Day: December 22, 2016

Closing Thought–22Dec16

School is out and a visit from my granddaughter….our conversation rolled around to school and education…..she asked a billion question about my time in school and we compared notes…

She then asked me why some people seem to disparage people that are educated…..a damn good question…..

I remember back in my younger days when my mother was determined that I get an education and then a good job and on and on….what we use to call the American Dream.

When I quit college after a year and enlisted in the Army she, my mother, was noticeably disappointed in my choice…..she was concerned that once I returned that I would settle for something less than she thought was best (a typical mother)……or that I would follow in my father’s footsteps and make the military a career.

I made her day when after the service I returned to school and finished my BS degree….sadly she passed before I finished all my studies….but I would like to think she is proud of what I have accomplished.

My hard work got me a good job with good wages, travel and life experience.

But these days to be educated, at least in some circles, makes you an outsider.  Today if you are educated and voice an opinion from a scholarly point of view then you are labeled many derogatory things……like an apologist or a bleeding heart or a socialist or something worse…today I am a “globalist”….(if the users had spent more time in school and less time with their head up their butt then they would know that they are using the term wrongly)

If you are an academic or scholarly or even opinionated then you are the dregs of society…you are a know nothing….and stupid……that is unless you agree with their warped sense of society….then you are a patriot even possibly a saint.

There is a certain sector of our society that cannot tolerate being wrong….that their opinions are the ONLY opinions……they do not want a society of thinkers but a society of head bobbing sheep…..people who will NOT question the reasoning of the day….or the warped reasoning of their minions.

These are the same “people” that wear flag pins, have bumper stickers and use the term patriotic and hero ad nauseum……and will label anyone that will not conform as un-American and a whole array of other labels that make absolutely NO sense.

The direction of the country appears to be one that I am concerned about….it has been coming for a long time but now it is front and center….to be educated in America is a negative……now where have I seen this before? (That is a history question that may require Google for some)

People are worried about a Pres. Trump….I am also….but when I start seeing terms like “traitor” and “cancer” applied to another American then we have a PROBLEM.

“It Costs How Much”?

I have spent most of the time here on this blog, IST, bitching about the waste of money by the government and the costs of all the wars we seem to want to fight.  My hope was people would see what I was saying and start demanding that their be my accountability by our elected governments, no matter which thief is elected….

A story is developing around the NDAA….that magic piece of legislation that makes our defense contractors rich by no amount of imagination….speaking of the cost of a pint of American blood or a pound of flesh…..

Congress wants every taxpayer to know just how much of their money went to wars over the last 15 years. Tucked into the annual defense authorization bill — expected to become law in coming days — is a provision requiring the Defense Secretary and Internal Revenue Service Commissioner  to post online all of the costs, “including the relevant legacy costs, to each American taxpayer of each of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.” –Military Times 

There is more……..

How much has the US spent on war since 9/11? That’s been a matter of major debate, with no real official figures on the matter, and estimates varying wildly from low-end reports on the cost of the literal deployments to much larger all-in figures covering the war and aftermath.

We’re going to finally get an official figure at some point soon, however, as the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has been revealed to include a provision requiring the Pentagon and the IRS to both figure out the overall cost of the wars and make that figure publicly available.

Like most NDAAs, the 3,000+ page 2017 version includes a massive number of requirements which were neither publicized before the fact, or indeed widely known once the bill had passed, with analysts still digging through it and finding new details.

Congressional estimates have put the Iraq and Afghan wars at $800 billion and $700 billion, respectively, while some analysts have suggested that once the costs for medical care for the massive number of wounded is factored in, the cost could be many trillions of dollars. The Pentagon and IRS may be in a better position to know for sure, and the pressure is certainly going to be on with this legislation for them to come clean about the matter.

(antiwar.com)

I will wait to see how far this goes…..I m not liking the chances that it will become known to us mere mortals anytime soon….that is unless we find another whistle-blower that will sack up and turn the info out.

One last thought…….

Will China Retaliate?

The phone call heard around the world.

Just after Trump was called the winner he received a call from the Pres. of Taiwan…..and I wrote about this turn at the time….

Source: “China-Gate” – In Saner Thought

I thought  then that the media was making more of this report than needed to be…but as the story unfolded there seem to be more to the report than first reported and of course being an opinionated SOB I had to write something again…….

