May 24, 2014 · 11:13 am

Reporting while under the influence…. enter at your own risk;-)

Back to my blog finally, hooray.  Two weeks ago,  I slipped getting out of this stupid “garden tub”.  One step, replete with textured slip-resistant surface, but there I went.  Of course, to be honest, in 20 years in this house, I’ve slipped on that step a few other times and landed flat on my behind, with nothing more than my pride injured.  This time, I smacked my back ribs on the way down.  It hurt a lot  and it took me a few moments to catch my breath but I got dressed and went to work.    Four days later, the injured rib hurt a lot more, so I went to the ER.  After a rib series of X-rays, the verdict was it’s just bruised.  Rested two days, then back to work.   A week later, the pain got much worse and it hurt to breathe in.  My doctor decided more X-rays were needed and here I am, drugged up on pain pills and muscle-relaxers, with a fractured 8th rib, but ready to blather on about politics, under the influence of pain-killer and muscle-relaxer……. to tamp down on my inhibitions, so here it goes.

First up the VA scandal.  VA skeletons, dragging their chains of infamous bureaucratic snafus, callous disregard, gross negligence and deliberate (maybe even criminal) misconduct, like uniformed Jacob Marleys from the VA’s ignoble past,  charged the Hill and launched air raids via the media.  The Obama administration beat a hasty retreat and remains hunkered down, trying to formulate a battle plan.  Of course, the GOP, anxious to use this for political advantage wants to cart as many of these skeletons before a microphone to bury the Obama administration and Dems  in November.   President Obama, always the portrait of inspired leadership, opined, that he just learned about the VA problems from the news, just like everyone else and never fear, he’s on it….

Long before this administration, I knew the VA only does one thing promptly and it’s not handling your claim.  They promptly send out monthly reminders, to inform you they are working diligently to expedite your claim and your claim matters to them.  The VA administration scandal provides a harbinger of what Obamacare has in store for the rest of us.  The problem isn’t funding with the VA, it’s corruption.  So, let’s go to a basic civics lesson, which apparently isn’t taught in our government-controlled public schools:  government is a necessary evil – it’s not a cure-all for what ails us.  President Obama did inherit a troubled VA administration, but rather than change the culture within that organization, his default action was to throw more money at the problem rather than do a thorough housecleaning first, air out the stench and begin with fresh paint (new rules and new leadership).  Whether General Shinseki should stay or leaves matters less than coming up with a new strategy to fix what’s broken, discard what can’t be fixed and put in place new rules, with stringent oversight and reporting guidance.  Same old theme here with the Obama administration – they put more money into the VA than Bush did…… yada, yada, yada and more colossal corruption and waste than Bush had too.  President Obama is awaiting more reports in the VA situation, Congress wants to have more hearings and the VA skeletons trudge on, left, right,left…

On the foreign front(s), let’s see, Libya, the Obama  war-light endeavor, alas, no stability in sight there and Obama can proudly tout that victory, oh yes, we left a volatile power vacuum that we can all be proud of……… well, probably not.  Here’s a Nightwatch report from a few days ago with a good Libya update.  Ukraine’s still a mess.  #BringBackOurGirls really quelled Boko Haram, okay, not really.  Boko Haram launched raids on several villages, killing suspected vigilantes who oppose their group.  The UN imposed sanctions designating Boko Haram a terrorist organization and allowing for the freezing of its assets.  Our UN ambassador, Samantha Power, heartily approved the sanctions, but of course there’s a catch as reported in this BBC piece;

“”Boko Haram commanders and their leaders do not travel with passports, they travel on the ground in hijacked vehicles; they don’t have any formal assets that anyone can point to – it is not a formal organisation,” Omoyele Sowore of Nigeria’s citizen journalism website Sahara Reporters told the BBC.”

