IRAN ANNOUNCES IT HAS HYPERSONIC WEAPON

 The following article comes from RT.  I watched American news Subday night, and much was devoted to the death of the wife of former Pres. Jimmy Carter, who still lives.  His wife, Rosalynn died at 86.  There were other news stories that may have allowed no time for this - but if true, it is a very important story.  Hugh Murray

Iran unveils its newest hypersonic missile

Tehran’s ballistic weapon reportedly makes use of a technology possessed by very few nations

FILE PHOTO. ©  AFP / Atta Kenare

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unveiled the nation’s cutting-edge hypersonic missile at a ceremony in Tehran attended by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday, local media reported. The projectile reportedly makes use of rare hypersonic glider technology. 

The missile was presented at the Ashura Aerospace Science and Technology University during an exhibition showcasing the Islamic Republic’s advancements in aerospace tech. According to the IRNA news agency, the Fattah-2 missile is equipped with a hypersonic glider warhead that places it “in the HGV… class of hypersonic weapons.” 

The Iranian media reported that the Islamic Republic has become the fourth nation in the world to make use of such technology.

A hypersonic glide vehicle, or HGV, is a type of warhead that allows it to maneuver and glide at hypersonic speeds. It is usually mounted on ballistic missiles and can significantly change its flight trajectory after launch, which makes it a much harder target for a potential enemy’s missile defense systems to detect than a typical warhead traveling in a more predictable arc trajectory. 

Read more

 Iran claims hypersonic breakthrough

Very few nations have operational HGV missiles to date. One of them is Russia, which possesses the ‘Avangard’ gliders mounted on its silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles like the ‘Sarmat’. The Russian HGV is capable of flying between 20 and 27 times faster than the speed of sound or between 24,000 and 33,000 kilometers per hour and has an explosive yield of up to two megatons, which is more than 100 times greater than the explosion produced by the US nuclear bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

In 2019, China officially put its DF-ZF HGV missile into service. Mounted on a road-mobile medium-range ballistic missile, the Chinese hypersonic glider can travel up to 10 times faster than the speed of sound at a speed of 12,360 kilometers per hour and carry a nuclear charge. 

Read more

 US spy agency names hypersonic weapons frontrunner

The US was expected to have its ‘Dark Eagle’ Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) enter service in September, but its fielding has been delayed due to a scrapped critical test of its glide vehicle. The weapons system is still expected to become operational by the end of the year, according to media reports. 

Little is known about Iran’s Fattah-2 missile, as the national media provided very few details on the projectile’s technical characteristics. Its predecessor, the Fattah missile that was officially unveiled less than six months ago, on June 6, had a range of 1,400 kilometers and could travel between 13 and 15 times faster than the speed of sound.

The commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said later in June that the projectile’s range could be increased to 2,000 kilometers. Such an operational range could potentially allow Iran to reach the territory of Israel, which Tehran considers to be its arch-enemy. According to the Iranian media, the Fattah missile was also capable of penetrating through a potential enemy’s air defenses and destroying them.

PUTIN ON GAYS, HONG KONG AND GUADALAJAR GAY (OLYMPIC) GAMES

 I am surprised by this.  Glad to see it.  Since the source is RT, I assume it is accurate.HUGH MURRAY

 

Also, I understand that the Gay (Olympic) Games went on as scheduled in both Guadalajara - not far from Acapulco where 50 people died in a powerful hurricane this November.  AND the Games also went on as scheduled in Hong Kong.  This may be a sign that HK is not totally following the ways of Beijing.

For the first time, the GGames were divided, the first scheduled in Asia and Mexico.  Chinese leader Xi did not go to HK to attend any of the GG, #11, or just GG XI.  Perhaps to avoid the gay issue, Xi went instead to San Francisco.  (For those living outside of the US, this is ironic humor, because San Francisco is one of the most gay cities in the US, and in the world, probably much more so than either HK or Guad.)

