US Army Retired

US Army Retired

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Lots and Lots of News and Interesting Stuff for November 27, 2018







Simple-Minded Antisemite Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Compares Migrant Caravan To Jews Fleeing Holocaust
If her demeanor wasn’t so sadly flaky her outbursts would be hilarious.
This Jew-hating moron hits bottom and keeps digging. Democrats — the party of antisemitism. To say this about the caravan of migrants that is (contrary to her claims) fleeing no violence is obscene, and trivializes the Holocaust, which is what you would expect from an unthinking Jew-hater such as Ocasio-Cortez. Where are the death camps? Where are the gas chambers? Where is the insistent demonization and genocidal rhetoric? What is even worse than what Ocasio-Cortez said is that no one in the Democrat leadership will have a word to say about it. She is their latest media darling, and can do no wrong, especially when she demonstrates her antisemitism, which they all share.
“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Compares Migrant Caravan To Jews Fleeing Holocaust,” by Peter Hasson, Daily Caller News Foundation, November 25, 2018 (thanks to Todd):
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Should Have Sent 5K Caseworkers to Border, Not Troops @ https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-should-have-sent-5k-caseworkers-border-not-troops
Maxine says migrants swarming border is a ‘political ploy’ from Trump @ https://mediaequalizer.com/martin-walsh/2018/11/maxine-says-migrants-swarming-border-is-a-political-ploy-from-trump
Another hilarious flake. The next 2 years of belly busting is going to be exhausting.

Schumer Admits Trump, Not Roberts, Was Right About Judges
Did I read that right?
“I don’t agree very often with Chief Justice Roberts, especially his partisan decisions which seem highly political on Citizens United, Janus, and Shelby.
But I am thankful today that he—almost alone among Republicans—stood up to President Trump and for an independent judiciary.”
- Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 23, 2018
Notice how he still got in his dig at the president?
Schumer Tries to Attack Trump for His Comments on Appointed Judges ─ Ends Up Proving Trump Right @ https://ijr.com/trump-schumer-judicial-branch/

FLOTUS Creates Patriotic-Themed Christmas Decorations for the White House
From someone who knows just how much blessing come from living in the wonderful nation.
Some of the Christmas decorations around the White House:
East Wing — Gold Star Family tree honors troops and their families for their sacrifices
The Library — four trees tucked away in each corner of the room that honors cherished authors
East Room — four custom mantelpieces that highlight American architecture and design with skylines of New York City, St. Louis, Chicago, and San Francisco
Green Room — fruits, vegetables, and grain are on the tree to represent the country’s harvest
Red Room — decorations which celebrate children
Blue Room — official White House Christmas tree with blue velvet ribbon around it that is embroidered with each State and territory
State Dining Room — a room filled with celebration of national symbol’s with the bald eagle, rose, and oak tree; full display of the National Mall and the White House gingerbread house
Grand Foyer and Cross Hall — 14,000 ornaments on 29 trees, where “patriotism” center stage, representing “valor and bravery”
This short video is stunning:


Here We Go! More Babylon Bee
I can’t wait for the day’s Feedly scan to see what this site has come up with.
Family Places Father In Solitary Confinement After 763rd Turkey Pun @ https://babylonbee.com/news/family-places-father-in-solitary-confinement-after-763rd-turkey-pun
Not Good: Chick-Fil-A's Thanksgiving Day Parade Float Just Activated Its Laser Eyes @ https://babylonbee.com/news/not-good-the-chick-fil-a-cow-float-just-activated-its-laser-eyes
Thanksgiving Day Officially Changed To 'Check Your Privilege Day' @ https://babylonbee.com/news/thanksgiving-day-officially-changed-to-check-your-privilege-day
Exciting New VR Game Tricks Your Kids Into Doing Household Chores @ https://babylonbee.com/news/exciting-new-vr-game-tricks-your-kids-into-doing-household-chores
7 Ways You Can OWN Your Liberal Relatives At Thanksgiving This Year @ https://babylonbee.com/news/7-ways-you-can-own-your-liberal-relatives-at-thanksgiving-this-year
Pastor Drops Mic After Killer Sermon, Immediately Scolded By Sound Guy @ https://babylonbee.com/news/Pastor-drops-mic-after-killer-sermon-immediately-scolded-by-sound-guy
Doncha love it!
Another Episode of The Babylon Bee
Always good for lots of teehees.
Too Much Winning: Trump’s Tremendous Presidenting Causing Whole Caravans Of People To Attempt Entry Into US @ https://babylonbee.com/news/too-much-winning-trumps-tremendous-presidenting-causing-whole-caravans-of-people-to-attempt-entry-into-us
Man Who Has Never Shared Jesus With Anyone Criticizes Slain Missionary's Lack Of Wisdom @ https://babylonbee.com/news/man-who-has-never-shared-jesus-with-anyone-criticizes-slain-missionarys-lack-of-wisdom
Global Warming Pinned On Kid Who Keeps Leaving The Front Door Wide Open While The Heater Is On @ https://babylonbee.com/news/global-warming-pinned-on-kid-who-keeps-leaving-the-front-door-wide-open-while-the-heater-is-on
Pathetic Conservative Hasn't Even Been Banned From Twitter Yet @ https://babylonbee.com/news/pathetic-conservative-hasnt-even-been-banned-from-twitter-yet
Recently Pardoned Turkey Found Dead After Claiming To Have Dirt On Hillary Clinton @ https://babylonbee.com/news/recently-pardoned-turkey-found-dead-after-claiming-to-have-dirt-on-hillary-clinton
Thanksgiving for Troops at the Border
It isn’t as if they’re with their families but at least they have a semblance of normalcy.
Looks like they had a real spread of good stuff.
Here’s How the Troops Protecting Our Southern Border Spent Their Thanksgiving the Traditional Way @ https://ijr.com/troops-thanksgiving-mexican-border-food/
Is civilian control of the military eroding?
Scanning this leads me to believe it’s nothing more than a hit piece against President Trump and Secretary of Defense Mattis. They’re apparently ignoring holdovers from the previous administration and failing to appoint new people of their own. And it whines about civilians not having enough say so over how things are run at DOD.
The Commission could have made a more compelling critique of military leadership if it had looked at the budgets of the individual military services. To date, they have shown no major apparent change due to the Mattis/Trump strategy of focusing on great-power competition. Plans remain largely as they were before Trump came into office—it’s just that his larger budgets have allowed the services to buy a bit more of everything, rather than reflecting any significant change in strategy. With budgets now likely to plateau or even decline a bit, the Commission might have made a larger contribution by telling us how to prioritize. In their future writings and testimonies on the subject, they should concentrate their attention accordingly, rather than reprise the false issue of a civilian-military chasm.

Twenty Percent of Army Generals not Deployable in 2016
Probably unable to get out of the ultra-post armchairs.
Data for 2016 showed that 83.5 percent of Army soldiers were deemed medically ready to deploy, the lowest rate among the services. The Marine Corps led with 90.2 percent followed by the Navy at 90.1 percent and the Air Force at 88.8 percent. The rate for active-duty, ready-to-deploy generals, not including the Reserve or National Guard, was 79.6 percent. For active-duty soldiers overall, the figure was 84 percent, and the Army’s goal is 85 percent.
The top factors for failing to meet the standard was being overdue for an annual physical or dental exam, a relatively easy fix.
Readiness is a big issue. As indicated in the quote, simple things like being updated with regards to medical and dental exams is important to being declared “able to deploy”. This is also a concern among the reserve components.
Service members being deployable is one of the things that the Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, is tackling. You can read more here.
Wonder what the figures are now for 2018. Any better?


