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Friday, January 29, 2016

Hamilton's Day

President’s day is coming.  Are we still intent on replacing Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill?  Since he was never President, I suppose most people are ambiguous.  He was an orphan from St. Croix Island, now part of US territory, but in the 1750s it was Dutch West Indies. His dad, James Hamilton was Dutch and his mother Rachel Levine was French.  So, no Natural Born Citizen and no Presidency.  Date of birth was sometime in January 1755 or 1757—we aren’t sure.  His mother thought it was January 11.  Eventually the Hamiltons went to New York City where James abandoned the family and Alexander’s mother died.  He began working as an accountant’s apprentice.  Some relatives helped him through school but that got interrupted for the Revolutionary War.  He was a Tea Partier in 1775 and enlisted in the Army.  At Trenton, he heroically commanded a platoon that kept the Redcoats from crossing the Raritan River, thereby saving Washington’s tiny army.  For this valor, Washington made him chief aid-de-camp for the war.
            As the war came to an end, Hamilton wrote a series of letters to the Continental Congress with his concerns  about the financial future of the nation. Continental dollars were worthless and nobody in Europe would lend to America. He proposed that government bonds be backed by land in the Ohio Valley and that the Articles of Confederation be abolished for a republic.  Fresh with a new law degree he set up practice in New York, defending loyalists who had formerly sided with the crown.  He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1782.  By 1786, the country was in crisis over lack of credit and the Confederation was in great disfavor.  Hamilton spearheaded the drive for a new constitution. In May of the following year, a constitutional convention was assembled.  By September, they had produced the document.  But would it pass the states approvals?  Thus Hamilton and Madison cooperated to write 85 essays, known as the Federalist Papers (Hamilton authored 2/3 of them) to advocate the Constitution and the new Republic. Federalist Papers are not only classics, they guide the Supreme Court on Original Intent. Washington named Hamilton his Sec. of Treasury and the act to back bonds with raw land, probably saved USA from being re-conquered by Europeans on behalf of creditors. 
            Politically, Jefferson (Sec. of State) fought Hamilton because the plan interfered with his foreign policy and thus began the first political parties—Hamilton headed Federalists and Jefferson headed Democratic Republicans. Jefferson favored the French while Hamilton wanted to patch things up with the British.  The French Revolution of 1789 descended into chaos and then Napoleon attacked Britain in 1793.  Washington sided with Hamilton and declared US neutrality.  Hamilton got Federalist John Adams elected in 1796, but they had a falling out and Jefferson was elected in 1800.  Hamilton founded a newspaper, The New York Evening Post, to express his views.  In 1804 almost all Federalists wanted Aaron Burr to be elected Governor of New York, except Hamilton.  Hamilton had changed.  During the Revolution, he was a Deist and made jokes about religion. But in his later years he became staunchly Christian, and Burr’s narcissic ego didn’t seem Christian to Hamilton and he thought it might lead to dictatorship or monarchy by Burr.  Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel.  Witnesses said that Burr took careful aim and shot Hamilton who didn’t intend to shoot for Burr and only discharged his pistol after he had been hit.  The bullet went through his chest and Hamilton knew he was dying, spoke to a priest about his faith in God’s mercy and passed away.  Burr, true to character, plotted to create a kingdom in the American West, but the plot was uncovered.  He was tried for treason, was acquitted, but fled to Europe.

            So what do we say  about Hamilton? He saved the Revolution at Trenton, the country facing a credit crisis when he was Treasurer, the Constitution and Republic in the Federalist Papers, and took a fatal bullet to save the West from a traitor. Hillary wants to put Rosa Parks on the Ten after she goes to the White House.  I think she should go to the Big House. 
            Or maybe just a Non-President's Day on January 11 to honor Hamilton and MLK

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Getting around government


I’m from that old school of keeping your nose clean and “subject yourselves to the ruling authorities” as St. Paul said. But pols put idiot laws in place and bureaucrats just do it.  As that old oil-finder Rufus LeBlanc used to say, “You gotta be smarter than what you messin’ with.”  Here are some tricks to get around government in the housing business.

