Author: AW1Ed

In a refreshing change from the former administration, SecDef Jim Mattis does not intend to discuss BDA or body count from use of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB, affectionately known as the Mother of all Bombs) on an ISIS tunnel complex last week.

The Afghan government reports over 90 insurgents were killed, with no civilians involved. Reporters have asked for his assessment of the bomb’s effect, but he refused to comment.

“For many years we have not been calculating the results of warfare by simply quantifying the number of enemy killed,” Mattis said. “You all know the corrosive effect of that sort of metric back in the Vietnam war and it’s something that’s stayed with us all these years,” said Mattis

Seems the adults are in charge.

 

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President Trump signed a bill extending the Veterans Choice Program today, allowing vets to seek health care outside the VA system. The bill applies to vets who live 40 miles or more from a VA facility, or can’t get an appointment within a 30-day window.

‘Some people have to travel five hours, eight hours, and they’ll have to do it on a weekly basis, and even worse than that,” Trump said. “It’s not going to happen anymore.”’

Trump was joined by Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, who praised the bill.

“This is a good day for veterans,” he said. “This is a great day to celebrate not only what veterans have contributed to the country, but how we’re making things better for them.”

The extension of the bill passed by Congress authorized the sharing of medical records to hospitals outside the VA and modifies the procedures for reimbursement for private hospitals.’

More here.

NDtBF is playing brinksmanship again, attempting to launch a medium range ballistic missile today in recognition of the 105th birthday of the late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, NDtBF’s grandfather. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.

‘North Korean missile fired from the east coast of the country Sunday “blew up almost immediately,” officials said.

Trump did not release a statement on the launch. Defense Secretary Mattis said Trump and his military team “are aware of North Korea’s most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment.”

Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland on Sunday declined to say whether the U.S. cyber-sabotaged North Korea’s failed missile launch, saying only that it was “a fizzle.”’

Sabotage or not, I’ve been involved in flight test now for, well, a long time. One can learn a lot from failures. On the other hand, had this launch been successful, I believe it would have been shot down.

Few States have more draconian firearms laws than the Peoples Republik of Maryland, but New Jersey is one, as Marine Sergeant Hisashi Pompey found out. He brought his Virginia legal handgun with him on a visit to The Garden State, and found himself in some sort of altercation in a nightclub. A friend thought bringing Pompey’s handgun into the mix was a good idea, and both were arrested.

ABC News reported Pompey did three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he was a military police sergeant. Until Christie intervened, he was preparing to surrender to authorities to begin what would have been a minimum 36 month sentence for possession of an unregistered firearm. This does not expunge his record, but removes the sentence.

Christie has done this before- in April 2015 he pardoned Shaneen Allen, a Pennsylvania permit holder, who was arrested for possessing a handgun in her car.

Christy also pardoned U.S. Marine and concealed permit holder Joshua Velez for bringing his Massachusetts registered handgun into New Jersey.

Of note, SCOTUS with newly confirmed Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, will meet soon to consider Peruta v. California, where the justices would decide if the Second Amendment entitles citizens to carry firearms outside the home without a California mandated “good cause.”

More here.

CNN interview with a Syrian national. The anchor looks like someone is holding a small turd under her nose, and then tries to spin the interview into an anti-Trump issue with a sound bite from The Hildebeast. It doesn’t go the way she had in mind. This is a must watch video clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3uaf1NFxXc

 

 

Instead of a three day stand down, The U.S. Navy has decided to ground all 197 training jets indefinitely.

“The pause is extended as long as our experts need as they diligently work to determine the root cause of the physiological episodes and solutions to fix the issue,” said Lt. Leslie Hubbell, a Navy spokesperson told Fox News Saturday.

Yeah sorry, a three day pause won’t fix the problem, and Big Navy has decided to listen to the pilots and act, instead of paying lip service to their concerns and carrying on as usual. I am pleasantly surprised by this decision. It’s the right call.

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The Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD(AT&L)) approved the Navy’s request for the CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter program to enter into the Production and Deployment April 4.

“We have just successfully launched the production of the most powerful helicopter our nation has ever designed. This incredible positive step function in capability is going to revolutionize the way our nation conducts business in the battlespace by ensuring a substantial increase in logistical throughput into that battlespace. I could not be prouder of our government-contractor team for making this happen,” said Col Hank Vanderborght, U.S. Marine Corps program manager for the Naval Air Systems Command’s Heavy Lift Helicopters program, PMA-261.

Production is expected to begin in June 2017 at Sikorsky’s facility in Stratford, Conn. The recurring flyaway cost for the CH-53K is $87.1M. Recurring flyaway costs are the average cost for all production lots of aircraft, engines, contract/government furnished equipment, and engineering change orders.

I started out in Navy helos, and always had soft spot for them. Son #1 is Air Force (said he spent enough time in the Navy growing up) and wrenched on their H-53 Pave Low helos in Iraq and several places whose name ends in -stan.  He’s glad to see the big birds are still in production.  

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ surprise appearance at the White House press briefing Monday afternoon has put Sanctuary Cities on notice. Take the federal dollars and uphold the law, or stand by for ramifications.

‘Some states and cities have adopted policies designed to frustrate the enforcement of our immigration laws. This includes refusing to detain known felons under federal detainer requests, or otherwise failing to comply with these laws. For example, the Department of Homeland Security recently issued a report showing that in a single week, there were more than 200 instances of jurisdictions refusing to honor Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests with respect to individuals charged or convicted of a serious crime. The charges and convictions against these aliens include drug trafficking, hit and run, rape, sex offenses against a child and even murder,” Sessions said. “Such policies cannot continue. They make our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on our streets.”’

Sanctuary Map

Most areas that refuse to uphold immigration laws, to no one’s surprise, are in California and Florida, with others scattered liberally about the map. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio takes the stance that city risks terror attacks if funding is cut. Sessions argued that the policies of sanctuary cities make America less safe.

“Countless Americans would be alive today … if these policies of sanctuary cities were ended,” Sessions said, who added that he used a tactic that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch employed.

The choice seems pretty clear to me. Take the Federal tax dollars and uphold the law, or figure another way to pay for the illegals that are supported. Because very soon doing both will cease to be an option.