All posts by Jim

Left HS before report cards came out. Enlisted in the Marines for four years. By the time those years were over, I was hooked - they had me for life. Spent nearly ten years as enlisted. Received a Silver Star, Bronze Star w/V, Purple Heart as a Sgt during first RVN tour. Upon returning to the State's received a combat commission to 2Lt. Retired after 36 total years as a Colonel. Book follows my career, but is more about the heroes with whom I served, the great mentors I had, and the leadership principles they instilled in me.
Recent Posts

Grab Your Sox, But Don’t Bend Over :-)

11 Comments

 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken Orders LGBT Flags Flown at U.S. Embassies, Will Name Special Envoy for Gay Rights

LGBT activists are cheering Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s announcement that he will reverse an order from President Donald Trump and put up “pride” flags at U.S. Embassies around the world.

OutFront magazine reported on the development:

The Biden administration is off to a hopeful start, as Secretary of State nominee, Antony Blinken, has confirmed a recommitment to LGBTQ rights.

In a memo from July 2020, former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper released a list of flags permitted to be displayed at U.S. military bases. Missing from the list was the LGBTQ pride flag, which Esper compared to the confederate flag. Prior to the ban, embassies raised the flag during pride month on the official embassy flagpole.

During the hearing, Blinken also confirmed that he plans to appoint an envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTQ persons, a position created by Barack Obama in 2015 that wasn’t filled during the Trump presidency.

Blinken claimed violence against that demographic increased while Trump was in office.

“We’ve seen violence directed against LGBTQI people around the world increase,” Blinken said. “And so, I think the United States playing the role that it should be playing in standing up for and defending the rights of LGBTQI people is something that the department is going to take on and take on immediately. Raising the pride flag is one way to outright show LGBTQ solidarity.”

“Biden is the first U.S. president to openly embrace a full range of queer rights, including transgender equality,” OutFront magazine reported.

Here he is folks, I assume we shall see and hear a lot from him for the next four years. OMG.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS, Have you been watching the gas prices of late? Keep watching them, me thinks they will be over $3.00/gallon by summer. How about the market, keep an eye on your 401K.  Where’s my $1600 stimulus check, I want to buy something. LOL

 

 

 

Originally posted 2021-02-01 14:52:35.

Recent Posts

Jumping the Stimulus Turnstile

1 Comment

Another very informative article from my good friend and strong contributor to the blog, Greg Maresca. To add to his great discussion, let me remind everyone that consumer spending makes up 70% of our country’s GDP. There many other ways to stimulate the economy and increase consumer spending at the same time i.e., tax cuts, which do not increase the deficit, but always bring in more revenue. Remember Reagan and his “Trickle Down Economics”?

 

 

 

By: G. Maresca

The COVID stimulus train has added another $1.9 trillion to its ever-growing caboose. Uncle Sam is running the nation’s treasury like a Parker Brothers’ board game. Through continuous stimulus spending, Congress, who controls the nation’s purse strings, has dismissed the burgeoning federal deficit outright.

The numbers throughout this COVID cash craze are astonishing: In just 16 months, the Federal Reserve has pumped over $9 trillion into the economy. According to Forbes, last June the U.S. accumulated more debt than in the 200-plus years from America’s founding in 1776 through 1979.

The stimulus bills have provided temporary relief but are toxic over the long-term. Nearly half of the unemployed will be paid more to stay home, while keeping unemployment artificially higher which will result in calls for more stimulus.

Economic incentives matter but handouts?

History will look back on this COVID era with disbelief that so many were bamboozled into believing that freebees were a good idea or even sustainable.

There is no real stimulus. Such semantics masks (pun intended) what is happening to the economy that resembles a Bowery wino. Government giveaways and money-printing have their inevitable effects. Stimulus checks will not grow the economy, but it will stimulate the federal debt and cause inflation.

Chetan Ahya, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, “The driving forces of inflation are already aligned, and a regime shift is underway.” Perhaps forgotten is that inflation is the most universal tax of all.

Bestowing money on those who work is scandalous because it steals from their children and grandchildren. Such fiscal policy only grows government and restricts liberty, while handcuffing small businesses – the economy’s driving force. Future generations will face burdensome taxation and cut services thanks to this intergenerational redistribution of wealth.

