Images

What a Great Shot!

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.

BLM

Good Day Followers, I hope this post finds you well, safe, and enjoying life as best we can during these very troubling times within the world we live. I am so sick about hearing about BLM, I want to puke. It seems everyday there are more and more indictments coming out concerning the so-called leaders of this organization.  Finally, there seems to be a  significand rise in Black people realizing just what this organization is really all about. Lord, I hope hope so.  

From The “Patriot Post” MARCH 3, 2022

Marxist Envy Drives BLM Grifters

Black lives matter, and that’s why the organization that coopted that phrase as its name deserves utter condemnation for being little more than a bunch of Marxist grifters.

Consider Patrisse Cullors, the self-described “queer” and “abolitionist” (as in abolishing the police) cofounder of Black Lives Matter (BLM). If you doubt that she’s a Marxist, don’t just take our word for it; take hers: “We are trained Marxists,” she said. But she’s also a wildly successful capitalist because she managed to peddle her divisive tripe all the way to the bank, raking in millions of dollars and buying multiple mansions before “retiring” from BLM last year at age 37.

She must be content to sip chardonnay in the quiet spread of one of her four homes, chuckling at all the dupes who funded her lavish lifestyle, right? Wrong. Her recent interview with The Guardian begins this way:

“You’re gonna make me cry,” Patrisse Cullors warns when I ask how she feels about being criticized by other Black people. Then [she] turns away from the webcam and starts to sob, hand to her mouth. “I’m crying because I was prepared for rightwing attacks. I wasn’t prepared for Black people to attack me. And I think that’s probably the hardest thing in this position, to lose your own people. The people that you love the most, the people that you do this work for. The human being feels betrayed, the leader feels like: ‘Yeah, welcome to Black leadership. This is the f**king hazing.’”

She talks about having been to therapy, which she claims is “difficult because we don’t live in a world that cares for black people’s vulnerability.” What is she talking about? In the years since she and two others began BLM, she raised perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars ($90 million in 2020 alone), often from decent Americans who simply thought their gifts meant they were showing that they care for black people. Yet here’s Cullors, vengefully biting the hand that fed her, while admitting that she daily contends with “a lot of resentment.” Resentment for what? That she didn’t raise a billion dollars?

No, that she’s being “treated as the fall guy” for all of BLM’s missing money.

Speaking of Black Liars’ Millions, we recently noted that roughly $60 million of BLM’s graft was unaccounted for. Well, it seems that’s an underestimate. Thanks to BLM’s diversified network of fundraising arms, millions more dollars have mysteriously become what Democrats love to deride as “dark money,” vanishing to who knows where.

Whether or not Cullors used BLM money to fund her real estate or anything else, she certainly cashed in on the racial resentment and division BLM fomented. “I’m also a published author, writer, producer, professor, public speaker and performance artist,” she has said previously. “I work hard to provide for my family.” Indeed.

So why did BLM fail at financial transparency? “I think it’s because black people in general have a hard time with money,” Cullors said. “It’s a trigger point for us.”

Just imagine a white person saying that.

Her hatred of the police comes from her circumstances growing up. Forget the war on drugs, she says; let’s focus on the “war on gangs.” She describes growing up in 1990s LA where “essentially the federal government [was] declaring a war on brown and Black children and calling them domestic terrorists.” She claims it was “a literal war zone.” Going to school in a neighboring white community, however, is what fed her resentment and envy.

Her comments are actually quite enlightening about leftism generally and Marxism in particular. That philosophy and ideology is built almost entirely on envy. A Marxist thinks, Someone else has something I don’t, so I’m either going to take it or at least make sure they can’t have it or pay dearly for it. That’s obviously oversimplified, and it’s not to reject the reality that sometimes life isn’t fair. Sometimes it doesn’t seem right that one group has it so good when another group doesn’t.

But envy is a foundational idea behind Marxism, and building ideology on top of sinful desire is a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, Marxism is increasingly the ideology undergirding American leftism and the Democrat Party.

AMERICAN NEWS Mar 15, 2022 6:35 PM EST

Boston BLM leader charged with fraud in federal indictment

Monica Cannon-Grant and her husband are charged with three separate schemes: defrauding donors, illegally collecting about $100,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits, and lying on a mortgage application.

