Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for March 29, 2013
Robert A. Hall
Your one-stop-shop for political news and opinion. Please forward to friends who need to be informed. This SitRep (Military for “Situation Report”) is created by many readers who send me items for inclusion, which I would have likely missed or skipped. And I can only spend at most three hours a night pulling stuff, plus the healthcare or economic stuff that crosses my desk at work. As always, I—and you—owe them thanks and appreciation. I post articles because I think they are of interest and will stimulate thought and discussion. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article, or that I was able to verify the information presented, which is the responsibility of the author. I try not to post things that are false, or too far a stretch, regardless of the view point, but I don’t always succeed. As always on the Net, or in the legacy media, you must read critically and with skepticism.
C.Y.A. Protecting Yourself in the Modern Jungle
If you order directly from CreateSpace, the PFF receives a larger royalty:
https://www.createspace.com/4133396http://www.amazon.com/C-Y-Protecting-Yourself-Modern-Jungle/dp/1481989103/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358787454&sr=1-8&keywords=C.Y.A+.+Robert+A+Hall
First published in 2010, this book has been reissued through CreateSpace/Amazon at a lower price, with all royalties going to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. A humor/self-help book, this is advice with an attitude.
Worth Reading : Florida
Excerpt: Firearm-related violent crimes in Florida
Regarding "Can the Marines Survive"
Here is a "Marine Survival" article from today's WSJ. Incidentally, I don't agree that there were no military units that could have intervened in the Benghazi Libya
Changing the Battlefield: The "Tide of War" is not Receding. By Shoshana Bryen
Excerpt: The wars against us have not ended – responsibly or otherwise. They are fought by people who need the United States as an organizing principle, and who will not be dissuaded by our absence our reluctance to cooperate with Israel Cairo and Benghazi
Why a BA is Now a Ticket to A Job in a Coffee Shop
Excerpt: …lower skilled workers are increasingly falling out of the higher paying jobs altogether as college graduates move down the skill ladder. So while college graduates are having trouble getting college-style jobs, the unskilled workers are doing even worse. This is not necessarily evidence that the college degree is producing the wage--it might be that folks capable of getting into college would be able to get that barista job even if they didn't go. (Notice that this is from reliably liberal Daily Beast; even they are noticing and speaking up. There are additional considerations, too. One of my grandfathers had to leave school in the Fifth Grade due to the death of his father. He educated himself sufficiently to become one of the leading accountants at his plastic molding company, and by the 1950s, a Federal Court-recognized master and receiver for bankrupt companies in northern New Jersey
Islamic apartheid billboards
Powerful stuff. ~Bob
Excerpt: The capital controls are meant to prevent hordes of savers descending on Cyprus
Three Years of Broken Promises: The president’s health-care law has done almost none of what he suggested it would. By Michael Tanner
Excerpt: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, turned three years old this week. But unlike fine wine, the ACA is not getting better with age. A torrent of recent studies and reports has provided new evidence — as if we needed more confirmation — that nearly everything we were told about this law was untrue. Compare these promises to what we’ve found out about the law in just the past two months:
Millions to Be Priced Out of Obamacare
Excerpt: Millions of Americans will be priced out of health insurance under President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul because of a glitch in the law that adversely affects people with modest incomes who cannot afford family coverage offered by their employers, a leading healthcare advocacy group said on Tuesday. Tax credits are a key component of the law and the White House has said the credits, averaging about $4,000 apiece, will help about 18 million individuals and families pay for health insurance once the Affordable Care Act takes full effect, beginning in January 2014. (This is going to be just beautiful when it hits. There will be shocked, depressed, and really ticked off people in various groups all over society. 2014 election just looks more and more interesting. --Del
NM health insurance costs could spike more than a third after reform. Dennis Domrzalski
Excerpt: The cost of individual health insurance in New Mexico
Important: Study: Health overhaul to raise claims cost 32%
Excerpt: Medical claims costs — the biggest driver of health insurance premiums — will jump an average 32 percent for Americans’ individual policies under President Barack Obama’s overhaul, according to a study by the nation’s leading group of financial risk analysts. ... The disparities are striking. By 2017, the estimated increase would be 62 percent for California , about 80 percent for Ohio , more than 20 percent for Florida and 67 percent for Maryland Wisconsin
Excerpt: Egypt 's naval forces captured three scuba divers who were trying to cut an undersea Internet cable in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, a military spokesman said.
