Far East Cynic

Well-that sucks.   Now we are just stuck with the Buccos to root for all summer.

31 years ago today-on a bright sunny morning after which I had not had much sleep- I walked across the parade ground for the purpose of being commissioned an officer in the Navy of the United States of America.

The evening before had been quite interesting as we had held our graduation party-our last night as cadets in the South Carolina Corps of Cadets-on the hangar deck of the USS Yorktown (CVS-10). The ship is moored as a memorial/museum at Patriots Point in Charleston . Before you ask-yes we drank a fair amount and we probably should not have gotten in our cars. After 31 years-I think the statute of limitations has expired.

The morning of May 12th dawned nice and sunny. The college in its wisdom required cadets to spend that last night on campus as I recall-or at least I think it worked that way. For the last two weeks prior to that Friday night I had been in a most nostalgic mode and had roamed the campus and the barracks, late at night, fully conscious and aware that my well ordered and finally understood ( if not always appreciated) world was to be ripped apart. I was a lucky one-as a senior-I was able to exempt all my finals but two, one at the begining of finals and one at the end. ( The college had a provision that if you had an “A” going into the final-you got to skip the final).  As I recall I spent more than a couple of good days over at the beach.  On that final night-upon returning from the dance, getting girlfriends etc pushed off, a very dear friend of mine to this day-well,  we pulled out a bottle of scotch from a carefully disguised hiding place and climbed the stairs to the top of the tower on Padgett Thomas barracks. ( In those days there was no lock-I’m told now the door is locked with a most strong padlock. I hope that is not true). Amazingly enough-we were by ourselves at the top of the tower. With two cheap glasses,  we came to the front of the tower and poured each other a salutary drink. Hope mixed with sadness and Scotch-colored our conversation.

He was going into the Marine Corps and I was going into the Navy. We both had dreams and plans. Oh how glorious the future seemed on that evening! It was all going to work!. I was going to fly A-7′s, he was going to be a platoon leader and we both fully expected to be more than a little successful at whatever we attempted. Do 29 years on active duty however? Not a chance. We toasted ourselves and poured another-slowly musing on what the future held in store. ( And yes it was illegal to have booze in the barracks-but there are rules and then there are RULES.) The view across the campus and up into the night sky was remarkable. The swirl of emotions was large that night as I stared up to the moon and engaged in a quiet conversation-the kind that happens between men who truly care what happens to the other-but because of convention would never state it.

Of course-as many of you know-it did not work out exactly the way I planned it. A-7′s? Something I saw on the flight deck and on radar. My drinking buddy ended up in infantry-but over time became something of a plankowner in the Marine Corps fledgling UAV fleet. He still plays with those toys today in civilian life. Me? Well I did not become a pilot-and there is some sadness about that, but not too much. I discovered over a long time of thinking about it-you really do like what you get. So long as you honorably earn that gold device on your left chest-the rest of the deal seems miraculously to take care of itself. That’s a lesson they don’t teach you in class by the way. In the hindsight of 31 years, I realize how truly lucky I was. Very few people get to have the kind of career I had-and still leave wearing eagles at the other end. I was damn lucky and I know it now. And grateful for it.

In those days the college did commissionings in the Chapel. I’m told that now, because of parental pressure and other things, they do it in the field house with much pomp and circumstance and picture taking. Not so for the Class of 1979.  I still feel the Chapel was a very appropriate place to be commissioned-with the state flags hanging from the sides, the admonition above the door (Remember now,  thy Creator, in the days of thy youth), and the cross above the altar. The words: Pride, Duty, Honor, Country-scattered around you.

It was a simple ceremony. A General spoke-to this day I don’t remember who and then the heads of the various ROTC’s on campus came to the pulpit. Army first ( but of course!) rose-all  89+ of them to take the oath, then the Navy, then the Marines-and finally, as it should be, the Air Force. We were not wearing Navy uniforms-but our Cadet Full Dress still-for Graduation was still an hour away once this obligation was completed. In turn we each took the oath of office.

You are not aware of it at the time-but about 48% of my classmates were not in the chapel that morning-for not all Citadel Cadets go into the service-and a number of folks entered later-via alternative routes of flight.

