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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2021 1:59:24 GMT
Good Stuff Chuck. I write them all the time. I vote for someone not in office. Loyal Opposition as it were...although sometimes I think I should write myself in or perhaps "The Brain" from Pinky and the Brain. i.ytimg.com/vi/-8hcPBAW0Mo/hqdefault.jpg
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Post by quincannon on Aug 30, 2021 2:19:26 GMT
Alas Anna Sophie Mutter, the Diva in a Designer Dress, is on the New York Philharmonic broadcast tonight so I must keep this short.
The problem with brains Mike is that every one has one, and few use them. I do it a little different. I vote for that person I think will do the best job, knowing full well that none of them will do the job to my complete and total satisfaction. That is regardless of party. That is never so true as with my present county commissioner. He is a Republican, who I disagree with on policy in just about every instance. He is also a personal friend of mine. I vote for him because he is competent, and will not allow the county to go off the rails. His opposition has always been people who bitch and moan about how things are, or should be, but do not have the smarts and inherent ability to fix them. My guy does, and he has, still not to the level I would like, but he stays in there pitching.
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Post by yanmacca on Aug 30, 2021 11:14:08 GMT
I always wanted to ask you guys how the states are formed, you have states we have counties, your states are made up of counties, our counties are made up of boroughs, am I right?
Do you have regions? We term parts if our nation as regions, for example Devon, Cornwall and somerset ect are the south west region of England.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2021 12:37:10 GMT
States were formed from territories. A Territory could produce several states. Counties are subordinate to states. New counties are sometimes split off from larger ones. The biggest County in the US is San Bernardino County in California, which is larger than some states or countries. Some states have boroughs or parishes instead of counties. Counties are further divided into election districts. Some Government districts, notably for the House of Representatives incorporate parts of different counties. We have regions, but they are not part of government. For instance College Football (american) Conferences, e.g. the Southeastern Conference, which sort of corresponds to the Confederate States of America. Before WWII, the US was divided into Corps Areas by the army. There are similar boundaries for some commands. New England is a region.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2021 12:48:41 GMT
Alas Anna Sophie Mutter, the Diva in a Designer Dress, is on the New York Philharmonic broadcast tonight so I must keep this short. The problem with brains Mike is that every one has one, and few use them. I do it a little different. I vote for that person I think will do the best job, knowing full well that none of them will do the job to my complete and total satisfaction. That is regardless of party. That is never so true as with my present county commissioner. He is a Republican, who I disagree with on policy in just about every instance. He is also a personal friend of mine. I vote for him because he is competent, and will not allow the county to go off the rails. His opposition has always been people who bitch and moan about how things are, or should be, but do not have the smarts and inherent ability to fix them. My guy does, and he has, still not to the level I would like, but he stays in there pitching. The only government guy I had any real relationship with was a State Representative from Saint Augustine. We were classmates at UF, both served in the 11th ACR. At one point he was the XO of the CAV Troop I was a platoon leader in and then I succeeded him as XO. He was the democratic house leader. I'd vote for him anytime. I tried a little to get him to run for governor, but he had more sense than to do it. My thought about Politicians is similar to what Ryan O'Neil told Robert Redford in "A Bridge Too Far" "I'm looking for a special kind of guy for a special mission. He's got to have some special qualities. He's got to be experienced enough to do it. He's got to be tough enough to do it. And there's one more thing..." "What's that General?" "He's got to be stupid enough to do it." "Looks like I'm your man." So I figure if some one runs for office, they are stupid if they are not, they soon become stupid. Thus, I just vote to get rid of whoever in. It means I vote for some odd candidates. Maybe I should write in "None of the Above" not that anyone gives a shit about what I think. My daughter worked for a Congressman in another district. I'd send her copies of letters I wrote to mine and she would show them to him. In fact, he would ask her if I had written any lately and he always read them. He never wrote me back, but she said he would occassionally go "Hmmmmm". He retired and she quit working for politicians. She is trying, unsuccessfully to get a job in some Refugee agency and runs a small non-profit for refugees, as I told you once. Actually, she is being unsuccessful at getting any kind of job with an art degree (she is pretty good), and two law degrees. People think she is over qualified for anything. Sigh. When she writes Congressman, she has a letter that she writes, but when she gets a letter back that is a form letter, she writes a really biting one back, enclosing it, thus telling the staffer that they are pretty stupid and don't give much thought to what they write.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2021 12:57:38 GMT
Should there be a public investigation. NO. Should there be a highly classified investigation, conducted by a civilian board of very highly thought of people from America at large. YOU BET YOUR SWEET ASS THERE SHOULD. If people did any or all of the things you list they should be gotten rid of with dispatch. My thinking here is that we knew the curtain on this play was closing. What the administration did not realize and the generals did not tell them was the curtain was not closing, the goddamned curtain was falling onto the stage. They, I believe, in not keeping the new administration properly informed, did not want to admit that in twenty years of effort they had failed to make this sows ear into a silk purse. The same goes for the appropriate desks at State and CIA, Agriculture, and several more agencies who had a stake in a good outcome, and egg on their faces with a bad one. Administrations are only as good as the information they have, and information is subject to very close hold protections, when that information makes the informant look like a bumbling idiot. I agree there should be a classified process too. We need a public one because people are losing/have lost faith in the Military in the last year or so. If it's classified, the politicians and generals will protect themselves, no one will be held accountable, and the public won't have a clue. We need a public process because this is our government and our country and I am convinced politicians, appointed cabinet officers, intelligence officials, and general's screwed the pooch screwed the pooch starting on 9/10/2001 and have screwed it up since. In fact, we hay have screwed it up since Iraq invaded Kuwait. No one has been fired or reprimanded that I know of and if they have been, they have been eased out instead of being pitched out the front gate with their buttons cut off and their sword broken and thrown out behind them at the gate.
