Love Your Country, But Don't Trust Your Government - Yet Another Reason For Me

There comes a point when enough is enough and the Government, in my humble opinion, has clearly abused its authority for no known rational reason.  As a pilot, I have the potential to personally become a victim of this abuse of authority.  I am actually more concerned that this is the government acting without any legal authority, it is the “because we can” authority, and that may be even worse.  Allow me to explain the situation.

Two men from New York City were flying in single-engine private plane on May 1, 2013.  The pair was on a business trip flying from New Jersey to California.  They landed in Oklahoma and were briefly detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Homeland Security Officers who looked through the plane.  The inquiries were relatively unobtrusive and the pilot and passenger thought little of it. It was not until May 5, 2013, when the pair landed in Iowa City, Iowa that something went awry.    They are in the real estate business and make these flights routinely.  They landed in Iowa City for a scheduled refueling stop when they were descended upon by CBP’s Air and Marine Operations Unit, Homeland Security and local police.  The flight was on an Instrument Flight Plan and had been tracked by Air Traffic Controllers throughout the trip.  That is how CBP knew where and when to stop and search the aircraft.

Police held the pilot, passenger and their plane for over two hours while they searched every compartment and crevice on the plane and every piece of luggage and container on it.  These officials then left all of the aircraft compartments, luggage, contents and other items open and on the tarmac for the pilot and passenger to clean up.  Officials refused to answer any questions put to them by the pilot.  They would not explain what they were looking for, why they had chosen this aircraft or the grounds on which the search was based.  They just stated, with no further explanation, that the pilot had no choice.  To describe the search as “intrusive” is an understatement.  When the pilot raised objections to CBP’s actions, the pilot was given only three options:  wait inside the airport office, wait quietly outside or be detained in handcuffs.

The pilot has never been convicted of a crime, is an observant Jew and has never used drugs and there is no reason to believe they were involved in any criminal activity at the time of this search.  The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, of which I and over 400,000 others are members, have received reports of similar occurrences in approximately a dozen cases.  Aircraft have been stopped from taking off and were searched by CBT, having never left nor re-entered the country.

Now, the last time I checked, Customs and Border Protection was responsible for, well, customs and border protection.  Why would CBT have any jurisdiction to stop and search this, or any other aircraft, similarly situated?  This was a domestic flight that never left the country at any time.  They were not entering the country.  Last I heard; smuggling illegal aliens from New Jersey to California was not big business; they have enough undocumented workers there already.   I think they have some explaining to do, and should be made to do so, in front of a Federal Judge, if necessary.

Let me put this situation in terms closer to home.  You and your business partner are on a business trip in your car.  You stop at a gas station and are suddenly surrounded by armed men wearing uniforms of Customs and Border Protection.  They order you to open all the doors, the trunk and the engine compartment.   You are not asked, you are ordered.  They tell you, if you object; they will just handcuff you and do it anyway.  These CBP Officers then proceed to open the glove box, the center console and empty the contents onto the ground.  They remove the seats from the car and throw them on the ground.  They remove your luggage from the trunk, open it and also empty this onto the ground as they go through each item.  They search the engine compartment.  They will not tell you why they are searching your vehicle, what they are searching for or what gives them the right or authority to do this.  They inform you that your repeated objections are obstructing them and they will either arrest you or just handcuff you to shut you up.  When they are finished, they just get in their cars and leave, leaving all your stuff on the ground at the gas station for you to clean up.

Think about how you would feel if you were the victim of this action.  After it is all over, you want answers, so you make Freedom of Information Requests regarding the actions and any legal justification.  Months, or even years, later, you get one of two responses; a terse statement that they don’t have to provide you any information on the grounds of “National Security;” or, you get a written reply that is more black than white because they have blacked out 80% of all the information on the page with a black magic marker, and the 80% is anything that would give you any inkling of what is going on.  Oh, and they don’t even tell you why they have the right to invoke a “National Security” exemption.  Now you are left to sue them in Federal Court.  They laugh at you because they will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money, not their money, to keep you in Court until you are flat broke.

