This recycled article perfectly suits today's USA - only more so with the current trend of presidents requesting waivers to nominate military officers for the civilian Defense Secretary.
Your discussion on militarism towards the closing made the seriousness of the situation sink in for me.
Thanks for the education on Cincinnatus. I am curious about the origins of city names.
Bill, I think the only thing the original article needs would be enclosure in parentheses, with a coefficient - as it's geometrically worse than even then.
Of course, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were underway, But the U.S. wasn't aggressively (at least openly) ratcheting up tensions and risks of war with both Russia and China; wan't openly funding a genocide by it's claimed ally Israel and a pointless war in Ukraine; hadn't contributed to the destruction (yet) of Libya; or had Presidents claiming that war is good because it creates American jobs.
The revolving doors between high-level DOD positions into the boardrooms of defense contractors, and back, was underway as it had been for decades. But the post-'stars' careers of flag officers into becoming hacks on television networks was still in its first decade. The role of the State Department was already being reduced relative to the DOD - that has only gotten worse with Secretaries of State being advocates for war. And we were well into the glorification of military prowess and technology in movies and television.
Whenever there's a disaster, as there is now in the southeast US, the question is always asked why can't we send in the military? Anything that helps those poor people is of course needed. But when the first response of the American people to everything is 'where's the military' we should recognize we have an existential problem.
The military has become the only institution of government that people have been conditioned to believe is the solution for everything. I sometimes wonder how close we are to a movie like "Seven Days in May"?
My guess is that we are closer to a "Seven Days in May" than anybody dares even to imagine, TomR. And that a whole bunch of Americans would welcome that.
Also, it's important to remember that that "Forever War" [the so-called "Global" so-called "War On" so-called "Terrorism" after 9/11] was nothing but a half-time show ~ to keep the troops occupied, the defense contractors profitable, and the American People comfortably numb to protracted conflicts in places most Americans can't find on a map of the world ~ while waiting for Russia to recover from the end of the USSR's Empire in Europe, and for China to recover from the madness of Mao so that Cold War II could get launched.
Another "Mission Accomplished," eh?
And what is wrong with sending the military into mass casualty and mass destruction disaster situations here within the United States? What other institution has the personnel and equipment necessary to assist recovery from such disasters?
The US military is bloated, inefficient and useless at ANYTHING it tries to do.
The most recent example. The clusterfuck trying to build a simple dock in Palestine.
A job any US private Marine Contractor could have done twice as quickly, at half the price, and not have it fall apart when the wave height got more than 2'-0". LOL
Imagine a well-staffed FEMA for all disasters.
Floods, forest fires, earthquakes, and Hurricanes.
And like the CORPS OF ENGINNEERS, sub the work out to the Peter Kiewit's, Weeks Marine's and Manson Construction's. As they did when the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsing after a container ship struck one of its piers.
Who's the middleman to be cut out when the National Guard is mobilized to provide Disaster Assistance and Relief?
A whole bunch of people were very glad to see them a couple of days after Katrina in and outside of New Orleans back in 2005. Including me.
And i'm sure the folks in Tennessee would much rather those 750 Tennessee National Guardsmen who were deployed to Kuwait two days before Helene struck had been available for deployment right there in Tennessee.
Jeff, not knocking the National Guard, but isn't it true that the majority of National Guard soldiers have a civilian job full-time and only serve part-time as a National Guard member.
Help me please? Does the National Guard have heavy equipment ~ and people trained to operate it, maintain it and are current? And if they do ~ does all that equipment just sit idle between disasters?
I guess what I am imagineering is that you cut the costs by using private contractors' equipment and labor that is used year-round and not being paid just to sit idle.
And with my bias (!) that Private Company's are five times more efficient than bloated Gubmint outfits ~ there is big money to be saved. My experience on big Navy Jobs, if they used their Navy divers to do anything, it was a comedy of errors with more chiefs than Indians. LOL Our pile bucks and divers always got a good ole laugh watching them!
That is correct Dennis that the overwhelming majority of people in the National Guard are part-timers in the Guard.
And some of the National Guard have heavy equipment and very definitely know how to operate it. And it doesn't sit idle between disasters; but is used for training on monthly drill meetings and at 2-week active duty "Summer Camp."
By the same token, some of the National Guard have Medevac helicopters, which come in very handy in Disasters. Along with Field Hospitals with Doctors, Nurses, Technicians, and Field Medics ready to be deployed and set up wherever needed. Also very handy.
And some of the National Guard are Military Police and Infantry units that have come in quite handy once, for example, the Hurricane has passed, and the looting has begun.
But the primary Mission of the National Guard is not to sit around waiting for Natural Disasters. It is to serve as a Defensive Force in the event the U.S. is invaded. Only secondarily is it designed to serve as augmentation for the Regular, Active Duty military.
Which, unfortunately, is primarily how the Guard and the Reserve forces have been and are being used, particularly since 9/11.
"The temporary Pier, which cost $320 million, called the Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS), requires very good sea conditions to operate. CNN reported previously that JLOTS CAN ONLY BE OPERATED SAFELY IN A MAXIMUM OF 3-FOOT WAVES AND WINDS LESS THAN APPROXIMATELY 15 MILES PER HOUR."
My guess is that that Pier was built exactly to specifications. The Real Question is: WHO ordered that particular model of Pier to be built on that Coast of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea where Winds and Waves often exceed JLOTS’s designed capability?
Yup....WHO ordered that particular model of Pier to be built on that Coast of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea where Winds and Waves often exceed JLOTS’s designed capability?
Answer: Joe Biden!
And our Marine Construction Field Engineers, Superintendents, Foreman, pile bucks and laborers, who do this every day for a living, were getting a good ole laugh watching those sailors like a bunch of chickens with their heads chopped off trying to mobilize and anchor those floats!
His grounds! He is the Commander in Chief isn't he!
