Federal court rejects Trump's transgender military ban. Again.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

A federal court in Seattle in a ruling on Friday shut down President Trump’s “new” ban on transgender people serving in the military, which was issued by his administration last month. 

Trump had claimed that the old ban was revoked and replaced with the new one, but U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman rejected this distinction, noting that the new documents “do not substantively rescind or revoke the ban, but instead threaten the very same violations that caused it and other courts to enjoin the ban in the first place.”


Indeed, she found the claim that the new ban has exceptions wholly unconvincing: 

The Court is not persuaded. The Implementation Plan prohibits transgender people — including those who have neither transitioned nor been diagnosed with gender dysphoria — from serving, unless they are “willing and able to adhere to all standards associated with their biological sex.” 

Requiring transgender people to serve in their “biological sex” does not constitute “open” service in any meaningful way, and cannot reasonably be considered an “exception” to the Ban. Rather, it would force transgender service members to suppress the very characteristic that defines them as transgender in the first place. 

As she did when she first ruled against the ban last year, Pechman also concluded that transgender people are a “suspect class” — a group vulnerable to unfair treatment and discrimination solely because of their identity. Thus, any rationale for categorically excluding them from service must be examined and considered with heightened scrutiny.

As my daughter would say "Booya!" 

I actually hate that phrase but it seems appropriate here.

I really cannot understand why Trump is so discriminatory about transgender folks.

I mean does he think this started out as a woman?

Not disrespecting the choice, you know live and let live, but she could at least try channeling a little femininity once in a while.

"Why did you wait?" Donald Trump seemed confused by CIA's desire not to kill family members of terrorists.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump’s pronouncement that he would be pulling troops out of Syria “very soon” has laid bare a major source of tension between the president and his generals. 

Trump has made winning on the battlefields of Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan a central tenet of his foreign policy and tough-guy identity. But Trump and the military hold frequently opposing ideas about exactly what winning means. 

Those differences have played out in heated Situation Room ­debates over virtually every spot on the globe where U.S. troops are engaged in combat, said senior administration officials. And they contributed to the dismissal last month of Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster who as national security adviser had pressed the president against his instincts to support an ­open-ended commitment of U.S. forces to Afghanistan. 

Trump’s words, both in public and private, describe a view that wars should be brutal and swift, waged with overwhelming firepower and, in some cases, with little regard for civilian casualties. Victory over America’s enemies for the president is often a matter of bombing “the s--- out of them,” as he said on the campaign trail.

Of course under President Obama the policy was to spare innocent civilians, and family members, and instead use precise targeting to take out the terrorist objective.

As we know that did not always work, and many innocent civilians were also killed.

However Trump does not seem at all bothered by that sort of collateral damage.

Trump came to office promising to give the Pentagon a free hand to unleash the full force of U.S. firepower. His impatience was evident on his first full day in office when he visited the CIA and was ushered up to the agency’s drone operations floor. 

There agency officials showed him a feed from Syria, where Obama-era rules limited the agency to surveillance flights — part of a broader push by the previous administration to return the CIA to its core espionage mission and shift the job of killing terrorists to the military. 

Trump urged the CIA to start arming its drones in Syria. “If you can do it in 10 days, get it done,” he said, according to two former officials familiar with the meeting. 

Later, when the agency’s head of drone operations explained that the CIA had developed special munitions to limit civilian casualties, the president seemed unimpressed. Watching a previously recorded strike in which the agency held off on firing until the target had wandered away from a house with his family inside, Trump asked, “Why did you wait?” one participant in the meeting recalled.

To be clear killing innocent people overseas is how you create more terrorists, not defeat terrorism.

Trump's inability to understand that, or to respect human life, will only ensure that not only does terrorism outlast his term, but that it increases exponentially.

Having said that I am going to tack on the report about those Russian sanctions right here, because I do not think they deserve a post of their own.

Some in the media are trying to give Trump credit for finally cracking down with some aggressive sanctions that will actually hurt the Russian oligarchs who support Putin, but they are fools.

Trump is NOT behind these sanctions. In fact he was clearly dragged kicking and screaming into supporting them, because he had NO choice.

If this were really something that Trump was behind, he would have tweeted the shit out of it, but there is not a peep about this on his account.

