Because you’re worth it !

Yesterday the New York Times posted a story titled: “Researchers or Corporate Allies? Think Tanks Blur the Line”.

[…] Think tanks, which position themselves as “universities without students,” have power in government policy debates because they are seen as researchers independent of moneyed interests. But in the chase for funds, think tanks are pushing agendas important to corporate donors, at times blurring the line between researchers and lobbyists. And they are doing so while reaping the benefits of their tax-exempt status, sometimes without disclosing their connections to corporate interests.

Thousands of pages of internal memos and confidential correspondence between Brookings and other donors — like JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank; K.K.R., the global investment firm; Microsoft, the software giant; and Hitachi, the Japanese conglomerate — show that financial support often came with assurances from Brookings that it would provide “donation benefits,” including setting up events featuring corporate executives with government officials, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting. (link)

As a person who has floated though the disconcerting world of Think Tank politics, the Times article was a worthy notation not only because of the substance within it, but also -and perhaps more aptly- because in the world of intellectual property amalgamation such a news article (research proposition) doesn’t just happen organically as a matter of happenstance.

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The latest Islamic Jihad attack against Western values took place yesterday in Nice, France.  Eye witnesses have reported the driver of the truck specifically targeted families with children, steering into them for maximum Jihadist terror value.  At least 80 men, women and children have been slaughtered.

Two weeks before yesterday, the attack location was an Istanbul Turkey, airport.  Last month it was an Orlando, Florida, nightclub.  In the month prior it was Brussels, and before that San Bernardino, and before that Paris, and before that, well, you get the picture… (more…)

Two specialized military planes crashing in coincidental unrelated incidents, one in Colorado (Thunderbirds) and a second in Tennessee (Blue Angels).
In the Tennessee incident, a U.S. Navy Blue Angels jet crashed just after takeoff for a practice flight in Smyrna.  The pilot was killed. (link)

In the second incident, a U.S. Air Force elite Thunderbird jet crashed during a flyover for the Air Force Academy’s graduation ceremony near Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. The Air Force confirmed the crash of the F-16.
The pilot managed to eject safely before the crash, Air Combat Command confirmed. (link)

President Obama commemorates Memorial Day and honors our nation’s fallen patriots in remarks at Arlington National Cemetery, May 30, 2016:

First Lts. Andrew Yacovone and Justin Wright formed a musical duo called Interstate 10, and this week they released a music video from Afghanistan.
These same army rangers (currently stationed in Afghanistan) are guitarists who wrote and performed the song “Hometown Hero” last year, and they have another song out this week, called “I’m Gonna Miss You,” just in time for Memorial Day.

A poll of active military personnel conducted by Military Times shows Donald Trump with more than a 2-to-1 lead within the military service community.  We actually saw the first statistical evidence of this surface in the Virginia Republican Primary:

(Via Military Times) In a new survey of American military personnel, Donald Trump emerged as active-duty service members’ preference to become the next U.S. president, topping Hillary Clinton by more than a 2-to-1 margin. However, in the latest Military Times election survey, more than one in five troops said they’d rather not vote in November if they have to choose between just those two candidates. (more…)

Texas Independence Day

March 2, 1836

By Elvis Chupacabra

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When I was a mere lad, Texas Independence Day was celebrated in schools with patriotic songs, readings of the Declaration by schoolkids and grave lectures on our role as Texans by our teachers. Even the Mexican kids participated, because anyone who’d read the  hallowed rolls of the Alamo and Goliad dead knew that there were plenty of martyrs with Spanish surnames. We also knew of Lorenzo de Zavala and Juan Seguin, both Texian heroes of the Revolution.

It was understood by the youngest of us that Texas went from being just the mostly empty northern part of the Mexican state of Cohuila-Texas to the independent Republic of Texas with the signing of this document. Like the beloved United States, from whence the spirit -and some would say impetus – of revolution had come, we won our right to be free through the force of arms, wielded by brave and bold men. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the despot which our Texas Forefathers overthrew was ever bit as evil and prone to predations as Britain’s George III. His one saving grace, that he invented that most American of oral fixations, chewing gum, was more than off-set by his cruelty and duplicitous nature. The self-proclaimed Napoleon of the North, he boasted an army well-officered and well-equipped that had spent the past couple of years putting down rebellions in Mexico. It wasn’t just the Texians who longed for the return to a government who respected the liberal Constitution of 1824.  (more…)

The U.S. State Department released more of Hillary Clinton’s emails today.  One of those emails is noted as originating on March 22nd 2011, the exact day President Obama launched the attacks on Libya.

The newly released email confirms what many already knew – it was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power who convinced President Obama to go to war in Libya:

“Turning POTUS around on this is a major win for everything we worked for”..

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Let us all hope the good people of New Hampshire spot the insufferable and poorly briefed politicians who want to lead the nation.

In a recent South Carolina GOP debate Jeb Bush talked about trade with China and showed how much he relies on briefings by his team to create his talking points. Bush did not realize Boeing was moving a manufacturing plant to China, and with it American Jobs – SEE HERE

Similarly, last night in New Hampshire, to bolster his propositions about eminent domain, Governor Jeb Bush made the gobsmacking assertion the Keystone Pipeline project was a “public use” project.

It isn’t.

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