa_1996)]

Other religions do not appear to have such a belief vis-à-vis martyrs.

Indeed, this difference was the basis for the famous thesis of Harvard’s long-time (1963-2008) Political Science Professor Samuel Huntington who was the co-founder and long-time co-editor of Foreign Policy Magazine (which was sold to the Washington Post upon his retirement), that Islam has “bloody borders.”

Prof. Huntington’s “bloody borders” did NOT refer to national “borders” invented by European colonial powers, BUT INSTEAD they referred to “borders” between Islamic areas and non-Islamic areas.

Whether WITHIN many of the countries of North Africa, the Old Soviet Union and the Far East.

Or now, within many European countries.

Even though, as previously noted, the Muslim populations in the European Union are SINGLE DIGIT with only 7-9% in France and only 5% in The Netherlands probably being the largest.

Thank God that America’s Permanent “Untouchable” Under-Caste of 30% is largely Christian which preaches “loving your neighbors as yourself”!!!

Though it is tragic that the leaders of America’s Permanent “Untouchable” Under-Caste do not have the vision to make common cause with America’s blue-collar workers to form a New-Majority party that dwarfs The Establishment and the two major political parties that it “owns”!!!

Question 12

Since both of “The Establishments” (Democrat and Republican) refuse to do anything for American blue-collar workers or for America’s Permanent “Untouchable” Under-Caste, why haven’t the blue-collar workers and the Permanent “Untouchable” Under-Caste formed their own political party, which would obviously be the New-Majority Party and relegate both the Democrat Party and the Republican Party to insignificant status?

Answer 12

God only knows!!!

Question 13

After all, why shouldn’t voters (aka workers, and all of the potential workers of America’s Permanent “Untouchable” Under-Caste) form their own party to oppose the War On Workers that has been conducted by both the Democrat and Republican parties for more than 20 years?

Answer 13

Indeed, why shouldn’t they???

Unless a Messiah should appear first -- (1) who is NOT “owned” by the billionaires, (2) who is willing to champion blue-collar workers and, hopefully also, America’s Permanent “Untouchable” Under-Caste, (3) who is able to win a major-party nomination for President, (4) who is then able to win the Presidential election, and (5) who is then willing (instead of being “bought off” at that point by the billionaires) and able to re-make one of the existing political parties, or willing and able to create the New-Majority Party from, in probably-minor part, whatever/whomever can be salvaged from the existing major parties.

But modern-day miracles are extremely rare!!!

And that’s five miracles!!!

And it should be noted that the Roman Catholic Church only requires two miracles for sainthood!!!

Question 14

Should their failure to do so comprise one of “The Seven Wonders Of The World” (bumping the current seventh wonder while rocketing to the top of the list)???

Answer 14

Of course!!!

Question 15

What is meant by the ancient oil-patch phrase “tax-paid cost”?

Answer 15

Every oil company worth its salt has always known at any instant in time the incremental cost of producing an extra barrel of oil from each of its fields in general, and each of its wells in particular.

And, since crude oil anywhere in the world is fungible, every oil company worth its salt has always known at any instant in time what it will net on the world market for producing an extra barrel of oil from each of its fields/wells.

On the cost side, “tax-paid cost” always had three categories of expenses -- “lifting costs” (their quaint term for current out-of-pocket costs for producing that incremental barrel of crude), royalties and income taxes.

“Tax-paid cost” did NOT take into account any tax savings from abandoning a field/well and deducting the unamortized cost of the field/well.

Abandonment was a long-range concept divorced from the day-to-day decision of whether to produce flat out, or to shut in part or most of the potential production. [The reason why you would never shut in a well completely unless you were going to abandon it, is that halting all movement of the crude turns everything into the equivalent of concrete and, if you ever wanted to resume production, you would have to re-drill the well.]

THE REASON FOR GETTING INTO THE WEEDS ABOUT ABANDONMENT IS THAT THE BILLIONAIRES WHO “OWN” THE POLS OF BOTH PARTIES APPEAR TO HAVE ABANDONED AMERICA’S PERMANENT “UNTOUCHABLE” UNDER-CASTE.

