Tag Archives: liberals

Current Events

A Messiah Awaits

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Are his comments not a breath of fresh air, and trust me they are not hot.  I am a Floridan, and if there is one thing you can count on from Ron, he means what he says and does what he says. Broward County and Disney learned that the hard way. 

 

From the Wall Street Journal                                          Thursday, 20 July 2023

Next Target for Ron DeSantis: the Military

Ron DeSantis is gradually laying out his presidential agenda, and on Tuesday he unveiled a plan to build a “Mission First” U.S. military. The Florida Governor has several worthy ideas to restore American confidence in the armed forces, though fighting the culture wars isn’t a substitute for preventing an actual war.

“We need a military that is focused on being lethal, being ready and being capable,” Gov. De-Santis said in South Carolina. The U.S. military is suffering from institutional drift, as senior officers rush to associate themselves with progressive causes. One example: Space Force Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt in a June speech unleashed a political broadside against elected state legislatures for considering what she styled as “anti-LGBTQ+” measures.

One good priority is reviving American military education. Gov. DeSantis is right that the service academies ought to be “narrowly focused” on disciplines such as engineering or military history and leadership. Civilian academics have taken over most military educational institutions such as war colleges, and the instruction is often, as Gov. DeSantis says, “substandard.”

The Governor, a Navy veteran, also says he would review the performance of every four-star flag officer and remove those who aren’t focused on lethality. There is reason to wonder if the services are producing the war fighting talent the country needs by picking leaders on the merits. More aggressive civilian oversight would help.

Case in point: In 2021 a Navy admiral suggested the service should bring back photos as part of promotion boards to achieve more diversity. Gov. DeSantis said he’d ban “race and gender quotas in military recruiting and promotions.”

The perception that the military is a political institution may be hurting enlistment, and the Army looks likely to come up at least 10,000 soldiers short this year. Gov. DeSantis says he will “restore national pride” in the armed forces, to include a school program explaining that the U.S. military “ has been a force for justice and good in the world,” which is at least a start. But an under-appreciated reason the services are struggling to recruit is that the force is too small and ill-equipped to fulfill its current missions. This wears out troops. President Trump boasts that he rebuilt the U.S. military, but he offered a one-time increase that only started to rebuild the readiness burned in President Obama’s two terms.

The defense industrial base also continued to erode on Mr. Trump’s watch. Contractors are now recalling retired engineers in their 70s to teach new workers how to build Stinger antiaircraft missiles that haven’t been in production for decades.

Gov. DeSantis’s special operation against wokeness will thrill his base, and he has correctly identified China as the top threat to U.S. security. His harder task will be building public support for a larger and more capable U.S. military that can deter the Communist Party from a terrible mistake such as invading Taiwan.

That will require convincing skeptical Republicans to increase defense spending—for example, building two attack submarines a year for the U.S. Navy, up from 1.2 now. Or speeding up the new Air Force strategic bomber. Or building a long-range missile inventory that can last more than three nights of fighting in the Taiwan Strait.

An aide to the campaign says Gov. DeSantis still plans to offer a broader defense agenda. But on U.S. support for Ukraine he’s too often catered to the isolationist right that would, in Ronald Reagan’s words, play innocents abroad in a world that’s not innocent.

Still, the Pentagon’s growing preoccupation with identity politics is corrosive to an institution built on cohesion and self-sacrifice. The country would be better prepared for a fight if a new President started to right the ship.

Has he nailed the problems or what? “. . . review the performance of every four-star flag officer and remove those who aren’t focused on lethality.” Wow, that would sure open up the promotions for three stars, albeit he should look at all flag officers, not just the four-stars.

Increase defense budget bother you? He’ll find other areas to reduce the funding e.g., all the woke shit, welfare, immigrant benefits, and many more. Ron is not a big spender, just ask a Floridan. Trump hasn’t talked about any of thee issues, because he is too busy calling people names.

My dream team would be Ron and  SC Senator Tim Scott. What a team that would make. Sorry guys but if you didn’t already know it, I am no longer a Trumper. He simply will not shut the hell up!

Originally posted 2023-07-20 09:26:59.

