Night Messages

Upon a lonely limb,
We might in silence
Hang our love,
Let it call out
Into the dark.

A chilled wind carries
Hopeless words,
'Till sunrise
Drowns them out,
They cannot stand
The light of day.

A Few Thoughts on Former Vice President Joseph Biden

Since I'm writing about Mr. Biden, I'm going to begin by speaking about President Trump, just to add a little balance. I think Donald Trump is a narcissistic moron. But Joe Biden has this critical quality — he is not Donald Trump. He also appears honest. The goodness ends there. He isn't up to the job.

When Mr. Biden speaks, he sounds like an old guy who might have once had it, but now is trying to sound like he still does. That's just what Joe is — a guy who once had it, maybe. I tried reading Joe's 'plan.' It's terrible. My sister, a dyed in the wool Trump supporter, thinks Joe is a socialist. That's just Republican blather. Joe isn't organized enough to be a socialist anymore. I doubt that he had much of a hand in writing his 'plan.' In the first four pages of the 'plan,' we get the phrase 'union jobs,' 'union labor,' or 'union work force,' about twenty times. OK, Joe, I get it, Democrats are all in with the unions. Are all those folks working from home gonna be organized too? Are we going to use all those good union jobs to compete against that semi slave labor in Foxcon City? Dear reader, if you don't know what Foxcon City is, then you don't understand how China has out competed us. And they did it with the help of a Taiwanese firm. China even uses its enemies to get ahead, something that is beyond Donald Trump's ability to comprehend.

Joe's plan is going to give us a carbon pollution free power sector by 2035. Knowing the clowns in charge of his party, I suspect that won't include a massive nuclear power construction effort, so be prepared to be sitting in the dark during those rolling blackouts. The Bozos who wrote the plan think 2035 is a long way away, but from an R and D to industrial production and logistics planning point of view on a nationwide scale 2035 is the day after tomorrow, given that we're beginning from a standing start.

Joe has the federal government spending trillions on things it has not traditionally done, such as insulating homes, repairing water pipes, and such. That is an enormous increase in federal spending.

Joe's plan is a crazy quilt wish list designed to bring a smile to every corner of the balkanized Democratic Party where people seem to be lined up waiting for free stuff. It is a party of unreality that, when tempered, is bound to be much, much better than the rapacious anti science thieves and traitors who currently inhabit the Republican Party.

So . . . I believe all thinking citizens should spend at least two hours each week listening to those two Republican apologists, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh. It's important to understand how the criminals who currently control the government perceive themselves. It doesn't take a lot of time, but knowing your enemy is important. Living in a liberal bubble isn't a good idea. There will be lots of repair work to be done. And if Joe really does get elected, we will at least have the rule of law back, and then we'll see about the rest.

Today's Haiku

love falls on deaf ears,
sad tears fall in cold silence,
awaiting an end.

The Virus Chronicles - 26 Oct 2020: Inside The Plague

 

We have been inside the plague for nine months now. At first we didn't know we were there. The smart guys in the room (Fauci, et, al) told us there was nothing to worry about. We've all forgotten that, just as we've forgotten the manipulative assurances that all hands need not wear masks. That was a deception to preserve inventory for those on the front lines. But in all modern warfare, there are no front lines. The front lines are everywhere. There are only believers and non believers. In the case of the plague, there are those who accept science, and those who wish it away. As in so many other things, the Republican party is not on the side of science, or rather, its acolytes are making their own science, just as they made the silent scream, and their very own climatology.

 

Yesterday, Mark Meadows, the President's looney Chief of Staff who was once a non productive bomb thrower in Congress, admitted that the administration had no strategy for containing the plague. Their intention is to ride it out until a vaccine is available. There was no reporter intrepid enough to ask what happens if none of the vaccines work out in the short term. They'll just keep watchin' 'em die.

 

Trumpkins who have been asked to don masks in retail establishments have attacked employees making the requests. In one case an employee had his jaw broken. That could be a preview of the state of national cordiality if The Donald fails to prevail in the election, though it's understood nothing will be decided on election day. The litigation of Bush v. Gore will seem like mere finger food compared to what's in store for us this time.

