Tag Archives: military

USAA

Well, it will happen this week as soon as they deposit my senior discount into my checking account at NFCU. What is it that will happen you asked? I will un-ass USAA after having been a customer since February 1974 (50 years for you non-math guys – LOL). It all started about a year or so ago when I had fraud on my USAA credit card. When speaking to a very nice woman (always), who was going to issue me a new card. I  was complaining about having to call all the companies that hit that card for recurring payments e.g., utilities, and she recommended I get another card and use it just for those recurring companies, but don’t carry that card with me. What a GREAT idea. She transferred me to another very nice woman (always). I  gave her all the information, and she sent it to the underwriting dept for approval. She came back on several minutes later and told me it was disapproved. Can you imagine the shock? She said they turned me down due to a credit report. I asked for a copy of it and the ONLY thing on the report was that I had three inquiries in the past two years. I refinanced my house three times to get to a 1.75% 30 yr fixed rate VA Loan. The bottomline statement said “There are no derogatory items on this report.” And by the way, my credit score on that report was 831. I wrote Mr. Peacock (President) who always boasts about loyalty. and told him where his loyalty really lies. A snooty woman (no longer nice) called a week later and tried to explain to me that the underwriters had to follow set policy. I asked who sets those policies and she tried to tell me it was the insurance industry. Bullshit, USAA sets the policy. I am a damn  Economist by education and hobby. I finally hung up on the bitch. Anyway, that was the beginning of the end for me and USAA.

Then they had the audacity to add something to my auto insurance policy this year without asking me. Something about “Car Replacement Assistance,” and Rental Car option. I called and talked to a very nice woman (as always, except for Mr. Peacock’s bitch) who said they added that thinking I might want it and that I may have forgotten to add renal car to my policy. I have a separate RV towing policy with another company that also covers rental car.  She removed them from the policy.

A month or so later  called and heard “Welcome to USAA, Press one for English or stay on the line.” Now, if I were in charge of a company who caters to military only like USAA, It would be “Welcome to USAA,” then in Spanish someone would say “Press one for Spanish.” Moot point you say? No it isn’t. I spent 36 years of my youthful life serving and bleeding for this country, and I refuse to deal with any company who asks me to press one for English. This is America and our damn language is ENGLISH! If you are Spanish and that upsets you, tough shit, learn English or get out.

There were other incidents that have caused me to un-ass USAA. But I decided I was going to look for another auto insurer because USAA has gotten way too expensive for my wallet. My policy is to expire on March 25th, and they raised my premium another 5% this coming year which will require me to pay a whooping $2,619.87 for a six month  policy.  Want to hear something funny?  They have the gull to tell me that they have given me $4,661.65 in discounts because of my bride and me being such safe drivers, etc. OK,  so had they not been so kind to give me that discount, my six month policy would have been $7,271.52 or 14,563.04/year. LOL Can you believe that? I can’t. I know I live in FL where no one knows how to drive, no one but me drives the speed limit, because here everyone believes a speed limit means you have to drive at least that fast. I believed all these years that I have lived here that everyone was paying these sort of premiums. Surprise! I did my due diligence and comparing apples to apples have found two reputable companies i.e., Progressive and Traveller’s  who will give me the exact six month policy I have with USAA for $1,687  (-35.6%) and $1,515 (-42.2%) respectively. And I am not done checking other companies since I have till March 25th to decide. Oh, and my cars are not expensive new cars. Nancy’s is a 2015 Lexus RX350 and Mine is a 2022 Mini Cooper

You may be asking what were my bonuses this year. The standard was $77.27 and my Senior bonus this week will be $262.02 for a total of $339.49. But that doesn’t even come close to reducing the upcoming policy to what I can get elsewhere.

So, my advice to all my military brethren, I suggest you do some due diligence on your own. Having spoken to Marine brothers of my vintage I am amazed at the huge number who said, “Hell. I dumped USAA years ago.”

I can’t wait to make this phone call and ask to speak to a Supervisor because the women who answer are always so nice and I do not want to shoot the messenger. Speaking to supervisor might have more of an impact on Mr. Peacock, but I have doubts, he’s a jerk as well. How much will USAA pay for ads on the Super Bowl tonight?

