tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86028415192044178322024-03-12T23:16:32.195-04:00The Other Side of HistoryMike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-1771343180548599572024-03-07T01:31:00.003-05:002024-03-07T01:33:51.118-05:00Battle of Tanga, November 1914 - Part 2<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>At the start of the First World War, Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was in command of the German colonial forces in German East Africa, far from the battlefields of Europe where the fate of the colony would be decided. He wanted to use his small forces, inadequate to protect the colony using purely defensive tactics, to divert British forces away from the European theater. To do this, “it was necessary not to split up our small available forces in local defense, but, on the contrary, to keep them together, to grip the enemy by the throat and force him to employ his forces for self-defense.” (Lettow-Vorbeck, pp. 3-4). Thus the German strategy used in the East African Campaign was devised. The first battle of this guerrilla war campaign would take place in the GEA port town of Tanga on 2-5 November 1914.</p>
<p>This post is the second and final part of a series describing the Battle of Tanga; the <a href="https://the-other-side-of-history.blogspot.com/2024/03/battle-of-tanga-november-1914-part-1.html" target="_blank">first part described the physical and cultural geography of Tanga</a>.</p>
<h2>Description of the Battle</h2>
<h3>2 November</h3>
<p>The convoy of 16 ships carrying IEF B arrives at station 15 miles east of Tanga. The HMS <i>Fox</i>, commanded by Captain Francis Wade Caulfeild, enters the harbor (Caulfeild, 1914). District Commissioner Auracher who worked under Governor Schnee and was also a lieutenant in the local Ascari police force, meets Captain Caulfeild aboard the HMS <i>Fox</i> with the captain calling for surrender. Auracher states he didn’t have the authority to do this, and he returned to Tanga to get instructions. He sends telegrams to Lettow-Vorbeck and to Schnee alerting them of the situation, and he warned the townsfolk (German and native) who fled inland. Auracher then resigned his position as District Commissioner and joined the <i>Schutztruppe</i>.</p>
<p>Lettow-Vorbeck was at the town of Moshi near Mount Kilimanjaro when the telegram arrived. He ordered a portion of the <i>Schutztruppe</i> to converge at Tanga using the Usambara Railway.</p>
<p>The HMS <i>Fox</i>, after not getting a reply from Auracher, left the bay and rejoined the squadron. Mine sweeping began in preparation for the landing of IEF B troops.</p>
<p>Direct landing at the harbor was rejected due to the possibility of mines as well as fear that the houses of Tanga were filled with German troops (Hordern & Stacke, p. 77). Major General Aitken, commander of IEF B, and Caulfeild thus considered three alternative landing sites along the Ras Kasone peninsula:
<ul>
<li>Beach A: East side of Ras Kasone, close to the Red House</li>
<li>Beach B: North side of the peninsula, close to the Signal Tower</li>
<li>Beach C: Within the bay, somewhat close to the hospital.</li>
</ul>
</p>
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<div align="center"><i>Three possible landing sites.</i> (Harvey, 2014)</div>
<p>Beach A was chosen for the initial landing as it was least likely to be defended (Harvey, 2014) and (Royal Navy Research Archive, N/D). The other two beaches would be later used once the British had established a presence. Of the three landing sites, Beach A was the least geographically favorable to the British troops: the coral reef was 500 yards from the shore, and the men had to wade ashore, frequently falling between the roots of the mangroves. The sandy beach was less than 10 feet wide at high tide.
The first British troops landed with the goals of occupying the town, laying communication cable between the Red House and the town, and covering subsequent landings. They swarmed up the cliff to the Red House, set up a base there, and sent patrols 1/2 miles inward, encountering no Germans. Disembarkment continued for the rest of the night.</p>
<h3>3 November</h3>
<p>Troops commanded by Brigadier General Michael Tighe leave the Red House, arrive at the town at 0530 and set up a defensive line near the railway track. Meanwhile, Lettow-Vorbeck along with the first German troops from Moshi were arriving. Thick vegetation prevented the British from observing German movement.
Tighe set about extending his line south while the German troops attempt to envelop the British left flank. Short range fighting ensued. The British tried to rush German positions twice, but were met with machine gun fire. HMS <i>Fox</i>, now off Beach C, opened fire on the town but to no avail. The enveloping maneuver continued, and Tighe retreated with Germans in pursuit.
