“READERS WRITE…”

“READERS WRITE…”   From time to time a listener/reader writes to give me advice on what to write/talk about.  For the most part they agree with what’s been said, but now and then they take umbrage.  For instance, there’s not enough humor in my stuff, and they don’t like it that I call it “stuff”.   I tried a joke and never got ANY replies about that so that’s a dead deal.   As for the “stuff”, it’s gathered from all over, including from the dark corner of my desk drawer, where I stash things to write about.  There was a complaint that some of the stuff wasn’t current, but if you haven’t heard it, it’s new-to-you, right?  So much for that.

Our Judeo-Christian heritage gives us “the season” because many times the Jewish holiday of Chanukah falls very close to the Christian holiday of Christmas…so why not celebrate both?  When I was in the Navy there was a buddy of mine that used to take off on Jewish holidays…but he wasn’t Jewish.  He was questioned about this and replied that the Jewish guys take off on Christmas, so why not?  Seemed logical then, and it still seems logical…but then, I’m a pretty logical guy, so Merry Christmas and Happy Hanuka, and Kwanzaa, even though I don’t understand that one.

 

One listener wrote  to chastise me about always being “down on Islam”, and said that I should not blame all 1.2 Billion of them for the action of a few.   The answer to that is simple…Islam is a violent cult, and it preaches violence.  Period, end of story.  Now let’s look at another aspect of modern society, at least in this country; the estimates are that there are about 300 Million guns in the hands of private citizens in this country.   We have shootings and people are killed or maimed.   Can we use the same logic of not condemning the multitude for the actions of a few?   Not according to the anti-gunners in the country.   Their position is that no one should own a gun except for the armed forces, federal agencies and the police.   Germany, in 1938, anyone?

 

Lastly, the music in the breaks.  I heard both sides on this one.  First, we play something that’s appropriate for the segment, and they like that.    On the other hand, they think we should play something that’s just upbeat and bouncy because my stuff is mostly bad news.   Go figure, and that message will certainly get back to the production staff.   If you listen to the music show, Remembering The Oldies, maybe you’ll hear something you like, and you can suggest that.   In the meantime, be well, live long and prosper (with apologies to Mr. Spock).

 

Larry Usoff, US Navy Retired

www.AirHumanityRadio.net

“LIONS, SHEEP, AND AMERICA”

"LIONS, SHEEP, AND AMERICA” 

Recently I watched a TV program about the rise of the Third Reich in Germany, during the years 1932 to 1939.  Listening to the speeches of Adolph Hitler and the phrases he used back then…they sound remarkably like the phrases of our current imposter in the White House.   A different time, perhaps…a different country, perhaps, but the same ideology…the same steadfast delusional messages coming from someone that has been called delusional…and not just by me.   We may not be hearing about a Third Reich, but we certainly are hearing about the “one world order” that will bring about world peace.   To one group of people in the world today, world peace means total submission to their view of the world.   Being an old man it’s likely that the prediction of armed conflict in the streets of the United States will not be in my lifetime.   It most certainly will be in the lifetimes of my grandchildren and because they have been spoon-fed the lies and deceptions over the years, they will accept their fate…like sheep being led to the slaughter.

In that TV program, it was made very clear that Hitler was accepted by the German people because he told them things they wanted to hear.   By the time they may have realized what was really going on, it was too late…he was in complete control of the government and the people.   Doesn’t that sound like the Kenyan-in-chief that our low-information, dumbed-down people elected…not once but twice?   He promised about their doctors, he promised about their health care, he promised to bring terrorists to justice.   All lies, except for one instance, and for that he had to practically dragged to the desk to make the decision.   The one bright spot, the killing of Bin Laden, was not actually done by him, but he took the credit. 

Brave men stand ready to do violent things, in order to keep this country free…even while the Muslim-in-chief does his best to reduce the United States to a third-world  status.   The plans call for our armed forces to be reduced to pre-World War 2 levels, while terrorists around the world plot our destruction.   The parallels between the German people, and the American people, are many and it may come to pass that our very own wannabe dictator will be able to achieve his stated goal, to “fundamentally transform” the United States of America into a hellhole much like the countries he so admires.

Do you remember his desire to have a civilian army, equal in power to the US Army?  For what purpose would that private army be needed?   What about the rising number of people that are entirely dependent upon the largesse of the Federal Government for their existence?   Do you think they would vote against continuing to get the freebies from the government?   Did you really believe that the swarm of illegals coming here, and those that are already here, would not be made citizens, with full rights and privileges accorded to the legal citizens…and that they would not remember which political party gave them that extraordinary gift?  