Comments sincerely welcome

Taxes

Once again, I am remiss in posting anything. My only excuse is age-related – I guess having turned 83, I’m just slowing down. Otherwise, my health is good. I find this latest from my friend and fellow Marine Greg earth-shattering as well. I cannot believe the Supreme Court can find anything in the Moore case to go along with the government. Absolutely crazy and could change everything about a capitalistic economy.

Taxing Tremors                                                              By: Greg Maresca

A 7.6 earthquake and its resulting tsunami on New Year’s Day that shook Japan set the stage as the faultless metaphor that will reverberate throughout 2024 and beyond.  With the impending presidential election aside, the tremors of improbability arrived a month earlier when the Supreme Court decided to hear a case with profound implications for the federal income tax.

Moore v. U.S. will decide if the federal government can tax unrealized capital gains not yet received under the 16th Amendment.  The justices agreed to hear the Moore’s appeal as the couple wanted their $14,729 refund that the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against. The Ninth Circuit, known in legal circles as the “Ninth Circus,” has the worst record of any appeals court before the Supreme Court.

Like Roe v. Wade did last year, this case will have a huge and lasting ripple effect regarding future taxation that should concern everyone.

It is no secret that the nation is accruing debt that is unsustainable. The day of reckoning approaches. The irony is the case is named Moore – indeed “more” income through taxation.

Over a century of income tax laws has resulted in thousands of pages of decrees that carve out craters of exemptions in a labyrinth of directives. The tax code is a bloated, crony orchestrated, lobbyist measured disaster for those unable to manipulate it by hiring all those cunning accountants and attorneys who are paid handsomely to circumvent it.

When was the last time a member of Congress did their own taxes?

A fundamental reckoning from the ground up is long overdue to bury the income tax along with the IRS and replace them with a consumption tax or flat tax.

To tax unrealized capital gains not yet received is extreme. The power to regulate and tax is the power to destroy. Congress’s authority to tax does not include reinvested capital and personal property as income.

Income is money received.

Assets may increase in value, but until they are collected as interest, dividends or sold, there is no income. If you cannot spend it, it is not income.

You can’t pay the rent or fill your gas tank with paper gains or the appreciation of your home.  When you gain on any financial instrument but do not sell you earn a “paper profit.”  If unrealized gains are taxed, and the taxpayer has no cash to pay, a forced liquidation would be necessary for payment.

Are you prepared to pay a tax because your assets go up in value?  House, car, pets, trading cards, comic books, Auntie Estelle’s antique coffee table – where does it end?   Provided market values decline would monies be refunded?  Stop laughing, that was no joke.

Uncle Sam wants all the golden eggs without having to buy the hens, the henhouse, and the chicken feed. The power brokers in Washington believe everything is subject to taxation real or imagined.

It is pitiful that this case is even necessary.

A tax in bad faith resulted in a revolution nearly 250 years ago. Such taxation realizes the socialist dream of equal outcomes regardless of effort, ingenuity, innovation, or lack thereof. Ayn Rand’s nightmare is finally realized.

The Supreme Court’s job is not about maximizing taxable income for Uncle Sam but to interpret if this tax is constitutional.

A ruling in favor of Uncle Sam will unleash Congress’ taxing power and devastate our economic system as we know it.  Going forward, all unrealized income will become whatever the government says it is.

The Supreme Court’s decision is expected in June right in the middle of the presidential campaign. Provided the government loses and refusing to allow what they perceive as a crisis; Democrats will condemn the decision as a political red herring.

A Moore victory would also challenge other sections of the tax code that stands at nearly 7,000 pages.  Provided they are unconstitutional; they must fall, too.

The income tax has been around since 1913 and its ability to produce revenue has never been assuaged by politics. The hardcore issue is the United States does not have a taxing problem, but a spending problem. Revenue is up but it can’t compete with current spending levels.

A ruling in favor of the government would only exacerbate such spending.

Postscript: I have given up on all the latest coming out of the military and especially our Corps. Absolutely sad! I am simply too old to even bother with it anymore. My stress level is more important to me.

