New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez Targeted by Obama Justice Department

In January 2013, I wrote a blog article about New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez answering charges of a woman who claimed to have had sex with him while she was a minor. The report was carried in several newspapers, including the Newark Star Ledger where the original reports may be found in the archives.

The allegations against Menendez at that time also referred to the senator's association with Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist who the senator has called a friend and political supporter.  At the time, Menendez said the accusations of corruption were raised by the "right wing political machine."  He may want to re-think that one in light of the fact that Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder authorized critical prosecution stemming from those old allegations.

All of whatever happened with Senator Menendez was okay with the Obama administration for nearly three years.  What changed is that Senator Menendez took political positions that ran counter to Obama administration's foreign policies.

He spoke out vehemently in opposition to President Obama's recent reestablishment of relations with the Castro brothers corrupt totalitarian regime in Cuba.

He spoke out strongly in favor of Israel and opposed the dangerous nuclear deal John Kerry and the Obama administration are trying to foist on the American people.

I give Menendez credit. He showed considerable courage in taking those positions.  This comes  at a time when Obama is misusing all the tools and tricks of government bureaucracies to bypass legislators, and apparently, to punish anyone opposed to its policies.

Make no mistake about it, Menendez committed no crimes until he dared disagree with President Obama and the appeasment policies of key figures in the administration.  Now the full force of the Obama administration is crashing down on him with both feet for what have always been fuzzy allegations. 

 It's all done with a wink and a nod, folks. Another dog and pony show. Would it were that the Justice Department would be worthy of its name by investigating Hillary Clinton's Benghazi failings, and for illegally keeping all her email correspondence on a server at her private home. 

Consider too that, with Hillary Clinton ready to announce her candidacy for president, her husband was also mentioned as one of the frequent guests of the billionaire Melgen.  Oh, it's a dark and murky world the Democrats have created.  What tangled webs we weave...and so forth.

Peggy Noonan Trashes Jeb Bush – in favor of what?

Peggy Noonan has a way with words. In a Wall Street Journal editorial Sunday, Feb. 28, she used her way with words to short-circuit the presidential campaign of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.  Noonan earned her reputation working as a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan. Reagan is regarded by many as the patron saint of conservatives though he was a practical man who likely would be considered an “establishment moderate” in today’s terms.

People who style themselves ‘conservatives’ these days are practicing a kind of ideological holier-than-thou religion. Holding themselves out as representatives of the “true cross” and getting everyone to buy into it is a primary objective. Losing presidential elections is the secondary one.  It’s like a game of pin the donkey, everyone going around blindfolded, trying to find the real conservative.

Along with this ultra obsession comes an inability to distinguish real conservativism from the faux celebrity chic kind espoused by celebrity chic copycat conservatives like Laura Ingraham and other blind followers of brand.

Noonan’s column ignores the sage advice of long-time authentic conservatives in the tradition of William Buckley – I’m referring to George Will  and Charles Krauthammer, both of whom are weary of ‘conservative’ stunt *ucking in Congress.

Both of these on Fox News panel were disgusted with the 52 Republicans who voted with 172 Democrats to kill the extension of funding for Homeland Security after it had passed the Senate. This is not the way to stop King Obama’s regal edict on immigration. Nor does this kind of stunt show a commitment to principles. What it does show is an attachment to show trials, failed governance, and losing. The presumption is that the American people are too stupid to think for themselves, the same thing liberal and left-wing bureaucrats of the Obama administration think about us.

Obama’s Legacy: Beheading on the Shores of Tripoli

The Swiss Cheese Obama “strategy” (and I use the term loosely) in the Middle East and now North Africa has produced atrocities of a kind last seen in the Dark Ages.  A more recent reference might be to the activities of the Nazis under Hitler leading up to WWII.  ISIS has not yet reached that latter point in terms of numbers but one may argue that it is a least matched in terms of barbarism, perversity, and in the creation of a death cult culture.

It’s not Obama’s fault that America voted a buffoon into office. The president (or Preezy as he is called on late night TV) is a self-absorbed narcissist who struggles to find relevance by a variety of pop-culture antics, the most recent of which is public clowning on TV with a selfie stick. This image, this projection of a weak American president, is supposed to distract the country from the spectacle of a choreographed and carefully stage-managed torture and mass beheading of some twenty plus Coptic Christians in Libya.

In order to head off the public relations disaster of Obama’s whimsical and flippant stance in the Middle East, Africa, and now North Africa, Obama has ordered pinprick strikes on a variety of targets. This certainly helped the Yazidis who survived the month’s previous slaughters, but it came too late.

Lateness is rather the mark of the Obama administration, as is “kinetic action” or “leading from behind” or “resets” of U.S. policy which have invariably backfired.  This will not change. The issue is how much more damage, how many more innocent deaths, this administration will cause by its willful blindness, ineptitude, and actions which, during the time of George Washington, would be clearly identified as treason.

Nero fiddle while Rome burned, it is said. That may be a myth.  What is not a myth is that President Obama trifles –playing golf, pretending to be cool while trolling youth groups, cavorting with bizarre YouTube ‘celebrities” like the bathtub colored cheerios woman,  while Islamo-nazis took over large parts of Yemen, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.  The march of ISIS and its affiliated butchers will not stop until a better president steps up to restore a measure of sanity and leadership ability in the country.

America and the rest of the civilized world is under attack from the death cultist Islamo-nazis.  This will not change with editorials and passionate public opinions and alarms expressed on social media sites.  President Obama can be expected to deliver another of his peripatetic (and pathetic) speeches on TV immediately after the next expected attack on U.S. soil.  Even while the Muslim president of Egypt and the King of Jordan speak in plain terms about the rise of Islamo-Nazism, President Obama will prefer the dodges of euphemism and pacifism rather than the hard course of action it will take to stop ISIS.

Many Americans, including Republicans, were fooled into helping Obama win the presidency. If he is incompetent, it is rather their fault for being fools, not his fault for being incompetent. I’m very sad for this presidency, but I am sadder for America, and the degeneration of spirit that eight years of Obama has brought us.

I’m sorry too that the first black man to become president in our nation’s history has been such a disaster. When Democrats might perhaps have rallied around a proven African-American military hero like Colin Powell, they went instead for a fugazi.

God bless America. Thanks, Obama. We’re in for it now.

Buy a Dinosaur Pickup Truck - Your Other Car Can Be Hacked

I've dreamed about this. I'm driving along in my late model sedan when suddenly the steering wheel is wrenched from my hands and evil minds point the car at a telephone poll, a tree, or the guardrails. Or I've put my laptop in the backseat, locked the doors, all that just long enough to pop into the local Panera for a sandwich and a cup of coffee. When I come out, the doors are unlocked, my laptop is gone, and my own car is trying to run me over.

"You've been hacked!" screams my feverish brain. Science fiction? Hallucinogens?  Bath salts, perhaps.  But it's not far-fetched according to lots of people including Jalopnik, which HERE details how DARPA hacks cars equipped with computer technologies that many have grown to expect as basic minimum in driver accommodation.

I'm fighting back, and you should too. Buy an old car or truck as I did. My 2004 Ford F-150 4WD has old crank windows, rubber floor mats (no carpeting), and stick shift.  To adjust the outside mirrors (even in ten below weather), I have to open the window, lean out and set it to my eyeball height or to grant the widest visibility possible.  But I can't be hacked. 

So, be like me and buy an old manually operated everything pickup truck. People will be frightened when they see you coming at them with such a primitive instrument. When the cyber-war comes, dude, we'll be leaving my wife's sedan home. Rock on!

Chris Kyle: The "American Sniper" Portrait (Update)

UPDATE:  I don't think Chris Kyle will ever be 'old news' and it's sad that neither he, nor his friend Chad Littlefield, are around to see how the nation has embraced them.  Not to mention that a trial is set to begin this week in Stephenson Texas not far from where Kyle and Littlefield were gunned down by
Eddie Ray Routh, 27, whom both men were trying to help adjust to life after wartime. Routh is expected to plead and NGRI defense. In a rambling post-arrest interview with police, Routh admitted to murdering both men in a rambling and sometimes incoherent confession. 