No, my friends, the man who swore to protect and defend us turns out to have done just the opposite.  There is no doubt in my mind that the majority of the people in America today are more like sheep than like lions.   The saying is “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion”…and that was said by Alexander the Great, one of the great military leaders of his, or any other time.   Our sheep are being led, not by a lion, but by a liar.

The world will little note nor long remember…”

“The world will little note nor long remember…”

One hundred forty-nine years ago those words were spoken by a man who, in one of the darkest hours of this nation, believed IN the nation, and that America would prevail as one nation.   Then, seventy-three years ago on December 7^th, America was again plunged into a dark time.   There were serious doubts, in the beginning, that the United States would not just survive, but would emerge victorious. 

That was then.   This is now.

If anyone thinks that we, the United States, are NOT in a civil war, they haven’t been reading the papers or watching the news.   Lincoln said, “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”…and if we do not understand the portent of what is happening in America, we will open a schism that may never close.   Add to the unrest between the races in America, the open warfare between Islam and “the Western world” and you begin to get an inkling of the danger facing this country.   It doesn’t matter who said that everything is political…it’s true.   Governments, and ours is a good example of a bad policy, do what is good for them and the party that’s in power at the time.   The era of statesmanship is over, I’m afraid, and the career politicians have taken over the reins.   At what point did members of Congress, and all the high-echelon federal employees, forget their oath of office?   Say the pledge of allegiance out loud and I don’t care if you say or omit “under God”, just so long as you comprehend what you’re saying.

If the newly-elected members of Congress do not put country before party, then it’s going to be business as usual, and that tells me that the noble experiment that is America is coming to an end.   Strong words, backed up by strong action, is what’s needed now.   End the social fiasco that a know-nothing incompetent leading the country into oblivion has caused.   When a person, about whom nothing is known, can be elected to the highest office in the land, there has to be a guiding hand behind that.   Congress should not be allowed to allow this farce to continue.   Congress has the power, if not the stomach, to make the President impotent and reverse the dangerous course he has set us upon.    He has bifurcated the public, again and again, pitting one group against another.   In the Navy we used to call that fomenting hate and discontent, and it was true then and it’s true now.

It is crystal clear to me and, I suspect, many other Americans, that the current occupant of the White House loves Islam and anything to do with it, over anything that has to do with America, our exceptionalism, our security, and the American Experience.    That being the case, as I believe it to be, will he go to an Islamist-controlled country when he’s out of office?   Don’t bet on it.   I just wish he’d do the honorable thing and resign.  

Is my generation the last of the patriots?   Are there no more people of loyalty, with love of country, that might step forward with the plan to put American back on track?   Wake up America!   If not now, when?   If not you, who?   Do you remember John Kennedy at his inauguration, when he said…”Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Larry Usoff US Navy Retired     www.AirHumanityRadio.net

 

 

NOTES ON A SHABBY CUFF #7 “THE NOWHERE MAN”

 

 

NOTES ON A SHABBY CUFF #7 “THE NOWHERE MAN” (with apologies to The Beatles).   This man, Barack Hussein Obama, is a caricature of a real person.  He has no background that anyone can look at because it’s all been sealed up tighter than a drum-head.  The first question then is why?  Did he really go to all the schools that he claims?   Did he get good grades…good enough to get him into Harvard?   Was he really a Constitutional lawyer, or a teacher of Constitutional law?  Did he really smoke pot and do crack cocaine as has been mentioned?   Was he, at some point early in his life, “chosen” and manipulated into politics, where it was determined that, if the cards were stacked in the correct manner, he could rise in the Democrat ranks to…dare we say, the Presidency?   Even his birthplace is shrouded in mystery and, despite the release of a “certificate of birth” his claim of American citizenship is questioned.  Many experts in forgeries, as well as experts in “photoshopping” have declared that the birth certificate is a fake.  Alright, if he wasn’t born in Hawaii as claimed, where then?  It was reported that his family in Kenya said he was born there.  If that’s true, then where does that put this man-from-nowhere insofar as the law, his presidency, and whatever else he’s caused to happen?  Personally, the Kenyan story seems more plausible to me, but I could be wrong.  The facts surrounding the Hawaiian story just don’t seem to jibe, and that’s troubling.  The entire administration seems to hold up lying as a virtue and it is the norm.   Truth is now just a word in the dictionary to them.

