Month: November 2018

The Deadliest Month

Just days ago I reported about the death of another American soldier in Afghanistan…..https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/11/24/us-service-member-2-afghan-troops-killed-afghanistan.html  and before the ink could dry more sad news about more American deaths in Afghanistan…..

A group of US soldiers got caught up in a roadside bombing in the Ghazni Province of Afghanistan on Tuesday. At least three US soldiers were confirmed killed, and three others wounded. Another American, a contractor, was also wounded.

This is the single deadliest incident for US troops in Afghanistan in 2018. High casualty incidents were more common earlier in the war, but US troops are less often on the front lines, or in places where they’re likely to directly face such attacks.

The condition of the wounded remains unclear, though officials did say that they have been evacuated and are receiving treatment. In general, details are limited until the families of the casualties are notified.

Taliban forces have been heavily contesting Ghazni Province in recent weeks, and that may be why more US forces are present in the area. This is the second case of US deaths in Afghanistan in less than a week, with another soldier having died of wounds in a gunfight in Nimruz Province on Saturday.

Names are being withheld and I shall update this post when they are available….

Another sad day in our longest war……maybe the new Congress can find some sanity….until then I will have to keep writing posts like this one….

IST offers our condolences to the families and we apologize for a country that cares so little.

Battle Of The Economic Stars

The economy is doing well under Trump….well with the exception of wages and markets and housing, etc etc……but the sector is being the focus of a game being played by both sides…..

GM will close plants and lay off over 1000 workers…..

It’s a bleak day for workers at General Motors: The automaker said Monday it’s cutting about 15% of its salaried workers in the US and Canada and closing five plants. The Wall Street Journal reports that the moves could translate into the loss of about 8,000 jobs. The company plans to close three assembly plants next year—in Hamtramck, Mich.; Lordstown, Ohio; and Oshawa, Ontario—as well as two transmission plants, in Baltimore and Warren, Mich., reports the New York Times.

“We recognize the need to stay in front of changing market conditions and customer preferences to position our company for long-term success,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra in a statement. One big part of the shift is to put more focus on electric and hybrid vehicles, as well as SUVs and pickups, while sedans get lower priority. US auto sales set records in 2016 but have since slowed, reports the Detroit Free Press, which adds that automakers also were facing pressure over rising tariffs on steel and aluminum

After all his promises on the campaign trail trup fires back at GM…….

President Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to express his displeasure with GM’s planned 14,000 layoffs and five plant shutterings; National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow did the same thing from the White House. In afternoon tweets, Trump issued a sort of threat, writing, “Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland. Nothing being closed in Mexico & China. The US saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including … for electric cars. General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) – don’t think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect America’s Workers!”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports those tweets came “moments” after Kudlow departed the White House Briefing Room, where he had said much the same thing: “We’re going to be looking at certain subsidies regarding electric cars and others.” GM Kudlow characterized the administration’s reaction as “a tremendous amount of disappointment maybe even spilling over into anger,” reports the AP. Kudlow met with Barra Monday, and on Tuesday told reporters, “The president is very cross with her and of course I transmitted that.” He added the sense was that GM “kind of turned” its back on the president in making its move. (There’s a surprise among GM’s six discontinued cars.)

Keep in mind that a 1000 auto jobs lost could cost as much as 10,000 along the supply line…..so auto jobs are not the only ones on the chopping block…..

GM record- Got $514 million from the Trump tax scam – Made $6 billion in profits – Poured $100 million into stock buybacks – Paid its CEO $22 million – Received over $600 million in gov’t contracts.

I am still waiting for all those jobs to come home….as promised in 2016.

Its That Darn Pesky Constitution

There has been an uproar toward something Our Dear Supreme Leader has made….14th amendment has been in the news and there has been a wealth of  opinions if he can actually change the Constitution with and Executive Order (EO)…..

My opinion is NO he cannot…..(but that has not stopped those from foaming at the mouth to end some of our protections)….and like always there are those opinions in contrary to the EO thing……

President Trump said this week that he is preparing an executive order to try to take away the citizenship guarantee in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which says that people born in the United States are United States citizens. On Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham announced that he would introduce legislation with the same aim.

