Everything is Fine, Fine

John Kerry. A real blast from the past. Wait, what? He's still Secretary of State? Yes indeedy and continuing his long-standing tradition of saying really stupid things. 

Speaking at a conference on government openness and transparency, Secretary Kerry said that:

"... Americans would be better off if the media did not cover terrorism 'quite as much,' and that ' would do us all a service.' ”

Attaboy John - and the perfect venue too. Ignorance is bliss so we can just step over the dead bodies killed by terrorists and pretend that they are just fallen trees to climb over as we walk in the sylvan woods knowing that this Administration has everything under control. John, your career dissipation light has long since gone off. 

www.wnd.com/2016/08/kerry-terror-solution-media-should-cover-less/?cat_orig=world

Newer Doesn't Necessarily Mean Better

Here is a story with major implications. The FBI announced that two state election boards in Arizona and Illinois had been hacked by foreign hackers, probably Russia and Turkey, and that data had been stolen. The possible consequence is that the data could be reinfiltrated and used to swing elections. Since there have already been numerous stories about electronic voting machines being rigged, perhaps we need to take a step back in time to paper ballots, voting in person, checking voter ID, and other low tech security measures that although slower, may well do a better job than the apparently non-existent electronic security on newer voting systems. 

www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/08/29/fbi-state-election-boards-hacked/

Odds n' Ends

Some brief comments on items in the news:

• The City of Chicago is spending a kazoodle on high tech monitoring of its "vitals: like traffic, crowds, temperature, etc. Perhaps instead it could invest a few bucks on keeping its citizens from so promiscuously shooting each other.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/29/chicago-begins-building-fitness-tracker-check-its-vitals/89434620/

• A senior at South Eugene High School posted some of her graduation pics on line and then went for a swim. Unfortunately, she did not notice the naked guy in the background. Her friends did. Needless to say, she (and he) is now an item on the Web.

www.oregonlive.com/trending/2016/08/oregon_girls_senior_pics_accid.html#incart_river_home

• Gene Wilder died today at 83. He had Alzheimer's for several years. Silver Streak is one of my favorite movies and he and Richard Pryor have some priceless comedy moments in it. Blazing Saddles, Willy Wonka and Young Frankenstein should also assure him of a spot in the Comedy Hall of Fame. RIP Gene. 

www.cnn.com/2016/08/29/entertainment/gene-wilder-dead/

• Bill Clinton wants to rebuild Detroit with Syrian refugees. Any guesses as to what it might look like? Thanks Bill. And how much does this little gem cost in "donations" to your foundation? 

www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/08/29/bill-clinton-calls-for-rebuilding-detroit-with-syrian-refugees/

Well, enough for one day. It's such a target-rich environment. 

The Rainbow Connection

The Muppets' Movie had a catchy little children's tune the last verse of which went:

I've heard it too many times to ignore it
It's something that I'm supposed to be
Someday we'll find it
The rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me

London police seem to have taken the little ditty to heart and have painted a number of their cars in rainbow colors to fight "hate crimes." Seriously. I sort of thought that all crimes were hate crimes because they abuse the victim, but I digress. I can hardly wait to see how they re-do their uniforms. Those Bobby hats were getting a little dated.

The Slime That Ate DC

No kidding. If you have been to Washington, DC the monuments are stunning - particularly when lit at night, and they stand as pristine white sentinels to our proud history as a nation. But now a black slime is creeping across these monuments and other governmental buildings that is turning them into dowdy structures one might see in the former Soviet Union.

Whatever this stuff is, so far it has resisted efforts to remove it and even has the experts stumped as to what it is. My own take is that it's an outward sign of the rot that you can't see in our Capital and like Dorian Gray, it is leaking through into plain sight. What delightful - and sad - symbolism!

www.cbsnews.com/news/mysterious-black-slime-attacks-iconic-washington-memorials/

Living History

Clover and I were hanging out in Portland this weekend and lo and behold what should we find quite by accident but the only restored PT boat in the United States sitting at a dock in Lake Oswego of all places! PT boats played an important role in all five theaters of WWII but particularly in the Pacific. 

