"War Hero"

 
I think we can all wish that we had peace and that we were not going to "study war no more" but if I were you I would not hold my breathe waiting for that.  In the meantime, given that Mr. Bone Spur tells us that he is a war hero, we can ask ourselves if this moron and traitor actually knows what a war hero is.  I doubt it.  For those of you who may not have given it much thought, I can recommend the citations of the Congressional Medal of Honor (CMOH) as a way of making this abstract concept somewhat real.  

There are several rules about getting a CMOH and they include: (a) there have to be living witnesses of the event, (b) whatever the candidate did has to be beyond doing their job bravely and competently, (c) the commanding officer has to recommend you, (d) one of the congressmen from wherever our candidate hero is from has to sponsor it and (e) congress has to vote for it.  The CMOH is not without controversy in its 164 year history, but its track record is pretty good.

So, for example, you do not get a CMOH for merely advancing against the enemy while being shot at.  Everyone is expected to do that.  However, you might get a CMOH if, while your unit is under fire, you single handedly take out an enemy machine gun nest while the rest of your platoon is (sensibly) sheltered for cover and praying.  And then, having eliminated the machine gun in single combat if you do it two more times before they kill you, then you *might* get a CMOH, posthumously.

Or to choose another example, if you are known to be a complete screwup until your first combat mission whereupon the bomber you are on is set upon by waves of enemy fighters, the fuel tank explodes, 5 of your crewmates are hit by enemy fire and are bleeding out on the floor of the bomber, and then, suddenly, demonstrating behavior no one would have believed you were capable of,  you spring into action, alternate between putting out the fire in the center of the airplane, shooting at enemy fighters and driving them away, tending to the wounded to stop the bleeding, getting at least three of them into parachutes and out a hole in the fuselage to hopefully save their lives because the plane you are on is certainly going to explode and/or crash and kill everyone at any moment.  And somehow the bomber survives and you land.  And then when the brass comes to give you your medal for improbably saving the day, no one can find you because you are in the kitchen peeling potatoes as punishment for some other screwup for which you are well known. If you do that you might get a CMOH and plausibly be considered a "war hero".

Trust me, whatever DJT, the rapist and felon may be, he is certainly not a "war hero"  

Possible Explanation for A Conservative Meme about COVID-19

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If you examine the following article you will find a discussion of a Republican doctor who claims that the CDC is grossly inflating COVID-19 death statistics.  Are the Republicans just making this stuff up or is there even the slightest reason to believe it? So I have a theory about where this baseless story came from which I present here. Its total speculation on my part so dont go around saying this is what happened.  I am just thinking out loud.

First the article.  The doctor in question is midway through the story.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/montana-extreme-trump/2021/10/22/0f82afbc-0037-11ec-a664-4f6de3e17ff0_story.html

 

Now for my theory.  Did you know that we dont know how many people die of the flu each year?  Well we dont and the CDC admits its statistics are wrong.  There are a number of reasons for this and they are not because of bad people doing bad things, unfortunately because that (bad people) would be easier to fix.  Here are two examples of why the statistics understate the real numbers.  In the first scenario, someone goes to the hospital with bad flu and dies of cardiac failure.  Now, did that person die of a heart attack or did that person die from the flu? What do you put in the "cause of death" field on the form?   In the second scenario, someone gets bad flu and dies at home and nothing is reported because the person was old, and got sick, and it doesnt seem important to report the cause of death in a way that the CDC can capture. Maybe the cause of death is reported as "complications of old age".  In this case, its quite possible that "flu" was never formally diagnosed. The flu has been with us a long time, most people think it is the same as the "common cold".  It just doesnt get reported.

But in the case of COVID which is very different from the flu and much more dangerous (at least until the really bad flu like 1918 comes around again) the CDC wanted to make sure that the cases of COVID-19 got reported and the cause of death correctly attributed.  So my guess is that they sent out information fliers requesting local doctors and hospitals to be particularly diligent and if there were multiple probable causes of death, to make sure that COVID-19 is listed.  And of course our nutty Republicans who are not too smart saw this as a conspiracy to inflate the figures.  