I previously posted a blog entry a few weeks ago (below) regarding the film (and the book) which was number one at the box office. It broke all profit records for this type of film, even as it was released in the post holiday calendar atmosphere often regarded as a movie burial ground.  "American Sniper" has now dropped from the number one slot to the number two slot, which is remarkable for a film that's been out for so long. 

Again, I urge people to read the book.  I'm not finished with it yet, but pushed through a good deal of it today while waiting for my truck to be repaired.  Really, it's a book inside a book and one of those 'books' reveals the toll the military life takes on family. You have to think Kyle's wife was a hero, too, for having to bear the worry, the heartache, the pain of living under circumstances which would have crushed others with less fortitude. There should be a special place in heaven for military wives and children.

Previously, I wrote:

I was reading the book "American Sniper" without having seen the film. Last night, I did see the film, and it's become clearer why the weakest among us (think Michael Moore) are compelled to attack it.

Much has been said already about the American Sniper movie and less about the book but there is one thing that must be understood. It may be described as a "war movie" but it's really a character study of a particular individual, a rare but fortunately not extinct type in American culture.

Chris Kyle was "that guy," the one who understood the basic foundational good heart of America and didn't waiver in his devotion and loyalty to its principles. He never doubted that America was better, even while acknowledging its flaws. Guys like Chris Kyle are an in-your-face reminder that America is better than its alternatives. He didn't make a lot of noise about it. He just was. What flies most in the face of  his detractors, and what antagonizes the compromisers, and the breast beating apologists, the mealy-mouthed politicians and other critics, is that he never apologized for himself, nor for killing America's enemies.

I think that the huge crowds watching the movie have found something lacking, something dishonest in the way President Obama and his left-leaning progressive political whores are trying to turn the country away from who we are. We're a free and independent people, and that's how we want to remain.  To remain free, you have to tell yourselves the truth. Except at the Obama White House, it's obvious that America is being threatened by Islamic extremists who want to murder, torture, rape, behead, burn, terrorize anyone who believes in basic American freedoms.  Most of what comes out of the Obama White House these days is designed around Hermann Goebbels' big lie theorem.  Mass deception can be achieved by the unrelenting repetition of lies and the bigger the lie, the more will be deceived. (think here of the 'offensive video' scenario barrage of brainwashing to which we were subjected for months).


For better or for worse , film has a higher profile than books do.  Movies reach a wider audience because, of course, you don't have to be able to read to watch and understand a film.  Even if you didn't speak the language, there are subtitles and dubbing.  So the "American Sniper" audience has risen to stunning proportions even going into the third week of its release. It fulfills the American need for honesty from its government, for democracy's requirement of honesty. That so many people would come to love and appreciate a hero who kills the enemy to save the rest of us is a phenomenon akin to the Knights of the Round Table legend.

American Sniper has broken all records for a film of this type, even though it was released in the dead money after Christmas holiday environment where films normally go to die.  I could tell it was film garbage season by the avalanche of bad Hollywood junked-up garbage movie trailers I was whipped with before watching American Sniper.

The Regal Cinema theatres where I saw the film was so packed that I thought there was a Harry Potter movie playing.  I was shocked when about 80 percent of that crowd marched into "American Sniper."  I had to sit in the third row front with my head craned upward like President Obama when he strikes one of his frequent phony camera-ready "gravitas" poses. I had waited to see the movie precisely because I wanted to avoid the discomfort of a crowded theatre. For this to have happened, three weeks into the release, could only mean that "American Sniper" struck a deep chord in the American psyche.

$200 million dollars for an R-rated movie never before happened in ten days of release.  Something is happening in America, and more and more people are realizing finally what it is.

American Sniper: It's a Book Also

Update:  The "American Sniper" film has created a resurgence of interest in Chris Kyle's book "American Sniper," written in conjunction with Jim DeFelice and Scott McEwen.  The book is back on the NYT best seller lists. It's published by Morrow (I'm interested in such things). It's an exciting read, contains lots of information about modern military weapons systems and equipment. (also interest in such things as these).  Reminds me of the exciting "Black Hawk Down" though about a different military scenario. 


I’m planning to be in a movie theatre this afternoon to watch Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper.” The movie is a blockbuster, which was released at a time when blockbusters aren’t supposed to happen. I could write a bunch on why “American Sniper” has caused a great deal of Hollywood penis envy, but today I want to remind people that the movie came off of the “American Sniper” book written by the late Chris Kyle.

It’s not James Joyce but that is a good thing (no disrespect to James Joyce, a great writer) “American Sniper” is both readable and informative and “fun” for people who like to read Soldier of Fortune magazine. That would include types like me. I’m one of those screwed up neo-intellectuals who have morphed from blue-collar to whatever I am now. Here’s a clue: I’m always checking the air on my Ford F-150 pickup truck tires in case I have to move into battle position while taking Geritol or another old-age supplement. I go to the range as often as I can.  I do fitness drills, gym workouts, boxing exercises almost daily. I don’t know what I’m fighting for or fighting against, but it’s all because I’m American and appreciate that America let my grandparents, and my mom and dad into this country. We’re not great heroes like Chris Kyle but my clan has surely met its obligations to military service—from WWII until now--

Anyway, the book. “American Sniper starts out with training descriptions exercise—considerable discussion of weapons systems, and transport systems like DPV (desert patrol vehicles) and limitations thereof.

There was a horribly naïve “movie critic” Jan 23 who was trying to put down the film version by saying there were parts of it that weren’t realistic—b/c it showed the Kyle character, in the midst of a shooting war, talking to his wife on the telephone.  “Now  that wouldn’t happen,” she said cluelessly.” It was shocking to see such techno-dumbness from a supposedly young hipster movie type. But this is what passes for “film critic these days.  Give me gay Rex Reed any day.

There is much of Kyle’s wife Taya in the book, including letters she sent, worrying about her husband’s safety and her own sanity.  The letters show how families at home are sacrificing.  The war fighters and their families have to risk everything and suffer so that I can sit on my ass in the EZ chair without bullets and shrapnel flying or anyone trying to cut off my head.

Well, I should admit I did my bit in military service, ultimately ending up in an MP battalion.  It was a trifling bit dangerous once in a while, but nothing like the dangers experienced by real war fighters like Chris Kyle. Still, it gave me some insight, updated and modernized, into weapons and tactics used today.  It was heartening to read, for example, that one of my favorite weapons, the M-60 machine gun, is still in use today (albeit with some updates and improvements and a name change).  It was called a “pig” when I was in uniform and it’s still called a “pig” today.  I guess that’s because of the fast fire and way it eats up ammo. I was put on a range detail once to set up four M-60s on a range at Fort Benning Georgia.  We had to set the guns up, set boxes of ammunition near, and test fire them. With no one shooting back, it was thrilling fun. The M-60 is almost as fast as my chain saw for cutting down timber.  I never killed one bad guy but I chopped up lots of Georgia pine.  But that’s not in the book. I mention it only because there are millions of former soldiers out there who might enjoy the weapons, tactics, and equipment discussions in the early parts of “American Sniper.”  Stay tuned, however—I’m on page 70, where Iraqi Freedom and the shooting starts.  Great book, so far, and a good companion read to the film. More on both will be forthcoming. 

Things to Know about Terror in #Belgium

An anti-terrorist operation in Belgium may have been given added impetus from the mass murder in Paris at the Charlie Hebdo offices, but Belgium has long been a hotbed of Islamic terror cells.  The French are often criticized for having a lackadaisical attitude toward radical Islamists who immigrate but do not integrate, and turn toward AQ and ISIS or other terrorist groups.  But take note:

• Belgium has been the destination of choice for over a decade as moving into France, and dealing with its more restrictive immigration policies and anti-terror laws, has made many radical Islamists turn to Belgium.