How far away all that seems! Being in your 50′s seemed only an abstract idea at the time-even moreso when you consider that within five years of that day a few of us were already dead. The years since then have taken even more of a toll-but by the grace of God, a fair amount of us are still here. How different that thing called life is-from what I imagined it.

But even today- I can still recall the feeling of looking around and breathing in air that day and the night before. All the way from that illicit drink -to the moment of throwing my hat into the air. And how I thought there was no better feeling in the world to know that I had a title-Ensign, United States Navy.

Of course Monday morning came soon enough-and the feeling had long gone. It was time to go to work doing whatever they told me was the nation’s business. But that Friday night and Saturday, the world seemed all mine. Time fixed that notion-but the memory is still sweet.

So what’s a good software program to make music videos with? And before you ask-I’m a PC user.

So I watched Gordon Brown throw in the towel on TV today.

And then later on, I had a chance to read a multitude of flawed commentary on the election by US observers who should know better-but don’t-draw conclusions based on the paradigm of US experience.

Britain’s election was about Britain-and it’s unique set of circumstances in Europe. Talking about how Obama “severed” the special relationship is to bluntly ignore the fact that our interests, and the interests of Britain came out of alignment many years before. It may be only now that American voters are waking up to that fact. British voters recognized it a long time ago.

It is important to set a few myths to rest.

1) Its all Obama’s fault that the special relationship is changed.  Not true. While it may be true that Obama and his handlers were in-artful towards Gordon Brown in their early visits-he’s tried to make up for it since. And that line of thinking ignores one really important event that did more than any other to fracture “the special relationship”-which even then- was on life support. The Iraq War. British voters are predominately opposed to it. And have been since 2003. At the time of the election 63% of the British voters felt Tony Blair had allowed Bush to mislead him-and Great Britain into the war-and some 37 per cent of people believe that Mr Blair should be put on trial for going to war with Iraq. 

The truth is-the US /British relationship has been going down hill since 1956, and it accelerated in the period 1995-2010.  Like two ships that start apart on a 2-3 degree course change, the distance of separation only becomes obvious as you go down the road a while.  In 1956 the US helped screw itself and Britain by failing to support them in the Middle East-and in the 90′s , through its rampant embrace of globalization and outsourcing work from traditional locations,  it created the pre-conditions that allowed economic damage to both the US and Britain to come home to roost. The economic change brought about by globalization and technological advances is not creating the happy, unified world of progress its promoters keep promising. Instead, it is splitting regions within nations that are fully part of the global market from those being left behind.

Britain,  caught between its need to be part of Europe and its real desire to maintain a distinct, historically British character, is on the front lines of this struggle. And its been coming on for a long time.

2) Conservatives are winning around the world. If they are, its not because they are trying to be like American Conservatives.  Cameron’s party won because it moved to the center-and even then it did not get a clear cut majority. Now that is a lesson today’s Republicans could learn,  but won’t.

Cameron’s genius was to accept that the future of conservatism lies in winning over moderately progressive voters in the classes doing reasonably well in this new economic world. In his post-election statement offering to form a governing alliance with the Liberal Democrats, he began by declaring victory for “a new, modern Conservative Party,” a socially concerned, open-minded and tolerant band you don’t have to be ashamed of supporting.

Cameron understands — as many Republicans in the United States seem not to — that conservatism needs to sand off its rough edges and present itself as a stabilizing, unifying force.

In other words, put the stupid signs and the tri-corner hats in the closets. Simply relying on the stupidity of the average American voter is not an effective strategy. Elections are about swaying the voters in the middle. Cameron understood that-tea partiers do not. Fat, angry, and stupid is no way to go through life,  son.

3) It is all about fiscal conservatism, tax cuts, and spending cuts. Not really. Otherwise the Tories would have won a clear majority.  The simple truth is -that life for the average British citizen has gotten worse in the past ten years-not better. And it was Labor holding the reins.  And even at that Labor still won in many areas they were expected to lose.  “In parts of the country that have never shared in the great metropolitan prosperity around London, mistrust of the Conservatives still runs deep.”   Inequality in the United Kingdom is now higher than at any point since records began. Furthermore-both parties ran on the idea of austerity measures are going to be necessary and like American politicians they declined to give any specifics. Cameron could actually end up in the position of the Democrats in the US-faced by an opposition whose only word will be no-and if he cuts things voters really care about could find himself back out on the street in front of 10 Downing Street. Serious budget cuts are  a losing proposition electorally and the Conservatives will try to delay making serious choices as long as possible. Especially since they know they can fall- if the Liberal Democrats decide to bolt the coalition.

