UFOs In Georgia

Out There Somewhere

UFO display in Sardis follows close encounter

by: George Eskola

Posted: Apr 28, 2023 / 06:32 PM EDT

SARDIS, Ga. (WJBF) – This is not a scene from a Sci-Fi movie…it’s Danny’s Nelson’s yard in Sardis, where he has his own Area 51.

“I put these things together…that was really similar to the ship that I saw,” he said.

Yes, Danny’s UFO display was inspired in part by what he saw in the sky back in the 1980’s…

“I had been coming from work in Waynesboro one day and something looked about the length of a big jet airplane but it was cigar shaped, “he said.

Now that could prompt one to create this UFO display, but Danny says he had a closer encounter a few years later in Sardis.

“I’ve been in there and I have been examined and they’re very nice to me. I was elevated from the truck out,” Danny said.
ALSO ON WJBF: 60’s era ‘fallout shelter’ signs still hang out in Warrenton

Danny says he had a face-to-face encounter with aliens.

They are gray, he says, not green. And they’re nice but curious.

“He said he’s not there to harm me. He wanted to do an examination, I was going to be probed,” Danny said.

Danny’s display is far out, the story seems far-fetched.

“This sounds crazy.”

“It does, it sounds crazy, but the crazy ones are going to be the ones who don’t believe,” he said.

Jack Johnson has known Danny for more than 40 years.

“Yes sir. I believe his story. He never lied to me, just because it does not sound real. It is real,” said Jack.

https://www.wjbf.com/news/out-there-somewhere/ufo-display-in-sardis-follows-close-encounter/

Area 51 in Sardis, Georgia.

“Yes sir, that’s exactly right. It sounds funny, it sounds crazy. People got to realize there’s something out there,” he said.

And this display qualifies.

Out There Somewhere in Sardis, George Eskola WJBF NewsChannel 6. (https://www.wjbf.com/news/out-there-somewhere/ufo-display-in-sardis-follows-close-encounter/)

In 1969, Jimmy Carter saw a UFO in Georgia. Here’s what happened.

By Shannen Sharpe
Published March 23, 2023

COLUMBUS, Ga. – President Jimmy Carter was convinced he saw an unidentified flying object (UFO) in 1969. He didn’t file a report until 1973 when an agency called the International UFO Bureau sent him a form to fill out.

According to the form on file at The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, President Carter filled it out by hand when he was serving as governor. A second agency, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), had a similar form with typed responses dated the same as the one filled out by Mr. Carter on September 18, 1973.
Where did Jimmy Carter see a UFO?

The president wrote he made the observation in the small South Georgia town of Leary, about an hour and a half south of Columbus. In both forms, he wrote that 10 other members of the Leary Georgia Lions Club also saw the UFO. It was shortly after dark, around 7:15 p.m. he wrote they were waiting for a meeting that was set to begin at 7:30 p.m. when the bright object caught their attention.
What did he see?

In both sighting forms, the president didn’t provide a definitive answer as to what he believed he saw. He described an anomalous ball of light that changed size, brightness, and color over a period of 10–12 minutes. He didn’t hear anything coming from it, no whirl of a helicopter or buzz of an engine.

As for the location in the sky, he says stars were visible but not the sun and moon. The object was approximately 30° above the horizon. He wrote, “[it was] about the same as moon, maybe a little smaller. [The object] varied from brighter/larger than [a] planet to [the] apparent size of [the] moon.”

It was difficult for Mr. Carter to describe the proximity of the object, writing it was as close as 300 yards at times and as far as 1,000 yards at others. The UFO was self-luminous. In the president’s own words, “[The object] seemed to move toward us from a distance, stopped-moved partially away-returned, then departed. Bluish at first, then reddish, luminous, not solid.” After nearly 15 minutes, the president said the object “moved to a distance, then disappeared.”
2007 interview about UFO sighting

The president spoke about the UFO and what he learned while serving as Commander in Chief during a 2007 interview with the podcast “The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe.”

After nearly four decades at the time, Mr. Carter still wasn’t sure what he thought he saw. He did mention the large military base nearby at Fort Benning. He told the podcasters most of the witnesses that evening back in 1969 believed it to be some device being tested. However, the president said he’d never been able to assess exactly what it might’ve been.

Jimmy Carter Presidential Library
@CarterLibrary
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“I have never thought there was any extraterrestrial involvement but surmised that it was some kind of military balloon or other device from nearby Fort Benning … ” JC, A Full Life, p. 197
Snake Nation Press
@SnakeHandlers
In October of 1969, Jimmy Carter @CarterLibrary experienced a UFO sighting in Leary, Georgia. In this singular Dispatch by @JamesCalemine we travel back to that night.
http://snakenation.press/georgia-ufo-di

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/jimmy-carter-ufo-sighting

The podcasters asked the president whether he pursued the government’s knowledge of UFOs during his time in office. Mr. Carter said, “I can’t respond to that.”