Current Events

A Colonel of Truth

1 Comment

I received this from my friend and Marine brother who writes a fantastic blog called by the above title. Read his latest. As always Andy nails it straight on the head, and feel free to leave him a comment.  You may have to copy and paste it into your browser.

https://acoloneloftruth.blogspot.com/2024/08/flynn-flammed.html

May the Lord bless patriots like Flynn, and I pray every day that there are millions out there like him (and us)!

Originally posted 2024-08-21 12:20:05.

Current Events

On The Road

10 Comments

I must apologize profusely for disappearing for such a long time. I have no excuse other than to blame it on so many birthdays (mine, of course—LOL) and so many items on my Bucket List that have eaten away at my waking hours.

For example, as I type this, my bride – Nancy, and my dog, Edgar – are sitting in the RV at a KOA in Watkins Glen located in the Finger Lakes area of upper state New York. We have been on the road since 27 July visiting kin on our way up the East Coast with an eventual destination of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, which has been on both mine and Nancy’s list for years. Of that, all I can say is been there, done that, no need to do it again. I did come away with a tidbit of information that made a significant impression on me. The amount of water coming over Horseshoe Falls is a phenomenal 34 million gallons PER MINUTE! WOW!

Anyway, we leave here tomorrow and go to Lake George, NY. We stay three nights, then head for the Flight 93 Memorial site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania—a must-see told to us by many fellow RVers and Marine brothers. Several recommended making sure one has a handkerchief.

Then we head home to the heat – which we have not missed at all. We expect to be in SWFL by the end of the month. 

We both have been extremely impressed with upper state NY; what a gorgeous area. If a bunch of die-hard idiot liberals didn’t run the damn state, we could see ourselves living here – during the summer months.

Anyway, my good friend and Marine brother, with whom most of you are familiar, sent me a column he’d written, and that gave me the incentive to make a post. As always, it’s a good read and filled with truisms.

The Buzz on the Bus                                                           By: Greg Maresca

Spending the summer behind the wheel of a bus has brought with it some interesting turns, detours, and plenty of spontaneous conversation. Many of the seniors on board do not get out as they once did. Others have little contact with the outside world except for their journey to various medical appointments, while some do not interact with many other than the small retirement community where they reside.

While driving, I do not like being beholden to the Global Positioning System (GPS), but there are times when it is the only option. Technology, when it works, can make any transition quite smooth but not when you’re sitting in a defunct parking lot or in the middle of a road surrounded by corn fields with no scarecrow in sight with the GPS informing anyone within earshot that “you have arrived at your destination.”

One distinguished gentleman and rider, a Vietnam veteran of two tours, noted how societies fail when tolerance becomes the ultimate virtue and is then defined by one party as gospel. He remarked about the irony of how Democrats preach tolerance of gays, illegal immigrants, and even convicted felons but then turn on fellow Americans who are Christians, conservatives, and republicans. As he stepped off into the smothering humidity, he parted with these words of wisdom: At this juncture, there is no excuse for NeverTrumpers to continue.

Then there was one woman (at least I thought she was female) who boarded wearing her surgical mask giving the ride a retro COVID-19 feel. She was the clear winner of the summer’s best bus rider mask that read simply: “Harris” with each letter emblazoned in a different color. It was the first campaign sign I witnessed in all my journeys extoling Harris for the nation’s highest office.

Perhaps she doesn’t realize how Kamala Harris as vice president owns each one of President Joe Biden’s failures that includes economic decline brought on by rising inflation, tens of millions of illegal immigrants, the Afghanistan debacle, and increased tensions, worldwide. Ironically, Harris opposes voter identification laws, but requires photo ID to get into her campaign stops.

Harris pleads with voters to elect her again, so she can solve all the problems that have been ongoing since she was first elected.

Harris entered the presidential race a month ago and has yet to give any interviews or press conferences with no blowback from journalists. Such behavior underscores how journalistic objectivity is a myth. One recent headline in a national publication read: “Harris Tough on Border.” This was not a satirical piece but an actual “news story.” Politics can be a pleasure when you have a complicit media working nonstop for your campaign and gratis, too. Time magazine admitted Harris refused to grant an interview for their cover story. Her media rebranding is something to behold as it is nothing but a complete fabrication in the first degree.