I dont know if this is even close to what happened.  But I would like to believe that our Republicans are just stupid and paranoid and wrong but not deliberately malicious about distorting information that can and does cause the death of otherwise clueless people.  That would be negligent, criminally negligent.  I hope therefore that the Republicans are just wrong.  Maybe they just heard a rumor made up by some paranoid nut like the Trump moron and just took it at face value and repeated it.  Maybe the CDC did nothing at all.  Maybe we will never know why the Republicans believe the nutty things they believe.

The Horror of Counter Intelligence Under Trump II

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Can you imagine the horror of being in American Counter Intelligence and realizing that the people you work for, the President and the Congress, are made up of traitors who are working with a hostile foreign power to destroy your country?

A Friend of a Friend

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So I look at the wreckage of this country, our humiliation, the perversion of justice, the endless religious stupidity, and then a friend of a friend starts comparing Bill Clinton to Donald “Shithole” Trump and I let loose. I tell that friend of a friend that he is a MSFB (moron shit for brains) but I do not do that to insult him, no. I do that because I am in touch with my feelings and I want him to know honestly what I think so that he can become a better person.

Its for his own good.

Thank you.

Republicans, Holocaust Denial and the Epistemological Crisis in America

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Today, #45 will sign one of the most insane and egregious so-called tax reform bills in American history.

Although we have not had enough time to analyze and understand all the ways that this bill violates any norm of rational human behavior we know enough to draw some conclusions.

1. We have an epistemological crisis in this country. It does not matter what is true or not true, the Republicans will believe it is true.

2. They are very similar to Holocaust Deniers who do not understand that the existance of the Holocaust is not at all debatable. They will never be convinced.

3. And just like the deniers of the Holocaust, this makes them dangerous to all of us.

4. But whatever the answer is, if there is an answer, discussion and the dialectic process is inoperative. There is no point in discussing anything with them. They are outside reason.

I Always Regret Blocking Friends on Facebook

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I always regret when I feel as though I have to block someone on FB that I respect and want to like.

Here is the situation from my point of view, and lets be quite sure going in that my friend would disagree with this, I think.

The timeline goes something like this. I write a FB post about the release of the CIA JFK files by #45. My friend disagrees with me and says that my post is a rant that hurts the agenda of rational people to impeach #45. He basically wants me to agree with him. I do not agree with him. He tries again. Again I do not agree. He keeps trying and at this point I dont see what we are arguing about. Neither of us is going to change our mind, so why does he keep bothering me.

Ultimately, I pull the post down from FB and put it up on my blog.

And I block my friend. He may not like what I have to say, but I do not like to be insulted and harassed, because I disagree with him.

As for the content of the CIA JFK post, I have no idea what #45 was thinking, but if he did not have an ulterior motive then this is the first time he has made a decision I am aware of that did not have one.

Trump's Motivation for Releasing the CIA Files on JFK

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One of the interesting things about the newly released CIA files on the JFK assassination is why Trump released them when no other president would.

Does this make Trump the advocate of freedom and transparency in government? No, of course not. His administration will go down in history as one of criminality and lies, the worst this country has ever seen in its entire history.

So what other motivation does Trump have?

He has two motivations and they are both very clear. First, Trump hates America and wants to destroy its institutions. By releasing the papers, he lowers the CIA's credibility as the CIA clearly executed a cover up of their failure to prevent the JFK assassination. Second, Trump hates the CIA because the CIA has said that the Russians spoofed the election and possibly threw the election to the least qualified candidate in an effort to destroy America.

So this is not about honesty and transparency. This is about Trump getting back at the CIA and his work to destroy America, hand in hand, I have to say, with his friends and financiers, the Russians.

