Note: Each block of text actually is a link to a story or a web page that I am commenting on. Click on that text and it will take you to the page being referred to.
A relatively quiet day on the news fronts today. But I have found a selection of articles I think are worthy of sharing.
Sidenote: 25 years ago today, I was trying to mentally prepare myself that sometime in the near future I would be called up to go to war … granted, I would be fighting it with words as an Army Public Affairs person, but I pretty much knew I probably would be going to the Middle East.
Our president pretty much calls it ... Katrina was partly a man-made disaster, but not one of the Bush Administration's making. The mayor of New Orleans played the biggest role in being stupid and not getting his people out of the way and then the Louisiana governor played another major role by refusing to let federal help flow in in the form of military assets - which couldn't do much because of Posse Comititas laws from the 1870s. It wasn't until the decks were cleared and 1st Army commander Gen. Honore arrived that things started getting straightened out.
Some pictures from the aftermath ... imagine if all those school buses had been loaded up with people and moved inland ... sigh ... and no, that wasn't GW's fault.
If you didn't see a great big Mars up in the sky tonight next to the Moon ... then I think you forgot to bring the 75-magnification-power telescope with you.
I post this because it illustrates something about the political reporting of the major opinion making news outlets. Their breathless reporting of the latest comments by candidates big and small and their subsequent declaration that it will irreparably harm the campaign and will be hard on Candidate X or Y with this constituency is so full of hokum, it ain't even funny. Now if the election or caucus was next week, there might be some validity, but the dang things are five months away .... most of the voters really aren't paying all that much attention right now, other that watching the celebrity coverage of Donald Trump ... but the serious stuff is still several months away ... and the conventions are a year away ... and the election itself is 14 months away.
Ever wonder why the State Dept. and the DOD are often at loggerheads. It has to do with the differences in culture ... and the State Dept. people in Foggy Bottom just don't understand, it seems, why secure communications are to be used. Yes, it is inconvenient, but there is a reason for it ... as the military keeps drumming into its people.
US Stock Market indexes rose again - best up effort since 2008 (better not remember what happened in 2008 though) ... but I don't think the wild ride is over yet. Part of my reason is that I have become suspicious of the politicization of the economic figures out of this administration. Sorry, but what I am seeing and what I hear from the government just aren't jiving too well.
A backgrounders on how the world's currencies all tie together and how China's policies will have an ripple effect.
And then there is this ... if China stops buying US debt ... then who will?
Another view on the financial crisis in China and how it affects the rest of the world.
Some times I think I can't believe anyone believes Hillary Clinton ... but then I remember, this is politics and any and all rhetoric is fair game ... but Republicans as terrorists ... that is a bit of a stretch.
And this is a good response to Hillary's comparing the GOP with ISIS ..
Interesting perspective on race ... but it begs the question of how do we, as Americans, rise above identifying ourselves by some ethnic identifier and reach a point where we all are proud to be just "Americans"?
Is the US an Empire? That is a good question, and it all revolves around the definition of Empire or Imperial ... of course, revisionists are try to apply it to the US ... but I am not sure it fits ... but this article is good food for thought.
For those who tout science as the ultimate arbiter of things ... it is interesting to note that not all science is settled ... or even reproducible ... and that means it isn't settled.
This is my point about the hypocrisy in the coverage of the Roanoke shooting.
This author calls for those in the Middle East to step up and solve their own problems and to stop depending on the US to do the heavy lifting ... like that is going to happen ... the US provides an easy distraction
I don't know how accurate or true this retired Army general's view is, but he does have a point ... especially with the links to North Korea ... but hey, our President says otherwise ... I just hope he is correct.
Submarine, submarine, where are you hiding? Where did all those subs that sortied from North Korean ports go ... and have they already slipped back into their berths?
This only goes to show you that retired Army 4-stars can be jerks
There has got to be more behind this story than this ... it is hard to believe that two men basically have been cashiered for calling out a rapist
If accurate, this statistics on females in combat arms jobs being injured at twice the rate of their male counterparts, then that is disturbing ... I don't care how politically correct your are ... the mission comes first
Victor Hansen makes excellent points on the current political correctness of gender and race and the hypocrisy of it all.
Mr. Greenberg takes the Donald down a peg or two. I don't think he likes Mr. Trump very much.
My, my, how the Democrats have evolved in the last two decades.
Just so you know that social problems are not unique to the US ... it is race here, and caste in India
Batten down the hatches in the Southeast ... here comes Erica
This is a storybook story ... and I hope it really does have a happy ending ... or at least a long term future
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