This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Hondo

  • About That “Lack of Diversity in Army Officers” Claim . . . .

    To put it succinctly: based on publicly-available data published by DoD, the claim appears to be bullsh!t.

    The “lack of diversity” claim appears in this article by the Washington Times, and in this article from USA Today. In each article, senior Army leadership appears to indicate that Blacks are “underrepresented” in the Army’s Commissioned Officer Corps. The claim that specifically caught my interest was the claim that that Blacks make up “less than 10%” of the Army’s officer corps.

    Based on the latest publicly-available data I could find, these articles appear to be factually incorrect. They also IMO appear to be the result of someone attempting to create the appearance of an issue where no legitimate problem exists.

    The Fiscal Year 2015 Defense Manpower Requirements Report was released in June 2014. Information on pages 69 and 76 of that document directly contradicts the claim that “10% of the Army’s officers are Black”.

    Page 69 of the 2015 DMRR gives demographic data for the Army’s active duty forces as of 30 September 2013. On that date, the Army had 82,916 commissioned officers. Of that total, 10,173 were Black.

    That works out to 12.269+%. Last time I checked, 12.269+% is not “less than 10%”.

    Page 76 of the 2015 DMRR gives the same data for the Army’s Selected Reserve (USAR and ARNG). On 30 September 2013, the Army’s Selected Reserve had a total of 68,601 commissioned officers. Of that total, 8,701 were Black.

    That works out to 12.683+%. Last time I checked, 12.683+% isn’t “less than 10%”, either.

    Even if you restrict the analysis to only those individuals who are considered (or perhaps consider themselves) “non-Hispanic Blacks”, the fraction of Army Commissioned Officers appears to be substantially greater than 10%. For the Active Army, the number of non-Hispanic Black officers was 9,426 – or 11.368+% of the Army’s commissioned officers. For the Army’s Selected Reserves, the number of non-Hispanic Black officers was 5,537 – or 12.467+% of the Army Selected Reserves’ commissioned officers. (Both of these latter totals/calculations exclude the number of Black officers counted as “Black-unknown”.)

    So much for the “less than 10%” claim being factually correct.

    Now, let’s look at the claim of “underrepresentation”.  Well, based on US population demographics that’s essentially bullsh!t too.

    According to data from the 2010 Census, the percentage of the US population that was Black in 2010 was approximately 12.6%, while the non-Hispanic Black percentage was 12.2%; I doubt those figures have changed very much since. Comparing those percentages with the ones listed above, it seems to me that the US Army’s commissioned officers today are a fairly accurate representation of US population demographics – at least when it comes to Black Americans.

    But that’s just me. I’m just looking at the actual numbers published by DoD and doing a little math. I’m not trying to sell Army leadership a bottle of snake oil.

  • And In the “Idiots Being Idiots” Department . . . .

    Here’s a look at some recent bureaucratic inanity, courtesy mostly of our PC libidiot “brethren”.

    And, just for our “global warming”    propagandists   aficionados:

    Finally:  just because I like this – and I think it fits here quite nicely – here ya go (smile):

  • Guest Post; September 11, 2001 – Timeline

    The following was written by MCPO USN NYC (Ret) and posted at his request;

    Lest we forget 13 years ago today . . .

     

    7:59 am – American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 with 92 people aboard, takes off from Boston’s Logan International Airport en route to Los Angeles.

    8:14 am – United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767 with 65 people aboard, takes off from Boston; it is also headed to Los Angeles.

    8:19 am – Flight attendants aboard Flight 11 alert ground personnel that the plane has been hijacked; American Airlines notifies the FBI.

    8:20 am – American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C. The Boeing 757 is headed to Los Angeles with 64 people aboard.

    8:24 am – Hijacker Mohammed Atta makes the first of two accidental transmissions from Flight 11 to ground control (apparently in an attempt to communicate with the plane’s cabin).

    8:41 am – United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 with 44 people aboard, takes off from Newark International Airport en route to San Francisco. It had been scheduled to depart at 8:00 am, around the time of the other hijacked flights.

    8:46 am – Mohammed Atta and the other hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11 crash the plane into floors 93-99 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing everyone on board and hundreds inside the building.

    8:47 am – Within seconds, NYPD and FDNY forces dispatch units to the World Trade Center, while Port Authority Police Department officers on site begin immediate evacuation of the North Tower.

    9:03 am – Hijackers crash United Airlines Flight 175 into floors 75-85 of the WTC’s South Tower, killing everyone on board and hundreds inside the building

    9:08 am – The FAA bans all takeoffs of flights going to New York City or through the airspace around the city.

    9:21 am – The Port Authority closes all bridges and tunnels in the New York City area.

    9:24 am – The FAA notified NEADS of the suspected hijacking of Flight 77 after some passengers and crew aboard are able to alert family members on the ground.

