Day: September 22, 2020

Closing Thought–22Sep20

“War–What’s It Good for?”

My regulars here on IST know and understand that I am an antiwar voter and have been his 1970….and every election I am disappointed in the lack of an actual antiwar candidate or platform or anything that would say the we are against our endless wars.

And the election of 2020 is NO different…..neither Biden or Trump is what I would call antiwar…the rhetoric is not even there anymore.

It use to be that both major parties had an antiwar wing….but sadly those days are gone…gone….gone…..

Elect Joe Biden, former (Republican) Secretary of State Colin Powell said in his Democratic National Convention appearance Tuesday night, and he’ll “restore America’s leadership in the world.”

Powell’s comments were followed by a video touting Biden’s friendship with the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), another heavyweight GOP hawk. Meanwhile, there’s a pro-Biden super PAC of George W. Bush administration alumni, and Biden has racked up support from a who’s who of neoconservatives (Bill Kristol, Max Boot, David Frum, Jennifer Rubin), as commentators left and right have observed.

These alignments highlight an increasingly undeniable fact of American politics in 2020: The anti-war wing of both major parties is dead. Your presidential choice is between war and war. There’s no faction of Republicans or Democrats which combines real power with a durable, principled interest in turning American foreign policy away from global empire.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/anti-war-wing-both-parties-195532097.html

I am still an antiwar voter….I do not subscribe to the slogan that anybody but Trump….that sadly lacks any direction for this country.

Since I am still antiwar I will have to look elsewhere for a candidate…..and that means that I will be blamed for Biden’s loss….not to worry I am use to it.

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Arrest The Lot Of Them!

It is time for Congress and SCOTUS to step out of the partisan shadows and think and act for the good of the nation.

Time for the officials in DC are held accountable and responsible for their actions.

There are lots of examples but the one that sticks in my throat…is the looting of 9/11 funds….

A health care program that serves 9/11 first responders is nearly $4 million short because the Trump administration shifted those dollars away to another program, the New York Daily News reports. In fact, the Treasury Dept. has quietly siphoned money from the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program—which covers paramedics, EMTs, and firefighters—for about four years now. “This was just disappearing,” says program director David Prezant. “This is the most amazing thing. This was disappearing—without any notification.” According to Prezant, the program lost between $500,000 and $600,000 a year from 2016 to 2019, then fell short roughly $1.5 million through late August of 2020.

Pezant says he complained for years to no avail, until GOP Rep. Pete King got involved. King, who called the shortfall “disgraceful,” wrote Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin two letters and never received a direct response. But MSN reports that a Treasury official told King’s office in August that nearly $2 million had been shifted to another program to offset costs. “I don’t even care what the details of this thing is. That fund has to be fully compensated, fully reimbursed,” said King. “I mean, this is absurd.” Sen. Chuck Schumer agreed, saying “this needs to stop forthwith.” Prezant says the program is still functioning with money fronted by the Fire Department—but the feds are supposed to reimburse those dollars under the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.

This is not the worse violations of them trust the voters gave these people….but just the most recent.

All the lies and corruption that has finally come to the head of the government needs to be punished…… and punished hard!

If Democrats do hold their House majority and retake the Senate and the White House, pressure will be intense to avoid looking backward and focus solely on solving the problems in front of them. This is understandable: the wreckage the Trump administration would leave behind after just four short years is immense, the policy challenges dire. If successful in November (and if Trump doesn’t create irredeemable chaos in the transition), Biden and Congressional Democrats will have to deal with a raging pandemic, a collapsing small business and renter economy, a climate crisis and continuing unrest over racist police violence—as well as the myriad ongoing policy challenges related to healthcare, tuition, inequality, tech giant accountability and so much more. It’s easy to foresee a scenario where, coupled with pressure from Republicans and centrists, Democrats decide that the public is sick of even thinking about Trump and bygones are allowed to be bygones.

But that would be a huge mistake. If Trump and his enablers are allowed to get away with the misdeeds of the last four years unscathed, it may mean the end of the American experiment.

To Save Democracy, Democrats Must Hold Trump Officials Accountable

Arrest the lot of them.  Just once I would like to see a politician in the leadership rolls to be held accountable for their actions….especially when it comes to the deception of the population.

Arrested, tried and sent to PRISON!

Just a fanciful dream on my part.

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

2020 Alternatives–Libertarian

It is that time again…the comedic skit we call elections…..]most Americans already know which of the two losers they will vote for….but there are other options and I am here to help……chuq

Gulf South Free Press

2020 Election Series #1

I try to be as FYI as I can without being too biased….there is little more than a month before we vote for our next president or the guy that he beat…..

Not to worry there is more candidates than the two that the media wants you to fixate on……GSFP will give the other parties that have presidential candidates for 2020…..I will start with the most popular of the alternatives (some say)…the Libertarian Party…

A little history to help your knowledge…..

The Libertarian Party was established in Westminster, Colorado, in 1971 and fielded its first candidate for the presidency in the next year’s elections. In 1980 it achieved its height of success when it was on the ballot in all 50 states, and its presidential candidate, Edward E. Clark, a California lawyer, received 921,199 votes. Although this vote represented only about 1 percent…

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Could The US Lose The Next Big War?

Yes I know that I am an antiwar blogger and am always going on about this fact or that about our many armed conflicts.

I have spent many years studying and analyzing war and the conflicts that the US has gotten itself into over the decades.

The question I asked is not my way of belittling the military as some unthinking morons will believe….I am just passing on a thought by a well respected US general, Gen. Dunford……

The United States could well lose the next big war — not because it lacks the right capabilities but because it has not done the hard intellectual work to know how to win. This is a central conclusion of the bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission in its November 2018 report. It goes on to argue that defense planners understand neither the fundamental characteristics of regional conventional wars against adversaries capable of all-domain, transregional escalation nor how to shape the dynamics of such wars to safeguard U.S. interests.

As commissions come and go frequently inside the Washington beltway, their impact on public policy is typically short-lived. But this report struck a nerve — and rightly so. At a time when the risks of such regional wars are rising, the United States has lagged behind in the development of the needed new strategic thought, which has magnified risk. It is time for the U.S. defense community to put its intellectual house in order about modern major-power war and especially its strategic dimensions.

Lest anyone think that the criticism emanates from a single cranky commission, consider the judgment of Gen. Joseph Dunford, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2016 declared that “we’re already behind in adapting to the changing character of war today, in so many ways.” Or consider the views of the director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute in London, Peter Roberts, who wrote in 2017:

“Potential adversaries … have reconceptualized warfare and reimagined conflict without the boundaries the West imposes upon it. … A belief in Western conceptual or intellectual superiority remains deeply entrenched in the Western orthodoxy; such hubris has distinct dangers.”

On the Need for a Blue Theory of Victory

Too many generals and planners are still fighting World War 2….those days are gone and until we realize that the chances of a defeat is highly likely.

Just to fan the flames……

By 2030 there will be several armies strong enough…..other than the US…..

The focus of ground combat operations has shifted dramatically since the end of the Cold War. Relatively few operations now involve the defeat of a technologically and doctrinally similar force, leading to the conquest or liberation of territory. Preparation for these operations remains important, but ground combat branches also have a host of other priorities, some (including counter-insurgency and policing) harkening back to the origins of the modern military organization.

 

What will the balance of ground combat power look like in 2030, presumably after the Wars on Terror and the Wars of Russian Reconsolidation (more to come on this idea below) shake out?

Predictions are hard, especially about the future, but a few relatively simple questions can help illuminate our analysis. In particular, three questions motivate this study:

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/starting-2030-these-5-armies-will-be-unstoppable-167703

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”