Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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For the presidential election held in 2016, Donald Trump formally announced his candidacy on June 16, 2015. This suggests that if you are a serious candidate for the 2024 election, you may be running a tad late. The Democrats have two announced candidates, sitting President Joe Biden and Kennedy family scion, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. There any number of potential candidates sniffing around in case Joe stumbles (politically, not literally) in his quest for the nomination....
Madison-Avenue types will tell you it is better to look good than to feel good. In politics that dictum is expressed as, “the optics are everything.” This iron rule for publicity flaks is what causes press secretaries to claim that although using cluster ammunition may be a war crime if someone else uses them, we only use the kind of cluster bombs that are safe. Recently, when a baggie of cocaine was found in the White House, the U.S. Secret Service was the designated age...
During the past two years, five Marine recruits have died during boot camp at Parris Island, S.C. These deaths were caused by a variety of reasons and some of them remain under investigation to determine the cause. As a result of one of these deaths, the drill instructor involved is facing trial for negligent homicide. In addition, the commanding officer of the 1st Recruit Training Regiment and his sergeant major were relieved of their leadership positions “for loss of t...
I’ve written before about the curse of linguistic professionals. These are the folks who spin janitors into maintenance engineers; personnel administrators into human resource professionals; the opposite of pro-life from pro-death into pro-choice and propaganda into “the narrative.” Reality is for people who can’t handle booze and drugs. On June 24, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted: The bottom line on the “costs” supporting Ukraine: 1. Zero American service members in...
Depending on what news outlet you follow, there are either 16 of 17 organizations or agencies that gather intelligence of the United States. These organizations are broken down into two broad categories: the National Intelligence Program and the Military Intelligence Program. The 2022 Fiscal Year budget appropriation for these two programs was about $90 billion. For that kind of money, you would think the government is provided with intel that is timely, accurate and verified...
In his recent paper titled, “The Darkness Ahead: Where The Ukraine War Is Headed,” Professor John J. Mearsheimer writes: “Western leaders frequently portray the Ukraine war as an integral part of a larger global struggle between autocracy and democracy. On top of that, the future of the sacrosanct rules-based international order is said to depend on prevailing against Russia. As King Charles said this past March, ‘The security of Europe as well as our democratic values...
Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently returned from a trip to Beijing, where he met with senior officials of the government including Chinese President Xi Jinping. His return was heralded by the Washington Post with the headline, “Blinken ruffles feathers by stating US ‘does not support Taiwan independence’ after meeting China’s Xi.” The story noted that several Republican Congress persons castigated Blinken for “kowtowing” to China by stating, “the Biden administration...
We have the potential of involving the United States in a boots-on-ground conflict in Ukraine with the possible result leading to WWIII and Armageddon. There are three scenarios in which this could happen, but one is so crazy that I tend to discount it out of hand and will cover it now. Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has suggested providing Ukraine with tactical nukes. In an article dated June 9, Rubin details a situation in which Russian...
If you watched Saturday morning cartoons with the kids, back when cartoons were innovative, funny and thought-provoking, you are familiar with Sherman, Mr. Peabody and the way-back machine. The fictitious way-back machine has become the internet, where nothing is ever lost. Let’s visit the way-back machine now, and plug in, “Ukraine War, 2022.” At the onset of the war, we were told by western experts that Russia would defeat Ukraine in a matter of days. This prediction came...
I once had a discussion with a friend about the U.S. flag and how it should be displayed. The issue he raised was how did I feel about groups who displayed the flag upside down. I immediately replied that I thought it was wrong to display the flag in this manner unless it meant those displaying like this were in an emergency situation and required immediate assistance. He then said, “How ’bout if the flag is held by a group of wounded war veterans who feel they are being den...
Many people watch network or cable television exclusively for information on what is happening locally, state wide, nationally and internationally. Many other people obtain their news information from major printed newspapers as they appear on the internet. Over the years the “news” and the reporter’s “opinion” have become blurred almost to the point where viewers cannot determine where the news ends and the opinion starts. Here’s a thought exercise that contains some news:...
Memorial Day is Monday, and we will once again honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their service to this country during a time of war. Alas, I fear that we are on the brink of another major war, and I see our government doing little to curtail these fears. For more than a year, we have been involved in a so-called proxy war in Europe that our government continues to insist we have no actual responsibility for. We continue to provide weapons, ammunition and...
Two recent stories in The Washington Post about the Ukraine debacle have left me flabbergasted. The first is an item sourced to classified U.S. intelligence documents that maintain the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, proposed to bomb a pipeline that transfers Russian oil to Hungary, which happens to be a NATO member. Does this scenario seem familiar to anyone besides me? In point of fact, the Druzhba pipeline is one of the world’s longest and largest oil pipeline n...
