1969: 'Dutchmasters' Taking A Break

Via Quan Nguyen Thanh

 

 Dutchmasters Taking A Break: This 1969 photo shows the late CW4 Roy Sudeck (1947-2012), of Marietta, GA, as a young man serving in Vietnam in B Troop, 7th Squadron, 1st Cavalry. His AH-1G Cobra was being rearmed and refueled at the "Long Strip" at Rach Soi, Kien Giang Province, IV Corps, in the Mekong Delta. Behind the Cobra are two OH-6A LOHs (light observation helicopters) and the UH-1H Hueys that transported the Troop's infantry platoon.
 

Photo taken by me (Michael Treinen) while serving as S-4 of Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) Advisory Team 55 at nearby Rach Gia. Thanks to the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association (which has featured this photo in their July 2017 Calendar) for the identification of CW4 Sudeck and his unit.

'Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime,' ICE acting director says

Via Billy

The horrific incident involving dozens of immigrants allegedly smuggled into the U.S. in a sweltering tractor-trailer is proof that illegal immigration is “not a victimless crime,” the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told Fox News on Monday.

“It's a message I've been trying to get out as long as I've been the acting ICE director,” Thomas Homan said on "Your World with Neil Cavuto."

More with video @ Fox

Study: Concealed Permit Holders Among the Most Law-Abiding of Law-Abiding Citizens

 

 A Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) study shows that concealed carry permit holders are among the most law-abiding of law-abiding citizens in the country.

For example, for 2016 the study shows that just .0092% of Louisiana permit holders were charged with a felony in 2016. And in 2015 there “were 25,208 violent crimes in Louisiana, with 19 felony charges or convictions against permit holders.” Assuming the felonies were violent and the charges against permit holders stand, this still means permit holders only represent .08% of those who committed violent crimes.

Moreover, “the vast majority of … [cases involving concealed permit holders] are unlikely to involve firearms.”

According to CPRC, the percentage of Michigan concealed permit holders convicted of aggravated assault in 2015-2016 was .003%. The percentage of Michigan permit holders convicted of aggravated assaults in 2014-2015 was .002%.

More @ Breitbart

Bible & Gun in Hand

A minister posing with a church manual in one hand and a 9 mm handgun in the other. A tax analyst cradling her AR-15 semi-automatic. A flight attendant taking aim, her blue fingernail polish glowing alongside the Glock 40. A banker in a black summer dress checking the chamber.

They are among the American black women now picking up firearms and learning how to shoot. Most say they want to protect their homes, families and themselves.

"What's going to happen if something goes bump in the night?" says Laura Manning, a 50-year-old payroll specialist wearing a pink ruffled blouse. "I need to protect myself."

More @ The Charlotte Observer

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article163243553.html#storylink=cpyMore @ The Charlotte Observer

RUNNING OUT OF FINANCIAL ROAD

Via David

There’s an expression: Kicking the can down the road; defined in-use:

If you kick the can down the road, you delay a decision in hopes that the problem or issue will go away or somebody else will make the decision later.

Few things more beautifully exemplify the application of this phrase than its applicability to government finances.

THE STARK FACTS

From the website US Debt Clock, we’re pushing $20 Trillion in debt. Think about that for a second. Put it in scale: a million is a one with six zeros after it (10⁶); a billion has nine zeroes (10⁹)… a trillion, twelve zeroes (10¹²). This is just the US government’s debt; not states, not cities, just the feds. And are there any world governments not in debt, and with aggregate amounts that likely dwarf the amount of wealth in the world? Consider this report: Global debt reaches US$ 217 trillion.

More @ Obamasez

BOY SCOUTS CHEER PRESIDENT TRUMP AT BOY SCOUTS JAMBOREE!

Via Billy

NC: Mark Meadows: Congress needs to cancel summer vacation if health bill fails

Via Billy

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows said the Senate should cancel the rest of its August recess if a planned vote on legislation to repeal Obamacare fails this week.

"Obviously any time you pass anything in the House and it doesn't go anywhere in the Senate, we are used to that," the North Carolina Republican said at the National Press Club Monday.

"This is a unique situation," he added. "A motion to proceed [to start debate on the health bill] and getting something out of the Senate is a must, it is not something we can fail at."

More @ Washington Examiner

To Sink Trump Is to Sink Ordinary Americans & Jared Kushner: Blaming the election on Russia 'ridicules' Trump voters

Via Billy

The left is determined to sink the Trump presidency.

