HardSchell Report

  We have a ruthless and childish “commander” without a strategy, other than reversal and revenge, who has conveniently cut the military machine loose from civilian oversight. We are now bombing in Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and indirectly in Yemen. Now the Pentagon “needs” $700 billion to keep up? I see no evidence that our sixteen-year military approach has been anything other than a cause for unforgivable civilian death and disruption and creation of scattered but motivated resistance driven by . . .

USS John S. McCain – Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Commissioned July 2, 1994 Length 505′ Beam 66′ Motto “Fortune Favors The Brave” Nickname “Big Bad John” Speed 30+ knots The recent collisions of our US Warships and huge container ships in the busy shipping lanes of the Western Pacific were caused by a “loss of situational awareness” according to the Navy report released on 11/1/2017. The details of the errors made prior to the collision of the USS John S. McCain . . .

WSJ: 10/16/2017 John Bolton: “A Slow Death for the Iran Deal” Bolton, quoting Charles de Gaulle “treaties are like girls and roses; they last while they last” is historically interesting but less than charming. His essay about the failures of the Iranian Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) seems to be derived from three points: Bolton’s Opinion Facts The West’s collapse was a grave error – allowing uranium enrichment. “Barack Obama and the Europeans conceded to Iran’s insistence that it would never give . . .

Spoken or Tweeted Meaning Believe Me! What I just said is either a lie, a boast with no substance, or a benighted observation about something important or possibly completely unimportant. Nobody knew I had no idea. I found out ten minutes ago (but it is common knowledge.) Since you are the unwashed masses and gullible I am going to pretend that this is a new bit of wisdom and take credit for discovering it. We will see I am important . . .

  Let’s admit that Iran’s Hassan Rouhani and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un are smart. Unfortunately, we can’t say the same for our guy. For the past sixteen years the US has deployed our technically superior war machine as the solution to problems in Afghanistan and Iraq with unforgivably negative results. The armaments suppliers and defense contractors have done quite well, as have the brass who have burnished their careers. Now our current benighted “commander” is enthralled by the generals (and . . .

  Remember healthcare? The administration has embarked on a passive aggressive campaign to subvert the ACA: Cost-sharing subsidies are approved month by month with the implication that they could suddenly stop Withholding financial support for “navigators” Suggesting that the IRS won’t enforce mandates. Rather than accepting the failure to repeal and replace the plan is to create uncertainty so that the markets “implode” putting millions of people in jeopardy for the sake of an ego. What is behind this cowardly . . .

At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I place the blame for the Navy’s recent lethal collisions between their state-of-the-art destroyers and huge lumbering cargo ships on the top brass. The excuse percolating out of the fog is that the Navy is over-extended and does not have enough resources. According to Wikipedia we have 66 destroyers – not enough? Maybe not for the war industry that President Eisenhower warned us against? Apparently, the destroyers from Navy’s Seventh Fleet are cruising around . . .

We are in some bit of danger from our elected leader who has at best a simplistic understanding of today’s world. There are many factors which affect economic growth. These factors work in combination and taking them out of context to make blustery speeches does more harm than good. Factors such as research and development, corruption control, and cultural diversity all influence a healthy economy. Unfortunately, these are all targets for the current administration to either remove or stymie. Problems: . . .