• Belgian based terrorists have been behind 2004  terror bombings in Casablanca and in Madrid and have recruited fighters for the insurgency in Iraq to fight against and kill American troops.

• Belgian based terrorists gave logistical support to  terrorists who posed as journalists to kill American ally and anti-Taliban leader Shah Masood in Afghanistan. 

These are just a small part of the story. The list of Belgium-based terror groups and activities is long and goes back to the time of the World Trade Center attacks.  Due to Belgium's lax criminal and anti-terror laws, it has had difficulty even in prosecuting known terrorists like Nizar Trabelsi, who in 2003 was convicted in a plot ot drive a car bomb into an American air base located in Belgium. 

Counter-Terrorism Ops in Belgium Kills Three Terrorists

Breaking news now reported by several sources describes a police raid in Verviers, a town in eastern Belgium.  Early reports say that three suspected terrorists have been killed in a shootout, and that at least one has been taken into custody.

The raid follows upon the terror attack on Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris. Police have not confirmed that the police raid stemmed from the search for other suspect(s) who may have been involved in the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

Dershowitz, Clinton, Prince Andrew and the Kitchen Sink Civil Lawsuit

Why would I, humble citizen of Hoi Polloi Nation, feel obliged to defend noted Harvard Law Professor, writer, and criminal attorney Allan Dershowitz, who  specializes in difficult higher court appeals?  He’s a millionaire and has access and knowledge of the judicial system way beyond a lay person’s comprehension.  I am Citizen Schmuck, probably like you, dear reader (if indeed anyone reads this) struggling to pay my mortgage, health insurance bills, and other expenses.

The reason is that Dershowitz and I have something in common.  We like to defend ourselves from slander and damage to our reputations.  Yes, my reputation is as important to me as his is to the world that knows him. The world that knows him will also know that his name has been associated with that of notorious billionaire playboy and convicted pedophile sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

You can read about Epstein’s sexual predations on a number of web sites from the Huffington Post to the Daily Caller.  If you do, you will also note that Epstein liked to entertain celebs on his private island in the Caribbean.  Epstein has hosted high profile people like Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and it is alleged also that Dershowitz was present at some of these sexual soirees and participating in the corruption of minors.

               What this is about, though, is that Dershowitz has been deprived of the right to a defense. Imagine that a high profile lawyer like Dershowitz, with all the resources of law, has been muffled and  menaced by a court system which cares less about facts than about the tangle of bureaucratic laws that enables someone to criminally accuse you while you have no right to defend yourself against the accusations—in this case of pedophilia.

Dershowitz is not taking it lying down as you might expect. Today’s Wall Street Journal contains his essay explaining his side of the story. You need to read Kafka, as Dershowitz suggests, to understand why he cannot sue the lawyers who brought the hearsay to a criminal court while they have sued him for defending himself.  Dershowitz has challenged the lawyers to show any evidence they have, other than the self-serving statements of certain women who were ostensibly engaged in sexual practices on Epstein’s private island and elsewhere. Dershowitz has courageously risked everything in signed statements waiving statute of limitations if any of the allegations against him can be proved.

         Of course, the sleazeball attorneys bringing the civil case (named in Dershowitz’ WSJ article) are not interested in proving anything except how much money they can get from the U.S. government. Yes, the primary target of this smear is the U.S. government prosecutors who made a deal with Epstein, accepting his guilty plea on lesser charges in exchange for a lighter prison sentence.  The lawsuit, however, names Dershowitz and Prince Andrew and just about anyone who flew over the island as victimizers of the poor young women who were paid to perform sex acts with high profile Epstein guests.

        To be clear, there are several women who allegedly worked in the sex trade, who filed suit against the U.S. government for making a deal with Epstein and his lawyers—without their participation. To give additional heft to the suit, and to apply and accuse publicly, the lawyers and the ‘plaintiffs’ have used high profile names as a sort of public reputation blackmail.

  If underage women were raped or preyed upon, then those cases should be tried in the customary criminal courts and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  The problem here is that that the attorneys who brought the suit are taking advantage of a special interest quirk in the law that essentially puts Dershowitz under a gag order.  They are not interested in filing criminal rape cases against Dershowitz or Prince Andrew or Bill Clinton, because they know that, in doing so, they risk being disbarred and jailed for false accusations. 

Dershowitz  is right to disobey the law and bring the case to the court of public opinion—though he risks a great deal in doing so. Congress needs to change that special-interest protection that the lawyers in this case have so that the truth can come out. 

Hayat Boumeddiene Married or Not?

 Hayat Boumeddiene -- lover of messed-up killer Islamist Ahmed Coulibady is variously said to be married to him or his girlfriend.  The facts, I believe, were revealed in a Wall Street Journal article today.  Apparently, a religious service was conducted at Coulibady's home with the purpose of uniting the couple in matrimony.  There was one big problem, however--Hayat Boumeddiene did not attend. We don't know where she was but she wasn't there for the service.  Only two sets of parents were there, giving approval and blessings for this "marriage" made in hell, but Hayat wasn't.

That means the "marriage" isn't recognized by the French government, nor by most other governments.  I don't know where such marriages are recognized, since such an arrangement would be convenient for all of us wishing to marry up.  
I might wish (with the approval of my parents) to be married to Pippa Middleton, for example.  But duh!  If no one tells her of this marriage, and if no one knows whether she consented or not, the marriage is a mirage.

A mirage! As was much of the news coverage of this horrific event.

Kouachi Brothers Killed in Dammartin-en-Goele Police Assault

Update:  Five hostages held by Hayat Boumedienne and Amedy Coulybady are alive, and the two terrorists are dead. Total of 4 terrorists dead.

The French police assault on the factory where the Kouachi brothers were holed up looked like a TV film production.  Explosions, gunfire, and smoke accompanied the police assault. The Kouachi brothers were holding a female hostage in the print factory, while their counterparts in the Paris supermarket threatened to kill their estimated five or six hostages if the Kouachis should be killed by police.  In the latest report, French police forces killed both Cherif Kouachi and his brother Said.

A key tactical move by police, considering the dual hostage situation, was to control or limit communication between the two terrorist locations.  The supermarket hostage takers, Amedy Coulbaly and Hayat, have not been apprehended as of this moment.  At least one of the hostages has been rescued as a result of the attack.

French-Algerian Man and Woman Linked to Charlie Hebdo Massacr

A 33 year old man and a woman are being sought in connection with the Charlie Hebdo massacre. It is likely this man, Amedi Coulibaly, who has entered the Parisian kosher supermarket, taking hostages, and perhaps killing some of them. 

 It is reported that both individuals were part of a Islamist terrorist recruitment cell based in Paris and operating against the U.S. presence in Iraq. French police believe that one or both of these two were involved in the shooting Thursday of a police woman and an accident investigator in the Montrouge neighborhood in southern Paris. 

Further SPECULATION is that the Kouachi brothers have remained in contact with these two, and perhaps others, and that the male, named Amedi Coulibaly or his 26 year old female partner/GF named Hayat Boumedienne (take your pick) shot the two officers yesterday to create a DIVERSION or at least another crime scene – enabling the brothers to escape.  That didn’t work, obviously. This raises the question as to whether it was one of these two that Kouachi brother was signaling to as he left the Charlie Hebdo slaughter. 

Note: The brothers Kouachi:  Cherif and Said Kouachi were the first terrorists identified by French police.  Cherif Kouachi had been previously convicted of aiding Islamist extremists in Iraq.  He was taken into custody by American troops, turned over to the French judicial system.  Cherif Kouachi was convicted of recruiting for terrorists in Iraq.  He was sentenced to three years, but served only half of the sentence.

Explosions, Gunfire erupt at Factory where Kouachi Bros. Hold Hostage

UPDATE:  The Gammartin-en-Goele factory where the Kouachi brothers are making their last stand erupted in gunfire, smoke, and explosions at 11:00 a.m. EST. This was the moment the French police tactical squad felt they had to move.  There has so far been no police announcements regarding the outcome of the attempt to resolve the standoff.

