D-Day,could it be repeated?

Tomorrow June 6^th is the anniversary of the D Day Landings on the French shore.  The bravery that was

 exhibited on that morning was stunning.  We have very few vets left from that terrible day and it seems

our memories fade with time too.  Having a wonderful handful of granddaughters, grandsons and great

 grandsons growing up today it worries me that we have become so cavalier in regard to our future.  We

have a  President that is more worried about his legacy than he is about our children.  The Trillions in

 debt are just part of the problem now he has released the five top Taliban leaders back into

 their society to plan and carry out murderous attacks on our way of life.  These animals are only in their

forties and they hate America.  They have a lifetime to plan and a very willing horde of disciples to help

them.  Have we totally forgot that France and Holland are fast becoming Muslim Countries.  Are we

destined to fight on those shores again as history repeats itself?   

I know that many will laugh at such an analogy but because these countries through fear of not being

politically correct have allowed these enclaves of radical covens to expand to the point of superiority in

numbers.  We have begun to follow the same idiotic principles in some states here in The United States.

 There are areas of our own country that you as a Christian or Jew would be very foolish to enter for fear

 of your life.  Sharia Law exists right here in America and our government would rather allow it than to

be thought of as Islam phobic.  For many of these people the Crusades never ended and if you read the

Koran you will understand the motivation.  The radicals who preach this hatred are very patient and very

 deadly as proven on September 11, 2001.  We ignore them now they will build their forces for another

2001 attack but this time even more deadly.  As they regroup in Afghanistan and the hills of Pakistan

and for that matter right here in isolated spots in the U.S. we better have a plan to cope with them and

have an administration prepared and unafraid to deal strongly with the situation.

A little re-education in economics

(A note from a friend)

  In the late 1800s, things in the United States were going pretty darn good. We were between wars. The sweeping depression of 1873 had about run out of steam. The  American Association of baseball had cemented its status as National Pastime by offering beer and whiskey at their games, offering those in attendance a total of two of the three most popular American interests.

     The population of the United States was mainly hardworking.  Nearly everybody that wanted to work had a job and knew what work was. Preparing for a career was easy. Slightly over 9 out of every 10 workers in the U.S. were somehow engaged in the agricultural field. Virtually every teenage male knew how to plow behind a horse or mule.  They knew how to tend livestock, breed them, raise them, treat them for their illnesses,  market them.  They grew crops, hand-plowed, sheared, neutered, mowed (also by hand), bartered, shoed, shoveled, hoed, sowed -- generally worked their rear ends off to provide for themselves and their families. Blisters on the hands were the rule rather than a rare sympathy-getter. “Gov’mint” was just a curious abstract one kept as far away from as possible. Life was good but required physical labor.

     In the late 1880s a guy named John Froelich was making his living threshing crops through Iowa and the Dakotas. He hauled his crew and a heavy steam-powered thresher from farm to farm threshing crops for a fee. The farmers that could afford his services were able to cut their employees by nearly one half. But there was a downside -- his thresher was an accident waiting impatiently to happen, for one spark from the boiler could set fire to farms and prairies alike. Froelich and his crew divided their time between threshing and fire-fighting. He was seldom invited back to a scorched farm.

     Tired of his costly pyrotechnical mishaps, in 1890 Froelich tried something new and innovative.. He and the local blacksmith pulled the capricious boiler off the threshing rig and replaced it with a one-cylinder gasoline engine.  Froelich's resulting gasoline powered contraption may have only chugged along at three miles an hour but, using just 26 gallons of gas, he could thresh more than a thousand bushels of grain every day of the harvest season.  And he did it without starting one single fire!  Move over, sliced bread, there was a new hero in town. It was called a tractor.

      But life’s kinda’ fickle. It seems like every time something goes up, something’s gotta come down.  And so it was with this revolutionary tractor. It wasn’t long before a whole bunch of farm-hands found themselves out of jobs . . . and I mean, a whole gol-dang bunch. In many areas more than half the human force had been abruptly displaced by the newly-arrived “technology” of that era. Many small-farm operators soon let all their employees go.  Farming, with its gasoline and diesel powered time savers, would never be the same . . . nor require the manpower. (In 1918, an outfit called John Deere Plow Manufacturing Company bought Froelich’s Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company for $2,300.)

   Whoa! (Gee? Haw?)  Where the heck are you taking us, Ron? Who gives a tinker's damn about farming and threshing and gasoline tractors? Well, dear reader, YOU should! Maybe you'll never step foot on a farm, but if we don’t learn from the past, we’re sure as shootin' destined to remain just a little dim-witted.  (Dim-wittedness is the third most popular national pastime these days. Did you flunk that one?) 

     Old man "normalcy bias" had us believing things would always be as they were. Junior grew up in bib-overalls and by the time he was five had learned how to steer a balky mule. Back then, new wives had better know how to milk old Bossy and work a churn. Farming/ranching provided a major part of the gross domestic product. BUT, as little in life remains constant, the working force had changed almost over night when the tractor arrived.

    By 1930 there was no great demand for farm workers in America. The U.S. work-force had shifted to manufacturing.  American workers turned out excellent appliances, furniture, autos, electronics. "Made in America" was a sought-after logo and our exporters had no trouble finding international markets. Times in the U.S., while still not easy, were tolerable, and no one went hungry. Incomes across the board improved. The poor in the U.S. were better off than the middle class in Europe and the upper class in Asia. The Europeans and Asians grew envious and knuckled down to "catch-up." The Americans responded with complacency and invented the three-day weekend and the strike.

     At the beginning of 1930, with a population of 122 million, there were 1 million UNemployed. Then, and thanks to the world's Great Depression, at the end of that one year  the unemployment had reached 2.5 million. By 1932, 24% of the American workforce was idle. By the end of the 1930s only a World War put Americans back to work, and not on the farm.

     By the onset of the Twenty-First Century, the population in the United States had tripled from the times of John Froelich. Conversely,  labor-saving machines and technology had continually and dramatically lowered the need for human labor. As a percentage of total population, the work-force never regained the strength it had in agricultural times. Constantly seeking an easier way to support themselves, Americans were relentlessly inventing themselves out of a livelihood.

     During that same period, the need for trained human minds had increased while human knowledge had decreased. Today the youth of our land write poorly. Their comprehensive skills have diminished along with their ability to read, write and spell (thanks to things like shortcuts in speech and an "innovation" called texting). Their mathematical abilities have withered thanks to the availability of  iPads, "smart phones," and plain old cordless calculators. Book reading is a thing of the past. Anyone over fifty listening to everyday conversation is appalled by the sophomoric language liberally sprinkled with "y'know" and splattered with "uhh."  It took humanoids nearly a million years to learn to speak coherently and, from the looks of things, it will be lost in just another couple of generations . . . "Uhh, y'know?"

     Another hurdle to present itself to  generations in the U.S. following WWII was called "a world market." While American youth were honing their hedonism and experimenting with cannabis, a great deal of the young of foreign countries was striving to become better educated. As I write this, entry-level workers in the U.S. (averaging $10 an hour) are demanding $25 an hour. In contrast, there are counties in India that have a minimum wage of 38¢ an hour. At certain levels of manufacturing, they are turning out a superior product. Does it take a rocket scientist to understand why American companies are outsourcing? Why jobs that were once here have gone overseas? And, like all those farm jobs, they aren't coming back!

     The most popular major at U.S. colleges is Liberal Arts. Where only ten percent of males graduated from high school at the turn of the 20th Century, today's youth spend an average of six years getting a bachelor's degree. Nearly half of them go on to a master's degree. There is little attention paid to the product of their education: what they learn to do. To illustrate, I reported last summer that, of the 42,000 law school graduates, less than half found work in the legal field. Over 20,000 of them are vying for those entry level jobs. A great percentage of them get out of school owing $49.000. in student loans. They learned nothing of value in the trades, only how to research legal precedence. Ask one of them to connect a circuit breaker into an electrical system or plumb a bathroom and they'd be stymied.

     But, just as technology in the form of a tractor replaced the farm-hands, crypto-currency is replacing money. Robotics and artificial intelligence are replacing the human brain.  Yet, and despite the lessening need for people skills, our parasitic government continues to grow, draining the income of the nation's workers. Hastening the inevitable financial imposion due to more Americans taking than are giving, the labor unions continue to provoke the government to "legislate" wage increases.

     Any economist worth his salt knows you cannot pass laws forcing larger profits in competitive enterprise (note I didn't say "free" enterprise . . . nothing about  enterprise is "free"). Each company is like a lemonade stand, some just bigger than others. You work harder to turn out a better lemonade than your competition. As the person who owns the stand makes more net profit, the more he is able to pay his help. If he doesn't increase the pay to coincide with the increased net, he will lose his employees to another lemonade stand.

     Why is it so difficult for Americans -- especially young Americans -- to understand this basic principle? The tractor ended the era of agriculture-by-hand. Barring something drastic, we will never return. What's more, we've overpopulated to the point that arable land is buried beneath concrete and asphalt. Twenty accountants in an office have been replaced by ONE with a digital computer. The human assembly lines of Henry Ford have evolved into a bunch of robots that never ask for time off.

     Yet our youth still train for these disappearing jobs. Remember last year's 42,000 grads competing for 20,000 jobs in the legal field? That is not an unusual occurence. We spend huge amounts to educate our kids and, in many cases, prepare them for jobs that we've allowed to swim to foreign shores. "All dressed up with no place to go" comes to mind. Yet our products are labeled "Made In China" or plain "Bangladesh." Why? Because our new entries into the labor field CAN'T MAKE ANYTHING.

    How do we combat this self-destruction? Collective bargaining can't help. A group of demonstrating employees coercing their employer to raise their wages (in some ridiculous cases, double them) can ONLY result in their own ultimate unemployment. And what does an incompetent government do? They mandate wage-increases. What idiocy!  Only a group of morons who had never been in the trenches of the private sector could come up with such a stupid idea. Legislating wealth? Sitting in an ivory tower and creating wealth "with the stroke of a pen and a telephone"?   IMPOSSIBLE !!!

