UK Decides to Withdraw from European Union: U.S. Should Not Abandon Britain or Move It to a Rear Burner for Trade Deals

The United Kingdom held their referendum on whether to stay or leave the European Union yesterday, and the Leave movement won by around a million votes, which lead to Prime Minster Cameron’s resignation this morning. 

The markets are reacting negatively, which is not unexpected.  Scotland voted to remain, so now there’s a question of whether Scotland will remain in the United Kingdom.   Lot of unanswered questions.

On the U.S. side, President Obama’s ill-advised statement to the British public during his visit needs to be looked at.  We should not abandon Britain, nor should our government move it to the “back of the queue” for consideration for trade deals as President Obama told the British people would happen if the Leave side won.

The U.S.-British friendship and business relationship should get stronger, and not weaker as President Obama has suggested.  I hope he doesn’t take to the airwaves to issue more threats now that the Leave side has won.

Hopefully the UK and EU will come to an understanding that is fair to all parties involved.

Democrats Politicize Disaster in Florida: They Just Can’t Help Themselves

The Democrats just can’t stop politicizing everything, including a terrorist attack on a nightclub in Orlando which left forty-nine dead and fifty wounded.

ISIS called for terror attacks in the U.S. during Ramadan in the weeks before the start of the holiday, and that’s exactly what happened.   That should be the end of the story. 

I also noted that President Obama continued his policy of not naming what the problem is (Radical Islamic terrorism), which has itself become a political hot potato.   There’s nothing to be done there, but some things can be pointed out:

Naming the problem defines the problem, which leads to decisive action to deal with the named problem.  Putting one’s head in the sand doesn’t help matters any.  Nor is being the Observer-in-Chief.

The Democrats focused on the gun issue again.   Banning guns won’t stop terrorists. 

What’s to stop a terrorist (foreign or domestic) from taking a pressure cooker, loading it up with ball bearings and nails, packing it with low grade explosives, stick a blasting cap stolen from an industrial site into the top of it and simply carrying it into a minimum-security (soft target) nightclub like the one attacked in Orlando and detonating it?   Absolutely nothing.   The Boston bombers proved it.

ISIS and al-Qaeda love killing themselves and taking their enemies with them. They need to be stopped and their caliphate made into nothing but a memory. 

Guns are but one part of the problem.  Changing a radical’s heart so that he puts down his weapon and uses his voice (and in this case, his vote) to disagree with his government is something the Democrats and Republicans in federal government need to work on.

Getting guns away from the seriously mentally ill and violence-prone is also something that should be addressed too.  Both parties have declined to do anything about it—the Democrats because they don’t want to be labeled as less-than-liberal-minded, and the Republicans because the NRA doesn’t like the idea at all.  

There’s a solution out there, but they need to work to find it.  And NEVER pass anything immediately after an event like the Orlando catastrophe. That always leads to bad legislation that is very difficult to repeal or fix, especially in an election year.

What Is Going On With These Politicians Running for the White House? As If Hillary/Sanders and Trump Weren’t Bad Enough, Now the Libertarian Candidates Are Acting Up Too: If You Want Me to Consider Voting for You, Stick to the Issues

I don’t have a lot of respect for either of the Democratic presidential hopefuls, or for the GOP presumptive nominee (at this stage anyways.)   I had started to look at other parties on Friday, to see if there was a third party platform that I could support.  By Saturday afternoon, the news cycle picked up on the Libertarian vice-presidential pick invoking the Nazis to describe Trump’s immigration plan.

As if the Republicrats aren’t bad enough, now the others are getting into this race full of hate mongers, liars and hypocrites.

I’d be a lot happier if the Libertarian VP pick had criticized Trump’s plans without bringing the Nazis into the equation.  Does he think he can say what he wants like Trump does and still get away with it as Trump has?

I will not vote for someone who seems to be imitating Trump.   I may end up voting for the SOB, but only to stop Hillary or Sanders or Hillary/Sanders, which seems not so far-fetched anymore.
But I’m going to look at all the parties very closely first.  

As far as Kristallnacht is concerned, I don't see it in the immigration issue.

I brought it up some time ago because Trump seemed to be encouraging riots in the streets if the GOP establishment found a way to replace him on the ticket, and I was pointing out that when political leaders called for violence against people they don't like, people end up getting hurt or killed.  My message was for Trump to cool it before Americans got killed because of his political rhetoric.

My message now is for all candidates to cool it and stick to the issues.

Twitter War: Senator Warren Takes on Donald Trump on Twitter and Matches Him Insult-for-Insult

Donald Trump and liberal Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren have been exchanging fire on Twitter, and it’s delightful!

