Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Some years ago, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote that there were known/knowns, known/unknowns and unknown/unknowns. Think about it. That’s things we know, things we know that we don’t know and things we don’t know we don’t know. It’s that last one that will put you in really deep kimchi. Jake Sullivan’s “Foreign Affairs” article prepared prior to Oct. 7, noting that the Middle East was quieter than it had been in two decades, is a classic example of unknown unknowns. Sullivan didn’t kn...
In less than three months, Jan. 6 will be upon us again. You remember Jan. 6, the day the news media report as the deadliest insurrection since the Civil War, don’t you? The insurrection that resulted in the arrest of hundreds of protesters to be charged with attempting to overthrow the government. The same insurrection that resulted in the death of five people. If you Google, “How many protesters from Jan. 6 are being charged with insurrection?” you will be rewarded with the fact that 671 p...
I was reading news on the internet, when the following caught my eye: Dozens of students from the San Juan Unified School District in Sacramento County, Calif., are believed to still be in Afghanistan. Raj Rai, director of communication for the district, said in a statement that 27 students, from 19 families, are in Afghanistan. The students, along with family members, were reportedly in Afghanistan visiting families over their summer break. SJUSD Deputy Superintendent Melissa Bassanelli noted...
By now, most readers will have heard the name of Marine Lt Col. Stuart Scheller. He is the infantry battalion commander who went on Facebook to demand that senior military and political leaders take responsibility for the collapse in Afghanistan and the debacle at the Kabul airport. Of particular note in his statement was the colossal blunder that resulted in the closing of the air field at Bagram. Scheller went on to say that he was well aware of the consequences he faced as a result of his...
Those who know me well will tell you that I have defended to a fault, the leadership of the United States military. I have always maintained that, “You can’t be really stupid, and become a general or an admiral.” Further, I always believed that senior military leadership was smarter than me, better educated than me and had access to better information than me. After Aug. 15, I find myself doubting all these assumptions. Forty odd years ago on Dec. 24, 1979, the Soviet Army crossed the borde...
Two issues involving our current president seem to be taking all the air out of the room at this time. One of these is the long-running charge of collusion with the Russian government and President Trump during last year’s campaign. In spite of the best efforts of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey to oust Curley, Moe and Larry from their position in Hollywood folklore, no collusion has been found. What has been discovered i...
Much has been written about President Trump’s first year. Allow me to add my critique. For starters, we should remember that calls to impeach Donald Trump began prior to his becoming President Donald Trump. Stalwart Democrats refused to attend his inauguration because he was not a “legitimate” president. In November of 2016, Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman wrote in the “New York Times,” “It really does look like ‘President Donald Trump’ and markets are plunging. If the question is when markets...
Let me stipulate that I believe if someone is found guilty of rape or pedophilia they should spend a substantial amount of time in prison. We are a nation of laws and for the most part we hold to the precept that all men are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The longest, most expensive criminal trial in U.S. history was the McMartin pre-school case. More than 300 counts of child abuse were alleged against the operators of a child care center in Los Angeles. The timeline...
It’s Christmas again, and it’s time for my poem, So I’m not at my office, I’m sitting at home, And scratching my head for something to write On this wintery, pre-Christmas night. At Christmas this year on New Mexico’s Plain, We had a dusting of snow but not any rain. I really enjoy a light dusting of snow, But not like Goliath from two years ago. For the last several years there’s never a doubt, That a new Star Wars movie will be coming out. This causes a need to gather the clan, To watch it to...
A recent poll shows 54 percent of the public believes the Special Counsel has a conflict of interest. Over the years, whenever one hears the phrases, “conflict of interest” or “unlawful command influence” they are generally followed up with the more inclusive, “appearance of conflict of interest” or “appearance of command influence.” In all truth I have never been able to fully grasp exactly what constitutes the “appearance” of either of these two types of interference. What is happening now is...
Hillary Clinton found herself in trouble when it became known that she chose to use an unsecured server to transmit and receive classified information while she was secretary of state, rather than the normal secure system provided to cabinet secretaries. This is a violation of law. Donald Trump came under scrutiny when it became clear to one and all that he would win the Republican nomination for president of the United States. This is not a violation of law, but it served to scare the...
The latest Trump or former Trump associate to be indicted by independent prosecutor Robert Mueller is retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Depending on which news organization you choose to follow, Flynn’s guilty plea for lying to the FBI is either a bombshell or a nothing-burger. Never Trumpers in both parties and the media seem to believe that Flynn’s plea will be the beginning of the end of the Donald J. Trump presidency. In point of fact, Flynn lied about conversations he had with the Russian amb...