I fly a private airplane.  I love to fly, and I love to travel, but flying and traveling has become less enjoyable because, in spite of the fact that I do nothing wrong, I am targeted because I am a pilot, own a plane and someone in the government apparently takes exception to this.

20/20 Hindsight Can Be Amazing - Even In Economics

I was recently sent this 1934 Chicago Tribune Cartoon by one of my Teapublican friends.  Contrary to what some might think, I actually do have people I consider good friends that are Teapublicans. We have agreed to disagree and try not to discuss politics, certain theories of eugenics.  I politely nod at them when they break this tacit agreement and try to shift the conversation to something on which we can agree.

The interesting thing about this carton is that the advice in the lower left corner actually worked; not in the short term, but ultimately it worked, and not in the abstract . WWII resulted in the greatest deficit spending in the history of the US. This was a result of massive demand created by WWII.  It became the greated public works program the world has ever seen.  We made everything from guns and airplanes, bombs and ammunition to clothing and parachutes.  We sent all this stuff, not to mention a lot of men and women, off to war.  It got blown up or otherwise destroyed and had to be replaced.  There was demand on a massive scale and that demand for war materials not only jump-started the economy, but pushed it into high gear.

WWII is proof positive that the US economy is demand driven. Not only did WWII provide for a way out of the Depression, but also started the longest period of economic growth and prosperity the US has ever seen. It was not "trickle-down" anything, it was DEMAND! The war created demand, the government, by absolute necessity, had to become the biggest consumer.  Because the US was literally fighting for the survival of a way of life, we didn't care how often, nor how much, we over drafted the government checking account.

The conservative ideologues, Teapublicans, that believe we should give tax breaks to the rich and Corporate America are fooling themselves, or just lying.  Give a rich man or a corporation a tax break, absent someone to buy his goods or services, he puts the money in the bank and waits. Sure, they can invest the money, but without demand, it is just a cash reserve; it sits somewhere waiting for demand to create the need for more production and expansion. 

If we give someone that is living from paycheck to paycheck a tax break, he spends the money and creates demand, which causes the corporation to make more products or provide more services.  It is not exactly rocket science.  The fancy term is Keynesian Economics, named for John Maynard Keynes, who in 1999 was named one of Time Magazine’s 100-most influential people of the 20^th Century. 

 

Interestingly enough, George W. Bush, a patron saint of neo-conservatism, used Keynesian economic theory as the underpinnings of his response to the economic crisis of 2007-2008 [Insert Teapublican gasp here].  Yes Teapublicans, even George figured out that the Laffer Curve had long-since been debunked, a worthless, if warm and fuzzy feeling, theory.

So, while we wait for the Teapublicans to crash the economy if they don’t get their way, they send around a cartoon that proves the point they think is evil, rude, immoral, unethical and, probably, fattening.  Amazing!

Teapublicans Can't Have It Both Ways

One of the things of which you may have been aware, unless you are living on a desert island in the South Pacific or under the proverbial rock, is that the Teapublicans have closed down the government. Yes, the Teapublicans, or Tea Party faction of the Republican Party, are the primary, mostly responsible party in the government shut down. I have already sent handwritten letters to my Senators and Representatives, stating simply, "I hold them responsible, I vote and I will remember this!" Of course I got back what can only be described as B*LLSH*T, thanking me for my input, but basically dismissing me.

The thing that looms large in the very, very near future is the Debt Ceiling. The Teapublicans again, want to hold this hostage like an eight-year-old on a playground.  If we don't get our way, we will take our ball and go home. Actually, a more accurate description is the Teapublicans have doused themselves and the country in gasoline and they are holding a lighter in their hand threatening to burn the country to the ground if they do not get their way. Sure, they will perish, but they will take everyone and everything with them. Well, actually, that's not quite accurate, if you believe them, which I don't....

The Teapublicans tell us on one hand that they will reduce the country and the economy to ruins if ObamaCare isn't unfunded, if the rich don't get more tax breaks and if the United States is not taken back to the 19th Century, politically. However, they also want to try to make sure that they don't look like the complete flaming (pardon the pun) morons they are. So, they also argue that if they do cause the United States to default, it won't be such a bad thing. Denial is a wonderful thing and clearly there is no one so blind as one who will not see.