To sum up Donald Trump does not value human life, but he absolutely values his relationship with Vladimir Putin.

Donald Trump instructs military leaders to prepare to bring troops home from Syria.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump has instructed military leaders to prepare to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, but has not set a date for them to do so, according to a senior administration official. 

In a meeting with top national security officials Tuesday, Trump stressed that U.S. troops can be involved in current training tasks for local forces to ensure security in areas liberated from the Islamic State, the official said. 

But the president said that the U.S. mission would not extend beyond the destruction of the Islamic State, and that he expects other countries, particularly wealthy Arab states in the region, to pick up the task of paying for reconstruction of stabilized areas, including sending their own troops, if necessary.

Don't get me wrong, I want American troops to be brought home as soon as possible.

However we sent troops there to fight ISIS and to keep Assad from murdering his own people with poison gas.

When Russia entered the fray they started bombing opponents of Assad, as well as civilian targets such as hospitals. (Source.)

The Russians are not there to help the Syrian people, they are there to protect Putin's buddy Assad and help him to oppress the Syrian people.

Once American troops are out of the way, that will be significantly easier.

As I said before, this is Donald Trump openly doing Vladimir Putin's bidding right out in the open, for all the world to see.

Donald Trump wants to pull troops out of Syria, put them on the Mexican border instead.

JUST IN: Trump says he wants to pull US troops out of Syria https://t.co/BMsNpjiaT3 pic.twitter.com/ra63KOOqar

— The Hill (@thehill) April 3, 2018

Courtesy of The Hill:

President Trump on Tuesday signaled that he wants to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, but said no final decision has been made. 

“I want to get out. I want to bring those troops home," Trump said at a news conference with leaders from Baltic states. 

"Seven trillion dollars in the Middle East over the last 17 years, we get nothing out of it … except death and destruction. It’s a horrible thing.” 

The president pointed to America's success in combating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror group in the region, adding that he will consult with his advisers and foreign leaders about the American military presence in the war-torn nation.

Now I think that a lot of us would like to see the troops brought home from overseas, including from Syria.

However keep in mind that Putin has made it known that HE wants the American troops out of the way, so if Trump brings them home rest assured that he is not doing it for the troops or for the American people.

So where DOES Trump want to send the troops?

Funny you should ask.

Courtesy of Politico:

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he intended to deploy troops along the U.S.-Mexico border until a wall was built there, proposing an escalation of efforts to prevent people from entering the country illegally via the southern border. 

The move would ramp up Trump’s battle over immigration, after he has run into hurdles carrying out his campaign-trail promise to build a wall at Mexico’s expense. Most recently, he has been preoccupied by a group of migrants, mostly from Honduras, making their way north through Mexico toward the U.S. 

“We are going to be guarding our border with our military. That’s a big step,” Trump said on Tuesday during a session at the White House with the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. “We cannot have people flowing into our country illegally, disappearing and, by the way, never showing up for court.”

I'm sorry did I miss the memo?

When did we declare war on Mexico?

Keep in mind that pulling the troops out of Syria would please Trump's puppet master Vladimir Putin to no end, while placing the military on the border to defend America against people wanting to work here will please his xenophobic deplorable base.

In other words Trump is clearly trying to please to different constituencies.

Trump also seems to be getting very sensitive about allegations that he is Putin's bitch.

Trump just told one of his biggest lies ever: “No one has been tougher to Russia than Donald Trump," said Donald Trump. #ImpeachTrump pic.twitter.com/zpr93jUVan

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 3, 2018

"Probably nobody's been tougher to Russia than Donald Trump."

Please, the only person who has been a bigger sycophant to Vladimir Putin is probably the guy who oils him up before he poses for those bare chested magazine covers and calendar pages.

Trump is not even trying to give the appearance that he isn't Putin's butt boy anymore.

So why the fuck is he still in the White House?

I think Donald Trump is drunk tweeting again.

Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2018

Okay I legitimately do not know what I just read.

Why do we want the military to be rich?

Why are so many words unnecessarily capitalized?

Who the fuck is M?

Donald Trump issues memorandum to ban most transgender soldiers.

