Courage comes in all forms: The last great act of Lieutenant Alexander Prokhorenko

These are purported to be the last words of Russian Army Lieutenant Alexander Prokhorenko, a forward observer deployed against Syrian rebels who had identified and surrounded his position as he was calling fire in on them.

He left behind an expectant wife and the respect of the entire professional military world.  This is the text of what is purported to be his final communication with his firebase.

Don't misunderstand me: I in no way am a supporter of either side in Syria.  But some times, courage transcends politics.  This is one of those times... and I stand in awe of this young man who sacrificed his life for HIS country... just like we do for ours.

Prokhorenko : command I am compromised, I repeat I am compromised.

Command: Please say again and confirm.

Prokhorenko : They have spotted me, there are shooting everywhere, I am pinned, requesting immediate extraction.

Command: Extraction request acknowledged.

Prokhorenko : Please hurry I am low on ammo, they seem to [be] everywhere, I can’t hold them for too long please hurry.

Command: Confirmed, hold them off, continue returning fire, retreat to a safe position, air support is monitoring, state your coordinates

Prokhorenko : [gives coordinates which are blurred in the transcript]
Command: [command repeats coordinates which are blurred.] Confirm

Prokhorenko : Confirmed, please hurry I am low on ammo, they are surrounding me, bastards!

Command: ETA on evacuation 12 minutes, return to the green line, I repeat return to the green line.

Prokhorenko : They are close, I am surrounded, this may be the end, tell my family I love them dearly.

Command: Return to the green line, continue returning fire, help is on the way, followed by air support.

Prokhorenko : Negative, I am surrounded, they are so many of these bastards!

Command: Extract ETA 10 minutes, return to the green line.

Prokhorenko : I can’t they have surrounded me and are closing in, please hurry.

Command: Return to the green line, I repeat return to the green line.

Prokhorenko : They are outside, conduct the airstrike now please hurry, this is the end, tell my family I love them and I died fighting for my motherland.

Command: Negative, return to the green line.

Prokhorenko : Unable command, I am surrounded, they are outside, I don’t want them to take me and parade me, conduct the airstrike, they will make a mockery of me and this uniform. I want to die with dignity and take all these bastards with me. Please my last wish, conduct the airstrike, they will kill me either way.

Command: Please confirm your request.

Prokhorenko : They [are] outside, this is the end commander, thank you, tell my family and my country I love them. Tell them I was brave and I fought until I could no longer. Please take care of my family, avenge my death, good bye commander, tell my family I love them!

Command: [No response, orders the airstrike]

What amazing courage and presence of mind.

Respect.

Lesson learned about media manipulation.

"We report.  You decide."

Here locally, the democratian has been on their anti-conservative jihad for the last couple of decades generally... and against effective conservatives particularly (Madore/Mielke/Benton) for the past few years taken to a higher level.

But it's not just the leftist media that engages in an effort of rampant manipulation.

FOXNews now plays the game as much as MSNBC.

There poll, an obvious outlier, shows Trump at only +3 nationwide.  They're acting like it's all over for Trump, as they have done at least a dozen times before... only to have to wipe the egg off their face repeatedly.   And the polls that show Trump collapsing to Cruz are obvious nonsense to anyone paying attention.

But not to FOXNews.  And when other polls come out showing how idiotic FOXNews polling was here, they won't even mention it.

Recently, the issues of Donald Trump's campaign manager has again shot to the fore, with a misdemeanor charge of simple assault resulting in FOXNews' effort to equate it with a serial rapist and to use that to splatter Trump... never mind that the prosecutor is in the tank for HillBilly.

I can see mentioning the allegation... and that, of course, is all it is: an allegation.

But to focus on it as if it mattered; repeatedly, 24/7?

That's a level of hatred that would make Lying Lefty Lou Brancaccio blush in envy.  In fact, FOXNews is doing their own imitation of the daily democrat here locally, and they've set their sights on Trump.

Trump says something, and they stuff a camera into the faces of his opponents and ask them what THEIR opinion of his words are.

Well, what do you EXPECT them to be?  And why would anyone care what those clowns have to say?

You see, rarely does it go the other way: rarely do we see each and every speech undergo their microscope and then, once parsed, do they go for Trump's opinion, relative to the reverse happening to Trump.

To that end, FOXNews HAS reported and I HAVE decided: I've decided that don't want Trump to be president any more than they want Sanders.  I have decided they will do anything they can to keep that from happening, including harping on their bizarre, outlier polls as if they were legit... to make that happen.

They are, in effect, as guilty of bias as that scumbag in Vancouver that runs the daily rag.

And like so many other elements of dishonorable politics, BOTH sides engage in it: not just the left.

Those of us on the right would like to THINK that lies, manipulation, exaggeration and that sort of thing is the hallmark of the left: after all, hasn't MSNBC become the punch-line of a million jokes on the subject of media bias?

But now, the allegations from the left concerning FOXNews are beginning to ring truer and truer; perhaps just not the way they would suggest.

The outcome, however, is the same.

As I look at the current situation: the idea that Ted Cruz can't seem to keep his pants zipped for example, made a quick splash and then, just as quickly, FOXNews made it disappear, even though there appears to be more evidence, IMHO, that it did happen then it didn't; it would seem that FOXNews intense focus on this issue... which has precisely nothing to do with Trumps suitability or lack thereof for the presidency, is the thing.

