I guess Melania has officially flipped the script. I mean, she is an immigrant who has hired a natural born citizen to do a job she finds disgusting.
She probably would give Natalie a raise. With Natalie around, Melanoma no longer has to touch Felon47 or even be seen with him.Now, given the title of this piece, you would not be considered unreasonable if you were to assume it was a piece about Felon47 and his criminal cabal. You'd be wrong but not unreasonable.
In this case, I am talking about me. I'm the liar. In my defense, the lies to which I refer are not malicious. They will not be of financial benefit to me nor will they increase my social status.
The lies specifically reference experiences I had during my time in the USN ('73-'83). As a routine part of my duties, I served on several different ships. I was assigned to the USS Mitscher DDG-35 as a PCS transfer after my first tour of duty in Rota Spain. However, that first tour of duty and my last tour which happened to be the same place/command, involved temporary duty on a variety of vessels. Troop carriers, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and whatever I have forgotten. I was ferried about on helicopters, and fixed wing cargo planes. On at least two occasions I was on a plane that "trapped" on an aircraft carrier.
While I was trained as a Cryptologic Technician - Operator, I had several ancillary duties. I supervised the loading of a 5" gun. I donned a purple vest and participated in vertical replenishment operations(VERTREP). I hung onto a line while green water crashed down on me and my shipmates during underway replenishment (UNREP). I cleaned, I drove, I trained others.
When I lie about my USN experiences, whether I am discussing official duties or stupid stuff done on liberty, it is generally because the truth is not believable for folks that were not there. I do not exaggerate anything, instead I tone it down. The things I actually saw or participated in or heard about would be rejected by Hollywood for being too over the top.
I strongly suspect that I am not the only one that lied to make things believable. As a matter of fact, I would be amazed to find out that the conditions aboard the USS Lincoln were not significantly worse than what has been reported so far. I served on ships that had a malfunctioning desalination unit and as such, had to go inport or pipe the water over during an UNREP. I have seen days when every meal was hotdogs - breakfast, lunch, dinner and midrats (meal for those on an overnight shift). I have tied ropes to my dungarees (work clothes) to wash them by towing them behind the ship because fresh water was too important to use for laundry. I never mentioned any of that stuff to my family. As far as I knew, no one else did either. We just put up with it, bitched about it, and continued to perform our duties.
I'm not here to tell you that Sailors don't complain. Complaining was as common as cussing. The thing about complaining though, is that its effect on readiness is minimal. OTOH, the issues being described by those aboard ships and stations in the Middle East, will absolutely affect readiness whether anyone complains or not.
If you are not there and have not been there then your best bet is to listen to those who are there or have been there. The top of the chain of command knows what is reported to them and those who would like to be promoted (READ: everyone) are likely to at least try to soften the truth so as to minimize negative repercussions.
I believe the Sailors. The experiences that I had or observed are the reason I believe the Sailors. The fact that I have been places and done things in the USN that I still tone down when I tell the stories will not let me doubt those Sailors. I can't tell you how to feel but I feel sympathy for the Sailors and disgust for Felon47 and his miserable band of incompetents. I feel intense anger for the spineless republicans that continue to enable the worst POTUS in history.
Yesterday I heard from one of the veterans that used to post here that another one of us had shuffled off this mortal coil. A hearty and well meant Fair Winds & Following Seas to an old Grunt.
Gordon, you are relieved. Until my turn comes, I have the watch.
On several occasions, I have pointed out that if you do not look out of the mirror at Felon47, he does not give a shit about you. The reich-wing simply dismisses such claims and those on the left that think I am being hyperbolic generally do so quietly.
Take a look at who was left on the plane that was effectively used as a decoy target when the Felon was leaving Turkey. No amount of slurping on the Orange Shit Gibbon's ass was sufficient to guarantee a seat on the plane the Secret Service considered safe enough for POTUS to be on.
