Some Good News

The good news is that two of our best friends, Japan and South Korea have kissed and made up!
The subject was the kidnapping and raping of tens of thousands of Korean, and other nationalities including Indonesians, and even Dutch, but mostly Koreans. These women were then turned into forced prostitutes to service the Japanese Army. 

For years these sex slaves had to service a dozen or more Japanese soldiers a day.

The Japanese have always denied their complicity, while quietly admitting the “Comfort Women” existed, but claiming they were prostitutes. South Korea erected a Comfort Woman statue facing the Japanese Embassy, and others were erected in the US over Japanese American objections.

The Japanese nationalists, of whom the current Prime Minister Abe is a member, were under pressure from the US to solve the problem by the end of the year, and they did so. 

The Japanese caved, they agreed to millions to the remaining Comfort Women, Prime Minister Abe apologized and expressed remorse, and in return South Korea agreed to remove the statue in front of the Japanese Embassy. Both sides agreed to put this behind them.

But it should not be forgotten, even though it may officially no longer be brought up in diplomatic circles, it is a part of history. A very bad part.

This is a BIG Story!

The SpaceX landing of their huge rocket is HUGE news, and more than the press is giving it!

This is a monster 1.5 million lbs of thrust, weighing 1.1 million lbs, taking 11 satellites into low orbit successfully, then having the first stage of the rocket return to earth and a soft landing!

This is BIG, and incredibly difficult. The nine engine Falcon 9 v 1.1 is the launch vehicle that will permit us to take back the personnel delivery to the Space Station from Russia, and eventually will be the basis of our Mars Mission. I would love to be alive for that, but alas…

Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s SpaceX program just cut its costs on future flights by returning the first stage softly, and at some future dats will return the second stage also.

This was the first ever flight also with super cooled cryogenic fuel, cooled to minus 340 degrees for greater density. 

It’s a BIG DEAL! American ingenuity at work!

Next year, SpaceX will hopefully launch Falcon Heavy, with separate cores of Merlin engines three times the power of the latest launch. Only the enormous Saturn V of 1973 had more thrust. 

Space X, is leading us back!

Monday Morning Musings

What I have discovered in reading Trump supporters on-line, and entering dialog with them is that you can’t ignore Trump, fact-check Trump, or criticize Trump even lightly. If you do not absolutely worship Trump, you must be a Muslim-loving, America-hating, Hillary–supporting “Libtard,” who probably killed his mother, drools and suffocated his children.
I am an Annapolis graduate with 26 years service, Enlisted and Officer, and I’ll match my patriotism against ANY Trump supporter on any Blog, but I am not sufficiently patriotic for the keyboard warriors who have never racked a cartridge in anger!

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I watched the purposely hidden Democratic Debate, and there were few surprises. Control guns, raise taxes, give away free stuff. College should be free, apparently, in the thoughts of all Democrats, without even a thought that if college students have no cost to themselves or their families, they will have little incentive (even less than today!) to study or take challenging courses.

If Democrats could, they would have free food and housing…yes, free love and Vodka also!

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The Blogs and Facebook feature a Rogues Gallery of students disrespecting teachers in America’s classrooms.
I have no sympathy for teachers who complain about little discipline.. When was the last time you heard of a teacher’s union demanding civility in the classroom, and threatening a strike if they didn’t get it? No, no one has, but 300,000 (plus) teachers — teachers who are THE major donors to politicians in Sacramento, and if they want something, they WILL get it!

Teachers have demanded, and received, salaries that rank in the top five among states — it’s too bad they have not used their clout to raise California academic standings or the quality of civility in the classroom.

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I am torn on the subject of encryption — yes, Apple and others should provide a “back door” to their encryption but it is meaningless because ISIL is writing their own encryption software, so what Apple does is really immaterial. The game has passed them by!

It’s Called WAR!

As I watched the “debates” last night, it occurred to me that darn few candidates — and no people asking questions (including off the Internet) would have dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Further, none would have fire bombed Tokyo, or destroyed Berlin or Dresden.
Which means the British would have had to accept the destruction of Coventry and London without retaliating.

You see…none of the cities named had much military (or any) significance. All were civilian centers.

So, this is the question, paraphrased, for Mr. Truman, and in his absence, you:

“Mr. President, we can drop the bomb on Hiroshima and kill perhaps 100,000 civilians, or we can invade the main islands of Japan at the cost of a million American casualties…200,000 dead, 800,000 wounded”

You need to answer that, and so do the candidates.

And, if your answer is “No,” to paraphrase Trump, “So, they can kill our families, and we can’t kill theirs?”

Yes, killing families are against the Geneva Convention, but that document is as one-sided as the bombing question is — Al-Queda didn’t sign the Geneva Convention, and neither did Daesh.