[Note: Larry Weinberg on Facebook pointed out that Congress set the deadline for this release. Thats true, but what Congress really did was set a proposed date, the President had the power to postpone the release indefinitely. So it was really Trump's decision to release, and he had complete power to postpone. Any other president could have requested the release at any time]

Trump Demands Warm UK Welcome

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I find it impossible to work with Trump as president. I can not keep myself from glancing at the world news and everytime I do, I am humiliated and offended. It is beyond my capability to function, to solve the problems of my life while my country goes down the gutter into the sewage of this moron's brain and, let us not forget, his Republican and Democratic enablers.

Even worse, because this stupid moron has “owned” some basic issues, such as anti-globallization that means that not even competent and compasionate politicians who wanted to deal with this issue can not. Of course I am not sure that there are any competent and compassionate politicians but if there were they would not be able to.

But OK, so now what do we have today. Why we have the report that Trump has demanded that Teresa May “fix” any UK visit so that Trump gets a big old hearty we love you welcome or we wont show up. Well, golly, Trump baby, maybe that means you need to stop being such a stupid asshole, what do you think?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/donald-trump-us-president-state-visit-uk-theresa-may-prime-minister-fixes-warm-welcome-a7843391.html

What Goes Around Comes Around or It Should

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Interested in annoying your friends on Facebook? Its not too hard and I have one technique that works pretty darn well. You just take some controversial political issue and insist that whatever is being advocated for one group also be applied to them. This not only annoys the advocates of whatever it is we are talking about, it seems to annoy everyone. Its easy.

For example, although I have very few friends who admit to being a supporter of Trump, my friends have friends who are. It might seem impossible that this could be true even 120 or so days into the Trump disaster, but it is a fact of our times that most of Trump's base is standing by their man.

So a friend of a friend, a woman whom I dont know, made it very clear that not only does she support Trump as president, she thinks that he has been *wonderful*.

So I simply suggested that I hoped that she would experience what she is advocating for other people. That she be the victim of sexual abuse, that she lose her health care, that her children (if she has any) are forced to drink polluted water, that someone she knows is shot by a mentally ill maniac with an assault weapon, and most of all, that she be impoverished and get to know what it is to be poor in America.

I was accused of being “as bad as a right winger” and so I gleefully blocked those people.

When you try to harm other people, how could you possibly be upset if you are subjected to the same treatment?

I, of course, will work as hard as I can to see that no one is treated that way, but in the case of those who are working to destroy America it would only be just, it seems to me, for them to experience their own policies.

A Story About the Civilian Use of Force in International Conflict

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On the occasion of Donald Trump, the moron king, attacking Syria and blaming Obama for Syria using chemical weapons, I have an anecdote from my days at the RAND Corporation.

There is a story from RAND that would have happened years before my time if it happened at all.

For many years, RAND managed for the US Government a lot of the original strategic simulations, what are popularly called wargames but which are more properly described as simulations of international conflict. They may not be primarily about war. Basically you had teams (red team, blue team, etc) and you had referees who managed the game, but what made the games interesting (and classified) was that the teams were made up of real people from the Dept of Defense, the US Military, the NSC, possibly members of Congress and so forth.

The goal would be to evaluate some different scenarios where nations might come into conflict and evaluate different policies, approaches, and so forth in advance. Anyone who has ever been through any of these types of simulations, even on a more informal basis, will tell you how involving and compelling they can be.

So you had civilians and military personnel mixed together in tension filled situations and you might expect, if you watched stupid Hollywood movies that it would be the military personnel who would first call for war and that it would be the civilians who would beg for peace. Give peace a chance, they might say. But the story I was told was pretty much the reverse of that. That it was the military personnel who knew damn well what war involved who were for diplomatic solutions but it was the civilians, the politicians, who were freaked out and "pushed the button" so to speak. 

Take that for what you will.

Moron Trump pushing the button

Trump Dives Off Deep End with Obama Wiretap Accusations

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[Updated 3/4/2017 Nothing is really understood about this matter at this point in time.  But I can correct one mistake in the following post.  It would be legal for Trump to talk about a classified investigation because the POTUS has the power to declassify such an investigation at any time. Therefore, in and of itself, these tweets are unlikely to be an impeachable offense for that reason.]

