Posts Tagged ‘datechguy's magnificent seven’

The Air Force’s double standard on sexual assault

Posted: April 30, 2022 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Uncategorized
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Recently I wrote a few articles about how reforms to how the military would prosecute sexual assault would likely not make any difference, and how the military abuses the non-judicial punishment system, especially on young enlisted servicemembers, while not doing much to hold members of higher ranks accountable. Those are great articles and you should go back and read them, as this article is going to build off of that information.

My email was inundated recently with articles about Air Force General William Cooley, who was recently found guilty of sexual assault abusive sexual contact (editor note: he was found not guilty of sexual assault, which is the Article 120 reference in the linked article. My apologies for that mistake, and thank you to the commenter that caught it!). This is a big deal because its the first time in the entire history of the Air Force that a general (someone that is wearing a stars on their shoulders and was specifically approved for promotion by Congress) was taken to court martial and found guilty. Now, this isn’t the first time a general was punished. That normally happens under the radar through administrative means, and can happen even as the person is retiring.

As an intelligent reader of this blog, you might ask yourself “How did the Air Force make it 75 years without taking a single general to court martial? Are they just that good at picking people?” When you consider the size of the Air Force and the large number of generals that have served over its 75 year history, and if you know anything about statistics, you realize that this is nonsense. People committ crimes. It happens. You can’t judge an organization by the fact a member committed a crime.

You CAN judge that organization by how it responds to the crimes, and in the case of the military services, that judgement should be pretty harsh. General Cooley was given a fine of $10,910 a month for five months (total of $54,550) and a reprimand. Now, $54K is a lot of money for little people. But at the low end, a major general makes $191K a year in just base pay, so you can be excused for thinking he got off pretty easy.

Normally, sexual assault and other sexual crimes carries jail time and having to register as a sex offender, which General Cooley apparently won’t have to do. Is this a double standard? The easiest way to confirm is look at the results of other court martials of lower ranking people. Scanning the Air Force’s trial results show an awful lot of jail time for Article 120 (sexual assault) convictions as well as abusive sexual contact.

Probably more infuriating for the average airman is that Air Force leadership told everyone that sexual assault and other sexual crimes would not be tolerated and would be punished, despite the fact that sexual crimes in general are notoriously hard to prosecute due to lack of evidence. Inevitably this attitude lead to more than a few innocent people getting NJP, which doesn’t give members a fair trial, and seems to disproportionately affect young enlisted members, and particularly minority members. But when the Air Force has the chance to prosecute a senior member and show it can hold its own accountable…it doesn’t. A fair jury finds General Cooley guilty, and yet the judge goes soft on him.

By the way, not the first time the Air Force hasn’t punished one of its own.

To which I have to ask, why? Why denigrate yourself this way? How can you sleep at night knowing that you botched the chance to prove you really do care about your core values and the service members that serve your organization? The Army lost a lot of credibility in how it handled the Jeffrey Sinclair case. This directly mirrors it, and somehow the Air Force learned nothing from it.

I can’t imagine how this makes parents of kids wanting to join the military feel. The fact that General Cooley did something criminal says nothing about the Air Force, but the fact that he faces no jail time says volumes about the Air Force. It’s just one more reason the military is losing credibility and will have a long road to win it back.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. Those agencies would have you believe everything is great and that nothing is wrong with the current way things work. If you liked this article, drop a donation in DaTipJar, share this story and consider purchasing one of the author’s books on Amazon.

Maura Healey’s climate plan will decimate the economy of Massachusetts

Posted: April 28, 2022 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Maura Healey, the current Attorney General of Massachusetts, who is now running for Governor, is a hard left ideologue. She has been in constant lockstep with the more radical Democrats, such as Barrack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, and Bernie Sanders.  Her Climate Change Plan, which is outlined on this page of her campaign website,  proves this most compellingly.  All quotes in this article are from that disconcerting page.

As you can see from this paragraph, Healey has completely bought into this sham called Climate Change.

The climate crisis is our greatest risk and our greatest opportunity. Our choice is clear: to protect our families, communities, and the environment that sustains us, we must rapidly transition to clean energy. As Governor, Maura will make climate change a top priority. She understands the critical urgency of this issue and she knows what is at stake—especially for the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable communities. The actions we must take now to protect our families and communities from climate change also present a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a healthier, more equitable future and to position Massachusetts as a global leader in clean energy technology and innovation. She will make that vision a reality by innovating state government, working directly with communities, implementing science-based policy, partnering with clean technology businesses, and supporting clean energy research and development.