Seriously, go research who was left on the plane that was credibly threatened by a nation we are at war with and whose children we have killed. With certain people, loyalty is a one way street. It was true when I first started making the claim but now there is no reason for anyone to not know it.
"Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make."
Okay, y'all need to watch this video from Belle Of The Ranch. Then you need to extrapolate widely. I'd say show it to your reich-wing family and friends but, apparently once they get a taste for Felon47's ass, that is all they are willing to get their heads around.
We are notoriously short-sighted in our thinking in this nation, especially the last 20 years or so. At least the sane(ish) among us need to put some effort into changing that.
My friend Bill Foster (ET USN retired) published his $0.04 worth on his Substack after he published my piece there. So I am publishing his here. Add your own if you are so inclined.
Steve’s thoughts on military members following orders and performing collateral duties yesterday inspired me to write a few thoughts down.
It often surprises me the differences between military and civilian life. For instance, in the military, you have a clear path and a goal. Always. You’re an E-4 and you want to be an E-5. One of the most common things you are told is that you should be observing your boss and thinking “what do I need to do to get his job?” It’s powerful. There is always a goal and always things you can do to move in that direction. When I got out, I took a silly retail job while I looked for a “real” job. The attitude which I was consumed with of wanting your boss’s job didn’t work there at all. It was seen as threatening. In the military, your boss doesn’t care, partly because she wants her boss’s job but especially because she will be leaving soon. After all, everyone moves every 2-4 years. Later, when I got my “real” job, it was completely the opposite. There were 50 people and everyone was in their spot. There was no moving up without moving out except in certain specific cases. Again, quite a culture shock even though half of us were ex-military.
Like Steve, I wasn’t ever only responsible for my job (Electronics Technician – Calibration). At various times, I worked in the CIC, or I was a repair locker leader, a safety officer, a urinalysis coordinator (yes, that involved seeing most of the 1200 or so dicks on the ship). I was a swimmer. I ran a newspaper for two years. I played racquetball. I was public affairs officer (running the newspaper was part of that). I drove a bus to Graceland for a very short period. The point is that in the military, you are rarely supervised closely. You will have at least a couple jobs, and you will certainly hear if you mess one of them up but mostly, you just work.
Another thing that is different than most civilians expect is that the Navy was – although we didn’t call it that at the time – the most DEI, woke, socialist place I ever worked. When I was in Kosovo, someone found some Montana militia stuff and some racist songs on the computer of a dude who worked for me. He was on a plane home two days later. I am not saying there wasn’t any racism, but you are absolutely working with or for Asians, Latinos, Blacks, and Women. My first two jobs after I got out, I only worked with white men but that doesn’t happen in the Navy with its huge black population. In fact, the Army is 50% African American.
So, the composition of the military means you learn diversity and how to work with other people, but you also get taught this stuff. A LOT. Most promotions come with a 2–4-week school with units on racism and sexism. You will attend one-week schools on anger management, on drinking management, on styles of leadership that involve listening to others.
The TV stations at sea and overseas were a service called Armed Forces Radio and Television. Because the majority of the content was donated, by law they had to be commercial free. Instead, they made their own PSAs which ran instead. Don’t Drink. Exercise. Don’t hit your kids. Drive the speed limit. Do the right thing. Threse are your rights. They were incessant and annoying, but I think they were effective. I mean, they may not do much but it’s gotta be better than ten beer commercials in a row. I hated them back then but now I kinda miss them.
And I don’t want to make everything sound rosy. All this work was necessary because there were a lot of stupid people and a lot of incorrect attitudes. Misogyny was rampant. But it was much better when I retired than when I started (Look up something called Operation Tailhook for why). When I entered male homosexuality was greatly suppressed, to the degree that 20-year-old me genuinely believed there were no gays on my ship. We looked at “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” as helpful because at least after that gays could be open and they were not before. The navy was dealing with policemen who shot one another playing quick draw, marines who gave each other tattoos with coat hangers heated up on irons, marines who sexually assaulted their bulldog with radio antennas, drunk drivers killing a goat in Spain, over enthusiastic hazing etc. Those are all things I witnessed.
