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.
Current Events

Another Open Letter

13 Comments

However, this one is not from some broken down, weather-beaten, aged, worn out retired Marine Grunt. LOL It’s from someone with a lot more personal knowledge and class.

John Maguire Dowd (born November 2, 1941) is an American attorney, former attorney for the United States Department of Justice, and former Marine Corps Judge Advocate. Dowd was employed by several law firms in the Washington, D.C. area for his expertise in defending clients accused of white-collar crimes. He was appointed by Major League Baseball (MLB) to lead the special counsel in multiple investigations with the organization in the 1980s and 1990s involving sports betting and bribery, the most notable investigation being the Dowd Report in 1989, which resulted in Pete Rose being banned from baseball for life.

From June 2017 to March 2018, Dowd was a legal advisor to President Donald Trump. On March 22, 2018, Dowd resigned as Trump’s lead counsel in the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference and possible ties to Trump associates.

Jim:
I slept on your statement and woke up appalled and upset. You lost me. Never dreamed you would let a bunch of hack politicians use your good name and reputation—earned with the blood and guts of young Marines. You did what you said you would—engage in this discourse. Marines keep their word.

The phony protesters near Lafayette park were not peaceful and are not real. They are terrorists using idle hate filled students to burn and destroy. They were abusing and disrespecting the police when the police were preparing the area for the 1900 curfew. Jim, this is the new nihilism. See Dan Henninger in WSJ today. Marines support the police in harms way.

Did you forget that President Bush used active duty Marines to quell the riots in LA? President Trump has countless cities and some snowflake governors and mayors wetting themselves in the use force to protect innocent lives and property. The AG of Massachusetts thinks burning property is good protest.
Three more policemen were stabbed and shot in NYC last night.
Think about it. Should he be upset about the obvious failure of leadership?

Where are you Jim?

Marines go to the fight.

No one divided this country more than Obama. He abandoned our black brothers and sisters. He gave guns to the cartels. He apologized for our precious sacrifice and generosity overseas.
President Trump has done more to help our minority brothers and sisters in the three years than anyone in the last fifty. Ask the black pastors. Ask the leaders of the black colleges and universities. He got them funded. Ask them about the prison reform which ended the draconian sentences imposed on young black men by the laws enacted by Biden and his hacks. You need to bone up on your homework and stop listening to Uncle Leon.

I understand, you had to stick to the assigned narrative which did not include three years of corrupt investigations and evidence to destroy this President, his office, and his lawful free election. Nancy has no tolerance for dissent in the ranks—including those with stars.
You said nothing of the ugly, hate filled, disgraceful comments of Pelosi, Schumer, Perez and other Democrat hacks defaming the President and his office. You said nothing of the unlawful sanctuary cities and the unlawful release of hoodlums. You said nothing of the resistance movement to paralyze our courts and our government operations. You said nothing of the obstruction and subversion of our immigration laws. You said nothing of MS-13 killers and the drug cartels who own huge sections of our major cities. Jim, do you think that hateful rhetoric and those corrupt actions were inspiring and unifying? Do you think the DI’s at Parris Island would find such behavior as unifying?

Maybe, your problem, is a lot deeper. Perhaps you ought to explain how and why you (and John Allen), as CG Central Command, did not engage and take out Iranian Major General Soleimani who roamed the Middle East and wreaked havoc and death of American boys with his infamous IEDs?

Why did it take President Trump to have the instinct and balls to take him out (of course over the objection the geniuses in the Pentagon)?

Looks like the Persian mullahs were a one horse sleigh and Trump nailed the horse….forever. It has been quiet ever since. Perhaps, your anger is borne of embarrassment for your own failure as the leader of Central command. Did you applaud when the President recognized the central problem in the middle east? Did you applaud the President when he wanted to save American lives by bringing them home in one piece?
John M Dowd

 

Postscript: LOL, my bride read this and wondered if the author was speaking to me as Mattis and I are both Jim’s. No, he was speaking to Mattis for sure. LOL

Originally posted 2020-06-06 12:17:48.

Current Events

My Open Letter to Mr. Mattis

486 Comments

I thought long and hard about this post, but after doing my due diligence to get the full drift of your senseless, destructive, undeserving slander of our president, I cannot hold back. Just so you know, this is from a retired Marine colonel who spent nearly as much time in uniform as you. And considering my love of the Corps and my brothers and sisters, it does not bother me one bit to state without any equivocation you are a disgrace to our Marine uniform.

Who do you think you are to speak out in such a disgraceful manner against a sitting president? Do you believe your rank entitles you to talk such trash? By your recent actions and words, you’ve aligned yourself with the Hollywood trash who think anyone with half a brain would take anything they say with a grain of salt. You Mr. Mattis (I will not call you by your rank — you do not deserve it) are a disgrace to my Corps. I believe the only people who genuinely care about what you said are your fellow Marines who are disgusted with your pompous ass.

According to your own words you have over 7,000 books in your library. It’s now obvious to me you have not read any of them. You said, “We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers.” WHAT? Are you kidding me? Where have you been lately, under a rock? Countless people killed and injured including many police officers, millions and millions of dollars’ worth of buildings destroyed and burned to the ground, many privately-owned stores and commercial establishments who had just opened after being closed because of the virus, all gone. Major stores looted; nothing left on the shelves. Yet you call that a small number of lawbreakers?

