Anyone who knows me personally knows that June was a very stressful and very disappointing month for me. I made the very tough decision to sever ties with an organization that I loved and had poured my heart and soul into for more than 4 years for reasons that I won't go into here. Let's just say that I did what I felt then and still feel now was best for my family first, and the organization second. When I told my best friend, Jason Schulties, about my decision he was flabberghasted, and understandably so. In his own words, the organization (which I won't name) was "my passion," and he couldn't believe that I had left it. But I did, for reasons that I believed in then and still believe in now, and what's done is done. "It is what it is," as the patch I had sewn on my old road vest the following week says.
As tough as this decision was, I was okay with it because I knew in my heart that it was not only the only decision I could make, but the right one. But I have to say that the one thing that bothered me the most about this was not having to leave the organization, but losing a very close and very dear friend in the process. And I will honestly say that I lost this person as a friend because of a misconception he is under, not over anything I have done. And the really sad part is that he won't give me the chance to explain things to him.
This bothered me greatly for about a month or so. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't make friends easily; if I let you into my very small circle of friends, you can bet your ass that there's something very special about you that I recognize, and I cherish each of my friends very dearly. I'm the kind of person that if I'm your friend, you can call me at 2AM and tell me that you need me RIGHT NOW, and I'd go without even asking you why. All I'd ask is where you are and will you be okay until I get there. (And maybe do I need to bring a gun and if so how many.) That's the kind of friend I am. And this person of whom I speak was #2 on my list of people I'd die for, so when he cut ties with me in a fit of anger without even giving me a chance to tell him that he was mistaken about what he was thinking, it cut me deep. To the bone deep, and it worried me for about a month. And I don't worry about things for longer than a day or so normally, so that's saying something.
Then, out of the clear blue nowhere yesterday morning, it hit me. It hit me like a thunderclap, so hard that I literally stopped what I was doing, sat back and said "Wow!" to myself. What could that possibly be, you ask? Simple.
I valued his friendship more than he valued mine.
The worry and consternation I felt over this vanished in an instant, and I felt like the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders. I knew from the outset that I didn't do anything wrong to bring this all about, but sometimes that knowledge just isn't good enough. Sometimes it takes either an epiphany or a BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious) for things to become clear. Such was the case yesterday, and I'm not worried about this anymore. I valued his friendship more than he valued mine, and that simple knowledge erased all of the consternation and self-doubt I was having about this whole thing.
But you wanna know the funny thing about all of this? If he were to contact me and want to talk about this, I'd talk with him no problem. I'd try my best to make him see how he had misconstrued something and was under an incorrect assumption, and if I was successful I'd have no problem picking right up where we left off. You see, we're all human and we all make mistakes, and there's nothing that will ever change that. But the mark of a real man and a true friend is one who's willing to admit when they're wrong and have made a mistake, and then attempt to set things right. I'll respond in a positive way to efforts such as that all day long, and will gladly give that person a second chance. After all, that's what friends do.
But that's not up to me. That's up to them - or him, in this particular instance.
In the mean time, my conscience is clear. I'm now ready to move on to the next chapter in my life and put all of the bad things that happened in June behind me. After all, if you spend too much time looking at the stuff that's behind you, you'll miss all of the good things in front of you.
And life's just too damned short for that.
Deo Vindice.
IHC
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
The View From Under The Hat Brim
This post is written specifically for the members of the Facebook page, "USAF Basic Training - What Do You Remember?" This is a page that I recently joined and have had a lot of fun with, but it has occurred to me that most of the people on that page were never MTIs so the only viewpoint they have of BMTS (Basic Military Training School for you civilians) is from when they went through as trainees. Trust me when I tell you that there's a hell of a lot more to it than that, so as a former Military Training Instructor (MTI for you civilians again), I thought I'd write something out to give the members of the page a glimpse into what it was like for the MTI. After all, most of you who went through BMTS only suffered through it for 6, 8, or 12 weeks depending on when you went in, but the MTI suffered through it 52 weeks out of the year for a minimum of 3 years. So I think it's time all of you were given a small idea of what it was like from the "other side" of BMT - or in other words, the view from under the hat brim.
First and foremost, everyone who wears the campaign hat and the "Instructor" badge in BMTS is a volunteer. MTI duty is a special duty assignment, and the selection process is fairly rigorous. When I applied for MTI duty in 1982 you had to have "firewall 5's" on your last 5 APRs, plus a letter of recommendation from your unit commander. You also had to go through a psychological testing at the Base Hospital and an English-language speaking evaluation as well. When all of this was put together in your application package, it was sent down to BMTS where it was screened by a selection board. When I applied in 1982 only 25% of the applications being submitted were approved because BMTS was looking for the "BEST" NCOs in the Air Force - and they were VERY picky. I consider myself damned lucky to have made the cut.
The Military Training Instructor School (or MTIS) in 1982 was 5 weeks long, and contrary to popular belief it wasn't another version of BMTS where the MTIS instructors hollered and yelled at you. It consisted of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week learning how to march a flight and, more importantly, how to master the "5 Step Teaching Format" that BMTS used to teach EVERY classroom lesson in the curriculum. Trust me when I tell you that the 5 Step format is tough to master, but once you do it becomes second nature. You also learned in MTIS to be the picture of military appearance and bearing, and you'd better look like you stepped out of the uniform manual when you showed up for class. It was drilled into your head that you were teaching trainees who knew nothing of the Air Force, and that their first and lasting impressions of the Air Force would be what YOU showed them. For that reason, perfection was the standard in MTIS, and for good reason.
Once you graduated MTIS and got your hat and "cookie" (the Instructor badge), you were assigned to an MTI trainer in your home unit who would continue your training for the next 90 days. At the end of that 90 day period you were evaluated, and if you passed you were "certified" and could train new airman without supervision. Not everyone passed, by the way. The school was one thing, doing it for real in the field was another thing entirely.
Once you were certified you were then permanently assigned to a dorm and a team chief, and began training troops in your own dorm. That's when the fun begins.
What trainees don't realize about their MTI is that from the moment the trainees step off of the bus when they first arrive at Lackland until the moment they get on the bus to leave BMTS, the MTI is responsible for them and everything they do 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the duration of BMT. That means if a trainee goes out and does something stupid, the very first thing that's going to be looked at and questioned is how the airman was trained, and/or what instructions he was given by his MTI in regards to what he did. If the MTI is found to have given faulty training or bad instructions, then he is responsible and the trainee is off the hook.
