“T.B.D. American Wars” Against Al Qaeda, ISIS!

Without An Effective War Strategy Against ISIS, we have created a tbd war—To Be Determined!

Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, recently made a very revealing comment as he met with Israeli senior military/intel officials. When he was asked the question: “Will we have a more robust strategy in Iraq/Syria?”

He responded: “To Be Determined!” TBD?!.

Or maybe, wait and see what our American Generals will concoct “on the fly”.
Equally interesting and disturbing is the fact that there is no consensus between Dempsey and his General, Lloyd J. Austin III, Chief of Central Command. Austin sees the center of gravity as defeating ISIS by recapturing Mosul [Iraq]. However, Dempsey does not think that Mosul is at all relevant. To compound the American strategic quagmire, the State Department and the White House have chimed in with their perspectives of a non-existent unified military strategy.

For some time now, I have reiterated the fact that we have an army that cannot fight. We have civilian and military leaders going all the way back to Bush Jr who had no idea of kinetic wars and their consequences. For the most part, American citizens appear to be indifferent, if not disgusted with the unnecessary wars. Occasionally, we hear a draft dodger like Jeb Bush [who went into the Peace Corps in Mexico to avoid the draft] utter some regurgitated neocon statements about more force or ‘boots on the ground’. Yet still the same cycle of stupidity rears its ugly head.  Seriously, how many times have we screwed up in Iraq??  Afghanistan?  No wonder we don’t teach military history anymore.

Most of us war/terrorism veterans are completely disgusted by what is happening. As I wrote in my previous blogs, we have created our enemies, Al Qaeda and ISIS, through civilian/military incompetency; and now, we find ourselves bereft of any cogent immediate strategies. I am not surprised that we have entered this period of TBD wars all over the world. As someone who had been peripherally involved in teaching/advising our senior DOD, I have found that the brightest of the military officials –all the way from Captain on upward--- left the military to earn a hefty salary. Example: General Keith Alexander who now makes over $600,000 per month on one contract. In contrast, I encounter soldiers who are in the National Guard who complain that they are not treated on par with the regular full time army; despite the fact that they are doing most of the fighting and performing the necessary services to maintain some semblance of an effective kinetic warfare.

Our military/political leadership is completely incompetent in planning and executing an effective strategy yet we taxpayers are paying an exorbitant price to so-called ‘private contractors’ who basically out source the war. I guess that TBD means that we have no military strategy. It also means we do not have an effective tactical or implementation capacity.

TBD also means that CYA –Cover Your Ass—is becoming the new sobriquet for our non-existent U.S. military. Consider the Secretary of Defense, a civilian who never met a Hedge Fund or bank [Goldman Sachs] that he didn’t like; is far more interested in promoting an openly gay civilian official to head up one of our armed services. I am all for progress BUT when the military and the White House appear to be more concerned with celebrating LGBT day at the Pentagon than implementing a long term military/political strategy in global trouble spots than I start to get very concerned.  Our American military and political system has been degraded and corrupted to such an extend that it no longer functions at all.  YET we continue to fund this bloated corporation at the expense of public education, infrastructure and the environment.  Now these bloated, inefficient institutions must be DOWN SIZED. Get rid of the over paid, pension hogs who can not even “talk a good strategy” let alone execute one. 

The Intolerable Essence of Being Greece and the EU!

Stop renegotiating a fictitious debt that has already been discounted with an entity, the EU, that may no longer exist in a few years. For some time now, we have been witnessing a financial Kabuki where Greece and its ignoble, manipulative representatives are playing on the world stage while their country sinks into oblivion.

For the past year, I have stated very clearly that the best thing for Greece is to refuse to pay a debt incurred while doing business with Germany. Simply put, Greece cannot afford to pay anything, let alone fictitious debts denominated in the over-inflated Euro. At the same time, Germany knows all too well that there is no collateral that will guarantee any repayment, let alone one that is denominated in the billions. Both parties are playing an exasperating game which amounts to really nothing other than process leading to Erehwon [nowhere spelled backwards].

What should Greece do?

