Archive for the ‘Uncomfortable Truths’ Category

No Alamo at San Antonio de Benghazi or Rhineland Sequel

Posted: January 2, 2020 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, culture, media, middle east, News/opinion, Uncomfortable Truths, war
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Eight years ago, just before an election our embassy was attacked in Benghazi and i wrote the following post on the subject:

Picture that night for a moment, In the end attackers lost 30-60% of their force but for the sake of argument let’s say only 25% of that was in the first wave. You’re attacking the compound, you’ve been attacking for hours and seen people fall all around you. You’ve been beaten back once and don’t actually know how many men are inside, what do you think would have happened if they heard the sound of a single helicopter gunship? A single plane? a single drone dropping a bomb on the force already bloodied at a rate that would cause most Western countries to declare the mission a disaster?

They would have run.

Instead there was no Helicopter gunship, there was no relieving force, there wasn’t even a single remote control bomb in those seven hours after all there is a fundraiser in Vegas to worry about.

The actions of the Obama administration in general and the President and Secretary of State Clinton in particular were a national disgrace, but fully in keeping with the philosophy that American interests in general and Americans lives in particular are not worth fighting for.

Fast forward seven plus years. Suddenly the Iranians are hitting our compound in Iraq. The media is in a frenzy ready to call this Trump’s Benghazi, celebs who support them are practically giddy with excitement at the prospect of embarrassment to President Trump in an election year

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But while the media was looking for a Benghazi sequel, the Iranians were looking for a different sequel, they were looking for a Rhineland sequel.

You don’t know about the Rhineland business in 1936? Well in March of 1936 the Germans under a fellow by the name of Adolph Hitler moved their army into the Rhineland in direct opposition to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, it was an aggressive move, a provocative move and a move that was completely dependent on the French not reacting, as one German officer put it:

“I can tell you that for five days and five nights not one of us closed an eye. We knew that if the French marched, we were done. We had no fortifications, and no army to match the French. If the French had even mobilized, we should have been compelled to retire.”

In fact one officer went so far as to suggest that if the French had intervened there in March of 1936 Hitler would have fallen.

By an odd coincidence the Iranians are having trouble at home and things are a tad shaky The Iranians could sure use a win and according to the international press, America is under the control of an incompetent leader who is in danger of being forced from office, so what better time to push the envelope against a paper power run by an incompetent leader unwilling or unable to fight back.

Alas for the Iranians the source of the reports of Donald Trump’s weakness and incompetence are a unreliable and unfortunately for them along with celebs like Ms. Midler and the media whose reports they rely on President Trump isn’t Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton:

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and those choppers didn’t come alone, they came with US Marines:

Do you know what happens when you send Apache Helicopters and US Marines to an embassy that Iranians are attacking? One guess:

All members of paramilitary groups and their supporters who have been protesting against US air strikes in Iraq have withdrawn from the perimeter of the US Embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday, the Iraqi military said.”All protesters have withdrawn, tents dismantled, and other forms of demonstrating that accompanied these protests have ended and the Iraqi security forces have completely secured the embassy perimeter,” it said in a statement.

Or as it was put

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And the president weighed in personally:

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So instead the Iranians have run, their leaders, like Kim in North Korea are making threats and dismissing the president but actions speak louder than words and right now they know that they aren’t dealing with the pretend version of a president that the MSM has painted for them.

Trump took action and the Iranians are running and the ambassador remains unharmed and the US remains ready to protect our own.

For Iran that’s a disaster, and for the media and Democrats it’s a disaster too.

I’m old enough to remember when wouldn’t be able to say that about the press or Democrats.

Best of Baldilocks at DTGB in 2019 — With a Workaround

Posted: December 31, 2019 by julietteochieng in dablog, elections, News/opinion, politics, Uncomfortable Truths
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Happy New Decade!

by baldilocks

I would share excerpts from all of the most popular posts of mine from this blog, but Peter’s old site bought the farm in August. Therefore, I will share the most popular posts from that point in time to today.

However, I do have access to the posts from the dead site, so I’m going to re-post at least one from each month — January to August —  at baldilocks. I will post those in full and they won’t necessarily be the ones which received the most traffic.

Here we go!

