Proactively “From the Sea”; an agent of change leveraging the littoral best practices for a paradigm breaking six-sigma best business case to synergize a consistent design in the global commons, rightsizing the core values supporting our mission statement via the 5-vector model through cultural diversity.
Quite. Perhaps not so much a 4th of July feel this year, if you don't mind. Try not to get Memorial Day and Veterans Day too confused, but if you do, I will try not to be a snot and will let it pass. It is the thought that counts. Well, that is my request. A few other things to consider that will make this day better. For some reason, since I left active duty and have been invited to attend and participate in a few events, many of them have been a bit off centerline. Three things I just want to put out there in a $.02 way: 1. Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen is not a patriotic song. It does no honor to play it for any event where those who served are present, especially from Vietnam. Ignore the tune, just read the lyrics. 2. Let us be humble if we want to be. Most of us had very humble times in the service, from our perspective. We know what some of those we served with did, and if we prefer, let us talk a bit about it among ourselves. Thank you for your kind words and recognition, but don't try to make what I did much more than it was. 3. Don't look at us with such a drab and concern-trollish face, and if you bring up the topic of PTSD or any of the crap outlined by B.G. Burkett's book, Stolen Valor, I will just walk away from you. We've got this, you don't need to. Just keep your Wounded Warrior Project pity party commercial victim pimping attitude to yourself as well. Please do that on your own time. Remember as well that those of us who served who wear the uniform or the mini-medals on the coat on events this day do so because we are proud of those we served with, and in a way are reminding people that there are veterans all around you, even if you don't know it. Nothing more, nothing less. Some will pass on the chance to wear the uniform or the mini-medals at events, and that is OK too. When today is over, and if you are in a position to employ people in your business, give the veteran a second look. Just one example; I spoke with three tradesmen recently, a plumber, and electrician and a HVAC guy. They all own their own companies. They were complaining about how hard it was for them to find employees to expand their businesses this year. I asked them if they considered reaching out to the local military bases, as there are a lot of people leaving the service that have the baseline skills to do that, not to mention the work ethic. They both just stared at me and blinked. I then talked about ET/AT, HT, EN, etc. They had no idea. Nothing bad on their part - they just had no idea. Those are a few things that I wanted to get off my chest as I go in to my 5th post-retirement November 11th. YMMD. What we do here really doesn't get the right meaning of the day. The Commonwealth nations do. The Mother Country especially. Of all the events and remembrances, I do believe they have it at just the right tone. Again this month, I go back to the installation of the poppies at The Tower of London this year.
It is sublime, yet exact. As it should be. I don't bring poetry in to this blog as much as I would like to, but from the Tower of London's site, the poem from which the title of the art this Remembrance/Veterans Day comes from.
Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red
The blood swept lands and seas of red,
Where angels dare to tread.
As God cried a tear of pain as the angels fell,
Again and again.
As the tears of mine fell to the ground
To sleep with the flowers of red
As any be dead
My children see and work through fields of my
Own with corn and wheat,
Blessed by love so far from pain of my resting
Fields so far from my love.
It be time to put my hand up and end this pain
Of living hell. to see the people around me
Fall someone angel as the mist falls around
And the rain so thick with black thunder I hear
Over the clouds, to sleep forever and kiss
The flower of my people gone before time
To sleep and cry no more
I put my hand up and see the land of red,
This is my time to go over,
I may not come back
So sleep, kiss the boys for me
And, of course.
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
- John Stuart Mill
In China, there is no "Pacific Pivot" - there is only progress in their own back yard - and things are looking quite fine from their point of few as another 1,500 Americans try to repair the fruits of Presidential vanity. Edward Luce over at The Financial Times has a good, sober, slap in the face for you to start your week;
As time goes on, it becomes ever harder to separate his domestic weakness from his global standing. Even the tone is spreading. “US society has grown tired of [Obama’s] banality,” China’s semi-official Global Times said last week.
Mr Xi is too polite to put it like that. Yet there is no mistaking which of the two is on the way up. In his first year in office, Mr Obama offered Beijing a “G2” partnership to tackle the world’s big problems. China spurned him. Mr Obama then unveiled his “pivot to Asia”. China saw it as US containment and reacted accordingly. Its defence spending today is almost double in real terms what it was when Mr Obama first visited China in 2009. Over the same period, the US military budget has barely kept pace with inflation.