When the hosts pressed by asking whether the government is hiding information about UFOs, the president said, “So far as I know, they’re not hiding information.”
Carter’s credibility

Carter’s education lends further credibility to his reports. In his official bio on the Carter Center’s website, it says he attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology and received a B.S. degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946. Mr. Carter took graduate work at Union College in reactor technology and nuclear physics in Schenectady, New York while on assignment for the Navy’s nuclear submarine program.
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/jimmy-carter-ufo-sighting

My “Dazed and Confused” Generation

The “Dazed and Confused” Generation

People my age are described as baby boomers, but our experiences call for a different label altogether.

By Bruce Handy
March 2, 2023

It has long been fashionable to hate baby boomers, “America’s noisiest if no longer largest living generation,” as the Times critic Alexandra Jacobs wrote recently. (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/books/review-the-aftermath-baby-boom.html) But I remain on the fence. I believe that you can appreciate the late David Crosby’s music,

for instance, while not endorsing buckskin jackets, walrus mustaches, and lyrics that address women as “milady.”

What I most resent about baby boomers is that, technically, I am one. The baby boom is most often defined as encompassing everyone born from 1946 to 1964, but those nineteen years make for an awfully wide and experientially diverse cohort. I was born in 1958, three years past the generational midpoint of 1955. I graduated from high school in 1976, which means I came of age in a very different world from the earliest boomers, most of whom graduated in 1964. When the first boomers were toddlers, TV was a novelty. We, the late boomers, were weaned on “Captain Kangaroo”

and “Romper Room.” They were old enough to freak out over the Sputnik; we were young enough to grow bored of moon landings. The soundtrack of their senior year in high school was the early Beatles and Motown; ours was “Frampton Comes Alive!”

Rather than Freedom Summer, peace marches, and Woodstock,

we second-half baby boomers enjoyed an adolescence of inflation, gas lines, and Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech.

We grew up to the background noise of the previous decade, when being young was allegedly more thrilling in every way: the music, the drugs, the clothes, the sense of discovery and the possibility of change, the sense that being young mattered.

The idea of generations with well-defined beginnings and endings, like Presidential terms or seasons of “American Horror Story,”

is inherently silly, of course. Generations are more like sequential schmears, overlapping and messy, and the idea that each one shares essential traits is perhaps a marketer’s version of astrology. Still, these divisions would be slightly less dubious if crafted more artfully, and, with that in mind, I have a proposal: let’s split the baby boom in half and dub those of us born between 1956 and 1964 the “Dazed and Confused” generation,

after Richard Linklater’s quasi-autobiographical teen movie, which is coming up on its thirtieth anniversary. (The Criterion Collection just released a restored 4K edition, marking the occasion.)
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-dazed-and-confused-generation

Gone With The Wind

When accounting for inflation, “Gone with the Wind” has made $1.6 billion at the domestic box office. (https://money.cnn.com/2014/12/15/media/gone-with-the-wind-anniversary/index.html)

The movie Gone With the Wind opened in Atlanta on this date in 1939. Excitement was at a fever pitch; at a top-secret preview screening in California three months earlier, the audience had gone wild when they realized what they were seeing. They screamed, they cried, and they stood on their seats. The official opening of the film in Atlanta was the culmination of three days of parades, receptions, and a costume ball. Confederate flags and false antebellum façades covered the city. The governor declared December 15 a state holiday, and asked Georgians to dress in period clothing. Former president Jimmy Carter remembered it as the biggest event to happen in the South in his lifetime. The cast attended the premiere, with the notable exception of the African-American performers, who were prevented by Georgia’s Jim Crow laws from sitting next to their white co-stars. https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3Fdate=2011%252F12%252F15.html

https://thefirstedition.com/product/gone-with-the-wind/

Imagine

On this day in 1971 John Lennon released his second solo album, Imagine. The title track was the best-selling song of his solo career and was included on BMI’s list of the top 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century. Lennon said that he and Yoko Ono received a prayer book which inspired him to write the song. He said, “The concept of positive prayer … If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion — not without religion but without this my-God-is-bigger-than-your-God thing — then it can be true.”

The song’s call for peace and tolerance continues to resonate with people all over the world. Jimmy Carter said,

“[I]n many countries … you hear John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’ used almost equally with national anthems.”
https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/twa-the-writers-almanac-for-october-8-2021/

“Imagine”
(from “Imagine: John Lennon” soundtrack)

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today… Aha-ah…

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace… You…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world… You…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/johnlennon/imagine.html

Happy Birthday Jimmy

Many Georgians ‘back in the day’ said they would never live long enough to see a human walk on the moon. No Georgian thought they would ever live to see a native born Georgian become President of the United States of America.

Some Presidents leave office with a high approval rating but are not treated kindly by historians. For other Presidents it is the reverse. Jimmy Carter belongs in the latter category.

I have only met one POTUS and that was Jimmy Carter. He looked me in the eye and gripped my hand firmly. When Jimmy Carter shakes your hand you know it has been shook.