In case you have not read your copy of the latest “Semper Fidelis, or if not retired and don’t get it, I always look at the “Taps” column looking for friends with whom I served. I saw MajGen Dennis Murphy listed this month. Sad, I considered him another Ernie Cheatham – a warrior. He gave me Huxley’s Whores.

Well, this is election year. Do we really believe the liberals are going to allow a legal, valid election? I don’t!

 

 

The Latest Casualty of the Marines’ Surrender to Political Correctness

Hi Gang, I know it’s been a long, long time since I posted anything here. My only excuse is the word “BUSY. The Young Marine unit I run has kept me hopping all summer. Maybe things will slow down a bit since school has started for them, but that remains to be seen and experienced. These kids are something else, and I love them all!

Having been sent the following post by my near and dear good friend and fellow Marine brother, Sgt Major Willie T. Reed, I just had to post it. It is disgusting and an outrageous example of what is going on in our Corps today. I’d say enjoy it, but if you are one of “us” I know you will not be able to.

It’s by Bill Lind who never minces words and tells it as it is.

Several weeks ago, the United States Marine Corps copied its old Japanese adversary and committed seppuku. It did so by relieving its best battalion commander and most promising future senior combat leader of his command, thus terminating his career. As another Marine lieutenant colonel said to me, “The last light shining in the darkness has been put out.”

The officer relieved of his command was Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Mainz. Some years ago Mainz, as a captain, was one of my students in a Fourth Generation War seminar at the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Warfare School. He was one of the best—bright, tremendous energy, a powerful personality, and an ability to get results. These are exactly the qualities the Marine Corps needs in its leaders if it is to implement its doctrine of maneuver warfare. Now that doctrine seems to be little more than words on paper.

Mainz, through the innovative training program he implemented in his battalion, had built a substantial and devoted following throughout the Marine Corps. Now many of his admirers are giving up and putting in their paperwork to resign or retire. Their hope is gone. A Marine major said to me, “The second- and third-order effects of his dismissal are massive.”

What led the Marine Corps to devour its young? The answer lies in the moral cowardice the senior Marine Corps leadership (and that of our other armed services) routinely displays in the face of “political correctness,” i.e., cultural Marxism.

Speaking to his Marines, as told to me, Mainz dismissed some of the administrivia that eats up much of their training time, saying something like, “We’re not going to do that faggot stuff.” A Marine understandably objected to his use of the word “faggot,” and a brigadier general ordered him relieved of his command. Of course it can’t be disputed that this was an unfortunate and inappropriate expression. A proper sanction would have been justified. But to destroy the career of one of the Corps’ best commanders for a lapsus linguae is ridiculous. Should this lapse wipe away all the good accomplished by this highly effective military leader—and all of his potential future accomplishments in a Corps that needs his leadership? And does the Marine Corps really want to put such fear into its best officers that they lose their force and swagger? [Note: The official explanation the Marines have issued for Mainz’s loss of command is that it was due to a “loss of trust and confidence in his ability to continue to lead the battalion.”]

Far from being an isolated incident, the relief of this brilliant officer points to the worm that is gnawing away at the Marine Corps’ vitals: preparing for war has become the lowest priority. A new book by a Marine attack helicopter pilot, now out of the Corps, Captain Jeff Groom, ably satirizes that reality. Subtitled “A Marine Remembers a Dog and Pony Show,” American Cobra Pilot points to the Corps’ real priorities: political correctness and “looking good” (which is very different from being good).

Most of the political correctness stems from the absurd social experiment of putting young Marines, men and women who sometimes are not out of their teens, together to work and live in close proximity while saying to the men, “If a single impure thought crosses your mind, if you so much as look at a pretty girl with a twinkle in your eye, you are guilty of sexual harassment.” The monks on Mt. Athos would not subject themselves to such temptation. Nor does the male Marine have to do or say anything sexual. If he gives a woman an order she doesn’t like, if he critiques the way she is doing her job, if he displeases her in any way, she can charge “sexual harassment,” knowing he likely will be considered guilty until proven innocent.

