The president and his family are not safe

I took the time today to watch the full 3.5 hour House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the failure of the Secret Service to stop Omar Gonzalez from entering the White House on September 19, 2014.  Secret Service Director Julia Pierson was the primary witness.

The take away from this hearing is that the Secret Service is not prepared to protect the President of the United States and his family.

It was clear that the Secret Service is headed by a bureaucrat. It needs a hard nose field agent who will take whatever action is necessary to protect the president and his family and suffer no fools in the pursuit of duty.  Director Pierson should be immediately fired.

Muslims must defeat the jihadi ideology

President Obama last week outlined his plan to “degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.”  Obama contends ISIL poses a threat to U.S. citizens and interests in the Middle East.   If left unchecked he said the group could pose a threat outside the region, including the U.S., but ISIL does not yet pose a clear and present danger.  Under the doctrine of preemption established by President G.W. Bush, and followed by President Obama, the U.S. will take limited action against ISIL to prevent its further development as a threat to U.S. interests in the Middle East and the U.S. homeland.

The details of Obama’s plan and the participation levels of coalition members will be sorted out in the coming days and weeks.  The announced total complement of U.S. military personnel in Iraq will immediately rise to about 1,500.  No U.S. ground maneuver units (e.g. combat brigades and divisions) will deploy.  The plan calls for Iraqi forces and Syrian rebels to take the ground battle to ISIL under an air umbrella provided by the U.S.  The ground component requires much greater clarification as it is fraught with complexity and risk.

Remember those who fight and die

On Wednesday evening President Barack Obama presented his plan to address the growing strength of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).   The President was under considerable pressure to do something about ISIL.  Public opinion polling following the beheadings of two Americans by ISIL indicated growing public support for action.  Congressional leaders appear to support the effort.

An additional 475 military personnel will join over 1100 personnel already in Iraq.  If the past is any indicator that number will grow.  Navy F/A-18 and Air Force F-15 and F-16 aircrews have conducted 154 missions against ISIL thus far.  U.S. special-forces are deployed with Iraqi and Kurdish forces to provide intelligence, coordination, and targeting assistance according to press reports. 

   

There is a great divide between the men and women serving in our military and those who make decisions about placing them in harm’s way.  The President met with congressional leaders on Tuesday to seek their support for his actions against ISIL.  Neither the President nor the congressional leaders are veterans.

Officer Darren Wilson deserves justice too

The violence, media frenzy, statements by public officials, and involvement of federal officials following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014 by Officer Darren Wilson is creating an environment in which Officer Wilson’s right to due process and equal protection under the law may be jeopardized.

The shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson must be thoroughly and fairly investigated.   Every American has an interest in ensuring that police use appropriate force when executing their duties.  In cases where the use of force is fatal that requirement for scrutiny goes up.  When the victim is unarmed the standard is even higher in determining justifiable or unjustifiable homicide.

Climate change thoughts

Like so many issues today climate change has been politicized.   A movement more akin to a religion blames every calamity on climate change and questioning of their conclusions is treated as heresy. Those in opposition reject any evidence of warming with cynicism rather than healthy skepticism.  It is hard for a citizen to form a solid opinion on such an important topic.

A serious effort to better understand the issue through a review of related literature makes it clear that the science is not as open and shut as some believe.   That does not mean there is not climate change, or that we should not act to address it, but there are too many failed predictions and unanswered questions to conclude the “science is settled.”  For example, the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report of 1990 predicted temperature and sea level rise that has not come to fruition.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports in the “The Sun and Climate” report that the Earth has warmed .99° F since 1860, and about half of this could be due to increased solar radiation.  However, .648° F of the .99 F° increase occurred from 1970 – 2000.  Solar radiation change can only account for .198° F of the .648° F increase; “the rest could be due to greenhouse warming or some other cause.”

Crippling our children with debt

The U.S. must address deficit spending and the national debt in a rational manner in the near term or face a reckoning in highly unpopular but unavoidable and debilitating reduced benefits, increased taxes, or a combination of the two.  A looming rise in interest rates to historically normal levels will exacerbate the situation.   A divided nation must debate fundamental philosophical positions about the size and role of government and find an acceptable path forward before circumstance forces bad choices.

The national debt is made up of two components 1) debt held by the public (foreign an d domestic) in the form of Treasury securities and 2) IOUs held by the federal government that are owed to other federal government accounts such as Social Security.  The principal on debt held by the public is about $13 trillion and the annual interest payment is $218 billion.  The principle on IOUs held by the federal government is about $5 trillion and the annual interest payment is $146 billion.

The unholy alliance of concentrated power

Concentrated political and economic power in the federal government and very large corporations is a threat to liberty and opportunity.  Further, political leaders have formed a relationship with corporate and other special interests whereby support flows from one to the other resulting in distorted access, policy, law, and regulation.

Political leaders of both parties seek financial support for election and personal enrichment.  It is about them – not the American people.   The combination of concentrated power in government and corporations, and the alignment of interests between the two are a significant danger.

The expanding mass of government in its physical bureaucracies and the body of laws and regulations it propagates, increasing centralization to the federal level,  and growing power within the executive are clear threats to liberty.  Corporate consolidation through mergers and acquisitions has created behemoths of economic power and political and social influence that also threaten liberty in a manner that often goes unnoticed by the public.

Following the Great Recession of 2008 there was an outcry about banks that were “too big to fail.”   It was expected that the issue would be addressed through legislation commonly called Dodd-Frank, but today more assets are held by fewer banks.  The too big to fail banks are in fact bigger today.  The five largest U.S. banks (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs) have assets in excess of $11 trillion.   Five banks hold 56% of all banking assets in the United States.