This is the equivalent of Trump's driver getting a parking ticket.  It has zero relevance to the campaign, zero relevance to Trump's ability to govern and, in fact, is the same kind of "gotcha" politics the leftist outfits practice.

I could care less if the guy even did it or not.

Unlike Cruz's zipper, this issue has nothing to do with Trump as an individual.  FOXNews knows that, so by hammering him on it, hour in, hour out; day in, day out; they're attempting to MAKE it an issue to negatively impact Trump's efforts in the primary.

So now, instead of watching FOXNews, which has lost any pretense of fairness or non-bias, I'm finding myself watching decade-old JAG reruns on INSP with a soupçon of "Our First Flip" or whatever it is on DIY (comedy gold) because I'm not interested in watching ANY political jihad network, left OR right.

This is yet another indicator of the insanity of this election cycle.  But like so much in politics... it does tend to bring out the true colors of those in positions of power.  And it's going to get far worse before it gets any better.  If it ever does.

And like so many others... I loath what I see.

RINO RIvers screws us with her vote again.

While different from her utter betrayal on the gas tax/tab fee increase vote of hers that helped to hang a $1500 or so tax anchor around our necks, it does go to her RINO pattern of supporting either the left or the Establishment's efforts to screw us when it comes to taxes or expenditures.

Every other voting legislator... or EITHER party... voted "no" on the budget... except for Rivers.

Once again, her vote was not needed for passage: the final tally for the budget vote was 27-17, two more votes than required... much like Rivers' vote to raise the gas tax/tab fees in violation of her pledge to us all to OPPOSE any increases in the gas tax/tab fees... since we've "spoken" and all... and she has "listened."

And there's no doubt that she HAS "listened."  The problem, of course, is that she's not listening to US.

Talk about being co-opted by the special interests.

Dinner with Sandernistas...

So, last night, we had dinner with two more avowed followers of Bernie Sanders.

And a fascinating experience it was.

Did you know that 9/11 was an inside job?

Or that Sanders isn't supported by corporate money?

And that TRUMP followers have shown "alarming aggression?" (Because, for example, Trump supporters block traffic and cause riots to keep Sanders from speaking...)

Or that muslim attacks in the United States are OUR fault?  (Think in terms of a fringe-left Ron Paul.)

And that the mere support or opposition of policy by the American people is enough to drive policy.

Or that the fact that Hillary Clinton has amassed millions more votes than Sanders "doesn't mean much" because he's got "momentum" and the super delegates will all bail on Hillary and shift to Sanders... as if the Establishment doesn't exist on the Left.

And that the explanation for the movement for delegates to be armed at the National Convention is so Trump delegates can take the convention over and force their guy to be nominated?

And that Sanders can pay for all the free stuff.

It was sickening to listen to.  It was the complete ignorance of youth.

It was altruistically based nonsense.  It was an exercise in self-restraint on my part.

And it's being duplicated among millions in this country... who want something to believe in so badly that they overlook the warts on this worm... the 30 years in the Senate with the passage of a single bill... the concept of stealing from the rich to distribute to the not-rich... the turning of a blind eye to the Venezuelas and Greeces of the world to the artificially enhanced socialism of the "Nordic" countries... because the reality of the Venezuelan and Grecian socialist disasters do not fit the meme and are, therefore, to be disregarded.

Or that the United States has no foreign policy responsibilities around the world... like our withdrawal from the world scene would not result in one of those vacuums filled by the Russians and the Chinese.

This, of course, was the early 20th century view that arguably resulted in World Wars One and Two.

Look, I get why these two believe in this: they have to believe in it to suspend their disbelief to support this guy.

But to me, after the Trump remark, when I asked them what was going to happen when Sanders did not get nominated, I was told "...that's when the REAL Revolution will start."

"What does that look like?" I asked.

I didn't get an answer.

On one hand, it was heartening to see that the young can believe in something... anything... so strongly.

On the other hand, it was DISheartening to see the remarkable ignorance and lack of political self-awareness that was on display.

Sanders is as much a sellout as any of the rest of them.  He's tapped into youthful ignorance and gullibility in the same way that Trump is tapping into anger at the betrayal of the GOP Establishment from the bogus promises they made to meet with such success at the national level... such as the fake promise to repeal Obamacare.

His shtick that he's not getting corporate backing is nonsense, as a quick view of OpenSecrets.org shows.

These people are zealots.  Most are.

Ultimately, there are mirrored problems here: if Sanders doesn't get his way, he and his people are going to throw a fit.

If Trump doesn't get HIS way, he and HIS people are going to throw a fit.

But if, as I was told, revolution in the classic sense breaks out over this insanity... the left is going to lose.

Big.

Proposal: Washington State Veteran's Suicide Program

Earlier, I had been pledged an effort by Rep. Liz Pike to implement a state-level Veteran's Suicide Program of some sort to pick up the obvious slack of the failures in that regard of the federal Veteran's Administration program.

Washington State has a large veteran/active duty population.  Lack-luster efforts have been made and are being made by the Fed to address this problem... but those efforts are failing at a spectacular rate.

Yes, this is a federal problem.  I freely admit it. But those dying and those at risk are immune to issues of bureaucratic territorial authority/jurisdiction.

Frequently, the VA system fails us.  Not always... but far too often.  I believe the problem of suicide is one of those issues.