Get rid of all its present leaders who have made a mockery out of a country that once had a very noble history albeit centuries ago. These politicians know all too well that they are just kicking the can of insolvency down the road so that they can come later onto the world stage and play their farce once again. The most important reason for Greece to leave the EU is the simple financial revelation that with their own printing press—in Drachmas—they can literally print their way out of trouble; instead of pleading to retain a currency—the Euro—which is nothing more than a paper barometer of the German economy.

In turn, Germany has to come to turns with the realization that Greece will never be able to ascend from this fictitious morass created by France and Germany to basically control the militaristic future of a Prussian resurgence a la WWI, WWII etc. The Euro is not a real currency that reflects anything other than the presumed strength of the once formidable,  Deutchmark.

Contrary to the world bankers and hedge fund managers accruing paper wealth beyond the diktats of the game, Monopoly, they are really nothing more than “Teddy Boys”[sorry Britain] playing with themselves. For the most part, currencies are nothing more than paper expressions of wishful thinking about a particular nation, commodity or assets. In reality there is nothing to back up the myriads of currencies floating around the world. All that moves around are electrons which indicate some number that may or may not having meaning; according to the receiver.

The Greek debt is as much a myth as the European Union is and will be. There is no real European Union! What we have is a group of former politicians in one country refusing to give up their past personas in order to play again in a country which can’t even garner a Prime Minister, let alone a efficient government. And that basket case of a country –Belgium—has become the epicenter of the fictitious European Union where more countries are performing under par [France]; or, completely out of step with German growth like Spain, Italy, Ireland, Portugal [PIIGS].

In reality, the EU has become somewhat of psychological burden on the financial systems of the world, having to work through national companies which are highly subsidized like the French or even the Spanish. Only those countries that have grown strong have retained their own currencies, denominated in numbers that can attain whatever ratios are needed for trade. Witness the Swiss Franc that broke through the ersatz basket [or snake] of the Euro to ascend into one of the strongest currencies in the world. 

Why?

For three hundred years, the Swiss have been successful in allowing their banks and FIFA executives to indulge in massive financial corruption without harnessing an ounce of moral indignation. And so, England, Norway, Sweden, and Holland have all quietly amassed an impressive growth picture while remaining relatively silent on the world stage.

Only the Greeks and Germans, and sometimes the French, scream ‘bloody murder’ when the Kabuki goes awry.

  Greece will inevitably default on its debt. 

In fact, if anyone bothers to take the time to read their balance sheet, one will find that Greece is in technical insolvency! In other words, Greece’s DEBTS EXCEED ITS ASSETS! If that is not bankruptcy, then folks, I have no idea what that term really means. 

The Greece/Germany two step has shown me how inept our own bankers, Secretaries of State and Treasury really are –when they announce that the world financial markets will collapse if Greece fails to pay its debts. It has already failed de facto to pay its multiplicity of debts. Nothing has happened to the world markets; simply because Greece and the Euro are not that important to Chinese, South East Asian and American GDPs [which is what really matters].

Russia, Ukraine, Eastern Europe are all nice geopolitical entities in which highly paid pundits revel about in their nonsensical discussions about Geopolitical Imperatives or the New Cold War. The truth is more ugly than that. China keeps growing. India will grow. 

Vietnam; Indonesia; Cambodia; Myanmar— will all grow.

Europe is the newest and oldest sense of the term is just not relevant!

America could become an asterisk in the history of the 21st Century if we don’t stop creating wasteful and complete inane wars thousands of miles from our shores—all in the name of “Peter Pan’s” Terrorism. We have a very weak growth capacity. We will enter a negative growth curve if we don’t stop producing the useless tools of a war that has no bearing on our future.. or national security.

Yet who am I? Just a lonely voice in the world of “bankruptcy”; whether real; or imagined. A word of wisdom to all countries and currency producers---Get Your Own Printing Press! No more worldwide Kabukis, its a distraction and its tiresome.

“Olive Kitteridge”-- An HBO Special TV Mini-series- Starring Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins and Zoe Kazan –Should Be Recognized by the TV Academy!  Outstanding Writing, Acting and Producing [Tom Hanks/Play Tone].

