Monthly Archives: November 2024

Current Events

What a Great Shot!

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Hello Gang, I’m back. Sorry for the long disappearance, but my bride and I needed to get away from this house once it was finally put back together after Ian. We took off on 31 July in the  new (to us) RV in search of cooler weather, which we did not find until we got to Northern MN. Had a great 30+ day vacation and really enjoyed the northern  States of MN, WI, and MI. We especially liked the latter and spent several days in what they call the “UP.” We even spent a day on Mackinaw Island; what a treat that was. I learned the significance of the different spelling of Mackinac and Mackinaw. LOL

Anyway, Greg sent me a new article and I loved it and decided to post it today. I hope you like it.

 

The shot seen round the world                                      By: Greg Maresca

 

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, how much does that infamous mugshot of Donald Trump rate? Taking advantage of what Trump believed an opportunity, he posted the photo to the social media platform X after its release.

The numbers back Trump up. According to politico.com within the first 24-hours, The Donald’s 2024 presidential movement raised $4.18 million making it the single-highest 24-hour funding period of his campaign to date.

Booking photos of scandalous celebrities, the nefarious, and the reprehensible are nothing new, but this was of a former president of the United States where nothing like this has ever occurred in American history.

Such an event was unnecessary. Who wasn’t aware that Trump was under indictment in four jurisdictions that a typical mugshot was a necessity?  Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly who has photographed ten presidents, said the Trump photo will be “the most published photograph ever.”

Ever since Trump announced his presidential campaign from the escalator of the Trump Tower in Manhattan in 2015, he has been a nonstop moving target for Democrats, their allies throughout the media and the unelected bureaucratic swamp that is the deep state personified. Baseless allegations and name-calling were just part of the daily activities as that echo chamber refused to stop ringing.

Both Trump impeachments were counterfeit and served as a blatant diversion of the deep state’s machinations that continues to chug along at full bore.  Considering the nonstop freight train that continues to pummel Trump over the last eight years, the Queens, New York native is still standing and is more cognizant than Joe Biden was 30-years ago.

The photo reminded me of a Parris Island dress blue photo shoot where only your war face would suffice. Any semblance of a smile or even a smirk would earn the wrath of the nearest drill instructor.  Trump’s pose would not have disappointed as it was a “you’re fired” scowl straight out of The Apprentice.

Booking photos are usually an exercise in humility. Trump made it into an opportunity to showcase his campaign’s grit and determination. The image is now blazoned on T-shirts, coffee mugs, even shot glasses and since mugshots are copyright free expect more of the same.

Photographs are much more than their pixels – they hold much of their mystery in perception – a moment forever frozen in time.  Trump is a living meme and more than willing to fight no matter the odds.  The mugshot is a rallying point for his base. Moreover, the photo is a significant political portrayal on just how far American politics continues to unravel at blinding speed.  Those pixels of Trump have cemented itself alongside iconic photos like the Iwo Jima flag raising and the flight at Kitty Hawk, securing itself a unique place in American history.

However, this is not a celebratory photo, no matter what political affiliation you identify with.  Since the advent of the FBI’s Most Wanted List, what criminal ever faced so many indictments in different jurisdictions nationwide simultaneously?

Other than those whose eyes fall here; how many folks do you know that truly recognize what this situation represents?  Conservatives understand that their Judeo-Christian culture is under attack and that it is them who is the primary target with the former president providing cover.

If a parent speaks out at a school board meeting, they are a domestic terrorist.  If a pro-lifer prays while hindering access to an abortion clinic, expect an early morning raid from the FBI. Declare that only women can get pregnant and be prepared for a garden variety of backlash.

Meanwhile, the Bidens, Clintons, Barack Obama, and every swamp dweller gets off scot-free.

Keep electing Democrats and expect more of the same.  The choice is elementary: either you are for this White House administration that is Obama’s de facto third term, or you are not.

The cases against Trump are all scheduled to be heard during the middle of primary season. If anything, it will showcase the Democrats’ duplicity and most of all their hypocrisy. When will the reality that the nation is drifting toward tyranny cast out the mote out of thy leftist’s eye?