Source: The Dangerous Folly of Provoking China – In Saner Thought

After the initial report and the situation developing I wrote an op-ed for my good friends at Ace News Room helping to explain the idea of a “One China” policy………..

Since Trump made his now famous Taiwan call or was it the other way around? Any way there has been lots of back and forth by his supporters on whether it is good or excellent that he bucked Mainland China in favor of Taiwan….

The first problem is that too many have NO idea what the “One China” policy is all about…..so I took it upon myself to educate those that would like to know and the others will yes nod approval anything this person does……

Source: The “One China” Policy | Ace News Room

This story has snowballed into a major foreign policy challenge for the new president……some are starting to fear that China, with no sense of humor, will retaliate for this slight…..

American businesses seem concerned they could be subject to Chinese retaliation for the recent pro-Taiwan moves of President-elect Donald Trump.

And there is reason for apprehension. On December 2, Trump took a call from Taiwan’s leader, Tsai Ing-wen. The Trump staff summary of the conversation reports the president-elect called Tsai “President of Taiwan,” suggesting he considered the island a sovereign state, a position anathema to Beijing.

Moreover, on Sunday in comments to Chris Wallace of Fox News, Trump questioned whether he was bound by America’s One-China policy, thought to be the foundation upon which relations have developed since 1979 when Washington broke off formal relations with Taipei.

Source: Will China Retaliate Over Trump’s Taiwan Moves? | World Affairs Journal

Of course all this is speculation….we will not know the answer to this problem until 20Jan17….will Trump find a way to soothe the mad beast?

Terminate The Libyan Campaign

We have been involved in the armed conflict in Libya from the beginning in 2011…..it was our participation along with our allies that brought about the end of Qaddafi….and it was our our participation that led to the rise of ISIS in the country and the ensuing civil war…..after 6 years it looks like we will pull our fighting out of the conflict….

A new statement from US Africa Command (Africom) has declared the US military campaign against ISIS in Libya to be “concluded,” following the fall of the last ISIS territory in the city of Sirte in recent weeks. 495 airstrikes were launched over the course of the conflict.

The US launched its war in Libya back in August, promising to defeat ISIS and support the “unity government” in taking the rest of the nation over. That government announced it’s “final push” against ISIS back in early September, but the fighting continued for months more. Even then, ISIS forces mostly withdrew from the city.

Despite nominally presenting the conflict as “over,” Africom’s statement also promised to continue US military involvement in Libya to help the “unity government” fight against ISIS across the country. In effect, they are just rebranding it as something short of a full military campaign.

It may also spell the end of the US directly trying to prop up the “unity government,” one of several factions which styles itself the rightful rulers of the country, and which controls part of the city of Tripoli, along with Sirte.

(antiwar.com)

One down about about 5 major others to go.  At least that is what we are told.

The Real Saboteurs of a Trump Foreign Policy

Of course few Trump supporters remember the crap spread about Obama after he was elected….and now those same idiots are whining about the attempts by the Dems to de-legitamize the election that elected Trump….what did you think would happen?

From the very start of this past election I said it would be about foreign policy because we have so many entanglements that could lead to more and more devastation….

Now that we have a new president with an unproven track record….my concern is what he will do and where….but no matter where he turns the Dems will be waiting to greet him with obstructionism…..

An interesting piece written in the American Conservative by Pat Buchanan, not one of my typical go to guys…….but it makes a few good points……

The never-Trumpers are never going to surrender the myth that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the hacking of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee to defeat Clinton and elect Donald Trump.

Their investment in the myth is just too huge.

For Clinton and her campaign, it is the only way to explain how they booted away a presidential election even Trump thought he had lost in November. To the mainstream media, this is the smoking gun in their Acela Corridor conspiracy to delegitimize Trump’s presidency.

Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sees Russian hacking as a way to put a cloud over the administration before it begins. But it is the uber-hawks hereabouts who are after the really big game.

Source: The Real Saboteurs of a Trump Foreign Policy | The American Conservative

Yep another diversion that will have little to do with the day to day lives of Americans….but it will make for good politics.

Please do not think for a moment that I am endorsing anything that Buchanan offers up….only this is something to consider.