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Benghazi Redux (in a Nutshell)
If you’ve been reading this blog for any time, you will know that I explained this story years ago and it’s somewhere in the Virtual Mirage archives, but I won’t bother to look it up to say, “I told you so”. The motivation for the attack on the consulate at Benghazi was a gold heist and it was CLEARLY known to SECSTATE Clinton and to Barack.
I don’t know who came up with the plan but whoever they are couldn’t figure out how to pour sand out of a boot…but I’m sure that the planner was very progressive.
Essentially the attack on the Benghazi Consulate and later the CIA base (about a mile away) started as Clinton worked to cover her rather large ass.
(Politico)
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| Marc Turi |
Clinton sent Ambassador Stevens to Benghazi to secretly purchase US made Stinger Missiles (MANPADS – Man Portable Air Defense Systems) with gold. Under Clinton’s direction, the State Dept had supplied the Stingers to Ansar al Sharia in Libya without Congressional approval.
So, to bring you up to speed, skinny, wimpy, homosexual Chris Stevens is running around Benghazi with gold in the back of his Range Rover and no effective bodyguard, trusting in the good will of jihadis. What could possibly go wrong?
SECSTATE Hillary Clinton had brokered the INITIAL Libya deal through Marc Turi private arms dealer based in Arizona. It should not surprise this blog’s readership that some of the Stinger Missiles ended up in Afghanistan where they were used against our own military.
On July 25th, 2012, a US Chinook helicopter was downed by one of them. Not destroyed only because the Taliban didn’t arm the missile’s warhead. The helicopter didn’t explode, but it had to land and an EOD team recovered the missile’s serial number which led back to a cache of Stinger Missiles kept in Qatar by the CIA, which Clinton’s State Department drew from. So the breadcrumbs lead back to one of the most corrupt politicians in Washington DC, intent on being the next US President.
Are any of you surprised?
The Dream to End Private Firearms Ownership
There are people who feel as if the Bill of Rights needs to be reconsidered. These people feel as if they needed protection, that the government – possibly the Dept. of Homeland Security would be there for them…in much the same way as FEMA has been there for the victims of natural disasters.
The truth is a bit harder for these people to stomach.
There are three hundred million (estimated by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) firearms in the United States in private hands. Of those .02% are ever used to commit a crime.
The activists, the pettifoggers in the legislatures, the amateur spies and reactionary weak willed in society who are pining for somebody to control both them and the environment around them feel that laws will deter criminals. We all know that’s a dangerous delusion. We have the Bill of Rights to make us free, not to enslave us.
But let’s presume that the anti-firearms elements have their way.
Of course, you could hope that the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could contain the three hundred million firearms in the US. Their track record would indicate something completely different as most of the employees there would seem to find difficulty in heating water in a tea kettle to the boiling point, if any of their recent legion of failures are any indication.
******** ******** ********
Operation Fast and Furious didn’t work. It backfired – badly – and the conspiracy to use Mexican Drug Cartels as the straw man to generate national gun legislation that would naturally lead to confiscation didn’t work. Now, they’re going at it more directly.
(Washington Times)”…the Obama Administration believes its gun control plans won’t work unless the government seizes firearms and requires national gun registration — ideas the White House has not (yet) proposed and does not (presently) support.”
Interstellar (Movie Review)
I read some reviews of Interstellar before I watched the movie and they almost kept me from going. I enjoyed the movie, notwithstanding those reviews. It’s SCIENCE FICTION, which means that you need to suspend reality and some prejudice before you can enjoy it.
The play on the environmentally devastated Earth is right out of the Al Gore playbook, but it is still part of the plot and in the sense of the totality of the film, it works. I’m not suggesting that you believe the global warming/climate change/now “climate disruption” hoax. Just that you go with the film. The acting was good, the cinematography was 10 out of a possible 10 and the plot worked as well as any Star Trek/Star Wars/Promethius, etc. SciFi plot has.
If you can’t get your head around science fiction, I doubt that you’ll enjoy the film.
I give it 8 out of a possible 10 and suggest that if you enjoy SciFi, you’ll enjoy the movie.
Two Trailers
Between the two you get a relatively good perspective of the film.
Energy Self-Sufficiency
I believe that the single most important thing that North America needs to do within the decade is to establish independent self-sufficency from foreign oil. (US, Canada and Mexico acting together as partners to achieve this goal)
Context and Precedent
TODAY – If total energy is looked at, the U.S. is over 70% self-sufficient. (Wall Street Journal) That is not good enough. North America and more particularly, the United States needs to free itself completely from reliance upon politically unstable states for energy needs.
The US is the world’s third largest producer of oil, yet it currently only produces about 40% of the oil that it consumes, but most of its imports come from Canada. 19% of the oil that the US consumes is imported from the Middle East.
Oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) was discovered in the 1970s, and the question of whether the national park should be opened up to oil exploration is a very controversial issue in American politics. ANWR has been reported as having the largest remaining oil reserve in North America. The U.S. Department of Interior estimates range from 9 to 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil (up to 32 billion barrels of recoverable oil at a 5% probability of recovery).
The US has vast reserves of coal and oil shale/oil sand that environmentalists do not want exploited (but I’m really not sure why since coal gassification plants don’t generate environmentally dangerous pollution and the technology is both proven and is in use in limited areas).
Opponents of U.S. Energy Independence (mostly in the Middle East) argue that a major supply disruption has not occurred for more than two decades, and contend that the movement promotes isolationism and protectionism.
Nuclear Power
France derives 77% of its energy needs directly from nuclear power. Switzerland and Sweden derive 40% of their energy needs from nuclear power and the US obtains about 20% of its needs from nuclear power. The US clearly needs to increase construction of safe, modern nuclear power plants as an unambiguous step in the energy independence direction. Solar and wind power do not provide the necessary on-demand power that the nation needs.
Coal Power
The United States has the largest proven recoverable coal reserves in the world in all categories of coal (Anthracite and Bituminous, Sub Bituminous and Lignite). Coal can also be converted into gasoline and diesel by several different processes. In the direct liquefaction processes, the coal is either hydrogenated or carbonized.
Coal liquefaction methods do not necessarily involve significant carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the conversion process. If carbon capture and storage technologies are employed, a 75% reduction in CO2 is achievable when co-gasifying coal with commercially demonstrated levels of biomass.
Keystone Pipeline
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| President Obama bows to King Abdullah Some Democrats say it was a dropped contact lens, others speculate that he slipped on a banana peel and caught himself. |
The Keystone Pipeline System will transport synthetic crude oil and diluted bitumen (“dilbit“) from the Athabasca oil sands region in northeastern Alberta, Canada to multiple destinations in the US. To date the heaviest opposition and the most important opponent of the Keystone Pipeline has been President Barack Obama, because of the pressure put on him directly by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Keystone XL pipeline would allow the U.S. to increase its energy security and reduce its dependence on foreign oil as soon as it’s in place An independent study conducted by the Cornell ILR Global Labor Institute reports that the crude oil routed to the Gulf Coast will end up being exported to Asia, and not contribute to energy independence or national security.
TransCanada CEO Russ Girling has argued that “the U.S. needs 10 million barrels a day of imported oil” and the debate over the proposed pipeline “is not a debate of oil versus alternative energy. This is a debate about whether you want to get your oil from Canada or Venezuela or Nigeria.”
Much of the opposition to the oil sands actually comes from foreign countries such as Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia, all of whom supply oil to the United States and who could be affected if the price of oil drops due to the new availability of oil from the pipeline. She cited as an example an effort by Saudi Arabia to stop pro-oil sands television commercials.
Venezuela is an avowed enemy of the United States and Saudi Arabia’s citizens flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. While Saudi Arabia is an ally of convenience of the US (Iran threatens their continued existence with the development of nuclear weapons at present), they are not ‘friends’. They buy weapons from us and sell us oil.
WE NEED AN AMERICAN solution to the problem of energy independence and we need an AMERICAN administration that will work toward our best interests. We don’t really have either at the moment.
I am not anti-Saudi Arabian, but I feel that the interests of the economically imperiled United States should take precedence over the Saudi preference that we be dependent on them for oil supplies.
Fixing the Inner Cities
Is it the white man’s fault that murder rates in the black community (black on black crime) is out of control? What about the other endemic problems that negroes have: drop-out rates, out of wedlock birth rates, the percentage of homes with no father present (around 82%) and the rates of incarceration? Can you lay all of that voluntary behavior at the feet of white males?
Some people thought that electing a mulatto who was raised with an absent father, who acted as more of a sperm donor than a parent would have brought national attention on the serious cultural problems faced by the black community. They reckoned wrong. Barack Obama is a narcissist and an opportunist. Nothing impacting the black community is anything more to him than a mechanism to obtain votes and contributions.
Most black convicts are sent to prison by juries made up at least in part by black people. The concept of “white man’s justice” is a well worn phrase that doesn’t pass the litmus test in America today where people elected a mixed race man to the white house twice.
There are a few things that the inner city people who are upset at their plight need to do:
- Have fewer bastard children. I’ve been told that the word “bastard” is out of date. Maybe that’s a part of the problem. I realize that it’s not the child’s fault, but you get my point. Nuclear families provide stability. When only 18 percent of black families manage it, the thing is so out of balance that it will take a generation to repair it once the negro communities in America begin to take it seriously. If black households with kids had two parents and two incomes, then they would also be above the poverty rate. In other words, out of wedlock births don’t only breed criminals, they breed poverty.
- Inner city schools are vastly expensive. The bloated education budgets benefit the teacher’s unions, and the Democratic Party’s power structure. Graduation rates are dismal and the education that the children receive is a joke. School choice/vouchers, an increase in trade schools and elimination of teacher’s unions would result in a return to balance.
- As long as gangster rap is glorified, young people will gravitate in that direction. Rap is an extension of culture. Violence against women and drug use are glorified in that culture and in the music that springs from it. You have to change the culture if you want to fix the culture.
The fault is not in the white community. It’s in the black community.
Thomas Sowell wrote: “You cannot take any people, of any color, and exempt them from the requirements of civilization — including work, behavioral standards, personal responsibility and all the other basic things that the clever intelligentsia disdain — without ruinous consequences to them and to society at large.
“Non-judgmental subsidies of counterproductive lifestyles are treating people as if they were livestock, to be fed and tended by others in a welfare state — and yet expecting them to develop as human beings have developed when facing the challenges of life themselves.
“One key fact that keeps getting ignored is that the poverty rate among black married couples has been in single digits every year since 1994. Behavior matters and facts matter, more than the prevailing social visions or political empires built on those visions.”
Black people are cut when they are compared to Asian immigrants because the Asians, many of whom have weak language skills, top blacks in every measurable category. Riddle me that.
How Cool is THIS?
Yes, I have been referred to at times as a ‘techno nerd’ because I love cool gadgets. Mia Culpa…
Nothing is immune from technical improvement, not even a stove top. (LINK)
When I was a kid, my grandparents had a coal stove at home. That’s right, you had to put newspaper, then kindling, then small pieces of coal to get it hot enough to burn larger pieces of coal. So breakfast was an hour from when you started heating the stove. And once hot, the stove was hot for the day, making the warmer days…memorable. That explains why antebellum homes had the kitchen in a separate building. To take a bath, you put pans of water on the stove and then moved them to the tub. Not exactly space age technology.
With a coal stove, you control the heat by moving the pan around. It’s a long way from “The William”.
Dissent: The Highest Form of Racism
Welcome to the brave new world of “identity politics” with a focus on racial quotas and egalatarian obsessions which make race the central issue in any debate.
While running for office, Dear Leader silenced all of his critics by branding them RACISTS. Lo and behold, it worked. As a member of Rev. Wright’s Black Liberation Theology cult, he had twenty years to get the syntax down.
GLOSSARY:
White People: Racists
Black Conservatives: Traitors to their Race
Illegal Aliens: Democratic Party Line — Voters
“In the 60’s the liberal left and the Democratic Party became the champions of civil rights –a cause with which they were NOT historically associated, but events of the time conspired to make them the standard-bearers of racial equality–an unaddressed social issue in this country that plagued and highlighted some of the hypocrisy in its high-minded and lofty values from the very beginning. It was definitely time to make the American promise that so clearly burned in the minds of the Founding Fathers real for all Americans.
“Championing this cause was so successful for the Democrats as a political party, that they quite naturally took up the causes of other identified “victim” groups (women, the disabled; homosexuals, etc.); successfully leveraging their heroic stand on civil rights as proof of their concern for the oppressed and “the little guy”.“Along the way, the Democrats picked up a few holy mantras (“Roe v Wade” and the whole abortion rights movement ; “Make Love Not War” and the entire antiwar crowd; etc.) and, about this time, they became very seriously infected with the Marxist virus that had already spread throughout Europe, despite being the cause of human misery as well as millions of deaths around the world.
“The liberal left failed to notice that the American people rose to the challenge of equal rights and that society changed under the irrefutable logic of human freedom and equal opportunity for all. The promise of liberty was, after all, the founding principle of our nation.” (H/T Dr. Sanity)
Democrats and the liberal left were threatened by the succes of their attempt to change American society. Blacks; women; and even Gays were making incredible progress in assimilation into society — and could now move on to say and think what they pleased. They might even choose to become Republican; or disagree with some entitlement program; or challenge directly the ideology beneath the Democratic Party and the left !
It’s not so hard to understand that those who once championed the oppressed and encouraged them to be free and partake of all aspects of American society; now have become the most potent enablers of the victimhood cults that sprang up in each of these groups.
Those whose identity is tied-up inextricably with being the champions the oppressed, must be sure to maintain an oppressed class–constantly seeking new victims to heroically stand for; otherwise what or who will they champion?Most Americans who are not indoctrinated into the Marxist worldview and obsessed with victimhood can clearly see the real progress of Blacks and women–indeed all minority groups– in all aspects of society. They can appreciate individuals from those groups who forged into previously restricted areas and broke barrier after barrier, even if they are not Democrats or subscribers to leftist theories.
Not only did the liberal left exhibit almost complete blindness and fail to celebrate its greatest success , but they became more and more strident in their demands and denunciations of American society as a whole. This entire process coincided with their increasing irrelevance and loss of political power. In response, the
left is trying to change the playing field to insure that they remain relevant by switching from demands for “equal opportunity” to an insistance on “equal outcome”. Since it is impossible to achieve the latter–except in a totalitarian society, where everyone is made equally miserable; or in death itself–the left hopes to achieve new power and influence over a neverending victim class that they will have created through their policies. The paranoid style conveniently defends those policies and effortlessly maintains their defective worldview.
Any who oppose the “equality of outcome” logic are descibed as “racist”. Those who disagree with them are “trying to shut down free speech”. Those who point out the errors in their thinking are “evil”. American society–arguably the freest and most tolerant in the world–becomes the source of all oppression and evil. The Mainstream Media has been completely co-opted by this philosophy and the fear of being branded “racist”. Therefore they turn a blind eye to the coterie of Marxists, utopian socialists, Black Liberation Theologists and radicals who have occupied the White House. That Congress shivers in its timidity to oppose any sense that guaranteed equality of outcome is ABSURD, but very real. And at the same time, the nation shudders under the yoke of financial burdens that are compounded by the present administration which will reach into the generation yet unborn.
This is what we are up against.
Back to Somalia Part 3 – mail and general observations
SOMALIA
National Security Advisor John Bolton was fired. I can’t but wonder how that neocon lasted as long as he did on President Trump’s staff. All he ever wanted was a war – or wars. And not because America needed to go to war, just because of a sort of (near demonic) bureaucratic bloodlust. As you will gather from those comments, I wasn’t one of Bolton’s biggest fans. You’ll note that Bolton never, ever volunteered to be on the point of the kinetic spear…no, that’s for the little people, the expendable people in the national chess game that Bolton wanted to play.
One of the things I like best about President Trump is his aversion to throw people into a meat grinder in some distant land where their deaths are meaningless. Those of you who have read this blog for any period of time understand that I have no problem with war. But let it be necessary, not frivolous.
John Bolton was pushing for massive troop deployments in Somalia, among other things. He’s gone now and that won’t happen for the next four years of the Trump Administration.
Now, the mail
LindaG – Informative update. Thanks, as always, LL.
Just sharing the word, LindaG. The mainstream media is mute on so many topics, except for their undying hatred of President Trump (MAGA/build the wall/lock Her up).
Old NFO (the training advocate) – It’s not. And SNFL ‘should’ take out any/all pirates and use NGFS to take out the bases. Don’t waste an airplane and bombs. Sailors need practice too!
Pirate enclaves do need to be leveled, and nothing does that quite as well as B-52’s. However, recognizing the need for gunnery practice, I’ll make you this bargain. The Navy can bombard from the littorals, and perhaps the B-52’s can saturation bomb exit points beyond the range of Naval gunfire. In the spirit of joint operations, of course.
WSF – Thanks for the reply. We have a Somali population in Colorado, centered around the Denver suburb, Aurora. Very tall, thin people and arrogant in the extreme. They dominate the taxicab business at DIA. Some are employed in the meat packing industry where they cause problems.
The Somalis are a deeply ungrateful people, with egos that don’t match their ability. I’m sure that they could be trained to drive a cab or to butcher a hawg (Islam notwithstanding), but I wouldn’t trust those immigrants with anything more complicated. If they were to construct a bomb, it would have to be a simple one.
CAPT Fast – As to “the country is not worth the price of a single nuclear weapon” I think as a Aurora resident,I would establish a “go-fund-me” site to enable the use of perhaps a small Nuclear Weapon, say 0.75Megaton range. Even support the Navy delivering it.
Somali and Ethopian residents here just don’t want to get along. the somai’s would fit right in Chicago.
The Navy, naturally steps up to fund the nuclear weapon, encouraging the general public to help in any way they can (Bravo Zulu). It’s what we Navy types do. As a 1300, we prefer to take them out more personally, but NAVAIR certainly should get the right to drop the weapon on Mogadishu if they started the Go-Fund-Me initiative.
Maybe it could be pointed out to the Somalis living in Colorado that a bigger and more beautiful world awaits in Illinois, and in Chicago in specific. You could get crowd funding for the relocation campaign as well.
Mike_C – It’s fascinating that there seems to not be even rough consensus on how many Somalis are in Minnesota, or even in the US. Wikipedia leads one of its entries with “74,000 in Minnesota”. FactCheck (it’s just a name duh; kinda like Honest Herman’s Fine Used Cars) assures us that it’s MUCH lower, and that claiming the number to be north of 70k is an attack (racist of course) on President Obama, PBUH.
You’re right. Even questioning or attempting to quantify the number of Somalis in the US (potential terrorists all) is impossibly racist. The next thing that you’re likely to demand is that Rep. Omar (D-MN) remove her turban. Oh, the horror.
Now personally I have no idea exactly how many Somalis are in MN, or the US, but it would be safe to conclude that whatever the true number is, it is certainly excess to requirements. I’ve traveled to MSP/Twin Cities a few times this year on business, and was fascinated to note that even the wealthy, educated/credentialed, generally liberal, overwhelmingly white people I was meeting were noticing that there is a problem with all the Somalis. Of course they glance over their shoulders first, then hunch over and speak rapidly in a low voice. Then they look around again. The tradecraft is terrible.
They’re liberals. They usually either speak in uneducated terms reserved for University terms or in a country club accent reminiscent of Thurston Howell III (see Gilligan’s Island). They’re entitled, elite and better than you. Thus they feel no need for any sort of soto voce tradecraft.
CAPT Fast – those would be remarks by the “unarmed citizens”?
Of course. They have bodyguards. No need for guns in the hands of the great unwashed. I think that’s what Lord North said about the colonists back in the 1775 timeframe. As I recall, the march to Concord (like a picnic) was a lot more fun than the march back to Boston. Somebody ought to explain that to Beto, the fake Mexican; Liz, the fake Indian; Julian Castro – with a last name that speaks volumes; Kamala, the fake black woman; and Yang (polling somewhere south of .75%). And the effite Butt Guy who had the gall to wear a Navy uniform (disgracing us all in the process).
The New Battle for the Atlantic – Mail
LSP – Interesting. Does the Russian navy pose much of a threat? I’m guessing (totally) that they wouldn’t but for the absence of European naval power. Britain, for example, made a bold call for an island nation, getting rid of its navy. But let’s not forget, all the Moslem votes don’t come cheap, y’know.
My sense is that the Russian Navy has nuclear missiles that work. Putting them onto submarines provides them with silos that are very difficult to kill in a first strike against Russia. The Russian Black Sea Fleet (protecting waters that they view as ‘home waters’) is effective against potential regional threats. Russia is a regional power and if we are speaking of defense, it’s capable. It is no longer a world power nor is it capable of projecting military power with its navy beyond its region in any meaningful way.
Russia has a GDP of $1.578 trillion (2017), which is just about half of that of California. And Russia is NINE TIME ZONES LONG. That alone says a great deal about what they’re able to do. They have problems that keep them occupied on defense, and they can poke the US in the eye with a stick from time to time.
Ed – Having a son who is a COB on a Virginia Class after serving for years on 688s, in the area you describe, it irks me that most of what I know I got from Blind Man’s Bluff 🙂
I look forward to reading this.
No, I still don’t have Chrome. It requires me to drive for an hour, sit for an hour or so and I haven’t been well. Kidney stone issues. So I’m not completely housebound, but we all have our crosses to bear. If I felt better, I’d be in China right now.
Congratulations to Master Chief Bonderenka for a career of service, and to you for raising him. I am one of those people who believes that there are two types of ships – subs and targets. I’ve ridden on 688’s, 637’s, as supercargo, and some repurposed SPECOPS boats. That was then and this is now. Things have come a long way since I was doing those things.
Dan – Russia is taking advantage of the fact that most NATO members in Europe are busy committing economic and cultural suicide. Without the threat of US involvement Russia could, even in its diminshed state, pose an existential threat to Western Europe. Their surface navy is a shadow of it’s former self. And while they are starting to reconstitute their submarine force it too is anemic. A naval war in the Atlantic that did not include the US woul be a toss up. The reality is that without nukes Russia is a third class economy with a third class military. The problem is almost all of NATO has neglected their forces and are also at a third class level. The USA is the 800# gorilla on the planet with China working hard to catch up. EVERYONE else on the planet….minus nukes….is almost irrelevant outside of local abilities….as in Iran in he Persian Gulf. In the Pacific Japan and Australia have small but meaningful capabilites but aren’t a major consideration anywhere but the Pacific.
I agree mostly. The new Russian submarines are good for what they do and for where they do it (North Atlantic, Arctic and Bearing Sea down to the Sea of O and the NORTHPAC. But it’s a regional presence and is almost completely defensive. Offensive military operations (outside of a nuclear conflict) would see them losing boats that are needed to protect their boomers in the Arctic.
Kle – Russia is only an existential threat in the nuclear arena.
Other than that, they’ve become sort of vastly feeble in time with most of Europe (France and Italy are still at least trying to take Defense seriously). Russia hasn’t even managed to knock over Ukraine; their chances against what’s left of Europe are poor indeed.
Of course, we should really have 3 Heavy Divisions in Poland, that would put the kibosh on Russian dreams of European adventures for sure.
It would be vastly embarrassing if the Russian Army had its ass handed it back by the Poles. Russia is a regional power and so is Poland and the Poles have been preparing for a defensive war against the Russians. They’d rather do it with American help and we’ve been forward deploying (and rotating) armor and anti-armor rotorcraft into that region for a few years now. Russia takes note and bristles at the thought, but there’s not much that they can do…or want to do really. As I noted in my reply to LSP (above), their GDP and their size as a nation limit their options.
I’m one of those people who believe that we have a lot more in common with the Russians than with a lot of our ‘allies’. So you can have at me for that if you wish. The Democrat/mainstream media Russia hoax has strained relations and options that we could exercise in our common interests. I believe that, along with the coup attempt, had deeper and more sinister implications in which internal US plots, and not Russian plots, were at work. Sure, the Russians engage in propaganda campaigns as a matter of fact. We do the same to them, all of the time. It’s Spy vs Spy.
We engage in espionage against them and they do the same thing. Despite popular art and films, it has been a generally gentlemanly game. They don’t kill our people and we don’t kill theirs. We didn’t in the days of the Soviet Union, either. If we stopped, would they? That’s the $64K question. I don’t think that we could. And neither could they. We do it because we like to do it and it’s a multi-hundred billion dollar industry in the USA.
A Surge in Violence (part one)
The Attorney General has made an announcement. The words below are his.
Operation Legend
Today, Attorney General William P. Barr announced the launch of Operation Legend, a sustained, systematic and coordinated law enforcement initiative across all federal law enforcement agencies working in conjunction with state and local law enforcement officials to fight the sudden surge of violent crime, beginning in Kansas City, MO. Operation Legend was created as a result of President Trump’s promise to assist America’s cities that are plagued by recent violence.
Operation Legend is named after four-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed while he slept early in the morning of June 29 in Kansas City, the latest in a string violence to plague Kansas City in recent weeks. Kansas City has already reached 100 homicides this year, a 40 percent increase from last year.
“President Trump has made clear: the federal government stands ready and willing to assist any of our state and local law enforcement partners across the nation responding to violent crime. Operation Legend will combine federal and local resources to combat the disturbing uptick in violence by surging federal agents and other federal assets into cities like Kansas City, a city currently experiencing its worst homicide rate in its history,” said Attorney General Barr. “The Department’s Operation Legend is named in honor of one of Kansas City’s youngest victims, four-year old LeGend Taliferro who was shot in the face while sleeping in his bed. LeGend’s death is a horrifying reminder that violent crime left unchecked is a threat to us all and cannot be allowed to continue.”As part of Operation Legend, Attorney General Barr directed federal agents from the FBI, U.S. Marshal Service, DEA and ATF to surge resources to Kansas City in the coming weeks to help state and local officials fight the surge of violent crime. They will be working alongside state and local law enforcement agencies. Department of Justice assets will include over 100 FBI agents, U.S. Marshals, DEA agents, and ATF agents.In addition, Timothy A. Garrison, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri will be surging additional resources from his office to ensure he is able to handle an anticipated increase in prosecutions.
Commentary:
Not all parts of the US are experiencing a violent trend. These areas seem to be concentrated in those areas currently under the control of Democrat leadership. The Democrat Party requires that mainstream Democrat politicians, vocally and openly, to announce their opposition to law and order, and their support of murder, anarchy, arson, and infanticide, and other forms of peaceful protest.
This is not me sounding extreme. The evidence is all around us. If you live in a Democrat run state or city, you’re in the middle of it whether you want to be or not.
The Bolsheviks, organized by George Soros, Jeff Bezos, and other Zillionaires, having gathered all the money Black Lives Matter has obligingly collected for them, are funding riots and electing idiots and using young know-nothings to clobber the Trotskyites among them.
The riots are burning down black and minority neighborhoods to punish the black for being uppity, and not voting for Hillary in great enough numbers.
The Zillionaires, have had stores and shops and pharmacies burned out and run off of minority neighborhoods, and meanwhile the mayors order the police to stand down.
Was a single hungry child fed, because these Marxists pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus? Was a single injustice rectified by withdrawing the police from the ghettos and streets?Please stop giving the Left the benefit of any doubt: they know socialism does not work to eliminate poverty or grant equality.
They know socialism does work, and works like a charm, to have the greater mass of mankind sell their souls and kiss their chains. What other power could get a police chief to bow on his knees as a votary before a pagan god, only to have those to whom he bowed beat him over the head and shoulders a week or so later?
International Updates
Hong Kong
In coming weeks, Iran has vowed to increase enrichment to at least 5%. Experts state that U-235 enrichment at this level is suitable for nuclear reactor fuel for power generation. Weapons grade U-235 is enriched 90%.
President Trump and Kim Jong Un both needed the photo op, and it worked.
Now that business is out of the way…
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that the extradition bill is dead.
In a press conference on Tuesday, 9 July, Ms. Lam said the government’s work on the bill had been a “total failure”.
“So I reiterate here, there is no such plan. The bill is dead.”
Except that it may not be. The BBC and other news services wrote that she did not use the appropriate legal terminology to signify that the bill had been withdrawn. Her language did not provide that assurances that the protestors demanded and the bill remains on the legislative agenda through 2020. While it may be removed from that agenda, it has not been removed yet.
The Beijing government is not embarrassed by the Hong Kong protests. At the Foreign Ministry press session on 8 July, Spokesman Geng Shuang bragged about China’s hands-off reaction to the protests as proof of China’s commitment to the “one country, two systems” policy. He cited Hong Kong’s economic growth in the past 22 years as “a policy success”.
The communist leaders consider the Hong Kong disturbances as proof that China respects the one country, two systems doctrine and will not intervene to prevent or suppress public demonstrations. Public references to China’s hands-off reaction are aimed at Taiwan.
The Odious Iran
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran has enriched uranium beyond a 3.67% purity limit specified in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement with the major powers.
The IAEA announcement confirms a statement by Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran’s nuclear agency. “At the moment our enrichment is at around 4.5%,” Kamalvandi said. He did not elaborate.
In coming weeks, Iran has vowed to increase enrichment to at least 5%. Experts state that U-235 enrichment at this level is suitable for nuclear reactor fuel for power generation. Weapons grade U-235 is enriched 90%.
While attempting to persuade European nations to provide sanctions relief, Iran’s main source of leverage is uranium enrichment. Thus far, it has not worked.
Sanctions are a form of collective punishment. Popular hardship is managed by domestic policymakers. National security issues are handled in a different channel. For the sanctions regime to achieve US objectives, the two channels must merge so that domestic hardship becomes a national security threat by reaching proportions so great that the leadership falls or changes policy. Iran seems far from either end state. China and Russia are likely to ignore sanctions and to continue to do business with Iran unless Iran engages in open warfare beyond downing the US drone and covertly damaging oil tankers. If Iran openly attacks a US ship, it’s an act of war and neither China nor Russia want a piece of that. It does them no good.
Venezuela is the best recent example of the limits of severe economic conditions to alter national security policy or leadership. As long as the soldiers and police remain loyal to the incumbent leadership, the system survives. So Iranian leadership is likely to survive the situation because the Supreme Leader is Allah’s mouthpiece and he’s infallible, even if some of his underlings (who are disposable) are not.
North Korea
President Trump and Kim Jong Un both needed the photo op, and it worked.
The Norks are unlikely to give up their nuclear weapons in the foreseeable future despite Chinese assurances of security guarantees.
At the same time, these sorts of meetings and assurances of friendship between President Trump and Chairman Kim do ratchet down the tension. The hard liners in North Korea don’t like it and neither does the US Military Industrial Complex. But it’s good for all parties at the moment.
Cyprus, Turkey, and Oil
More tension off Cyprus. Turkey’s second drill ship arrived off the coast of Cyprus on 8 July and is set to begin drilling for oil and gas. The Yavuz, will begin drilling off the Karpasia peninsula this week. It follows the Fatih, which arrived in June.
Last month the European Union (EU) warned the Turkish government to stop its “illegal” activities or face sanctions. Turkey, taking a cue from China, ignored the EU and insists that it is drilling within its continental shelf.
The Republic of Cyprus, the Greek half of the island, is a member of the EU and claims jurisdiction of the entire island and its 200 nm exclusive economic zone. Only Turkey recognizes the Turkish Cypriot regime in northeastern Cyprus and claims the waters off the northeast are within Turkeys exclusive economic zone.
Turkey will use navy and other assets to protect its drill ships. For now, the Nicosia government is pursuing legal remedies in court, which probably will be unenforceable against Turkey without some form of coercion.
Russian SAMS in Turkey
Turkey is preparing to receive the first deliveries of the S-400 system this week.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on 8 July that preparations are proceeding on schedule, without disclosing a definite arrival date.
“Right now, the preparations for the arrival continue. It would be right if you do not push us on a precise date. The shipping is still proceeding. There are also certain dates [on which] we came to terms with [Russia],” Erdoğan said.
The US warned Turkey a month ago that the arrival of the S-400 air defense system would result in a termination of the F-35 fighter program for Turkey unless the Russian deal was canceled by 31 July. US agencies already have restricted access to the aircraft by Turkish pilots. They cannot train on or fly F-35s in the US that Turkey has already purchased. Parts manufacture also will be removed from Turkey.
Turkish President/Sultan-for-life Erdogan is stressing NATO, which is a perennial strategic goal of the Russians.
Now that business is out of the way…
The real question of the day on the run up to the next Democrat debates is whether or not Slow Joe Biden is black enough.
He now self-identifies as a black man and he has just a smidgeon less negro blood than Spartacus Booker.
Will that be enough?
Or does he need to get a tuck-and-roll job like Bruce Jenner so that he can be a ‘credible female’?
I think that the next Democrat debates need to be a sort of coming out party. The Butt guy can come out and self identify as a straight woman. Beto can come out as a Mexican lesbian. It would be one heck of a show and it could upset the polling for some time to come.
Let the freak show go on! I tell you, it’s must-see tv.
A Latrine in Indochina
A non-sequential series of fictional shorts. This one is posted in some measure for the sake of memory of distant wars on the eve of Memorial Day 2014.
A Latrine in Indochina
The latrine constructed of pine bracing and plywood. A two-holed, it sat suspended over two sunken fifty-gallon oil drums, its smell familiar, its lure driven by need.
He kept the rifle, but dropped the ruck, walked in, unbuttoned his trousers and sat on the flat plywood seat worn smooth through use. His M-14 rifle, wedged against a block of wood nailed to the door, provided the locking mechanism. “Occupied”
Someone had stenciled Property of the US Navy on the inside of the door, reminding them who owned them and whose latrine this was. On ships they were heads, on land, no matter how much the navy tried to hold with tradition, they were latrines. The word latrine interlinked the sailors and the grunts on the ground in a way a head never could.
Privacy, a place to think, undisturbed. Flies bounced against screened windows trying to get in. Distant helicopter rotors chopped the air, muffled morning coughs, laughter, metal banging metal, and more light through the screened windows. A PBR on the river started its engine in the distance. A radio clicked on playing popular music through a cheap speaker that yielded a tinny sound. Martha and the Vandellas crooned, Nowhere to Run.
The latrine provided a bulletin board, a barometer showing the mood of the men. As an officer sitting in the enlisted latrine, he read what the men were thinking and filed it all away. Careful! I sublet the basement to a gook; Ensign Turner can suck my dick; and there were also the unheralded poets, I come here to itch my balls, and read the writing on the walls. Some of the writing could be attributed to an author: Article Fifteen this, asshole — accompanied by a crudely drawn phallus, clearly the work of Machinist Mate Second Class Troy Nelson, recently hauled before a captain’s mast. Killing for peace is like fucking for chastity, Lieutenant Commander Atwood. Atwood, a ring knocker on his way to admiral, delivered a rousing “why are we here” speech two days before.
Having perused the angst and frustration of others who also sat and shat, he pulled up his trousers removed the M-14 from its position and pulled the door inward, stepping onto the planking with heavy boots.
He didn’t think any place could top a reeking navy latrine, but he always knew that he erred when he stepped through the plywood door and let the spring pull it closed behind him.
Once out of the privy, the jungle surrounded him. Thick green in every possible shade. Growth and decay backed up by jungle sounds that were quite apart from the human stain created by the navy’s presence. The smell of chlorophyll masking rot on the shore of a muddy river, languid as a mill pond. Itching jungle, wet, dripping tangled jungle, a maze that could swallow you forever without a compass and some idea of where you’d been and where you wanted to go. Big spiders, deadly snakes, monkeys and endless, thick swarms of blood sucking insects…and beyond them, the war.
They Need New Chicken Bones
The Democrat Party has continually crowed (through their Ministry of Truth proxies in the mainstream media) that they understand America, Americans and the political future of the nation. We have been blanketed by their predictions and progressive wisdom.
Nobody casts the bones better than Rep. Pelosi, who despite her assertions to the contrary, is the best friend that the Republican Party has ever had.
“I think we could, today, win everything. Bless his heart. Donald Trump is the gift that keeps giving to us,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in June. And with the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in February, Democrats began to imagine the potential of a liberal Supreme Court. “It would enable a revival of a dramatically different role for the court: as an institution that drives social change instead of halting it,” Linda Hirshman, a social justice warrior, wrote in an opinion essay for The Washington Post.
What Democrats expected to be the historic election of the first female president was instead a devastating loss — for Clinton, Obama and their political vision. That reversal of fortune was palpable in the days following the election as Democrats reeled from a knockout blow that they never even saw coming. And there is more on the way.
- The Heartbeat Bill – Last week, Ohio legislators offered a taste of what’s to come with their “heartbeat” bill, prohibiting abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected. (Typically around six weeks, before some women even know they’re pregnant.)
- Gun Control – California leads progressive states in its effort to outlaw all firearms and ammunition (the legislature is exempted, naturally), but that could all be undone by a single US Supreme Court Justice…
- Jobs – Many Democrat faithful have asserted that President Trump has culturally appropriated their party by working with private industry to create jobs. Barack promised to bring a renewal to the inner city before his election in 2008, and then ignored them during the eight miserable years of his regime. Success by President Trump could seriously damage their chances for success in the near future, and they know it.
President Trump is still a bit over 40 days from being inaugurated and he’s behaving like THE President. Barack isn’t quite sure what to do. It wasn’t in the script. He was supposed to hand the baton to Hillary who would carefully preserve his legacy while racking up another ten trillion in debt while the US was completely sucked dry by foreign markets.
The world didn’t react as planned either. The British, the French, Austrians, Italians and possibly also the Netherlands are in the same mode as the USA. The globalist philosophy is still there but it’s been set back fifty years or more. And the Mainstream Media didn’t see it coming.
Checking In
Creche
Sometimes funds are tight, times are hard, but you still want to get into the Christmas spirit.
Sometimes funds are tight, times are hard, but you still want to get into the Christmas spirit.
Thoughts on 2020
The Donkeys are scrambling for a champion. Devil Patrick, newly minted entrant into the circus hosted an event and then canceled it when only two people showed up. He is said by his party to be the “New Obama,” possibly because he’s black. Obama was only half black and his dad was essentially a sperm donor, but it may be racist to mention that.
Bloomberg wasn’t invited to the Democrat debate, and neither was Devil. What’s going on? They invited Spartacus, polling at >1%. I think that they need to be the “big tent” that they tell everyone that they are and get them all up there on the stage. Meanwhile the Buttguy seems to be surging in Iowa. I have no idea what his appeal is. Maybe it’s because he’s white, but mentioning that may be racist. Harris is polling at #5 in California but she still made it to the debate. Maybe that’s because she’s an Indian and female, but it may be racist to discuss that. I liked Marianne Williamson not because she’s a witch, but because she’s entertaining. But the Donkey’s shut her down, which is sexist.
Bernie and Liz, the two communists, seem to lack a certain luster to the rich East Coast elites, who are waking up to the fact that the commies are proposing to tax them at 115%. Thus, Bloomberg, the “new Trump” and his appeal to people who are not living in fly-over country.
National Championship Air Races (Part 4)
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| Jet powered bi-plane. It’s very fast and very loud. |
I had a busy time at the Air Races today with very little time to spend on taking photos. All in all, a very good day and worth the distractions. However, subsequent to the Breitling press conference I bought a B-50 Night Mission wristwatch (#5 of #25 limited edition). It’s a very cool watch. This one is the Reno Air Race Edition. No, I don’t think that it will increase in value, but I was hanging out with Thierry Prissert, Pres. of Breitling USA, blood was up and I ended up with a very nice watch on my wrist. Yes, it’s more expensive than a Timex.
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| F-22 Raptors on the apron |
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| F-22 Raptor tries to shoot down a P-51 Mustang and fails to deliver… (no, not really) |
Thursday Challenge
May 23
Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot, over… It’s May 23 and it’s still snowing in Arizona. Photo from the dining room window this morning.
I joke about the ‘coming ice age’ but it will be interesting to see how things look NEXT year. It’s been a cold, wet winter and spring this year. If we are to get another wet year on the heels of this one — the trend would be interesting.
More on China (continuation from yesterday)
A number of you had great thoughts and I appreciate your comments. China sold its populace the premise that they could loot the US three ways from Sunday perpetually. Wages have risen in China precipitously and it’s not an inexpensive place to manufacture anymore. The great rush of Western companies to China is over and they are beginning to leave China for other locations. The Belt Road Initiative, upon which so much is based, is finding resistance in some countries and it’s more expensive than projected, largely do to corruption in China (everyone expects Pakistan and its like to be corrupt).
China is on a military build up, and their navy will soon be the largest in the world. They have to pay for that. The “America First” philosophy put forth by President Trump has thrown a monkey wrench into the gears. As Jim pointed out in his comments, they are indeed beginning to sound desperate.
Finding Emotional Support in the Friendly Skies
Would the airlines allow me to bring an emotional support wolf onto an airplane? Sometimes I need to travel and having people meet me at the arrival airport with a handgun works, but is there a better way? Nothing says emotional support like a wolf, which is a loving animal that protects members of its pack (namely ‘me’) to the death and views all other animal and human life as protein.
How much emotional support could I get from a chihuahua? And does hauling a chihuahua around constitute cultural appropriation since the breed originated in Mexico? Ever since taco Tuesday was canceled in Southern California, denounced as racist, I’ve tried to be careful and bend to the will of the progs who want to run my life.
Is a wolf progressive? If it is, I’m sure that there is a grievance group out there advocating for using wolves for emotional support, but I haven’t found any of them on the Internet.
And would the airlines require me to buy a second seat for the wolf, or would they allow me to put it on my lap? One thing is sure, they’d think twice before throwing me off the airplane.
Juan Guaido has never run for president. He is president of the National Assembly. The president of the national assembly can succeed as interim president of Venezuela in the event of the incapacitation of the elected president or if he is found unfit for office. The Venezuelan supreme court has declared the national assembly in contempt and all its actions are “null and void,” including declarations against Maduro’s fitness for office.
Don’t Cry for me Venezuela
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro proposed holding early parliamentary elections, judging that he will win. At the end of a march commemorating the anniversary of his re-election on 20 May 2018, he said, “Let’s see who gets the most votes! Let’s find a political, constitutional and democratic path forward.” The next National Assembly elections are supposed to be held in 2020.
Maduro’s public statements indicate that he senses the worst of the threat to his tenure has passed. His willingness to hold talks with some opposition leaders in Oslo is a sign of his increased confidence, not a sign of any willingness to compromise, reform or make concessions. He is showing that he is magnanimous by listening to the political opposition.
Juan Guaido has never run for president. He is president of the National Assembly. The president of the national assembly can succeed as interim president of Venezuela in the event of the incapacitation of the elected president or if he is found unfit for office. The Venezuelan supreme court has declared the national assembly in contempt and all its actions are “null and void,” including declarations against Maduro’s fitness for office.
Venezuelans reacted negatively to Juan Guaido’s references to US military support and international pressure. One analysis indicates enthusiasm for the opposition alternative declined precipitously between February and April as threats of outside intervention increased. Patriotism appears to be stronger than support for political reform.
There may not be food, and money may only be useful as toilet paper and bookmarks, but the Venezuelan people are clinging to their socialist overlords with a vengeance. Good for them. Let them eat cake!
I’ve never known any people so willing to celebrate terminal cancer as the Venezuelans.
Too Much Time on my Hands
The next Republican presidential primary votes will take place before the big primary on March 15. I feel a need to do better than I did when I attempted to predict outcomes on the March 1 contest. I’ll take another dip in the pool and see if I can come closer. This is a type of trifecta.
Dr. Carson unofficially dropped out of the race and I’m trying to factor that move into this informal analysis.
(3/5) Kansas (40 delegates) Trump +15 Cruz/Rubio
(3/5) Kentucky (45 delegates) Trump +10 Rubio/Cruz (Kentucky is a caucus state)
(3/5) Louisiana (46 delegates) Trump +5 Cruz/Rubio
(3/5) Maine (23 delegates) Trump +18 Rubio/Cruz
(3/6) Puerto Rico (23 delegates and 3 super delegates pledged to Cruz) Trump +25 Cruz/Rubio
(3/8) Hawaii (19 delegates) Trump +20 Rubio/Cruz
(3/8) Idaho (32 delegates) Trump +8 Cruz/Rubio
(3/8) Michigan (59 delegates) Trump +12 Cruz/Kasich
(3/8) Mississippi (39 delegates) Trump +9 Cruz/Rubio
(3/12) DC (19 delegates) Trump +12 Rubio/Cruz
(3/12 Guam (9 delegates) Trump +25 Rubio/Cruz
For those of you who are Trump haters, I’m sorry that I don’t have better news for you. I can’t see Ted Cruz winning another state so long as there are 4 candidates in the field, and Rubio is going to put all of his effort into his must-win in Florida. Then again, I’m an amateur at this. I could be wrong.
Or maybe I could build stuff like this as a hobby instead?
The American Sweet Tooth
How much money are Americans paying to support the sugar industry in America? It’s coming out of our pockets — so how much? And should you care?
Much of the sweetener that is used in the US is high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is is widely perceived as the new trans fat. But it’s cheaper than sugar — in the US — and it doesn’t taste as good as sugar. What’s going on?
The US (and the world) primarily buys ICUMSA** 45 grade sugar. American import quota restrictions strictly limit the amount of imported sugar coming into the U.S. at the world price in order to protect domestic producers from more efficient foreign sugar growers who can produce cane sugar in Mexico, Brazil, Thailand and Caribbean at half the cost of beet sugar in Minnesota and Michigan.
**The International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis (ICUMSA) is an international standards organization, founded in 1897, that publishes detailed laboratory procedures for analyzing sugar.
The chart (right) displays annual refined sugar prices (cents per pound) using data from the USDA between 1982 and 2011 for: a) the U.S. wholesale refined sugar price at Midwest markets, and b) the world refined sugar price.
Trade protection is expensive to US consumers, who pay twice the world price for sugar on average. Bakery giant, Hostess recently went bankrupt and closed their doors based on a combination of sugar prices and labor troubles. Some of their trademarked products will be back on the shelves in the US, made in Mexico. (Bimbo Foods reportedly bought some of the trademark rights)
American consumers and businesses consumed 22,440,000,000 pounds of sugar last year. Every 1 cent increase in sugar prices costs Americans an additional $224.4 million per year in higher prices.
The U.S. produced 15.76 billion pounds of sugar last year. Due to quotas, Americans were only allowed to purchase 3 metric tons of world sugar, or about 30% of the total sugar consumed. Domestic sugar producers (“Big Sugar”) is allowed based on US Trade Regulations to control 70% of the sugar market every year through protectionist sugar trade policies that strictly limit foreign competition.
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| President Obama supports trade tariffs to protect the price of Hawaiian sugar. He also supports generous subsidies for |
If sugar quotas were eliminated, and American consumers and business had been able to purchase 100% of their sugar in 2011 at the world price (average of 31.68 cents per pound) instead of the average U.S. price of 56.22 cents, they would have saved about $3.86 billion. In other words, by forcing Americans to pay 56.22 cents for inefficiently produced domestic sugar instead of 31.68 cents for more efficiently produced world sugar, Americans pay an additional 24.54 cents per pound for the 15.76 billion pounds of American sugar produced annually, which translates to $3.86 billion in higher costs for American consumers and businesses.
US Trade protection ignores the needs of disorganized, dispersed consumers in favor of the concentrated, well-organized interests of the US Sugar lobby that pushes Congress to keep protection in place.
But it’s not only the US Sugar lobbyists who take the blame. The corn lobby is also in on it.
In the United States, HFCS is among the sweeteners that have primarily replaced sucrose (table sugar) in the food industry. Factors for this include governmental production quotas of domestic sugar, subsidies of U.S. corn, and an import tariff on foreign sugar, all of which combine to raise the price of sucrose to levels above those of the rest of the world, making HFCS cheaper for many sweetener applications. (Wikipedia)
High-fructose corn syrup is produced by milling corn to produce corn starch, then processing that starch to yield corn syrup, which is almost entirely glucose, and then adding enzymes that change some of the glucose into fructose. The resulting syrup (after enzyme conversion) contains approximately 42% fructose and is HFCS 42.
If the US stopped the trade tariff on sugar and stopped subsidizing the production of corn, we’d be using low price cane sugar to sweeten foods instead of corn. You can argue that the US is protecting American jobs. However, if the price of food were to drop accordingly, life in the check-out line at the store would be a lot more pleasant.
Subtle Positive Changes in Syria
This is not a comment on the millions of military age male refugees who have flooded into Europe, putting unreasonable demands on the social welfare states there (they want “money for nothing and chicks for free“). They will remain in Europe sucking down free kabob and raping the local ladies on their way to and from work and the mothers taking their children to soccer practice (referred to as ‘western whores’ in Islam).
On 7 February, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced it was ready to supply ground troops to help support and train an international military coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria, provided such efforts were led by the United States.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said, “I think that this has been our position throughout … that a real campaign against Daesh (ISIL) has to include ground elements… We are not talking about a thousand troops, but we are talking about troops on the ground that will lead the way, that will train, that will support … And I think our position remains the same and we will have to see how this progresses. Of course an American leadership in this effort is a pre-requisite,” Gargash said.
The UAE is the second Gulf State to declare its readiness to commit ground troops to the fight against ISIL in Syria. Saudi Arabia made an even stronger declaration on 4 February. The Saudi and Emirates leaders apparently have decided that the most efficient way to build an Arab coalition against terrorism, as announced on 15 December, is to join the existing Coalition.
Syrian state media today reported on 6 February that the military had “returned security and stability to the town of Ataman,” a small town just north of the Jordanian border, and near the main city on that border, Dara’a, which was where the initial protests leading to the civil war were held.
This is a continuation of the offensive operation that began around 25 January. The government objective is to take Dara’a. Ataman/Athman is only 4 kms from the city center of Dara’a. Past attempts to recapture the south have stalled after running short of supplies. The latest offensive has lasted two weeks and continues to make progress.
The fact that Syrian government and allied forces are maintaining two strategically important offensive operations simultaneously is a good measure of the health of the regime at this time. Syrian forces are having success fighting on two major fronts. It also is significant that both offensives are on Syria’s periphery. Violent instability begins and ends on the periphery. The Syrian government has stopped collapsing and falling inward and is now expanding outward to the national boundaries in the western part of Syria. Much of this reversal has to do with Russian support of the regime, which also wiped out the CIA’s program near Ataman and Dara’a, designed to replace Assad. Russian airpower disrupted the American clandestine effort (not really very secret these days) and Syrian ground troops, backed by Cubans in tanks helped to push that effort back into Jordan.
Once the Russians entered with a limited ground force and airpower, the resistance both US backed and ISIL/Daesh has been diminished. The US has a horse in the race with the Kurds in the eastern portion of Syria and Iraq, but the Kurds don’t have the manpower or will to take over Syria. They just grow opium in their little corner of the world and sell it to US markets (in New Hampshire) and elsewhere. Strange how all this connects, isn’t it?
I think that a sovereign Syria is a good thing in the short term. It will stem the flood of military age male refugees and at the same time will check ISIL. The US is embarrassed, but when you consider that Obama-Clinton-Kerry have been running the foreign policy ship on the rocks, it’s not surprising.
Analyzing Obama (blog series) #7
The Nut: Obama and ACORN
The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now was the organization Obama (Dear Leader) staked his hopes on for a grass roots army that could run his community organizing ground game. Things might not work out quite the way he planned.
It all started circa 1991 when Obama returned to Chicago, having completed his legal education. ACORN noticed Dear Leader when he was organizing on the far south side of Chicago working with the Developing Communities Project (LA Times 3-2-08 – Letta Tayler). The work he did according to the LA Times was to organize demonstrations in the mold of radical groups like ACORN. Madeleine Talbot, the Chicago ACORN leader at the time said that at first they considered Obama a competitor but she was impressed enough with his abilities that she brought him onboard with ACORN as a staff trainer.
“It was Talbot (with Obama by her side), who led Chicago ACORN’s campaign to intimidate banks into making high-risk loans to low credit customers.” (NRO – Kurtz) Talbot’s genius for leading a mob into “direct action” (militant tactics, intimidation, disruption, etc.) was something Obama learned first hand.
By 1992, Obama headed the Chicago Operation for Project Vote! It was an ACORN effort to register voters nationally. (World News Daily) Today, Obama denies ever organizing with ACORN. He applied what is now known as the Cloward-Piven strategy, mobilizing the poor in class warfare against capitalism, who are viewed as oppressors. Cloward-Piven applied the tactics of the revolutionary civil rights movement including inciting urban riots. The strategy transcends politics defined by race and focuses on politics defined by class.
In 1993, Obama was invited to join the board of the Woods Foundation where his long time friend Bill Ayers, a self proclaimed urban terrorist, was serving at the time. Pajamas Media reported that during Obama’s tenure on the board, ACORN received annual grants of up to $45,000 from the Woods Foundation.
World News Daily reported that in 1994, Obama represented ACORN in the Buycks-Roberson vs Citibank Federal Savings Bank case in which ACORN sued Citi to make more loans to marginally qualified (or unqualified) African-American applicants “in a race-neutral way”.
By 1995, Obama worked for ACORN in a major lawsuit where ACORN sued the State of Illinois to implement the “motor voter” law. That same year, Bill Ayers co-founded the Chicago Annenberg Challenge with a $50 million grant program for Chicago Public Schools. Ayers selected Obama to be the first chairman of the Board. (WND- Corsi) Stanley Kurtz (Wall Street Journal) reported that the Annenberg project funneled money through various far left community organizing groups including ACORN.
In 1996, Obama became a member of the New Party, a group that sought to move the Democratic Party to the far left. (WND – citing newspaper evidence) According to Democratic Socialists of America documents, the New Party worked with ACORN to promote its candidates. DSA’s New Ground newsletter stated, “In Chicago, the New Party’s biggest asset and biggest liability is ACORN.”
Between 1997 and 2004, Obama was an Illinois State Senator.
Toni Foulkes (ACORN National Board Member) wrote in “Case Study: Chicago – The Barack Obama Campaign“:ACORN noticed [Obama] when he was organizing on the far south side of the city with the Developing Communities Project. He was a very good organizer. When he returned from law school, we asked him to help us with a lawsuit to challenge the state of Illinois’ refusal to abide by the National Voting Rights Act, also known as motor voter. .. Obama took the case, known as ACORN vs. Edgar (the name of the Republican governor at the time) and we won. Obama then went on to run a voter registration project with Project VOTE in 1992 that made it possible for Carol Moseley Braun to win the Senate that year. Project VOTE delivered 50,000 newly registered voters in that campaign (ACORN delivered about 5,000 of them).
Since then, we have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year, and, as a result, many of our newly developing leaders got to know him before he ever ran for office. Thus, it was natural for many of us to be active volunteers in his first campaign for State Senate and then his failed bid for Congress in 1996. By the time he ran for Senate, we were old friends.
Obama became a United States Senator in 2005. In 2007 on Obama’s Organizing for America blog, Sam Graham-Felsen, a paid blogger wrote of Obama’s November 2007 speech to ACORN leaders:
When Obama met with ACORN leaders in November, he reminded them of his history with ACORN and his beginnings in Illinois as a Project Vote organizer, a nonprofit focused on voter rights and education. Senator Obama said, “I come out of a grassroots organizing background. That’s what I did for three and half years before I went to law school. That’s the reason I moved to Chicago was to organize. So this is something that I know personally, the work you do, the importance of it. I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.”
Obama spoke at the Heartland Democratic Presidential Forum meeting and said “Groups such as ACORN will shape the agenda of my presidency.” (December 1, 2007)
In 2008, ACORN endorsed Obama over his political rival Hillary Clinton. (February 21, 2008 ACORN PAC)
During the presidential campaign of 2008, both Obama and Joe (Slow Joe) Biden insisted they had nothing to do with ACORN since by that time the organization had been the target of voter fraud allegations. However, in August 2008 the Pittsburg Tribune-Review reported that the Obama campaign paid $832,589.29 to ACORN “offshoot” Citizen’s Services for the “get out to vote” projects from February 25 – May 17, 2008.
The newspaper revealed that Obama’s payments to CSI for services were unusual: “For example, CSI received payments of $63,000 and $75,000 for advance work. Excluding the large payments to CSI, the average amount the Obama campaign spent with other organizations was $558.82 per check on more than 1,200 entries classified as advance work.”
Obama clearly continued his close working relationship with ACORN.
According to the same Pittsburg Tribune-Review report, Citizens Services Inc. is headquartered at the same address as ACORN’s national headquarters in New Orleans. A 2006 ACORN publication describes Citizen Services Inc. as “ACORN’s campaign services entity.”
In 2008, Anita MonCrief, a woman who worked in the Strategic Writing and Research Department of ACORN Political Operations and its affiliate Project Vote from 2005 through January 2008, said ACORN acted as an unofficial arm of the Democratic Party during the election and used cash operations to keep some financial transactions under wraps.
“It has always been a Democrat operation,” she recently told WND. “They’ve never made any secrets about who they support. Their political action committees are usually set up to support these Democratic candidates.”
She said political action committees support Democrat candidates, and the at the same time voter registration drives were being conducted, the group was putting out propaganda in communities telling people not to vote for Republicans.
According to a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review report, she further told a Pennsylvania court before the election that the Obama camp provided ACORN with a “donor list” that enabled Project Vote to solicit contributions from Obama supporters who had “maxed out” under federal contribution limits but who could surreptitiously give more to Obama’s cause by donating to ACORN and its affiliates.
Obama would like to distance himself from ACORN today, and it’s peculiar that MSNBC hasn’t done any investigative reporting on these widespread allegations… Yes I’m kidding, MSNBC is in Obama’s pocket.
A report from the Committee on Oversight and Government reform stated that ACORN:
“has repeatedly and deliberately engaged in systemic fraud. Both structurally and operationally, ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pursue a partisan political agenda and to manipulate the American electorate.”
Since 1994, ACORN has received more than $53 million in federal funds, according to the report.
“Under the Obama administration, ACORN stands to receive a whopping $8.5 billion in available stimulus funds. Operationally, ACORN is a shell game played in 120 cities, 43 states and the District of Columbia through a complex structure designed to conceal illegal activities, to use taxpayer and tax-exempt dollars for partisan political purposes, and to distract investigators. Structurally, ACORN is a chess game in which senior management is shielded from accountability by multiple layers of volunteers and compensated employees who serve as pawns to take the fall for every bad act,” the report said.
The report continued, “Lobbying is a substantial part of what ACORN does. It has endorsed Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Representative Albert Wynn (D-MD), and Representative Donna Edwards (D-MD). ACORN keeps donor records from the Clinton, Kerry and Obama campaigns with the intent to engage in prohibited communications. ACORN receives federal funding yet engages in improper lobbying. ACORN and its nonprofit affiliates do not have separate accounts. Neither ACORN nor any of its affiliates have properly reported their political activities to the IRS. These harms fly under the legal radar because the IRS rarely checks for compliance. The ‘no substantial part’ test is rarely enforced and the accounts of ACORN and its affiliates are illegally commingled.”
During the 2008 presidential race, ACORN admitted that more than 400,000 of the 1.3 million voter registrations it claimed to have collected were not valid. There is a criminal investigation underway in 23 States.
Once in office, the Obama Administration selected ACORN to recruit counters for the 2010 US Census.
The Census Bureau severed its ties with ACORN on Sept. 11.The Internal Revenue Service has also indicated that it is conducting a “thorough review” of its agreements with ACORN. According to Bloomberg, ACORN has has helped prepare about 150,000 free tax returns since 2004 for low-income families. Those returns have generated $190 million in tax refunds.
OBAMA = ACORN
There’s no other way to look at it.
I’m Ready for Hillary!
— Testimony of Gregory Hicks and Eric Nordstrom Before House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee, May 2013
Congressman Jason Chaffetz: Mr. Hicks, we typically need permission of a host nation government to fly military aircraft over their territory?
Deputy Chief of Mission Gregory Hicks: Yes, we do.
Chaffetz: And to your knowledge did we ever ask the Libyans for permission to fly over their country?
Hicks: Frequently.
Chaffetz: Did we the night of the attack?
Hicks: The night of the attack?
 |
| Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton “What difference does it make?” |
Chaffetz: The night – once this incident started, did we seek permission from the Libyan government to do flyover?
Hicks: I think in the record there is a UAV was flying over Libya that night and it had permission to be there.
Chaffetz: Did we ever ask for permission to fly anything other than an unarmed drone over Libya during the attack?
Hicks: No.
Chaffetz: Would you have known that?
Hicks: Yes.
Chaffetz: Based on your extensive experience as a diplomat in dealing with the Libyan government, do you believe the Libyans would have grant the over flight rights if State had requested it?
Hicks: I believe they would have.
Chaffetz: Mr. Nordstrom, do you believe that would also be true?
Regional Security Officer Nordstrom: I think certainly in this situation. They were fairly, yeah.
“State” is the Secretary of State, which was Hillary. She never asked Libya for permission, which means she stopped the response by her own fiat.
PS
As a post script, I like this Hillary (photo above) with the lank, dirty hair, the cokebottle glasses and the nasty yellow teeth better than candidate Hillary, who has her face stretched, her teeth brushed and her hair styled. The Hillary above, in command of a legion of flying monkeys is just more authentic than the shrill, angry, old woman that we see on the television these days.
The Benghazi investigation led to the e-mail scandal and that still has yet to play out.
