History for June 4

History for June 4 - On-This-Day.com:

Birth anniversary of King George III (1738-1820).

Birth anniversary of singer Freddy Fender (1937-2006).

Happy Birthday! Angelina Jolie, Michelle Phillips, Dr. Ruth Wertheimer

1792 - Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Britain. 


1805 - Tripoli was forced to conclude peace with U.S. after conflicts over tribute. 


1812 - The Louisiana Territory had its name changed to the Missouri Territory. 


1896 - Henry Ford made a successful test drive of his new car in Detroit, MI. He called the vehicle was called a "Quadricycle." 


1939 - The first shopping cart was introduced by Sylvan Goldman in Oklahoma City, OK. It was actually a folding chair that had been mounted on wheels. 


1940 - The British completed the evacuation of 300,000 troops at Dunkirk, France. 


1942 - The Battle of Midway began. It was the first major victory for America over Japan during World War II. The battle ended on June 6 and ended Japanese expansion in the Pacific. 


1944 - During World War II, the U.S. Fifth Army entered Rome, which began the liberation of the Italian capital. 


1946 - Juan Peron was installed as Argentina's president. 






1947 - The House of Representatives approved the Taft-Hartley Act. The legislation allowed the President of the United States to intervene in labor disputes. 


1974 - The Cleveland Indians had "Ten Cent Beer Night". Due to the drunken and unruly fans the Indians forfeited to the Texas Rangers. 


1974 - Sally Murphy became the first woman to qualify as an aviator with the U.S. Army. 


1989 - In Beijing, Chinese army troops stormed Tiananmen Square to crush the pro-democracy movement. It is believed that hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators were killed. 


2003 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban "partial birth" abortions with a 282-139 vote. 

Obama was Against Negotiating with Terrorists Before He was in Favor of Negotiating with Terrorists

Obama was Against Negotiating with Terrorists Before He was in Favor of Negotiating with Terrorists:
"On Saturday, after negotiating with Taliban terrorists, the Obama regime announced the release of Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in a five-for-one swap, trading five GITMO Islamic terrorists for Bergdahl’s release.
However, Obama has not always been in favor of negotiating and making deals with terrorists, at least he said he wasn’t when in 2008 campaign mode."

Imprisoned Marine Calls Glenn Beck From Mexican Prison, Shares Disturbing New Details About His Confinement | TheBlaze.com

Imprisoned Marine Calls Glenn Beck From Mexican Prison, Shares Disturbing New Details About His Confinement | TheBlaze.com:
"U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi has been detained by Mexican authorities since March 31, when he says he accidentally drove across the border with three legally registered firearms in his vehicle. Much of his time has been spent in La Mesa Penitentiary, one of Mexico’s most dangerous and notorious prisons.
On Monday, Tahmooressi called Glenn Beck from prison with the help of his mother, Jill Tahmooressi, for a live radio interview about the circumstances that led to his arrest, and what has happened since. The 25-year-old also divulged a number of disturbing new details about his confinement."

VA scandal exposes greedy socialism

VA scandal exposes greedy socialism: Column:
"So Secretary Eric Shinseki is now ex-secretary Shinseki, and cleaning up the Department of Veterans Affairs' health care mess will now be someone else's job.
But there's a good chance that no matter who is in charge, the cleanup will be, basically, impossible. 
That's because the VA is government health care.

Not all that long ago, some people were boosting the VA's government-run nature as a plus.
Writing in the Washington Post during the debate over Obamacare, Ezra Klein suggested that we should expand VA coverage to non-veterans, because the government just does health care better than the private sector:
"Medicare is single-payer, but VA is actually socialized medicine, where the government owns the hospitals and employs the doctors. ... If you ordered America's different health systems (from) worst-functioning to best, it would look like this: individual insurance market, employer-based insurance market, Medicare, Veterans Health Administration."

.....And that captures an important point.
People sometimes think that government or "nonprofit" operations will be run more honestly than for-profit businesses because the businesses operate on the basis of "greed."
But, in fact, greed is a human characteristic that is present in any organization made up of humans. It's all about incentives.
And, ironically, a for-profit medical system might actually offer employees less room for greed than a government system. 
That's because VA patients were stuck with the VA.
If wait times were long, they just had to wait, or do without care. I
n a free-market system, a provider whose wait times were too long would lose business, and even if the employees faked up the wait-time numbers, that loss of business would show up on the bottom line.
That would lead top managers to act, or lose their jobs.
In the VA system, however, the losses didn't show up on the bottom line because, well, there isn't one.
Instead, the losses were diffused among the many patients who went without care -- visible to them, but not to the people who ran the agency, who relied on the cooked-books numbers from their bonus-seeking underlings.

And, contrary to what Klein suggests, that's the problem with socialism. 
The absence of a bottom line doesn't reduce greed and self-dealing — it removes a constraint on greed and self-dealing. 
And when that happens, ordinary people pay the price. 
Keep that in mind, when people suggest that free-market systems are somehow morally inferior to socialism."

Wouldn't it be interesting to see who owns NextEra and how much gov'ment moolah they got. And their political contributions. And their profit on this deal?---------DTE Energy buying wind park in Huron County

DTE Energy buying wind park in Huron County | Crain's Detroit Business:
"BROOKFIELD TOWNSHIP — DTE Energy Co. is buying one of two Pheasant Run wind parks in Michigan from a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources LLC.
The Detroit-based utility announced Monday that the 75-megawatt Pheasant Run II wind park in Huron County will be renamed the Brookfield Wind Park.
Operating since earlier this year, it will shut down for one to two weeks during the transition.
The wind park is located in Brookfield Township, about 95 miles north of Detroit.
A subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources will still own and operate Pheasant Run I, with DTE continuing to buy the energy.
Each wind park includes 44 wind turbines.
DTE says the 150 megawatts generated by the wind parks is enough to power about 70,000 homes."

This explains the entire minimum wage fiasco----Williams With Sowell - Minimum Wage, Maximum Folly

How Jay Carney Is Explaining Why the Berkdahl Swap Wasn’t Negotiating With Terrorists | Video | TheBlaze.com

How Jay Carney Is Explaining Why the Berkdahl Swap Wasn’t Negotiating With Terrorists | Video | TheBlaze.com:
"CNN anchor Chris Cuomo asked Carney, “Why not just call this what it was? You negotiated with these terrorists because he is a prisoner of war and you have this pledge of leaving no man or women behind?”

Monsters!------------Two 12-year-olds 'stabbed girl 19 times' to prove 'Slender Man' myth was real

READ THIS!
Two 12-year-olds 'stabbed girl 19 times' to prove 'Slender Man' myth was real | Mail Online:
"Two 12-year-old girls who are accused of viciously stabbing a classmate 19 times have been identified for the first time publicly since telling police that they plotted for months to commit murder.
Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier face attempted murder charges after attacking their friend, saying that they did so because they wanted to join the cult of the 'Slender Man' after reading about him online. 
The girls told investigators they believed the Slender Man was real and they wanted to prove it by slaughtering their friend after inviting her for a sleepover in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Geyser and Weier told police they read about the fictional character on a website known as Creepypasta Wiki, where scary stories are submitted by users.
One of the suspects is understood to have told police a user must kill someone in order to climb into the Slender Man's realm, CNN has reported. 
Court documents tell a horrifying story of two pre-teen girls from a quiet town who coldly carried out a brutal and intimate attack on another 12-year-old Saturday after the three spent two days sleeping over and playing hide-and-seek together. "

Iowa Homeowner Shoots Violent Home Invader 4 Times After Being Stabbed in the Neck

[Video] Iowa Homeowner Shoots Violent Home Invader 4 Times After Being Stabbed in the Neck: "Coalville, Iowa – A homeowner and a suspected home invader are both in an area hospital due to serious injuries this morning.
According to local media reports, a man knocked on the front door of a rural Iowa home just after 6am.
When the resident answered the door, the suspect stabbed him in the neck and attempted to force his way into the home.
Fortunately, the homeowner was armed and opened fire on the suspect, striking him four times center of mass."

FLASHBACK: Carney Said No Decision About Transferring Detainees for Bergdahl Would Happen 'Without Consulting Congress'

FLASHBACK: Carney Said No Decision About Transferring Detainees for Bergdahl Would Happen 'Without Consulting Congress' | Washington Free Beacon:
"White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said nearly a year ago that no decisions about bringing about the return of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl through detainee transfer would be done “without consulting Congress.”

“With regard to the transfer of Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, we have made — the United States has not made the decision to do that, though we do expect the Taliban to raise this issue in our discussion, if and when those discussions happen,” Carney said.
“As we have long said, however, we would not make any decisions about transfer of any detainees without consulting with Congress and without doing so in accordance with U.S. law.”
Carney made the remarks at the press briefing on June 21, 2013. Less than a year later, Congress was not informed as the Obama administration agreed to release five Taliban leaders in exchange for Bergdahl."

Disgusting greed of Obamacare aparatchiks punishes our veterans-------VA Hospital Axed Program Approved $1 Million Bonuses

VA Hospital Axed Program Approved $1 Million Bonuses | The Daily Caller:
"The Memphis Veteran Administration (VA) Medical Center approved over $1 million in bonuses months before closing a therapeutic aquatic pool citing a lack of funds.
 The Memphis VA Medical Center handed out $1,005,644 in bonuses for its approximately 2,000 employees in fiscal year 2010"

Why the ‘Devastated’ Parents of Soldier Reportedly Killed Searching for Freed POW Bergdahl Are Alleging a ‘Big Cover-Up Like Benghazi’ | TheBlaze.com

Why the ‘Devastated’ Parents of Soldier Reportedly Killed Searching for Freed POW Bergdahl Are Alleging a ‘Big Cover-Up Like Benghazi’ | TheBlaze.com:
"Andy Andrews told the Daily Mail that the military did not mention that his son was killed while searching for Bergdahl, but after his release, several soldiers who served with Andrews in Afghanistan emailed him to tell him what really happened.
“The soldiers said they had to sign a letter saying that they would not discuss this,” the father said. “I have no way of proving that apart from what they said. We cannot tell you how devastated we are that the government would do this. They lied to us.”

“It’s a big cover-up like Benghazi, just like everything Obama has done. We want the truth to come out,” he added."

Even if the minimum wage doesn’t reduce employment levels, which is unlikely, it can still make workers worse off

Even if the minimum wage doesn’t reduce employment levels, which is unlikely, it can still make workers worse off | AEIdeas:

There is now some anecdotal evidence to support the adverse secondary effects of minimum wage hikes in the wake of the increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour in the Seattle suburb of SeaTac for certain service industries on January 1 of this year. 

This article outlines some of the negative impacts the $15 per hour “economic death wish” is having on businesses and employees in SeaTac, and this report from the Asian Weekly is especially illuminating:

While attending an event at a SeaTac hotel last week, I met two women who receive the $15/hour minimum wage. SeaTac has implemented the new law on Jan. 1. I met the women while they were working. One was a waitress and the other was cleaning the hallway.

“Are you happy with the $15 wage?” I asked the full-time cleaning lady. “It sounds good, but it’s not good,” the woman said. “Why?” I asked. “I lost my 401k, health insurance, paid holiday, and vacation,” she responded. “No more free food,” she added. The hotel used to feed her. Now, she has to bring her own food. Also, no overtime, she said. She used to work extra hours and received overtime pay. What else? I asked. “I have to pay for parking,” she said.

I then asked the part-time waitress, who was part of the catering staff.

“Yes, I’ve got $15 an hour, but all my tips are now much less,” she said. Before the new wage law was implemented, her hourly wage was $7. But her tips added to more than $15 an hour. Yes, she used to receive free food and parking. Now, she has to bring her own food and pay for parking.

