US Army Retired

US Army Retired

Friday, September 21, 2018

News and Interesting Stuff for September 21, 2018

Kavanaugh’s Wife Puts Reporters Camped Outside Their Home to Shame – Did It With BIG Smile
Classy lady from a classy family.
This, again, is proof of grace under fire, as we’ve seen from a number of notable conservative women in the past year. There’s nothing more commendable than fighting off hate with kindness, as we’ve seen in Ashley here today, who must be under tremendous pressure, but walked out into the “lion’s den” with a gift and a smile. That’s remarkable and respectable.

FORMER SCALIA LAW CLERK Drops Pictures and Evidence That Blows Christine Ford’s Case Wide Open
More and more, her charges are falling apart. This Tweet storm from someone who should know the truth, shows that there is little doubt the flaky trumpet is mistaken about who supposedly assaulted her.
None of the four she mentioned lived anywhere near the supposed site of the so-called assault.
This piece shows pictures, floor plans, and just about everything else necessary to show Blasey Ford conveniently identified Judge Kavanaugh for political purposes.

Federal revenues jump from faster growth . . .
more than twice what the tax cut was supposed to ‘cost’
We can’t cut taxes! We’ll lose money and the government will go broke.
Oh yeah? Like has always happened every time it’s tried, tax cuts end up with the government taking in more than the tax cut cost.
But don’t try to convince the Dims of that.
As Steve Moore writes in today’s Wall Street Journal, the Trump tax cut is paying for itself. By a lot:
Compare the August 2018 economic forecast from the Congressional Budget Office with the one from June 2017, before the tax cuts passed, and we discover some very good news. The much higher than expected economic growth in the wake of the Trump tax cut means that U.S. gross domestic product will be higher than expected every year over the next decade.
Even if we assume a reversion to the pre-Trump 1.9% growth path, the ratchet up in GDP this year translates into $179 billion in unexpected output this year, $465 billion next year, $654 billion in 2020, and so on. This magic of compounding yields more than $6 trillion additional GDP over the decade thanks to the faster growth already achieved.
The federal government is expected to capture a bit more than 18% of that extra output in tax revenue—about $1.1 trillion over the 10-year window. That’s well above the $400 billion to $500 billion expected revenue loss from the corporate tax-rate cut.

College Students Not Mailing Absentee Ballots Because They Don’t Know Where to Buy Stamps
My sides hurt from laughing. And, if they’re that dumb, they have to be MinocRATs. Don’t, whatever you do, tell them where.
“Vote or die.” Unless, it’s too hard to find a stamp.
A Fairfax County focus group this summer found many college students who have gotten an absentee ballot simply fail to send it back because a U.S. Postal Service stamp seems to be a foreign concept to them.
“One thing that came up, which I had heard from my own kids but I thought they were just nerdy, was that the students will go through the process of applying for a mail-in absentee ballot, they will fill out the ballot, and then, they don’t know where to get stamps,” Lisa Connors with the Fairfax County Office of Public Affairs said.
“That seems to be like a hump that they can’t get across.”

The One True Puerto Rico Death Toll and Other Fictions
Can anyone say for certain just how many died from Maria?
Apparently not,
From news accounts, we know the exact number: 48. I mean 64. At least 450. No, 985. More like 1,052, or maybe 1,085. It could be 4,645 or 5,740, one study said, or somewhere between 793 and 8,498. Or 2,975. Yeah, that’s it!
The one, true, absolutely correct answer is 2,975. We know that one is correct because it is the answer accepted by the Puerto Rican government, which, you may be certain—certain!—is interested only in the truth and not in the aid that comes with larger numbers.
There are 64 actual confirmed deaths—people whose names are known. President Trump, ever the skeptic, tweeted that the increase in the official count from 64 to 2,975 was “done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible.”