For that reason, every single man and woman who wears the hat and cookie holds their own career in their hands every single moment of every single day. They volunteer to do this job, the very tough job of taking civilians and turning them into airmen, and they give it their best knowing that all it takes is ONE mistake and their career is over. There are only two ways to get out of BMTS when you're an MTI: either you do your tour without incident and rotate out with an Air Force Achievement Medal, or you screw up and get kicked out of the MTI program. And if THAT happens, you're going to leave with a "3" APR - or worse - which nukes your chances for promotion and/or re-enlistment for SEVEN YEARS. If you REALLY screw up you get court-martialed and end up in Fort Leavenworth - which I saw happen to an MTI in my unit.
As an MTI you are constantly under the gun, constantly under scrutiny, and so is your flight. ANYONE walking past your flight can gripe about you to your squadron, and in BMT you are considered guilty until proven innocent - at least you were in 1982 - 1986 when I was there. There was an old saying among MTIs that I hope is still being used at Lackland - "What goes on outside the dorm is everyone's business, but what goes on INSIDE the dorm is NOBODY'S business." That doesn't mean you broke the rules and regulations on training your troops by any means; what it means is that you could relax to a point and not have to worry about someone who has NO idea what BMT is like hearing something you said, taking it the wrong way, and reporting it to your Squadron Commander. It also means you could swear without getting reported as well.
And if you think that MTI's don't swear, boy do I have some bad news for you! My personal standard was that when I was training males, pretty much anything went as far as language was concerned; but when I was training females I'd brief them on the very first day that yes, they'd hear me curse from time to time, but they'd NEVER hear me use the word that starts with an "F" and ends with a "UCK" and isn't "FIRETRUCK." I'd tell them that if they ever heard me use that word they'd better get out of my way because I've lost my temper and someone is gonna die. In the 4 years I was down at Lackland I only used that word in the presence of my female flight once, and when I did it was out in the bay during an End of Bed Display inspection. When I dropped that word you'd have thought I tossed a live grenade into the bay - I had females jumping over beds and each other to get the hell away from me! It made me laugh out loud and broke my bad mood, but I worried about a female trainee dropping a critique on me for the next couple of days. Never happened, and I consider myself lucky for that.
Speaking of critiques, let me tell you all about those. The Trainee Critique Form was a piece of paper that a trainee could use to complain about something that was being done in BMTS or about his MTI. They were kept in a box on the wall next to the exit hallway in the Dining Hall, so all a disgruntled trainee had to do was pick one out of the box on his way out of the Dining Hall, fill it out, and put it back in the box the next time he was in the Dining Hall. The MTI never saw or touched the form - the deposit box was locked, and it was checked weekly by a representative from the Basic Military Training School Headquarters. Once the form was received it was logged and a copy of the form was sent down to the unit, and the investigation was on. MTIs in the Dining Hall used to watch that box like a hawk, and all of us dreaded the thought of one of our trainees picking up a form on the way out. Not because we'd done anything wrong, but because 99% of the forms sent in were nothing more than a butthurt trainee who was a foul-up trying to play a game of "catch-up" with his MTI. I was only critiqued once in 4 years, and the complaint was found to be unfounded. End of story.
Did I mention that everything you do and say - and everything your trainees do and say - was watched and evaluated in BMTS? If the Section Supervisor came into your dorm during the duty day and inspected it, if the dorm was fouled up YOU heard about it - not the flight. If one of your trainees was stopped by another MTI somewhere out on the base for having broken a rule, YOU heard about it - not the trainee. You were evaluated on how you talked to your flight in public, how you marched your flight in public, how you wore your uniform, how shiny your shoes were, how clean your hat was, whether or not you had the flight clipboard with you, how well your flight marched, how good the beds looked when they were made - and the list goes on and on. And on top of that, your entire squadron was evaluated yearly by the Standardization and Evaluation Team, or Stan Team. The Stan Team came into your squadron and evaluated every single aspect of the training conducted by the unit as a whole, and this included individual MTI evaluations. Select MTIs in the unit would be picked to teach a dorm lesson (how to make a bed, how to set up an End of Bed Display, etc) and/or a Drill lesson, and they were evaluated on the correct use of the Five Step Teaching Format. Fail a Stan Team Evaluation and your time in BMT was limited.
When a new flight came on board, the regulations required them to have 24/7 supervision for the first 72 hours they were there. That means that an MTI had to spend the night in the dorm sleeping in the Flight Office so the new trainees wouldn't be left unsupervised. This played hell with your married life if you were married, let me tell you. In addition to that, during the 6 weeks of training when I was an MTI there were 15 hours allotted in the training schedule for the teaching of Individual and Flight Drill - but there were 21 movements you had to teach. And since the Five Step Teaching Format said that you could only teach ONE lesson per 40-45 minute class session, that meant you had to come in on the weekends to teach the rest of the drill that was required to be taught.
And I won't even go into the perils and dangers of being a male MTI training a flight full of females. I'll save that for another time.
Believe it or not, all of what I've just laid out is only the tip of the iceberg. I could spend a full 8 hour day telling you all about what it was like to be an MTI, and when it was all over I'd tell you this: being an MTI was the highlight of my 23 years in the Air Force, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was one of only two places I've ever been while I was in the Air Force where I felt at home, felt like I belonged, and felt like I was accomplishing something important. (The other place was the Persian Gulf during the first Gulf War.) I'm damned proud to have been one of the select few to wear the blue campaign hat of a Military Training Instructor, and the only thing I'm more proud of is that when my son joined the Air Force he also became an MTI.
And I miss it very much. Every single minute of every single day, and I'll miss it until the day I die. Once an MTI, always an MTI.
Deo Vindice.
IHC
First and foremost, everyone who wears the campaign hat and the "Instructor" badge in BMTS is a volunteer. MTI duty is a special duty assignment, and the selection process is fairly rigorous. When I applied for MTI duty in 1982 you had to have "firewall 5's" on your last 5 APRs, plus a letter of recommendation from your unit commander. You also had to go through a psychological testing at the Base Hospital and an English-language speaking evaluation as well. When all of this was put together in your application package, it was sent down to BMTS where it was screened by a selection board. When I applied in 1982 only 25% of the applications being submitted were approved because BMTS was looking for the "BEST" NCOs in the Air Force - and they were VERY picky. I consider myself damned lucky to have made the cut.
The Military Training Instructor School (or MTIS) in 1982 was 5 weeks long, and contrary to popular belief it wasn't another version of BMTS where the MTIS instructors hollered and yelled at you. It consisted of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week learning how to march a flight and, more importantly, how to master the "5 Step Teaching Format" that BMTS used to teach EVERY classroom lesson in the curriculum. Trust me when I tell you that the 5 Step format is tough to master, but once you do it becomes second nature. You also learned in MTIS to be the picture of military appearance and bearing, and you'd better look like you stepped out of the uniform manual when you showed up for class. It was drilled into your head that you were teaching trainees who knew nothing of the Air Force, and that their first and lasting impressions of the Air Force would be what YOU showed them. For that reason, perfection was the standard in MTIS, and for good reason.