CNN finds that spending is the only thing fast about high-speed rail
Excerpt: "We're not building pieces of high-speed rail, we're just wasting high-speed money fixing up old slow rails," Griffin
Excerpt: The flames of intolerance spreading to new areas of Burma
Muslim Persecution of Christians
Excerpt: Egypt
Disney grants man $8,000 after ride malfunction forces him to listen to It's a Small World for 30 minutes
That is not near enough to compensate him. ~Bob.
Quote
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. - H. L. Mencken
Excerpt: Following China ’s recent announcement that it would increase its military budget, the country reached an agreement on a weapons technology purchase with Russia
Concerns Proliferating: China confirms nuclear deal with Pakistan
Excerpt: China confirmed this week it will sell a new 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor to Pakistan that the United States says would violate Beijing North Korea Asia , and we have to wonder where this will go. It just doesn't seem like good news. -Del. China
Excerpt: Regulatory agencies don’t consider the possible impact they may have on labor markets, even though they have been, since 1971, increasingly subject to requirements that they consider the effect of regulatory change on the economy. Unfortunately, the failure to focus effectively on the employment impact of regulation means that the analysis misses several important aspects of regulation First, agencies ignore the economic cost of job loss in the regulated industry, despite strong evidence that job displacement of any type is very costly for individuals, families, and communities. Second, agencies ignore the economic cost of indirect job loss in other industries resulting from higher priced regulated goods or services.
A Collective Veto Could Nullify ObamaCare
Excerpt: Many provisions of the Affordable Care Act ("ObamaCare") seek to expand access to health care but are not in the best interests of the states. Thirty-four states have already refused to create health care exchanges and many others are currently deciding whether to expand Medicaid coverage as envisioned by the ObamaCare mandate. The Obama administration is still trying to coerce states into implementing parts of the expansion the Supreme Court viewed as optional. States should collectively veto the exchanges and Medicaid expansion, which would force Congress to reconsider or repeal the mandate, says Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute. States can reduce federal deficits by $1.7 trillion if they refuse to implement the exchanges and Medicaid expansion mandated by ObamaCare. The Supreme Court has already ruled that the federal government cannot force states to create the exchanges, the creation of which would violate state law and raise taxes in many states. Each state has the ability to takes its time implementing an exchange and always has the ability to switch to a state-funded exchange.
Ashley Judd won't run for Senate
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/290675-ashley-judd-wont-run-for-senate-in-kentucky
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/290675-ashley-judd-wont-run-for-senate-in-kentucky
Excerpt: Actress Ashley Judd is not running for Senate in Kentucky
Sean Penn’s Son Goes on Racist Tirade [VIDEO]
Excerpt: Hopper Penn, Sean’s 19-year-old son, was following his father into a building when his sickening racism came pouring out of him and onto an African-American reporter. (This is what many of the oh, so politically correct left really think about blacks. Remember, it wasn't the Democrat party who freed the slaves. But it was the Democrats who started the Ku Klux Klan. Why, even their corrupt, but beloved Sen. Robert Bird had been a Klan recruiter. And it was the Democrats who fought and filibustered against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. So, I guess doper, racist, and all around asshole Hopper Penn [honest, that's what Sean named his son] is simply living up to Democrat values. To be fair, Hopper might have just been a little testy, what with the recent death of his father's pal, Hugo Chavez. – LLW)
KrisAnne Hall puts Liberal Attorney in his place
Very short but really solid video of a knowledgeable person schooling a board of people at some kind of public forum. KrisAnne Hall posted this video of her participation in a town hall style forum that was broadcast on a social media channel. I admit that I have never heard of her before this. But go to her website for more of her commentaries and her biography. She writes very clearly, logically, and factually about our current problems. http://krisannehall.com/ Maybe we'll see her in politics in the coming years. I hope so. --Del
TSA simplifies screening process for wounded soldiers
Excerpt: The Transportation Security Administration has announced it will be offering an expedited airport screening process to severely injured members of the armed services.