Enough of the bad news, so I’ll end with a link to a powerful piece, “Good Vibrations”, by Keith Nightingale in the Small Wars Journal (h/t JK).  It’s Memorial Day weekend and the perfect time to listen to these echoes from the past

“The Normandy invasion is usually depicted with great crashes, bangs and volcanic energy combined with broad scenes of masses of material and manpower.  But we should remember and reflect that the invasion began with subtle sounds and vibrations and brought the message of liberation to Europe on cat’s paws growing to crescendo.  We remember and depict the crescendos but forget the subtlety of sounds that brought it all together.”

 

 

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Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics, Uncategorized

May 17, 2014 · 5:54 pm

A new American revolution

Planned to write a blog post this morning, but making some braided ribbon bookmarks with one piece of ribbon and watching kumihimo braiding tutorials sidetracked me a bit.  Politics vs. crafting, hummm, well, no real competition there.   Talented people fill the blogosphere with great tutorials, so it’s like a virtual crafting and sewing circle of creative ideas.  I often sew simply hemmed receiving blankets as part of my baby shower gifts and I found this pretty cool self-binding receiving blanket, that I’ll have to try.

Yawn, yawn guys, I know.  I shared this, partly because it’s truly how I spent my morning, but moreover to begin this political post about how we’ve lost sight of respecting individuals in our polarized, diversity-crazed, hyper-politicized culture.  This cuts across just about every aspect of American culture, where even the most innocuous things like an Easter egg hunt, can turn into a full-throated battle about religious sensitivity/intolerance.  No aspect of American life is immune from being targeted as somehow offensive, insensitive or subject to being banned by some politically-motivated idiots.  Our daily lives seem confined, coerced, constrained by ever-louder nutty rules, edicts, criticism from fellow citizens caught up in the throes of particular political agendas and we’ve reached the point where commonness curtails any hope of finding common ground.

Watching TV political punditry follows an in the gutter, street-fighting ethos behind perfectly coiffed hair and syrupy smiles, lies partisans  liable to hit below the belt and even stab with stiletto-tipped talking points prepared ahead of time.  Two incidents this past week made me pause.  CNN and FOX offer the “balanced”  fights, like the Mother’s Day face-off with Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Michele Bachman hosted by Candy Crowley.  Even more disgusting was Dana Loesch and Jessica Erhlich going at it on the Kelly File on FOX last night while discussing the Benham Brothers controversy centering on their personal religious beliefs regarding homosexuality impacting their HGTV show deal.  No one discusses much of anything.   Folks choose a side, memorize the partisan rhetoric and off they go, indoctrinated to the point where objective truth, objective weighing of facts or objectively seeking solutions no longer matter.  It’s all about scoring political points and forcing your agenda on the other side.

Admittedly, my political leanings fall far to the right, that’s upfront and obvious on my blog, but I try to keep politics out of my everyday life as much as possible.  I prefer to talk to people and learn as much as I can about their lives.  You won’t find me holding up a hashtag sign, attending a political rally, protesting, or forcing my political views on anyone.  John Schindler, at the XX Committee blog wrote a piece on America today that’s definitely worth a read.  I rarely agree with his expert foreign policy and strategy writing, but in this concertedly “even-handed” critique, he hits on the sad shape of American society:

“If you cannot get out of the country, read more. Talk to foreigners, see the world through their eyes for a bit. Get out of your comfort zone. If you think either FoxNews or MSNBC has a monopoly on truth, you need to diversify your mind. If you believe the flaws in our foreign policy can be explained by just one word, and that word is either “Bush” or “Obama,” you’re part of the problem.”