My view of the Veterans Administration

Sixty some years ago I delivered papers like many young boys and girls.  I had a fairly large route of 124 customers and delivered the Seattle Times every afternoon and in the morning on Sundays.  One of my stops was the new Veterans Hospital on Beacon Hill where I left any extra’s I had for the men there.  I usually kept about 6 or 7 extras for this stop.  What I saw at that hospital has had a profound effect on my life.  Many guys wandering the halls half dressed with wet pants mumbling to themselves aimlessly sauntering around.  These were the same guys who had without a thought for their own safety had brought our enemies to their knees in Germany, France, Italy and the South Pacific.  

I thought this is what a Veterans Hospital was, a place where they put the guys whose families didn’t want them.  Being a young boy in the 50’s I knew someday I would be a veteran too and I vowed I would never go to a V.A. hospital and to this day I haven’t.  I have been lucky as I have been able to afford outside insurance for all these years.  Many of my friends aren’t so fortunate and have to go to the V. A. for treatment.  Now we see that the atmosphere hasn’t changed that much as far as the attendants are concerned.  The mentality that would lead to making false appointment lists just to feather their own financial being is no different than what I saw as abusive non attendance when I delivered papers.  It’s the mentality of Civil Service and it permeates our government in all areas.  I’m not accusing every Civil Servant of this malaise but when they allow it to happen on their watch they are just as responsible as the bad ones. 

As the war winds down and we are inundated with the large muster out that Obama is planning for our military we will have more and more veterans who require these services standing in line, if not changed this program will only get worse.  It is beyond a government’s ability to administer such a program when it is besieged with bureaucracy.  This should be in the minds of every citizen as we are now faced with the ultimate test where all citizens’ medical decisions will be handled by bureaucrats rather than their own doctors.  With the advent of unionization for government workers it is impossible to fire or even reprimand bad employees. 

The answer lies in the public sector through outside insurance programs and benefits for the medical profession not based on hours worked but by personal achievement.  Free enterprise will always do a better job through competitive programs.  The idea that a centralized medical system with layer after layer of reports and repetition is better is nonsense.  The V.A. should be turned over to a private system that is paid on true performance of duty.  It should be run by trained hospital administrators and doctors who are familiar with a medical program and understand their potential personal psychological problems that come from working with badly injured and mentally impaired patients.  The money that is being spent including the fraud on Veterans care would more than cover the expense of a properly run private program.  We must wake up to the fact that our turn is just around the corner with the total implementation of Obama Care.  Good luck to us.   

Memorial Day

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend and before you spend it at the lake or out in the desert think about what it means.  Memorial Day is a tribute to young men and women who loved life just like you, who looked forward to holidays to spend with loved ones and just loved life in general.  They didn't grow up with the thought of dying for their country, they grew up just like all of us with great plans for their future.  The few moments it will take you to say a prayer of thanks for their sacrifice won't interfere with your weekend but it will make you feel better knowing you are honoring those who can't be here to celebrate with you.  God Bless them all, they are our heroes not to be forgotten,

Written by a friend but I just had to share it with you

            

Dear Al and Jack:

Wow, guys, in just a matter of days June 6th will be upon us again and we’re already beginning to hear the flattering term  "Greatest Generation" bantered about. Who’d a' thunk it back when we were kids? But “D-Day" gets a lot of print by the clueless media when 99% of ‘em don’t really know what it was about, how critical it was. But then, so many Americans don’t really know much about our history. That’s understandable ‘cause their teachers and professors don’t know either.  We used to think our teachers were clueless. Hah!

But good buddies, I'll never forget what it cost. More importantly, not many days pass that I don’t think of you.

Jack, I’ve still got the German bayonet you sent me on the wall and somewhere around the house I’ve got the newspaper clipping of you my mom clipped from the 1944 L.A. Times. You should have been on a recruiting poster in your full battle gear with that 101^st “Screamin’ Eagle” patch on your shoulder. We never learned exactly how you were killed. Was it the single German bullet or the artillery round later that day that landed on the makeshift medical tent? I guess it really doesn’t matter. We lost you. The How is academic.

Al, I regularly clean the carbine you were aiming when the FW 190 strafed Omaha beach (and sadly,  you). I haven’t ever had the bullet-clipped front sight repaired 'cause it indicates you were firing at the German aircraft when you were hit. How’d I get hold of it? Your barracks bag was returned to your dad with all your personal effects (they apparently gave Senators who'd lost sons special considerations). Your dad understandably didn't want the rifle and gave it to my family. After the war, I wound up with it.

And speaking of rifles, you remember Calvin. You were already gone by early 1945 and wouldn't know his B-24 was blown up over Europe.  When he enlisted, he handed me his favorite possession – his Daisy BB gun -- and said, “Will you take care of this for me till I get back?” He and I had saved our money and, in 1936, I bought a “Red Ryder” BB gun and he bought the Daisy. As I write this, and after all these years of looking after it, his “Daisy” is still leaning in the corner of my closet with his BBs in it. I can’t find any of his kinfolk to pass it along to.  Maybe I’ll have to deliver it in person?