            Light bulbs.  Feds outlawed incandescent bulbs.  So I bought about 400 bulbs in 2012.  Now I have used up all but the 100Ws so I have to go to Texas.  Texas has an exception for light bulb  who make bulbs in Texas can sell in Texas.  (not interstate commerce)  Go to Walmart in Gainesville and fill your trunk.  Why do landlords want incandescents? Renters take all the bulbs when they leave costing $30-50 every time a renter turns over.  But 22 cent incandescents = a couple bucks.  So my gamble to a three year supply, by which time I figured the price of CFL’s would decrease or another bulb would come along.  After all, people with migraines and other disorders can’t function with fluorescents.  (Does that make you want to go to Washington and kick some lawyer/legislator in the shins?)

            Sure enough, MIT is working on a new incandescent that saves 3.5 times the energy.  Will be on the market in 3 years.

            Roofs.  Some smarty pants decided to make a new code that says that composition shingle roofs can have no more than 2 layers and that the substrate must be continuous wood.  In the prior millennium it was always thought that wood shingles were a good substrate and the more layers of shingles added, the more waterproof.  Think of the consequences of this new code.  It means that an old roof must be stripped of shingles, new decking put on, and then a new roof, all done in a couple days before it rains.  Means a large roofing crew. And of course everything must be inspected.  The old days of hiring a wine-o for 20 bucks a square (100s.f.) is over.  It now costs about  $150 per square and the big crew guys have no competiton.  Roofing has become a “licensed and bonded skilled trade”.  Roofing guys drive around in $80,000 pickups.  And the roof is no better than it ever was. 

            Get around this by over-roofing with steel, which is still legal.  It was once twice as expensive as comp but is now about the same price.  Lasts 40 years. Pisses the code inspectors and other roofers off because they can’t legally stop you.  But your insurance will be a bit higher.  If you have a house fire, it is harder for firemen to chop through steel and blast water in an attic. 

            Motor Oil.  It is illegal to dump motor oil but not to treat railroad ties.  I got around the problem of renters who left me with undisposed oil by lining driveways with railroad ties and encouraging them to paint it on the ties when they finish a change.  Preserves my ties and landscaping.  Now if we could just figure out what to do about all those old tires they leave.  It costs $5 fee to take a tire to the dump.  It used to be $2 but then Kansas didn’t want all the old tires and they raised their fee to $5.  It worked for awhile as everyone brought their tires to OK.  So we had to raise the fee in retaliation.  Oh wait! I have a solution.  Collect old tires until the city has free dump week and then haul them off for No Fee. 

            Don’t Paint.  The EPA suddenly noticed that an Act from the 1970s allowed them to demand everyone have a license to paint.  Any property that is not your domicile must be painted by a licensed Lead Paint expert.  Any transgression will cost you a draconian $3250 per day.  It cost me $650 to get a lead license.  If I find lead, I must drape the entire building and use a white suit and proper disposal techniques. If only six square feet of surface is disturbed by any sort of repair (think of a HVAC guy putting in a return air duct) any paint and patch must be done by a guy like me.  So basically every old home in USA is now defined as a toxic waste dump.  In large cities, competitors make a game of turning each other in to the EPA. This law is so unpopular now, even among painters, that Obama’s EPA flying monkeys are turning it over to the states. (Funny.  Someone must have noticed that old 1970s law had this provision too.)

            But rather than drape a house with tarps, I just put on siding.  You can cover a surface and it is deemed undisturbed.  Likewise you can add a 3/8 inch layer of sheetrock to interiors and cover old walls too lead-y to simply paint.  Other than that, catch me if you can.

            Government is like a business that has never been re-organized.  I long for a President who will first order a thorough investigation into the EPA, re-organize and then hand out pink slips for everyone who has been part of these fiats.  Or give them new jobs or guarding the border in remote Sonora/Arizona.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

The danger of populist anger


Trump, they say, is tapping into the big anger of Republicans at the Establishment.  Been there, done that.  I think the real story is more interesting. As I noted in a previous blog, I hit the ceiling when my church was told what kind of ministers they could hire by the federal government.  But, “ministers of the gospel” were our church-trained school teachers.  The issue didn’t resonate with many other Protestants.  Nonetheless, I talked to a Lutheran pastor who told about attending our assembly.  These normally mild-mannered pastors were talking about doing civil disobedience and leading protests, ala Tea Party.  He’d never seen anything like it in all his years. 

            Indeed, even once the church won a 9-0 SCOTUS decision, I was chagrinned.  Had any President ever done anything like this?  Why was this not immediate grounds for impeachment?  If we won’t impeach a tyrant, who?  I kept writing down impeachable horrors by Obama. When I got to 50, I stopped writing in disgust over Congress’s inaction.  Ted Cruz kept logging and in his constitutional expertise says there are 146.

