Update
Comment on last
post--good catch!
In the picture of the boy handing water to a police officer,
there is a sign with a 410 (Baltimore )
area code - either genuine or great photo shop. not sure if recent though EOM
Nice day today, so we took a drive to Portage , ate at a downtown cafe, toured some
country roads. Thus late to the blog. ~Bob
General News and Comment
Must Read: The Army’s Walk of Shame. By Tom Kratman
Excerpt: Once again, “We interrupt our regularly scheduled
program…”1 This just in: In a stunning blow against international terrorism, US
Army Cadet Command has recently unleashed its latest martial innovation, the
comedy bomb. It is reported that Islamic terrorists from Thailand to Central Africa
were incapacitated for hours and a few have even laughed themselves to death.
The bomb was delivered via the Internet after a rapid development initiative at
Headquarters, Cadet Command, Fort Knox ,
KY.
Excerpt: In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed,
Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) asserted that the
administration must pursue a number of negotiating objectives, including
“beefing up protections for U.S. intellectual property” if it wants Congress to
approve the TPP. It is uncertain the president is as committed to intellectual
property as Mr. Ryan and Mr. Cruz hope, especially with respect to patents for
medicines. (China
is a huge violator of IP rights in many areas. ~Bob)
New Information
Reveals the Clinton
Excerpt: In a new story from Bloomberg News it’s revealed
that, contrary to their agreement with the White House and any sense of
transparency, the Clinton Foundation purposely chose not to disclose more than a thousand different
foreign donations! The problem is that when Hillary Clinton agreed to
become Secretary of State, she promised to disclose the names of every donor to
the Clinton Foundation as one of the conditions to her new position. Now we
know she (and her foundation) lied.
Pat Roggensack is –
or soon will be – chief justice; Shirley Abrahamson is not. By M.D. Kittle
Excerpt: Shirley Abrahamson may be trying all she can to hold
on to the reins of power, but the former state Supreme Court Justice doesn’t
have the votes.
On Wednesday, the four conservative members of the
seven-person court took up a motion by Justice Michael
Gableman to elect Justice Patience
Roggensack as the court’s new chief justice. The legal reading is that
Abrahamson’s nearly 20-year term as chief justice is over.
John Chisholm’s 50
shades of ‘raid.’ By M.D. Kittle
Excerpt: When is a raid simply a “judicially approved” home
visit by law enforcement?
Apparently in John Chisholm’s world. The Milwaukee County
District Attorney who launched Wisconsin ’s political John Doe
investigations into dozens of conservative organizations and the
campaign of Gov. Scott
Walker has come out with a pronouncement on the definition of the word
‘raid.’
The dirty little
secret no one wants to admit about Baltimore
Excerpt: As posted on Breitbart.com by John Nolte, “Contrary to the
emotional blackmail some leftists are attempting to peddle, Baltimore
is not America ’s
problem or shame. That failed city is solely and completely a Democrat
problem.”
David Jolly Fights to
Keep Guantanamo Bay
Excerpt: On Wednesday night, the U.S. House backed U.S. Rep
David Jolly’s, R-Fla., amendment ensuring federal funds are not used to close
the naval base at Guantanamo Bay ,
Cuba
40 years later, Vietnam USA
Excerpt: HO CHI MINH CITY —
This bustling city of 8 million that is still called Saigon by many is going
all out to celebrate Thursday's 40th anniversary of its fall — the
day North Vietnam 's Communist
army captured South Vietnam 's
capital. ... Yet even as the now-united country trumpets the North's victory
over American invaders during a devastating conflict that left more than 3
million Vietnamese and nearly 60,000 American troops dead, bitter rifts over
the civil war remain deep and unresolved. (I recommend watching the videos that
are part of this article. They actually talk about the plight of the crippled
ARVN vets, the domination of the South by the North (not exactly
"liberation"), and talk frankly and clearly about how the nation
never healed up, and it's obvious it couldn't heal with the communists being a
vengeful and oppressive as they were and remain. --Del )
Billionaire Koch
brothers make push to court Latinos, alarming many Democrats
Excerpt: For Republicans, the road to warming the hearts and
winning the votes of Latinos may begin at a Las Vegas flea market. On a recent morning,
inside the Eastern Indoor Swapmeet Las Vegas, a group funded by the billionaire
Koch brothers helped 250 Latinos — some of them illegal immigrants — pass the Nevada driver’s test.