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<div align="center"><i>First Attack of the Town, 3 November at 0830.</i> (Anderson, 2002)</div>
<p>Fresh British troops arrived at 0830 and beat back the Germans, but falling tide slowed the landing (Astronomical Applications Department, N/D). Additional forces began landing on Beach B, but further British attacks were halted until a larger force could be concentrated. During an afternoon downpour, landings continued on all three beaches. (Hordern & Stacker, p. 83)
Aitken finally came ashore at 1700. The town was deserted except for German scouts, but Aitken did not reconnoiter. At sunset, all three beaches were so congested that the remainder of the force would have to land the following morning.</p>
<h3>4 November</h3>
<p>The landing was completed by 0930. Dense vegetation continued to obscure German movements from the British at all three landing locations. The communication cable laid by the British on the previous day was cut, so the British had to rely on runners to send messages. (Hordern & Stacke, p. 83)</p>
<p>The British ordered an advance starting at 1230, and by 1400 the troops encountered somewhat clearer ground. At 1430 they engaged German patrols who drove them back, until additional troops arrived, and hot engagement ensued.</p>
<p>One of the infantry battalions present at the fighting along the railway, the 63<sup>rd</sup> Palamcottah Light Infantry, collapsed and dispersed, and this shook another infantry battalion, the 98<sup>th</sup>. According to one survivor, the Germans “employed fire tactics certainly never taught in India… controlled bursts of fire, directed by observers in trees.” (Hordern & Stacke, p. 86)</p>
<p>The 98<sup>th</sup> Infantry were then stung by a swarm of bees, with one British troop receiving 300 stings to his head. This was the breaking point for the 98<sup>th</sup> Infantry, and they scattered. This event led to the battle being called “The Battle of the Bees.”</p>
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<div align="center"><i>Collapse of the 63<sup>rd</sup> in progress, 98<sup>th</sup> about to be swarmed by bees, and Germans enveloping remaining British forces. 4 November at 1640 hours.</i> (Anderson, 2002)</div>
<p>Apiary warfare had been employed since the time of the Romans, and it is natural to believe that Lettow-Vorbeck was responsible for this swarming. He lays this belief to rest in his Reminiscences: “years afterwards I was asked by English officers whether we had used trained bees at Tanga but I may now perhaps betray the fact that at the decisive moment all the machine-guns of one of our companies were put out of action by these same "trained bees," so that we suffered from this new "training" quite as much as the English” (Lettow-Vorbeck, p. 44).</p>
<p>Other British troops stayed in the fight and fighting continued along the line established earlier. The right flank managed to cross the railway and entered the town, and street fighting ensued. The left flank attempted to advance but met a German counterattack.</p>
<p>The HMS Fox opened fire at 1545 but targeting was obscured by high vegetation and the hospital, and she only succeeded in hitting the hospital and British troops. The German medical personnel suffered no losses and continued tending to both German and British patients.</p>
<p>More Germans arrived. The 2<sup>nd</sup> Loyal North Lancashires withdrew, encountering machine gun fire as they crossed the roads. By 1600 all British had withdrawn from the town a second time.</p>
<p>Aitken recalled all troops, and one British officer referred to the troops on the beaches as “demoralized rabble”. (Hordern & Stacke, p. 91). The Germans reestablished a minor presence in the town. Aitken decided against a night attack and moved his forces to the tip of the peninsula. </p>
<p>Aitken then had two options: remain behind the defensive line they established at Ras Kasone or re-embark and leave. Potable water was becoming scarce, and no British reinforcements were coming, so at 2300 Aitken decided to re-embark. When a junior officer brought geographic information for another attack to a Brigade-Major, the Brigade-Major told him “The only information of any value now is that which will help us get out of this… place as soon as possible.” (Hordern & Stacke, p. 91)</p>
<h3>5 November</h3>
<p>The final phase of the withdrawal was described by Hordern & Stacke (p. 95) as follows: “Throughout, by almost the only piece of good fortune to be recorded anywhere in the melancholy story of the expedition, the withdrawal of the troops was effected without interference by the enemy. How tragically it might have ended, had the Germans shown even a little of the enterprise that might have been expected of them, will be sufficiently apparent.”</p>
<p>The British had to leave considerable equipment behind - they attempted to destroy it but had insufficient time to do so. German forces captured 455 rifles, 8 machine guns, and 600,000 rounds of ammunition. They also picked up medical supplies, telephone gear, plus clothing, warm coats, and blankets. (Lettow-Vorbeck, p. 45)</p>
<p>The British evacuation was completed by 1520, and the final matter requiring attention was the wounded troops in the hospital. The Germans allowed them to be evacuated only if they promised not to serve again in the war. Seventy-four British troops were returned and 49 had to stay at the hospital as they were unfit to be moved (Hordern & Stacke, p. 95). The convoy departed for Mombasa.</p>
<p>Instances like these, as well as the Christmas Truces of 1914, are what made the Great War to be perhaps the last “gentleman’s war.” Even in a gentleman’s war there are casualties, however: 64 German and Askaris were killed, 80 were wounded and 1 was missing. 360 British were killed, 487 wounded, and 148 missing. (Anderson, p. 120)</p>
