Thursday, August 26, 2021

Jocko Willink's "If I Were President..." Speech


This short video is from John "Jocko" Willink regarding the speech that a real American president should be delivering to America, Afghanistan, allies, friends, and the Taliban and other enemies throughout the world... and then following through on his stated actions accordingly 

I won't hold my breath that the head of the Biden crime family will do any such thing as I hear he is headed down to the local Ben and Jerry's for more ice cream as twelve of our Marines were killed today.

From Wikipedia:

"John Gretton "Jocko" Willink (born September 8, 1971)[2] is an American author, podcaster, and retired United States Navy officer who served in the Navy SEALs.

His military service included combat actions in the Iraq War, where he commanded SEAL Team 3's Task Unit Bruiser, the unit that fought in the battle against the Iraqi insurgents in Ramadi. Willink was honored with the Silver Star and Bronze Star Medal for his service. He achieved the rank of lieutenant commander."

H/T: Gary S.

Friday, August 20, 2021

The Biden-Created Crisis in Afghanistan


 I have not been this enraged in years.  Wasn’t Biden touting how his administration would be bringing the “adults” back in the room and that they would be the ones that would “build back better”?  Now I think, and probably most Americans agree, that we needed to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan and close that chapter in our history; however, the sheer incompetence, recklessness, and stupidity of the withdrawal that Biden has executed has endangered Americans, allies and NGO’s, and thousands of Afghanis that trusted and supported America whom are now being left behind to be slaughtered or worse by the evil Taliban bastards.   

“I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden said in his televised address after being reluctantly yanked from his Camp David vacation. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces.”  And so far, Biden has steadfastly stood by his decision for the hasty withdrawal while declaring that the “buck stops with him” right before going on to blame Trump, faulty intelligence, the Afghan president and army, and anyone else he could come up with for the horrific collapse of Afghanistan at the hands of the Taliban.  On Monday, Biden blamed Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani for convincing him that the Afghan army would stand up and fight. 

Even Biden’s sycophantic allies in the Democrat Industrialized Media (DIM) like CNN’s Jake Tapper are seemingly turning on him as Tapper reported, "The president said that the buck stopped with him but, in fact, this speech was full of finger pointing and blame."

There are even some congressional Democrats, such as Mark Warner D-VA that are not pleased with Biden’s handling of the situation.

“As the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I hope to work with the other committees of jurisdiction to ask tough but necessary questions about why we weren’t better prepared for a worst-case scenario involving such a swift and total collapse of the Afghan government and security forces. We owe those answers to the American people and to all those who served and sacrificed so much.”

Only a month ago, when asked about intelligence services‘ warning that Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban, Biden denied that was likely the case.  Indeed, Biden vehemently insisted that we would not see a repeat of helicopters pulling hordes from a U.S. Embassy similar to Saigon in 1975.

“The Taliban is not the south—the North Vietnamese army,” Biden said. “They’re not—they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the—of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.”

Exacerbating the matter, Biden seemingly had minimal consultation with his own Pentagon, let alone allies before rolling out this decision with such alacrity.  Consequently, many NATO allies feel misused by the Biden administration. Biden promised to consult with allies, yet he made a unilateral decision to retreat from Afghanistan. Many NATO countries saw their citizens’ lives put at risk and their efforts wasted. They blame Biden.  The UK’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, was basically ghosted by Biden for over 36 hours as the chaos was ensuing.  This is not how the adults in the room should be treating our most loyal ally. 

Because of Biden’s callous neglect to inform our allies of the particulars of his retreat plan, on Wednesday, the British Houses of Parliament decided to hold Biden’s handling of the situation in contempt, with lawmakers condemning his withdrawal plan as “catastrophic” and “shameful,” according to The Telegraph.  Other liberal members of parliament, including Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer and Labour MPs Chris Bryant and Khalid Mahmood, denounced the president as well.

“The Biden government have just come in and, without looking at what is happening on the ground, have taken a unilateral decision, throwing us and everybody else to the fire,” Mahmood said.

Lord Howard, a former Tory leader, described Biden’s withdrawal as “a catastrophic mistake which may well prove to be the defining legacy of his presidency.”

Political scientist and foreign policy expert Walter Russell Mead writes that the Biden administration will now have to deal with the “worst-handled foreign-policy crisis since the Bay of Pigs and the most devastating blow to American prestige since the fall of Saigon.”