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Post by quincannon on Aug 30, 2021 15:01:14 GMT
As long as there is a classified portion first, I have no objection to public hearing, as long as those hearings are conducted by non-politicians, and are televised. We need truth, about where we have been, why we have continued to fail since 1950, and recommendations on what can be done about it.
Part of the problem is the military-industrial-political complex, but that's not all of it. Part of it is the beltway think tanks, which never saw a war they didn't want to start. Most of it though is our own hubris, thinking that the power of our nation, is a power for good in the world, and not realizing that some parts of the world are not ready for good. Hell, some parts of the world are not yet ready for Cheerios and Hershey bars, much less democracy. We need to stop this thinking that we can change the world, or the world will end up changing us.
It should be the policy of the United States that we not enter into any conflict, unless our most vital interests are in immediate danger. Some hair brained idiot in some Stan, trying to build a bomb to plant on Fifth Avenue, is not sufficient cause the immediate danger alarm to go off. It certainly is not cause for the deployment of troops in other than the most minor scale, if that. We must adapt to twenty-first century war, and most of that should not be something that would garner public attention or be newsworthy to print except between the comics and the crossword puzzle. It should be a war in the shadows, where we scare the other guy so bad that he can't sleep at night for fear of us. The final part though is the most important. We must in everything we do set a good example. That is where we can be a very effective force for good, a model, a goal, a Camelot.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2021 15:49:50 GMT
We don't make the best use of some of our best weapons:
Weapons of Mass Distraction: Brittany Spears and entertainment. Weapons of Mass Construction: Foreign Aid Weapons of Mass Consumption: Food Aid EDIT: Munitions of the Mind: PSYOPS and other mind tricks we canplay.
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Post by quincannon on Aug 30, 2021 17:29:46 GMT
I mostly agree.
Camelot is where the PSYOPS comes in but there must be substance, it cannot be we are great come join us. It must be real. It must be "White" PSYOPS where you can not only hear of it, you can touch, feel it in the air, and see it. When you walk out of the theater, you must be humming the tune.
Weapons of Mass Distraction: Not so much. Pop culture passes, the classics remain. If we are to be a classic, there must be care in it. No banjos and fiddles. It must be the classical guitar, piano, cello, and most of all the violin. There is a place for the banjo and fiddle too, but it must come after the deal is sealed, not before.
Building and providing food to eat are good things, but to make it a trifecta, there must be a huge medical component that goes in with the food. The construction can wait until the second tier. Not far behind, mind you. The priority is life.
Under no circumstance should Camelot be "our" culture centric. It must be their culture centric. Give them the idea, then let them adapt what they have to become what they want.
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Post by quincannon on Aug 30, 2021 21:44:28 GMT
The last of our troops are OUT of Afghanistan. Now is the time Dave, for you to pray in thanksgiving. It's done, and by the Grace of the Almighty, the casualty count was significant, but not as high as it easily could have been.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2021 23:08:07 GMT
Well, I am glad that's over, not as bad as I feared. It will be interesting to see what happens next with people who still want to get out and how they treat those that stay.
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Post by quincannon on Aug 30, 2021 23:41:17 GMT
Mike: I just watched the Secretary of State outline what our objectives are in a continuation of the evacuation for those who want to leave. The United Nations also set certain standards for Taliban conduct in that regard. Regardless of what may be thought of the UN, and personally I am not all that high on them, they do have considerable drag with the World Bank, and what does the Taliban need more than anything else to get themselves up and running.
Since Dave is in the praying business, I have thought over the last couple of hours about what I would wish him to pray for
1) Diplomacy does not come from the barrel of a gun. A gun is a poor substitute for trying to talk out problems, and at least trying to achieve agreement that are mutually beneficial to both parties. So pray that diplomacy is the first tool, not the last.
2) The military establishment is the sharp pointy stick of American power. It should be kept sharp, but also be the last, not the first, one used. Pray for prudence and restraint, especially when your political opposition is yelling the loudest.