Once you graduated MTIS and got your hat and "cookie" (the Instructor badge), you were assigned to an MTI trainer in your home unit who would continue your training for the next 90 days. At the end of that 90 day period you were evaluated, and if you passed you were "certified" and could train new airman without supervision. Not everyone passed, by the way. The school was one thing, doing it for real in the field was another thing entirely.
Once you were certified you were then permanently assigned to a dorm and a team chief, and began training troops in your own dorm. That's when the fun begins.
What trainees don't realize about their MTI is that from the moment the trainees step off of the bus when they first arrive at Lackland until the moment they get on the bus to leave BMTS, the MTI is responsible for them and everything they do 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the duration of BMT. That means if a trainee goes out and does something stupid, the very first thing that's going to be looked at and questioned is how the airman was trained, and/or what instructions he was given by his MTI in regards to what he did. If the MTI is found to have given faulty training or bad instructions, then he is responsible and the trainee is off the hook.
For that reason, every single man and woman who wears the hat and cookie holds their own career in their hands every single moment of every single day. They volunteer to do this job, the very tough job of taking civilians and turning them into airmen, and they give it their best knowing that all it takes is ONE mistake and their career is over. There are only two ways to get out of BMTS when you're an MTI: either you do your tour without incident and rotate out with an Air Force Achievement Medal, or you screw up and get kicked out of the MTI program. And if THAT happens, you're going to leave with a "3" APR - or worse - which nukes your chances for promotion and/or re-enlistment for SEVEN YEARS. If you REALLY screw up you get court-martialed and end up in Fort Leavenworth - which I saw happen to an MTI in my unit.
As an MTI you are constantly under the gun, constantly under scrutiny, and so is your flight. ANYONE walking past your flight can gripe about you to your squadron, and in BMT you are considered guilty until proven innocent - at least you were in 1982 - 1986 when I was there. There was an old saying among MTIs that I hope is still being used at Lackland - "What goes on outside the dorm is everyone's business, but what goes on INSIDE the dorm is NOBODY'S business." That doesn't mean you broke the rules and regulations on training your troops by any means; what it means is that you could relax to a point and not have to worry about someone who has NO idea what BMT is like hearing something you said, taking it the wrong way, and reporting it to your Squadron Commander. It also means you could swear without getting reported as well.
And if you think that MTI's don't swear, boy do I have some bad news for you! My personal standard was that when I was training males, pretty much anything went as far as language was concerned; but when I was training females I'd brief them on the very first day that yes, they'd hear me curse from time to time, but they'd NEVER hear me use the word that starts with an "F" and ends with a "UCK" and isn't "FIRETRUCK." I'd tell them that if they ever heard me use that word they'd better get out of my way because I've lost my temper and someone is gonna die. In the 4 years I was down at Lackland I only used that word in the presence of my female flight once, and when I did it was out in the bay during an End of Bed Display inspection. When I dropped that word you'd have thought I tossed a live grenade into the bay - I had females jumping over beds and each other to get the hell away from me! It made me laugh out loud and broke my bad mood, but I worried about a female trainee dropping a critique on me for the next couple of days. Never happened, and I consider myself lucky for that.
Speaking of critiques, let me tell you all about those. The Trainee Critique Form was a piece of paper that a trainee could use to complain about something that was being done in BMTS or about his MTI. They were kept in a box on the wall next to the exit hallway in the Dining Hall, so all a disgruntled trainee had to do was pick one out of the box on his way out of the Dining Hall, fill it out, and put it back in the box the next time he was in the Dining Hall. The MTI never saw or touched the form - the deposit box was locked, and it was checked weekly by a representative from the Basic Military Training School Headquarters. Once the form was received it was logged and a copy of the form was sent down to the unit, and the investigation was on. MTIs in the Dining Hall used to watch that box like a hawk, and all of us dreaded the thought of one of our trainees picking up a form on the way out. Not because we'd done anything wrong, but because 99% of the forms sent in were nothing more than a butthurt trainee who was a foul-up trying to play a game of "catch-up" with his MTI. I was only critiqued once in 4 years, and the complaint was found to be unfounded. End of story.
Did I mention that everything you do and say - and everything your trainees do and say - was watched and evaluated in BMTS? If the Section Supervisor came into your dorm during the duty day and inspected it, if the dorm was fouled up YOU heard about it - not the flight. If one of your trainees was stopped by another MTI somewhere out on the base for having broken a rule, YOU heard about it - not the trainee. You were evaluated on how you talked to your flight in public, how you marched your flight in public, how you wore your uniform, how shiny your shoes were, how clean your hat was, whether or not you had the flight clipboard with you, how well your flight marched, how good the beds looked when they were made - and the list goes on and on. And on top of that, your entire squadron was evaluated yearly by the Standardization and Evaluation Team, or Stan Team. The Stan Team came into your squadron and evaluated every single aspect of the training conducted by the unit as a whole, and this included individual MTI evaluations. Select MTIs in the unit would be picked to teach a dorm lesson (how to make a bed, how to set up an End of Bed Display, etc) and/or a Drill lesson, and they were evaluated on the correct use of the Five Step Teaching Format. Fail a Stan Team Evaluation and your time in BMT was limited.
When a new flight came on board, the regulations required them to have 24/7 supervision for the first 72 hours they were there. That means that an MTI had to spend the night in the dorm sleeping in the Flight Office so the new trainees wouldn't be left unsupervised. This played hell with your married life if you were married, let me tell you. In addition to that, during the 6 weeks of training when I was an MTI there were 15 hours allotted in the training schedule for the teaching of Individual and Flight Drill - but there were 21 movements you had to teach. And since the Five Step Teaching Format said that you could only teach ONE lesson per 40-45 minute class session, that meant you had to come in on the weekends to teach the rest of the drill that was required to be taught.
And I won't even go into the perils and dangers of being a male MTI training a flight full of females. I'll save that for another time.
Believe it or not, all of what I've just laid out is only the tip of the iceberg. I could spend a full 8 hour day telling you all about what it was like to be an MTI, and when it was all over I'd tell you this: being an MTI was the highlight of my 23 years in the Air Force, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was one of only two places I've ever been while I was in the Air Force where I felt at home, felt like I belonged, and felt like I was accomplishing something important. (The other place was the Persian Gulf during the first Gulf War.) I'm damned proud to have been one of the select few to wear the blue campaign hat of a Military Training Instructor, and the only thing I'm more proud of is that when my son joined the Air Force he also became an MTI.