But something even more important than the Trump presidency is at stake.  The ultimate target is not Trump, but human liberty.  Donald Trump is a great man, but far greater are the millions of Americans whose dream of liberty he represents.  Obviously, the left hates Trump with a vengeance, but what they despise even more is the average American with his dream of freedom and opportunity.

From the left's perspective, the Trump presidency is illegitimate not because it lacked a plurality of votes or because of the supposed Russian connection.  It is illegitimate because it gives voice to those who do not deserve representation.  Hillary Clinton let it slip when she mocked the "basket of deplorables," those whom she accused of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and Islamophobia.  Having at first insisted that "half" of Trump voters fall into these categories, she then retreated from that figure: it was somewhat less than half who are deplorable.

More @ American Thinker

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 Jared Kushner: Blaming the election on Russia 'ridicules' Trump voters

Southerners: You Are Deplorable

 

Presented at the 2017 Abbeville Institute Summer School.

You are deplorable.

It is worse than that.  If you are Southern or interested in the South you are the most deplorable of all the deplorables.  There is no place for you among the enlightened and virtuous people of 21^st Century America.

But perhaps there is a certain advantage to being an outsider.  It can help you see what 21^st century America really is rather than what it assumes itself to be.

We can’t understand Southern identity without a candid view of that other thing, call it the North or mainstream America or the Age of Radicalism, for which the South has been an economic colony and a cultural whipping boy since well before the War for Southern Independence.

More @ The Abbeville Institute

The Kurds crave US support, engagement — give it to them

Via Billy

35% of the Kurdish Army are women.

I have just returned from a fact-finding mission to northern Iraq, one of many I have made over the past decade. And while the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) appears to have landed on its feet after the long battle with ISIS, new battles loom on the horizon.

Kurdish Peshmerga commanders and political leaders I spoke with are convinced that they will be drawn into a confrontation, perhaps by the end of summer, with the Iranian-backed Shiite militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

An estimated 100,000 of these Iraqi Shia irregular troops now occupy Assyrian Christian towns and villages surrounding Mosul, as well as parts of Kurdistan, and are attempting to create a land bridge with Syria to link up with the forces of Syrian President Assad.Should they succeed, it would spell the end of a relatively free Kurdish self-governing region in northern Iraq, a mass exodus of Middle-East Christians, and the death of an independent Iraq.

More @ The Hill

Chaffetz On Russia Probe: ‘They Would Never Ever Ever Do This To The Clintons’

Via Billy

Former Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah decried the double standard in the Russia investigation Monday, saying the Clintons would not get the same treatment.

“They would never ever ever do this to the Clintons,” Chaffetz said, referring to the Russia probe headed by special counsel Robert Mueller.

White House adviser Jared Kushner is set to meet privately with the Senate Intelligence Committee Monday to discuss possible collusion between himself and the Russian government.

Kushner denies any collusion or wrongdoing took place.

“Every time the Democrats say they need to call up Jared Kushner or Donald Trump Jr. then call up Chelsea Clinton. Call up the Clintons,” Chaffetz said, also urging Republicans to hit back and “grow a backbone.”

More with video @ The Daily Caller

Robotic Systems Disruption in Practice

 

The Ukrainian SBU now believes that the destruction of arms depot at Balakliya in March that did a billion dollars in damage was carried out by a small drone armed with a thermite grenade.  That's an ROI (Return on Investment) of $500,000 for every $1 invested (not bad relative to earlier comparatives).

More @ Global Guerrillas

REPORT: POTUS Considering Replacing AG Sessions With Rudy Giuliani

Via Billy

 They both should have a place in the administration.

Since President Trump’s recent interview with the New York Times, there’s been a lot of buzz surrounding the personal relationship between the Commander-in-Chief and Attorney General Sessions. Axios is reporting President Trump is discussing a move to replace AG Sessions with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Axios reports:

President Trump is so unhappy with Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he has raised the possibility of bringing back Rudolph Giuliani to head the Justice Department, according to West Wing confidants.

• In internal conversations, Trump has recently pondered the idea of nominating Giuliani, a stalwart of his campaign.
• Even before last week’s blast at Sessions in a New York Times interview, Trump had expressed fury at Sessions — also one of the first prominent Republicans to back the Trump campaign — for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
• And in a Monday morning tweet, Trump referred to “our beleaguered A.G.” not investigating Hillary Clinton.

Our thought bubble: Trump often muses about possible personnel moves that he never makes, sometimes just to gauge the listener’s reaction. So the Giuliani balloon may go nowhere.

