Category: Politics

I had a dream not a product of hallucinogenic drugs.  In the dream, I was the major stockholder of multi-trillion dollar corporation.  As they are apt to say her in wild and wonderful, it was a biggin’.  Typically, however, that is said about the catfish that got away.

The corporation had global reach and influence.  People across the world depended on it.  It was intertwined with countless other businesses and touched millions of people.  Being so large and influential, making the wrong moves could destabilize some countries.  It could conceivably wreck the global economy.  It could destroy many businesses that were dependent on our success and ruin lives of countless employees.

The obvious was that it was mismanaged by directionless leadership for several decades.  These were leaders who lacked focus on core competencies.  They were directionless expending time, energy, and resources in directions unrelated to success.  Because of that they could not get to the root causes of problems.  This lack of focus on things fundamentally important made them unable to thrive in the present or plan for the future.  The leadership was ideologically driven not principle driven causing much internal conflict.  They lacked vision. No one seemed to know where they were headed.  They were leading the organization without a roadmap or a defined destination.  The result was lost influence and trust.  Those who relied on us to lead and provide direction were beginning to look elsewhere.  Clearly we needed new leadership and renewed purpose.  A search for a new chief executive officer began.  There were a number of applicants for the job.  Some were obviously not capable of leading a large and complicated organization while others had potential.  Following a long and tedious process, the applicants were narrowed to two possible choices.

Each of them was allowed to present their vision for the organization to the shareholders – those having the most to gain through success and the most to lose through failure.  The shareholders voted for the vision that most appealed to them.  It was the vision that provided direction and directly addressed how to correct the organization’s most pressing problems.  The vision placed success of the organization and welfare of the shareholders first noting that success of the business benefitted all – shareholders and their stakeholders like other businesses even other countries.  It was a tried and true vision.  One entity seeking wealth always produces wealth for others.  Putting the age old and well defined purpose of the organization first and pursuing the principle driven vision was the greatest benefit for all.

Across this massive organization was a passel of Vice Presidents.  Their staffs were filled with many loyal career employees.  Many of these VP’s had their own future vision that did not support or lead to the CEO’s vision.  They were loyal to self, loyal to their perceived power base of career employees, loyal to influential groups who did not hold to the new vision of the corporation, and they were fiercely loyal to an ideology on which a corporation of such magnitude could never succeed.  Some of them took to referring to themselves as the resistance.  They were desirous of holding fast to failed ideology while resisting any change that could better the organization, benefit the shareholders, and point out for all their past failed approach.

The shareholders were growing more vocal each day that the organization failed to move toward the vision.  The CEO reminded all of the VP’s that the shareholders voted for a vision and that it was their job to map out an acceptable course to reach it.  Still it was becoming clear that too many of the VP’s were beholden to things other than the vision of the CEO and were intent on delaying any progress ultimately painting the CEO as a failure.  A major shareholder’s meeting was called.  Following the meeting each VP received a letter from them.  The letter declared that if they did not show major progress toward achieving the vision during the coming months, they would be replaced – unceremoniously drop-kicked through the goal posts of life.  The shareholders were not going to let this biggin’ get away.

© 2017 J. D. Pendry

31-year-old Mohamed Farah was sentenced to life in prison for his part in attacking a US Navy ship in 2010. Federal prosecutors alleged he was among seven Somali pirates who attacked USS Ashland. It didn’t go well.

The pirates mistook Ashland for a cargo vessel in the night time attack, and were quickly dispatched. After opening fire, the pirate’s skiff was disabled and one of their number killed. The rest were rescued and subsequently prosecuted in Federal court, and sentenced to various prison terms.

Life in prison has been the mandatory sentence for piracy since 1909; prior to that it was a capital offense.

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Or are they? Seems, in order to receive more union benefits, Yale graduate students are entering in a hunger strike, right in front of Yale University’s President Peter Salovey’s home.