            No one will to impeach because the media chastised Congress (in the eyes of People Magazine public) over Clinton.  No big deal!  Leave the man’s private life alone!  The only people who you could find horrified rather than bemused were old veterans.  “Do you know how much a commander who has affairs with unknown women jeopardizes the battle?” they seethed.  Congressmen only saw the SNL skits and vowed never to impeach when Dems would block.  Too bad.  If they had moved forward with impeachment upon Obama’s executive orders to make 5 million illegals legal (and possible voters), they would have hit the same resonance with the public that Trump is getting today.

            And they would have sent a message that no future impatient dictator need apply. So why didn’t they?  I think it is because they are married to campaign money and they crave the recognition of authored legislation.  The campaign money via special interest groups  is an old story. But less known is that these special interest groups come to loyal congressmen with written bill proposals.  Do you know how hard it is to write a bill yourself?  You have to be both a creative genius with great knowledge of public behaviors and a lawyer of ability to know how this fits with current law.  And it takes a lot of time to craft a bill.  So much easier to rely on, say, the teacher’s union or some commerce group to hand you a pre-written bill they will support with gusto. 

            Think about the Republican interest groups--Chamber of Commerce types.  Business groups don’t like controversy and chaos which is always tough on biz. Gay Marriage? Yeah, they can live with it, or even promote it to gain brand.  Thus, they would advise Congress don't impeachment because of its disturbing effect.  Instead, do bailouts that keep the status quo, not Creative Destruction of the marketplace.  The more dependent a R-congressman is on biz groups, the more compromising they are of conservatism.  That’s why Senates are always more liberal than Houses—both fed and state—because House Reps are closer to people.  Hence, a few abusers compromise our Constitution.

            But nobody realizes that, they say.  People just see their wages stagnant, their culture changing, country under siege by Muslim radicals and illegals.  True, but if we don’t have any sense of our system should work and how it has been trashed, we might fall for some guy with no specifics.  Someone who comes along and promises to simply change things and give us nebulous hope, who trashes his opposition, who won’t work with the rest of his friends, who is so egotistical he thinks he can simply overcome all opposition by his words of negotiation or else he’ll just fire them and write the law himself. Let’s see, are we looking for a Republican version of Obama? Trump, maybe?  Isn’t this sweet siren people fell for with the French Revolution? Lenin? Santa Ana?  Like my dad used to say, "The grass is always greener on the populist side because it is fertilized by bullshit."  

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

King's dream


Let’s take a quiz.  In 1958 Gallup asked “Do you appove of interracial marriage?” 4% did.  What’s the number today?  Answer: 88%.  Now when you consider the other 12% who answer “yes” or “don’t know” might say that because they don’t know what the effect on children would be or think it would cause hardship for the couple, no matter how much family approves, this proves that certainly bigots represent less than 12% of population of all races in the United States.

Next question.  In 1958, what percentage of American Asians married someone of another race? It was 10%.  That same year 1% of Afro-Americans married cross-racially.  What are the percentages of each group today?  Answer is 50% of Asians and 10% of Afro-Americans.  The Asian percentage is about what Native Americans have been doing for the last 50 years.

Everywhere you look, you see kids of mixed race.  In Oklahoma, 28% of respondents say they are of some ethnic group that is non- “white”.  Of the remaining 72%, who associate with Caucasians, what percent is known to have mixed race origins?  The answer is 35%, i.e., 25% of the total population. So you add 28% and 25% and you find that 53% of the state is either non-white or mixed race.  Other states may be less mixed than we are, but clearly USA is becoming truly a melting pot nation.

Final question.  There have been 8 nation-wide, Ivy League studies of racial bigotry among Caucasians in the last 20 years.  What percentage of people in these studies answers that they distrust, hate or won’t associate with members of another race?  The answer varied from ½ to 3 percent. Scientifically, that is the proportion of racial bigots in America.

Clearly over 97% of people don’t fit the stereotype of bigots.  So why can’t we get over this race-baiting and stoking of differences?  Why can’t it be content of character rather than color of skin as King said?  It is because the party that loves to say they are scientific also loves to gin up its base with fear and hate about “white people”. Indeed, the great hope of the Democrats is that the demographics of minorities will swamp those whose origins were in Europe and that the Dems will be able to keep big majorities of minority voters.  But notice that in the red state OK “white” is a minority.  And the first R who comes along on a national scale to debunk the Dems’ race baiting will quickly change the landscape of politics.  For the Republican party is a party of majority ideas—it tries to assemble a winning coalition from ideas held by a majority of people.  Democrats are a party of assembling minorities to become a majority and using emotion to gin up their base.