<h2>After the Battle</h2>
<p>Aitken cabled the news of his defeat to London on 5 November. It arrived at a bad time for the British: The First Battle of Ypres was still ongoing, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Germans, and the British lost the Battle of Coronel – their first naval defeat since the 1812 Battle of Lake Champlain. For these reasons, the British government kept news of the defeat secret for several months.</p>
<p>Upon returning to Mombasa, Major-General Aitken began to reorganize his forces in preparation for the defense of the East Africa Protectorate. He was stricken by malaria and was still in the hospital when on 4 December he was ordered to hand over his command and return to England. After review by the Lord Kitchener and the War Office, Aitken was reduced in rank to colonel and put on half-pay for the remainder of the war.</p>
<p>Lettow-Vorbeck’s victory convinced Governor Schnee to abandon his diplomatic approach to the British, and it was a morale booster for his troops and the civilian population: it brought the natives and German colonists onto Lettow-Vorbeck’s side.</p>
<p>The Battle of Tanga laid the foundation for the rest of the East African Campaign. Lettow-Vorbeck knew that he would be getting no logistic support from Germany, so he did what all guerrilla fighters do: live off the enemy. Using the rifles, ammunition, and other supplies left by the withdrawing British, he was able to supply his men with improved weapons and uniforms.
Lettow-Vorbeck hoped that the Battle of Tanga would convince the British to commit considerable forces in pursuit of him – forces that could not be used in the European theater - and in that he succeeded. </p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>The utter defeat handed to the British at the Battle of Tanga was due to multiple errors not only by Major-General Aitken but also by the planners back in London. The overall operation was “planned” with almost no information about the geography of Tanga or about the strengths and positions of German forces, and Aitken made no effort correct these deficiencies. IEF B was far too small to accomplish the mission of capturing GEA. Even if Aitken did capture Tanga and followed the Usambara Railway 200 miles into the interior, a large German force would be waiting for him at Mount Kilimanjaro. IEF B received upgraded rifles prior to departure but were given no opportunity to train with them. Also, the British possessed greater artillery than the Germans, but there was no plan for its organized use. Finally, the IEF B had to complete a 14-day voyage to Tanga which played havoc with the health of the Indian troops.</p>
<p>Lieutenant-Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck had extensive knowledge of GEA – its geography, terrain, weather patterns, the tropical diseases there, and so on. He was fluent in Swahili. Further, he spent considerable time training with his German Askari troops, in many instances converting them from constabulary forces to fighting forces. It is these differences that made him the victor in this battle.</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Anderson, R. (2002). Battle of Tanga 1914. Tempus Publishing, Ltd.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Astronomical Applications Department. (N/D). US Naval Observatory. Retrieved 2 March 2024 from <a href="https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/index" target="_blank">https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/index</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Caulfeild, F. W. (1914). Logs of the HMS Fox. Retrieved 2 March 2024 from <a href="https://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-05-HMS_Fox.htm" target="_blank">https://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-05-HMS_Fox.htm</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Gaudi, R. (2017). African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918. Dutton Caliber.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Harvey, K. J. (2014). Battle of Tanga, German East Africa, 1914. Pickle Partners Publishing.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Hordern, C. & Stacke, H. (1941). Military Operations East Africa volume 1, August 1914 – September 1916. His Majesty’s Stationary Office.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Lettow-Vorbeck, P. E. v. (2021). My Reminiscences of East Africa. Good Press.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Royal Navy Research Archive. (N/D). RNAS Tanga. Retrieved 2 March 2024 from <a href="https://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/FAA-Bases/Tanga.htm" target="_blank">https://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/FAA-Bases/Tanga.htm</a></p>Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-83036682035056143712024-03-07T01:31:00.002-05:002024-03-07T01:32:57.016-05:00Battle of Tanga, November 1914 - Part 1<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>The Battle of Tanga (2 – 5 November 1914) was the beginning of Germany’s WWI East African Campaign, a long-term plan to draw Allied troops and resources away from the European theater using minimal German forces. British Indian Expeditionary Force B, consisting of 8,000 soldiers possessing artillery and naval support, attempted to capture the port city of Tanga in German East Africa, now Tanzania. The German defending force, made up of approximately 1,100 German and African troops armed with antiquated firearms, soundly defeating IEF B.</p>