“Yale wants to make us wait and wait and wait … until we give up and go away,” the eight members of the graduate student union Local 33 announced. “We have committed ourselves to waiting without eating.” The university administration stated they understood the students concerns, but “…”strongly [urge] that students not put their health at risk or encourage others to do so.”

Sounds serious! Oh, wait. It’s a “symbolic” hunger strike. According to a Twitter post by a former Yale student, the protesters can leave and eat when they must.

The onerous conditions the students are protesting are a stipend of $30,000 annually, free health care, and their tuition paid in full. How the snowflakes survived this long is a mystery.

A non-hunger hunger strike is little more than stamping one’s feet and holding one’s breath ‘till blue, ‘till the demands are met. Childish, in other words.

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The Israeli military attacked an arms cache belonging to the Iran-backed, Lebanese group Hezbollah on Thursday, as reported by both Syrian and rebel intelligence sources. The target contained advanced weapons sent by Iran, and was located near the airport in Damascus. Video of the strike showed a pre-dawn fire at the location, indicating fuel or explosives were detonated.

Syrian media claimed “Israeli aggression” caused explosions and damage to a military position southwest of the airport, but was vague on details.

Normally reticent to comment, Israel’s Intelligence Minister Katz stated, “The incident in Syria corresponds completely with Israel’s policy to act to prevent Iran’s smuggling of advanced weapons via Syria to Hezbollah.” PM Netanyahu affirmed, “…that whenever we receive intelligence that indicates an intention to transfer advanced weapons to Hezbollah, we will act.”

An Israeli military spokeswoman refused to comment.

More Here.

With Donald Trump’s decision to call Kim Jong Un’s bluff by sending the U.S.S. Carl Vinson task force steaming in the direction of the Hermit Kingdom, there have been multiple articles out there repeating the possible dire consequences of actually engaging the belligerent little bully militarily. The obscure North Korean functionary and propagandist who years ago first threatened to turn his country’s southern sister state into a “Sea of Fire” in response to some minor provocation, may have seemed a bit of a ham-handed saber-rattler at the time, but he most assuredly created a lasting and wearisome media cliché that surfaces in Western publications every time there’s a new dustup with North Korea.

Moreover, almost every article referencing this “Sea of Fire” explains that term to readers by pointing out that Seoul, South Korea’s largest city, lies so close to the border between the two nations that it will likely be destroyed in the opening artillery salvos from the North should the balloon go up. This they point out is almost certainly due to the fact that North Korea has positioned countless thousands of artillery pieces and rocket launchers along their side of the demilitarized zone for just that purpose. They usually quote some military expert that any American attack on North Korea unavoidably will sign Seoul’s doom.

This old soldier ain’t buyin’ it. For one thing, if Seoul is 30 to 35 miles from the closest Nork artillery placements, a quick examination of the map shows that from that narrow southernmost point the North Korean border swings back north, both east and west from that closest point, so that there could only be but a few hundred artillery pieces and rocket launchers, not the thousands quoted by Western media pundits, that are actually that close. More importantly, there are damned few artillery pieces in the Nork army that have a range of 30-plus miles. And for those that do, American and South Korean defensive artillery forces have counter-battery radars in place that are so advanced they not only can direct effective defensive fire to destroy incoming rounds, they can pinpoint the precise firing location of the offending artillery pieces so quickly that our own artillery fire and airstrikes can be directed on them within seconds. As Saddam’s Iraqi forces learned quickly, to fire your artillery at the Americans was to invite your own violent, concussive death mere moments later. And those American radar detection systems and the counter-battery tactics have just kept getting more sophisticated and deadly since we used them in Iraq.

Another fact we hear ballyhooed about the mighty North Korean Army is that it is the fourth largest in the world. That might count for something if they were properly fed, properly clothed, properly trained and properly armed. The Nork annual military budget is a mere seven billion dollars (slightly more than Mexico’s) which doesn’t go very far when you are trying to field the fourth largest force on the planet. It’s telling that sites which rank nations by their military capabilities don’t seem too impressed with the Norks. The globalfirepower.com algorithm places them at number 25, right between Saudi Arabia and Algeria. In Business Insider’s survey of the world’s 35 most powerful militaries, guess who’s dead last?