At least President John F. Kennedy took “sole responsibility” for the Bay of Pigs disaster, rather than blaming his predecessor, President Dwight Eisenhower.

“It’s an utter disgrace and an extreme loss of prestige [for] the United States that President [Joe] Biden allowed this to happen,” says Luke Coffey, a veteran of the Afghanistan War who directs The Heritage Foundation’s Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy.

When Osama bin Laden first attacked America, he decried that the United States was nothing more than a paper tiger. Now, twenty years later, others will take up that rallying cry. After all, today the Taliban controls more territory in Afghanistan than it did on 9/11. The calls for the renewal of the global terrorist jihad will begin once again due to Biden’s foolishness and short-sightedness.  With our wide- open southern border, the opportunities for future attacks on our own soil have now become far more likely.

And it’s not just our adversaries in the Middle East that have been emboldened by Biden’s stupidity. Consider this editorial in China’s Global Times, the Communist Party’s main English-language propaganda mouthpiece, with a message to Taiwan: “From what happened in Afghanistan, they should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the island’s defense will collapse in hours and the US military won’t come to help.”

Even former President George W. Bush, who has seldom uttered any criticism regarding his successors to the oval office issued a statement.

Bush said he was “afraid Afghan women and girls are going to suffer unspeakable harm” as a result of the withdrawal.

“I think the consequences are going to be unbelievably bad. And I’m sad. Laura and I spent a lot of time with Afghan women. And they’re scared,” he said,

“I think about all the interpreters and people that helped — not only U.S. troops, but NATO troops — and they’re just, it seems like they’re just going to be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people,” Bush said.

“And it breaks my heart.”

“The United States government has the legal authority to cut the red tape for refugees during urgent humanitarian crises. And we have the responsibility and the resources to secure safe passage for them now, without bureaucratic delay. Our most stalwart allies, along with private NGOs, are ready to help,” Bush added.

And yet, Biden’s administration has left thousands of Americans, allies, and Afghani supporters stranded outside of Kabul’s airport trying desperately to get past Taliban checkpoints.  Not only is this an utter disgrace, but it is morally repugnant and despicable to leave friends at the mercy of such evil people. 

My anger and disgust at Biden’s ineptitude and callousness was only intensified as I read reports and watched videos of people desperately clinging to an Air Force C-17 aircraft as it took off, showing people falling from the plane after it ascended into the sky.  The sheer fear and panic as the Taliban closed around innocent people in Kabul must have been overwhelming.  Indeed, there are even pictures of an Afghani woman raising her baby up to a U.S. Marine standing on a wall outside the Kabul airport in order that her child might be saved as she was presumably to be left behind.

Our Afghani friends that supported us in our war on terrorism in their country are terrified as they know what awaits them as the United States pulls out under Biden’s orders.

In Shir Khan Bandar, a port city on the border with Tajikistan, an order went out instructing local imams to provide a list of unmarried women and widows, beginning at age 15, so they can be “married” off to Taliban commanders. In Kandahar province, Taliban fighters tortured and then murdered a popular comic named Nazar Mohammad. When asked Sunday whether the Taliban would return to meting out medieval punishments like amputation and stoning, a spokesman for the terror group said it would be up to the Islamic courts.

In an official statement issued this week, leaders in the underground Afghanistan church told missionary group Frontier Alliance International that Christians are being targeted for execution:

“The Taliban has a hit list of known Christians they are targeting to pursue and kill. The US Embassy is defunct and there is no longer a safe place for believers to take refuge. All borders to neighboring countries are closed and all flights to and from have been halted, with the exception of private planes. People are fleeing into the mountains looking for asylum. They are fully reliant on God, who is the only One who can and will protect them.

“The Taliban are going door-to-door taking women and children. The people must mark their house with an "X" if they have a girl over 12 years old, so that the Taliban can take them. If they find a young girl and the house was not marked, they will execute the entire family. If a married woman 25 years or older has been found, the Taliban promptly kill her husband, do whatever they want to her, and then sell her as a sex slave.

“Husbands and fathers have given their wives and daughters guns and told them that when the Taliban come, they can choose to kill them or kill themselves—it is their choice.”