Trump has accused Obama of being a Richard Nixon and tapping his office. See the article at the Guardian here.

I think I know what this might be about, but it comes down to Trump either being a nut case or that he does not understand national security issues at all, or that he does not understand the difference between the Watergate Plumbers and the FBI acting with a warrant. You pick. Either of the three though means that he should be impeached and I am tired of waiting.

I suspect, and here I am speculating again, that when the FBI/CIA came to realize that Russia was working to destroy free elections in America through disinformation and fake news, and when the issue of contacts between Trump and Russia became a matter of national security, that it would be logical to listen in. After all, the Russians certainly were listening to everything Trump said on his cell phone or any other phone, you can be quite sure. So my guess is that the FBI got a warrant to listen in and see what they picked up. Does Trump not know the difference between the Nixon Plumbers and a national security investigation with a warrant? Probably not, he isnt too smart, he has no aptitude for these things, and he has no experience. He may also be a clinical narcissist and sociopath, at least that is what the available evidence suggests.

This also suggests that he has just leaked/disclosed information about an ongoing investigation which is, I think, a felony.

As posted on Facebook.

The Day After Disaster

As I madly dress for the San Marcos Women's March, I want to review for you another inaugural address, none other than that most hated liberal elitist of them all, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Oh the flames of protest! Not that horrible person. Yes, that very same horrible person. Rich kid, swore like a sailor, abandoned his men on an island to swim for help (some say). Here is what he said on his inauguration:

Now the trumpet summons us again – not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are – but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, ‘rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation’ – a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Clearly this is inadequate. What would that master of all that is right and decent, Donald Trump, tell us? Well, of course, he would attack his enemies. And he would play to his base.

For too long a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. While they have celebrated there has been little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

What is funny about this, from my point of view, is that even when I agree with Donald, I disagree with him. I generally think that some of this is correct.  That Washington did pursue a neoliberal economic policy that hurt millions and millions of Americans whose struggle and complaints were ignored. But that is not what I would put in my inauguration speech. There is a way to say this, even (some of) these exact words, and spin it in a new way forward. This is not a campaign speech, you idiot, I want to say, this is your inauguration speech. You won (well, sortof). Its a speech that is supposed to show us the way forward, the way for all of us forward.

And one more time, Donald, you failed. This is just the beginning of your failures, I think.

________

An afterthought. I want to thank all the idiots who disgraced America with this narcissistic swine. Just to let you know how much you are hated. And you are truly hated.

Trump Stupidity Season 1 Episode 1: The Diplomat Affair

Now that Americans have, with Russian and FBI help, sortof elected Donald Trump, the Uber Cheeto, to be POTUS, we can expect a lot of crap, both real and symbolic But how do we keep track and remember each great moment?  I, your humble blog author, will selflessly keep track of those events, those episodes if you will, that define this nutty-boy's reign. Although there could be many events already on this list, we are beginning with this one.

I think that this could be an outline for a fake reality show.  In other words, in the style of a reality show, but with actors, a sitcom meets reality show, so to speak. So we start with the pilot, "The Diplomat Affair". 

All political appointees resign at the end of one President's term when an administration changes. But in order to provide continuity in foreign affairs, it is traditional for the current Ambassador or other ranking State Department diplomat to stay on until his or her replacement is appointed and approved. Then the new Ambassador arrives, the old one leaves, and the new one presents his/her credentials to the host country.

But not for Donald. He wants those Obama assholes out of there RIGHT NOW. So no continuity. Its the iron first of the Fuhrer. Lets show the world just how petty we are right up front. Of course, what do you expect from a POTUS who has no experience?  He is just applying the normal rules of business to diplomats.When you fire an employee they clean their desk and are escorted out of the building by guards. Out on the street, motherf*cker, and don't come back!  

Thank you, Donald, for being such an asshole and trying to destroy America in the eyes of the world.

Oh no, Donald Trump is not spiteful.

Clean your desk and Leave 

In Break With Precedent, Obama Envoys are Denied Extension Beyond Inauguration Day

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/us/politics/trump-ambassadors.html