Excerpt: Reclusive North Korea is to cut the last channel of communications with the South because war could break out at "any moment", it said on Wednesday, days of after warning the United States and South Korea of nuclear attack. (If I was running things, I would wait until the wind was blowing just right, then nuke those crazy bastards off the globe. But, alas, I'm not running things. Maybe that's a good thing. But then, maybe not. – LLW. I think they just forgot to pay their Verizon bill. ~Bob.)
North Korea
Excerpt: Most ominous is that the North Koreans seem to be deliberately misinterpreting Allied and UN actions as threatening a nuclear war. That artificially electrifies the atmosphere. The intent appears to be to persuade the US North Korea Iran
A photo that makes North Korea
Excerpt: The threats – turning Seoul into a sea of flames, eradicating the American military presence and maybe America North Korea
The Cannibals of North Korea
Excerpt: Fear of cannibalism, like the famine supposedly driving it, spread. People avoided the meat in streetside soup vendors and warned children not to be alone at night. At least one person in Chongjin
Russian authorities search Human Rights Watch offices
Excerpt: Russian authorities searched the Moscow Russia
Excerpt: Customers will also be limited to withdrawing 300 euros ($383; £253) a day, to prevent everyone fleeing with their savings.
Excerpt: Hundreds of armed vigilantes have occupied a town in south-western Mexico Mexico
New BRICS bank to rival World Bank, IMF
Excerpt: The BRICS group of emerging economies has unveiled a new development bank, which is aimed at breaking the monopoly held by Western-backed institutions. … Finance ministers of the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – met in Durban, South Africa for the opening of the fifth BRICS summit this week as leaders are expected to make an official announcement on Wednesday. (The IMF, along with the rest of the Troika, is badly discredited in the wake of its Cyprus bank robbery in which thousands of depositors lost 80% of all their cash in excess of 100,000 euros. Now comes BRICS with an alternative. --Don Hank
Older Piece: Woman killed for tip money, 2 men charged, 1 at large
Excerpt: Three men have been charged with killing 24-year-old Jacqueline Gardner and taking the tip money she earned from her restaurant job on May 19. (Funny how everyone knows Trayvon Martin’s name, but almost no one has heard of Jacqueline Gardner. Might be because she was white and the three killers were black, thus not big news in our media. ~Bob.)
Buzzkill? Cash-strapped states eye pot tax
Excerpt: Now that voters in Colorado and Washington have legalized recreational marijuana use, dope smokers there can light up without the usual paranoid fear that the cops are at the door. The taxman is another matter. (How about an abortion tax? ~Bob.)
Excerpt: For the last few months we're beginning to see a trend that just might bode well for Republicans in the 2014 mid-term elections. Obama lost millions of his "brain dead" Kool Aid drinkers when he upped the payroll tax back to the 6.2 percent rate established previously. Most of us knew the temporary cut was just to put a couple of hundred extra dollars in worker paychecks, enabling him to buy an election using the Social Security Trust Fund. (And of course underfunding Social Security which is already under assault) So things weren't so "kumbaya" between Obama and his groupies even before being sworn in to his second term. Then this month we learned that the average health care premium (already up 25% since Obamacare was signed) is scheduled to increase another 32 percent next year! The political boards are on fire over these explosive increases.
Quote
To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy. –Bertrand Russell
Death to freedom. By Mark Steyn
Excerpt: Last month, the Canadian supreme court, at a stroke, undid all the good work of the last five years, reaffirmed the state's role in the thought-crime business, rejected truth as a defense, and took a narrow, generation-old ruling on "hate speech" and carelessly broadened it. And they did it unanimously. Nearly four centuries after John Milton declared, "Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties," on the highest court in one of the oldest democratic jurisdictions on earth there is not a single vote for the rough-and-tumble of unfettered speech necessary to any free society.