Courtesy of Politico:  

President Donald Trump on Friday issued orders to ban transgender troops who require surgery or significant medical treatment from serving in the military except in select cases — following through on a controversial pledge last year that has been under review by the Pentagon and is being fought out in the courts. 

The memorandum, which drew swift condemnation from gender rights groups, states that while the secretary of defense and other executive branch officials will have some latitude in implementing the policy, “persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria — including individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery — are disqualified from military service except under limited circumstances.” 

The memo also said that Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, “in the exercise of his independent judgment, has concluded [the policies] should be adopted by the Department of Defense.” It added that “the Secretary of Homeland Security concurs with these policies with respect to the U.S. Coast Guard,” which would also be affected by the policy. 

The decision comes after a number of top military officials over the past year-- including most members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- have gone out of their way to defend the thousands of transgender troops who are believed to be serving in the military.

Remember there is a tweet for everything. 

I somehow doubt that too many LGBTQ folks were fooled by this, but if there were some, don't you feel silly now?

Personally I think that Trump is simply using this as another diversion to keep us from talking about that huge omnibus bill he signed yesterday and that Stormy Daniels 60 Minutes interview tomorrow.

Trump is the kind of guy who would poison the family dog to keep his parents from finding out that he stayed out past curfew.

I seriously doubt that this memo will have any real impact, and fully intend to pay attention to all of the things that it was designed to distract me from.

Well it looks like Trump will finally get his military parade and it will only cost taxpayers around 30 million dollars.

Courtesy of The Guardian: 

Donald Trump looks set to get the military parade he wants in Washington, on Veterans Day in November. 

But a Pentagon planning memo issued on Thursday and released on Friday said the parade being planned for 11 November will “include wheeled vehicles only, no tanks consideration must be given to minimize damage to local infrastructure”. 

In other words, heavy tanks could tear up the streets of DC and will thus not be allowed to rumble past the president on his reviewing stand. 

The event will “include a heavy air component at the end of the parade”, the memo said, meaning lots of airplane flyovers. Older aircraft will be included as available. 

The memo did not include a cost estimate. The White House budget director recently told Congress the cost to taxpayers could be between $10m and $30m.

Parade details for Nov. 11. Will have uniforms. Some planes. Maybe old planes. Tanks are banned. pic.twitter.com/W7xyhLYo9Y

— Thomas Gibbons-Neff (@Tmgneff) March 9, 2018

I have also read that the parade could cost as much as 50 million dollars.

Just imagine how many children could be fed, homeless people housed, or veterans treated for their PTSD for 50 million?

But no, we have a conceited man child who needs to channel totalitarian despots by waving at members of a military that he lied about bone spurs to avoid joining. 

Another mass shooting, this one in a veteran's home in California.

Courtesy of SF Gate:  

A military veteran who had been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder burst into a veterans home in the North Bay town of Yountville on Friday with a rifle, killed three women connected with the treatment program and then killed himself, authorities and program officials said. 

Law enforcement officers found the bodies of the victims and the killer at the Veterans Home of California-Yountville shortly before 6 p.m., more than seven hours after the incident began, said Chris Childs, an assistant chief of the California Highway Patrol. 

Authorities had earlier said the gunman was holding staff members of the Pathway Home, a program on the Veterans Home campus that had been treating him for PTSD until he was asked to leave several days ago. 

One of those killed was the program’s executive director, Christine Loeber, the Pathway Home said in a statement. Also killed were Dr. Jen Golick, a therapist with the program, and Dr. Jennifer Gonzales, a psychologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs in San Francisco, the statement said.

The killer's name was Albert Wong, a man suffering from PTSD after serving overseas and fighting in the unnecessary wars started by the Bush Administration.

There are hundreds of similar afflicted veterans in this country, and virtually all of them continue to have access to firearms.

After all if you listen to the conservatives that was one of the rights they were fighting for over there. Which of course makes no sense.

"I was over there in Iraq shooting the enemy so that I could return back here and shoot a couple of doctors as is my God given right as an American."

Well I guess we have no choice but to install some bullet proof glass, add some reinforced doors, and post a couple of cops at all of the veteran's homes in the country.

I mean what other solution could there possibly be, right?

Pentagon has no idea where Trump thinks he will get the money for his parade.