The Teapublicans expect to bring rational, reasonable people to their knees by threatening an economic holocaust, but then, in the same breath, claim it will have little or no impact on the country. This is one of the worst, and most obvious, examples of complete hypocrisy I have seen in a quite some time. It is the classic politics of threatening to do bad things if they don't get their way, but then, if the bad thing happens, well, it won't be very bad.

So, which is it Tea Party? You won't raise the Debt Ceiling and crash the economy if you don't get your way, or it won't crash the economy? You are engaged in a pointless act that will accomplish nothing, by your own logic. Well, it may have one advantage; people in this country may figure out that the Teapublicans are bunch of raving lunatics who, like Lemmings, will follow each other off a cliff and possibly not see a majority in either house of the Legislature for several decades. Hey, past Republican shutdowns have gotten us Democratic Majorities in both Houses of Congress and Bill Clinton re-elected. Do these idiots never learn?

TeaPublicans: Give Us What We Want, or We'll Pick Up Our Ball and Go Home !

We live in an admittedly politically polarized society.  However, I would submit that the Left (note capital ‘L’) has remained where it always has been, at least since the Roosevelt administration, while the Right (capital ‘R’) has moved toward an ever-increasing conservative position on the political continuum.   This has resulted in an unfortunate set of situations that I believe have become quite obvious.  However, there are other, significantly less obvious, unfortunate situations that have resulted.

The unfortunate situation is the requirement for split loyalties within the Republican Party.  It goes like this.  The Republican Party has been taken over, in part, by the ultra-Conservative, neo-fascist, Right Wing of the Party.  I refer to them as TeaPublicans.  However, this takeover is not country-wide.  The TeaPublicans are very important to Republicans when it comes to primary elections.  A Republican cannot get re-elected without the support of TeaPublicans, so he or she is beholden to them to keep his job.  If he does not toe the line, he ends up with competition in the primary where the TeaPublicans can defeat the less conservative and, I think, more reasonable and rational of the two.  So TeaPublicans can control the vote of any individual Senator or Representative at the local level.

However, the interests of the Republican Party, as a whole, may be more country-wide.  Yet if an individual elected official votes with these National Interests of the Party, they vote against the demands of the TeaPublicans.  To do what is good for the Republican Party in general, but they have to vote in a way that the local interests perceive as wrong and, in some cases, as literally traitorous.  The TeaPublicans hold the individual members hostage.  You get to choose whether to do what’s good for the whole Party or what’s good for you to get re-elected.

Let us examine the debt ceiling issue.  TeaPublicans demand that the debt ceiling be held hostage to an effort to defund ObamaCare.  Most legitimate polls indicate the Republican Party will suffer incredible losses in poll numbers, as high as 79%, if the Party forces a government shutdown.  However, individual Senators and Representatives will suffer horribly at the polls in their individual districts, if they do what is in the best interest of the Republican Party as a whole and vote not to shut down the government.  This would require the unfunding of ObamaCare provision to be dropped from the Continuing Funding Resolution as it is currently proposed.

Current estimates are that almost 80% of the electorate will hold the Republican Party directly responsible for a government shutdown.  This will translate into a near inability to win the Presidential election in 2016.  It is possible the TeaPublicans may maintain control of the House of Representatives based on this semi-suicidal tactic, but it brands the Republican Party as weak and helpless against this neo-fascist, ultra-conservative Right Wing of the Party. 

A shutdown of the Federal Government is certainly not an unheard of event, but the shutdowns of 1995-96 and 2011, as a result of extreme partisan bickering caused the credit rating of the United States to be taken now a notch; leaving us in about the same place as Belgium, but below Great Britain and Australia, known as the “AAA Club.”  The political bickering and enduring partisanship caused Standard and Poor’s to doubt the stability of the U.S. Economy and took away a valuable asset, that AAA-rating.  This has had an enduring effect on both the Economy and financial markets, and is likely to have a deleterious effect on the fragile economic recovery currently underway.