France Wakes Up to Two Hostage Situations:

THE WAKEUP:  France wakes up this morning to a better understanding of the shooters who massacred twelve in the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices.  Whereas the information reported yesterday was soft in spots, several things have now become clear.

HOSTAGE STANDOFF:  At this moment, there are two active French Police vs. Terrorist standoffs.   One is occurring in an eastern suburb of Paris called Port Vincennes.  The terrorist in this case has taken over a Kosher supermarket and is said to be holding an unknown number of hostages, as few as one or as many as five.  Police have surrounded and blocked off the area. The number of hostages in the supermarket is not clear. The terrorist in this case is quite possibly to be the third member of a 3-man assault team which conducted the original attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices. 

STANDOFF WITH KOUACHI BROTHERS is close is near to Paris and near to one of the Paris airports—in the industrial town of  Dammartin-en-Goele. The Kouachi brothers are reported to be holding one hostage.

HOSTAGE NEGOTIATIONS are going on in both cases. It is being reported that TWO ARE DEAD at the KOSHER GROCERY MARKET.

Writer’s Note: As I am an amateur blogger, compiling the news from mainstream media sources, I’m wondering about my theory that the Kouachi brothers were heading toward the French border with Belgium.  It’s quite possible that this speculation was completely wrong, but it’s also possible that the brothers were blocked en route (they were heading northeast. In fact, all key locations are in the direction of northeast—the direction of Belgium).

Charlie Hebdo Killers Reported Holed Up In Woods

Update: Latest information is that the two brother/murderers were spotted running into a wooded area northeast of Paris and closer to the French border with Belgium.  Given that their identities were known, one would think their first concern would be getting out of France. Apparently, there was a sighting of two individuals fleeing in the forest after abandoning their highjacked vehicle. French helicopters are circling above and, like the police scouring the area below, are equipped with night vision and infrared equipment which should be able to spot movement and/or heat signatures--if there is movement and movement is above ground.  It is believed there are caves in the area, but if this is so, it would be difficult such people as these two terrorists to stay underground for long.  The temperature in the woods hovers around 40-45 degrees--not frigid, but certainly uncomfortable and likely extremely difficult for comfort loving urban or suburban types.  They are not like our American survivalists like the Pennsylvania cop-killer Eric Frein, or Richard Rudolf, both of whom lived in the woods for considerable lengths of time before being apprehended. So if it was indeed these two who were seen running into the woods, it is a matter of being thorough, patient, relentless, alert and cautious about having more cops killed.Were I a less humane individual, and were I certain there were no innocents in the area, including furry animals (who matter much more than these two subhumans), I would be thinking napalm.  

Were the Killers running to French Border with Belgium?

The following speculations have been based on a variety of media and social network sources. This does not presume to be a factual and accurate account as I do not have access to information held by law enforcement. Everyone’s invited to point out where I am in error. In fact, I would appreciate it. This is a crowdsourced report.

                

I’m puzzled by the French police response to the attack and the time it took to execute people in the Charlie Hebdo offices. Several news stations/papers report that the attack/slaughter took thirty five minutes. Other news reports have it that the killers got their way into the “secure” building by forcing a woman to use her passcard/keycard to open the electronic door. One report has it that the terrorists weren’t sure where the Hebdo offices were and got an answer from someone at the building. They then proceeded up the stairs to the magazine offices.  A report says they killed the receptionist.  They knew that the editorial board meeting was on that day and that most of the principals of the satirical publication would assemble. They separated men from the women and asked for Charlie Hebdo who was the first to be killed.  Other cartoonists and writers were identified and shot. 

During the shooting, several people called police and, of course, there is that excellent amateur video that will provide a minutes to second timeline.  Is it true that the first cops to respond were bicycle policemen who were unarmed and fled when they heard gunfire.  I don’t know how long it was before a police car came with two cops. There is plenty of news coverage showing that bullet-riddled  police vehicle, and I believe both of those cops were  killed. The most horrendous scene of all involves a wounded police lying on the sidewalk. One of the terrorists approaches him calmly and, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal says something like:

“You tried to kill us.”

Wherein the cop, with his hands up says something like:

“No problem here, you’re the boss,” before getting shot point blank and coldly by the terrorist.

They then get into the Citroen and drive away.  News reports differ in telling why one killer stoops underneath to retrieve something under the car.  One says it was a shoe. Another reports it was an ammo magazine.

Were there three people involved in the attack itself—that is, present at the drive- in or the killing?  Most reports say that there were two assailants and a third man, a driver, who began the attack. Two assailants, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, are identified as the gunmen.  As of this writing, none of these three principals have been apprehended or killed.  The two brothers were identified by a passport left by one of the brothers in the Citroen used first to attack the magazine offices and then later to escape.  The Citroen was abandoned later when another vehicle was carjacked.  One news story has it that the driver of the carjacked vehicle was allowed to take his dog before the two carjackers escaped in his vehicle.

  What is the connection between the 18 year old who turned himself in to police and the two/three men who committed the slaughter? Many news sources are reporting that this person was in school at the time of the shooting, and that he turned himself in when his name was associated with the massacre on social media. Police have not released anything more than his name--Hamyd Mourad and the town where he surrendered himself: Charleville-Mézières.

 Since the town is close to the border with Belgium, I speculate that they want to enter Belgium as part of their escape plan.  This comports with other news reports of a convenience store gas station robbery, and the murder of a policewoman in a Paris suburb, also to the northeast.  The direction of travel is clearly toward the northeast and Belgium.  As a consequence of these events, French gendarmes have concentrated on investigations in that area.

I expect that when the two brothers are captured/killed, the followup investigations will yield astounding results which will be surprising to the general public but not to anti-terror investigators. Hopefully, this latest attack will be enough to convince people to give up being polite or PC in the way information about terror is disseminated. People are not stupid. Everyone knows that every Muslim is not a terrorist. There’s no need to apologize or genuflect to the Muslims of the world every time it is necessary to take action against Islamist Nazi killers. We know that description does not apply to every lovely Muslim lady who works at the supermarket or at the school. But this current level of mealy mouthed discussion of terror will only lead to more innocent victims being slaughtered. Liberal courts freed  Cherif Kouachi after he served 18 months of a 3 year sentence for sending recruits to fight Americans in Iraq under the command of the notorious butcher Zarquawi.  Zarqawi got his from a Bush ordered missile strike and I hope the brothers Kouachi, and anyone else associated with this slaughter will get theirs, too.  Coming soon.

Pawel Pawlikowski"s Beautiful Film Ida Does More with Less

 My last two posts were about film.  That's sort of scary. Scarier still is that this one is about film, too.  I try to stay away from movies because, with so many being produced and flung at you these days, I can't separate the wheat from the chaff.

Last night I watched "IDA" on the home video and it actually kept me from watching a football playoff game, a boxing match, and a sex tape. I'm only kidding about the sex tape, but "IDA" is a seriously good movie that the 'Big Players' will try to diminish. It breaks all of today's film conventions and, like a cat, lands on its feet.

You don't make black and white films any more without being ridiculed by the big studio production heads.  "We're not there any more," they gurgle like depleted oil wells.  We may not be there any more but we're not anywhere else unless you like a steady diet of Hollywood fantasy films with money-making plot templates.

See, the problem with Pawl Pawlikowski's work is immense.  He's (or was) a film nobody, a documentarist, a European, an Oxford graduate with a down-to-earth view of things. That's outre in Hollywood, you know. He's lacking in decadence.  The other problem is that Pawel Pawlikowski's "Ida" is tight in all the right places.  It doesn't have any screwy baloney plot twists. Noone gets head blown off, no cops rush into the screen saying "go, go go!" and no car chases.