But back to D-Day. Below is an aerial photo of the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial on the shores of France, the final resting place of 9,386 young American's who died during the brief and bloody Battle of Normandy. It always gives me a strange feeling to realize your names are on two of those tiny white markers. The enormity of the setting would ordinarily lend impersonality – if I couldn’t see in my mind’s eye the two young guys I knew so many years ago. It’s absolutely of no solace whatsoever but to me you’ll always remain young and zany, while I’ve been turning old and gray.  And jeez, guys . . . can you believe seventy years have flown by!

I often wonder what you’d look like had you lived. I especially wonder what you’d think of the results of your sacrifices. What would you think of the 180-degree turn in what we once called “patriotism?” I remember you both nearly broke your legs hurrying to enlist when you turned old enough. In contrast, over the ensuing generations the young people nearly broke their legs hurrying to Canada or otherwise avoiding something as dangerous and uncomfortable as serving their country. You wouldn’t find it easy reconciling with the selfish, immoral attitude of a large percentage of our population. You surely would wonder why you had paid such a dear price to create a nation now ruled by morons and thieves. Guys, you wouldn't believe the country you paid your lives for . . .

I can’t properly express my sorrow at the fact that all your dreams were ended prematurely. Often I feel guilty that I have had all these additional years of life with its experiences and opportunities. There can be no fairness in that. But rest assured, I love you guys and all the others sleeping beneath those crosses. We owe you more than we can ever repay. Sleep well, guys. 

Your buddy,
--Ron

 

                                         NORMANDY AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
  

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Pet Peeves from a friend of this blog

   

                                                                                                              

     . . .  Hangin' on by a thread !

                                 

                            

                                                                     

                                                                                  Pee-Pee
That was not an order . . . those phonetics stand for “Pet Peeve” – something I don’t usually write about. But today I’m going to make an exception because this pet peeve of mine actually affects every one of you, regardless of how you make your living or what contribution you make to society.

I’m aware that some of you, maybe many of you, are employed in some segment, some tier, of government: federal, state, county, or city. I guess that’s understandable – it’s one of the only “careers” that remain somewhat impervious to the economic tsunami that is eroding our shores. But whether you’re in the private sector, the public sector, or the “welfare sector,” you should share this peeve.

A few days ago we got our first glimpse of the first-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and it was ugly. The preliminary number revealed only 0.1% growth — the weakest performance in the U.S. in about three years. This number fell significantly short of the estimate of 1.1% growth and the fourth-quarter 2013 GDP of 2.6%.

Today, if you asked a group under thirty what “GDP” stood for, most would look at you with glassy eyes and go back to their texting. The next older age-group might fare a little better. Maybe. In actuality studying the nation’s Gross Domestic Product can be compared to an MRI or blood test or a biopsy. It’s like regularly poking a thermometer up the national orifice to see how healthy our country is.

But times have changed. No matter what you’ve heard from Washington recently, the U.S.A. is not only unhealthy, our once-peerless homeland should be in Intensive Care.

At the risk of overly-simplifying, GDP measures the economic well-being of a country. It’s the market-value of all officially recognized  goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita can also be considered a good indicator of a country’s standard of living.

(For purists, GDP = C + G + I + NX.  "C" is equal to all private consumption, or consumer spending, in a nation's economy. "G" is the sum of government spending. "I" is the sum of all the country's businesses spending on capital. "NX" is the nation's total net exports, calculated as total exports minus total imports.)

Despite the administration’s efforts to sugarcoat the GDP, things look BAD for America. Since 2009, annual growth has averaged around 2% -- well below our national historical average of 3.3%. What little job growth we’ve seen has been limited to low-paying positions. In fact, business investment in equipment (which includes hiring new employees) dropped 5.5% in the first quarter of 2014 —– the largest drop in five years. The housing market has slowed. Business spending has slowed. Consumer spending (other than utilities and mandatory health-care spending) has slowed. And while it may be hard to believe, even government spending as slowed.

I am peeved at a White House occupant that has put his egocentric motives ahead of the well-being of every American, living today or yet to be born. I am peeved with a White House occupant that refuses to bend to the obvious needs of the middle- and lower-class; who refuses to deny the demands of his contributors -- his cronies -- allowing such as pipelines and other job-creators. I am peeved with a White House occupant who refuses to compromise or admit he has erred, with such as the disastrous "Obamacare." I am peeved with a White House occupant that shows deference to our Muslim enemies and rudely offends many of our allies. I am peeved with a White House occupant who, in the midst of an historic economic upset that exceeds even the Great Depression, pees taxpayer money away by the millions on vacations, holidays and pure frivolities, as though to say "Screw you, America, you may be doing without, but why should I do without?" I am peeved with a White House occupant who claims to have been a professor of Constitutional Law, then goes out of his way to walk all over the Constitution whenever he can. I am peeved with a White House occupant who wiggles and squirms his way out of his scandalous irresponsibilities (e.g., Benghazi, IRS, Fast and Furious, NSA, etc.) by "investigating," "looking into" or otherwise shelving, procrastinating or hiding from.