Stimulus spending has resulted in a higher national debt percentage of GDP than at the end of WWII and both political parties are to blame. They seem to believe that zero interest rates will last forever.

Politicians have not missed a paycheck, nor have they read the 5,600 pages of latest bill that is the handiwork of an army of aides acting on behalf of lobbyists and interest groups.

Some highlights have $750 million for border walls in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Oman and Tunisia. Apparently, the only country that Congress feels should have open orders is our own. Other pork chops include $1.3 billion for the Egyptian military, $130 million for Nepal; $135 million for Burma, $34 million and $85 million for Cambodia, and $231 million to pay down the national debt of Sudan, where apparently Sudan’s debt matters more than our own.

Ten million has been allocated for gender programs in Pakistan. Rather than cash, we should send the Pakistanis the annual army of leftist gender studies graduates. Don’t forget $600 to non-American citizens and the $40 million to the closed Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In an insult to fiscally responsible states, $350 billion is allotted to bail out states like New York and Illinois, who run yearly deficits.

For all their self-aggrandizing rhetoric about helping those in need with additional stimulus spending, the reality is that both parties are helping themselves to excess at the expense of future Americans.

Considering what has taken place over the course of less than a year, it begs the question: Will there ever be a time when politicians won’t be “stimulating” the economy? Tax, spend, regulate, then “stimulate,” which is just another synonym for more spending.

You cannot spend yourself into prosperity.

If history tells us anything the forgotten 1920-21 economic crisis taught that sometimes the best stimulus is none at all.

Rather than expanding government, a true fiscal “stimulus” initiative would promote and support the private sector. One of the best ways of doing that would be to reduce the regulatory and tax burden on U.S. corporations and small businesses.

Paying customers are the best stimulus for any enterprise, while allowing them to keep more of the money they earn would also underscore that it is their money, not Uncle Sam’s.

Instead of forcing businesses and schools to close, while restricting our civil liberties and bribing the masses through federal handouts, open up the economy, tax less and invest our taxes into America.

Watch inflation, it’s like Murphy, always waiting for a misstep, which Trader Joe will certainly provide..

 

 

Originally posted 2021-01-30 10:50:45.

Current Events, Recent Posts

America’s War on its Children Part III

11 Comments

OMG, here it comes folks. All of you in Illinois grab your socks! Remember you voted these fools into office so it appears to me you have two choices, suck it up and live with it, or vote with your feet. I did that two years ago. Who’s next? It’s a short report you won’t have to listen to the entire news program. BTW, a very dear friend of ours emailed this to me and added, “BTW, it’s already been implemented in my children’s school district.” WOW  Remember folks, knowing the new administration’s feelings on this, it could go nationwide, but you can bet your sweet bippy, our Governor will say Not only no, but,  HELL NO!. Will be interesting to see if the Illinois legislature passes this; my bet knowing their progressive stanch, it will pass. Stay Tuned! I realize this is, by far, “un-funny,” but can’t help laughing at these fools!

Can’t wait to hear your comments, especially if there any teachers out there.

 

Originally posted 2021-01-29 15:52:10.

Current Events

Lawyers

8 Comments

If you are a lawyer and reading this, I hope you can agree with what this brave one has to say. He is right on the money. I know not who the author is, but he nailed it. Read it carefully and absorb the full impact of what he is saying. Sure, as many Americans, I am sometimes scornful of lawyers. However, I never looked at them like he does and how they are impacting the sorry state of affairs in our once great nation., I believe the worst thing that ever happened concerning them was when they were finally authorized to advertise vice hanging out a shingle. Here in SW Florida, where the population is somewhat aged, every commercial TV break will have at least one, sometimes as many as three ads  touting such ludicrous statements as, “If you’ve been injured in an automobile accident , it does not matter who was a fault, you deserve compensation. Do not jump to settle with the insurance companies.” I consider it absolutely criminal  to make statements like that.

Anyway, this is a great article and well written and explains why we are at such odds with one another in today’s society. Surely the names he mentions will ring bells in your head. I wish I knew who wrote it. Enjoy.

