Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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The period immediately after a presidential election is a glorious moment for institutional media of all types. This instant in time allows them to race ahead with a multitude of what purports to be news, but is in actuality political posturing and news releases from those seeking appointments to positions in a new administration. If, for instance, I would like to be secretary of defense, one of my trusted associates will contact his friend who is a reporter for the current...
Today is the 249th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Happy birthday to Marines and their extended families everywhere. In the early 1960s, I matriculated at several Marine Corps bases, both stateside and overseas, while living in open squad bays. Before there were dorms, and rooms for enlisted Marines, there were squad bays that consisted of bunks, foot lockers and wall lockers. In these luxurious environs, we were not exposed to misinformation and disinformation....
I once read there should be a law that requires every economist who is asked a question to begin his answer with, “I don’t know, but….”. The same edict should apply to statisticians and opinion writers, especially those who claim to go by military analysts. During wars, casualty numbers are hard to nail down because both sides lie about them. They do this for a number of reasons, primarily to maintain morale on their own side as well as to disguise losses from the enemy....
Yves Smith at her blog “Naked capitalism” has often opined about how the Collective West likes to negotiate with itself and then present its conclusions as a fait accompli to Russia. This is currently happening with the discussions on proposals for ending the conflict in Ukraine. It is important to remember that Russia launched the special military operation to prevent NATO membership for Ukraine. Russia has stated repeatedly its belief that NATO in Ukraine would be used to we...
Over the past 3 1/2 years, President Biden has regularly claimed credit for a foreign policy that in retrospect may not be all that successful. Biden takes credit for things like revitalizing NATO, providing proactive aid coordination for Ukraine and for global stability and U.S. leadership. An accurate appraisal of the current situation finds some NATO states in the precarious condition of near de-militarization and inadequate preparedness for future conflicts due to sending...
Genghis Khan is often quoted as saying, “The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters.” During the U.S. Civil War, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is credited with the observation, “It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.” When the Germans lost World War I, the new government was req...
A dictionary definition of responsibility is this: the state or fact of being accountable for or to blame for something. Note the “being accountable” but also note the “to blame” in the above. Not found in the dictionary, but found in United States Marine Corp bootcamp, is the dictum that one can delegate authority, but there is no delegating responsibility. Some years ago, I wrote a piece about a Marine recruit who died in bootcamp. After an investigation, the drill instruc...
You can’t tell the players if you don’t have a program. From 1922 until 1991, “Ukraine” was the informal name of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union, with the exception of 1941-1944 (World War II) when Ukraine was annexed by Germany as Reichskommissariat Ukraine. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ukraine became independent and has struggled to form a stable democracy, economy, and has fought to deal with government corruption. Additionally, t...
Some form of the Golden Rule can be found in many ancient writings, including: the New Testament, the Talmud, The Koran and The Analects of Confucius. The Golden Rule states, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Politicos have never grasped this concept. When the New York Times decided during the 2016 presidential campaign that Donald Trump was so beyond the pale that he no longer deserved the equal treatment afforded other candidates, they began to openly cast...
It is said that when Colin Powell was secretary of state, he demanded three things from his briefers; “Tell me what you know;” “Tell me what you don’t know;” “Tell me what you think.” In today’s environment, when U.S. intelligence agencies are asked about an issue, the word “assess” appears in most of their responses. For instance, when asked who Putin supports or favors in our current presidential race, news reports show that the answer was some form of, “Based on our exper...
When a reporter recently asked Presidential Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if she could name a single accomplishment that she could attribute to Vice President Kamala Harris, Jean-Pierre stalled, stuttered and stammered before coming up with the response that Biden-Harris was a “team effort” and should be viewed that way. Shortly after that exchange, Kamala took steps to distance herself from the Biden half of the team. This became blatantly obvious when former First Lad...
Labor Day has generally been considered opening day for presidential campaigns. That’s the day politicos of all persuasions begin to take a look at and pay attention to polling data. This year, prior to opening day, three events occurred that could have far-reaching results. These were the Trump assassination attempt, the coronation of Kamala Harris as Democrat presidential candidate and the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsement of Donald J. Trump for president. Both the F...
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn recently told CNN that Joe Biden had a record, “that no president of the United States could ever match.” Not to be outdone by anyone when it comes to political bloviating, Nancy Pelosi told CBS that Biden should be added to Mount Rushmore. Delegates to the Democrat convention in Chicago chanted, “We love you Joe” while waving We Heart Joe professionally made signs that ruined the spontaneity of the moment. All of this heart-felt adoration was lavishe...