And I miss it very much. Every single minute of every single day, and I'll miss it until the day I die. Once an MTI, always an MTI.
Deo Vindice.
IHC
Sunday, July 21, 2019
When Wonder Turns To Complacency
I was lucky enough to be raised in an era that was host to a great many improvements, advantages, challenges, and triumphs. While it is true that this era also saw more than its fair share of injustices and tragedies, I think the positive things that came out of this ear far outweigh the negative ones.
I'm speaking, of course, about the '60s. Whenever I think of the '60s I immediately think of three things: the assassination of JFK, the Vietnam War, and the "Space Race" between the United States and the Soviet Union. In my humble opinion the space program takes center stage as the most important event out of that era. We as a nation accomplished so much in so short a time that it boggles the mind to think of it. And the advancements made during that ten year era are still having an impact on us today.
I don't remember much about the Mercury program because I either hadn't started school yet or had just started and the school thought that first and second graders didn't need to hear about it. But I vividly remember the Gemini and Apollo programs, mainly because of the attention that the news media in general and the schools in particular gave them. Every time there was a launch in the Gemini program, class would come to a stop as the teacher rolled in this big black and white TV on a metal rolling stand (the kind you only found in schools, and if you're my age you know what I'm talking about), plugged it in and turned it on, then adjusted the rabbit ears to get the best picture. We would then spend the next 30 minutes or so watching the launch or, later on in the program, the space walks the astronauts took.
Make no mistake about it, the space program was a hell of a big deal in the 1960s, and deservedly so. It was such a big deal that school came to a stop just to watch it, and in those days school didn't stop for anything short of a natural disaster. So for classes to be halted so we could watch it live on TV was a very big deal indeed.
And the more the program went on, the more media attention it got. Every time there was a significant advancement or achievement in the Gemini Program, that's all you'd hear about on the news and all you'd see on the front pages of the newspapers. America was in love with the astronauts and the space program, and it clearly showed.
America's heart got broken on January 27, 1967 when, during a routine procedures test, a fire broke out in the Apollo 1 capsule and killed Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Gus Grissom was one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, and Ed White was the first American to walk in space. The fire caused some major changes in the space program, but the program recovered and a little more than two short years later there was an American walking on the moon.
The Apollo Program garnered just as much attention as the Gemini Program, maybe even more. I vividly remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard that the Apollo 13 astronauts had made it back safely. I had an afternoon paper route at that time, and I was at the drop off spot at Nine Mile Road and Mapleleaf Avenue, and the weather looked like it was going to dump a ton of rain down on me at any moment. The truck from the Richmond News Leader stopped and tossed out my bundles of papers, and the fist thing I saw was the huge black letter headline that said just two words: "THEY'RE BACK!" At that time the lot was a dirt lot with a big oak tree in it, and as soon as I saw the headline the rain started. I put the two bundles of papers under the big tree and got my poncho out of the basket on my bike, put it on, and then sat on the bundles of papers to keep them dry with my poncho while it rained. And brother, did it rain hard! Took about half an hour for it to stop, and by that time the lot was a muddy mess so I had a hell of a time getting the papers folded, put in the basket, and then getting the now-front heavy bike out of the muddy lot without dumping the papers all over the place. But the thing I remember most about that day is that big, black headline proudly and thankfully proclaiming that the three astronauts were home safe.
I also remember watching the moon landing live on TV. I was spending the night at a friend's house the next street over for the purpose of watching the moon landing together, and as I recall my friend didn't make it - he was fast asleep when Neil Armstrong took that first famous step on the moon and uttered those now historic words. I also remember not being able to see much since the video quality wasn't all that good, but I absolutely remember watching it.
The Apollo Program marched on after that, with a total of eleven missions being carried out with only Apollo 13 being classified as a failure because it never made a landing on the moon. NASA and the Apollo Program began accomplishing the impossible on a regular basis, setting the stage for future manned flights to the other celestial bodies that make up our universe. But the down side of this is that the public began to treat the fantastic as the routine, and by the time Apollo 17 took place the public was bored with space travel to the point where TVs weren't rolled into the classroom to watch the launch anymore, the newspapers didn't carry the missions on the front page anymore, and the budget for NASA was slashed by the short-sighted politicians who run our country. Apollo 17 became the last of the Apollo missions. There were three more scheduled, but they never took place. America was bored with space travel. It was 1972 and American had focused its attention elsewhere.
Five years later that attention was refocused on the space program with the launching of the first successful space shuttle program. For the first time in history a winged spacecraft that was capable of landing on an airstrip on dry land instead of having to splash down in the ocean successfully completed a mission. This marked a turning point in space flight because prior to this all of America's spacecraft were designed to be used only once; the space shuttle was designed to be reused over and over again, a first for any nation with a space program - meaning the US and the Russians. Once again America proved what it was capable of, and once again the American public fell in love with the space program.
But familiarity breeds contempt, and it wasn't long before America once again got bored with the space program. The space shuttle program proved to be wildly successful, with more missions being carried out so close together as to become fairly routine. With the notable exceptions of the "Challenger" disaster in 1986 and the "Columbia" disaster in 2003, America paid little attention to the shuttle program, and the program came to an end in 2011. Americans had once again gotten bored with the space program, and America's dreams for space travel pretty much came to an end.
And this is a huge mistake. The human species is born to explore, to venture out to lands never seen before, and to discover as much as we can about anything we can. There is no major project going on with NASA at the moment, and there's even been talk about doing away with NASA altogether. And that would be an even bigger mistake. If mankind is ever going to find out once and for all whether or not we're alone in the universe, then NASA and the space program need to continue. We would be cheating ourselves if we allowed otherwise.
But that's what happens when wonder turns to complacency.
Deo Vindice.
IHC
I'm speaking, of course, about the '60s. Whenever I think of the '60s I immediately think of three things: the assassination of JFK, the Vietnam War, and the "Space Race" between the United States and the Soviet Union. In my humble opinion the space program takes center stage as the most important event out of that era. We as a nation accomplished so much in so short a time that it boggles the mind to think of it. And the advancements made during that ten year era are still having an impact on us today.
I don't remember much about the Mercury program because I either hadn't started school yet or had just started and the school thought that first and second graders didn't need to hear about it. But I vividly remember the Gemini and Apollo programs, mainly because of the attention that the news media in general and the schools in particular gave them. Every time there was a launch in the Gemini program, class would come to a stop as the teacher rolled in this big black and white TV on a metal rolling stand (the kind you only found in schools, and if you're my age you know what I'm talking about), plugged it in and turned it on, then adjusted the rabbit ears to get the best picture. We would then spend the next 30 minutes or so watching the launch or, later on in the program, the space walks the astronauts took.