Five days before the election in 2008 he said he was going to fundamentally transform America, and that’s probably the one promise he’s kept.   The rest of it, the falling of this country from its lofty perch, the decimation of our armed forces, the hatred garnered from countries that once were, maybe, our friends, that has all come about during the period which I’m going to call The American Dark Ages.  That would be from that fateful day in January 2009, to the fateful day coming in January 2016, when the imposter steps down and, hopefully, we get someone who IS an American and wants this country to succeed.   There is a story about a camel which was kept outside of the tent in a very bad sandstorm in the desert.  He pleaded with his owner to let him stick his nose inside the tent so it wouldn’t get clogged with sand.  Of course, in this story, the camel CAN talk, but that’s not the point.  Little by little the camel talks his way into the tent and since he is much larger than the owner, the owner is soon OUTSIDE the tent.   So it is with Islam.

Islam is a lot of things…savage, untruthful, devious, barbaric, backward-looking, abhorrent, intolerant, a cult, and that’s just for starters.  It’s also NOT a lot of things…tolerant, truthful, peaceful, or compatible with anything in the civilized world.

Through its practice of taqiyya, which is lying to infidels, and which they have raised to a fine art, they have been infiltrating the civilized world.   Only recently, a high-ranked Muslim Imam was asked, and allowed, to give the opening prayer to Congress.  If that isn’t the camel’s nose in the tent, I don’t know what is.   Oh wait…I DO know…it’s the textbooks that praise Islam and denigrate Christianity, Judaism, and other religions, if they even mention them.   It’s the TV network Al-Jazeera which spews out its one-sided views of the world’s events.  It’s the United Nations, that once-proud assortment of countries dedicated to peace…and now pretty much controlled by Islamist nations dedicated to the destruction of both the Great Satan (the United States) and the Little Satan(Israel).   It’s the placement, through manipulations, bribes and even, possibly, murders, for the Man From Nowhere, into the White House.

The very thing that holds this country together, the United States Constitution, is being ignored, or worse, by the Man From Nowhere, and his henchmen.   He has eased Islamists into positions in various agencies and levels of the federal government, maybe as a precursor to taking over in a coup…militarily if necessary, but probably through more manipulations and the acknowledged stupidity of the American people.   Not content with taking over the healthcare of the country, and ruining that in the process, he has been instrumental in forging regulations, along with executive orders,  that hamstring the economy, kill incentive, decimate the armed forces and, in general put the United States in a position to be overwhelmed and defeated, reduced to a third-world power…if you want to call that position “power”.

No, this unknown entity that sits in the Oval Office, is not our friend.  He is a narcissistic incompetent, being manipulated by forces, into doing the worst that he can do.   The oath of office that he took means nothing.  Love of country means nothing because he has not lived the American Experience.   His faith, I believe, lies with the Seventh Century pedophile warlord that founded the cult called Islam.   Somehow, we must learn, through proven facts, the truth about The Man From Nowhere.

Larry Usoff, US Navy Retired    www.AirHumanityRadio.net

 

 

NOTES ON A SHABBY CUFF #6, “WHERE HAS AMERICA GONE?”

NOTES ON A SHABBY CUFF #6, “WHERE HAS AMERICA GONE?”

It doesn’t take a genius to see that the United States is losing ground under the present administration.   The president is following the playbooks of Saul Alinsky, Cloward and Piven, to a T.   Those plans, carefully couched in non-threatening language, show the path that we are following and the ultimate destination is near-oblivion.   Now, having said that let’s gather the remaining patriots together, do some constructive legislating, and turn the country around.   Predictability may be dull for some folks, but knowing what your country will do in almost any given situation, can be a great comfort.   Right now, with our armed forces being converted into a compliant quasi-military unit for the pleasure of the imposter-in-chief in the White House, and not truly knowing which way they will turn when push comes to shove, is disturbing to me.

There was a time, once, when being an American was something to work to attain, if you were foreign-born and came to this country as an immigrant.  Now, under the present administration, it appears likely that our system of immigration is going to be shoved aside in favor of what can only be called amnesty for millions.  Personally, I call it outright stupidity, and unlawful…but then, the present administration has no use for the law, especially the Constitution, seeing it as an impediment to getting what they want done.   Members of Congress, and even this administration, like to say that we are a nation of laws…so long as it benefits their cause, and when it doesn’t, oh well, the president has a pen and a phone and he can make laws, ignore laws, and choose which parts of which laws he will follow.   In case you don’t know, making law is the job of the Congress, but they don’t seem to have had the backbone to enforce that part of the US Constitution.