3) You cannot use the pointed stick to establish democracy. Don't try. You will fail, just as we have failed since Cuba and the Philippines in 1898, and have had scant success in the third world since. Did I say scant? Is scant spelled zero. So pray, that these stupid sons of bitches that inhabit the revolving doors of our "think" (if they would only live up to the name) tanks read some goddamned history, before we make the same mistakes again.
4) When our goddamned generals again beat the war drum on some far frontier, where we have no goddamned business. fire the bastards, turn on a good Strauss waltz, pour a bourbon (six fingers neat), and think about it a couple of years before you say --- No, are you frigging kidding. "On The Beautiful Blue Danube" and good bourbon soothes the savage beast in every Chickenhawk son of a bitch who ever wore stars. So pray for the resurrection of Johann Strauss Jr. and Jim Beam.
Now get on your frigging knees Dave, and pray your ass off for sanity returning to our foreign policy after being missing in action for a hundred years,
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2021 1:13:26 GMT
I love Strauss and Bourbon. They both calm my shattered nerves.
We need to pull the military out of a lot more places, including NATO, Korea, anything left in the Middle East, make it so it is both lethal and deployable (I think those two contradict each other), build some stuff so we CAN deploy, but pull money out of the military and fix our damn roads, water, and bridges.
As I am an atheist, I put no stock in prayer. Frequently the answer seems to be no. Regardless of what the answer is, it is said to be god's will, so I am not sure in a blind test trial anything would be shown one way or the other. But we need to up the diplomacy, lower the use of arms, and think. I probably should send out my principles and questions to congressman.
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Post by quincannon on Aug 31, 2021 1:59:07 GMT
There's one thing that I laugh about Mike, and I mean roll on the floor laughing, and it is how many of the psalm singing sons of bitches there are that would not know the true meaning of Christianity if they fell over it. Christianity has a message of unrestricted love of our fellow man. I think there are a hell of a lot of atheists that subscribe to that, without feeling the need to follow the Cross. I don't think God gives a rats ass about labels. He cares about how someone lives. Therefore there is going to be a hell of a lot of those bible thumping fundamental hate everyone but us bastards having a real surprise when they see who the next door neighbor is in the hereafter. That is going to make me roll down those streets of Gold laughing at the look on their stupid faces.
I put a lot of stock in prayer. Pray every day, for a hell of a lot of people, including some here, that are standing in the need of prayer, I do. I also believe that praying without some accompanying action is about as worthless as farting in a hurricane, in hopes that someone may hear you and take pity on you for your intestinal distress.
I pray for our president, and have for every goddamned one of them going back to Truman. That includes that crook Nixon, and that treasonous son of a bitch that lives down your way. Mainly my prayer for them centers around the fact that I sure as hell am glad I am not them, as they carry the burdens of the country, and wish them all the wisdom to steer the country on a steady course. Sometime my prayers are answered. Other times, not so much.
The first thing on the agenda is cut the military budget by 25 percent, and that would include an across the board reduction in active duty manpower. I would increase the reserve components by the same amount, and re-balance the structure of the active and reserve components. We did something similar after Vietnam, and that was the start of the Guard and Reserve becoming an operational reserve rather than being thought of as Christmas help.
We need to get out of Europe, but not out of NATO. NATO can be a pain in the ass, but I think they are still very necessary. Korea is a geography problem. I would say yes, go tomorrow, if we had some place nearby that was American soil. The Middle East is one of those leave yesterday, and it's still not soon enough. Use emerging technology. Put big oil out of business, or at least reduce their energy footprint by 80 percent. Screw those people over there, every goddamned one of them, They have always been trouble, and will remain so as long as we pussy foot around with fossil fuel energy.
We need to completely restructure the force, into something like that which generated the PENTANA study. Swift deployability. Move a division not in 72 hours which we never achieved, but in 48 hours which we can do if we design, and equip it correctly, and with the lethality you spoke of. These are hard problems, but hard dedicated people who love their country, and who are not beholden to the p---ies in uniform or their defense contractor co-conspirators can do it. All that is needed is for someone in authority to say GO.
The final thing that would do more than any other measure to change the direction of American foreign policy from using the sharp stick first, to talking the bastards to death before anything else is done, is to change the Constitution and make it mandatory for everyone in the House and Senate, as well as the President and Vice President to serve in the military in some capacity, before they are qualified to run for election. When they know the pain, they will restrain.
"Roses From The South" is another one of my very favorites. Wish I could waltz, but listening and enjoying is the next best thing. Try tea and smoke a pipe. Good tea, and hundred buck a pound pipe tobacco though. None of that cheap stuff. The cheap stuff gives you hemorrhoids. Little known fact. Napoleon lost Waterloo because he ran out of Preparation H. I told the sawed off silly bastard to use my brand of pipe tobacco, but he would not listen.
I am just so damned glad it's over.
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