New Rules for White House Press Conferences
There’s really no change at all. Just seems to be formalizing what should’ve been common sense all along. And, it seems the WH backed down because of the deadline from the judge. So, here’s what the author says:
No biggie. How long will it take Acosta to violate the newly promulgated rules the next time he’s called on? Fifteen seconds? Trump will get his chance at a rematch.
It’s not included here but are there any rules about the pushing, shoving, and yelling of members of the press corps trying to get the attention of whomever is running the show?
Here’s the full letter:
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 19, Bill 8
Dear Mister Acosta:
We received a letter from your counsel yesterday responding to our notice letter of November 16, 2013. That letter says, among other things, that “there are no so-called widely understood practices governing the conduct of journalists covering the White House. This statement impresses us as incorrect. Over many years, members of the White House press corps have attended countless press events with the President and other officials without engaging in the behavior you displayed at the November 2013 press conference, which gave rise to the suspension of your hard pass.
We would have greatly preferred to continue hosting White House press conferences in reliance on a set of understood professional norms, and we believe the overwhelming majority of journalists covering the White House share that preference. But, given your insistence that shared practices be replaced by “explicit . . . standards,” this letter attempts to convert into rules the widely understood practices described in our prior letter, and which. your counsel’s letter inexplicably concludes were non-existent.
Please be advised of the following rules governing future press conferences
A journalist called upon to ask. a question will ask a single question and then will
yield the floor to other journalists;
At the discretion of the President or other White-House official taking questions, a followup question or questions may be permitted; and where a follow up has been allowed and asked, the questioner will then yield the floor;
“Yielding the floor" includes, when applicable, physically surrendering the - microphone to' White House-staff for use by the next questioner;
Failure to abide by any of rates (1)-(3) may result in suspension or revocation of the journalist hard pass -
We are aware that Rules (2) and (4) afford the White House a degree of discretion in enforcing these rules and we see no substitute for reserving discretion. A press conference is not a mechanical exercise We are likewise mindful that a more elaborate set of rules might be devised, including, for example, specific provisions for journalist conduct in the open {non-press room} areas of the White House and For Air Force One. At this time, we have decided not to frame such rules 1n the hope that professional journalistic norms will suffice to regulate conduct in those places If unprofessional behavior occurs in those settings or if a court should decide that explicit rules are required to regulate conduct even there, we will be forced to reconsider this decision.
Signed by Bill Shine, Assistant to the President and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary
How long until Acosta or others break the rules?


Gap in Federal Law Turns Border Wilderness to Wasteland
As usual, there are two sides to the story.
Among the questionable objections to President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall is the claim that it would “cause serious environmental damage.”
But, what about the currently unprotected areas where illegals trample delicate plant life, leave trash, and litter the area with human waste.
The crux of this article is the introduction of “Securing Our Borders and Wilderness Act (HR 3593) to try to clean up things. Another law with lots of words and no actual impact? Why knows? But it has to be better than the way things are now.

Violent Migrant Border Incident Exact Replay of When Obama Used Tear Gas at Border
Well, not exactly Obama but members of the Border Patrol when he was president. Not a great outcry of using “chemical agents” and “gassing poor immigrants.”
Five years almost to the day before President Donald Trump’s border officers blocked migrants with tear gas, authorities under President Barack Obama used identical tactics along the same stretch of border near the San Ysidro Port of Entry, according to 2013 press accounts.
Dem senator: Was this tear-gas use at the border a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention? @ https://hotair.com/archives/2018/11/26/dem-senator-tear-gas-use-border-violation-convention-chemical-weapons/
What the hell did Schatz expect them to do?

Caravan of Displaced Mexican Tzotzils Tear-Gassed
Lets see American Progs scream and rant about gas warfare for this group.
Oh? But? First of all, they’re Mexicans on Mexican soil. And they’re an indigenous people protesting insecurity.
“Chiapas is no longer one of the 10 most indebted states in the country” and is also one of the safest, Governor Velasco claimed.
However, it has not been especially safe for the marchers who arrived the same day from San Cristóbal. They were displaced from their homes in Chenalhó, Ocosingo and Zinacantán by attacks by armed civilians, and have been afraid to return.

