Is Anyone Out There?

Mars taken by MOM 29 Sept 2014

Mars Again

The Indians put their probe in orbit around Mars this week. India’s successful, low-cost Mars mission is a major milestone for the country’s space program, with experts predicting that it could open the door to lucrative space deals with the U.S. and Europe.  India joined the select group of space nations on Wednesday when the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully placed a satellite into orbit around Mars. This is a big deal for two reasons.  Firstly, it's a difficult task: More than half the world's previous attempts -- 23 out of 41 missions -- have failed, including one by Japan in 1999. The United States had its first success with a 1964 flyby by a spacecraft called Mariner 4, returning 21 images of the surface of the planet. The former Soviet Union reached the planet in 1971, and the European Space Agency in 2003.  And secondly, India joins an exclusive club comprised of only the United States and Russia, along with the European Union in reaching Mars.  India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) will study the Marian surface and mineral composition and scan its atmosphere for methane, an indicator of life.

US Air Force X-37B Space Plane

X-37B with solar array deployed

There's been much speculation concerning the US Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane and it's mysterious missions.  Not much larger than a conventional private aircraft, the X-37B resembles a miniature shuttle.  The vehicle is unmanned, launched atop an Atlas 5 rocket, and lands like a conventional aircraft.  Today, it has winged beyond 600 days in orbit on a classified military mission that seems to have no end. The solar-powered winged spacecraft has spent more than 620 days in orbit as part of the military's secret OTV-3 mission, which launched in December 2012.

Alien Planet Found

WASP 18b and "hot Jupiter" planet

A nearby star is not acting its age, thanks to the influence of a massive exoplanet.  The close-orbiting alien planet, known as WASP-18b, is apparently disrupting the magnetic field of its host star so much that the object is behaving like a much older star, researchers said.  "WASP-18b is an extreme exoplanet," study lead author Ignazio Pillitteri, of the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo in Italy, said in a statement. "It is one of the most massive hot Jupiters known and one of the closest to its host star, and these characteristics lead to unexpected behavior. The planet is causing its host star to act old before its time." The star WASP-18, which lies about 330 light-years away, is about as massive as our own sun. The gas giant WASP-18b weighs in at more than 10 times the mass of Jupiter and completes one orbit around the star in less than 23 hours, leading scientists to classify it as a "hot Jupiter."

Commercial Space is Alive and Well, But Delayed

Virgin Galactic Space Ship Two

Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, said almost 800 would-be space tourists signed up for $250,000 flights with his Virgin Galactic venture have been understanding about glitches that caused commercial services to be delayed until 2015. Pushback from clients who include physicist Stephen Hawking, singer Sarah Brightman and X-Men director Bryan Singer has amounted to “almost none whatsoever,” the U.K. billionaire told Bloomberg Television. “Everyone’s been very patient. They realize that it’s rocket science. They want to make sure that we don’t hurry them up there, and they want to come back.”

Virgin Galactic won’t now make a commercial flight until early spring, with Branson and his son on the first launch, the U.K. billionaire confirmed today after revealing earlier this month that a target of commencing operations this year had become unrealistic. The resolution of issues with the spacecraft’s rockets may mean a vehicle carrying flight crew but no passengers still reaches space during 2014, he added.  “It took us a lot longer to build rockets that we felt completely comfortable with,” Branson said today. “I’m confident that we’re as good as there now. We’ve got some more test flights to go, but I think you’ll start seeing Virgin going into space by the end of this year and then starting the whole space program in the spring.”

Regulations, not technology, are hindrances, and the flights are likely to reach only about 360,000 feet (about 68 miles high), which is on the very outer edge of Earth's atmosphere.  Dark sky and weightlessness will be some of the memorable elements of passengers' trip. Cool.  Save me a seat on the seventh launch.

Some Thoughts On That

The Kenyan: A Man of Firsts.  
Always eager to embellish his legacy, the Kenyan is somewhat shying away from his landmark ObamaCare destruction of the world's finest health care system as his legacy, focusing instead on more - um - bourgeois accomplishments that are easier to understand.  Consider just some of  these "firsts" from the Kenyan:

• He's the first community organizer from complete national oblivion to become US President in only two years
• He's the first non-natural born US President (please don't insult me by citing that lame, sophomoric Hawaiian photo shopped birth certificate)
• He's the first President with several aliases, and fraudulent Social Security numbers 
• He's the first mulatto President
• He's the first Muslim President
• He's the first Communist President (there have been progressive presidents, but none compare to his scale)
• He's the first President to emulate Jimmy Carter's foreign policies 
• He's the first quasi-open homosexual President
• He's the first President with a common law transvestite "wife"

 One can only gaze in awe at the machine that put this poser into office - twice! Through lies, deceit and a plethora of unqualified voters voting early and often, the American electorate has, I fear, been handed a one-two knockout punch.  A sucker punch at that. The destruction to the US Constitution and to the American culture is yet to be fully understood, but when it is, it ain't gonna be pretty.
 