It's not just school grades that parents buy. By Harry Wallop
Excerpt: The confidence that privately educated children are supposed to possess is generated not just by small class sizes, world-class facilities and an encouragement to aspire. It comes from an innate understanding that they will grow up knowing the right people, that there is a network they can tap into.
Worse is better. By James Delingpole
Excerpt: These times, we're beginning to appreciate, are not like other times. There's simply no precedent for the kind of depression we're experiencing now. Certainly not for the way our political class, in league with the bankers and corporatists (and their inevitable battery of lawyers) are conspiring against the people and adopting measures absolutely guaranteed to make things worse.
Web slows after 'biggest ever cyber attack.' By Matt Warman
Excerpt: A Dutch web-hosting company caused disruption and the global slowdown of the internet, according to a not-for-profit anti-spam organization. The interruptions came after Spamhaus, a spam-fighting group based in Geneva, temporarily added the Dutch firm, CyberBunker, to a blacklist that is used by e-mail providers to weed out spam.
Here comes Team Obama's carbon tax
How to squeeze more money from all of us, for the chance to redistribute our wealth to other countries that the Enlightened Ones know we owe help to, since they are poor and we are not. Sure, we all want that, don't we? If they had asked us to vote on raising our taxes to send more money to selected poor countries, wouldn't we all have rushed to vote yes? And of course the tax is about carbon which is about Global Warming, which is totally accepted as scientific fact by... some people, but not a whole lot of others who have qualifications just as solid as their opponents. And in any case, nothing we do, nothing at all including not burning another gallon of gas or pound of coal from right now until the next century, will have any significant effect on the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. But hey, why worry about such minor matters? Remember, you are not paranoid if they really are out to get you. Or your money. --Del
Crowning Erdogan as the New King of Islamists. By Ryan Mauro
Excerpt: Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s apology to Turkey for the deaths of its citizens during the 2010 flotilla raid misses the point. The tension with Turkey was never really about the operation. It was about making Israel bow to Turkey, crowning Prime Minister Erdogan as the new king of the Islamists. (Concessions to monsters—Hitler, Stalin or Jihadists—are seen as weakness and only bring more aggression and violence. ~Bob.)
When Affordable Health Care Died. By Arnold Ahlert
Excerpt: On Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was forced to concede that some people who will be buying health insurance for themselves next fall will face higher premium costs due to provisions in the healthcare bill. A new study released the same day reveals that insurance companies themselves will be paying out an average of 32 percent more for medical claims. Both stories join the growing list of indicators that point toward a grim reality: when it is fully implemented, the Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010 will be anything but. (When Obamacare was about to be shoved through in 2010, a doctor who had voted for Obama told me, “This is going to be a disaster.” “Yes,” I replied, “But I knew that in November of 2008.” ~Bob.)
Iraq a convenient scapegoat. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Bring up Iraq -- and expect to end up in an argument. Conservatives are no different from liberals in rehashing the unpopular war, which has become a sort of whipping boy for all our subsequent problems.
Tunisians Raise Alarm on Possible Fatwa Encouraging 'Sexual Jihad'
Excerpt: Tunisia witnessed controversy yesterday [March 26] regarding a fatwa that permits “sexual jihad” in Syria. Tunisian Minister of Religious Affairs Noureddine al-Khadimi rejected “sexual jihad” fatwas, saying that the Tunisian people and state institutions are not obligated to adhere to them. Khadimi’s statements follow reports that Tunisian teenagers have headed to Syria in response to this fatwa. (My fault. I said, “Screw the Syrian Jihadists,” and they misunderstood. ~Bob.)