Dormitories for Members of Congress?
Of course it’s because of her that the idea pops up again. She can afford expensive clothes and shoes but whines about not being able to afford an apartment in D.C. [Don’t forget that a celebrity chef has already given her free room and board.]
“We hear stories of members literally living in their offices — among them is outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan — to save money, or of other representatives living in houseboats or in group homes that resemble flophouses,” columnist Rory Cooper wrote.
Cooper advocated for a very specific plan that included building the dorm on a “mostly useless park” in the Capitol complex and the possibility of bipartisan roommate assignments.
“You’re much less likely to attack a fellow member on a cable news panel if you’re going to be splitting kitchen duties with them later that evening,” he wrote.
Will it be paid out of operating funds Congress already votes itself? Or will they want special funding for it? And, how much would MPs pay to stay there?

Tulsa, Oklahoma Foundation Offers $10k, Free Rent, and Other Perks to Move There
And it’s not the only place to do it.
In May, Vermont passed legislation that lets it offer $10,000 in tax breaks to remote workers who live there for two years, which it will start giving out this January. In October, Maine expanded a program that offers student loan forgiveness to certain recent graduates who choose to live and work (not only remotely) in the state. Both are efforts to stymie brain drain and population loss as the regions’ residents age. Similarly, Montana invites people who grew up in the state but have since moved to “Come Home to Hunt” each hunting season, giving them reduced license prices in the hopes that they’ll remember how nice their hometown was.
There are, of course, some rather stringent screening things to go through before being accepted. For Tulsa, this is added;
To make sure participants don’t just snag the cash and then hie away to Portland or Seattle, the foundation will space out their checks: Workers will get an initial housing stipend up front, but will have to pick up $500 per month in person, and wait to get the rest of the bonus at the end of their first year.
And to make them stick around for longer, the program is designed to build community, with social events like wine tastings and panel discussions programmed just for this cohort. They’ll all work for free at 36 Degrees North, a co-working space that calls itself a “basecamp for entrepreneurs.” And, if they want to take advantage of a rent discount, three months of free utilities, and a year of free furniture, they’ll even live together in the same building in the Tulsa Arts District, right around the corner from 36 Degrees North.
As for me, I’d never move there for a number of reasons. Tornadoes. Weather. And the politics. Especially having a bunch of Left Coast and Weak Coast progressives moving there to mess things up.

Ukrainian Navy consciously ignored orders to stop?
There’s always another side to the story.
The FSB (Federal Security Service) has claimed in a statement that the naval standoff in Crimean waters was a “provocative act of the Ukrainian Navy executed upon direct orders by the government in Kiev.” The clash took place on Sunday in the Kerch Strait, which connects mainland Russia and the Crimean peninsula. It involved Ukrainian ships and Russian coast guard vessels.
And they add that two officers from the Ukrainian Security Service, or SBU, were embedded with the intruder ships to coordinate the incursion.

Training Eastern European nurses in Poland to work in the NHS
Nationalized health care. They can’t find or train people to work within their system. Why is that?
That makes me wonder why we here in America seem to be having the same problem. In any case, here’s the story;
'The problem in the UK is that not enough people want to go into nursing,' Nick Miller, general manager for international recruitment at Hunter Miller, told the Nursing Times.
This doesn’t say why.
Training nurses there is TWO THIRDS cheaper than the UK and could solve the staffing crisis'
A London-based agency believes the NHS could train 40,000 nurses in the EU
There are currently around 42,000 vacant nursing jobs in the health service
Linking UK hospitals with foreign universities could inspire more staff to train
Working in the NHS is appealing to European nurses because of the pay
But Brexit uncertainty could be putting hospitals off the idea of committing


Why DO boobs sag?
Thought you’d see something more titillating, didn’t you? Well, unless you scroll all the way down to see the video, this is the most you’ll get.
World-first study will monitor how women's breasts bounce as they walk and use MRI and 3D scans to answer the age old question
The University of Portsmouth is calling for volunteers for its study next month
Women will be paid £30 to take part in the research in Hampshire
Experts say the findings will help companies make better bras in future