Last year I wrote a piece, “Getting To Know You”, which sums up my view on the problem of living your life “knowing about people”  compared to getting “to know” people and our leaders could start by talking to each other rather than sending out political hit squads to annihilate their opponents.  I’ll stick to my advice in that piece, for a new American revolution…… getting to know your fellow Americans:

“Americans need to wake up and realize that before they side up against other Americans they had better take the time to walk up to those who hold different views and sit down and talk first. Perhaps by actually getting “to know” other people, we might be able to bridge the gaps and build a stronger nation, where all views from all people get heard at our political kitchen table.  And just maybe communities might get back to holding potluck dinners where everyone comes and shares a meal and gets to know his/her neighbors.  What an amazing concept that is – getting to know other people, up close and personal.  It just might revolutionize America;-)”

Time to get supper finished – stuffed pasta shells tonight and tossed salad….. I like to cook too:-)

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Filed under American Character, Culture Wars, Food for Thought, General Interest, Politics

May 14, 2014 · 1:21 pm

You owe them your Freedom

The Meaning of Memorial Day

Memorial Day originated on a crude wooden speakers’ platform at the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg on the 30th of May, 1864.

President Abraham Lincoln, the last speaker in a long line of distinguished orators who had come to speak that day at the dedication of the memorial cemetery to the dead of the Gettysburg battlefield, made a few remarks he had hurriedly scribbled on the back of an enve­lope on the train from Washington, D.C. His Gettysburg Address is considered one of the finest pieces of tribute ever written to honor any na­tion’s fallen.

President Lincoln said, in part:

“…From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain…Let us never forget that these gallant dead must not have died in vain”.

His words, printed and reprinted in newspapers all over this country, were taken into the na­tion’s consciousness, and have become an important part of our history.

The Grand Army of the Republic, a group of Union Civil War veterans, was the Nation’s first chartered veterans’ organization. The “GAR” began observing the anniversary of Lincoln’s his­toric tribute to the gallant dead at Gettysburg by decorating the graves of Civil War veterans in cemeteries all over the country with American flags and flowers.

Begun as a private remembrance of fallen comrades, the American people soon took the day to their hearts, and solemnized the sacrifice of their sons to the preservation of the Union with an­nual prayers and ceremonies nationwide.

On May 30th, 1868, President James A. Garfield, himself a former Union general, spoke at Gettysburg on the occasion of the first official national memorial observance. Describing the Union’s honored dead of the Civil War, he said:

“…They summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens.”

Until 1882, the day was known as “Decoration Day”. In that year, Congress declared the 30th of May an official national holiday, and re-named it “Memorial Day” to honor the dead of all America’s wars.  In the 238 years of U.S. history, there have been 29 wars, major military conflicts and actions, which claimed the lives of 1,343,812 Americans.

At a military funeral, the flag draping the cas­ket is carefully folded by the burial detail, and presented to the wife or mother of the deceased by the escort officer, with the words:

“Accept this flag with the thanks of a grateful nation.”

We as a nation sometimes forget the sacrifices that made us, and keep us, free. The fami­lies…the fathers and mothers, the husbands and wives, daughters and sons… never forget the price that has been paid.

Since the Congress passed the National Holiday Act of 1971, and Memorial Day was designated as the last Monday in May, the day set aside to honor America’s war dead has become just an­other three-day weekend to many people. Few bother to pause and honor the fallen. The families, and their living comrades, remember them and their sacrifice.

Pause this Memorial Day for a moment and re­member the men who froze in that terrible winter at Valley Forge (and Bastogne, and Chosin Reservoir), the men who fought on Seminary Ridge at Gettysburg (and San Juan Hill in Cuba, Blanc Mont in France, Bloody Ridge on Guadalcanal, Monte Casino in Italy, Heartbreak Ridge in Korea, and Hamburger Hill in Vietnam). Remember the men who fought outnumbered at Concord Bridge (and the Peking Legation, and Bataan, and Koto-Ri, Khe Sahn and Fallujah). Remember the sailors and Marines en­tombed in the U.S.S. Arizona on the bottom of Pearl Harbor, and all those gallant men of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard who have found a watery grave in the world’s seas in the defense of your liberty. Remember the pilots and air­crew who were shot down in flames over France in two world wars, and the graves of those who died over Germany and Japan. Mourn for those who died in the Persian Gulf, and those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Think, for just a moment, of Molly Pitcher, who took her wounded husband’s place at the cannon at the Battle of Trenton. Remember the Army nurses that refused to be evacuated from Corregidor, and the patients who needed them: many of both died in the prison camps of the Philippines and Japan.