Well, it does have a "car chase" of a sort.  A main character, an elite judge in Polish society of the 60s, drives a young novice (before you become a nun, you're a novitiate) in search of her parents, victims of the Nazi occupation.  It looks like a cool 50s Studebaker, even though the setting is the 60s.  A ten year old car marked you as one of the elite in the Soviet dominated era. The two women are related; "Red Wanda" is Ida's aunt and, too, suffers from the horrendous brutality attendant of the era.  Actually, "Red Wanda" suffers from lots of things, her demons are plentiful, as she was an integral part of the Marxist-Socialist purging of Nazi sympathizers at the end of WWII. "I've put lots of people to death" she says with a tormented look in her eyes--implying they were not all guilty....

Stay tuned. Life has intervened but later I would bring you another episode in this exciting tale of a movie which is truly great.

Hacked Sony Film “The Interview” Becomes a Real-Life Comedy

Update:  As a consequence of the hacked Sony data, the Sony Corporation has announced that it is cancelling the showing of "The Interview" in all theatres in its distribution network. The decision was criticized by former Obama press spokesmany Jay Carney on CNN Tonight.  Another criticism was levied by noted Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein who agreed with Carney that Sony should not have "caved" but questioned whether such an idiotic movie should have been created in the first place. 

Reading George Saunders “Tenth of December” as I write so don’t complain if I slip into streams of consciousness (or unconsciousness). 

Thank you, James Joyce, if not for inventing it, for taking it to the next level (cliché). “Next level”… overused expression taken from hip-hop. . . like “back in the day”. . . also worn out now that it has crept into the white middle class, as things do when Hollywood gets hold of things, amplifies them, and pretends to be hip. 

Not so hip were the hacked Sony emails showing how Hollywood filmmaker types made little racial innuendoes about Barack Obama.  You’d heard, haven’t you?  The Sony execs wondering aloud (in email print) what racially charged films Obama would like the most… complete with tittering and with a heavy dose of white liberal preening…  Isn’t that what they do? All of it in bad taste, of course, offending even the more conservative Japanese exec-in-charge who made the filmmakers cut parts of “The Interview” that depicted North Korean dictator with his face melting and his head on fire. 

Did you die laughing yet?  Or don’t you know that “The Interview” is supposed to be a comedy?  Yeah, really. The plot is about a duo of journalists who are going to interview Kim. Of course, the CIA, that diabolical scapegoat of pointy headed libertarians with propeller caps, radical lefties wearing Che Guevara tee-shirts sipping lattes in Starbucks, and left-fielding Democratic Party bigwigs  like Senator Dianne Feinstein, always hires journalists to assassinate foreign leaders. 

When talent and creativity is lacking, go with the most ridiculous, abominable script you can find. 

Hollywood scriptwriters and producers think you’re dumb enough to watch it, and maybe they’re right.  We’re all getting dumber, and the dumber we get, the more Hollywood will dump this artless crap on us. If audiences reject bad taste, then go for the Big One—free speech. Yes, make bad taste and moral decay a liberal cause—you’ve got to massage those low and base instincts of human nature. I’ll believe that free speech rationalization when Hollywood makes an honest comedy about the Taliban – or Bin Laden-- or what about Mullah Omar?

   

I’ve got no sympathies for the asshats who hacked Sony, but I doubt it was the North Koreans. It was certainly someone who profits from chaos, from creating conflict between nuclear powers, who would enjoy the destruction that could derive from this dangerous stupidity.  Maybe it was the Iranians. A better guess might be Islamist terrorists, ISIS wannabes perhaps, or even Anonymous anarchists.

Anyway, the fallout continues, to the degree that Seth Rogen and James Franco are now declining to give INTERVIEWS about “The Interview.”  The film industry newspaper of record, Variety, reports that the  two starts cancelled all press appearances previously scheduled. Another newspaper of record, the Wall Street Journal,  in a report today said the star duo felt that, in the current atmosphere of hacks and intimidation, they wouldn’t be able to discuss the film. 

I guess we’re supposed to believe there’s a deeper meaning in this idiotic “comedy”  theme.  I feel sorry for all the people who needed the work, but America will be better off if this movie flops.  It might nudge American businesses to put more effort in preventing computer attacks which, in fact, could turn off your heat and electricity.  Another benefit would be that Hollywood scriptwriters and producers might gravitate to stories that don't play to the worst in us. 

Woody Allen's "Manhattan" -- Those Were Different Times

It’s been so long since I watched a comedy that wasn’t part slapstick, another part vulgar, and the rest just plain silly that I had forgotten about Woody Allen’s 1979 movie “Manhattan.” I caught the tail end of it on Epix just now. Of course, I’m looking at it through the lens of several decades past. The movie came out in 1979 but the time frame in the writers/director mind was probably the late 60s or early 70s.  That’s how I remember Manhattan anyway, when I lived there for a brief period. It seemed as if everyone was looking for someone or something, and everyone was kind of smarter than the people in the small town I came from. That latter characterization pertains only to those like myself who once confused metropolitanism and sophistication with intelligence, as many of us tended to do. I don’t want to write a review-review of this movie, and I only watched the last third of it but the film is positively enthralling, a work of rare artistry, a blend of music, visuals, people, neuroses and aspirations that seemed oh-so-real I might have cried. Well, at least it made me think of crying. The poignant and revealing interludes all fit together and merge beautifully at the end, the music, the Manhattan skyline, the lovely voice of the ingénue-- innocent Mariel Hemingway with her plaintive voice going off to London. The film is giant for writers, film types, and people with beating hearts Those were different times, as Lou Reed once sang about Sweet Jane..

amazon.com/author/anthonyventre

Syracuse University Basketball: Mamma Grizzly Power Award

Because I know next to nothing about basketball, I thought I'd try to impress you with my expertise. This blog is supposed to be eclectic, a tour de force of dilettantism, so who's better to write about basketball than me?

My nominee for Grizzly Mamma of the year goes to Linda Bryant, mother of Thomas Bryant and, get this straight, both are names you should know.

Thomas Bryant is one of the most sought after high school basketball players in the world.  The whole basketball world is watching to see where he will go with his stupendous talents.  But this column is not about him;  it's about his mom, and her interview by Chris Carlson in the Syracuse Post-Standard.

Believe me, this is the type of mom everyone should have.  There would be no Michael Brown tragedies if every mom in America guarded her sons the way this woman is doing.  Okay, let's just stipulate one thing. Thomas Bryant is one sensational young basketball player.  He is also young.  Many things can happen to the young.  His mom is going to make sure that only the right and good things happen to her kid.  This is just as things should be.

This youngster's experience lately has to do with choosing a college where he will play basketball before, if things go well, he gets picked up by the NBA.  There is no need to embellish the story with a florid style or with journalistic sleight of hand.  Linda Bryant speaks for herself and here's what she said to the Post-Standard reporter:

• "It's down to two (schools) Syracuse and Indiana."
• Linda corrected the reporter who thought that Missouri might be a third choice since one of his former coaches works there. "They're trying to get into it," she said.  Meaning, there is no chance.
• Linda Bryant also dispelled rumors that her son might choose Kentucky, another giant in the college basketball industry. But he was only going there to visit with two of his teammates from high school, Linda told the reporter.
• And while there's much to like, what I like best about Mamma Grizzly Linda Bryant's input into her son's well-being is what she says about Indiana where, according to the newspaper, six of Indiana's thirteen basketball scholarship players have been implicated in either failed drug tests or underage alcohol infractions.  Linda puts it best when she says of Indiana: "They have a lot going on. It seems like we went down there on false pretenses. They didn't tell us anything about failed drug tests or that type of thing going on.  My son doesn't need to be around that stuff."
• Trust me, this Mamma Grizzly is no naif and has plenty more to say in expressing love and concern for Thomas.  Get it straight, don't spare the horse, kick the tires, the woman's on fire.  While her son heard a lot from Syracuse assistant coach Mike Hopkins, she wants it all to go directly from her lips to God's ears: "It's great that we hear from Coach Hopkins. But I told Coach Boeheim, my son needs to hear from you."

