90 Miles From Tyranny

Friday, April 16, 2021

Even Richard Nixon Has Got Soul But...

The podium rocks in the crowded waves

The speaker talks of the beautiful saves

That went down long before

He played this role

For the hotel queens and the magazines

Test tube genes and slot machines

[Refrain]

Where even Richard Nixon has got soul

Even Richard Nixon has got it, soul

USS Scorpion Might Be the Greatest Tragedy In U.S. Navy History

The loss of the USS Scorpion in 1968 sparked a mystery that tested the sleuthing skills of maritime experts.

Here's What You Need to Know: By 1968 it was obvious to the Navy’s Bureau of Ships that the submarine was badly in need of major overhaul.

Even in the age of ultra-sophisticated nuclear submarines, with their advanced computers, sonar, navigation, and communication systems, the hard truth is inescapable: the sea is the most hostile environment on Earth. It is totally unforgiving of human error or overconfidence. The pressures below 2,000 feet can crush a submarine like an aluminum can in seconds. For reasons that even now are a closely guarded secret, that happened in late May 1968 when the nuclear attack submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589) sank in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean as she was returning from a long deployment. Ninety-nine officers and men were on board the Scorpion.

The Scorpion was third in the revolutionary new Skipjack class of nuclear fast-attack subs. She was commissioned at the Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, on July 29, 1960. The rapidly changing Cold War arena demanded that each one of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarines be on continual service for the purpose of locating and tracking Soviet attack and missile submarines. But time and constant service took their toll. The Navy was pushing the Scorpion to its limits; as a result, systems began to break down. There were serious oil leaks in the machinery, and sea water seeped in from the propeller shaft seal. Her depth was restricted to 300 feet, well above the 900-foot test depth. In 1967 she experienced vibration so severe it seemed that the entire boat was literally corkscrewing through the water. The cause was never determined. The crew had taken to calling their boat the “Scrapiron.”

By 1968 it was obvious to the Navy’s Bureau of Ships that the submarine was badly in need of major overhaul. Yet the demands of the Cold War made it necessary to send Scorpion and her officers and crew on one more deployment to the Mediterranean Sea to participate in joint NATO operations.

She would, however, sail with one less man. Electrician’s Mate Dan Rogers, who refused to go on the cruise, flatly stated to Lt. Cmdr. Francis Slattery that every man on Scorpion was in danger.

The crew, while enjoying the occasional liberty in Italy, Sicily, and Spain, grimly worked to keep their weary submarine operating until they reached Norfolk, Virginia, at the end of May. The Scorpion left Rota, Spain, on April 28 and headed west across the Atlantic on or about May 20. Slattery radioed on May 21 that their estimated time of arrival was 1 pm on May 27.

When the Scorpion did not arrive at her berth at the Norfolk Navy Yard on May 27, repeated calls of Scorpion’s call sign, Brandywine, went unanswered. Even before the fearful family members dejectedly returned home not knowing what had happened to their loved ones, the Navy’s situation room in the Pentagon was full of worried officers who were trying to determine why the...

wELL sHE'S mOVIN' oN uP, tO tHE bIG tIME!

Radical Democrat Priorities in Biden’s First 100 Days: Packing Courts, Amnesty, Reparations, Federalizing Elections, DC Statehood, Banning Electoral College

The Democrats have proposed, within President Joe Biden’s first 100 days, radical initiatives contrary to Biden’s “back to normalcy” campaign sold to the American people.

Accordingly, the Democrats have introduced the following radical initiatives: Packing the courts, amnesty, reparations, federalized elections, D.C. statehood, and banning the Electoral College.

These radical ideas and proposals run counter to what Biden said during his announcement speech for president:

The American people want their government to work, and I don’t think that’s too much for them to ask. I know some people in D.C. say it can’t be done. But let me tell them something, and make sure they understand this. The country is sick of the division. They’re sick of the fighting. They’re sick of the childish behavior.

Supreme Court-Packing

The Supreme Court packing initiative has not been attempted since 1937. But that changed April 15, when several congressmen introduced legislation to do so.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said:

Our democracy is in jeopardy today because the Supreme Court standing is sorely damaged. The way we repair it is straightforward. We can undo the damage that the Republicans have done by restoring balance. And we do it by adding four seats to the Court to create a 13-member Supreme Court.

“It’s a nice number,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) added. “Senator McConnell and Republicans packed the Court over the last couple of years as Senator Markey outlined.”

Yet when Joe Biden was asked about packing the Court during his campaign, he would not articulate his direct position for fear of its shaky popularity. Instead, Biden said he would convene a commission to determine the merits of such a decision, which he has since done.

Upon the news of a court-packing bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she stands with Biden’s commission without entirely dismissing the pending legislation.

According to the Congressional Research Service, while Congress has expanded the federal courts based on caseload in harmony with the Constitution, “some contend that expanding the Court with the intent to shape the Court’s composition and obtain more favorable case outcomes [for the president] may raise constitutional questions.”

Amnesty

The Biden administration released its “wish-list amnesty and cheap labor bill” January 29, while indicating “it would cooperate to push through a series of smaller amnesty bills,” Breitbart’s Neil Munro reported.

“If we can reach an agreement soon, very soon, we will have the base bill reintroduced and then that will be our...

As the story of Russian bounties on U.S. troops gained traction in the press, Liz Cheney seized the opportunity to undermine her own party.

U.S. intelligence agencies debunked on Thursday what was treated as blockbuster election-year reporting last summer of an anonymously sourced story in The New York Times claiming the Kremlin placed bounties on American troops in Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump, went the tale, deliberately downplayed the aggression to appease Russia and accelerate the timeline to withdraw U.S. forces. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, currently number three in House leadership, was a primary purveyor of the fake news.

“The United States intelligence community assesses with low to moderate confidence that Russian intelligence officers sought to encourage Taliban attacks on U.S. and coalition personnel in Afghanistan in 2019 and perhaps earlier,” a senior administration official said, according to the readout of a call with reporters in the Daily Beast.

Officials said their conclusion of “low to moderate confidence” in the story, which effectively means it’s at best unproven and potentially false, came “in part because it relies on detainee reporting,” an often unreliable source of intelligence on which to base such explosive claims.

As the story picked up traction in the corporate press, however, Cheney appeared to sense a prime opportunity to capitalize on what was treated as a scandal, to not only undermine Trump, but also justify a prolonged military presence in the region while the administration took steps to pull out. Neither to Cheney, nor legacy media, appeared to hesitate due to the claims’ poor sourcing.

The viral public post below generated a series of news stories in major publications including Axios and The Hill, and was cited in dozens of others while catching airtime on national networks as an admonishment to the president of her own party.

Two days later, Politico, in an article titled, “Cheney takes on Trump,” wrote, “in her latest rebuke of Trump, Cheney openly questioned whether the president was aware of reports that the Russians offered Afghan militants bounties to kill U.S. troops and demanded the administration take a more aggressive posture toward the Kremlin.”

Cheney was persistent in pushing the story, much to the frustration of colleagues and even allies on Capitol Hill as she continued an inner-party crusade against the president in an election year from her position as House conference chair.

On June 29, Cheney released a joint statement with Texas Republican Rep. Mac Thornberry perpetuating the claims U.S. intelligence eventually conceded were a fake news story after Trump left office.

“After today’s briefing with senior White House officials, we remain concerned about Russian activity in Afghanistan, including reports that they have targeted U.S. forces. It has been clear for some time that...