Her plan would all but eliminate fossil fuels, replacing them with unicorn farts and fairy dust.  She claims that she wil be able to replace them with wind and solar energy.  That claim is just as implausible as my statement about unicorn farts and fairy dust.  The State of California implemented a plan very similar to Healey’s.  Brownouts, skyrocketing energy prices, and economic hardship are now the norm,

Maura Healey’s grand scheme is completely devoid of reality.  Check out this proposal:

Electrifying buildings will be one of our biggest challenges– but also an opportunity for safer, healthier homes and buildings. We have the technology that we need, but we need a bold set of policies to obtain the level of greenhouse gas emissions reduction necessary and to do so equitably. 

We also need to change the business model of our gas utilities, which are, after all, public utilities. The Healey Administration will require the gas utilities to adopt transition plans that are customer-focused, equitable, and consistent with the state’s emission reduction requirements. 

Healey is planning on transitioning away from natural gas for heating homes to electricity, while transitioning from natural gas and other fossil fuels to solar and wind to produce electricity.  That will result in perhaps tens of thousands freezing to death during our harsh Massachusetts winters because that plan is completely untenable.

Energy efficiency is the most cost-effective way to address emissions and lower customer costs. We must continue and expand our award-winning MassSave energy efficiency program. But we cannot get the job done by relying solely on the MassSave program or by continuing to build homes and buildings that rely on fossil fuels. That is why, in a Healey Administration, municipalities will have the option to adopt a specialized energy code that gives them the authority to ban gas use in new construction. 

This next part of the plan is fanciful because our electrical generation and distribution systems will not keep up with the increased demand, even if we keep the status quo.

Maura will also put 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030 by providing larger rebates for used and low-cost electric vehicles, while making it easy for customers to access these rebates at the time they buy or lease their vehicle. She will prioritize public spending on electric vehicle charging infrastructure projects that benefit low- and moderate-income households and overburdened communities. 

Even more fanciful is this next part of her plan.

The Healey Administration will end the sale of new passenger cars and light duty trucks powered by gasoline or diesel by 2035. All public fleet purchases will be electric by 2028. They will require utilities to offer discounts for charging at night when electricity demand is low. The Healey transportation agenda will also include bold investment in electric vehicle infrastructure and strong incentives for their adoption, including for heavy duty vehicles, as well as pedestrian walkways, and safe, expanded bike lanes. 

This next component of Healey’s insane scheme is the most deluded.  They’ve been attempting to make a go of offshore wind to generate electricity on a large scale here in Massachusetts for about a decade, with no luck.  It has been an absolute failure.

Under a Healey Administration, Massachusetts will achieve 100 percent clean electricity supply by 2030. Maura will position Massachusetts as the nation’s offshore wind capital by expeditiously permitting the 5,600 MW of offshore wind procurements currently authorized by law and more than doubling the Commonwealth’s target to 10,000 MW offshore wind by 2035.

Where are the solar panels going to come from to implement Healry’s next plan? The obvious answer is China because they have a monopoly on the rare earth materials used to produce solar panels.  The environmental carnage caused in the mining of these materials will be far worse than what occurred in the former Soviet Union.

The Healey Administration will capitalize on the strong existing Massachusetts solar industry with a total of 10 GW of deployed solar by 2030. They will deploy rooftop solar installations in the communities where widespread adoption is lacking and encourage smart siting of large solar facilities.

The next component of her plan is science fiction.  It cannot be accomplished.

Maura will quadruple energy storage deployment by 2030 and invest in research and development to make long-duration storage a reality. She also will build upon Massachusetts’ award-winning energy efficiency programs by ending fossil fuel incentives, encouraging fuel switching and beneficial electrification, and focusing on whole building electrification in low-income and overburdened communities. And a Healey Administration will give customers greater control over their energy use through home solar and storage systems, community energy systems, advanced meters, time varying rates, and smart appliances.

If Maura Healey is elected Governor of Massachusetts, her plan will absolutely cripple the Massachusetts economy, producing widespread economic devastation, perhaps even worse than what has taken place in California.

I like Ike!

Posted: April 26, 2022 by chrisharper in politics
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By Christopher Harper

By many accounts, Dwight Eisenhower was a lazy caretaker of the U.S. presidency.

Again, these analysts missed the boat by a wide margin.

In my continuing deep drive in the presidency, I found that Eisenhower was one of the best presidents ever.