Remember that the Vietnam Memorial has inscribed upon it the names of eight women who died serving their country.

Remember those men whose inscriptions on the Vietnam Memorial read simply: “M.I.A.”

Remember them as you drive past the cemeteries in the towns and cities of America this three-day weekend, and see the many small flags on the graves of those who served.

Remember all of them, dressed in ragged uniforms of many eras, in their ghostly ranks. Remember what they sacrificed for their country, their loved ones…and for you.

Remember them. You owe them your freedom.

Respectfully submitted,
Kinnison
Lieutenant Colonel, Armor, AUS (Ret.)
…and former Sgt. & “Mustang”
Capt. of Marines

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Filed under American Character, American History, Food for Thought, General Interest, Military

May 14, 2014 · 12:39 pm

#AmericanPaperTiger

“You’re not so tough without your car” – Kindergarten Cop (1990 movie)  or

“… without your teleprompter speeches!” – President Obama (2014 fantasy foreign policy)

If only a metastasized ideology could be killed in a surgical strike eliminating one man.  President Obama, now into a second term of floundering foreign policy, faces the cancer of radical Islam, spreading malignant cells, far and wide.  Since the Al Qaeda attack on 9/11/2001, American leaders prefer to hide behind euphemisms rather than grapple with the ugly side of Islamic-inspired terrorism.   We’ve moved from short-sighted and overly optimistic democratization planning  to a new, alarmingly vacuous, Obama foreign policy, with the intellectual underpinning of a text message:  #AmericanSurrender.

The Bush administration chose to hide behind a “War on Terror” and absolve Islamic leaders of responsibility for the very acts of terror they facilitated.  Hiding behind hollow rhetoric like “Islam means Peace”, while charging forward with an ill-conceived democratization of the Muslim world plan, Islamic-extremism blossomed.  The Obama approach, even more dangerously naive, now resorts to laughable hashtag foreign policy and an Al Qaeda leadership decapitation strategy via drone strikes.  Computer gaming and social media come of age, where Islamic-terrorists utilize Western technology to network and expand their real world operations and American leadership resorts to hiding behind hand-written hashtag placards, borrowed from the most shallow social-networking format.

The barbarians use western technology to achieve their real strategic aims, while our foreign policy leaders send impotent hand-written pleas to barbarians, whose name translates to something along the lines of “western education is sinful”.  Yes, I am sure these Islamist zealots really care what Michelle Obama says and will heed her hashtag plea…    If the rest of world is laughing at us, who can blame them.  It’s embarrassing, not to mention dangerous, to allow fools such as President Obama and the girls, to diminish American prestige to the point where American power really is the “paper tiger” Osama bin Laden ranted about in his many video diatribes.

Other pundits have written excellent commentary on this topic, so I’ll end my venting and provide their links:

#BringBackOurBalls – Mark Steyn’s deadly accurate hit.

George Will on “hashtag activism”

“Hillary and Boko Haram” – Rich Lowry at National Review

“5 Things the Media and Government Won’t Tell You About Boko Haram” – Robert Spencer at PJ Media

Ann Coulter, got the left tweeting-mad, adding  her own hashtag plea to the mix.

 

 

 

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Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Islam, Politics, The Media, Uncategorized

May 9, 2014 · 9:08 pm

Dilapidated in America

Last weekend I posted a link to a video on how being too connected in the virtual world is dehumanizing us in the real world.  As one who hates cell phones and rarely use mine, I do look up and around me.  I enjoy looking up at the sky each day and noting the stars at night.  In public a sort of hobby of mine is watching people.  People are endlessly fascinating.  Last week I worked overnight shifts at my store to do some major resetting of shelves to a new lay-out.  The McDonald’s nearby stays open 24/7 so I ordered a large cup of unsweetened iced tea (yes, a sacrilege here in the land of “sweet tea”) and prepared to read a book on my kindle tablet during my lunch hour at 2 am in the morning.  Yes, yes, that sounds like it contradicts my cell phone assertion a few sentences ago, but bear with me as I go through another one of my stories.