A View from The Acropolis on to Modern Athens

Though we may set our hopes
Firmly stone upon stone
Yet in the end
We are all dust

How Do We Fix The Navy? — Free advice worth lots more than you paid for it

“How do we fix the Navy?” Asked David Ignatius of the Chief of Naval Operations. Ignatius, once a friendly conduit for CIA leaks, was conducting the interview at the CNO's request for The Washington Post. The CNO, Admiral Gilday, covered several critical topics, but only one interested me. It had been my pet peeve for twenty-five years, and though the admiral hadn't made it the centerpiece of his comments, he had pushed it. For me, an obscure retired commander from a small state, that was gratifying.

The subject, and the peeve, is the Goldwater-Nichols Military Reform Act. This law does several things, but I'm concerned with only one, that which does the greatest damage to the US Navy. The bare bones of the law require that all US military officers become joint duty qualified, which means an officer must attend two levels of joint political military eduction (JPME), to wit, war colleges, and serve at least two joint tours of duty (the Joint Staff will do, but there are field commands as well).

How did this come about? I won't say that your guess is as good as mine; I believe I know. Back in the early 80s we invaded the island of Grenada in order to free it from the clutches of Cuban influence, and rescue American medical students studying there. During the invasion, the Navy couldn't communicate with the Army or Air Force, and the panacea that would fix the resulting minor public scandal was Goldwater-Nichols.

Here's the real story. By the time the US had decided to invade Grenada, we had discovered the existence of the John Walker spy ring. As a result we knew that the Soviets were able to read much of our military communications, especially our Navy comms. Prior to the invasion, an amphibious ready group departed the east coast en route a previously scheduled Med deployment. After departure they assumed complete electronic silence, communicating via flag hoist, flashing light, and messages exchanged by helicopter. This was to be the Grenada invasion force. They were a true covert force. Operating in such secrecy, they were in no position to coordinate with outside forces, but they were adequate to the task, and their secrecy meant that the Cubans on the island had no idea they were coming. The problem: Given that this was the only war to be had, the Army and Air Force insisted on getting a piece of the action.

From the confusion of not being able to coordinate operations due to radio silence came the theory that our forces couldn't work well together. The reason the “joint” side of this operation was such a mess was the necessity of maintaining the covertness of the amphibious force. Normally, a joint operation would have involved advanced operational communication and planning that wasn't feasible under these circumstances.

From this has evolved the current jointness craze, and the bureaucratization of warfare into such memorable ideas as “Joint Concept for Access and Maneuver in the Global Commons.” Prior to this it would have been known simply as “Maritime Operations.”

Why is this so toxic to the Navy — more than to the other services? Naval officers don't just fight their ships, they must sail them in peace and war. They are mariners as well as naval officers. When an armor officer concludes an operation, his tanks go on transporters or rail cars and are ferried back to post to minimize wear. Naval officers deploy their ships for six to nine months at a time, in peace and war. They must contend with maritime traffic in the sea lanes under all circumstances, day and night. They occasionally must enter strange ports, often under hazardous navigational conditions.

All this requires broad training and experience afloat that develops not just leadership skills, but seamanship skills and judgement. No amount of schooling can substitute, nor can a short refresher afloat replace years of experience as a seaman. It is true that the chief and senior petty officers are the technical experts of the Navy, but the Navy's excellence has always rested on the fulcrum of its officers' command of its complex technical systems as well as their strong leadership. Though Navy leadership may deny it, the fact of life in an officer's career is now to not spend any more time at sea than is absolutely necessary in order to ensure he or she can punch critical joint career tickets on the way to a hoped for advancement to flag rank.

Fixing this would require a true rebellion. The jointness craze (and it is a craze — everything must incorporate the joint term in its name to succeed) has been ongoing for so long that the entire US military is transfused with true joint believers. They shuffle through tours in the ever more bloated Joint Staff and Combatant Commanders (the Flag Officers who were called CINCs until Rumsfeld decided that there could be only one Commander in Chief). They produce more and more 'plans' and 'position papers' in the approved format. It's too bad they can't shoot that stuff from artillery tubes.

All this shows clearly in the accident rates of surface ships at sea. Those familiar with the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea are aware of how fundamental were the mistakes in recent Navy incidents, and how preventable the deaths and millions of dollars lost repairing damaged ships due to collisions.

There is no substitute for experience.