She’s been matching him blow for blow, and he isn’t holding anything back either.  No one’s been able to draw Trump out like this in quite some time.

He’s calling her “goofy” and “our Native American senator” and she’s calling him “lame” and a “bully” and “loser.”    Here’s the story.

If he’s elected President, he’s going to have a ball exchanging insults with the North Korean media.

States Are Spending Far Too Much Time on Bathroom Issues, and Not Enough Time on Other More Important Issues to the Common Good

I’m tired of all the toilet talk coming from the states and think they need to focus on more important issues, such as passing an operating budget. Some states where the bathroom debate is raging have yet to pass a budget for 2016-2017.

Just build more family bathrooms and be done with it already.   And if someone doesn’t want to use a public restroom because of this issue, don’t.  

Speaking frankly, I’ll think twice if I see a woman in a men’s restroom.   I will not give up whatever privacy is left in a restroom for the sake of someone else’s cause.  

Pick your poison and move on.

Can We Trust a Nuclear-Armed North Korea That Can Strike the United States to Behave Itself, or Are We Going to Need to Make a Pre-Emptive Strike to Stop North Korea?

Overwhelming international sanctions and pressure on North Korea have failed to slow down or stop the continued nuclear weapons advancement in the Hermit Kingdom, and we’re going to need to face the music soon.

Can we ever trust North Korea, which behaves like a petulant child being told “no, you can’t have that” to start behaving like a nation run by grown-ups?  With Kim Jong Un in charge over there, the answer is a resounding “NO!”  

We can’t trust anyone in North Korea to run it responsibly until the entire country has been de-programmed, disarmed and de-Kim Jong Un’ed.   It’s going to cost a lot of lives and the body count will be driven upwards the longer action is delayed.  

North Korea’s generals could negate a lot of this but they’re being executed at the slightest provocation to Kim Jong Un’s fear of losing his power, or getting a bullet in his head.

No one wants a war, but North Korea may force it and drag in all of its neighbors.   The situation is looking more and more bleak the longer it drags on.

Cruz is Acting in the Same Way in New York That Trump is Acting Across the Country: It’s Not Going to Work, But New York Was a Lost Cause for Cruz From the Get-Go

Ted Cruz doubled down on his criticism of New York liberal politics in the last couple of weeks, and there’s no doubt that he’s going to get mauled badly.  He seems to know it and isn’t holding anything back.    

The NY Daily News (is it really a news magazine, given their covers?) has taken the lead on telling where Cruz to go.  They aren’t very sympathetic to Trump either…they’ve recently endorsed Governor Kasich.  Who cares.

If Cruz loses in New York by 90%-10%, it’s a badge of honor for him. 

How many Democrats have registered as Republicans so that they can vote for Donald Trump to teach Cruz a lesson?   How many fewer voters will the Democratic side have, and what effect will it have on the Democratic side of things?

It’s really amusing to see New York react to Cruz, especially when Trump has been acting exactly the same way across the country since he got into the race.  If the rest of the country reacted to Trump the way that New York is reacting to Cruz, Trump would definitely not be in first place right now.

I’m going to enjoy the libs vs. Cruz show for as long as it lasts.  He’s making them SO angry.

Law Enforcement Agencies From Across The Country Want FBI’s iPhone Hack: Is There a Black Flag Operation in Progress?

Law enforcement across the country are asking the FBI to share its hack of an iPhone 5C with them so that they can move forward with hundreds of cases across many jurisdictions. 

I’m surprised that Apple hasn’t hit the FBI with a restraining order yet to prevent that from happening.

The legal types over at Apple are probably looking at all the options, including whether Apple might be liable if they patch the FBI hack, thereby denying law enforcement the information that they’re after on hundreds of phones.

I’m not taking a position on that question. 

But I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a black flag operation in progress between the FBI and Apple.  The longer Apple takes to respond publicly, the more suspicious I get.

That has the makings of a Hollywood movie.

It Looks Like FBI Will Not Share Information With Apple: They’re Opening Locked iPhones for Other Law Enforcement Agencies

I find it very interesting that the FBI has agreed to unlock other iPhones with their new iPhone hack within two days of hacking the San Bernadino shooter’s iPhone.

It’s still uncertain if the Arkansas phone that the FBI is going to unlock is the same iPhone model as the San Bernadino one (iPhone 5C) with the same operating system, or if it’s a different model.  If it’s an iPhone 6, Apple has a HUGE problem that renders their security features inoperable, rather than a problem with one model. 

