Day: January 12, 2017

Closing Thought–12Jan17

Lately there is has been a wealth of stories in the news about Puerto Rico…most of it having to do with the island going bankrupt…..but there is a new twist to the story of this island state…..

Puerto Rico’s new rep to the US Congress filed a bill Wednesday that would turn the island into the 51st US state by 2025. The bill is the first step in a renewed quest for statehood that’s to include a referendum letting Puerto Rico voters choose between independence and statehood, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez tells the AP. She filed the bill less than a day after she was sworn in as Puerto Rico’s first female congressional representative, saying she aims to secure equal treatment for the more than 3 million US citizens living in the US territory. “We are treated as second-class American citizens,” says Gonzalez, a Republican who once served as speaker of the island’s House of Representatives.

The bill also aims to relieve a decade-long economic crisis that’s sparked a recent exodus of more than 200,000 Puerto Ricans to the mainland. If Congress ultimately accepts Puerto Rico as a state, the island would receive roughly $10 billion in additional federal funds a year, Gonzalez says. Puerto Rico became a US territory in 1898 and gained limited political autonomy when the US approved its constitution in 1952. However, islanders can’t vote in presidential elections, and their congressional representative has limited voting powers. Statehood is a top priority for Puerto Rico’s new governor, Ricardo Rossello, who has said he plans to hold elections to choose two senators and five representatives to Congress and send them to Washington to demand statehood, a strategy used by Tennessee to join the union in the 1700s.

The US has been raping the island for decades maybe it is time for them to enter into the union…..but first…..what says the people of Puerto Rico?

This should be their decision not some isolated fat cat in the Congress…..

Good day my friends…I look forward to your visits….

Tea For The Tillerson–Addendum

I wrote a piece earlier today on the president-elect’s choice for SecState….and his stand on issues that may impact his decisions as the secretary….

After his confrontation with Rubio there is a whole deal brewing around what could possibly happen if Rubio votes NO…..

When secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson testified before the Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, he faced the toughest scrutiny from Marco Rubio. The pair had a a number of testy exchanges, with Rubio skeptical that the ExxonMobil chief would be as tough as he needed to be on Russia in particular. As Quartz explains, this raises a potentially serious problem for Donald Trump’s nominee: The committee has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats, meaning if Rubio votes against Tillerson, that could prevent the committee from sending his name to the full Senate for a final vote. (The GOP’s Lindsey Graham also sounded a bit skeptical, notes CNN.) “I’m prepared to do what’s right,” said Rubio after the hearing, per Real Clear Politics. “I’m not analyzing it from a partisan standpoint.”

All of which sets up three scenarios: The most likely seems to be that Rubio will vote yes, content with having made his point about Russia. The second is that he’ll vote no and Republicans will find a Democrat on the panel to flip. The third scenario is perhaps the least likely, but also “fascinating,” writes blogger Allahpundit at Hot Air: In this case, the committee votes against Tillerson, but Mitch McConnell, under pressure from Trump, sends his name to the full Senate anyway. The Senate then has a tough decision: “Do they defer to the committee by voting no on Tillerson, knowing how angry Trump will be? Or do they make Trump happy by voting to confirm,” which sets a precedent for ignoring committee judgments and thus makes “plum committee assignments” less valuable than they used to be.

Now this will be interesting…..to see how Rubio handles his vote and how McConnell handles the aftermath….

If Rubio stands by his guns then I will have found a new respect for the person that I have not had at all.

Will he keep his cajones or will the GOP remove them for him?

Time To Come Home!

There has been no stretch where I would support the continuing role of the US and NATO in the country of Afghanistan….in 2001 we went to Afghanistan to get the son-of-a-bitch that masterminded the 9/11 attacks….it took awhile but we finally gave the asshole his just desserts.

For close to 16 years the US and NATO have been trying to give the Afghans the know how and the tools that they can become a self-defensive entity….after all that time there is only one conclusion….. we have failed!  And failed miserably.

After I read a recent report and I am more actively supporting a US pullout of the country effective immediately…..

Afghanistan needs a stable security environment to prevent it from again becoming a safe haven for al-Qaida and other militants, but Afghan security forces have not yet become capable of securing all of the country by themselves, a U.S. report said Wednesday.

The report, by the U.S. government’s Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, offered a high-risk list assessment for the war-torn country, two years after NATO-led foreign combat forces pulled out at the end of 2014, leaving only a smaller training and assisting mission behind.

SIGAR, which provides independent oversight of U.S. reconstruction funds for Afghanistan, also noted that despite the fact that more than half of all U.S. reconstruction funds since 2002 has gone toward building, equipping and training Afghan forces, they still have lost territory to the Taliban.

