Category Archives: military news

International news, military news

Russia about to gain a WH friend?

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Donald Trump’s selection of J.D. Vance as his 2024 Republican Party presidential running mate should send chills up the spine of every “real Republican” out there.

Why is that? Because Vance, a freshman U.S. senator from Ohio, has emerged as Russia’s most vocal ally in the ridiculous debate over whether we should continue to assist Ukraine in its valiant fight against the Russian invaders.

Vance has made it clear: If he has any say in the matter, the United States won’t spend another dollar to assist Ukraine as it fights for its life against the immoral, illegal and unprovoked invasion by the Russian armed forces.

There has been plenty of talk about this election being a fight for democracy. That fight is playing itself out on the battlefields of Ukraine, which is fighting to preserve its democratic government against. the authoritarians in Moscow who want to take Ukraine back as a “Russian state.”

President Biden has been steadfast in his support of Ukraine, vowing to keep the United States engaged by sending money for military hardware essential for Ukraine to defeat the Russian aggressors.

Now, though, Trump and his “friendship” with Vladimir Putin stands in the way. Moreover, Trump now has a vocal running mate who is standing openly and foursquare with Putin’s designs on spreading his dictatorial regime beyond Russia’s borders.

Republican political orthodoxy used to stand against Russian aggression. We engaged in a decades-long cold war with the Soviet Union to keep them from advancing beyond their territorial limit. Two presidents named Bush, and others named Nixon, Eisenhower and Reagan stood strong against the tyrants.

We must not let the Russians win this fight!

military news, national news, political news

What would Ike think?

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Today and other days this week have my mind flashing back to the first president I remember during my tine on this Earth.

I was born in 1949, during the second term of Harry Truman’s administration. My initial memory of the president begins with Dwight Eisenhower.

I want to preface my brief remarks by reminding readers of these facts. Eisenhower led the World War II Allied forces to victory in Europe in 1945. The victory march began 80 years ago today when Ike ordered the D-Day invasion of northern France to begin. He achieved General of the Army status. He ran for the presidency in 1952 and won in a landslide; he would repeat the landslide victory four years later.

Ike was a Republican and today I am wondering: What in the name of all that is holy would President Eisenhower think of what has become of the party he once led to the pinnacle of power?

Ike wasn’t a career politician when he decided to run for president. He had spent his professional life in the military, arguably the least political job one can hold in service to the public. His concerns didn’t rely on political considerations.

Eisenhower led by example and was adamantly faithful to the oath he took to protect and defend the Constitution. He took the oath while wearing his uniform and then as president of the United States.

I cannot help but wonder what Ike would think of the great political party he once led in this era of fealty to one man. Gen. Eisenhower died in 1969, just eight years after leaving the presidency in the hands of the “next generation” led by President John F. Kennedy.

He warned us in his farewell speech of the dangers of the “military-industrial complex.” He knew those dangers better than almost any other living American in that moment.

This man was a leader. He wore his military uniform with pride and was far from the “sucker” and “loser” that one of his presidential successors has proclaimed others who choose that career to be.

That successor, himself a sucker and loser and now a convicted felon, would be unfit to carry Eisenhower’s briefcase. Yet here is, leading Ike’s once-great political party.

What has happened to the Grand Old Party?

military news

‘OK … we’ll go’

What you see on the headline attached to this blog post might be the most understated and underrated military command in the history of warfare.

It came from the lips of Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme Allied Commander of the forces that launched the greatest sea invasion in history. It’s been called D-Day. And for those who have wondered what the “D” stood for … it stands for nothing at all, other than to identify the day the invasion took place.

Ike and his staff had been hamstrung by inclement weather that walloped the English Channel for days prior to the launch. They had planned to go on June 5 but delayed the invasion for 24 hours.

Then came some somewhat encouraging weather reports overnight. Gen. Eisenhower took in the reports and then gave the order: “OK … we’ll go.”

Roughly 5,000 ships took part. They carried tens of thousands of Allied troops, from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, France and a host of other nations.

Operation Overlord succeeded in securing the beachhead at Normandy, on the French coast. Was it a certainty? Hardly., Indeed, Eisenhower prepared for the worst, drafting an announcement that told the world that despite our best efforts, the landing had failed. And in making that never-delivered announcement, Ike took full responsibility for the failure.

The war in Europe would drag on for nearly one more year before Adolf Hitler’s nightmarish dream of the Third Reich came crashing down.

The men who stormed ashore that day are in the mid- to late 90s; many of them are centenarians. Most of them have passed on, leaving the world with few remaining heroes to thank for their valor, their courage and their undying loyalty to freedom.