The Left got their prized Trump mugshot.

The question remains – will it backfire?

Postscript. Today as I write this there is a service going on at the Quantico, VA Marine Base cemetery and afterwards a  memorial at the Marine Corps Museum. I wish I could have been in attendance, but matters at hand did not allow me to do so. The service and memorial was for a great friend, a decorated hero, a Brother, and a dedicated Marine. His name was LtCol Vic Taylor, USMC (Ret). Although Vic was my monitor as a Major, I did not meet him until after we both retired and he lived on his ranch in Steamboat Springs, CO, and I on mine in Roscoe, MT. 

He sent me a picture of himself one time after we had a conversation on the phone about our early days in the Corps

LCpl B.V. Taylor, a Marine’s Marine!. My thoughts have been about you all day my Brother! God bless you sir!

 

 

 

Originally posted 2023-09-11 15:09:27.

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Send in the Marshalls

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See my highlighted red. Send in the Marshal’s. I mean send Federal Marshals to the head of Homeland Security , and simply say give us the report or come with us to jail. Ge’ez I believe they have the power, but are a bunch of wimps and afraid to use their authority. How dare they ignore an order from congress. What has happened to my once great nation?

DHS accused of sitting on damning border report as immigration issue drives presidential race

By Malia Zimmerman, William Lajeunesse

Published September 15, 2016

FoxNews.com

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Federal lawmakers seeking to pinpoint the number of illegal immigrants who successfully sneak across the southern border ordered up a report from the Department of Homeland Security, but the agency refuses to release it and instead cites a misleading statistic that overstates the number who are nabbed, sources told Fox News.

DHS denied it is holding back the report, but sources say it was completed in November and that it shows roughly half of adults who attempt to cross the border make it.

But that number is at odds with DHS’ official estimates. The agency claims authorities catch 80 percent of adults trying to sneak in, but critics say the figure is padded to make it appear border security is more effective than it really is.

If released by the Obama administration, the true numbers could have major implications in the current presidential race, in which illegal immigration and border security have become a key issue, say observers.

One source familiar with the report told Fox News that DHS is suppressing the report for “political reasons . . . because it would ‘look bad’ and ‘help elect Donald Trump.”

Republican lawmakers are furious that the report they ordered is not being released.  Oh my, they are furious, really?

“It erodes the trust as to whether the administration is being honest with the American people about what the threat is,” said Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., who serves on the Committee on Homeland Security and chairs the Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee. “This should not be a partisan issue. Democrats, Independents and Republicans in my community want to make sure that border communities are safe.”

The report was requested by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees as part of the Fiscal 2016 Omnibus Bill, but has been shrouded in secrecy. Viewed by a select few in key administration figures, critics say it is being withheld because of its explosive findings, which could potentially benefit GOP nominee Donald Trump. FoxNews.com requested a copy from both DHS and the White House, but was told the report is not yet finished, an assertion disputed by sources familiar with the process.

“Any suggestion that DHS is delaying release of a report on new border enforcement measures for political reasons is false,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News. “To the contrary, at Secretary Johnson’s direction, DHS has been making significant progress in the development of such measures. At this point, however, the work is still preliminary and requires further refinement, to ensure the new measures are accurate and reliable.

“The November 2015 report purportedly obtained by Fox News is one building block provided by a research organization DHS has been working with to develop these measures,” the spokesperson added.

The study was written by analysts from DHS and the outside firm Institute for Defense Analyses, and is the most extensive survey of illegal activity and U.S. enforcement at the southwest border to date. Researchers went to the southwest border three times over 9 months and conducted independent surveys of Mexican migrants caught by the Border Patrol. They also reviewed Border Patrol intelligence, internal DHS records, apprehensions at ports of entry and detention records. The report was peer reviewed by a number of experts.