In Defense of Bigotry, Hate and Intolerance

Folks, I rise in support of personal freedoms as may be manifested by Bigotry, Hate, and Intolerance.  You might say I'm tolerant of intolerance. Yes, I am.  I'm all for it.  Here's why:  Let's just say I hate Brits.  Can't stand 'em.  Hate their culture of colonization and global domination.  Hate their bloody accents and even hate their cuisine.  Now let's say you are of British ancestry, and you are seriously at odds with my position of Bigotry, Hate, and Intolerance regarding the British.  Why should you be wrapped around the axle about what I think or believe?  And why should I be forced to cease and desist in my Bigotry, Hate, and Intolerance to suit your personal preference?  The answer is, I shouldn't, and neither should you.  Know why?  Because Bigotry, Hate, and Intolerance are the bedrock of our rights and freedoms embedded in notions such as Freedom of Association, Freedom of Speech, Religious Freedom and many, many more.  If you really are supportive of personal freedom, then you should be the last guy to decry Bigotry, Hate, and Intolerance in others.  Hate Jews?  Let's have a beer!  Member of  the Ku Klux Klan?  Dinner's on me!  PETA devotee and Sierra Club advocate?  I'll drive you to work!  But no, we have to homogenize our beliefs to keep us on point in the Orwellian progressive narrative.  And as such we have endless pointless civil lawsuits about who may not be denied service, or to whom one may not refuse commerce.  We have racial riots, social unrest and all sorts of other chaos arising directly from the absence of letting people believing what they believe. If an owner of a restaurant won't serve Jews or homosexuals, so be it.  They can and will eat elsewhere. They aren't welcome here so why force a situation that is uncomfortable for both parties?  There should be no law or public pressure to force me to engage in practices of which I disapprove, nor of you to accommodate me in such.  Live and let live.  But that said, however, if you're a member of a movement that promotes violence and terrorism to further your ends, whether Black Panthers, jihadist Muslims, Green Peace or some other cowardly-driven bully like the United States federal government, then I'm going to hit you back, with extreme prejudice.  And I am both able and capable to do so efficiently, effectively and quickly.  Be advised.  

 

So lawmakers, pass no law that infringes upon or diminishes my personal freedoms to act, think and believe as I please.  It's simply not possible to legislate personal tolerance, and it's not advisable to do so. Let laissez faire prevail as our founding fathers always intended.  And in exchange I'll hold you harmless for the social adjustments that will be made when others trespass on my God given freedoms and rights.

Random Shots

Where to begin?  Such is the question whilst trying to make sense of all the nonsense, from ill conceived foreign policy to tyrannical domestic policy.  The answer, of course, is that it is all nonsense, and it's put there purposely.  To distract, obfuscate and confuse.

Adventures Abroad

The US is now engaged in yet another military action (despite yet more broken promises by the Kenyan about getting us out of Iraq at all costs).  Not learning from earlier lessons, we're committed to aiding and arming radical religious groups that will undoubtedly turn against us in the near future.  See al Qaeda, 1980s.  Even though it was a noble enterprise at the time, the unintended consequence was horrific in terms of blood and treasure.  And, it eventually had to be undone.

While striking from afar and above in Syria, yet protecting our troops from harm on the battlefield, e.g. no boots on the ground, the Kenyan boldly orders 3,000 American reservists into West Africa to "combat" Ebola. Well, no bullets are flying or bombs exploding, so where's the harm?   Let's not consider the exponential element of infection spreading to the US after the troops are rotated back home.   But Ebola, to the Kenyan, is a greater threat to Africa than ISIL is to the free world.  No matter; it's all part of his evil nonsensical plan.  And it's all for show.

Adventures in Babysitting

And speaking of diseases spreading across open borders, the hypocrisy of this administration regarding disease and borders is astounding.  Why, we must send troops - American troops! - to Africa to stop this spread, but the federal government will stay, investigate, harass, sue and arrest anyone attempting to do so at the US southern border.  We must be the designated caregivers - babysitters - to these youths seeking asylum here.  Right.  It's an invasion of sovereign US territory, and as it's being orchestrated from the White House, it's treason on it's very face.  Meanwhile, the undesirables continue to stream across, and the feds transport them to cities across the country, to ensure maximum damage to the culture and  economy.

But the nanny state knows no bounds.  Enter now the politically correct vipers into the NFL, where it's the public's business what goes on in one's private life.  Suspensions abound; forced resignations threatened!  Now I'm not in any way offended if some athlete takes it out on the misses.  Nor do I care if she slugs him upside the head.  They alone are the sole actors and audience in their little passion play, and neither I, nor the NFL, nor the perpetually offended have anything to say about it.  But this is an ideal way to continue the distraction:  let's debate whether this behavior is somehow inconsistent with the standards of the NFL.  Are you kidding?  Who cares, except to the extent that it can further the progressive left's radical, totalitarian agenda.  Anyone debating this non-issue - I'm speaking of so called "domestic violence" - is furthering the destruction of the American culture of individual privacy.  Hit your wife, spank your children however you please - it's nobody's damn business but yours.  And that's as it should be.

Dude.  You're old.  Go Die.

Ezekiel Emanuel

One of the most shocking parts of ObamaCare was the notion that after a certain age, one was expected to merely  ahem - die - in order to spare the "community" from further medical costs associated with keeping one alive.  The progressive left mocked and ridiculed anyone who questioned or even pointed out this particular gruesome tenet in the plan.  Until now.  Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the architects of ObamaCare - Rahm Emanuel's brother, no less - has publicly endorsed the concept by stating he'd like to just die at age 75.  This should tell a thinking person all one needs to know about the discordant world view of the progressive left.  This and their stance on abortions is indicative of their view on life:  they hate themselves so thoroughly, that they wish they had never been born, and now that that have been, that they die soon. Is self-hate a Jewish thing?  It must be.  I just hope someone visits Ezekiel Emanuel on his 75th birthday with pistol or syringe in hand.  We'll see how he feels about dying then.      

The progressive left is simply evil.  It is quite open about its ambitions, and it is never satisfied.  Everything must be homogenized, equalized, quantified, qualified and bastardized.  Elevate women into men; emasculate men into women, blur the lines.  Kill the unborn, infect the living.  Erase standards, morals, borders, cultures, and individualism in favor of the dull gray world of homogenized totalitarianism under their tight control.  And that is, and always has been, their goal. 

Lame Duck? Not So Much!

As the Kenyan's term winds down, we would normally expect him to rock back a little, and ride out the rest of the next several months.  But, no, that's not for the Destroyer-in-Chief, despite his feigned disinterest while he  guffaws on the various golf courses.  His unparallelled drive to subjugate this nation into his own distorted world view continues as he acts more like a dictatorial monarch than an elected (albeit illegal and unqualified) president of a democratic republic.  It matters little that the entire country has a severe case of Kenyan fatigue and his popularity wanes, the destruction must go on.

Flush with the the recent successes of his lawless administration, the Kenyan now seeks to forge a sweeping international "climate change" agreement to compel nations to cut planet-warming fossil fuel emissions.  Ignore the inconvenient fact that the earth is cooling, we must stifle industry at all  costs.  But in keeping with the Kenyan's illegal standard operating procedures, he will attempt to do so without ratification from Congress.  Never mind that the US Constitution requires treaties to be ratified by congress, it's "damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!"  Constitution?  I don't need no stinkin' Constitution!

In domestic affairs, the Kenyan sends several White House representatives to attend the funeral of recently slain gangsta-thug Micheal Brown, yet snubbed Margaret Thatcher's funeral last year.  As his party stalwarts run for the tall grass, and even his black-voter base begin to tire of his race-baiting dis-unification policies, the Kenyan presses on with his goal to incite race war and class envy.  Even Al Sharpton extolled the virtues of self responsibility and gainful employment for blacks in his Micheal Brown eulogy, angering some racist blacks in the audience.  In his ever expanding search for "back door" methods to enact his illegal and unpopular edicts, the Kenyan is now tying gun control policies to health issues.  If you own guns, you may well fear your doctor's betrayal of your personal health information, as much as the federal police kicking in your door, to relieve you of your guns, and possibly your freedom.

In the face of all this tyranny, the mainstream media considers any story is fit to print, as long as it keeps attention off the invasion of our southern border. Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown, as California's governor, has welcomed those illegal aliens with open arms to the "other Mexico".  Does no one remember the Mariel boat lift, and the disastrous affect it had - and continues to have -  on Miami and South Florida?  Castro dumped his criminals, mental patients and political prisoners on the US, and the hapless Jimmy carter couldn't wait to welcome them.  Maybe his heart was in the right place, but we're dealing with reality here, not ideology.  The Kenyan wants strife and conflict in the country, so how better to create that than to welcome murderous gangs, drug cartel thugs, diseased Typhoid Marys, jihadists, terrorists, opportunists, criminals of all stripes, and lest I forget, those poor frightened children fleeing political tyranny?

No, he is anything but distracted.  It's all part of his grand plan to transform America; to bring her to her knees by simply overwhelming every aspect of American culture.   I think he may be one of the giants in the list of American presidents in that his plan - as devious and destructive as can be possibly imagined - is working.  When the inevitable result of these policies manifest themselves - that is, when militias begin firing on illegals committing rapes and other crimes, when long-forgotten diseases run rampant in pandemics across the US, when the management of non-English speaking teens disrupt every school system in the county,  when folks black and white start again tearing into each other and riot to obtain "justice" for perceived grievances, when the Federal Reserve stops feeding the bloated stock market and it crashes in upon itself and the economy completely collapses, and finally when a jihadist successfully strikes a high value target with a nuke dirty bomb, we will then realize what a great job the Kenyan has done for his global puppet masters.  Promises made, promises kept.

Have You Committed Your Felony Today?

So.  How many federal crimes have you committed today?  None, you say?  You're a law abiding citizen in good standing, right?  That's a ridiculous question to ask, isn't it? Or is it?  A recent study indicates that the average law abiding citizen, like you and me, on average commits at least three felonies daily.  That can't be, you say.  But it's true.  In the last five years, the federal government has added over 400 new crimes to the already staggering four thousand or so currently on the books, according to a report to the House Judiciary drafted by the Congressional Research Service.  These are mostly expansions or broader interpretations of existing laws, which lowers thresholds for breaking them.  Some new expansions are troubling; far broader interpretations of mens rea laws, or guilty minds, for example, smack of Minority Report-like thought crimes.

Is crime really that rampant that we need fifty new federal felonies per year for the last thirty years?  Well no.  In fact, violent crime is down in America, across the board, spanning two decades. In 2009 the Justice Department announced that the incidence of reported rape had hit a 20-year low. Homicides are down, as are juvenile violence and crimes committed against children. Crime rates have been plummeting since the early 1990s to such an extent that explaining the drop has become something of an obsession among criminologists and sociologists.  And that trend continues even today.  But what may be good for society isn't necessarily good for law enforcement.  Recently, John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, wrote that, as an extreme departure from English common law, upon which our legal system is based, police now use financial gain as a justification for defining criminal activity and incarceration. 

What's worse is that federal prosecutors are by law immune to indemnity as they partake in the over-criminalization of American citizens.  They can drag anyone through the system, any time and for any reason, essentially destroying folks at the least, or incarcerating them for years at worst - without any threat of liability, no matter how egregious their conduct. We're not talking about Edward Snowden-esque security leaks here - we're talking about things like Amish farmers going to jail for selling their own farm produced raw milk to neighbors. 

So the evidence continues to mount that we indeed live in a police state. But how did we get to this point? Not only is criminalization expanding socially, but in commerce as well.  Clearly the cause of this expanding crimes against the state philosophy is the trend away from a philosophy of laissez-faire.  The Economist, in a recent article titled Over-regulated America, agrees.  Two forces make American laws too complex. One is hubris. Many lawmakers seem to believe that they can lay down rules to govern every eventuality. Examples range from the merely annoying (eg, a proposed code for nurseries in Colorado that specifies how many crayons each box must contain) to the delusional (eg, the conceit of the infamous Dodd-Frank bill that one can anticipate and ban every nasty trick financiers will dream up in the future). Far from preventing abuses, complexity creates loopholes that the shrewd can abuse with impunity.

The other force that makes American laws complex is lobbying. The government's drive to micromanage so many activities creates a huge incentive for interest groups to push for special favors. When a bill is hundreds of pages long, it is not hard for congressmen to slip in clauses that benefit their cronies and campaign donors. The health-care bill included tons of favors for the political correct and the vocal radicals. Congress's last, failed attempt to regulate greenhouse gases was even worse.

How many felonies do you think are created in just the Affordable Health Care Act, and the Dodd-Frank Act alone?  No one else knows, either, because both are deliberately open to broad interpretation, and that leads to prosecutorial discretion.  See ya in jail!

Where Should I Put My Money?

The world's a mess.  Really.  Madeleine Albright said so.  Governments are collapsing, others are defaulting on loans, some are carrying unsustainable massive debt, and even the wealthiest countries are struggling.  So what's a poor middle class American investor to do?  Jump in the stock market?  Bonds?  Convert everything to precious metals?  Move to Belize?

My financial advisement gurus give me this simple advice:  stay in tangibles and focus on cash flow.  Tangibles, of course, are things you can touch and feel.  Intangibles, like the stock and bond markets, lack the element of investor control that is afforded by tangibles such as real estate, precious metals, art, collectables, Many analysts think the stock market is overvalued and a correction is inevitable, especially given the Fed's recent decision to ease qualitative easing.  In the next eighteen months, look for a sell off of gigantic proportions.

OK, so what about tangibles?  Let's take real estate.  This investment meets both criteria:  cash flow and is certainly tangible.  These days cash is king, but there are ways to lever into real estate.  Interest rates are still low - if you can actually get a mortgage - but as many people lost their homes and credit rating over the last few years, and the rental market is strong as those folks must rent until they can afford to purchase a home again.  In may areas of the country demand exceeds supply, and residential prices are being pushed upward.  This is especially true in areas where the foreclosure rate was the highest, like California, Nevada, Texas, and Florida.  Buy and hold is my preference, but buy and flip can be a winner, too.  Especially if the reinvestment plan is to stay in other tangibles.

Where's the smart money going?  What about such innocuous things like wine?  Wine as an personal investment is a hobby; don't expect get rich on that.  But large scale wine purchase is another matter.  This week KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts), a leading global investment firm bid over $3 billion USD for Australia's Treasury Wine Estate, clearly seeing potential in the world's thirst for vino.  What's to be made of that?  I make my own wine.  Really.

Investment in precious metals can be a safe haven.  Gold and silver are pushing records highs, but copper, titanium and platinum have a significant market share as well. What about things you can't buy individually?  Partnerships in energy (oil, gas and coal; but not wind, solar or hydro) are available and are lucrative with high cash flows and very desirable tax benefits.  The "new energy" sources have proven unreliable and without any profit potential, so the world must stay with the reliable and vast existing resources. 

Collectibles are an investment as well, but do not meet the cash flow criterion.  And, government interference can render them essentially worthless.  Ivory is a prime example.  I have some very old pieces I've collected over the last five decades, and because of reactionary government policies to illegal elephant poaching in Africa, they have no value other than memorabilia.

So what's it all mean?  Invest in tangibles that produce sustainable and reliable cash flow.  Makes sense.  But as everything else, that advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

Open Letter to US Chamber of Commerce

As a former member of the USCC, I'd like to offer a suggestion.  Rather than promote and encourage amnesty for illegal aliens in any effort to hire cheap labor, a position that is immensely unpopular outside the D.C. beltway, try offering those low wage under the table jobs to Americans.  I know it's illegal, but it's what many of your members are doing now.  As a real estate broker, over the last nine years I have sold more short sale properties than I can count.  Do you not think that any one of those displaced Americans who have lost their homes would not jump at the chance to acquire gainful employment, even if it's under the table?  Of the fifty million or so Americans who can't find work, I think you'd have a workforce pool far in excess of any pool of illegal aliens (they are not migrants, not undocumented aliens, not guest workers - they are illegal border-crashing aliens).  I'm sure that many unemployed Americans would jump at the chance to earn even $15 an hour.  Why?  Because that's $15 in take home pay, and that money stays in the economy, not sent back to Mexico, as many credible reports indicate is happening now.  That's $120 billion overall, and $23 billion just to Mexico.  Would that employment help American workers?    Americans would be able to pay the rent, put food on the table, keep the power and water connected, and keep the car in gas.  And maybe go out to dinner once a week.  And all of that money stays in the local American economy - not supporting the corruption to the south. So how about it?  Have an English-speaking, drug and disease free, non-criminal workforce for your corporate members by supporting currently unemployed Americans.  Those American workers will gladly do the job better for you.

And for the illegal aliens on your staff that are already here, or those who contemplate coming here, I say this to you:

Si vienes aqui ilegalment, se le enviara a casa a su propio costo.  Gobierno en consecuencia. 

Sincerely,
An American Business
 

INVASION!

Detained MS-13 gang members in Arizona

We are witnessing a planned and executed invasion of the continental United States.  And thus far it is very successful due to the fact that it is unanswered.  In just the last few years, some 30 million Central American invaders from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have crossed the border.    Some are vicious and violent gang members looking for a target rich environment, some are drug cartels capos looking for easier access to demand markets, and some are just poor, hopeless people who perceive the US as a huge rich nipple from which they can suckle.  None of these illegal invaders bring any benefit to America; all are burdens on the taxpayer, as they overwhelm the US welfare agencies.  How did this come to be?  They were invited.  The Kenyan planned this invasion, and his intent is to disrupt, dilute and ultimately eliminate white American culture, to punish her for being the beacon of freedom in the world.

Others have identified the pathologies permeating the Kenyan's thinking regarding his animosity toward all things American.  Those mental illnesses are at the very core of his policies.  His goal is to destroy America, and he is well on his way to complete success in that regard.  How was he able to accomplish this nefarious plan?  Because America did not expect an attack on its shores by an enemy from within.  We have defended against the radical Islamic jihad (some would say to a liberty-killing extent), and we have defended ourselves from outside threats as potentially posed by Russia or Iran or North Korea.  But no one expected an open border amnesty policy that literally recruited illegal aliens from impoverished, corrupt Spanish speaking countries.

While the politicians welcome this destruction of America and her culture through open borders and unregulated immigration, most Americans do not. Some call for strafing the border, then following up with napalm.  Harsh, but effective.  Others have uttered the mantra. "if it's brown, gun it down."  While obviously radical, these sentiments are not surprising given the affects of this massive illegal immigration.