DOJ emails show feds kept judges in the dark about cellphone tracking device
http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/28/doj-emails-show-feds-kept-judges-in-the-dark-about-cellphone-tracking-device/#ixzz2Or2OeAdi
http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/28/doj-emails-show-feds-kept-judges-in-the-dark-about-cellphone-tracking-device/#ixzz2Or2OeAdi
Excerpt: Federal investigators, according to the ACLU’s analysis of Justice Department emails, have “routinely” used a portable technology called a “stingray,” which masquerades as a cellphone tower by emitting a powerful signal. The goal is to trick nearby cellphones into connecting to the stingray, which can then gather data transmitted by the phones. (Per article, “A September 2012 investigative report by LA Weekly found that law enforcement across the country — including Los Angeles, Miami, Fort Worth, and Gilbert, Arizona — are secretly using the technology.” –Barb)
Tax Reform
Krauthammer and Marty Feldstein's income tax reform makes good economic sense—both on the blackboard and in practice. The concept is straight forward: get rid of all the exemptions and tax credits, except those that are so politically sensitive that proposing them would doom the entire reform (e.g. charitable contributions). I would rather get rid of the income tax all together, and substituting a VAT or a General Consumption Tax. These result in taxes being levied on income used to buy stuff, but not on savings, thereby providing incentives to save and invest in productive capacity and jobs. Some expenditures, as for food and shelter, could be exempted from either tax. Economically unwise, but maybe politically necessary. Prospects for this kind of reform are poor, because a small majority of the current crop of elected representatives seems to prefer that every government policy focus on redistributing both income and wealth from the top 50 percent of earners to the bottom 50 percent. But there is a strong logical foundation for either this or the Feldstein kind of reform. That is, it assumes people follow the incentives, and it provides incentives for saving and investment—the foundations of economic growth and strength, and it affords protection for those with modest incomes who spend most of their incomes on food and shelter. It takes the government out of its impossible role as decider of what to produce and how. An additional and significant advantage of the VAT or General Consumption tax is that in would permit massive dismantling of the massive bureaucracy not employed to administer the zillion-page Internal Revenue code. Simplicity—and therefore efficiency—is gained as one of our country's most despised institutions (IRS) is reduced to a role of actually producing "service." These gains, to me, are of immeasurable value. Of course the legions of both private sector and public sector employees whose current livings are made in jobs made necessary by the antiquated IRS code could be counted upon to mount an all-out war against such gains in efficiency. Arnold Ahlert’s concept is quite a different matter. Basically it draws upon a lot of 1960s style conspiracy slogans (world-wide conspiracy of the powerful to further exploit the less powerful), to assert lots of impending doom, but offers no theoretical or logical path to lead us to dire conclusions. It displays a deep and broad lack of knowledge of the IMF, the role of Central Banks in market-like economies, yet makes bold assertions about where they wish to take us (i.e. all us regular folks!). Not worth spending much time puzzling over. – Samuel L Skogstad. (Dr. Skogstad is an economist, a blog reader and a brother Marine. His comments are in response to articles on tax reform going around the net, which I don’t think were on my blog, but I thought his remarks had stand alone value. ~Bob.)
Vial of deadly virus missing at Texas bioterror lab
Excerpt: A Texas lab can't find a frozen vial of virus that is a potential bioterror agent. Lab officials say it's most likely the vial was accidentally destroyed inside the facility.
Colonel relieved of command for failing fitness test: Colonel had a waist measurement of 2 inches more than the limit.
Excerpt: Col. Tim Bush is no longer in command of the 319th Air Base Wing at the base as of Wednesday, Maj. Mike Andrews, spokesman for Air Mobility Command, said in a statement.
Indoctrination And Data Mining In Common Core: Here’s Why America’s Schools May Be In More Trouble Than You Think
Excerpt: TheBlaze has been at the forefront in uncovering the disturbing details of the nationalized curriculum standard known as Common Core. One of the most troubling aspects of this federal program is that government bureaucrats are currently mining sensitive and highly personal information on children through Common Core’s tracking system.
Democratic Headquarters
Robert -- We are conducting a membership audit before the first FEC deadline of President Obama’s second term. Your membership is pending. If you support President Obama’s agenda, it is CRITICAL that you renew your membership in the next 72 hours. (Darn. I’ve been so busy it keeps slipping my mind. And only a $3 minimum. ~Bob.)
Report: ICE investigators cooperated with ‘Fast and Furious’
Excerpt: Homeland Security agents cooperated with the Justice Department’s “Fast and Furious” operation that allowed firearms to flow to suspected gun traffickers, despite knowing some of the tactics violated strict department policies on tracking smugglers, according to an inspector general’s report. (Show me your shocked…oh, never mind. Typical of this administration. ~Bob.)
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