tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post7507960323004746891..comments2023-10-30T06:31:05.501-07:00Comments on MilPub: Acting 1SG Lawes reads the morning formation announcementsFDChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-2968693989368955722017-10-31T19:55:55.953-07:002017-10-31T19:55:55.953-07:00He's also an ignorant shitheel on the subject ...He's also an ignorant shitheel on the subject of Treason in Defense of Slavery:<br /><br />http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ta-nehisi-coates-john-kelly-civil-war<br /><br />Seems like there's no bottom to the well of asshole for this guy.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-9289412898336938892017-10-30T01:18:40.969-07:002017-10-30T01:18:40.969-07:00Keep in mind Trump lost the popular vote and lost ...Keep in mind Trump lost the popular vote and lost support since.S Ohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03359796414832859686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-80610420192243699652017-10-29T20:35:54.701-07:002017-10-29T20:35:54.701-07:00FDChief -
Kelly's ancestors who got off the b...FDChief -<br /><br />Kelly's ancestors who got off the boat from Tipperary are undoubtedly throwing a curse on him. Me too. May the Lamb of God come down from heaven and kick him in the arse down to the divil!<br /><br />My Grandma's brother was a Wobbly. But he also served during WW1 in the Spruce Division. <br /><br />The Legion, or the National office what some call the Royal Family, has been more conservative than other vet organizations. I get the monthly magazine and note there is usually an article in there by some right-wing pundito. I joined decades ago when I was still wearing a uniform. Dances and cheap drinks were a big draw for Legion Posts outside military bases. But tines are changing. Nowadays your average Legion post is more into good works in the local community: volunteering, raising money for scholarships, donations of comfort items to state run veterans' homes, helping homeless veterans, helping with the Toys-for-Tots program at Christmas. Many posts also have a trained service officer who knows the ropes at the VA or DoD and can guide people through the red tape. The post I am associated with has a lady as post commander. I only go once a year or so as they are all old farts like me. And there are generally many more Ladies Auxiliary at the meetings than actual members. The times I have attended there has never been political talk or shenanigans.<br /><br />But have no fear FDChief, I'm not trying to recruit you. I think in the long term, many of these veteran organizations are dying from lack of membership. Too few young members, they are busy trying to feed and clothe their kids and don't have the time. I would guess the average age of the Legion and VFW posts I belong to, is in the range of 60 to 80 years. mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09123137206598163451noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-67251835457382527332017-10-29T18:46:34.057-07:002017-10-29T18:46:34.057-07:00Gotta say, Chief, you're batting a thousand......Gotta say, Chief, you're batting a thousand...good articles.<br /><br />Thank you!sheerahkahnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16694622087244891222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-74329580015869471382017-10-29T14:47:59.501-07:002017-10-29T14:47:59.501-07:00And apparently young Master Kelly is ALSO just a p...And apparently young Master Kelly is ALSO just a pretty huge asshole:<br /><br />http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2017/10/26/between-zero-and-one/<br />FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-75881404945617367902017-10-28T14:38:38.119-07:002017-10-28T14:38:38.119-07:00The Legion has always been the most overtly fascis...The Legion has always been the most overtly fascist and authoritarian of the WW1 vets organizations. Here in the Pacific NW we still remember the Legion for its part in the so-called "Centralia Massacre" that helped crush the socialist movement and the IWW in the timberlands and usher in the Red Scares of the 1920s.<br /><br />I keep saying this but it seems like everyone doesn't want to hear it, but I think that the U.S. is as ripe for a Man on Horseback as it has ever been. It's all there; the ridiculously widespread credulity and conspiracy-theorism, the willful ignorance, the enthusiastic lapping of the armed forces...the U.S. public has always been as ass, but the ass seems redder than ever these days.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-30810344537249261572017-10-28T06:57:52.154-07:002017-10-28T06:57:52.154-07:00This made me remember that the time is overdue for...This made me remember that the time is overdue for a re-run of my "war is a racket" blog post. I already had it in 2007 and 2011.S Ohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03359796414832859686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-76808157090268769622017-10-27T21:47:50.674-07:002017-10-27T21:47:50.674-07:00FDChief -
Good article. Bravo zulu to Colonel Ki...FDChief -<br /><br />Good article. Bravo zulu to Colonel Killigrew.mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09123137206598163451noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-53754642240142741812017-10-27T21:36:41.795-07:002017-10-27T21:36:41.795-07:00Thanks Sven -