Cut the number of flag officers down to size.

ABILENE, Kan. (AP) — Warring against waste, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday he is ordering a top-to-bottom paring of the military bureaucracy in search of at least $10 billion in annual savings needed to prevent an erosion of U.S. combat power.
He took aim what he called a bloated bureaucracy, wasteful business practices and too many generals and admirals, and outlined an ambitious plan for reform that’s almost certain to stir opposition in the corridors of Congress and Pentagon.

Now its not clear to me if Gates is being the loyal soldier that he has shown himself to be and is carrying water for others- or if this is his own idea-but he is on the right track about reducing the total number of flag officers. The Navy has more flag officers than it has ships-and that is nothing short of a crime.

So to help the man-I have a suggestion of at least one flag billet that can be put to bed. For the good of humanity, for the betterment of our Navy,  and in the complete interest of saving precious TAD dollars for use by Sailors who actually deserve to use them-I nominate this man, RDML James C. Grunewald to be SECDEF’s first test case for flag downsizing. Try not to let the door hit you on the way out.

Well, maybe not him personally-but returning the staffs he commands back to independent O-6 commands. Specifically, breaking up CTF-57 and CTF-72 into separate Patrol Wings   (commanded by an O-6 P-3 aviator) and returning COMFAIRWESTPAC to an O-6 command (commanded, as it should be, by a TACAIR or Helo aviator) and aligned directly to Commander Naval Air Forces. CTF 57 and CTF-72 would be separate commands aligned to their respective fleets. CTF-57 would be based in Bahrain where it already is and CTF-72 could stay at Misawa.  With the stroke of a pen-that one move alone would save the Navy about 2.5 million ( that’s right MILLION) dollars in TADTAR a year.

Not to mention the overhead in flag writers, drivers, MLC’s, FLag Sec and Flag Aide that could be re-assignedto more productive duties. In addition the several thousands of dollars being spent to create expensive watch floors for these entities in both theaters could be re-programmed to more productive pursuits,  as the CTF-57 guys could be worked into the Maritime Operations center in Fifth Fleet,  and a similar arrangement could be worked with CTF-74 in Seventh Fleet. Or just leave them alone-they already have a pretty strong watch floor in Misawa.

It would also probably lead to savings in staff size as well-as an O-6 command would be forced to leverage assets in theater like JAG and others rather than having their own. It is a win-win.

“But every other task force commander is a flag in Seventh Fleet!”

Bullsh*t. Furthermore-over where they are actually fighting the war, just about every task force save for the carrier task force and the Maritime interdiction task force is commanded by an O-6. So don’t tell me it could not work. And the fact that there are so many flags in the WESTPAC area is a function of politics and tradition-not a matter of operational efficiency.

Not to mention an O-6 commands 74 carrier based  aircraft in Japan and CTF-72 has, on a good day, maybe 7-10 aircraft in theater.

As for COMFAIRWESTPAC or as it is known now-COMNAVAIRFOR FORWARD, it could return to the mission it did so well for so many years, managing aviation readiness and one stop shopping for all aviation readiness issues overseas. And contrary to what the P-3 guys seem to think-that does not mean P-3′s exclusively. In fact, P-3′s constitute only about 11% of the business in theater-something the senior P-3 guys convieniently forgot when they lied and lied and lied to convince the world that they needed to take over COMFAIRWESTPAC in order to have enough span of control to justify a flag officer in theater.

That was wrong then and it’s wrong now. And perhaps-with SECDEF”S and SECNAV’s urging it could finally be undone. Come on deficit hawks! Write your Congressman and SECNAV/SECDEF. Urge that he break up CTF-57 /72 immediately. And while they are at it they could do the same for CTF 54/74 as well. That’s two flag officer clay pigeons down-300 to go.

