Ball Diamond Ball

Here is a brain teaser:

• EPA and Interior Dept fire half their scientist advisors to “Clean house from Obama”
• Coal mining comes back
• Water and land use regulations are pared back
• Ivanka will lead the Paris Climate Accord review

Please find the thing that is not like the others: No looking at your neighbors answer….

I am seeing the normal conservative hair shirt kneejerk when Trump does something symbolic despite concrete actions taking place. Ivanka terrifies the right and pisses off the left.  A great camouflage player.

Get used to symbolic dissonance.  The President does not care about verbal integrity, just results.

If we kiss the Paris Climate accords but make noises about reserving the right to modify the impact, it is just words, as sincere as the … Continue reading →

A comprehensive outline for restructuring our military to create a force more geared to defense of self and national interests, domestic and abroad.

– Rename the department as War Department. It has never been much about defense and we might as well call it what it does – break things and kill people.

– Navy: increase the number of ships to bulk up the overall ability of the Navy to project power across the seas. Modern warships seem little stronger than the old wooden ships, so we need to build to a new standard. Much of what we will be using will be patrol boats, so cruisers and large destroyers seem to fit the bill. Cutters of various strengths, but with speed, for more local water patrolling, mostly … Continue reading →

If one looks at American history from a distance, our singular characteristic has been commerce. Tocqueville noted it in his highly accurate examination of America of the 19th century. He specifically commented on just how sharp and energetic we were in business competition. This far exceeded anything on the European continent.

A perusal of national income in the late 1700’s shortly after our founding, shows we Americans, we tiny 13 colonies, made an absolutely prodigious amount of money. It was done mostly via trade. At the time boats for trade were being built as fast as they could be. A vessel would go off on a voyage and pay for itself – on one voyage. Everything afterward was profit. So even in the vagaries of the sea and … Continue reading →

We are all aware of Washington’s comment that we should be strong so as to avoid war, and to deal with all but form binds with none. Clearly we have failed to follow his advise. This can be good or bad, depending on one’s viewpoint. There are, however, some important issues to be hashed out before we can stand cleanly and decide what exactly we want of us and the world.

Political theory has for some time contended that kings rule for their own aggrandizement, and not that of the people. This is the heart of the whole concept that the king rules by divine provenance, when in point of fact he rules by his own ambition and grip on the reins of power. If we conclude this, … Continue reading →

So the deed is done and now the Senate gets to have their say. I think we may assume that President Trump will sign whatever comes his way on this, so the Senate is the real issue. I don’t have a sense of what the Senate will do with this. Will they rubber-stamp it? Vote it down? Mark it up so much that it must go to reconciliation? I suspect the last of those options is what will happen, but that is based only on a generic sense of what the Senate usually does.

What do you think?

This photo caught my eye and I was enthralled by it. It says so much, so compactly.

Legacy and Future

Determination

The torch is passed

America makes some awesome aircraft

https://amgreatness.com/2017/03/25/whats-in-a-doctrine/

Can it be this simple? A strategic policy of self interest first, middle and last?

But that does not require elaborate explanations of why doing the stupid is necessary in tomes of polysyllables.

It does not require a massive number of mouth flappers who explain why we need to ‘understand’ other cultures.

It just requires a handful of tough guys and gals and an ass kicking military with economic power.

Seems too simple, but then again, never confuse simple with easy. Often the complex is the lazy man’s game.

Continue reading →

Well, now that we’ve passed it, perhaps we can see what’s in it.  Oh, and the Senate takes it next.

My guess is that nothing has been repealed, and we’re going to tinker with the damned thing.

Us dirt Marines sure appreciated you when we needed you.

The Most Dangerous Job in the World.mp4

Poster