It’s the birthday of Jimmy Carter (books by this author), born in Plains, Georgia (1924), the first American president to be born in a hospital. He grew up in a house where everyone brought a book to the dinner table and then the family sat there together at dinner eating and reading in silence. He started selling boiled peanuts from a red wagon by the side of the road when he was six, around the same age that he started winning all sorts of prizes for being the top reader in his rural grade school.

He played basketball in high school, joined the Future Farmers of America club, and went off to the United States Naval Academy where he taught Sunday school to the officer’s kids and graduated 59th in his class of 820. While in the Navy he did graduate work in nuclear physics. Then, after his dad died, he left the Navy and took over the family peanut farming business. For awhile, he was a wealthy peanut farmer.

He became governor of Georgia, but he wasn’t very well known around the nation, and when he first threw his hat in the ring for the Democratic primaries of the 1976 presidential election, only 2 percent of Americans recognized his name. When he told his mom he was going to run for president, she replied, “President of what?”

He decided he would write a book to help the nation know who he was and where he was coming from and what he stood for — a candidate autobiography. He wrote it on the campaign trail, scribbling paragraphs on yellow notepads during airplane rides and in hotels. He took it to a bunch of small publishers in Georgia but they all rejected the manuscript. Finally he convinced a small press in Nashville that specialized in Southern Baptist books to publish his book. After he won the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries that book — Why Not the Best? (1975) — sold about a million copies. It has since been reissued.

Carter defeated Gerald Ford and took office during an energy crisis. He wore sweaters and told Americans to turn down the heat. In one of his last acts in office he signed a House Bill bailing out a failing American car company, the Chrysler Corporation.

When he got back to Georgia he found that his farm, which he placed in a blind trust upon election, was suddenly a million dollars in debt. He sold the farm and then, to make ends meet and save their home, he and Rosalynn each signed separate book contracts to write memoirs.

He sat down and wrote for eight to 10 hours a day, drawing on diaries he kept while in the Oval office, typewritten notes that amounted to 6,000 pages. When he could not stand sitting down at the typewriter anymore he went to his woodworking shop and made furniture — things like tables and chairs and cabinets. He ended up with more than 30 pieces of furniture in the time in took him to write that first post-presidential book, which was published in 1982 as Keeping Faith.

He’s now the author of about two dozen books, including An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of a Rural Boyhood (2001), Our Endangered Values (2005), Palestine Peace Not Apartheid (2006), A Remarkable Mother (2008), and Beyond the White House (2008).

He likes to fly-fish and ride his bicycle. He continues to teach Sunday school. He reads just about every new book written about the U.S. presidency. He adores poet Dylan Thomas and has read two dozen biographies about the man. He writes his own poetry now. In 2002 he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

He said:

“A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.”
https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/twa-the-writers-almanac-for-october-1-2021/

Watch Free Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President Full Movies …
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Jimmy Carter the first rock and roll President | Gonzo Music
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The Difference Between Donald Trump and Jimmy Carter

Having watched the first thirteen seasons of Ancient Aliens

https://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens

I had fallen behind. Needing something to occupy my time, and divert attention from the news, I checked out AA and, to my surprise, found it was in the fifteenth season. It was amazing to see the fourteenth season contained twenty-two, the most ever in one season, episodes. I have binged on them to the point there is only one episode of the fifteenth season to watch. Fortunately, the season continues…

The last episode watched was The Immortality Machine, which aired TV Mar 14, 2020. During the episode a story was told of a gentleman who lived inside Big Rock, the name of the huge rock. I learned something not previously known while watching. During World War II there was a draft for men aged between 50 something and 64. When the deputies came out to bring him in, the guy who lived in a rock pressed two wires together and blew himself to smithereens.

If the current POTUS, the Trumpster, were to call for a “geezer force” I would laugh, because everything he says these daze makes me laugh…to keep from crying.

If former Governor of the Great State of Georgia, and President of the United States of America, Jimmy Carter, were to call for a “geezer force” I would be the first to join. This would be done because I know Jimmy would be right their beside me, shoulder to shoulder, leading by example, just as he has all his life. One example among many would be the work he has done getting his hands dirty with the Habitat For Humanity (https://www.habitat.org/).

Jimmy Carter back to building houses after hip surgery

By Devan Cole and Betsy Klein, CNN
Updated 9:51 AM ET, Tue August 27, 2019
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/27/politics/jimmy-carter-habitat-for-humanity-homes-hip-surgery/index.html

The Habitat for Humanity Build Jimmy Carter Called His Favorite

Where have you gone, Jimmy Carter? The nation sure could use a man like you right about now…

Because of the calamitous situation in which we find ourselves I urge you to to give strong consideration to watching a program about viruses:

Ancient Aliens
S 14 E 9
The Alien Infection
42m | 2019 | TV-PG | CC
In 2016, scientists made the astonishing discovery that 30 percent of all protein adaptations since humans’ divergence with chimpanzees have been driven by viruses. Could ancient aliens have shaped human evolution by introducing viral epidemics on Earth? And if so, for what purpose? Are they making us more like them?
https://play.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens/season-14/episode-9

All episodes can be watched free of charge. You can thank me later…

Lock Kelly Loeffler Up!