AND THEY APPEAR TO BE IN THE PROCESS OF ABANDONING AMERICA’S BLUE-COLLAR WORKERS. AT LEAST UNTIL THEIR “TAX-PAID COST” DROPS TO THE LEVEL OF THIRD-WORLD POVERTY LEVELS.

Question 16

If no oil company has ever been able to survive without knowing the incremental cost of each extra barrel [in terms of “lifting costs” (their quaint term for current out-of-pocket costs of production), royalties and income taxes], why should The Establishment think citizens are so stupid as to believe that America competes with other countries in terms of income-tax rates?

Answer 16

God only knows!!!

Question 17

Isn’t the sad reality that American jobs are continuing to be exported, NOT because America may (or may not) have high income tax rates, but because the “tax paid cost” of an American worker also includes the wages of American workers which have not yet been reduced to third-world poverty levels???

Answer 17

Of course!!!

Question 18

And because the “tax paid cost” of American workers includes workplace-safety costs and environmental costs that do not exist in third-world countries???

Answer 18

Of course!!!

Question 19

What is meant by the historical phrase “Pax Brittannica”?

Answer 19

“Pax Britannica” (or “British Peace” in English) was the relatively peaceful period in both the world in general, and Europe in particular, following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 until the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

This was the heyday of the British Empire and during this period the Brits acted as “the policeman of the world.”

Indeed, you can be forgiven if you have always thought that the British National Anthem was "Rule Britannia" rather than “God Save The Queen” (for which Americans would recognize the music by its substitute-American lyrics “My Country ‘Tis Of Thee”)!!!

Because, except at the Olympics on those rare occasions when a Brit has won a Gold Medal, Brits are far more likely at patriotic moments to sing “Rule Britannia” than “God Save The Queen”!!!

“Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves” is a testament to how easy it was to maintain a worldwide peace with a relatively-small navy and an infinitesimally-small army.

Because nobody dared step out of line for fear that the entire British navy would begin shelling them after having put ashore the entire British army!!!

Question 20

What is meant by the phrase “Pax Americana”?

Answer 20

“Pax Americana” is the corresponding Latin phrase for “American peace” which describes what the U.S. has attempted to impose during the last 71 years since the end of World War II.

However, most historians would probably admit that the U.S. has NOT been nearly as successful as the 1815-1914 Brits in performing as “the policeman of the world.”

Question 21

Did Britain and its citizens at least get the economic benefit of draining wealth from a worldwide empire in return for footing the bill for providing worldwide “peace”???

Answer 21

Yes.

Question 22

Does the United States get any economic benefit (vs. benefit to the multi-national companies that export American jobs) in return for footing the bill FOR ATTEMPTING to provide worldwide “peace”???

Answer 22

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 23

Is America likely to be subjected to attacks from Radical-Islamic terrorists as the only thanks FOR ATTEMPTING to provide worldwide “peace” for the multi-national companies that export American jobs???

Answer 23

Of course!!!

Question 24

Is Osama bin Laden’s most famous fatwā (because it requires nuking 10 million Americans and about which the Founding Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government wrote a famous book entitled “Nuclear Terrorism” about how to deal with the fatwā) BINDING ON ALL OF OSAMA BIN LADEN’S FOLLOWERS [Al Qaeda, ISIS (which, before founding its Islamic State Caliphate, was known as Al Qaeda in Iraq), etc., etc.]???

Answer 24

Quoting from Answer 5 of the Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz for our 3/11/2015 meeting on Leon Panetta’s book “Worthy Fights” --

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“In 1998, Osama issued his fatwā entitled “The Nuclear Bomb of Islam.”

“And in 2002, nine months after 9/11, he issued a fatwā requiring all of his followers to nuke 4 million Americans -- a fatwā about which the Founding Dean of Harvard U’s Kennedy School of Government, Graham Allison, wrote a famous book entitled “Nuclear Terrorism” about how to deal with the fatwā.

"[NB: His prescription for all of the world’s nuclear powers to “lock down” every iota of fissile material and to prevent any non-nuclear powers, such as Iran, from enriching fissile material, was widely criticized as impractical and, in any event, has not been implemented.]