Another thing that is a question for me…why do we import so many things that we used to make here…and made them better than anyone else?  Walking through one of the stores of the largest retailer in the world, and my guess is that you know who that is, it was difficult to find products that were made in America.   Why is that you might ask?   Let’s see about that.   First, greed plays a big part in the selection of products, both on the part of the consumer as well as the maker.   If you are a maker of a product, and it can be made overseas for less, then you will put a bigger share of the profits in your pocket.   If you are a consumer, you pay less for that foreign-made product and you get to keep more of your money in your pocket.   See how that works?   There is another aspect of this, and it also affects both the maker and consumer, and that’s taxes.   We have one of the most, if not THE most, convoluted and punishing tax systems in the world.   There are so many loopholes in it, due to sharp manipulations by tax attorneys, political groups and even foreign interests, that it looks like Swiss cheese…to them.   To the average taxpayer, however, it looks like quicksand.   It needs a complete change, not just cosmetically, but from top-down and bottom-up.  

Some years back, then-Representative John Linder came up with The Fair Tax.   It was a total of 135 pages, eliminated all the loopholes, and it was FAIR!   It was so logical and fair that everyone who read it knew immediately that it would never get enacted!   We now have some new, fresh, faces in Congress, and it would be in their best interests, and America’s, to enact The Fair Tax as soon as possible and repeal the 16^th Amendment to the US Constitution.   Income tax, which is the basis for our present tax system, punishes people and businesses for doing well.   That’s just plain stupid and, in this case, you CAN fix stupid by enacting The Fair Tax.   Just imagine taking home your entire paycheck with NO deductions.   April 15^th would be just another Spring day.   The Internal Revenue Service(and that’s “service” like what a bull does to a cow) would be a thing of the past or, at the very least, a much different sort of tax agency.

Give the incoming Congress a chance to get their feet wet, sure…but don’t let them become complacent, or compliant.   Make sure they know that they are there to carry out the wishes and will of the people…those same people that put them in there can also vote them out.   And, on that subject, how about strict term-limits for all members of Congress, like we have for the person in the Oval Office?   That might straighten out some of those that think they have a “career” in Congress.   Just sayin’, that’s all.

Larry Usoff, US Navy Retired    www.AirHumanityRadio.net

NOTES ON A SHABBY CUFF #5,

NOTES ON A SHABBY CUFF #5, Last week...

Last week we paid our respects to veterans of our armed forces.  For one, of several days, the country becomes aware of our armed forces...but for the rest of the year, if VA facilities are any yardstick, we treat them like crap.   That makes me mad and, before you ask, yes, I would do something about it.  My plan is very simple...the top five people in every VA facility around the country would be asked to resign.   If they resign, they get no benefits.  If they refuse to resign, they will face a trial and they will NOT be on paid administrative leave.   If they are found guilty of the charges they face, they will be sent to prison.

Other things were going on last week, but if you watched the mainstream media you might have missed some of it.   For starters, did you see that our president was not in the center of the group picture?   It was Putin, of Russia, who had that spot and that indicated that China thinks that he has replaced our president as the more powerful of the two.   Speaking of China, some business people on TV have reported that their economy has toppled ours as the #1 in the world.   That's not good news, especially when it's tied in with the thinking that some other currency, other than the US dollar should be the "universal" currency.   Economics is not my strong suit, but I can tell you that the stuff I buy at the supermarket seems to be inching up in price week by week.

Last week we learned the identity of the man who killed Usama bin Laden.  Details, as much as was revealed, told us that the mission was considered very likely to be a one-way mission.  With any person who dares to be different, possibly in a menacing way, they come to realize that because of what they’ve done they, and their family, have become targets.  Of course, anyone that puts on the uniform of the United States will be, at some point perhaps, a target for the enemy…and more and more that enemy will be unknown.  Even the last Gulf War was able to be classified as a “standard” war where both sides wore uniforms and you knew the enemy.   Americans, and other “westerners” now face an enemy that doesn’t wear a uniform and, in some cases, could look like anybody else.  This new type of warfare is going to take a new type of response and, personally, I like the military adage “the best defense is a good offense” and that saying goes back to Machiavelli and others.

What would be a good offense?  Surely we cannot duplicate the internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry, as we did in World War Two…can we?  We can do surveillance on places we consider to be breeding grounds for radical insurgents, potential jihadists, can’t we?  In most places, yes we could, but not in New York City apparently.  Back in August 2013, it was the policy of the NY Police Department to conduct surveillance on mosques since that seemed to be the logical places for jihadists to be radicalized.   In April of this year the unit that was watching the mosques was dismantled and the surveillance was ended.   Personally, I think that was a dumb move…but then, I think the Mayor of New York, Bill DeBlasio is an idiot.   Like the president, he’s done enough dumb things that pages could be written about them, but he’s not going to change because of anything that’s said here.