Usually, I have very low expectations for what I would call, “A Chick Flick”—those dealing with marriage; personal relationships; and family dynamics. Yet I was proven wrong by none other than the  brilliant actress, Frances McDormand of “Fargo” fame and “Mississippi Burning”. She is one of our country’s greatest actresses; bar none. She made a very wry, sardonic Maine school teacher living with a boring pharmacist husband, Richard Jenkins an extremely compelling character to watch.

Without any chase or shooting scenes, the HBO special mini-series, “Olive Kitteridge” based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name by Elizabeth Strout, is one of the more interesting psychologically driven shows of this past year. In part, Ms Jane Anderson has done an exceptionally brilliant job of translating the book of short stories into a full length mini-series with enough compelling plot twists that allow the viewer hours of entertainment. The direction by Lisa Cholodenko allowed Olive to proceed without any visual hiccups.

This is a movie about ordinary women written by a woman and adapted by a woman produced by a woman [Frances McDormand] and directed by a woman. It has proven to me how insipid I had been regarding the ‘stereotype of a chick flick’. 

If nothing else, I had wanted Olive Kitteridge to continue for another season. However the finale of the film was sufficient. I recommend this HBO series for as many awards that an adapted Screen Play can receive and then some.

For those of you who do not know anything about the matrons of the Northeast—New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts—I strongly recommend this film as an introduction to the world of the laconic, determined and forceful woman –whom we often refer to as the “Yankee Standard”. My only word of advice: don’t mess with them. Maybe one day we will have a leader who can represent all the honest and brutal qualities of these “Yankee Standards”.

Thank you Play Tone and HBO for an excellent miniseries. May all the deserved accolades come your way.

P.S. Frances, you might want to show your husband and brother-in-law, the Coen Brothers, how to write, direct and produce a movie that is truly interesting and dramatic without being heavy-handed; as well as, having to rely on Sophomoric Yiddish Humor. But that may be asking too much. 

  

Lets make our own rockets in U.S. instead of giving $$$ to Putin!

We are now completely dependent on Putin for rockets, giving him Billions of Dollars from our inept Air Force/Pentagon. Why are we incapable of producing our own rockets? What about Lockheed Martin and Boeing?  Don’t we need jobs in the U.S.? Shame on us and on these functionaries and tax subsidized private companies.

Our military /industrial complex is overseen by highly paid generals/admirals/civilians who pay billions of taxpayer dollars to corrupt Russian oligarchs including Putin to send our Top Secret payloads into space. At the very same time, those same US military officials are trying to make a “regime change” in Russia because of their ‘supposed invasion’ of Ukraine [Crimea].

I was shocked to read in the NY Times article on June 3, 2015 by Steven Lee Myers about this incredible paradox in which our senior Pentagon officials and their eventual employers after retirement—Lockheed Martin and Boeing—have had to beg the White House/ Congress to continue the exorbitant payments to the Russians for their rocket boosters.  It was more evidence that DOD has become nothing more than a nursing home of useless military officials who garner all types of ‘fruit salad’ for nothing more than preparing themselves for a highly subsidized tax payer retirement.

The Pentagon has become a bloated and festering tumor due to ignorance, laziness, and greed. The U.S Air Force [descending quietly into oblivion with the advent of drones] has not been able to develop the simple booster rockets required to send our intelligence/satellite payloads into space. As a result of the so-called “peace dividend”,  Americans have the good fortune of paying the Russians for the privilege of using their efficient booster rockets; which we could not and have not been able to manufacture since the 1990’s.

Unbelievable!

We have our very own  dysfunctional “private” corporations,  Lockheed Martin and Boeing,  demanding that despite our sanctions against Russia for their invasion of the Ukraine that Congress should release the necessary funds to buy more Russian booster rockets.

Here are some of the relevant quotes from the NYTimes article:

“Certainly we cannot have Vladimir Putin and his cronies profit from the sale of rocket engines,” Senator McCain said at a news conference.

“Ending the reliance on the RD-180 [rocket booster] is not as simple as it appears,” said David A. Deptula, a retired Air Force General who runs the Mitchell Institute For Aerospace Studies in Arlington, Virginia. He continued, “Underinvestment, lack of clear vision and stifling bureaucracy has slowed innovation of alternative for years.”