They spirited Gen. Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines when the Japanese thought they had him cornered. He resumed command of all Pacific forces and led the United States to victory in that theater. They attacked the Japanese fleet at places like Guadalcanal and made life difficult for them. When the bulk of the Japanese fleet was pulled back closer to Japan after the crushing battle at Midway, the PTs turned to harassment and interdiction of Japanese ships and barges attempting to resupply their garrisons in the Pacific islands until they had to pull out or face death at the hands of the Marines. Our 35th President, John F. Kennedy, became a hero commanding a PT that was cut in half one dark night by a Japanese destroyer. 

The 658 has been lovingly restored and is an excellent example of a PT later in the war that hunted barges for a living. Still capable of 42 knots even in 20' seas, the 658 is 80' long and powered by three 1800 hp turbocharged Packard aircraft engines. It is made of plywood and carried a crew of 16 in its wartime years. For a short period of time, the PT packed the punch of a destroyer - until it ran out of ammunition and torpedos and had to get of harm's way fast before Japanese destroyers could find the mark and sink them with just a few shells.

The PT Museum is at Swan Island and welcomes visitors and contributions. It is definitely worth a visit to see a piece of living history and appreciate the brave men who crewed them and helped stopped the Japanese advance in the Pacific. 


savetheptboatinc.com

Happy Talk

Lt. General Mike Flynn was the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency during the Obama years and was one of the main conduits for strategic intelligence to the White House and other high level government officials. Flynn, who is advising Trump on defense and foreign policy, says that the President and Secretary of State Clinton insisted on viewing the world through rose-colored glasses:

"Specifically, during an exclusive interview about his book The Field of Fight, Flynn said that Obama and Clinton were not interested in hearing intelligence that did not fit their 'happy talk' narrative about the Middle East. In fact, he alleged the administration actively scrubbed training manuals and purged from the military ranks any thinking about the concept of radical Islamism. Flynn argued that this effort by Obama, Clinton and others to reduce the intelligence community to gathering only facts that the senior administration officials wanted to hear—rather than what they needed to hear—helped the enemy fester and grow, while weakening the United States on the world stage."

Happy talk is fine when it comes to Nickelodeon or the Cartoon Network but when practiced by the President and key advisors, it leads to ISIS and other venonmous world situations. We can expect more of the same from Hillary as President because she will be way too busy collecting cash from international chiselers to pay attention to little things like the security of the United States - so put on a happy face!

www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/08/28/exclusive-lt-gen-mike-flynn-obama-hillary-ignored-intelligence-not-like-middle-east-wanted-happy-talk/

Earth Heals, Tides Reverse, Yada, Yada

One of the many foreign policy disasters of the Obama Administration was its failure to support the "Green Revolution" in Iran in 2009 when thousands of young people rallied in the streets to overthrow the mullahs and move toward a more democratic government. Obama lent his support with - crickets. Nada. Nothing. 

A new book has just been published, Iran Wars, that goes into why this happened. Bloomberg in its review of the book reports that that:

"Obama wasn't just reluctant to show solidarity in 2009, he feared the demonstrations would sabotage his secret outreach to Iran. In his new book, "The Iran Wars," Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon uncovers new details on how far Obama went to avoid helping Iran's green movement. Behind the scenes, Obama overruled advisers who wanted to do what America had done at similar transitions from dictatorship to democracy, and signal America's support."

Apparently he wanted a "legacy" of a New Deal with the mullahs and wasn't going to let anything derail it. This guy is either a narcissist of unbelievable proportions or he works for  someone other than those who elected him. Either way it was a tragic and reprehensible betrayal of fundamental American values that speaks for itself.

townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2016/08/25/wow-obama-ignored-green-revolution-to-bolster-his-own-iran-deal-legacy-n2209714

We're From the Government and ...

Louisiana just suffered massive flooding and thousands were forced out of their homes and businesses by flood waters. First responders were overwhelmed but into the breach floated the "Cajun Navy" - people with their own boats who cranked them up and started rescuing people from their homes and getting them to safety. 

