Day: March 10, 2021

Closing Thought–10Mar21

Did you know that the National Guard is being used in our endless wars?

Well they are and now governors are moving to end the endless deployments of the Guard in armed conflicts….

In summer blockbusters and other entertainment, the United States Armed Forces are almost always portrayed through the lens of their most elite units, such as the Navy SEALS or the Army Rangers. But while the special forces are heroes in their own right, they’re not the most irreplaceable piece on the board. That designation falls to the humble National Guard, the real backbone of America’s military.

I’ve served in the Marine Corps, the U.S. Army, and the Idaho National Guard. In my deployments to Afghanistan, I found the Guard to be the best trained of them all.

Numbering nearly 350,000 men and women, these citizen-soldiers — who when they’re not donating time to Uncle Sam are working full-time jobs, running businesses, attending college, and raising families — have carried more than their fair share of the burden. Since the launch of the Global War on Terror in 2001, 45 percent of deployed personnel have been National Guard units, with 57,000 Guardsmen located overseas as recently as December 2020. And the costs have been felt; 18.4 percent of the subsequent casualties have been Guard members.

For two decades of war, the National Guard has tried to live up to its motto of “Always Ready, Always There.” But the undeniable fact is that every American soldier sent to nation-build in Afghanistan or patrol the streets of Iraq is one less person who can protect and aid his fellow Americans back home. 

States are moving to end National Guard role in unauthorized wars

As an antiwar supporter and activist I applaud these measures.

A small step…..NOW let’s work to get ALL troops out of these worthless non-productive endless wars!

It is beyond time for these worthless costly endless wars to come to an end and bring the troops home to their families.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Who Put This D/Bag In Charge?

That ultra-conservative Dem, Sen. Manchin (D-WV)has found his obstructionist footing….first he did not want the $15 minimum wage included in the Covid-19 package and it was taken to secure the votes Dems needed…..now he is thumping his well owned chest over the bill Biden will put forth on Climate…..

Sen. Joe Manchin said he may block Joe Biden‘s climate change and infrastructure package unless Republicans are allowed more influence during negotiations.

Mr Manchin, who describes himself as a “moderate” Democrat, carries an important vote in the near evenly-divided Senate. He wants to see Republicans have more say in the negotiations than they did in the $1.9tn coronavirus stimulus discussion.

Democrats managed to pass the coronavirus stimulus using reconciliation, which only requires a simple majority. Mr Manchin said he refused to use reconciliation to pass the climate and infrastructure package.

“I am not going to get on a bill that cuts them out completely before we start trying,” Mr Manchin told Axios.

Who does this political coward think he is?

Why does the Majority leader, Sen. Schumer, allow this grandstanding?

Best answer to that question is Schumer is scred to death that if he pushes Manchin he will jump parties and make McConnell the leader yet again.

If the Dems had a larger majority then Manchin would be just another back-bencher with no power at all.

Another scenario is Manchin knows that anything Biden tries to do will be blocked by the Repubs in the Senate….this way he looks like the hero trying to find that elusive lie of “bi-partisanship”

He is doing this to make the coal industry happy and to make him appear as a “peacemaker”.

Not to cover that he would be screwing the people of West Virginia out of good jobs…the people he was sworn to work for and their best interests….on this topic he fails miserably.

Manchin has been waiting his whole senatorial career to have this much power….and Schumer is a spineless slug to allow this one person to control bills in the Senate….a Senate that the Dems control by one vote.

Schumer is afraid that a senate this close can be torpedoed by one defection to the GOP and Manchin is the perfect ilk to do so.

How long will his obstructionism be tolerated by the Dem leadership?

Are they so afraid of him that they allow this backwoods yahoo to dictate the bills that will be considered?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Thoughts On Unicameralism

Since our Congress is useless there needs to be some revisions on how the system works….just my thought on a repair for a useless Congress that accomplishes very little….we need more work and less theatrics from our legislative branch…..chuq

Gulf South Free Press

I have written about my thoughts on our Congress….thoughts that will not be popular but nonetheless something needs to be considered because the the dysfunction in our legislative branch of government.

You can read my thoughts here…..https://lobotero.com/2019/04/24/against-bicameralism/

Our Senate is as worthless as teats on a boar….it is non-functioning at best.  Time for a change…..that is if you want this country finally start progressing to a better future.

There are so many things that need changing and most of them will take a Constitutional Convention……things like guns, the emoluments, voting rights, etc….so if we decide to have this debate then why not include the Congress and a way to make it better or at least functioning.

Since civics is not  priority in our educational system let me do it for you……what is the function of the legislative branch?

The House has several powers assigned exclusively to it, including the power…

View original post 496 more words

Biden And Domestic Production

This is a continuation of my series on the policies of Pres. Biden.

Our new president is trying to increase the US domestic production with the hope that it will be a job creator…to go it alone he decided the way to accomplish this goal is through the executive order process.

President Biden signed an executive order Wednesday intended to boost manufacturing jobs by strengthening US supply chains for advanced batteries, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, and semiconductors. The United States has become increasingly reliant on imports of these goods—a potential national security and economic risk that the Biden administration hopes to address with the planned 100-day review and the possibility of increased domestic production, the AP reports. However, Biden will also look to work with international partners to ensure a stable and reliable supply chain. “These are the kinds of common sense solutions that all Americans can get behind,” Biden said at a White House ceremony.

“It’s about resilience, identifying possible points of vulnerabilities in our supply chains, and making sure we have the backup alternatives or workarounds in place,” said Biden, who met Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the Oval Office before the signing. “It was like the old days,” Biden said. “People were actually on the same page.” White House officials emphasized that the order would help to create manufacturing jobs, a promise made by past presidents with decidedly mixed results. There are 12.2 million manufacturing jobs in the United States, down from 17 million in 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Biden’s order also included sectoral reviews to be completed within one year for defense, public health and biological preparedness, information communications technology, energy, transportation, and food production.

The part that concerns me is the sector called “critical minerals”…..I am guessing that that means rare earth minerals…..and since the US has a very limited amount and Afghanistan is teeming with them it would have something to do with our prolonged stay in Afghanistan.

In case you are not too sure just what a ‘rare earth’ mineral is then I can help with that…..https://lobotero.com/2019/06/04/it-is-about-rare-earth/

All in all this should step up our domestic production….but as far as a massive job creator I have my doubts.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”