As an attorney, I hesitated to forward this as it can be an indictment against my profession.  But I believe there is much truth to the article below.  Very thought-provoking.  Lawyers are adversarial and are trained to try to win at all costs.  It may work in litigation but does not work well when governing our nation.  Trying to win at any costs creates the polarization and hatred that now fills our country and leaves no room for common sense or legitimate debate

Every Democrat presidential nominee since 1984 went to law school, although Gore did not graduate.  Joe Biden (no surprise) was at the bottom of his class.  Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school.  Barack Obama was a lawyer.  Michelle Obama was a lawyer.  Hillary Clinton was a lawyer.  Bill Clinton was a lawyer.  John Edwards is a lawyer.  Elizabeth Edwards was a lawyer.  Look at leaders of the Democrat Party in Congress: Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is a lawyer.  Former Senator Harry Reid was a lawyer.

 The Republican Party is different.  President Trump was a businessman.  Presidents Bush 1 and 2 were businessmen.  Vice President Cheney was a businessman.  President Eisenhower was a 5 star General.  The leaders of the Republican Revolution: Newt Gingrich was a history professor.  Tom Delay was an exterminator.  Dick Armey was an economist.  Ex-House Minority Leader John Boehner was a plastics manufacturer.  The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.  Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer?  Gerald Ford, who left office 31 years ago and who barely won the Republican nomination as a sitting president, ran against actor Ronald Reagan in 1976.  The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work, who are often the targets of lawyers.  This is very interesting. I had never thought about it this way before.

 The Democrat Party is made up of lawyers.  Democrats mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Trump, Bush, and Cheney, or who heal the sick like Frist, or who immerse themselves in history like Gingrich.  The Lawyers Party sees these sorts of people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America.  And so, in the eyes of the Lawyers Party, we have seen the procession of official enemies grow.  Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail?  Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers, and anyone producing anything of value in our nation.

 This is the natural consequence of viewing everything through the eyes of lawyers.  Lawyers solve problems by successfully representing their clients, which, in this case should be the American people.  Lawyers seek to have new laws passed, they seek to win lawsuits, they press appellate courts to overturn precedent, and lawyers always parse language to favor their side.  Confined to the narrow practice of law, that is fine.  But it is an awful way to govern a great nation.

 When politicians, as lawyers, begin to view some Americans as clients and other Americans as opposing parties, then the role of the legal system in our life becomes all-consuming.  Some Americans become adverse parties of our very government.  We are not all litigants in some vast social class-action suit.  We are citizens of a republic that promises us a great deal of freedom from laws, from courts, and from lawyers.

 Today, we are drowning in laws.  We are contorted by judicial decisions.  We are driven to distraction by omnipresent lawyers in all parts of our once-private lives.  America has a place for laws and lawyers, but that place is modest and reasonable, not vast, and unchecked.  When the most important decision for our next president is whom, he will appoint to the Supreme Court, the role of lawyers and the law in America is too big.  When House Democrats sue America to hamstring our efforts to learn what our enemies are planning to do to us, then the role of litigation in America has become crushing.

 Perhaps Americans will understand that change cannot be brought to our nation by those lawyers who already largely dictate American society and business.  Perhaps Americans will see that hope does not come from the mouths of lawyers but from personal dreams nourished by hard work.  Perhaps Americans will embrace the truth that more lawyers with more power will only make our problems worse.

 The United States has 5% of the world’s population and 66% of the world’s lawyers!  Tort or legal reform legislation has been introduced in Congress several times in the last several years to limit punitive damages in ridiculous lawsuits such as spilling hot coffee on yourself and suing the establishment that sold it to you and to limit punitive damages in huge medical malpractice lawsuits.  This legislation has been blocked from even being voted on by the Democrat Party.  When you see that 97% of the political contributions from the American Trial Lawyers Association go to the Democrat Party, then you realize who is responsible for our medical and product costs being so high!

 

 

 

 

 

Current Events

America’s War on Children Part II

4 Comments

I’m sorry gang, you probably want to hear more about Trader Joe, but I just got this from Fox News and almost spilled my coffee reading it. Are there any sane humans still living in California? If you know of any, please ask they why and let us know what they say.  It has to have something to do with family, ya think?