Make no mistake about it, the space program was a hell of a big deal in the 1960s, and deservedly so. It was such a big deal that school came to a stop just to watch it, and in those days school didn't stop for anything short of a natural disaster. So for classes to be halted so we could watch it live on TV was a very big deal indeed.
And the more the program went on, the more media attention it got. Every time there was a significant advancement or achievement in the Gemini Program, that's all you'd hear about on the news and all you'd see on the front pages of the newspapers. America was in love with the astronauts and the space program, and it clearly showed.
America's heart got broken on January 27, 1967 when, during a routine procedures test, a fire broke out in the Apollo 1 capsule and killed Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Gus Grissom was one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, and Ed White was the first American to walk in space. The fire caused some major changes in the space program, but the program recovered and a little more than two short years later there was an American walking on the moon.
The Apollo Program garnered just as much attention as the Gemini Program, maybe even more. I vividly remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard that the Apollo 13 astronauts had made it back safely. I had an afternoon paper route at that time, and I was at the drop off spot at Nine Mile Road and Mapleleaf Avenue, and the weather looked like it was going to dump a ton of rain down on me at any moment. The truck from the Richmond News Leader stopped and tossed out my bundles of papers, and the fist thing I saw was the huge black letter headline that said just two words: "THEY'RE BACK!" At that time the lot was a dirt lot with a big oak tree in it, and as soon as I saw the headline the rain started. I put the two bundles of papers under the big tree and got my poncho out of the basket on my bike, put it on, and then sat on the bundles of papers to keep them dry with my poncho while it rained. And brother, did it rain hard! Took about half an hour for it to stop, and by that time the lot was a muddy mess so I had a hell of a time getting the papers folded, put in the basket, and then getting the now-front heavy bike out of the muddy lot without dumping the papers all over the place. But the thing I remember most about that day is that big, black headline proudly and thankfully proclaiming that the three astronauts were home safe.
I also remember watching the moon landing live on TV. I was spending the night at a friend's house the next street over for the purpose of watching the moon landing together, and as I recall my friend didn't make it - he was fast asleep when Neil Armstrong took that first famous step on the moon and uttered those now historic words. I also remember not being able to see much since the video quality wasn't all that good, but I absolutely remember watching it.
The Apollo Program marched on after that, with a total of eleven missions being carried out with only Apollo 13 being classified as a failure because it never made a landing on the moon. NASA and the Apollo Program began accomplishing the impossible on a regular basis, setting the stage for future manned flights to the other celestial bodies that make up our universe. But the down side of this is that the public began to treat the fantastic as the routine, and by the time Apollo 17 took place the public was bored with space travel to the point where TVs weren't rolled into the classroom to watch the launch anymore, the newspapers didn't carry the missions on the front page anymore, and the budget for NASA was slashed by the short-sighted politicians who run our country. Apollo 17 became the last of the Apollo missions. There were three more scheduled, but they never took place. America was bored with space travel. It was 1972 and American had focused its attention elsewhere.
Five years later that attention was refocused on the space program with the launching of the first successful space shuttle program. For the first time in history a winged spacecraft that was capable of landing on an airstrip on dry land instead of having to splash down in the ocean successfully completed a mission. This marked a turning point in space flight because prior to this all of America's spacecraft were designed to be used only once; the space shuttle was designed to be reused over and over again, a first for any nation with a space program - meaning the US and the Russians. Once again America proved what it was capable of, and once again the American public fell in love with the space program.
But familiarity breeds contempt, and it wasn't long before America once again got bored with the space program. The space shuttle program proved to be wildly successful, with more missions being carried out so close together as to become fairly routine. With the notable exceptions of the "Challenger" disaster in 1986 and the "Columbia" disaster in 2003, America paid little attention to the shuttle program, and the program came to an end in 2011. Americans had once again gotten bored with the space program, and America's dreams for space travel pretty much came to an end.
And this is a huge mistake. The human species is born to explore, to venture out to lands never seen before, and to discover as much as we can about anything we can. There is no major project going on with NASA at the moment, and there's even been talk about doing away with NASA altogether. And that would be an even bigger mistake. If mankind is ever going to find out once and for all whether or not we're alone in the universe, then NASA and the space program need to continue. We would be cheating ourselves if we allowed otherwise.
But that's what happens when wonder turns to complacency.
Deo Vindice.
IHC
Saturday, July 13, 2019
The Absurdity of Gun Laws
Anyone who knows me or who has been reading my blog over the past 8 years or so knows that I am a vehement supporter of the 2nd Amendment. And by "vehement" I mean that I believe in the literal definition of the Amendment, specifically "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED." To me, that translates into every single gun control law on the books is unconstitutional, I don't care what the SCOTUS says. When someone asks me if I support the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, I can guarantee you that my answer will NOT include the word "but" anywhere in it. Nothing rankles me more - well, almost nothing - than those charlatans who say "Yes, I support the 2nd Amendment, BUT..." and then proceed to tell you how it should be limited by background checks, training, licensing, restriction of certain types of weapons, etc etc etc. In my mind you either support the 2nd Amendment with NO "BUTS" or you don't. Period.
But I have to admit that I kinda like it when the "BUT" is followed by the statement, "I think we need 'common sense' gun laws." This gives me not one but two opportunities to make a monkey out of the person I'm talking to, and I will always jump right on it. The first thing I'll tell them is that "common sense" is not only a relative term the definition of which varies from person to person, but is also a flower that doesn't grow in everyone's garden.
Then I hit them with the 2,500 gun laws that are already on the books and do nothing to stem the violence committed by the criminals in our country who choose to use firearms (You will NEVER hear me use the term "gun violence" because it's a bullshit libtard term I don't believe in) and ask them why we should add any more useless gun laws to the ones already on the books. And then, to make it even better for me and worse for them, I hit them with some facts about laws pertaining to AR-15 systems that I learned two months ago when I acquired my first AR-15. These laws are the perfect example of how the federal government will screw up anything it gets involved in, and just how absurd some of the gun laws out there are.
It goes like this: According to the Federal government, there are three types of AR-15s, those being a rifle, a short-barreled rifle (or SBR), and a pistol. Yes, that's right, a pistol. Just bear with me, it gets much better!