    9:37 am – Hijackers aboard Flight 77 crash the plane into the western façade of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., killing 59 aboard the plane and 125 military and civilian personnel inside the building.

    9:59 am – The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.

    10:07 am – After passengers and crew members aboard the hijacked Flight 93 contact friends and family and learn about the attacks in New York and Washington, they mount an attempt to retake the plane. In response, hijackers deliberately crash the plane into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, killing all 40 passengers and crew aboard.

    10:28 am – The World Trade Center’s North Tower collapses, 102 minutes after being struck by Flight 11.

    5:20 pm – The 47-story Seven World Trade Center collapses after burning for hours; the building had been evacuated in the morning, and there are no casualties, though the collapse forces rescue workers to flee for their lives.

    8:30 pm – President Bush addresses the nation, calling the attacks “evil, despicable acts of terror” and declaring that America, its friends and allies would “stand together to win the war against terrorism.”

    . . .

    Editorial Note: At approximately 0100 on May 2, 2011, a 79 member joint team, including MWD Cairo, delivered by the Night Stalkers and operating with Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU aka SEAL Team SIX) RED Squadron raided a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden with one shot to the head followed by another shot to the chest. Mission Commander of OPERATION NEPTUNE SPEAR and DEVGRU RED Squadron OIC on scene reported, “for God and country … Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo”, and then, after being prompted for confirmation, “Geronimo E.K.I.A.” (enemy killed in action). Within 24 hours of his death, the lifeless and soulless body of bin Laden was unceremoniously dumped in to the Indian Ocean by a lone junior Sailor from the USS Carl Vincent for the sharks and sea snakes to feed upon.

  • YGBSM. Again.

    Everyone knows that there are certain places EBT cards can’t be used.  Liquor stores, for one.

    So places where marijuana can be legally sold (in states where such sales are legal, like Colorado) must be places where EBT card use is banned – right?

    Well, actually . . . no.  The DHS has confirmed to Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama that EBT cards can in fact be used at shops where marijuana is sold lawfully.

    I’m not joking.

    Senator Sessions has announced his intent to introduce legislation banning that practice.  My question:  why in the hell hasn’t DHS done that administratively already?

    Oh, yeah – I remember now why.  The linked article indicates that DHS claims they have “no authority” to ban the practice.

    GMAFB.  Since when has that stopped anyone in the current Administration from doing anything?

  • GMAFB. Really? THAT’s Our Strategy?

    According to the WaPo, it looks as if the current Occupant, 1600 Penn Ave, Wash DC, has decided on US “strategy” for countering ISIS.  We’re going to

    • Strike ISIS in Syria (and, presumably, in Iraq as well),
    • Apparently with or without the OK of the Syrian government, while
    • Arming the allegedly “moderate” Syrian rebels against the current government of Syria, and
    • Without putting “boots on the ground” (presumably, that means “more boots on the ground than are already there”).

    Oh, and he says he doesn’t need Congressional approval, either.

    Yeah, that’s gonna work out just swimmingly.  Assad is going to love both the violation of his national sovereignty and the US arming some of his foes.  And we are also absolutely, positively certain that neither of those actions will cause any short-term or long-term problems.

    I trust the sarcasm in the preceding paragraph was obvious.

    Sheesh. If I’ve ever heard a more cockamamie strategy to counter a developing threat to US interests in the ME, I can’t recall what that absurdity might have been.  Only Jimmuh the Clueless’ strategy of “encouraging” the Shah of Iran to grant amnesty to ex-patriot dissidents, then leave in favor of “Iranian democracy” (which then promptly allowed that nice fellow called Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to return to Iran and ascend to power a few months later, and which was predicted by anyone with half a working brain in the event of the Shah’s departure) even comes close.

    As Harrison Ford said (in his role as Han Solo):   “I’ve   “I got a bad feeling about this . . . . “

  • Pyrrhus Would Understand

    Remember that “big victory” we heard about recently for the state of Nevada? You know, the one where Tesla Motors announced that they would build their huge, $5 billion, high-tech battery factory in Nevada vice California, Arizona, Texas, or New Mexico?

    Well, that victory apparently came with a price: somewhere between $2 billion and $3 billion in tax incentives from Nevada. That works out to somewhere between 50 and 60 percent of the cost of building the Tesla-owned facility.

    From Tesla’s latest regulatory filings:

    The total capital expenditures associated with the gigafactory through 2020 are expected to be $4-5 billion (sic), of which approximately $2 billion is expected to come from Tesla.

    And where will the rest of the money to build for the factory come from?  Nevada taxpayers will be on the hook for it.  That’s kinda how tax incentives work.

    There are a few other things about the deal that would bother me if I were a Nevada resident, too.  Like the fact that Tesla currently has roughly $2.6 billion in cash – and around $4 billion in liabilities.

    There’s also this:

    “Tesla has also disclosed its overhead costs are now rising 20% on a year-over-year basis, and research and development expenses are increasing 30%.”