One tenet of the radical left's playbook -  Cloward-Piven's maxim  -  is to overwhelm the system, preferably with multiple impossible demands.  The Kenyan is well versed in this, and is applying it liberally.  The goal, of course, is to bring the US to a state of material law wherein he can finish the job.  Because in every Liberal, there is a Totalitarian screaming to get out.

Random Observations

Poor Malaysian Airlines.  First they lose an airliner and all its passengers in an ongoing mystery.  Conventional wisdom maintains it crashed in the Indian Ocean, but skeptics think it was hijacked and all are alive and well. Now they lose a Boeing 777 to a Buk surface-to-air missile strike over the Ukraine.  Two hundred and ninety-five passengers and fifteen crew are dead.  Blame has yet to be assessed, but the dead are certain they're dead.

The sun is quiet again in this current solar cycle.  Sunspot activity is near non-existent for the second time in the current 11-year solar cycle. There have been two notable historical periods with decades-long episodes of low solar activity. The first period is known as the “Maunder Minimum”, named after the solar astronomer Edward Maunder, and it lasted from around 1645 to 1715. The second one is referred to as the “Dalton Minimum”, named for the English meteorologist John Dalton, and it lasted from about 1790 to 1830. Both of these historical periods coincided with below-normal global temperatures in an era now referred to by many as the “Little Ice Age”.  It is safe to say that weak solar activity for a prolonged period of time can have a negative impact on global temperatures in the bottom-most layer of Earth’s atmosphere where we all live. Research studies in just the past couple of decades indicates there exists a complicated relationship between solar activity, cosmic rays, and clouds on Earth. This research suggests that in times of low solar activity where solar winds are typically weak; more cosmic rays reach the Earth’s atmosphere which, in turn, has been found to lead to an increase in certain types of clouds that can act to cool the Earth.  As I've maintained all along, weather and climate patterns are impacted by forces far apart from any human activity.

While fully armed and riot gear clad DHS agents make a show of force in Greenville, North Carolina, ostensibly as a community outreach, we're being assured that it's just for our own peace of mind.  However, earlier this month a small town in Illinois was swarmed by DHS, complete with heavy military assets to nab a suspected child porn hoarder.  Huh?  Why is DHS involved in an FBI matter?  And isn't this a bit heavy handed for a porn matter?  Now, the same deal occurs in Greenville, but this time it's a PR stunt - just to show the flag and assure us that, well, we're here to protect you.  Right.  The Kenyan promised us in 2008 that we would have a national police force, and true to his word millions of rounds of handgun ammunition has found its way to such government agencies as NASA, EPA, IRS and all other alphabet agencies.

Last week a heavily armed mini-military swarmed into a small Illinois town to nab a suspected child-porn hoarder. Why DHS was needed for something that should be handled by FBI is unknown, but the entire thing definitely had the vibe of a campaign aimed at conditioning us to not fear such a massive raid of military like federal government presence.
The latest incident, however, didn’t have a crime at the other end of it. In fact an armed DHS convoy recently roamed a community for the simple purpose of providing comfort and sharing information about their snitch program.
- See more at: http://www.libertynews.com/2014/07/unreal-dhs-swarms-north-carolina-town-with-armed-agents-for-community-outreach-program-video/#sthash.9jlpA7bU.dpuf

Last week a heavily armed mini-military swarmed into a small Illinois town to nab a suspected child-porn hoarder. Why DHS was needed for something that should be handled by FBI is unknown, but the entire thing definitely had the vibe of a campaign aimed at conditioning us to not fear such a massive raid of military like federal government presence.
The latest incident, however, didn’t have a crime at the other end of it. In fact an armed DHS convoy recently roamed a community for the simple purpose of providing comfort and sharing information about their snitch program.
- See more at: http://www.libertynews.com/2014/07/unreal-dhs-swarms-north-carolina-town-with-armed-agents-for-community-outreach-program-video/#sthash.9jlpA7bU.dpuf

Last week a heavily armed mini-military swarmed into a small Illinois town to nab a suspected child-porn hoarder. Why DHS was needed for something that should be handled by FBI is unknown, but the entire thing definitely had the vibe of a campaign aimed at conditioning us to not fear such a massive raid of military like federal government presence.
The latest incident, however, didn’t have a crime at the other end of it. In fact an armed DHS convoy recently roamed a community for the simple purpose of providing comfort and sharing information about their snitch program
- See more at: http://www.libertynews.com/2014/07/unreal-dhs-swarms-north-carolina-town-with-armed-agents-for-community-outreach-program-video/#sthash.9jlpA7bU.dpuf

Last week a heavily armed mini-military swarmed into a small Illinois town to nab a suspected child-porn hoarder. Why DHS was needed for something that should be handled by FBI is unknown, but the entire thing definitely had the vibe of a campaign aimed at conditioning us to not fear such a massive raid of military like federal government presence.
The latest incident, however, didn’t have a crime at the other end of it. In fact an armed DHS convoy recently roamed a community for the simple purpose of providing comfort and sharing information about their snitch program
- See more at: http://www.libertynews.com/2014/07/unreal-dhs-swarms-north-carolina-town-with-armed-agents-for-community-outreach-program-video/#sthash.9jlpA7bU.dpuf

HHS has admitted to "a breakdown of the medical screening processes" at an Arizona facility, according to ABC News.  As hundreds of thousand of illegals - now euphemistically referred to as "undocumented migrants" - overwhelm the screening process the government has set up to catch ill and infested illegals, hundreds of disease-ridden people are being transferred to cities all over the US.  Not merely carriers of disease, but openly infected.  We can expect such plagues as tuberculosis, dengue fever, ebola, scabies, chicken pox, the coxsackie virus, swine flu, measles, small pox and more.  To sweeten the deal, we're getting thousands of members and recruits of the murderous MS-13 crime syndicate. So while the Kenyan's government allows and endorses this alien invasion, it sends its military-equipped, heavily armed private police force to physically intimidate real, natural born American citizens.

Back To . . . Reality?

NC from the Appalachian Trial.