Unfortunately, the TeaPublicans, like bullies playing ball on a schoolyard, will pick up their ball and go home if they don’t get exactly what they want, the consequences be damned. Then they will try to blame the Democratic Party (yes, that’s Democratic, not Democrat…use the language correctly morons), but very few people are going to buy into it and it just may guarantee a Democratic President in 2016.  Naaahhhhh, it still ain’t worth it.

We Don't Need Gun Control in this Country, We Need People Control

I have written many times about guns and gun control, and I will not bore you with more of the same here.  Review the index of this blog and you can find them easy enough.  However, once again, we have had a shooting that appalls the greater world and, as usual, there have been a multitude of comments.

I believe this incident, yet again, proves the point that "gun control" is an unfortunate battle cry of my brethren Liberals that, in the end, will not accomplish much.  This horrific shooting incident is an example of something that would have happened in spite of the most stringent gun controls that have been proposed in this country.

Each and every time we have a shooting anything like the one at the Navy Yard, or Newtown or Aurora or any number of other so-called “mass” shootings, people, most of them Liberals like me, come out of the woodwork to tell us, “See, I told you so…  We should ban guns!”  The Conservatives, and especially members of the NRA, and the NRA itself, also come out of the woodwork to tell us, “See, I told you so… If someone had been carrying a lawful concealed firearm, they could have stopped this.”  I do not believe either of these positions is correct.  Allow me to go through a few facts, as we know them right this minute (note:  The matter is still under investigation.  The facts have already changed…a couple of times.  They will change again, I am sure.)

Initial reports regarding the shooting would have had us believe Aaron Alexis, the shooter, was armed with the dreaded AR-15 assault rifle.  He was not; he was armed with a Remington, Model 870, 12- gauge, pump-action shotgun.  I suspect that the anti-gun-side of the issue desperately wanted it to be the AR-15 so they could scream “assault weapons ban” at the top of their lungs.  I am intimately familiar with both of these weapons and happen to own both.  You are about to learn more than you ever wanted to know about a particular shotgun. 

The Remington 870 is, as I said, a pump-action shotgun.  The shooter must pull the trigger to fire the shot, and then pull the forearm back to eject the fired shell and then push it forward to load another live round, then, as they say, lather, rinse, repeat.  The gun is not an automatic weapon, nor is it a semi-automatic weapon (sorry, you will have to use Google for the differences).  The Remington 870 shotgun was designed in 1951 and there have been over 10 million produced.  There is a saying, said in jest by members of the gun-owning community, every male over the age of 25, if they own a gun or guns, will own a Remington 870.  In the firearms-owning community, they are virtually ubiquitous.

The 870 comes in various types and styles; The Wingmaster, Express, Marine, SPS, SPS-T, XCS, TAC, Super Mag and MCS.  Suffice it to say that there are variants of the weapon from bird-shooting models to tactical combat versions.  In the military, in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, a seldom understood place), I carried an 870 shotgun in addition to the ubiquitous M16-A1 assault rifle, for close encounters with the enemy.  As a police officer, I used the 870 “Riot Gun” version of this shotgun (supplied by the police department) and own both the "Wingmaster" for bird hunting and “Deerslayer” model for hunting small to medium-sized game animals.  The point of all this is, with just a few changes, the same shotgun can be adapted for hunting, police or military combat uses.  Just FYI, the model 870 can hold anywhere from six to eight rounds (“shots”).  This is not a high-capacity magazine by anyone’s definition.

Mr. Alexis was able to use this commonly available firearm to go on a shooting rampage and kill 12 people.  He did not need the now-reviled assault weapon or high-capacity magazine to be a very effective killing machine.  Before you start using this as a justification for banning all firearms, check out my previous blog post on why that will not work  (GUN CONTROL IN THE U.S. – KINDA LIKE BEING JUST A LITTLE PREGNANT?, March 16, 2012).