Two United States Senators, Richard Burr, from North Carolina, and Kelly Loeffler, from Georgia, both Republicans, have been caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar. Excerpts from an article written by The Editorial Board of the New York Times follow, with a focus on Senator Loeffler. Loeffler was appointed to the seat vacated by Johnny Isakson by the Republican Governor, Brian Kemp. Kemp obtained office by thwarting eligible voters from voting, even when called on to resign his position as Georgia’s Secretary Of State. It is the Secretary of State who controls voting, proving it’s not just who votes, but who counts the vote. (https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/11/02/its-not-just-who-votes-its-who-counts-the-votes/)
In Georgia, as in much of the South, this has just been ‘business as usual’. The woman has no background in government. Her only qualification is MONEY! I cannot help but wonder what it cost the woman to become US Senator? When the COVID-19 virus runs its course this will change because the volcano is rumbling as I write.

Kelly Loeffler should have already resigned the office of US Senator. Since she has not resigned, the woman should resign IMMEDIATELY! Read on and you will understand why…

Kemp taps Kelly Loeffler, financial exec, to US Senate seat (https://www.ajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/breaking-kemp-taps-kelly-loeffler-financial-exec-senate-seat/cKraGpntwpFivAz0kYPFkL/)

Did Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler Profit From the Pandemic?

At least two senators engaged in suspiciously timed stock sales. All stock trades by members of Congress should be barred.

By The Editorial Board

March 20, 2020

Crisis often brings out the best in a people. As the coronavirus spreads its devastation, countless Americans are stepping up to perform acts of heroism and compassion, both great and small, to aid their neighbors and their nation.

Then there are certain not-so-inspiring members of the United States Senate.

Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, and Kelly Loeffler, Republican of Georgia, are in the hot seat this week, facing questions about whether they misused their positions to shield their personal finances from the economic fallout of the pandemic, even as they misled the public about the severity of the crisis. According to analyses of their disclosure reports filed with the Senate, the lawmakers each unloaded major stock holdings during the same period they were receiving closed-door briefings about the looming pandemic.

These briefings were occurring when much of the public still had a poor grasp of the virus, in part because President Trump and many Republican officials were still publicly playing down the threat. Instead of raising their voices to prepare Americans for what was to come, Mr. Burr and Ms. Loeffler prioritized their stock portfolios, in a rank betrayal of the public trust — and possibly in violation of the law.

It is unclear precisely what information about the pandemic either Mr. Burr or Ms. Loeffler received in the briefings before their stock sales. But any use of nonpublic information in guiding such dealings would have been not only unethical but almost certainly illegal. Lawmakers and their aides are explicitly barred from using nonpublic information for trades by the STOCK Act of 2012 (the acronym stands for Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge). Mr. Burr of all people should know this, since he was one of only three senators to vote against the bill.

As chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Mr. Burr is privy to classified information about threats to America’s security. In February, his committee was receiving regular briefings about the coronavirus. He is also a member of the Health Committee, which, on Jan. 24, co-sponsored a private coronavirus briefing by top administration officials for all senators.

Ms. Loeffler, who also sits on the Health Committee, is in a similarly sticky situation. On the very day of the committee’s coronavirus briefing, she began her own stock sell-off, as originally reported by The Daily Beast. Over the next three weeks, she shed between $1,275,000 and $3.1 million worth of stock, much of it jointly owned with her husband, who is the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. Of Ms. Loeffler’s 29 transactions, 27 were sales. One of her two purchases was of a technology company that provides teleworking software. That stock has appreciated in recent weeks, as so many companies have ordered employees to work from home.

Early Friday, Ms. Loeffler issued a statement asserting that neither she nor her husband is involved in managing her portfolio.

Even as she was shedding shares, Ms. Loeffler was talking down the threat of the coronavirus. “Democrats have dangerously and intentionally misled the American people on Coronavirus readiness,” she tweeted on Feb. 28, assuring the public that the president and his team “are doing a great job working to keep Americans healthy & safe.”

As anxiety spread, she talked up the economy. “Concerned about the #coronavirus?” she tweeted on March 10. “Remember this: The consumer is strong, the economy is strong & jobs are growing, which puts us in the best economic position to tackle #COVID19 & keep Americans safe.”

Faced with calls for his resignation from across the political spectrum, Mr. Burr on Friday issued a statement insisting that his stock sales had been based solely on public information and that he had asked the Senate Ethics Committee to “open a complete review of the matter with full transparency.”

There is pressure for Ms. Loeffler to step down as well, and the recent stock dealings of other senators are now being dissected — as well they should be.

