WELCOME TO OPINIONS BASED ON FACTS (OBOF)
&
THINGS YOU MAY
HAVE MISSED (TYMHM)
YEAR ONE
YEAR TWO
YEAR THREE
YEAR FOUR
OBOF YEAR FOUR INDEX
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-01
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Jan. 02, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-02
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Jan. 09, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-03
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Jan. 15, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-04
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Jan. 24, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-05
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JAN 30, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-06
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Feb. 06, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-06 EXTRA
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Feb. 09, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-07
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Feb. 13, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-08
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Feb. 21, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-09
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Feb. 27, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-10
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Mar. 08, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-11
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Mar. 13, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-11 EXTRA
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Mar. 15, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-12
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Mar. 21, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-13
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Mar. 29, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-14
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Apr. 03, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-15
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Apr. 12, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-16
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Apr. 19, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-17
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Apr. 26, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-18
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May 03,
2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-19
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May 10,
2014
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OBOF TYMHM PART 14-20
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May 20,
2014
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OBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - No 21
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May 28, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - Ho 22
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June 10, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - No 23
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June 20, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - No 24
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July 04, 2014
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OBOF TYMHM Vol 14 - No 25
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Aug. 04, 2014
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Agenda
1.
Hello, from Floyd.
2.
Jack'em up, get jacked around.
3.
Deficit reduction.
4.
Border bills stall in the House.
5.
Impeachment fever.
HELLO, FROM
FLOYD
Hello, to my faithful
followers. In my last posting, I
mentioned that I had fallen. I didn't
think it was to bad, but as usual, it was worse than I thought. Thus, the reason, not an excuse. I also, might mention for those of you who
are getting along in age, things do get a little more difficult to accomplish
as the years go by.
I had set a goal of
living to 90 and I pushed real hard in all my activates during the 89th
year. Now that I have made 90 I have
gone down hill. My Son says that it is
in my head and I think he is probably right.
My regularity in these postings has suffered as it seems to take me longer
to read, find what I want to send you,
transfer it to my blog, and get it out to you.
I see that a
large number of you read on Saturday, so I am going to try posting, at least,
on Friday, although I can't promise that.
I so much want to continue to get information to you. Information that I think is important to all
of us and that you might have missed. I
am getting myself together better now so, I will try to get this out each week
as in the past. I'll try for Fridays.
~~~
JACK'EM
UP
&
GET JACKED
AROUND
(CORRUPTION
- - FIRST CLASS)
By Floyd Bowman
publisher
"Opinions Based
on Facts"
August 4, 2014
In the last posting, I
started to tell you about a product that this man had developed. At this point, I want tell you that there are
many events to occur prior to working with the Military and running into the
corruption, which is one of the problems I want to tell you about.
Originally, this
product, which is a very simple jack to be used to change flat-tires on
trailers, was designed for civilian use, mainly, for farmers and ranchers. It also, is ideal for use on recreational
vehicles and boat trailers. Just as a short reminder, this jack has no
moving parts, no hydraulics, and works in mud, sand, blacktop, & concrete. It is 99% safe to use and makes changing a
tire easy and very quick.
I so much would like
to jump in right now and tell you about the treatment this man has received from
our government and the corruption by one of the longest sitting Senators in
Congress. However, without knowing the
developments along the way it would not have the meaning for you that I want to
try to convey. So stick with me as we
start at the beginning, which of course, is always a good place to start. Even trying to tell you about this in it's
full dimension would actually take a book, which I hope some day someone will
write. So, let's get on with it.
I first thought I
would reprint some from the last posting, but that is just too long to go over
again. I would suggest that you look
back at posting Vol. 14 No. 24. That
will bring you up to what I write now.
It is incredible, that
a very simple tool, invented by an unpretentious, super patriotic, family man
in a small town in the mid-west, has
opened doors he never dreamed of and contacts with high level personnel in the
military and Congress he hardly knew existed.
