Living in Nevada and having worked in the casinos in my younger years, I learned somebody who ‘encourages’ others to spend their hard-earned money, is a shill. Well, the U.S. met a professional shill during the President’s ‘State of the Union’ address.

The woman whose story of economic recovery Obama introduced during his latest SOTU is a former Democratic campaign staffer.  Rebekah Erler is a former Democratic campaign field organizer for Washington state’s Senator Patty Murray.

In fact, Erler’s been used by Obama for political events in the past. Last June, Obama spent a “day in the life” of Erler so he could have “an opportunity to communicate directly with the people he’s working for every day.”

What a fraud!

Authored by Texas Congressman Michael McCaul, Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, H.R. 399 (the Secure Our Borders First Act of 2015) is jus’ another ‘Trojan Horse,’ designed to make us thing the ‘new congress’ is doing something about border security. Why?

The bill requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to provide “a comprehensive operational plan” for gaining and maintaining control of “high traffic areas” within two-years, and “operational control along the southwest border” within five.  It also outsources congressional authority to a border commission, appointed in part by the president, to decide whether the border’s secure.

Although this bill does tighten up the trigger for implementation after the submission of a plan, it fails to eliminate base salaries for political appointees who fail to make and construct the enforcement measures while it blocks bonuses and travel on official government airplanes for those officials.  And it has only one clear deadline –18 months to build the required fencing and two-years to meet operational control over “high traffic areas.”

Finally, while bill has lots of technology to help secure the border, the only real construction is an additional 27 miles of the effective double-layered fence. Unfortunately, the bill weakens the 2006 law requiring the construction of a 700-mile double-layered fence.

Republican leaders recently passed a series of proposals to scale back several actions taken by President Obama, but beyond this, Congress on both sides of the aisle still plan to pass comprehensive immigration reform. In its strict definition, “reform” means to change into an improved form or condition, by amending or removing faults or abuses.

Yet don’t expect anything to ‘change’ or ‘improve,’ instead watch for more ‘faults’ and ‘abuses,’ to increase.

It was a difficult hour-and-a-half to sit through as I listened to the little man talking on the television. It was President Obama’s sixth “State of the Union” address, and like the five before he took credit for things he didn’t do.

“At this moment — with a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry and booming energy production — we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth,” Obama said

The problem is — the economy still hasn’t recovered.

According to the Associated Press, lower-paying jobs are fueling job growth; part-time jobs also remain higher with 1.7 million fewer people holding down full-time jobs than when the recession began in December 2007.

“And the faster hiring hasn’t pushed up wages much,” the AP continues. “They have been growing at a tepid pace of about 2 percent a year since the recession ended 5 1/2 years ago. That’s barely ahead of inflation and below the annual pace of about 3.5 percent to 4 percent that is typical of a fully healthy economy.”

And their assessment only gets worse.

“That has left the income of the typical household below its pre-recession level. Inflation-adjusted median household income reached $53,880 in November 2014, according to an analysis of government data by Sentier Research,” they continue. “That is about 4 percent higher than when it bottomed out in 2011. But it is still 4.5 percent lower than the $56,447 median income in December 2007, the month the recession began.”

As for any credit took about “booming energy production,” you and I know that he’s done everything in his power to drive down both the oil and coal industries. Increases in oil production needs to be credited to ‘wild-caters’ fracking on private lands.

Obama also took a shot at supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline, saying, “Let’s set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline. Let’s pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan that could create more than 30 times as many jobs per year.”

Adding to his claims on increased energy production, Obama also spoke of ‘climate-change/global warming,’ warning of rising ocean levels, more intense heat waves, and perilous droughts and floods, vowing, “I will not let this Congress endanger that health of our children by turning back the clock on our efforts.”

There is so much more, but for now, I need a couple of aspirin — my head is about to explode.

The U.S. Embassy in Yemen is preparing for possible evacuation, after somebody fired on an embassy staff-car. Fortunately, there were no one injuries.

But…but…but…

In September 2014, President Obama cited Yemen as a positive example for counter terror planners around the globe.  That same month, radical Islamists overran the country’s capital, Sana’a after moving out of their northern Yemen stronghold.

The “Yemen Model” was first put in place before 2011’s Arab Spring, creating more chaos across the region and leaving the government paralyzed. The deal dictated redistribution of power among competing political parties.

Compared to Syria and Egypt, the relative ease of the transition in Yemen inspired glowing rhetoric from Obama. However his “Yemen Model” has been helpless to prevent al-Qaeda attacks despite being notified of their specifics days and weeks before.

Since then, radical Islamists associated with Abdulmalik al-Houthi, the leader of an anti-American Shia, have increased their attacks against the central government.  Then overnight, they took the country’s presidential palace.

President Abd Rabbuh Manṣūr Hadi was not at the palace, but another residence of his another part of the city, is also under attack. It’s unknown if he’s at that location.

Meanwhile, this evening Obama will speak, telling us how and way he wants to raise our taxes — but don’t expect him to mention “radical Islam,” or his failed “Yemen Model.”

It had been on display for nearly four-months. But now a U.S. Army recruiting station in Phoenix, Arizona, has been ordered by higher-ups to remove a sign on display outside of its office that read, “On a mission for both God and country.”

A spokesperson for the Army’s Recruiting Command said signboard was created by local staff and that headquarters would have never permitted it. The removal came a few hours after it was brought to the attention of a commanding officer.