In the military, there are no private lives. If you get in a bar fight, your commander will know so quickly that it is better if you tell your boss before he finds out. If your wife gets three speeding tickets, you be in someone’s office getting chewed out. If your kid fails school, you’ll hear about it. People could and did get sent to another place for their family’s behavior.
Free complete health care, discounted grocery stores with no tax, free gyms, department stores tax free that could carry anything they wished, your boss knows and controls everything, educational messages on TV, mandatory behavioral training, it is truly a different lifestyle and both in good ways and bad ways, it is way more socialist than anything I experienced in America otherwise.
If any of you were gullible enough to think that some GOPers might have grown a spine or discovered patriotism, the Blanche confirmation holdout senators have said that they find him qualified and suitable for the position.
The guy who has a financial and personal conflict of interest with the POTUS, the guy whose actions as acting AG clearly indicate he has no intention of adhering to the traditional norms of the office, the guy who refuses to act independently of the Executive Office, the guy who has ignored the law passed by Congress pertaining to the release of the Epstein files, the guy who met for hours with a pedophile enabler and abuser yet has refused to spend any time with Epstein's, Maxwell's and Trump's victims, they think that guy is qualified and suitable.
This is exactly the sort of crap that would start riots in a nation where citizens thought for themselves instead of kowtowing to state run media.
This is primarily for those that have never served in the military. Even if you were military adjacent, there is a solid probability that there are things you simply do not understand.
I frequently hear or read of someone expressing some version of “All you guys can do is take orders”, Implying that without a superior there standing over us peons, we would not know when to eat, sleep, breathe, fight or fuck. They seem to think that everything that gets done has to have an officer’s immediate and ongoing expressed approval.
That is exactly how it was not.
I was an enlisted man in the USN for ~10 years. I did a lot of different jobs while I was in. Everything from the stereotypical “KP” duty which mostly involved unloading trucks and washing/peeling potatoes to training coworkers and subordinates on computer systems. I was a Duty Driver on occasion. I served on Shore Patrol during liberty. I participated in UNREPs and VERTREPs (underway replenishment and vertical replenishment). I mopped and buffed floors. I did other relatively menial things that were not my primary job but were a duty I was assigned. I also did do my primary job mostly while doing those other things as well. (although the KP was just in Boot Camp before I got to my primary job.)
I am unable to recall a single occasion wherein a commissioned officer ordered me to do something and then supervised me until it was done. Hell, I cannot think of a senior NCO that did that (think Chief Petty Officer and above). When given a new job, there MAY have been a 2nd or 1st Class Petty Officer that watched me initially but I can’t think of a specific incident and it certainly did not last past training if it happened at all.
My experiences with orders in the military were primarily with standing and/or general orders. Once you got your assignment(s), it was up to you to get there at the assigned time. There were SOPs for everything (usually a three ring binder or a printed book that gave the procedures for anything and everything) but no one read it to me while I worked. A supervisor might check my work early on in a specific assignment but once they were reasonably sure I knew what I was doing, they moved on to doing other stuff that had nothing to do with me. -- At one point I was typing up messages on teletypes so they could be transmitted via circuits to any of several recipients up to and including the POTUS. The standard was that one person typed it and then checked it and passed it to a supervisor for a redundant check before transmitting it. A lot of that stuff was preliminary analysis of raw intercept and/or observed behavior of other nation’s citizens/military. So I typed a message and handed it to my supervisor for transmission. He asked if I had checked it already. I told him I typed it and had no need to check it. He checked the message very closely with a look on his face that suggested that WHEN he found a mistake, I would learn a lesson that he would make sure I didn’t forget. He didn’t find a mistake. He didn’t find a mistake on the next one either, or the one after that. He quit checking my work. If I typed it, he sent it. I even occasionally went to the originating officer to suggest to them that they had left something out or worded something differently than they intended. After about the 3rd time I did that, they said to just make the corrections and quit bothering them.
