The news out of the Republic of Georgia gets worse by the day. I have friend there, who emailed me the first day that the Russians were really after their oil pipeline. She has not been able to send me email since then. I hope she is still alive, and it is "merely" a matter of bombs knocking out her electric power. However, you see the only major pipeline connecting NATO member Turkey and the Mediterannean Sea with the Caspian Sea oil fields runs through Georgia. The Russian Mafia under the disguise of a government-created monopoly controls all the other oil flowing out of that part of the world.
The latest news is that the Russian military ignored a cease-fire agreement signed by its civillian leaders and has launched a major attack toward the pipeline and Tblisi, Georgia's capital. We now have American combat troops on the ground, obstensibly guarding humanitarian aid sent by America, but also directly in the path of the Russian attack. It is a witch's brew of a situation that could lead to much worse things. Undoubtedly, most Americans and Europeans would be opposed to unilaterally attacking Iran, but the political situation would be far different if American soldiers were harmed while guarding food and medicine in a small Christian country under attack by the Russian bear. By the way, Georgia is the oldest Christian country in the world. It's national church predates the official state recognition of the Roman church.
We should have known major trouble was on the horizon, when there were headlines about a year ago, that the Russian Mafia was getting into the energy market and internet fraud in a big way. It would not surprise me at all, if they were involved in the outrageous increase in gasoline and natural gas prices. There is no shortage of natural gas anywhere, yet it's prices have almost paralleled those of petroleum products.
It makes me wonder....?
Obviously, the average Russian citizen has nothing to gain by an invasion of the little country of Georgia. I seriously doubt if any Russian on the street wants to be involved with any war. So who has so much to gain, and so much power, that they can control the Russian military? How do you spell R-U-S-S-I-A-N M-A-F-I-A?
Oh they are in the United States in a big way, too. Anywhere in the east, you have casinos, you have the Russians. They are taking over the commercial activities of Indian Reservations. Think I am exaggerating? Go to the Cherokee Reservation in western North Carolina and try to find a Cherokee owner, manager or employee in one of the shops or restaurants on the main drag. They all are Slavic - mostly from Russian, Ukraine and Poland. ]
It all started when the Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort was built. Harrah's couldn't get enough Cherokee and local folk to fill its employment needs so it contracted with Russian Mafia firms to be supplied with Slavic students to work there during the summer season. Only trouble is that many of those Slavic students have been living and working in Cherokee for 3-4 years on student visas. Where is the INS? Guess they don't want to mess with the Russian Mafia either. It is far easier to round up Mexican and Central American farm workers.
The other loophole in current immigration laws is that managers and business owners get automatic green cards. With most all the businesses in Cherokee now being Russian owned, it is even easier for them to get green cards for their Slavic employees. Thus, the spin-off economic activity created by the casino is being siphoned off by the Russian Mafia, rather than benefiting the Cherokees, who have an extremely high unemployment rate.
Yep ... it is a witch's brew in the making.
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| Has the Russian Mafia Replaced the Old Soviet Communist Party? |
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Etowah
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Aug 14 @ 3:45PM
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How do I know about the Russia Mafia being at Cherokee? The hard way!
Many moons ago I was a consultant to the Cherokee Housing Authority and through the years have made friends on the Qualla Boundary. Last summer I decided to go hiking on my birthday, and then stop by afterward to visit with old Cherokee friends, who made the best barbecue around. Their old restaurant had been torn down and replaced with a fancy new one in a shopping center.
I walked in and didn't see a Native American in the place - either eating or working. Two Scandinavian looking gals (college age) were the hostesses. I asked them if they were Swedish (Jag taler svenska) They said they were college students from "Southern" Russia. I thought that was strange since the southern Russians tend to look Middle Eastern. My waitress was from Brazil. I asked her what had happened to all my Cherokee friends that had worked there for two decades. She said that when the Russians bought the restaurant three years ago, all the Cherokees had been fired. In fact, she was only person they kept. The manager was from Poland. All the other employees were from Russian, Ukraine or Poland. She also was on a student visa, but had never attended college. The Russian owner got her card renewed each year. A little later, I glanced back into the kitchen and did see a Cherokee teenager working! He was washing dishes.
The barbecue was as great as ever. A free ice cream came with the meal. It was served by the blond girls from "Southern Russia." As I was walking up to the ice cream counter, I heard them speaking a dialect of Finnish. I said about the only words I remembered in Finish, for "hello." They freaked out. One raced back to the kitchen while the other nervously scooped my ice cream order.
Within less than a minute, a big, black limousine roared up to the front door of the restaurant. A big, evil-looking Russian got out. Moments later, three Cherokee Tribal Police crusiers and a SWAT squad SUV flew into the parking lot, lights flashing. The four police officers chatted briefly with me, looked toward me in the restaurant and went in. They all sat at the table next to me.
In a menancing tone, the SWAT officer asked me what I was doing in Cherokee?
"Duh-h-h-h-h, eating barbecue and ice cream." They grilled me for several more minutes about my purposes on the rez, until I got fed up and flashed them my Creek tribal membership card. They immediately became more polite (do you really want to tangle with a Creek warrior? NOT!) They then told me to leave the reservation as soon as I finished my meal.
I didn't. I went straight to the home of a former Principal Chief and told him how I was treated. He cried as he explained how the Russian Mafia had taken over at Qualla. A few Cherokees were getting rich, politicians were getting paid off, and the rest of the people were basically welfare Injuns, living off a quarterly check from the casino profits paid the tribe.
Not going back to Cherokee any time soon.
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ttomtarr
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Aug 14 @ 4:55PM
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The russian mafia and the KGB are the same people.
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Etowah
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Aug 14 @ 6:10PM
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Yep, and was Putin formerly head of the KGB????
I forgot to mention that none of the four Cherokee policemen that hassled me looked Cherokee. If they had any Cherokee blood, I couldn't tell it. They also didn't speak Cherokee, because I said hello to them in Cherokee, and they didn't know what I meant. In fact, one of the cops looked like he was from Latvia or Lithuania. He did not have a mountain accent - just standard English like maybe a career soldier uses.
This was a big change from when I formerly worked on the reservation. Back then full-blooded Cherokees were proud to wear the badge and were highly respected by everybody.
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