Hence the field of R’s for President is so threatening to Dems. The chances of a winner being or picking a Veep from among the 5 minority candidates who began this race are high.

Maybe Martin Luther King will finally get his dream.

Friday, January 15, 2016

New York values


Tout le monde of the news media is gleefully proclaiming Trump their hero this morning for his 9/11 response to Cruz’s remarks about New York values.  Yessiree, we New Yorkers are the best of all people because of the way we handled our tragedy. 

            But that’s not what Cruz was talking about.  When Bartiromo, a New York native, demanded Cruz explain what NY values were, he said, “Listen there are many, many wonderful, wonderful working men and women in the state of New York, but everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal, are pro-abortion, are pro-gay marriage, and focus around money and the media.”  Maybe not so smart to bring this up at Fox Business channel where they make a living in money and media.  But Cruz simply described Country Club Republicans--social liberals, often turned off by morality, who demand we talk only of monetary issues that interest them. Note too that Cruz was talking about the City, not the state, and only those who are socially liberal.  No offense, NYC, but we know your values.

            Social issues, like 2nd Amendment, eminent domain, and family values are important out here in “fly-over country” as they term us.  It’s what brought me into active politics.  In 2009, just after Obama was elected, he had EEOC go after Hosanna Lutheran Church and School in Minnesota.  They were told that government had jurisdiction over what kind of ministers they hired.  The church has a school whose teachers are church-sanctioned ministers since they teach religion classes.  Obama demanded they consider job applicants who are say, Muslims or atheists.   The church had to sue the federal government and won a 9-0 decision in the Supreme Court.  Now think about this for a second.  Even Ruth Ginsberg, the former ACLU lawyer, an atheist, agreed that this sort of high-handed behavior by the Obama Administration violates the free exercise clause of the 1st Amendment. The drive-by media rather ignored the decision.   It left me shaking my head in disbelief.  What kind of tyrant have we elected?  What President ever came close to this kind of treatment of Christians? Shouldn’t this be grounds for impeachment? It was at that point that I vowed to get into activist politics.

            The truly weird thing about New York values voters is that they don‘t understand that without the faith/social issues, there would be no free market and all their arguments about money would be null. (no matter what your beliefs about those issues are) If men aren’t free to follow their dreams, the voice of God inside their souls, the mission their faith puts them on (i.e., Liberty!), then the enterprise of man could just as well be governed by government completely.  Socialism, here we come. Forget the stock and bond markets, REITS, Fed policy and TPP.  Forget tax reform.  Forget entrepreneurship.
            Trump may have won the day with his identity politics, but Cruz is right.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Use Cruz, dump Trump


Why not Trump?  Do you want a President who will appoint a liberal Supreme Ct. Justice who believes in using eminent domain to condemn people’s homes and businesses so a big developer can build something with more tax dollars for the government?  This is exactly how Trump has achieved some of his biggest building projects. You think he wouldn’t necessarily do this?  A recent study of Forbes 400 billionaires found one motive of all, the overriding desire to preserve their empires. What if he appointed a pro-choice Justice like he said he believed just 2 years ago?

            What if a Republican Congress repeals Obamacare and President Trump says, “Okay, then single payer,” the way he advocated just 5 years ago.  Would a guy who told an Iowa Christian group, “I never asked God for forgiveness” citing that he had never done anything wrong, take a Christian or a secular humanist stance on every social issue?

            Would a guy who calls everybody a loser soon wear out his welcome with Congress, military, courts and both political parties, thereby relegating himself to executive orders and further name-calling?  Is he just a NY liberal but very good salesman who tells people what they want to hear?  Consider the Cruz citizenship issue.  Everybody in High School civics class when I went to school learned that you were either a natural born citizen or had to be naturalized. Immigration code specifies that if you had one parent who was a citizen, you are naturally born to US citizenship.  Never been challenged in court, but 200 years old. President Chester Arthur was born in Canada of US parents.  Obama had a US mother so it didn’t matter where he was born. Trump has money-- if he didn’t believe this statute, then why didn’t he challenge Obama’s eligibility 8 years ago in court?  He is just slyly bringing it up to put doubts in the mind of Cruz voters who don’t know the law. Salesman’s sleazy suggestiveness.