Why are the generals so terrified of “offending” the cultural Marxists? For fear Nancy Pelosi or some other congressional dingbat might go after the Marine Corps’ budget in retaliation. They seem to care about little else. Decades ago, when the situation was less bad than it is now, a Marine friend was in charge of setting up and running the commandant’s new “War Room” in Headquarters, Marine Corps. He said to me, “The only war ever discussed in it is the budget war.” The fact that many generals go to work at princely salaries for defense contractors once they retire (with six-figure pensions) may be relevant.

Meanwhile, as Groom’s book lays out, the Corps covers its poor job of preparing for war by putting on magnificent public displays, which Marines call “dog and pony shows.” The book focuses on a particular dog and pony show staged for the South Koreans that pretended to be warlike. But you need not travel far to see one. The Taliban could never put on as splendid a display as the Evening Parade on summer Friday nights at the Corps’ historic 8th and I barracks in the capital. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is winning, but what does that matter so long as the generals who have presided over our defeat keep getting promoted? As one Army lieutenant colonel said in print a few years ago, ending his career, “A private who loses his rifle gets in more trouble than a general who loses a war.”

Generals who show moral cowardice in the face of cultural Marxism—when Donald Trump is their commander-in-chief!—are not likely to demonstrate boldness and daring in combat. Field grade officers who “go by the book” and give their Marines scanty and mostly unrealistic training are failing in their primary duty. The dog and pony shows may look great to the public, but the ponies are wooden and the dogs are dead. The Marine Corps that relieved Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Mainz of his command is a fraud.

William S. Lind is the author, with Lt. Col. Gregory A. Thiele, of the 4th Generation Warfare Handbook.

Epilogue: The general who fired him is obviously a political animal who doesn’t understand the credo “My Mission, My Men, then Me.” He has them all backwards and is a BG who wants nothing more in his life than to be a MG. I know we have all worked for one of them in our career; I know I did and he caused me to retire from the Corps. I hope he rots in hell just like this POS should. Where’s Neller? Stand up and take care of your troops Commandant. That BG needs a group tightener.

Jim

Originally posted 2018-09-04 10:28:02.

“The Day of Delusion”

Once again, Mr Starmann sees what every “been there, done that” experienced combat veteran knows to be true. My only question is where’s General Mattis in all this utter nonsense?

By Ray Starmann

As the feminist Kamikaze bears down on the U.S.S. Pentagon, spineless brass sip Mint Juleps on the bridge, adding up their pensions and hoping to abandon ship before the US military is catastrophically killed in the next war.

Which it will be, if nothing changes, mark my words.

Across the military, standards are dropping faster than a Greg Maddux sinker; as lackeys, perfumed princes, feather merchants and cultural Marxist, Obama holdouts do their best to make the US Military the Laughing Stock of the World.

Standards are hitting new lows across the board in the military, in order to fuel feminists’ fantasies. There are currently no physical standards at the Special Forces Qualification Course. What does this mean? It means that your 90-year-old grandma can become a Green Beret now. The Marines recently chucked a grueling physical endurance test they had been using at the Marine Corps’ Officer Basic Course for 50 years. (not completely true Ray, it’s in the Infantry Officer’s Course, not the Basic Course. And it wasn’t chucked, it’s still there but no longer an immediate dis-qualifier.) There is no longer a requirement to throw a live grenade successfully at Army Basic Training.  And, Fort Benning, is pumping out female Rangers faster than you can say ‘shotgun wedding.’

If women are passing Ranger School honestly, let’s see the records for all the women who graduated, starting in 2015, and including 37-year-old Mommy Ranger.

I love the idea of a Mommy Ranger. She can seize an airfield one day, and pick up her son at soccer practice the next. Isn’t diversity cool? Oh rejoice, equal opportunity!

And, then there’s General Maude…!

 ‘These are the Mommies of Pointe du Hoc. These are the mothers who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.’

God Help us all. ‘Colonel Darby, who was a mighty brave, is rolling around in his shallow grave.’

It is all a gigantic lie, a Potemkin Village waiting to be burnt down, a US Government, machine fabricated Quonset hut of cards that will collapse the moment the first green tracer rounds go down range in anger at our vanguard of crack, female troops. It is all a mammoth Pinocchio. Feminists know it. The generals know it. The Secretary of Defense knows it. Yet, it continues to metastasize like an unstoppable cancer.