How did it
develop? When he finally got a finished
working model put together and thoroughly tested, he had to get an attorney in
the process of getting a patent. I am
getting a little ahead of myself. This
man, who from here on will be referred to as Jim, is of Indian heritage. One of his greatest assets is his wife. She is VP of a large bank and she has an IQ
almost off the charts.
Getting a patent is no
simple process and is expensive. This
couple with two boys 18 and 20, are by no means flushed with money. The detailed drawings alone run almost
$5,000. It took almost a year to get the
patent.
His first plan of
distribution was to have a booth at farm & ranch shows. He had never done that before, but he put
together a real attractive booth. He
received good response selling every thing he had at almost all the shows. He, most of the time, had a crowd of people at
his booth. Now, I haven't said anything
about manufacturing these units. That
has been, as you can imagine, another hurdle to jump across. Fortunately, Jim has a background in mechanics & machinery.
Manufacturing of these units proved to be a real challenge. Pages and pages could be written about
overcoming this challenge, bug Jim got it done.
We are now past the second year and into the third, when he finally went
to his first show and many more after that.
On with the show and
what turned out to be the most important show.
At this one particular show, a group of about 5 soldiers stopped and
talked at length to Jim. They had all
just returned from Afghanistan
They said that they
had been with groups when one and two would be killed trying to change the
tire. They went on and on about how they
need this in the field. That was the
first that Jim had heard or thought about the military.
This in no
way starts to portray to you all the blood, sweet, and tears that Jim and his
wife have gone through. What we have
covered now brings us into the third year after Jim first got the idea.
I think we will stop
at this point until next week when we will start to get into the various
developments with the military and the government purchasing system that is
riddled with corruption.
~~~
Deficit to dip below $600 billion for first time since recession,
White House predicts
In the longer term, though, bigger shortfalls are expected
The White House said
Friday that the federal budget deficit will fall to $583 billion this year, the
smallest deficit of President Obama’s tenure and the first to dip below
$600 billion since the Great Recession took hold in 2008.
In its midyear review of the nation’s finances, the
White House predicted that the deficit for the fiscal year that ends in
September will be about $66 billion lower than the administration forecast
in February.
The improvement is
driven primarily by sluggish rates of spending at the Pentagon and other
federal agencies, particularly on recovery efforts for Hurricane Sandy
While the analysis
brought good news for the short term, the outlook for the longer term was less
rosy: The White House predicts that the nation’s finances will deteriorate
markedly over the next decade, with deficits rising nearly $600 billion
above previous projections.
The administration
attributes the shift almost entirely to tax collections that are now expected
to be sharply lower because of slower-than-expected economic growth in the next
few years. After an unexpected 2.9 percent drop in gross domestic product in
the first quarter of this year, the White House lowered its forecast to
2.6 percent growth for the fiscal year. The administration had predicted
3.3 percent growth.
Officials at the Office
of Management and Budget did not respond to requests for comment on the report,
which was abruptly released Friday afternoon without the standard warnings to
reporters.
In a blog post, Brian Deese, the acting budget
director, highlighted the positive, noting that Obama has presided over “the most
rapid sustained deficit reduction since World War II.”
When Obama took office
in 2009, the economy was in free fall and the budget deficit was soaring toward
$1.4 trillion, the first of four consecutive trillion-dollar deficits that
drove the national debt to the highest level as a percentage of the economy
since the end of World War II.
The economy has since
improved, and Obama has signed off on painful but historic spending cuts under
pressure from Republicans in Congress. Last year, the deficit was $680 billion. And
after nearly three years of all-consuming budget battles, lawmakers heading
into midterm elections have taken a break from the contentious work of
deficit reduction — at least until next year, when deadlines loom on the debt
limit and automatic agency budget cuts known as the sequester.
Democrats hailed
Friday’s White House deficit forecast, which came on the same day as a Treasury
Department announcement that the government recorded a surplus of
$71 billion for the month of June.
“Today’s report . . .
shows once again that our fiscal outlook has improved significantly in the
near-term,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a
statement. “While we need to continue to
tackle long-term deficits fairly and responsibly, we have room to focus on
other deficits in areas like jobs, innovation, infrastructure, and education.”