The document examines, in part, the Interdiction Effectiveness Rate (IER), or the number of adults caught at the border by law enforcement. But when DHS briefed members of the House and Senate earlier this year, sources familiar with the report say it was blended with non-IER statistics, such as unaccompanied children and those who surrendered to Border Patrol. Those figures were used to buttress the claim that only 20 percent of would-be illegal immigrants are successful when the real IER estimation was half, sources said.

“There is a distrust, because of the shifting measurements,” McSally said. “We would like to follow up with those researchers and better understand what is going on related to suppressing those results, if that’s an accurate report.”

It is concerning, but not surprising, that the Obama administration has kept secret this credible research, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy research for the Center for Immigration Studies.

“It appears to me that this research could have been suppressed because it contradicts the Obama administration’s narrative that the border is secure, and it contradicts the administration’s wish for people to believe that illegal immigration is a thing of the past,” Vaughan said.

The taxpayer-funded research should be released to the public and available for review by experts, said Edward Alden, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a co-author of the CFR report, “Managing Illegal Immigration to the United States: How Effective is Enforcement.”

“How can we expect Congress to make decisions on border enforcement if it doesn’t know how many people are entering illegally, if it doesn’t know the apprehension rate, if it doesn’t know the detection rate…. what percentage of people the border patrol is seeing,” Alden said. “All of these are critical variables about making intelligence decisions about border enforcement and they simply at the moment are not in the hands of the Congress and the public.”

The irony is the data, by and large, reveals what appears to be a “good news” story, Alden said.

“We have seen a significant decline in illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States and it’s clear that the Border enforcement build-up has been a big reason why that decline has been as sharp as it has been,” Alden said. “Our estimates suggest that the number of successful illegal entries has fallen from extremely high numbers — more than 3 million annually up to the mid-2000s — to much, much smaller numbers, about 250,000 last year. Keep in mind that these numbers do not represent individuals who came to stay in the United States – these are the total number of illegal border crossings.”

The numbers have fallen dramatically in recent years partly due to economic and demographic changes, such as a smaller population of young Mexicans looking for work, Alden said. But enforcement also has played a significant role because the odds of getting caught while crossing have gone up and, more importantly, the consequences for getting caught are much greater, he acknowledged.

The Institute for Defense Analyses report is not classified or marked in any way and can be publicly disseminated without restriction, sources said. But the chances of it getting out look dim, as a decades-old report also commissioned by DHS — the 2006 “CBP Apprehensions at the Border” study prepared by the Homeland Security Institute — also has never been released.

Originally posted 2016-09-15 11:18:37.

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The DD-214

For a Veteran, the DD-214 is the most important document he should have in his possession. Oftentimes, over the years it gets lost, or upon discharge the Vet doesn’t realize the importance of it and loses it. Now there is one place the Vet can go to obtain a certified copy. You can get nothing accomplished at the VA without your DD-214. Please pass this on to every Vet in your address book.

 

DD-214 Request Online
The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) has provided the following website for veterans to request a copy of their DD-214’s online:

http://vetrecs.archives.gov/ or try
http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/

This may be particularly helpful when a veteran needs a copy of his DD-214 for employment purposes. NPRC is working to make it easier for veterans with computers and Internet access to obtain copies of documents from their military files.

Military veterans and the next of kin of deceased former military members may use the online military personnel records system to request documents. Other individuals with a need for documents must still complete the Standard Form 180, which can be downloaded from the online web site.

For next of kin needing an expedited search because of a death of a veteran you can call 314-801-0800.

Because the requester will be asked to supply all information essential for NPRC to process the request, delays that normally occur when NPRC has to ask veterans for additional information will be minimized. The web-based application was designed to provide better service on these requests by eliminating the records centers mailroom and processing time.

Please pass this information on to former military personnel you may know and their dependents.

For more on veteran benefits, visit http://www.military.com/benefits

Originally posted 2016-09-12 09:54:17.

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The Truth About

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22 Veteran Suicides A Day

By Stacy Bare

Body BearersWhile the suicide rate among veterans from operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom is still too high, it’s not 22 a day.