The Surprising Story of the First Thanksgiving
It wasn’t like all the stories made it out to be. Here’s a couple of facts about the real thing;
They didn’t have furniture so there was no sitting around tables.
Forks didn’t exist so they probably ate with their hands using their knives.
Turkeys were thin and gamy but waterfowl were plentiful. So were eels. Lots and lots of eels.
No yams as they hadn’t made their way from Peru yet. Same with potatoes and tomatoes. Lots of turnips and cabbage.
Oh yeah, corn. But not like the kind we know today.
And don’t forget the ones that thought they didn’t have to lift a hand as everything would be given to them.
It’s a long article but tells you lots of things you probably never knew.
And so that’s another thing, I suppose, when we’re imagining them sitting on the ground eating with their hands, let’s imagine them wearing orange and red and yellow, not black. They weren’t wearing buckles because they actually disliked any kind of adornment like that.
The women didn’t wear jewelry of any kind and so forth. So they wouldn’t have had that, but lots of bright colors. In fact, the will for William Bradford, the inventory of his estate shows that he had a red vest and a purple cape, among other things. So these folks would’ve been pretty striking, I think, in their fashion sense if nothing else.


The Oceans “Twilight Zone”
In the ‘30s, operators of the new sonar felt they found the ocean’s bottom. Only problem was that it kept changing. They’ve now discovered that it’s a layer of ocean life that moves up and down on a regular basis.
Between the ocean’s bright blue surface and its blackest depths — 660 to 3,300 feet below — is a mysterious, dark span of water. Welcome to the twilight zone.
Recent evidence suggests there are more animals here by weight than in all of the world’s fisheries combined. But who lives here, and in what quantities?
And it all looks quite fierce.
But not really that big.

Biotechnology for the Battlefield
Scientists continue to come up with amazing things to protect our troops. And, that advances always make their way to the civilian side.
If today’s technology headlines are any indication, the science fiction of comic books is becoming science reality. Impenetrable skin and resilience to gamma rays are no longer just for superheroes. For instance, scientists have recently discovered ways to create spider silk, an innovative biotechnology that can lead to lighter, more flexible, and stronger body armor. And microscopic animals nicknamed “water bears” are showing promise to protect soldiers from the health effects of radiation exposure by boosting capacity for DNA repair or even preventing damage to DNA in the first place.
The biggest problem appears to be fewer and fewer companies to provide products created in the labs.
The well-recognized “valley of death” that prevents technological innovations from being translated into medicines, equipment, and warfighter benefits is a problem much broader than biotechnology. Since World War II, there has been a steady decline in the defense industrial base, as fewer companies are able to provide products specific to defense. Supply chains have become burdensome and unwieldy.


Wind Turbines Only Last 20 Years
All that money to erect them so they can kill an unknown number of birds and they don’t last all that long? Who knew? [Maybe the companies that foisted them on us?]
From Center of the American Experiment’s web site: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says the useful life of a wind turbine is only 20 years.
In contrast to wind, coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants can run for a very long time. Coal and natural gas plants can easily run for 50 years, and nuclear plants can be updated and retrofitted to run for 60 years. This has profound implications for the cost of electricity on a per megawatt hour basis that seemingly no one is talking about.


Sticky hydrogel could revolutionize knee surgery
I see stuff like this and pray it will soon be available – and properly tested for FDA approval – for my doctor to use. The cortisone injections didn’t help all that much and I’ve been advised that I’m not a candidate for knee replacement.
Oh when oh when!
In fact, the new hydrogel (that's 90 percent water and composed of a double-network matrix and a fiber network) adheres to tissues even more when it's compressed or stretched. Dominique Pioletti, one of the team leaders, explained that it's because the "double network structure distributes incoming mechanical energy throughout" the hydrogel. If you load the material with repair cells or drugs, it can heal broken cartilages without the need to damage them further with sutures.



Posted by Dale Day at 11:17 AM

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