“The Afghan national defense and security force has not yet been capable of securing all of Afghanistan and has lost territory to the insurgency,” SIGAR said.

Last August, the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, or USFOR-A, said only 63.4 percent of the country’s territory was under government control – compared to the 72 percent that the military said was controlled by Kabul in November 2015.

SIGAR also noted at least seven other areas of concern in Afghanistan, including rampant corruption and drug trafficking.

Read On…….

Source: US report: Afghan forces not yet capable of securing country – WLOX.com – The News for South Mississippi

Time to do what empires have been doing for centuries…the British, the Russians even Alexander……just say F*ck it and bring our people home.

I mean…let’s be real we are accomplishing NOTHING as it is today with the exception of wasting money and resources…..even if we leave and things go wrong in the future we can always return to the days of blood and guts….we ahve NEVER been shy about that.

Tea For The Tillerson–Redux

I have said many times that the most important position in the new cabinet forming is that of the SecState…….and as the confirmation hearings begin for the Trump nominee, Tillerson, it might be a good idea to get a handle on his positions on different issues…but first during his confirmation hearing Sen. Rubio stated when he wanted Tillerson to call Putin a war criminal……

Rubio addressed that relationship immediately, asking Tillerson if he’d label Putin a “war criminal.” When Tillerson replied that he “would not use that term,” Rubio described the deaths of 300,000 Chechen Republic civilians in Putin-ordered bombings and the killing of civilians in Aleppo by Russia-backed Syria. Tillerson hedged, saying he’d need to see classified information first. “None of this is classified,” the New York Times quotes Rubio as replying. “People are dead.”

Wait!  I do not support this guy but this is a bit hypocritical…..would you label Obama a war criminal for the civilian deaths drone strikes cause?

Onward to Tillerson on the issues……

Rex Tillerson is a bit of a cipher on U.S. foreign policy, unless you view international relations purely through the lens of energy interests.

As the former chief executive officer and chairman of ExxonMobil Corp., Tillerson has vast experience dealing with foreign governments, security threats, as well as the State Department. But as an oilman, his goal was solely financial profit, not furthering the interests of the United States. “I had to do what’s best for my shareholders,” Tillerson told shocked State Department officials in 2011 after ignoring their pleas not to circumvent Iraq’s central government by making a deal directly with Iraqi Kurds. During his professional career, Tillerson has largely judged success through dollar figures, not nebulous measures such as whether a foreign state is becoming more democratic or more human rights friendly.

Source: Tillerson on the issues – POLITICO

Our reputation on the international stage and we had best pick the right person for the job…..I do not think this is the right person.

Trump’s 1st Presser

It’s been a long time coming!

If you were fortunately to miss the press conference of our new prez and feel like you may have missed something…or if you missed the circus and would like to know what was said……I can help….

Source: Read a Transcript of Donald Trump’s Press Conference on Conflicts of Interest | TIME

Sorry people…this was amateur hour…there was NOTHING presidential in this presser…it is gonna be a long 4 years….if this is any indication of what we can expect from our new prez.

Will Democrats Learn Anything About The Working Class?

This is the question that begs an answer.

Remember back to 2012 and the GOP was handed its ass by the Obama team and they set about having a party autopsy to see what went wrong….they identified all the areas that needed work and then ignored them all and kept doing the same silly shit they always do….and (poof) the Trump candidacy was born.

Fast forward to the 2016 election…the Dems had the perfect candidate, at least in their twisted little minds, and (poof) they had their asses handed to them…not even close to a good showing.

After their dismal showing in the election they set about trying to formulate a plan to win back the working class…but like the GOP it will be business as usual….money is in control and money will stay in control…..

This is a publicized look at what the Dems will probably not achieve…..

Appalachia and the industrial Midwest, like many places in the US, have their history of racism and sexism. But Donald Trump’s victory is not due solely to race and misogyny and, if the Democrats want to rebound, they must be careful not to draw the wrong conclusions.

Journalist Sarah Jones tells Jeff Schechtman that she is afraid that Democrats and others may be learning the wrong lessons. While people like J.D. Vance argue that the answer is to promote conservative culture and respond to the “crisis of masculinity” and Horatio Alger mythology, the problem is that taking the cultural perspective may be playing directly into the liberal elitist view of a region of “deplorables.”

Source: Will Democrats Learn All the Wrong Lessons about the Working Class? – WhoWhatWhy

I agree with the author…the Dems have lost their way and money is the only direction they will follow….just like the GOP.