Bottom Line: Even in cases when the minimum wage doesn’t have adverse effects on employment levels, which is highly unlikely, it most certainly does have adverse, secondary effects on low-skilled workers, as the anecdotal evidence above suggests.

Meet the 6 heroes that died trying to save Bowe Bergdahl

Meet the 6 heroes that died trying to save Bowe Bergdahl | Rare:

OoooKaay. They "give" us free food and now they're gonna "nudge" us into eating what is healthy instead of tasty?------- USDA Creating $1.9 Million Research Center Devoted to Changing American’s Food Choices

What could possibly go wrong?
USDA Creating $1.9 Million Research Center Devoted to Changing American’s Food Choices | Washington Free Beacon:
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is creating a $2 million research center to study how the government can “nudge” Americans toward making healthier eating habits.
The agency is currently accepting grant applications to establish a “Center for Behavioral Economics and Healthy Food Choice Research,” which will facilitate studies such as how breaking up combo meals at fast food restaurants would influence customers.
....“With a total outlay of $108.9 billion in FY 2013, food and nutrition assistance accounted for 72 percent of USDA’s budget,” the announcement said.
“Approximately 1 in 4 Americans participated in at least 1 of the 15 food and nutrition assistance programs at some point during FY 2013, making these programs fundamental to the nutritional well-being of millions of Americans.”
“These diverse activities share the common goal of improving the nutrition, food security, and health of American consumers,” it said.
The USDA claims that food choices are not made in a “purely rational manner,” but are influenced by food manufacturers and retailers.
“The idea of complete rationality is challenged by repeated observance of cognitive biases such as hyperbolic discounting that can lead to decisions that seem to over-value short-term benefits such as the taste or convenience of foods versus long-run benefits such as health,” the grant announcement said."

Pentagon Bergdhal Deal Political Criminal Dangerous Taliban

Pentagon Bergdhal Deal Political Criminal Dangerous Taliban | The Daily Caller:
"Here is the truth:
The deal to trade five senior Taliban detainees to secure the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdhal was political.
It was publicly justified with lies, it breaks decades of U.S. policy, it breaks American law, it puts Americans at risk, it undermines the government of Afghanistan, and it passes responsibility on to the next administration.
But first of all, it was political.
But no, it was not to take the spot light off of the failures at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Simply stated, it was because so long as Bergdhal remained in Taliban captivity in Pakistan, the Obama administration would never be able to close the chapter of the failed Afghanistan campaign it has owned since approving — and then under-resourcing — a surge of U.S. forces in the country. "

Dealing with the devil-----Republican Push For Higher Minimum Wage Likely Has Anti-Taxpayer Strings Attached

Republican Push For Higher Minimum Wage Likely Has Anti-Taxpayer Strings Attached [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"Top Republican officials supported a higher minimum wage and tied it to inflation to get Democrats to support a measure to double the gas tax and secure Gov. Rick Snyder the extra money he wants for road funding, according to a widely accepted story out of Lansing."

Sudanese woman sentenced to die for Christian faith to be freed, report says | Fox News

Sudanese woman sentenced to die for Christian faith to be freed, report says | Fox News:
"The Sudanese woman sentenced to death earlier this month after refusing to renounce her Christian faith will reportedly be freed in the next few days.
A foreign ministry official told the BBC that Meriam Ibrahim, 27, is guaranteed religious freedom in the country, despite a judge's earlier ruling that she should be hanged for apostasy."

Muskegon "wind power" (at the water filtration plant) classic

We took this video yesterday at the Pere Marquette beach.
It was very windy.
Great day for all that free, dependable wind power.
Right?

It's coming, folks! They're coming for your hard earned money. Even those of you on "free" gov'ment moolah-------Federal Gas Tax Hikes Proposed by Senator Carper (democrat)

Federal Gas Tax Hikes Proposed by Senator Carper | Tax Foundation:
"The Federal Highway Trust Fund is due to go bust this summer, in part because the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon has not been raised since 1994.
In these 20 years, inflation has effectively reduced the tax rate by about one third.
Senator Carper of Delaware has recently proposed raising the gas tax “three or four cents a year for up to four years” and then indexing it to inflation.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says increasing the federal gas tax 35 cents from the current 18.4 cents to 53.4 cents, and indexing it to inflation would raise $30 billion in the first year and $40 to $50 billion a year after that due to inflation.
CBO is counting the reduction in income tax and payroll tax revenue resulting from the increase in business costs."