Now that we know what kind of gun he used, let us look at the tactics.  He took up a position four floors above what amounts to a food court/dining area and started blasting away.  At some point, police and armed security in hot pursuit, he shot an armed security officer and took his gun.  He used his Navy combat training to know to scavenge another weapon from the “downed” enemy. I would argue that he could have just as easily approached an unsuspecting security officer or police officer with a concealed knife, stabbed him or her, and taken their firearm.  The element of surprise was the most effective weapon he had to arm himself, not necessarily the firearm (See my blog post: TRAYVON MARTIN’S DEATH….THERE ARE THINGS WE MUST LEARN, April 10, 2012, especially No. 3, for more relevant information about armed encounters).

Let us review:  Anti-gunners, Alexis used one of the single most commonly available shotguns on the planet to kill a significant number of people. This was a hunting shotgun that no one has proposed banning. He did not use an assault weapon, nor high-capacity magazines to inflict these casualties.  Under the most stringent gun control regulations  proposed in this country, this weapon would have been available from any gun shop. This shooting occurred in Washington, D.C., where, arguably, the most stringent gun control laws in the country exist.  It is not possible to ban all guns in this country and you don’t need an assault weapon to kill a lot of people.  Using a shotgun, Alexis did not even need to be a good shot.  They call it a scatter-gun for a reason. Personal note: As a cop, I always said I would rather face a man with a pistol because I had a chance that he might miss.  If gun control eliminates pistols, bad guys will use shotguns and then they don’t even have to be good shots to kill me, but that is just me.

Pro-gunners; Alexis used deadly force to kill and disarm an individual, a security officer, carrying a legal firearm.  He then turned this stolen firearm on others.  It can be argued that an individual with a concealed firearm might have been able to use the element of surprise against Alexis and shoot him before Alexis knew the individual was armed, but that engages in a series of “what if’s” that are pretty far-fetched.  Anyone with a gun, concealed or otherwise, would have it drawn and at the ready, even if they were carrying it concealed to begin with, and this man was killing indiscriminately. Police and security brought weapons to the fight; once they got shot and/or killed their guns could be used against them or others.

As I started this blog post, this incident would have happened in spite of even the most stringent gun control legislation ever proposed.  The only thing that will stop gun violence is people control.  This guy was nuts.  Everbody knew he was nuts, inclduing the police, but he was able to buy a shotgun, in spite of a so-called "background check."  While the background check makes us feel better, it is a false sense of security as currently implemented, and is is worse than useless.

God, I Hate Bigots With Rights

Pastor Terry Jones, the pastor and shepherd of the small flock of The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL, has been caught, yet again, making an effort to burn the Quran.  Exactly 2,998 Qurans, to be exact.  I am not sure if he thinks this number is somehow Divine or if the good reverend just can't count for beans.  In either case, he is a complete moron.  As I graduated from the University of Florida in Gainesville, fortunately a long time before Jones arrived in town, I feel a certain embarrassment at what he says, thinks and does.  It is personal to me in a way.

Let there be no doubt, I strenuously object and otherwise abhor what this nutball thinks and says of another religious group.  Unfortunately, I defend his Right to say what he wants, think what he wants and engage in acts that express that thinking.  I have to go back to the school-age rhyme that starts "sticks and stones..."  Contrary to what we see in the movies, we don't get to smack a guy in the mouth for saying something objectionable.  I will make one personal exception to that, insult my sainted mother and I'll break your jaw.  Call it a claim of personal privilege.

Jack asses like Pastor Jones are one of the many prices we pay to live in a free society.  He is the exception that gives the normal people the Right to be normal.   The expression of his obvious hatred of Muslims, by burning their Holy Book, does have limitations, however. 

At the time he was arrested in Polk County, FL, with 2,998, kerosene-soaked, Qurans, Pastor Jones was on his way to burn them at a location where he had previously been denied a permit to do so.  I am not absolutely sure what the rationale for the denial was, but I can think of one, public safety.  I cannot burn waste paper in my back yard without a permit and the county will not issue me one.  My relatively modest amount of flammable trash would not compare with the fire created by almost 3,000 kerosene-soaked Holy Books.  I would object to the pollution caused by such a burning, and this is based on their paper content, not their designation as Holy.