Fact Check: Is The Clinton
Excerpt: "What the Clinton foundation has said is that we will
be kind of even more transparent," said the former first daughter,
now vice
chairman of the foundation, at an event sponsored by the Council on Foreign
Relations. "Even though Transparency International and others have said
we're among the most transparent foundations, we'll disclose donors on a
quarterly basis, not just an annual basis." The problem with that, though,
is Transparency International never cited the Clinton foundation. (It’s
a false statement, but it also looks like Freudian slip. Transparency
International gives the U.S. State Department an award, and Chelsea Clintons Clinton
Excerpt: An unprecedented ethics promise that played a
pivotal role in helping Hillary Rodham Clinton win confirmation as secretary of
state, soothing senators’ concerns about conflicts of interests with Clinton family charities,
was uniformly bypassed by the biggest of the philanthropies involved. The
Clinton Health Access Initiative never submitted information on any foreign
donations to State Department lawyers for review during Clinton ’s tenure from 2009 to 2013, Maura
Daley, the organization’s spokeswoman, acknowledged to the Globe this week. She
said the charity deemed it unnecessary, except in one case that she described
as an “oversight.” During that time, grants from foreign governments increased
by tens of millions of dollars to the Boston-based organization.
How Hillary Clinton
is running against parts of her husband’s legacy. By Anne Gearan and Philip Rucker
Excerpt: On issues large and small, the Democratic
presidential contender is increasingly distancing herself from — or even
opposing — key policies pushed by Bill Clinton while he was in the White House,
from her recent skepticism on free-trade pacts to her full embrace of gay
rights. The starkest example yet came Wednesday, when Hillary Clinton delivered
an impassioned address condemning the “era of incarceration” ushered in during
the 1990s in the wake of her husband’s 1994 crime bill — though she never
mentioned him or the legislation by name.
Army Hero Called
‘Murderer’ For Afghanistan
Excerpt: “I hope you watch your child starve and die in front
of you, as you have done to the people of Afghanistan ,” the note read. (I
hope the writer has to live under the Taliban at some point. ~Bob)
Army Sgt. Bowe
Bergdahl, 'a case nobody wants to see go to trial.'
True, but it's against the rules to take him outback and
shoot him without one. ~Bob
The United States
Excerpt: Yet public opinion inside Vietnam about
the meaning of the war has quietly shifted in the last two decades as
Vietnamese gained the freedom to travel abroad, as scholars gained access to
previously classified documents,
and as the internet broke the government’s monopoly on access to information.
The internet has been the government’s chief adversary more than anything else.
Most Vietnamese were born after the war, and without the internet they would
not have been able to know what really happened during the war and in its
aftermath. No opinion survey on the topic is
permitted, but one gets a sense of the public mood by following online
discussions and by initiating informal conversations with ordinary Vietnamese.
Much to the government’s chagrin, Vietnamese now view the
war as a proxy war and civil war rather than one for national liberation and
unification. (The bad news is that there have been a bunch of articles from
antiwar people resurrecting the same lies and a few new ones as this
anniversary came along. But there have been some really good articles, and this
one in particular is outstanding. Pass it on. --Del )
Important: Social Security in Need of Reform
Excerpt: Social Security is the cornerstone of retirement
security in the United
States today. A third of Americans depend on
the program for almost all their retirement
income; without it, one-in-five would have no retirement income. But the
program so many depend on simply cannot afford what it promises today's workers
and faces a shortfall of more than $13 trillion over the next 75 years. Reforms
are desperately needed. The number of Social Security beneficiaries is growing
faster than the number of workers supporting them — the number of elderly will
nearly double between now and 2034 (38.6 million to 74 million) while the
number of new workers will only increase 16 percent. Here is a sample of the
facts: People are living longer and collecting more Social Security benefit
checks: In 1940, life expectancy
was 61.4 years for men and 65.7 for women. By 2000, life expectancy was 74.0
years for men and 79.4 for women; by 2050, life expectancy will be 80.0 years
for men and 83.4 for women. Fewer children are born each year: For each
generation to be the same size as the one before (the replacement rate), women
must have 2.1 children. In 1940, the fertility rate was 2.23. Today, the rate
is 2.01 and by 2035 it is expected to trend downward to 1.98. In all, the
program faces an unfunded liability (the amount Social Security promises in
benefits above what it will collect in taxes) of more than $26 trillion.
