Update
Been a little out-of-pocket, so didn't get through the email
today. Went to visit our friend Mike whose wife Norma (our dance teacher) died
last week. He is in rehab for a hip transplant that had complications of broken
bones. She was home alone, went out in the garden, fell and either hit her head
or couldn't get up. She died of hypothermia. Tough week. ~Bob
General News and Comment
Obama picks Marine
commander for next chairman of the Joint Chiefs
Excerpt: President Obama will nominate Marine Gen. Joseph F.
Dunford Jr. to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, selecting
an experienced field commander to guide the United
States through familiar insurgent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan
and new threats from cyberattacks and China ’s military rise. U.S.
officials said Obama is expected to announce Tuesday that Dunford, the
commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, is his pick to replace Army Gen. Martin
Dempsey, who will step down this fall after four years on the job.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: What happens when a non-profit that was started to
help veterans becomes the neighborhood bully? For a charity supposedly devoted
to helping veterans, the Wounded Warrior Project spends an enormous amount of
time suing or threatening to sue small non-profits—spending resources on
litigation that could otherwise be spent on the vets they profess to serve.
At issue is the Wounded Warrior Project’s brand: the charity
has become particularly litigious over the use of the phrase ‘wounded warrior’
or logos that involve silhouetted soldiers. At least seven such charities have
discussed their legal problems with The Daily Beast. The Wounded Warrior
Project has become, in the words of those they’ve targeted for legal action, a
“bully,” more concerned about their image and increasing the size of the
organization than actually providing services to wounded warriors. (They also
go after critics. I was a non-profit executive for 31 years, so familiar with
non-profit 990 federal tax returns. I looked at the WWP's 990. Didn't like what
I saw. I support the Semper Fi Injured Marine Fund. ~Bob)
World Will Become Baltimore
Excerpt: Trader/analyst Gregory Mannarino thinks increasing
bad economic news will force the Fed to print more money, or QE. Mannarino
contends, “I absolutely think that’s going to happen. Before they allow this
mechanism that they have propped up with these distortions that are so extreme,
to correct to fair market value, they are going to throw everything at it to
keep it going. Again, the alternative is too horrible to contemplate—too
horrible to contemplate. The world will become Baltimore when the debt bubble bursts. Every
street in every nation around the world is going to become Baltimore as people realize they cannot
acquire basic assets. Everyone is struggling for these resources. This is
really what it’s all about. They understand this. The world central banks are
not stupid. This goes back to why the police are militarized in every state in
the union. We are one nation under surveillance. They have understood where
this was going for many, many years.” (I, too, fear we are headed for fiscal
and economic collapse, followed by political and social collapse. See my
80-page 2011 book: The Coming Collapse of the American Republic http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5
All
royalties go to a charity to help wounded veterans. ~Bob)
Hillary Clinton
rejects Bill’s immigration crackdown, vows lenient approach
Excerpt: Bill Clinton was
the strictest president in modern political times when it comes to immigration,
signing bills cracking down on both legal and illegal immigrants — but it’s
unlikely that record will infect his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has
promised a more lenient approach as she makes a push for Hispanic voters in her
presidential bid.
Still No Reports of
“Hillary Fever” Outbreaks
Excerpt: I gather from the increasing hysteria of the
feminists that Democrats are beginning to rebel at having a loser of a
presidential candidate being foist upon them, in the person of Hillary Clinton.
USAToday
Editorial: Only the Clintons
Excerpt: As it is, the foundation is a mess.
With Hillary Clinton running for president twice and serving as
secretary of State in between, it was bound to be viewed as a way for foreign
donors to get close to the Clintons —
a danger the foundation appears to have discounted.
Much like the Clintons themselves, the foundation has seemed
intent on playing by its own rules, and is highly defensive when confronted on
its errors. Its efforts at limiting influence-seekers have been, at best, weak.
Earlier this year, the foundation admitted that it had accepted $500,000 from
the government of Algeria ,
violating an agreement struck with the Obama administration to accept
gifts only from governments that had a record of giving before Clinton 's tenure at the
State Department.
Excerpt: At first glance, it undoubtedly seems very odd.