In his 2013 analysis of Eisenhower’s efforts as a general and president, the late Jean Edward Smith dismisses many of the criticisms of Ike’s time in the White House. See https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11958983-eisenhower-in-war-and-peace

Moreover, other historians are taking a more positive stance toward the 34th president, who served from 1953 to 1961. C-SPAN’s 2021 ratings of American presidents show that Eisenhower has moved up the ranks from 2000 to No. 5 in the 2021 survey.

In Eisenhower in War and Peace, Smith writes, “With the exception of Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower was the most successful president of the 20th century,” citing his avoidance of several military actions, creation of the interstate highway system, and the restoration of “the nation’s sanity” after McCarthyism.

In my opinion, FDR and cousin Teddy, who rank No. 3 and 4, should be put way down the list; Eisenhower should stand just behind Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, the top two on the C-SPAN list.

In 1952, Eisenhower entered the presidential race as a Republican to block the isolationist foreign policies of Senator Robert A. Taft, who opposed NATO and wanted no foreign entanglements. Eisenhower won that election and the 1956 election in landslides, both times defeating Adlai Stevenson II. 

Domestically, Eisenhower balanced the budget, lowered taxes, and reduced the country’s debt. He signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent the 101st Airborne to enforce federal court orders to integrate schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

His lasting legacies include the Interstate Highway System and his warning about the “military-industrial complex,” which had become a dominant force in increasing defense spending for power and profit.

Internationally, Eisenhower, the soldier, knew the human price of war and kept the United States at peace for eight years. 

Ike got the United States out of the Korean War. He vetoed his adviser’s suggestions of using nuclear weapons to help the French in Vietnam and Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan. He forced the Israelis, French, and British out of the Suez Canal in 1956 when the three countries seized control of the critical transit route from Egypt. 

Unfortunately, he chose Earl Warren as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He also allowed the CIA to expand its reach by overthrowing the leadership of Iran and Guatemala and agreed to the U-2 overflights of Russia, which soured the relationship with the Soviet Union.

Since I was only nine when Eisenhower left office, I didn’t realize what an exceptional president he was. I now understand why so many liked Ike.  

Report from Louisiana: Confederate Memorial Day is no more.

Posted: April 25, 2022 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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Shreveport’s Confederate Monument

By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – In an ongoing effort to erase history, the Louisiana House has passed without objection a bill that would remove Robert E. Lee Day and Confederate Memorial Day from the calendar of state holidays:

Democratic New Orleans Rep. Matthew Willard, who is Black, said he was shocked to learn the Confederate holidays remain on the state books when it was brought to his attention by a constituent.

“I had no clue,” Willard said. “I actually didn’t believe it. I couldn’t in good conscience sit by and not try to change it.”

Williard said he is compelled to carry the bill to honor his late grandfather Elliott “Doc” Willard, a well-known New Orleans educator and Civil Rights leader who died in 2012.

Not that this will make one iota of difference to anyone. No state offices closed on these days and only groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Sons of Confederate Veterans paid any attention to them, and I can guarantee you that these groups will still quietly observe these days just as they always have. The local UDC chapter and the SCV chapter get together on these days and have a small ceremony at the cemetery and clean headstones of Confederate dead.

Meanwhile, in New Orleans, the City Council has officially renamed Lee Circle. After removing the Lee monument from the circle in 2017, and two years of discussion, the space will now be called “Harmony Circle.” 

Don’t you feel more politically correct now?

Since the monuments were removed across the south, I am unaware of any decline in violence or injustice. As far as I know, the Civil War is still part of our country’s history and you can still purchase Shelby Foote’s brilliant three-volume history of the war at Amazon and in bookstores.

Here in Caddo Parish, in northwest Louisiana, our huge Confederate monument has been enclosed in a giant plywood box in front of the courthouse for a couple of years now as local politicians attempt to find someone to move it without destroying it to a “less offensive” site. The monument belongs to the United Daughters of the Confederacy and therefore can not be just destroyed. After years of litigation and debate, the city is on the hook to pay for moving it and they must do so without damaging it.

The final cost for this process is about $800,000.

Now, what better way could we spend that money around here, in a city that is short over one hundred police officers, where we have daily shootings, and our murder rate is record breaking each year? In a city where restaurants can’t open because workers don’t show up? Where potholes are large enough to plant trees and downtown is a wasteland inhabited only by the homeless?

Perhaps moving the monument will finally solve all this. You think?

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