Republicans, meanwhile,
noted that the long-term outlook remains gloomy, with the national debt
forecast to rise to more than $25 trillion by 2024 if Obama’s policies are
enacted.
On Friday, the debt
stood at $17.6 trillion.
Lori Montgomery covers U.S. economic
policy and the federal budget, focusing on efforts to tame the national debt.
~~~
Border
bills stall in House, Senate
By Deirdre Walsh and
Tom Cohen, CNN
Fri August 1, 2014
Washington (CNN) -- On
what was supposed to be the last day before summer recess, dysfunction reigned
in Congress.
House Republican
leaders called off a vote Thursday on their $659 million emergency response to
the border influx from Central America
overwhelming immigration resources, unable to agree among themselves about what
to do.
That sparked a revolt
in their caucus over doing nothing, which forced GOP leaders to delay the start
of August break to discuss the matter further on Friday morning.
And in the Senate, a
$2.7 billion Democratic plan to respond to the immigrant surge failed in a
procedural vote.
Caucus revolt
House GOP cancels immigration bill vote.
Obama: Congress holding up progress .
Asked what happens now,
Speaker John Boehner said he'd be working with his caucus. Asked if that would go into the night, he
responded: "Oh yeah."
The Senate measure fell
short of the 60 votes needed to advance after Republicans opposed the measure
because it didn't include any policy changes to make it easier to deport
children back to Central America . Two moderate Democrats voted with Republicans
to block the bill.
The end result? Politicians eventually go home for five weeks
to campaign for the November congressional elections without sending President
Barack Obama legislation to address what both parties agree is a humanitarian
crisis at the southern border.
Volatile issue
Such inability to
compromise, let alone even pass any kind of legislation, showed the volatility
of the immigration issue in America
Obama asked for $3.7
billion in emergency funding to strengthen border security and speed up the
processing of the tens of thousands of arrivals -- many unaccompanied minors --
from Guatemala , Honduras and El Salvador
House Republicans
slashed that figure and added changes to a 2008 anti-trafficking law that would
remove the guarantee of an immigration hearing for children arriving on their
own from Central America .
Facing Democratic
opposition, GOP leaders needed almost all of their majority caucus to support
the bill.
However, many
Republicans -- mostly conservatives -- argued against approving any new money
and argued the measure failed to effectively limit Obama from acting on his own
to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country.
Obama criticism
They contend he has
failed to enforce immigration laws by halting deportations of some child
immigrants who arrived years earlier. And they now expect further unilateral steps
signaled by the White House that would allow more undocumented immigrants to
work in the United States
After a partisan debate
on the measure, an expected vote suddenly got canceled. A subsequent 90-minute GOP caucus meeting
behind closed doors resulted in the decision to keep going on Friday to get
something passed, participants said.
"I was prepared to
be very critical of the decision to go home but thankfully the leadership is
doing the right thing and saying we're going to get this thing through,"
said Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, while Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana
described it as "an emotional 'we've got to do something' kind of
cheerleading event."
Several House
Republicans told CNN that GOP leaders made it clear they won't hold a vote on
the border bill until they knew it had enough support t pass, even it that took
beyond Friday.
Embarrassing result
It was an embarrassing
result for Boehner and his new leadership team put together after former
Majority Leader Eric Cantor's primary defeat last month, displaying the
continuing deep divisions between conservative and more moderate House
Republicans that has caused similar episodes in the past on other spending
matters.
"This situation
shows the intense concern within our conference -- and among the American
people -- about the need to ensure the security of our borders and the
President's refusal to faithfully execute our laws," the House Republican leadership
said in a statement.
In one of the political
ironies of Washington
"There are
numerous steps the President can and should be taking right now, without the
need for congressional action, to secure our borders and ensure these children
are returned swiftly and safely to their countries," the statement said.
Shortly after, White
House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer tweeted: "By pulling their own bill, the
House GOP once again proves why the President must act on his own to solve
problems."
Unilateral action
White House spokesman Josh
Earnest said Obama will do what he can to address immigration reform because
House Republicans have refused to vote on a comprehensive measure passed last
year by the Senate.