Last September, the Scottish National Party (SNP) invited people in Scotland to vote to leave the United Kingdom
and become an independent country. The proposition was clearly rejected, with
just over 55 percent voting against and fewer than 45 percent in favor. Yet far
from heralding a period of nationalist anguish and introspection, little more
than six months later, the SNP is looking forward to the prospect of winning an
electoral landslide in the U.K.
general election scheduled for May 7. According to the latest polls, the party
could win as
many as 47 of the 59 Scottish seats in the 650-seat House of Commons.
(It looks like Labour would win a
clear victory nationwide over the Tories if Scots hadn't deserted to SNP.
Harkens back to defeat of Lloyd George's Liberals in 1918, in part because
Irish Party MPs (who voted with the Liberals) were swept out by Shin Fein who
refused to sit at Westminster
NASA’s New 10-Engine
Drone Is Half Chopper, Half Plane
Excerpt: The GL-10 Greased Lightning is a ten-engine,
battery-powered prototype with a ten-foot wingspan that can change its shape
midair to fly either horizontally or vertically. This month, NASA announced it
recently took off vertically and, for the first time, successfully rotated its
wings to transition from “helicopter” mode to standard “wingborne” flight. The
GL-10 is a relative of the V-22 Osprey, the VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing)
aircraft developed in the 1980s for the US Air Force and Marines.
Worth Reading : Wisconsin Home Invasions: When the Government Upends Democracy. By Mark Meckler
http://dailysignal.com/2015/05/02/wisconsin-home-invasions-when-the-government-upends-democracy/
http://dailysignal.com/2015/05/02/wisconsin-home-invasions-when-the-government-upends-democracy/
Excerpt: Cindy woke up to a battering
ram at her front door. She opened the door to a rushing mob of
policemen, yelling and barging through her house with no explanation. She
begged them not to shoot her barking dogs. Another had to wake her children
with an armed policeman at the foot of their beds. A third thought the frantic
knocking at her door must’ve been someone in trouble, but she too opened the
door to a home invasion. Officers turned her house upside-down and left with
all the personal information her family’s phones and laptops could hold. But
not before warning each family member not to breathe a word about what happened
that morning to anyone. This same scene took place in many homes—but not under
a totalitarian regime across the ocean. Not to the families of drug dealers or
violent criminals. These traumatic invasions happened in our own United States in 2013, in the state of Wisconsin,
to ordinary citizens whose only offense was holding conservative or libertarian
political views.
Top Republican and
His Son Arrested On Corruption Charges
Excerpt: The cesspool that is New York politics continued true to form
this morning, as Dean Skelos (R), leader of the New York State Senate, and his
son have been arrested on corruption charges. The pair face federal
charges for fraud, bribe solicitation, and extortion.
Huckabee announces 2016 bid stressing humble roots, traditional values
Excerpt: Former Arkansas
governor Mike Huckabee on Tuesday entered his second presidential contest with
a familiar message, focusing on his humble roots and traditional values.
But where he was the scrappy underdog with the fresh face in
2008, the former Baptist preacher faces a different set of challenges this time
around. He joins a crowded field of GOP contenders, including some with similar
appeal to evangelicals.
Why Does the Left Encourage
Hatred Toward Women? By Scottie
Hughes
Excerpt: Here’s the ironic part: Most targets of these
comments can answer back with cries that they are victims of racism, sexism,
homophobia and other retorts, and the world listens. Most often they even come
to the defense of these individuals demanding action against the perpetrators.
Unfortunately, the one group who receives very little help defending themselves
from gang-mentality hatred is the women who stand on the Right. These woman are
often the recipients of some of the most descriptive, vile, viscous attacks all
because they refuse to buy the propaganda of the left. Because, rather than
acquiesce, they have decided to make up their own mind and are not afraid to
say so.
WaPo Fact Checker: Warren
Excerpt: As regular readers know, we hold politicians
accountable for the accuracy of sources they cite. There are enough warning
flags in the CRL report — such as its lack of transparency on how the $26
billion number was calculated — that would have given a close reader pause. The
National Automobile Dealers Association in 2012 submitted to the FTC a lengthy rebuttal of the report that also raised
serious questions about the research. But besides citing a faulty number, Warren misleadingly says
it represents “auto dealer markups.” The group that produced the report
said that figure includes reasonable compensation owed to car dealers. She
earns Four Pinocchios.