            Why Cruz? He’s a steadfast constitutional conservative. Yet he negotiates. He wanted McConnell to negotiate with Dems to kill the taxpayer bailouts of Obamacare Insurers. The Dems can’t defend themselves! He pleaded.  Use power of the purse; use the 50% budget rule of the Senate.
            He understands small business is smothering under gov’t regulation and he has a plan to eliminate 5 agencies. Spent his teenage years working in parent’s geophysics business and years working in Commerce Dept. Knows what it takes to reorganize and what biz needs.

            He’s outraised all but Jeb in campaign donations and has put together the best ground game.  His website shows he has done more homework on issues than others. Favorability is 73%, highest of all Republican candidates.  Wife Heidi says his best characteristics  are caring, unflappable and smart. Empathy with Hispanics won him 50% of Texas Hispanic vote which is 2/3 registered Democrat.  Unflappable in debates and smart to handle specifics of any question, Mensa IQ--is the smartest man to ever run for President since Jefferson.  He has a strong Christian conscience. Most of all he is trustworthy and tells the truth.

            Does Trump do any of that??

Monday, January 11, 2016

Why girls can't understand football


Watched the National College Football Championship game tonight, Yowlabama vs. Clem’s boy.  I suddenly realized why it is so hard for women to understand this game.  It’s because women are good at words and none of the words in football bear any semblance to anything else in reality.  It is as if the men all made up nomenclature that is mystifying.  And mascots too.  Alabama’s mascot is an elephant, but no one calls them the Elephants or Paciderms or anything like that.  They are called the Crimson Tide.  Tide usually has something to do with the rise and fall of oceans. When tides have algal blooms they become dangerous and poisonous crimson tides.  But Alabama means the football team. 

            Momentum in football means that one side starts winning.  Momentum in physics means that a body at rest tends to stay at rest but a body in motion tends to stay in motion.  Issac Newton.  But someone who probably flunked physics came up with this term to mean that one team got all psyched and began to win.  Tempo in football has nothing to do with the rate of rhythm of a musical composition or the rate of activity of humans.  Controlling tempo in football means that you can either pass or run effectively.  A sack is not a bag or the act of bagging.  It means that somebody tackled the quarterback.  And clipping has nothing to do with cutting the hedge or a grazing blow.  It means you blocked someone from behind.  The orgination of all these terms is lost in obscurity.  If you look them up in the dictionary no football explanations are to be found.  They defy the normal human discourse.  And that is purposeful--just to trip up the girls.

            So I won’t get into Hail Mary, Statue of Liberty or Flea Flicker.  It’s too difficult.  You have be initiated into the sport.  So for now I will just punt.

Friday, January 8, 2016

Got it all figured out


I got it all figured out.  Bill Clinton is back on the campaign trail, shaking hands, raising money, and kissing babes.  I volunteered to help the Cruz campaign, having gotten nauseous over the prospect of President Schlong.  If Cruz gets elected Hillary is moving to Leavenworth.

I think I got Trump figured out.  He has a way of saying, sloganeering a point that catches people’s attention.  Often it uses vulgarity, anti-intellectualism, or audacity.  And so he was “schlonging” Hillary and crying crocodile tears over Cruz’s ineligibility.  Has Hillary been schlonged in?—well, never mind.  And Sect. 8-1401 of the Immigration code says in no uncertain terms that born of a US Citizen makes you a Natural Born Citizen, hence eligible to run for Prez.  (Else missionary’s kids, ex-pat’s kids and military kids could never grow up to be President.)  Still, Trump makes waves with his mouth. He kicked Jorge Ramos out of his rally and 5 minutes later the guy was back.  I don’t think that his deportation program will work. 

            This technique goes one better than Sarah Palin who seemed able to term things in ways that had people nodding their heads in agreement.  She summed up a part of the 2700 page Obamacare as “Death Panels” and the name stuck.  Natural Born Politicians do this.  They talk about New Deals and Rugged Individualism and Getting the Government off the People’s Backs.  But Trump, a billionaire, uses the language of the loading dock.  Where I deal with a lot of retail politics, I meet a lot of guys who know this language.  Believe me, they know the definition of a schlong, and that’s about all the Yiddish they know, unless you count “zaftig”. At any rate, Trump let’s out another remark every few days and the media just can’t resist his characterization. Trouble is, you can scour Trump’s website and search in vain for an explanation or a cohesive plan.  None.  Just splashy comments.
            Whatever we do, don't let Mexico send El Chapo to Gitmo.  Obama would just trade him and about 4 more guys for a deserter.