The question being batted around the U.S. Senate these days is whether or not “the greatest deliberating body in the world” would allow Roy Moore to be seated in this august body if he is duly elected by the people of Alabama. Moore is being accused of sexual misconduct with several women, one of whom was 14 at the time of the alleged incident. All of the claims against Moore are alleged to have taken place almost 40 years ago. It is middling strange that the Senate goes into high dudgeon, wit...
There are 17 different intelligence agencies that compose the Intelligence Community. This statement presupposes that the director of National Intelligence has notified the U.S. Congress and the American public of all of the agencies involved in the IC. It is possible there are other agencies that remain so secret that only a handful of individuals outside of the un-named agency know of its existence. As an example of this, the National Reconnaissance Office, whose primary mission is to build...
Saturday is Veterans Day. When the flag passes you at the parade, stand and salute or place your right hand over your heart. Thank you. Here’s a thought experiment for you. Since you know a lot of the folks who live in Curry County, you need to get the newspaper from a large metropolitan era anywhere in the country and start reading the obituary column. You’ll be reading about the death of folks you don’t know and have never met. When you find some young adult who died tragically, think about ho...
Uranium One is a mining company that controlled one fifth of the U.S. uranium extraction capacity. Russian interests gained a controlling interest in Uranium One. How could this happen? To do this they had to acquire the approval of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as the approval of the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS). CFIUS is a committee of the U.S. government that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in the U.S. The nine...
The 2016 presidential election showcased both major political parties with an unyielding narrative. This is the second of a two-part series that attempts to connect some political dots to arrive at how and why we are in our current state of affairs. This is the Republican story. Hillary Clinton was going to be the presidential nominee for the Democrats and Republicans smelled blood in the water. There was no way Hillary could win an election when you considered the Obama administration’s f...
The 2016 presidential election showcased both major political parties with an unyielding narrative. This is the first of a two-part series that attempts to connect some political dots to arrive at how and why we are in our current state of affairs. First, the Democrat story. There was no way Hillary could lose to Trump in a head-to-head campaign. When Bill Clinton established the Clinton Foundation and all its ancillary organizations as charities he did so with the intention of using these...
According to Wikipedia, “Harvey Weinstein is an American film producer and film studio executive. He is best known as co-founder of Miramax, which produced several popular independent films including ‘Pulp Fiction,’ ‘Clerks,’ ‘The Crying Game,’ and ‘Sex, Lies, and Videotape.’” Weinstein is in the news lately, but not for any major new film releases. The New York Times broke the story that Weinstein is a serial abuser of women. In his defense, he appears to be a serial abuser of everybody, but wo...
One of the things I miss about active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps is the traditional respect accorded the National Ensign. The Colors ceremony is held each morning at 0800. At that time, a bugler will sound “Attention” and you hear cries of “Colors!” shouted from many corners of the camp. While this is happening, every other activity stops, all hands face the flag, come to attention and render a hand salute if in uniform. If you are in formation, the leader will call the formation to attenti...
So you think the media has treated Donald Trump unfairly. Let’s look at the record. • “By any measure, Donald Trump is unfit to be president” — editorial, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 2016. • “Obama says Trump ‘unfit’ for presidency” — CNN White House Producer Kevin Liptak, August 2016. • “Trump is unfit to be president. He’s an affront to integrity and decency everywhere” — editorial, Baltimore Sun, October 2016. • “Roughly half of the population has voted for somebody who by almost an...
The latest Hillary Clinton 500-page study in denial, “What Happened” is out, and according to reviews she once again takes full responsibility for losing the election. Shortly after accepting culpability for the disaster, she again lists all the usual suspects who were complicit in her debacle. In addition to Trump, Comey, the New York Times, the Russians, the deplorables, the misogynists and the women who did not vote for her she added Bernie Sanders and President Barack Obama. Bernie she bla...
When you ask a political operative a question, the politico will pause and run that question through some sort of filter in his head prior to answering. If you reach that person by phone, he is apt to say, “I’m in a meeting right now, but I’ll get back to you later today.” They rarely answer on the spur of the moment because the answer can come back to bite them. How many times have you heard a friend or acquaintance say, “Just once I’d like to hear a politician answer a question honestly, w...
I’m told that it’s possible to select any one of 71 different gender options for use on Facebook. These include asexual, polygender and two-spirit person, whatever that denotes. I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s on the internet so I guess it’s possible. I do know that the Elementary Teachers Foundation of Ontario, held inclusiveness training for their members to familiarize them with the current language of gender and ensure they are sensitive to contemporary gender issues. According to the...
Forty years ago, the American Civil Liberties Union went to court to defend the right of Nazis to march through Skokie, Illinois. The ACLU defended the group’s right to free speech based on the same laws it had raised during the Civil Rights era when officials tried to stop civil rights marches throughout the South. Recently in Charlottesville, Virginia, the ACLU also supported the “Unite the Right” organization in court when city officials tried to revoke their permit to protest. Whether you a...