"President Joe Biden authorized the troubled Gaza pier operation as officials warned the humanitarian aid effort would face weather challenges in the Mediterranean Sea and security problems in an active war zone, according to a newly released government watchdog report.
Officials from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) also feared that focusing on the pier would distract from the larger effort to reopen land crossings into Gaza, seen as a far more efficient and well-established method of moving large quantities of humanitarian supplies.
Biden, who announced the pier during his State of the Union address in March, acknowledged the pier had not lived up to his expectations, saying he was “disappointed” during a press conference in July. “I was hopeful that would be more successful,” he said.
The Defense Department dedicated more than 1,000 US soldiers and sailors to the operation, as well as several ships. {1,000!!!!! Ridiculous. Our crewing for this size job would be no more than 250!}
During the pier mission, three US service members were also injured. The third was in critical condition and was transferred back to theUS Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas.
The pier became somewhat of a focal point of attacks on Biden, with Republican members of Congress criticizing the operation and its frequent pauses.
In June, GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to senior Biden administration officials in which he said the temporary pier “has been riddled with setbacks, sidelined more often than operational, and can only be classified as a gross waste of taxpayer dollars.”
Lets face it ~ it was a political Stunt by a pathetic POTUS.
We very could be close to a Seven Days in May moment - but I would think if would be something like a 'revolt of the colonels' as in Greece; I don't think there's a comparable real life character in the public eye to Burt Lancaster's General Scott. But the welcome indeed would be the same - particularly if the promise was restoration of law and the social order.
The US has deployed Marines to fight fires in California; soldiers, sailors, and airmen to help with hurricanes; and other aid deployments. I think those were all appropriate. As I recall, those deployments were part of a coordinated aid response from Federal and state agencies - with the agencies coordinating the overall efforts from the various tiers of response.
I think maybe what I was trying to get at is the perceived growing belief that people no longer see anything but the military as the solution to any crisis. if it is, or becomes, a universal belief then we do risk a 'revolt of the colonels'. And maybe that's circular back to what you said - it would be welcomed. And I find that disturbing..
While there isn't a "General Scott" in the public eye at the moment, TomR, one could be created, marketed, and sold very, Very quickly and easily. Especially if there is a continued further breakdown in the social, economic, and legal order.
Which would virtually guarantee that he would be welcomed.
And my guess is that if there is a 21st century edition of Seven Days in May, it will involve the entire MICIMATT, and not just a bunch of Colonels. Colonels in Greece were quite different in terms of actual, real world power, than Colonels in the US Military.
WJA and all, today I as on the sidewalk with my plastic megaphone and I wanted to report to you what happened.
I was able to speak for about 40 minutes and I positioned myself directly across the street from an open air cafe. I was able to cover the following:
********************************
Zionism is ethnic cleansing and the opposite of liberty and justice for all, one cannot be for both.
In saying he is a Zionist, our President is a traitor to liberty and justice for all.
We might as well take down Old Glory and replace it with the blue and white flag of Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal and in fully supporting him, so is President Biden who could have stopped the horrors visited on Gaza when they first started
There must be no war with Iran. Iran doesn't want it and neither does the Pentagon. It would be fought solely to protect ethnic cleansing and Netanyahu has been calling for it for years. No American blood for Israel. Everyone has a smartphone, use it to call your people in Congress and say no war with Iran
Congress is a team of trained seals for Israel because our system is corrupted by money
Zionism is not Judaism, Jews of Jewish Voice for Peace are leading the anti-Zionist movement and pro-Palestinian protests.
Campus protest has been silenced by Zionist big donor demand, freedom of speech not withstanding
MSM is not a source of truth, Dana Bash is a Zionist, Wolf Blitzer was a member of the IDF (as was former Chicago mayor Rahm Immanuel) For the truth seek out Glenn Greenwald, Prof. John Mearsheimer, Ryan Grim, the program Breaking Points on YouTube. Read the book "The Israel Lobby" by Mearsheimer and Prof. Steven Walt published in 2007
A Zionist Illinois state senator, Jeff Schoenberg, pushed through legislation denying state business to any contractor who will not sign a statement that the contractor does not support BDS. This has nothing to do with the state and everything to do with protecting Israel. Jeff Schoenberg was at a city open meeting to oppose a proposed city resolution to stop the slaughter in Gaza.
I said I was astounded that one individual was openly speaking out, imploring Americans when all should be demonstrating and demanding obedience to liberty and justice for all. I cited the Pledge of Allegiance repeatedly, asking listeners "why am I alone, where are my fellow Americans?"
*************************************
What happened in the time I was speaking? A woman came up to me and endorsed what I was saying, thanking me for speaking out. Though she did not look impoverished, when I gave her one of my flyers and asked her to share with her friends she said she would but that most of them or homeless. When I said my throat was dry, she offered to buy me and soda and did so.
Other people gave me thumbs up, one guy from a great distance so I knew my voice was being heard. A young woman quietly said "thank you" as she walked by. A group of young men, either high school or early college age gave me thumbs up. An elderly woman came up to tell me to stop talking and said she would call the police on me. I told her to go ahead as I was testing freedom of speech. She called the police.
A patrol car rounded the corner in front of me and did not stop. After 40 minutes, two people arrived with something like "community service" on their shirts. One was African-American (female) and the other a Latino male. They said they were from the city and I would have to stop speaking. I told them I understood, that I would obey and that I did not envy them their jobs. There were apologetic and clearly did not like to be silencing me. They said they were enforcing a city noise ordinance.
That's the scoop. I handed out only 2 or 3 flyers but did not solicit them in my speaking.
This is why some people just call it The Blob now. Originally it was the MIC, then the MICIMATT (a la Ray McGovern). But it is pretty clear that you can't leave out the billionaire donor-class, whose investments are on the line whenever war looms. Blackrock needs Ukraine to win, as do many Ukrainian oligarchs. Much of the push from the "civilian sector" have nothing to do with regular voters. The so-called civilians who are driving policy are the donor-class billionaires. As long as they have so much control over the government, news, think tanks and academia, wars will be the standard operating procedure in the US. The Blob assimilates all that it touches, especially uninformed politicians (e.g., "civilians").
After reflection, I consider you would greatly benefit from reading Linda Weiss’s 2007 “America Inc - The US military-security state”. Its an excellent technical analysis how the US has used the national security exemption of the WTO, as well as its DARPA funding capacity, to create the equivalent of a national industrial strategy for any “dual-use” technology which the US deems is a threat to their domination of a “critical technology” - using sanctions, subsidies & government funded & coordinated initiatives to build US capacity. I’ve been recommending it to Canadian officials & politicians for 15 years, as those sanctions have been critical to defenestrating & buying out Canadian capacity across a number of sectors. The problem with sanctions is they don’t work in the long run, as they didn’t 2,400 years ago when the Spartans & Athens were fighting over grain from the wheat fields of Arcadia - didn’t work then; & of course weakened the Greek city states, enabling Phillip of Macedonia to overrun all of the Greek city states 40 years later. A similar 1979 US embargo on the Soviet Union was also ineffective, then dropped once Canada found out the US had been over-shipping, exceeding its 5 million tonne limit. Canada proceeded in the spring of 1982 to sign an identical agreement to the US; & Reagan announced the end of the embargo months later.
US security sanctions prevented Nortel from selling the electronic chip invented by Nortel in 1968 to turn monaural speech into a digital signal, one of numerous inventions critical to the development of maker communications - Nortel was not allowed to sell its invention, it was forced to licence it to US firms. Similarly, Nortel invented the standards for 1,2,3 & 4 G; as well as the optical switches with speeds of 1-10 gigahertz which made speedy modern telecoms possible. However, Nortel was sanctioned in 2007, destroying its US government market - Canada’s government declared it bankrupt in May 2009 (so employees couldn’t buy it out) but LM Ericsson & Huawei outbid US buyers for Norte’s IP on 4G- LTE & wifi units; as well as the optical high speed switches which Nortel & its subsidiaries pioneered (sales over $12 billion to date); since then rumours of Chinese hacking have muddied waters of the deliberate takedown by DARPA (careful fact checking made clear Huawei technology with matched Nortel capacity to win a key UK switch contract in February, 2006 - i.e., technology was developed & delivered to UK, before ostensible hack began. Following year DARPA declared imaging technology a sanctioned priority technology - which resulted in MacDonald Dettweiller (MDA) price tanking and Google group buying out the Canadian firm in the market; however, our Harper government was forced by a nationalist uproar to keep headquarters in Burnaby, BC. Entire exercise was strategy to extract Landsat imaging technology from MDA for use in google maps & military use. MDA had been in serious talks with Google since 1994 on this, including the software issues of roads on maps being aligned to topography, all with Canadian government awareness & approval. Google then did some software work with INIST funding up to 2017 - but was able to integrate the software into Google Maps the following year; absolutely defenestrating the Apple rollout of AppleMaps - which still is struggling. But the predatory takeover of MDA was reversed when Canada VC investors bought back MDA in 2018. However the Landsat imaging software synched to topographical features now sits in an offshore google sub - making billions for the parent, with little benefit for Canada.
This is only a few of many longstanding abuses of sanctions to effect predatory takeover of sanctioned dual use technology. The effective exclusion from the US market of Bombardier’s new 400 series single single-aisle STOL technology plane, which incorporated new geared-jet turbine technology of Pratt & Whitney, despite its passing a 5 year US new airframe approval process — was enabled by a deliberate ignoring of the new airframe certification regulations to approve the Boeing 737 Max airframe as an “existing” air frame, despite using the new Pratt & Whitney engines which required the wings to be raised over 6 feet higher to accommodate the bigger but more efficient jet engines. Due to inadequate testing there were two air crashes of the unstable in stalls Boeing Max planes - killing over 500 passengers, including 282 Canadians in one ironic twist of fate. The US industry and politicians played upon natavist fears to reverse sales of the Bombardier series to US airlines, ultimately forcing the sale ale of the airframe and technology to Airbus where it is now the 220. AV Roe got the first civilian jetliner in the air before either the Brits or Boeing in 1947 - essentially German POWs & emigrant technologists preferred Canada. But both US & UK made clear they wouldn’t buy Canadian technology; similarly the military version, the AVRO Arrow with specialized composites technology in the Oneida turbines, met a similar protectionist sanction and the program was shut down in the late 50’s. Thousands of those Canadian engineers subsequently went into the US space program.
Excellent thought-provoker, Bill; another candidate for "The Best of Bracing Views" that is even more relevant today than it was thirteen years ago.
And, as it did then, so it does today: The ultimate, bottom-line, bullet-hits-the-bone Question is: "So what and Now what?"
How can that blurring of the civilian and the military in America be terminated? And who is going to terminate it?
Or is it too late for anybody to do anything about it? Has "The Decline" of The American Empire ended, and "The Fall" of that Empire now kicked into gear?
And with The Fall of that Empire, has the end of the Experiment called the United States of America begun, as well?
Thanks, Jeff. What next? I don't know. It seems we've forgotten the idea of civilian control of the military, together with suspicion of large standing militaries. The propaganda is incredibly difficult to challenge, given the power and pervasiveness of the MICIMATT, which is also supported by Hollywood and the sporting world.
How do you challenge such a beast? No matter how hard you hit it, it's just pinpricks.
Sadly, it appears we can do little until the colossus collapses, perhaps under the weight of its own debt and folly. There is sure to be much "collateral damage" across the land when that happens.
It seems we have forgotten a lot of things that The Founders warned us against, Bill. Even tho they created a system of government that made all those things all but unavoidable, if not inevitable.
And the collateral damage ~ social, economic, cultural, and ethical ~ will be massive, at the individual, family, community, regional, and national levels.
Washington's Farewell Address is a letter written by President George Washington as a valedictory to "friends and fellow-citizens" in 1796, after 20 years of public service.
Relevant with respect to Israel:
He urges the American people to avoid long-term friendly relations or rivalries with any nation, arguing that attachments with or animosity toward other nations will only cloud the government's judgment in its foreign policy. He claimed that alliances are likely to draw the United States into wars that have no justification and no benefit to the country beyond simply defending the favored nation. He warned that Alliances threaten to influence the government into making decisions based upon the will of allies instead of the will of the American people.
He made reference to the dangers of foreign nations who seek to influence the American people and government. {Israel ?}
With respect to foreign entanglements:
He urged the American people to take advantage of their isolated position in the world, and to avoid attachments and entanglements in foreign affairs. He argued that it makes no sense for the American people to become embroiled in European affairs when their isolated position and unity allow them to remain neutral and focus on their own affairs. {Ukraine ?}
Bibi is perfect for the growth of the American militarized state. Netanyahu has "every right to defend itself" to bomb the hell out of a host of states while Americans sit and watch on their screens not experiencing war but virtual realities. The necessary illusions are easy to manufacture. Consent is a given while the American war industry profits and grows. Bibi' popularity grows , facing the legal charges against him are delayed as long as he pleases sick Israeli nationalism based delusional interpretations of the Bible and history. It's a perfect storm for the American militarism to grow while "Israel has every right to defend itself" and the illusion that America is not complicit or profiting. Trump is not as hypocritical as Kamala. Trump does not give a shit about the Arabs nor Americans and he tells us that every day. Let's hope the hypocrisy of Kamala is detected just enough to find her losing in November. But don't vote for Trump vote for Jill to encourage her and her kind to sustain social democratic thought because we will need this to rise up out of the ashes.
The Green Party: Ralph Nadar with his huge respect and name recognition, and the same platform Jill Stein is running on, only got 2.7% in 2000 running as a Green.
Jill Stein only got 0.36% of the vote in 2012. And a pathetic 1.07% in 2016.
In 2020 Howie Hawkins taking over the Green Party baton got only 0.3%.
The Green Party has never got any traction in the US.
And Stein has messed in her own nest with voters this election by initially promoting the race baiting goofy professor Cornel West as the Green Party 2024 POTUS candidate - until he flaked out!
And the facts are with first-past-the-post & winner-take-all voting, and the Electoral College with its Superdelegates, there is not even a theoretical chance a Third-Party candidate can be elected POTUS.
It's a systemic problem. Proven in 1992 when Ross Perot challenged Bush and Clinton on a populist platform of slashing the budget deficit.
He got 19.0% of the vote.
But didn’t receive a plurality of voters in any state, giving him ZERO ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES.
The same thing is guaranteed to happen with Stein in 2024
Until America changes its method of voting in its President, its stuck with its Two-Party duopoly. Voting for Jill Stein, running for the third time now is the definition of wasting your vote. For the reasons explained above - she will not become the 47th POTUS. A third party or independent candidate has never won the presidential election in the US. Throughout US history, even the most popular of third-party presidential bids achieved little other than creating a few headlines and siphoning off votes from one major party for the benefit of the other.
If you want even a small chance of America crawling out of the abyss that Biden has got the US into ~ you need to vote TRUMP/VANCE.
Any other vote is irrational, naive and a vote for more of the same.
More homeless in our streets. More inflation. More overseas wars. And under a continuing Democratic Administration soon American kids coming home in body bags fighting for Israel.
Vote for Trump to encourage him and his kind because it's the last and only chance the US has to rise up out of the ashes of liberalism.
Coming down to the real essentials. Isn’t what America‘s military is doing around the world today just a continuation of what the military did in the nineteenth century or am I missing something. The greatly esteemed George Washington (actually he continued what Britain had done since the early 1600s) started the genocide that culminated with the massacre of 29 December 1890. I believe, if memory serves me correctly, that this was exclusively accomplished by the U.S. military. 300 plus treaties with native tribes were exclusively broken by Washington and the following expulsions and terrorism unleashed on the hapless natives was done by the all volunteer army. How did the respected Theodore Roosevelt put it? „This great country can’t be an animal sanctuary for dirty savages.“ He also didn’t see much difference between the killing of wild animals and that of Indians (Deschner, DER MOLOCH … p. 75). Maybe, American military behavior today is just following an old habit. Major General Smedley Butler seems to imply this in his short reminiscences WAR IS A RACKET from 1935. To imply that the USA ever practiced a form of the JUST WAR is indulging in historical revisionism that unfortunately resulted in the ideology of American exceptionalism.
"Over the subsequent decades this “interpretation” of the Bible made it a Christian imperative to support creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine."
I rest my case, Ray
Imagine if a car's owners or a nuclear reactors manual was written using parables, metaphors, and allegories. Incredibly difficult to understand. Wouldn't that be incredibly irresponsible? Unfathomably, when people’s deities do the same in their holy books, they see no issues. And as a result, we hear millions of different interpretations of the Bible all claiming with complete certainty that everyone else got it wrong.
The Bible was written, revised and edited many times by the religious for the religious. The last thing it is, is truthful, reliable, unbiased, impartial or a neutral source. Folks that belief the entirety of Bible are willing to sacrifice their humanity on the altar of a book that they can't even prove.
"Religion poisons everything!" - Christopher Hitchens
This recycled article perfectly suits today's USA - only more so with the current trend of presidents requesting waivers to nominate military officers for the civilian Defense Secretary.
Your discussion on militarism towards the closing made the seriousness of the situation sink in for me.
Thanks for the education on Cincinnatus. I am curious about the origins of city names.
Bill, I think the only thing the original article needs would be enclosure in parentheses, with a coefficient - as it's geometrically worse than even then.
Of course, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were underway, But the U.S. wasn't aggressively (at least openly) ratcheting up tensions and risks of war with both Russia and China; wan't openly funding a genocide by it's claimed ally Israel and a pointless war in Ukraine; hadn't contributed to the destruction (yet) of Libya; or had Presidents claiming that war is good because it creates American jobs.
The revolving doors between high-level DOD positions into the boardrooms of defense contractors, and back, was underway as it had been for decades. But the post-'stars' careers of flag officers into becoming hacks on television networks was still in its first decade. The role of the State Department was already being reduced relative to the DOD - that has only gotten worse with Secretaries of State being advocates for war. And we were well into the glorification of military prowess and technology in movies and television.
Whenever there's a disaster, as there is now in the southeast US, the question is always asked why can't we send in the military? Anything that helps those poor people is of course needed. But when the first response of the American people to everything is 'where's the military' we should recognize we have an existential problem.
The military has become the only institution of government that people have been conditioned to believe is the solution for everything. I sometimes wonder how close we are to a movie like "Seven Days in May"?
My guess is that we are closer to a "Seven Days in May" than anybody dares even to imagine, TomR. And that a whole bunch of Americans would welcome that.
Also, it's important to remember that that "Forever War" [the so-called "Global" so-called "War On" so-called "Terrorism" after 9/11] was nothing but a half-time show ~ to keep the troops occupied, the defense contractors profitable, and the American People comfortably numb to protracted conflicts in places most Americans can't find on a map of the world ~ while waiting for Russia to recover from the end of the USSR's Empire in Europe, and for China to recover from the madness of Mao so that Cold War II could get launched.
Another "Mission Accomplished," eh?
And what is wrong with sending the military into mass casualty and mass destruction disaster situations here within the United States? What other institution has the personnel and equipment necessary to assist recovery from such disasters?
Why not cut out the middleman in disaster aid.
The US military is bloated, inefficient and useless at ANYTHING it tries to do.
The most recent example. The clusterfuck trying to build a simple dock in Palestine.
A job any US private Marine Contractor could have done twice as quickly, at half the price, and not have it fall apart when the wave height got more than 2'-0". LOL
Imagine a well-staffed FEMA for all disasters.
Floods, forest fires, earthquakes, and Hurricanes.
And like the CORPS OF ENGINNEERS, sub the work out to the Peter Kiewit's, Weeks Marine's and Manson Construction's. As they did when the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsing after a container ship struck one of its piers.
Who's the middleman to be cut out when the National Guard is mobilized to provide Disaster Assistance and Relief?
A whole bunch of people were very glad to see them a couple of days after Katrina in and outside of New Orleans back in 2005. Including me.
And i'm sure the folks in Tennessee would much rather those 750 Tennessee National Guardsmen who were deployed to Kuwait two days before Helene struck had been available for deployment right there in Tennessee.
https://www.tn.gov/military/news/2024/9/26/tennessee-national-guard-task-force-deploying-to-middle-east.html
Jeff, not knocking the National Guard, but isn't it true that the majority of National Guard soldiers have a civilian job full-time and only serve part-time as a National Guard member.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Guard_(United_States)
Help me please? Does the National Guard have heavy equipment ~ and people trained to operate it, maintain it and are current? And if they do ~ does all that equipment just sit idle between disasters?
I guess what I am imagineering is that you cut the costs by using private contractors' equipment and labor that is used year-round and not being paid just to sit idle.
And with my bias (!) that Private Company's are five times more efficient than bloated Gubmint outfits ~ there is big money to be saved. My experience on big Navy Jobs, if they used their Navy divers to do anything, it was a comedy of errors with more chiefs than Indians. LOL Our pile bucks and divers always got a good ole laugh watching them!
Am I way off base?
That is correct Dennis that the overwhelming majority of people in the National Guard are part-timers in the Guard.
And some of the National Guard have heavy equipment and very definitely know how to operate it. And it doesn't sit idle between disasters; but is used for training on monthly drill meetings and at 2-week active duty "Summer Camp."
By the same token, some of the National Guard have Medevac helicopters, which come in very handy in Disasters. Along with Field Hospitals with Doctors, Nurses, Technicians, and Field Medics ready to be deployed and set up wherever needed. Also very handy.
And some of the National Guard are Military Police and Infantry units that have come in quite handy once, for example, the Hurricane has passed, and the looting has begun.
But the primary Mission of the National Guard is not to sit around waiting for Natural Disasters. It is to serve as a Defensive Force in the event the U.S. is invaded. Only secondarily is it designed to serve as augmentation for the Regular, Active Duty military.
Which, unfortunately, is primarily how the Guard and the Reserve forces have been and are being used, particularly since 9/11.
According to CNN:
"The temporary Pier, which cost $320 million, called the Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS), requires very good sea conditions to operate. CNN reported previously that JLOTS CAN ONLY BE OPERATED SAFELY IN A MAXIMUM OF 3-FOOT WAVES AND WINDS LESS THAN APPROXIMATELY 15 MILES PER HOUR."
My guess is that that Pier was built exactly to specifications. The Real Question is: WHO ordered that particular model of Pier to be built on that Coast of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea where Winds and Waves often exceed JLOTS’s designed capability?
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/28/politics/us-gaza-pier-broken-apart/index.html ; EMPHASIS added.
Yup....WHO ordered that particular model of Pier to be built on that Coast of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea where Winds and Waves often exceed JLOTS’s designed capability?
Answer: Joe Biden!
And our Marine Construction Field Engineers, Superintendents, Foreman, pile bucks and laborers, who do this every day for a living, were getting a good ole laugh watching those sailors like a bunch of chickens with their heads chopped off trying to mobilize and anchor those floats!
Take care Jeff!
Biden ordered it? You're sure about that, eh? On what grounds?
His grounds! He is the Commander in Chief isn't he!
"President Joe Biden authorized the troubled Gaza pier operation as officials warned the humanitarian aid effort would face weather challenges in the Mediterranean Sea and security problems in an active war zone, according to a newly released government watchdog report.
Officials from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) also feared that focusing on the pier would distract from the larger effort to reopen land crossings into Gaza, seen as a far more efficient and well-established method of moving large quantities of humanitarian supplies.
Biden, who announced the pier during his State of the Union address in March, acknowledged the pier had not lived up to his expectations, saying he was “disappointed” during a press conference in July. “I was hopeful that would be more successful,” he said.
The Defense Department dedicated more than 1,000 US soldiers and sailors to the operation, as well as several ships. {1,000!!!!! Ridiculous. Our crewing for this size job would be no more than 250!}
During the pier mission, three US service members were also injured. The third was in critical condition and was transferred back to theUS Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas.
The pier became somewhat of a focal point of attacks on Biden, with Republican members of Congress criticizing the operation and its frequent pauses.
In June, GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to senior Biden administration officials in which he said the temporary pier “has been riddled with setbacks, sidelined more often than operational, and can only be classified as a gross waste of taxpayer dollars.”
Lets face it ~ it was a political Stunt by a pathetic POTUS.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/27/politics/gaza-pier-operation-inspector-general-report/index.html#:~:text=President%20Joe%20Biden%20authorized%20the%20troubled%20Gaza%20pier
We very could be close to a Seven Days in May moment - but I would think if would be something like a 'revolt of the colonels' as in Greece; I don't think there's a comparable real life character in the public eye to Burt Lancaster's General Scott. But the welcome indeed would be the same - particularly if the promise was restoration of law and the social order.
The US has deployed Marines to fight fires in California; soldiers, sailors, and airmen to help with hurricanes; and other aid deployments. I think those were all appropriate. As I recall, those deployments were part of a coordinated aid response from Federal and state agencies - with the agencies coordinating the overall efforts from the various tiers of response.
I think maybe what I was trying to get at is the perceived growing belief that people no longer see anything but the military as the solution to any crisis. if it is, or becomes, a universal belief then we do risk a 'revolt of the colonels'. And maybe that's circular back to what you said - it would be welcomed. And I find that disturbing..
While there isn't a "General Scott" in the public eye at the moment, TomR, one could be created, marketed, and sold very, Very quickly and easily. Especially if there is a continued further breakdown in the social, economic, and legal order.
Which would virtually guarantee that he would be welcomed.
And my guess is that if there is a 21st century edition of Seven Days in May, it will involve the entire MICIMATT, and not just a bunch of Colonels. Colonels in Greece were quite different in terms of actual, real world power, than Colonels in the US Military.
WJA and all, today I as on the sidewalk with my plastic megaphone and I wanted to report to you what happened.
I was able to speak for about 40 minutes and I positioned myself directly across the street from an open air cafe. I was able to cover the following:
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Zionism is ethnic cleansing and the opposite of liberty and justice for all, one cannot be for both.
In saying he is a Zionist, our President is a traitor to liberty and justice for all.
We might as well take down Old Glory and replace it with the blue and white flag of Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal and in fully supporting him, so is President Biden who could have stopped the horrors visited on Gaza when they first started
There must be no war with Iran. Iran doesn't want it and neither does the Pentagon. It would be fought solely to protect ethnic cleansing and Netanyahu has been calling for it for years. No American blood for Israel. Everyone has a smartphone, use it to call your people in Congress and say no war with Iran
Congress is a team of trained seals for Israel because our system is corrupted by money
Zionism is not Judaism, Jews of Jewish Voice for Peace are leading the anti-Zionist movement and pro-Palestinian protests.
Campus protest has been silenced by Zionist big donor demand, freedom of speech not withstanding
MSM is not a source of truth, Dana Bash is a Zionist, Wolf Blitzer was a member of the IDF (as was former Chicago mayor Rahm Immanuel) For the truth seek out Glenn Greenwald, Prof. John Mearsheimer, Ryan Grim, the program Breaking Points on YouTube. Read the book "The Israel Lobby" by Mearsheimer and Prof. Steven Walt published in 2007
A Zionist Illinois state senator, Jeff Schoenberg, pushed through legislation denying state business to any contractor who will not sign a statement that the contractor does not support BDS. This has nothing to do with the state and everything to do with protecting Israel. Jeff Schoenberg was at a city open meeting to oppose a proposed city resolution to stop the slaughter in Gaza.
I said I was astounded that one individual was openly speaking out, imploring Americans when all should be demonstrating and demanding obedience to liberty and justice for all. I cited the Pledge of Allegiance repeatedly, asking listeners "why am I alone, where are my fellow Americans?"
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What happened in the time I was speaking? A woman came up to me and endorsed what I was saying, thanking me for speaking out. Though she did not look impoverished, when I gave her one of my flyers and asked her to share with her friends she said she would but that most of them or homeless. When I said my throat was dry, she offered to buy me and soda and did so.
Other people gave me thumbs up, one guy from a great distance so I knew my voice was being heard. A young woman quietly said "thank you" as she walked by. A group of young men, either high school or early college age gave me thumbs up. An elderly woman came up to tell me to stop talking and said she would call the police on me. I told her to go ahead as I was testing freedom of speech. She called the police.
A patrol car rounded the corner in front of me and did not stop. After 40 minutes, two people arrived with something like "community service" on their shirts. One was African-American (female) and the other a Latino male. They said they were from the city and I would have to stop speaking. I told them I understood, that I would obey and that I did not envy them their jobs. There were apologetic and clearly did not like to be silencing me. They said they were enforcing a city noise ordinance.
That's the scoop. I handed out only 2 or 3 flyers but did not solicit them in my speaking.
This is why some people just call it The Blob now. Originally it was the MIC, then the MICIMATT (a la Ray McGovern). But it is pretty clear that you can't leave out the billionaire donor-class, whose investments are on the line whenever war looms. Blackrock needs Ukraine to win, as do many Ukrainian oligarchs. Much of the push from the "civilian sector" have nothing to do with regular voters. The so-called civilians who are driving policy are the donor-class billionaires. As long as they have so much control over the government, news, think tanks and academia, wars will be the standard operating procedure in the US. The Blob assimilates all that it touches, especially uninformed politicians (e.g., "civilians").
After reflection, I consider you would greatly benefit from reading Linda Weiss’s 2007 “America Inc - The US military-security state”. Its an excellent technical analysis how the US has used the national security exemption of the WTO, as well as its DARPA funding capacity, to create the equivalent of a national industrial strategy for any “dual-use” technology which the US deems is a threat to their domination of a “critical technology” - using sanctions, subsidies & government funded & coordinated initiatives to build US capacity. I’ve been recommending it to Canadian officials & politicians for 15 years, as those sanctions have been critical to defenestrating & buying out Canadian capacity across a number of sectors. The problem with sanctions is they don’t work in the long run, as they didn’t 2,400 years ago when the Spartans & Athens were fighting over grain from the wheat fields of Arcadia - didn’t work then; & of course weakened the Greek city states, enabling Phillip of Macedonia to overrun all of the Greek city states 40 years later. A similar 1979 US embargo on the Soviet Union was also ineffective, then dropped once Canada found out the US had been over-shipping, exceeding its 5 million tonne limit. Canada proceeded in the spring of 1982 to sign an identical agreement to the US; & Reagan announced the end of the embargo months later.
US security sanctions prevented Nortel from selling the electronic chip invented by Nortel in 1968 to turn monaural speech into a digital signal, one of numerous inventions critical to the development of maker communications - Nortel was not allowed to sell its invention, it was forced to licence it to US firms. Similarly, Nortel invented the standards for 1,2,3 & 4 G; as well as the optical switches with speeds of 1-10 gigahertz which made speedy modern telecoms possible. However, Nortel was sanctioned in 2007, destroying its US government market - Canada’s government declared it bankrupt in May 2009 (so employees couldn’t buy it out) but LM Ericsson & Huawei outbid US buyers for Norte’s IP on 4G- LTE & wifi units; as well as the optical high speed switches which Nortel & its subsidiaries pioneered (sales over $12 billion to date); since then rumours of Chinese hacking have muddied waters of the deliberate takedown by DARPA (careful fact checking made clear Huawei technology with matched Nortel capacity to win a key UK switch contract in February, 2006 - i.e., technology was developed & delivered to UK, before ostensible hack began. Following year DARPA declared imaging technology a sanctioned priority technology - which resulted in MacDonald Dettweiller (MDA) price tanking and Google group buying out the Canadian firm in the market; however, our Harper government was forced by a nationalist uproar to keep headquarters in Burnaby, BC. Entire exercise was strategy to extract Landsat imaging technology from MDA for use in google maps & military use. MDA had been in serious talks with Google since 1994 on this, including the software issues of roads on maps being aligned to topography, all with Canadian government awareness & approval. Google then did some software work with INIST funding up to 2017 - but was able to integrate the software into Google Maps the following year; absolutely defenestrating the Apple rollout of AppleMaps - which still is struggling. But the predatory takeover of MDA was reversed when Canada VC investors bought back MDA in 2018. However the Landsat imaging software synched to topographical features now sits in an offshore google sub - making billions for the parent, with little benefit for Canada.
This is only a few of many longstanding abuses of sanctions to effect predatory takeover of sanctioned dual use technology. The effective exclusion from the US market of Bombardier’s new 400 series single single-aisle STOL technology plane, which incorporated new geared-jet turbine technology of Pratt & Whitney, despite its passing a 5 year US new airframe approval process — was enabled by a deliberate ignoring of the new airframe certification regulations to approve the Boeing 737 Max airframe as an “existing” air frame, despite using the new Pratt & Whitney engines which required the wings to be raised over 6 feet higher to accommodate the bigger but more efficient jet engines. Due to inadequate testing there were two air crashes of the unstable in stalls Boeing Max planes - killing over 500 passengers, including 282 Canadians in one ironic twist of fate. The US industry and politicians played upon natavist fears to reverse sales of the Bombardier series to US airlines, ultimately forcing the sale ale of the airframe and technology to Airbus where it is now the 220. AV Roe got the first civilian jetliner in the air before either the Brits or Boeing in 1947 - essentially German POWs & emigrant technologists preferred Canada. But both US & UK made clear they wouldn’t buy Canadian technology; similarly the military version, the AVRO Arrow with specialized composites technology in the Oneida turbines, met a similar protectionist sanction and the program was shut down in the late 50’s. Thousands of those Canadian engineers subsequently went into the US space program.
Excellent thought-provoker, Bill; another candidate for "The Best of Bracing Views" that is even more relevant today than it was thirteen years ago.
And, as it did then, so it does today: The ultimate, bottom-line, bullet-hits-the-bone Question is: "So what and Now what?"
How can that blurring of the civilian and the military in America be terminated? And who is going to terminate it?
Or is it too late for anybody to do anything about it? Has "The Decline" of The American Empire ended, and "The Fall" of that Empire now kicked into gear?
And with The Fall of that Empire, has the end of the Experiment called the United States of America begun, as well?
Thanks, Jeff. What next? I don't know. It seems we've forgotten the idea of civilian control of the military, together with suspicion of large standing militaries. The propaganda is incredibly difficult to challenge, given the power and pervasiveness of the MICIMATT, which is also supported by Hollywood and the sporting world.
How do you challenge such a beast? No matter how hard you hit it, it's just pinpricks.
Sadly, it appears we can do little until the colossus collapses, perhaps under the weight of its own debt and folly. There is sure to be much "collateral damage" across the land when that happens.
It seems we have forgotten a lot of things that The Founders warned us against, Bill. Even tho they created a system of government that made all those things all but unavoidable, if not inevitable.
And the collateral damage ~ social, economic, cultural, and ethical ~ will be massive, at the individual, family, community, regional, and national levels.
My civics lesson today.
Washington's Farewell Address is a letter written by President George Washington as a valedictory to "friends and fellow-citizens" in 1796, after 20 years of public service.
Relevant with respect to Israel:
He urges the American people to avoid long-term friendly relations or rivalries with any nation, arguing that attachments with or animosity toward other nations will only cloud the government's judgment in its foreign policy. He claimed that alliances are likely to draw the United States into wars that have no justification and no benefit to the country beyond simply defending the favored nation. He warned that Alliances threaten to influence the government into making decisions based upon the will of allies instead of the will of the American people.
He made reference to the dangers of foreign nations who seek to influence the American people and government. {Israel ?}
With respect to foreign entanglements:
He urged the American people to take advantage of their isolated position in the world, and to avoid attachments and entanglements in foreign affairs. He argued that it makes no sense for the American people to become embroiled in European affairs when their isolated position and unity allow them to remain neutral and focus on their own affairs. {Ukraine ?}
Bibi is perfect for the growth of the American militarized state. Netanyahu has "every right to defend itself" to bomb the hell out of a host of states while Americans sit and watch on their screens not experiencing war but virtual realities. The necessary illusions are easy to manufacture. Consent is a given while the American war industry profits and grows. Bibi' popularity grows , facing the legal charges against him are delayed as long as he pleases sick Israeli nationalism based delusional interpretations of the Bible and history. It's a perfect storm for the American militarism to grow while "Israel has every right to defend itself" and the illusion that America is not complicit or profiting. Trump is not as hypocritical as Kamala. Trump does not give a shit about the Arabs nor Americans and he tells us that every day. Let's hope the hypocrisy of Kamala is detected just enough to find her losing in November. But don't vote for Trump vote for Jill to encourage her and her kind to sustain social democratic thought because we will need this to rise up out of the ashes.
The Green Party: Ralph Nadar with his huge respect and name recognition, and the same platform Jill Stein is running on, only got 2.7% in 2000 running as a Green.
Jill Stein only got 0.36% of the vote in 2012. And a pathetic 1.07% in 2016.
In 2020 Howie Hawkins taking over the Green Party baton got only 0.3%.
The Green Party has never got any traction in the US.
And Stein has messed in her own nest with voters this election by initially promoting the race baiting goofy professor Cornel West as the Green Party 2024 POTUS candidate - until he flaked out!
And the facts are with first-past-the-post & winner-take-all voting, and the Electoral College with its Superdelegates, there is not even a theoretical chance a Third-Party candidate can be elected POTUS.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/america-isnt-really-set-up-for-third-party-presidential-bids/
It's a systemic problem. Proven in 1992 when Ross Perot challenged Bush and Clinton on a populist platform of slashing the budget deficit.
He got 19.0% of the vote.
But didn’t receive a plurality of voters in any state, giving him ZERO ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES.
The same thing is guaranteed to happen with Stein in 2024
Until America changes its method of voting in its President, its stuck with its Two-Party duopoly. Voting for Jill Stein, running for the third time now is the definition of wasting your vote. For the reasons explained above - she will not become the 47th POTUS. A third party or independent candidate has never won the presidential election in the US. Throughout US history, even the most popular of third-party presidential bids achieved little other than creating a few headlines and siphoning off votes from one major party for the benefit of the other.
If you want even a small chance of America crawling out of the abyss that Biden has got the US into ~ you need to vote TRUMP/VANCE.
Any other vote is irrational, naive and a vote for more of the same.
More homeless in our streets. More inflation. More overseas wars. And under a continuing Democratic Administration soon American kids coming home in body bags fighting for Israel.
Vote for Trump to encourage him and his kind because it's the last and only chance the US has to rise up out of the ashes of liberalism.
TRUMP/VANCE/FK Jr/GABBARD 2024 VANCE/GABBARD 2028💥🎉💥🎉
Coming down to the real essentials. Isn’t what America‘s military is doing around the world today just a continuation of what the military did in the nineteenth century or am I missing something. The greatly esteemed George Washington (actually he continued what Britain had done since the early 1600s) started the genocide that culminated with the massacre of 29 December 1890. I believe, if memory serves me correctly, that this was exclusively accomplished by the U.S. military. 300 plus treaties with native tribes were exclusively broken by Washington and the following expulsions and terrorism unleashed on the hapless natives was done by the all volunteer army. How did the respected Theodore Roosevelt put it? „This great country can’t be an animal sanctuary for dirty savages.“ He also didn’t see much difference between the killing of wild animals and that of Indians (Deschner, DER MOLOCH … p. 75). Maybe, American military behavior today is just following an old habit. Major General Smedley Butler seems to imply this in his short reminiscences WAR IS A RACKET from 1935. To imply that the USA ever practiced a form of the JUST WAR is indulging in historical revisionism that unfortunately resulted in the ideology of American exceptionalism.
"Over the subsequent decades this “interpretation” of the Bible made it a Christian imperative to support creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine."
I rest my case, Ray
Imagine if a car's owners or a nuclear reactors manual was written using parables, metaphors, and allegories. Incredibly difficult to understand. Wouldn't that be incredibly irresponsible? Unfathomably, when people’s deities do the same in their holy books, they see no issues. And as a result, we hear millions of different interpretations of the Bible all claiming with complete certainty that everyone else got it wrong.
The Bible was written, revised and edited many times by the religious for the religious. The last thing it is, is truthful, reliable, unbiased, impartial or a neutral source. Folks that belief the entirety of Bible are willing to sacrifice their humanity on the altar of a book that they can't even prove.
"Religion poisons everything!" - Christopher Hitchens