The growing threat of ISIL

 

 

"Silence like a cancer grows..."

One of the few things I agree with POTUS on is what to call this new group of terrorists in the Middle East. Some call them ISIS and others call them ISIL. I believe the correct name is ISIL as the "L" stands for Levant. In ISIS, the second "S" stands for Syria. This terror group has their eyes on the ancient territory of Levant, of which Syria is only a part. However what we have seen as of late, is ISIL has their eyes on territories far beyond Levant.

What has been the most amazing to me has not been the speed of how fast this group has grown, nor the extent of it's butchery - it has been the deafening silence of the world in response to it. For many, it is the "head in the sand" posture which was shown in the 1930's when the evil of fascism first started to show it's ugly face. Today, the United Nations is mute and the United States has only been tinkering on the margins. Meanwhile, innocents in regions who are threatened by ISIL, are looking for real help - help right now.

Today it was reported that terror cells inside of Egypt want to join ISIL. It was also reported that elements of this terror group had infiltrated the Egyptian government. More and more violence is now showing up in the Egyptian homeland. Pakistan is also on the radar for ISIL. The same story reports that ISIL has made some inroads within that country. What does that mean? Two countries, one which borders the southern flank of Israel and the other which is a nuclear power, are in ISIL's sights. This portends bad things for an already troubled region.

Last weekend a pundit was asked on one of the news shows what our posture should be with ISIL. The response was quick and to the point. "We are a super power, right? The key words are 'super' and 'power'. We need to exercise the Powell Doctrine. We need to go in with overwhelming force and eliminate this threat. We have the power to do it, but obviously not the will."

Just prior to World War II, by the time the world realized the Nazi threat, it was almost too late. Like a cancer, it had grown. The groupthink was, "If we just ignore it, it will go away." Appeasement and tolerance. That did not work then, and it will not work now. Right now, the only people who are willing to "stand in the gap" with ISIL are the Kurds. Outnumbered, and out gunned. As brave as the Kurds are, we need to be the ones who will save the day. We know how to do it. Our military has the training. It is just our leaders who do not.

And we live here why?

 

 

"This once lovely state has now become a mecca for the strange and stranger. We even have a pirate who runs for statewide office..."

As time has gone by, it seems more and more fitting that our state bird is the Loon. For some reason unbeknownst to me, this state attracts loony people like moths to a lantern. With the weather forecast for tomorrow looking about as bleak as a case of strep throat, I have been lost in my thoughts about our great state of Minnesota. My thinking has boiled down to one question - why in the world do we still live here?

Some thoughts:

Politics - What in the world has happened to the clear thinking people in this state? In particular, the Twin Cities. Minneapolis has elected a first class loon to be it's mayor, and the city council is made up of people who think they live in Leningrad. This state has high taxes and intrusive government. With the exception of an island of sanity in Congressional District 6, most of the rest of the state is lost in the land of euphoria. This is so sad. There is not one Republican who runs for anything in Minneapolis. In fact, in the Twin Cities, Republicans have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

Weather -  On November 11, 1940 (just about 74 years ago to the day), a major snowstorm hit the Midwest. It caught many deer hunters unaware and unprepared. Over two feet of snow, strong winds and cold in early November. And of course, most of us remember the now famous Halloween Blizzard of 1991. That left us with almost three feet of snow. The storm which is going to hit tomorrow has the potential to be in the record books along with fore mentioned other two storms. Last year we had a winter which stretched from November to May. It really sucked. Lots of snow, lots of cold. As a former co-worker of mine once said, "In Minnesota you only grow three things - older, colder and fatter." 

Welfare - Minnesota is a welfare state. Has been for a while, and continues to be so. I know - this is a controversial thing to say. However, many believe it to be true. There are facts which bear it out. Not too many years ago, people who came to the Twin Cities from Detroit and Chicago would refer to our homeland as "Moneyapolis". Lovely and touching. Today, we have a very large number of Somali people living in South Minneapolis. Is it the climate? I don't think so - go back to my second bullet. In fact, I would hazard a guess to say our state's climate is about as far away from Somalia as one could get. Why do they come here in such large numbers? One can only speculate.