I have a great deal of affection ...Thanks Sven - <br /> <br />I have a great deal of affection for old Smedley Butler. His name was legendary among Marines when I was serving. The plot that he exposed had a couple of interesting things that we seldom think about nowadays. There were lots of possible links or similarities with fascist or right wing nationalist movements in Europe at the time. <br /> <br />Jerry MacGuire was pushing the Croix de Feu model, another veteran’s organization. Croix de Feu was funded by a supporter of Mussolini, who wanted to topple the French Republic and replace it with a Fascist government. I am intrigued that Francois Mitterand was a member in Croix de Feu before he saw the light and turned Socialist.<br /><br />Bill Doyle, another Legionaire like MacGuire, was pushing for an organization called the ‘Iron Veterans’. Now that sounds suspiciously like the fascist ‘Iron Guards’ of Romania, the greenshirts.<br /><br />Doyle and MacGuire are both Irish surnames, would they have had any dealings with the Irish “Army Comrades Association (ACA)”, better known as the fascist or covert-fascist Blueshirts?<br /><br />And by the way, I note that MacGuire was on the staff of Louis Johnson, the Commander of the American Legion during that time. Years later, Johnson became Secretary of Defense for the Truman Administration. He was the guy who tried to do away with the Navy and Marine Corps, and was responsible for ill-equipped and ill clothed troops during the Korean War winters. I assume Johnson had nothing to do with the plot, but his toxic management style certainly allowed some in the Legion to participate.<br />mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09123137206598163451noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-68025104525122822712017-10-27T19:46:08.923-07:002017-10-27T19:46:08.923-07:00Mac had his moments. But he was also a vaingloriou...Mac had his moments. But he was also a vainglorious sonofabitch who never accepted that other men paid in blood for his mistakes. Lucian Truscott he was not.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-66920698458246126182017-10-27T19:42:43.322-07:002017-10-27T19:42:43.322-07:00Here's a better exposition of the Kelly Proble...Here's a better exposition of the Kelly Problem: http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/23/an-old-colonel-looks-at-general-kelly/FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-39634706347085813642017-10-27T03:25:01.256-07:002017-10-27T03:25:01.256-07:00https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plothttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_PlotS Ohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03359796414832859686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-23855577958820166692017-10-26T21:36:40.777-07:002017-10-26T21:36:40.777-07:00PS - "Dugout Doug" is what gyrenes name...PS - "Dugout Doug" is what gyrenes named MacArthur. What is big Army going to say about you using that term? I hope you had dispensation. Or have they had a change of heart about their favorite soldier?mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09123137206598163451noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-56017217659021300722017-10-26T21:29:40.120-07:002017-10-26T21:29:40.120-07:00I seriously doubt a praetorian coup will take plac...I seriously doubt a praetorian coup will take place in this country. <br /><br />On the other hand I can easily visualize the military ordered to put down protests against Trump and his policies, a la Dugout Doug that you mention. But MacArthur did not decide to do that on his own. Mac did the bidding of Crash Hoover, the guy responsible for 25% unemployment and 5000 failed banks. <br /><br />The PLA did not decide on their own to leave their barracks and training areas and shoot down students and onlookers at Tiananmen square. Deng Xiaopeng sent a quarter million of them (30 army divisions) to Beijing and ordered them to act decisively. <br /><br />There exists a thousand other examples. We 21st Century Americans are not immune. Flower power worked with LBJ, I don't see it working with DJT.<br /><br /><br />mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09123137206598163451noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-26469452844953392292017-10-24T21:39:19.141-07:002017-10-24T21:39:19.141-07:00The U.S. Army tends to grow these elitist tumors b...The U.S. Army tends to grow these elitist tumors between wars. Well, until 1917 it didn't matter; there wasn't enough Army to matter. Certainly the Army of the Twenties and Thirties was pretty ugly; Dugout Doug enthusiastically led the troops thugging up the Bonus Army. But the draftees helped keep that poison drained from WW2 to the Eighties when the last of the draft-era troops began to retire.<br /><br />Now I worry that the praetorianism is getting deeply ingrained. Kelly is has a terminal case...but there are a lot like him.<br /><br />For a Trump to succeed it helps to have the most publicly venerated organization in the nation seeming to approve of him and his. You can't have a Third World shithole without an enabling military.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-63365582464756721302017-10-24T16:49:33.154-07:002017-10-24T16:49:33.154-07:00This whole thing of being 'somehow above and s...This whole thing of being 'somehow above and separate from the mass of the citizenry' has been going on in this country since the Society of the Cincinnati. It is not new. It goes on in every generation. Yes, many flag officers and senior NCOs look on themselves as elite, a new nobility. And yes, sometimes it filters down to, or maybe percolates up from, the troops. I've been guilty myself occasionally, when in the past I derided civilians as 'feather merchants' or 'sand crabs'. Or as a Pfc when I derided draftees and Reservists. I know better. My father, uncles, grandfather and great uncles were all citizen soldiers.<br /><br />Kelly is especially vulnerable to this siren song due to: <br />#1 politically he has a very conservative mindset - most conservatives I am acquainted with believe themselves to be superior to you and I and the common people; <br />#2 he has spent years in Washington - liaison to Congress twice, legislative assistant to the Commandant, plus other tours - something like the fictional Massengale but unlike Massengale was from a working class family; <br />#3 because he came from a working class family he undoubtedly thinks he got to where he is by a superior intellect;<br />#4 he has put his dead son, who was KIA in Afghanistan, on a pedestal - of course he believes that his son is a thousand, no a million times better than Obama, or Congresswoman Wilson, or anyone who has never served in uniform.