There was once a rabble-rouser named Saul Alinsky. He advocated "revolution" in the U.S. and unashamedly published his radical plan: 

                                          (1) Control healthcare and you control the people

                                          (2) Increase the poverty level as high as possible. Poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.

                                          (3) Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.

                                          (4) Gun Control – Remove the ability to defend themselves from the government. That way you are able to create a police state.

                                          (5) Welfare – Take control of every aspect of their lives (food, housing, and income)

                                          (6) Education – Take control of what people read and listen to. Take control of what children learn in school.
                                          (7) Remove the belief in the God from the government and the schools.

                                          (8) Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (to tax) the wealthy, with the support of the poor.

Can you see any similarities between Mr. Alinsky's plan and what is currently taking place in Washington? Our current president was an ardent devotee of Saul Alinsky's philosophies, attending classes and instructing in his doctrines.

Okay, I've about run out of peeves. But why can’t this current government be truthful? Why do they insist on lying to us at every turn? They can't be stupid. Close, maybe, but it doesn’t take a Mensa to see that America's in grievous trouble. Okay, I know I’ve mentioned this before. We – the Americans living here – are skilled, intelligent and usually, ambitious. A large percentage of the 300 million plus people are self-sufficient and have the drive and initiative to care for themselves. But they can’t . . . won’t . . . if the government keeps telling us that we’re recovering, that we’re on the road to riches, that everything is coming up roses. If Mark Twain were alive today, he'd tell us," There are three kinds of lies: plain lies, damn lies, and claims by the White House."

Dammit, friends, the recovery they brag about is  non-existent. Our resurgence is going nowhere! Our land of milk and honey is failing! China has surpassed us as the number one economy in the world.  There is a disappearing distinction between our middle-class and lower class. We – YOU AND I – owe others about 127 TRILLION DOLLARS!  Our chances of recovering under the guidance of these nincompoops in Washington are Slim and None (and Slim has expatriated to Uruguay).

Hey, I don’t write this stuff to encourage jumping out of windows or drastic stuff like that. But we should ALL know what the hell is going on. ALL of us should be aware of the problems we face because it will take ALL of us to orchestrate a TRUE recovery. The president and his toadies that lie to us daily about how great things are do us a terrible disservice. We can’t fix things if we don’t know they’re broke!

In eight and a half decades I’ve never seen a government so hopelessly ineffectual and so deceitful. They must know they’re setting us up for a deadly fall.  With debt still rising and jobs scarce, the economic picture is bleak. America is fast approaching a precipice that could send the United States down into violence and chaos the likes of which this country has never seen. I guaran-damn-tee you, we can't recover if our administration continually lies to us . . .

Maybe that's their objective?

America is more than just a Country

For those of you who are too young to remember or maybe some of you just plain forgot, America is more than a just a country.  It has been for generations the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, that’s not just a slogan for propaganda; it’s the basis for our existence in history.  When a greedy King George tried to impose his rule and unsustainable taxes on the citizenry the people took control and formed the United States of America and with sheer determination fought to the death for their liberty.  Did I say their liberty, where do you think your liberty came from?  Generation after generation has fought and died to keep this country free.  Free for you to expound on its faults and glorify its enemies.  Free for you to sit on your behind and watch people like Sean Penn, Danny Glover and other Hollywood stars who have openly endorsed people like Hugo Chavez and his brand of dictatorship and you still support them like they are American heroes.  Let me tell you, American heroes are the kids who have died to give them their right to exist.  America has been good to these people yet in their warped liberal progressive minds they would sell her out in a minute.  They shout how Chavez helped the poor. It’s the very dependency of the poor that he has helped create that kept him in office until he died.  We are seeing the same effect here in the United States.  The more dependent on government we become, the stronger the grip the Liberal Progressives have on our country.   I for one am grateful to have been born here in America and to have had the privilege to serve my country.  When we see known leftist professors in our Universities preaching anti American propaganda to their students, the same kids who you raised to respect and love the United States it sickens me.  Instead of preparing them academically for their future success that we prayed for, they are trying to develop them into progressive activists.      

As I grow older I feel more and more helpless in the fight for the glory of the United States.  Never in my worst nightmare did I ever expect to see the American Dream crumble in my lifetime especially at the hands of such a few.  We accuse Russia of being governed by an Oligarchy, those who surround Putin, it’s time we looked into our own little government, it’s no longer of the people for the people by the people but more and more it’s for the few who we have been stupid enough to give absolute power over us.  Over 320,000,000 people in this country and we are totally controlled by less than 600.  These 600 can make any law, enforce whatever laws they wish, pay themselves anything they want and to have the ability to retire after very few years with full benefits and medical at our expense.  Many go to Washington commoners with little financial wherewithal and yet mysteriously become millionaires in a very few years.   Have we Americans become so complacent and lazy that we just look the other way?  Have we reached the point where we are so dependent on government for our sustenance that we are powerless to stand on our own? 

I’m so sorry to say; “It’s a lot of my own generation who is giving away our freedom.”     