Met Council - I could have put this under politics, but it is so bad it needed a bullet of it's own. If left unchecked, this unelected, unrepentant group of Marxists will finish the job the DFL has started. How so? If you have not read Thrive 2040 yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. Thrive 2040 will kill off our remaining freedoms. It will have us all living vertically downtown. We will take trains everywhere. All our energy will come from renewable sources. We will eat tofu instead of animal products. Cats and dogs will be granted "personhood". Our lives will be nothing but sunshine and lolly pops. This is Fahrenheit 451 and Soylent Green rolled into one. If we had the stones to elect a Republican Governor, the guts would be stripped out of the Met Council. But we did not. If fact, it has become incestuous. The Mayor of Minneapolis is married to a member of the council. Beam me up Scottie! 

So, why do I still live here? That subject is a growing conversation between my wife and myself. Right now, I see no light at the end of the tunnel. In fact when I look down the tunnel, all I see is blue. And that blue is getting bluer all the time.  

America under attack!

 

 

 

"On top of everything else we need to worry about, we have this..."

Years ago, we developed what was known as a neutron bomb. A very lethal weapon, it was designed to do only one thing - kill people while leaving infrastructure intact. It was thought by the planners that we could kill the "human vermin" and leave the infrastructure intact for the victors. It was a bad idea, and fortunately, it was never used.

Today we have a new and potentially more lethal threat. It too, is intended to kill, cripple or disable people while leaving infrastructure intact. What is it? Cyber attacks. If you have been paying attention, cyber attacks on our country are increasing at an increasing rate. Who or what is being targeted? Just about everything. And who is doing the attacks? This is an interesting question. We are being attacked by an uncoordinated force of the Russian government, the Chinese government, the Russian mob, terrorists and individual pranksters, foreign and domestic.

We heard on the news this past week the security breach at Home Depot was much more extensive than what was suspected. This attack was probably done by hackers off shore in order to gain credit or debit information which could in turn be sold on the dark web. When Target had their breach, it took Target security a painfully long time to discover it. During that time, valuable credit card information was stolen. After the breach was announced, Target lost sales as well as the confidence of shoppers. It cost Target a mint. Was it Target's fault? Not really - it could have happened to just about any store.

On the news this morning, a national cyber security expert said something which was very interesting and frightening at the same time. The Russians have been probing our banks, electrical grid, as well as other infrastructure elements for months now. Some think the Russians have even set "cyber bombs" which when triggered, would send out malicious code designed to disable the net. The question was asked of the expert, "Why would they do this?" His answer was simple and blunt. "If the Russians do something, like maybe invade Chechnya, and if we tried to stop them, the Russians could activate the 'cyber bombs' causing us extensive mayhem and expense. They could do it without leaving home, and without even firing a shot."

Think about that for a minute. The greatest power on Earth, brought to it's knees by computer code. This is the stuff of science fiction not too many years ago. Today it is science. Think for a minute if the Russians targeted our electrical grid. Our electrical grid is our lynchpin. Without electricity, nothing works. Water is not pumped through pipelines, natural gas is not pumped through pipelines, electricity does not come into homes, and so on. Everyone's primary focus will go from working a 40 hour week to just plain staying alive. Trying not to freeze to death, die of dehydration, starve, you name it.

More on this to come in the upcoming weeks and months. This is on my radar now as more and more I am reading about these attacks, or hearing it discussed on the news. Who knows - we may be doing the same thing to the Russians. In any event, it is bad rice. It is taking away the very necessities people need to stay alive. Welcome to the brave new world of 1984, lived all over again.  

The Road Ahead

 

 

"The road ahead is either full of opportunities, or fraught with danger and pitfalls..."