Rising Dragon News
The trouble with China
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-32590433
Excerpt: A ruling in Shanghai
banning the husbands, wives and children of top officials from running
businesses is meant, of course, to allay the deep public concern about official
abuse of power. But, as has so often been the case throughout China 's much-vaunted
anti-corruption campaign, the tougher the rhetoric grows the wider the ridicule
becomes. "What about cousins, mistresses, aunties and brothers and
sisters?!" writes one social media user on the microblog platform Weibo.
Gun News
How One Hero Texas
Excerpt: Without warning, a Garland , Texas
VA Sending Veterans'
Mental Health Information to FBI to Restrict Gun Ownership
http://blog.cheaperthandirt.com/va-sending-veterans-mental-health-information-fbi-restrict-gun-ownership/
Excerpt: According to Howley's Daily Caller article, the VA said in a responding statement: "The Department of Veterans Affairs' policy to inform veterans of their rights regarding the Brady Act has not changed. As has been policy for multiple administrations, VA acts in accordance with federal law and works with the Department of Justice to properly maintain the NICS database. VA notifies any veteran who may be deemed by VA to be mentally incapable of managing his or her own funds of the opportunity to contest this determination and also to seek relief from the reporting requirements under the Brady Act, as required by law." (I've heard about this before but this time it looks like it's really been verified. The part that gets me is that the information goes off to the FBI (and from there, where else? as if we can trust any government agency to protect privacy), but THEN you get informed and maybe can appeal this. By that time the SWAT team may have broken in your door at 3AM to come and get any firearms in your house. Paranoid, you say? We know there have been instances already of vets losing their gun rights and some heavyhanded measures used to seize whatever they owned. And what exactly are the criteria the VA uses to decide you might be dangerous? If it's a very rare thing, only brought on when someone is in a very obviously disturbed state, I might concede it's not unreasonable, but I don't know at all if that's how it works. And some reports have been that just being diagnosed with any level of PTSD might bring on that judgment that you are a risky person to have guns. Again, how much trust do we place with the VA bureaucracy? I sure have my reservations. --Del. Walking from hotel toLafayette Square across from White House,
and encounter a horde of about 200 approaching the park carrying signs that
indicated some form of protest. Clever wife shortly determined they are having
a fire drill at the Veterans Administration. It's been close to 40 minutes and they
are still outside. Our fire drills last about 15 minutes, involving about 1500
people...but of course most of us are shareholders, so appreciate that it's our
money and we have to make a profit. --George)
http://blog.cheaperthandirt.com/va-sending-veterans-mental-health-information-fbi-restrict-gun-ownership/
Excerpt: According to Howley's Daily Caller article, the VA said in a responding statement: "The Department of Veterans Affairs' policy to inform veterans of their rights regarding the Brady Act has not changed. As has been policy for multiple administrations, VA acts in accordance with federal law and works with the Department of Justice to properly maintain the NICS database. VA notifies any veteran who may be deemed by VA to be mentally incapable of managing his or her own funds of the opportunity to contest this determination and also to seek relief from the reporting requirements under the Brady Act, as required by law." (I've heard about this before but this time it looks like it's really been verified. The part that gets me is that the information goes off to the FBI (and from there, where else? as if we can trust any government agency to protect privacy), but THEN you get informed and maybe can appeal this. By that time the SWAT team may have broken in your door at 3AM to come and get any firearms in your house. Paranoid, you say? We know there have been instances already of vets losing their gun rights and some heavyhanded measures used to seize whatever they owned. And what exactly are the criteria the VA uses to decide you might be dangerous? If it's a very rare thing, only brought on when someone is in a very obviously disturbed state, I might concede it's not unreasonable, but I don't know at all if that's how it works. And some reports have been that just being diagnosed with any level of PTSD might bring on that judgment that you are a risky person to have guns. Again, how much trust do we place with the VA bureaucracy? I sure have my reservations. --Del. Walking from hotel to
Homeowner in Pleasant Grove shoots and kills intruder.
By Aldo Vazquez
Excerpt: Early Sunday morning police were called to a home
in Pleasant Grove about a possible break-in. The homeowner who had heard
the intruder on
his second story balcony was forced to discharge his gun when the intruder
forced his way into the house. ... Police say Chiciha then forced his way
into the house. The homeowner was able to fire off one shot, which struck
Chichia in the chest.