I sat down with my iced tea fully intending to read, but an old woman sitting in a booth caught my attention, as she paged through an old dilapidated book, with yellowed pages, threadbare cloth cover and the binding so loose that the pages looked ready to fall out at the least draft.  The book seemed in better shape than this thin old woman, with her shabby clothes, unkempt long hair largely hidden by a straw floppy hat she had pulled down to mask most of her face.  All of the other patrons were co-workers of mine, yet none of them paid the least attention to this woman, but she piqued my curiosity.  I wondered why on earth was she in McDonald’s in the wee hours of the morning.

A couple of days ago I noticed an old, dilapidated little white car pull into the parking lot at my store, as I had just gotten into my car to come home for lunch, which I do every day when I work my normal daytime shift.  I come home, fix lunch for my husband, who is disabled, and make sure he’s set-up for the rest of the afternoon.  He has hydrocephalus and the shunt in his brain helped slightly, but he walks with a walker and has significant short-term memory problems.  Another story, but after over 24 years in the Army and being retired for over a decade, he’s still waiting to have his VA disability reevaluated.  Personally, it sure feels like nothing with the VA moves much.  The first go-around with this VA claim took two years and now that his condition is worse, well, this looks like it might take that long again.

But I digress, back to the old woman.  So, this little car with the front bumper hanging on by a prayer caught my attention.  Then I noticed that straw floppy hat and it all made sense.  Her car, I noticed was piled full of stuff.  She’s living out of her car.  Her car has been in the same spot for two days now and when I came home for lunch a few minutes ago, she walked past me heading into the store, as I was heading to my car.  She was wearing the same clothes and her ubiquitous hat. When I returned from my lunch hour she was heading out of the store, in a different set of clothes, with the same hat.  I assumed she cleaned up and changed in the restroom.   Of course, there’s probably a long pitiful story as to how she came to be living in her car and I’ve been weighing whether to try to help her.  I failed miserably trying to help the young guy who was sleeping on the swing display on the patio at work late last summer.  That I am hesitating even talking to this woman to find out her situation makes me feel guilty.  A dozen easy excuses come to mind, like I have enough on my plate with my own problems, like what if she’s got mental health issues or an even more worrisome head issue to me –  like head lice.  What if her stuff has bed bugs – yes, these are the shallow thoughts that crossed my mind.

Knowing that the social services behemoth of both state and federal programs don’t work to effectively help people in need makes me wary.  That young guy talked about being given lodging for a month under a homeless program, then being back on the street when his time was up.  He said he was on a waiting list for housing.  It’s like traveling in circles, one expert referring the hapless to another expert, on and on and on.  The churches don’t do much either. One big dilapidated social welfare mess, with no comprehensive coordination to take these people by the hand and lead them to a self-sufficient existence.

So, here I was thinking, if I offer a helping hand, I am committed to share her problems as my own to a great degree.  And the other part of me is anguishing that I haven’t already offered her a helping hand.  When I left work today, she had a dilapidated sun shade up in the windshield and towels draped covering the front door windows, with the driver’s side window down.  The backseat was piled high with stuff.  It was around 90 degrees Fahrenheit and she was in that car with one window rolled down and a towel blocking the air flow…

Look up, look down, look away – but I live in a small town, not a big urban area and I didn’t even think we had any homeless people here until last summer when Trey was sleeping on our swing display.

 

 

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Filed under Food for Thought, General Interest

May 5, 2014 · 6:03 am

Quick Ukraine Update

Ukraine still simmers and despite so many foreign policy pundits wailing about Putin’s imminent military invasion of eastern Ukraine, so far Putin seems to be holding back.  The interim quasi-government in Kiev made some military moves in eastern Ukraine over the weekend,  trying to reestablish control and so far Russia issued calls for more talks with Western leaders to defuse the situation, insisting they can not control the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.  The Kiev government’s actions increased the instability and with the deaths in Odessa of pro-Russian demonstrators, more violence seems a given.  Pro-Russian demands for Russian protection escalated, but Putin seems hesitant to initiate an all-out military intervention into eastern Ukraine.