*****
Impeachment Strategy

[President Trump] knows that the Democrats have been after him since he announced his candidacy; they pre-conjured a reason for his impeachment, for Heaven’s sake. Therefore, he is forcing an impeachment at the time of his choosing rather than theirs.

More on the Hollowing Out of California

Good and sweet things out, bad and smelly things in.

Gang Warfare

One of President Trump’s missions is to expose the various means which the political gangs have of enriching themselves on monies gotten from the pockets of the tax-payers. Ukraine seems to be both a means of thievery and a huge storage space for the loot.

The Pentagon’s Vast All-Wing Conspiracy: Plunder

In 2018, the Pentagon conducted an audit; it was the first time Department of Defense had ever done so since its 1947 creation, even though an annual audit for the Department has been legally required since 1990. The audit failed – an insufficient description.

The Pentagon cannot account for $21 trillion. TRILLION. Times 21.

That Such Men Lived

What I love about Doris Miller’s existence is that the man was here for only a short time and was merely playing the cards that life dealt him when he performed the action that will long outlive him. When the challenge came, he stepped to it and met it — something intrinsic in heroes and heroism.

It’s Almost Showtime

I wish I were surprised at how many people think that when the House votes on formal impeachment articles that the president must be removed from office right then and there, but I’m not. Even some of those who were around when it happened to President Clinton will not bother themselves to understand the process.

My Vox Problem

On January 1, 2020, it will severely limit all of my gigs. In short, California AB5 limits me to 35 pieces of freelance work per year for an individual recipient.

Pelosi Plays Her Role

Speaker Pelosi is correct in observing that President Trump will have the distinction that only two other presidents have. But I bet he will also have the distinction of showing the entire world how crooked those who claim to lead us and represent us have been for decades. If he does that, he’ll be by himself in history.

More to come at baldilocks blog!

And don’t forget about this.

Juliette Akinyi Ochieng has been blogging since 2003 as baldilocks. Her older blog is here.  She published her first novel, Tale of the Tigers: Love is Not a Game in 2012.

Follow Juliette on Facebook, Twitter, MeWe, Patreon and Social Quodverum.

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Or hit Juliette’s!

Why I Stayed in California

Posted: December 28, 2019 by julietteochieng in economy, personal, politics, Uncomfortable Truths
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by baldilocks

Two reasons: family and church. One reason remains.

I wanted to leave California in 2006, but I didn’t because I couldn’t convince my then 85-year-old great-aunt to sell her home of 50 years and move to New Mexico, where the majority of our family lives.

My aunt passed away in 2012 and it’s easy to place “blame” on a person who isn’t here to give her side of the story, but I’m not the lone person who was trying to convince her to move. Neither of us couldn’t convince my aunt that California was sliding down the tubes, or that it would be tough for one person to take care of her if/when her health begin to fail. It lead to a lot of familial acrimony for a number of years.

In the end, I did take care of my great-aunt – mostly by myself – in her declining years. And yes, it was tough. But I’m glad I did it.

My aunt left her house to me, but she had taken out a reverse mortgage on it, so you can guess what happened. I tried to keep the house for two years, but I couldn’t.

So, when the time came to leave the house – in December 2014 – I had a choice to make: move to NM or stay. But if I stayed, where would I live? That was a question for God to answer, so I asked Him. Right afterward, the pastor at the church I’ve been attending since 2003, made this general plea to the congregation: “I know what’s happening with the economy, especially here in California, but I need you to stay and help this church get the Word out.”

There was my answer.

I knew then – at the beginning of 2015 – that this would involve homelessness. So, I said to God that if He wanted me to stay and be homeless, I had some requests: that I would not be on the street or be hungry, and that I would have a clean, safe, and temperature-controlled place to sleep, shower, and you know the rest.

In my nine months of homelessness during 2015, He held up His end of the bargain and continues to do so.

Should I stay any longer? Here’s the thing: we conservative Californians who stayed let this happen to our state. Others got out early and who can blame them? I wanted to do it, too. But it seems to me now that running away is a two-edged sword. We did nothing and now we will continue to do nothing and are slinking away.