The Story of Harry Reid and his power and greed.

This article was submitted by a trusted and true friend who I have never know to repeat undocumented stories.  It's long but full of important info, please take the time to read and share with others.

 

THE STORY OF HARRY REID

( “How a second-rate politician can become a multimillionaire.”)

In a 1998 real estate deal put together by Jay Brown, a former casino lawyer and longtime friend, Harry Reid purchased two undeveloped residential-property lots on Las Vegas’ rapidly growing outskirts for approximately $400,000. Reid bought one of the parcels on his own and the second one jointly with Brown. In 2001 Reid transferred his interests at a value of $400,000 to a limited liability corporation created by Jay Brown, but he never disclosed the transfer on his annual public ethics report, nor did he inform Congress that he now held a stake in Brown's company. In 2004 Brown's company, having negotiated with local officials to rezone the property for a shopping center (Rory Reid, Harry’s son, had been elected to the Clark County Commission in 2002), sold the land to other developers in a deal that earned Reid $1.1 million -- a $700,000 pre-tax profit on his initial investment. Reid falsely reported the transaction to Congress as a personal land sale.

In 2001 Reid paid cash for a $750,000 condominium at the Washington, D.C. Ritz-Carlton where he resides. When he subsequently gave Christmas bonuses (in 2002, 2004, and 2005) to the doorman and other support staff at his building, he used $3,300 in campaign donations – a violation of federal election law. Reid’s campaign falsely listed the bonuses as campaign “salary” expenditures for two of the years in question, and as a “contribution” for the other year. When news of Reid’s misappropriation of campaign funds became public in 2006, the Senator’s office said the listing as "salary" had been a clerical error. When questioned, Reid announced, “I am reimbursing the campaign from my own pocket to prevent this issue from being used in the current campaign season to deflect attention from Republican failures.” Oh, okay!

In a $286 billion federal transportation bill passed by Congress in 2005, Harry secured $300 million in earmarks for projects in Nevada, including $18 million to fund the construction of a bridge spanning the Colorado River. On the Arizona side of that new bridge, Reid had already purchased 160 acres of undeveloped land. The building of that new bridge caused the value of Reid’s property to skyrocket. Coincidence? You decide.

Between 2002 and 2006, Harry gained monumental government concessions on behalf of a powerful Nevada land developer, Harvey Whittemore, who planned to build thousands of homes and numerous golf courses on 43,000 acres of barren land in an area an hour northeast of Las Vegas. Currently, the land had a bunch of federal restrictions on its use:: One-fourth of it was off-limits to developers because of federal protections for an “endangered” species of desert tortoise that dwelt there; another one-fourth was government-owned and was subject to a federal power-line right of way; and the territory overall was rife with streams and washes that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had designated as crucial to the health of the desert’s ecosystem, and was therefore generally off-limits to construction.

But, and thanks mainly to Harry’s intercession, the Bureau of Land Management agreed to relocate the tortoises to an adjacent federal preserve, thereby opening that portion of Coyote Springs to developers. One obstacle out of the way. The second obstacle was easy: in 2002 Harry inserted some obscure provisions into a land-management bill that relocated the aforementioned power corridor, thereby apparently freeing Whittemore to build on the 10,500-acre parcel he coveted. But the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee balked at the deal, and Reid was forced to negotiate an alternate arrangement where Whittemore was permitted to purchase the land at a fair market rate, then the government would relocated the power corridor. Finally, in 2005 Reid and fellow Nevada congressional member John Ensign used their combined influence with the EPA to remove the final environmental-impact obstacle.
In return for Reid’s help, Whittemore gave tens of thousands of dollars to the senator’s political campaigns and to his “leadership fund” (which Reid used to help bankroll the campaigns of some favored fellow Democrats). In addition, Whittemore gave $5,000 to each of Reid's two sons to finance their efforts to win local political offices. Whittemore also hired one of the sons as his personal lawyer to represent him in his current and future dealings with federal officials.

Between 2001 and 2004, Reid wrote at least four letters pressing the Bush administration to take action on certain issues of importance to Indian tribes that were clients of the lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Abramoff, whose staff was in regular contact with Reid’s office, lobbied on behalf of tribes involved in the gambling casino industry. Each time Reid wrote a letter on behalf of the Indian tribes, he collected donations from Abramoff and his lobbying partners and clients around the same time period. All told, these donations totaled nearly $68,000. Also between 2001 and 2004, Reid received more than $50,000 directly from four Indian tribes that were clients of Abramoff.

Harry’s lobbyist friend Abramoff was accused of illegally giving gifts and making campaign donations to legislators in return for votes or support of legislation. He was later convicted in federal court of defrauding Indian tribes. Though Reid was a regular recipient of Abramoff's generosity, he was only nominally implicated.

In 2013 Harry’s friend Harvey Whittemore was convicted of violating federal campaign contribution laws. He was charged with four felonies and convicted on three of the counts. He was sentenced September 2013 to two years in prison and a $100,000 fine. Again, Reid was only nominally implicated.

HARRY, RORY, CLIVEN, THE COMMUNIST CHINESE AND A TURTLE...

