Love this post. Positive, clear problem with solution and doable. Our Nation desperately needs this and other similar changes to get us back on-track to the foundations laid out by our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. It really is rather simple, and it really is very hard.
As a division officer, I tried to treat all of my people as adults capable of adult behavior, and worthy of MY loyalty. Shipmates. In short, I treated all of my people as American Blue Jackets. I did that even after we started into the “Rights and Responsibility” era of DEI because I had higher standards for them and for me.
Same here. I did have one young sailor who was unreachable. He was smart and could have been capable but his mind was twisted by what we'd today call CRT. His father or uncle was a Marxist "Black Power" guy in the 60's and the kid was racists through and through. I tried to explain to him that I didn't care and he told me of course I did, and he would never treat whites the same as blacks because I could never treat him the same.
As I said, “for them and me”. Hat would make me one of those people who is racist toward their own group. No. Wait. Only the Left has managed that trick.
Claiming you are trying to be better than others? Racist. Holding others to higher standards? Racist. Expecting competence from anyone? Racist, ableist. Expecting good grammar? Correct spelling? Basic arithmetic skills? Common manners? Wearing clean clothes? Bathing? All racist
When I was stationed in Hawaii, our son (a definite haole) came home one day, using pidgin like he did at school to blend in a little better. I asked him if his chief goal in life was to become a tour guide in Hawaii. That was the last time I heard him use pidgin.
Yeah, in school there's a real temptation there. There's this accepted level of mediocrity and if you go above it, you face the wrath. You're a kiss-ass/brown-noser/sell-out and you even get your sexuality questioned. I really paid a price for doing well in school and going into the Navy upon graduation. It didn't even matter that I had a yelling-match or three with teachers, got sent to the office, and drew in-school suspension a couple of times. I was still considered a "kiss-ass". You get this later in life, too. There's no shortage of guys that pass up job opportunities because it's more important to be one of the guys. You're a corporate-simp if you promote above banging a hammer and turning wrenches.
I had heard of that. It says something about the parents of the thugs (accurate, deliberate word usage) that do that. I am reminded of high school graduations we have attended over the past 10 years or so, in which the appearance of some graduates was greeted with a huge amount of yelling, whistling, and feet stamping - as if the friends and relatives of the student were admitting that the graduate had reached his/her pinnacle in life. Very sad. Not everyone needs to, or should, go to college. That is not my point. An education level does not define a person’s value. But high school is such a low bar these days. Maybe that is the sadder point.
Love your optimism. Wish I shared it for my kids' sake at least. But I think we are at the edge of the precipice. Hard times are ahead, and our ruling elite is not up to the task. To the contrary, they have helped drive us to the edge. The system won't just revert to the mean. No, it's unstable. These times will be more than just interesting.
I think our ruling elite may have looked at automation and AI advances and decided they really don't need 90% of us useless eaters to maintain their lifestyle.
Even without automation and AI, a corrupt elite can maintain its lifestyle at the expense of the people (see: every African regime, every communist regime ever).
It's a common state of human affairs for millennia, barring a few exceptions like our own. Still, all those subjects can be troublesome form time to time (ref: Haiti, circa 1791)
Love your optimism. BUT...Votes vs ballots. "Fortifying" an election (see the article published in Time Magazine https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/ . Put away the supposedly "crazy" conspiracy theories about elections, and just look at what is admitted to and agreed upon regarding election "influence" by the media and government agencies (and it's legal!). When I do that, have to wonder how we get any meaningful change to the current trajectory regarding DEI.
Exactly. If the number of ballots with questionable or no chain of custody exceeds the margin on victory (or in many cases the number of ballots requested or the number of registered voters), the election must be considered invalid.
If ballots start showing up after counting has determined how many are needed to win, and the voting roles (including who has already voted) are shared with people who can print ballots, the election is invalid.
If 600,000 ballots are received and counted illegally in contradiction to the laws in effect at the time of the election, the election is invalid.
If tens of thousands of ballots are seen and recorded being submitted in bulk at uncontrolled drop off boxes, in a state when it it illegal to submit someone else's ballot, the election is invalid.
It is shocking to me how obtuse and disingenuous people can be when they they think their guy had to win. In my opinion one must be willfully blind to pretend Biden won a legally conducted election counting only legally summitted and received ballots, once it.
Item: The defendant REPEATELDY and publicly stated 36,000 non-citizens voted in Arizona when both authorities in Arizona and his own election team investigated the claim and found it to be untrue. [Indictment, para. 19]. Having been told it was not true, the president continued to tell the American public it was true.
Item: After his chief of staff PERSONALLY witnessed the Georgia signature verification process for ballots and told the President that it was being done correctly, the President told the American public that the Georgia officials were "terrible people" trying to obstruct the signature verification process. [Indictment, para. 28].
Item: The defendant repeatedly told the American public that 5,000 dead people voted in Georgia after being repeatedly told by his own staff and the Georgia elections officials that the number was two. [Indictment para, 31c]. The defendant then attacked the Georgia officials and tweeted that the number of dead people who voted in Geogia was over 10,300. [Indictment, para. 33].
Item: After stating that more than 205,000 people had voted in Pennsylvania than were registered to vote, both officials from Pennsylvania and his own campaign told the defendant that number was not correct and the official vote tally was less than the number of registered voters. The defendant then publicly and continually made that claim and called the Pennsylvania officials "cowards". [Indictment, paras. 40-44]. The defendant then made the same claims about Wisconsin after being told the same thing. [Indictment, paras. 50-52].
Because I'll tell you what Tom, every single Democrat who swore the election was illegitimate, or that Trump stole the election should be prosecuted as they also made claims that are now part of the public record.
Where is all the evidence Schiff publicly stated that he had seen that confirmed Russian collusion?
And you know what would be funny? If Trump subpoenas the crap out of all those states for documents.
There was a plan to overthrow the government by force and violence. It only failed because a few honest folks, all of them Republicans, put duty over personal gain.
Are you talking about Jan6th??? Because that was the WORST, weakest coup attempt Ive ever seen. Calling it an attempted overthrow is like saying LCS was a successful program!!! I could put together a more forceful coup with my children and their school friends...
Nevermind the silliness of saying there was a "plan"...
LOL... you are stupid if you think that a bunch of UNARMED citizens were going to overthrow the Government.
J6 is a US Federally executed Reichstag fire. The crowd had hundreds of Feds in it.
Anyone that's ever breached a house can see that there were breach teams in the crowd on J6. It's all on video... that's the reason it will NEVER be released because this was simply a federally run operation to cover the stolen election.
Biden hid in his basement instead of campaigning and got more votes than Obama did either time. Because obviously he's a much smoother talker abdbetter politician overall.
Trump may have been hated by some, but his vote countincreased in 2020 over 2016.
In our system of government elections are not audited. Audits are bullshit.
Before the American revolution in England, when there was an election, it started on a specific day and time, and ran to the end of the day, usually at sunset. Each constituency had a location where the Clerks would set up the election rolls. At that location, the Sheriff of the County would set up a ballot box. Candidates would sit in the room, with the Sheriff, and watch the Clerks check the folks trying to vote against the list of voters. Folks who were registered voters would be given a ballot, which they would mark, in private, and put a ballot box. The voter would not disclose who he voted for. (It was always a he.)