Nightwatch offers a succinct analysis and report on current developments, citing the deaths of pro-Russian demonstrators in Odessa on Saturday, which resulted from clashes with Kiev supporters.

The West continues to bounce, continuing with what JK referred to as “trampoline sanctions”, as the Russian spokesman suggested we might want to use a trampoline to get to the ISS space station a few days ago.  Stratfor breaks down the imposition of sanctions against Russia with a good background on sanctions – “The US Opts for Ineffective Sanctions on Russia”.

The Indepdendent in UK reports: “Ukraine crisis: Kremlin insists it cannot control pro-Russian separatists and calls for dialogue with West”.

Expect John Kerry to bounce higher, grasping at moonbeams…… more hollow sanctions.  The Ukraine unrest looks likely to heat up.  Putin might decide to intervene directly if more pro-Russians die in clashes with Kiev forces.  It seems obvious that Russia would rather fight this as a proxy war , without directly engaging Russian forces.

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May 3, 2014 · 10:02 pm

Virtual living

“Look Up”, a spoken word film for an online generation.  That’s the description, but it’s a pretty harsh glare of reality about our virtually connected lives.

Here’s a recent study in “Pediatrics:  Official Journal Of The American Academy Of Pediatrics” on mobile device use by caregivers with children in fast food restaurants.  Children learn most social skills by patterning their behavior on the people around them.  The impact of the technology deluge isn’t fully understood yet, but the level of disconnection from people in our real lives as so many people live their lives  fixated on electronic devices can be observed all around us.   Keeping technology in its proper place in your life rather than as your life looks to be the challenge ahead.

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Filed under Food for Thought, General Interest

May 2, 2014 · 12:48 pm

Dude, this was like two years ago…

My blogging adventure began in December 2013, bringing me late to the Benghazi reporting game.  However, then and now, there remain plenty of empty seats in this game.  The mainstream press finally seems to have shaken free of the hypnotic Obama chants of “change you can believe in” and has begun asking a few questions.  Diplomad made me think about how much bloggers have written on Benghazi vs those card-carrying press reporters.  We’ve heard so many lies, from Susan Rice’s Sunday spin marathon to yesterday’s Bret Bair interview of a former Obama staffer, who stated, “Dude, this was like two years ago!”.  Will the light of truth finally shine on Benghazi?  I doubt it.  So much has been ignored by the mainstream press, to shield this administration’s appalling dereliction of duty.  Hillary flew the coop to Peru, in the wake of Benghazi and Obama continued fund-raising.  Getting to the truth, well, let’s refer back to my September 22, 2013 post on Hillary’s illustrious blue-ribbon panel entrusted to investigate Benghazi, who didn’t bother to record the interviews  in their investigation.  Their staff took notes and they compiled summaries  –  here’s how important accuracy was to these high-profile panelists:

In addition, the Committee has been unable to assess with any specificity what
information witnesses conveyed to the ARB during interviews. The ARB did not maintain
official transcripts of the testimony provided to the Board. Instead, it developed reports of each
interview based on the notes of staff and Board members. Mullen testified:

Q.   How were the interviews recorded? Was there a court reporter?
Was there video? Was there audio recording? Note taking?

A.  Note taking.

Q.  And none of the other options?
A.  No.

Q.  And how did it get put together?

A.  The staff would put a summary of the interview together. We
would — the members would be able to review that summary
shortly after the interview.

Q.  Any concerns with that?

A.  No.

Q.  That it wasn’t transcribed or recorded?

A.  No. From the standpoint of content, substance and content, I found
them to be very accurate.

Anyways, here’s a list of some of my previous posts on Benghazi. but hey, what difference at this point does it make?