You missed something truly wonderful and truly funny. Betty White hosted Saturday Night Live and it was funny from start to finish. She’s a great lady and a real talent:

As in why you should not just read people who agree with you.

Because amid all the bombast you stumble on some pretty good things

Downsizing/available jobs. What if a person gets downsized and the only available jobs are below his or her level of competence? They may have to take the job, and this leads to my next point. Perception. The guy that takes the lower job is seen as damaged goods or at least the perception may be that that is what he or she is capable of at best. This can lead to dulling of skills, depression, and hopelessness. Climbing back up the ladder after this is paying for the same real estate twice and then we enter the next variable: Age. Having to re-navigate the same career path takes time and then if you are over 40, age discrimination creeps in. From an objective standpoint, employers look at someone over 40 differently. One, by that age, they expect a high level of accomplishment, and a progressive increase in responsibilities and achievements. For the person that gets rightsized, or has to start over for whatever reason, there is a reverse karma at work: Well, they got shit on, so they must have done something to deserve it. 

My point here is that The Peter Principle is a little thin explaining all or even most possibilities. People generally are capable of much more than they bring to their jobs, and honestly, most of their knowledge and experience is untapped by any employer and this leads to one more point which is an extension of the last paragraph. If you are doing a particular job at an organization, the perception is, that is all you are capable of doing. It’s a mindset that management at many organizations have, and even if you leave a company to go to another, the perception may follow you. The key is not to get stuck shoveling the same shit against the wall too long. I will also say the larger the organization, the more opportunities that exist. My wife works for a huge bank HQ’d out of california and they have so much diversity in types of positions that are open, that advancement and opportunity is not only good, but if you take advantage of it, very possible. Working for smaller organizations, non-profits and governmental agencies are much more limiting and possibly frustrating. 

I think I know how that feels.

Sorry for no post last night-my Dad suggested we go see the Durham Bulls play. I thought that was a great idea so off we went to Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Bulls beat the Scranton Yankee’s 9-3. You are always winning when the Yankees (any Yankee’s) are losing! Hot dog’s, beer, listening to young heckler’s behind us-that’s entertainment.

Actually, I find minor league baseball a great treat. Their games have become what the Major League games should have been. Lots of hitting, fielding, a lot of interaction with crowd-waving, yelling, and things to keep them interested-and most importantly, reasonably priced tickets. ( Most expensive ticket for a seat at the DBAP is $9.-Try finding that at a Major League park).

Did I mention that somebody hit the bull and won a steak? (If you have never seen Bull Durham-well go back and watch the movie).

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Today is National Train Day. Its kind of ironic really since for the most part, rail service in the USA sucks. It doesn’t have to-Europe and many places in Asia have proven that. However, Americans-so in love with their cars and being all spread out all over the place- just can’t seem to find it within them to do what it takes to interconnect their cities and their neighborhoods in their cities.

Take where I am now-in the Raleigh Durham triangle. Rail service between the three cities would pay big dividends-especially if it allowed folks to commute to the Research Triangle area. Imagine too-if there were high speed rail service between Chalotte, Raleigh, Winston Salem and Durham. Just between Raleigh and Charlotte alone would be a Godsend. But we won’t do it.

To get that kind of infrastructure started requires a government kickstart. And we all know in today’s current climate that just won’t happen-even though there are some belated efforts to start. They will die soon enough. Of that I am certain.

We’ve got time to make sure Glenn Tilton gets another 40-80 million though.

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I watched a TV report about the teabagger’s efforts to keep Sen. Bob Bennett from being re-nominated. If you ever want to see an example of how this so called “movement” represents an evil force in American politics, this is a good example.

By all accounts Bennett has served his state well. He’s also been what, until now, would have a been “core” part of the Repulican party. He’s anti abortion, voted consistently against gun control, voted against the Health Care bill.  He is against affirmative action, is considerd a pro-business legislator and is well known for a having a deep grasp of all the major issues. Yet he is in big trouble in a state where being to the right of Atilla the Hun is considered liberal.