There was a Magistrate on call. If the candidates called foul, the Magistrate would pop over and rule. When the sun went down, the poll would close, and while the Candidates watched, the box would be opened and the votes counted. The votes would be counted in the presence of the candidates. The Magistrate could rule on challenges and determine them. When the count was done, the ballots were put back in the box, the box sealed and given to a trusted, responsible, official, the results were posted on the door of the polling place and a copy of the posted results taken to the government office.
That's how we do elections today. There are observers from political campaigns at almost every polling place. The polls are staffed by citizens, from both political parties. The Sheriff sends deputies to oversee security and trained poll captains supervise the workers. There is no audit because the observers can watch every voter, they can see each name get compared with the master roll, and they can watch the voter be handed a ballot, and watch him slide it into the box.
The observers stay at the poll all day. They watch the precinct. They watch the count. They watch the count get posted on the door. Every thing is done in the presence of law enforcement, and the designated observers of the candidate. Our elections are conducted fairly and honestly and anyone who claims otherwise is either ignorant, or lying.
You described an election process but you did not explain why audits are bullshit. The number of people who signed their name on the election roll should match the number of ballots casts.
Before anyone goes home the number of ballots in the box is balanced with the names on the roll. All the books are balanced before anyone leaves. Again, the candidates are entitled to watch this being done. They send observers to most polling places and the observers can watch the counting, the balancing, and check the paperwork.
The need for "audits" is nonsense being perpetrated by Putin's trolls and the dishonest among us who want folks to believe in TFG's lies.
I have been an election monitor. Once the clerk hands someone a ballot, there is no more check for validity. I was not allowed to look over the clerks' choulders to verify that they were doing their jobs properly. I am not accusing them of anything bad; I think they were a great crew and just wanted to do their jobs. However, it's a gap in the observers' ability to observe.
If there were election fraud, we would have found it by now. The point where the nonsense becomes clear is when you try and figure out how many ballots it would take to change the result. You are going to have to get a few thousand ballots in the box. Consider how hard in-person voter fraud is. Because each ballot has to be cast by a person, you have to have hundreds of criminals running around town casting thousands of ballots. Each one has to run the gauntlet of the local clerks, who are decent, folks from the community, trying to run a clean election.
If even one of these folks gets caught, the jig is up. These precincts are staffed by American citizens, folks who believe votes should be accurately counted. There is a Sheriff’s Deputy in every polling station.The kind of folks who think that they should put in 14 straight hours clerking in a polling station tend to be pretty conservative, in the best sense of the word; you really think we could run thousands, or even tens of thousands of fake voters through the process without them getting caught.
The fact of the matter is we do catch folks who vote twice. But, we only catch folks rarely, because it happens so rarely.
"At some point there will be Executive Branch leadership that will issue similar directives most likely first to the military services. "
As I recall, we already had one, but the Defense Department and military leaders ignored the order, and the DC Let's-Pretend-there-are-two-Parties Party conspired with the "Intelligence Community" to remove him.
>>. If the mainstream media’s depiction of a failing dystopia in need of a fresh start never sounded right to you, this expose and call to arms is the book you’ve been looking for. <<
As an aspiring EcoFuturist [UI] wary of implicit decision traps, over eight decades of exercising “Fifth Freedom” (free will), I appreciate having about 3-6 prior “lessons relearned” as grist for my “critical thinking” (decision support) framework!
>>. Bolingbroke’s principles, clearly driven by his empiricism, entail sufficient vetting of both persons and material.
That Jefferson commonplaced the passage strongly intimates purchase of Bolingbrokean principles of proper history.
Jefferson’s inclusion of “some” indicates the likelihood of other conditions necessary,
or at least desirable, not listed by Bolingbroke.<<
Good points. Time to eliminate the Commissars root and branch.
The FY 2024 SELRES and TAR CPO results were released this week, and the documents have been slowly released since Tuesday. Checking this morning, they posted the Diversity statistics For the force as a whole, 28% of board eligible sailors were selected (including myself). What's interesting is minority status (not white or decline to respond) had 2% greater rate, being a woman in general had a 7% greater rate. Minority women had a selection rate of 11% greater than the rest of the force.
Now, my observation on women in the Reserves has been they're bimodal. Either top notch, ready to go sailors across the board, or barely making standards. Minority personnel? Mixed. However, a decade or more time does tend to weed out the whiners. Do most of them deserve it? Yes. I just wish our board process was more transparent.
IMO the process broke when they reduced the number of CPO billet and started looking beyond technical skills, leadership, and direct, low level management skills.
That takes us back 30 plus years.
Now, with automatic promotion to E-4 they've made everybody a winner.
Latest NAVADMINs stated that unless otherwise in a designated program (Nuclear Power, Advanced Electronics, Crypto), E-4 is automatic at 30 months of service. That pretty much puts the Navy in line as the Army and Air Force, with automatic promotions to E-4. For what its worth, not passing the E-4 exam was almost impossible in many rates.
One might think that the costs of war would have the effect of leveling out the diversity and inclusion dips and bumps; because, well, we're all in the same boat (sinking.....or swamping at best).
Not so. The entire "diversity" nonsense can be boiled down to a conflict between the "have, and have nots". Period. The vast majority of those who are "have nots"; by whatever cause, have decided that the "haves" are responsible for their lot.
Those who "have" either ignore the problems and hope that they go away, or latch onto being spokespersons for the "have nots"; thus garnering press, kudos, and monetary gain as supposed champions for the great Unwashed. It is shameful.
But, war is coming.
First.
As the vicissitudes of war will mean that the greater harm is brought to the "have nots" (as was perceived to be during the Viet Nam War) our society will still be embroiled in divisive domestic conflict.
But still..........War is coming.
It will be sooner than most believe. It is a far, far greater danger than any other domestic squabble.
like the day after Pearl Harbor, the diversity cleanup and purge may begin, but the velocity of the war with the CCP is such that those DIE Political types will be sitting in command billets while we win or most likely lose. It's not going to be a 3 year war from 42-45, but a 3 week war.
and JUST like we're gong to see in elite college admissions, post SCOTUS, , the DIE folks will just take their discrimination underground. And the root source of all this the K-12 education system, Teachers unions and college indoctrination.
Equal opportunity is the path to defeat the racist roadblocks that prohibit black and brown folks from fully participating in society. But, equal opportunity does not mean equal outcomes. It is an egalitarian concept in harmony with our founding documents. The idea in our constitution and Bill of Rights is the notion that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
The problem with DEI is not just that it is a self perpetuating racket, but, that it is not egalitarian. Folks, black, brown, and white, all deserve an opportunity to succeed; but success is not guaranteed, only fair competition is. Quotas are the opposite of an egalitarian "level playing field." Determining in advance that five brown boys, six black women and twenty whites will be the winners does not make for a fair competition. Equal opportunity should be the goal.
Can agree... Opportunity and outcome are two separate (and should be) things. One is provided and one is earned. Its sad how the DEI crowd has made meritocracy such a suposedly evil thing, when just a few generations ago, thats all anyone (minorities especially) wanted...
Lots of rednecks call each other "boy." There is a degree of racially animated insult when a white man calls a black man boy. It all depends on who says what, and the tone of voice.
But, we need to get past getting wound up about words. Sticks & stones. Unless, of course, you are a diversity commissar, then of course you must enforce the language code.