<p>This post describes the battle, the commanders involved, and the factors leading to British defeat. The physical and cultural environments are examined, and it is shown that the Germans were very familiar with the environment, whereas the British were willfully ignorant of Tanga. This difference greatly contributed to the outcome of the battle.</p>
<h2>Prior to the Battle</h2>
<p>Both Germany and Britain founded African colonies at the end of the 19th century, but the relationship between the European powers and the natives took very different courses: Britain used its East Africa Protectorate (later Kenya) primarily for commercial reasons, importing Indian laborers to supplement or replace native Africans. Germany took a more paternalistic approach to German East Africa (later Tanzania), educating the natives, incorporating them into the police force as well as the <i>Schutztruppe</i> (German colonial forces), where they were known as the German Askari. The German officers learned Swahili, and the Askari, seeing that they were becoming Germans, repaid all this with strong loyalty. (Gaudi, 2017)</p>
<p>Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the new commander of the <i>Schutztruppe</i>, arrived in GEA in January 1914 (Lettow-Vorbeck, p. 4), though he did have prior contact with the colony and its civilian governor, Heinrich Schnee. Both suspected that war was coming to Europe but took different approaches to what should be done: Schnee sought to uphold the Congo Treaty of 1885 and keep GEA neutral whereas Lettow-Vorbeck realized that the colony and its <i>Schutztruppe</i> could be used to divert Allied forces away from the European theater.</p>
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<div align="center">Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck</div>
<p>After arriving, Lettow-Vorbeck evaluated the military potential of the colony: he toured the country, evaluated the status and quality of military and quasi-military forces, their armaments, the logistic situation, as well as the terrain and overall environment including the presence of diseases. In addition, he met with some of the individuals that will play a role in the campaign to come (Lettow-Vorbeck, pp. 4-8). He knew that Tanga's strategic importance as the gateway to the interior of Africa would make it a primary target for the British.</p>
<p>Once the war began, the British organized the Indian Expeditionary Force B under command of Major General Arthur Aitken. The British plan was to capture Tanga, then follow a 200-mile-long railway stretch towards Mount Kilimanjaro, the most economically developed portion of GEA and the most immediate threat to the British colony to the north. From there IEF B was to capture the rest of GEA (Hordern & Stacke, pp. 65-67). It is not clear how this was to happen - Aitken was tasked to capture an area larger than France using only 8,000 troops!</p>
<p>Whereas Lettow-Vorbeck familiarized himself with the environment, Aitken performed no reconnaissance prior to the battle. Further, he made no effort to acclimate his Indian troops to the African climate, train with them using the new rifles supplied to them just prior to departure, practice landings, etc. (Hordern & Stacke, p. 70). IEF B assembled in Bombay and was originally to set sail for Tanga on 30 September, but departure was delayed for two weeks, during which the troops had to stay aboard the ships that would become the convoy. The convoy finally departed on 16 October, travelling at 8 knots, the speed of the slowest ship, for their two-week voyage to Tanga.</p>
<h2>The Environment: Physical Elements</h2>
<p>The terrain, climate, and other physical elements of the battle site certainly favored the "home team," especially when the opponent did no intelligence-gathering. Tanga is a port city in German East Africa, now Tanzania, five degrees south of the equator. It is located on the south side of Tanga Bay, which has a depth ranging from 3 to 5 fathoms. The east side of the bay is bounded by the Ras Kasone peninsula which partially separates the bay and Tanga Harbor from the Indian Ocean. Edging the peninsula’s sandy beaches are 20-30 feet tall cliffs. The east side of the peninsula (where the initial British landing would take place) is bordered by mangroves, and 500 yards to the east of the mangroves is a coral reef. The beaches on the west side were sandy and narrow. (Anderson, 2002)</p>
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<div align="center"><i>Physical and Cultural Geography of Tanga.</i> (Harvey, 2014)</div>
<p>The climate of the area is tropical and has two rainy seasons: the “long rains” occurring from January to April, and the “short rains” during October and November. The battle occurred near the middle of the short rains, when the November temperature ranged between 72° and 88° F, the average humidity is 76%, and average monthly rainfall is approximately 5.5 inches. Malaria is mostly transmitted during the long rains, mostly.</p>
<p>The eastern coast was separated from the town by dense bush, mango groves, rubber tree plantations, and cultivated fields. The townsfolk also raised bees for their honey. Connecting the peninsula and the town were a series of roads cutting through the bush and the plantations. At least three of those roads extended past Tanga into the interior. Together with the Usambara Railway, those roads made Tanga very valuable to the British.</p>
<h2>The Environment: Cultural Elements</h2>
<p>In 1914, Tanga was the second largest port in German East Africa. Its shipping harbor was on the northeast side of the town, and consisted of a jetty and a customs shed, but it did not have any cranes. The harbor and jetty were serviced by rail that curved along the east side of town before turning west. This rail separated the German and African quarters of Tanga.