An AR-15 "rifle" is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder using both hands, has a barrel length of greater than 16 inches and an overall length of more than 26 inches. An AR-15 "short barreled rifle" or "SBR" is a shoulder-fired, rifled firearm, made from a rifle, with a barrel length of less than 16 inches or overall length of less than 26 inches, or a handgun fitted with a buttstock and a barrel of less than 16 inches length. In order to purchase an SBR you first have to purchase a tax stamp for the sum of $200. Why? Because the ATFE says so, that's why. An AR-15 "pistol" is a firearm designed to be fired with one hand, has a barrel length of less than 16 inches and an overall length of less than 26 inches, and doesn't have a stock. Since it's a "pistol" and not an "SBR" no tax stamp is needed.
So did you get the part pertaining to an AR-15 pistol, specifically the "designed to be fired with one hand" part?
It is beyond me why anyone would think for even a moment that an AR-15 can be accurately and comfortably fired using only one hand, but apparently several people do - specifically, the guy who designed it and the guys at the ATFE who approved it. I mean, yeah, it has a pistol grip and all that, but even with a 7" barrel you're talking some serious weight out there at the end of your arm. You also have to note that the firearm doesn't have a stock; rather, it has a tube that protrudes out of the back where the stock would be, and this tube is where the buffer spring is located and allows the bolt to move inside of the weapon itself.
Well, someone found a way to make the weapon easier to fire with one hand. They designed a "brace" which fits onto the pistol in the same location and in the same manner as a regular stock, and most of the braces out there kinda look like a stock as well. But they're not classified as "stocks" by the ATFE for one simple reason: they're made out of hard plastic and rubber, are spit up the middle of the stock so you can fit it around your forearm, and have a velcro strap on them that allows you to strap the weapon onto your forearm and fire it with one hand. (We won't talk about working the charging handle on the top of the weapon while it's strapped to your forearm.) And if that doesn't sound confusing enough, most of the "braces" out there are adjustable, meaning that you can extend the "brace" back to increase the overall length of the firearm and move the sights/optics further away from your face.
When the initial designs for the AR-15 pistol brace were submitted to the ATFE, they initially classified it as a "stock" and said you can't put it on an AR-15 pistol because it would allow the weapon to be fired from the shoulder, which moves it into the classification of an SBR and means you have to purchase a tax stamp for it. But when a second design for the brace was submitted, for reasons that are still not really clear to me the ATFE approved it and classified it as a "brace" and not a "stock." Never mind the fact that the "brace" is adjustable and can be extended just like a stock, or that it allows the firearm to be fired from the shoulder just like a "rifle." The ATFE says it's a brace and not a stock, so that's good enough for me.
Now for the absurd part of the gun laws pertaining to AR-15 pistols.
To be honest, I had no idea AR-15 pistols even existed until I acquired mine. It came with a brace and two magazines, and that was it. No sights, no optics, no nothing - just a bare-bones AR-15 pistol. So of course I hit the web sites and started making a list of all the things I wanted to put on it to make it a functional weapon, and at the same time I learned all about what you could and couldn't do with the weapon as far as accessories go. This is where it gets absurd.
The first thing I learned is that you can put whatever optics on it you want. Iron sights, red dot sights, ACOG sights, scopes, laser sights, whatever - the ATFE says you can go nuts with your optics and not change the classification of the weapon. So I chose a Firefield 1X magnification red/green optic for my AR-15 pistol. It does exactly what I wanted it to do without breaking the bank, and at $47 it was a very good deal. I also had a Crimson Trace laser sight that my son had given me that I wasn't using because the pistol wouldn't fit the holsters I have with the sight on it, but it would fit on the AR-15 pistol so I mounted it and zeroed it in, and it works like a charm. Now I have sights for both full light and low light conditions, so I'm good.
The next thing I learned is that you can't put a stock on an AR-15 pistol. You can put whatever brace on it you want, but you can't put a stock of any kind on it because that allows you to fire the weapon from the shoulder which changes the classification of the firearm from a "pistol" to an "SBR," and I ain't paying $200 for some bullshit tax stamp. I did manage to find a brace that I like and will allow me to do what I want to do and not break the bank in the mean time, so that's the last thing I'll get for the pistol come next payday.
The only other thing I wanted to put on the pistol was a vertical foregrip, which is basically a handle which sticks straight down from the underside of the foregrip. Not because it looks cool (actually I don't like the way it looks) but because it helps control the weapon and increases your accuracy. But nope, turns out you can't put a vertical foregrip on an AR pistol because that allows the weapon to be fired with two hands, and that changes the classification from a "pistol" to an "SBR." But you CAN, however, put an ANGLED fore grip on the pistol without changing the classification. But just what is an "angled fore grip" and what does it do? Well, it's a molded piece of polymer that attaches to the underside of the foregrip/barrel shroud and is angled downward at a 45 degree angle, and it improves your grip which allows you to better control the weapon and increases your accuracy.
No, you read that right. It does the same thing as a vertical foregrip, but the wizards at the ATFE say you can use one. Go figure.
So if you want a perfect example of just how inane and ludicrous the Federal gun laws can be, here it is. Couple this with the fact that there are, as I previously stated, more than 2,500 gun laws already in effect which have proven to be ineffective at stemming the violence being committed in our nation with firearms and you have the perfect example of why I am totally opposed to ANY kind of gun law.
And don't even throw that "for the sake and safety of our children" crap at me because I'm gonna turn around and throw the legality of abortion which allows you to murder a child in the womb at you. And that, my friend, will take you down a rabbit's hole that you absolutely do not want to go down.
Right now I'm headed to the range.
Deo Vindice.
IHC
But I have to admit that I kinda like it when the "BUT" is followed by the statement, "I think we need 'common sense' gun laws." This gives me not one but two opportunities to make a monkey out of the person I'm talking to, and I will always jump right on it. The first thing I'll tell them is that "common sense" is not only a relative term the definition of which varies from person to person, but is also a flower that doesn't grow in everyone's garden.
Then I hit them with the 2,500 gun laws that are already on the books and do nothing to stem the violence committed by the criminals in our country who choose to use firearms (You will NEVER hear me use the term "gun violence" because it's a bullshit libtard term I don't believe in) and ask them why we should add any more useless gun laws to the ones already on the books. And then, to make it even better for me and worse for them, I hit them with some facts about laws pertaining to AR-15 systems that I learned two months ago when I acquired my first AR-15. These laws are the perfect example of how the federal government will screw up anything it gets involved in, and just how absurd some of the gun laws out there are.
It goes like this: According to the Federal government, there are three types of AR-15s, those being a rifle, a short-barreled rifle (or SBR), and a pistol. Yes, that's right, a pistol. Just bear with me, it gets much better!
