Doug Casey on Why College Is a Waste of Money

Via Billy

Justin's note: Today, instead of our usual market commentary, we're doing something special.
I recently sat down again with Casey Research founder Doug Casey to discuss a troubling trend: the fast-rising cost of a college education.

Read our conversation below to see why Doug says relying on—and paying for—today's educational paradigm "makes as much sense as entering a Model T Ford in the 24 Hours of Le Mans"…Justin: 

Doug, I recently had an interesting conversation with my sister. She told me that her financial advisor suggested she start setting aside $500 to $1,000 a month to pay for her son’s college education. That’s because a four-year college education is apparently going to cost between $400,000 and $500,000 18 years from now.

Her advisor clearly arrived at this figure based on how fast college tuition costs have been rising, which is about 6% per year based on my research.

But you have to wonder if the cost can keep rising at this rate. It seems to me that no one will go to college if it’s going to cost a half-million bucks.

What do you make of this trend?

Doug: Well, the first thing—my advice to your sister is to get a new financial advisor. I fear that she’s relying on a complete imbecile. She should fire him immediately, and for a number of reasons.

More @ Casey Research

Confederate Memorial Day Service - Oakwood Cemetery, Richmond May 13, 2017

Confederate Memorial Day Service, Oakwood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia

In 2014, the Virginia Flaggers revived a grand tradition of holding a Confederate Memorial Day Service at Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond. This year, we are once again holding a ceremony, and invite all to attend.

We are excited to have Ronnie Roach, SCV Army of Northern Virginia Commander as our Keynote speaker, and the service will include a processional, music by Pipe Major David Hinton,, a Confederate Color and Honor Guard, other special guests, and a wreath laying ceremony.

Attendees in period attire wishing to participate in the processional through the cemetery, please arrive by 10:30 a.m.

FREE to the public, free parking, handicapped parking is available and the service will be interpreted for the hearing impaired.  All are welcome.

Email info@vaflaggers.com to bring greetings from your organization and/or lay a wreath.

Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/400949256942194/

Photos from last year's service here:  https://www.facebook.com/JudyPSmithPhotography/photos/a.533489976776292.1073742481.186485551476738/533493546775935/?type=3&theater 

 

MOH: An Amazing Coincidence: Vietnam & WWII

 

 Fisher and Myers after the rescue

Bernard Francis "Bernie" Fisher (pronounced Bernerd) (January 11, 1927 – August 16, 2014) was a United States Air Force officer and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor. He was the first Air Force member to receive the medal in the Vietnam War.

On March 10, 1966, he led a two-ship element of Skyraiders to the A Shau Valley to support troops in contact with the enemy. Six "Spads" were striking numerous emplacements when the A-1 piloted by Major D. W. "Jump" Myers was hit and forced to crash-land on the airstrip of a CIDG-Special Forces camp. Myers bellied in on the 2,500-foot runway and took cover behind an embankment on the edge of the strip while Fisher directed the rescue effort. Since the closest helicopter was 30 minutes away and the enemy was only 200 yards (180 m) from Myers, Fisher quickly decided to land his two-seat A-1E^[2] on the strip and pick up his friend. Under the cover provided by the other A-1s, he landed in the valley, taxied to Myer's position, and loaded the downed airman into the empty seat. Dodging shell holes and debris on the steel-planked runway, Fisher took off safely despite many hits on his aircraft by small-arms fire.

The rescue at A Shau was similar to an event that occurred on August 4, 1944 during World War II.^[3] On that date, Captain Richard "Dick" Willsie's P-38 was damaged by flak near Ploieşti, Romania. After both engines failed, Willsie crash-landed but was rescued from capture when Flight Officer Dick Andrews landed his P-38 on the field, squeezed Willsie into the cockpit, and flew back to base. By remarkable coincidence, both Willsie and Andrews were also involved in the A Shau rescue.^[3] Willsie was the commanding officer of the 602nd Air Commando Squadron to which Myers was assigned, and Andrews flew top cover during the entire rescue.^[3]

^{More @ WIKI}

Former US Attorney: Susan Rice Ordered Spy Agencies To Produce ‘Detailed Spreadsheets’ Involving Trump

Via Billy

Former President Barack Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice ordered U.S. spy agencies to produce “detailed spreadsheets” of legal phone calls involving Donald Trump and his aides when he was running for president, according to former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova.

“What was produced by the intelligence community at the request of Ms. Rice were detailed spreadsheets of intercepted phone calls with unmasked Trump associates in perfectly legal conversations with individuals,” diGenova told The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group Monday.

“The overheard conversations involved no illegal activity by anybody of the Trump associates, or anyone they were speaking with,” diGenova said. “In short, the only apparent illegal activity was the unmasking of the people in the calls.”

More @ The Daily Caller

"Spads With A Load" : The A1 Skyraider in Vietnam

Via 4 Branch

This video was produced by Gary Bain for Capt.Don Engebretsen USAF, Skyraider pilot. Also for the members of SOG ( Special Operations Group that made forays into Laos) and the OLAA pilots that piloted the A1 Skyraider in support of SOG teams.during the Vietnam Conflict. This is the OLAA pilots song they created while serving in Southeast Asia. These pilots and SOG teams were a fearless group of brave warriors and are unsung heroes of that war. Only mature audiences should view this as there are a couple of descriptive terms in the song that were uttered by the fighter pilots. Thanks to all our service members. Enjoy-Gary

 

Bien Hoa where I was the Funds Manager for the South Vietnamese Air Force 1973/1975.

Many good links/pictures in first one below.

 South Vietnamese Air Force A-1E (AD-5) Skyraider

A-1H Skyraider Drops Toilet From Dixie Station

MISSING IN ACTION 

The South Needs No Eulogy

Alexander White, antebellum United States Congressman from the Talledega District in Alabama and member of the State Convention in 1865, presented this speech to the convention. White “loved his country, he had loved the land of his birth, his native Alabama, before her disasters, before she was stricken down by armed battalions; but now in her misfortunes and desolation, now that she was in chains, he loved her more than ever.” Like Robert E. Lee, his country was his State, and to it he owed his allegiance above all else.
Bernhard Thuersam, www.Circa1865.com   The Great American Political Divide

The South Needs No Eulogy

“Mr. President:

The Bonnie Blue flag no longer reflects the light of the morning sunbeam, or kisses with its silken folds the genial breezes of our Southern clime. The hands that waved it along the crest of a hundred battle-fields, and the hearts, for the love they bore it, that so often defied danger and death, no longer rally around it. Another banner waves in triumph over its closed and prostate folds; but proud memories and glorious recollections cluster around.

Sir, I will refrain. The South needs no eulogy. The faithful record of her achievements will encircle her brow with glory bright and enduring as the diadem that crowns the night of her cloudless skies. The scenes of Marathon and Platae have been reenacted in the New World without the beneficent results which flow from those battle-fields of freedom, and our country lies prostate at the feet of the conqueror.

But dearer to me is she in this hour of her humiliation than she was in the day and hour of her pride and her power. Each blood-stained battle-field, each track of her devastation, each new-made grave of her sons fallen in her defense, each mutilated form of the Confederate soldier — her widow’s tear, her orphan’s cry, are but so many chords that bind me to her in her desolation, and draw my affections closer around my stricken country.

When I raise my voice or lift my hand against her, may the thunder rive me where I stand!

Though I may be false in all else, I will be true to her. Though all others may prove faithless, I will be faithful still. And when, in obedience to the great summons, “Dust to dust,” my heart shall return to that earth from whence it sprang, it shall sink into her bosom with the proud consciousness that it never knew one beat not in union with the honor, the interests, the glory of my country.”

(Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama, William Garrett, Plantation Publishing Company’s Press, 1872, excerpts, pp. 562-564)

The South Seeks a Convention of the States

 

Contrary to mainstream belief, Lincoln and his Republican Party demonstrated no interest in preserving the Union and regularly spurned peace initiatives. Those who wanted to resort to the United States Constitution for a solution to the intense sectionalism in both North and South, saw a convention of the States as the method provided by the Founders. As in the peace overture noted below, all efforts to end the bloodshed of Lincoln’s war originated in the South, and all ended in failure due to Lincoln’s intransigence.
Bernhard Thuersam, www.Circa1865.com   The Great American Political Divide

The South Seeks a Convention of the States

“As early as February, 1863, it was rumored that [South Carolina Representative William W. Boyce] had been advocating in secret session of the [Confederate] House [of Representatives] some form of conciliation with the Northwestern States.

When the Democratic convention, meeting at Chicago August 29, 1864, adopted a platform declaring that efforts should be made immediately for a cessation of hostilities and that a convention of the States be employed to restore peace “on the basis of the Federal union of the States,” Boyce addressed an open letter to President [Jefferson] Davis urging him to declare his willingness for an armistice and such a convention that Northwestern Democrats proposed.

In his letter of September 29 Boyce argued that a republic at war inevitably drifted into despotism . . . [through] conscription, illegally laid direct taxes, [issuing] vast quantities of paper money . . . suspended the writ of habeas corpus . . . in short, [giving] the President all the powers of a military dictator.

Nor would the evils necessarily end with the war; that would depend on the nature of the peace. “A peace without reconciliation carried in its bosom the seed of new wars.”   A peace without harmony would be a mere armed truce. Such a peace would cause the North to develop a great military power and the South would be forced to do likewise. There would then be two opposing military despotisms under which republican institutions would permanently perish.

To prevent such an outcome a peace of harmony must be negotiated with the United States. In bringing this to pass a successful military policy was essential but it was not enough; it must be accompanied by a political policy, a political policy which could not succeed if Lincoln, representing the fanaticism of the North, were returned to the White House.

The South’s only hope for a satisfactory peace, therefore, lay in the victory [in November 1864] of the Northern Democratic Party which should be encouraged in every possible way. [Boyce’s advice was to] . . . Assure [Northern Democrats] of the South’s willingness to cooperate in a convention of the States, and let South cooperate even if an amendment of the Constitution be necessary for that purpose. Such a convention would be the “highest acknowledgment” of State rights principles.”

(South Carolina Goes to War, Charles Edward Cauthen, University of South Carolina Press, 1950, 1860-1865, excerpts, pp. 217-218)

Sessions orders Justice Department to review all police reform agreements

Via Billy

Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered Justice Department officials to review reform agreements with troubled police forces nationwide, saying it was necessary to ensure that these pacts do not work against the Trump administration’s goals of promoting officer safety and morale while fighting violent crime.

In a two-page memo released Monday, Sessions said agreements reached previously between the department’s civil rights division and local police departments — a key legacy of the Obama administration — will be subject to review by his two top deputies, throwing into question whether all of the agreements will stay in place.

More @ The Washington Post

US newspapers cut more than half their jobs since 2001

Via Billy

More than half of the jobs at US newspapers have disappeared since 2001, with a large portion of the losses offset by employment gains at internet firms, government figures showed Monday.

The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed US newspaper employment fell from 412,000 in January 2001 to 174,000 in September 2016.

In the internet publishing and portal segment the number of jobs grew from 67,000 in 2007 -- the earliest for which data was available -- to 206,000 last year.

The figures confirm the huge upheaval in the news media industry, where a shift to online sources has forced a major retrenchment in print.

More @ Yahoo

1948 Tucker with zero miles

Via Cousin Colby

One of the most fascinating chapters of American automotive history is the story of Preston Tucker and his attempt to break into a market dominated by Detroit's Big Three in the years after World War II. Now the famously controversial marque is about to get another turn in the spotlight, with the completion of a Tucker convertible in Wisconsin that some enthusiasts have said was a secret prototype for a planned new model.

More @ The New York Times