If it’s just the 5C, I can see Apple offering free or reduced new iPhones of the iPhone 6 line that don’t have the vulnerability in return for turning in the exposed 5C.  I can see them doing this to retire the hacked model and reduce their liability exposure.

How long will it be before the FBI is hacked and their new unlock capability is stolen by criminals?   I have no doubt that there are individuals out there who are salivating at the prospect of stealing this secret and somehow making money off of it.

If that happened, I can see Apple retiring the 5C.  Wonder if they would sue the government for damages…that’d be a real turn of events.

Social Conservative in Name Only: A Real Conservative Wouldn’t Have Screwed Up on Abortion Question the Way Trump Did

“Three positions in three hours.”

Ted Cruz has long said that Donald Trump has no depth to his platform, and yesterday seemed to prove it.

Because Trump has supported both sides of this issue, it’s not surprising at all that he misstated his position on the abortion issue, then had to clarify things twice.  Now he’s got abortion rights supporters, anti-abortion foes and everybody in between howling about how he’s got things wrong.

A true abortion foe wouldn’t have made that kind of mistake.  And now he’s got a wedge issue that may really hurt his campaign in the coming weeks.

My reservations about Trump’s viability as a Presidential contender continue to grow by the day.

Secret Service Didn’t Seem to Think That Former BreitBart Report Was a Threat to Trump: This Flies in the Face of Trump Saying She Was a Threat

I prefer to leave the security analysis to the professionals at the scene, but Donald Trump’s defense of his campaign manager’s assault of a reporter doesn’t hold water.

The Secret Service guards who were around Trump made no move to stop her from pushing in on him.  Therefore, they did not consider her a threat, as Trump has claimed.  If she did what he’s claiming, the Secret Service would have been all over her and there would have been a massive scene.   Those ladies and gentlemen know what they’re doing.

She’s the one with the bruises on her arm, and with the audio of the interview.  I think Trump should let the law take its course without starting ANOTHER anti-woman vendetta on Twitter.  His opponents are already making political hay out of his comments on Twitter in the form of new political attack ads.

He’s very unlikely to stay out of it.

Another Lotto Winner Murdered: All States Should Give Winners the Option of Remaining Anonymous

If I won a multi-million dollar lottery ticket, I’d give serious thought to ripping it to pieces right in front of lottery officials after confirming that I had no right to privacy.  Better that than to live looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life, or hiring security guards, or moving to another state just to live in relative safety.

Do lottery officials not realize that people are dying because of the lack of anonymity? 

In the latest case, three people allegedly murdered a Lotto winner in Georgia in January after breaking into his house, taking him and his two-year old baby hostage and demanding money.  When they couldn’t find his wallet, they shot him.  Three were involved with the actual break-in and killing, but the four others were somehow involved as well, and the police are promising more arrests.

In a lot of the cases, it was family members who were the murderers, but lately it’s been strangers or casual acquaintances who have carried out the attempted armed robberies and murders.

Granting Lotto winners privacy will protect them from the people they don’t know.   Keeping their own mouths shut about their good luck may help deal with relatives who decide there’s some kind of score to be made.

The practice of trotting the winners out in front of the cameras for all to see to accept a huge check should come to an end.  How many people need to get robbed in their own homes at gunpoint, their families threatened, and the prize winners gunned down before these lotteries (in every state, and not just a few) get with the program?

This needs to get fixed.

Feds End Court Case Against Apple in San Bernadino Shooter Case: They Found a Way to Decrypt Shooter’s iPhone Without Apple’s Help

An Israeli company is rumored to have stepped forward and helped the FBI gain access to a locked iPhone that was used by one of the San Bernadino shooters, so the Department of Justice ended it’s court case to compel Apple to assist them.

While it’s good that they’ve gotten the information they needed, it’s still a very troubling situation.

Now Apple has to worry about this hack that defeated their much-vaunted security measures.   And the government may not want to give their back door away for Apple to patch.

That’s for them to sort out.  I think Apple made the correct move in refusing to assist the government in this case, as creating backdoors is just asking for hackers to steal the information and exploit it.   Someone always profits from stolen information.

What good is security if it’s full of holes and can be exploited by anyone?  That’s what would have happened if Apple had put back doors into their iPhone operating systems.  Software is available for employers to override passcodes on iPhones if someone is using a company phone.  The Health Department that the shooter worked for did not put the applications on their company phone, even though they had paid for it.

It’s unfortunate that our smartphones have become pawns in a much bigger game of national security vs. personal liberty.   Nature of the beast, I guess.