An AR-15 "rifle" is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder using both hands, has a barrel length of greater than 16 inches and an overall length of more than 26 inches. An AR-15 "short barreled rifle" or "SBR" is a shoulder-fired, rifled firearm, made from a rifle, with a barrel length of less than 16 inches or overall length of less than 26 inches, or a handgun fitted with a buttstock and a barrel of less than 16 inches length. In order to purchase an SBR you first have to purchase a tax stamp for the sum of $200. Why? Because the ATFE says so, that's why. An AR-15 "pistol" is a firearm designed to be fired with one hand, has a barrel length of less than 16 inches and an overall length of less than 26 inches, and doesn't have a stock. Since it's a "pistol" and not an "SBR" no tax stamp is needed.
So did you get the part pertaining to an AR-15 pistol, specifically the "designed to be fired with one hand" part?
It is beyond me why anyone would think for even a moment that an AR-15 can be accurately and comfortably fired using only one hand, but apparently several people do - specifically, the guy who designed it and the guys at the ATFE who approved it. I mean, yeah, it has a pistol grip and all that, but even with a 7" barrel you're talking some serious weight out there at the end of your arm. You also have to note that the firearm doesn't have a stock; rather, it has a tube that protrudes out of the back where the stock would be, and this tube is where the buffer spring is located and allows the bolt to move inside of the weapon itself.
Well, someone found a way to make the weapon easier to fire with one hand. They designed a "brace" which fits onto the pistol in the same location and in the same manner as a regular stock, and most of the braces out there kinda look like a stock as well. But they're not classified as "stocks" by the ATFE for one simple reason: they're made out of hard plastic and rubber, are spit up the middle of the stock so you can fit it around your forearm, and have a velcro strap on them that allows you to strap the weapon onto your forearm and fire it with one hand. (We won't talk about working the charging handle on the top of the weapon while it's strapped to your forearm.) And if that doesn't sound confusing enough, most of the "braces" out there are adjustable, meaning that you can extend the "brace" back to increase the overall length of the firearm and move the sights/optics further away from your face.
When the initial designs for the AR-15 pistol brace were submitted to the ATFE, they initially classified it as a "stock" and said you can't put it on an AR-15 pistol because it would allow the weapon to be fired from the shoulder, which moves it into the classification of an SBR and means you have to purchase a tax stamp for it. But when a second design for the brace was submitted, for reasons that are still not really clear to me the ATFE approved it and classified it as a "brace" and not a "stock." Never mind the fact that the "brace" is adjustable and can be extended just like a stock, or that it allows the firearm to be fired from the shoulder just like a "rifle." The ATFE says it's a brace and not a stock, so that's good enough for me.
Now for the absurd part of the gun laws pertaining to AR-15 pistols.
To be honest, I had no idea AR-15 pistols even existed until I acquired mine. It came with a brace and two magazines, and that was it. No sights, no optics, no nothing - just a bare-bones AR-15 pistol. So of course I hit the web sites and started making a list of all the things I wanted to put on it to make it a functional weapon, and at the same time I learned all about what you could and couldn't do with the weapon as far as accessories go. This is where it gets absurd.
The first thing I learned is that you can put whatever optics on it you want. Iron sights, red dot sights, ACOG sights, scopes, laser sights, whatever - the ATFE says you can go nuts with your optics and not change the classification of the weapon. So I chose a Firefield 1X magnification red/green optic for my AR-15 pistol. It does exactly what I wanted it to do without breaking the bank, and at $47 it was a very good deal. I also had a Crimson Trace laser sight that my son had given me that I wasn't using because the pistol wouldn't fit the holsters I have with the sight on it, but it would fit on the AR-15 pistol so I mounted it and zeroed it in, and it works like a charm. Now I have sights for both full light and low light conditions, so I'm good.
The next thing I learned is that you can't put a stock on an AR-15 pistol. You can put whatever brace on it you want, but you can't put a stock of any kind on it because that allows you to fire the weapon from the shoulder which changes the classification of the firearm from a "pistol" to an "SBR," and I ain't paying $200 for some bullshit tax stamp. I did manage to find a brace that I like and will allow me to do what I want to do and not break the bank in the mean time, so that's the last thing I'll get for the pistol come next payday.
The only other thing I wanted to put on the pistol was a vertical foregrip, which is basically a handle which sticks straight down from the underside of the foregrip. Not because it looks cool (actually I don't like the way it looks) but because it helps control the weapon and increases your accuracy. But nope, turns out you can't put a vertical foregrip on an AR pistol because that allows the weapon to be fired with two hands, and that changes the classification from a "pistol" to an "SBR." But you CAN, however, put an ANGLED fore grip on the pistol without changing the classification. But just what is an "angled fore grip" and what does it do? Well, it's a molded piece of polymer that attaches to the underside of the foregrip/barrel shroud and is angled downward at a 45 degree angle, and it improves your grip which allows you to better control the weapon and increases your accuracy.
No, you read that right. It does the same thing as a vertical foregrip, but the wizards at the ATFE say you can use one. Go figure.
So if you want a perfect example of just how inane and ludicrous the Federal gun laws can be, here it is. Couple this with the fact that there are, as I previously stated, more than 2,500 gun laws already in effect which have proven to be ineffective at stemming the violence being committed in our nation with firearms and you have the perfect example of why I am totally opposed to ANY kind of gun law.
And don't even throw that "for the sake and safety of our children" crap at me because I'm gonna turn around and throw the legality of abortion which allows you to murder a child in the womb at you. And that, my friend, will take you down a rabbit's hole that you absolutely do not want to go down.
Right now I'm headed to the range.
Deo Vindice.
IHC
Monday, July 8, 2019
Liberal Lunacy #4: Free Healthcare For Illegal Immigrants
Anyone who has been keeping up on current events knows all about the Demoncratic debates that were held about a week or two ago, and if you heard about them you surely heard about the question that the moderators asked about providing free healthcare for illegal immigrants. So far two of these libtard media circuses have been held, and in the most recent there were 10 candidates on stage with "Creepy" Joe Biden, Elizabeth "Pocahontas" Warren, Kamalia "On My Knees" Harris and Bernie "Socialism Is Good" Sanders being among them. When that absurd question about providing free healthcare to ILLEGAL immigrants was asked, every single hand on stage went up.
EVERY. SINGLE. HAND.
Words almost fail me on just how wrong this is, how deeply offensive it is to me and every other American military veteran who fought for this country, and how stupendously stupid it is. But I did say "almost," didn't I? So of course I have something to say.
It's like this: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS are CRIMINALS plain and simple. They are NOT "undocumented" immigrants, they are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CRIMINALS. They entered this country illegally and therefore deserve nothing but a bus ride back to the border and a swift kick in the ass to get them moving. The fact that we have supposedly intelligent people living in this country in positions of power and leadership who would contemplate giving a criminal ANYTHING for free except a jail cell simply astounds me. But like I said, all of this is just a ploy to get votes so they can get elected, because after all if you give someone something for free then of course they're going to feel indebted to you and absolutely will vote for you when the time comes. (I'll save talking about why ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CRIMINALS shouldn't be allowed to vote for another post at another time.)
