Upon reflection

Not even the top of the hour news. In a way, I am still off the grid. I have yet to check email, read comments, listened to radio, tv, or written news since I stepped off the grid on 30 APR. Still haven't read a single web page until I brought up blogger. For some reason, I still wanted to say "hi" while mentally at least I am still unpolluted from the flotsam and jetsam of the last week.

There is something to be said about focusing on the immediate Task at Hand without the information flood we soak in - well that some of us soak in. As always, it is a little difficult to decouple for the first 24-hrs, but then it becomes a habit. This time around though something hit me at about day three - this is how most people live.

By the very fact you are reading this small, insignificant, slightly esoteric yet scatter-focused blog tells me that most of you are information sponges. You like to get up to speed on what is going on, and see other people's opinion so, if needed, you can argue with them or perhaps hone your own thoughts. If you are like that, you are in the minority.

Most don't. Their opinions are either of habit, tradition, or at the last minute - if at all. That is it. While off the grid I found myself having conversations with others off the grid - many of whom are long term off the grid types. Not having my usual topics at hand, as the information I have is days to a week old and therefor I am not comfortable with it and find other things to talk about. Interesting. Fortunately, I was too focused on the Task at Hand to have all that many "interesting" conversations, so my mind wandered on the new found perspective.

So, that is where I am. Just a few moments of clarity - nothing profound. Hopefully none of the below musing are OBE - but here are the top-two thoughts that are floating around in my nogg'n about my usual topics.

Politics:
---- Forgotten: Face it; almost everyone has forgotten what it is like to be ruled by absolute Democrat Power. The last time the Democrats had both the Executive and Legislative Branches was in 1994. If you assume that "political conscientiousness" begins at age 18, no one under the age of 32 has any clue what could come their way in '09 should a Democrat get elected. Remember the focus on 93-94: retroactive tax increases, gun prohibition, military "Gay Wars" (not that there is anything wrong with that), socialized health care? The time before that was the Carter Administration. Fewer still remember that. Also, remember that there would be a Clinton or and Obama appointing Federal Judges. Clinton is who she is - and Obama is even further to the Left from her. No, people have forgotten. Odds are, they will be reminded in spades.
---- Beginning of the next administration: Will be a zoo. If it is Senator Clinton (D-NY), there will be a reckoning you might only see in a Shakespeare Play. Richardson's head will be the first on a pike. Interesting to watch, until the dust settles and you see the Clinton phalanx pivoting in your direction. If Senator Obama (D-IL) gets the nod there will be a mad scramble as the Democrats try to get some structure in place. Obama is smart, but has no experience at all with dealing with administration - and has shown no interest in it. A lot of people will be trying to get in a position to have authority delegated to them so they can pursue their own agendas. Chaos for the first year, as when the afterglow ends all will see the everything-and-nothing that is there - and the far-Left agenda being pushed that would make Clinton look like her buddy Newt Gingrich. If McCain, well, I think it will be "The Murder of the Idiots" for the first quarter. McCain has somewhere an Idiots List of Republicans. They will not be fired nicely or cleanly and he will make enemies of even more - but when people see who is being thrown out of the Beltway, they will go, "Yea, that guy is an idiot..." and it will pass. I also think that a McCain Cabinet would be a surprising one in both the high level of talent and diverse political spectrum represented.

Navy:
---- We will have to run aground: The silence and vacuity of our present leadership makes me sigh and look around for gear adrift. SECNAV Winter made some noises for awhile and still does. Now and then you get one solid shot or comment by a 3 or 4-star; but then silence. We are soaking in a toxic stew of "Optimal Manning," "Transformation," and a wholesale abandonment of decades of Navy Best Practices that has left us with the Shipbuilding crisis we have now. The Air and Sub side are not as bad, but share some of the challenges - but to be honest, there are always challenges and I think their's are within the expected norm. We are top-heavy and suffer staff-bloat wallow. There are officers who had the right attitude, but about all who I personally know topped out at 2-Stars - some at 3-Stars. The rest are some great officers, but who is out there taking the lead? Who is the Fleet Advocate? There is a fair bit of CYA and cautious musings - but no leadership. Where are the balls? Why be a 4-Star if you are going to go meekly into Retirement and Consultantism? Who is willing to talk openly about the failure of the status quo and take action? Who will refocus? Please send links - I find so few. You know those times where everyone knows a ship is sick - its CO/XO/CMDCM are so dysfunctional that everyone knows something bad is going to happen? No one ever does anything until the CO is found in the rack with a YN3 (either sex will do), or the ship runs aground or collides with another ship in broad daylight - then there is action. Well, that is the direction we are heading. Ships will have to sink and/or hundreds of Sailors will have to die at sea in a few hours for there to be a cleaning. Maybe we will just drift to 212 instead of 313 and embrace our graceless decline - perhaps.
---- This is the high-water mark: There will be no more money for shipbuilding than we have right now. Fact. Fevered plans for DDGN or huge nuclear Battle Cruisers with hundreds of SM-3 in VLS are just that, fevered. That will get you to 200 ships faster than you can say "Sea-Swap." We are in a Land/Expeditionary period in our history and we need to build the ships to do that. LCS ain't it. DDGN ain't it. All SSN all of the time probably isn't it. Besides the bastard step-child NECC - I don't see any shift in focus of any measure since 2001 to reflect the new reality. We have an Army and USMC to build up and re-constitute. Less DDG-1000 and more MPF(F) - that is an interesting argument to make.

