Republic's Fake Social Security News

Joanna Allhands of the Arizona Republic has a  "genius"  idea for reducing the federal budget deficit: cut Medicare and Social Security entitlements.   While Medicare is subsidized and does contribute to the federal deficit,  Social Security is a self-funded trust fund.  It is NOT now running a deficit and never has run a deficit.  Moreover,  Social Security has NEVER contributed to the federal deficit, and if the Social Security trust fund becomes eroded in the future: by law the contribution rates will have to be increased or the benefits cut.  As a matter of FACT,  the Social Security fund has been "RAIDED" to fund the the federal deficit, since the federal government borrows money from Social Security at below market rates to help pay its bills.   NONE OF THIS IS A SECRET.   THE GOVERNMENT PUBLISHES ANNUAL REPORTS ON THE STATUS OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND.

https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/WhatAreTheTrust.htm

Is it too much to expect that the "geniuses" at the Republic do their homework before they blow their noses in public?

Anti-Catholics in US Senate

Apparently not much has changed for the Democrats since the KKK ran the party.  Re Amy Barrett:

Baldwin (D-WI), Nay 
Bennet (D-CO), Nay 
Blumenthal (D-CT), Nay 
Booker (D-NJ), Nay 
Brown (D-OH), Nay 
Cantwell (D-WA), Nay 
Cardin (D-MD), Nay 
Carper (D-DE), Nay 
Casey (D-PA), Nay 
Coons (D-DE), Nay 
Cortez Masto (D-NV), Nay 
Duckworth (D-IL), Nay 
Durbin (D-IL), Nay 
Feinstein (D-CA), Nay 
Franken (D-MN), Nay 
Gillibrand (D-NY), Nay 
Harris (D-CA), Nay 
Hassan (D-NH), Nay 
Heinrich (D-NM), Nay 
Heitkamp (D-ND), Nay 
Hirono (D-HI), Nay 
King (I-ME), Nay 
Klobuchar (D-MN), Nay 
Leahy (D-VT), Nay 
Markey (D-MA), Nay 
Merkley (D-OR), Nay 
Murphy (D-CT), Nay 
Murray (D-WA), Nay 
Nelson (D-FL), Nay 
Peters (D-MI), Nay 
Reed (D-RI), Nay 
Sanders (I-VT), Nay 
Schatz (D-HI), Nay 
Schumer (D-NY), Nay 
Shaheen (D-NH), Nay 
Stabenow (D-MI), Nay 
Tester (D-MT), Nay 
Udall (D-NM), Nay 
Van Hollen (D-MD), Nay 
Warner (D-VA), Nay 
Warren (D-MA), Nay 
Whitehouse (D-RI), Nay 
Wyden (D-OR), Nay 

Dunkirk Drivel

"Dunkirk proved the comparative advantage that democracies have in modern war: the ability of free people to self organize."   Private watercraft saved the day ... blah, blah, blah.

-- Michael Gerson, Amazon-Washington Post, AZ Republic, 7/30/2017

When will the Dunkirk drivel end?   All the little boats appearing from "nowhere" and saving the day makes for nice theater.   In fact, the Royal Navy and the British Ministry of Shipping organized the evacuation and supplied most of the big and little ships, which were either already in military service or hastily requisitioned by the Navy and Ministry of Shipping.   The Navy needed the shallow draft little boats to ferry troops from the beaches to the larger ships, requisitioned ferry boats and passenger ships out at sea.

The evacuation was effected because the British navy controlled the seas and  the French, who are given little credit by anyone, still had a powerful army in the field capable of protecting the Dunkirk perimeter.   The last important factor was the Royal Air Force's Spitfire aircraft.   It is little remembered today, but the British held this high tech airplane out of the Battle for France ... until Dunkirk when they committed the Spitfires to protect the evacuation.

Why Mr. Gerson of the Amazon-Washington Post interjected Charles Lindbergh and American "isolationism" into this story is puzzle ... other than it's another opportunity for the Left to flog America about isolationism.   Charles Lindbergh had nothing to do with Dundirk or the Battle for France.   The British and French did not need American soldiers in 1940.   What they needed were tanks and aircraft.   America had very few tanks back then to give, even if the British and French had asked for them.   Thanks to the Roosevelt rearmament, which had been going on since the day Roosevelt took office,  America did have competent aircraft to spare.   In fact the most effective airplane during the Battle for France was the American P-36, which held its own against the Germans and won the first allied air victory of WW2 in September of 1939, downing a celebrated Messerschmitt Bf 109E.   The French had ordered an additional 200  American P-40 fighters,  but were too cautious with their money and didn't order the P-40s in time for these to fight in the Battle for France.