Unfortunately, Rep. Pike failed to act.  At all.  Just too busy.

I signed into several related bills and voted yes on all that came up for a vote. I can work more on this over summer. Short sessions are tough.

Liz sponsored 34 bills these past two sessions.  One more would have been one too many.

And unfortunately, I can't find ANY "related bills" that were introduced by ANYONE TO sign onto.  And the source for that information was the list of bills Pike actually did sign on to.

Here's how I envision it:

The Fed has dropped the ball on suicide prevention on Veterans.  I have no idea what the vet suicide rate is in Washington State, but it’s likely substantial with our active/reserve/guard and veteran population within the state.

I’m thinking that the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs might be a great place to coordinate this program.  Might be worth a call or two from your office to find out.

I suggest that a veteran suicide hotline might be, say, 711 as a phone number or something… an easy number to remember once publicized.

I see a shop set up in veteran’s affairs, staffed around the clock with, at a minimum, para-professional psych types who can defuse a situation, get medical support as needed, provide psych support at the caller’s location and identify psychiatric assets in any given geographic area and coordinate that treatment.

The purpose of this exercise isn’t to make something happen in the brief time left in session.  But this can be extremely high profile while sticking it to the VA and our US Senators for failing our Veteran/Active population in this situation.  They’re talking: you’re acting...

The horror stories are, for example, easy to find… Veterans killing themselves in VA Hospital parking lots, PTSD types committing criminal acts because they can’t get the help they need…

The start can be psychiatric issues… PTSD and that sort of thing… with, perhaps, a segue into actual medical treatment for service-connect physical ailments.

The Fed is failing us.  This may be the beginning of a way to take care of those most troubled and most in need instead of turning a blind eye to the problem because it’s not our job… it belongs to the Fed.

And we’re dying because of it.

I, of course, will not be benefiting in any way from such a program.  My empire won't be expanded... no money in my pocket as a result.

And maybe... just maybe... we can put an end to this sort of thing.

Mark Makela for The Daily Beast

ASHES TO ASHES

03.27.16 7:10 PM ET

Veteran Burned Himself Alive Outside VA Clinic

A retired sailor walked nine miles from his home to the facility where he was being treated and committed a fiery suicide.

NORTHFIELD, New Jersey — The last evidence of the life of Charles Richard Ingram III is a circle of scorched earth next to a Veterans Affairs clinic.

Ingram, a seven-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, arrived at the VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic around 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 19. He had been there before for treatment, but this would be his last visit.

The 51-year-old walked nine miles from his home in Egg Harbor, past an American Legion park and a memorial dedicated to military veterans, before finally stopping a few yards short of the clinic parking lot curb. Once there, he doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire.

A motorist called 911, according to Capt. Paul Newman of the Northfield Police Department, and firefighters arrived three minutes later. A bystander was already at Ingram’s side, trying to extinguish the fire with blankets. Twenty minutes later, Ingram was airlifted to Temple University Burn Center in Philadelphia, where he died that evening.

“I’ve seen people die before with complications associated with minor burns, but he was 100 percent burned,” Northfield assistant fire chief Lauren William Crooks told The Daily Beast. “Gasoline burns extremely hot, so how he survived the short time that he did was in my opinion a little unbelievable, but people react in unpredictable ways to trauma.”

Self-immolation accounted for 0.04 percent of all suicides in the United States in the past 15 years on record. (By comparison, firearms were used in approximately 50 percent of suicides.) The act is most commonly associated with protest, as in the iconic images of Buddhist monks in Tibet and South Vietnam.

Capt. Newman said he was supposed have the afternoon off but was called in and arrived before Ingram was evacuated.

“Regardless of where you work, that’s a significant thing, one you hope to never have to see in your career,” he said.

On a recent day, a halo of black char crowned an arc of the oblong plot of black dirt in the otherwise verdant field outside the clinic. An oak tree’s trunk was ashen gray at the base and charcoal black above, the sole witness to Ingram’s suicide. The dirt had been raked and the mound dressed in flowers and flags.

Three floral bouquets were laid at the burnt edge next to a stylized cross; a crystal butterfly atop a thin wrought iron pedestal was flanked by two spotless American flags; a pinwheel with metallic red, white, and blue spokes stood beside another bouquet. Someone had placed a single empty bottle of pale ale in front of one of the flags. Altogether it would have resembled a solemn grave had it not been so strikingly scarred by the recent moment of violence there.

“Rich,” as he was known to family and friends, served in the Navy from 1985 to 1992, attaining the rank of chief petty officer. He left behind a wife, Billie, and two children, ages 3 and 5. The day before he killed himself, a local newspaper photographed the kids playing with other locals at nearby John F. Kennedy Park. Two days prior was his wife’s birthday; his daughter’s fourth birthday was two weeks away.

No one answered the door at the Ingram home in Egg Harbor Township on the Saturday afternoon one week after his death. The house number was short its last digit, which was peeling away from the mailbox, the front yard and porch were bare, and a pickup truck, bright white and freshly washed, was parked on the gravel drive beside the house. The blinds of the front window were unevenly gapped in half a dozen places as if habitually peeked through but never properly opened. (Family members said they were not ready to speak when reached by The Daily Beast via telephone.)

Ingram’s last years in the Navy were aboard the amphibious command ship the USS La Salle, one of five vessels in the Persian Gulf when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Ingram stayed at sea throughout Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He was chief on deck when the La Salle cruised into Ash Shuaybay, Kuwait, on March 12, 1991, the first American warship to enter the newly liberated port.

After retiring from the service, Ingram married Billie Bessler; the two lived briefly in Pennsylvania before settling in the house she still owns in Egg Harbor.

The clinic in Northfield is a community-based outpatient clinic of the VA Medical Center in Wilmington, Delaware. The VA’s Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) serve patients in rural or remote locations who may not be able to travel to main hubs as a result of physical disabilities or psychiatric illnesses. Since most of the specialists, including psychiatrists, only see patients at the hub medical centers, CBOCs schedule “telehealth” appointments: closed-circuit “office visit” teleconferences. (Telehealth was first pioneered in combat medicine to provide troops in places like Afghanistan access to mental health services.) The approach is not intended to work like “phoning it in,” though: The VA’s guidelines for telehealth prescribe an intensive outpatient regimen of weekly sessions taking about five hours each. If Ingram received psychiatric services at the Northfield clinic, as Capt. Newman said, then it is likely he availed himself of telehealth or was waiting to do so.

Mark Makela for The Daily Beast

A memorial forms beside charred earth outside a Veterans Affairs clinic in Egg Harbor Township, NJ, where 51 year-old Charles Richard Ingram III set himself on fire with gasoline last Saturday.

A memorial service for Ingram is scheduled for April 2 at the United Methodist Church of Mantua. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Operation Smile.

The CCRINO candidate's refusal to communicate.

Look, the crux of the matter is simple: the CCRINO candidates (McDaniel, Noelck and Blom) are being used as cudgels to nail conservatives.

On the 16th of this month (March) I emailed the CCRINO candidates the following question:

Recently you announced as a Republican, your desire to run against another incumbent Republican in the upcoming primary.

I would appreciate knowing, with specificity, why we should vote for you over the candidate endorsed by or running as the incumbent.

Specifically, since the County charter was fully implemented this past January, I would like to know where you would have voted any differently whatsoever, in any matter that has come up in front of the County Council, that would be different in any way than the votes of counselors Boldt, Stewart, and Olson.  Or, for that matter, Councilor Madore.

I look forward to your response as a prospective constituent, and am intrigued at the prospect of closely watching your campaign as you seek to justify replacing the current incumbent or the candidate endorsed by the incumbent who was so instrumental in helping to kill the worst project this County has ever known, specifically the CRC… A subject you seemed to be remarkably quiet about when it really mattered.

Thank you for your time

None of them have responded.

And that's the bottom line.

My own Senator, Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers continues to fail to respond to an email I sent her asking for clarification of her lie uttered in her town hall meeting in Battle Ground last January wherein she made the fallacious claim that had she voted against the gas tax/tab fee increases she had pledged to oppose to get elected, the taxpayers of Clark County would have been responsible for $7 BILLION in taxes, vacuumed out of our local economy to support King County's boondoggle Big Dig and replacement of the floating bridge disaster... as if I, as a constituent, am not worthy of a response.

Why should any of these political traitors be given the opportunity to take office so THEY can ignore us on matters of governance... or so they can vote like the Three Stooges on the county council already do?

Is a bill passed any more with a super-majority than with a 3 - 2 majority?

This is vindictive politics at its very best.

This is CCRINO revenge politics... what's best for them... and not us.

In our hide our heads in the sand world...

Is the Cruz sex-scandal fatal?

So, reports have it that Ted has something of a problem keeping it zipped up.

If true, will it be fatal?  Or will we see a "tit-for-tat" from Trump's ex's?

The timing is obvious.  The question is one of both source (Where did it come from?) and veracity.  (How true is it?)

The source for most of this is the National Enquirer.

They've got a relatively recent history of goring the high and mighty on this issues: Most famously, perhaps, skewering the political career of then-rising star John Edwards, for example.

The nature of their rag has certainly caused massive doubt.  But the question here is this: what if they're right?

Local politicians have a problem keeping their clothes on, to be sure.  I have little doubt that rampant adultery is the de jour hobby of the powerful in the seats of all governments, from the local to the national level, with intermediate stops at the county and state level.

(Look up "Aaron Reardon," for a particularly brutal case of a guy thinking with the wrong head... and fragging his otherwise bright political future.)

In some instances, this type of information, if publicized, would certainly damage the future prospects of local pols engaging in this sort of thing.  "TrusTed" will likely suffer at least some level of damage as a result of all of this as well, since his shtick is primarily evangelicals, who, I believe, take a rather dim view of that sort of thing.

Locals have indicated disbelief.  That's to be expected as they find their confidence in their guy to be, well, shattered.

Here, of course, is where I point out that when it comes to sex and the powerful, it makes no difference between the hated Establishment and the political mavericks.

Lousiana GOP US Senator David Vitter had this kind of problem and survived it to win reelection, though he subsequently lost an election bid to replace the term-limited Governor Bobby Jindal..  Somehow.  He was one of those Jim Bakker hypocrite-types, family value variety, who happened to kind of get caught with his equipment hanging out.