Then the biggest lie of all is when you state no president in your lifetime has been as divisive as President Trump. Where were you during the eight years of Obama? Oh, that’s right he fired your ass too. It seems the only arena in which you have been able to keep a job is in the military. Hmm, what does that tell me? Remember Mr. Mattis, I was there, well before you.

I always had my doubts about you especially after you fired a great Marine friend of mine whom I had a small hand in shaping his career. He told me things about you that caused me to believe you were nothing more than an egotistical liberal. I was, however, surprised when you took the job offered by President Trump to be our Sec Def.  But then he too fired your ass. I have not researched it in detail, but I do believe you are the first general to ever be fired by two sitting presidents, the first a liberal racist and the other a conservative doer. How does that feel? How’s that for a legacy?

You Mr. Mattis are a despicable, egotistical, self-centered person of no value to my country.

Signed; Jim Bathurst, Col, USMC (Ret)

 

Originally posted 2020-06-05 10:50:12.

Current Events

Have a Kleenex Handy

1 Comment

Trust me, you’ll need it.

Originally posted 2020-06-04 13:25:49.

Recent Posts

Welcome Home!

For those of us who served, this is a great tribute narrated by one of my favorite actors, Sam Elliot, who stared as the Sgt Major in “We Were Soldiers Once.” Turn up the sound, sit back, relax, and enjoy (if you can)

Originally posted 2020-05-31 09:30:23.

Recent Posts

Found: A Real Life Progressive

8 Comments

Good day folks, I hope your Saturday is going as well as mine. As you should know I don’t mind discourse of things I post here, but there are some rules. And if those who choose to comment do not abide by them, I simply block them. I do not allow vulgar language, nor getting personal.  I understand completely why someone would use an email address of namewithheld77@yahoo.com.  I mean no one  chooses to use their real name in that manner. But,  I do expect someone who wants to comment here to at least identify themselves with their name. I really have no trust, belief, or time for someone who uses the name “Redacted,” I simply shut them down, albeit this will be a first.

How can you even trust anyone who is afraid to use his/her name, I mean heck, the person knows my name and my email address, but they choose to hide their identity. Which is what I would expect of someone who espouses the kind of philosophy as shown below. Rather than answer his/her last hoot, I’ll invite my followers to do so, but a rule is a rule. I will not allow any more emails coming from “Redacted.” Either tell us who you are or remain a mystery and talk to yourself.

First is “Redacted’s” reply to the original post entitled “Why Trump in 2020.”

“RINO Trump. Bigger socialist than Obama. Bigger gun grabber than Obama. Outspent every liberal president over the past 100 years combined. Tramples the Constitution more than Obama. Put out advisories causing governors to issue unconstitutional state lockdowns, plunging the economy into depression over something the CDC now admits has a 99.74% survival rate. And he gets republicans to cheer for leftism. Bigly.

Who is living under a rock? That would be you, Jim.”

I responded with: LOL. OMG. Unbelievable, finally a real live progressive commenting on my blog. Wow, I love it. You have been listening to the MSM news too much sir/ma’am. Bigger gun grabber, bigger socialist than that racist Muslim loving pig before him? I cannot even find reason nor rationale worth repeating all your other “claims” because you cannot back up your mouth with facts. And most of all, you do not even have the integrity to state your name so you must not honestly believe anything you are saying. That’s manly or womanly of you. Carry on!

Then he/she responded with this; you may have to pause once in a while to control your laughter:

“This is a joke, right? RINO Trump has outspent every liberal president over the past 100 years combined and he did it in less than 4 years. How’s that taking away anyone’s golden egg? You think he’s going to suddenly become conservative and respect the Constitution in his last four years? He’s a bigger socialist than Obama. And he has you cheering for it.

If he’s “beholden to no one” then why did he pick all of the people in his administration from the same pool of subversive, anti-American Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg Group, Trilateral Commission, Goldman Sachs, George Soros affiliates, lobbyists, etc.?

“Receives no kickbacks, let alone his salary.” Sure. RINO Trump gives back his $400K salary, but he has cost taxpayers over $130 MILLION in golf AT HIS OWN RESORTS. Do the math, that’s a hell of a trade off. Plus he gets free security at all of his properties now, courtesy of taxpayers.

Hillary not locked up, never going to be locked up; he protects his cousin and enacts her agenda of more big unconstitutional government.
No wall. Mexico not paying for it. Illegal aliens pouring across the border; RINO Trump expanded catch-and-release.
RINO Trump did more gun control than Obama and wants more.
RINO Trump trashes the Constitution as much, if not more than Obama.

And you cheer for him.

Keep on lying for the man. You’re throwing away your integrity on a lifelong NY liberal charlatan who is destroying America.”

I simply cannot get my arms around someone who honestly believes what he/she is saying. Really? Nothing said can be factually proven to be even close to the truth. OMG,. I love it. Followers comments are welcome.

 

Originally posted 2020-05-30 10:52:53.