They formed what has been called The Greatest Generation. I am a product of that generation, as my dad served honorably as a sailor, fighting the Nazis in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations.

I am proud of his service, and I am grateful beyond measure for the men who saved our civilization from the tyrants.

military news

Do you really support this moron?

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Memo to my MAGA friends, acquaintances and those I see with bumper stickers on their pickups ….

Do you really and truly want to support an individual who has labeled those of us who have worn our country’s military uniform “suckers” and “losers”?

The former POTUS launched an unhinged, incompetent rant against judges, legal foes, jurors and the very judicial system as his way of paying tribute to those who died in service to the country. Memorial Day is a special day for the former Moron in Chief.

He denigrated the late Sen. John McCain’s service during the Vietnam War because he “got caught” and spent all those years as a POW. He has smeared the character of a Gold Star Family whose son died an Army hero in the Iraq War. He once told his former fixer/lawyer Michael Cohen that those who went to war in Vietnam were “stupid.”

Here he is. He is competing for the presidency yet again. How does the MAGA movement, comprising individuals I will presume support those who fight for our country, react to their hero’s rants? They give him an unfettered pass.

I have to ask: Does he speak for you, or does he speak only for himself?

I know the answer. He speaks for the cult followers. The good news as I interpret it is that the cult base isn’t growing. It well could be shrinking. Distressing, though, is that their volume remains full-throated.

I will go to my grave wondering how in the world the MAGA movement can possibly support an individual who is incapable of paying appropriate tribute to those who serve our great country.

I mean, to “make America great” requires a faithful commitment to public service.

military news

Nature saved this city

BAMBERG, Germany — I learned something while walking through one of Europe’s most charming cities … at least I will presume its charm ranks at or the near the top of European cities.

Near the end of World War II, Allied air forces were carpet-bombing many German cities. The air assault was led by the U.S. Army Air Force and the British Royal Air Force.

Bamberg was supposed to be hit with thousands of bombs dropped by the USAAF and the RAF on a particular mission. Except that Mother Nature intervened. The city was blanketed in fog, which meant that the aerial bomber crews couldn’t see the city below them. Given that the 1940s pre-dated global positioning systems, pilots had to rely on visual confirmation to determine whether to release their ordnance.

So it was that Bamberg was saved from carpet-bombing during WWII. I also learned that a church named after St. Martin did take a single bomb dropped from a US bomber; the explosive damaged the roof of the church. The building was repaired eventually.

The city remains full of charm 80 or so years after the bloodiest war in human history. As the saying goes … One shouldn’t ever mess with Mother Nature.

International news, military news

All is quiet … for now!

NUREMBERG, Germany — I cannot help but feeling somewhat vulnerable as I visit with friends and travel around the lush countryside of this beautiful region of Europe.

Why? Because of the war that rages just two countries to the east of Bavaria in southern Germany.

Ukraine continues to fight for its life against Russian invaders. Someone will have to explain to me why Russian thug Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago. It was thought Kyiv would fall in four days. It’s still standing. Ukraine is going to get more U.S. aid.

Meanwhile, Germany — the nation the world fought eight decades ago — stands on the precipice of armed conflict. As someone told me the other day, “If Russia invades any NATO country, we’re all in the fight.”

I’m here visiting friends and relaxing. It’s been a joyful time for me and for my friends as we have gotten reacquainted.

But if I get way up on my tippy toes and cast my gaze to the east, I see the signs of potential trouble for Germany … and, indeed, the rest of the world.

This just makes it imperative that we stick with Ukraine as it fights for its very life.

military news, national news, political news

Is he really that stupid?

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NUREMBERG, Germany — As you know, I am visiting friends in this lovely city in the gorgeous Bavaria region.

They are well-read, erudite and sophisticated. Alena asked me a fascinating question today about the intelligence of the POTUS No. 45. “Do you think he’s really that stupid,” she asked, “or is he just playing to the people who support him no matter what?”

Her reference point is that ghastly mini-speech he made the other day about the Battle of Gettysburg, the fight that turned the tide of our Civil War. The ex-POTUS offered not a single word about the significance of the battle, but instead prattled on about how “bloody” and “beautiful” it was.

Her point is interesting to me. She believes he might just be saying such a thing to appeal to his MAGA cult base of voters who themselves might not have any notion about the importance of this — or any other — significant event in our nation’s history.

Hmm. I thought for a moment about what Alena said. I don’t believe the former Philanderer in Chief is that sophisticated. I do believe he is an ignorant fool. She describes him as “evil.” My bride used that term,, too, to describe the presumedĀ  Republican Party presidential nominee.

Perhaps the term “evil” connotes a level of genius. I’ll have to consider it. He strikes me as someone I have felt all along is unfit for public office, given that he’s never devoted a nano-second of his professional life to giving back to the nation,

Yes, I also believe he is that stupid.

International news, military news, national news

Nice knowin’ ya, Mr. Speaker

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House Speaker Mike Johnson might not be long for the powerful post he now occupies. Why is that?

Because he has decided to do the right thing by allowing a vote on an aid package for Ukraine, which is likely to piss off the MAGA crowd that opposes sending more aid to the nation fighting forces sent to Ukraine on orders from Vladmir Putin, the good pal of the POTUS No. 45.

ā€œI believe Xi, Vladimir Putin, and Iran really are an axis of evil,ā€ Johnson said recently. There you have it. He’s on the record calling Putin, the Russian strongman, part of a newly formed evil triumvirate.

Did Mike Johnson Just Get Religion on Ukraine? | The New Yorker (1ft.io)

I cannot even begin to wrap my arms around the irony here.

He is speaker largely because he was endorsed by the former Liar in Chief. Now the ex-Moron in Chief might turn on him if the MAGA cultists in the House engineer a vote to remove him.

Jiminy Crickets. My head won’t stop spinning!

He is going to allow a $60 billion aid package to come to a vote. The MAGA crowd won’t stand for it.,

It, however, is the right thing to do. Johnson knows it. So do most Americans. The MAGA cultists, however, march to their own cadence … and it is seriously out of step with the rest of this nation.

2016 election, International news, media news, military news, national news

The moment still sickens me

Time for an admission, which is that every reference to the 2016 presidential election outcome fills me with the same level of revulsion I felt when the TV networks called it for the former Moron in Chief.

Case in point: I just finished watching a nine-part Netflix documentary series on the cold war, titled, “Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War.” It is well-done, thorough and it walks us through the period from World War II to the present day. The images from Hiroshima and Nagasaki are heart-breaking and stark, to be sure.

Then it walks us to the here and now. The Soviet Union has imploded and the new president, Vladimir Putin, is filled with delusions of grandeur and longs for a return to the Stalinesque era of repression.

He invades Ukraine in February 2022 and there he is, plastered on the TV screen, along with the 45th POTUS and his buddy-buddy relationship with Putin.

Netflix felt obliged to show the candidate-to-be riding down the escalator in the office tower that bears is name with his wife to announce his run for the presidency. It also replayed the moment when the GOP nominee was declared the winner of the 2016 contest.

So help me, I cannot help but feel sickened beyond measure at the idea of replaying that scenario this coming November.

The documentary made no editorial comment on what occurred in 2016. The producers delivered it straight and for that I applaud them.

Critics of this blog accuse me of suffering from the “Derangement Syndrome” associated with the once and likely future GOP presidential nominee. I plead guilty! Yes, I suffer from it.

But … so should all Americans who give a damn about preserving democracy and scorning the dictatorial impuses of the moron who aspires to re-take control of our nuclear arsenal.

local news, military news, political news

Media falling asleep

A longtime acquaintance of mine takes time every week to review the contents of the Amarillo Globe-News, a once-thriving newspaper in the city my wife and I called home for more than two decades.

It’s now a battered shell of its once-proud self. My friend noted the absence of a major breaking story that should have raised an eyebrow or two in what passes for the newsroom at the AGN.

What was missing: The story this week in so many print and electronic media sites about the demotion of former Rear Admiral and current Congressman Ronny Jackson after the Navy OIG found multiple unacceptable aspects of his service.

Jackson is serving his second term as a Republican congressman from the 13th Congressional District. He moved to the Texas Panhandle to run for the office when Mac Thornberry announced his retirement from Congress.

Dude once served as White House physician for two presidents: Barack Obama and the idiot who succeeded him. The Navy inspector general stripped Jackson of his rear admiral rank, busting him to captain after probing many allegations of serious misconduct.

This is the kind of story that should be splashed all over the front page of the local newspaper … except that the 13th District doesn’t have a local newspaper based in Amarillo.Ā 

Jackson is a disgrace to his office and to the uniform he once wore. He continues to tout himself as a rear admiral on his website. The guy doesn’t even have the decency to tell his constituents the truth about his post-military standing. ā€œAs a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral with nearly three decades of military service I understand the commitment and sacrifices made by servicemen and servicewomen to serve our country,ā€ the two-term Texas representative writes on his congressional website.

I am left to ask: Does character matter any longer to what passes for a formerly great political party … or to the media outlets that report on the conduct of those in power?