President Urkel Obama Undeclares War on Taliban

This story comes from the Wall Street Journal. I take no credit for going to Afghanistan and talking to the Taliban.  It concerns President Obama's recent "pivot" (that being the administration's current favored catch phrase) on Afghanistan.  The Urkel prez has decided that his pacification process (aimed at the American military, not the enemy) was a little too much, too soon.  Since the president shared his appointment calendar for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban has caused all sorts of havoc in the country, killed scores of innocence people in suicide bombing and other psychotic anti-human attacks, and made territorial gains which had been previously denied them by a concerted effort in American and Afghan blood.

Now, the U.S. military has dragged Obama away from the Choom Gang and back to reality.  Obama has, after much cajolery, decided to attack the Taliban again, but only in places deemed absolutely necessary, i.e, when their positioning is dangerous to US personnel and interests.

But what do you do, Mr. President, about the "tide of war is declining" statements you have frequently made?  I shouldn't be so critical, perhaps. A naive babe last to learn to crawl before he learns how to walk.

Headline Chasing: Logan International Airport, Boston

Today, we turn our attention to the really important news of the day.  As a public service to those who may have to change planes at Logan International Airport, I report the following;

A couple of days ago, a 26 year old man went into the women's bathroom, stripped naked, and climbed up into the dropped ceiling just before a female patron decided she had to go potty. As one misstep often leads to another, however, the man put his weight on the wrong ceiling tile and fell through, disturbing nature's business issuing from the body of the poor, horrified female patron.  I would hope there is a lawsuit stemming from this incident.  Airports have the responsibility of keeping their customers safe from such horrors.

Not only did the whackjob parachute from the ceiling onto the unsuspecting woman, he then proceeded to run out of the bathroom and attack and 80 plus year old man walking with the help of canes.  The offender tried to kill the octogenarian by pressing the cane against the old man's neck, but was thwarted by security which arrived upon being alerted by shocked Logan Airport travelers.

I know there are skeptics among you, so I am linking this story from the Daily Mail.  So you see -- Logan International continues to grab headlines, even in British newspapers.

Democrats Kill XL Pipeline in Senate Vote

In spite of Sen. Mary Landrieu's last minute hustle to find centrist Democratic senators, a bi-partisan bill to green light the Keystone XL Pipeline failed just an hour ago in the Senate.  All 45 Republican senators voted with Democrat Landrieu but she couldn't convince the plethora of anal-retentive left-wing Democrats that the pipeline would created jobs and boost the nation's economy.

What this means, of course, is that well-heeled limousine elitists will continue to kill jobs for blue-collar and oil products factory workers who would benefit from the building of the pipeline.  Meanwhile,the anti-oil industry limousine liberal elites continue to gulp down huge quantities of oil and its by-products in their huge homes and private jets.  They, too, have their Jonathan Grubers who use deception to convince the victims of failed economic policies that it is better to fill billionaire Warren Buffett's oil trains than to safely move oil down through a pipeline to the people of Louisiana, Mary Landrieu's home state.

To the issue of human safety and environmental safety, I have a two- word response:  Lac Megantic.  Be sure to watch the video of the little Canadian town that was virtually annihilated by an oil train explosion.  Aside from destroying a good part of the town, and killing forty-seven people and injuring many more, the oil train disaster has required great new expenditures on HazMat teams and long term cleanup operations. If you're thinking that what happens in Canada doesn't concern Americans, then keep in mind that these very same trains pass through Maine and other states.

Moreover, what's wrong with helping the Canadian economy by passing the XL Pipeline?  Has the White House declared war on Canada?  That will be next, I suppose.  For why does Obama balk at establishing an economy of mutual benefit to both Canada and the U.S.?  After all, the Obama White House hasn't hesitated to provide foreign aid to people who want to kill us.  Well, perhaps, that's the whole thing in a nutshell.

From Warren Buffet's Mouth to Obama'sEars: XL Pipeline Veto Train Wreck

Here's a riddle for you.  What has been approved through four EPA reviews and carries the imprimatur of Secretary's of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry?  You guessed it. THE XL PIPELINE!  Now you get the hat and a free copy of White House Stink as President Obama tells the world he's smarter than everyone else and will veto any bill Congress puts on his desk approving the pipeline much sought by Obama's CANADIAN ENEMIES and by dozens of Democrat congress members like Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. 

That's what happens when Billionaire Obama supporters like Warren Buffett buys up railroads and puts billions into transporting oil by rail all over both countries.  Obama can't get off the man's errr... you know what...  because with Buffet's continued support it's a bit like Obama hitting the powerball lottery.

The question is how long can the mandarin in the White House keep on deceiving American workers and depriving them of much needed jobs?  Where are the so-called Demcrat "populists" like left wing neo Marxist Elizabeth Warren on this?  I guess her "populism" extends only to the academic limouse elite liberals who put millions into their campaign funds. 

It's a known fact, too, that the pipeline is far safer environmentally than trains.  And they've killed less people, too, unless you want to conveniently forget about the those Canadians who were killed in an oil train crash in Lac Megantic.  I guess it's small potatoes with the environment left when an oil train crash only kills FORTY-SEVEN people.

How Ridiculous is CBS TV's "Madame Secretary?"

I liked the concept when first I heard CBS was doing a political show.  My enthusiasm waned when I realized the writers hadn't done their homework, had no clue about foreign policy, were   espousing left-leaning social policy and getting their talking points from the DNC.

The photo above is a bit deceptive, including former Clinton Sec. State Madeline Albright in the front row. This is really Hillary Indirect.  On the bright side, Tea Leoni has the right masculine/feminine je ne sais quois while Carradine has his hard-assed presidential role in equal intensity.  Minor characters are interesting and fun enough.  It just sucks that good actors have to front for ignorant uninformed scripts.  Don't those writers read real newspapers?

The big question about the new CBS show “Madame Secretary” is whether it’s the publicity arm of the Hillary Clinton 2016 Campaign. I kind of doubt it’s exactly that, but I wish it were, because it’s ridiculous, just as Clinton’s most outstanding and outrageous failure Foggy Bottom was well… Benghazi, the death of our ambassador to Libya, and three other brave souls. I’ve watched the CBS show one or two times now (I’ve lost count) and I’ve decided two things: 

 1)  It’s a comedy and 2)  I should get a sense of humor.

This TV show is made to laugh at. Madame Secretary is a quasi-Marxist-pro-Iran-anti-Israel Superwoman—a type always in demand on MSM network TV in the year before a national election.

Tea Leoni plays Madame Secretary in the quiet breathy husky voice style of a retired veteran CIA analyst now living on a horse farm.  Suddenly, there appears on the clichéd and dusty road leading to the ranch a parade of SUV’s.  Stepping out of the one in the middle is the POTUS himself. POTUS immediately taps Elizabeth for Secretary of State and, of course, she will step up to save the country from the dark forces of conservatism. Yep, that’s how it’s done folks. That and stuff like the Sec State’s handsome husband explaining philosophical gibberish to his admiring and spellbound students—which is always how it happens in real life, right?

But you can’t have a TV show about Super-Secretary of State without taking on the contemporary political baggage, can you? My favorite and most revealing episode of the heavily left-leaning bent of the show’s writers has two contemporary political issues at its heart:

1     * The XL Pipeline (renamed something else)

        * The Iranian v. U.S. nuclear negotiations in Vienna.

Now the trick is to defend Obama’s failures in each of these areas while playing to the least common denominator of stupidity in the American public. As we know, Obama has stopped the XL Pipeline these past six years to appease his pseudo-environmentalist left-wing supporters, Canada wants the pipeline, preferring to ship oil to its good buddy the U.S. rather than send it west and then offshore to some foreign destination. Even the unions want the pipeline, knowing it could create an estimated 30,000 jobs for people in manufacturing, constructions, and the building trades. 

Yet, the cynical left-wing writers of this dreck and drivel political soap opera provide a scene in which it is revealed that the Pipeline Proposal was entirely the work of “Big Oil” lobbyists and is full of error, outdated information, and outright lies. In the real world, of course, the XL report was written by the EPA and sub-EPAs of the states XL would pass through.  All of them cleared the pipeline, saying it was cleaner, safer, and better for the environment than the oil trains, especially the one that crashed and burned and killed so many people in Canada. 