As such, the Biden basement 2.0 campaign strategy has officially commenced.

If it was successful once, why not again?

Despite a colluding media providing cover like bodyguards with every step her campaign takes, Harris’s extreme positions on abortion, gender ideology, parental rights, crime, and immigration are actually left of Biden, which should speak volumes but reaches only deaf ears.

Harris understands that to get debt-burdened Millennials to support her is by making promises in the extreme – Medicare for all, cancelling student loans and universal basic income. This trifecta of financial doom would have drastic consequences for the economy, stock market, and millions of Americans’ retirement accounts. But given Millennials’ knowledge of economics is just as pathetic as their comprehension of civics, it is the perfect paradigm.

I passed on telling this young woman that Harris and her bus driving hack have one thing in common: We both have never won one presidential primary – ever. And yet it is Donald Trump who is the real threat to democracy. I’m sure she would have been offended because if one disagrees with the left, one is not only ignorant and insipid, but evil.

The time is long past burying our heads in our phones and other narcissistic pursuits while our constitution and the republic founded upon it is being bused over a cliff.

Originally posted 2024-08-17 12:40:46.

Current Events, Recent Posts

Secretary without honor: Voices

6 Comments

6/16/2023 UPDATE: I posted this in 2016, and based on what is going on today with Trump, I decided to repost it bc I believe it is pertinent.  A lot has happened since the original post regarding folks in various positions disregarding the procedures for handling classified documents, some of whom are in jail while others are not. I am not condemning Trump bc I strictly believe in innocent until proven guilty, albeit the media doesn’t adhere to that dictum.

All I am asking is why isn’t this bitch in jail? Well, that’s an easy one to answer. Because she is a democrat. Over the years we have developed two sets of standards, one for  them and one for republicans. I liked what Pence recently said when he threw his hat in the ring for this next election. He committed himself to cleaning up the entire Dept. of Justice. The entire system is wrought with injustice; lady justice is not blind anymore.

Anyway, I reposted this one just to get into the fray. This thing with Trump will last a long time and will certainly not play out before the primaries. It will be interesting.

It is an interesting story line. BTW, when this was posted several ask what happened to Capt Chapman. He did, in fact, die from a scuba accident while stationed in Okinawa in 1979.

Stay Tuned.

This is a must read for anyone even considering voting for this person in the upcoming election. As one who grew up in the Marine Corps and imbued with the Honor, Courage, and Commitment with which the Corps adheres, I must vehemently agree with every word this author has written. Every politician, or anyone running for a political office needs to read this article. In fact, I will even go a step further and state that every so-called “citizen” of this once great nation should read this and do some soul-searching to see what their decision would have been in this captain’s situation. This officer’s father was one of the finest officers and Commandant of the Marine Corps under which I served. He did not attempt to save his son!

Hillary againWhen I hear people say Clinton emails don’t matter, I remember a young Marine captain who owned up to his career-ruining mistake.

Apologists for Hillary Clinton’s alleged criminal mishandling of classified documents say that it doesn’t matter, that she really did nothing wrong, or nothing significant. But the real question is not so much what she did as how she has responded to being found out.

Once during the mid-1960s when I was on active duty in the Marine Corps, I was the air liaison officer for a battalion of Marines aboard 11 ships in the Mediterranean. As the air officer and a senior captain, I had a rotating responsibility for the nuclear code book, kept in the safe in the operations room of the lead amphibious squadron command ship. I shared that duty with another captain, a squared away young man, liked by all he commanded and the son of a very high-ranking Marine.

On the day our ships were leaving the Mediterranean, we met the new amphibious squadron near Gibraltar and made preparations to transfer security codes and other sensitive material to the incoming Marine battalion. The young captain was on duty and went to the operations office to pick up the code book. He was alone in the office. He removed the code book and placed it on the desk while closing the safe. In a rushed moment, he stepped across the passageway to retrieve something he needed from his quarters. Seconds later, he stepped back into the operations office and found the operations sergeant having just entered, looking down at the code book.