            Obama cried.  I’m thinking he was thinking of how impossible it is for government to control people who have guns.  You know I suggested to Cruz that we could reduce US homicides instantly by 5% if we simply gave Chicago to Canada.  Or better, give it to Singapore and within a year they would have fixed all the homicides in Chicago.  I also suggested my refugee plan.  Anybody who has an Obama bumper sticker on their car should be issued one Syrian refugee to take care of.  Ted emailed me back, “Sounds good. If I post the pieces of the Constitution on my emails, will Washington finally read it?”

            I really like Ted.  He not only took on those moderators in the CNBC debate, he defended his fellow candidates from attacks. Isn’t that what we call acting Presidential?

            Just think about this.  IF all Americans were poor, it is said the country would vote Democrat.  If all were rich, they’d vote Republican.  Tells you a lot about the Democrat economic strategy, doesn’t it.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Slick Willie Again?


I was listening to CNN give a Media Year In Review.  First they started with the bloopers and Brian Williams.  There were so many mistakes that finally the moderator asked for the highlights.  Top of the list, greatest journalistic accomplishment of 2015 (are you ready for this?) was the picture of the dead boy on the beach of Greece.  All the panelists agreed this had been the epitome of media accomplishment of the year.  Why, they spurred the world into taking Syrian refugees by this picture!  I was stunned.  So they look for a heartrending photo of great tragedy? My mind went back to Somalia.  Remember back in the 90’s when they published that picture of the starving child.  And suddenly all of America was saying we had to do something, so Clinton sent in the Marines.  But then, in classic Democrat form, we started a war not intending to, and had no exit strategy.  Black Hawk down and 18 lives lost and suddenly we were fleeing as fast as we had charged in a month earlier.  But to make amends with our sense of do-goodism we took in 100,000 Somalis who are now living in Minnesota and causing crime 15 times as often as the general population.  And are the chief source of home-grown terrorists in USA.  Great adventure, that Somalia was!  Way to go, Media!

            And my thoughts went back to Bosnia and Kosovo.  The great unlearned lesson of the Trianon Treaty that ended WW I in the Austrian empire is that when people live side by side for centuries and hate each other, it takes a strongman in the neighborhood to make them behave.  If you demolish the strongman’s empire, the way we split Austria, the pieces of land are often left with a self-governing majority who genocides the minorities they always hated.  We saw this in the Balkans and we see it today in Syria-Iraq where Sunnis are determined to exterminate Christians, Jews, Druse, Alawhites, Shiites and Yazidis. 

Kosovo was the original homeland of the Serbs, a Slavic group that had split into Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs.  But the pre-Austrian strongman and utterly cruel Ottoman Empire had forced Serbs into a small minority in Kosovo.  Now, with self-government, the Muslim Bosnians saw their chance to totally take over and began forcing Serbs out of their beloved homeland.  Neighboring Serbia struck back hard and sent troops into Kosovo and massacred Bosnians in retaliation.  It was then that the clueless Slick Willie decided to enter the fray.  If he had known what he was doing, he would have sent troops in as a peacekeeping force (temporary strongman) and then substituted with a UN force.  But, like Barack, he was politically allergic to ground troops. Bomb them into the stone age, as LBJ, the tactical genius used to say.  And so, at a huge dollar cost, USA bombed away and certainly managed to bully Serbia into submission, but at a cost of crippling both countries and setting them back 50 years.  And some wonder why we are called Ugly Americans?

            Vietnam, Kosovo, Somalia and now Syria-Iraq should be proof that you have to know what you are doing when you go to war.  War is a last resort, when all else fails, and your enemy won’t reason or compromise and makes war on you. Then you don’t hold back.  Use all means to win. It’s them or us.  Then, once the war objectives are won, you have to win the peace, replacing the old enemy with some settlement that does you no threat.  Failure to recognize this last part is what caused Obama to allow ISIS to rise.  May I point out that all the above-named mismanaged wars were all Democrat failures? That Slick Willie is now helping his wife and a lot of people will vote for her because they see him as the power behind her throne? Do we want more Kosovos and Somalias, more Ben Ghazis and Russian resets?

            If the media would point this out, maybe that would be the accomplishment of the year.