Courtesy of the Military Times:  

President Donald Trump’s proposed military parade has a potential date and location: Veterans Day in Washington. 

But there’s still the question of how it will be paid for. 

“When we talk about the options — the composition, the theme, the date, the location, the associated costs — all those are being looked at as part of the options that are being created,” said Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Rob Manning. “The funding stream is a line that they [parade planners] would have to provide details on.

”No money was allocated for a parade in the fiscal 2019 budget, and none was previously identified in the fiscal 2018 budget, which ends Sept. 30, six weeks before the planned parade date.

The White House budget office has estimated that the parade options Trump is considering would cost between $10 million and $30 million. 

Trump also said this:

“But the generals would love to do it, I can tell you, and so would I,” Trump said on Fox News.

But when asked about that:

On Monday Pentagon reporters asked which generals had indicated they would want a parade; Manning said he did not know. 

“I don’t know what specific generals told him that,” Manning said.

I'm going to guess that none of them told him that, and that he just made that up like he makes everything else up. 

After church shooting military adds more than 4,000 names of domestic abusers to FBI's background checklist.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:  

More than 4,000 names have been added to the country's list of ex-military members banned from owning firearms since the Sutherland Springs massacre last November, a CNN report has found. 

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the US Air Force came under fire after admitting it failed to submit the gunman's name to the FBI's background check system - even though he had been kicked out of the military for assaulting his wife, which should have prevented him from owning a firearm under federal law. 

Still, the ex-airman was able to purchase a semiautomatic rifle that he used to kill 26 people and injure 20 others at the First Baptist Church church in Texas, exposing a massive hole in the nation's background check system. 

Since then, 4,284 names have been added to the FBI's list of dishonorably discharged military personnel banned from owning firearms - an increase of 38 per cent. 

It is the law that anyone who receives a dishonorable or misconduct discharge should automatically get banned from owning a firearm. 

The number of banned servicemen once stood at 11,000 but has now jumped to 15,583.

That certainly seems like a significant portion of the ex-military members don't you think?

Of course Track Palin supposedly received an honorable discharge so one would not think that this list would have effected him, however I am certain that his actions since leaving the military have put him on a number of lists. 

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

It should also be noted that none of Trump's family has served in the military, he aggressively attacked a former prisoner of war, and that he has done nothing to answer any of Russia's cyber attacks.

Same Russian hackers from the 2016 election are now targeting companies involved with developing military technology.

Courtesy of the AP: 

Russian cyberspies pursuing the secrets of military drones and other sensitive U.S. defense technology tricked key contract workers into exposing their email to theft, an Associated Press investigation has found. 

What ultimately may have been stolen is uncertain, but the hackers clearly exploited a national vulnerability in cybersecurity: poorly protected email and barely any direct notification to victims. 

The hackers known as Fancy Bear, who also intruded in the U.S. election, went after at least 87 people working on militarized drones, missiles, rockets, stealth fighter jets, cloud-computing platforms or other sensitive activities, the AP found. 

Employees at both small companies and defense giants like Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Co., Boeing Co., Airbus Group and General Atomics were targeted by the hackers. A handful of people in Fancy Bear’s sights also worked for trade groups, contractors in U.S.-allied countries or on corporate boards. 

“The programs that they appear to target and the people who work on those programs are some of the most forward-leaning, advanced technologies,” said Charles Sowell, a former senior adviser to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, who reviewed the list of names for the AP. “And if those programs are compromised in any way, then our competitive advantage and our defense is compromised.”

But remember we don't need to implement further sanctions against Russia because "sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed because the legislation is, in fact, serving as a deterrent."

I guess somebody need to inform Fancy Bear of that "fact."

We are so fucked.

It appears that Donald Trump might get his giant military parade after all.

Courtesy of WaPo:

President Trump’s vision of soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the boulevards of Washington is moving closer to reality in the Pentagon and White House, where officials say they have begun to plan a grand military parade later this year showcasing the might of America’s armed forces. 

Trump has long mused publicly and privately about wanting such a parade, but a Jan. 18 meeting between Trump and top generals in the Pentagon’s tank — a room reserved for top-secret discussions — marked a tipping point, according to two officials briefed on the planning. 