Stay tuned – April 7, 2014

Short Libya Update – March 8, 2014

A Map – February 14, 2014

Another Benghazi Report – February 11, 2014

Benghazi ARB Report: Bird Cage Liner or Probing Investigation? – September 22, 2013

Benghazi: the Obama hens prepare to cluck, cluck, cluck – September 9, 2013

Mark Helprin’s Excellent Article On Obama’s Foreign Policy – April 10, 2013

KT McFarland Analyzes Benghazi Report – December 21, 2013

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Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics, The Media

April 27, 2014 · 12:57 pm

A worm saves the BLM from further scrutiny

A busy week in the real world kept me from this virtual one.  A year ago I posted a piece, “Janet’s Ammo Stockpile”, questioning the executive branch massive weapons and ammo acquisitions for numerous federal agencies.  I linked to a Forbes piece from 3/11/13,  “1.6 billion Rounds Of Ammo For Homeland Security?  It’s Time For A National Conversation”   Yes, whenever you raise the question of federal government run amok, the political Left chimes in with the “tinfoil hat” accusation, relegating your concerns to those of a kooky, conspiracy-nut, best laughed at and shooed away.  Of course, the Left would prefer all this shooing away to include confiscation of legal, privately owned firearms from said conspiracy-nuts. 

I’m just an ordinary working American taxpayer.  I spent most of my adult life as a homemaker, while my husband served in the US Army and then I found an ordinary job when he retired from the military.  We moved a lot with the Army and I enjoy observing people.  Likewise, I watch the news, in print, on TV and now online videos, in addition to listening to and reading the news reporting.  Often the pictures don’t fit the audio and print reporting.  Here’s a link to a piece on the Blaze about the Bureau of Land Management in this ranch stand-off story.  Look at the photo with the caption, “Armed agents for the Bureau of Land Management outside the Cliven Bundy Ranch in Nevada.”  On another site, you can find pictured a photo of a BLM agent, identified as a special forces soldier.  A blog, SOFREP,  (which I have followed for quite a while and enjoy), wrote a lengthy rebuttal of sorts on the photo and recording of said special forces solider, albeit, the SOFREP author is still trying to reach ground truth on the matter.

Here are a few common sense things I know (take that with a pillar of salt, lol) about the military and soldiers whose careers were in actual combat arms.  When combat arms types leave the Army, they face a harsh reality, unless they spent a lot of time preparing for this eventuality.  Most don’t fit in well with the corporate America mentality and their skill sets aren’t compatible with most civilian job offerings.  Police forces often would rather train some fresh recruits without ingrained military habits.  Private contractors for security adventures overseas hire many of these types of former soldiers and it wouldn’t surprise me that federal agencies building the “Obama Civilian National Security Force” would hire former soldiers.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center, presents FactCheck.org on the matter and this link pops up as the first Google link for a Obama Civilian National Security Force” search.  Don’t dig deeper, they’ve got it answered:

Q: Is Obama planning a Gestapo-like “civilian national security force”?

A: This false claim is a badly distorted version of Obama’s call for doubling the Peace Corps, creating volunteer networks and increasing the size of the Foreign Service.

FactCheck goes on to expand  that President Obama was being grossly misquoted and taken out of context on the matter.  Okay, but then how to explain regulatory agencies, not the military or law-enforcement, building paramilitary forces, stockpiling weapons and ammo, and even acquiring military-type vehicles?

Luckily for the mainstream media, the old rancher, Mr. Bundy, provided the perfect opportunity to avoid questioning what this BLM armed force is, how many comprise their force, what it’s purpose is, how much firepower does it stockpile, and exactly what in the hell it’s mission, legislative parameters are and who trains, commands and funds it.  We won’t find that out, because now, alas, Mr. Bundy, aside from being on the wrong side regarding his legal knowledge, also possesses some unsavory racial opinions too.  Thus the media focus can happily pivot from that unhappy line of inquiry and place the full force of its attention on rabid, right-wing racists, assuredly,  a much more comfortable area for their investigative vigor.