Back from a week long respite from the nonsense that is our current reality here in the States, I've been cleansed and rejuvenated.  On the list of my favorites things to do is to hike in the high country of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  This I do as often as is humanly possible, and I did so again last week.  It is not only physically and psychologically rewarding, but spiritually so.  I can tune into the spirit of the forest, rivers, sky and mountains just as my ancient ancestors did - and without the banal, inane garbage that we heap on ourselves here in Realville.  This is really real, and I was spared the aggravating and frustrating news for eight wonderful days.

The many trails and paths in the park - some 800 miles in all - would take decades to explore properly.  But in the fifty-plus years I've been hiking these mountains, I never tire of their beauty, their majesty and their beckoning to me.  And of course I have my favorites, and I always return to them when I'm there.

Appalachian Trail at 6,000 ft. elevation

On the trail, you get a sense of oneness with nature, and wildlife is all around you.  Sometimes it takes a keen eye to see them, but turkey, deer and bear are common encounters on the trail.  I've seen bobcat and wolves, too, but only when I'm hiking solo.

In the high country the spruce and fir forests are simply enchanting and the views magnificent. The rarefied air is clean and brisk.  The water is sweet and cold. Blueberries and blackberries grow abundantly along the high trails, and they're yours for the picking.  

So I'll take a moment to share this brief moment of true reality with you, before I get back to my regular, common sense commentary on the insanity in which we live.

Some Randomness on Independence Day

July 4th - Independence Day - is a national holiday that reflects upon and honors individual liberty as was envisioned and declared by the country's founders.  But this year it seems we may be honoring a nearly forgotten, quaint notion rather than the foundation of American culture.

Invasion

Smallpox lesions.  Note the tattoo

What the Kenyan and his minions have created is a crisis of unparallelled proportions.  Before this administration, the continental US has been invaded only twice:  at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941, and in Manhattan in 2001 by hostile and aggressive Zionist-enabled Muslims.  Today, however, we have a sustained and sanctioned invasion taking place, with millions of unskilled, uneducated, disease-ridden aliens pouring across the southern border.  Why are these people - many of whom are known criminals, drug cartel members, and gang members - not captured and immediately deported?  Because chaos is good for the Alinskyites who run - and seek to destroy - the country.  In fact, far from being deported, they are being flown to other, unaffected parts of the country so that their criminal intent and disease spreading presence can be better and more quickly felt.  The Kenyan wants to inflect that pain on America, not from being an element of this administration's incompetency, but from a most assuredly deliberate intent.  Overwhelming the system is a key theme in Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, a theme that has found root in the Kenyan's domestic policies.  The result of this invasion will be tens of millions of non-productive people on the welfare rolls, supported by those Americans who live here, a collapse of the health facilities as hospitals and doctors try to keep up with stopping the spread of smallpox, scabies, lice, tuberculosis, and other diseases brought by this invasion.  Invaders are being quarantined in any effort to stop the spread of these diseases. And what is worse, health care responders are threatened  by the Federal government Brown Shirts if they reveal what is really going on with this invasion.  With 30 to possibly as many as 70 million of these people infecting the country, can the loss of individual freedom to abject totalitarianism be far behind?

Financial Ruin

Yay!  the DOW closed over 17,000 yesterday.  But is that really good?  CNBC wet itself in its reporting of this good news, but others see it quite a bit differently.  Surges in the DOW reflect gains in the Euro against the dollar, and that ain't necessarily good for global financial stability.  Unless of course, one's goals is to devalue the dollar on a global basis, then the strengthening of the Euro is welcomed news.  Meanwhile, other lies told by our government is that the uncertainty index is down 2.3%, that unemployment is a little over 6%, and that the country is in full growth mode.  Not so fast.  The DOW is being driven by just five stocks, and while they may gain, the overall market isn't as healthy as reported, and retail stock purchases are flat.  So the market is pumped up by hedge funds playing monopoly and simply moving money around.  That's a bubble waiting to burst.  The U-6 measure of unemployment is in the low 20 percentile. The impact of wage growth adjusted for inflation is under reported, and that means the average American has less buying power.  Gasoline prices are an example; they haven't dipped below $3 a gallon for over 1,230 days.  Import oil, but don't access our own oil rich resources, or sign off on the Keystone pipeline.  Endorse Cuba's and Brazil's efforts to drill in the Gulf and Atlantic respectively, but deny Gulf lease rights to domestic US providers.  There's no denying that the goal of the Kenyan's domestic policy is to continue to pull wealth in the form of cash out of the economy, and ensure it resides in the tight grip of Wall Street banksters, as guaranteed by the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. I'm no fan of regulation, but it's pretty much accepted that one can lay blame for the collapse of both financial and housing markets at the feet of this repeal.  The bottom line?  A destitute populace will be forced to trade liberty for economic security, and at that point, the individual becomes a subject of the state, with freedom gone.

Independence Day 2014

Burgers and hotdogs on the grill, a cold beer in hand, family and friends all around, fireworks in hot and humid skies.  This is July in America.  This year, I hope we think a little deeper as to what is happening all around us, and I pray that we take charge of our destiny and of our country's future, and as Ronald Reagan so beautifully put it, that come November 2016, it's a new morning in America.

Close Encounters Expected

As the nation spirals downward in its death throes, thanks to the evil Kenyan at the helm, we look toward the heavens for a change of mental pace, and to take a breather from the caliphate-to-be or the invasion of disease-ridden aliens pouring across our southern border.  But speaking of aliens . . .

Black Hole Sun

No, not Soundgarden.  NASA.  It seems every summer for the last few years, the sun has developed a "hole" on its surface.  Known as a coronal hole, it is an area of the sun's surface that's slightly cooler than the norm.  NASA first noticed these events in the 1970s, and they tend to coincide with the sun's normal 11-year cycle.  What it means to Earth is highly accelerated solar winds, at twice the speed of normal solar wind, which can cause an intense and vivid aurora borealis, and minor disruption of electrical signals.  The Earth's magnetic field protects us from excessive solar radiation.  Usually.  A huge, well directed coronal mass ejection (CME) could literally fry us and our civilization in a instant, bathing the Earth in a flood of gamma radiation.