Newly transferred and residing in the Florida Panhandle in the sticks my 8 year old daughter came home and told me a neighbor kid said "Ching Chong Chinaman to me and made his eyes all squinty". I asked her what she did about it and who said it. She said it was Donald Whiteh__d and she told him she was born in Hawaii, was an American, half Ilocano Filipino, half White and not a moron. While she didn't directly impugn Donald's intellect, history bears her out. She is in her early 40's now, finished college, makes $350K a year and lives a happy life. Donald dropped out in sixth grade. Yeah, you can actually do that if the teachers and school think you are a trouble making moron and don't report you. Donald ballooned to 300+ lbs, can't read, yet got a driver's license, never had a full time job, lived with his parents until they died when he was in his late-30's. Then, with no one paying the mortgage, water & power bill, the bank tried to re-po the house, the lights went out and the water meter got locked. Donald, his wife & kid, his brother & his son and various hangers-on squatted in the house for a year and a half, using the backyard for a latrine. After the police killed a resident felon (husband to Donald's sister) in the front yard, the house caught fire. They all left for greener pastures. I shoveled all the glass and debris the fireman had carted out of the house back though the windows just before the bank plywooded the windows. I have being mowing the front yard as needed. Nah, my daughter's feeling didn't get hurt. She was too focused on being a successful person, that is, not a moron in action or deed. I dunno what Donald is doing now. Probably eating Hamburger Helper sans hamburger and living in his truck. Bon appétit, Donald, I no longer harbor a grudge. No. Yeah, I do.
Too be fair? Our Progressive friends have absolutely destroyed minority families and blue city public schools since Truman and Eisenhower began the march towards desegregation.
That is not RAYCISS. Blacks are not forced to abandon their children by law, nor are they forced to allow their only education to be a public school.
I'm still waiting to hear what Blacks, Browns, Yellows, or any other flavor of the melanin rainbow you choose are NOT allowed to do that whites are either by law, or policy. If you CANNOT define what is RAYCISS road blocks prevent minorities from fully participating in society, everything else you wrote is worthless.
You incredibly ignorant and stupid phuck. You know whats racist? The little progressive schittheads who assumed my son was only in the Math PhD program as the affirmative action quota.
If you are phucking incapable of observing the performance of public schools in blue cities over the last 65 years you are either intellectually challenged or willfully myopic.
The roadblock is the quality of their education you phucking moron.
Tell me boy, why do only 3% of black men have STEM degrees? Why are black women over represented in underpaid degree fields.
You wouldn't think the fine public schools in cities like Seattle or Baltimore haven't created an uneducated under-class would you?
Sounds like you feel a tad sensitive on the topic. Each point you mentioned in no way shape or form prevents ANYONE of ANY COLOR succeeding.
Prof. assumed your minority child was in a PHD program as Affirmative Action? Too bad. That still does not prevent your son from succeeding. And why would that have been a bad assumption to make? Are not minorities the PRIMARY benefit of Affirmative Action?
Bad school systems are not caused by RAYCISS! anything. They are a product of tax base, child behavior, and parental involvement. Schools may suck, but that STILL isn't RAYCISS! What policy do the school have that single out Blacks for worse treatment?
Only 3% of black males have STEM degrees? So what? What % SHOULD THEY HAVE? Why are only 30% of blacks born to married parents? IS THAT RAYCISS!
You can't point to a SINGLE policy that is RAYCISS! All you can do is point at the outcomes and assume its RAYCISS! When in fact, it has more to do with destructive BLACK EXCELLENCE (tm) in reproduction, marriage, and education. Own the outcomes that YOUR culture produces. Stop blaming whitey for your cultures lack of advancement. Whites give Blacks Affirmative action, welfare, medicaid, EBT, section 8 housing... and on and on, and you STILL blame whites for your failings.
Executive action is great, but the legal structures that support the diversity hustle must be removed. Hate crime laws, civil rights acts etc... need to come off the books.
A Marxist - BUT, he apparently believed that control occurs thru “ideological illusions” produced by the ruling class, i.e., “Let’s you and him fight”. That idea let the British take over India, and it’s doing a lot to allow the people who think they are better than the rest of us maintain multi-generational control of this country.
<soapbox mode> No conspiracy theories are needed here. We have been told over the years to divide ourselves into smaller and smaller groups, which are much easier to poke and prod. The Left cannot STOP doing that; almost like it’s in their DNA. Simply look at the relatively small number of families that have run the country over the past century and a half. Now, most of us could probably handle that if the outcome were somewhat acceptable. But we remain under the control of Wilsonian Progressives, and that path is one of repeated economic failures and increased control of the average person. </soapbox mode>
I note here an extract of Jefferson’s words from the Declaration of Independence, “mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed,”. We make it a point to watch the musical “1776” every July 4th. I believe in and support the Constitution. All of it. I urge everyone to make their voice known at the local and state levels. It is the only way I can see to actually improve the country.
I forwarded the link to our son-in-law, who is a lawyer. I first encountered serious historical interpreters at Colonial Williamsburg; later on at a Civil War re-enactment event. Got to watch out for some of those folk. Some considered their fellow soldiers to be slackers if they haven’t also adopted fleas.
I've tried to read Gramsci, honestly, I've tried. As a lawyer, I've read some pretty dull stuff. The question is, how influential can you be when what you write is gibberish. So, he said "hegemon." BFD.
Take one paragraph of Gramsci, and put it up against anything Hamilton wrote. It's gibberish.
Gramsci took the long view and tweaked Marxism into a stealth mode to subvert cultural institutions. There sure were enough people who could read Gramsci without their eyes glazing over who spread his cancerous ideas. **sigh**
I’m thinking you give too much credence to “Theroy.” Marxism has influence because Marx wrote well and had good ideas. As an analyst, Marx is superb; his prescriptions however. . . .
Gramsci, on the other hand, was not a particularly insightful observer. His big idea, “cultural hegemony,” is bullshit. He fails to understand that enterprise is motivated by market forces. NBC is far more interested is beating ABC than it is in perpetuating the prevailing cultural norms of a society.
Media Competition in a free market is driven by box office. Consider how directors and producers break with conventions. We applaud “Barbie” for breaking traditions, and we flock to Oppenheimer where the forces Gramsci says are being propped up are the actual bad guys.
Capitalists can read Marx, and apply his ideas. What is the NFL but a living example of monopolistic enterprises using capital to extract the excess value from the labor force?
It’s silly to call Gramsci’s ideas “cancerous,” because what does a Gramscista do? His employment opportunities are pretty much limited to cashier at the CoOp. He’s not running a movie studio. The Prison Notebooks are just a poorly written philosophy text which offers no insight into the real world.
I am not a scholar, Tom, and I'll grant that you are probably better read than me. I have read neither man's work, just analysis of the effects of their ideas. I cannot say that Marx had good ideas if the context is "good & evil". Might be "good" if you mean well written. Having never read Das Kapital I can't say if it was "good" but I heard it was a snoozer. I do believe that communism is evil. I do think Gramsci's ideas are cancerous. Communism is more a criminal conspiracy than a political(religious) ideology. You pay lip service to dogma and use every trick in the book to get power, maintain power. I see communism as a con. The Proles get nothing out it, their lot is not improved. The Party hierarchy gets marginally better shopping privileges, the rabid street people who helped put them in power get a bullet to the back of the neck because they are dangerous. Gramsci changed the focus from economic theory to subverting institutions. He was a clever guy. General Jack D. Ripper said it best.
