Today is Good Friday and many across the country stop, reflect and pray in gratitude for the events that occurred nearly 2,000 years ago. This will be a busy weekend for many of us, Mrs. Crucis and I included. We wish you all a great Good Friday and Easter.
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The US is between a rock and a hard place when it comes to Russia’s military expansion in Eastern Europe. Putin all but admitted the recent events in the Crimea was conceived and led by Russia and manned by Russian troops. That placed Obama in a quandary. How can he oppose his buddy, Vlad?
International Space Station (ISS).
Sanctions? Not a good idea. Why? Russia is our only means of access to the International Space Station. We must use Russia because Obama has defunded NASA and the United States no longer has manned space flight capability. The Shuttles are gone to museums or scrapped and NASA has no plans for replacements. How can we have sanctions when we must pay Vlad half-a-Billion dollars for access to the ISS?
[Spacing out on sanctions – WaPo: “NASA recently renewed a contract that allows Russia to ferry U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station. The U.S. is, essentially, cutting Russia a $457.9 million check for its services — six seats on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, training and launch prep, landing and crew rescue and limited cargo delivery to and from the International Space Station. This contract also adds additional support at the Russian launch site.”]—FOXNewsletter, April 18, 2014.
Way to go, Obama!
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When you want to know who is behind some act, watch and see who squeals the loudest. In the Bundy v. BLM controversy, it appears to be Harry Reid. Interviewed about the issue, Harry Reid called the Bundys and others, “Domestic Terrorists.” Seems to me, the act of the BLM and the Feds fit that description more than the Bundys and their supporters.
Reid called the Bundys lawbreakers. It appears hypocritical to me for Harry Reid to protest others for ignoring federal law when he has and does the same. Regardless, the controversy continues and no one believes it is over.
‘Patriot Party’ gathers at Bundy’s Nevada ranch, Reid deems them ‘domestic terrorists’
By Valerie Richardson, The Washington Times, Updated: 10:21 a.m. on Friday, April 18, 2014
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called supporters of rancher Cliven Bundy “domestic terrorists” Thursday, turning up the rhetorical heat on the already tense situation at the Nevada cattle operation.
“Those people who hold themselves out to be patriots are not. They’re nothing more than domestic terrorists,” Mr. Reid in remarks at a luncheon, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which sponsored the event. “… I repeat: What went on up there was domestic terrorism.”
…
Mr. Bundy stopped paying to graze his cattle on federal property 21 years ago after the land was declared habitat for the desert tortoise and he was ordered to reduce his herd from roughly 900 to 150 head of cattle.
In August, however, the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center announced that it would begin euthanizing half of the 1,400 tortoises at its facility as a result of federal budget cuts. BLM officials have emphasized that healthy tortoises will be relocated and not euthanized.
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In my digital travels this morning, I found this piece that best describes the GOP establishment in Washington, DC, specifically Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Cantor and many others.
The Parable of the Pharisee Conservative
I thank thee Lord that I am not like those other conservatives.
Those xenophobes, nativists, obsessives about border security, drinkers of tea, and other bitter enders.
For I support comprehensive immigration reform.
I sup with the lords of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the chiefs of the AFL-CIO, and the titans of Silicon Valley.
I am welcomed at the editorial houses of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.
I receiveith gold from George Soros, Bill Marriott and Mark Zuckerberg, and praise from the mainstream media, the Gang of Eight, and the princes of tourism.
Although my labors would enrich the treasuries of Corporate Mammon at the expense of the “least among us” of my fellow Americans of all races and ethnicities by lowering their wages and increasing their unemployment—I trust in my own righteousness.
For I am the Pharisee conservative.
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In closing, I’m providing a link to a column in the National Review Online by John Fund, titled, The United States of SWAT. It’s an interesting, although long, read on the militarization of local and state police as well as the militarization of federal agencies—like the Department of Education.
Y’all have a great weekend, I’ll be back on Monday.