military news

Capt. Crozier gets slapped again … dang!

Man, I was hoping for a different outcome to this story.

U.S. Navy Capt. Brett Crozier got relieved of his command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier because he sent out warnings to the Navy brass that his crew was being threatened by the COVID-19 virus.

The Navy Department said he acted beyond the normal chain of command so it sent Capt. Crozier packing … much to the chagrin of the men and women he commanded.

Now the Navy says he won’t get reinstated, which had been considered. I was among those who thought the Navy shafted the stellar sailor whose only “sin” was to care for the health of his crew.

I had hoped the Navy would return him to his command.

Alas, it won’t.

It’s not all bad news. Crozier will keep his rank. He will be reassigned to another duty post, provided he chooses to stay in the Navy.

Given that the Navy stiffed him, then teased him with the prospect of being reinstated as commanding officer of the Theodore Roosevelt, and then said “no, you won’t,” I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that Capt. Crozier will call it a career.

Thank you for your service to the nation and to the men and women you commanded, skipper.

national news

POTUS’s petulance on full display

“These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives. We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!”

“Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn’t like me?”

Come on, Mr. Crybaby in Chief. You should know better than that, but you don’t.

The U.S. Supreme Court performed its duty in accordance with the U.S. Constitution, which you and the justices all took an oath to uphold, to protect and defend.

The court’s 5-4 ruling on the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals is a victory for reason, for humanity and for sane public policy. Its ruling is clear: You didn’t follow the law when you rescinded the order that kept DACA recipients from being deported to countries they never knew, as they were brought here as young children illegally by their parents.

And if you would read the Constitution, Mr. President, you would understand that the court’s decision isn’t about “liking” you. It has nothing to do with what the justices think of you personally … although I can deliver a fairly educated guess on how most of them might think of you. They keep those thoughts private, unlike you, who continues to blast out those idiotic tweets bitching about this and/or that policy matter that doesn’t go the way you prefer.

I’ve been watching politics for a long time, Mr. President, and I do not recall a president as thin-skinned and as churlish as you. I do remember that moment in the House of Representatives when President Barack Obama scolded the Supreme Court — whose members were sitting in front of him — during a State of the Union speech about its Citizens United campaign finance decision. I didn’t think that was appropriate, either … and I said so at the time.

However, President Obama didn’t blather on via Twitter the way you have done and you continue to do. Other predecessors of yours have taken their lumps like grownups.

Good grief, dude. Suck it up.

national news

Juneteenth? Sure … I knew about it!

Donald Trump is taking a bizarre tack by taking credit for raising public awareness of Juneteenth, a day revered by the African-American community.

What a weirdo!

Trump was going to stage a political rally on Friday in Tulsa, Okla. That would be Juneteenth. African-Americans and other Americans raised hell about the timing of the rally, given Trump’s rather distant relationship with the African-American community, which has been heightened in recent weeks with the deaths of black men who were being detained by white police officers.

So, Trump postponed his rally by one day. It’s now going to be Saturday.

Then what did Trump do? He said few Americans knew about Juneteenth until he called attention to it. What? Huh? Are you kidding me? 

For the record, I knew about Juneteenth. It occurred on June 19, 1865 when African-Americans learned in Galveston that they were being freed from enslavement. The Civil War had ended a couple of months earlier, but the word about blacks’ emancipation was slow getting out to all Americans.

OK, but Trump has this goofy way of taking credit when he doesn’t deserve it. Thus, he is somehow trying to spin this dust-up over a political rally on Juneteenth, juxtaposed with the Black Lives Matter that’s been re-energized by the deaths of black men in police custody into a “positive”?

Weird.

national news

Does he really care about those who adore him? Umm, no!

Donald J. Trump is proceeding full throttle to stage that rally in Tulsa.

He intends to pack 19,000 adherents into an arena Saturday to hear him rant and roar about Democrats, the media, John Bolton … and God knows who or what else.

Let me pose this question: Do you think Donald Trump gives a rat’s a** about those who will flock to Tulsa to hear his incoherent riff?

I say “no!” Here’s why.

Trump is going to ask folks to sign a waiver that says if they get sick from COVID-19 that they can’t sue him. The Tulsa mayor says, moreover, that any rational person would stay away from an indoor rally while infection from COVID-19 is spiking throughout Oklahoma. Despite all of that, Donald Trump is intent on staging this rally.

Why? Because he wants to produce the photo op that will be broadcast around the country to advance his re-election effort.

Does he give a crap about the health and well-being of those who will cheer him on? No … way! Good luck to you all. Just remember that Donald John Trump cares far less about you than you care about him.

national news

Wanting to cheer Bolton … but now cursing him

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I wanted to cheer John Bolton when word got out that his memoir would hit the bookshelves.

I am left now only wanting to curse him.

The former national security adviser to Donald John “Liar in Chief” Trump has written a book that lays even more bare what many of us knew already. “The Room Where it Happened” is a blistering tell-all.

He tells us that Trump asked China for help in his re-election effort; he confirms that Trump asked Ukraine for political help in exchange for weaponry; he also tells us that Trump gave China a pass on construction of concentration camps. There’s more, of course.

Why curse him instead of cheer the ex-national security adviser? Because he could have told us all of it during the impeachment of Trump. He didn’t. He sat on it. Why? Bolton says the impeachment was too narrowly focused and had become “too political.” What a crock of fecal matter!

I am cursing Bolton not because I believe his impeachment testimony would change enough minds to convict Donald Trump of abuse of power and/or obstruction of Congress — the charges the House brought to the Senate during the impeachment inquiry.

I curse Bolton because he withheld this information from a public that needed to hear it from someone who, as the book title suggests, was “in the room” when Donald Trump committed these impeachable offenses. He heard this stuff first hand, in real time, at ringside.

The Republican majority in the U.S. Senate that acquitted Trump of the charges brought against him likely would have been unmoved by any Bolton testimony. It’s just that Americans needed to hear this in the context of that impeachment trial and needed to hear GOP senators explain how Trump’s behavior didn’t rise to an offense worthy of his expulsion from office.

John Bolton choked.

I am glad he is speaking out now. I happen to believe what he has said about Donald Trump. I just wanted him to speak out when it really mattered.

Damn you, John Bolton!

national news

Does POTUS really want a second term?

Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni are two top-notch reporters for the New York Times who have put together a story that suggests something quite remarkable.

It is that Donald Trump’s behavior and his inability/unwillingness to listen to advice from his staff to dial back his weird impulses suggest that Trump secretly doesn’t want to serve a second term as president.

Oh, I wish that were true. I have trouble believing it.

Haberman and Karni aren’t suggesting it’s all true. They just have talked to a lot of White House functionaries who make the suggestion based on what they are witnessing within the West Wing.

It is an intriguing thought to be sure. Trump cannot lead. He isn’t wired for public service. He is proving it time and time and time again. Trump’s feeble attempts at crisis management reveal a fundamental weakness in a guy who spent his entire professional life running a business, hosting a TV reality show and behaving like a crass, cruel and scandalous fool.

“I don’t think he’s fit for office,” says former national security adviser John Bolton. No kidding? Well, many of us have been saying it all along.

We have walked headlong into a most fascinating election season. I think we ought to keep Trump’s behavior at the top of our minds as this individual seeks to suggest he deserves a second term at the helm of the most exalted public service job on Earth.

Take a look at Haberman and Karni’s story here.

It might give you pause.

education news

School will be back … but should students and teachers return?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has rung the 2020-21 school bell telling students, teachers and staff that classrooms will be open for the upcoming academic year.

Abbott shut down in-person class study this spring because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students kept current with their studies at home; our granddaughter and her older brother were two of them and, I should add, they did quite well studying at home.

Now what? Abbott’s back-to-school directive does give parents the flexibility to decide whether to send their children back to class.

As the Texas Tribune reports:

“It will be safe for Texas public school students, teachers, and staff to return to school campuses for in-person instruction this fall. But there will also be flexibility for families with health concerns so that their children can be educated remotely, if the parent so chooses,” said Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath.

When students return, school districts will not be required to mandate students wear masks or test them for COVID-19 symptoms, said Frank Ward, a spokesperson for the Texas Education Agency.

