(SAR)
Mayor Nancy Shaver welcomed Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Latitizia to St. Augustine today, with the King greeting residents from the balcony of Government House, renamed the King's Balcony after his father, King Juan Carlos I.
Then the King and Queen walked through the crowd to the Spanish Constitution monument, shaking hands at metal barriers erected for the occasion, proceeding to the St. Augustine Cathedral Basilica to dedicate four bells named in his honor, including one that dates to 1689, reportedly the oldest working bell in the United States. I was six feet from the King and Queen as they greeted residents and posed in front of a wreath at the Constitution monument, in Spanish colors.
The King and Queen will be at the annual meeting of the U.S. -Spain Council at the County Convention Center at the World Golf Village this weekend, with Mayor Shaver in attendance.
It's a proud day for St. Augustine, and prouder still because our reform Mayor greeted King Felipe, the son of the king who restored democracy to Spain after four decades of fascistic rule by Francisco Franco, installed by the Nazis after the bloody Spanish Civil War, in which our late neighbor Peg McIntire lost her brother (and saw combat).
Like me, King Felipe VI is a graduate of the Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. (He received an M.S.F.S.; I graduated with a B.S.F.S.)
Georgetown U, another once Vanilla Greed For Profit institution now co-opted by Pernicious Greed For Destruction Xtrevilism.
ReplyDeleteSheesh Ed, you are letting your right wing neo-conservative gushing love all hang out to defend the emerging fascism in Spain. Certainly not consistent with one who professes to be s TRUE Free Speech and Civil Rights activist.
Excerpt;
"The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) emerged from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service (see below) at the height of the cold war. It was founded in 1962 by Arleigh Burke, who had just served three terms as US Chief of Naval Operations and David Abshire, a West Point graduate who had studied his PhD at Georgetown. The Center became a hub of Cold War propaganda and later developed into an important center of terrorism studies. During the 1980s the semi-permanent terrorism experts at CSIS were Michael Ledeen, Walter Laqueur, Robert H. Kupperman and Ray Cline, but Yonah Alexander, Claire Sterling, Paul Henze, Arnaud de Borchgrave, and Robert Moss were also occasional participants in CSIS's activities bearing on terrorism.[3]
The link between Georgetown and CSIS was severed after the university launched a committee to evaluate the centre in 1986. That year The Washington Post reported concerns that CSIS had focused too much on its media presence whilst producing poor scholarship.[4] Whilst the Center itself moved elsewhere, some of the CSIS men remained with the university. Anthony H. Cordesman still a strategic analyst at CSIS, remained an associate professor at Georgetown until very recently, and CSIS founder David Abshire remained an adjunct professor at Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service for many years. He was awarded an honorary degree by Georgetown in 2006.[5]
CSIS became the think tank where most out-of-office intelligence officers congregated. During the Carter presidency, Stansfield Turner was appointed to head the CIA, and one of his primary activities was to get rid of the ultra-right-wing personnel, e.g., Cuban exiles, right-wing ideologues, or those involved in illegal covert activities. The more educated of the fired bunch ended at CSIS where the brooded and plotted to regain their previous posts or influence. During this time CSIS fellows were the source for many articles meant to fan the Cold War fears or indicate that the current intelligence efforts were not "defending America". Robert Moss and de Borchgrave published The Spike, a book which was basically the CSIS's Cold Warriors' fantasies. After the Carter's defeat and Reagan's accession to office, most of the CSIS Cold Warriors returned to the intelligence agencies, or principal roles within the government.
More here...
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Georgetown_University
Warren, would you rather I had gone to school somewhere pure, where everyone agreed with me? Where would that be? I considered transferring to Antioch as a junior, but my mother said no. Wisely so. Antioch has ceased to exist, while Georgetown educates Kings and Presidents. Did you know that Bill Clinton and I have the same degree from the same undergraduate college (yes, Warren, the degree is B.S.F.S.)
ReplyDeleteCarpe diem.
I carefully picked Georgetown because it was in D.C. and I wanted to intern for Senators (worked for three)and also because GU was (then) in many ways more conservative than me.
Why? For the same reason I read all of Bill Buckley's books by the time I graduate high school. To challenge my ideals, to be better rounded, and know how to out-think, out-analyze and out-argue nearly anyone.
What do you reckon?
Never took a CSIS course. It required going to K Street, where the lobbyists hang out. Low opinion of CSIS among fellow students and our professors at GU. Glad that "ties" were "severed," but it added color to our campus -- just like the INTERNATIONAL POLICE ACADEMY, headquartered in the Car Barn Building until Senator Abouresk successfully terminated funding for it -- rebarbative reprobate fascists from some 20 dictatorships learned torture techniques there -- I reckon I told you my story about IPA, right, Warren? Aren't you glad that I went to an undergraduate school with such a colorful, controversial background? Makes me a better activist. By the way, I am proud that GU helped us win the Cold War -- our ongoing struggle against oligopolists, oligarchy, oppression and Xtrevilists is informed by the technology of that victory. What do you reckon?
ReplyDelete