I have told a thousand folks quite honestly that I had more freedom in the military than I have ever experienced in civilian life. I rather doubt my experience was unique. I would think I don’t have to explain that the concepts of freedom and constant close supervision are incompatible. I did my primary job very well. I did my ancillary duties competently. I was a bit of a screwup with not oversleeping and boy did I like to party but, when I was there, my work was spot on.
An individual that has to be watched/supervised constantly will not be in the military very long - at least not in the USN. An individual that cannot or will not do anything unless and until they receive a direct order will not be in the military very long. We are told what the job is and trained to do it. Then we are expected to get it done even if some improvisation is required.
Y’all need to let go of the idiotic idea that everyone in the military just stands around doing nothing until they get a direct order. In my experience, it would be difficult to be more wrong about how the military works.
Every year several tens of thousands of humans die as a direct result of vehicular incidents. This has been happening for several decades. It looks to me as though the numbers are slowly declining as more safety is engineered into cars and trucks but it remains the cause of death of several tens of thousands of Americans. A larger but equally disturbing number of folks are injured in those incidents.
This is not information that is kept secret. It is promulgated in driver's ed classes. Insurance companies use the numbers in calculating your rates. They know what effect details like the gender, age, time as a licensed driver, miles driven, vehicle age, time of day and Gawd-only-knows what else have on the likelihood of an incident and the probable severity.
It has not been my experience that anyone seriously attempts to keep this information from the public. Yet, even with all of those horrible numbers freely available, a crazy percentage of Americans between the ages of 16-80 operate motor vehicles and an even larger percentage of the whole population rides in or on a motor vehicle sporadically or frequently.
I have held a driver's license for about 55 years. I have driven in several different countries, states, cities and neighborhoods. I have been involved in vehicular incidents as a driver, a passenger and a witness.
At no point in my life has anyone said within range of my hearing that a victim in a vehicular incident knew the risks when they got in the car or on the motorcycle or walked alongside a street frequented by vehicles. We acknowledge the necessity of vehicular transportation in our culture and in general, lament it when things go horribly wrong.
I have though, heard or seen folks opine that members of the military knew what they were signing up for. That is the circle I am unable to square. Why should humans that sign up for the military be held to a higher standard of planning than those who frequently and routinely undertake behaviors that have not gone a whole day without killing a human in over a hundred years.
Young humans are notoriously short-sighted and young males especially so. Signing up for the military doesn't fix that. If those in the military "know what they were signing up for", then so does every teenager and parent that ever gets in a car or sends their child off in a car. If you aren't ready to hear that about your little Sorority Susie or Fraternity Fred, then you do not get to say it about any member of the military.
Personally, I have no sympathy for Satan. He created the modern GOP knowing full well that he would have to put up with them when they passed. Just wait until Felon47 gets to hell, then Satan really gets what he deserves.
I mean, hell sounded pretty unpleasant before but most of that unpleasantness appeared to derive from sensitivities and shortcomings of entities with limited physical bodies. Spending an eternity with the likes of Moscow Mitch, Ms Lindsey, Felon47 et al seems like something that a powerful, non-corporeal entity would be punished with.
It is probably just a limitation of my human existence but I have trouble visualizing a sufficiently heinous crime to justify such a punishment. A few hundred years? Perhaps but, an eternity? Satan really should not have done whatever it was that caused it.
Look, I do not like it any better than you do. It is shameful, pandering and potentially dangerous to the security and well being of the USA. What it is not, is unConstitutional.