The above scenario represents a subterfuge to prevent this man from making a statement.  I shall leave it to the lawyers to argue over which value prevails; that is why we have Courts and lawyers.  My preferred way to deal with it is to just brand him the nut job he is and ignore him.  If he held a massive Quran burning and nobody came, nobody wrote about it and the Muslim World embraced his Right to do this stupid and pointless thing, he would eventually just go away.  This man wants to shout at the top of his lungs a position I would spend a lifetime opposing, but I will defend his Right to do it, within limits.  I just wish the Muslim World could see the point.

I do not see Muslims doing nothing and my fellow Liberals will, no doubt, engage in their Right to protest.  In this case and others, I like what my parents taught me, "If you just ignore him, he'll go away."

TEA PARTY Sounds So Much Nicer than Mob of Racist Homophobes

Recently the Tea Party held a political event on the grounds of the Arizona State Capitol.  A reporter came to the event to document the speeches being given, but he was recognized as an individual that might not see it exactly the way the Tea Partiers would have liked it reported.

Their reaction was at first, to just try to make it difficult for him.  They somehow came to the conclusion that the State Capitol grounds had somehow become private property when they got a permit to gather; it had not.  They also apparently thought that they got to approve, authorize and accept who was going to be there and that they could limit access; they could not.  All of these erroneous thoughts left them with the idea that they could make the man leave; and they could not.  There was no legal justification for these Tea Party Members to prevent a new media person, or just a citizen on public property, from video-taping their speeches, and yet they thought they could.  I would identify the problem as being related to the fact that these people were Neanderthal morons so often times associated with the Tea Party.
 

In this case, they were clearly “biker-types.”  These individuals had long, unkempt grey beards, long grey head hair, jean or leather jackets with numerous motorcycle “club” patches on them.   They used words like “Motherf**ker” this and “Motherf**ker” that.  This language was more indicative of the complete lack of sophistication the people had.  They also lacked anything resembling “class.”  OK, they had class, but it was all low class.  These Tea Party members had all the class one would expect of a wanna-be motorcycle gang; big soft bellies, on both the men and women; hugely sagging breasts suggestive of softballs in sweat socks; too much make up, ratty grey hair.   Oh ya, they were classy folks alright, and the acted exactly consistent with their appearance.
 

They engaged in the usual tactics of the school-yard bully.  They approached the man, first trying to block his view and spewing their tripe about it being private property.  These morons thought the State Capital Grounds could be private property, a blunder of monumental proportion, but these gentlemen, and ladies, had no interest in what was right or true, they wanted to do whatever they wanted to do.  What they wanted to do was make this man leave, and it became clear that they would use force if necessary, those Second Amendment remedies, but the reporter stood his ground.  Even the speaker tried to point out to the crowd that the reporter had Rights under the First Amendment, but this did not deter our group of troglodytes, no way.
 

The next action was to push the reporter with their rather large beer-infused bellies.  While doing so on video tape, they narrated how the reporter was pushing them, in spite of the video tape showed them belly bumping the reporter, in an effort to move the reporter out of the way.  I was reminded of a grade-school bully who would grab another weaker kid’s arm and start hitting him with his own arm, the whole time saying, “Why ya hittin’ yourself?”  Huh?  Why ya hittin’ yourself?  It was just pathetic on so many levels.  It was an embarrassment is what it was, and I was appalled.
 

This group clearly thinks they have all the rights to the First Amendment to the exclusion of all others.  When this reporter stated he had his First Amendment Rights, the crowd was reduced to calling him a “COMMIE,” because we all know that Communists don’t have Free Speech Rights in the United States, right?

This Tea Party group exhibited every hypocritical and abusive behavior for which they have become the brunt of jokes and for which they are reviled.  Hell they did elect Jan Brewer as their Governor.   They deserve to be the brunt of jokes with a Governor like that.  They have clearly found the least common denominator to represent them in Arizona, a fellow moron!

Tea Party sounds so much nicer than hypocritical, moron, racist, homophobes, but be afraid, be very afraid...They serve on juries, they drive, they breed and they vote!  How do you protect the country from moron citizens?