“…the near-elimination of piracy was a major accomplishment of the two centuries of British/American naval dominance…”

Although it was more of a generalized one than that below, I did make the case during the Prez Primary with a very strong Ron Paul supporter that a strong Navy did have a definite role to play with Ron Paul’s major tenet on foreign policy: free trade.  This post makes a tangental argument more specific than mine, but Glenn sums it up with pretty much what I said (emphasis mine, reformatted):

In 2011, the U.K., Greece, Norway and other major maritime nations began letting their merchant ships carry armed private-security personnel for self-defense in hazardous waters. This overcame longstanding legal and cultural barriers such as stringent local firearms laws and fears of liability.  The result? Successful hijackings off Somalia fell by half to 14 in 2012 from 28 in 2011, and overall attacks dropped to 75 from 237. Through the third quarter of 2013, there have been just 10 incidents, with two hijackings.  The main reason for this drop is that Somali piracy is an industry like any other, albeit far more brutal. When risks are low and profit margins are high, piracy flourishes. Investors on land buy shares in a piracy venture, funding weapons and equipment in exchange for a stake in any ransom. Thus to suppress piracy, the return on investment must be made unfavorable.

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I’ve been talking about this since before I posted this about what doctors in San Diego County (in the Democrat Ruled State of CA) were going to face at the advent of Obamacare:

Rather than mere head count, officials say they are scrutinizing what capacity physicians have to accept new patients. And to assist consumers, California will enable people to search for specific doctors online during enrollment to determine what, if any, health plans they will be part of in Covered California.

So, if everyone that Government has thrown into this new ill conceived Socialist program can’t get access, read the above again. If they close a program, what happens to everyone else? And like the Germans did recently when Obama returned to Berlin and accused him over the NSA spying with Stasi 2.0, is California going to have its own Stasi to snoop on doctors “Ve vill MAKE you see morrre peeps!” for Stasi 2.5?

First, you have to take more patients. And now, the outright admission by a Democrat candidate to the next level and advocating EXACTLY what I said they would:  making it illegal for doctors to not take Medicaid / Medicare patients.  The ramifications should scare us all – From the Mason Conservative (emphasis mine):

…But here is Kathleen Murphy, Democrat running for the House of Delegates against Barbara Comstock, telling a forum in Great Falls that she believes it should law to force doctors to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients. Forced by government decree, mind you. A birdie sent me this:

FYI last night at the Great Falls Grange debate, Democrat delegate candidate Kathleen Murphy said that since many doctors are not accepting medicaid and medicare patients, she advocates making it a legal requirement for those people to be accepted…Democrats appear to want to make physicians slaves of the state,

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There are mobs of rank and file Democrats (moderates, independents, and so on) whose only grasp of what the TEA Party represents comes from the professional left and their media allies.   (Lucky for them the socialist progressives own the education and media industrial complex, with only a few exceptions, so their PR campaigns get more play and more often.)

But the crux of the TEA Party Agenda, regardless of the mindless regurgitation of Democrat party propaganda by the spleens and colons of the American party of Marx and Engels is that the TEA Party and its supporters want something that most American’s would happily embrace if not for all the sound and fury from the left that signifies their biggest fear; The TEA Party Agenda prefers an end to run-away spending and more local control (regardless of how much government costs now) becasue it affords taxpayers more control over the process and by extension more control over the spending itself, and more control over how government affects their day to day lives.

No matter what party you affiliate with or even if it is no party at all, local control is the solution to a runaway Federal government filled with tone-deaf politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists, and the rent seeking and crony corporatism that are beyond your reach, spending your future, your children’s future, and beyond.

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Not just the driving, but the legislating as well.

PORTSMOUTH — A 67-year-old Kittery Point, Maine woman who police say Martha Fuller Clark hit with her car Friday night said the state senator should no longer be allowed to drive.

“I just think she shouldn’t drive,” said Carla Dow during an interview Sunday. “I think it’s negligent to drive … when you know there’s something wrong with you.”