The shipping rail connected to the Usambara Railway, which ran from Tanga to Moshi, a town close to Mount Kilimanjaro. As the battle proceeded, the railway would be used to transport and concentrate German troops into Tanga. If captured, the British could use the railway to transport troops and supplies into northern GEA to control that part of the colony.
The town had facilities supporting the Usambara Railway, including a train station and maintenance workshops. Located to the east of the town was the cemetery, and a drainage ditch separated the eastern part of the shipping rail spur from that cemetery. There was also a hospital that served German, African, and British patients.</p>
<p>Ras Kasone, the peninsula separating Tanga Harbor from the Indian Ocean, had three structures that would be used by the British during their occupation: a signal tower, and two buildings called the “Red House” and the “White House.”</p>
<p>The colonial administration under Governor Heinrich Schnee wanted the colony to stay neutral during World War I and was willing to leave Tanga and other ports defenseless. Meanwhile Lt. Col. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, commander of the German Colonial Army (Schutztruppe), wanted to use conflict in East Africa to divert British troops away from the European theater. The colonists were trapped in the middle: native Askaris formed the bulk of the Schutztruppe, but the Germans wanted to maintain neutrality.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://the-other-side-of-history.blogspot.com/2024/03/battle-of-tanga-november-1914-part-2.html" target="_blank">part 2, a daily breakdown of the battle will be discussed</a>.</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Anderson, R. (2002). Battle of Tanga 1914. Tempus Publishing, Ltd.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Astronomical Applications Department. (N/D). US Naval Observatory. Retrieved 2 March 2024 from <a href="https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/index" target="_blank">https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/index</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Caulfeild, F. W. (1914). Logs of the HMS Fox. Retrieved 2 March 2024 from <a href="https://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-05-HMS_Fox.htm" target="_blank">https://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-05-HMS_Fox.htm</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Gaudi, R. (2017). African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918. Dutton Caliber.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Harvey, K. J. (2014). Battle of Tanga, German East Africa, 1914. Pickle Partners Publishing.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Hordern, C. & Stacke, H. (1941). Military Operations East Africa volume 1, August 1914 – September 1916. His Majesty’s Stationary Office.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Lettow-Vorbeck, P. E. v. (2021). My Reminiscences of East Africa. Good Press.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Royal Navy Research Archive. (N/D). RNAS Tanga. Retrieved 2 March 2024 from <a href="https://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/FAA-Bases/Tanga.htm" target="_blank">https://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/FAA-Bases/Tanga.htm</a></p>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-3213793787896875042024-03-07T01:23:00.000-05:002024-03-07T01:23:34.928-05:00The OODA Loop and the DOCA Loop<h2>The OODA Loop</h2>
<p>The most fundamental description of military action (as well as all action in general) is that it operates according to the OODA loop:
<ul>
<li>Observe</li>
<li>Orient</li>
<li>Decide</li>
<li>Act</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>Each step feeds forward to the next step, but the Decide stage can feed back to the Observe stage if no action is taken. Once the Act stage is entered, the feedback is to the Observe stage - that's why its called a loop. It isn't necessary that the Action is complete before returning to the Observe stage, such as when the action is not going as expected. The Observe stage is where intelligence gathering happens and the Orient stage is one of intelligence analysis. The Decide and Act stages are operational.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnELBlKMd6ubsExtrcZJ2lzC5KJ9rSHSGLEtQOakm6WLdm1q4uuQ5HfUxl_c6Xhoy7E70-6gKWmu6md5p-xy3Xo-GdJP3lSRW59vPPMavjj_Ce3EoeQvyStMGPgBbeMuFW_oHEaGkI0YtPocd0EyX50cMM-urtvvkNzY07MJRt95HszVkRrcEpPcFEVxqw/s1068/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-29%20at%201.44.39%20AM.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="1068" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnELBlKMd6ubsExtrcZJ2lzC5KJ9rSHSGLEtQOakm6WLdm1q4uuQ5HfUxl_c6Xhoy7E70-6gKWmu6md5p-xy3Xo-GdJP3lSRW59vPPMavjj_Ce3EoeQvyStMGPgBbeMuFW_oHEaGkI0YtPocd0EyX50cMM-urtvvkNzY07MJRt95HszVkRrcEpPcFEVxqw/s400/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-29%20at%201.44.39%20AM.png"/></a></div>