Even after the historic butt kicking the Republicans took in 2008, when looking at the political map of the United States, there was more red than blue. Not much, but still more red. In most years, the map is always predominantly red. Today, the map is bright red, and it looks good that way. Some pundits think it will take the Democrats a generation to recover and get back to the 2008 baseline. We shall see. I am much more concerned about the road ahead as we march into 2015.

Often times in the morning I like to snoop around behind enemy lines and see what the groupthink is. My favorite venue to do that is watching a bit of Morning Joe on MSNBC. I know, I know - it is not easy. However, I do it for the team. It gives me good material to use in some of my morning blog articles.

Today, the show had on the former Mayor of Cincinnati and astute political prognosticator - Jerry Springer. A lifelong Leftie (hard to believe that after seeing his show a few times), Dr. Springer was very pensive yet optimistic when discussing the future of the Democrats. "Oh, we will be back. This was an off-year election and our base stayed home. The angry people came out to vote. This country is very left leaning. We may lose battles, but we are winning the war."

Is he right or wrong? I think he could be right if the Republicans screw this up (again). We have asked the American people to let the adults to be back in charge, to let us drive the car. Now we have to show the country we know how to drive. We need to handle the President in the same adroit manner Bill Clinton handled the Republicans after the 1994 election. He was able to play nice, keep the country happy, and still get done mostly what he wanted. Rather than using a frontal attack, Clinton was able to work the margins, and he worked them well.

I will say this again. A losing hand would be to immediately pass a bill to overturn ObamaCare. That would backfire. The best way to kill this program is to do it one piece at a time. First start with something easy, like the Medical Device Tax. Get some basic agreements from Democrats, and then kill that tax. Next, eliminate the IRS from ObamaCare enforcement. They have betrayed the trust of the American people. Should be easy to get bi-partisan support for that one. Then keep going, piece by piece. Soon, it will fall under it's own weight.

To travel down the road ahead, we must be cunning, nimble and smart. The Administration as well as their Lap Dog Press, is chomping at the bit to tell the American people we are losers, and they made a mistake letting us drive. I hope history shows this election to be a real turning point for our country. Not just the road ahead, but also the journey back to our values. It is up to us to make sure our honest brokers stay honest. If they fail, we all fail.

Ups and Downs

 

 

"Life is always full of ups and downs.  This week, much more so..."

As some know by now, yesterday turned out to be a sad and an unusual day. Coming home from a relaxing three day "recharge" on the North Shore, my wife received a phone call that her Father had just passed away. He was almost 91 and sick with pneumonia. Although not totally unexpected, it was still a shock. We will now spend time grieving, getting his possessions stored from his apartment, and then planning his memorial service.

Prior to getting the news about my wife's Father, I was deep in thought about the election. To say the least, I was very, very confused. I was ecstatic about how smart and strategic the Republicans were this year as compared to years passed. Coupled with the fact the President is more unpopular than Ebola, this set the table for a Republican tsunami. Even though the other side expected something bad, the magnitude of the victory left many on the other side shocked and dismayed.

Besides my glee knowing there is hope for our nation, I was speechless to what has happened to our fine state. We have gone from a politically blended state to hopelessly progressive. Even the pundits are now putting us in the same class as New York and California. Looking at the political map, we are an island of blue surrounded by a sea of red. This state, this beautiful state I have spent my entire life in, seems to be lost.

If not for the metro area, every election statewide election would have a "red" result. However, the Twin Cities makes it almost impossible for a highly a qualified Republican to win anything. This election, we had some highly qualified people running for Governor as the Constitutional Offices. All of them lost. They lost to people significantly less qualified. They lost because many in the Twin Cities would vote for Bullwinkle the Moose if he was on the DFL ticket.

Somehow this state managed enough pockets of red to squeeze out a Republican majority in the House. That is a good thing. Just like our National Congress now being in friendly hands, we can only hope the Minnesota Republicans are smart enough to set the table for a Republican takeover of the Minnesota Senate in two years.