Those ratings don’t say much for the fighting capabilities of the world’s fourth largest army, do they? A major factor in this negative ranking is that the Nork army is largely a vestige of the Soviet era, without sufficient funds to modernize. That Soviet aspect is clearly captured in the many pics and videos of the recent Day of the Sun celebration in Pyongyang. Look at those visuals and if you’re old enough, tell me they don’t look exactly like Soviet Union output in the 1950’s and 1960’s. It’s one thing to fill a public square with smartly dressed formations of goose-stepping troops to impress the folks; but it’s quite another to send those troops out to fight the most technologically advanced fighting forces in the world. And some sharp-eyed observers, even among their allies, are even saying the Nork missile displays may be a bit off center and wobbly.

I’ve said nothing about the air component of a war with North Korea but I’d bet the farm that if the Norks keep pushing it, they are in for their own coming version of Shock and Awe, a display of our combined modern airpower capabilities that will send a memorable message to Trump-taunting tyrants around the world: “Don’t ever take it as far as that Korean dipshit did.” In the decades we’ve had to plot and monitor North Korea’s air defenses, I would wager almost every single site sits clearly in the crosshairs of one very effective and deadly American or South Korean weapons system or another, with its continued existence, and that of those Norks manning it, depending entirely upon the lack of a command to “commence firing.” Quickly destroyed or degraded they are thus helpless to protect the remainder of the Nork forces, including their vaunted tank divisions, again mostly aged, Soviet hand-me-downs, from a relentless and deadly air onslaught. Are you beginning to see why I don’t buy into all this frantic, lefty media hype about these fearsome Norks?

I close with what will undoubtedly be recognized and lauded by knowledgeable journalists as the best triple-decker cliché of the year:

There’s a new sheriff in town, and at the end of the day, he won’t allow the Norks to rain fire upon Seoul.

Crossposted at American Thinker

There will be a longer one, but wanted to toss something up today.

For those that are Facebook friends with me (and you all should be) you know the past few weeks/months have been rough. I hurt my back bad back in December, and I was barely able to move, much less bend over. Wife is growing two kids, so she clearly can’t do anything.  Our house was in a state of disaster because we couldn’t pick anything up.  On top of that, my best 4 legged friend, Mosby… about a month ago we thought Violet poked him in the eye, because he started running into things. Meanwhile, the legal saga is literally unbelievable. Beyond what most of you even know, we’re talking things that no lawyer I’ve talked to has ever seen. Total bizarroworld.

Against that backdrop, I had an epidural (actually a bit more than that, but basically an epidural) which I had no faith would work. Turns out, worked like a champ. VA told me to behave myself, so I’m laying in bed watching the full LOTR for the 7th time in a week as I play computer. I took my dog in yesterday to the vet, fearing that he had a brain tumor and I would lose my anchor, the little guy I turn to to just hold when things are dark. In fact, I threw up repeatedly because I was so worried he was dying. And the last thing I need is to lose my best friend, and have my 18 month old find him. Well, bad news is he’s blind. Like, totally. Good news, it doesn’t seem like dogs need sight much. As long as we don’t move anything, dude moves just fine. He wags, eats, comes to bed, everything he’s always done.  And has no lasting health issues, other than not being able to see anything.

He did have some problems today, but that was because TAH, and especially Jonn and Parachute Cutie are the finest people to ever walk the planet, and the readers (dare I saw community) of you guys are just amazing. I came home from work and it looked like we were moving and no one told me. There were boxes EVERYWHERE. The baby shower thing you guys did was awesome and I sincerely love you all for it. I’m not kidding, the entire walkway in front of our front door was packed with stuff. Toys, dolls, diapers, everything.

I’m grateful. I can’t say anything more than that, just eternally grateful for all of you. I’m excited to expand our family, and give Violet two brothers she can boss around.