Category: Politics

I’ve been thinking about this subject recently, but the LA Times’ Steven F. Hayward has noticed, too. While most of the media is focused on his covfefe tweets, the President has, in fact, been pushing a conservative policy through the legislative process;

In assessing Trump’s accomplishments, let’s not get too distracted by his unconventional conduct. This hitherto ideologically unmoored man has set in motion an administration arguably more conservative than Ronald Reagan’s. While the Congress controlled by his adopted party remains gridlocked, Trump is rolling back regulations and a number of the Obama administration’s most controversial achievements, including the internal structure of Obamacare and the Clean Power Plan. His foreign policy resets look increasingly sure-footed. His judicial nominees are uniformly conservative. It is inconceivable that any of the other leading Republican candidates from the 2016 cycle would have governed as boldly as Trump has.

Trump’s rhetorical and behavioral recklessness — his government-by-tweet — still make it hard to discern whether there is a method to his madness, or whether he is just going with the populist flow he helped unleash. He has yet to be tested with a serious crisis, where showmanship and bluster count for nothing. Aristotle wrote that “rule shows the man,” but what we’re seeing so far is still confusing.

We’re looking at tax reform for the first time in almost thirty years. Tax reform that benefits taxpayers, not necessarily the government tax collectors.

A year ago, ISIS controlled vast swaths of Syria and Iraq. Today they’re hiding in caves in Syria.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been reined in with their anti-business agenda. Obamacare and it’s anti-growth policies are on the ropes.

My investment values have improved by 25% in the last year after stagnation during the Obama uncertainty. The GDP has improved by 3% this quarter.

While I agree with most people that Trump should get off Twitter, maybe that’s part of his plan to distract everyone while he pushes a conservative agenda past us, giving us what we need while we’re not paying attention.

DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US personnel.

From World War II

• S1c Edward F. Slapikas , US Navy, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941. He was accounted for on 26 October 2017.

From Korea

• None

From Southeast Asia

• None

Welcome back, elder brother-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.

Rest in peace. You’re home now.

. . .

Over 73,000 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,800 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,600 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia (SEA). Comparison of DNA from recovered remains against DNA from some (but not all) blood relatives can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.

On their web site’s “Contact Us” page, DPAA now has FAQs. The answer to one of those FAQs describes who can and cannot submit DNA samples useful in identifying recovered remains. The chart giving the answer can be viewed here. The text associated with the chart is short and can be viewed in DPAA’s FAQs.

If your family lost someone in one of these conflicts and you qualify to submit a DNA sample, please arrange to submit one. By doing that you just might help identify the remains of a US service member who’s been repatriated but not yet been identified – as well as a relative of yours, however distant. Or you may help to identify remains to be recovered in the future.

Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all while serving this nation.

 

Author’s Note: While Jonn published an article announcing the recovery of SSG William Turner’s remains some time ago, it appears that as of 4 November 2017 DPAA has yet to formally announce his accounting.

It looks like a rented Home Depot flatbed truck was intentionally driven on a bike path in downtown New York City killing six and injuring nine people. The driver then climbed from the vehicle, after he plowed into a bus. Some news organizationa are reporting that the driver yelled out something rhyming with Aloha Snackbar and waving two weapons.

Witnesses are reporting that the weapons appear to have been an Airsoft or paintball gun and a BB gun. No gun shots were heard until NYPD opened fire and took the driver down.

Chief Tango sends us a link to The Hill which reports that Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled against the administration policy which blocked the Department of Defense from recruiting transgender people for military service;

“The court finds that a number of factors—including the sheer breadth of the exclusion ordered by the directives, the unusual circumstances surrounding the President’s announcement of them, the fact that the reasons given for them do not appear to be supported by any facts, and the recent rejection of those reasons by the military itself — strongly suggest that Plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment claim is meritorious,” she wrote.

I’m not sure how the Fifth Amendment applies. It states;

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

As it is with most liberal defense of their behavior, I think they’re just making shit up again.

“This is a complete victory for our plaintiffs and all transgender service members, who are now once again able to serve on equal terms and without the threat of being discharged,” Shannon Minter, NCLR’s legal director, said in a statement.

“This court saw straight through the smokescreen the government tried to create to hide the bias and prejudice behind Trump’s change in military policy,” added Jennifer Levi, director of GLAD’s transgender rights project. “This clear, powerful ruling confirms that there is no legitimate reason to exclude transgender people from military service.”

The “change in military policy” just altered the policy to return to the same way it existed last year – for 240 years. It’s not like transgender people were legally able to serve openly for centuries until this president came along.

The judge did, however, deny the plaintiffs’ motion to force the government to pay for reassignment surgery – the real reason that they want to shove this whole charade down the throats of the American taxpayers.

Despite the judge’s denial of the injunction on the ban for surgical funding, Minter and Levi told reporters on a conference call that transgender service members will be able to receive all medically necessary care. They clarified that this is because the end of the ruling says the military’s policy will “revert to the status quo” before Trump policy, which includes covering surgery.

Yeah, well, reverting to the status quo would be reverting to the pre-2016 policy, the same policy that existed for the first seven years of the Obama Administration.

I’ve appeared on a few podcasts with our friend Mike Simpson, a former Special Forces soldier. I get to call him “Doc” – his nickname now that he’s an MD on top of all of his other accomplishments, including a TV personality on History Channel’s Hunting Hitler.

Anyway, he decided that he needed shut down some of the BS coming from accross the aisle, so he tweeted out this message to liberals;