The Social Security
Disability Insurance Program Could Be Insolvent by 2016
Excerpt: The Social Security Administration has been
awarding benefits through its Disability Insurance (SSDI) program at an
increasing rate, but meanwhile the actual rate of disability in the U.S. population
working age and older has remained stable or even decreased. The SSDI Trust
Fund will run out of money by 2016. A new paper published by the Mercatus Center
at George Mason University
Excerpt: In October 1944, in the depths of World War II, a
young man from Baltimore
named Robert Rubenstein dropped out of high school and, with his mother’s
permission, enlisted in the Marine Corps. He was 17. ... On Wednesday, his son,
David, the billionaire philanthropist, announced that he is donating $5.37
million to refurbish the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, the 100-ton bronze
sculpture of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima
during the war.
Rising Dragon News
Chinese is becoming
the dominant force in Israel China
Excerpt: “Independence ” is a
very popular concept in Israel ,
however, the concept is a very flexible one. In reality, Israel ’s
strategic geopolitical position has made it the political and economic
playground of foreign powers throughout history, leaving very limited room for
the judgment of the “local” residents. The establishment of the State of Israel
in 1948 did not change the big picture much. Until last decade, for example,
the dominant force that molded Israel ’s
financial-political “independence” was the United States . US interests still
carry significant weight in Israel ’s
economic and political conduct, but over the past five years, the beginnings of
what may be termed the “Chinese chapter” in the history of the Israeli economy
have become apparent.
Gun News
Excerpt: According to the Oklahoma State Bureau of
Investigation (OSBI), a game warden approached three men fishing near Bunch in
eastern Oklahoma
on Sunday and asked to see their licenses. Among the men was 29-year-old
Billy Joe Patrick, who had an active
warrant out in Arkansas
for a parole violation.
When the warden attempted to arrest Patrick, OSBI officials said that
Patrick began fighting back. “The men fell into a pond where the suspect tried
to hold the officer’s head under water,” the OBSI stated on Facebook. “The officer fought his way above the water and
shot the suspect. The man died at the scene.” (Hopefully, Billy Joe was white,
so they won't burn the forests down. ~Bob)
Excerpt: Last Saturday was prom night for the students at
Kotzebue Middle
High School in
Alaska
Name released of home
intruder shot, killed in East Knox County
Excerpt: [Knox County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Martha
Dooley] said the resident woke to the sound of breaking glass, went from a
bedroom into the living room and fired one gunshot that struck the intruder as
he was climbing in the front window. The man fell onto the deck, where KCSO
deputies found his body.
Race Card News
Excerpt: She and nine other midshipmen found themselves
caught in the protests.
These midshipmen directed families to the back of the
Subway. Then they lined up, in front of families, as protesters passed outside,
some throwing rocks. Women and children gathered farthest from the windows,
except for Grinnell, the only female there from the Naval Academy
"You're in the military and a midshipmen — you should
be in the front," she insisted. (Now here is the take on how other
military units would have responded... West Point :
Cadets would have left Subway, taken the high ground on top of a nearby
building and called for artillery and close air support. Air Force Academy
asked for an immediate airlift out of the area.Coast Guard
Academy Merchant Marine Academy :
"Hey, look at all this free food Subway left behind..."California Maritime Academy
asked for an immediate airlift out of the area.
Most See Baltimore
Excerpt: Americans view the recent rioting in Baltimore as criminal behavior,
not legitimate protest, and think it will only worsen the criminal justice
situation in the city.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds
that just 25% of American Adults consider the mob violence in Baltimore that followed the funeral of a
black man who died in police custody to be primarily legitimate outrage.