Meanwhile, this thing is percolating and other sources have come forward to at least partially confirm the allegations:

BREAKING: Washington Times Reporter Drops Bomb On Ted Cruz Mistress Allegations (PHOTOS)
 

Last Updated on March 25, 2016 

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The April 4 edition of The National Enquirer makes damaging claims about Ted Cruz in a bold, above-the-fold headline. But don’t be so quick to write it off as another silly claim by a silly tabloid. A political columnist for The Washington Times just backed up the story that Cruz had multiple extramarital affairs.

The first actual measure of impact is going to be April 5 in Wisconsin:  Fortunately for Scott Walker, Wisconsin Governor and earliest casualty of the GOP Primaries,  out of sheer, dumb, luck, he hadn't endorsed Cruz as yet.

Between now and then, however, polling is likely to make the impacts known and then the question will become which way will most of the votes go: Kasich, who has a better chance of winning the lottery than becoming the nominee... or Trump, who's path to the nomination likely cleared a great deal today with the discussion of these allegations against Cruz.

Because of the stage, there's a possibility that Cruz may not only not get the nomination, but likely have to resign his Senate seat.

Time will tell.  But I believe time is likely up for TrusTed. And if he fails to file suit against the National Enquirer, then he WILL be in trouble as this sort of thing takes on an Anthony Weiner-life-of-its-own.

If it's not Trump, I'm voting democrat. Further, I'll vote democrat over any CCRINO.

As I watch the machinations of the GOP Establishment types at both the local and national levels, I've decided I will not vote for a CCRINO or any GOP'er not named Trump.

Look, clearly, the CCRINOs are being manipulated by democrats (Jim Mains, Hector Hoshino, Temple Lentz, die hard, fringe leftists all) into supporting the candidates the left wants in office, most recently the Young Democrat-endorsed Marc Boldt, a clueless moron who actually cries during meetings (Shades of John Boehner) and now, they've been actively assisting the CCRINOs in recruiting and running fake Republicans against conservative incumbents.

Well, for me, there's no need to vote for a fake democrat when we can get the real thing.  And I am not remotely interested in rewarding the CCRINO scum for their hissy fit bercause the base kicked their collective asses out.

And the idea that the cowards running the national GOP are working ten times harder to keep Trump from getting the nomination than they ever did to stop Obama from wrecking this country and a large part of this planet is certainly not confidence-inspiring.

To that end, I will vote for whichever democrat is on the ballot if these clowns screw the people out of a Trump candidacy through their back-room maneuvering.

You see, I will never vote for the "settle-for" candidate again.

Politically, there is nothing more that I hate than "The Establishment."

For me, The Establishment is the same both locally and nationally.

They're a group of people who simply do not give a damn what the people they would govern want as long as THEY stay in power.

Locally, The Establishment are scum who fit the mold completely.  For one reason or another, they've been kicked out of their positions of privilege within the local party hierarchy and find themselves adrift from being the centers of the GOP universe.

The result?

Their efforts to elect democrats such as Marc Boldt and RINOs in an effort to remove the current GOP regime from power so they can get back in charge.

Thus, here locally, every conservative or neo-conservative (As some begin to drift their way out of fear) find themselves challenged by the local political dregs the CCRINOs have dug up.

Nationally, this situation is mirrored by an Establishment terrified by the thought of a Trump presidency on the right and/or a Sanders presidency on the left that may well cost them their comfortable, powerful existence.

The other reasons you see... fear of losing the Senate and/or the House, are both a lie and a smokescreen... misdirection designed to excuse their conduct.

Locally, the CCRINOs make no bones about it: they control the local county council and their first order of business was to raise our taxes, increase regulation and strip rural landowners of their hard-fought protections.

It has nothing to do with "better government."  Instead, it has to do with revenge and local power.

Both my state senator and the chair of the local county council have, for example, threatened my clients because of what I have written here, for example.

This then, is a take on the situation at the national level, but the local applications are clear and obvious.

Elections 2016

March 24, 2016 3:26 PM

America to Establishment: Who the hell are you people?

ST. LOUIS 
 

The people who spend two bucks for chili at the Courtesy Diner at Laclede Station Road can’t fathom why anyone would pay Hillary Clinton $225,000 to make a speech.

Nor can they understand why the U.S. Senate is taking a 17-day break for Easter after spending much of their time last week fuming over the Supreme Court vacancy. Somehow, people all over America are saying loudly and clearly this election year, Washington and its enablers – the media, the political pros and Wall Street – don’t understand us.

That’s why, all over this slice of middle America, exasperated people got up before dawn on a cold, 37-degree morning recently to spend four hours in a line so long that from its end people couldn’t even see the Peabody Opera House, where they would hear Donald Trump. And it wasn’t just Trump. In the next two days, other folks nearby lined up to hear the outsider talk from Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt.

They share the same grievance. In 2016 America, the deepest divide is not between Democrats and Republicans. It’s not even between conservatives and liberals. It’s between Us and Them – the people versus The Establishment.

Morning Consult National Tracking Poll: Toplines 

 

In dozens of interviews, in a cross section of the country, the sentiments were the same.

“They’re political bureaucrats who would like to control the people,” said Sandy Garber, a St. Charles real estate agent, when asked to define the establishment.

John Hackmann, a Fairview Heights, Ill., retiree, labeled it a “Washington cartel.”

“They just let the government do whatever they want,” said Jim Walker, an Arnold, Mo., businessman.