Liberals applaud all of it as some kind of 21st Century civil rights crusade tantamount to a Dr. King march. What it is really tantamount to is national suicide.

Want to know the current state of PC, liberal delusion wafting through the US military now? Just listen to the comments recently made by several female general officers during the Women Leadership Roundtable Discussion at the Pentagon on February 7, 2018, aka ‘The Day of Delusion.’

Major General Marion Garcia, commanding general for the 200th Military Police Command, shared her experiences with congressional staff delegates and fellow general officers at the Roundtable.

“I just know that the future leader of the Army is going to be a woman because that person is going to be infantry and come up through the ranks and do it. I know they can,” said Garcia.

Of course they can! Within a year there will be no physical standards remaining in the US Army, much less the entire military to accommodate women into the combat arms. Ten old ladies steering walkers into a Marie Callender’s is the new infantry squad of 2018.

The Day of Delusion continued with comments by Major General Tammy Smith:

“Women don’t go to Pathfinder School,’” she recalled as she conveyed the response she received when she asked to attend the course in her earlier years, even though the rules had changed, allowing her to do so. Today, that culture has changed drastically, and that situation would play out much differently, she said. There is recourse for a supervisor who prevents female Soldiers and officers to attend courses that they are eligible for, she said.

I wonder how Smith would have done on D-Day, jumping into Normandy in the middle of the night to light the drop zones for the main airborne effort? Why do I get the feeling she would have gotten pregnant to avoid being deployed to the ETO in the first place? But, back then, the military didn’t have to deal with this nonsense. In 1944, the military was focused on winning a world war, not on placating the feminist and LGBT lobby. To Smith, like most feminists, the combat arms and its schools are just useful tools for them to use on the road up the career ladder, national security be damned.

The general officers conveyed how the military has changed since they first joined, discussed the stigma of pregnancy in some command environments and talked about balancing civilian life and their military careers while serving in the Army Reserve.

The military has not changed. It has self-destructed like one of Mr. Phelps’ reel to reel decks.

“It’s not easy raising kids while you’re doing this,” said Maj. Gen. Mary Link, commanding general, Army Reserve Medical Command.

Well, General Link. If the Army wanted you to have a kid, they would have issued you one.

“The Army Reserve has been very good as far as being able to balance those other priorities in my life,” said Brig. Gen. Lisa Doumont, commanding general, Medical Readiness and Training Command.

“I had twins, and then I was pregnant with my third son, so I said, ‘You know, I want to be around,’ so I left active duty and came into the Army Reserve. It’s been wonderful,” she said.

Absolutely! The Army exists to serve the needs of pregnant soldiers. And, with the Army’s new breastfeeding and lactation policies, pumping and storing breast milk in the field was never easier! Remember, to balance lactation support with readiness!

Lt. Col. Angela Wallace, public affairs officer, Army Reserve Medical Command and moderator for the event, opened the roundtable discussion and set the scene for the panel, stressing how America’s security thrives when relying on every service member’s talents, regardless of gender.

Obviously, Wallace has never been in a war, much less a fire fight, much less within 5000 miles of any shot and shell. She should ask any surviving veterans of Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Pelelieu, Omaha Beach and the Bulge, how having women in the combat arms would have added anything except total disaster to those military operations and battles.

When Garcia was asked about her experience as a military police officer, she said, “This was one of those branches that had been open to women for quite some time.”

“(Military police) run gun trucks ahead of the infantry to clear the roadways and make sure they can get to where they need to go. We’ve been doing that for years,” she said. Really? Maybe for street parades, welcoming home ceremonies, and convoys to move farm animals out of the way. But, I dare say in combat, it would be Combat Engineers clearing the roads of IED’s, not people. That was a cheap shot that I would have hoped someone asked the general to elaborate on that one. But I’m sure no one did.

I’m not sure what Garcia is talking about, but it’s actually the infantry that seize and hold ground, not the military police. But, keep on dreaming, general.

Lieutenant General Gwen Bingham, Army assistant chief of staff for Installation Management, recalls an earlier time when her male leaders reacted to her pregnant appearance.