"To qualify as a U.S. Senator, a candidate must be at least 30 years old, a U.S. citizen for at least 9 years, and an inhabitant of the state they represent at the time they are elected,"
Lindsey Graham's sister appears to meet the qualifications laid out in the Constitution. Another way of saying that is that she is qualified. I would suggest that quite likely, the overwhelming majority of SC citizens over 30 are qualified. I would NOT however, suggest that they were all suited for the position.
According to Wikipedia, "Lindsey Graham’s sister is Darline Graham Nordone. She earned a Bachelor of Science in sociology from the College of Charleston in 1989 and later completed a Master of Arts in rehabilitation counseling from South Carolina State University.
Professionally, she has worked in public administration and vocational rehabilitation, including roles with the South Carolina Department of Vocational Rehabilitation and later as commissioner and agency head of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind."
On paper, she might reasonably be considered more suited for the job than Lindsey. I have no idea how she feels about the taste of of the Felon's ass but I observed Lindsey enjoying it.
I do not know her politics or personal views or how closely she pays attention to politics and I could not pick her out of a police lineup. The information I have seen so far suggest that she is Constitutionally qualified for the job and I am uncomfortable with choosing a different standard. I simply cannot at this time discuss her suitability for the position from an informed position.
I do not trust the GOP at all. I will be totally unshocked if she turns out to be the same sort of irredeemable piece of shit that her brother became. She can be both totally qualified and totally unsuited.
The words just have to mean something.
Imagine if you will, Graham Platner had an established history of liberally using the “n” word. As a Black man, I would not be happy with him being elected. I am however, also a human who routinely accepts things which are less than perfect rather than waiting indefinitely for perfection,
In engineering, we are known to say that “Perfect is the enemy of good enough.” I would suggest that it is reasonable to extend that to perfect is the enemy of better. It is also true that perfection is not guaranteed. You could choose to wait for perfection and find that the lifespan of the universe is not a long enough time for perfection to arrive.
Felon47 is an adjudicated rapist, a pedophile and a pedophile’s best friend. He is also a cowardly draft dodger, an inveterate liar, a racist and is as ignorant of actual history as anyone I have ever met or observed. He is also the person that Susan Collins has decided is worthy of her absolute support even when she (allegedly) disagrees with what he is doing or how he is doing it.
If Graham Platner had an established history of liberally using the “n” word, his opposition to Felon47 and his policies make me believe that he is better than Susan Collins. If perfection was on the way and he was the only thing blocking it, I would have no trouble abandoning him. If he was elected to the Senate, I would have no issue with voting in a better human in six years.
I get it. I understand why women are uncomfortable with Platner. We want to show up on election day and then not have to think about it for the next several years. We want the election process to result in perfection but, that aint how it works. I think Graham Platner is better - better than Susan Collins. I think the things that she has enabled Felon47 to do are worse for women and minorities than anything Platner has done.
Some folks value their honor over their rights. My guess is that works out better as a thought experiment than it does when applied to real life. What Felon47 has been adjudicated to have done is worse than what Platner is alleged to have done. I see no benefit to enabling the worse individual.
I live in an area of roughly half a million residents. There are quite a bit of rural and semi-rural citizens. We are in the general vicinity of the Southern Appalachian mountains.
We really like fireworks.
When I got out of the USN in 1983, the 4th of July, along with other holidays, were sufficient justification for anyone who had two nickels to rub together to buy and set off fireworks. As a general rule, the celebrations started early and finished well after the holiday. Independence Day was, If you judged it by the fireworks, a week long event at a minimum.
I just got off of my bicycle after riding ~5miles to have a beer (or three) with friends and then riding 5miles back. Now, since I hate pain and expense, I usually stick to lesser traveled roads. Essentially I stay in residential areas as much as possible. Today, I went out of my way to look for the detritus typically left in the streets and such after civilians set off fireworks.
I did not see any. TBF, I had not heard anything that sounded like fireworks for the previous several days. That is not “normal”. In the old days of say, 10-20 years ago, the fireworks were audible and visible for a solid week.