Anyway, this is a hoot, I mean an absolute hoot,. Even worse than banning straws. What is interesting is to read what some members of the school board said to defend their 6 to 1 decision. They have literally no clue what they were elected to do. We didn’t hear from the one dissenting vote, wonder why? Maybe he’s in hiding?

What’s even funnier is to read some of the idiotic comments responding to this post by Fox News. Should you desire to do so, please cut and paste the following into your browser. Otherwise read on and enjoy!

https://www.foxnews.com/us/san-francisco-school-board-votes-to-rename-schools-honoring-washington-lincoln-feinstein-others

San Francisco school board votes to rename schools honoring Washington, Lincoln, Feinstein, others.

Replacing signage at the 44 schools will cost more than $400,000, a report says, plus other related costs. The price tag could also go up to around $1 million for schools to get new activity uniforms, repaint gymnasium floors, etc., according to the Chronicle. The district is facing a budget deficit.

Not even revered former presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson are safe from “cancel culture,” it appears.

The American icons were among a list of historical figures whose names will be removed from San Francisco’s public schools following a 6-1 vote by the school board Tuesday, according to multiple reports.

Washington and Jefferson were both slave owners and Lincoln, who ended slavery, became controversial because critics claim he oppressed indigenous people.

The presidents were among a long list of men and women whose namesake schools will soon be renamed. Others on the list include Francis Scott Key, who wrote the words to the national anthem, former presidents William McKinley, James Garfield, James Monroe, and Herbert Hoover, Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere and author Robert Louis Stevenson, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Even an elementary school named for current U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., will be changed over allegations that she replaced a damaged Confederate flag outside of City Hall when she was the city’s mayor in 1986, according to Courthouse News. She didn’t replace the flag after it was pulled down a second time.

Historical figures have come under a sharp focus since anti-racism protests swept the country last summer, with some protesters ripping down Confederate statues but also those of figures like Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and others they deemed offensive.

STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN WITH KNEELING SLAVE REMOVED IN BOSTON

Mayor London Breed rebuked the plan in October as “offensive,” saying the school board should be focused on reopening schools closed during the pandemic rather than renaming them. Wow, a sane statement in a sea of insanity; remarkable. Heck she might even have a piece of a brain left, ya think?

(Abraham Lincoln High School, among 44 schools targeted for renaming, is seen in San Francisco. (Google))

“It’s offensive to parents who are juggling their children’s daily at-home learning schedules with doing their own jobs and maintaining their sanity,” she said at the time, according to Courthouse News. “It’s offensive to me as someone who went to our public schools, who loves our public schools, and who knows how those years in the classroom are what lifted me out of poverty and into college. It’s offensive to our kids who are staring at screens day after day instead of learning and growing with their classmates and friends.”

Replacing signage at the 44 schools will cost more than $400,000, according to the Courthouse News. The price tag could also go up to around $1 million for schools to get new activity uniforms, repaint gymnasium floors, etc., according to the Chronicle. The district is facing a budget deficit.

While the board focused on renaming the schools in the Tuesday meeting, it did not discuss reopening schools from coronavirus shutdowns.

Other critics complained the panel that reviewed the appropriateness of school names used little input from historians and didn’t put the figures into a historical context or weigh their contributions with their failings.

Others argued the research process was thin, relying on selective sources and using websites like Wikipedia to back up claims.

NY TIMES COLUMNIST: ‘YES, EVEN GEORGE WASHINGTON’ STATUES MUST GO

In the case of Roosevelt Middle School, it wasn’t clear if the board knew which former President Roosevelt it was named for, but decided to have it removed anyway.

Board member Mark Sanchez, however, called the decision a “moral message.”

“It’s a message to our families, our students and our community. It’s not just symbolic,” he said, according to the Chronicle.

Board member Kevine Boggess, who supported the resolution, suggested schools shouldn’t be named after anyone.

We “should not make heroes out of mortal folks,” he said, according to the Chronicle. “I think we need to examine our naming policies across the district and really consider how the way we go about naming schools reflects our true values.”

School staff and families have until April to suggest new names for the schools.

Originally posted 2021-01-27 12:07:04.