Surrounded by the military’s highest-ranking officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., Trump’s seemingly abstract desire for a parade was suddenly heard as a presidential directive, the officials said. 

“The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France,” said a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the planning discussions are supposed to remain confidential. “This is being worked at the highest levels of the military.” 

Shows of military strength are not typical in the United States — and they don’t come cheap. The cost of shipping Abrams tanks and high-tech hardware to Washington could run in the millions, and military officials said it was unclear how they would pay for it.

Well yeah, how can you be a fascist dictator if you do not have a huge expensive military parade to celebrate your leadership?

We reported on this idea way back in September, but at that time we just laughed it off as absurd.

Pres. Trump says the U.S. may have military parade down Pennsylvania Ave. on July 4 to "show our military strength" https://t.co/QL9OUZ2UFf pic.twitter.com/yIO8kAxsSW

— ABC News (@ABC) September 18, 2017

But now the Pentagon is actually considering it?

Of course giant military parades are a favorite of megalomaniacs.

Like Hitler.

And Vladimir Putin.

You know, all of Trump's idols. 

However we typically do not indulge our psychotic leaders here in America.

But then again we also do not typically elect psychotics to be our leader here in America, so I guess we are just making this up as we go along.

In case you missed it, Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, completely kneecapped Donald Trump yesterday.

!!@SenDuckworth: "I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft-dodger. And I have a message for cadet bone spurs: If you cared about our military, you'd stop baiting Kim Jong-Un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops .. in danger." pic.twitter.com/BBXVna819m

— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) January 20, 2018

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

"Does he even know that there are service members who are in harm's way right now, watching him, looking for their commander-in-chief to show leadership, rather than [trying] to deflect blame?" Duckworth said. "Or that his own Pentagon says that the short-term funding plans he seems intent on pushing is actually harmful to not just the military, but to our national security?"

"I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible," she continued. "Sadly, this is something that the current occupant of the Oval Office does not seem to care to do – and I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft-dodger." 

"And I have a message for cadet bone spurs: If you cared about our military, you'd stop baiting Kim Jong-Un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops, and millions of innocent civilians, in danger."

"Cadet bone spurs." Damn, that was epic!

Women like Senator Duckworth, who does not mince words when it comes to calling Trump out over his hypocrisy, are going to help inspire the blue wave that is coming in 2018 to wash the GOP dead wood out of the House and Senate and replace it with energetic, hard working, and likely female progressives who are going to get this country back on the right track.

Personally I can hardly wait.

While we are all focused on the latest Donald Trump scandals, the military quietly prepares for war with North Korea.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Across the military, officers and troops are quietly preparing for a war they hope will not come. 

At Fort Bragg in North Carolina last month, a mix of 48 Apache gunships and Chinook cargo helicopters took off in an exercise that practiced moving troops and equipment under live artillery fire to assault targets. Two days later, in the skies above Nevada, 119 soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division parachuted out of C-17 military cargo planes under cover of darkness in an exercise that simulated a foreign invasion. 

Next month, at Army posts across the United States, more than 1,000 reserve soldiers will practice how to set up so-called mobilization centers that move military forces overseas in a hurry. And beginning next month with the Winter Olympics in the South Korean town of Pyeongchang, the Pentagon plans to send more Special Operations troops to the Korean Peninsula, an initial step toward what some officials said ultimately could be the formation of a Korea-based task force similar to the types that are fighting in Iraq and Syria. Others said the plan was strictly related to counterterrorism efforts. 

In the world of the American military, where contingency planning is a mantra drummed into the psyche of every officer, the moves are ostensibly part of standard Defense Department training and troop rotations. But the scope and timing of the exercises suggest a renewed focus on getting the country’s military prepared for what could be on the horizon with North Korea.

As I reported last month the Navy has deployed special radar hunting warplanes to South Korea, supposedly for military exercises, but that is probably just a thinly veiled excuse.

And of course the Trump Administration is trying to loosen those restrictions on the use of nukes.

All of this seems like it is headed for a disaster for which we are simply not prepared to deal.

No wonder I am drinking so much damn coffee.

Trump Administration wants to loosen constraints on nuclear weapons to make them easier to use in response to an attack. I'm sorry, what?