When the Federal Government Went After the Italian Mobs in New York City, Who Did They Approach to Infiltrate the Mafias? ITALIANS! So Why is There Such a Backlash Against Having Muslims Do The Same Thing?

The liberal political establishment has been blasting the GOP presidential candidates for suggesting that they’d go into Muslim neighborhoods and recruit Muslims to report on extremists in their communities.

Excuse me, but that’s PRECISELY what the federal government did when they went after the Five Families in New York City.  They didn’t just recruit any Joe Blow off the streets, they recruited Italians and Sicilians to be informers.

The libs need to get off their high horses and get with the program and protect the country.   I detest the mess that they’ve made out of the immigration debate, and the fact that they’re attacking the Republicans for trying to clean up the failed policies of the current Administration.  And I especially detest that the author of those failures is leading the criticism of his potential successors for daring to clean up his mess.

Who knows, they might find a lot of cooperation in the Muslim communities, who have opened the doors of their mosques to law enforcement already.

We don’t want to be like Europe.  Their model is failing right before our eyes, and people who are doing nothing but going about their business are being blown up by an enemy that we’re supposedly “winning” against.  Thanks a lot, Mr. President.  What’s it going to take to get your attention, a huge bomb attack in Times Square?

I also found it very interesting that Obama criticized Cruz and attacked his new friends, the Castros, in the same speech.   I wonder if he said the same thing to their faces while he was on his vacation to Cuba?

Now the Secretary of Defense Has an Email Problem: Will He Get Off Scot-Free Like Hillary Clinton Has So Far, Or Will He Be Prosecuted?

I don’t get it.

The Secretary of Defense saw what was happening with Hillary Clinton and the amount of trouble she’s in for using personal email for official government business, yet he continued to do exactly the same thing with his own personal email for months after Secretary Clinton’s problems became public knowledge.

What was he thinking?  In many cases, Department of Defense communications are even more sensitive than State Department ones are. 

Now we’ll see if there’s a difference in how her scandal has been treated by the feds as compared to what happens to him.  If he’s prosecuted immediately, or forced to resign, we’ll know that the fix is in.  Actually, we already know that the feds have been avoiding taking aggressive steps against Clinton as she’s the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.  If they prosecute, her campaign derails.

We’ll be watching this situation with great interest.

If Companies Want Us to Stop Using Ad Blocker Programs, Then They Should Stop Putting Battery-Draining, Invasive, Cookie-Depositing, Bandwidth-Hogging, Computer Slowing Ads That Don’t Respect Privacy on the Web: Did I Miss Anything?

I read over on CNET that companies are getting aggressive in their dealings with users who dare to use ad-blocking software to keep their privacy intact.

Hey, if they don’t like ad-blockers, then they should get the monster that they created back in the cage and throw away the key.  Better yet, slay their creation and come up with a less intrusive and privacy-invading way to make money.  

Any ad that drains the batteries on our devices is evil.  Any ad that uses up more bandwidth than necessary is evil.   Any ad that places a cookie on our computers without expressed permission from us is evil.  Any ad (or web site) that uses trackers is evil.  Any search engine that saves our searches to profile us  is evil (and very annoying and worrying).  Forcing ads on us should be an online crime.

I have medical training, and sometimes I have to look up the names of medications or conditions and what the common treatments are.  No, I am not RH-negative. No, I do not have an STI or Zika.  No, I do not have pancreatic cancer.  No, I do not have a blood disease either, nor do I have a penile or vaginal problem, or anything.  Nor do I have autism or autism-spectrum.  No, I do not have high-altitude sickness.  Yet I get carpet bombed with ads promoting sexual health, cancer treatment centers, condoms and other stuff that I have no interest in.

That’s why I started using ad-blockers and browsers that do not allow tracking.  And if they don’t want our interest or traffic, we’ll find the information elsewhere and spend our money elsewhere too, in excess of the money they’re making off their ads.

Instead of going after users who hate ads and trackers and who don’t want a footprint online, they should fix their own problem by themselves and leave us out of it.    Blaming US for THEIR problem is wrong.

Obama Will Turn Up in Surprise Visit to Tehran or Pyongyang Before The End of His Term: He Seems to Be Working Off a Bucket List

President Obama seems to be working off a bucket list, and it wouldn’t surprise me if one morning we wake up to the news that President Obama turned up in Iran or in North Korea.  I think it’s possible that it will happen prior to the new President being sworn in on January 20th.

The visit to Cuba was an insult to Cuban Americans whose families were driven out of their homeland by the Castro regime and hate the Castro brothers.