Bennett’s crime-not wanting the economy to slide into an even greater recession or possibly a depression. Actually believing it is a priority to govern-not just make stupid remarks about limited government and the Constitution. He also  cooperated with a Democratic senator to develop a market-driven universal health-care proposal that would’ve covered every American with private insurance and abolished Medicaid.

In other words-he actually tried to get something done.

Bennett isn’t a liberal. He’s not even a moderate. But he’s a legislator: He’s willing to work with the other side to get things done. And he’s paying for it now.

This should really scare any serious American. ( Tea party afficionados do not fit that definition any more by the way). Because what they want to do-what they value more than anything else-is blind obiedence to their rattle brained notions of what America can and cannot be.

I did some research into the head of the Tea Party in Utah. He is a man named David Kirkham-who runs a niche business selling kit sports cars to those with money and time on their hands. Kirkham appears to be a great example of the kind of hypocrisy the tea baggers seems to thrive on.

Because in addition to making his cars-he outsources work to make himself more money:

And these workmen are the reason that the Kirkham Cobra should end up costing substantially less than equivalent replica. A typical engineer makes (the U.S. equivalent of) $4,000 per year, an aerospace worker $2,000. “I’m paying a dollar an hour for aerospace workers,” Kirkham says. “That’s why I’m here.”

Kirkham’s average price for a car? $56,669.  Right there in the affordability range for most Americans-NOT!.

Yet Kirkham opposes saving the credit markets-on which I am sure his buisness uses. Talk about wanting to cut your own throat.

But that is the state of play in tea bag land these days. They only know the mantra that has been repeated to them. Never mind if it makes sense or not-and believe me its not hard to prove factually that a lot of what they advocate does not-just rise up and punish anyone who disagrees with them.

This is the future by the way. It will start first with crushing independent thought within the Republican party. Then, when they win high elective office, they will branch out and punish independent thinkers who are not in the Republican party. They already have a couple of really good models for how to do it. (Look up: Lee Kwan Yew and using the libel laws to crush dissent).

If the Republican Party kicks him out, then that is as clear and final a statement that they have no interest in good-faith cooperation as you could ask for.”

Ask me again why I despise the Tea partiers.

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Meanwhile-over in Japan-the “loopy” Prime Minister Hatoyama has thrown in the towel.

According to Hatoyama, he was forced to conclude that relocating the Futenma base outside Okinawa Prefecture was impossible in view of the need to maintain the deterrence power of U.S. forces in Japan. He also said it “became clear” that even if the base were to be relocated outside the prefecture, it could not be moved too far away.

Pretty amazing really. Closing Futenma and providing relief to Okinawans was key part of what he ran for office on. On the surface he has a lot of arguments in his favor-especially in light of the re-alignment of US forces in Japan and the fact that Japan pays a lot of US bills. As I have pointed out before there are alternatives that would be both beneficial to the US and Japan and enable him to keep his promise. They just are not looking at them.

Instead, at least in Hatoyama’s case, they are grasping at straws.
Ought to be fun to watch this little melodrama continue.

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And finally, something really good-that everyone can agree on:

That’s Marie Digby, a half Japanese acoustic guitarist popular on You Tube.

Time to go!  Its sunny and nice outside and my Dad and I have things to do.

Telling your friends that the rabbit is Tango Uniform in the Facebook era:

On the road to visit my Dad. More to follow when I get finally readjusted to where I am.

However, I am kind of glad I did not know about the crash of 2:45pm.  I did not find out about the market drop today till I got here. So much for all that Ford stock I bought last January!

Over on a discussion board-there is a member who continually proves true Barry Goldwater’s old admonition from 1989-the Republican party of his day ( and now) is “full of kooks.”

One of the things I continue to find to be one of the most annoying features of tebaggerdom today is their repeated use of the founding fathers as an example of support for their so called movement. 80-90% of your Mark 1, Mod 0 teabaggers have absolutely no idea what the Founding Fathers really said-or why they did the things that they did.

In out latest little dust up, the offender in question decided it was time to roll out the founding fathers as examples of “what real conservatives are”.

Here is the quote-from this article on Frum Forum, pointing out something I have said here before. Tea Party political views look more like French politics than American politics and the only “revolution” they are leading is exactly like the French one-not the American one.