In the midst of the Vietnam War, during one of the many moments when America was potentially set to betray the South Vietnamese side, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned that if we did, “the word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”

This is the fatal legacy that Biden’s decision has wrought.

Yes, we needed to eventually withdraw from Afghanistan; however, it should have been done with in-depth consultation and coordination with our military commanders and our allies also in country there.  The loyal Afghanis, Americans, NGOs, and allies should have been largely evacuated prior to our military’s withdrawal.  We absolutely should have taken or destroyed any armament or vehicles so that they could not be captured by the Taliban.  And we should have done this process right as winter began so as to give us more time and slow down the movements of the Taliban.

Due to whatever senility-caused reasoning Biden used in forming this decision, he has condemned thousands of would-be friends to death or worse at the hands of the Taliban.  From wokeness to weakness, Biden has shown he is not fit to lead our nation.  Our people know it.  Our allies know it.  And the Afghani people we have betrayed sure as hell know it.  Biden has betrayed our standing in the world, turned his back on our allies, and made our nation far less safe in the long run by emboldening our enemies.  For these reasons, Joe Biden should be removed from office either by impeachment for failing to live up to his duties as commander and chief, or by invoking the 25th amendment due to his obvious cognitive impairment when it comes to making such tremendous life and death decisions.   

Either way, Joe Biden needs to take his sorrowful legacy and leave the oval office… NOW.

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

The Arecibo Radio Telescope and Its Sad Demise

During the last half of the 1980's, I was serving in the United States Navy and had the privilege of being stationed at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station on the island of Puerto Rico for two different seven-month tours.  The second time was after the wrath of Hurricane Hugo had devastated the area, as we came in to help the island recover.  During my first tour though, I did manage to explore various parts of this beautiful island during weekend liberties.  

One of the fascinating places I saw during my many expeditions on the island was the Arecibo Observatory.  In a huge natural depression in the tropical mountains above the town of Arecibo, a gargantuan radio telescope measuring one thousand feet in diameter was constructed some 57 years ago.  This was the largest single radio telescope in existence until just a few years ago when China built a larger one.  The Arecibo radio telescope was invaluable for scientific exploration and discoveries while monitoring electromagnetic radio frequencies from space.  Indeed, even Nobel caliber work occurred at this site with work on binary pulsars.  Also, if you are a James Bond fan, you might remember this site from the movie, Golden Eye.

In 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria further devastated the island and caused damage to this giant radio telescope.  My wife and I were able to return to the island in 2019 and visit the site, which was still up and operational at the time.  Unfortunately, the lack of funding and the ravages of nearly sixty years of time took its toll on this marvelous site and it experienced a catastrophic failure of one of its supporting cables that held up the Gregorian dome suspended above the dish in December of 2020.  This caused a chain of events as the other cables were not able to support the sudden dynamic increase in loading as the array crashed into the dish below.

The nerd in me saw this YouTube video from Practical Engineering that tells about this extraordinary radio telescope and its subsequent demise and I had to share this as it was something that made quite an impression on me as a young man.  The pictures below are ones that I took on my trip in 2019.  The video follows the pictures and is worth a look.  They had a drone aloft right at the time that the catastrophic failure occurred.  It is at around 12 minutes and 40 seconds of this 18 minute video.  Enjoy.

 

 
 The entrance to the visitor center and observatory.
 

Overlook from the viewing platform at the control station.

 


 
One can see the radio telescope array and the catwalk suspended above the giant dish below.
One of the three leviathan-sized suspension towers can be seen towards the right of the picture.
 
 
This is a close up of the Gregorian dome which collects the reflected radio waves from the dish for measurement and analysis.
 
 This is a close up of one of the three suspension towers for the telescope array and Gregorian dome.
 
 
 
 
Another view of one of the suspension towers as one approaches the visitor center.
 

 We got to see the control station, which was fascinating, especially because some of the equipment seemed rather dated.  Here you can see Raj and Howard busy at work.  Sheldon was in the corner criticizing them.  Being a happily married man, I did not even notice if Penny was there.
 


This is the overlook control station that is used to position the array and Gregorian dome for measurements.

 

 It took a remarkable amount of self control to not start repositioning the Gregorian dome when I was that close to the controls.  I figured I'd be about as popular as Trump at an Antifa riot if I did.