Anti-Trump (Puerto Rican) senator ARRESTED for fraud (he’s toast!)
Puerto Rican Senator Abel Nazario Quiñones, a supposed Republican, did everything he could to smear President Trump… until he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
He, like so many of his crooked PR politicians, dumped 10 whole trailers of aid, leaving it to rot and be covered in rat feces.
Election night brought bad news for him – but last Wednesday was even worse, because police handcuffed him and marched him off to jail.
The Never-Trump politician got slapped with a 39-count indictment accusing him of making false documents and committing wire fraud.
The huge corporations that love illegal immigration exploit immigrants for cheap labor… and it turns out, Nazario Quiñones wanted to do a little exploitation of his own.
For 16 years, he served as mayor of the town of Yauco – and officers say that he ripped off his own workers for hundreds of thousands, or maybe millions, of dollars.
In just two years – from 2012 to 2014 – he managed to stiff 177 municipal workers for the astronomical total of $588,961 and 43 cents, authorities say.
Anyone surprised?

He Can’t Even Get His Library Built Without Scandal
And it’s being stopped by residents who’re disgusted with the crap being pulled.
$10 for a 99-year lease on public property?
The Chicago Park District had begun felling trees on land destined to become part of the Obama Library complex, but those preparations ground to a halt Monday after the Chicago Department of Transportation refused to grant a permit that would have allowed the Park District to move utility lines running through the site. CDOT delayed a decision on the matter until after the Federal lawsuit and Federal assessments have been resolved.
Hearings on the lawsuit, which claims the Obama Library received unprecedented, and potentially illegal, assistance from the state of Illinois, and the city of Chicago, start Thursday. Plaintiffs claim that the Library is being granted part of historic Jackson Park -- a huge public green space designed by Frederick Olmsted (the same man who designed New York City's Cental Park, and dedicated for the people of Chicago's recreational use. They also say that plans to move two major arteries, that currently run across Jackson Park, will harm economic growth and isolate residents of Chicago's south side.
Don’t you think it’s time he slinks back into his DC lair to plot more disruption of the Trump administration?

US Air Fore “Stretched Thin”
Two studies by organizations with good records – and probably staffed by people who’ve been in the pilot seats.
In almost no cases could the Air Force meet 100 percent of demand, according to RAND’s calculations. In a long regional conflict, the Air Force could only meet 62% of attack and 65% of strike requirements, but it could supply 92% of aerial tanker demand.
And then comes this:
The estimates are dismaying: in a peacekeeping/no-fly zone scenario, the Air Force could only meet 29 percent of C3ISR requirements, 32 percent of tanker demand, 40 percent of special operations missions, and 46 percent of bomber missions.
That’s discouraging.
Meanwhile, a GAO report reveals that from 2011 to 2016, the Air Force and Navy failed to meet goals for aircraft availability. Examining availability of 13 Air Force and Navy aircraft models, including the B-52, F-22, F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet and AV-8B Harrier, GAO found severe issues such as delayed depot maintenance, needed parts that were no longer manufactured, lack of mechanics, and aircraft flying beyond their service life.
And it’s not just the USAF.
For its part, the Navy has been shuffling aircraft to keep deployed squadrons up to strength, leaving non-deployed units with insufficient planes for training.
And we all know the solutions.
There are the usual no-brainer solutions for American airpower: more planes, better maintenance, fewer deployments. But the real problem is that the U.S. military has to prepare for a variety of missions, including peacekeeping or counterinsurgency operations that may be not combat-heavy, but are maintenance-intensive. And it has to do it with a fleet of expensive, aging and frequently finicky aircraft.

The US Air Force plans a massive expansion to take on Russia and China
Here’s the most amazing statement about the whole thing:
Additionally, the move would require the Air Force to bring on about 40,000 new people at a time when the force has a near crippling problem with retaining top talent.
Got it? All those shiny new aircraft and they don’t have the people to man and maintain them. Just where do they plan to get these people?

2019 Military Budget of $676 Billions
Lots and lots of goodies. But, where the hell are they going to get the people to operate it?
How will it be spent?
Not only will the force be expanded with 16,400 additional active-duty and reserves and a 2.6 percent pay raise be introduced, there will be a mega-boost in cutting-edge tech to help ensure the United States continues to dominate in land, sea and air power.
93 F-35 fifth generation fighter jets
58 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters
66 AH-64 Apache helicopters
13 V-22 Osprey aircraft
$1.5 billion in M1 Abrams tank enhancements
3 DDG-51 Guided-Missile Destroyers (Arleigh-Burke class)
2 Virginia-Class submarines
Littoral Combat Ship (the LCS)
Hypersonic Weapons

Military Orders 2,800 Armored Ambulances
To replace an aging fleet?
Then comes the hype:
“AM General continues to support the warfighter’s needs by delivering high-quality M997A3 ambulances based off our modernized, proven, rugged, all-terrain HMMWV’s,” said Chris Vanslager, AM General Executive Vice President, US Defense. “We understand the importance of being able to reliably and safely transport the wounded within operational areas on the battlefield to medical aid stations and are proud that the M997A3 can fulfill this critical mission.”
As with all active vehicle programs, AMG General leverages its more than 100 years of automotive experience to deliver affordable quality products on time. The first M997A3 ambulance deliveries are scheduled for Q2 2019.