<p align="center" style="margin-top:0px">John Boyd's OODA Loop. Illustration by Patrick Edwin Moran from<br /><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3904554" target="_blank">https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3904554</a>
<p>The OODA loop was developed by USAF Colonel John Boyd as a model for combat operations, but is applicable to any situation where one's actions are based upon evidence. It is universal, and in the context of combat operations both opponents will be executing their own OODA loops.</p>
<p>Thought of in this way, there are two methods to disrupt an enemy's actions:
<ul>
<li>Block one or more steps of the enemy's OODA loop</li>
<li>Execute your OODA loop at a faster rate</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>For example, using a smoke grenade to conceal your movements prevents the enemy from observing your actions, thus blocking his OODA loop. Or, suppose you observe the enemy moving towards a hill, probably to capture it. You realize that the hill has some value (orient), decide that you can defend that hill, and move your forces to protect it (act), arriving first. That is an example of executing your OODA loop faster than the enemy did his.</p>
<p>The above examples are small in scale. Here's an example on a far larger scale: you observe non-government organizations helping illegal immigrants cross your southern border. This is unacceptable because it allows violent criminals to enter into your country, it harms programs meant for citizens, it is distructive to our infrastructure, it lowers chances for employment, it alters the political landscape, and it dilutes our culture. You decide that the flow of illegal immigrants can be lessened by countering the NGOs, and take legal action against them. Regardless of the success of the court proceedings (even if proceedings aren't complete), you return to the Observe stage and the loop continues.</p>
<h2>The DOCA Loop</h2>
<p>The most fundamental description of actions in irregular warfare is that it operates according to the DOCA loop:
<ul>
<li>Disperse</li>
<li>Orient</li>
<li>Concentrate</li>
<li>Act</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>The DOCA loop was named by William S. Lind in his writings on light infantry and 4<sup>th</sup> generation warfare, but it is an extremely old concept. For example, in pre-colonial America, the Indians were repeatedly winning battles against the Colonial Militias – the Indians were using irregular warfare (surprise attacks followed by dispersion) while the militias were practicing European-style battle tactics (close order formations, loading muskets using 56 steps, firing in mass unaimed volleys, etc.). Colonel Benjamin Church saw this and began incorporating Indians into his ranks. Soon, it was the militias that were avoiding tight formations, using cover and concealment, attacking at weak spots, targeting and firing at individual enemies, and conducting hit-and-run raids.</p>
<p>The single steps of the DOCA loop are more involved than those of the OODA loop. For example, the "Orient" phase includes actions that set-up the enemy for the "Act" phase, and the "Act" phase targets a single enemy weakness, and is attempted ony after reconnaissance shows that success is highly probable. Another aspect of the DOCA loop is that it is to be executed rapidly and aggressively. In terms of light infantry, Lind and Thiele (2015) state:
<blockquote>
<p>Light infantry tactics are offensive
in character, even during defensive
operations. Light infantrymen do not hold
a line. Light infantry tactics follow the
principles of maneuver warfare, attacking
by infiltration and defending by ambush. It
uses ambushes on the offensive as well,
by ambushing withdrawing or reinforcing
enemy units, sometimes deep in the
enemy’s rear. Light infantry applies an
ambush mentality to both planning and
execution...</p>
<p>...light infantry can
exploit its small arms skills while
denying the enemy effective employment
of his superior firepower. Light infantry
hugs the enemy and forces him to fight at
short ranges on its terms.</p>
</blockquote>
</p>
<p>The DOCA loop is applicable not only to sabotage and assassination missions, but also to how freedom fighters would, for example, retrieve supply drops or free prisoners.</p>
<p>As in the OODA loop, a counter-insurgency operation at the tactical level has two options:
<ul>
<li>Block one or more steps of the insurgency's DOCA loop</li>