The following is from RT:

BOMBING, URBAN COMBAT, COUNTLESS DEATHS: LIVE UPDATES ON ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

17 Nov, 2023 20:07

 

Putin says ‘something unexpected’ about LGBTQ

Russian president is okay with LGBTQ themes infusing cultural events, but they mustn’t become a mandatory requirement for winning

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during the International Culture Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia on November 17, 2023. ©  Sputnik / Mikhail Metzel

Members of the LGBTQ community and its culture are part of a modern society and shouldn’t be barred from being represented at cultural events or contests, Russian President Vladimir Putin believes. At the same time, such themes must not be mandatory criteria for winning said contests, as appears to occur in the West, he suggested.

The president made the remarks on Friday as he spoke at the 9th International Culture Forum in St. Petersburg. Putin was asked by Emir Kusturica, the iconic Serbian film director and screenwriter, about his opinion on LGBTQ topics becoming a mandatory requirement for winning certain film contests in the West.

“Yes, indeed, we see that at various competitions in Western countries, in order to win something, you need to either tell, write, or show the lives of sexual minorities, transgenders and transformers – many different names for them,” Putin stated.

But I’ll tell you something unexpected. They too – these topics and these people – have the right to win, show and tell, because this is also part of society. This is also what people live by. It’s bad if they just win all sorts of competitions, that’s of no use.

The president stressed that “equality” should be a universal principle, including in cultural contests.

READ MORE: Russian authorities want to outlaw ‘LGBT’

The International Culture Forum is currently underway in St. Petersburg, set to go on until November 18. This year, the major international event is titled the ‘Forum of United Cultures.’ The Forum brings together representatives of some 70 nations from around the globe, including more than 30 culture ministers, and hosts multiple events that end with panel discussions on various culture-related matters and an international dialogue

     +++++++++++++++++

Ironically, on the RT site, the same day, this story also appeared::

Russian authorities want to outlaw ‘LGBT’

The Justice Ministry has lodged a lawsuit seeking to designate the “international LGBT movement” an extremist group

DEMOCRATS WILL WANT TO KICK JILL STEIN AND THE GREEN PARTY OFF THE BALLOT, AND WHO ELSE? WILL WE BE PERMITTED TO VOTE FOR TRUMP?

 Newser had a short article about Jill Stein planning to run again as the Green Party candidate for President in 2024.  I live in Wisconsin now, and recall the dispute about getting her on the ballot in this state.  In 2016 Stein ran for the Greens, and in Wisconsin won about 20,000 votes.  That year Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by about 16,000.  Democrats blamed Stein for the loss of Wisconsin and other states, and played legal tricks to kick her off the ballot in 2020.  Democrats also prevented Kanye West from appearing on the ballot in Wisconsin in 2020.  Result: Biden defeated Trump by about 20,000.  Though, as the voting rolls have not been vetted here and in 2020 Democrats made it easy to vote by mail, and no check much about the returned vote, and the nursing home vote, and the Zuckerbergs' contribution to Dem front NGO's in Wisconsin and elsewhere, well, I suspect the Dems could have manufactured many more Biden votes if needed then.

    Anyway, here is my comment on the Newser story:  The Democrats will be using every dirty trick to keep her and the Green Party off the ballot, just as they did last election in Wisconsin - knocking off Stein, and preventing Kanye West from getting on. The GOP does not target the Libertarian of Constitution Party - these dirty tricks, step 1 of the election steal, begins with preventing people from voting for their favorite. Of course in 2024, the Dems are trying to prevent ex-Pres. Trump from getting on the ballot.

The aim if the Dems is a one-party dictatorship, just as they used to have in the Solid South, like when I was young and grew up there. If the Dems are able to steal the 2024 election as they did in 2020, America will be over.

  Hugh Murray

SOME GREAT FILMS I HAVE SEEN -HOPE YOU GET TO SEE THEM TOO - Hugh Murray

 I have gone to countless movies over the years, some I loved, some were so-so, some a waste of time.  I decided to make s short list of those that I think are great.  Some have faded over time, or more properly, I grew up.  For example, when quite young I loved Abbot and Costello in various films, as when they met Frankenstein or Dracula or the Mummy.  But as an adult, it wasn't even that funny anymore.  Some, like Laurel and Harvey, did, and I still enjoy their comedies.