The rest of the world, and China in particular, sees Mr Obama ... as a weak leader in the autumn of his presidency. China-watchers say Mr Xi’s ebullience since he took power has been spurred by the view that Mr Obama has only a limited window in office. After that, Hillary Clinton, or a Republican, will take over. Either would be tougher on the world stage than Mr Obama. Even if that is wrong, Mr Xi has shown Mr Obama little respect since their first summit in California last year. Mr Obama warned his Chinese counterpart to stop the cyber attacks on the Pentagon and other targets. China’s cyber-incursions increased. Earlier this year, the White House indicted five Chinese nationals for cyber-espionage, including a senior military officer. None are likely to be brought to trial. It was the kind of empty gesture Beijing has come to expect of Mr Obama.
As a side-note, I know that the Chinese would rather steal R&D than to do their own, but could they at least pick their own paint jobs?
What is the proper fleet structure for the USN as we design our Navy that will serve its nation in mid-Century? Join us this Sunday from 5-6pm for a broad ranging discussion on this topic and more with returning guest, Henry J. Hendrix, Jr, CAPT USN (Ret.), PhD. Fresh off his recent retirement from active duty, Jerry is a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Defense Strategies and Assessments Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). A Naval Flight Officer by training, his staff assignments include tours with the Chief of Naval Operation’s Executive Panel (N00K), the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (Force Development) and the OSD Office of Net Assessment. His final position in uniform was the Director of Naval History. Hendrix also served as the Navy Fellow to the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. He has a Bachelor Degree in Political Science from Purdue University, Masters Degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School (National Security Affairs) and Harvard University (History) and received his doctorate from King’s College, London (War Studies). He has twice been named the Samuel Eliot Morison Scholar by the Navy Historical Center in Washington, DC, and was also the Center’s 2005 Rear Admiral John D. Hays Fellow. He also held the Marine Corps’ General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr. Fellowship. He authored the book Theodore Roosevelt’s Naval Diplomacy and received a number of awards, including the United States Naval Institute’s Author of the Year and the Navy League’s Alfred T. Mahan Award for Literary Achievement.
Join us live if you can with the usual suspects in the chat room and offer up your questions for our guest, but if you miss the show you can always listen to the archive at blogtalkradio. If you use iTunes, you can add Midrats to your podcast list simply by clicking the iTunes button at the main showpage - or you can just click here.
I was thinking of my grandfathers this week - so a little encore FbF in their memory. Enjoy again. My Grandfather's Navy, thanks to the good people over at the National Film Preservation Foundation. Take the time to click here for the whole video. Well worth your time. Here is the background.
U.S. Navy of 1915 (1915)
Production Company: Lyman H. Howe Company. Transfer Note: Digital file made from a 35mm negative. Running Time: 11 minutes (silent, no music).
We are indebted to independent scholar Charles “Buckey” Grimm for identifying this 11-minute piece of the celebrated “lost” three-reel documentary U.S. Navy of 1915, produced by the Lyman H. Howe Company. (The piece had formerly been known only as “U.S. Navy Fragment.”) The film was made with the full support of the Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, who believed in the power of motion pictures to convince isolationists of the importance of building a strong American navy. A former newspaperman who knew the value of publicity, Daniels allowed Howe’s camera crew remarkable shipboard access. The results show sailors as they go about their day—doing repairs, cleaning the deck, exercising, as well as demonstrating naval might. The film drew praise as capturing “the pulse-beat of the complex life that throbs through our dreadnoughts from reveille to ‘taps.’”
This was not first time the Navy had turned to film to tell its story. Early on, the Navy had collaborated with the Biograph Company on a now-lost series of 60 short films showing sailors and officers at work. The series screened at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland before being put to use in a Midwest recruitment tour. Naval facilities and ships also figured prominently in early newsreels and narratives. The service took care to ensure that depictions presented it in a favorable light and reserved the right, for commercial films shot with official approval, to reuse them for the Navy’s own purposes.
Buckey identified the fragment through careful detective work involving the ships and ordnance on display in the fragment. For example, the “E-2” class submarine, pictured in the opening scene, was taken out of service in 1915, and the shells mentioned in a intertitle—“It costs the U.S. government $970.00 for each 14 inch projectile fired”—were added to the naval arsenal the year earlier. The clincher was matching a frame from the documentary with an image used in a newspaper piece to illustrate the Howe film. Buckey reported his research at the 2010 Orphan Film Symposium at New York University.
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1856, Lyman Hakes Howe got his start as a traveling salesman. In the 1880s he switched to lecturing and demonstrated a miniature working coal mine on the road. When movies came along, he was among the first to make the transition. He devised his own projector, the Animotiscope, which upgraded the Edison machine by adding a second reel, and playing a phonograph to add sound. Soon he was making his own travelogues and newsreels. Little survives of his output other than this fragment.