A prominent Black Lives Matter leader in Boston was arrested Tuesday, and she and her husband were charged in an 18-count federal indictment.

1-year-old Monica Cannon-Grant and her 38-year-old husband, Clark, were charged in connection with three separate schemes outlined in the indictment: defrauding donors, lying on a mortgage application, and illegally collecting an estimated $100,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits, Boston Globe reported

The pair allegedly raised more than $1 million in donations and grants for those in need, but used a substantial amount on themselves for expenses like rent on their Boston apartment, and buying a car for a relative.

In one case, Cannon-Grant was handed a $6,000 grant for her nonprofit, Violence in Boston Inc., to take a group of at-risk young men to a retreat in Philadelphia.
The trip never happened though, and she used the money to take a vacation to Maryland with her husband, dining at restaurants like Bubba Gump Shrimp, paying for groceries and car rentals, and visits to a Boston nail salon, federal prosecutors allege.
“While Cannon-Grant reported to the IRS and the state attorney general’s charity division that she received no salary, prosecutors said that in October 2020 she started paying herself $2,788 a week,” according to the Boston Globe.
This marks the first time that Cannon-Grant has been implicated in the schemes, and brings additional charges against her husband, who was arrested in October by federal agents after a raid on their Taunton home.
Her husband was previously charged with illegally collecting unemployment benefits and making false statements on a mortgage application.
After appearing before US Magistrate Judge Judith Dein on Tuesday, Cannon-Grant was released on personal recognizance, and was told that she could continue working at her nonprofit, but cannot handle the organization’s finances.
Cannon-Grant will be arraigned on the charges next week.
“VIB [Violence in Boston] and Monica have been fully cooperating and their production of records remains ongoing. Drawing conclusions from an incomplete factual record does not represent the fair and fully informed process a citizen deserves from its government, especially someone like Monica who has worked tirelessly on behalf of her community. We remain fully confident Monica will be vindicated when a complete factual record emerges,” said her lawyer, Robert Goldstein.
“We are extremely disappointed the government rushed to judgment here.”
Really?

Originally posted 2022-03-17 13:46:50.

A Day to Remember

The day of which I speak  is of no significance to anyone but me. However, as I grow older each year, I feel this undying urge to recognize it. So if you aren’t interested in my day to remember, just skip it.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt speaking of December 7th 1941 coined the phrase, “A date which will live in infamy,” my date lives in my memory as though it was just yesterday, not sixty-four years ago! I am certain many of you have a similar date as well. My high school friend—Teddy Wood—and I had left school before the report cards came out during our senior year and enlisted in the Corps.

What follows is an excerpt from Chapter #2 of The Book:

On March 6, 1958, after completing all the paperwork and physicals at Fort Holabird, Maryland, I said goodbye to Mom and Dad. Woody and I then boarded a train at the Baltimore station, along with several others, bound for Parris Island, South Carolina, where the Marine Corps’s East Coast recruit training facility was located. The recruiter entrusted to me a large, sealed manila envelope. I was to deliver it to someone in command when we arrived at our destination. He informed the group that I was in charge—my first responsibility as a future Marine.

The train ride remains a vague memory to me except that we were assigned to a specific car where we were told to remain for the entire trip. I recall that some of the boys brought along a considerable amount of beer smuggled in their baggage. They shared with some of the others, but I was much too nervous to do any drinking. I remember one of the boys boasting as to how he was going to breeze through this training—he wasn’t going to take any guff from the drill sergeants.

With each stop along the way, our car became more crowded with more boys on their way to this infamous place with an exotic-sounding name—Parris Island.

Most of us were asleep when the conductor shouted out that this was our stop—Yemassee, South Carolina. I stepped off the train into total darkness with a cigarette in my mouth. Suddenly it flew off somewhere into space with what I thought were a few of my teeth. This cantankerous fellow, wearing a hat I’d last seen on a bear with a shovel in his paw on U.S. Forest Service posters, was screaming for us to do something. I had no idea then how symbolic that hat was nor that I myself would someday wear it.