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

The Trump administration plans to loosen constraints on the use of nuclear weapons and develop a new low-yield nuclear warhead for US Trident missiles, according to a former official who has seen the most recent draft of a policy review. 

Jon Wolfsthal, who was special assistant to Barack Obama on arms control and nonproliferation, said the new nuclear posture review prepared by the Pentagon, envisages a modified version of the Trident D5 submarine-launched missiles with only part of its normal warhead, with the intention of deterring Russia from using tactical warheads in a conflict in Eastern Europe. 

The new nuclear policy is significantly more hawkish that the posture adopted by the Obama administration, which sought to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in US defence.

Arms control advocates have voiced alarm at the new proposal to make smaller, more “usable” nuclear weapons, arguing it makes a nuclear war more likely, especially in view of what they see as Donald Trump’s volatility and readiness to brandish the US arsenal in showdowns with the nation’s adversaries. 

The NPR also expands the circumstances in which the US might use its nuclear arsenal, to include a response to a non-nuclear attack that caused mass casualties, or was aimed at critical infrastructure or nuclear command and control sites.

Okay this is not about Russia, Putin knows that his puppet would never use these against the homeland, this is about North Korea.

Trump had been itching to use nuclear weapons against Kim Jong Un almost since the day he took office, and now he is looking for a way to do that and not blow up South Korea as well.

This lunatic needs to be stopped, and stopped now!

This is America so you could not close out 2017 without yet another mass shooting. This one cost the life of a Colorado police officer.

Douglas County Coroner confirms shooting suspect in #CopperCanyonOIS as Matthew Riehl DOB 9/09/80 (pictured). Investigation still ongoing and being investigated by @DA18th Critical Response Team. pic.twitter.com/H6wT0klSQv

— DC Sheriff (@dcsheriff) January 1, 2018

Courtesy of the LA Times:

In a year racked by mass shootings, including the deadliest in U.S. history, a spasm of violence here on the last day of 2017 added one more to the grim tally. 

Four Douglas Country sheriff's deputies responding to a noise complaint were ambushed by a gunman who sprayed them with more than 100 bullets. 

All four were hit. Those who could crawled away. But Deputy Zackari Parrish, 29, was shot repeatedly and killed. 

Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said at a news conference that the officers were responding to a complaint about raised voices at the Copper Canyon Apartments in Highlands Ranch, about 12 miles south of Denver, at about 5:15 a.m.

One of the occupants of the building opened the door and let the officers inside.

However the other occupant, a Matthew Riehl, opened fire on the cops from his bedroom.

This led to a standoff lasting about an hour and a half, before SWAT entered the building and after an exchange of gunfire killed the shooter. (One of the SWAT officers was also wounded in the exchange.)

As it turns out the gunman was an Iraq war veteran with a grudge against the sheriff.

The Sheriff's name is Tony Spurlock, and Riehl even threatened to run against him in the next election: 

He is seen wearing an Iraq combat veteran hat in a Dec. 13 YouTube video in which he called Spurlock a “clown” and a deputy a pimp. 

“You know who’s going flub big time next election, Spurlock,” Riehl said in the video called “Fire Sheriff Spurlock.”

He said he was running against Spurlock as a libertarian. 

A video posted on Nov. 28 showed a traffic stop by a police officer in the city of Lone Tree — apparently taken inside the officer's car — that Riehl said was done illegally. He claimed the officer clocked the wrong driver, identifying the officer by name in the video and calling him "dirty."

"S---bag, dirtbag, liar," he says as the officer questioned the driver. "He's the boss, huh? He's the Nazi in charge with the stripes on his shoulder and the fake badge."

Yeah, nothing unhinged about that. 

I don't think he has officially been identified as such, but this Riehl guy sounds like a sovereign citizen type to me.

That would explain his lack of respect for law enforcement, and self identifying as a Libertarian.

For the record there were over 15,000 gun deaths in 2017, 344 mass shootings, and 316 incidents where a police officer was shot or killed.

I expect the numbers to be much the same in 2018.

Track Palin's supposed PTSD is now being used to excuse his most recent assault.

Shushannah Walsh, who once authored a book about Sarah Palin (Sarah from Alaska), is essentially offering excuses for Track's behavior here.