Lately we’ve heard a lot regarding the Bureau of Land Management and armed federal agents versus Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. As a consequence of Bundy’s steadfast refusal to give in to the government’s pressure, a light has been shined on a carefully hidden series of affairs that far overshadows the gravity of a cow possibly stepping on a turtle. As we've seen in a prior episode, Harry Reid and his family are putting his position as Senate majority Leader to extremely profitable use. But what's this got to do with a cattle rancher in Southern Nevada whose cows are stepping on turtles? Well, to start with, Cliven's last name was Bundy and not Whittemore, hence, the heavy weapons were sent by the feds.

Right now let's be clear: the desert tortoise isn’t the reason for 200 heavily-armed feds playing storm-troopers. So who and what are the cause of this attempted land grab? If Harry Reid is involved, it boils down to politics and money -- and in this case, with a generous dose of nepotism thrown in. Harry is getting on in years and has two sons to take care of ...

Okay, that explains Harry, Cliven and the turtle's role, but how do Communist China and Harry's son Rory fit in? Well, back in September 2012, it was reluctantly revealed that Harry's son Rory was the paid representative for CHINESE energy giant ENN who plans to build a $5 billion solar farm on public land in Laughlin, Nevada. Rory wasn't acting alone: Senator Reid was also an advocate for the deal. As the details unfold, it turns out Harry was a principal up to his hypocritical chin in the (choose one) 1. Manipulation; 2. Conflict of interest; 3. Use of undue influence; 4. Lying; 5. Misuse of office; 6. Breech of ethics; 7. All of the above. But bear in mind: when you’re Senate Majority Leader … well, you can pull off stunts that the average (law-abiding?) citizen couldn’t get away with in a million years.

Ostensibly, the “official reason” for the government’s interest in this land was to protect the helpless desert tortoise, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act. Just coincidentally, the public land that Cliven Bundy’s cattle have been grazing on is where the Chinese company wants to put its new solar panels. Bundy’s cows were standing in the way of huge profits (to the Chinese, to the Reid family and to Rory's attorney firm).

Now, whether it was the turtle who blew the whistle or the storm-troopers invasion, questions surrounding family ties are flaring again in Nevada around the Senate majority leader. He and his oldest son, Rory, are both involved in an effort by a Chinese energy giant, ENN Energy Group, to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel manufacturing plant in the southern Nevada desert. “Involved” in this Chinese case means there are huge profits available to high-ranking bureaucrats.

Harry Reid has been one of the ENN project's most prominent advocates, helping recruit the company during a 2011 trip to China and applying his political muscle on behalf of the project in Nevada. Rory, a lawyer with a prominent Las Vegas firm (that is representing ENN) helped it locate a 9,000-acre desert site that it is buying well below appraised value from Clark County, where Rory formerly chaired the County Commission.

To ensure there can be no suspicion of conflict of interest or unethical dealings, Rory Reid recently said, "I have never discussed the project with my father or his staff." Oh, right! And what does Harry say? A spokeswoman for the senator claimed he has not once discussed the project with his son.

We have a $5 billion project that both men are heavily involved with and they haven’t once discussed the project with one another? Oh, please!

I don't know which is most disturbing, watching the guy who hasn't even time to propose a budget for our nation spending all his time on his personal wealth, or him thinking (knowing?) that I'm too dumb to know what he's doing. Who the hell elected this guy, anyway?

Harry Reid a Bundy rustler?

An email I received Tuesday morning,

 

This message came to me via a Michigan resident....Why in the hell have we not heard of this up to NOW!! This appears to be damning evidence of the improper actions of Senator Reid and his son Rory (Sure seems that the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree if this article has any truth attached to it)........... If it is true, why does the Nevada voting populace continue to return Harry to his elevated position....To provide Nevada with some additional benefits from the US Government....or to provide Harry and his family with something that will make them millionaires over and over. The scenario is disgusting to say the least.

 

I recall that when Harry was interviewed a couple of years ago, he was asked what he ascribed his tremendous increase in his net worth....Harry replied "Sound and outstanding investments"..... Are we, the public so dunce that we can believe this diatribe??? This should be the defining moment by our Government charging Harry with undue increase in his and his family's personal net worth through improper and deceitful dealings which only benefit him and his ilk!!!! He needs to be retired WITHOUT pension due to his improper dealings during, what I personally believe, is his entire tenure as our US Senator........I'm disgusted beyond words!!!

 

Senator Harry Ried Cattle Rustler for Communist China

 

 

Posted on April 12, 2014 9:33:43 PM MDT by Jet Jaguar

This week, the Bureau of Land Management has been attempting to confiscate the cattle of Cliven Bundy, the last rancher in Nevada’s Clark County. On Wednesday, BLM agents confronted the Bundy family and supporters, using attack dogs, tasers and stun guns. Bundy’s son was tased and his daughter thrown to the ground. Three others were injured. Bundy supporters eventually drove the BLM off, but not before they had taken some cattle.

