Day: November 27, 2018

Closing Thought–27Nov18

How many of my readers were on the internet in 1999?

Well I was and I participated in an experiment into democracy……

Democracy on the internet…….

in 1999 I felt that the internet was the future of democracy and voting…….now a look back into those days……

In 1999, the organization responsible for the backbone of the public internet, ICANN, tried to build a democracy.

In theory it was utopian: Internet users from around the world would register as at-large members of ICANN, elect delegates to represent their continent, and these delegates would sit on the ICANN board of directors. The structure of internet would be governed by its users.

ICANN was in a position to do this because it’s in the business of determining how people are found on the World Wide Web. It governs the directory that every computer uses for directions to the right web page on the right server. If you register a web page, it gets registered by an ICANN-approved registrar. This proposal wasn’t just about who could register a .edu domain versus a .org, but instead who would be allowed to have a place on the web at all.

https://qz.com/1422925/the-public-internet-was-almost-a-democracy/

I still think that the internet could be used for good but that would require a free internet and there are too many working to make sure that is NEVER the case.

Any thoughts?

Remove A Difficult, Racist And Stubborn President

Read the title…can you think of what the post is about?

Before some well meaning thumb sucker gets on his low horse and tries to rip me for writing about the impeachment of Trump from the presidency……

Guess what?

This has nothing to do with the idiot in White House on this day….

It is about the president we knew as Andrew Johnson….the person that became president after the death of Lincoln……

The president of the United States was both a racist and a very difficult man to get along with.

He routinely called blacks inferior. He bluntly stated that no matter how much progress they made, they must remain so. He openly called critics disloyal, even treasonous. He liberally threw insults like candy during public speeches. He rudely ignored answers he didn’t like. He regularly put other people into positions they didn’t want to be in, then blamed them when things went sour. His own bodyguard later called him “destined to conflict,” a man who “found it impossible to conciliate or temporize.”

But the nation’s politicians simply had to interact with Andrew Johnson, for he had become the legitimate, constitutionally ordained chief executive upon Abraham Lincoln’s death by assassination.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/13/andrew-johnson-undermined-congress-cabinet-david-priess-book-222413

Speaking of Abe Lincoln…..what do you know about our past president?  He suffered from depression……he was tall…..he was shot in the head…..president during the War Between The States…….anything else?

 So how much do you really know about Lincoln, the man?

We’ve gone through the tons of research available about Abraham (don’t call me Abe) Lincoln, so you can impress your friends and family with your Lincoln knowledge.

Here are our top 10 Lincoln facts, followed by 40 other pieces of trivia that you can research on your own.

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/50-shades-of-abraham-lincoln-2/

Learn stuff!

Death In Mali–Continued

I have been covering the death of a Green Beret in Mali at the hands of some Navy SEALS…….this death occurred last year about this time….it has been reported that the SEALs will go to courts martial and now word has come out that the Marine Raiders were more involved than they first admitted……

The account of the death took many different paths and I tried to keep my readers up on the story…..https://lobotero.com/2018/11/13/more-on-the-death-in-mali/

Two Marine Raiders facing murder charges in the death of an Army Green Beret played a much larger role in the death than had been previously revealed through media reports, according to official documents.

Military Times has verified the names of the two Marine Raiders facing felony murder and related charges in connection with the strangulation death of Army Special Forces Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar at his residence in Bamako, Mali, on June 4, 2017.

Gunnery Sgt. Mario Madera-Rodriguez and Staff Sgt. Kevin Maxwell face an Article 32 hearing on Dec. 10 along with Navy SEALs Chief Petty Officer Adam Matthews and Petty Officer Anthony DeDolph.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/11/20/marine-raiders-facing-murder-charges-had-deeper-involvement-in-green-beret-death-than-previously-reported/

I stated after the first report that it was shameful that Americans killing Americans when there are a wealth of others that will gladly do it.

This will not sit lightly on the scorecard of the special ops……

The murder case of SSG Logan Melgar of the 3rd Special Forces Group (3rd SFG) is another tough scenario for the SF Group’s soldiers to bear. The unit lost four of its members in a deadly ambush in Niger and then to find out that one of its finer NCOs was murdered in US Embassy housing while stationed in Mali was worse. But worst of all was the fact that SSG Melgar wasn’t murdered by terrorists but reportedly at the hands of his fellow US Special Operations warriors from the Navy SEALs and Marine Corps Raiders. That is a stain regardless of the outcome of the court-martial on all of SOCOM that won’t soon fade.

While we’re not going to argue the merits of the case, this much is clear. Melgar shared an apartment with two members of SEAL Team Six, operators identified as Petty Officer Adam Matthews and Petty Officer Anthony DeDolph. Both SEALs admitted to breaking into Melgar’s room while he was asleep. Melgar died of asphyxiation and DeDolph has admitted to putting Melgar in a chokehold. The SEALs stories have changed several times which raised red flags which triggered a further investigation.

https://specialoperations.com/33779/the-mali-green-beret-murder-case-is-a-stain-on-all-of-sof/

Time for the “rest of the story” when it comes to this Green Beret’s death……his family deserves closure.