"The
President can't do as much as Congress could do in terms of addressing some of
these problems, but we're gonna figure out what exactly the law will allow the
President to do and we're going to do as much as possible within the confines
of the law to address a problem whose solution Republicans in Congress continue
to actively block," Earnest said.
He told reporters the Obama
administration already shifted resources from the nation's interior to the
border to try to speed up the processing of new arrivals.
"We have surged some
technology to allow immigration judges and other ICE (Immigration and Customs
Enforcement) prosecutors and asylum officials the opportunity to try to whittle
down the bottleneck or the backlog of immigration cases that currently
exists," Earnest said. "We've
prioritized the cases of recent border crossers to try to process those cases
more efficiently."
Senate challenges
Republicans led by
conservative Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama say Obama plans to unilaterally
issue work permits to as many as 6 million immigrants living illegally in the
United States, which the critics call a violation of the Immigration and
Nationality Act.
Sessions tried to get
an amendment that would block such presidential action added to the Senate
border legislation, but Democrats defeated his motion.
However, Senate
Democrats were unable later to secure the 60 votes necessary to overcome a
budget challenge against the measure, which included $2.7 billion in
immigration funding along with $900 million to fight U.S.
wildfires and bolster Israel
Sessions raised the
budget challenge, noting the total $3.6 billion cost of the proposal would all
be borrowed.
CNN's
Dana Bash contributed to this report.
~~~
From Clinton to Obama: Why GOP
Impeachment Fever is Now So Predictable
Joe Conason
NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Saturday 2 August 2014
Making predictions is a perilous practice for any
political journalist. Too often, the
would-be seers turn out to be dead wrong — as can be attested to by George
Will, Michael Barone, Larry Kudlow and the humiliated boy genius of Fox News,
all of whom projected a big victory for Mitt Romney in 2012.
Yet there is at least one
future event that could be safely forecast years ago, almost as soon as
President Barack Obama entered the White House: a movement among House
Republicans to impeach the president.
In the conventional wisdom
that chronically afflicts Washington
The same forces that have
sought to ruin Obama from the beginning were hatching schemes to remove former
President Bill Clinton from office long before the unveiling of his reckless
indiscretions with Monica Lewinsky. Back
then, the talk of impeachment among zealots who schemed against Clinton , ranging from Pittsburgh
Claims that Clinton
The itch to impeach Clinton
As with Obama, they wanted
to undo his presidency, not because he had committed a supposed constitutional
offense but simply because his "liberal, globalist, socialist"
politics offended their sense of morality. Of course, they feel the same way about Obama
today. Indeed, from the perspective of
the insurrectionary tea party Republicans and other self-styled
"patriots," elections hardly matter at all, unless their candidate
wins. To them, a Democratic president
lacks legitimacy by definition.
For a pungent whiff of
irony, remember that electing Obama in 2008 was supposed to preserve us from
another decade of political trench warfare, instigated by those polarizing Clintons America
back into the partisan psychodrama of the '90s, or so the Washington
pundits warned us; better to choose that nice, inspirational,
bipartisan-sounding senator from Illinois
And how did that work out
for us? Scarcely through any fault of
Obama, the result has been no different from the scary projections of a
divisive Clinton
That was why gullible
rubes once bought hundreds of thousands of videotapes accusing the Clintons of
murder — and why the same kind of suckers bought into the race-baiting
"birther" insinuations about Obama. It is why a top House Republican will lie
blatantly on television about the Supreme Court's dozen rebukes of this
president's alleged constitutional overreach — when most of those cases
involved former President George W. Bush.
In temperament and
ideology, the tea party Republicans who run the House aren't much different
from the Newt Gingrich gang that went after Bill Clinton. They don't care
whether Obama won the election in a near landslide — or that seeking to remove
him would be very dangerous for our country and the world. If their party wins control of the Senate in
November, then the reactionary impulse to impeach may well become irresistible.
~~~
If the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll talk with you
again next week.
God Bless You All
&
God Bless the United States of America
Floyd
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