    Finally, Tesla’s current business plans project that they’ll be making (and, presumably, selling) 500,000 electric vehicles annually by 2020. Tesla also expects their new battery factory to reduce costs of battery pack production vis-à-vis current sources by more than 30% per-killowatt-hour.

    Somehow, I just don’t see both of those happening.

    Hey, I hope this works out for the good people of Nevada. But I can’t help thinking – based on what we’ve seen from other similar “green energy”       boondoggles      efforts going belly-up over the past few years – is that there’s a better-than-even chance they’ll end up quoting Pyrrus of Epirus concerning the Battle of Asculum:

    “One more such victory, and we shall be undone.”

  • About That Economic Recovery . . . .

    Well, we all have heard that the economy is “recovering”. Hell, seems to me we’ve been hearing that for around 5 years now. (smile)

    But I’m not really sure I wanna buy that. Irrespective of the fact that I’d look outside at 10AM if the current Administration told me it was daytime, there are a few other troubling indicators.

    Like what? Well, like the fact that the US labor participation rate has been mired in the 62.8 to 63.0 percent range for nearly a year (since October of last year, or for the past 11 months). Prior to October 2013, the last time the civilian labor participation rate was that low was during the Carter Administration – in April 1978.

    In contrast, in January 2009 the labor participation rate was 65.7 percent. The “so what”?  That means that there are between 5 and 6 million fewer people working today than would be working if the economy was in as good a shape, employment-wise, as it was in January 2009.

    That doesn’t sound much like a recovery to me.  But what do I know?

    The reason for the drop in the fraction employed? A sh!tload of people have simply become discouraged, left the US labor force, and are no longer even bothering to look for work. In fact, so many people quit the labor force last month that unemployment actually fell a bit last month – in spite of the fact that job creation last month was the lowest in any month this year, and was far below expectations.

    Oh, and BLS job creation figures for June and July were revised downward by 28,000, too.  That (downward revision of previously-published job creation figures) seems to be happening a lot, too.

    Again:  doesn’t sound much like a recovery to me.

    This Carteresque economic malaise is mirrored in the activities of those who are currently counted as “officially unemployed”. The situation regarding finding work is so bad that an “officially unemployed” person is actually statictically more likely to be found spending time shopping for items other than groceries or gas or engaging in recreational/leisure activities than in looking for work.  Seems to me that someone needing a job to support themselves and their family would spend more time looking for employment than shopping for nonessential items or recreation – but that’s just me.

    If there were any significant number of jobs to be had, that is.

    However, I do wonder how anyone seeking a job can manage to come up with the money to keep doing that for months or years at a time – I certainly wish I could.  Like the man said: “Oh, that ain’t workin’ – that’s the way to do it . . . . “

    But I guess I can understand why the unemployed are shopping for things other than groceries with the few dollars or benefits they can scrape together. Milk futures have now hit an all-time high, having risen 24% this year alone. This means that we can expect to see milk – already at $3.65 a gallon – to rise in price in the coming months.  Ditto anything that has milk or dairy products as a primary ingredient.

    This is really no surprise to anyone who’s been buying groceries this year.  Inflation for food is outstripping inflation in general substantially.

    You know, if I didn’t know better I’d ask, “What freaking recovery?”  But the Administration says the economy is recovering nicely.  So I must be wrong.

    . . .

    Yeah, those “happy days” are truly here again. We should all bow down before the all-knowing current Administration and paean their efforts to restore the US economy!

  • More “Global Warming” Data and Analysis

    Well, we have new data and analysis regarding that much-ballyhooed “global warming” we keep hearing about.

    Briton Christopher Monkton has done a least-squares regression on Remote Sensing Systems’ satellite-based monthly global mean lower-troposphere temperature data. This dataset goes back 17 years and 11 months – to October 1996 – or almost two decades.

    Wanna take a guess at how much global warming he found when the trendline of that dataset was plotted using least squares regression?

    Try none. Zip. Nada.

    Let’s put that in perspective. What this means is that the youngsters who graduated from high school this year have not seen any measurable global warming during their lifetime.

    Monkton’s not alone in making this assertion. Professor Ross McKitrick, Universtiy of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, has conducted a similar study using somewhat different methodology. McKitrick’s conclusion? There has been no appreciable global warming since 1995 – or for a period of approximately 19 years.

    Global warming may be occurring. Or it may not. We simply don’t know at this point.  If it’s occurring at all – which seems not to be the case, based on the last 18 or 19 years of measured, accurate data – we do not know why with any certainty.  We just don’t understand the Earth’s climate well enough at present to make any meaningful predictions whatsoever.

    But one thing is certain: presenting “global warming” as “settled science” is, to be blunt, absolute bullsh!t. The data for the past nearly two decades – which just happens to be the best and most accurate data available – simply doesn’t seem to support that theory.