<br /><br />That said, I do not see Kelly or his ilk as dangerous. Kelly is definitely no darling. You cannot swim in dirty water and stay clean. But Trump is the main menace to this country. His clique and enablers want him to turn this country into a third world sh!thole and he is off to a racing start. mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09123137206598163451noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-33438646278997784922017-10-23T13:33:00.471-07:002017-10-23T13:33:00.471-07:00The thing that prompted this was neither Trump nor...The thing that prompted this was neither Trump nor his GOP fanbois; it is the whole business of Kelly and his peers - including not just the officer corps but a deep dive into the NCO ranks, as well - that they are no longer citizen-soldiers, no longer plain old Americans in uniform and, instead, some sort of special Sacred Vessel that contains the National Essence.<br /><br />There's a common thread that runs through republics when their armies begin seeing themselves as the School of the Nation, and it's a bloody, evil thread. Nothing good can come of letting American servicepeople think of themselves as somehow above and separate from the mass of the citizenry.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-25795414067990598652017-10-23T07:58:53.814-07:002017-10-23T07:58:53.814-07:00The vile fashion in which our psychotic-in-chief m...The vile fashion in which our psychotic-in-chief made the call to Sergeant Johnson's widow illustrates Trump's total lack of empathy and understanding of human emotions. <br /><br />Psychopathy or narcissism? <br /><br />But it is not just Trump. I first heard the comment <i>"they knew what they signed up for"</i> 14 years ago. A colleague from work, who was a Bush fanboy, and I were watching the casualty figures on the news in the terminal at Denver International. I muttered something about 'poor b@st@rds'. When he responded with 'they knew what they signed up for' it hit me in the pit of the stomach like a punch from Mike Tyson. I was decades out of uniform at the time but it affected me enough to tell him to shut his filthy mouth. Needless to say our working relationship suffered. He later complained to management and refused to work with me on future projects. Good! I transmigrated from Blue Dog to Yellow Dog. I've heard the comment from other Republicans. Is it some kind of code they get from O'Reilly or Limbaugh or some other draft dodging chickenhawk of the right?<br /><br />Kelly should know better.mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09123137206598163451noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-57808770160093912962017-10-22T19:28:16.930-07:002017-10-22T19:28:16.930-07:00"If you never been in combat, you can't e..."If you never been in combat, you can't even imagine."<br /><br />Uh...huh.<br /><br />“If you’re not in the family, if you’ve never worn the uniform, if you’ve never been in combat, you can’t even imagine how to make that call,” said Kelly..."<br /><br />Mmmhmmm...<br /><br />"“We don’t look down upon those of you who that haven’t served. In fact, in a way we’re a little bit sorry because you’ll have never have experienced the wonderful joy you get in your heart when you do the kinds of things our servicemen and women do.” He’s right, to a point, in suggesting that those who do not serve cannot truly understand the love—and pain—experienced by those in uniform and their families. At the same time, he undercuts his message by suggesting a finite limit to the compassion that he and the military might expect from society."<br /><br />I wore the uniform for two months...even says it on my DD214...US Marines, ooh-rah, and all that...and during those two months they only thing I experienced was my DI's habit of morning breath.<br /><br />Did I enjoy being yelled at...well, kind of...it was funny, in a demented, Weird Al sort of vibe with a beat kind of like out of Amish Paradise, but digress...Sorry, Capt'n Carter, please, continue...<br /><br />"If civilians cannot fully appreciate the military, they may too easily resent service members or veterans when they disagree with military policy. And if Americans—even those who have not served—cannot understand the military, then our battles will increasingly be fought by a warrior caste of families who can look only to each other for support."<br /><br />And here we come to it...the crux, the raison de'etraire...the why of the article...I smell the distinct stench of the draft here, and me thinks Capt'n Carter might want to put that cup down. Now.<br /><br />The civilians I see worship the gods of war.<br /><br />Civilians pay money for the privilege of watching "bad hombre's" get machine-gunned, knifed, karate-chopped, and defenestrated. Civilians roar their approval like they were at a gladiatorial battle and the hero of the day pulls a rabbit out of his ass, and voila...saves everyone!<br /><br />Sorry, Mr. Carter, but forgive me if I call bullshit.<br /><br />I served two months. And then I did another seven years at Lockheed in the Fleet Ballistic Missiles, and Space Systems Division...I've seen amazing things, and I've seen things that would blow your minds, been part of things that I'm still in wonder at, and I've seen things I wish I could forget, things that can't be unseen. Things that burned themselves into my memory, and forged me into who I am.<br /><br />Mr. Kelly may know the stench of hatred, and recognized the whiz of an angry bullet, but I've seen what our future is like, I've seen what we're going to be doing, what we are doing, and what we will be doing...there is a reason why I chased my sons away from the Military, there is a reason why I had to explain to them the things I've seen, and did.<br /><br />I have taught my sons the hardest thing under the sun, peace. <br /><br />Killing a man is the easiest thing under the sun...forgiving him, and moving on with life is the hardest thing that can ever be done.<br /><br />Perhaps, we should all stop for a second, and ask the question...why?<br /><br />Because it seems to me that we all, Combat Veterans, and Civilians have been dancing around that question, refusing to ask the reason, the why of it...and there, right there is what Mr. Kelly fears the most...answering that question...why?sheerahkahnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16694622087244891222noreply@blogger.com