About the Preservation
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia generously lent the nitrate print to make the preservation copies. Edge codes on the source material date from 1917, suggesting this print of an earlier film may have been distributed to demonstrate American naval strength after the United States entered World War I. New prints are available at the Library of Congress and the NFSA.
My favorites? Swim call while taking on stores. PT - and the fact they worked in what we now call a dress uniform.
Yes, from an American context it looks like a rounding error ... but every sign of turn towards the minimum of 2% of GDP is important;
he Netherlands on Tuesday announced it will ramp up military spending in the years ahead in response to rising geopolitical tensions and criticism that austerity-driven cutbacks have crippled the country's military.
The Dutch government will increase spending by €100 million ($129 million) a year and free up money for emergency aid in war-torn regions, Dutch King Willem-Alexander said in a speech ahead of the government's 2015 budget presentation.
The government is not reversing cutbacks currently under way, which means the Netherlands still falls short of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's spending guidelines.
...
The Netherlands currently spends around 1.3% of its gross domestic product on the military, well below the NATO guideline of 2%.
Let's try to translate that on a national basis. This is too simple and inexact, but roll with me here. The Netherlands has a population of ~17 million. USA has a population of ~316 million. If you adjust that $129 million, on a per-capita basis that would be as if the US defense budget was increased by $2.4 billion. Not pocket change. Have every NATO nation increase their spending on their military by that amount, then perhaps Russia will take NATO a bit more seriously.
This is actually a DivThu I'm going to enjoy writing; another "macro" DivThu as a reminder why we roll this up the hill every THU. Make no question, we are in an intellectual, political, and cultural war for the soul of our republic. Remember, the USA is not an ethnic, or really even geographic nation - we are a nation of ideas. We are an experiment in self-governance by a people united, but very different; as different as Taos, NM is to Bath, ME. Alike in interests, but very different in perspective. A work in progress and as imperfect as any human institution, but we have lasted as long as we have because of the ongoing pursuit of a fair rule of law to support individual liberty. We are always on a journey - but can only see a destination you can never really reach; a destination that changes in place and appearance with each step forward, but still an attractive place to strive for. That should be OK. One of the best aspects of the human condition is the striving, it is what keeps you active and alive. To be sated is to be finished with the striving. That is being dead. There are some who don't like the journey, they don't like positive change. They are in fear of others progress and unity of purpose, they are envious of the success of one path that though is good for the whole, is bad for their own selfish reasons. There are others who get stuck - they get stuck in a period of time and a construct that at one moment in their life helped them understand the natural chaos around them. In that flash, they found if not peace, then at least understanding. Anything that breaks the spell of that moment in time causes panic, anger, and depending on the person, dispair. There are others who may at that one moment in time - usually an unalloyed idealism - find the messy, human reality of the now so dystopic that they look to horizons to a better place, a place more often than not the natural progression of their unalloyed idealism. They want to go to that place, but they find barriers - or what they perceive as barriers - between them and that wonderful place they want to go to. Impatient at those things that are in their way, they get angry. They lash out. They look for shortcuts. Instead of work, adjust, and move, they hack and thrash. Those two types of people often eventually find themselves at a third place that some malevolent personalities start at on Phase 0. Hate. They find nothing in this human existence that they find good and worth refining; they simply hate. I use that word intentionally - as I am want to say; words mean things. As a lot of people hate when I use wiki anything, I'm going to use that reference. Two things; first from Wikipedia;
In psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud defined hate as an ego state that wishes to destroy the source of its unhappiness.[1] More recently, the Penguin Dictionary of Psychology defines hate as a "deep, enduring, intense emotion expressing animosity, anger, and hostility towards a person, group, or object."[2] Because hatred is believed to be long-lasting, many psychologists[who?] consider it to be more of an attitude or disposition than a temporary emotional state.
Now definition #2 of the verb, hate, from Wiktionary;
hate (third-person singular simple present hates, present participle hating, simple past and past participle hated) ... 2. (transitive, slang) To dislike intensely due to envy.