Against all regulations, the code book had been out of the safe and unattended. It mattered not that it was unattended for only seconds, that the ship was 5 miles at sea, or that it was certain no one unauthorized had seen the code. The captain could have explained this to the operations sergeant. He could have told the sergeant that he “would take care of it.” He could have hinted that his high-ranking dad could smooth it over.

But the Marine Corps’ values are honor, courage and commitment. Honor is the bedrock of our character. The young captain could not ask the sergeant to betray his duty to report the infraction, no matter how small. Instead, the captain simply said, “Let’s go see the colonel.”

That captain had wanted to be a Marine officer all of his life. It was the only career he ever wanted. When he reported the incident to the colonel, he knew he was jeopardizing his life’s dream. But he did it.

The results went by the book. The amphibious squadron stood down. Military couriers flew in from NATO. The codes were changed all over Europe. The battalion was a day late in leaving the Mediterranean. The captain, Leonard F. Chapman III, received a letter of reprimand, damaging his career. He stayed in the corps and died in a tragic accident aboard another ship.

I saw some heroic acts in combat in Vietnam, things that made me proud to be an American and a Marine. But that young captain stood for what makes our Corps and our country great.

Clinton is the antithesis of that young captain, someone with no honor, little courage and commitment only to her endless ambition. This has nothing to do with gender, party affiliation, ideology or policy. It is a question of character — not just hers, but ours. Electing Clinton would mean abandoning holding people accountable for grievous errors of integrity and responsibility. What we already know about her security infractions should disqualify her for any government position that deals in information critical to mission success, domestic or foreign. But beyond that, her responses to being found out — dismissing its importance, claiming ignorance,blaming others — indict her beyond anything the investigation can reveal. Those elements reveal her character. And the saddest thing is that so many in America seem not to care.

Phillip Jennings is an investment banker and entrepreneur, former Marine Corps pilot in Vietnam and Air America pilot in Laos. He is the author of two novels and one non-fiction book. 

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns, go to the Opinion front page and follow us on Twitter @USATOpinion. 

Originally posted 2023-06-16 09:00:16.

Current Events

Parenting

8 Comments

I have been wanting to post something about this issue for years, but found others to talk about. However, the time has come that I MUST do it NOW! Thanks to my good friend and Marine brother, a retired Sergeant Major of Marines, who sent this to me this morning.  I enjoyed it and agreed with it so much that I had to read it twice. This guy has nailed it squarely on the head. 

COMMENTARY- The Blade, Toledo, OH

Parents, not guns, are responsible for keeping kids safe

 

BY MATT MARKEY BLADE OUTDOORS EDITOR

There were 361,119 hunters in Ohio in the most recent season. Michigan had 665,431 hunters. They carried shotguns, rifles, pistols, and lethal archery equipment, so they were armed to the hilt. But no one shot anyone else.

That’s more than one million individuals with firearms, but they didn’t settle a neighborhood squabble, a fight over a girlfriend, a dispute involving territory, a road rage incident, a case of perceived disrespect, or an instance of just looking at someone the wrong way, with violence.

They did not allow their guns, which most own for hunting and personal protection, to become weapons used to settle some petty discord, the result of which we see on the streets of our major cities on a frighteningly regular basis.

In that scenario, which seems to be playing out on an endless loop, lives end — too often those of innocent bystanders — families are devastated, mothers are left to mourn, the perpetrators end up in the prison system, and we pay to support them for decades.

And many of our politicians, community leaders, and sociologists hit the well-worn but ever-reliable default button of blame — Gun Violence. They are infatuated with that term. Make the lifeless device culpable. Focus your condemnation on a piece of steel. Claim that the inanimate object is the actual source of the evil.

There were more than 3,000 youths at the 2022 high school Target Shooting National Championship competition. Every one of them had a powerful shotgun, but nobody shot anyone. There will be more than 4,000 people taking part in the National Matches at Camp Perry this summer, firing rifles and pistols, but as has been the case for more than 100 years, nobody will shoot anyone, despite the abundance of firepower and ammunition on site.