Last week saw two more names placed on my Navy-buddy Taps list.  One I knew personally, having been with him on two cruises, and the other I knew only through e-mails.  Face-to-face or e-mails, it doesn’t make a difference, when they’re gone they’re gone and the loss is just as bad.  With that in mind, when my wife died, it struck me that there was a way now, to keep a presence even though you’re gone.  Technology being what it is, recordings into a computer can be preserved indefinitely, so I started to record stories and poems and just notes, like a journal but not on a daily basis.  Perhaps it will come to pass that they(my children) will put down their phones, pads, tablets, etc. and sit still long enough to listen to me.  Oh well, that might be a pie-in-the-sky wish.  Albert Einstein once said “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”  Alas and alack.

Larry Usoff, US Navy Retired   www.AirHumanityRadio.net 

NOTES ON A SHABBY CUFF #4

NOTES ON A SHABBY CUFF #4

What in the world are we coming to in this country?  Down in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a pretty nice town I understand, a 90 year old man was arrested for feeding hungry people.  From ABC News, by Christopher Donato, writing on November 6^th, and his headline reads…90-Year-Old Man Charged With Feeding Homeless Says He Won't 'Give Up' ...and he says Every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. for the past 23 years, 90–year-old Arnold Abbott has been feeding the homeless at a public beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  On October 21, the City of Fort Lauderdale Commission passed an ordinance that banned public food sharing -- something that went into effect last week. Under the ordinance, organizations distributing food outdoors would have to provide portable toilets for use by workers and those being fed.   "We hope he feeds. He has a very valuable role in the community,” said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler. "All we're saying is he can feed the next block over. He can feed at the church. We want them to be in safe secure settings. We wanted them to be in a sanitary matter. We them to have facilities available before and after."    On November 2, just days after the ordinance took effect, Abbott had handed out his third meal of the day when he was approached by police officers. He was cited for breaking the ordinance and given a notice that he must appear in court.   Abbott, a World War II veteran and civil rights activist, told The Associated Press that he has been serving the homeless for more than two decades in honor of his late wife. He has several programs, including a culinary school to train the homeless and help find them jobs in local kitchens.

"One of the police officers said, 'Drop that plate right now,' as if I were carrying a weapon," Abbott told ABC affiliate WPLG.   Abbott continued his tradition of feeding the homeless on a public beach Wednesday night when he was approached by officers again and his food operation was shut down.   But he plans on being back at the public beach, as usual, next Wednesday.    "I don’t plan to give up the beach,” he said.   The Fort Lauderdale Police told ABC News that Abbott will get his court subpoena in the mail and a judge will decide whether he will spend up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.   "Arnold thinks he can feed wherever he wants and the laws say differently. Despite the fact that he's a super nice guy and he's a gentleman and a kind soul we have to enforce the law,” Seiler said.   Although Abbott has been cited twice in less than a week, he has no plans to stop feeding the homeless, telling ABC News over the phone from his non-profit organization, Love Thy Neighbor, that the only alternative he has is to go to court.   Abbott sued the City of Fort Lauderdale in 1999 after they tried to stop him from feeding the homeless on a public beach. Abbott won the case three times in circuit court and twice in the court of appeals.   He was invited by a local church to feed the homeless in their parking lot this coming Sunday where he expects to feed up to 200 people. Abbott doesn’t believe he will receive any citations during this feed because he will be on private property.

Mr. Bumble had little use for judicial reasoning. In Dickens' Oliver Twist, he put it rather bluntly: "'If the law supposes that', said Mr. Bumble, 'the law is an ass — an idiot.'"  I quite agree, Mr. Bumble.  Just because something is the law, doesn’t make it right, fair or logical.  One only has to look at the “stuff” that’s come out of the White House in the past six years to understand that.   Here’s what Francis Bacon said about the law, "That laws were like cobwebs; where the small flies were caught, and the great break through."

Now, on a different subject…immigration.  A brief note…when my grandparents came here, with literally thousands of others, they waited in line.  First they waited in their home country, to get permission to emigrate to America.  Then they waited until they saved enough money to get on the boat.  Then, arriving in America, either broke or almost so, they scrimped and saved and made their way in the New World.   You can trace famous families of this country back to their immigrant roots and see how they worked to get ahead. 

Now contrast that to the Muslims that are being imported into this country.   They cannot wait to get on the welfare rolls, to suck at the government teat, to contribute nothing of value to the society in which they live and, they are “offended” at everything that takes place!   You can make all the excuses you want, for them, but they are not compatible with anything in the civilized world, and they’ll do anything, say anything, so long as it furthers the cause of Islam.   We don’t need that in a free(for now) country.

Larry Usoff, US Navy Retired   www.AirHumanityRadio.net