So, as usual we are asked to behave by the Marquis of Queensberry Rules, and they get to use the Marque de Sade’s Rules?

NO! NO! NO!

Now we do have limits, or should. We shouldn’t behead or execute innocents…or burn them to death in cages.

Should we “water board?”

Judicially, yes!

But “Sanctuaries?”

 No! Not in San Francisco or Raqqa!

There are only so many advantages we can cede to an enemy.

Your Move, Mr. Putin!

Putin has publicly admitted that the sanctions against Russia, imposed by the West in response to Russia seizing the Crimea and threatening the Ukraine, are really hurting his nation.
How much? Well new car sales are down more than 50% in this November compared to the same month in 2014.

Think of that for a second!  (One brand dropped 71%, month to month)

Now, to be honest, it was not only the sanctions — Russia is a major exporter of oil, and the prices of oil have dropped from $100+ a barrel to $35. The double hit of sanctions and a world awash in an oil surplus has crippled Russia.

Putin wants the sanctions lifted because that is something someone has control over, while the oil surplus is something no one nation or combination of nations is likely to control. In fact, the United States, is a sleeping elephant in the fuel room…and the Congress is about to permit the exportation of oil!

Gas is selling in the Mid-West for $1.94 a gallon — we are awash in oil! If we export, we further weaken the Russian economy. Putin is crazy, but he is not stupid! As much as he wants to spend on his military, he has no money and no clear field to get any. In short, he cannot make any further moves unless he can solve his economy.

The US doesn’t want to squeeze too hard, but it needs to be enough. Russia has been here before, seeing its economy collapse. It would help if he simply brings his troops home from the Ukraine, but he doesn’t want to show any weakness.

Watching his economy collapse is a worse option! Russia has always been a Third World country with nukes, tried to become a rising nation but along came sanctions and a massive drop in oil prices. 

Your move, Mr. Putin. 

A Mess!

Something is smelling bad.
The Washington Post is predicting that Cruz is the likely Republican nominee.

John Podesta, Democratic Party guru of the left, agrees.

There are several possible explanations: (In no particular order)

1)this an anti-Trump play by the Democrats, finding someone almost as outrageous as Trump but with better speaking skills.

2) it is an actual analysis, rationally made, and correct considering the ground game of each candidate

3) the Democrats have more on Cruz that is embarrassing, than Trump

There must be five more scenarios which I can’t imagine because I am not on the inside of any ground game, but politics is a dirty business. A really dirty business. 

So, I have no clue. But I thought I would at least explore the candidates, and it is obvious that the only candidate that has as high a dissatisfaction index as Trump, is Hillary. 

That means that Republicans want to ease Trump out, because of his ultra-high negative numbers. That makes tactical and strategic sense.

Cruz is, as Alan Dershowitz said, “scary smart” — and in Iowa, Cruz has the Evangelicals in Iowa. Destroying Trumps invincibility is necessary, because Trump touts how far he is ahead, constantly. Cruz is the proper one to do that, and Iowa is the place. Rubio might be the one somewhere else, but Cruz is the man of the hour in hour.

If Trump can do no better than winning half of the first four competitions, then Rubio and even Jeb could move into contention.

It is a long, long campaign, with many twists and turns. This is one of the first, and, in my opinion, it is driven by Trump’s negatives — which are much higher in every poll than his positives.

And, if you think the Republicans have problems, just look at the Democrats. They have Hillary with massive negatives, an FBI investigation that the administration cannot control, and, unlike the Republicans, no Plan B.

None!

The later that the FBI releases their results (if those results are negative to Hillary, and I expect them to be), no time will be left to develop a Plan B. 

I suppose Joe Biden is a Democrat possible, but that is chancy once he has said “No.”

No, the Republicans have the better looking road to the White House.

But nothing is a lock. In the end, negatives have the power on both sides because the power brokers do not want a candidate who can’t win the final.

And, In Other News….

Trump dominates the news so much, I thought you might want some good news!
So what was Opal Tometi, co-founder of Black Lives Matter doing in Venezuela? She was there to support fellow -Socialist/Communist Presidente Maduro get his legislative and political head handed to him by the opposition for the first time in 17 years.

The opposition gained a two – thirds plus legislative victory, meaning that the fractured opposition can overrule Maduro if they stick together after January when the election results take effect. The new legislature can even unseat the Venezuelan Supreme Court.

Maduro, for his part, bounces between accepting the voter’s will, and threatening to take his socialist rabble to the streets.

Stay tuned. Maduro can stay in office until 2017, or he may stage a coup. Socialists/Communists are not known for their adherence to voting. Maduro has announced his intention to keep opposition leaders in jail, and to stop the legislature from replacing the corruption — filled and nepotism riven bureaucracy from being replaced.

Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter didn’t help get their candidate any help at all. Come to think of it, a massive defeat like the Socialists took last Sunday, is not something that the Socialists have a Democratic methodology with which to respond.

So Many Tea Leaves…

Donald Trump is Doctor Fell.
And President Obama, Loretta Lynch, and radical Islamists are doing everything they can to elect The Donald, and I don’t appreciate it one bit! Of course I am not a Republican, so my vote doesn’t really count just yet, but I cannot bring myself to support a Democrat now that Jim Webb has dropped out.

Right now, I don’t have a preference in the Republican Primary, and I am in no great rush to find one.

But I am a conservative, and the Santa Barbara terrorism has really excited a lot of keyboard warriors, which is a real hoot since only about 1% of the population ever serves in the military. B n are just a passel of keyboard warriors who intend to go Radical Muslim hunting, at least until the first clip insert, or they hear the first round gets racked. 

Meanwhile, they are all calling the president a Muslim, and a traitor all without a single scintilla of proof.

I’ll admit that I am embarrassed by some conservatives I see on-line. And, the idiots bring out the worst in many of the liberals I know, who are not as liberal as the idiot rights wing drive them to be. Everyone seems to want to rush to the far corners — the New York Times included.

These particular Muslims didn’t go to the Mosque regularly, did not appear to be overly religious. They were a sleeper cell, completely hidden. Well, not completely — there were clues but the clues were missed.

With an open north and south border, we are sitting ducks. We have 11 million people at a minimum that we did not “let” into America — they broke into America. We don’t know who they are, where they are, and even when they further break our laws we provide them “sanctuary.”

We don’t need to panic, but we do need to slowly torque down the problems that we KNOW we have. We know a neighbor of the terrorists didn’t say anything, although she observed something for fear of being called a Racist — Political Correctness Kills!  

The “If you see something, say something” and Political Correctness are at odds with each other. Moderation, of course, as with everything.

We are a nation of people who protect our privacy. It is an American trait — and we don’t need to establish Cuban-style neighborhood snitches.

We don’t need to panic, and panicking is what conservatives do best. Not panicking when they need to is what liberals do best.

If the liberals work hard enough they might get enough people to elect Donald Trump, but I hope they fail. 

Fortunately, I suspect they will, but they had better get on with the program. The Republican candidates are not helping, although Jeb is showing some spunk, Christie is starting to start, Carson is stumbling, and Rubio is showing life. Rubio is a Great Brown Hope. 

Cruz wants to be on the Supreme Court, and Fiorena wants the VP JOB — at least that is my concern, and that leaves a free run forward for Rubio.

The wild card is liberals. Liberals could mess up my carefully choreographed scenario, and get Trump elected.

Then I’ll probably have to work to get Trump impeached.

It shouldn’t be hard! Meanwhile Venezuela is bouncing their leftist government of 17 years, and France’s Socialist government is under real pressure from Le Pen and the right wing.

Perhaps, there is a rightward movement worldwide, and that may speak to Trump as well.

So many tea leaves…

Reality Check!

I am noting a certain disassociation with reality in our president.
At the White House “Presser” yesterday, even the sycophantic White House Press Corps is incredulous!

“The president thinks that when there are potentially two terrorists sitting around planning a mass murder they may call it off because President Obama has put in place common sense gun laws?” A reporter in the White House Press Corps asked White House Spokesman Earnest.

Then on Saturday, the President’s Weekly Radio Address, the president said:

“It is entirely possible that these two attackers were radicalized to commit this act of terror,” 

Yo! Mr. President! You are starting to look pretty foolish!

(Does this guy have a clue?)

Journalism?

Listening to the two Defense Attorney’s for the of the terrorists,in their press conference, I am embarrassed for American Journalism.
The “Journalists” asked ZERO penetrating questions. They asked no questions about the pipe bombs, about the “burner” phones, about the destruction to the hard drive. The Attorneys got away with saying lots of people own thousands of rounds of ammunition, which is true, but lots of people don’t rent a car just days before the attack, don’t throw away burner phones, don’t destroy hard drives, don’t have a dozen pipe bombs for “Workplace Violence!”

I don’t blame the Attorneys — I blame the “Journalists.”

I have written before that a degree from the Columbia “J” School, only teaches how to string words into sentences. It gives no one the knowledge necessary to attend a morning discussion at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory regarding a Mars shot, then go to a conference where the CEO of SDG&E discusses the annual budget, and finally report on the Poway Unified School District curriculum.

We put far too much on Reporters shoulders, and we act as if they KNOW something!