<li>Adapt the style of irregular warfare and execute your DOCA loop at a faster rate.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>Here's a historical example of the first option: in late July through early August 1944, the Maquis (rural resistance fighters) converged at the Vercors Massif in southeast France (Lieb & Dennis, 2012) in preparation for the Invasion of Provence (Operation Dragoon) which was originally scheduled to occur simultaneously with the Invasion of Normandy. The invasion was delayed and the order to disperse was never received. The 157<sup>th</sup> Reserve Division of the Wehrmacht observed evidence of significant Maquis activity in and around the Vercors Massif in south-east France. Besides sabotaging rail traffic and assisinating Germans and collaborators, the Germans realized that they could hinder German retreat. Using a large force that consists of ground, airborne, and mountaineering components, they decide to act on the Maquis, and send in forces to kill or capture (then kill) as many Maquis as possible. The Maquis converged for an extended period without performing a relevant action, and the Germans prevented them from dispersing. In essence, the Germans prevented the Maquis from closing their DOCA loop.</p>
<p>From this one example, it may appear that freedom fighters executing a DOCA loop will always lose to traditional military forces. This is not always the case! The Maquis successfully executed a vast number of sabotage operations both in Occupied and Vichy France and were able to severely degrade German logistics prior to the Invaison of Normandy.</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Boyd, J. (1995). The Essence of Winning and Losing. Retrieved 26 February 2024 from <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110324054054/http://www.danford.net/boyd/essence.htm" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20110324054054/http://www.danford.net/boyd/essence.htm</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Lieb, P. & Dennis, P. (2012). Vercors 1944: Resistance in the French Alps. Osprey Publishing.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Lind, W. S. & Thiele, G. A. (2015). 4<sup>th</sup> Generation Warfare Handbook. Castalia House. Retrieved 26 February 2024 from <a href="https://ia802901.us.archive.org/27/items/4thGenerationWarfareHandbookWilliamS.Lind28129/4th_Generation_Warfare_Handbook_-_William_S._Lind%25281%2529.pdf" target="_blank">https://ia802901.us.archive.org/27/items/4thGenerationWarfareHandbookWilliamS.Lind28129/4th_Generation_Warfare_Handbook_-_William_S._Lind%25281%2529.pdf</a></p>Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-588586421522935032024-02-14T22:43:00.001-05:002024-02-14T22:43:18.663-05:00Military Geography of the Battle of New Orleans, 8 January 1815<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>The Battle of New Orleans was the last great battle of the War of 1812. The Treaty of Ghent, the treaty that ended that war, was signed on 24 December 1814, but news did not reach the American and British forces until after the completion of the battle.</p>
<p>This post examines that battle from a historical perspective, taking a regional approach, at a tactical and operational scale, in the context of wartime.</p>
<h2>Strategic Importance</h2>
<p>Capturing New Orleans would have been a major success for the British – it would cripple the United States economically, for it was the port through which the Midwest’s farm produce got to market. Further, its capture would give British forces access to the interior of the former colonies. Finally, it was feared that the Louisiana Purchase would be nullified upon British victory, precluding westward expansion.</p>
<h2>Physical Environment</h2>
<p>The battle took place at Chalmette Plantation, a flat one-square mile swampy field located 5 miles downriver from New Orleans. Chalmette was bounded on the north by a cypress swamp and on the south by the Mississippi River. At the time, there were many tree trunks entangled along the banks of the Mississippi. Past the cypress swamp were wet marshlands. The western edge was bounded by Rodriguez Canal which was four feet deep by 10 feet wide. The eastern edge was delimited by drainage ditches running perpendicular to the river. (Greene, n.d., pp. 52-84)</p>
<p>Prior to the battle, in response to an earlier British advance, Andrew Jackson widened the Rodriguez Canal and constructed a 7-foot-tall parapet parallel to the canal, on the opposite side of the canal from the field. These ramparts would later be known as Line Jackson. The Line ran approximately one mile from the Mississippi to the cypress swamps. It then hooked westward, and the left flank was protected by Choctaws and Tennessee militiamen.</p>
<p>In anticipation of the battle, America had placed an artillery battery on the opposite (west) bank of the Mississippi within range of the Chalmette Plantation. The river was approximately 800 yards wide at that point.</p>
<h2>Cultural Environment</h2>
<p>New Orleans was the largest city in the region, and outside of that the area was rural. A network of canals was dug for transport, irrigation, and drainage in support of the agricultural economy. The dominant languages in New Orleans were English and Louisiana Creole, a variant of French.</p>
<p>The people of New Orleans knew that their city was a valuable target for the British, and immediately prior to the Battle there were rumors that the mayor and city council would surrender to the British. The rumors were so persistent that Andrew Jackson locked the town hall to prevent them from voting on the issue.</p>