When we studied the Declaration of Independence in grade school -- we didn’t call it elementary school then -- the one concept from the preamble we had to memorize above all else was: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” I sometimes wonder what percentage of high school graduates could quote that line....
Nobody has ever accused me of being some sort of cockeyed optimist. Any rose tint that may have once colored my spectacles has faded due to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. I’m a kind of a hope-for-the-best, plan-for-the-worst kind of guy. On the other hand, every morning when I wake up and pour a cup of coffee in me to get my heart started, I feel blessed. In casting a jaundiced eye over the current world situation, it seems to me that we are neck deep in a p...
Some wag once remarked there are 100 people in America who honestly believe they are more than qualified to be president of the United States. These people are called United States senators. Kamala Harris used to be one of them. Having said that, let’s look at what is happening in the Democrat Party, their presidential nomination and their coming convention. If you listened to President Biden’s short speech as to why he stepped down from his certain lock on the nom...
Joe Biden’s plan for regime change in the Kremlin has taken a disastrous turn since its inception in 2022. The innumerable sanctions placed on Russia have failed to destroy the economy, the ruble is not rubble, the Wagner group takeover led by Yevgeny Prigozhin failed to ignite rebellion in military units, governmental organizations or the general populace, Putin was reelected with over 80% of the vote and the war is going badly for Ukraine and their NATO allies. Rather t...
Harry Truman reportedly said that the Joe Rosenthal photo of the flag raising on Iwo Jima guaranteed the existence of the U.S. Marine Corps for the next 100 years. Truman was right. The photo became an icon throughout the nation and a monument in Washington, D.C. The Trump political rally held in Pennsylvania a week ago has created another such moment in history. The heroic image of a bloodied Donald J. Trump, rising out of a crowd of secret service personnel, Old Glory...
The Democrat Party leadership has painted itself into a corner. It did it knowingly and diligently. In February of this year, Special Counsel Robert K. Hur published his report on the possible misuse of classified information by President Joe Biden. After interviewing Biden for five hours over two days, Hur concluded that Biden was an “elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur further determined that even if the president were indicted for any offence, he would probably be found un...
The presidential debate once again convinced me that these shows have reached their “sell by” date. Neither contestant answered questions that could have been answered yes or no. This is not unusual. No politician running for any office will answer a yes/no question yes or no. Candidates also never have the time to explain policies or plans that are complicated and difficult to understand. One example of this is, “What is your plan to reduce global warming?” The thing that am...
In his blog, Dances With Bears, John Helmer writes, “In war, exaggeration is a killer. In the media, exaggeration is a bestseller.” The corollary to this is, “In war, it’s OK to BS everybody else, but don’t BS yourself.” Hellmer goes on to note that in Ukraine, the “war fighters” believe that just one more brilliant operation carried out with derring-do by special operators can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Let’s look at one of the super weapons that were suppose...
The term color revolution came into general usage in the early 2000s during a series of protests in the post-Soviet states. The purported aim of these revolutions was to rid the countries of corruption and to establish Western-style democracy. The revolutions were triggered by what the West viewed as falsified election results, and were highlighted by use of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the protests. Critics say that color revolutions constitute unlawful...
There’s the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice (sometimes called the World Court), Western Values and the International Rules-Based Order. These last two are capitalized to imply that they carry the same gravitas as the ICC and the ICJ. The International Court of Justice (ICJ or World Court) is a civil tribunal that hears disputes between countries. In theory, any state member of the United Nations, by signing the charter agrees to comply with a...
Grant Shapps serves as the minister of defense for the United Kingdom. Shapps recently informed a conference in London that both U.S. and British defense intelligence agencies had evidence that, “lethal aid is now, or will be, flowing from China to Russia and into Ukraine, I think it is a significant development.” The report goes on to state that Shapps could not provide any evidence to support his stunning assertion. This type of report happens on a regular basis and alw...
At our church last Sunday, during that portion of the service where we offer public prayers, we prayed for all those who lost their lives in service to our country during war. I was once again reminded of the often-quoted remark by John Quincy Adams: “We go not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” The speech was delivered to the U.S. House of Representatives on July 4, 1821, while he was secretary of state. Adams’ speech should be read in full. It’s short and insightful....