More @ The Gateway Pundit

Mattis Refuses To Send Pakistan Full Military Aid, Cites Inaction Against Terror Groups

Via Billy

Secretary of Defense James Mattis has decided not to send full military reimbursements to Pakistan after telling Congress that the country has not cracked down on the Haqqani terror network.

“The funds could not be released to the Government of Pakistan at this time because the secretary could not certify that Pakistan has taken sufficient action against the Haqqani Network per the requirement in the FY 2016 National Defense Authorization Act,” Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump told Reuters Friday.

More @ The Daily Caller

Pastor Claims Senior Republican Told Him of Plot to “Take Out” POTUS

Via Billy

During an appearance on Revival Ministries International, Rodney Howard-Browne said he spent three hours “from 9:30 in the evening until 12:30am with one of the senior ranking members of Congress”.

The pastor said he related the same story on the CBN network but “they cut it out” and that he had decided “to go public with this because we have to.”

“He said there is a plot on Capitol Hill to take the president out, I said you mean by impeachment or by indictment – he said no, to take him out, he will be removed suddenly from office,” said Howard-Browne, before adding, “you can read between the lines”.

The Congressman, who the pastor revealed had been in office since 1996, went on to tell Howard-Browne “there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”

Pastor Howard-Browne said the deep state had “started a war” against Trump because he has been more amenable to the evangelical community than any previous president stretching as far back as Reagan, and were trying to “set the president up in every way”.

More with video @ The Gateway Pundit

Russian Police Cadets

Via 4Branch "I could be talked into some collusion...."

Leaked CBO Data: 22 million fewer people covered, but 16 million of those will drop out because they will no longer face a financial penalty for doing so

Via Billy

In the national debate over the GOP health reform proposals, one data point has stood out above all others: the estimate, from the Congressional Budget Office, that more than 20 million people would “lose” coverage as a result. And there’s been an odd consistency to the CBO’s projections. Do you want to repeal every word of Obamacare and replace it with nothing? The CBO says 22 million fewer people would have health insurance. Do you prefer replacing Obamacare with a system of flat tax credits, in which you get the same amount of assistance regardless of your financial need? The CBO says 23 million fewer people would have health insurance. Do you prefer replacing Obamacare with means-tested tax credits, like the Senate bill does, in which the majority of the assistance is directed to those near or below the poverty line? The CBO says 22 million fewer people would have health insurance.

More @ NRO

NC: Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows takes a seat at the top table

Via Billy

 

Less than 24 hours after Washington celebrated Independence Day, in the midst of a two-week stretch of round-the-clock discussions on healthcare reform and the GOP agenda, Rep. Mark Meadows drove up to the White House to talk strategy.

"Can you hold on just a second?" he asked the Washington Examiner as he rolled down the window to speak to security. "I'm heading in the guard gate." He's a busy guy, and he was in the middle of phone interview as he pulled into the executive mansion.

"I'm going up to see Steve Bannon," he said, not to his interviewer but to one of the rings of security. "Thank you."

More @ Washington Examiner

Texas' lieutenant governor blames truck deaths on sanctuary cities that 'enable human smugglers'

Via Billy

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick railed against sanctuary cities on Sunday after at authorities in his state discovered eight people dead inside a sweltering tractor-trailer in a San Antonio Walmart parking lot and about 17 others in critical condition. Two additional victims later died at the hospital, bringing the death toll to 10.

Patrick, a Republican, posted on Facebook that the ‘tragedy’ is why he pushed a bill to ban sanctuary cities.

"Sanctuary cities entice people to believe they can come to America and Texas and live outside the law.

 

More @ Fox

Gregg Jarrett: Donald Trump Jr. did not violate campaign laws -- Pelosi and others are wrong

Via Billy

The law is common sense. Yet, it is created by lawmakers who seem to be lacking any sense at all.  Many of them do not understand their own laws.    

Nancy Pelosi recently proved this point. The House Minority Leader held a news conference, surrounded by like-minded Democrats, during which she declared that Donald Trump Jr. had broken campaign laws when he met with a Russian lawyer during last year’s presidential campaign to obtain negative information on the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.  Here is what Pelosi said:

“This is a campaign violation: soliciting, coordinating, or accepting something of value --opposition research, documents, and information—from a foreign national. Plain and simple.”      

In truth, it is plain and simple that Pelosi is wrong. And so are many others who have joined the chorus of condemnation based on laws they have surely never read. Allow me to help them out.  

More @ Fox