The Founders were well versed in their history. They knew especially the fate of Greek city-state democracies that fell to demagogues. Alexander Hamilton warned Americans about, “ times of such commotion as the present, while the passions of men are worked up to an uncommon pitch, there is great danger of fatal extremes” and later spoke of populist politicians that “begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people.”

The other conservative Founding Fathers (i.e. John Adams, Gouverneur Morris, John Jay, Thomas Sedgwick, Rufus King, Fisher Ames et. al.) were on the same page with Hamilton. They saw populism as the dark arts of the ultra-democrat and rabble-rouser.  Orestes Brownson would later in the 19^thCentury refer to the creed of the populist as “The people sovereign; the people are divine; the people are infallible and impeccable.” Needless to say, Brownson wrote that this is not a conservative creed nor should the conservative have any interest in seeing it prevail

Who were the conservatives? Well, lets see Patrick Henry would fit that mold.  Thomas Jefferson would fit that mold. George Washington would fit that mold.  Madison.  Yep I think I could with him.

 

Which prompted the following reply from said historical scholar:

Any author who would call Alexander Hamilton, is a liberal pretending to know conservatism… Alexander Hamilton was in no way a conservative.  So anything written by this author must be suspect………….

Who were the conservatives? Well, lets see Patrick Henry would fit that mold.  Thomas Jefferson would fit that mold. George Washington would fit that mold.  Madison.  Yep I think I could with him.

You have to pause for a minute and shake your head when you read something like that. Hamilton? A liberal? Patrick Henry? Jefferson? Conservative?

Lets ignore-for brevity’s sake-that distinctions such as “liberal” and “conservative” for any of these men are virtually meaningless, when their lives are examined in the context of the time they lived in.

What your friendly neighborhood tea party goer seems to forget is that we live in an America that is very different, in so many ways, from the one the founding Fathers lived in.

Take Patrick Henry for example. He’s an odd choice to represent the Tea Party since, as an organization that just wants to defend the Constitution-they would make an example of someone who opposed the very document. .( He voted against ratification).    He was also in opposition to Jefferson and Madison for much of his later life.   He also spent most of Washington’s administration opposed to Washington’s policies.

It should also be noted that Henry changed his views in life as he got older-primarily due to the things he saw happening in France and its fear that the US could just as easily go off the deep end. As a result he opposed the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions ( written by Jefferson and Madison in secret)-which proposed that states had a right  to “opt out” of laws they did not agree with. He wrote in response to these events :Virginia, “had quitted the sphere in which she had been placed by the Constitution, and, in daring to pronounce upon the validity of federal laws, had gone out of her jurisdiction in a manner not warranted by any authority, and in the highest degree alarming to every considerate man; that such opposition, on the part of Virginia, to the acts of the general government, must beget their enforcement by military power; that this would probably produce civil war, civil war foreign alliances, and that foreign alliances must necessarily end in subjugation to the powers called in.”

So much for ringing support of States rights. Where is that man’s birth certificate?

The simple truth is that the Founding Fathers better understood the need to compromise and make compromises than the modern day residents of tebaggerville do. Furthermore-they had the example of what happens when you make a mistake, right before their eyes-in the example of France.

If you are going to cite a source-at least take the time to look it up. The Founding Fathers would have looked down on the current crop of tea partiers-and would have cited them as examples of why they created the Electoral College.

Slate Magazine has a great analysis of the attempted bombing in NYC. The jury is still out on many things. But they have it right on this one-Dick Cheney is proven wrong yet again.

Low fly by’s. Most of them are by Brits and French-what’s up with that?

E.D. Kain over at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen sums it up nicely:

Conservatives have their limited-government priorities all wrong. While libertarians and the left have focused on matters of security overreach – wiretapping, surveillance, executive powers, GITMO, etc. – the right has brushed all this off and focused instead on taxes, healthcare reform, and whether the president is an American citizen. At every turn the right is willing to strip away civil liberties with one hand, while at the same time lamenting the socialist takeover of America. The hypocrisy is tangible.

Kain may be on to something-namely that its not small government vs big government, both sides are in favor of big government-they just disagree where its efforts should be applied.