You should read Capital. It’s not that hard of a book, and Marx was brilliant. His description of how the world works is accurate and insightful.
The pamphlet, co-written by Engels, is crap.
If Marx were a Medical Doctor he’d be considered a brilliant diagnostician, but one clueless about how to cure what he diagnosed. Communism fails for exactly the same reason Mercantilism fails. Both are based on the notion that a man, or a committee of men, can outwit the market; that proper planning and careful consideration will result in economic success.
Adam Smith, upon whose work Marx’s thoughts are based, recognized the role of “animal spirits,” what we now “entrepreneurial” attitudes, in economic activity. Humans take financial risks in the hope of profit; it is in our nature. Communism only works if it stifles entrepreneurialism, and because the urge to profit from our activity is as much a part of human nature as the desire for sex, it can’t be stifled. That’s why systems that unleash our animal spirits, systems of free trade and free enterprise, succeed where communism fails.
That’s also why your Gramscinista is not going to “subvert institutions.” The institution is going to subvert Gramsci’s disciple long before he can change the institution. He may enter NBC as a page hellbent on subversion, but thirty years later, he’s got a corner office, a second home in the Hamptons, and any notions of subversion have been drowned in the fountain of free market profits.
The fact of the matter is that an economic system which supports and encourages individual freedom will always dominate a system of central planning and government control. Gramsci’s central notion, his idea of “cultural hegemony,” is bullshit. His vision of reality does not comport with observable facts.
The Gramscinistas gussied themselves up like cheerleaders, put on their game faces as they worked their con like an AM radio preachers. Our cultural institutions have been Fundamentally Changed. Their work seems pretty much done, as witnessed by all the rot and ruin. Their goal was always that second home in the Hamptons and a corner office with a view. Nope. Communism is a con. Gramsci rewrote the blueprint. I still maintain that his grave needs attending to. But you are right, Tom. Maybe I need to read Kapital so that I can give Marx a fair shake. After all, there are plenty of people who maintain that True Communism just never had the right people doing it the right way. I'll find the book online and give it a stab if it's a freebie. But it's going to have to compete with a huge stack of books in my bedside reading queue. James Ellroy, the French Revolution and the Spanish Civil War are way ahead of Marx at the moment.
Apologies if this is obvious, but the photo and words are from "Master and Commander", which I say is the most first rate film of its type since "Captain Blood", which my father saw in the theater at age 11.
Love this post. Positive, clear problem with solution and doable. Our Nation desperately needs this and other similar changes to get us back on-track to the foundations laid out by our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. It really is rather simple, and it really is very hard.
As a division officer, I tried to treat all of my people as adults capable of adult behavior, and worthy of MY loyalty. Shipmates. In short, I treated all of my people as American Blue Jackets. I did that even after we started into the “Rights and Responsibility” era of DEI because I had higher standards for them and for me.
Same here. I did have one young sailor who was unreachable. He was smart and could have been capable but his mind was twisted by what we'd today call CRT. His father or uncle was a Marxist "Black Power" guy in the 60's and the kid was racists through and through. I tried to explain to him that I didn't care and he told me of course I did, and he would never treat whites the same as blacks because I could never treat him the same.
It was sad.
I had one like that as an LPO. The young man told me just because my wife's skin was black it didn't make her black.
I simply responded that with "one look at you and I can understand why more black women are marrying white men." for some reason he didn't like that.
Expecting higher standards? Thats RACICST!
As I said, “for them and me”. Hat would make me one of those people who is racist toward their own group. No. Wait. Only the Left has managed that trick.
Claiming you are trying to be better than others? Racist. Holding others to higher standards? Racist. Expecting competence from anyone? Racist, ableist. Expecting good grammar? Correct spelling? Basic arithmetic skills? Common manners? Wearing clean clothes? Bathing? All racist
Doing those things, yourself? Also racist.
When I was stationed in Hawaii, our son (a definite haole) came home one day, using pidgin like he did at school to blend in a little better. I asked him if his chief goal in life was to become a tour guide in Hawaii. That was the last time I heard him use pidgin.
Having also been based in Oahu County (Hawaii}, I completed grad-school studies at UHManoa after USNR-RAD.
What-IF Jefferson’s teenaged (live-in) tutoring had included island-based [PRiMOhana] respect for all living things?
Learning celestial navigation at Bishop Museum cultivated my respect for multi-cultural [leap-frog learning] options!!
What-IF Jefferson had crafted an “Affirmation of INTERdependence” augmenting DOI-July-4th fireworks mindsets?
IMHO: FDR’s “Four Freedoms Speech” (6-Jan-1941) excluded USA’s vital “Fifth Freedom” (Influence/Free-Will).
+++++
Fifth Freedom (Free-Will) “Memes & Memetics” (18-May-2002)
are exemplified by HAOLE/PRiMOhana [Team Nakasone]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakasone?wprov=sfti1
+++++
Yeah, in school there's a real temptation there. There's this accepted level of mediocrity and if you go above it, you face the wrath. You're a kiss-ass/brown-noser/sell-out and you even get your sexuality questioned. I really paid a price for doing well in school and going into the Navy upon graduation. It didn't even matter that I had a yelling-match or three with teachers, got sent to the office, and drew in-school suspension a couple of times. I was still considered a "kiss-ass". You get this later in life, too. There's no shortage of guys that pass up job opportunities because it's more important to be one of the guys. You're a corporate-simp if you promote above banging a hammer and turning wrenches.
The modern version of that is black kids 'talkin' white' and getting beat down (literally, and figuratively) for it.
I had heard of that. It says something about the parents of the thugs (accurate, deliberate word usage) that do that. I am reminded of high school graduations we have attended over the past 10 years or so, in which the appearance of some graduates was greeted with a huge amount of yelling, whistling, and feet stamping - as if the friends and relatives of the student were admitting that the graduate had reached his/her pinnacle in life. Very sad. Not everyone needs to, or should, go to college. That is not my point. An education level does not define a person’s value. But high school is such a low bar these days. Maybe that is the sadder point.
Having been acting “Watershed Marshal/Trustee” of Linden-Tripkos VFW Post 6654
[JoCoGov-DeSoto-KS], I honored a meme that our “Five Freedoms are NOT Free”
Example of ChatGPT-ThinkLets (Actionable Distilled Insights)
https://www.quora.com/What-do-people-mean-when-they-say-freedom-is-not-free-in-America
+++++
Having learned of CDR Salemander’s “Fifth Freedom Blog-Journals”
in NE-KS (2006-12), I adapted it for AO-22 / PAO-PDLog memes!
http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/
My UNODIR (Free Will) mission was advocating Heart of America BSA
“River Orienteering CommUNITY Stewardship” (ROCS) within inter-regional
Freedoms Frontier National HERitage Area [#FFnha #mapXchange]
https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/kansas/17702#:~:text=Begun%20in%201821%2C%20the%20trail%20commenced%20in%20Independence%2C%20Missouri%2C%20and%20passed%20from%20northeast%20to%20southwest%20in%20what%20is%20now%20Kansas.
Our 2010 FFNHA-NPS.gov showcases USA-Civil War’s
Kansas-Missouri (North-South) Border Wars.
http://futurethought.pbworks.com/w/page/14011846/VFW%20Post%206654
+++++
IMHO: Accessible digital topographical maps are needed to enable elevation awareness competence.