Is Anyone Out There?

As many people know, we on Earth have been monitoring the skies for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life.  The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program has been in existence for years, but now has stepped up its cosmic eavedropping by announcing two new methods to search for signals that could come from life on other planets. In the Panchromatic SETI project, multiple telescopes will scan a variety of wavelengths from 30 stars near the sun.  If you'd like to be part of the search, University of California at Berkeley has an app that allows your personal computer to analyze raw data signals returned to SETI's radio telescopes.  It's free; download it here.

Yep.  Life In The Neighborhood

Ask any teenager, "what is life," and you may get one of only several answers.  Ask an astrophysicist, however, and you may be surprised at the answer.  Life as we know it, or life as we may imagine it?  Interesting, because the definition of life as we know it typically means a carbon-based, photosynthesizing life form.  But we know of life forms in the deepest darkest oceans that survive on methane and sulfuric gases.  They've never seen the sun, and are silicon based.  So we know of at least several types of life.  Recently the probe Cassini flew past Saturn's moon Enceladus and recorded something startling:  the surface was emitting huge plumes of something far out into space.  It turns out that it's most likely liquid vapor, coming from a massive subterranean ocean on Enceladus.  So based on a revived definition of "life," have we indeed found it?

Evidence of Type II Civilizations?
Several astronauts who have walked on the moon contend, and have been validated by recently declassified and released Apollo Missison recordings, that we found artifacts there that defy conventional wisdom about the moon.  And several tests by the Martian rover Curiosity has gotten positive results for radiation-emitting microbial life on Mars.  That's pretty close to home.  For whatever reason, NASA is disinclined to declassify any of this information, and we are left to draw our own conclusions.  Is all this just someone's hyper imagination?  Raw meat for conspiracy theories?  I'm not so sure.  But know this:  both the US and the UN have contingency plans for our inevitable contact with extraterrestrial biological beings.

Is this knowlefdge in contradiction with established religion?  Yes and no.  Some would look at this as a validation of their faith, others would not.  With so many people embracing a religion based on 6th century civilzation constructs, maybe the reluctance in releasing evidence that cultures and civilizations have preceeded us, and we are merely the new kid on the block, is valid.  I can handle it, as I've long thought that this is the case, anyway.  But there's 3 billion screaming zealots who may take umbrage at learning this, and well, they have a jihad going on now, and this information would most probably push them right over the edge. I hope however, that science and exploration both in space and on Earth will continue, and that those brave souls who strive to interrpret whatever anthopologcal findings are uncovered will continue to do so.  I want to know.  I want to believe.

What's The Best Way To Vanquish An Enemy?

With only some thirty months left in his "presidency," the Kenyan is now pulling out all the stops to fulfill his campaign promise to "fundamentally transform America,"  e.g. destroy her.  This policy is no longer subject to conjecture, it's clearly out in the open; and right in your face.

In both foreign policy and domestic, the Kenyan continues his scorched Earth policies.  His refusal to enforce immigration laws is now manifested in a policy of indiscriminate open border policy.  To date, a third military base has been opened to house the flood of minors and miscreants pouring into the country.  Valerie Jarrett, the unelected Machiavelli of this administration, has declared the aliens to be "the best we have."  Really?  Unwashed, uneducated, undocumented, anti-American illegals are the best we have?  How about that!  These are not doctors, scientists or philosophers coming across, they're the lowest possible denominator of humanity - and that's being kind.  The ramifications of the complete breakdown and dilution of American culture - that of individual liberty and responsibility, of adherence to a nation of laws, of entrepreneurial ambition, of seeking things greater than ourselves, all of these concepts will be merely quaint notions after the Kenyan does his despicable work.

¿Qué es la mejor manera de vencer a un enemigo? 

ما هي أفضل طريقة لهزيمة عدو

Better get used to it, folks.  What's the best way to vanquish an enemy?  Attack him at once from all sides, overwhelming him.  I can't say if the Kenyan has ever read Sun Tsu, George Patton or Robert E. Lee, but his current battle plan is formidable.  While he floods the country with these illegal undesirables, he releases five hard core, sworn enemies of western culture, especially America, all amid the administration's deep denial of their lethality. After all, they'll be monitored by the government of Qatar.  These now freed Taliban leaders have already emboldened the insane and radical Islamist terrorists to continue to bomb, capture, torture and kill all over the world.

The ISIS, a terror group once aligned with al Qaeda, has already taken Mosul, and by looting banks across the province, have become the richest terrorist organization in the world.  They have now all the money they'll ever need to conduct their jihad against civilization. Worse, their presence and influence grows in Iraq, and by capturing windfall of arms, munitions and equipment abandoned by the fleeing Iraqi army, they now can arm splinter groups all over the world.  It is naive to believe that this terror organization will contain itself to Northen Iraq, as their goal is to unite Syria and Iraq under their version of an 8th century theocracy.

Rather than direct military and diplomatic efforts to contain this Islamist insurgency in the Middle East, or to put the National Guard on the southern US border with Mexico to reinforce the overwhelmed Border Patrol, the Kenyan prefers to revisit the safe, non confrontational cold war with Russia, by sending two (two!) B-2 Spirit stealth bombers  to England.  Oh, lest I forget, the Kenyan also wants to "administratively and unilaterally" disarm law abiding Americans.  That means he intends to bypass Congress through another executive order, as this tyrant is wont to do.  All to keep us safe, you understand.

So, his battle plan in effect - America being attacked from all sides - the Kenyan is far from defending her;  he aids and abets America's enemies, foreign and domestic.  And seeks to disarm Americans in the process.

"SOS" is an international distress signal that means "Save Our Ship."  But not anymore.  Today it means "Shoot On Sight."  Thanks, Barry. 