What is the establishment? Nationally, eight in 10 people told a McClatchy-Morning Consult poll this month it includes members of Congress. Similar numbers cited the Democratic and Republican parties, political donors, Wall Street bankers and the mainstream media.

71% Percentage of people who see the nation on the wrong track, according to a new McClatchy-Morning Consult poll.

They split on whether Trump, a billionaire real estate developer who’s thrived in the New York business world, was part of the establishment, but seven in 10 said Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton was.

In essence, the establishment lives and thrives in a small world that lives and works in New York and Washington, on Wall Street, in Big Media, and in Politics, connected by the high-speed Acela corridor and often by mutual self interest.

Many, perhaps most, do care deeply about the common good though they are anything but common themselves. They hire each other and each other’s children. They huddle at the same white tie and black tie dinners. And, they sometimes attend each other’s weddings.

Eleven years ago, for instance, Trump got married for the third time. The over-the-top Palm Beach wedding in 2005 was a who’s who of elites, including Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Access is this group’s common currency. Wall Street spends millions to open doors to the top levels of the government that regulates it. Politicos bend over to get access to the money that keeps them in office. The media cut deals to get access to decision makers needed to feed ratings and circulation, even if sometimes at the cost of objectivity.

“It’s a collection of people who live in Washington, D.C., and don’t care about the rest of the world,” said Hackmann. And, he noted, “They all have jobs.”

THE DC-NY AXIS

“The establishment is anybody with big money who can get to the Congressmen and lobbyists,” said Judy Surak, a nurse from Clemson, South Carolina.

All over South Carolina, ask the people reveling in the music at Greenville Heritage Main Street Fridays, or starting their day with homemade onion sausage at Lizard’s Thicket on Two Notch Road in Columbia to define the establishment, and they usually echo Surak.

They often add a gentle qualifier: They don’t want to blow up the political system. They just want it to be more responsive, to work better.

“The country’s long-term problems have to be fixed within the system we have,” said Mark Cruise, a Columbia executive.

People are just tired of the usual politicians. Jennifer Johnston, a Kiawah Island, S.C., nurse.

The most wary tend to be better educated, higher earning, older voters, according to the national poll. They tend to see establishment figures easing in and out of lucrative, comfortable jobs, climbing ladders to success that seem unavailable to the rank and file who populate South Carolina’s office cubicles.

Of 78 members of Congress who left after the 2010 elections, four out of five found work with lobbying firms or clients, state or federal governments or political action committees.

One of Bill Clinton’s former White House spokesmen hosts an influential network Sunday talk show.

NBC hires Chelsea Clinton as a “special correspondent,” paying her a reported $600,000 annually, far above the typical pay for a reporter with no journalistic experience.

The ties are intricate and deep. Five Treasury secretaries in the past three presidential administrations have either headed big Wall Street firms, or became top executives after leaving their jobs.

Every member of the U.S. Supreme Court has at least one Ivy League degree. Every president elected since 1988 is an Ivy Leaguer. So are Clinton and Trump.

Even among Republican presidential candidates who insist they’re running against the establishment, establishment ties have served them well.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, promotes himself as a maverick, but has two Ivy League degrees and worked in state and federal governments before being elected. Gov. John Kasich of Ohio was a congressman for 18 years, then was a senior executive at Lehman Brothers’ investment banking division. Trump’s company is building a luxury hotel five blocks from the White House.

Somehow, many see Trump through a different lens.

“He has all he ever wanted. He doesn’t have to bother with this,” explained Elaine Verma, a Kiawah Island court reporter. “He just has the best interests of the United States at heart.”

WALL STREET and BIG MONEY

Outside St. Louis in St. Clair County Illinois, people are far removed from Wall Street or Fifth Avenue. They want to know the conditions of their commute on Interstate 64. Or the streets of downtown Belleville, virtually empty by 6 p.m., so there’s easy parking if you want to run in for carry out at the St. Louis Bread Company on Main Street.

Trying to fathom the stratospheric sums lobbyists and corporations spend to ingratiate themselves with Washington decision-makers is akin to learning a foreign language.

People here understand this much: “Everybody’s got somebody from Wall Street paying for them,” said David Vail, an O’Fallon, Ill., retiree.

Corporate and other interests retained 11,465 registered lobbyists last year, spending $3.2 billion, roughly the same amount the United States pledged to poor countries to cope with global warming. To voters, the big money is emblematic of an impenetrable system they have no chance of influencing, let alone understanding.

Wall Street and Washington are one and the same. Kevin Sheridan, a journeyman millwright from Fairview Heights, Ill.

That’s why many cheer when Sanders complains that no one was punished harshly for the financial meltdowns of 2008. His lament touches directly what distresses people about the New York-to-Washington axis. People lost their jobs and homes in that recession. The nation teetered on the brink of an historic financial meltdown. Banks and institutional investors had let the mortgage market run amok.

“No senior banker tried for crash-related frauds,” said Bartlett Naylor, financial policy advocate at Public Citizen and former Senate Banking Committee chief of investigations.

Goldman Sachs, a major Wall Street and Washington player, did agree in 2010 to pay $550 million and change its business practices in order to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges it had misled investors in mortgage dealings as the housing market began to wobble. The company neither admitted nor denied the allegations.