Dow was walking on a sidewalk along Maplewood Avenue Friday night at about 8:39 p.m. when Fuller Clark’s car jumped the curb, struck her in the back of her legs and threw her to the ground, she said Sunday.

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The idol burst and sprayed angled shards and fragments over the podium and media landscape, burrowing sharply into the souls and hearts of his acolytes. Puncturing dreams and deflating hopes quicker than a set of Michelins backing over a spike strip on a quick get away.

You can see it everywhere. On the lefty shows. In the state run media. Even in the sycophantic blogs. Images and sounds of incredulity and disbelief escalating into biting mockery. Their savior has sewn the seeds for a possible meltdown of progressive ambitions for decades. Or at least that’s what some claim. And I tend to agree that may be a possibility.

But there’s the wild card that cuts like a suicide king.

And donning the crown is the GOP. Of course. If the GOP stumbles on stage like a drunkard on an ocean liner caroling karaoke and praising legitimate rapes or dedicating a searing “You’re the Tops” rendition to Jerry Sandusky

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“And yet, the fundamental principle of Progressives is that they alone can provide “expert Government” for us all.“

Or, should this post’s title have been “The miserable government we hoist above ourselves” (think about that double entendres stemming from that).  What DO we call a government that cannot be honest with its Citizens, that denies the truth of its publicly stated “truth” to cover up its “intended” truth – the latter so poisonous to itself, it could not speak of it while passing the legislation that implemented it?  When a President stands up for years and says “Got what you like?  You can keep it.  Period.”, we are supposed to think “this is good governance”?

No equivacations.  No wiggle room.  No weasel words.  This time, plain words.  Short sentences.  And a single declarative word, “Period”, that screamed “case closed.  Finality.  No bad outcomes.  A narrative that told us, normative Free Citizens, that we still had the Freedom to Choose for ourselves and our families.  A nod to what should be commonly understood – we Citizens have and are to be the final choices for our lives rather than Government.

And they, and the President, baldfaced LIED to us.  They knew all along.  They knew since the beginning.  THAT WAS THE PLAN from the get-go. To herd us as if we were mere cattle?  That in their eye, we ARE JUST cattle?

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The stories are going to come out hard and fast.  Sure, low income folks are going to get “such a deal”.  The dirty secret that Senator Jeanne Shaheen and CongressCritters Annie Kuster and Carol Shea-Porter won’t outright amplify is that the only way that the Obamacare plans are “affordable” are the federal tax funded subsidies.  “SURE, you can find a low cost plan- using other peoples’ money!” – how often do these three Socialists honestly say:

“because we’re taking it away from other families to give to you“

Yeah, I thought so.  So, it’s great for those at the bottom, OK for those at the top – and the vaunted Middle Class that these three liars always say that are “fighting for” have been now screwed over by these same totalitarians.  They’ve all voted for this Papa Oscar Sierra several times each, one way or another, and the outcome result is the same: Yuck Fou, Middle Class?  Now we have folks’s stories of those that Obama has decided “they don’t matter to Democrats”.  Yes, three from Fox News tonight:

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Steve’s post (“NH US Senator Jeanne Shaheen Was For It Before She Was Against It”) outlines her absolute perfidity: she talks the talk in “supporting the Middle Class” with her grandmotherly words, but in each and every action and vote she shows her disdain for the same set of folks.   All that is important is obtaining the Progressive Nirvana of Totalitarians: a Single Payer healthcare system in which she and her sojourners are sitting in the catbird seat.

What will she know of the personal problem of navigating this hellhole of Big Government?  After all, she’s already “Grandfathered in” with her wealth and noble title (and Senate retirement package) forever even as she has the “Obamacare Waiver” that accrues only to the Political BFFs of the current regime with her current place in the Senate.  That’s right, Grandma is “Grandpa’d In” even as she wrote the Letter to help “Grandpa Out” all of the rest of us.  Ruler, not Governor, guv.