History for June 3

History for June 3 - On-This-Day.com:

150th birth anniversary of Ransom Olds (1864-1950), American automobile inventor and manufacturer.

Birth anniversaries of Josephine Baker (1906-1975), Tony Curtis (1925-2010), Jefferson Davis (1808-1889)

Happy Birthday! Raul Castro, Larry McMurtry, Rafael Nadal

1098 - Christian Crusaders of the First Crusade seized Antioch, Turkey. 


1539 - Hernando De Soto claimed Florida for Spain.
 

1784 - The U.S. Congress formally created the United States Army to replace the disbanded Continental Army. On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress had created the Continental Army for purposes of common defense and this event is considered to be the birth of the United States Army.
 

1805 - A peace treaty between the U.S. and Tripoli was completed in the captain's cabin on board the USS Constitution. 


1851 - The New York Knickerbockers became the first baseball team to wear uniforms. 


1856 - Cullen Whipple patented the screw machine.
 

1923 - In Italy, Benito Mussolini granted women the right to vote. 


1937 - The Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, married Wallis Warfield Simpson. 


1938 - The German Reich voted to confiscate so-called "degenerate art." 

Obama at West Point: 'Effort to Combat Climate Change...Will Help Shape Your Time in Uniform' | CNS News

Obama at West Point: 'Effort to Combat Climate Change...Will Help Shape Your Time in Uniform' | CNS News:
"President Barack Obama told the graduating Army officers at West Point on Wednesday that fighting "climate change" will "help shape your time in uniform.
"Keep in mind, not all international norms relate directly to armed conflict," Obama said at the commencement ceremony for the U.S. Military Academy. "

Is Teaching American History Racist? | TheBlaze.com

Is Teaching American History Racist? | TheBlaze.com:
"A white Michigan middle school teacher remains suspended two weeks after he was placed an administrative leave.
His crime?

Teaching history."

Dean and Frank

Captain Capitalism: Dean and Frank

Don't volunteers deserve a living wage?------A Modest Proposal to Ban Volunteering

A Modest Proposal to Ban Volunteering - Reason.com:
President Obama and congressional Democrats are hoping they can make political hay out of campaigning to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray wants to raise it to $15.
And social-justice activists there say even that falls far too short.
How right they are!
But if we are serious about addressing economic inequality and restoring social justice, then a minimum wage increase should be just the start. 
We also need to outlaw volunteering.
.....If Scouting asked somebody to do it for money, the organization would have to pay at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
Even if somebody were willing to do the job for $5 an hour — for the experience or the résumé-padding or whatever — s/he couldn't.
It's against the law.
Well, then!
If we don't let someone work for $5 an hour, why do we let anybody work for $0 an hour?
We're a better country than that, people.
.....Look, it's really simple. 
If people aren't allowed to work for $7.24 an hour, even if they want to, then they darn well shouldn't be allowed to work for $0 an hour either. 
To quote America's greatest president, Barack Obama, "It's time to give America a raise."

Five Hard Questions Surrounding Obama’s Decision to Free Gitmo Prisoners | TheBlaze.com

Five Hard Questions Surrounding Obama’s Decision to Free Gitmo Prisoners | TheBlaze.com:

"Republican leaders blasted the Obama administration on Saturday, saying the President had broken the law by going forward with the exchange without giving Congress 30 days notice.

Why couldn’t the exchange have waited for another month to comply with the law?
“We had information that (Bergdahl’s) health could be deteriorating rapidly,” Defense Secretary Hagel said on Sunday. “We found an opportunity (to secure his release), we took that opportunity; I’ll stand by that decision.”