So now that the dust has settled from the election, we wait until January when it is "go time". I really, really hope the Republicans get their strategy trump tight this time around. They need to hit the ground running. And, they need to do it without looking like zealots to the general public. History is being written right now. Lets hope it is the kind of history we will like reading about.   

National D-Day

 

 

"Even though the stock market has shown artificial gains, the nation as a whole has become poorer. Today, we can start to turn that around!"

Here it is. The day many of us have waited so long for and worked so hard for. Even though this is an off-year election, the stakes could not be higher. This man, who has fooled so many of us during the past two Presidential elections, is acting like a caged Lion. It is suspected that after the mid-terms over are over, he will unleash everything he has on the American people. Having the House in Republican hands has helped to a degree - however, we need the Senate in friendly hands also. If the Senate stays under Harry Reid, this nation might suffer damage which can never be reversed.

It has taken quite a while, but more and more people are finally starting to wake up. So much so, the President's approval ratings seem to go down another notch every day. Most people believe the country is going in the wrong direction. Most people believe the economy is still in the tank. Most people don't like ObamaCare. Most people don't think we are handling ISIL the right way. And most people think our Ebola policy is non-existent.

We don't need anymore Supreme Court Justices like Ruth Ginsburg running around the world telling other countries not to use our Constitution as an example. Our SCOTUS right now is half Loony Tunes. In the next two years, a progressive Senate would allow the President to really "stack the deck" in the courts. Even though he would be gone in two years, the unpleasant aftertaste of his progressive ideology would last for many years to come.

Rather than deadlock, a friendly Senate would break the logjam of bills sitting on Harry Reid's desk. Instead of looking dysfunctional, our government would start to work again. If the President chooses to veto good common sense legislation, that will be on him.

I will be watching the results tonight, sitting on pins and needles. If the Republican's take the Senate, my only fear will be that once again they screw something up. You know, Republicans not acting like Republicans. However I am hopeful Republicans have learned from their past mistakes. If the Republican's don't take the Senate, things will go from bad to worse. Much, much worse. 

Monolithic Voting Blocks

 

 

"Voting is a privilege in this country. Nobody should tell us how to vote."

One of the things we value the most in our country is the right to vote. We can vote for whomever we want to. If we don't like the people on the ballot, we can either leave it blank, or write someone's name in. Heck, you can even write your own name in if you choose.

That brings me to the Democrat's "get out the vote" campaign. What I am about to tell you are not my words. They are words I have been hearing from countless Democrats as well as many people in the media. The biggest fear the Democrats have this election, as this is not a Presidential year, is the black vote will not materialize.

In other words, everyone takes for granted blacks will vote as a block for Democrats. They are monolithic. In the past, they have voted over 90% for the Democrats. Not too long ago, a young and very smart black man was interviewed on one the news channels. He was not a happy camper. First off, he was not happy with the Democrats. He felt the Democrats always believed the black vote was in "the back pocket". Democrats took the black vote for granted. Besides all of which, this young man did not think the Democratic Party had done spit for them. Poverty in black families was still high as was unemployment.

By the same token, he was also unhappy with the Republicans. It has been so long since blacks in any numbers have voted Republican, this young man believed Republicans had "written them off". This young man's words: "I feel as if I am in 'no man's' land. There is no party I can identify with, so I don't have a party which I can support." 

After hearing the interview, I went outside to do some chores. I could not get that young man out of my mind. If I were a black man, I would be insulted, and very angry if a political party always assumed I would vote for their candidate, even if that person was a mutt. I have addressed this before - I have worked with, and served with, many people of color. I have not seen a smidgen of evidence that one race is smarter than the other. Empirical tests have also proven that fact - time and time again.

All people, regardless of national background, color of skin, religion, or whatever, should be allowed to vote for the person most qualified. Period. Yes, believe it or not, in my life I have voted for a split ticket. It has been awhile however, as Democrats of yesteryear and not like Democrats of today. In any event, I don't take people of color for granted when it comes to employment, education or voting. And as far as I am concerned, neither should the DNC.