Sixty-three percent (63%) instead characterize it as mostly criminals taking
advantage of the situation. (For the 25%, I hope the next "protest"
loots and burns out their home and business, to give them a clearer
perspective. ~Bob)
This Report Could
Change The Freddie Gray Narrative. By Chuck Ross
Excerpt: Freddie Gray was “banging against the walls” of a
police van he was placed in and seemed to be “intentionally trying to injure
himself” after his arrest earlier this month, another arrestee riding in the
vehicle told investigators, according to a new and potentially game-changing
investigative document.
(Not sure this could cause or aggravate his spinal condition. but it doesn't
matter. the thugs in Baltimore , like the thugs
in Ferguson ,
are not interested in facts, only in the joys of looting and destroying. ~Bob)
Race Hustlers &
Thugs Won’t Like What This Florida Sheriff Has to Say to the Black Community
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/04/race-hustlers-thugs-wont-like-what-this-florida-sheriff-has-to-say-to-the-black-community/
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/04/race-hustlers-thugs-wont-like-what-this-florida-sheriff-has-to-say-to-the-black-community/
Excerpt: Escambia
County Sheriff David Morgan had some wise words he delivered lately.
However, I'm sure some of the race baiters, the Obama administration and others
who thrive off of the constant war of ethnic communities in America are
going to be going after him once they hear what he had to say. However, he was
right on.
No, Riots Are
Not a 'Legitimate Political Strategy.' By Allyne Caan
Excerpt: Reading the liberal media, you'd think the Baltimore rioters are the reincarnation of Lexington and Concord 's
minutemen, bravely facing tyrants to defend their freedom. Well, Paul Revere
might disagree. Somehow, ruining businesses and running off with condoms doesn't quite equate to
Patrick Henry's speech "Give me Liberty
or give me death." But the Left wants America to think it does. A
particularly absurd Salon headline this week reads, "Baltimore 's violent protesters are right:
Smashing police cars is a legitimate political strategy." The author's
argument is that non-violence is "a tactic, not a philosophy" and
that black communities are struggling against "premeditated economic
exploitation." Riots are simply "reasonable responses to generations
of extreme state violence, and logical decisions about what kind of actions
yield the desired political results." (If smashing police cars, looting
and burning stores and beating people based on their skin color is a legit
strategy for one side, it's a legit strategy for the other side to retaliate
with violence. ~Bob)
Tell People They're
Victims — They'll Act Like Victims. By Larry Elder
Excerpt: In watching Baltimore
burn, “progressives” run out of scapegoats. ... So, why riot? Unlike Ferguson , where riots also took place, black Baltimore residents do
not lack political power and representation. The mayor is black. The police
commissioner and deputy commissioner are black. The police department is
approximately 40 percent black, in a city with a black population of 63
percent. The new head of the Department of Justice, Loretta Lynch, is a black female,
the second consecutive black person to run the Department of Justice. And, of
course, the president of United
States is black. (And Larry Elder is black. ~Bob)
How the Freddie Gray
Family Showed Real Character. By Mark Horne
Excerpt: It takes real character to refuse to join a mob
when you are grief-stricken about a loved one’s death, which is what we see in
the Freddie Gray family. I’m not suggesting that it is somehow especially
worthy to refuse to endorse mob violence. Everyone should have enough
moral sense to condemn lawless rioting. But I would think that the family of
Freddie Gray might have been tempted to keep silent, since the riots are
against the police (in some sense; I’m not sure how destroying private
businesses has much to do with opposing the police)
Michael Moore Demands
America
Excerpt: Filmmaker Michael Moore demanded on Twitter
Thursday that America ’s
police officers be disarmed and all African-Americans imprisoned for
non-violent crimes be released. (Let's experiment. we disarm any cops within 50
miles of Moore's home and release a thousand "non-violent" black
felons within ten miles of his home. If that works out well....~Bob)
Law enforcement sources say Freddie Gray suffered head injury in police transport van
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2015/04/breaking-news-no-evidence-found-that-freddie-gray-s-death-was-result-of-police-who-arrested-him-prob.html
Excerpt: Sources said the medical examiner found Gray's
catastrophic injury was caused when he slammed into the back of the police
transport van, apparently breaking his neck; a head injury he sustained matches
a bolt in the back of the van.