Take a Stand: One State at a Time

As we read the news, day in and day out, we see the never ending lawlessness perpetrated by this administration and its puppets in Congress and the media. It has become so pervasive we're almost actually accepting it as normal.  But fight that urge; don't let this depravity numb you.

The US attorney General, Eric Holder, has publicly and steadfastly refused to enforce immigration laws as he reassigns border police to off-border tasks, all the while illegal and often criminal immigrants pour - literally - over the border.  In fact, he has even set up legal teams to defend the illegals.  The ploy now is to force illegal immigrant children across the border in order to elicit sympathy from the populace.   Great job, Eric!  That's the way to defend the Constitution.  The Speaker of the House, along with other Republicans, have abandoned their role of loyal opposition, and have embraced the free for all border crashing by unskilled, criminal, diseased and possibly enemy immigrants.  The end result will be another 30 million Spanish speaking folks here in the US on the government dole.  The disaster of this insane policy is yet to hit us culturally and economically.  But rest assured it will.

The Kenyan is doing his part, as well.  He just released five hard core, blood thirsty Taliban terrorists back into the fight against the US in a prisoner swap for a single US soldier, one who allegedly deserted his combat post and defected to the enemy.  The impact of the swap on the battlefield will make no difference, the administration assures us.  The Taliban see it differently, however. Now the Kenyan is one step closer to his goal of closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay and releasing those terrorists held there.  It's no longer a surprise that if he isn't actually a closet Muslim, he's certainly unabashedly deeply sympathetic to their cause.  Overshadowing, I might add, his oath of office to protect and defend the US Constitution.

So where is the light at the end of this dismal dark tunnel?  One point of light is a candidate running for governor for the State of Florida, Libertarian Adrian Wyllie.  Of all the candidates, he's the only one I've seen who says exactly what he means, and does so in an informative, intelligent way.  Not through moronic soundbites spewing platitudes, but with intelligent, well thought out discourse.  The voters are starved for some meaning from their candidates, and are tired of electing the same attitude to government positions, regardless of the "R" or "D" after the candidates' names.  Wyllie has defended the Constitution through his service in the US Army, as well as on the campaign trail.  His 7-point plan to reduce government, lower taxation, and enhance both liberty and economic freedom resonates with the voters, as his poll numbers are beginning to show.  How does his election help the US?  Because Wyllie understands the Constitution, he will enforce the prohibitions on the federal government in favor of the people or the states as cited in both the 5th and 10th amendments.  Even if he doesn't get elected, his campaign is a template for other candidates as well as the people to stand up, refuse to be tread upon, and stop the usurpation of freedom under the boot of the Kenyan's imposed tyranny.

His message is resonating, and he's fearless in his fight to regain the America that once was.  One state at a time.

UPDATE, 11 June 2014:
Yesterday, the Virginia electorate made its preference clearly known by electing an unknown Tea Party Candidate over the 7-term Minority Leader, Republican Eric Cantor.  Cantor had abandoned the core principals of the Republican Party by embracing not only amnesty, but embracing the Kenyan as well, essentially signing on with this administration's policy of Destruction of America.  The defeat of status quo RINO candidates shocked the Washington DC group-think, and sent a panic through the established Republican leadership. The proof of this is the story is Cantor's defeat, rather the win by an economics professor, David Brat, who ran on conservative values, and who spent less than $200,000 to do it.

Does this mean that the tide has turned, and people are no longer buying into the liberal/progressive rhetoric coming out of Washington?  It's too early to tell, but if this primary is any indication, there's hope that the era of tyranny is on the wane.  Compare Brat's winning platform to Adrian Wyllie's, Libertarian candidate in the Florida Gubernatorial race.  Can common sense - economic and individual liberty, rule of law, and much smaller and less intrusive government - win again in America?  I hope so.  We, the people, still have a voice in our government, but if we fail to use it, we'll certainly lose it.

The Mark of the Beast

A little known, but insidious infringement of the Fourth Amendment, is the REAL ID scam.  The REAL ID Act became effective nationwide on May 11, 2008, and the State of Florida began issuing REAL ID compliant credentials after January 1, 2010. It requires anyone renewing or obtaining a drivers license to provide US issued identification - passports, birth certificates and the like -  as well as to submit to facial recognition photographs.  For this, you get a star in the upper right hand corner of your license, which is evidence of your compliance with Department of Homeland Security and your name forever stored in the DHS national database, I suppose.

Ostensibly REAL ID is a nationwide effort to improve the integrity and security of State-issued driver licenses and identification cards, which in turn will help fight terrorism and reduce identity fraud.  But in fact, Adrian Wyllie, Libertarian candidate for Florida Governor, said your photograph is no longer just a photograph. “It is a digital facial image capture that maps the bio-metric markers of your face through facial recognition software,” he said.  And this photo and and all your personal information will be contained in a national database.  Now we know why we need those red light cameras, and those cameras mounted on buildings everywhere.  To stop terrorism.  Right.

The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution states:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

And Article 1, Section 12 of the Florida Constitution states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, and against the unreasonable interception of private communications by any means, shall not be violated. No warrant shall be issued except upon probable cause, supported by affidavit, particularly describing the place or places to be searched, the person or persons, thing or things to be seized, the communication to be intercepted, and the nature of evidence to be obtained. This right shall be construed in conformity with the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution, as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court. Articles or information obtained in violation of this right shall not be admissible in evidence if such articles or information would be inadmissible under decisions of the United States Supreme Court construing the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

It seems clear that REAL ID, red light cameras, arbitrary arrests, surveillance of digital communications or censorship for utterance of free speech, and so many other encroachments of our personal liberties are all blatant and unlawful violations of this amendment.  There is no legal basis for this tyranny that permeates our lives today.  The Patriot Act under George W. Bush opened the door for this abomination of liberty, and the Kenyan's administration has certainly taken it to draconian levels.

When the idea of a federal standardized identification for Americans was first contemplated in 1991, then President Ronald W. Reagan’s reaction was, “By God, that is the mark of the beast.” 

He was right, of course, as always.