Otherwise, manifest Destiny memes (mDm) ensure persistent “Elevation Awareness Deficiency” (EAD).
FYI - This unrecognized condition is outgrowth of author Richard Louv’s “Nature Deficit Disorder” (NDD)
Using REI-Bloomington (MN-USA) NatGeoMaps Kiosk/Software, our crew did Nine-Mile Creek GPSurveys.
Upon moving to NE-KS [JoCoGov-MonticelloTwp/NWest-Shawnee],
we used UMN-StoryTech-EdFutures GPSurveys of UG-WyCoGov’s
Mill Creek terrain draining into Kansas/Kaw River -> Missouri River:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyandotte_County,_Kansas?wprov=sfti1
*****
Like CDR Salamander’s Substack Blog-Journal, Wikipedia-Media Editors
collectively ensure factual substance with consistent style (mandated).
For example, check out recently reverted OODA-Loop feedbacks:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_of_Kansas?wprov=sfti1
#####
Love your optimism. Wish I shared it for my kids' sake at least. But I think we are at the edge of the precipice. Hard times are ahead, and our ruling elite is not up to the task. To the contrary, they have helped drive us to the edge. The system won't just revert to the mean. No, it's unstable. These times will be more than just interesting.
I think our ruling elite may have looked at automation and AI advances and decided they really don't need 90% of us useless eaters to maintain their lifestyle.
Even without automation and AI, a corrupt elite can maintain its lifestyle at the expense of the people (see: every African regime, every communist regime ever).
It's a common state of human affairs for millennia, barring a few exceptions like our own. Still, all those subjects can be troublesome form time to time (ref: Haiti, circa 1791)
Love your optimism. BUT...Votes vs ballots. "Fortifying" an election (see the article published in Time Magazine https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/ . Put away the supposedly "crazy" conspiracy theories about elections, and just look at what is admitted to and agreed upon regarding election "influence" by the media and government agencies (and it's legal!). When I do that, have to wonder how we get any meaningful change to the current trajectory regarding DEI.
Exactly. If the number of ballots with questionable or no chain of custody exceeds the margin on victory (or in many cases the number of ballots requested or the number of registered voters), the election must be considered invalid.
If ballots start showing up after counting has determined how many are needed to win, and the voting roles (including who has already voted) are shared with people who can print ballots, the election is invalid.
If 600,000 ballots are received and counted illegally in contradiction to the laws in effect at the time of the election, the election is invalid.
If tens of thousands of ballots are seen and recorded being submitted in bulk at uncontrolled drop off boxes, in a state when it it illegal to submit someone else's ballot, the election is invalid.
It is shocking to me how obtuse and disingenuous people can be when they they think their guy had to win. In my opinion one must be willfully blind to pretend Biden won a legally conducted election counting only legally summitted and received ballots, once it.
Don't start with that election bullshit. If you believe that garbage, nothing you say has any value.
Anyone with who values election integrity should examine each election.
(Remember the military absentee ballots in Duval County in 2000?)
Item: The defendant REPEATELDY and publicly stated 36,000 non-citizens voted in Arizona when both authorities in Arizona and his own election team investigated the claim and found it to be untrue. [Indictment, para. 19]. Having been told it was not true, the president continued to tell the American public it was true.
Item: After his chief of staff PERSONALLY witnessed the Georgia signature verification process for ballots and told the President that it was being done correctly, the President told the American public that the Georgia officials were "terrible people" trying to obstruct the signature verification process. [Indictment, para. 28].
Item: The defendant repeatedly told the American public that 5,000 dead people voted in Georgia after being repeatedly told by his own staff and the Georgia elections officials that the number was two. [Indictment para, 31c]. The defendant then attacked the Georgia officials and tweeted that the number of dead people who voted in Geogia was over 10,300. [Indictment, para. 33].
Item: After stating that more than 205,000 people had voted in Pennsylvania than were registered to vote, both officials from Pennsylvania and his own campaign told the defendant that number was not correct and the official vote tally was less than the number of registered voters. The defendant then publicly and continually made that claim and called the Pennsylvania officials "cowards". [Indictment, paras. 40-44]. The defendant then made the same claims about Wisconsin after being told the same thing. [Indictment, paras. 50-52].
What was illegal?
Because I'll tell you what Tom, every single Democrat who swore the election was illegitimate, or that Trump stole the election should be prosecuted as they also made claims that are now part of the public record.
Where is all the evidence Schiff publicly stated that he had seen that confirmed Russian collusion?
And you know what would be funny? If Trump subpoenas the crap out of all those states for documents.
It wasn't what he said, it is what he did.
There was a plan to overthrow the government by force and violence. It only failed because a few honest folks, all of them Republicans, put duty over personal gain.
What plan?
Are you talking about Jan6th??? Because that was the WORST, weakest coup attempt Ive ever seen. Calling it an attempted overthrow is like saying LCS was a successful program!!! I could put together a more forceful coup with my children and their school friends...
Nevermind the silliness of saying there was a "plan"...
LOL... you are stupid if you think that a bunch of UNARMED citizens were going to overthrow the Government.
J6 is a US Federally executed Reichstag fire. The crowd had hundreds of Feds in it.
Anyone that's ever breached a house can see that there were breach teams in the crowd on J6. It's all on video... that's the reason it will NEVER be released because this was simply a federally run operation to cover the stolen election.
The Russian Collusion hoax was also a plan to overthrow the government.
The Ukrainians are paying for that, by the tens of thousands.
First completely unarmed attempted coup in history
FPO/APO postmarks. Easily identifiable from the exterior without knowing the vote contents. Just play the numbers.
It's an old trick for lawyers of one party to get as many FPO/APO absentee ballots disqualifed as possible, knowing they swing to the other party.
And you think your opinion is valid because?
Biden hid in his basement instead of campaigning and got more votes than Obama did either time. Because obviously he's a much smoother talker abdbetter politician overall.
Trump may have been hated by some, but his vote countincreased in 2020 over 2016.
How can you trust the results of an election when they can't be audited?
In our system of government elections are not audited. Audits are bullshit.
Before the American revolution in England, when there was an election, it started on a specific day and time, and ran to the end of the day, usually at sunset. Each constituency had a location where the Clerks would set up the election rolls. At that location, the Sheriff of the County would set up a ballot box. Candidates would sit in the room, with the Sheriff, and watch the Clerks check the folks trying to vote against the list of voters. Folks who were registered voters would be given a ballot, which they would mark, in private, and put a ballot box. The voter would not disclose who he voted for. (It was always a he.)
There was a Magistrate on call. If the candidates called foul, the Magistrate would pop over and rule. When the sun went down, the poll would close, and while the Candidates watched, the box would be opened and the votes counted. The votes would be counted in the presence of the candidates. The Magistrate could rule on challenges and determine them. When the count was done, the ballots were put back in the box, the box sealed and given to a trusted, responsible, official, the results were posted on the door of the polling place and a copy of the posted results taken to the government office.
That's how we do elections today. There are observers from political campaigns at almost every polling place. The polls are staffed by citizens, from both political parties. The Sheriff sends deputies to oversee security and trained poll captains supervise the workers. There is no audit because the observers can watch every voter, they can see each name get compared with the master roll, and they can watch the voter be handed a ballot, and watch him slide it into the box.
The observers stay at the poll all day. They watch the precinct. They watch the count. They watch the count get posted on the door. Every thing is done in the presence of law enforcement, and the designated observers of the candidate. Our elections are conducted fairly and honestly and anyone who claims otherwise is either ignorant, or lying.