According the DOD, there are 47 approved taglines in the Accessions Support Brigade catalog for recruiting posters. Some of them include ‘Army Strong,’ ‘Soldier’s Creed,’ ‘Warrior Ethos,’ and ‘It’s Not For Everyone.’

“Pro aris et focis,” a Latin phrase literally meaning “for our altars and our hearths,” or, for God and country, has been used by military regiments for centuries. Sadly, neither history nor tradition means anything anymore.

Fearfully, as the American military leadership and the Obama Administration turn from God – God is likely to do the same in return.

As President Obama is busy telling Europe that it needs to do a better job of assimilating foreign Muslims, he’s releasing terrorists willy-nilly.  Recently, he freed five jihadists, all from Yemen, from Guantanamo and sent to Estonia and Oman for resettlement.

All five were captured in Pakistan and detained as al-Qaida fighters. Each were cleared for release since at least 2009 but congress has balked at repatriating them back to Yemen, where that government is supposedly battling an al-Qaida insurgency.

There are now 122 prisoners at Gitmo, including 54 who have been approved for transfer. Of those cleared, 47 are Yemeni and will have to be resettled in other countries, given the security situation in their homeland.

So what is Obama’s end-game?

Let’s put it this way — Al Qaeda in Yemen has taken responsibility for the planning, financing and carrying out the attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo and it claims responsibility for a recent bomb that killed 30 in a crowded Nigerian market place. Meanwhile, the Whitehouse refuses to admit the attacks were committed by ‘radical Islamists.’

You’re intelligent enough to figure out the rest.

There it was — propped up against a juniper tree in Nevada’s Snake Mountains — an unloaded Winchester Model 1873 repeating rifle. Now, researchers are scouring old newspapers, bills of sale, family histories and handwritten letters, hoping to discover its history.

It’s generally known that the Winchester Company of New Haven, Connecticut produced 720,000 of the model from 1873 to 1916. The weapon featured an oil-finished walnut stock, blued-steel crescent butt plate and a 20-inch-long octagon barrel.

This particular repeating rifle was manufactured in 1882, learned by the fact that every gun was stamped with a serial number. It was shipped from the Connecticut warehouse that year; no one has been able to locate who ordered the gun, where it went or how it came to be on a Nevada hillside.

Also during that same year, Morgan Earp and gunfighter Billy Claiborne are both killed in Tombstone; Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford; Congress outlaws polygamy and passes the Chinese Exclusion Act; John D. Rockefeller creates the Standard Oil Trust, Charles Darwin, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Mary Todd Lincoln all die; and and future U.S. President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is born.

Discovered on a wooded, craggy hillside, overlooking the Utah border to its east – the rifle’s location conjures the idea of a possible gun fight. It also suggests a cowboy or sheep-herder out looking for a lost animal or some lonely prospector, flustered when he thought he’d struck the mother lode.

While I’m only speculating here, I think someone shot a buck or some other wild game, set the rifle against the tree to dress the kill, and then couldn’t find the spot where the rifle was resting. Stranger things have happened in the high Nevada backcountry.

There’s a great story behind this once-lost ‘Winny’ and until it’s known, speculation will continue to blow — along with Nevada’s high-desert wilds.

Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons.
Relationships must be chosen wisely.
It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company.
There’s no need to rush.
If something is meant to be, it will happen — in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason.
Fall in love when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely.

Married for 28-years, instead of dining by candlelight, soft music, and a getaway at some retreat, we ate lunch at P.F. Chang’s.  Mary paid, using a gift card she received at Christmas time.

Lunch was preceded by a stop at Lowe’s Hardware, where we bought a new range for Mary. She’s been doing without one after the bottom element in the stove burned out a couple of weeks ago.

But our anniversary adventure didn’t end there. We also when to Walmart and bought me some new underwear and socks.

Exciting!

Now, some might say the romance has escaped our marriage, but no one can say we lack a certain practicality and love for one another — plus a healthy sense humor.

I’m already planning next year; a refrigerator and new tennis shoes.

As a point of disclosure — I used to work for Cumulus Media at their Reno radio station KKOH 780 AM. And I don’t like what I’m hearing.

It is hard for me to listen to a station being run by management in Atlanta, Georgia, which forces on-air programming so general in nature that it doesn’t service its listening area. It’s even harder still to hear local radio staff struggle to overcome such a handicap.

To make matters even worse, Cumulus Media has now broken its ties with ABC News Radio, which mean’s KOH will no longer air ABC News at the top of the hour.  Instead, CNN, which doesn’t identify itself during news broadcasts, will provide all Cumulus stations with content.

The new arrangement began this month as ABC’s agreement with Cumulus Media came to an end.  Furthermore, Cumulus has ended its partnership with the Associated Press.

Now KOH’s news staff will have to rely heavily on other media sources for content, including their news partner, ABC affiliate KOLO TV. Maybe Cumulus chief executive officer Lew Dickey thinks such tactics will make the listener think their local station is creating all of its own content – but he’s mistaken.

It’s not the first time he’s made a gaffe that damaged the quality of the on-air content and programming. Shortly after Cumulus purchased Citadel, rumors surfaced that both Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity were to be axed.

In the end, Hannity left only to be replaced by Michael Savage, while Limbaugh somehow managed to hang on.

Also causing uproar was the sudden dismissal of long-time KOH programming favorite, “Coast to Coast.” The shows’ 25-year-plus run ended when Cumulus decided to replace it with erudite New York talker John Batchelor and the overnight trucker-program, “Red Eye Radio.”

Memo to Lew: the listener isn’t stupid, but CEO’s who think they are – are.