There is a statistic that has been widely quoted in the veteran community that highlights an estimated 22 veterans a day are committing suicide. It is a deeply troubling statistic and has galvanized the veteran movement, both from inside the military and veteran communities, and externally, to bring about a wide range of programming nationwide. The statistic, however, is widely misunderstood.

This figure — 22 veterans a day commit suicide — while widely touted by politicians, media outlets, veterans service organizations, among others, comes from the VA’s 2012 Suicide Data Report, which analyzed the death certificates of 21 states from 1999 to 2011, and often is not provided within the right context. The report itself, as cited by the Washington Post earlier this year, warned, “It is recommended that the estimated number of veterans be interpreted with caution due to the use of data from a sample of states and existing evidence of uncertainty in veteran identifiers on U.S. death certificates.” As an example, the average age of veteran suicides within the data set was nearly 60 years old, not representative of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans generation.

A more recent study, which surveyed 1.3 million veterans who were discharged between 2001 and 2007, found that “Between 2001 and 2009, there were 1650 deployed veterans and 7703 non-deployed veteran deaths. Of those, 351 were suicides among deployed veterans and 1517 were suicides among non-deployed veterans. That means over nine years, there was not quite one veteran suicide a day,” according to the Washington Post.

While veterans have a suicide rate 50% higher than those who did not serve in the military, the rate of suicide was, as the LA Times reported, “…slightly higher among veterans who never deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, suggesting that the causes extend beyond the trauma of war.”

Coming home from war, a six-month deployment on a ship, or simply transitioning from a life in uniform to a life without one, can be difficult and the various state and federal systems set up to deal with this transition and life after military services are unable to meet the need. That is not to say these programs — the Veterans Affairs entitlement and benefit programs like medical care, the G.I. Bill, the VA Home Loan, etc. — are not helpful; they are. But, for my generation of veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, our suicide rate is closer to one a day and most likely to occur in the first three years of return. While this this is still very troubling, it is not 22.

Still, there are further steps needed in bridging the gap created by those who serve and those who don’t. Supporting integration back into families and communities requires robust public-private partnerships. The veterans, as well as the communities they live in, are both responsible for filling or bridging that gap, though not necessarily equally.

The challenges of adjustment and transition, post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, and physical disabilities, all need to be addressed especially as these things result in barriers to education, employment, health care, and overall individual well-being. Many of these needs are being met by a combination of different veteran-serving nonprofits and VA support. Unfortunately, there are still gaps in the system.

We in the veteran advocacy community need to tailor our programming, especially if we are in the business of preventing suicides, to respond to what we’ve learned from the data. One suicide is one suicide too many. Effective programming to help service members, veterans, and families transition to a positive life after service in their first three years home from service is a must.

Another requirement is fostering supportive community relationships for veterans, and really for all people, when life gets difficult as they surge past the age of 50. It also means that if we are serious about tackling the problem, we need to be creating, or rather shifting, programming specifically to address the needs of older veterans while maintaining preventative care for recently returned veterans.

As soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, we all prided ourselves in uniform on not making the emotional decision, but the right decision. As veterans, we should have the same commitment and that means we need to act within the framework of facts — in advocacy and programming. Inadvertently, we’re preying on a well-intentioned public by citing a misleading statistic to receive financial support and that’s not right.

As veterans, we’re far more resilient than we’ve given ourselves credit for. If we do our job now, and extend a helping hand to our brothers and sisters over 50, we can decrease that suicide rate, and ensure our generation avoids despair in the future.

Stacy Bare is focused on providing programming and advocacy for veterans and others to engage in the power of time spent outdoors. He is working on a project, Make Adventure Not War, that will allow him to ski or climb in the various countries he deployed to during his time in service. 

Originally posted 2016-09-11 12:54:43.

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You Watch and Decide . . . .

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If this person fit to be the leader of the free world, and more importantly the leader of our country? This is an astounding report by someone that appears to know what he’s talking about and supports his premise with medical facts. Believe me, it may be a tad long, but if you care about our country and it’s future you need to watch it to the end.

 

Originally posted 2016-09-07 15:07:58.

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