One might have expected lawmakers to be more circumspect about even the appearance of self-dealing after what happened to the Republican Chris Collins, the former congressman from New York, who was sentenced to 26 months in prison earlier this year after pleading guilty to insider trading charges. While at a White House picnic in June 2017, Mr. Collins repeatedly called to alert his son that a small pharmaceutical company in which the family was deeply invested had failed a critical drug trial. Based on the not-yet-public information, Mr. Collins’s son unloaded his holdings in the company, avoiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.

“What I’ve done has marked me for life,” Mr. Collins said tearfully at his sentencing hearing in January.

Apparently, more needs to be done to protect lawmakers from themselves. Last May, two Democratic senators, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, introduced legislation requiring members to place personal investments in a blind trust, or hold off on making any trades, during their time in office. They would also be prohibited from serving on corporate boards.

There may, of course, be perfectly reasonable explanations for what, initially, appears to be illegal — and morally reprehensible — behavior. Mr. Burr and Ms. Loeffler deserve the opportunity to provide those explanations. The Senate should initiate an ethics investigation of all accusations, and, if warranted, refer relevant findings for criminal prosecution

That said, explicit criminality aside, the real scandal here is the way in which these public servants misled an already anxious and confused public. In times of crisis, the American people need leaders who will rise to the occasion, not sink to their own mercenary interests.

Jimmy Carter Calls For Georgia Secretary Of State’s Resignation In Personal Plea

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/29/661727605/jimmy-carter-calls-for-georgia-secretary-of-states-resignation-in-personal-plea

Sen. Kelly Loeffler denies allegations of insider trading

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/sen-kelly-loeffler-denies-allegations-of-insider-trading

Potential conflicts of interest pose test for Kelly Loeffler, new Georgia senator

https://www.ajc.com/news/national-govt–politics/super-swampy-kelly-loeffler-faces-tricky-ethical-dilemma-senator/kigrORhkXTkRNkNmESAIKL/

Sen. Kelly Loeffler Dumped Millions in Stock After Coronavirus Briefing

https://www.thedailybeast.com/sen-kelly-loeffler-dumped-millions-in-stock-after-coronavirus-briefing

 

Perpetual Chess Podcast

There have been no posts in a few days because yours truly was afflicted with a dreadful sinus infection, which caused blurred vision, so internet time has been limited, as has, unfortunately, time for reading. This comes at an awkward time as there is a book to be reviewed, which was sent via email, and had to be downloaded to Toby, the ‘puter. I read enough on the ‘puter as it is, and much prefer to wrap my grubby little hands around a meaty book, such as the heavy and hefty tome, President Carter: The White House Years, by Stuart Eizenstat,

which weighs in at an astounding NINE HUNDRED pages! Unfortunately, the print is very small and therefore not easy on the eyes. It is obviously time for an e-reader as the print can be enlarged, a great selling point for the ageing population of We The People.

Fortunately, there is a silver lining to the dark cloud. I enjoy listening to many programs via the interwovenweb and had fallen behind, so was able to sort of catch up. In addition, there was a wonderful article about GM Nigel Short

by Macauley Peterson,

“FIDE should be encouraging chess, not discouraging it” at Chessbase (https://en.chessbase.com/post/nigel-short-interview), which includes a podcast with Macauley interviewing Nigel. The podcast is about an hour and well worth your time as it is very interesting, indeed. The questions are ‘right-on’ and so are the answers! DO NOT MISS IT! (https://omny.fm/shows/perpetual-chess-podcast/ep-78-nigel-short-final)

Although aware of the podcasts, having put checking it out on my ’roundtoit’ list, I had yet to listen to one. I have spent a considerable amount of time listening to many of the podcasts this week, and will make a point of listening to each and every one of them because they are that good.

The Nigel Pod was #78 and #80 is with GM Genna Sosonko,

the author of the last book reviewed on this blog, Evil-Doer: Half a Century with Viktor Korchnoi (https://xpertchesslessons.wordpress.com/2018/06/16/evil-doer-half-a-century-with-viktor-korchnoi-a-review/). The publisher of the book sent an email notifying me of the podcast, but I had already listened to it after becoming a follower of the PCP and having been notified via email. I STRONGLY urge you to check out the website if you have, like me, procrastinated until now. The PCP can be found at: https://omny.fm/shows/perpetual-chess-podcast.

Weiqi (Go) Versus Chess

“Using a universally relevant metaphor, Zbigniew Brzezinski,

former National Security Adviser to US president Jimmy Carter,

wrote in The Grand Chessboard,

published in 1997 (http://www.takeoverworld.info/Grand_Chessboard.pdf): “Eurasia is the chessboard on which the struggle for global primacy continues to be played.” China’s New Silk Road strategy certainly integrates the importance of Eurasia but it also neutralizes the US pivot to Asia by enveloping it in a move which is broader both in space and in time: an approach inspired by the intelligence of Weiqi has outwitted the calculation of a chess player.”
“The chronicle by Japanese writer Kawabata Yasunari (1899-1972) of an intense intellectual duel, translated in English as The Master of Go,

contributed to the popularity of the game in the West, but Weiqi is a product of the Chinese civilization and spread over time in the educated circles of Northeast Asia. Kawabata, who viewed the Master as one of his favorite creations, knew that for China the game of “abundant spiritual powers encompassed the principles of nature and the universe of human life,” and that the Chinese had named it “the diversion of the immortals.”
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-gosset/weiqi-versus-chess_b_6974686.html)