A grateful Louisiana government has rewarded them with a new bill to require training, permit fees (of course) and licenses before being allowed to perform such humanitarian acts in the future. I am constantly amazed at the new and innovative ways that government never misses a chance to screw things up. 

www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/louisiana/2016/08/23/lawmaker-wants-cajun-navy-volunteers-get-training-pay-fee/89228802/

www.wnd.com/2016/08/lawmaker-force-cajun-navy-rescuers-to-pay-fee-get-trained/?cat_orig=us

Logic is Logic

I love the acuity of mind of the Left. The German Interior Minister who, along with Merkel, has done such a terrific job handling Islamic immigrants to Germany ("Y'all come!") has now said that if Germany were to ban the burkha then Father Christmas would also have to be banned because of the beard covering his face. Sheesh. Jihadis light people on fire so if Germany bans that, Christians can't light candles in church? Well, fair is fair I guess. 

www.breitbart.com/london/2016/08/23/germany-ban-burqa-well-ban-father-christmas/

Baby It's Cold Outside

Ever hear of the Maunder Minimum? Me neither, but a number of climate scientists say that weather like it is going to make winters unbelievably cold and summers pretty darn weak for some time to come.

The Maunder Minimum was a time of minimal sun spot activity that occurred during a 65-year period at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries, which was not so affectionately referred to as the "Little Ice Age." Sound fun? Well perhaps not as it was marked by, "... a period of feeble summers and bitingly cold winters, war, pestilence and famine."

Professor Valentina Zharkova at Northumbria University in England predicts that:

"We will see it from 2020 to 2053, when the three next cycles will be very reduced magnetic field of the sun. Basically what happens is these two waves, they separate into the opposite hemispheres and they will not be interacting with each other, which means that resulting magnetic field will drop dramatically nearly to zero. And this will be a similar conditions like in Maunder Minimum."

Well now, that's pretty definitive. It would seem in the next few years we will see if the Global Warmists have it right or the contrarians do. I can't wait. Excuse me while I go dig out my long johns. 

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/08/12/winter-is-coming-warns-the-solar-physicist-the-alarmists-tried-to-silence/

I Neeed Candy!

Oregon "needs" a 15% budget increase to meet current "obligations" according to today's Statesman Journal. This means a $1.35 billion budget deficit for the next biennium before the legislators again meet to discover new "needs" and why the rest of us need to "invest" in the state. But let's take a look at some of these "needs":

• We need to cover massive PERS retirement deficits.
• We need pay raises for public employees.
• We need to cover the higher health insurance premiums of public employees.
• We need $328M for Obamacare.
• We need $145M for "compensation adjustments" as an anticipated result of public employee pay negotiations. 

What do the rest of us need, especially since the average American family has seen it's real annual income go down by 5.9% during President Obama's tenure? Tell you what, give me 10% and I'm a happy camper!

www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/politics/2016/08/11/officials-state-expenses-set-grow-27-billion/88574662/

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2014/08/22/real-household-incomes-fall-5-9-under-obama/

An Ode to Grandparents

Mona Charen has a nice piece in Townhall today about Simone Biles, the American gold medal gymnast whom she accurately describes as, "... a 4-foot-9 blend of rocket fuel and fairy dust." Simone was raised by her grandparents who refused to let her flounder when her biological parents took a flyer. Charen notes that this meant, " ... the gymnastics lessons, and the travel, and the home schooling, and the emergency room visits, and the care not to neglect the sister, and the whole exhausting, exhilarating ride." They persevered and the result is an Olympic champion. 

She closes her column with this:

"Biles' story is not typical. Once-in-a-generation athletes are anything but typical. But her family story is becoming more common. In 2010, the U.S. Census reported, 4.9 million American children were being raised solely by their grandparents. That's nearly double the number from 2000. It was the softest of landings for the spirited Simone Biles. She has much to teach about the blessing of adoption, the meaning of love and the irreplaceable institution of the family."

Amen. Congratulations to Simone but her grandparents deserve a gold medal too. Hats off to them and all other grandparents who have shouldered the burden of raising a second family. You are all champions!

townhall.com/columnists/monacharen/2016/08/12/the-moral-of-the-simone-biles-story-n2204033