Day: June 20, 2018

Closing Thought–20Jun18

These days with the children thing and the quotes saying that the Bible made them do it….I thought I would look at the Founders and their religious convictions….

I get tickled because so-called conservs say that we must keep Jesus in the Constitution…well actually he was not named God was but Jesus was left out for some reason.

The reason basically many of the Founders were “Deists” and not Christians……but why not take a look at 5 of the Founding Fathers that probably could not get elected these days because of their religious beliefs……

To hear the Religious Right tell it, men like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were 18th-century versions of Jerry Falwell in powdered wigs and stockings. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Unlike many of today’s candidates, the founders didn’t find it necessary to constantly wear religion on their sleeves. They considered faith a private affair. Contrast them to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (who says he wouldn’t vote for an atheist for president because non-believers lack the proper moral grounding to guide the American ship of state), Texas Gov. Rick Perry (who hosted a prayer rally and issued an infamous ad accusing President Barack Obama of waging a “war on religion”) and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum (whose uber-Catholicism leads him to oppose not just abortion but birth control).

https://www.alternet.org/here-are-5-founding-fathers-whose-skepticism-about-christianity-would-make-them-unelectable-today

Did you know that Jefferson put together his own version of the New Testament?

Jefferson’s goal was to clarify the teachings of Jesus which he believed provided “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.”

But do yourself a favor and read for yourself…..

http://thejeffersonbible.com/

Time for my posting day to come to an end…..be well….chuq

“To Infinity And Beyond”

We have our military branches…Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard and now our president has ordered yet another branch of the military…a 6th branch……a Space Force.

Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard … and Space Force? President Trump, speaking at a meeting of the National Space Council at the White House Monday, ordered the Pentagon to create a sixth branch of the military, Politico reports. “We are going to have the Air Force, and we are going to have the Space Force, separate but equal,” Trump said. “It is going to be something so important.” He specifically asked Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford to oversee the process. “Our destiny beyond the earth is not only a matter of national identity, but a matter of national security, so important for our military and people don’t talk about it,” Trump continued. “When it comes to defending America, it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space, we must have American dominance in space.”

Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat and former astronaut, quickly tweeted that generals “don’t want” a space force. But some, including two Republican members of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, backed the initiative. Congress proposed, but ultimately rejected, a move to create a Space Corps within the Air Force while debating the fiscal 2018 defense policy bill; the House proposes the creation of a US Space Command in its version of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, but it’s not clear if that will remain in the final version of the bill. Neither of those proposals, however, is quite the same as the creation of a standalone Space Force military service, an idea Trump first proposed in March. CNN notes that such an idea has “drawn skepticism” from the Pentagon in the past, and the Washington Post says experts have pointed out Trump can’t create a new branch of the military without congressional approval.

Seriously?  Yet another military to be funded and not to worry the cowardly Congress will roll over and suck at the presidential teat….truly a group of cowards that do nothing but raise money and kiss up to the president.

BTW this is NOT a new idea at all……

The notion of a Space Force has long been bandied about in Washington. Last year, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama called for the formation of a space corps within the Air Force as a precursor to an independent service branch. (The Air Force, itself, was similarly established from the Army Air Corps.) The idea was shot down by Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who opposed the measure on the grounds that the military was trying to “reduce overhead,” and that a new branch would do just the opposite. Someone, however, must have made Trump think all of this was his idea. And now it’s policy.

http://theweek.com/articles/779779/does-america-really-need-space-force

Oh boy…..your child can grow up to be a Space Marine….bad enough that we are fighting on every continent on earth now Trump wants to extend it to space.

The beginnings of the Galactic Empire…..

A Space Force…..there are so many questions that need to be asked…….

https://www.vox.com/2018/6/18/17476266/trump-space-force-speech-questions

But his dream may be just that…a dream if the Congress does its job…that is…..

Creating a standalone service for space isn’t something the president can do on his own; he needs congressional authorization. But Monday’s announcement (here’s video, via Reuters), which follow broad endorsements of the concept by the Joint Chiefs’ office and various military branches, means that Senate holdouts who were taking their cues from the Air Force are likely to bow out of the fight.

That could clear the way for a Space Force to be in the 2019 defense authorization act, says Todd Harrison, who directs the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Aerospace Security Project.

https://www.defenseone.com/politics/2018/06/what-trumps-space-force-announcement-means/149093/

“I oppose the creation of a new military service and additional organizational layers at a time when we are focused on reducing overhead and integrating joint warfighting functions,” Mattis said in October in a memo to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Nothing could be more wasteful and redundant than creating a new branch of the military for space. There is no compelling reason to create a new branch of the military. It would mean expanding an already bloated military budget while breaking apart an existing branch just for the sake of doing it.

Adventurism knows no bounds, right?

Nicaragua Again?

Let me begin by telling my readers that today may be a short day for me for I must return to the doctors and see what the next step is going to be….I apologize for the pace of today’s posts but I hope you will understand.

For 30 years the political front of Nicaragua has not been an important headline….and that is about to change.

How many of my readers are old enough to remember the dark days of the 1980’s…..we were in the middle of Central American politics from Honduras to El Salvador to Nicaragua.

Nicaragua was where the Reagan boyz got in trouble…..the Iran-Contra Affair…..

The Iran-Contra Affair was a secret U.S. arms deal that traded missiles and other arms to free some Americans held hostage by terrorists in Lebanon, but also used funds from the arms deal to support armed conflict in Nicaragua. The controversial dealmaking—and the ensuing political scandal—threatened to bring down the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

Soon after taking control of Congress, the Democrats passed the Boland Amendment, which restricted the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Department of Defense (DoD) in foreign conflicts.

The amendment was specifically aimed at Nicaragua, where anti-communist Contras were battling the Sandinista communist government.

Reagan had described the Contras as “the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers.” But much of their funding, to that point, had come via Nicaragua’s cocaine trade, hence Congress’ decision to pass the Boland Amendment.

https://www.history.com/topics/iran-contra-affair

All this effort was to try and stop the Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega….Sandinista?

The new government inherited a devastated country. About 500,000 people were homeless, more than 30,000 had been killed, and the economy was in ruins. In July 1979 the Sandinistas appointed a five-member Government Junta of National Reconstruction. The following May it named a 47-member Council of State, which was to act as an interim national assembly. In 1981 the junta was reduced to three members and the council increased to 51.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Nicaragua/The-Sandinista-government#ref1002435

I give you this little slice of history because Nicaragua is making political news again……

There are protests against the Left wing government of Ortega and the Trumpian response is as follows…..

The Trump administration is crafting a range of options, including potential sanctions, against the government of Nicaragua and President Daniel Ortega if it fails to properly address the concerns of student groups, church leaders and other civic players about increasing violence and political repression.

“We’re watching this with laser focus because we need to ensure that, the people have called for dialogue, the government participates; the people have called for investigations, the government does that; the military has said we’re staying out of that, they continue to do so,” a senior administration official told McClatchy.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article211781249.html#storylink=cpy

Will we once again trip the light fantastic with Nicaragua?