Thursday, April 30, 2015

Today's interesting political news and opinion

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. Cadet Command is treating the name of the developer of the comedy bomb as top secret, but has released several photos of the bomb…” (Tom Kratman is a retired USA LtCol, an occasional contributor to this blog, and an outstand author of military science fiction, including the A Desert Called Peace series. http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Called-Peace-Carrera-Book-ebook/dp/B00B5HJOFY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426715332&sr=8-1&keywords=Peace+Kratman ~Bob)

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 Foundation as an International Money Laundering Scheme!
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 Naval Base Open. By Kevin Derby
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 to the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

40 years later, Vietnam still deeply divided over war. By Thomas Maresca, Special for USA TODAY
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 Foundation 'The Most Transparent'?
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 thinks it went to the Clinton Foundation. It’s hard to shake the feeling that for the Clintons, the U.S. State Department and the Clinton Foundation were intertwined and interchangeable. NPR’s report continues: “The Clinton foundation discloses all of its donors . . .” No, it doesn’t. Bloomberg reported yesterday that the Clinton Foundation did not disclose 1,100 foreign donors, and when they filed their taxes for the years Hillary was running the State Department, they just happened to forget to mention tens of millions of dollars in donations from foreign governments. NPR continues, “. . . and, as Chelsea Clinton noted, it is now doing so more frequently as Hillary Clinton is running for president. That’s more than other presidential libraries and foundations.” Yes, but other presidential libraries and foundations aren’t a way to put money at the disposal of a future presidential candidate. When Clinton defenders trot out the “but Hillary doesn’t make a salary from the foundation” claim, remind them that the family’s travel -- by charter or first class, “due to extraordinary security and other requirements” -- is paid for by the Foundation. -- Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt http://www.nationalreview.com/newsletters)

Clinton charity never provided foreign donor data. By Annie Linskey, Boston Globe
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 Service. By Josh Fatzick
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 Isn’t the Only Country Still Trying to Figure Out the Vietnam War. By Tuong Vu
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 documents the growth of SSDI and explains that the "medical-vocational grid" reflects a view of the labor market and disability that is out of date with the economy and modern medicine. (It's amazing that with all the medical innovations like hip and knee replacements that get people back to work, the number of the "disabled": keeps rising. ~Bob)

Billionaire David Rubenstein gives $5M to refurbish Iwo Jima sculpture. By Michael E. Ruane
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’s transport infrastructure. China seeks to establish new trade routes in the region. By Dubi Ben-Gedalyahu
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

Oklahoma Game Warden Shoots and Kills Man Who Tried to Drown Him During License Check. by Daniel Xu
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)

Only in Alaska: Girl Shoots Grizzly Bear Before Prom. By John McAdams 
Excerpt: Last Saturday was prom night for the students at Kotzebue Middle High School in Alaska. However, it was also an opportunity for 15-year-old Cassidy Kramer to bag her first grizzly bear.

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

Naval Academy midshipmen, caught in Baltimore protests, direct families to safety
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: Cadets would have maneuvered to the nearest golf course and
asked for an immediate airlift out of the area. Coast Guard Academy: Would have retreated to the inner harbor and commandeered paddle boats to make their escape. US Merchant Marine Academy: "Hey, look at all this free food Subway left behind..."California Maritime Academy: Already on scene assisting the rioters.... Quantico Marine Corps OCS class: "The riot was ended 5 minutes ago, and the Marines are now in full control..." --LC.)

Most See Baltimore Riots As Criminal, Not Protest
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/
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.

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 ‘Disarm The Police.’ By Derek Hunter
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)
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
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. By Glenn Kessler
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.

Worth Reading: An Ironic Drought In California. By Victor Davis Hanson
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:

1 comment:

  1. 26th Marines Association - 2015 Reunion

    August 21, 22 and 23, 2015. Denver Colorado.

    26'ers from all times, Regiment, MAU and MEU.

    All battalions, WWII to current, and supporting units.

    See www.26thMarines.com for details or contact

    Sonny Hollub 512-312-4168 or sonnyusmc@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete