Category Archives: Politics

September 13, 2015 · 1:44 pm

Revisiting the “best opportunity to succeed”

“Having been a guinea pig in the feminization of the American military plan for a very short time decades ago, I’ll share with you how this goes.  The political factions within the Pentagon will begin tinkering with new ways to make it appear that women can do these heavy-lifting, grueling combat tasks by eliminating as many of the tasks from the physical standards as necessary to get women into these positions.  The physical standards for men will lower and all sorts of concessions will be made to soften the ride for women to succeed in these jobs.  They’ll desperately seek a few über herculean gruntettes to become the face of the new Amazon band of sisters for the full court press, to “prove” women are just as strong as men.”

– libertybelle

In January 2015, I wrote the above quote in a blog post, “the best opportunity to succeed (code for lower standards)”, which was my cynical take on a statement from a Marine Corps spokeswoman in a USA Today article, “Marines delay female fitness plan after half fail”:

“Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos wants training officials to “continue to gather data and ensure that female Marines are provided with the best opportunity to succeed,” Capt. Maureen Krebs, a Marine spokeswoman, said Thursday.”

The Marine Corps embarked on a careful evaluation of female performance in combat skills this past year and their report submitted to the Secretary of the Navy rained on the parade of the feminist hoopla over the two female US Army officers who recently completed the US Army Ranger School .  The Marine Corps report is available online and the highlights lead to huge questions about not only throwing open the doors to all combat jobs to women, but in my mind, it raises the question of whether slack was cut to the two female Army officers to get some females through the US Ranger School for political propaganda purposes. President Obama showed up for their graduation, which further suggests a political agenda at play and raises the specter that once again military brass might have compromised the truth to support Obama administration narratives.

Yes, there I said it, I am skeptical about whether some standards were lowered to accommodate women during this highly publicized and politicized US Army Ranger School effort to sell opening all combat jobs to women.  I wonder about upper body strength skills, in particular.  Having observed this sleight of hand in standards many times over the years, the Army brass often plays to the feminists within the Pentagon pushing female integration. No one ever admits to the standards being lowered, because for male leaders in the military to speak up is career suicide. In May, 2015 all 5 of the remaining females in the Army Ranger training had dropped out. They were then given a third chance to retry and graduated in August 2015. The feminists will argue their completion of the course vindicates opening all combat jobs to women.

The press cheered for the two female Army officers, but then along comes this report from the Marine Corps careful study and here are the key highlights:

Combat Effectiveness

Overall: All-male squads, teams and crews demonstrated higher performance levels on 69% of tasks evaluated (93 of 134) as compared to gender-integrated squads, teams and crews. Gender-integrated teams performed better than their all-male counterparts on (2) events.

All-male squads, regardless of infantry MOS, were faster than the gender-integrated squads in each tactical movement. The differences were more pronounced in infantry crew-served weapons specialties that carried the assault load plus the additional weight of crew-served weapons and ammunition.

Lethality:

All-male 0311 (rifleman) infantry squads had better accuracy compared to gender-integrated squads. There was a notable difference between genders for every individual weapons system (i.e. M4, M27, and M203) within the 0311 squads, except for the probability of hit & near miss with the M4.

Male provisional infantry (those with no formal 03xx school training) had higher hit percentages than the 0311 (school trained) females: M4: 44% vs 28%, M27: 38% vs 25%, M16A4w/M203: 26% vs 15%.

All-male infantry crew-served weapons teams engaged targets quicker and registered more hits on target as compared to gender-integrated infantry crew-served weapons teams, with the exception of M2 accuracy.

All-male squads, teams and crews and gender-integrated squads, teams, and crews had a noticeable difference in their performance of the basic combat tasks of negotiating obstacles and evacuating casualties. For example, when negotiating the wall obstacle, male Marines threw their packs to the top of the wall, whereas female Marines required regular assistance in getting their packs to the top. During casualty evacuation assessments, there were notable differences in execution times between all-male and gender-integrated groups, except in the case where teams conducted a casualty evacuation as a one-Marine fireman’s carry of another (in which case it was most often a male Marine who “evacuated” the casualty).

Health and Welfare of Marines

In addition to performance, evidence of higher injury rates for females when compared to males performing the same tactical tasks was noted. The well documented comparative disadvantage in upper and lower-body strength resulted in higher fatigue levels of most women, which contributed to greater incidents of overuse injuries such as stress fractures. Research from various U.S. and allied military studies reveal that the two primary factors associated with success in the task of movement under load are 1) lean body mass and 2) absolute VO2 Max. Findings from the physiological assessment of GCEITF males and females conducted by the University of Pittsburgh’s
Neuromuscular Research Laboratory include:

Body composition: Males averaged 178 lbs, with 20% body fat: females averaged 142 lbs, with 24% body fat

Anaerobic Power: Females possessed 15% less power than males; the female top 25th percentile overlaps with the bottom 25th percentile for males

Anaerobic Capacity: Females possessed 15% less capacity; the female top 10th percentile overlaps with the bottom 50th percentile of males

Aerobic Capacity (VO2Max): Females had 10% lower capacity; the female top 10th percentile overlaps with bottom 50th percentile of males

Within the research at the Infantry Training Battalion, females undergoing that entry-level training were injured at more than six-times the rate of their male counterparts

27% of female injuries were attributed to the task of movement under load, compared to 13% for their male counterparts, carrying a similar load.

During the GCEITF assessment, musculoskeletal injury rates were 40.5% for females, compared to 18.8% for males

Of the 21 time-loss injuries incurred by female Marines, 19 were lower extremity injuries and 16 occurred during a movement under load task

The Army produced the required female poster gruntettes needed for propaganda, as I predicted, but the Marine Corps produced a careful study on combat performance.  Sadly, all soldiers will suffer if we play along with the feminist Amazon mythology.  The truth is females are biologically weaker than males and here’s the blunt truth, to quote this Marine Corps report:

“A military unit at maximum combat effectiveness is a military unit least likely to suffer casualties. Winning in war is often only a matter of inches, and unnecessary distraction or any dilution of the combat effectiveness puts the mission and lives in jeopardy. Risking the lives of a military unit in combat to provide career opportunities or accommodate the personal desires or interests of an individual, or group of individuals, is more than bad military judgment. It is morally wrong.”

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September 10, 2015 · 8:02 pm

US will take 10,000 Syrian Refugees

And so it begins: “BREAKING: Despite Terrorism Concerns, U.S. To Accept 10,000 Syrian Refugees”.

Remember the other day when Democratic presidential candidate, Martin O’Malley, urged for the US to take 65,000 Syrian refugees?  Well, that number didn’t come out of thin air – that is the number the UN wants the US to take.  Don’t be surprised if the Obama administration drastically increases this number, after they set the “narrative” in motion to sell this to the American public.   Expect more heart-wrenching stories of women and children in desperate situations, which won’t be hard to find.  There really are desperate refugees fleeing from Syria, but there are plenty from all over the region who have now become “Syrian” to gain entry into Europe.

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September 9, 2015 · 12:57 pm

Who are the feds’ “private contrators” for refugee resettlement?

The following information is from the blog, Refugee Resettlement Watch, run by Ann Corcoran, a homemaker on her rural farm, who began investigating the US government’s refugee policy since 2007. Corcoran reports:

“Federal refugee resettlement contractors on board—have upped the number to 100,000 Syrians”

Within her article are lots of links and she includes the list of non-governmental contractors whom the federal government pays big bucks to handle the relocation of refugees in America. Please note that most are religious charities:

Why isn’t the mainstream media investigating this?

Last year, The Last Refuge blog ran an excellent piece on these religious charities too:

“One Media Outlet Catching On To Massive Governmental Non-Profits Housing The Unaccompanied Alien Minors – “Southwest Key” Under Review”

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September 8, 2015 · 1:34 pm

A revamped Refugee Resettlement Program needed

The refugee crisis engulfing Europe may seem like a “not our problem” issue here in America, but the Obama administration has not closed the door firmly on resettling more refugees from the Mid-East here.  At http://www.msn.com there’s a short news article which states:

“WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is opening the door to the possibility of allowing more Syrian refugees into the United States, marking a subtle but significant change in the White House’s thinking about how best to respond to the mounting humanitarian crisis.

“The administration is actively considering a range of approaches to be more responsive to the global refugee crisis, including with regard to refugee resettlement,” said Peter Boogaard, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said Monday.”

Here’s a link to a USA Today news video, stating that the White House must decide on next year’s quota of Syrian refugees the US will take in by October 1st and also states many Democrat Senators are urging President Obama to drastically increase the number of Syrian refugees.

Although, the refugee crisis at the moment is not a US problem, these murmurs in the news serve as warning bells and it seems likely another massive White House effort at writing a narrative and selling it to the American people will launch soon. I wrote a piece yesterday on things to keep in mind:

The photo of a little Syrian Kurdish boy, Aylan Kurdi, who washed up on shore in Turkey, when the boat his family was in overturned, has become the face of the Mid-East refugee crisis. The world now faces another of those media-inspired propaganda blitzes to force action. Americans need to tread with extreme caution and learn from last year’s Central American “refugee” illusion.

Last summer Americans fell prey to deft propaganda about some, as heretofore unknown, Central American crisis fueling the large influx of illegal immigrants, many children, from that region. The story took flight and suddenly the media produced stories about a gang crisis in Honduras, as the impetus of this influx. Even the New York Times splashed, “Fleeing Gangs, Children Head to U.S. Border.” Reporters rushed to Central America and reported on the terrible gang violence and drug cartels wreaking havoc.

A Huffington Post piece, by Matt Garcia, spells out the semantical magic wand waved to poof these illegal immigrants into protected “refugees fleeing violence”. Garcia writes:

“The upsurge of 240,000 migrants in recent months, 52,000 of them unaccompanied minors, has unleashed the same arguments we’ve witnessed in the endless debates about immigration. But once we consider the twin questions of “why is this happening?” and “how should we respond?” it becomes clear that the current crisis is more of a humanitarian one than it is another chapter in our immigration debates.

The fact that many migrants have come from one of three countries–Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala–suggest that something is wrong there. Although critics of these refugees hate to admit it, the crisis exposes a legacy of flawed American policies in the region: from the CIA-inspired coup d’état in Guatemala (1956), to bribes of Honduran officials to suppress export taxes on bananas by U.S. agricultural conglomerate United Fruit (in the late 1960s and through the mid-1970s), to the US-financed Contra Wars in Nicaragua that consumed its neighbors, and the CIA involvement in Guatemala’s civil war (the 1980s).”

Eureka, it’s all our fault, in this roundabout reasoning, which permeates the political Left in America. If you, being a daily news reader, like me, wondered how this terrible crisis in Central America passed unbeknownst to you, well, it’s because the media, leftist activists and the Obama administration manufactured this crisis to foster another of their “narratives” to sway American public opinion.

Many ironies, like Rahm Emanuel offering to take in refugee children fleeing Central American gang violence to his lovely gang violence plagued Chicago or Nancy Pelosi pontificating that these illegal immigrant children should be treated like refugee Jesus, provided dark humor elements to this surreal crisis, as I tried to figure out, “what in the heck is going on here?” Then, conservatives from Glenn Beck to George Will jumped on board the “save the poor refugee children” bandwagon and after that the story faded from the headlines and this Central American crisis, likewise disappeared too.

The key to understanding the situation lies in understanding how the Refugee Resettlement Program, run by the U.S. State, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security Departments operates. Ann Corcoran, a homemaker working on her farm in rural Maryland, has researched and tracked this program since 2007 and created a website, Refugee Resettlement Watch, to provide information, which our own government tries to shield from scrutiny. Within this Refugee Resettlement Program, many Christian charities rake in big bucks from the federal government to assist in care and relocation of “refugees.”

A conspiratorial mind might believe that the Obama administration calculatingly encouraged this influx of illegal immigration and used a manufactured crisis to give them protected status, all for partisan political purposes, like bolstering Dem voting demographics in key areas around the country. With this current Mid-East refugee crisis, the stakes rise much higher than partisan politics, where mistakes could jeopardize our national security.

Before America begins taking in an influx of refugees from war-torn Syria, Iraq, Libya and other people reaping the harvest of that other leftist propaganda, the not-so-glorious Arab Spring, we must demand a thorough airing and housecleaning of the Refugee Resettlement Program and the implementation of a careful vetting process. State and local governments should be informed by the federal government before refugees are relocated in their communities and outreach programs, geared at integrating refugees in communities should be implemented.  Most of all the American people deserve truthfulness and transparency about the refugees brought into America.  Within Pelosi’s “refugee Jesus downtrodden” from Central America were many violent gang members. Within hordes of Mid-East “refugees” the American taxpayer could be paying for travel and relocation of Islamic State terrorists.

Our national security should come before feel-good gestures. Perhaps, President Obama and his fellow, hand-wringing leaders in Europe might want to rethink their collective failure to deal with the Syrian crisis, the power vacuum they left in Iraq and crafting an Iranian deal, which lifts the sanctions and assures a path to the biggest state-sponsor of terrorism becoming a nuclear power.

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September 7, 2015 · 10:14 pm

Nothing to see here, just move along

Here’s a NY Times update on Hillary’s classified email situation:

“WASHINGTON — A special intelligence review of two emails that Hillary Rodham Clinton received as secretary of state on her personal account — including one about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program — has endorsed a finding by the inspector general for the intelligence agencies that the emails contained highly classified information when Mrs. Clinton received them, senior intelligence officials said.”

Of course, as you read along the Clinton campaign and the State Department, running interference for Hillary Clinton, continue to muddy the issue and downplay it as some sort of minor interagency kerfuffle over classification – nothing to see here, just move along.

In another NY Times piece, “Hillary Clinton to Show More Humor and Heart, Aides Say,” her campaign aides offer up another relaunch of the relaunch, this time the queen will throw off her the stiff, standoffish robes and let her hair down too. Prepare yourself for the warm, softer, funny side of Hillary. One can only wonder how much she’s paying public relations gurus for this complete personality overhaul….

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September 7, 2015 · 10:59 am

Beware of US government and religious charities on refugee crisis

The cry for American action on the Syrian and Mid-East refugee crisis creating havoc in Europe began in earnest with the photo of refugee, Aylan Kurdi, a 3 year-old, Syrian Kurd fleeing Kobani. Of course, the photo leaves you heartbroken and asking all those questions of “Why didn’t we help these refugees?” The feelings don’t speak to the realities though.

Humanitarian impulses come naturally to Westerners, but rest assured humanitarian impulses do not come naturally to leaders like Tayyip Erdogan and Arab leaders in the region. Their humanitarian impulses fall exclusively on helping Muslims and then, only when it suits their political agenda. Erdogan, as a champion of a dead Kurdish child, seems more than a tad disingenuous, in light of his willingness to bomb Kurdish areas with no regard to civilian casualties. The western social justice types and the feel-good political leftists will come out in full force now, to demand we help these poor refugees and trust me they are right on the “poor refugees”, who are victims of collapsing regimes from the very same glorious Arab Spring these left-wing nincompoops swooned about just a few short years ago.

The media will play along pushing this humanitarian cry, as usual, but calmer heads must prevail and more importantly speak out calmly and clearly. We should NOT take in more Syrian and Mid-East refugees, unless and until the Obama administration’s abuses of the Refugee Resettlement Program are investigated and remedied. Once that program gets a complete housecleaning, then a careful, thorough review of how to vet refugees must ensue, so that a comprehensive process is in place to protect Americans from jihadists using the US refugee process to enter the US.

Don’t fall for the emotional hype over a tragic photo. Many leaders around the world are culpable for the mayhem in the Mid-East, and US leadership under President Obama greatly exacerbated the chaos, so don’t trust President Obama to offer more than poorly thought out plans, flimsy, feel-good rhetoric and quick fixes. We can not sacrifice national security of the American people to emotional responses ramped up by the media and activists.

The solution to the refugee crisis lies in resolving the political realities on the ground fueling the crisis and that would take a degree of international will, of which the Arab leaders, Europe, the US, and Russia do NOT possess. The Syrian civil war must be resolved, the Islamic State must be destroyed, and most importantly Iran’s regional aggression must be repelled. Instead, Europe and the US have just pushed through a deal to empower and embolden Iran. Russia continues to play Cold War realpolitik games like a chess match. Without international leadership, the refugee crisis will grow and naively taking in more refugees will only fuel more people to flee their homes. The bottom line is there are no quick fixes.

For some interesting reading check out a website, Refugee Resettlement Watch started by a Ann Corcoran, a much criticized ordinary citizen researcher, who became aware of the Refugee Resettlement Program in 2007. In her book, “Refugee Resettlement and the Hijra to America” (pages 23-24), Corcoran writes that she was busy on her farm in rural Maryland when she became aware of a “church group” bringing refugees into her area without even notifying local authorities. Thus, began her research into this program run through the US State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security,  with many large religious organization being paid large amounts of taxpayer money to aid in this “humanitarian assistance”. 

So, when you see mouthpieces from Christian organizations and churches hit the airwaves appealing to your humanity, beware. The first question reporters should ask them is how much money they are receiving from the federal government to aid refugees in America. You, being the American taxpayer, are being played, by not only your government, but by many religious leaders too!

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September 5, 2015 · 3:54 pm

Shoulders above the crowd

GOP candidates love to compare themselves to President Ronald Reagan. None of the current crop even comes close. So, to remind people of why Reagan stands shoulders above, here are a few videos showing not only the inspirational side, but also the humor:

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September 4, 2015 · 9:37 pm

More fingers touched Hillary’s classified emails

More people had access to Hillary’s email, of which hundreds contained classified information.  Their security clearance status has not been reported. Here’s a short update.

National Review has a piece on Cheryl Mills testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, including information on who sorted through Hillary’s emails:

“Though Mills oversaw the separation of Clinton’s personal e-mails from her work-related ones, she testified that she did not personally pull the e-mails from the server or sift through them to determine which messages fell into which category. She said that two employees from the private IT firm Platte River Networks initially pulled the e-mails from the server, and that Heather Samuelson, a lawyer who worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, reportedly did most of the legwork, combing through the thousands of pages and delivering the pertinent e-mails to Mills and David Kendall, Clinton’s attorney”

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423616/hillary-clinton-emails-aides-testify-benghazi-committee

The National Review article contains a link to a Politico article, which reports:

“On Thursday, Mills testified that employees for Denver-based IT firm Platte River Networks — which housed Clinton’s server until the FBI took hold of it — initially pulled emails off the server and sent them to Clinton’s legal team. Samuelson did the initial sift through of the documents, pulling ones she thought were federal records. In that regard, she initially determined which should be preserved — though Kendall and Mills ultimately signed off on what Clinton sent State.

Clinton deleted the rest of her emails from her computer, wiping it clean.

It is unclear if Samuelson had a security clearance and if Kendall and Mills simply approved her recommendations, made adjustments or looked through the emails she did not pull to ensure she didn’t miss any important documents.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/hillary-clinton-insider-emails-heather-samuelson-screened-2016-213350#ixzz3kp5Y4Eio

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September 4, 2015 · 6:49 pm

Hillary’s soft-soap interview

For her latest lies – as pathetic as her pretty in pink interview in 1998 on her husband’s Lewinsky affair, Hillary sat down with Andrea Mitchell and didn’t answer the key questions, obfuscated and deflected.  She rehearsed that calm, phony voice and insists she is sorry this email scandal is confusing for people.  There you got it, it’s not her fault it’s confusing, she is doing her best to explain everything and anxious to explain it all.  The queen waves her hand, “Move along you peons, I was busily solving world problems, not paying attention to what email system to use.”  And yet, she takes full responsibility….

For a dissections of more lies, check out the Legal Insurrection blog and William A. Jacobson’s latest analysis:

Hillary contradicts herself as to who made decision on personal emails

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September 4, 2015 · 2:07 pm

Donald Trump on foreign policy

Here’s the link to the transcript of the Hugh Hewitt interview of Donald Trump on foreign policy.

Trump stated the questions were gotcha questions and his response is:

HH: You know, I’d buy that, because you’re a builder. But on the front of Islamist terrorism, I’m looking for the next commander-in-chief, to know who Hassan Nasrallah is, and Zawahiri, and al-Julani, and al-Baghdadi. Do you know the players without a scorecard, yet, Donald Trump?

DT: No, you know, I’ll tell you honestly, I think by the time we get to office, they’ll all be changed. They’ll be all gone. I knew you were going to ask me things like this, and there’s no reason, because number one, I’ll find, I will hopefully find General Douglas MacArthur in the pack. I will find whoever it is that I’ll find, and we’ll, but they’re all changing, Hugh. You know, those are like history questions. Do you know this one, do you know that one. I will tell you, I thought you used the word Kurd before. I will tell you that I think the Kurds are the most under-utilized and are being totally mistreated by us. And nobody understands why. But as far as the individual players, of course I don’t know them. I’ve never met them. I haven’t been, you know, in a position to meet them. If, if they’re still there, which is unlikely in many cases, but if they’re still there, I will know them better than I know you.

There’s a behavior pattern emerging with Trump – angry personal attacks on the journalist and whining about gotcha questions.  A better response would be, “I will assuredly be doing extensive reading on all these people as soon as this interview is over!”  or perhaps, “I am terrible with names, but here’s how I see the events going on in that area of the world.”   Then, offer a brief synopsis of that hot spot in the world.

Sean Davis at The Federalist dissected this interview, “Some perspective on Donald Trump’s embarrassing Hugh Hewitt interview”:

“There was no excuse then, nor is there any excuse now, for a top presidential candidate to waltz into media interviews without having adequately prepared. Trump’s arrogance — his belief that he can credibly talk about any subject regardless of how little he knows about it — got the better of him.”

I agree.

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