But the president cannot repeal part of the Constitution by executive order. And Congress cannot repeal it by simply passing a new bill. Amending the Constitution would require a two-thirds vote in both House and Senate, and also ratification by three-quarters of the states. The effort to erase the citizenship guarantee will never clear those hurdles — for very good reasons.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/10/31/no-mr-president-you-cant-change-constitution-executive-order

This below is an open letter sent to our Troops by veterans……

To All Active Duty Soldiers:

Your Commander-in-chief is lying to you. You should refuse his orders to deploy to the southern U.S. border should you be called to do so. Despite what Trump and his administration are saying, the migrants moving North towards the U.S. are not a threat. These small numbers of people are escaping intense violence. In fact, much of the reason these men and women—with families just like yours and ours—are fleeing their homes is because of the US meddling in their country’s elections. Look no further than Honduras, where the Obama administration supported the overthrow of a democratically elected president who was then replaced by a repressive dictator.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/01/your-commander-chief-lying-you-veterans-issue-open-letter-active-duty-us-soldiers

Not to worry like always there is more……

“The Trump administration asked, and the Pentagon said no—to using troops on the southern border for law-enforcement purposes, CNN reports. Two defense officials say the Department of Homeland Security wanted US troops to provide “crowd and traffic control” and protect Customs and Border Protection officers from the so-called “caravan” of Central American migrants heading for the US border. But on Oct. 26, the Pentagon denied that request, while agreeing to provide engineers, medical personnel, and air and logistics support. Why the refusal? Because the Department of Defense apparently argued that active-duty troops don’t have the authority.

Indeed, the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits US troops from enforcing domestic law unless authorized by Congress or the US Constitution. “Limiting military involvement in civilian affairs is basic to our system of government and the protection of individual constitutional rights,” the 1878 act reads. A DHS official denied that Trump’s request constituted “law enforcement activities,” while military analysts said Trump could just use US Marshals, ICE, or the National Guard for such activities. Meanwhile, Trump is easing off his remark that US troops can “consider it a rifle” if migrants throw rocks, per Fox 13 Now. If soldiers or agents “are going to be hit in the face with rocks, we’re going to arrest those people,” he said Friday. “That doesn’t mean shoot them.

I realize the hard core Righties do not want to here it and they may soon have a chance to change things…..

But not to worry there are those that are working for a convention to change things….maybe just not the things that you have in mind.

Stay tuned!

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.

Still Dying After All These Years

Closing Thought–26Nov18

Just a reminder for those that did not fight or have forgotten an armed conflict….we fought a war in Southeast Asia until recently it was America’s longest war….this war consisted of 4 of the nation’s of the region…..Cambodia, Laos, North and South Vietnam…..there were land battles as well as an air war of which over 2 million tons of ordinances were dropped on the region……

That is where we pick up the story of that war……some 40+ years after the end of that war and people are still dying of it……

This year’s Thanksgiving celebration marks 50 years since the American military embarked on the biggest bombing campaign in history, decimating the small Southeast Asian country of Laos by dropping more than two million tonnes of bombs on it at the height of the Vietnam War. 

Half a century on, innocent lives are still being lost as the country struggles with the leftovers of the conflict.

On Thanksgiving Day in November 1968, the United States escalated its war against North Vietnam in Laos.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/laotians-killed-50-years-bombing-campaign-181121000620903.html

Sadly people are still dying thanx to the bombs that we and our allies dropped 43 years ago……

I sincerely hope that everyone is enjoying the “holiday” season…..and everyone has had something to be thankful for in the last year…..it is time to run down the year for the new year approaches with a bang.

“Making American Great Again”–Part 22

Maj. Sjursen has taken the readers through the pages of American history…history that is not widely taught by our public schools and definitely not by the private schools that teach the history that fits a narrative…..

We have gone from the early days to the Revolution to the founding of the republic through the trials and tribulations of being a young country on the world stage….and now Sjursen takes us to World War One and the peace that followed……

Part 22 of “American History for Truthdiggers.”