Then we hear about a six-year-old in Virginia taking a handgun to school and shooting his teacher. The national news calls it Gun Violence, but nobody demands to know where he got the gun, where did he learn to use it, and where are his parents.

Two teens arrested after a recent brawl at a Columbus mall were found to be carrying fully-loaded handguns. In a Cleveland suburb, two boys, ages 12 and 13, were charged with aggravated murder for shooting down a 14-year-old schoolmate. The cases keep rolling in, and we lump them all into that convenient Gun Violence folder.

Much closer to home, the examples are equally abundant.

A 16-year-old is arrested for shooting and killing another teen near the playground area at Ravine Park Village apartment complex in East Toledo. A convenience store on Phillips Avenue is robbed by two gun-toting teens, and one of them dies in a shootout with police.

In January, a 15-year-old girl is found shot to death in a North Toledo alley. Three teens decide to shoot up a funeral in Toledo and two funeral home employees are wounded. A 15-year-old boy is killed and a 10-year-old seriously wounded during a Wednesday night shooting at Avondale and Brown avenues.

Other teens are injured in shootings at two in the morning where the gunslinger is also a juvenile. We have a news conference, bringing out the long faces and the somber tone, but nobody in authority asks mom and dad what their children are doing out at that hour. Nobody asks where they got the guns.

Instead, we make Gun Violence the boogeyman. We describe it as if it is the next coronavirus variant or an invasive species that just arrived from a foreign land. No one dares demand some personal responsibility from the parents of the youths involved in these shootings and other crimes.

We hear about these “violence interrupters” who are going to ride into town, work the streets, and put an end to kids killing other kids. That approach turned out to be a band aid that didn’t stick when applied over a metastasized gargantuan tumor, and a colossal waste of time, and money.

Still searching for a magic potion, we find a program from Kentucky. This is going to fix our Gun Violence problem. More programs, more government money, more meetings. But nobody wants to talk about parenting or your responsibility for the children you bring into this world.

When a juvenile believes that picking up a gun, pointing it at another human being, and pulling the trigger is the way to solve their problems or take what they want, we’ll have to go a lot further than Kentucky or Chicago — maybe to Heaven above — to find the solution. Because nobody wants to dare mention the source of the issue.

Kids learn a lot at home — both good and bad — and if home shirks this responsibility, then there are plenty of nefarious outside sources ready to fill the gap. And when kids see that irresponsible behavior is acceptable, as well as a lack of concern and culpability for their actions, they often take these same traits into a troubled adult life.

Like many kids, I found that my father was a very effective violence interrupter. You treated your neighbors, teachers, women, law enforcement, and your friends with respect because, from the earliest age, that is the way you saw your role model treating other people. And you did not want to transgress and end up in Dad’s court.

While searching for an appropriate and acceptable description for the kind of leadership we need at this critical juncture, when kids killing other kids has become so common, this came up — a comment from a Toledo police officer following yet another slaying involving our children.

“We need parents involved in kids’ lives. We need structure. We need routine. We need discipline. We need rules and boundaries,” this female officer said.

That should have been the mic drop moment that ended this circus of news conferences and proclamations and addressing this issue with wads of money and more bureaucratic folderol.

She nailed it, but I don’t think that perspective has been raised by anyone in authority ever since.

Contact Blade outdoors editor Matt Markey at: mmarkey@theblade.com or 419-724-6068.

My question has always been who is responsible when when a 10 or 12-year-old takes a gun from home to school and kills someone? No one wants to place the blame where it should be. instead we feel sorry for the parents, Oh my it’s so sad that my 10 year-old Johnny shot and killed his best friend over an argument. R U shitting me? Furthermore, the parents cannot believe that their son did something so horrific. It’s those damn slack guns laws. Really?

I know I will be criticized by some as being crazy or out of touch with reality, but I believe we should lock both parents up for ten years. Put that kid in a juvenile home and get his ass straightened out once and for all. It is time we start looking at who is actually responsible for a 10 year-old killing another kid.  Nuff said, and bring it on liberals!

 

Originally posted 2023-06-14 15:21:37.