Pentagon Spending

The US spent $ 150 million on "unnecessary housing(villas)" and security for an ultimately doomed Pentagon (effort) to revitalize Afghanistan's "economy" according to a "congressional  watchdog".  This reported on huffingtonpost.com 12/3/15.  Those in the housing could have stayed in the US Embassy in Kabul for a fraction of the cost.  A Pentagon "task force" on business operations spent $ 800 million between 2009 and 2014.  "Billions in US spending on Afghanistan "may have been misspent due to "poor American and Afghan management".  Why don't we spend that money to "revitalize" Detroit?.

Hawaii and the US Supreme Court

Hawaii may be on to something.  Many there want an election to determine if a new status for the island is needed; the Supreme Court ruled it could not hold that election.  If they were to become a "break away republic" the US would have to invade and then billions of dollars in construction and aid costs would occur, just like in other counties we invade (Iraq and Afghanistan).  Hawaii could stay in the Union and be ignored or revolt and be heard. 

It would place us in a situation like Russia when faced with the loss of their Black Sea naval base they had to invade Crimea when the Ukraine broke away from Russia.  We would have to invade Hawaii to protect Pearl Harbor.

On a bright note, conservatives could then claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and repeal the last eight years.

Some Thoughts for Today

The 2016 fiscal year military budget has been approved by the US Senate by a vote of 91 to 3.  The total amount is $ 607 billion and makes provisions for a pay raise of 1.3 %, a 401(k) style retirement plan and a ban on the closure of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay Cuba (which come election time the GOP will blast Obama for not closing as he promised when elected).  There is $ 51 billion "for US combat operations abroad" and "$ 715 million to help Iraqi forces fight Islamic State and $ 406 million to boost Syrian opposition forces" (something we were told was a complete failure and going to be shut down).  Another $ 50 billion for active duty and retiree health care.  The issue that I have a problem with is that less than 10 % of this budget is for military activities in the field of combat.  So where does the rest of the money going?  Into someones pocket, I would guess.  (Info from "How they Voted" in The Virginian Pilot on 9/15/15).

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Racism in America.  An article in The Virginian Pilot on 11/22/15 reports on a World War II military unit of African American women from Virginia.  They were the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion and were the "first and only all-black women's Army unit sent overseas".  Their job was to organize the mail delivery system to the troops in the field.  The article was about the families of two of the women who served in that unit and had died recently.  It was reported that in Virginia, educational opportunities for blacks was limited due to the fact that the state didn't offer high school classes for African Americans before 1934.  It is also noted that "Jim Crow" was present in Europe for these women.  When several of the women from the 6888th were selected for a WAC all-star basketball team went to London in 1945 to compete they were told "official policy forbade mixed race teams" so they could not compete.  At the same time the Red Cross wanted to but the black players in a segregated hotel; they refused to patronize.

(Source:  "Delivering Morale" by James F. Lee of the VP)

Immigration Policy

Some incomplete thoughts on the issue of immigration in this country today.  Why not create a policy where the present immigrants in this country would be granted permanent legal status as "resident aliens".  That way they could be granted some legal and workplace protection.  They  would be expected to pay social security taxes as well other taxes that they are obligated to.  They would not be citizens so they could not vote (which should put the conservative mind at rest).  Maybe most important of all, their children born in the US would be recognized  by all as being US citizens (even thou they are already, it would also serve to end the argument of "birthright citizenship".  A major plus of this policy would be the wages earned would be subject to FICA taxation thus bulking up the Social Security Trust Fund.  Maybe the biggest benefit of this approach would be to bring the 11 million people here illegally out from the shadows providing them a better life and providing the nation with a needed workforce.

August 2015 Stock Market news

In an article in The Record on Sunday 8/23/2015 it was noted that because gas prices have fallen, consumers have more money in their pockets.  But, to the dismay of businesses, those consumers are opting to "pay off debt instead of going shopping".  It seems to me that the business community wants to pay as little as possible for labor while also wanting those with less to spend what little they do have on the products of the business community.  It proves that the economy will be in the crapper until the consumers have some real reason to begin to spend again.

The South and the Civil War

I have made comments on this forum in the past about the coming of the Civil War with the intention of showing that the South had no reason to secede and by doing so only managed to bring down destruction on themselves.

Another example of this concept is one of the compromises from the Constitutional Convention in the 1780's.  The "three fifth's compromise" is always noted for his disparaging comment about African-American slaves; three-fifths of a person.  I think another way of looking at this compromise is the advantage it gave to the slave holding southern states.  The compromise involved the counting of persons (in a census) for purposes of representation in Congress and maybe more importantly in the Electoral College.  The south got votes for a population they considered property and not able to vote, hold office or have any privileges of citizens.  That plus the Constitution gave the south the ability to import more slaves for twenty years after the signing and then to continue to count slaves who were "bred" on the plantation, many times by the owners themselves.  This gave the south more electoral power than they deserved and a greater influence on passing legislation.  

My original position that the South had few real reasons to withdraw from the Union as they were basically in control of the debate over slavery and all other issues that may have derived from slavery.

Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission

President Harry Truman, after the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki, created this commission to "study the health impact on survivors in order to better protect Americans in case of attacks".  The commission's doctors examined those injured by the bombing and suffering from radiation poisoning by photographing them, taking blood samples and semen samples.   However they "...did not treat them".  I hate to make the comparison, but it almost sounds like Nazi doctors conducting experiments on prisoners of war to see how long they would live under certain conditions.  That was considered a war crime at Nuremberg after WWII for which we executed German officials.

(Source: The Virginian Pilot on 8/9/15.  I did not record the writer or title of article)