You described an election process but you did not explain why audits are bullshit. The number of people who signed their name on the election roll should match the number of ballots casts.
Also, in many places, there's corruption. For example https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/former-us-congressman-and-philadelphia-political-operative-pleads-guilty-election-fraud
Before anyone goes home the number of ballots in the box is balanced with the names on the roll. All the books are balanced before anyone leaves. Again, the candidates are entitled to watch this being done. They send observers to most polling places and the observers can watch the counting, the balancing, and check the paperwork.
The need for "audits" is nonsense being perpetrated by Putin's trolls and the dishonest among us who want folks to believe in TFG's lies.
Putins trolls?LOL. Now we know you're a paid Fed.
Names on the roll not people who checked in to vote.
You don't see the problem?
"In our system of government elections are not audited. Audits are bullshit."
If it's not auditable then you CANNOT assert it was free of fraud.
Everything you bothered to write after that is worthless horseshit.
You can’t “audit” because the ballots are secret. All you can do is balance the books. We do that; DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THE CANDIDATE!
I have been an election monitor. Once the clerk hands someone a ballot, there is no more check for validity. I was not allowed to look over the clerks' choulders to verify that they were doing their jobs properly. I am not accusing them of anything bad; I think they were a great crew and just wanted to do their jobs. However, it's a gap in the observers' ability to observe.
Doc,
If there were election fraud, we would have found it by now. The point where the nonsense becomes clear is when you try and figure out how many ballots it would take to change the result. You are going to have to get a few thousand ballots in the box. Consider how hard in-person voter fraud is. Because each ballot has to be cast by a person, you have to have hundreds of criminals running around town casting thousands of ballots. Each one has to run the gauntlet of the local clerks, who are decent, folks from the community, trying to run a clean election.
If even one of these folks gets caught, the jig is up. These precincts are staffed by American citizens, folks who believe votes should be accurately counted. There is a Sheriff’s Deputy in every polling station.The kind of folks who think that they should put in 14 straight hours clerking in a polling station tend to be pretty conservative, in the best sense of the word; you really think we could run thousands, or even tens of thousands of fake voters through the process without them getting caught.
The fact of the matter is we do catch folks who vote twice. But, we only catch folks rarely, because it happens so rarely.
"At some point there will be Executive Branch leadership that will issue similar directives most likely first to the military services. "
As I recall, we already had one, but the Defense Department and military leaders ignored the order, and the DC Let's-Pretend-there-are-two-Parties Party conspired with the "Intelligence Community" to remove him.
Sal hits the nail on the head!
YES!!!! Thank you!!!
I thing we should all read Chris Rufo’s latest book “America’s Cultural Revolution”
>> If left unchecked, this weaponized ideology will destroy American liberty.
If not, Americans will learn the truth that power, not freedom, is truly irresistible.
<<
https://lawliberty.org/americas-cultural-revolution/
?????
>>. If the mainstream media’s depiction of a failing dystopia in need of a fresh start never sounded right to you, this expose and call to arms is the book you’ve been looking for. <<
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/americas-cultural-revolution-christopher-f-rufo
#####
As an aspiring EcoFuturist [UI] wary of implicit decision traps, over eight decades of exercising “Fifth Freedom” (free will), I appreciate having about 3-6 prior “lessons relearned” as grist for my “critical thinking” (decision support) framework!
>>. Bolingbroke’s principles, clearly driven by his empiricism, entail sufficient vetting of both persons and material.
That Jefferson commonplaced the passage strongly intimates purchase of Bolingbrokean principles of proper history.
Jefferson’s inclusion of “some” indicates the likelihood of other conditions necessary,
or at least desirable, not listed by Bolingbroke.<<
https://allthingsliberty.com/2023/03/thomas-jefferson-and-the-conditions-of-good-history-writing-about-the-american-revolution/
<<
Good points. Time to eliminate the Commissars root and branch.
The FY 2024 SELRES and TAR CPO results were released this week, and the documents have been slowly released since Tuesday. Checking this morning, they posted the Diversity statistics For the force as a whole, 28% of board eligible sailors were selected (including myself). What's interesting is minority status (not white or decline to respond) had 2% greater rate, being a woman in general had a 7% greater rate. Minority women had a selection rate of 11% greater than the rest of the force.
Now, my observation on women in the Reserves has been they're bimodal. Either top notch, ready to go sailors across the board, or barely making standards. Minority personnel? Mixed. However, a decade or more time does tend to weed out the whiners. Do most of them deserve it? Yes. I just wish our board process was more transparent.
Congratulations on the anchors. Hopefully the initiation process will bring everyone up to the ideals of being a Chief.
Hope springs eternal, but that process is broken. CMDs are the problem, they need to go.
IMO the process broke when they reduced the number of CPO billet and started looking beyond technical skills, leadership, and direct, low level management skills.
That takes us back 30 plus years.
Now, with automatic promotion to E-4 they've made everybody a winner.
When did that happen? Do you mean that there are no competitive exams for E-4 now?
Latest NAVADMINs stated that unless otherwise in a designated program (Nuclear Power, Advanced Electronics, Crypto), E-4 is automatic at 30 months of service. That pretty much puts the Navy in line as the Army and Air Force, with automatic promotions to E-4. For what its worth, not passing the E-4 exam was almost impossible in many rates.
See here: https://www.mynavyhr.navy.mil/Portals/55/Messages/NAVADMIN/FACT_SHEETS/Fact_Sheet_NAV_168_23.pdf
Thank you. That's what I hope for as well.
Congratulations, Chief Thompson.
Thank you!
Well, I'd only call Chief right now under circumstances that would add to the charge book. 😉
Listen SLUG, don't be identifying yourself on the internet.
War is coming.
One might think that the costs of war would have the effect of leveling out the diversity and inclusion dips and bumps; because, well, we're all in the same boat (sinking.....or swamping at best).
Not so. The entire "diversity" nonsense can be boiled down to a conflict between the "have, and have nots". Period. The vast majority of those who are "have nots"; by whatever cause, have decided that the "haves" are responsible for their lot.
Those who "have" either ignore the problems and hope that they go away, or latch onto being spokespersons for the "have nots"; thus garnering press, kudos, and monetary gain as supposed champions for the great Unwashed. It is shameful.
But, war is coming.
First.
As the vicissitudes of war will mean that the greater harm is brought to the "have nots" (as was perceived to be during the Viet Nam War) our society will still be embroiled in divisive domestic conflict.
But still..........War is coming.
It will be sooner than most believe. It is a far, far greater danger than any other domestic squabble.
both wars are coming
As much as I dread it, I have to concur.
Diversity dies with the first hostile inbound.
no,
like the day after Pearl Harbor, the diversity cleanup and purge may begin, but the velocity of the war with the CCP is such that those DIE Political types will be sitting in command billets while we win or most likely lose. It's not going to be a 3 year war from 42-45, but a 3 week war.
and JUST like we're gong to see in elite college admissions, post SCOTUS, , the DIE folks will just take their discrimination underground. And the root source of all this the K-12 education system, Teachers unions and college indoctrination.
The whole pipeline needs purging.
They will then attempt to blame the defeat on the people who actually were fighting, assisted by the media and the entire leadership of the DoD.
