Memorial Day 2019

An Epitaph for the American Dead - Yvor Winters

Who should dare to write their praise
Do so in the plainest praise
Few names last, where many lie;
Even names of battles die.
These will stand for many more:
Wake, Bataan, Corregidor,
Attu, and the Coral Sea,
Africa and Sicily;
Callahan, who ran his ship
To the cannon's very lip.
Men, devoid of name and hour,
With direction gathered power;
Stripped of selfhood, each must be
Our hostage to eternity.

* * *

Today we honor the fallen.

Those who died while serving our nation.  As Lisa Respers France wrote five years ago, we need to remember the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day.  Today is not for me and my fellow veterans who are still among the living.  It is for those who died on active duty.

Not just on the battlefield, but any man or woman who died while serving on active duty.  Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., was the eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt.  He served in World War I and earned the Distinguished Service Cross and two Silver Stars for heroism.  He would land on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and earn the Medal of Honor for his gallantry on that field of battle.  Sadly he died of a heart attack weeks later.  We honor him on this day.  Not because of his extraordinary heroism, but because he died while serving.

Many people observe Memorial Day by barbecuing in their backyard, returning home from a long weekend and doing anything other than honoring our fallen.  That is understandable.  In the years after the end of the Vietnam War, the animosity shown to returning soldiers lessened.  After the end of the First Gulf War, those who returned were honored and saluted.  That still happens but in the opinion of this scribe, that affection for those who volunteered to serve has lessened.

I have written in this space in the past about the crew of Swan 38. They were part of the 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (WRS).   When I was stationed at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam, my unit maintained the aircraft of the 54th.  There were no aircraft lost during my 15 month tour of duty there.  We were not at war during that time.  I doubt that matters much to the families of the five men in my unit who died while I was there.  How they died is unimportant.  The fact is they died while serving.

We honor the 248 soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division who died in the crash of Arrow Air Flight 1285 on December 12, 1985 at Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, Canada.

We honor the 34 sailors aboard the USS Liberty who were killed when it was "mistakenly" attacked by Israel's Defense Force on June 8, 1967.

We honor the six Marines who drowned on April 8, 1956 during training at Parris Island, South Carolina in the so-called Ribbon Creek incident.

We honor the seven airmen who died on January 17, 1966 when a B-52 bomber collided with a KC-135 tanker over the Mediterranean.

We honor the 23 members of the crew of the Coast Guard vessel Blackthorn who were killed when it collided with a tanker.

We honor all of the fallen, today and every day.  RIP.

U.S. Navy limiting Tuition Assistance

The federal fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30.  Here is it only May and the United States Navy has run out of funding to provide tuition assistance for its personnel for the remainder of this fiscal year.

While the Vietnam Era G.I. Bill benefits were the primary educational benefit that attracted me to enlist in 1976, there was a tuition assistance program even then.  My first duty station was at Homestead Air Force Base to the south of Miami, FL.  I spent many hours in the Educational Services Office working on my college education.  That's where I first learned about the College Level Examination Program (CLEP).  Completing Basic Military Training gave me six hours of college credit.  The CLEP program gave me 30 more credits, just by taking tests.  I was right out of high school, but the exams were fairly easy.  Then I enrolled in the local community college and the Air Force was paying 75% of the tuition.  Later on they improved the program and they were paying 90% of the tuition.

Here is a memo distributed by Vice Admiral Robert P. Burke, currently the Chief of Naval Personnel.  It is worth noting that last month the #LiarInChief nominated VAdm Burke for promotion to full Admiral and the assignment as Vice Chief of Naval Operations.  That's the #2 post in the entire Navy.  One of the new rules describe in this memo takes effect on October 1, 2019.  At that point, personnel must have two years of service before they will be eligible to use the Tuition Assistance program.  I enlisted on 8/8/1977.  I arrived at Homestead AFB in late December of that year.  The following month I was taking college courses with the use of tuition assistance.  Two years seems too long, especially since some Navy enlistment contracts are for only two years after completing basic and technical training.  Offering educational benefits as an enlistment incentive and then failing to deliver is just wrong.

There is some sense in limiting the number of credits a sailor (or soldier, airman or Marine) can take in a year.  But not in a career.

