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JUNE 27,  2022

A DEEPLY TROUBLING SIGN OF OUR TIMES – The United States Army is lowering its standards for recruits, eliminating even the need for a high-school diploma.  This comes at a time when weapons are becoming increasingly complex.   And our armed services generally cannot meet their minimum recruiting quotas.  Why?  Could it possibly be that potential recruits are not attracted to critical race theory?  I wonder.  From dailywire: 

The United States Army has dropped its requirement that recruits must have a high school diploma or a G.E.D. degree in an apparent attempt to increase the number of troops.

On Thursday, the Army announced the changes. Recruits must be 18 years old and eligible for a job in other areas of active duty and they also must score at least a 50 on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) to test their academic ability, according to Military.com.

The military outlet also noted, “The Army and its sister services have scrambled this year, offering increasingly generous benefits and policy tweaks in an effort to improve recruiting numbers. The Army has hit 40% of its recruiting goals this year, with the struggle to fill the ranks seemingly so grim the Defense Department reduced its planned total force size because prior recruiting goals were out of reach.”

Last week, the Army also relaxed its regulations regarding the placement, size, and number of tattoos that recruits may have.

“Social norms, people are getting more tattoos,” Sergeant Major Ashleigh Sykes told reporters Thursday. “It doesn’t stop readiness if someone has a tattoo on the back of their neck.”

According to a memo regarding the rule change, “This directive announces a change in policy for the allowable placement of tattoos for currently serving Soldiers and applicants for enlistment or appointment. Changes to the Army tattoo policy allow individuals who meet all other qualifications for appointment or enlistment the opportunity to serve.”
“They also support the Army’s People Strategy, our number one priority, by offering Soldiers options for appearance that take into account professional appearance and good order and discipline,” the memo added.

On Monday, NBC News reported that every branch of the U.S. military is on schedule to not meet its recruiting goals for the year.

“This recruiting crisis is like a slow-moving wave coming at us,” one senior defense official involved in recruiting and personnel issues told NBC News. “As the military has gotten smaller and the public have gotten less and less familiar with those in uniform, it has grown. And COVID accelerated it.”

COMMENT:  There is a famous Biblical line, from Corinthians:  "“If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?”  This naiton's trumpet is giving an uncertain sound.  We have, under Biden, the image of weakness. 

Who will defend us in a catastrophe?  I don't know.  I'm afraid to find out.

June 27, 2022       Permalink

A NEW OUTRAGE – Remember when we thought our local schools belonged to we the people?  Get this, from Fox: 

Parents around the United States are being charged tens of thousands, including some fees in the millions, for public records requests in their school districts, Fox News Digital has learned.

Fox News Digital spoke with parents around the county – such as in Michigan, Oregon, and Rhode Island — as well as with public records experts who said they believed schools were using exorbitant fees in order to price parents out of the information they are legally entitled to, such as those related to curriculum.

A parent from Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland told Fox News Digital that she requested emails that spanned one month between various entities and was asked to pay $5,000. "I never got the [records] because that's well beyond what I'm willing to pay for information my tax dollars already paid for," she said. FCPS was contacted for comment but did not immediately respond.

In Oregon, the Oregon Department of Education slapped on $10 per email review in various requests. For example, to review 963 emails, the fee was $9,630; for 382 emails, the fee was $3,820; and 109 emails would cost $1,090, according to a complaint with the attorney general that was reviewed by Fox News Digital. The total fees subject to the complaint were ultimately reduced from nearly 15K to a few hundred bucks.

Another request a parent sent into ODE came back with a fee of $1,525. "You may narrow the scope of your request to reduce your overall cost estimate," a rules coordinator at ODE said, according to an email reviewed by Fox News Digital.

"How could I narrow my request? Is this not a single document?… I do not understand what you mean by narrowing or how 1 document costs $1,525 to download and email to me. Or why 3 hours of time is needed by IT to again download 1 document and email it. Please explain," the parent asked. Fox News Digital reached out to ODE for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

In Rochester, Michigan, the district reportedly charged fees as high as $18 million to complete their requests. "I don’t know what they’re hiding, but they’re definitely hiding information. Why make it so difficult for parents to get [public records] if they don’t have something to hide," a parent told local media.

COMMENT:  That's more ammunition for the parents' revolt that began in Virginia, and helped flip the state to the Republicans.  Parents are fed up with schools that treat them as outsiders.  We all know why they do it – to hide what the hard left education systems are teaching.  Education is now a Republican issue, and the party should run with it.  The outrage is there.

June 27, 2022       Permalink

JUNE 26,  2022

JOE, JOE, WHERE'D YOU GO?  Direct from Roe v. Wade, here's Joe Biden.  Yup, right in the middle of the Roe v. Wade psychiatric breakdown, the president flew to Germany for the G7 conference, and will later go to a NATO conference.  Best way to get away from a hot issue – go to a conference.   

We were excited to learn that global warming will be a big item on the agenda.  Of course.  Didn't you see that huge wave coming toward our Atlantic Coast this morning?  It's the new Pearl Harbor.  Forget the old one.  It's so pre-Roe.

Ukraine?  Is there still a war in Ukraine?  Remember, just weeks ago, when it led the news?  But there was no quick victory, and Biden has barely mentioned it.  It's that dynamic leadership style.  The Russians are advancing in the east of the country, and may well soon secure that section.  The Ukrainian resistance is as spirited as ever, but the Russians now have got their act together.  They're taking ground, and suddenly no one's interested.  Russian units struck the Ukrainian capital this morning.  From Reuters:

Several explosions shook Kyiv's central Shevchenkivskiy district early on Sunday, causing a widespread damage and a fire at a residential building, officials said, in the first assault on Ukraine's capital since early June.

Emergency services said that as a result of the Russian shelling a fire broke out in a 9-story residential building that had been partially damaged in the attack.

Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that residents are being rescued and evacuated from two buildings.

"There are people under the rubble," Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. He added that several people had already been hospitalized.

"They (the rescuers) have pulled out a seven-year-old girl. She is alive. Now they're trying to rescue her mother."

Air raid sirens regularly disrupt life in Kyiv, but there have been no major strikes on the city since June 5 when a rail car repair facility was hit on the outskirts and a late April shelling when a Radio Liberty producer was killed in a strike that hit the building she lived in. 

The Shevchenkivskiy historic district, one of Kyiv's central, is home to a cluster of universities, restaurants and art galleries.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, but abandoned an early advance on Kyiv in the face of fierce resistance bolstered by Western arms.

Since then Moscow and its proxies have focused on the south and Donbas, an eastern territory made up of Luhansk and its neighbor Donetsk, deploying overwhelming artillery in some of the heaviest ground fighting in Europe since World War Two. 

COMMENT:  Our attention span is awfully short, even shorter when there's no leadership by the president of the United States.   There is a war on in Europe.  The side we favor is starting to lose.  Reliable reports tell us that many of the weapons promised to Ukraine have never been delivered.  We're told that the West Europeans, especially Germany, are losing interest.

There is a catastrophe in the making. 

June 26, 2022       Permalink