In January, the company also agreed in principle to a $5 billion settlement that resolved both actual and potential civil claims by the Justice Department, New York and Illinois attorneys general and others “relating to the firm’s securitization, underwriting and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities from 2005 to 2007.”

Sanders was livid, saying the latest agreement “should make it clear to everyone that the business model on Wall Street is a fraud,” a product of the financial world’s revolving door to Washington.

Clinton was paid $675,000 for three Goldman Sachs speeches behind closed doors in the years after she left her job as secretary of state in 2013. She demanded transcripts be kept, and so far refuses to release them publicly.

Andrew Williams, Goldman Sachs spokesman, explained, “Clinton spoke at conferences that we hosted for clients. We host literally hundreds of conferences around the world and continually search for fascinating speakers.” Such speeches are commonplace, he said, and singling out Clinton’s talk is “misleading.”

There is an entire industry built on providing speakers for conferences, as you probably know.

Highlighting this speech in isolation is misleading. Andrew Williams, Goldman Sachs spokesman

None of this convinces Tronda Minnie, a building service worker from Alton, Ill., that Clinton – or for that matter much of official Washington – can break these ties.

“I’m for Sanders all the way,” Minnie said. “Where’s (Clinton’s) money coming from?”

GOVERNMENT’S CLOISTERED WORLD

Much of the influence industry’s goal is to get a slice of the $4 trillion federal budget.

“They make these deals, and they profit somehow,” said Richard Shinkle, a pipeline builder from Columbia, Mo.

“All of them just take money from lobbyists and use it the way they want,” added Ron Lowe, an entertainment theme worker from O’Fallon, Mo.

In recent years, the budget has become ever more a prize for the establishment insiders, removed even from most members of Congress. The last four annual budget plans have been negotiated by a handful of leaders, including former House Speaker John Boehner, then presented to the rank-and-file as a done deal.

Conservatives have tried hard to have more clout.

In 2013, for example, about 20 members of Congress met in the basement of the Tortilla Coast restaurant down the street from the Capitol, where the grilled chicken quesadilla costs $9.95, and a steak burrito with the housemade sauce costs $11.95. Their goal: use the budget leverage to end or at least dilute the Affordable Care Act.

They lost. The establishment prevailed.

It’s all part of a shadowy system that, to the people in suburban St. Louis, seems open and approachable only to the well-entrenched and well-heeled.

Once elected to the Congress, for example, members basically have lifetime employment regardless of elections. In 2014, for example, 95 percent of the members of the House of Representatives won re-election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

A key reason for the insider edge? Money. The average incumbent running in 2012, the last year when full figures were available, raised $1.6 million for the campaign. The average challenger: $268,000.
It’s an incestuous system, voters say, that’s hard to crack. “The real access causing changes in laws is what big money buys,” explained Vail, the O’Fallon retiree.

Whoever wins the White House will find the same establishment chiseled into the Washington fabric as firmly as the monuments that dot its landscape.

Two-thirds of the Senate doesn’t face re-election this year. History says at least 85 percent, and probably many more, House of Representatives members will return. The lobbyists won’t suddenly close their practices. “This isn’t about one person,” said Steven Reinisch, a Missouri investment adviser. “This is about the whole, big picture.”

David Lightman: 202-383-6101, @lightmandavid

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article68042192.html#storylink=cpy

Life in the enlisted manager side... formerly known as the NCO side.

Back when I was an NCO, it was a much simpler life.  We were actually shaking off McNamara's corporate quality philosophies... talk was underway at the Soldier Support Center as far back as 82 that having professional technicians without further career aspirations (Why would we have to kick out an expert truck driver because he fails to become a staff sergeant at 12 years... thereby forcing him to become a non-truck driver supervisor, for example... loosing all of that experience as a truck driver merely because he/she failed to meet some arbitrarily imposed deadline for promotion to a position they did not want?) kicked out for failing to get promoted was an idiotic waste of time, money and talent; and that, by God, the soldier actually DID come first whenever possible.

Well, that has gone completely to hell under the Obama regime.  It will take decades to undo the damage that fricking moron has caused our military; blood has been spilled by American troops as a direct result of his hatred of the US Military.

This letter, although directly addressing the Air Force of today, can equally apply to the other Armed Services as well.

I wouldn't be caught dead in the military of today.  And here's a snap shot of part of the reason why.

“Backbone in Need of Traction” …Dear Boss, NCO Version

By John Q. Public|March 23rd, 2016|Air Force / Air Power, General, Government and Society, Leadership and Managing, Military, Military Families, National Defense, Organizations, Reform, Veterans|25 Comments

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The letter below was submitted to JQP by an Air Force NCO who gave permission to publish it on the condition of anonymity. In a note accompanying the letter, the author pointed out how previous iterations of these sorts of messages have come exclusively from officers, but that the systemic conditions and organizational failings articulated are just as acute — if not more so — for the enlisted corps … and that the issues are no less severe for support personnel than they are for those in or near operations. As the service explicitly acknowledges — for the first time — a crippling manpower deficit, senior officials still refuse to acknowledge a growing morale problem. The substance of that problem is captured ably in what follows, and the themes are both vivid and familiar. The Air Force continues to beg Congress for more money, pretending cash flow will solve its problems. But if letters like this (of which we receive a steady stream) are to be believed, the service’s problems are less about funding and more about fundamentals.  -Ed.