There are three things we know for sure about the Nord Stream disaster that occurred last September. The first is that it was an act of sabotage. This information was provided by the Swedes who investigated the event shortly after it happened. Second is the fact that when Sweden completed its investigation, it refused to published the findings on the grounds that these findings would impact national security. It was never made clear exactly whose national security would be...
Last week I wrote about the latest chapter in the Hunter Biden laptop saga. When the laptop story was initially broken in 2020, it contained embarrassing as well as damaging and potentially criminal information about the Biden family that could have impacted the November presidential election. In October 2020, 51 former senior national security professionals signed and published a letter alleging that the Hunter Biden laptop story was an elaborate hoax by Russian...
Antony Blinken has been linked to the story about the 51 former CIA officials who signed a letter in October 2020 declaring that the Hunter Biden laptop showed all the signs of a Russian disinformation op. All 51 of these individuals could now face legal liabilities for aiding in a Biden campaign ploy that raised doubts about the validity of Hunter Biden’s laptop. What follows is taken (in part) from a letter sent by Rep. Jim Jordan to Secretary of State Blinken: In a transcri...
Last year, I penned an editorial that argued the war in Ukraine consisted of three wars. These were the economic war, the actual battlefield actions and the propaganda war. The economic war consisted of a “shock and awe” sanctions campaign against Russian oil, that would cause the ruble to fall and force the Russian economy to collapse. After more than 10 additional layers of sanctions, the Russian economy is still functioning. In fact, the International Monetary Fund, no frie...
Periodically, while perusing my local newspaper, I discover some latest piece of news or what purports to be news that fascinates, startles, or amazes me. Below are two examples of these. Dany Werfel has recently been sworn in as the new IRS commissioner, and while I’ve never met Werfel, I’d like to shake his hand. In an article by AP reporter Fatima Hussein, Werfel is quoted as saying, “This is our moment in history to transform the IRS. We have a great deal of work ahead...
China brokered a truce between Saudi Arabia and Iran in March. Tensions had been high between Iran and Saudi Arabia since the kingdom broke off ties with Iran in 2016. This deal should impact the civil war in Yemen, where Houthi insurgents with links to Iran took control of Yemen’s capital Sana’a, demanding a new government. In March 2015, a coalition of Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia, began a campaign of air strikes against the insurgents with U.S. logistical and int...
Last month, what has been called everything from “troubles in the banking sector” to a “banking crisis” became apparent when the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank notified shareholders the bank needed to raise $2.25 billion after suffering substantial losses. This precipitated a run on the bank and bank regulators placed the bank into Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. receivership. Shortly after that, the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the FDIC announced that New York-based Signatu...
During President Bill Clinton’s administration, the U.S. signed a treaty to establish the International Criminal Court. The U.S. said it strongly supported “international accountability,” but believed the treaty, known as the Rome Statute, had “significant flaws” that still needed addressing. The court investigates and brings to justice people responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, intervening when national authorities cannot or will not prosecute....
Approximately two months ago, the Seymour Hersh article, “How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline” appeared on Substack. No major newspaper chose to publish this extensive, detailed look at one of the most shocking acts of terrorism since the destruction of the Twin Towers. More recently, articles have appeared in the “New York Times,” “The Washington Post” and “The Times” (used to be “The Times of London,”) from a variety of authors alleging that a different set of ac...
Approximately two months ago, the Seymour Hersh article, “How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline” appeared on Substack. No major newspaper chose to publish this extensive, detailed look at one of the most shocking acts of terrorism since the destruction of the Twin Towers. More recently, articles have appeared in the “New York Times,” “The Washington Post” and “The Times” (used to be “The Times of London,”) from a variety of authors alleging that a different set of ac...
Last week I discussed Seymour Hersh’s charges that Nord Stream was destroyed by the U.S. government, acting under the direction of President Joseph R. Biden. These charges have resulted in Illinois College of Law Professor Francis A. Boyle, preparing a Resolution of Impeachment against the president of the United States. In an interview on YouTube with American journalist and political commentator Don DeBar, Boyle notes that he delivered copies of his resolution to every R...
In late September of last year, a series of explosions destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines that connected Russia with Germany. After several weeks of investigation, the Swedish government ascertained that the pipeline was destroyed by sabotage. Initial media reports implicated Russia as the perpetrator of this disaster, but the Swedes declined to name any particular nation state as the culprit. Since that initial investigation, Sweden has refused to share any information on...