The BLM claims the cattle are “tresspassing” on land designated for the endangered desert tortoise. This designation is a red flag that something else is going on. Desert tortoises have co-existed with cattle for over 100 years and the cattle offer no threat.

 

Sure enough, as Dana Loesch reports today in a great piece of investigative journalism, Senator Harry Reid, known as “Cleanface” by the Nevada mob, and named by Judicial Watch as one of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians,” has been using the BLM to seize rangeland on behalf of campaign contributors. One of Reid’s former senior advisors, Neil Kornze, was recently appointed to lead the BLM, but he has worked there since 2011, and been de facto leader for at least a year. According to Loesch, Reid even ordered BLM to alter boundaries of tortoise habitat to allow top contributor, Harvey Whittemore, to develop the land. Yet another compassionate Democrat concerned for the environment. Good old Cleanface.

 

All other ranchers have been driven out of the county, but Bundy refuses to bend. The BLM claims Bundy owes them grazing fees dating back to 1993, however, he says his grazing rights predate the BLM, his family has used the land since the 1800s and those rights should have been grandfathered in. Contrary to BLM’s accusations, Bundy has been paying grazing fees, but to the governmental entity he believes has true title to the land: Clark County, Nevada. Loesch relates:

 

The BLM arrived much later, changed the details of the setup without consulting with Bundy — or any other rancher — and then began systematically driving out cattle and ranchers. Bundy refused to pay BLM, especially after they demanded he reduce his heard’s head count down to a level that would not sustain his ranch.

The BLM may have authority under the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934. Bundy says that “public land” belongs to the citizens, but the court claimed that “the public lands in Nevada are the property of the United States because the United States has held title to those public lands since 1848, when Mexico ceded the land to the United States.” In justifying the seizure the court stated “Bundy’s cattle have caused and continue to cause damage to natural and cultural resources and pose a threat to public safety.” It would be interesting to see the justification for that claim. What “cultural resources” exist in that open, undeveloped, remote area, and what was the damage to natural resources? Certainly not the tortoise, which they used as an excuse to close the off the land in the first place. What they really want is the land.

 

The desert tortoise is so “endangered” in this area, that the government is planning to euthanize some of them. Furthermore, the tortoise was virtually extinct before people even settled the area. Ranchers actually improved its prospects by accessing springs and developing other water sources, according to Myron Ebell, Director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Energy and Environment Center. But with the extreme environmentalists at the Interior Department no good deed goes unpunished, because they want the land, period.

 

The government’s agenda in this and many other land confiscation activities is actually motivated by Agenda 21′s “Rewilding” program, which advocates pushing humans out of rural areas entirely, and into densely packed urban zones. The idea was a brainchild of Dave Foreman, founder of EarthFirst! who popularized the use of tree-spiking to prevent logging. Read here how it’s working out in California. However, these environmental hypocrites have all shown their true color when these “precious lands” subsequently are sold, developed or otherwise used to benefit the politicians who fixed the deal.

 

The politicians who fixed this deal are Senator Harry Reid and his son, Rory. And they did so on behalf of the Communist Chinese who intend to build the largest solar energy complex in America. Reuters reports:

[Reid] and his oldest son, Rory, are both involved in an effort by a Chinese energy giant, ENN Energy Group, to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel manufacturing plant in the southern Nevada desert. Reid has been one of the project’s most prominent advocates, helping recruit the company during a 2011 trip to China and applying his political muscle on behalf of the project in Nevada.

 

“His son, a lawyer with a prominent Las Vegas firm that is representing ENN, helped it locate a 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) desert site that it is buying well below appraised value from Clark County, where Rory Reid formerly chaired the county commission.” (Emphasis added.)

 

So now we get the true picture. Likely Clark County political corruption going along with this. All for the tortoise, that will doubtless become completely extinct when this massive monstrosity blankets its ground. This issue needs to be fought at every level and Harry Reid & Co. need to be brought up on charges!

 

Bundy is getting some support. Sheriff Richard Mack, founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Police Officers Association, is traveling to the ranch along with some fellow CSPOA members, and state representatives from Arizona and Nevada, as well as Nevada’s governor, Brian Sandoval, have issued criticisms.

Sandoval has taken a wait and see attitude. “Earlier this week, I advised the BLM not to limit or hinder the constitutional rights of Nevadans and be mindful of its conduct…” he said. Clearly the BLM has done neither. Will Sandoval let them get away with it? It is now clear what is happening. Will Sandoval allow this fraud to continue? Is he part of it? This is a telling moment for the Republican govenor. Will he do his job and honor his oath to “support and defend the U.S. Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic?” Right now it appears that we are dealing with enemies both foreign and domestic.

 

The legal issues on the land rights may be debatable, but the federal government’s increasingly despotic behavior toward defenseless citizens is completely without justification. Furthermore, its alleged reasoning is outrageous, given what we now know about the filthy handed, “Cleanface,” Harry Reid.

 

This is a defining issue and a defining moment in U.S. history, one that should be at the forefront of our nation’s attention today.

TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; US: Alaska; US: Nevada
KEYWORDS: alaska; bundy; harryreid; joemiller; neilkornze; nevada