Several years ago I contrasted the number of players in the US Chess Open with the number of players in the US Go Congress, posting the findings on the United States Chess Federation forum, and was excoriated for so doing, except for one person, Michael Mulford, who put the nattering nabobs of negativism to shame by congratulating me for “good work.” Basically, the numbers showed Chess losing players while Go had gained enough to have caught up with, and surpassed, Chess. It has continued to the point that if one thinks of it as a graph, with Chess in the top left hand corner; and Go in the bottom left hand corner, an “X” would appear.

I have spent some time recently cogitating about why this has come to pass. Certainly world Chess (FIDE) being administered as a criminal enterprise for at least a quarter of a century has not helped the cause of the Royal game. It has not helped that members of the USCF policy board have stated things like it being better to work within a corrupt system than to leave the corrupt system. See my post, Scott Parker Versus Allen Priest, of November 29, 2017 (https://xpertchesslessons.wordpress.com/?s=alan+priest)

Now that the bank account of FIDE, the world governing body of Chess, has been closed I do not foresee anything but further decline for the game of Chess. IM Malcolm Pein,

Mr. Everything tin British Chess, commented for Chessdom, “The statement from the FIDE Treasurer was alarming to say the least, but not totally unexpected. As the statement said, we had been warned. All legal means should be used to remove Ilyumzhinov

from office as soon as possible. Taking away his executive authority has not been good enough for the bank and FIDE will experience difficulty finding another institution to handle it’s accounts and this threatens the viability of the organisation. ((http://www.chessdom.com/trouble-for-chess-as-swiss-bank-account-closed/))

Although both Weiqi (Go in America) and Chess are board games there are major differences between the two. The following encapsulates the drastic difference between the two games:

R. Saxon, Member of a GO club in Tokyo (3k). USCF B rated at chess
Updated Mar 14 2017

From my experience, GO players are far friendlier and more polite than Chess players, who are prone to both trash talk and to gloating after a win. This is especially true for club players and younger players. Chess players may engage in gamesmanship to psych out their opponent. I’ve known quite a few superb Chess players that were real nut cases. More than just a few, actually.

That has not been my experience with GO players. GO players are almost always successful and well-adjusted outside of GO. GO players are willing to say with sincerity that they enjoyed a game that they just lost. I don’t recall a Chess player ever being so gracious.

The nature of the game is a good indicator of the personality of the players that like them. Chess is an attacking game in which you try to control the center. It’s very direct and may be over quickly if a player makes a mistake. The idea of a “Checkmate” is like a home run or a touchdown. It’s a sudden and dramatic moment that appeals to a particular type of person.

Chess appeals to people who like to attack and who savor the win over the process.

GO, on the hand, is a slower game which starts at the corners and edges and only gradually moves to the center. It’s extremely complicated, but in a subtle way. GO strategy is indirect. It’s a game of influence and efficiency more than a game of capture. The best players are those that know how to sacrifice pieces for territory elsewhere or to take the initiative. Making tradeoffs are key. There’s usually no “checkmate” type moment or fast victory.

GO is a game of patience and position. It appeals to very bright people who don’t expect to win quickly but who are willing to earn success one small step at a time. GO players enjoy the process as much as the win.
(https://www.quora.com/What-do-chess-players-think-of-Go-and-Go-players)

There are many Chess players involved with Go. Natasha Regan,

a Woman Chess International Master who has represented the English women’s team at both Chess and Go, says: “When I learnt Go I was fascinated. It has a similar mix of strategy and tactics that you find in Chess and, with just a few simple rules, Go uncovers a whole new world of possibilities and creativity. Chess players may also find that they can use their Chess experience to improve in Go very quickly. I highly recommend learning this ancient but ever new game!” (https://www.britgo.org/learners/chessgo.html)

Consider, for example, this by Mike Klein: “Many cultures have nationally popular strategy games, but rarely do top chess players “cross the streams” and take other games seriously. That is not the case with GMs Tiger Hillarp Persson and Alexander Morozevich,

who long ago claimed the top title in chess, and who both now take go somewhat seriously.” (https://www.chess.com/news/view/chess-go-chess-go-morozevich-beats-tiger-in-dizzying-match-2272) Check out Tiger’s website and you will see annotated Go games along with Chess games (https://tiger.bagofcats.net/). Chess Grandmaster Alexander Morozevich

plays in Go tournaments,

and holds Go classes.

(https://chess24.com/en/read/news/morozevich-on-go-computers-and-cheating)

AlphaGo has done for the game of Go in America what Bobby Fischer did for the game of Chess when he defeated the World Chess Champion, Boris Spassky, in 1972.