Excerpt: A gunfight between a homeowner and an intruder
early this morning ended with the intruder dead and the homeowner hospitalized
with multiple gunshot wounds, Detroit
police.
ISIS in America Gary
Excerpt: The push for gun control is a push for assured
destruction. A well-armed American population will stop any attempt by Islamic
extremists to coordinate a planned domestic terror attack using conventional
weapons.
Race Card News
Excerpt: Among the many painful ironies in the current
racial turmoil is that communities scattered across the country were disrupted
by riots and looting because of the demonstrable lie that Michael Brown was
shot in the back by a white policeman in
Missouri -- but there was not nearly as much turmoil created by the
demonstrable fact that a fleeing black man was shot dead by a white policeman
in South Carolina. Totally ignored was the fact that a black policeman in Alabama fatally shot an
unarmed white teenager, and was cleared of any charges, at about the same time
that a white policeman was cleared of charges in the fatal
shooting of Michael Brown.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: "In addition to giving threats and instilling
fears, criminals have turned many black communities into economic wastelands
where there is a lack of services that most Americans take for granted, such as
supermarkets, other shops and even home delivery."
Where is the media?
Another fourteen black on white murders
http://woundedamericanwarrior.com/where-is-the-media-another-fourteen-black-on-white-murders/
http://woundedamericanwarrior.com/where-is-the-media-another-fourteen-black-on-white-murders/
Excerpt: We have been working to create a comprehensive look
at black on white murders for the years 2014 and 2015. Many media bosses openly admit that they censor black on white
crime. We have been working to collect the biggest sample size of
black on white murders possible.
Why the Left Won’t
Call Rioters ‘Thugs.’ By Dennis Prager
Excerpt: Two months ago, The New York Times published an
op-ed piece by a professor of philosophy titled, “Why Our Children Don’t Think
There Are Moral Facts.”
This is how the professor began his piece: “What would you
say if you found out that our public schools were teaching children that it is
not true that it’s wrong to kill people for fun or cheat on tests? Would you be
surprised? I was.” The problem, as the professor described it, is that a generation
of Americans has been taught that there is no moral truth. There may be
scientific truth and historical truth, but no moral truth.
Excerpt: President
Obama last
week addressed rioting in Baltimore by calling on Republicans in
Congress to
apply the cure-all elixir prescribed by proponents of bloated
government: Throw more money at the problem: ... If throwing massive amounts of
federal money at cities “solves the problem,” Baltimore should have been
set for
a while: The city of Baltimore received over $1.8 billion from President
Barack Obama’s stimulus law,
including $467.1 million to invest in education and $26.5 million for crime
prevention.
Excerpt: In an attempt to downplay the rioting that
took place in Baltimore last
week, President Obama claimed that TV news outlets
repeatedly looped the same fire on news segments. Union officials
have just one question: Which fire was he talking about? Firefighters responded
to 159 fires during Monday’s rioting. (Hey, we already know he's not
good with numbers, remember the 57 states? So he confused 159 with 1. Well,
there is a "1" in 159, so what the heck, it's just a minor slip. He
really is on top of current events, his comments can always be relied on to
paint a clear picture of what goes on. Sure.....Del )
Obamacare/Government Healthcare News
Obamacare Spending Is
Consuming the Economy. By Mark Horne
Excerpt: While GDP barely improved, Obamacare spending has
exploded.... Seasonally adjusted at annual rates, GDP increased by only $6.3
billion from the fourth quarter. Health services consumption, on the other
hand, increased by $23 billion. This is a dramatic increase in a segment
of GDP committed to a government-controlled and relatively unproductive sector
of our economy.
Excerpt: Just one of the many assurances made to the
American people leading up to the passage of the ObamaCare law was the promise
that Emergency Rooms – clogged with uninsured patients seeking routine care for
hangnails and headaches – would be cleared out for people in real need of
emergency attention. Five years and trillions of dollars later, even that
meager promise has been broken. Based on statistics, patients – citizens and
illegal immigrants – going to emergency rooms for routine care instead of
family doctors have actually gone up in Obama’s utopian world of “health coverage for
all”.