“Whoa, what happened here? What’d you go and do that for?” and “Soldier! What kind of uniform are you wearing? Is that the right uniform?” Bingham repeated. “Today, the military services are more pregnancy friendly. Maternity uniforms are available for pregnant service members and pregnancies are no longer seen as a hindrance or inconvenience.”

No, pregnancies are no hindrance at all. In fact, throughout history there are thousands of examples of pregnant soldiers fighting in battles, in fact whole units that were in fact, pregnant. Who can forget the 10th Welch ‘Bun in the Oven’ Regiment at the Somme? Where has the military been all this time?  Of course, the pregnant soldier is completely non-deployable, but don’t worry about that. The important thing is that the military is a big social welfare program and is there to provide its soldiers with cradle to grave benefits.

Maternity Army Combat Uniform… Let that bit of total lunacy roll around in your cabeza for a moment.

Goodbye Patton, MacArthur, Collins, Ridgway and Schwarzkopf. Hello, Garcia, Bingham, Wallace and Link.

God help us all.

Of course when questioned about the feminist destruction derby taking place in the military, the first thing out of the liberal mouth is that real bastions of militarism and prowess like Sweden have women in the infantry.

Bravo for the Swedes – they faded out as a group of bad ass killers in about 1100 A.D. with the advent of Christianity in Scandinavia. The only Vikings left are the guys from Minnesota who now play in a domed stadium because the snow is tough on their fragile Millennial bodies.

And, Bud Grant ain’t smiling…

Message to the Obama loyalists and feminists in the US Military. We ain’t Sweden. We ain’t Belgium. We ain’t Canada, nor are we Germany, a country that gave the world Rommel and the Afrika Korps, but now couldn’t find ten men with testosterone running through their veins.

On the contrary, the USA has some very tough and very determined enemies, enemies who will bringing planes, tanks, ships and MEN to the next war with us. And, we are in the process of committing national suicide.

I have a few questions for Generals Garcia, Bingham, Wallace and Link:

How does the integration of women into the combat arms increase or maintain a unit’s operational tempo?

How does the integration of women into the combat arms increase a unit’s strength?

How does the integration of women into the combat arms increase or maintain esprit de corps and the camaraderie of men in battle?

How does the integration of women into the combat arms not create a high school atmosphere in what was once a hard-nosed, all male, efficient group of steely eyed killers?

How does the integration of women into the combat arms increase or maintain our national security?

Do you understand that our enemies, who will be bringing only men to war, view us as politically correct imbeciles?

Besides given feminists a big warm and fuzzy, how does the integration of women into the combat arms do anything, but turn the US military into a feminized weakling?

Will you take responsibility for the thousands of dead women who will be arriving home in flag draped coffins in our next conflict, casualties of your stupidity, selfishness and dishonesty?

Of course you won’t. People like you never do.

The Day of Delusion speaks volumes about the current politically correct atmosphere that is burning down the military.

Infantry Women, National Security Equals Gender Neutrality, the Army is a Welfare Program and Pregnancies are No Hindrance to Combat Readiness.

The Hour of the Clusterfu*k is rapidly approaching and there is no one who has the guts to stop it. Hopefully, there is someone, and I believe he is waiting for the right time to stop some of this lunacy.

 

Originally posted 2018-04-08 08:12:40.

Vietnam War – Unbiased

As I watched this power point presentation it conjured up all sorts of memories, none were good memories, but memories I am proud of. I’ve not finished watching Burns and Novick’s biased series, which I sure many Americans now firmly believe was an honest depiction of that war. Meanwhile those who had boots on the ground have a  completely different view. I probably won’t finish watching the series now that I have read so many reviews by people I trust because their boots were alongside mine – on the ground. But as I clicked on each slide, I was vividly reminded how we lived, how we fought, and how we bled. The I think of  the current state of affairs that Obama and his cronies like Mabus and “Ash and Trash” Carter have left our military. As you watch this, think about women in the infantry, transgenders serving in these hell holes, think diversity supposedly making our military more efficient.  And tell me, show me, introduce me to an 18-year-old woman who could live through that and if she did would not be scarred for life. What fools we are!

Vietnam_War SLIDE SHOW

Originally posted 2017-10-18 10:20:22.