I was glad I got to see this remarkable piece of engineering again, and I am saddened by its demise this last December.  Perhaps it may be rebuilt eventually.  If not, it has served us well for six decades of amazing scientific discoveries and exploration!

Friday, August 6, 2021

The On-going Debate Between Lefty Larry and Average Joe American


There has always been a political divide in this nation, and frankly a robust truthful debate of ideas from all viewpoints is part of what makes this nation strong and vibrant.  Unfortunately, that divide has now become a yawning chasm that is seemingly impassable.  It would appear that those on the right and on the left have little use for each other.  It is somewhat scary as each side accuses the other of degrading democracy and freedom.  The fact is there is indeed some truth to be found in the accusations of both sides; however, the great ironic hypocrisy and often outright falsehoods seem to come more from the left. 

Liberals and conservatives would often disagree on the methods of governing our nation, but our general goals and adherence to the principle of justice and the rule of law was the same.  Enter the militant leftists of the last twelve years.  Unlike classical liberals, the left wants to only tear down this racist, misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic nation.  They see America as intrinsically flawed and unworthy of their love and support.  Yes, they do indeed hate America, and frankly, if I believed the lies they have been fed, I’d probably hate it too.

This is seen in the arguments between regular Joe Americans and Lefty Larrys.  My postings on this very blog for the past ten years have shown the ramped-up hostility, particularly from the left, as the haranguing and venom only intensifies.  It has become almost reflexive that if a conservative were to utter “black”, Lefty Larry will respond with “white” just to be contrary.  After all, if a conservative says something, it must automatically be wrong, ill-informed, racist, or just plain stupid – right?

Let’s give some examples of these classic exchanges, shall we?

 

Lefty Larry says, “The police are intrinsically racist throughout our nation.  They should, therefore, be defunded and the money reallocated to community social workers to de-escalate dangerous situations.”

Joe American responds, “How’s that working for you?  Crime is up well over 50% in many leftist cities such as Portland, Oregon and other leftist strongholds.  Ironically the leftist politicians that vote and advocate for this nonsense all hire their own security to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.  I am looking at you, Cori Bush and AOC. (The latter of whom also has advocated for eliminating some prisons.  Guess she thinks everyone will just decide to behave in her socialist utopia otherwise they will get a visit from the social workers.)  Yep, the left hates the police… with the exception of those in the capitol that protected AOC’s and the other leftists’ dubious virtue.”

 

Lefty Larry whines, “Everyone should be required to get the Covid19 vaccination.  Those that don’t do so and refuse to wear masks are ignorant and don’t care about others.  Laws should be passed mandating those that want to travel or work with or for the government must be vaccinated.”

Joe American retorts, “So much for individual rights and freedom there, Larry.  By the way, if a person gets vaccinated, doesn’t that theoretically protect them from the unvaccinated?  In other words, if you've been jabbed, why are you worried about others not having been? Further, if one is already vaccinated, doesn’t that make irrelevant any ‘protection’ that the dubious mask hokey-pokey that the Fauciites insist upon on everyone wearing on odd numbered days? Is it really about safety or is more about political control at this point?”

 

Lefty Larry spews, “Russia interfered in the 2016 election and that is why Trump beat St. Hillary.”

Joe American calmly responds, “No, a bunch of Russian bots on Facebook did not sway the election to Trump’s favor.  The real interference was from the Democrats and Hillary when they funded the completely debunked and salacious Steele Dossier in order that it would gain traction with the public.”

 

Lefty Larry stomps his feet in false moral superiority, “Trump paid Stormy Daniels, a porn star, to keep quiet about their affair.”

Joe American says with a raised eyebrow, “I thought sex between consenting adults was nobody else’s business according to the Left.  How about credible claims of sexual contact with non-consenting adults by Democrat Presidents.  (Juanita Broaddrick and Tara Reade anyone?)  Oh yeah, I forgot, Tara Reade’s allegation were already litigated according to Psaki.  Reade just wasn’t present for that litigation evidently.”

 

Lefty Larry angrily exclaims, “The racist Republicans don’t want the poor migrants coming in over the Mexican border because they have ‘brown skin’ and they fear that white Americans will be replaced.  We care about all humanity and simply want to help the least of our brothers and sisters.”