Regardless of what the government uses or says, I am telling you that the economy has folks nervous. Getting your average hillbilly redneck to forgo fireworks on the 4th (and by “on” I mean anywhere near) is pert near impossible. As a matter of fact, about the only way is to make sure they have no money to buy the fireworks.
I have never seen a pundit or a governmental operative mention fireworks as an economic indicator. They probably should. If you feel good about the economy, going out and spending a few hundred dollars on stuff you are going to light on fire might seem reasonable. If you lack that good feeling, you might want to hold that cash in reserve for whatever comes next.
Regardless of what lies magats and the GOP are trying to spread, the truth is in the trash - or more specifically in this case, the lack of trash - fireworks trash that is. Even the hardcore trumpers of East Tn do not have faith in his economy. Under normal conditions, I would be leading the call to ignore them. But this might just be a good time to pay attention to them.
I take a fair amount of crap for my pedantry. I seriously think that words ought to have specific meanings. If you must know the exact context to understand a general statement, you are being lied to.
I grew up understanding that it was possible to purchase consumable alcohol that had not been subject to regulatory process and also had not been taxed. The product was widely known as “moonshine”. I also heard it referred to as “splo” and “white lightning”.
Eventually, those with a faulty(read: immoral) understanding of capitalism come for most everything. This time, they came for words. They started making and selling a product that adhered to regulations and that they paid taxes on. They called the product “moonshine”.
Now, I understand marketing concepts reasonably well. I understand that without some level of marketing, even the most ingenious and useful products can fail to have an impact because so few folks know it exists. That said, it does not bode well for a product or a company if the only way they can be successful is to create a lie.
Unfortunately, we have become inured to such societal level insults. I have no idea how many hundreds or thousands of times I have seen advertising “Coldest Beer In The …”. I would bet tomorrow’s lunch money that none of the businesses where I saw those signs had done any research at all. I doubt they think of themselves as liars but, actions speak louder than self image.
Politics is rife with lies. Half-truths, partial-truths or, what Robert Heinlein said was the best way to lie which is to tell the truth so unconvincingly that no one believes you. If we could start by getting in the habit of using words specifically, we could stand the chance of reducing the amount of overt lies we are subjected to.
Y'all may want to put on some protective equipment. There are some facts being thrown here and the pitcher is bringing the heat.
Sometimes my interests overlap in ways that I cannot justify ignoring. TBF, it is not uncommon these days for science and technology to bleed over into politics (or vice versa). Felon47 took a bunch of tech CEOs to China with him and that was not an accident. It may have been the single intelligent thing to happen during this misadministration even if the optics could cause the titular character of the Who’s rock opera, Tommy to cringe uncontrollably.
In this particular case, this is something that I have not seen or heard mentioned anywhere else. While I do tend to follow this tech guy and while I have never caught him in a lie or mistake, I understand that he is not Divine and is quite capable of being mistaken. But if you are going to call him out, or call me out for sharing, you best bring receipts.
My suggestion is that you add this guy to your routine tech sources. Even if, like me, some of what he talks about is over your head, his conclusions are definitely something to take into consideration.
How 1 HUGE Mistake can Lead to Chip Shortages
A wide ranging bar conversation stumbled into the subject of overt and intentional idiocy. Rather predictably, flat earthers came up. We all marveled at the idea of someone looking through telescopes and looking at photos taken by other telescopes and not seeing any obviously flat objects yet, coming to the conclusion that the entire astrophysics community is in on the con. Our heads shook at the various experiences we had with travel that made it look as though the surface of the planet was curved. We pointed out every flaw in their “arguments” and the obviousity of said flaws.