But what this says to me goes much deeper than that. What this says to me is that there are several classes of American citizens whom these libtard morons are intentionally ignoring, and they don't seem to care.
They're intentionally ignoring the veterans in this country who need healthcare, and who are actually deserving of it. If these so-called American politicians actually gave a damn about America and American citizens, they'd be talking about fixing the Veteran's Administration and the VA Healthcare system that is so screwed up that veterans are actually dying while waiting to be seen. The VA system has been broken for decades, and it has more veterans to take care of now than ever thanks to the eleven-plus years of warfare that Trump just put an end to. And I'm speaking from experience because as a retired USAF Master Sergeant I use the VA healthcare system here in Columbia SC, and I can tell you that while the people there do the best job that they can, the system itself sucks. It's a typical government bureaucracy that is so full of red tape, stupid requirements, and silly procedures that it takes an act of Congress with a co-signing by God to get anything done. Yet you don't hear ANY of the Demoncratic politicians anywhere talking about improving the system and improving the quality of healthcare for the American veterans. All they want to talk about is giving free shit to criminals who cross the border illegally.
They're intentionally ignoring low-income families who can't afford quality healthcare, specifically the children who didn't ask to be born into that situation to begin with. And before you tell me that NObamacare took care of that, you need to go do some research and see just how wrong that statement is. Just because you've signed up for something that is run by the government doesn't mean you're going to get it, and get it on time. So don't even go there.
They're intentionally ignoring the elderly who are retired, living on a fixed income, and rely on Medicare and Medicade for their health care. More government-run programs filled with yet more red tape, delays, and unnecessary bullshit in programs that don't provide 100% of the health care for our seniors.
The Demoncrats are ignoring all of this and want to give 10% free healthcare to people who have done absolutely nothing for this country, have contributed absolutely nothing to this country, and are criminals because they're here illegally.
Pay attention, people, because these are the idiots and fools who want to lead this country. And if you don't see a problem with this and actually think they're right, then you have a serious problem yourself.
As long as we have ONE American child who goes to bed hungry each night, as long as we have ONE American child who lacks a warm place to sleep, clean clothes, and someone to love and take care of them, as long as we have ONE American veteran who is homeless or who needs adequate health care, we don't have a single penny to spend on ANY illegal immigrant criminal. And don't try and tell me that I'm being cruel and heartless to the illegal immigrant children who were brought here by their parents, because that's bullshit and you know it. The one who's being cruel and heartless to those kids are their parents who drag them along and put them in that situation, not me.
An American politician's first concern should be for AMERICANS, not illegal immigrant criminals. And if you're an American politician and your first concern isn't for Americans, then you will NEVER - repeat, NEVER - earn either my respect or my vote.
NEVER.
TRUMP 2020.
Deo Vindice.
IHC
EVERY. SINGLE. HAND.
Words almost fail me on just how wrong this is, how deeply offensive it is to me and every other American military veteran who fought for this country, and how stupendously stupid it is. But I did say "almost," didn't I? So of course I have something to say.
It's like this: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS are CRIMINALS plain and simple. They are NOT "undocumented" immigrants, they are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CRIMINALS. They entered this country illegally and therefore deserve nothing but a bus ride back to the border and a swift kick in the ass to get them moving. The fact that we have supposedly intelligent people living in this country in positions of power and leadership who would contemplate giving a criminal ANYTHING for free except a jail cell simply astounds me. But like I said, all of this is just a ploy to get votes so they can get elected, because after all if you give someone something for free then of course they're going to feel indebted to you and absolutely will vote for you when the time comes. (I'll save talking about why ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CRIMINALS shouldn't be allowed to vote for another post at another time.)
But what this says to me goes much deeper than that. What this says to me is that there are several classes of American citizens whom these libtard morons are intentionally ignoring, and they don't seem to care.
They're intentionally ignoring the veterans in this country who need healthcare, and who are actually deserving of it. If these so-called American politicians actually gave a damn about America and American citizens, they'd be talking about fixing the Veteran's Administration and the VA Healthcare system that is so screwed up that veterans are actually dying while waiting to be seen. The VA system has been broken for decades, and it has more veterans to take care of now than ever thanks to the eleven-plus years of warfare that Trump just put an end to. And I'm speaking from experience because as a retired USAF Master Sergeant I use the VA healthcare system here in Columbia SC, and I can tell you that while the people there do the best job that they can, the system itself sucks. It's a typical government bureaucracy that is so full of red tape, stupid requirements, and silly procedures that it takes an act of Congress with a co-signing by God to get anything done. Yet you don't hear ANY of the Demoncratic politicians anywhere talking about improving the system and improving the quality of healthcare for the American veterans. All they want to talk about is giving free shit to criminals who cross the border illegally.
They're intentionally ignoring low-income families who can't afford quality healthcare, specifically the children who didn't ask to be born into that situation to begin with. And before you tell me that NObamacare took care of that, you need to go do some research and see just how wrong that statement is. Just because you've signed up for something that is run by the government doesn't mean you're going to get it, and get it on time. So don't even go there.
They're intentionally ignoring the elderly who are retired, living on a fixed income, and rely on Medicare and Medicade for their health care. More government-run programs filled with yet more red tape, delays, and unnecessary bullshit in programs that don't provide 100% of the health care for our seniors.
The Demoncrats are ignoring all of this and want to give 10% free healthcare to people who have done absolutely nothing for this country, have contributed absolutely nothing to this country, and are criminals because they're here illegally.
Pay attention, people, because these are the idiots and fools who want to lead this country. And if you don't see a problem with this and actually think they're right, then you have a serious problem yourself.
As long as we have ONE American child who goes to bed hungry each night, as long as we have ONE American child who lacks a warm place to sleep, clean clothes, and someone to love and take care of them, as long as we have ONE American veteran who is homeless or who needs adequate health care, we don't have a single penny to spend on ANY illegal immigrant criminal. And don't try and tell me that I'm being cruel and heartless to the illegal immigrant children who were brought here by their parents, because that's bullshit and you know it. The one who's being cruel and heartless to those kids are their parents who drag them along and put them in that situation, not me.
An American politician's first concern should be for AMERICANS, not illegal immigrant criminals. And if you're an American politician and your first concern isn't for Americans, then you will NEVER - repeat, NEVER - earn either my respect or my vote.
NEVER.
TRUMP 2020.
Deo Vindice.
IHC
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