Apparently the “Madame Secretary” writers do not know any of this.  Big Momma the Sec. State lectures everyone around her on the evils of oil. 

More on the Iranian sub-plot next post –every bit as comic as the bit about the pipeline.  It’s too much celebrity socialism to ingest all at one time.  “Madame Secretary” apostrophe “s” family is whacked, too, cardboard stick figures, very much different than the realistic characterizations of celebrity political/legal offspring in shows like “The Good Wife.”

Albert Camus and the Ebola Plague

The Ebola virus that has terrorized West Africa and is currently spreading fear in the U.S. has an interesting precedent in a book written long ago by the late French writer, Albert Camus.  This book is called "The Plague" (in English) and is interesting because of its parallel with the current Ebola outbreak.

There is an interesting psychology at work in the book, and it serves as a warning to what may be happening today.  The Camus book is about an epidemic of bubonic plague that afflicted the city of Oran in Algeria more than a half-century ago.

The reactions to the first case of plague that wracked Oran were very similar to what Americans are experiencing today from their government.  The city officials first reaction was to reassure the citizens that everything was under control, and there was no need to be afraid.  Of course, the plague progresses until it decimates the city and imprisons its inhabitants.

There's a great deal more in the book than the tiny bit I've mentioned here.  It's well worth reading, and I would call it one of the quintessential books of all time.  Aside from the grim terror of the disease itself, it is the psychology of the people and the government of Oran that is most interesting.

Hopefully, we'll do a little better than Oran did in the 1950s (I think) but, nonetheless, it's taken the Obama administration and the U.S. medical system far too long to take the Ebola epidemic seriously.  And while the medical establishment, after some grievous mistakes, seems to be rising now to confront the danger, it doesn't help that a certain politician (guess where) wants us to believe that an "Ebola Czar" (a lawyer, to boot) will quiet the fears caused by the administration's weak knee-jerk reaction.

Last Chance: A Novel of Betrayal and Redemption

You can buy "Last Chance" for only $2.99 at the Kindle Store.

It's a big business.  Narcotics, drugs.  For some, it's recreation.  Is it such a big deal if you want to hang around your TV set on a rainy day and smoke a blunt?  No, it's not.  But weed isn't the whole story.  .

Billions of dollars flow out of the U.S. every year and into the hands of people who want to do us in.  Coke, heroin, methampetamine.  Some of the weed is grown in the U.S. and lots of the methamphetamine is made in the U.S., too, but much more of it comes from outside the country.

 You may think that's okay, at the same time you bitch about corruption, about how you're the victim of him or them or the white guys, the black guys, the immigrants, the government, a whole list of oppressors imagined or real.

It's bigger than you think. The important thing is that the billions of  dollars that flow out of the U.S. are enough to impact the economy as a whole.  The dollars are used to buy American institutions, businesses, allegiances, and governments.  U.S dollars are used to buy heavy weapons for terrorist groups in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia,  and in places like Afghanistan.

 I wrote a book about it.  A fiction book.  I can only tell the truth by lying about it in fiction.  The name of the book is "Last Chance."  Take a look.  Click on it. Maybe you don't like the cover.  Maybe you don't like the title.  Never mind, read the book. I think you'll find it interesting.

You need to realize how much and what the billions of dollars sucked out of America is doing to the country.

Last Chance: International Intrigue, Political Corruption & Personal Heartbreak

Last Chance is a sprawling tale of international intrigue, political corruption, and personal heartbreak. From the murder of a street level drug dealer in New York City, “Last Chance” takes you to the heart of a battle between the cocaine cartels of Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia and a desperate American government. 

When Victor Saronna, ex-Army Airborne Ranger, finds himself enmeshed in the narco underworld of crime and drugs, he finds the allure of profit and power too appealing to resist. But when he's forced to kill or be killed, his luck at staying in the game is about to change. Now, he is making a deal with the DEA and their CIA cohorts to stay out of jail – but it may cost him his life.

Sandra Genova, the gutsy and attractive prominent reporter for the New York Inquirer, is offered a chance to interview Saronna – a move engineered by his street-smart lawyer. And when she is offered the opportunity to travel to South America to report on escalating levels of violence at cartel cocaine production facilities, she's shocked to find Victor at the center of a series of targeted assassinations and attacks.

In other words, go to Amazon and buy the Kindle version of my book for only $2.99.  It's fiction, but it's true fiction, if you catch my drift.

The Ray Price Baltimore Ravens Scandal

You knew about it and so did everyone else.  The story surfaced a couple of months ago with a video of Baltimore Ravens running back throwing his then girlfriend around outside an elevator in an Atlantic City casino.  ESPN tells the story properly if you want a detailed read right here.

If you're like me, you thought the first video was plenty ugly but quickly put it on the back burner of your mind.  The great mahouts of the NFL would figure it out.  And the Jersey prosecutor would sort out the details.  Ho-hum, time goes by and you think the matter's resolved.

And now this, the TMZ video of what happens inside the elevator.   Janay goes for the high block and Rice gives it to her hard with a big left hook.  She goes down like she's been dropped off a tall building.  Then he tosses her around, arranging her this way and that way like she was just another crack-ho.

And then as the crap blows up in his face, he marries her so she can't/won't testify against him.

I heard the Ravens coach Harbaugh today and he sounded liked an idiot.  The NFL commissioners also sound like idiots.  And because the prosecutor also sounds like an idiot, it has become hard to find anyone in the happening who does not sound like an idiot.

If there is an idiocy reality show that connects with this, I would say that the prosecutor would win it.  When you've got a video of a full-scale bludgeon assault, you don't need the former girlfriend/wife of convenience to testify anything.

And it doesn't matter the poor abused young woman doesn't want to press charges.  This was a violent assault--aggravated assault in police legal terms.  If a guy like Mike Tyson gave a shot like that to a female, he'd have gotten 25 to life with no chance of an alternative track other than prison.

And why would that be?  Because boxing is boxing and you expect such things from boxers but not from football heroes.  Football heroes are the people you would like to be.  They attend college.  They get fat pro contracts worth millions. They have press agents and reps whose only business is to make them smell good no matter what they do.  But there is no way to make the NFL commissioner smell good, nor the Baltimore Ravens coach, nor the prosecutor who swooned before the Football Gods.

I'm not dictating that Ray Rice should get 25 to life.  All I'm saying he should be processed through the system as most anyone else would be except sports celebrities.  And then, after a jury has watched the video and come to a conclusion, the verdict should be rendered.

If at that point the sentencing authorities wanted to apply some enlightened remediation of the sentence, that would be quite another thing than how this is being handled now.  As things stand, you're supposed to be an idiot too, and fall under the spell of every jock-worn sports cliche and feel sorry for the fool.

This was purely disgusting.  You can't do this to women.

Over Hillary and Dale: The Biggest Mistake

I am watching Democrat and Republican pundits handicapping Hillary Clinton's chances of being the next president of the United States.  Everyone is on the same page about her slipping popularity.

One pundit blames her high-flying lifestyle being juxtaposed to claims that she and Bill "struggled" after leaving the White House.

Another claims that it is her perceived insincerity which accounts for her slide in popularity.

While both characterizations have merit, I think the pundits have underestimated the determination of certain Americans to have a female president at any cost.  This is the same group of people who voted for President Barack Obama (twice) because it was, to them, most important to have a non-white president at any cost.

I think it is plain to everyone that we are not, under the Obama administration, in an era which stands any chance of being called "America's finest hour."  The economy lags.  Jobs for young people are rare or non-existent.  African-Americans are suffering more than ever.   Foreign policy is a complete mess.  The countries of the world have lost a great deal of respect for America and don't hesitate to say so.  It seems that everyone is glad to see America get its Obama "comeuppance."