Joe American laughs, “Spare me the Bible verse, Skippy, since most of you leftists find your god to be the state and not the Almighty.  And us Americans have no problem with people immigrating to America if they do so LEGALLY.  This is not about compassion for the Left.  This is about adding millions of reliable Democrat voters in the future.  Want proof?  How come Biden and the left won’t let the more conservative brown-skinned Cubans into America as they risk their lives to escape communism?  Is it because these Cubans know better than to vote for policies that turn America more like Cuba every day… for the common good, of course?”

 

Lefty Larry bellows, “And how about that ‘stable genius’ of Trump?  He was not mentally competent to be president.”

Joe American, while doubled over, “Can’t.  Stop.  Laughing.  Do ya’ll hear yourselves?  You supposedly elected a senile man with more votes than anyone in history, including Obama, and he cannot string more than five words together without them becoming unintelligible.  C’mon man!  You know… the thing.  Our adversaries are both amazed and amused at our stupidity in putting this dementia-addled corrupt leader of the Biden crime family into the oval office.”

 

Lefty Larry praisingly states, “Joe Biden is building back better our country and rescinding all of Trump’s horrible policies.  He is taking care of the poor and making our economy stronger.”

Joe American retorts, “Can you smell the bovine excrement, folks?  Biden in his first week in office made sure to undo some of the greatest things done for our economy.  Under Trump we became net exporters of energy for the first time in over five decades.  Senile Joe comes in and immediately cancels the XL pipeline and energy exploration/drilling on federal lands.  Gas and energy prices have sky-rocketed now, and are higher than the balls on a giraffe, which ironically hurts the poorest Americans the most.  His inflationary policies have also caused a huge spike in food and housing too.  Lumber is now a better investment than gold… almost.”

 

Lefty Larry snivels, “The Black Lives Matter and Antifa organizations are only trying to correct societal issues and racism.  Those of you who disagree, do so only because you are racists yourselves.”

Joe American shakes his head, “So is that why these punks tore down the statue of the elk in Portland?  Who knew that elk were racist!  I suppose burning black businesses, barricading police officers of all colors inside their police stations before setting them on fire, and shooting retired black police officer, David Dorn, as he tried to protect a pawn shop from looters is all just a part of the left’s social justice program… right?  Hell, a Utah BLM member stated that the American flag is a ‘symbol of hate’.  Yep, to the left, it probably is.  Even Mara Gay, who is a NY Times staffer and also an MSNBC analyst, said she was ‘disturbed’ by all of the American flags she saw when she was out on Long Island visiting a friend.  Here is an ‘unbiased’ member of the leftist media propagating the REAL big lie.”

 

Lefty Larry self-righteously proclaims, “Those of you that are against critical race theory being championed in our schools must be racists yourselves.”

Joe American snickers, “Nope.  We believe people should be treated according to the content of their character and not the color of their skin.  I know that is now ‘racist’ to you anti-racist leftists though; it is about equity rather than equality, right?  By all means we should teach American history, warts and all, to our children.  We should not overwhelmingly focus on ONLY those bad chapters which America has always worked to resolve justly over our history though.  CRT is the evolution of critical theory, which is a Marxist interpretation of the oppressed and oppressor.  CRT simply comes along and does it one better by saying that all people of color are the oppressed and that whites are the oppressors.  The bible and Lincoln both told us that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and yet the left through their racist anti-racism have set race relations in this nation back by many decades.  Hey, Lefty Larry, do you think maybe we should point out and decry real racism when it is found, but otherwise focus on those things that bring all of us together as Americans into this once great melting pot?  Nah, that would decrease leftist fundraising, amiright?”

 

Arguments between Leftists and the rest of the country are basically innumerable.  The funny thing is that I strongly suspect that the actual leftists are a distinct minority in this country.  They simply are very vocal and have the willing support of the leftist media doing their bidding.  The rest of America chooses to put up with the nonsense, but will eventually stand up more and more so as they get to their breaking point.  Already, regular Joes are beginning to push back against leftist nonsense.

Ultimately, I think the answer is to return to true scholarship and education rather than agenda-driven indoctrination that currently has overtaken our schools and universities.  Until that happens and we demand the truth in science, reading, history, civics, and other vital subjects is taught, we can only expect the snowflake glitter-brigades to become even more shrill in their histrionics as they seek to divide Americans. Hang on boys and girls!