Everyone was running in circles, bumping into each other, falling down. The greeting Marine was screaming, “Move! Move! Move!” which we were certainly doing but had no idea where to. I heard someone crying out for his mother. Another boy was screaming for help—surprisingly, he was the one who bragged about not taking any guff from the drill sergeants.

Absolute chaos ensued. Finally, after several minutes of the Marine shouting at us, he pointed to a building. We all ran towards it, jamming the doorway, attempting to get through it and out of the way of this insane person’s wrath.

Inside the building were steel beds stacked two high with a bare mattress lying on them and bright lights in the ceiling with shades hanging over them. The Marine thundered, “Get in a rack!” What the hell is a rack? we wondered. I didn’t recognize anything that might be a rack, so sheer chaos returned as we all tried to figure out what exactly this fellow was directing us to get into.

Finally, someone jumped into one of the steel beds whereupon we all followed suit; some beds even had two boys squeezed together. The Marine yelled, “Freeze!” Immediately the room fell into total silence except for the springs of the steel beds squeaking slightly as we all lay very still. He turned out the lights, and slowly paced up and down the center of the room while telling us we were shit, slimy civilian shit. We were in for one hell of a time when morning came, he warned, so we had better get some sleep since it would be the last time sleep would come for the next four months.

Welcome to boot camp!

As I lay there, I could hear the muffled sounds of several boys sobbing, probably wondering like the rest of us, What the hell have I gotten myself into?

 I don’t know how long I slept or if I even slept at all, but suddenly the lights came on and a loud banging sound awoke everyone as a Marine was screaming at us to stand in front of our racks. The large metal trash can he’d thrown was still rolling around the floor as we scrambled from our supremely uncomfortable beds—now to be known as “racks.” We were then herded outside onto a greyhound-type bus. I had no idea of the time except it was pitch black and cold.

As I was boarding the bus, I remembered the manila envelope still lying on my rack. I was to have surrendered it to the appropriate person upon arrival—my first responsibility as a Marine and I’d blown it. I really did not want to approach this crazed Marine, but I had to retrieve that envelope. I reluctantly began, “S…S…Sir…I need to go back into the building to—” I never finished the sentence. He was screaming and spitting saliva all over my face. I had no idea what he was saying, but I sure wasn’t going to ask him to repeat it. He shoved me towards the building. I ran in, grabbed the envelope, and bolted back outside.

By the time I returned to the bus, I was the last one to board thereby forcing me to sit next to the ill-tempered, Smokey Bear-hatted Marine. I developed goose bumps as I took my seat, so close to this fearsome devil that I was expecting him to chew my head off just for kicks.

I distinctly remember the bus passing through a gate and seeing the Marine sentry smiling as we drove past. Other than swamps on both sides of the road, I could see nothing out the window—no lights—nothing that gave a hint of civilization.

We finally came to some buildings whereupon we were herded off the bus into a classroom filled with school chairs, the types that have a small desk attached to them. There were several other Marines waiting there for us.

After much shouting for us to find a seat and sit our slimy civilian asses in it, we were required to fill out a post card addressed to our parents. We were told to write them that we arrived safe and would write again later. Then they hurried us into another part of the building where we went through a line holding a metal tray out in front of us while someone piled food onto it. We ate in total silence. When we finished—mind you, this was not as leisurely a breakfast as we were accustomed to at home—we were herded back into the classroom.

The sun was just rising on our first morning as recruits—literally as well as symbolically.

The story continues . . . . . . .

Little did I realize it then, but that day changed my entire life forever, and thirty-five years, six months, and twenty-two days later I took off the uniform and became Jim Bathurst, USMC (Ret).

Oh what a trip it was, What’s say we do it all over again guys?

Semper Fi Brothers; Jim

 

 

 

 

 

 

                       March 1958                                         October 1993

Originally posted 2022-03-06 09:29:24.

Love Our Gov!

Ron just keeps on doing what a Governor is supposed to do, That’s work for the people. What a shame it is for the other states that have scumbags as Governor. But you know what? You get what you get with your vote!

WASHINGTON (LifeSiteNews) – President Joe Biden declared Tuesday it is “hateful” to shield schoolchildren from discussions of sexuality and gender that may be beyond their age level, in his latest attack on Florida and its Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential challenger to Biden for the White House.