I still want to have the option of leaving here in 2020, but not without putting up a fight. Simply, I want to be able to throw my belongings in my 18-year-old car and bounce on cue, but until I’m able to do that, I don’t want to sit here and just take it while California’s Organized political Left continues to herd the state’s middle-class resisters to its borders.

Also, I really don’t want to leave my church. I could still be a member via the magic of the Internet, but it won’t be the same.

One might say that I didn’t get wound up about California’s plight until it affected me personally, and one might be correct. But that means that it’s time to change. If there are only a few left in California who are willing to speak for me, it is what it is. And I can still speak — and take action — for myself.

Also, as we know, California’s Organized Leftism is spreading to other states, often riding in the car with former Californians as they take their liberal political mindsets to places like Colorado and Texas. It’s like an airborne pestilence.

So, for now, in spite of California Assembly Bill 5, I’m going to continue my regularly-scheduled posting here at DaTechGuy Blog – Tuesdays and Saturdays — until I can’t.

I do have a fund-raising campaign going on Facebook: Prep for Possible CA Exit.

You’ll note that I left open the possibility of staying and I’m doing that because I think that 2020 will be a year of big surprises for the entire country. California may be one of those surprises and if I can be a part of the change in direction for California at least for a few months of the upcoming year, I’m going to do what I can. I’ve been stagnant for too long.

If you’d like to help me be ready for mobility, you can contribute at the Facebook link or below at my Paypal link. But even if I don’t get another dime in this campaign, I’m done sitting around waiting for my beloved home state to fall.

And I know for a fact that God rewards action.

NECESSARY READING: My Vox Problem

Juliette Akinyi Ochieng has been blogging since 2003 as baldilocks. Her older blog is here.  She published her first novel, Tale of the Tigers: Love is Not a Game in 2012.

Follow Juliette on Facebook, Twitter, MeWe, Patreon and Social Quodverum.

Hit Da Tech Guy Blog’s Tip Jar !

Or hit Juliette’s!

Egypt Today

Posted: December 24, 2019 by chrisharper in Uncomfortable Truths
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By Christopher Harper

Ahmed, a middle-aged tour guide, didn’t work for almost six years as Egypt’s economy fell into a downward spiral as a result of government instability, terrorism, and crime.

His health suffered, leading to two heart operations. His children’s plans to attend college had to be put on hold until recently.

Today, however, he’s optimistic about the future because the government of strongman Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has brought stability to the largest country in the Arab world.

I first visited Egypt more than 40 years ago, and it’s been eight years since I last traveled there—a time of great hope after the 2011 revolution.

That hope became despair in only a few months after the Muslim Brotherhood took control of the government for two years until the military seized power in 2013.

My wife and I just started a two-week stay that will allow us to travel throughout Egypt.

The people I’ve spoken with share Ahmed’s optimism. For example, Mina, who is Coptic Christian, said the greater attention to terrorism and street crime has made Egypt far better than under the Muslim Brotherhood. Although the hope of the Arab revolution of 2001 failed to be achieved, Mina is content that times are better than in recent years.

The Coptic Christians, who make up about 20 percent of Egypt’s population of 100 million, came under intense harassment at the hands of Muslim extremists for several years. Copts were killed because of their religion. Their churches were burned. Most lived in fear of what would happen next.

Although security remains relatively tight around Coptic churches, my wife and I visited the center of the Christian population. The streets bustled with local residents and tourists, with little concern about possible attacks during the Christmas holidays.

After a visit to a Coptic monastery in the western desert, however, military police accompanied our tour bus until we made it to more populated areas.

Tourism seems to have picked up after the problems of the past decade, although my wife and I didn’t see too many Americans. Many of our friends thought we were crazy to make such a trip, so Egypt will have to convince people from the United States to return there.

El-Sisi and his team have rolled out a variety of economic programs, including a major building project at the Suez Canal to increase traffic. Also, the government has devalued the currency, making foreign investment far more appealing.

But Egyptian skeptics remain. One of my friends whom I visited during the 2011 uprising left the country for Central America. When I asked him if any of my acquaintances remained in Egypt, he responded, “They’re dead, in prison, or they left the country.”

El-Sisi and his supporters still have to convince some of their fellow countrymen that the economic and political situation will get even better.

One final note: A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you from Egypt!

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