Diversity:
---- Makes my point for me: Brigadier General Jimmie C. Jackson Jr. and Rear Admiral George E. Mayer. I grew up with quite a few Jacksons and Mayers. The Jacksons were mostly good-ole-boys, and the balance of the Mayer's were the sons of nice Jewish parents from Long Island. Jackson and Mayers are not what you would consider Hispanic are they? Well, they are claiming it - and being recognized for it. I don't know BG Jackson's story, but I know RADM Mayer is from Puerto Rico. It doesn't matter - only someone whose mind is blind to nothing but mindless racism and Balkanized policy could defend what we have come to WRT "Diversity." We all know your racial classification is not career neutral. What these two gentlemen prove is that everything is nothing. There is no "there" there but tribalism and self-justification. Diversity Diktat is a cancer.
---- The Audacity of Regression: can we all agree that Sen. Obama (D-IL) is not the "post-racial" guide to healing? I still hear (especially off the grid) that he is that. He is the opposite of post-racial. An Obama administration won't heal anything as he won't be able to help but go back and pick at scars so close to healing. So close. Pick, pick. Ooze, ooze.

Demographics:
---- Fight or Die: What should a culture do to defend itself? Europe is faced with masses from countries like Egypt, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia who in the next couple decades, as they have two or more children to each European child, will simply have to go somewhere in order to be able to live. Their host countries cannot sustain them economically. If there isn't a pressure relief valve, those nations will explode on themselves and their neighbors. Lots of dying to do. If they emigrate, they will mostly go to Europe as it is easy and there are already beachheads established. Few assimilate. If a few million more of them wind up in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Berlin, Lille, Brussels, London, Malmo, and others - those cities will no longer be European. Many of them are not already in large sections. At the edges, some of the second and third generation assimilates - but it is a minority. Millions more will just be too much to absorb. European culture will, therefor, cease to exist. Is that good? Do you stop mass migration and let parts of the world consume itself in violence and extremism, or do you let them in and let your culture die? Which do you do?
---- Good Turk - Bad Turk: There are Turks and there are Ottomans. Nowhere better is that described in these two articles. This one has the Turks yelling at their Ottoman leader who wants them to breed faster. This one tell the story of the Ottomans who cannot generations on become Germans. Plenty to chew on there - and in a way tells the story of the internal struggle going on in the old Byzantium heartland.

Media & Hollyweird:
---- McCain is on his own: Nothing shocking here, but when the Dems are done, the full furry of the MSM will fall on McCain - and he won't be ready for it. He will think he has friends. No, he doesn't. The thought of having both the Executive and Legislative Branches both with the Democrats will be too much - especially if Obama is the nom. Any opposition to Obama will be smeared with the racist brush. We have already seen it. On one is more afraid of being called racist than a member of the MSM. It will be ugly. I don't know what Team McCain is planning to get around it - but I hope they have a good one.
---- No "good" war movies: It won't happen. Just won't. Sure, there might be a minor or low-budget one or two - but I don't see a major studio effort being made that will reflect what is going on. Heck, a few of Michael Yon's stories would be a great frame for a balanced screen play - but who knows. Until there is some way not to give credit and victory to a Republican, you won't see a military movie about this war that puts the military in a positive light - unless we are the victim of a Neocon, Zionist plot by Haliburton.

Well, that is it, nothing new or shocking I guess. Time to join May of 2008. Thanks for sticking around.