So, with Mr. Bundy, turning out to be a worm in one bad apple, whom even Glenn Beck wants to avoid being associated with, the press happily can avoid the BLM armed force questions.  Yes,  it’s back to being happy Obama propagandists again for them.  Much easier to focus on the worm in one apple than get too close to the cesspit that is the Obama administration’s “change you can believe in”.  Once again, who are those armed BLM agents in the pictures from the ranch in NV?   How many armed agents does the BLM have, who funds, trains, commands them?  And if you’re really daring, how about disclosing information about the armed forces in other “regulatory” federal agencies and for the most intrepid, tell us about the Department of Homeland Security’s massive arsenal and just who it is they’re arming and training to fight.  Yes, FactCheck, bravo for your pat answer:

“Here is the relevant portion of what Obama actually said, with the sentences quoted selectively by Broun and others in bold.

Obama, July 2, Colorado Springs, CO: [As] president I will expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots [from 75,000] and make that increased service a vehicle to meet national goals, like providing health care and education, saving our planet and restoring our standing in the world, so that citizens see their effort connected to a common purpose.

People of all ages, stations and skills will be asked to serve. Because when it comes to the challenges we face, the American people are not the problem – they are the answer. So we are going to send more college graduates to teach and mentor our young people. We’ll call on Americans to join an energy corps, to conduct renewable energy and environmental clean-up projects in their neighborhoods all across the country.

We will enlist our veterans to find jobs and support for other vets, and to be there for our military families. And we’re going to grow our Foreign Service, open consulates that have been shuttered and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 to renew our diplomacy. We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set.

We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded. We need to use technology to connect people to service. We’ll expand USA Freedom Corps to create online networks where American can browse opportunities to volunteer. You’ll be able to search by category, time commitment and skill sets. You’ll be able to rate service opportunities, build service networks, and create your own service pages to track your hours and activities.

This will empower more Americans to craft their own service agenda and make their own change from the bottom up.

Does that sound like a force that could kick down your door in the middle of the night and haul you off to a Gulag or concentration camp? You decide.”

– Brooks Jackson

You’re exactly right FactCheck, it doesn’t sound like a force that could kick down your door in the middle of the night, but from my observation, it sure looks like it could…  Yes, absolutely, you decide.

PS:  If you get really curious about the BLM,  Victor Keith posted a piece at the American Thinker, “One of the Biggest Fat Cats in America is the BLM”:

“The BLM controls some 40 percent of the national coal supply and collects more than 1 billion dollars a year in bonus and royalty revenues.  In 2012 alone, they collected a record 2.4 billion dollars.  There is great incentive for the federal government to put as many private coal producers as possible out of business.  It also shows why cattle ranchers are being inexorably driven off their lands by governmental policies.  The federal government has a much more lucrative plan for those lands that does not involve private property owners.”

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Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Gun Control, Military, The Constitution, The Media

April 22, 2014 · 5:52 am

News slop

Some analysts’ personal insights and advice prove more valuable than the story they’re analyzing.  John McCreary’s Nightwatch dissects foreign events using open source material and his analysis often seems more prescient than any of the big name reporters.  In the April 15, 2014  Nightwatch edition there’s a warning to analysts that should be posted in every newsroom:

“Warning to analysts: The Web has many images of military equipment and forces. There is no way to tell the authenticity of those images; to identify reliably who the forces are; to determine when the images were taken or to determine which direction the forces are heading. All sides know how to manipulate social media and imagery.”

Imagine how accurate the news reporting could be, if, we had more reporters looking at information dispassionately, critically and then getting off their lazy patooties and running down some facts.  Due to the laziness and lack of critical thinking ability amongst the vast majority of the mainstream press, when pigs fly would be the odds of that happening.  Just keep this Nightwatch warning in the back of your mind, as you consume the slop that’s fed to us as “news”.  We’re the ultimate junk food nation, even in our news feed.

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Filed under General Interest, The Media