You almost made it happen here in NH with your SB711. 

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Max Abramsom asks:

St. Senator Martha Fuller-Clark, famous from the out-of-state campaign workers who registered to vote for her while helping her campaign, apparently “blacked out” and hit a pedestrian. As usual, the police decided not to breathalyze her, despite the accident. Why isn’t there some kind of mandatory post-accident drug-alcohol test for elected officials who hit a pedestrian?

From SeacoastOnline (emphasis mine, reformatted):

PORTSMOUTH — State Sen. Martha Fuller Clark allegedly “blacked out” as her car jumped a curb and hit a pedestrian on Maplewood Avenue Friday night, police said.

The pedestrian, whom police didn’t identify, was brought to Portsmouth Regional Hospital with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries around 8:40 p.m., said Sgt. Chris Roth, who noted that he wasn’t on the scene and didn’t have specifics about the pedestrian’s injuries.  “At this time, anything’s possible,” he said about 40 minutes after the crash.

So, were they “serious injuries” or not?  “non-life-threatening injuries” does not mean “not serious” – that definition will play a role in just a bit. 

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This week on GrokTALK! Steve opens the program solo, joined in segment two by Mike, with Skip calling in for the last two segments.

Some of the Topics, in no particular order…Jeanne Shaheen’s vote that could cancel 93 million existing health care plans, NH Democrat House Rep Laura Pantelakos announces – “I don’t care about protecting people’s Liberty,”  NH State Senator Martha Fuller Clark hitting a pedestrian with her car, Obamacare, Nixon, the promise of a booming US energy economy, Orrin Hatch, Grass roots vs. the DC establishment, and more…

Listen to the Complete Podcast here

Download or listen to the full podcast here

You can help to support this program by making a donation here.

More detailed segment descriptions and links to individual segments follow.

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From the Daily Brief – a prior military gal turned writer and freelancer (to pay the bills).  She’s not a constant blogger and there’s a lot she puts out that I’ll read and go “oh” but this is the first time in a while enough to link and post – because it is indicative of an undercurrent that is re-establishing itself. A couple of excerpts (emphasis mine, reformatted):

You know, this whole “social justice” thing is just Cultural Marxism wrapped up in Political Correctness. This is meant to do one thing and one thing only – install guilt into a vast majority of people have done nothing wrong. Sure, the colleges are full of this crap – seemingly, they can’t turn out decent graduates anymore but they certainly seem very good at political and social indoctrination.  And now it seems it has taken hold in the military.  the irony of it all, of all of the institutions in the US, the military is amongst the most integrated racially and economically.  Rich, poor, black, white, brown, yellow, red, green with purple polka dots…the emphasis is on unit cohesion.  That’s mil-speak for building a TEAM environment – you trust your buddies and they trust you.  That’s not to say that there aren’t problems (real problems), but when in combat, you have to know that you can and that your buddies can rely on each other.  The Eldest and the Youngest talked about this more than a few times in front of me – and the problem ‘children” were not those of a particular  racial or ethnic group as the race-baiters all want us to believe, but those whose character was lacking (or, in some cases, just plain stupidity).  Willing to cut corners, willing to cheat, dishonesty, not willing to pull their own loads…cowardice.  These nitwits knew no bounds because these kinds of ugly go way past being skin deep.

I’ve been reading for years where the military believes we in the TEA Party, or former Vets, or Evangelical Christians, those that believe in the Constitution or limited government are to be considered “possible terrorists” (ever since Obama took office, really).  But this just took my breath away, to think that the military, under the guise of “Equal Opportunity training”, would even THINK of teaching this bile! This is supposed to fix….what?

A controversial 600-plus page manual used by the military to train its Equal Opportunity officers teaches that “healthy, white, heterosexual, Christian” men hold an unfair advantage over other races, and warns in great detail about a so-called “White Male Club.”

637  pages?  This is like Bill Ayers all over again;

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