Equal opportunity is the path to defeat the racist roadblocks that prohibit black and brown folks from fully participating in society. But, equal opportunity does not mean equal outcomes. It is an egalitarian concept in harmony with our founding documents. The idea in our constitution and Bill of Rights is the notion that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
The problem with DEI is not just that it is a self perpetuating racket, but, that it is not egalitarian. Folks, black, brown, and white, all deserve an opportunity to succeed; but success is not guaranteed, only fair competition is. Quotas are the opposite of an egalitarian "level playing field." Determining in advance that five brown boys, six black women and twenty whites will be the winners does not make for a fair competition. Equal opportunity should be the goal.
Can agree... Opportunity and outcome are two separate (and should be) things. One is provided and one is earned. Its sad how the DEI crowd has made meritocracy such a suposedly evil thing, when just a few generations ago, thats all anyone (minorities especially) wanted...
"brown boys?" - Perhaps you should consider an edit.
Isn't that the way diversity commissars think? Folks are categories, not individuals.
If someone called my adult/teen son "boy." I would fully condoned my son beating the living schitt out if that person if they were male.
Lots of rednecks call each other "boy." There is a degree of racially animated insult when a white man calls a black man boy. It all depends on who says what, and the tone of voice.
But, we need to get past getting wound up about words. Sticks & stones. Unless, of course, you are a diversity commissar, then of course you must enforce the language code.
Try again Tom. That's no better than white teacher who told my son "you're a credit to your race."
But hey, I do appreciate you displaying your Progressive bigotry, and then calling me a diversity commisar.
And no, "brown boy" is not covered by familiarity in this particular case.
Newly transferred and residing in the Florida Panhandle in the sticks my 8 year old daughter came home and told me a neighbor kid said "Ching Chong Chinaman to me and made his eyes all squinty". I asked her what she did about it and who said it. She said it was Donald Whiteh__d and she told him she was born in Hawaii, was an American, half Ilocano Filipino, half White and not a moron. While she didn't directly impugn Donald's intellect, history bears her out. She is in her early 40's now, finished college, makes $350K a year and lives a happy life. Donald dropped out in sixth grade. Yeah, you can actually do that if the teachers and school think you are a trouble making moron and don't report you. Donald ballooned to 300+ lbs, can't read, yet got a driver's license, never had a full time job, lived with his parents until they died when he was in his late-30's. Then, with no one paying the mortgage, water & power bill, the bank tried to re-po the house, the lights went out and the water meter got locked. Donald, his wife & kid, his brother & his son and various hangers-on squatted in the house for a year and a half, using the backyard for a latrine. After the police killed a resident felon (husband to Donald's sister) in the front yard, the house caught fire. They all left for greener pastures. I shoveled all the glass and debris the fireman had carted out of the house back though the windows just before the bank plywooded the windows. I have being mowing the front yard as needed. Nah, my daughter's feeling didn't get hurt. She was too focused on being a successful person, that is, not a moron in action or deed. I dunno what Donald is doing now. Probably eating Hamburger Helper sans hamburger and living in his truck. Bon appétit, Donald, I no longer harbor a grudge. No. Yeah, I do.
There are no italics here. I would have used italics around “if.” But I tried a work-around.
My point, expressed poorly, is that those who support quotas necessarily categorize people.
What RAYCISS roadblocks? What can any straight white male do that a homo trans or minority NOT do? What are they legally prevented from doing?
Too be fair? Our Progressive friends have absolutely destroyed minority families and blue city public schools since Truman and Eisenhower began the march towards desegregation.
That is not RAYCISS. Blacks are not forced to abandon their children by law, nor are they forced to allow their only education to be a public school.
I'm still waiting to hear what Blacks, Browns, Yellows, or any other flavor of the melanin rainbow you choose are NOT allowed to do that whites are either by law, or policy. If you CANNOT define what is RAYCISS road blocks prevent minorities from fully participating in society, everything else you wrote is worthless.
You incredibly ignorant and stupid phuck. You know whats racist? The little progressive schittheads who assumed my son was only in the Math PhD program as the affirmative action quota.
If you are phucking incapable of observing the performance of public schools in blue cities over the last 65 years you are either intellectually challenged or willfully myopic.
The roadblock is the quality of their education you phucking moron.
Tell me boy, why do only 3% of black men have STEM degrees? Why are black women over represented in underpaid degree fields.
You wouldn't think the fine public schools in cities like Seattle or Baltimore haven't created an uneducated under-class would you?
https://www.postalley.org/2022/09/16/an-alarming-racial-disparity-in-seattle-public-school-reading-scores/
Have a nice day my hypocritical, arrogant and woefully ignorant friend.
Sounds like you feel a tad sensitive on the topic. Each point you mentioned in no way shape or form prevents ANYONE of ANY COLOR succeeding.
Prof. assumed your minority child was in a PHD program as Affirmative Action? Too bad. That still does not prevent your son from succeeding. And why would that have been a bad assumption to make? Are not minorities the PRIMARY benefit of Affirmative Action?
Bad school systems are not caused by RAYCISS! anything. They are a product of tax base, child behavior, and parental involvement. Schools may suck, but that STILL isn't RAYCISS! What policy do the school have that single out Blacks for worse treatment?
Only 3% of black males have STEM degrees? So what? What % SHOULD THEY HAVE? Why are only 30% of blacks born to married parents? IS THAT RAYCISS!
You can't point to a SINGLE policy that is RAYCISS! All you can do is point at the outcomes and assume its RAYCISS! When in fact, it has more to do with destructive BLACK EXCELLENCE (tm) in reproduction, marriage, and education. Own the outcomes that YOUR culture produces. Stop blaming whitey for your cultures lack of advancement. Whites give Blacks Affirmative action, welfare, medicaid, EBT, section 8 housing... and on and on, and you STILL blame whites for your failings.
Actually phuckhead, I'm white and my children grew up in a conservative red-city upper middle class neighborhood with several figure homes.
All of their bigoted encounters have been with white progressives who came from schitthole Progressive cities with progressive union run schools.
So to be clear, my phuckhead friend? I don't blame whites, I blame Progressives.
Executive action is great, but the legal structures that support the diversity hustle must be removed. Hate crime laws, civil rights acts etc... need to come off the books.
Anyone visiting Rome please take the time to visit this guy's grave and pay homage as you deem appropriate.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jVo13112Svs/Vx___Si18bI/AAAAAAAABW4/utqDgJdfGHk0beBQ_rKgfGN8hKme7hefwCLcB/s1600/Antonio_Gramsci_Grave_in_Rome01%2B%25282%2529.jpg
41°52′35″N 12°28′48″E
A Marxist - BUT, he apparently believed that control occurs thru “ideological illusions” produced by the ruling class, i.e., “Let’s you and him fight”. That idea let the British take over India, and it’s doing a lot to allow the people who think they are better than the rest of us maintain multi-generational control of this country.
<soapbox mode> No conspiracy theories are needed here. We have been told over the years to divide ourselves into smaller and smaller groups, which are much easier to poke and prod. The Left cannot STOP doing that; almost like it’s in their DNA. Simply look at the relatively small number of families that have run the country over the past century and a half. Now, most of us could probably handle that if the outcome were somewhat acceptable. But we remain under the control of Wilsonian Progressives, and that path is one of repeated economic failures and increased control of the average person. </soapbox mode>
I note here an extract of Jefferson’s words from the Declaration of Independence, “mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed,”. We make it a point to watch the musical “1776” every July 4th. I believe in and support the Constitution. All of it. I urge everyone to make their voice known at the local and state levels. It is the only way I can see to actually improve the country.