Yes Track has a definite substance abuse problem.

But no it has NOTHING to do with any PTSD from his time in the military.

As we have noted a number of times in the past, Track did NOT actually see any combat while he was serving his one year hitch overseas.

In his discharge papers, posted above, there is no CIB (Combat Infantry Badge) which is given to ALL infantrymen and special forces who ACTIVELY participate in combat.

This of course means that Track did NOT see any actual combat, which I am sure his mother arranged for before she forced him to enlist.

So if indeed Track is suffering from PTSD, it is a disorder he earned simply by being a member of the Palin family, and NOT one he earned while serving his country.

As for the opioid problem, well Track has been dealing with that since his teens.

And that is ALSO likely the result of being a member of the Palin family.

Track also appeared in court today and was approved for house arrest.

Courtesy of ADN:  

Magistrate Judge Tara Logsdon approved house arrest with electronic monitoring for Palin and kept his $5,000 bail. Logsdon said she expected Palin to be released Wednesday. 

Once released, he's not allowed to go within an "exclusion zone" around his parents' home along the Parks Highway, or near liquor stores or places serving alcohol. He can't drink and must take prescription drugs only as prescribed. All weapons must be taken out of his house. 

Palin, who lives alone, will be allowed to go to medical appointments and to work at Alaska Directional LLC, a drilling company in Palmer. 

The family supports the house arrest request, Todd Palin told the judge by phone. His parents and siblings — younger brother Trig and sister Piper — still want contact with Track, Todd Palin said. 

It's not known if the children were in the house during the assault. 

Personally I would keep the kids far away from Track at this point, but the Palin family is not exactly known for good parenting decisions.

The prosecutor was not happy with some of these bail terms agreed to by the judge, but she did manage to get her request approved for a mental health evaluation.

Well, that's a start.

P.S. For those who were asking for one, here is a photo of Track from today's proceedings.

 Oh yeah, that is definitely the face of a man you want spending time with your kids.

Okay so does Trump believe that planes which are invisible to radar are also impossible to see with the naked eye?

President Trump to members of the US Coast Guard: "You never know about an ally, an ally can turn." pic.twitter.com/wb4NhuGQeY

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) November 23, 2017

Yeah, it appears that he does.

Did you see the guy's face over Trump's right shoulder?

He looks like he simply cannot believe what he he is hearing.

#fightingtokeepastraightface.

Army now accepting recruits with mental health issues. Oh this can't end well.

Courtesy of MSN: 

People with a history of “self-mutilation,” bipolar disorder, depression and drug and alcohol abuse can now seek waivers to join the Army under an unannounced policy enacted in August, according to documents obtained by USA TODAY. 

The decision to open Army recruiting to those with mental health conditions comes as the service faces the challenging goal of recruiting 80,000 new soldiers through September 2018. To meet last year's goal of 69,000, the Army accepted more recruits who fared poorly on aptitude tests, increased the number of waivers granted for marijuana use and offered hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses. 

Expanding the waivers for mental health is possible in part because the Army now has access to more medical information about each potential recruit, Lt. Col. Randy Taylor, an Army spokesman, said in a statement. The Army issued the ban on waivers in 2009 amid an epidemic of suicides among troops. 

But accepting recruits with those mental-health conditions in their past carries risks, according to Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a psychiatrist who retired from the Army as a colonel in 2010 and is an expert on waivers for military service. People with a history of mental health problems are more likely to have those issues resurface than those who do not, she said. 

“It is a red flag,” she said. “The question is, how much of a red flag is it?”

Oh I would say that it is a big red flag.

Especially considering that when the Bush Administration relaxed enrollment guidelines to allow in recruits with substance abuse issues and some mild mental health issues, it resulted in the Kandahar Massacre and of course the murders in Afghanistan perpetrated by Wasilla's own Jeremy Morlock.

Those men should never have been allowed to don the uniform and yet they were cleared for recruitment and sent overseas into perhaps the most stressful environment on the planet.

And now we are seeing an even further relaxation of the screening process which is supposed to weed out those who cannot handle the challenges of life in the military, and who may end up being a danger to themselves or to others.

Of course how can we really screen out the mentally unfit, when their poster child is currently occupying the White House?