Please tell me why no present or past Sec Defs or POTUS’s did not FIRE everyone involved or uninvolved in developing a 21st century American rocket for the new space era?

The reason is simple.
American citizens have tolerated dysfunctional military which has not and cannot win a battle or a war since 1944. They have been coddled by Generals and senior officers whose primary concerns have been their careers and their own wallets. We have allowed our legislators to pork barrel the pentagon budget so that every member of Congress has a totally useless military installation in their district yet serves no segment of national security.  Our so called weapon systems are primarily constructed from elements of electronics developed/manufactured by our potential enemies; China, Russia, and questionable allies; Israel, India, Pakistan.

Def Ashton Carter should kick these lazy celebrity generals in the butt.  In addition, as Congress feeds the old dinosaurs Lockheed and Boeing tax payer handouts in exchange for fat campaign contributions, tell them to dust off the R&D departments and make some space age technology happen.  Or give the money to Elon Musk and Space X, he’s got rockets and the drive to make something happen. 

  Time for the generals and old time corporations that exist on the tax payer dole to take the dirt nap.

Congratulations to Putin! He understood that no matter how tough we might posture in the world, the truth was more pathetic: We need Putin in order to fight Putin.

watch the 18 minutes history of WW2 and beyond http://para-rigger.posthaven.com/the-fallen-of-world-war-ii

More on Jade Helm  http://whowhatwhy.org/2015/06/01/does-jade-helm-violate-posse-comitatus/

“American Crime” An Outstanding TV Series [ABC Studios], Written, Produced, and Created by John Ridley

Should Sweep TV Emmy Awards!

In a time of domestic turmoil when dynamic human forces are swirling about in a series of confrontations and family tragedies, “American Crime”, an innovative TV series, created by the talented Academy Award Winner [12 Years A Slave] John Ridley has captured the time’s troubled temper.

In a kaleidoscope of characters, ranging from L.A. Chicano gangs played by Richard Cabral [once a real gang member] to the ostensible black gangster, Elvis Nolasco; arching over the lead characters played by Caitlin Gerard, Timothy Hutton; and Felicity Huffman, we see an American Tragedy emerging as these characters try to make some sense of a senseless drug killing.

From the very beginning of the TV series, one is completely thrown off by the fact that we never see the actual murder. The creator of this series, the articulate, bright screen writer/novelist, John Ridley concentrates his story line on the different familial reactions to a crime that the viewer never really sees. Next Ridley takes us through a series of dramatic twists and turns that keep drawing us further into the disparate story lines till we, the viewer, want a moment of respite and emotional catharsis. It is very rare to see a TV series of such emotional depth without relying on stereotypic characters or iconic scenes of violence.

To say that the actors were uniformly outstanding is an exceedingly rare occurrence in this judge’s experience. For those who might remember the American writer Theodore Dreiser, one might imagine that “American Crime” could be the modern day equivalent of Dreiser’s masterpiece, An American Tragedy. The polymath John Ridley happens to be African American. However, his sensibilities are clearly universal and trenchant. He understands the complicated dynamics that occur amidst all the races and ethnic groups without straining credulity. It’s a pleasure to witness this kind of talent in action. All of the characters, played by exceptional indigenous actors range from the panoply of diversity that we see in America.

There are very few moments in the lengthy TV show that appear contrived, or incredulous. To ABC Studios, I send my kudos for taking an exceptional risk on a very delicate subject and making certain that the show never wavers into maudlin, self-indulgence; or bursts out into flairs of gratuitous violence. The  Television Academy would do well to grant this show all the recognition that it deserves , as follows:

▪ Best Director;

▪ Best Producer;

▪ Best Original Screenplay;

▪ Best Production Designs.

▪ For the leading characters—awards galore.

Once again , congratulations to John Ridley for a job exceedingly well done. May his career continue to prosper in the directions that he may chose. To ABC Studios, a tip of the hat for taking an incredible risk that could have easily backfired into the TV land of gratuitous sex, violence, drug addiction, and minority stereotyping.

I will end this blog on note of caution to ABC Studios and John Ridley. It may have been sufficient to have developed this series for only one season. I am concerned that two or more seasons will strain the viewers’ compassion and interest.

But what do I know?

I just watch and vote.