We can improve ties with Cuba while still telling the Castros where to go, but President Obama didn’t do it that way.  

Keeping the Castros in power isn’t a good idea.

Hulk Hogan Wins Huge Lawsuit Against Tabloid Website Gawker.com : First Amendment Doesn’t Apply in this Case

Some web sites have been commenting that First Amendment rights are threatened by Hulk Hogan’s victory against tabloid website Gawker.com, but I don’t think that’s right.  

Someone made a sex tape recording without Hogan’s knowledge or permission and Gawker posted parts of the recording on its web site, and then refused to take it down.    Hogan filed a $100 million lawsuit against Gawker and put Gawker’s sleazy editor on the stand to defend his decision to post the illegal video onto the web site. 

The jury agreed with Hogan, and awarded him $115 million for his troubles, with punitive damages pending next week. 

The punitive punishment should be interesting.   I’m thinking it’ll be in the $20 million range. Gawker doesn’t have the assets to comply with the ruling.  

I’ve been reading opinions online that the Hogan lawsuit threatens the First Amendment, but I disagree.   Posting illegal porn is not protected speech and should never be considered to be legal by the courts.  

Hopefully this gives people putting “revenge porn” online some second thoughts before they destroy someone’s life.  There will be a price to pay, and that’s a good thing.

Argentina Sinks Chinese Fishing Vessel: Like China, Argentina Has Established a 200 Mile Economic Exclusion Zone and This is the Result

A Chinese fishing vessel dared to fish inside Argentina’s 200 mile exclusion zone that they’ve established off their coastline, and the Argentinian Coast Guard opened fire and sent it to the bottom of the ocean.

China is demanding an investigation.  I hope they remember this when they start doing the same to ships that operate in their own disputed zone.  They haven’t done so yet, but they’re militarizing some of the reefs.  How long can it be?

The Law of the Sea Treaty establishes the 12 mile limit; China and Argentina are signatories. 

Anything past the 12 mile limit is and should remain international waters. 

I think our planet has enough trouble without adding the possibility of nations going to war over fishing boats and oil platforms.   Here’s a map that illustrates the problem.  With so many maritime borders overlapping already, tacking another 200 miles on compounds the problem.

China has claimed waters that are far beyond their territory.  From where the disputed islands are on the map, they’re definitely not Chinese.  Other nations have a much better claim on the islands and the surrounding waters.  A case was brought to the Hague, but China argued that it didn’t have jurisdiction. 

China’s entire argument is that it had a 2,000 year old claim to the islands.  If China was still ruled by an Emperor, that might hold more water, but China got rid of their last Emperor. 

Vietnam’s territorial claims are almost as vast as China’s, except their claims have been validated by the U.N.

The Philippines claims seem to be the closest to making sense.  The disputed islands are much closer to the Philippines than any other nation.

Here’s the timeline of the court case in the Hague between the Philippians and China.  The court is still deciding if it has jurisdiction to settle this mess, which I hope that it does. 

Kasich’s New Liberal Immigration Amnesty Stance Sucks: He Needs to Get Out of the Race Too

I don’t like the direction that John Kasich has gone in since I voted in the Michigan primary last week.

I voted for Cruz as it looked like Kasich’s stand was shifting even then, but I wasn’t sure.

What he was saying last week made a lot of sense.  Here’s his prior immigration stance as of last week, according to the ontheissues.org web site:

• It's a silly argument to ship 11M illegals back to Mexico. (Nov 2015)
• Focus of immigration should be to keep families together. (Sep 2015)
• Latino immigrants will continue to play critical role in US. (Sep 2015)
• Focus on border & guest workers, not birthright citizenship. (Sep 2015)
• 1993: end birthright citizenship; 2015: not part of approach. (Aug 2015)
• Seal the border with Mexico, support legal immigrants. (Jul 2015)
• Open to pathway to citizenship, but doesn't like it. (Feb 2015)
• Post-Sept-11 open-door melting-pot is essentially intact. (May 2006)
• Limit the number of legal immigrants, and their benefits. (Nov 1996)
• Voted YES on more immigrant visas for skilled workers. (Sep 1998)
• Declared English the official language of the US. (Jan 1999)

But now, he’s making all kinds of noise about immigration and amnesty.  I don’t know if he’s pulling out all the stops to win in Ohio today, but I can’t agree with him on his new liberal policies on immigration.

I don’t have an argument with him from a religious point of view, but I don’t like the bait and switch that he’s pulled on voters who supported him previously.

I wonder how many of his prior supporters will support him now that he’s gone liberal on this issue.   He may have handed Trump a victory in Ohio.