SB 1834, the Parental Rights in Education bill, would block Florida school districts from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity with elementary school students, and give parents the ability to sue for damages over violations. It is one of multiple bills pending in the Florida legislature that would limit children’s exposure to sensitive sexual topics.

On Tuesday, the White House issued a statement claiming the legislation was “designed to attack LGBTQI+ kids” and would have the effect of “making growing up harder for young people.” It was soon followed by a statement from the president calling SB 1834 “hateful.”

NBC News reports that DeSantis signaled his support for the measure at an event in Miami, calling it “entirely inappropriate” for teachers to tell children things like “Don’t worry, don’t pick your gender yet” or withhold controversial classroom materials from parents.

“Schools need to be teaching kids to read, to write,” the governor said. “They need to teach them science, history. We need more civics and understanding of the U.S. Constitution, what makes our country unique, all those basic stuff. The larger issue with all of this is parents must have a seat at the table when it comes to what’s going on in their schools.”

“I also think one of the things that I think the legislature is getting at is everything should be age-appropriate,” DeSantis added, The Blaze reports. “My goal is to educate kids on the subjects, math, reading, science, all the things that are so important. I don’t want the schools to kind of be a playground for ideological disputes.”

Since taking office, Biden has aggressively courted the LGBT lobby in hiring decisions and executive orders. By contrast, DeSantis has aggressively pursued a litany of conservative priorities, including protections for religious freedom, conscience rights, and the objective reality of biological sex, raising his profile as a potential 2024 contender in the eyes of conservatives.

Originally posted 2022-02-12 09:41:18.

The Corps VIII

I served under 13 Commandants. First was Pate #17, and the last was Mundy #30. Of course  there have been 8 since my retirement leaving us with you know who  at #38. I had my favorites and my not so favorites. I did have one  who isn’t on either list.  Who might that be you ask? David M. Shoup. He did something that I doubt many of you know about.  He did give us the short sleeved shirt, which was a good thing, but then he did something I cannot forgive him for even to this day. He took away my EGA from our khaki and tropical uniforms. Yes, that is a fact.  Here is a photo of me at MB Yokosuka Japan in 1960. Note the collar emblems.

And here I am a year later on the same tour sporting our new short sleeved shirt, sans the EGA’s.This move sent shock waves throughout the Corps; every enlisted Marine from Pvt to SgtMaj was pissed. It caused such an outburst that  CMC came out with an explanation why he removed the EGA from enlisted uniforms. It seems the illustrious Uniform Board recommended the move due to complaints from Marines about the emblem punching holes in the collars of khaki and tropical shirts. Of course, that did not go over very well, since even to this day officers wear their rank insignia on their collars, and they have the same small pins the EGA had. Bad move CMC Shoup!

The result of Shoup’s move was, a private in khakis or tropicals without his cover was a nobody.  You know we were all taught to take our covers off inside! Therefore nothing on his uniform let the uninformed civilian know who or what he was. Hell, he could be a baggage boy at the airport or a bellhop.

So, why are you telling us this Jim, you ask? Well, as I said there were some FAVS and not so FAVS. I personally knew a few who made CMC and none of them are on my FAV list. There are three, however, who are most FAVS. They are Mundy, Wilson, and my most FAV is Robert H. Barrow. Those three understood the Corps’ values, traditions, and the true meaning of Semper Fidelis. They alone had more to do with saving our Corps than any of the rest during my time served.

We all know what is going on in our Corps today, which point to total and complete destruction of the Corps we knew. Here is a letter CMC Barrow wrote to the Les Aspin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee back in 1992. I ask you to carefully read what General Barrow was saying 29years ago, and listen to what the Woke Flag officers imbedded in our Corps are saying today about needed changes. Remember, General Barrow fought in WW II, Korea, and Vietnam; all three of those wars were different. Were he alive today, I am certain he would send a similar letter to the Senate today.

If I could communicate with my FAV CMC’s today, my only question would be why did you not give the enlisted back their well deserved EGA’s?

CMC Green Letter No. 1-92-1

I am sure my FAV three CMC’s are screaming from their graves. God bless the three of them!

Originally posted 2021-12-16 11:34:35.