“Over there, over there, /  Send the word, send the word over there. /  That the Yanks are coming, /  the Yanks are coming … /  We’ll be over, we’re coming over, /  And we won’t come back till it’s over, over there.” —An excerpt from George M. Cohan’s song “Over There”

America wasn’t supposed to get in the war. When the country finally did, it was to be a war “to end all wars,” to “make the world safe for democracy,” one in which, for once, the Allies would seek “peace without victory.” How powerful was the romantic and idealistic rhetoric of Woodrow Wilson, America’s historian and political scientist turned president. None of that came to pass, of course. No, just less than three years after the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914, the working classes of the United States would join those of Europe in a grinding, gruesome, attritional fight to the finish. In the end, some 116,000 Americans would die alongside about 9 million soldiers from the other belligerent nations.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/american-history-for-truthdiggers-a-savage-war-to-end-all-wars-and-its-failed-peace/

This is the latest episode in Sjursen American history series…..I will no longer be posting daily but rather as the newest part is available….and if you have been slow on the uptick on this series then this will help the reader get caught up……

See: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10; Part 11; Part 12; Part 13; Part 14; Part 15; Part 16; Part 17; Part 18; Part 19; Part 20; Part 21.

Learn Stuff!

Class Dismissed!

Death Does Not Take A Holiday!

Last week we celebrated a holiday….but for some the days were not all that for giving thanks……

Once again I have the same duty to announce yet another death of an American soldier in Afghanistan……

The U.S. service member killed in Afghanistan on Saturday has been identified as a 25-year-old U.S. Army Ranger from Washington state. Military officials confirmed in a statement Sunday that Sgt. Leandro Jasso, a member of the elite 75th Ranger Regiment, was killed by gunfire in southwest Afghanistan. The exact circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear. Jasso was said to be “mortally wounded by gunfire” during an operation against al-Qaeda in a remote area where U.S. forces are not known to carry out many operations. “The loss of Sgt. Jasso is felt by his family and loved ones, by all who served with him and by all on this mission to protect our country and our allies,” said General Austin Miller, the highest-ranking U.S. officer in Afghanistan. Jasso’s death, six years after he joined the Army in 2012, marks the 10th U.S. combat fatality in the war-torn nation in 2018 alone. The commander for Jasso’s battalion gave his condolences in a statement: “Sgt. Jasso was a humble professional who placed the mission first, lived the Ranger Creed and will be deeply missed.”

(Daily Beast)

SGT Leandro Jasso – Ranger KIA in Afghanistan

I wish there was no need for someone like me to report on every death but as long as we continue to fight endless wars in numerous nations there is a need for someone to report on the evdednts that most Americans are trying to forget.

Sgt. Leandro Jasso R.I.P.

Will Calmer Heads Prevail?

If Americans cannot be bothered to remember that our troops are fighting and dying in Afghanistan then anything happening in the Black Sea means nothing to them.

Image result for Ukraine images

But while we were choking down turkey day left-overs the region of Southern Europe moved a little closer to all out war…..

Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are once again soaring this weekend, with reports that Russia has seized three Ukrainian navy vessels off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula. Crimea is de facto under Russian control, but Ukraine considers it part of their territory.

Earlier in the day, Ukraine accused Russian ships of ramming their tugboat in the Sea of Azov and opened fire on the gunships, injuring two. Russia claims that the Ukrainian ships were illegally in Russian waters at the time, and that the Sea was closed for security reasons.

Ukraine, which has been talking up war with Russia for years, is quickly escalating, with the National Security and Defense Council planning a midnight session at which they intend to declare war on Russia, and will urge parliament to impose martial law across Ukraine, a vote which will happen Monday.

(antiwar.com)

Since we are moving closer to a bigger involvement amybe knowing a little more would be a help….

Like I said in the title…..will calmer heads prevail?

The interesting part will be how Our Dead Supreme Leader approaches the Supreme Leader of Russia at the G-20……any guesses which side he will choose?

We can hope they will but these days I am not so confident they will.

You?