The number of people playing Go has increased dramatically in the past few years. After the world-wide release of a new movie about Go, The Surrounding Game,

the number of people playing Go will increase exponentially. In a very short period of time the game of Go will be unrivaled, leaving all other board games in its wake.

Sometime around 1980 a place named Gammons opened in the Peachtree Piedmont shopping center located in the section of Atlanta called Buckhead, the “high-end” district of Atlanta. In was a restaurant/bar, which contained tables with inlaid Backgammon boards.

I quit my job at a bookstore and began punching the proverbial time clock at Gammons, which closed at four am. The Backgammon craze burned brightly for a short period of time, as do most fads, such as putt-putt. Few remember the time when putt-putt was so popular it was on television, and the professional putters earned as much, if not more, that professional golfers.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/magazine/putting-for-the-fences.html)

Although quite popular for centuries, Chess lost its luster after the human World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov, was defeated by a computer program known as Deep Blue,

a product of the IBM corporation. The defeat by AlphaGo, a computer program from Google’s Deep Mind project, of first Lee Sedol,

one of the all-time great Go players, and then Ke Jie,

currently the top human Go player in the world, has, unlike Chess, been a tremendous boon for the ancient game of Go, which is riding a crest of popularity, while interest in Chess has waned.

I have wondered about the situation in the world considering the rise of China and the decline of the USA.

For example, consider these headlines:

China’s Rise, America’s Fall by Tyler Durden (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-25/chinas-rise-americas-fall)

China’s rise didn’t have to mean America’s fall. Then came Trump. By Zachary Karabell(https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/11/15/chinas-rise-didnt-have-to-mean-americas-fall-then-came-trump/?utm_term=.59f66290ffff)

Is China’s Rise America’s Fall? by Glenn Luk (https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/01/03/is-chinas-rise-americas-fall/#41bd7a0d1e5f)

Also to be considered is the stark difference between the two games. It could be that the people of the planet are moving away from the brutal, war like, mindset of a war like game such as Chess and toward a more cerebral game such as Go.

“While in chess or in Chinese chess (xiangqi)

http://georgiachessnews.com/2018/01/09/why-you-need-to-learn-xiangqi-for-playing-better-chess/

the pieces with a certain preordained constraint of movement are on the board when the game begins, the grid is empty at the opening of the Weiqi game. During a chess game, one subtracts pieces; in Weiqi, one adds stones to the surface of the board. In the Classic of Weiqi, the author remarks that “since ancient times, one has never seen two identical Weiqi games.”

“In Written in a Dream, the polymath and statesman Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072), a magister ludi, captures the depth and mystery of Weiqi: “The Weiqi game comes to an end, one is unaware that in the meantime the world has changed.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-gosset/weiqi-versus-chess_b_6974686.html

Back Channel: A Review

One of the essays contained in the book, “Fools Rush Inn: More Detours on the Way to Conventional Wisdom,” by Bill James is titled, “Jumping the Fictional Shark.” It begins, “It is within human nature, I think, to become less interested in fiction as we age.” Bill is not a polished writer, a fact many have pointed out, as can be seen by his use of “I think” above. It is unnecessary for Bill to use “I think” because since he is writing, one assumes he thinks. Bill does this kind of thing often. Since I am writing, it is not necessary that I write, “in my opinion.” Hopefully, a reader will know it is my opinion without my having to inform him of that fact. I, and many others, read Bill for his ideas.
What he thinks about reading less fiction as we age is applicable to me, and, I assume, many other aging readers. The love of my life said to me thirty years ago, “You don’t read fiction.” Gail had a point. I read made up stories when younger and had little interest in them as an adult. I read mostly non-fiction because it was interesting. Even the fiction I read was of the historical fiction variety.

Having read extensively on the subject of the JFK assassination not only have I read about the crime itself, but I have read about the surrounding climate during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. As POTUS, JFK read a book, “The Guns of August,” by Barbara Tuchman, and was so impressed that he ordered many copies and distributed it to those in his administration. The book is about what led to what is now called the “First World War,” and it won a Pulitzer Prize. Immersing oneself in the milieu of that time naturally means reading extensively about what is now called the “Cuban Missile Crisis.” I had just turned eleven during that time and although I, like every other grammar school child in the country, was made to practice a “duck and cover” maneuver, which now seems preposterous, in which we got down on our knees underneath the desk and covered our little noggin’ with our hands. This we would do to “protect” ourselves in the event of a nuclear war. I was not into the “nightly news blues” at that age, but can still recall the gravity of the situation by how the adults reacted. My questions were invariably met with, You are too young” for the answers and to “go out and play.” I loathed being treated in this fashion. Fortunately for me, I lived near a Boys Club, and the adults there would answer the questions left unanswered by the adults in my neighborhood. JFK was reviled by most, if not all, of the adults with whom I had contact and this only worsened the longer he held office. One rarely reads of the depth of how much the POTUS was loathed and detested in the South. I have often wondered if that was the reason so many mediocre Republican’s were installed, or maybe I should say, “selected” to be POTUS. It has also made me wonder how it came about that a fellow Georgian, Jimmy Carter, ever obtained the position of POTUS.