Examining a three word phrase

"...legitimate legislative purpose..."

Those are the words that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin used once again in his letter of May 17, 2019 in response to a House subpoena for copies of the tax returns of the #LiarInChief.  In that letter, Secretary Mnuchin cites Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code.

There are two problems with citing that section of the IRC.  One is that the words legitimate and legislative do not appear anywhere in its text.  The second problem is this portion of that code section:

(f) Disclosure to Committees of Congress

(1) Committee on Ways and Means, Committee on Finance, and Joint Committee on Taxation

Upon written request from the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, the chairman of the Committee on Finance of the Senate, or the chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Secretary shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request, except that any return or return information which can be associated with, or otherwise identify, directly or indirectly, a particular taxpayer shall be furnished to such committee only when sitting in closed executive session unless such taxpayer otherwise consents in writing to such disclosure.

The bolding in that excerpt is mine.  The word shall does not leave room for interpretation.

Now if the only job of the Congress was to pass legislation, this requirement for a legitimate legislative purpose might make sense.  But that isn't its only job.  One of its jobs is to investigate.  That power of the Congress has been consistently upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States.  In 1957, then Chief Justice Warren wrote the following in an opinion:

“The power of the Congress to conduct investigations is inherent in the legislative process. That power is broad. It encompasses inquiries concerning the administration of existing laws as well as proposed or possibly needed statutes. It includes surveys of defects in our social, economic or political system for the purpose of enabling the Congress to remedy them. It comprehends probes into departments of the Federal Government to expose corruption, inefficiency or waste.”

Conservatives had no problem with spending millions on investigating the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi.

The longer that Mr. Trump refuses to open his tax returns to examination, the more we must wonder just what secrets are inside of those documents.

As to the specious statement that the privacy of Mr. Trump is at risk, a repeat of a portion of the excerpt from that IRC Code section seems appropriate:

except that any return or return information which can be associated with, or otherwise identify, directly or indirectly, a particular taxpayer shall be furnished to such committee only when sitting in closed executive session unless such taxpayer otherwise consents in writing to such disclosure. 

That is sufficient protection of the privacy of the information, while allowing the investigation to move forward.

The Law of Unintended Consequence

When Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a law banning almost any abortion within the state, it became the 7th state to pass such a bill in 2019.  The others are Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Utah.  Clearly this is a rush to get a case before the U.S. Supreme Court now that Brett Kavanaugh gives conservatives a 5-4 majority that could result in the landmark Roe v Wade decision being overturned.

They may well succeed in getting a case to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The question is, will it become a pyrrhic victory?  We've seen this scenario play out in last year's "off-cycle" elections where Democrats retook control of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Put aside all of the strategic efforts and work of people like Nancy Pelosi for a moment.  There were two issues that drove voters to get to their polling places last November.  One was the non-stop efforts of Republicans to overturn the Affordable Care Act.  The other was the fallout from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Now there will be another single issue that the effort to get out the vote can leverage to get people to vote these Republicans who want to dictate what women can do with their bodies, out of office.

To win in 2020, those of us who oppose things like banning abortion and the continued lunacy of the Orange Miscreant in the Oval Office need to do more than just vote.  We need to get others who think like us to get to the polls.

* * *

Speaking of the 2020 elections, how many more Democrats will throw their hats into the ring to seek the nomination to oppose #DishonestDon?  I find it way too early in the process to be heavily invested in any one candidate.  At this point I don't really care who the nominee is, or who their running mate is.  A scene from a 40 year old movie may say it best.

Whichever candidate I decide to support in the primaries, it doesn't matter who gets the nomination.  We need to get behind that nominee.  We need to bring those who are unhappy with the ultimate choice to realize that they need to vote AGAINST Donald Trump.  If they can't vote FOR the nominee, vote AGAINST Trump.  We need to retake the White House in 2020 to secure our nation's future.  To undo what has been done to our way of life.  To address key issues like the inequality of income and wealth, homelessness, healthcare and so on.  Not to worry about passing tax cuts that primarily benefit the richest Americans.  Remember this chart?

What we have now is not government for all of the people.  That must change!