It might have made sense for Mr. Gerson to mention the isolationism of the Pete Seeger American Left in 1940.  They were marching in lockstep with their hero, Joseph Stalin.   Perhaps the Amazon-Washington Post doesn't want America to remember that at the time of Dunkirk and the Battle for France,  Joseph Stalin was Hitler's ally, having helped Hitler invade Poland.   While France fell and England was left standing alone, Stalin sat on his hands and the Pete Seeger American Left screamed imperialist warmonger when Roosevelt sent aid to the British, including the P-40s that the French had ordered too late.

*    *    *     *    *     *

Britain and France declared war on Germany when they weren't ready to fight.   Even after Hitler came to power and rearmed the left leaning governments of Britain and France neglected their militaries.

England manufactured some tanks most of which didn't have canons, on purpose.   They built a flotilla of destroyers that weren't seaworthy and couldn't sail across the Atlantic.  Their one triumph was the Spitfire fighter airplane, but they mismanaged manufacturing them and once the war started they couldn't build them fast enough.   Then they refused to send the ones they had to fight in the Battle of France where they were desperately needed -- this proved fatal in the battle at Sedan for critical bridges crossing the Meuse River.

The French built the Maginot Line an impregnable fortification on their border with Germany, but didn't extend the fortifications across the border with Belgium to the English Channel.  There were no fortifications strong enough to contain the German blitzkrieg in 1940.  The French had a strong tank force, but it lacked modern radio communications.   France's air force was over matched by the Germans in quality and numbers -- this proved fatal at the critical battle at Sedan.   The French realized their deficiencies and ordered American built P-36s to match the Germans, but more mindful of their pocketbooks than their border only ordered 316.   Later the French ordered 200 of the then technologically advanced American P-40s,  but not in time to prevent the defeat at Sedan.

In 1940 Joseph Stalin had more tanks and airplanes than anyone.   While France fell and England stood alone,  Stalin sat on his hands and did nothing.   He was still Hitler's ally after they invaded Poland together and divided it between them.

And who do the Lefties blame today for the debacle that left England standing alone and that opened the door to the Holocaust and all the other horrors of WW2?   The United States, of course.  For what?   Not telling the French in 1938 that they needed to order at least 1,000 P-36s and P-40s if they wanted to win the Battle for France.

Republicans and Democrats Past

From time to time, individuals who are not Democrats accuse Democrats of being the party of the Ku Klux Klan.   Although many Democrats and Democratic politicians may have belonged to the Klan in its glory days after the Civil War and in the 1920s,  especially in the South and states like Indiana, New Jersey and Oregon (yes, folks Oregon), as a national entity the Democrats did not embrace the Klan, for very good reason.  In addition to being segregationist and anti-black, the Klan was anti-immigrant and virulently anti-Catholic.  In 1920s Oregon, for example, a KKK backed initiative effectively outlawed Catholic schools, a law that was almost immediately overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Why didn't Catholic immigrants flock to the Republican Party, you ask.   The Republican Party's original sin was Nativism since it was formed from the remnants of the Whigs and the anti-immigrant Know Nothings.   It's as unfair to shout guilt by association and brand Lincoln as a Nativist, he wasn't one, as it is to brand Democrats now as KKK... although the Republicans still have their problems with immigrants ... and some Democrats still have their issues with the Catholics.  

Civil War about Slavery

It is tiresome to read letters in the Arizona Republic claiming that the American Civil War wasn't about slavery.   The secessionists have been claiming that since day one.  The reaction to their states' rights claims at the time is summed up nicely by an old Irishman's response during an 1861 session of New York City's city council:

"BALL SHEET! ... This trouble is all about them Southerners and their darkies!"

Stalin's Betrayal of Britain and France

The Left merrily (and dishonestly) blames America for not joining the fight against Hitler in 1939, even though Britain and France didn't need America troops on the German border in 1939 and 1940. What they needed were tanks and above all airplanes .  In any event, there were  only 180,000 soldiers in the US Army in 1939 and they wouldn't have frightened anyone.  As for tanks and airplanes?   The US had only a few score tanks  and these were under-armored and under-gunned, some mounting only machine guns.  The British and French didn't need these and didn't bother asking.