Race Rioters Declare Open Season On Cops
Race Rioters Declare Open Season On Cops
Excerpt: Baltimore ’s
crippling race riots are hurting police: 15 Baltimore cops have been injured, with two
remaining in the hospital with more severe injuries. But, even worse, Baltimore police claim
that cops may be in danger all across the nation)–and other cities are already
taking precautions. (Could this be the "serious crisis" that shouldn't
"go to waste" as a pretext to martial law? --JB)
Nope, Jon Stewart, $1 trillion wasn’t spent on Afghanistan schools at the expense of Baltimore
Excerpt: It may be the case that Baltimore
schools should get more federal funding — or that too much was spent in Afghanistan ,
with not much impact. But Stewart suggested that an extraordinary amount was
spent on schools in Afghanistan
($1 trillion) while Baltimore
did not even get a “taste.” In fact, in a direct comparison of federal spending
on Baltimore schools and spending on Afghanistan education, Baltimore easily comes out on top. So, even
with allowances for comic effect, Stewart earns Four Pinocchios. Given his
stature and influence, he should not reinforce stereotypes about the impact of
foreign aid on the federal budget.
"You're Greener than Gore" News
Important: The Sun Is ‘Blank’ As Solar Activity Comes
To A Standstill. By Michael Bastasch
Excerpt: A new report from seasoned meteorologists says the
sun is “almost completely blank” as the center of the solar system enters its
weakest cycle in more than a century. “The main driver of all weather and
climate, the entity which occupies 99.86% of all of the mass in our solar
system, the great ball of fire in the sky has gone quiet again during what is
likely to be the weakest sunspot cycle in more than a century,” according to
Virginia-based weather forecaster Vencore Weather.
Paging Al Gore: ‘Irreversible’ Arctic Ice Loss Seems
To Be Reversing Itself. By Michael Bastasch
Excerpt: For years, scientists have been warning the Arctic was in a “death
spiral” and could soon be ice-free during the summertime and shrink to
unprecedented levels due to man-made global warming. Such ice loss could be
“irreversible,” some scientists claimed.
But new research from
the Scripps Institution of Oceanography says that predictions of an
ice-free Arctic are based on “oversimplified” theories. Scripps researchers, who were
co-funded by the Navy, found that the Arctic sea ice may be “substantially more
stable than has been suggested in previous idealized modeling studies.” (Well,
Al Gore promised that the Arctic would be
ice-free by the summer of 2013, and you have to trust him more than any
scientist. He didn't make $200M on global warming for nothing. ~Bob)
Most transparent administration in history: Spies
like us: EPA claims ‘intelligence’ activities cannot be investigated by a gov’t
watchdog. By Pete Kasperowicz
Excerpt: The Environmental Protection Agency has been
refusing to let a government watchdog investigate some of its activities, on
the grounds that those activities are protected for “intelligence” reasons. EPA
Inspector General Arthur Elkins testified at the House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee Thursday, and said the EPA has asserted this claim and
prevented the IG from gaining
access to some information.
Excerpt: According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, California
droughts are both age-old and common. Predictable California dry spells -- like those of
1929-34, 1976-77 and 1987-92 -- more likely result from poorly understood but
temporary changes in atmospheric pressures and ocean temperatures. What is new
is that the state has never had 40 million residents during a drought -- well
over 10 million more than during the last dry spell in the early 1990s. Much of
the growth is due to massive and recent immigration. A record one in four
current Californians was not born in the United States , according to the
nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.
Religion of Peace News
Foreign Money
Promotes Radical Islamist Agenda in Canada
Excerpt: Millions of dollars are flooding into Canada from Gulf states to promote a radical Islamist
agenda, according to testimony by the prime minister's national security
adviser, the National Post reports.
US Navy to
Accompany US-Flagged Ships Through Strait
of Hormuz
Excerpt: U.S. naval
forces have begun accompanying U.S.-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz,
a senior U.S. defense
official said Thursday. The announcement comes two days after Iranian
forces seized a
cargo ship sailing under the flag of the Marshall Islands and forced it
to anchor off the Iranian coast. (I didn't know there were any US Flagged
ships, except paddle wheelers on the Mississippi .
How about US owned ships...~Bob)
Video: Marco Rubio Makes the Case Iran Deal Must
Include Iranian Recognition of Israel’s Right to Exist
*****
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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