Which brings me back to Hillary.  She's much smarter than the pundits would like to admit.  She's too smart, in fact, for her own good.  Having been upended  and outmaneuvered in the 2008 elections by Barack Obama and the Utopian dreamers who invented him, she thought that her best chance of being president was in taking the Secretary of State job.  This would be the type of experience that would give her depth, gravitas, and the aura of being a 'great lady.'

Except for Benghazi, that might have worked.  Given the widespread American disinterest and large-scale ignorance of foreign policy, that might still have worked.

Hillary lately assailed Barack Obama's mess of the Middle East--Syria, Iraq, and also Afghanistan (not an ME country but same incompetent drift).  This is reflective of her knowledge of having made a mistake and a wish to separate herself from the Obama mess.

This is a big problem than cannot be resolved no matter how many public media appearances Obama and Mrs. Clinton make to hug it out .  Hillary should have sat it out and baked cookies (meaning she could have maintained a clean public persona by engaging in humanitarian affairs) and waited for 2016.  She would have been better off.

So 2016 is a good opportunity to put the country right except that Republicans have a habit of forming circular firing squads.  That Rand Paul, that Libertarian version of Hillary, stacks up well statistically against her is an indication of American confusion.

Sierra LaMar: Hard Case for the Prosecution

In California two years ago, a fifteen year old girl named Sierra LaMar disappeared while walking to her bus stop.  Not long after, police had a suspect in mind:  Antolin Garcia-Torres .  Police have not revealed how they connected Sierra LaMar to Garcia-Torres, but they have linked his DNA to Sierra's clothing found not far from where the presumed victim lived. 

The DNA alone will not result in a conviction as there are many ways Sierra LeMar's DNA can intermingle with that of another person without her being dead.   To be blunt, the defense may perhaps claim that Sierra had sex with Garcia-Torres and that he dropped her back off at the bus stop. 

The term "presumed victim" is used here because no body has been found and defense attorneys are sure to argue that she is still alive, perhaps kidnapped by someone else, or perhaps a runaway.   This is a typical and very common quandary posed by cases in which habeas corpus is a major factor.  Habeas corpus--if you've accused my client, then you must produce the body--quite literally in this case.

No body, no crime, the defense attorney will say.  So what do the police have on Garcia-Torres, besides her DNA on her clothing?  The answers may come when the grand jury transcript is released to the public in accord with a judge's order. 

The defense attorneys for the accused have tried to have the transcript sealed, but grand jury transcripts are typically part of the public record.  The San Jose Mercury pressed for the information and got it.  The transcript will be released very soon.

What distinguishes this case from a host of others is that, without a body, the state has intimated that it will seek the death penalty.  If what the police say is true, that Garcia-Torres is charged with the attempted kidnap of two other women,  it's very likely he will be found guilty.

The death penalty?  Well, without a body, that will be a stretch for any jury in California.    

Bergdahl Kidnapped by Aliens from Outer Space, Two-Star General Will Conclude.

From Fox News comes a report that the Army just appointed a two-star general to 'investigate' the Bergdahl affair.  In itself, that means what I predicted all along, that the Obama administration was in a pickle trying to figure out how to whitewash Bergdahl's desertion.  This investigation, favored by the Susan Rice who publicly described Bergdahl as a hero, is the solution you're expected to swallow hook, line, and sinker.

Appearing with Judge Jeanine Pirro was retired Col. Hunt who had a sober read on the situation, as does everyone else who has dutifully served in the military.    Bergdahl's desertion is a done deal, a fact.  There is no glossing over this, no need for investigation. As Col. Hunt said, if you walk away from your post and don't come back within 30 days, you're a deserter.   It's black and white.  It's impossible to come up with any kind of other scenario without saying something to the effect that aliens took control of his mind and body and walked him off.

Essentially, this is what the announced investigation will conclude.  The aliens won't be from outer space.  They will come from the volumes of real and fantasized pseudo-scientific psychological jargon you can find in any college library.

Uh, okay then.   Aliens embedded themselves into Bergdahl's mind and whisked him away.   That's all there is to it.  Frankly, I don't give a much of a damn what happens to Bergdahl, but I do care that the administration coverups of nearly everything are criminal and dangerous to America. 

Obama Failure to Strike Status of Forces Agreements with Malaki Leads to Iraq Chaos

You can't blame Bush any more, Obama.  Even your closest advisors say that the Iraq you "inherited" was in a state of calm that had not been witnessed before the time of Saddam Hussein.   You felt that way yourself, apparently, because you decided to immediately withdraw U.S. Troops entirely from the region without even leaving a small residual force in place.  Against all advice and opposition, you surrendered Iraq to chaos.

It's difficult to consider the impact of the lack of leadership you displayed in Iraq.  To announce a time line for U.S. withdrawal was perhaps the worst decision, a political decision designed to appease your pacifist left-liberal supporters.  Of course, ISIS would take the opportunity to plan strategy, organize, arm,  and wait for the U.S. withdrawal so it could effect an assault on Mosul, Tikrit, and other key Iraqi cities.

If there is any good news, it would be the surge of the Peshmerga Kurd troops into Kirkut, their historical center.  You can understand that they have as much a right to claim that, especially with the government troops fleeing it, as the Russians had to claim Crimea. 

It's chaos, and President Obama has no answer for it.  The answer should have been ready and waiting before you announced a pullout timetable.  Now there are no operatives or troops on the ground and we are reduced to getting vital information from news outlets which are as clueless and opinionated as you are.

Fortunately, CNN --your unofficial dispatch offices-- will trumpet that you are considering alternatives.  And considering alternatives. And considerating alternatives.  And consulting, And studying.   All of this is what you've done with Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan as you destabilized these countries and others. 

‘No’ Didn’t Mean ‘No” in Bergdahl Tradeoff - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com

No" means "no" except when you're talking to the Obama administration about prisoner exchange-when "no" could mean anything at all. Even "yes."



Press Secretary Jay Carney was quoted in a June 21, 2013 news briefing saying that the Obama administration would make no decision on trading Guantanamo detainees for absconded American soldier Bowe Bergdahl "without consulting with Congress and without doing so in accordance with U.S. law."



Then suddenly as a bolt from the sky, President Obama suddenly appeared, arm in arm at the White House with the mother of the absconding soldier and the bearded dad spouting prayers of thanks to the Taliban in Arabic and Pashto, to say that Bowe Bergdahl had been freed.



Click on the link below to read more:





‘No’ Didn’t Mean ‘No” in Bergdahl Tradeoff - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Fox Series “Gang Related” Premieres to Mixed Reviews - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Fox Series “Gang Related” Premieres to Mixed Reviews - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com



We're Giving You This Special Gun Because You're a Hero Cop



There's a mawkish, corny, and ridiculous scene where the chief, as a tribute to Lopez' greatness, gives him a Kimber .45 knockoff of the legendary Springfield 1911. The scene is typically gun clueless, aimed at liberal Hollywood gun control types who actually believe this will be the pistol that tames the barrio. Okay, I have a bias-I'm a Sig-Sauer and HK kind of guy. And I see Kimber as a target competition .45, not the best tactical weapon.



(this is a mere excerpt -- click on the link to read at least one line about hot Israeli actor Inbar Lavi) 

In Praise of the Death Penalty - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com

In Praise of the Death Penalty - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com



Hit the link to read the full story:



The death penalty is supposed to be a punishment, not a therapy. Capital punishment has the other purpose of ridding society of people who would, often after being released from prison, attack, torture, terrorize, and kill innocent members of society.



What is a justice system if it yields to the advantage of murderers, rapists, child killers, and their apologists?



I wonder why there is such media indignation in the botched execution of Clayton Derrell Lockett in Oklahoma this week. Lockett had been released from prison only months before. He had received a seven year prison term in 1992 and another four year prison sentence in 1996. Among his crimes were threats to kill state witnesses who would testify against him.



Unfortunately, the state had to wait until Lockett actually killed, kidnapped, and tortured someone before law enforcement could permanently protect its citizens from mayhem, torture, and sadism.