What the British and French did need were airplanes.   These the US could supply and  the French ordered hundreds of  P-36.  P-40, P-39, and Martin and Douglas bombers from American factories.  1,000 had been delivered by the time the Germans attacked with another 500+ in the pipeline. The American P-36 fighters performed very well during the battle of France, but there just weren't enough of them (316). The p-40s and p-39s, which were more than a match for anything the Germans had could not be produced and delivered in time to fight in the Battle of France in 1940 and were diverted to the British and Russians.

Stick to facts and stop blaming America for everything that's gone wrong with the world.  The French and British have nobody but themselves to blame for their failures in 1940.  They weren't ready for war, but declared war anyway.   Perhaps the French should have been more aggressive with their p-36 orders, but at least they recognized the need and made a significant effort to address it. The British were completely feckless.  Their tank production was as bad as America's -- for the price of one useless battleship, never mind the colonial administration of India, they could have built enough tanks and aircraft to completely checkmate the Germans in 1940. 

The real villain was the USSR.  Something the Left likes to forget.   The USSR had plenty of high quality tanks, but they allied with Hitler in 1939 to carve up Poland, and weren't going to lift a finger to help the French and British -- not before, during or after the Battle of France.   Germany in 1940 was no match for the combined forces of Britain, France & the USSR ... but  in 1940 the Stalin stood by, watched France fall and did nothing. Stalin would soon regret that and in June of 1941 he'd be the one begging for help.

Sessions: Alabama and the assassination of Father James Coyle

The confirmation process for Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions brings up the question:  how long should you hold a grudge?

Sometime in the past, Sessions allegedly made racist remarks and may have been civil rights unfriendly sometime in his past. Don't ask me to verify it.   When I crossed Alabama on the way to the Vietnam War in a car with New York license plates,  I drove as fast as legally possible, didn't stop for gas or peanuts and haven't been back since.      

When Douglas MacArthur teamed Uncle Frank's (aka Chaplain Francis Duffy) "Fighting Irish"  69th New York with the 4th Alabama to form the WW1 "Rainbow" division,  there was a riot over who got the best of whom at Fair Oaks in 1862: the Irish or the Alabamians.   MacArthur's idea of integration back in the day was to have the Irish and Alabamians get into fighting trim by training together on Long Island, NY, before shipping out to fight the Germans.  MacArthur must have known what he was doing.  We won that war.

The next to last straw in Alabama-Irish relations was August 11, 1921 in Birmingham.  That's the day when Methodist preacher E. R. Stephenson assassinated Father James Coyle, while sat Coyle on the parish rectory's front porch.   Coyle, an immigrant from County Roscommon, Ireland, had committed the sin of marrying Stephenson's daughter to Pedro Gussman, a Puerto Rican.

The Ku Klux Klan arranged for Stephenson's defense.  Stephenson's lawyer was bright young Klansman Hugo Black.   Stephenson plead temporary insanity.  The prosecution and defense degenerated into an argument over whether Gussman was a "white" Puerto Rican or "black" Puerto Rican... it wouldn't be murder if you shot someone for marrying your daughter to a "black" Puerto Rican.   Defense attorney Black had the lights turned down in the court room to make Gussman look darker.   Stephenson was found not guilty. Hugo Black was elected to the U.S. Senate and later appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by Franklin Roosevelt.  In time, Black became a highly regarded liberal Justice known his support of civil liberties... although he never stopped being an anti-Catholic.

The final straw in Alabama-Irish relations was when six of Alabama's Democratic Electoral College electors did not vote for John Kennedy.

"On February 22, 2012, Bishop William H. Willimon of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church presided over a service of reconciliation and forgiveness [for the assassination of Father Coyle] at Highlands United Methodist Church in Birmingham."

When my son called from college at Tucson and asked what I was doing today.   I said, 

"Writing a letter to the newspaper." 

"About what?"

"Jeff Sessions."

"Who's Jeff Sessions?"

Chivalrous Klansmen will Parade Streets of Nogales

"The 'Alabama Mystics,' an organization formed among the officers of the Alabama brigade, will make heir initial appearance Friday night [for Mardi Gras] in a beautiful street parade and grand ball at the Santa Cruz Club."  During the national guard mobilization to hunt down Pancho Villa.

"The Ku Klux Klan, the invisible empire of the south during the terrible days of that section's reconstruction during the Civil War,  has been chosen by the "Alabama Mystics" as the subject of the parade which will pass through the streets of Nogales tonight."

-- Nogales Daily Herald, 1/24-26/1917, in The Great Call-Up, Harris & Sadler, 2015