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.

Another Sad Day

Between the plague and the corrosive antics of the President I haven't felt like writing. Today I buried a beautiful calico who had been hit by a car on Weakley Hollow Rd. She is the third one buried this month in the new plot in front of the house. One was a very young kitten Laurie found abandoned, who lived the night and died in the morning. The other was hit by a car on Rte 609. 

If the country had been in the Big Sort before, we are now facing each other with clenched fists. Donald Trump really could commit murder and not lose a supporter. However, the same is true for Joe Biden at his point. The camps are that far apart. The smart money isn’t waiting for the election; it’s waiting to litigate the election. 

Post debate, my money will be on Donald Trump unless he has an uncharacteristic meltdown, which his brain may be moving toward. Yesterday he was barely coherent, but tonight's Mark Levin show will probably dub him a genius. For those who don’t tune in to right wing radio, I will quote Sun Tzu: “Know your enemy.” Joe Biden’s measured, shaky responses scare me. They sound like a guy who used to have it.

The Virus Chronicles (continued)

I haven't written anything in over two weeks, not because nothing has happened, but because the same thing happens each day. The single change is the President figured out that he looked ridiculous in his daily press briefings, so he changed them to 'occasional.' That didn't last long. He had become addicted to the attention. Now things are really happening. He slipped intentionally that he is on hydroxycloroquine, and had been for some time. That's his game changer, his miracle drug that will bypass the need for a vaccine, because it already exists, and permit him to get back out on the campaign trail. And he's a believer (smart guy), &c. The fact that the drug has been shown to not be a game changer, but rather a source of harm to the patient, is irrelevant to the President. Not only does he know what he knows, an army of his supporters goes forth to prove every point that he makes, even if it's wrong. They will find a doctor who agrees with absolutely everything the President says. There is a doctor or scientist somewhere willing to do it, too. A fellow at Stanford has become the current preferred go-to guy.

This has become the new battleground; find the expert who supports your side's opinion. It doesn't matter what the opinion is — hydroxychloroquine (even whether or not it's been given to the Australian population at large — that itself is a point of contention), climate change, whether Dr. Fauci has invested in vaccine firms, the efficacy of masks, abortion, the list goes on. The battle of the experts on a president who is a certifiable fool, and his equally foolish followers, harks back to he influence of Trofim Lysenko on Joseph Stalin and Soviet genetics in the 1930s and 40s. The only discernible difference is that Donald Trump has not the power to sentence those scientists he disagrees with to prison or death. The party where sixty per cent believe that God created man 6000 years ago without the need for evolution is now constantly searching out scientists to make its points.

We do indeed live in interesting times. Has no one noticed China gobbling up the South China Sea, destroying Hong Kong's independence? Has no one noticed the balance of power in the Middle East? Lebanon is dissolving.

No, it's all virus, all the time, unless the President acts out some other way.

The Virus Chronicles (continued)

There are a number of crazy cures and treatments out there for the virus, but one thing distinguishes them. Support for the cure(s) has coalesced about political lines. My sister has gone further. Not only does she support any kooky cure that the President supports, she believes that Dr. Fauci, a highly respected epidemiologist, has somehow invested in a counter cure that will make him wealthy; that's why he isn't touting “the President's cure.”

The Republican Party has been the anti science party for a long time, rejecting evolution and climate change, but they've now drunk a very different Kool Aid, one prepared by a narcissist with the maturity of a twelve year old who periodically points to his head and says “smart guy” in street corner New Yorkese.”

Meanwhile former Vice President Joe Biden, the probable Democratic nominee for president, is in his basement rec room making youTube videos, while the President campaigns every night with a new virus press conference. Biden has avoided answering accusations of sexual assault; he shouldn't worry. The friendly press will give him a pass, in spite of today's culture supposedly saying “believe the woman under all circumstances.” He is the great liberal hope, after all. I expect he is a loser. This race is one codger against another — who will become a doddering fool first?