    As a youngster, I saw the western 1953 film  "Shane."  I was about 15, whereas the boy in the film was only 6, but I had thought it was terrific.  Saw it recently on Pluto, or missed a little of the beginning.  I did not so identify with the boy, as with a young man, a Southerner, and knew that strains of Dixie would be played somewhere in the film.  The young man is a good guy, trying to farm like the other new arriving farmers.  He knows that the cattle dealers object to farmers cutting into their territory, fencing off land where the cattle used to roam, reducing their grazing lands, trying to blockade their fast routes to the north.  The cattlemen were cutting and destroying the fences of the farmers, and threatening them with gunfights.

  The Southerner is a farmer, and helped a farmer to survive some of the threats.  Cattlemen then hire a professional gun slinger to help persuade the farmers to depart.  The Southener comes to town and confronts Jack Palance, the bad gunslinger.  Dixie is played in the background.  Then Palance seeks to provoke the rebel to draw his pistol first, insulting the young man as a Southerner, trash, and so are his Confederate generals.  Reb draws, and is killed by the evil Yank, who will not be judged a murderer because the rev drew his weapon first.  [And in these days of hatred and prejudice, and demands to destroy our own history, pulling down monuments not only to Lee, and Beauregard, but to Jefferson, Washington, AND Columbus, it is amazing Shane is shown anywhere.]  

  The boy's dad is now trying to prevent the farmers from running away, leaving all they have tried to build up. but many farmers or their wives are concluding it is too dangerous to stay with Palance in town.  Time to go.  The boy's dad plans to take a stand alone, but Alan Ladd, who recently had been working for that family, is a gunslinger himself, trying to get out of that business.  Ladd decides he, not the dad, will ride to town to face Palance.  A fist fight between Ladd, and the dad.  Ladd goes to town, shoots Palance, and rides into the sunset. ignoring the shouts of the boy, "Come back, Shane."

  The film includes debates about the role of cattlemen and ranchers, and indirectly provides a good argument in favor of colonialism.  The cattlemen had their day, as they pushed off the more primitives who were there before them.  Now the farmers are the new economy for the futures, and they will replace the cowboys on the cattle drives with plowed fields; replacing gunslingers with sheriffs.

  A film made less than a year prior to Shane, is another great film - High Noon in 1952.  The Sheriff of a small town in the west has just married an attractive Quakeress, and soon learns that a real bad criminal is to be released today, and should arrive in town on the train at noon, and he plans to get his revenge on the sheriff and the town that sent him to prison for so long.  Sheriff knows he will have to get a posse to stop this tough gun-fighter.  His new wife, a pacifist, is saying he should not do this, get others to handle it.  Sge demands he leave town with her, and they can avoid the inevitable gun fight.  He loves her, but duty demands that he stay and fight.  The criminal was a top notch shooter, and word is he has rounded up his gang to come with him and assure he gets his revenge.  Sheriff goes to round up men to help, and a number say they will meet him before noon.  Goes to others and when they hear who is coming, they find excuses not to come.  One after another declines.  When he goes to meet those who said they would help, they askwhere are the rest? Sheriff tells them, it's just us (2 or 3).  Then they back out.  Noon.  Train arrives.  Bad guy there and he brought several bad guy buddies with him..  Shoot out?  Wife plans to depart.  Will the Sheriff get any help?  The town falls to the criminals?  See the film for the answers.

  Another great film, Black Orpheus, the 1959 film made about a Brazilian Carnival ce;ebratopm pressed into a Greek mythological template.  The music, color, actors, excitement, even the dread - it all ge;s to make a spectacular work of art.  I had a boss who was quite intelligent, a black woman, who despised it because of some stereotypes in the film.  Not everyone will agree with my assessment.

  Another French film, made in 1960 made my list, Purple Noon.  I had seen many American crime dramas, in movies and on tv, but this was really quite different.  In sunny upper class southern Italy, there is some travelog aspect to this, but it is a murder, where you begin to identify with the clever murderer.  Surely, he will be caught, but, no, the police are off the track again.  He must be caught when this happens, but no again.  Then the protagonist, Alain Delon, has just killed a man at least 50 pounds heavier than he.  They are on perhaps the 3rd floor, and Delon must carry the man down a spiral staircase so they both appear drunk (and alive) so he can get the guy out and dispose of his body.  A terrific scene.  The American remake, decades later, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" should be seen so one can appreciate how much better the French film was.