Perfect. There, ground set. This Tuesday's election has been quite nice for me because it helps those of us who are right of center. At least my wing of the party of one, the Evangelical Conservative Libertarian Anarcho-syndicalist Communalist party, I have tired of not just the "war on woman" psychoslander, but the whole sexistracisthomophobic verbal tic that otherwise sane friends left of center have been prattling over and over like some tweeking parrot towards anyone who might be now, or have ever been, a Republican. It isn't just the anti-intellectualism of the argument, it is the inaccuracy of it all. There is never a center or nuance with these people - there is only their side and Satan. Yes, you can find that attitude all over the place Ms. Moralequivalence, but really. Check the tape. Keeping with the illogic of it all, after asking for actual examples of what they say that goes beyond the individual idiot you can find in any group, they cannot really give you any facts to back up their slander. Sure, they can give you a metric butt-ton of emotion and foam-flecked rage, but nothing of this world. After a bit of back and forth, they eventually ask you to prove a negative, "Show me that the Rethuglicans are not sexistracisthomophobic you teabagging $)*)#(*$)!" Sigh. This is when I become an optimist. Why? Well, because I know something that most GenX types have known since they were about 10, not much is going to get fixed until the Baby Boomers start to leave their mortal coil and let the rest of us repair the mess they leave behind. Each year we get closer. Sure, GenX has its issues in hurting the intellect of GenY with such prep-school poseurs like Touré, but who said we are perfect. You see - I know that my generation is just a place holder - the last non-medicated youth generation whose sole purpose is to separate GenY (nee Millennials ) from their nemesis, The Boomers. On DivThu, it is a time to reflect that thing are going to be just fine. If you know what you are, yet you cannot prove a negative - how do you counter a slander? Simple - show by your actions what you are.
Republican Elise Stefanik has become the youngest woman elected to Congress in history, winning her race against Aaron Woolf in New York's 21st open district 56-32, ABC News projects.
She's the first Republican to win the district, which had been held by Democratic Rep. Bill Owens since 1993.
A West Virginia University freshman who did most of her campaigning out of her dorm room became the youngest state lawmaker in the nation Tuesday.
Republican Saira Blair, a fiscally conservative 18-year-old, will represent a small district in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, about 1½ hours outside Washington, D.C., after defeating her Democratic opponent 63% to 30%,
From the heart of the former Confederacy, GenX's best will help where it can;
South Carolina's Tim Scott on Tuesday became the first African-American senator to win election in the South since Reconstruction.
...
Scott's win also made him the first African-American in U.S. history to be elected to both the House and the Senate
Speaking of the South, that land so fertile and rich, do I need to mention that both South Carolina and Louisiana's Republican Governors are of South Asian extraction? No, that is old news that breaks the left's narrative, I forgot.
Well ... those Republicans are still as white bread as white bread can be. Especially with those uptight religions enclaves where they are most comfortable - places like lily-white Utah where they can hide from diversity!
In Utah, Mia Love became the first black Republican woman — and first Haitian American — elected to Congress.
...
Though more than 60 percent of the state’s people identify as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the church is just 3 percent black.
Anyway, Republicans are just a bunch of old white men;
Tom Cotton would be the youngest U.S. senator. Current youngest is Chris Murphy, born in 1973.
OK, two out of three - as if there is anything wrong with that, is there? Do I need to go any further? No, not really. Like many of you, I have tired of asking people, "Who are you talking about? What bubble do you live in? I don't see any of those attitudes predominate anywhere. This is 2014 and the Republican Party, not the 1963 Democrat Party." There is the problem. When you found your happy spot somewhere between LBJ's first and Nixon's second administration - you really cannot relate to the world around you in the middle of the second decade of the 21st Century. The Republican Party's future is winning over their retrograde-minded peers, like, well - you know who.
...Sandra Fluke lost her bid for a seat in the California state Senate. ... to Democrat Ben Allen in California’s 26th District. ... the Santa Monica-Malibu school board member held a 22-point lead over Fluke
So, I'm quite happy to have Tim and Tom be the "face" of the men of the Republican Party, with Mia, Elise, and Saira covering the double-X. You see, the left is wrong about the future - they have to be wrong. In order for our republic to survive, it must strive to be inclusive and as color blind as possible. To focus on the upper-brain level ideas that bring us together, not a focus on brain-stem sectarianism that drives us apart. As you face the Diversity Bullies from the Commassariat of Inclusion while being forced to endure their cancerous and sectarian presentations, feel sorry for them. They are locked in the past. If you are of a mind to do so, with a calm and slightly sad face, ask them, "Why are you so focused on separating us in to groups, to divide us? Why aren't you focused on bringing us together?" Let the fun ensue. Let the left soak in their slander, bask in their hate - just keep doing what you do and be who you are. In time, the truth comes out. The left? They can have sorry Sandra and, of course, someone I consider the perfect embodiment of the Baby Boomer leftist female, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), to whom it is always 1973.