Had Sep-2009 interaction with this well researched Thomas Jefferson reenactor:
His most insightful resonse was about his tutor (Reverend James Maury)
who was Oceanographer CDR Matthew Fontaintaine Maury’s grandfather.
https://blog.law.cornell.edu/blog/2017/04/21/lii-donor-profile-steve-edenbo-first-person-interpreter-of-thomas-jefferson/
Here’s FlipVideo F2F outcome:
https://youtu.be/xhYsBjjStzs
I forwarded the link to our son-in-law, who is a lawyer. I first encountered serious historical interpreters at Colonial Williamsburg; later on at a Civil War re-enactment event. Got to watch out for some of those folk. Some considered their fellow soldiers to be slackers if they haven’t also adopted fleas.
AG: “I forwarded the link to our son-in-law, who is a lawyer.”
Citing prior Cornell-Law link about Steve Edenbo’s interpretive sources
helped ongoing efforts to to resolve “memes” vs. “selfish genes” ...
Wondered how young Jefferson’s tutor influenced “hegemon”
exercise of TAJ’s subliminal free-will or fifth freedom?
AG: Further research on influence of #FifthFreedom smARTmemes
led to my adopting US President LBJ’s version ... “Freedom from Ignorance”
+++
I've tried to read Gramsci, honestly, I've tried. As a lawyer, I've read some pretty dull stuff. The question is, how influential can you be when what you write is gibberish. So, he said "hegemon." BFD.
Take one paragraph of Gramsci, and put it up against anything Hamilton wrote. It's gibberish.
"Give it up Jim. He's dead."
Gramsci took the long view and tweaked Marxism into a stealth mode to subvert cultural institutions. There sure were enough people who could read Gramsci without their eyes glazing over who spread his cancerous ideas. **sigh**
I’m thinking you give too much credence to “Theroy.” Marxism has influence because Marx wrote well and had good ideas. As an analyst, Marx is superb; his prescriptions however. . . .
Gramsci, on the other hand, was not a particularly insightful observer. His big idea, “cultural hegemony,” is bullshit. He fails to understand that enterprise is motivated by market forces. NBC is far more interested is beating ABC than it is in perpetuating the prevailing cultural norms of a society.
Media Competition in a free market is driven by box office. Consider how directors and producers break with conventions. We applaud “Barbie” for breaking traditions, and we flock to Oppenheimer where the forces Gramsci says are being propped up are the actual bad guys.
Capitalists can read Marx, and apply his ideas. What is the NFL but a living example of monopolistic enterprises using capital to extract the excess value from the labor force?
It’s silly to call Gramsci’s ideas “cancerous,” because what does a Gramscista do? His employment opportunities are pretty much limited to cashier at the CoOp. He’s not running a movie studio. The Prison Notebooks are just a poorly written philosophy text which offers no insight into the real world.
I am not a scholar, Tom, and I'll grant that you are probably better read than me. I have read neither man's work, just analysis of the effects of their ideas. I cannot say that Marx had good ideas if the context is "good & evil". Might be "good" if you mean well written. Having never read Das Kapital I can't say if it was "good" but I heard it was a snoozer. I do believe that communism is evil. I do think Gramsci's ideas are cancerous. Communism is more a criminal conspiracy than a political(religious) ideology. You pay lip service to dogma and use every trick in the book to get power, maintain power. I see communism as a con. The Proles get nothing out it, their lot is not improved. The Party hierarchy gets marginally better shopping privileges, the rabid street people who helped put them in power get a bullet to the back of the neck because they are dangerous. Gramsci changed the focus from economic theory to subverting institutions. He was a clever guy. General Jack D. Ripper said it best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKR32ImWYzw&ab_channel=YouTubeMovies
You should read Capital. It’s not that hard of a book, and Marx was brilliant. His description of how the world works is accurate and insightful.
The pamphlet, co-written by Engels, is crap.
If Marx were a Medical Doctor he’d be considered a brilliant diagnostician, but one clueless about how to cure what he diagnosed. Communism fails for exactly the same reason Mercantilism fails. Both are based on the notion that a man, or a committee of men, can outwit the market; that proper planning and careful consideration will result in economic success.
Adam Smith, upon whose work Marx’s thoughts are based, recognized the role of “animal spirits,” what we now “entrepreneurial” attitudes, in economic activity. Humans take financial risks in the hope of profit; it is in our nature. Communism only works if it stifles entrepreneurialism, and because the urge to profit from our activity is as much a part of human nature as the desire for sex, it can’t be stifled. That’s why systems that unleash our animal spirits, systems of free trade and free enterprise, succeed where communism fails.
That’s also why your Gramscinista is not going to “subvert institutions.” The institution is going to subvert Gramsci’s disciple long before he can change the institution. He may enter NBC as a page hellbent on subversion, but thirty years later, he’s got a corner office, a second home in the Hamptons, and any notions of subversion have been drowned in the fountain of free market profits.
The fact of the matter is that an economic system which supports and encourages individual freedom will always dominate a system of central planning and government control. Gramsci’s central notion, his idea of “cultural hegemony,” is bullshit. His vision of reality does not comport with observable facts.
The Gramscinistas gussied themselves up like cheerleaders, put on their game faces as they worked their con like an AM radio preachers. Our cultural institutions have been Fundamentally Changed. Their work seems pretty much done, as witnessed by all the rot and ruin. Their goal was always that second home in the Hamptons and a corner office with a view. Nope. Communism is a con. Gramsci rewrote the blueprint. I still maintain that his grave needs attending to. But you are right, Tom. Maybe I need to read Kapital so that I can give Marx a fair shake. After all, there are plenty of people who maintain that True Communism just never had the right people doing it the right way. I'll find the book online and give it a stab if it's a freebie. But it's going to have to compete with a huge stack of books in my bedside reading queue. James Ellroy, the French Revolution and the Spanish Civil War are way ahead of Marx at the moment.
Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. … In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media by transforming the consciousness of society. -A. Gramsci https://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-socialism-is-precisely-the-religion-that-must-overwhelm-christianity-in-the-new-order-antonio-gramsci-65-70-43.jpg
Hegemony?
Tom - Quote marks on “hegemon” triggered “audit” instinct to clarify meanings!
Using AI-assisted digital forensics on screenshot with “Google Lens”
disclosed otherwise hidden link (meme) to following reference library:
>>. We employ technology to gather, process, and publish public legal information
that is accurate and objective. Learn more about our operation here.
Founded in 1992, we currently serve well over 40 million unique visitors <<
each year on this website and at our other site, the Oyez Project. <<
https://www.law.cornell.edu/lii/about/about_lii
Reverted to Wikipedia for disambiguating:
>> A hegemon is a member of a ruling group. <<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegemon_(disambiguation)?wprov=sfti1
+++++
"Hold Fast".
Apologies if this is obvious, but the photo and words are from "Master and Commander", which I say is the most first rate film of its type since "Captain Blood", which my father saw in the theater at age 11.
He was very impressed, as was I.
Been there done that, I agree, sadly war will be so fast it will be over before folks even notice.
As for command billets, errant air strikes and short rounds may be ab fact of life for those in command billets.
First Strike on US soil ends all that.