Later on though, it occurred to me that we had “missed a trick”. I challenged myself with a thought experiment. If we were to stipulate the flat earthers had a point. If we said that there was indeed proof that Earth was uniquely shaped in comparison to all of the objects viewable in the sky. It is a strain on the intellect of rational peoples but go ahead and try to imagine it. Imagine that everything you can remember, everything you have experienced in this life happened on the one non-spherical object in the observable universe the size of our planet. Go ahead, fix that in your imaginations. Ready?
Now tell me what has changed.
Seriously, imagine the planet as the flat earthers describe it and then tell me how your life was improved or degraded by the revelation or the deception. I am not asking for the math to describe the orbit of a satellite of a flat object. I am talking about your life, your status, your existence. What specifically changes if the planet is proved to be flat? What if there are other flat planets? What if there are flat stars being edited on the official photos of every nation with a telescope, how is your life improved??
Now, perhaps I am just a paranoid from waaaaaaaay back but, when someone exerts an undue amount of effort in promoting something that is effectively meaningless, I immediately suspect them of trying to hide something or trying to distract from something. However, I am willing to consider the idea that there might be something I am missing. So clue a brotha in. If there is a reason or effect that I have missed, feel free to tell me.
I am also more than mildly curious as to what the flat earthers are attempting to distract us from. I have no problem believing that many, perhaps even a majority of the flat earthers, are simply useful idiots to some controlling authority. But somewhere, there must be someone that is getting some benefit from folks ignoring evidence in the pursuit of convincing others to not trust their lying eyes.
So tell me, true, false or inbetween, what are the reasons and effects of spreading flat Earth theories?
A post by my friend Bill Foster.
In the post linked above, Bill talks about chaotic nature of race relations in the USA. While, the trend is generally positive in my experience, setbacks are anything but difficult to find. If you look at most any 100 year period, things have improved towards the end. If instead you look at most any random 10 or 20 year period, negative or neutral trends are at least as likely as positive.
We really need to do better. Read the essay and share it widely.
I am starting to suspect that Felon47 is not just catastrophically bad for the USA. Given the unpredicted military troubles Russia is experiencing as the 2nd best army in Ukraine, it just makes sense to look at the factors that weren't taken into consideration when doing the assessments prior to Russia's initial attack on Ukraine.
No one in the Intel community would have actually expected POTUS to run interference for Vladimir Putin. Our nation was (rightfully to my thinking) concerned about the expansion of the conflict to the point where a NATO ally was threatened or harmed which would result in us having to respond to an Article 5 situation.
While I never actually thought Putin's initial estimates of a week or less to take the capital, I did think that Ukraine would lose the hot war and then spend the next 20 or so years in a guerrilla war that would keep Russia occupied and out of the affairs of the "free" world.
The only reason I can come up with as to why the professionals - and my own - assessments were so wrong is that Felon47 is so mind-numbingly incompetent that his efforts to run interference for his Vladdy Daddy have actually helped Ukraine. Other nations are willing to undertake extreme measures to assist Ukraine in no small part because they hate Trump and want him to fail. Putin might have benefited from access to the American Intelligence apparatus but the Felon pays no attention to them and in some ways, they are comfortable with that. If Putin says it, the Felon takes it as gospel. So Putin has no one on his staff and no major allies that are willing and capable to tell him the truth or to demand the truth from him.
There are two major rules you must follow to win a war. Know your enemy. Know yourself. Trump is too ignorant for rules and it is starting to look as though his ignorance is contagious.
It could not happen to a more deserving dictator.
Several years ago in my hometown and the area around it, we had an absolute slew of public meetings in an effort to decide what our area was going to be. Were we going to be an extension of the campy tourism that attracted hordes to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge? Were we going to be a tourist trap with a different set of lures? What if we didn’t want to be a tourist trap at all, what then?
A lot of opinions were expressed and notes were taken. Plans were developed. Some of them were immediately discarded but others made it further along in the process before being discarded. A few came to some level of fruition.