ISRAEL'S RIGHT TO EXIST

While many protests in major cities condemn the recent Palestinian attack on Israel.  And in Paris, London, Manchester, Edinburgh, New York City, and elsewhere others praise the Palestinians, argue that the Israelis got what they deserved during the kidnappings, stabbings, shootings, etc.  I was shocked to learn that the Sydney, Australia Opera House recently hosted a "Gas the Jews" rally, and some of the protestors, when interviewed, openly declare, that if they hear someone express certain views about the Middle East or the Koran, "they will kill them,"  A few days ago a teacher in northern France was murdered by a Muslim terrorist, and Saturday, a main train station was closed as was the Louvre.  Needless to say, Jewish schools and synagogues are increasing vigilence, as Hamas called for a day of Jihad to begin.

The protests in American cities include Muslims, and also anti-war leftists, some left Democrats or Democratic Socialists.  Below, I include ar article from a recent issue of the Militant, a Trotskyist newspaper in the US about an interview with Cuba's Fidel Castro by Jeffrey Goldberg, whom I assume is the same writer who today is often on America's National Public Radio to "balance" its pro-Democratic Party spins.  Goldberg is a Never Trumper type Republican.  The interview is not from last week, obviously, but the message is important.

 

Fidel Castro: ‘Without doubt, Israel has right to exist’

BY SETH GALINSKY

Vol. 87/No. 39

October 23, 2023

ESTUDIOS REVOLUCIÓN“Nothing compares to the Holocaust,” Fidel Castro told Jeffrey Goldberg in 2010 interview. Castro, left, with Goldberg, right, and Jewish community leader Adela Dworin in Havana, August 2010.

Since the pogrom by Hamas and its allies, Stalinists and middle-class radicals have been organizing actions under the slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free” — a call for the destruction of Israel and slaughter of the Jews. That’s the exact opposite of what Fidel Castro, the central leader of the Cuban Revolution, had to say about Israel and Jew-hatred.

Castro often strongly disagreed with the Israeli government. At the same time he openly expressed his support for the right of Israel to exist as a refuge for the Jews.

In 2010, after then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had proclaimed the Holocaust — the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis — was an “unprovable and mythical claim,” Castro invited Atlantic magazine writer Jeffrey Goldberg to come to Cuba and interview him.

Fidel told him the Iranian government would better serve the cause of peace by acknowledging the “unique” history of antisemitism and trying to understand why Israelis fear for their existence.

“I don’t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims,” Castro told Goldberg. “They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything.”

“Over 2,000 years they were subjected to terrible persecution and then to the pogroms,” Castro said. “The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.”

“Let’s imagine that I were [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Castro said, “I would remember the 6 million Jewish men and women, of all ages who were exterminated in the concentration camps” when making decisions.

Goldberg asked Castro, “Do you think the State of Israel, as a Jewish State, has a right to exist?”

“Yes, without a doubt,” Castro replied.

“True revolutionaries never threaten to exterminate a whole country,” Castro had told Le Monde in September 1967, in response to Arab governments and others calling for Israel’s destruction.

THE MOST IMPORTANT DEED IN MY LIFE?? A LETTER TO THE EDITOR??

      HUGH MURRAY

     On a personal note, I admit, sometimes I do the unusual.  For example, some years ago I worked at the World Trade Center in New York, #2 WTC, on the 38th floor.  On wintry days near closing time, it was a joy to look out the window down NY harbor atthe Statue of Liberty as the sun began to set.  A beautiful scene.

 

     I was a minor bureaucrat working for a government agency.  One day. probably in 1982; our department decided to have a fire drill.  We walked down the steps from the 38th to the 33rd floor (these were the floors rented by our agency).  There we all gathered and asked what next.  We were told, in case of emergency, someone would give us further directions at that time.  We were told one most important fact - as this was a new building, new improvements in the elevator had been added.  For example, in most elevators, you must press a button once inside the cabin to direct the devise to the floor to which you wish to go.  With the updated device, you no longer had to press the button, just place your finger on the desired number floor, and the heat of your digit was sufficient to tell the elevator which floor you wanted to go to.  No need to push the buttons, just place your finger over the number.  There was a drawback, however; he informed us..  In case of a fire, the heat of the fire would heat the buttons too and call the elevators to the burning floor.  In case of a fire, we were urged not to use the elevators.