Having read something about a new book by Stephen L. Carter, the author of “The Emperor of Ocean Park,” a novel written about in Chess Life magazine years ago, I was familiar with him, so I decided to check out the book after reading he had used chess as a backdrop. I mean, what could be better than a novel on two of my favorite subjects? When first looking over the book I read this on the back cover, thinking it about the book I was holding in my hands, “There’s a lot going on in this big, smart book…Lofty legal arguments coincide with a grittier plot…What makes this novel so vastly entertaining is the author’s sharp skewering of politicians, lawyers, and the monied social class that runs Washington.” -Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe. That sounded interesting! Unfortunately, Kate was writing about Mr. Carter’s earlier book, “The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln. “ABRAHAM LINCOLN?! OH NO, MR. BILL. NOT ANOTHER BOOK ON THE DEVIL HIMSELF!” I thought.

Even though I purchased a used copy of “The Emperor of Ocean Park,” I never got around to reading it. It is rather humorous that I would look at the book and think, “All those pages,” but when looking at a book like, for example, “Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination,” by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann, which is even larger and contains even more pages, I would think, “Look at all that meat!”

It being my birthday, I decided to read something different, and “Back Channel” fit the bill. Did it ever…I do not have words to tell you how much I enjoyed the book, so I will use some old cliches. I was “riveted” because it was a “page turner” that I “could not put down.” This after being put off by the use of a 19 year virgin black girl as the protagonist, which I found preposterous in the same way I found Will Smith playing the part of Jim West in the movie “The Wild Wild West.” I mean, come on, Negros were not members of the Secret Service until JFK became POTUS. I usually like my fiction to have some basis in reality. Then I thought, “OK, it is, after all, fiction, and if I had been born a Negro maybe I would write fiction using a Negro character.” Reading on, I came to understand what genius it was for this writer to have used the characters he chose.
I have always detested a reviewer who gives away too much of a book, and for that reason have preferred to read the book before the review. I have chosen only a little of the book to give you an idea of what this wonderful book contains.

“Viktor frowned. Definitely nyekulturny. Uncultured. To speak so casually about violence. Typical of the sort of man who rose to authority in a country that had never faced extermination, as the Motherland had.”

This made me think of Oliver Stone’s TV Series documentary, “The Untold History of the United States,” and how little, most of it wrong, we Americans understand of what is happening in Ukraine today. Often it is better to see things from another perspective, as in the case of a game of chess. Players must try and understand what an opponent wants, and what he is willing to do to obtain what he wants.

“In Russia, we have a proverb,” he said. “If you’re afraid of the wolves, you shouldn’t go into the woods.”

This reminded me of IM Boris Kogan, who was always sharing “Russian proverbs.”
“Few Americans probably realized the extent to which the military had become a law unto itself, in effect a separate branch of government. The Congress controlled its budget but gave the generals whatever they wanted, and the President was the commander in chief when he had time and they had the inclination. the system worked because the American military was run by men of unparalleled integrity.
Most of the time.”

You are probably asking yourself, “This is a novel, right?”

“Because your reporters are like the birds who eat carrion. They produce little of value, and feed off the remains of what others have left. They will destroy the reputation of your President for profit. the First Amendment is the tragedy of your system. In my country, we protect the reputations of our leaders, because in that way we protect the reputation and integrity of the Party, and therefore of the country and the people.”

Bill Clinton would say, “Amen, brother! Right on. Right on. Right on!”

“Bundy recognized the frustration in Bobby’s voice, and knew he had to avoid sounding too professional. The Kennedy’s were an impetuous clan, not thin-skinned, precisely, but quick to detect condescension. He addressed himself to the older brother.”

Sounds like Mr. Carter goes way back with the Kennedy clan, does it not?

“The way your mind works is fascinating,” he said, not turning. When you put the facts together that way, yes, you can reach the conclusion you suggest. But in the analysis of intelligence information, we have a word for people who make up their minds too quickly and then try to make the evidence fit. We call the amateurs.”

Here in America, we call them Bushwhackers, for that is EXACTLY the description of how we got BUSHWHACKED into going to war in Iraq
.
This is a magnificent book written by a brilliant writer. I do not read enough fiction to judge, but it is possible that Stephen Carter could be the best author, or at least one of the best authors currently writing fiction. Read this book and you can leave a comment and thank me later. Send this review to anyone you know who enjoys good fiction. Because every one has heard of the parlor game of “Six Degrees of Bacon,” based on the “six degrees of separation” concept, which posits that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart, I know some reader either knows Bill James, or knows someone who knows him, so at least send Bill the URL and maybe he will decide to make an exception and read a book of fiction!

Forty seconds into this video you will see these words by the Devil Abraham Lincoln:
“I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.”
The man made an awful lot of “friends” in the South before John Wilkes Booth made the Devil a friend.

Abraham * Martin and John *** Dion