“By 2005, Osama had issued a revised fatwā requiring all of his followers to nuke 10 million Americans -- as was painfully clear from Tim Russert’s 5/29/2005 Meet the Press interview about how to deal with the fatwā with former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman 1987-1995), U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN and then-current Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman) and Messrs. Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton (Chair and Co-Chair of The 9/11 Commission) -- during which they essentially recommended following Dean Graham Allison’s prescription which, as previously noted, has NOT been done.

“During the first few years after 9/11, experts such as Senators Nunn and Lugar and the 9/11 Commission Co-Chairs regularly opined that it was only a matter of time until one or more American cities were nuked.

“And quite a few Hollywood movies depicted such events.

“Indeed, in 2005 now-retired-Senator Sam Nunn’s Nuclear Threat Initiative Foundation released a 45-minute Docu-Drama (entitled "Last Best Chance") illustrating the threat of nuclear terrorism with former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson (of TV’s Law and Order fame as Manhattan D.A. Arthur Branch) playing the part of fictitious U.S. President Charles Ross -- and, playing themselves, Tom Brokaw, Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar.

“As we have also studied many times, Osama bin Laden’s fatwā can NOT be revoked now that he is dead.

“[A principle that was on prominent display when the Brits negotiated to restore diplomatic relations with Iran following the death in 1989 of Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini who had issued a famous fatwā to assassinate Salmon Rushdie in the wake of his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses -- the Brits were told by new Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that the fatwā could NOT be revoked because Ayatollah Khomeini was dead.]

“Accordingly, it seems utterly bizarre that for the last 10 years, America’s mainstream media have refused to discuss or even mention Osama bin Laden’s fatwā to nuke 10 million Americans.”

[End of quotation.]
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NB: The reader may want to skip to Q&A-30, since Questions 25-29 have already been answered in the quotation contained in Q&A-24.
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Question 25

Since we know from Britain’s negotiations to re-establish diplomatic relations with Iran after the demise of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 during which the Brits tried UNSUCCESSFULLY to have revoked Khomeini’s fatwā to assassinate Salman Rushdie for his novel “The Satanic Verses” THAT A FATWĀ CANNOT BE REVOKED AFTER THE DEATH OF THE PERSON WHO HAS ISSUED THE FATWĀ -- why does the American news media studiously ignore Osama bin Laden’s fatwā to nuke 10 million Americans which can NOT be revoked???

Answer 25

God only knows!!!

Question 26

After all, during the first few years after 9/11, didn’t experts such as Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA 1972-1997 and Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee 1987-1995), Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN 1977-2013 and Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 2003-2007) FORM A FAMOUS SO-CALLED “POSSE” with the 9/11 Commission Co-Chairs to regularly publicize their opinion that it was only a matter of time until one or more American cities were nuked???

Answer 26

Yes.

Question 27

And didn’t quite a few Hollywood movies of the time depict nuclear attacks against the U.S. by Radical-Islamic terrorists???

Answer 27

Yes.

Question 28

Indeed, in 2005 didn’t by-then-retired-Senator Sam Nunn’s Nuclear Threat Initiative Foundation release a 45-minute Docu-Drama (entitled "Last Best Chance") illustrating the threat of nuclear terrorism with former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson (of TV’s Law and Order fame as Manhattan D.A. Arthur Branch) playing the part of fictitious U.S. President Charles Ross -- and, playing themselves, Tom Brokaw, Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar???

Answer 28

Yes.

Question 29

And hasn’t the U.S. ignored the recommendations of the Founding Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and of the “Posse” of Senators Nunn and Lugar and the 9/11 Commission Co-Chairs -- to lock down every iota of fissile material and to prevent any additional countries such as Iran from enriching uranium/plutonium???

Answer 29

Yes.

Question 30

So why does America regularly provide Armed Forces to fight wars for the worldwide multi-national corporations which export American jobs -- if having 10 million of our citizens nuked is the only thanks we can expect???

Answer 30

What do you thing??? Let’s discuss!!!

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