 

     Some time later in 1983, I was then living in nearby Brooklyn, and if I woke early and the weather was nice, instead of the packed subway, I would walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  The tall WTC in the foreground had sufficient glass to reflect the sky and it sometimes appeared a light purple.  At the end of the bridge, I could go north to China Town, or south toward the Wall St. area.  I walked to the WTC, but when I reached the lobby of #2, it was packed.  The elevators were not working. and ever more people were coming up from the subway below to join the crowd.  Unlike most, I had an alternative.  Sometimes, I would walk up to work, the 38 flights.  The stairways were well hidden, but I knew where they were. Should I wait for an elevator - none were then running, or walk.  My walk was no fast run.  I might be late for work.  I chose to walk up.

 

     All went well until the 9th floor, for I looked up and it was dark.  I kept going, but slower.  By the 11th floor, I placed my hand in front of my face and could see nothing.  That is dark.  I went very slowly, because from past experience I knew some would eat lunch on the stairs, and leave trash and even bottles.  I did not want to fall in this perpendicular cave of night.  There was an eerie sound in this "cave" however - a metalic one.  The building was constructed to sway with the wind.  The 110 stories moved.  One did not notice this when working in the outer sections where folks worked.  But in the stairwells, you could hear the metal crunch of the wind's power on the massive building.  Now and then I would open a door to check the floor I had reached, then back to the cave.  At 38 I opened the door and was shocked.  The lights were on, the early shift was working as usual; all was normal.  But now I was convinced something important was wrong.  The lights in the stairwell were out at the same time the elevators were not working.

 

     I informed my union representative that we should write the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about this problem.  I was about to leave the job, and wrote the agency 23 May 1983.  I do not know it the union representative also wrote the agency.

 

     A decade later, 26 February 1993, I was living in Milwaukee, watching the national news on tv, and learned that terrorists had attempted to blow up the WTC.  A bomb had been planted in a vehicle in the WTC parking garage below the building.  It damaged the buildings.  Workers tried to escape, but there were no lights in the stairs.  It took some 6 hours to get people out of the building that day.

 

     I decided I would write to urge changes in the stairwells.  I wrote the same letter to the then big 4 newspapers in NYC - the New York Times, the New York Post, the Daily News, and Long Island Newsday.  Three of the four published my letter, the Post, Daily News, and Newsday.  I quote below from my letter of 18 March 1993 in the Daily News:

 

     Let there be . . . .

     When I was working  [at the WTC] . . . I wrote to the Occupational Safety and Health agency to complain that the lights in the stairways of the WTC had been out during a minor emergency. . . .Watching CNN [the other night], it seems the lights were still out on some of the stairways.  The managers of the buildings have had 10 years to rectify a dangerous situation.  Did they do so?  No one could predict that fanatics might place a bomb in the garage.  But everyone could have predicted that at some point there might be an emergency.  And during an emergency, the stairways, the only highways out of the citylike buildings, should be lit.

 

     The New York Post published a slightly longer version of the same letter, earlier on 8 March 1993.  Newsday also published it, though I no longer have a copy of that, and the date was about the same as the other two.  The circulation of these 3 newspapers was then about 2.5 million.  Did my letters have any effect?

 

    Shortly after 9/11/2001 Investor's Business Daily commented on changes in the building AFTER the 1993 bombing.  "After the [earlier garage] bombing, however, batteries were added to every other light fixture in stairwells in case power went out.  Handrails were painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, which also was used to mark a continuous stripe down the middle of the staircases.  A public address system was added."  Did this make a difference?  The same paper notes - "In 1993, it took six hours to evacuate most of the Trade Center after terrorists detonated a bomb in an underground garage, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000.  This time [9/11] despite missteps, evacuation was cut by several hours."  In 2001 they did not have 6 hours, but many did escape in the 2 hours before the crumbling.

 

     I do not think that my letter alone caused the changes.  But it surely put pressure to make changes.  3 NY papers with 2-3 million circulation meant the issue could not be hidden under a rug.