Cajun Navy Helps Rescue More Than 100 Cats And Dogs From Animal Shelter During Hurricane Florence
The poor, helpless ones that look to us for their very lives. These people deserve praise for their caring.
Hundreds of dogs and cats have been rescued from an animal shelter that was about to collapse during Hurricane Florence.
The Carteret County Humane Society in New Port, 15 miles from the North Carolina coast, flooded and its roof threatened to collapse on Friday during the catastrophic storm.
The staff and animals were rescued around 8pm with help from the Cajun Navy.
More than 100 cats and dogs were rescued in trucks and taken to a temporary shelter at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.
Dr Kelli Ferris, a vet from N.C. State University, was leading the rescue operation.
Dr Ferris has been part of disaster response for animal rescue during Hurricanes Katrina and Harvey.
She told DailyMail.com: ‘The majority of dogs that we have here either had not found an owner prior to the storm or were turned over by owners prior to the storm.
‘We have a few dogs that have come in from other flooded areas that are going to go into a holding place for the long term, giving their owners a chance to reclaim them at some point in the next month.’
The pets were being given medical exams and walked and fed by volunteers.

Uzbek Spoils from Overrun Afghan Base
Why buy arms on the world market? Just attack an Afghan military base and take what you want when the Afghan soldiers run away. I don’t see any US type weapons in the cache.
And then the Taliban posts videos of a base and outpost they took over in the Afghan north.

UK Government plans to create a new internet regulator
Why should we care? Well, if they do it, it will give regulators here the edge to start doing the same. That raises the question – should internet giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Google be regulated? Or is unlimited freedom of the internet the gold standard?
Legislation is being drafted by the Home Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), according to the site.
A new regulatory framework for online 'social harms', scheduled to be announced this winter, would be created.
This would also involve the creation of a new body, equivalent to Ofcom, for social media and other sites.
The details are reportedly being considered by home secretary Sajid Javid and culture secretary Jeremy Wright.

Does Anyone Recognize This Place?
Here’s what it looked like in 1982.
Any takers?
Seems oil fields within its territory is brining in more people and its trying to find accommodations by putting a floating hotel in the harbor.

The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Perfume
Sometimes it takes a touch of darkness to create something alluring.
Few people today in the Western World can comprehend how things once were in our towns and cities. Raw sewage running in the streets. People not taking baths and wearing the same clothing day after day. It is said that one could smell the reek from a great distance when approaching a gathering of humans.
Being accustomed to it, most people paid no heed to it.
But there were those above it all. The rich and privileged.
Smell is the most underrated and mysterious sense. In her 1908 autobiography, The World I Live In, Helen Keller called scent the “fallen angel.” “For some inexplicable reason, smell does not hold the high position it deserves amongst its sisters,” she wrote. Keller mapped her world by smell — she could smell a coming storm hours before it arrived and knew when lumber had been harvested from her favorite copse of trees by the sharp scent of pine. In contrast to touch, which she called “permanent and definite,” Keller experienced odors as “fugitive” sensations. Touch guided her; scent fed her. Without smell, Keller imagined her world would be lacking “light, color, and the Protean spark. The sensuous reality which interthreads and supports all the gropings of my imagination would be shattered.”
Perfumers go back to 1200 BCE in Babylon Little is know about Tapputi and perfume factories have been unearthed in Cyprus.
I clearly remember the importance of perfume and eau de cologne during my tour of duty in France from 1958 to early 1961. Unshaved female bodies and infrequent baths covered by heavy applications of perfume. And I wonder if it’s only relatively recently that men have followed the trend with deodorants and afer shave lotions.

Posted by Dale Day at 4:54 AM

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