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Dear Boss,

Well, I quit. I am finally to the point where putting on this uniform feels worse than dousing myself in scalding water. I grew up in the Air Force, and I believed it stood for something. I used to think the Air Force was the best in the world. I believed in saluting my flag, and standing side-by-side with my fellow Airmen through anything. I believed in honoring a legacy and this nation’s cloth I wear. I felt a sense of pride and honor to protect this country that I love so much. Now, all I see when I put on this uniform is everything the Air Force has taken from me – my dignity, my faith in humanity and, most recently, my basic rights.

I knew when I raised my right hand and swore to protect and defend that I would have to make sacrifices, and I was okay with that. I knew I would miss birthdays, graduations, weddings and funerals. I knew I would have to put the Air Force before my own needs, all in the name of protecting those I love the most. I have done that – for the past 10 years. For 10 years of my early adult life I have put this institution before myself. I’ve worked 12-14 hour days, constantly. I’ve taken all the courses, done all the trainings and become an expert at every administrative job in the Air Force. I’ve done everything the Air Force has asked me to do, without question or complaint, and for what?

I have been micromanaged every step of my career. At first, I thought it was because I was new … and I needed to learn what the Air Force was all about. Well … I guess now I know. It’s all about micromanagement, and doing much, MUCH more with much, MUCH less. We’re told by the SecAF, CSAF and CMSAF to say when ‘enough is enough.’ Well … ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! However, when those thoughts are vocalized, we get the standard – ‘well, figure it out.’ WHAT?! How am I supposed to do 32 hours worth of work in 24? Oh … and still do my PME (or heaven forbid I might not be able to reenlist), and do all my additional duties (which all have program managers who should, in theory, actually be the ones who own those duties), and focus on my education (which, even though I already have a bachelor’s degree and am technically overqualified for my current position, I guess the Air Force wants me to be qualified to do my OIC’s job as well), and remain ‘fit to fight,’ and spend at least 10 hours a week volunteering (that’s low-balling, I’m sure). I guess I shouldn’t even bother trying to have a healthy relationship with my spouse or family. It’s no wonder I find myself happier at the bottom of a bottle than in actual conversations with real people.

I’m just really tired. I’m tired of hearing that Airmen are the #1 priority, but not seeing it. I’m tired of jumping through hoops just to find myself back at square one – speaking of squares … I’m tired of the reasoning behind doing anything these days is to put a checkmark in a little box that doesn’t actually mean anything. I’m tired of staying late at work just because it ‘looks bad’ to go home on time. I’m tired of E-8’s and E-9’s who are more concerned with ‘being seen’ than actually doing right by their people. I’m tired of them being lapdogs for colonels and commanders while the ‘backbone of the Air Force’ is so strained it’s going to need traction for at least eight months. I’m tired of having to stop my job for ‘wingman day’ or ‘resiliency training’ where I learn that it’s bad to rape people. Umm … I’m pretty sure I’ve known that for my entire life and I certainly don’t need a ‘stand-down day’ to be reminded of it. I’m tired of ‘mandatory fun’ where I’m supposed to act like I really support and enjoy this forced-motivation BS being crammed down my throat. All these senior leaders who laugh at the stupidest jokes, just to make sure they get a good rating on their next OPR or a stratification for Chief.

Oh … and as a side note. While those ‘wingman days’ and ‘resiliency days’ seem like they’re a great idea because you don’t have to be at work … it’s all just an illusion. Your workload doubles or triples because you spent an entire day learning about things that every decent human being already knows. I don’t think it’s the Air Force’s job to teach me how to be a functioning adult in society.

Anyway. I’m also disappointed. I’m disappointed in what has happened to this institution. The world’s greatest Air Force? Doubtful. With all the scandals, lack of accountability, micro-management and abuse of authority, it’s a wonder we haven’t been knocked out of the skies yet. I don’t want that to happen … I never want that to happen, but it will. We are losing the best and brightest in droves. The only people staying in the Air Force these days are the people who could never make it on the outside. The degenerates … the ones who actually, probably, DO need that training that teaches you how to be a decent human being.

The smart ones are jumping ship, before being sucked further into this oppressive and deceitful organization. Airmen are now being taught they have no rights, and that speaking out against something they believe to be wrong will land them in serious trouble, if not legal proceedings. Is this really what we want for our Air Force? Are these really the people we want leading our military? How can you expect Airmen to defend the freedoms of others if they don’t even think they have those freedoms themselves? We’re told we’re ‘powered by innovation’ but that only applies to innovative ideas that fit neatly inside the box the Air Force has decided to be acceptable variance from the status quo. Please.

So, that’s it for me. I refuse to further my career and become a boot-licking E-9 who cares more about his golf game and apparent compliance than he does about his Airmen. The E-9 who no longer wants to be the gritty, crusty, cranky top enlisted member who bucks the system when things are wrong, making sure there is a balance between the bureaucracy of the officer corps and the (fading) irreverence of the blue-collar NCO corps. I mean, let’s be honest … I’d never make it that far. Those positions are now reserved for the box-checkers. The people who start stepping on people early in their career and who have no idea what it means to be a true leader. This is what has become of my Air Force, and it breaks my heart.

With all of that said, and with absolutely no respect whatsoever (since none is due), I submit my resignation. May God have mercy on the future generations of Airmen, and on the awesome and powerful mission entrusted to this Air Force.

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