BACKFIRE! ‘Moms Demand Action’ Kicked Out of OK Restaurant for ‘THREATENING’ Gun Owners

BACKFIRE! ‘Moms Demand Action’ Kicked Out of OK Restaurant for ‘THREATENING’ Gun Owners | Progressives Today:

The anti-Second Amendment group “Moms Demand Action” has been running around the country demanding chain restaurants disallow weapons in their establishments – even when the carrier is obeying all laws.

So when activists from the group encountered a group of open carriers lunching a Tulsa Chipotle, the tables were turned.

David Risselada of Freedom Outpost reports:

......Moms Demand Action on the other hand, seemed to be demanding a little much on this Saturday afternoon as they approached management and asked them to throw OKOCA members out of the restaurant because they were “offended” by thepresence of guns.

.....The manager refused to kick out OKOCA and even gave them free drinks. MDA activists then proceeded to take pictures of the gun owners and attempted to portray them as intimidating and threatening. The management wasn’t having any of it; he threw Moms Demand Action out of his store!

Bergdahl’s victims : This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Bergdahl’s victims : This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

"Five years ago, I was getting emails from folks who knew what happened in the Bergdahl incident. 
Folks from around the US in positions that would have first hand knowledge as well as people who were in Afghanistan. 
I made the decision that I wouldn’t say a disparaging word about what folks were telling me. 
Unlike Bergdahl, apparently, I knew that once the Taliban or Haqqani thought that he had no value to them, he would be a headless body in a shallow grave, irrespective of the actions that led to his capture. 
So, for five years, I kept my mouth shut. 
Now some of the people who served with Bergdahl are coming out with their stories. 
Like Nathan Bradley Bethea in the pages of the Daily Beast;

"Our battalion suffered six fatalities in a three-week period.
On August 18, an IED killed Private First Class Morris Walker and Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen during a reconnaissance mission.
On August 26, while conducting a search for a Taliban shadow sub-governor supposedly affiliated with Bergdahl’s captors, Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss was shot in the face and killed.
On September 4, during a patrol to a village near the area in which Bergdahl vanished, an insurgent ambush killed Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews and gravely wounded Private First Class Matthew Martinek, who died of his wounds a week later.
On September 5, while conducting a foot movement toward a village also thought affiliated with Bergdahl’s captors, Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey stepped on an improvised land mine.
He died the next day."

It is important to name all these names.
For the veterans of the units that lost these men, Bergdahl’s capture and the subsequent hunt for him will forever tie to their memories, and to a time in their lives that will define them as people. He has finally returned.
Those men will never have the opportunity.
Now we read that the Taliban and Haqqani are doing their happy dance.
From AFP;

Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar Sunday hailed the release of five senior insurgents in exchange for US soldier Bowe Bergdahl as a “big victory”.“I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the entire Afghan Muslim nation, all the mujahideen and to the families and relatives of the prisoners for this big victory regarding the release of five Taliban leaders from Guantanamo prison,” he said in a rare statement.

I can only hope that the folks who do that stuff put GPS trackers up each of their asses and as soon as they’re released, the GPS trackers are replaced by Hellfire missiles.

Bend over folks... and turn out those lights....and air conditioners ..... and factories.....!-------Obama To Unilaterally Impose New Carbon Emission Caps On America’s Power Plants

Obama To Unilaterally Impose New Carbon Emission Caps On America’s Power Plants:
In his latest and most sweeping effort to combat “climate change” (aka, “global warming,” “climate disruption,” “the end of the world as we know it”), President Barack Obama has directed the Environmental Protection Agency to issue new rules on carbon emissions by America’s power plants.
It’s not like he didn’t tell us from the beginning exactly what he planned to do. 
For those in need of a refresher, here’s Obama in 2009:
“Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity prices will necessarily skyrocket.”

...On Monday, Obama’s EPA will unveil a new rule limiting (by 30%!) the amount of carbon emissions from America’s coal power plants:
The rule will impose a cap on the level of emissions existing power plants are permitted and it will provide each state a series of options to implement the cap.

.....“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can;it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”