If I were King of the World, I most certainly would require masks and COVID-19 tests. I am not. I am just a concerned grandparent who wants to ensure that students, teachers and staff will be safe from becoming infected by a disease that could do them great harm.

Man, I hope Abbott knows what he’s doing. Texas is experiencing a serious spike in infection, hospitalization and death from COVID-19. Yes, we want to return to what we like think is “normal” activity.

Given recent trends, I am just leery of sending young children back to school and instructing them to practice “social distancing.”

national news

Wait for the whining about Facebook ‘censorship’

Facebook has done the absolutely correct thing by pulling down a Donald Trump re-election campaign ad that displays a symbol used by Nazis to designate political prisoners.

I cannot wait for the yammering, whining and whimpering to start now from the Trump team, complaining that Facebook is being “politically correct.”

The symbol is a red inverted triangle the Nazis would use to identify individuals bound for, um, death camps and other forms of political imprisonment. Indeed, it is reprehensible in the extreme for such symbols to show up anywhere these days, let alone coming from a campaign for a president of the United States seeking re-election.

As the Washington Post reported: A red inverted triangle was first used in the 1930s to identify Communists, and was applied as well to Social Democrats, liberals, Freemasons and other members of opposition parties. The badge forced on Jewish political prisoners, by contrast, featured a yellow triangle overlaid by a red triangle.

What in the name of common decency is the Trump team trying to convey?

They either are ignorant, arrogant or simply stupid.

Hey, I’ll go with all of the above.

Trump has decided to go after antifa, the loosely based collection of protesters often identified with far-left movements. Indeed, the word “antifa” is shorthand for “anti-fascist,” which is precisely the kind of movement that this modern-day group would oppose … and which was the focal point of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany.

Facebook acted correctly.

As for the ad it took down, well, it speaks volumes about Donald John Trump.

legal news

SCOTUS scores a win for DACA recipients

It looks for all the world as if the U.S. Supreme Court has been smitten by a case of humanity along with a touch of compassion.

The court issued a ruling, albeit a narrow 5-4 decision, that upholds the Obama administration’s executive order protecting the residency status of hundreds of thousands of folks who came here illegally, many of whom as children brought to the United States by their parents.

President Obama issued the order called Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. It protected about 650,000 immigrants from deportation. Donald Trump rescinded that order. The high court, though, today said “not so fast.”

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s four progressive justices in siding with DACA recipients, writing the opinion that said Trump’s order lacked sufficient legal foundation.

This a good deal. Many, if not most, DACA recipients have known no other country but the United States. Many of them are unfamiliar with their country of birth. They speak English. They attend school here. They work here. They pay U.S. taxes. They live as de facto Americans. Except that they aren’t citizens.

Donald Trump sought to ship them out, send them back to a country with which they have no understanding or familiarity. Politico reports: Roberts, who has emerged in recent years as a semi-regular swing justice on the court, wrote the majority opinion concluding that the decision to phase-out the program was unlawful because it did not consider all the options to rein in the program and failed to account for the interests of those who relied on it.

So the fight continues. It appears that the Trump administration will be unable to craft a new order in time for the November election.

My hope is that if Trump loses the election that the new president, Joe Biden, will scrap the effort to eliminate the DACA program and allow these once-young immigrants to continue to pursue their dream of living in the land of opportunity … provided, of course, that they seek to legalize their standing as U.S. residents.

national news

Bolton book: recipe for frustration

The more I hear about John Bolton’s book, the more frustrated and angry I am likely to become.

The former national security adviser for Donald Trump has laid bare what we have known all along. Trump is corrupt. He is self-serving. He doesn’t know anything about anything. He is an existential threat to the America we all love and cherish.

And yet the book, “The Room Where it Happened,” in reality doesn’t reveal much new. Many of us knew Trump had committed impeachable offenses when he sought political help from Ukraine.

To be sure, Bolton’s tome does reveal a ghastly new detail. It is that Trump gave China a pass on the concentration camps it was using to imprison political foes. Trump also sought political help from China.

All told, though, we are witnessing an example of a former national security expert parlaying his experiences in government into a handsome payoff. He should have blown the whistle loudly when he was given the chance during the impeachment proceeding against the Moron in Chief.

Yep. The frustration is reaching a boiling point.

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