Undocumented Democrat News
Religion of Peace News
Excerpt: A video released over the past several days by the
Islamic State details the scale of last month’s rout of the Iraqi Army’s 26
Brigade headquarters in the Thar Thar area of Anbar province. The Islamic
State overran
the base in early March and released several photos of the attack.
Why Can't Muslims
Laugh at Mohammed? By David P. Goldman
Excerpt: In Mel Brooks' comedy History of the World
Part I, Moses is shown descending from Mount Sinai
with three stone tablets in hand. As he declares, "I give you the Fifteen
Commandments," one falls and breaks, and Moses corrects himself, "er,
Ten Commandments."
Jews, including the observant, find this funny rather than
offensive. As we learned once again in Garland ,
Texas Texas
traffic cop with a sidearm, but the incident might have turned into a massacre
worse than the murder of the Charlie Hebdo staff in January.
Important: Hamas Accused of Burning Down Salafist
Mosque Amid Rising Tensions
Excerpt: An Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate accused Hamas of
destroying one of its mosques in the Gaza Strip on Sunday,
the Jerusalem Post reports. On Monday, an ISIS-affiliated organization
reportedly device near Hamas' security headquarters used to train police
recruits. These developments indicate rising tensions exist between Hamas and
groups affiliated with the Islamic State in Gaza . ("You call yourself
terrorists Akmed? Ha! I fart in your general direction!" ~Bob)
Can Muslims Be
American? 58% of US Muslims Say Free Speech Should Be Illegal
Excerpt: A recent poll seems to suggest that Muslims living
in the USA
want to outlaw free speech and a large number even agree that blasphemers of
the Muslim god should be executed… HERE in the USA ! It all makes one wonder if it
is possible to be both a Muslim and a true American? (Yes for some of them, no
for others. Christians consider the Muslim belief that Jesus was not the son of
God to be blasphemy. If it's okay to kill blasphemers, we outnumber
them...~Bob)
Violent Muslims in Niger Burn 69 Christian Churches
Excerpt: Just three months ago, over the course of just a
few hours a mob of hundreds of Muslim radicals destroyed almost 70 churches, killed ten
people and injured hundreds more. Today, the Christians living in the area are
trying to move on, preaching the Gospel and forgiving those who’ve done them
such great harm.
Excerpt: As soon as Saudi Arabia declared the end of Operation Decisive Storm on April 21, all parties to
the Saudi war, the Houthis and former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh,
jointly declared victory on the same day, in a war where no
one achieved gains, and joint losses were the name of the game. On March 26, Saudi Arabia announced that Operation Decisive
Storm aimed to restore the legitimate government in Yemen , put an
end to the expansion of Houthis to the south and undermine the power of
both Saleh and the Houthis. However, the government was not restored, and
the Houthis and Saleh are still expanding and fighting battles in the
provinces of Marib, Taiz, Aden
and Dali.
Famed Attorney Alan Dershowitz Delivers First Amendment Lesson Before
Clashing With Muslim Blogger Over This Claim About ‘Radical Muslims.’
By Billy Hollowell
Excerpt: Dershowitz responded by sharing his candid
assessment of the situation.
“Let’s remember that the only people today who are
threatening violence against others for expressing political views are radical
Muslims. That happens to be the reality,” Dershowitz said. “You don’t have Jews
trying to threaten Farrakhan. You don’t have Christians trying to use violence
against people who use anti-Christian rhetoric.”
France, Saudi seeking
to seal quickly billions of euros in deals. By John Irish
Excerpt: France
is in talks to agree billions of euros worth of contracts in Saudi Arabia
that could be completed quickly, ranging from defense to civil aviation,
transport and energy, the French government said on Tuesday.
Iraqi forces plead
for help as Islamic State closes in on refinery
Excerpt: Iraqi forces besieged inside the country's largest
oil refinery are running low on food and pleading for reinforcements to save
them from Islamic State militants who have advanced deep into the compound in
the past week. The insurgents now hold large sections of the sprawling Baiji
refinery complex in northern Iraq
where some 200 policemen, soldiers and elite special forces are holding out.
*****
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five
terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic.
http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5
For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s
eleven books are listed here:
http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-book-published.html. His blog of political news and conservative comment
is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.
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