Challenger Will Hurd has defeated incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego in Texas' massive 23rd District to become the state's first black Republican congressman since Reconstruction.
Hurd is a 37-year-old former CIA officer. He prevailed in one of the most hotly contested and expensive congressional races in the country. It was one of just a few of Texas' 36 U.S. House seats considered to be seriously competitive.
Hurd and Gallego fought for a district that stretches about 500 miles, from San Antonio to El Paso. The area has a Hispanic population of almost 70 percent.
The 52-year-old Gallego was elected in 2012, after a long career in the Legislature. Republicans maintained a commanding majority of Texas' seats in Congress.
Two issues. First; there are some very important and exciting things happening in the arctic, mostly concerning a returning Russia after a long period of American benign neglect. It requires fresh, focused, and a serious attention to the investment of intellectual capital in exploring and understanding of our interests in the area. Second; as with most things in the military, it is important that as an institution it steers away as much as possible from looking to endorse or participate in political movements - especially sketchy ones. Sadly, it appears in at least style if not substance, we may have a failure in both areas at the Naval War College. Let's start with a loaded political movement; "climate change." Without wandering too far in to the pedigree, "climate change" is simply the "we cannot defend 'global warning' anymore" replacement phrase for a long standing leftist fright wig. Besides the politics, there is a logic problem at play. The use of the phrase is silly in the extreme for this one reason; the climate has, is, and always will change. Of course there is climate change. There is also light followed by darkness once a day. Why use it? Simple; to scare people in to granting you power - to enable the transfer of control to others in excess than would be normally done in a reasoned way. So, you can usually get a tell from people or organization's political leanings by who use "climate change" at the front. So, we have ...
Responding to the opening of the Arctic region to increased human activity, the U.S. Naval War College (NWC) is exploring the geopolitical future of the area.
A course at NWC, Arctic Security in an Age of Climate Change, is part of the Arctic area of study elective track and explores the future and how the Navy and other global stakeholders will likely participate as climate change continues to alter the region.
The title of the course itself is an insult to the intelligence of everyone who sits in a seat. Seriously. Every age has been an age of climate change. Talk to those who study areas as diverse as Stradivarius violins and the lost cities of the Taklamakan desert. I guess next year we can have a course, "Tactical Cyber Defense in the age of Gamergate's Misogynistic Gender Tropes." Hey, if I tilt my nogg'n a bit, I could almost write that course outline. Anyway, of all the important things that we need to focus on in the arctic, we really want to hang this banner on it?
According to the roadmap, in 2025 there will be two weeks each year of open water. Open water is defined at less than 10 percent sea ice.
In 2030, there is predicted to be fully six weeks of open water each year. There will also be an additional 10 weeks each year of shoulder season, where 10 to 40 percent sea ice is predicted.
1.) Scientists predicted in 2000 that kids would grow up without snow. It was 14 years ago now when UK climate scientists argued that global warming would make snowfall a “a very rare and exciting event”.
...
2.) It’s been 10 years since scientists predicted the “end of skiing” in Scotland. ... Viner and Watson must have been surprised to see the BBC report that Scottish mountains may be their snowiest since 1945.
3.) The Arctic would be “ice-free” by now. “Some of the models suggest that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during some of the summer months, could be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years,” Gore said in 2008.
...
4.) Environmentalists predicted the end of spring snowfall. In March 2013, the Union of Concerned Scientists predicted that warmer springs would mean declines in snow cover ... But the record levels of snowfall to hit this year may have caught UCS off guard. On Monday, the U.S. east coast was hit with a massive snowstorm that stretched for 1,300 miles and those in the Baltimore-D.C. area were hit with a 141-year record cold of 4 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday morning.
“Many places tied or broke record lows all over the Eastern half of the U.S.,” reported CBS Baltimore.
5.) The end of skiing. Ski towns across the country were worried about their prospects when temperatures temporarily rose up into 50s and 60s in early February. Scientists were fanning the flames by predicting that winter towns could see more hardships ahead due to global warming.
...
The town of Loveland, Colorado got more than 300 inches of snow this winter, reports CBS Denver, adding that with “snow continuing to pile up at ski areas many are putting this winter in their top 10.”
Sigh. Regression toward the mean is evidently still not a widely known concept. Hopefully, what we have at Newport is someone was trying to be too clever by half and is trying to curry favor with SECNAV and his band of little green men - at worse, we actually have smart people who have bought in to the politics of the scam that is global warming/climate change fear mongering. In a word - pathetic. As a result, we won't be taking a serious diplomatic, economic and military view of what is happening in the high north.
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