 

     I think that my letter may well have helped to force the changes that saved lives on 9/11.  It may well be the most important act in my life.  A letter of complaint!  And yet, a justification for everyone who complains when they observe something wrong.  My most important deed.

      If you wish to see a few more of my writings, and some old photos, a friend, Tony Flood made a portal for me on one of his sites.  http://anthonyflood.com/murray.htm

IS SOMETHING HAPPENING IN HONG KONG???

 I am not Chinese, I do not speak the language, and I have never been to Hong Kong.  But something unexpected may be occurring. Beginning in 2019 there were protests about a proposed law that would return mainlanders to the mainland to face trial.  After the Opium War in the 19th century, the British took Hong Kong and under the British it flourished into a major financial center, and a prosperous city state.  In the 1990s, the treaty that provided separation for HK, came to an end, and Britain and the People's Republic of China (PRC) negotiated a turn-over of the colony to the PRC; however, for 50 more years the city would be under the PRC, but maintain most of the rights that they had obtained under the British, like free speech, a free press, alternative radio, etc.  For about 2 decades, things went well.  Hong Kong, and Macao (formerly Portuguese) continued under the umbrela: one country, two systems.

The opposition to the new law in HK increased, with increased demands for even more democratic control in the city.  Some demos grew larger, AND MORE VIOLENT.  Meanwhile, the opposition now had new demands complaining about the violence of the police and the authorities.  Supporters of the mainland alleged that the CIA and MI6 were behind the protests.  On one video I saw a protestor pour gas (petrol) on to a pro-Beijing counter protestor and set the man ablaze.  Major damage was done to business whose homes offices were on the mainland.  The HK government cracked down hard, and with Covid virus madness sweeping the world, protests were harder to maintain.  By the end of 2020, it seemed that anti-Beijing newspapers, bookstores, organizations were closed by the new, hard-nose policy of HK.  Was there any significant difference between HK and the mainland any more?  One country, 2 systems, had seemed to evolve into one country, one system.

Then I noticed that the 2023 Gay Games (a sports event begun in San Francisco in 1982)  will hold there competitive events in 2 cities - Guadalajara. Mexico, and Hong Kong.  It will be the first split games event, and the first time the games are scheduled in Asia or in Central America,  The Games are usually held every 4 years, with track and field, football (soccer), volley ball, swimming, etc.  I notice that 2 events scheduled for HK are new - dragon boat racing and ma jong.  The HK GG are set for 3 November 2023.

I doubt if this kind of event could be held in Beijing or on the mainland of the PRC.  Does this NK schedule indicate a softening of HK policies toward minority voices???  If there is a last-minute cancellation of the HK games, we will know the answer.  On the other hand, it might be a first step toward restoring a freer society.     Hugh Murray

I should add something on a personal note.  In spring 1980 a small ad appeared in the NYC Village Voice about forming a gay soccer team.  A small number of us met for the first time and began the effort to form such a club.  I was a charter member.  We played in an area of New York's Central Park, the Rambles, and we voted to become the Ramblers.  I was not among the best players, but I did ok.  I also pushed to allow straights in our group, and then I pushed to have women too.  A few did not like opening up, and there were never many women because they had women's teams where they might accomplish more.  Overall, the open policy worked well.

  Meanwhile in San Francisco, former Olympic athletes who were gay were starting the Gay Olympic Games.  The US Olympic sued, so they could not use the word Olympic, and thus became the Gay Games.  I suspect most of the original Olympic Games, especially those that were all male, nude, and pagan, may have been the original Gay Games.  But when the Christians took over the Roman Empire, they eventually closed the ancient Olympics.

For GG I in summer 1982, the Ramblers were too new to organize, and I was the only NY soccer player to attend GG I. and fewer than a dozen from NYC in the other sports.  I was lucky to be allowed to play for about 15 minutes with the Denver team in the huge Keezar Stadium, to about 20 spectators.  For GG II in 1986 SF, the NY Ramblers had about 20 of us, and more than 100 from NY to participate.  The SF Strikers defeated NY Ramblers and the other football teams to win gold.  We won silver. For the closing ceremony, Tina Turner performed.  A great time.  From 1982 to 2023, about every 4 years, the GG will be 41 years old.  I am proud to have been among the first, in the creation of the Ramblers and partaking in Gay Games.

s