One of the ideas was developed into a concept and some conceptual drawings were made for the benefit of those of us whose internal graphic generator doesn’t function as well as your average architect’s. The architects & developers chose to present one of the concepts with a large PR push to help sell it. The concept was graphically revealed during a program at a recently renovated theater.
I was there in the theater, near the back of the main seating area. When they unveiled the artist’s rendering of how their project would look, I reacted verbally loud enough for those in my immediate vicinity to hear although I was mostly talking to myself. I said something to the effect that “apparently Black people will not be welcome”. I said that because the artist’s rendering was liberally populated with people but all of the depictions appeared to be of white people. There was some strained laughter in response to my comment and again, only the folks sitting about three or four folks in either direction would have heard me in that 1500 seat theater. Still, a week or so later when I saw another version of that artist’s rendering posted publicly, it contained what appeared to be depictions of Blacks and other minorities along with the whites.
I am not of the opinion that my casual linguistic expectoration somehow interrupted a sneakily planned racist act. As a matter of fact, I do not have any reason to believe there was any racist intent at all. That’s a problem in itself. Neither the artist, the architect, the developer or the money people they showed it to first saw a problem. Not one of them (and yes, I acknowledge they might have served more than one role) noticed the absence of their neighbors of color when presented with the graphic. If you ever need a clear example of institutional racism, there it is. There was no racist intent because there didn’t need to be. The lack of intent however, does nothing to stop an act or behavior from having a racist effect.
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A while back I expressed to a friend that the first time I ever saw a Black person on television for something that had nothing to do with being Black, it was Neil DeGrasse Tyson explaining something about an astrophysical event that was going on and that it happened well after my exit from the USN in 1983. My friend concluded that I must be misremembering. Now, I have no idea why that was their kneejerk response. Perhaps they could recall several instances of that happening and I just didn’t see it. Perhaps it was simply a “That can’t be right” moment.
In the end, the response doesn’t matter. What matters is the effect experienced by all of those who could make a claim similar to mine. It is a particularly insidious form of racism which, like the theater reveal, does not necessarily result from racist intent. It has been taught in several disciplines for a long time that you can’t do what you can’t see yourself doing. You have to be able to mentally visualize yourself doing a flip or a jump or a kick or beating a time record etc etc. When young me watched television or movies, the folks who did stuff were white, criminals were “other”. Scientists? White and male most every time. Drug dealers? “Others” most every time.
Consider how many folk might have made amazing contributions to the nation or to humanity in general if only they had known they had the ability. Plenty of minorities have done amazing things in this nation and elsewhere. They have overcome the issues I describe and probably several others. Imagine what they might have done if instead of wasting time and energy “overcoming” the various obstacles - whether they were intentionally or unintentionally placed, they instead started from a position of confidence and encouragement. Racism takes on a life of its own. It reaches a stage where no driver or decision is needed, no intent need be expressed. It is built into the system and it keeps working unless steps are taken to stop it. It effectively becomes autonomous.
Things are better now than they were in the early stages of my lifetime. Images of minorities as successful people are not difficult to find. But if you think racism is over, especially institutional racism, do a Google image search on the phrase “welfare queen”. Do that with the knowledge that the majority of folks on welfare in the USA are white people.
The engineer in me feels the strong urge to remind you that “better” is not the same as “all good” or “perfect”. It may be heading in that direction but it aint there yet. The Voting Rights Act made things better for minorities. The effect was dynamic rather than static and it had a tendency to spread. But while it made things better, there is still a significant amount of work to be done. The Google search I suggest above is not the only example of that by far but it is an example of it. The VRA’s work is not done and anyone who actually looked and was honest with themselves would not need that explained to them. Tennessee’s governor and other state politicians clearly have no desire for honesty, either expressed to them or from them. Unfortunately, TN is not unique.
The VRA was a known entity. It was peaceful, predictable and not punitive. I do not know what comes next. In that not knowing, neither I nor anyone I know is willing to guarantee that the next thing will meet those criteria. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” — John F. Kennedy