<h2>Composition of the British and American Forces</h2>
<p>There were approximately 8000 British troops involved in the battle, all under command of Major General Sir Edward Pakenham. The commanders directly under him, including Pakenham himself, were all veterans of the recently concluded Napoleonic Wars.</p>
<p>The American forces were commanded by Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson of the Tennessee Militia. Under him were approximately 4600 men, 74% of which were from four state militias; the remainder were from the regular Army, Marines, Navy, as well as 52 Choctaw warriors and a number of Jean Lafitte's privateers. (Roosevelt, 1882, p. 341-346)</p>
<h2>Prior to the Battle</h2>
<p>The Battle of New Orleans was the culmination of the Gulf Campaign, the British plan to capture New Orleans and surrounding parts of Louisiana and Florida. Several earlier events are relevant:</p>
<p>23 Dec 1814 - A British advance was halted by a night attack by Jackson. Both sides fell back, with Jackson moving to the Rodriguez Canal, where he begins construction of Line Jackson. </p>
<p>25 Dec 1814 - Maj. Gen. Pakenham arrives and takes charge of British forces. To flood the ground between the British and the Americans, the Americans breach the Chalmette Levee. The effect is minimal, however. (Roosevelt, 1882, p. 341)</p>
<p>1 Jan 1815 - British and Americans engage in an artillery duel. The British exhaust their ammunition after 3 hours while the Americans continued firing. Pakenham withdraws.</p>
<h2>The Battle</h2>
<p>Pakenham’s strategy was to attack Line Jackson along two fronts. On the east bank of the Mississippi, he planned to attack the center and both ends of the Line. Meanwhile, British forces under command of Colonel William Thornton would land downriver of Chalmette, advance upriver along the west bank, capture the American artillery placed opposite Chalmette, and use it to shell Line Jackson by firing across the river.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizUTRfc5UVcku5Hg_shZFO5Iinb-UEuxigsLVERLg4JpvYvCpFu2_NUFFnA858oxB1I7IU4r0CxGZafv2CF8gao9hlD-Yq-y8RYtWoLWZPXJ8YUo9ynK-5Rv6anbyzWhLRwNAAoAejfrcCr9gnQcYyeNvTWBjN5hjBydTpuBHVD2vNh2wKdstXU8K3z8QO/s1250/map7.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="862" data-original-width="1250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizUTRfc5UVcku5Hg_shZFO5Iinb-UEuxigsLVERLg4JpvYvCpFu2_NUFFnA858oxB1I7IU4r0CxGZafv2CF8gao9hlD-Yq-y8RYtWoLWZPXJ8YUo9ynK-5Rv6anbyzWhLRwNAAoAejfrcCr9gnQcYyeNvTWBjN5hjBydTpuBHVD2vNh2wKdstXU8K3z8QO/s400/map7.jpg"/></a></div>
<div align="center">Troop Movement 8 January 1815 (Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, n.d.).</div>
<p>The construction of Line Jackson began near the end of the previous month, and behind which Jackson emplaced artillery - two howitzers and thirteen 8-to-24-pound cannons. The British planned to cross Rodriguez Canal and storm the ramparts using ladders, but the ladders never arrived.</p>
<p>The battle began on the morning of 8 Jan 1815, with the British hoping to use the fog to their advantage. Unfortunately, the fog lifted too early. On the west bank, Thornton ran into problems with the soggy ground almost immediately: his movement was slowed considerably, and he was unable to widen a canal to move equipment needed for the assault.</p>
<p>Pakenham began multiple attacks against Line Jackson. On the right flank, the part closest to the river, Col. Robert Rennie’s force attacked, partially collapsing the Line before being repelled. The largest thrust was by Major Generals Sir John Keane and Samuel Gibbs against the middle of the Line - they also had to retreat. Finally, a third force attacked the left flank by crossing the cypress swamp but was repulsed by West Tennessee militiamen and Choctaws.</p>
<p>As all retreat paths led through the field, the British were under constant fire from Jackson’s troops, both while advancing and retreating - apparently the British were unfamiliar with the concept of open danger areas. This long exposure to fire explains the high number of British fatalities and casualties.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Thornton's troops overran the American artillery on the west bank. There were two problems, however: the retreating Americans sabotaged the artillery, and by the time Thornton arrived, the battle on the opposite bank was over.</p>
<p>The overall battle took no more than two hours.</p>
<h2>Outcomes</h2>
<p>Jackson’s forces suffered 13 dead, 39 wounded, and 19 missing or captured. Packenham suffered 291 dead, 1262 wounded, and 484 missing or captured. Among the fatalities were three of the British commanders: Gibbs, Rennie, and Pakenham himself. John Keene was wounded. No American commanders were killed.</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Greene, J. (n.d.). The New Orleans Campaign of 1814-1815 in relation to the Chalmette Battlefield. Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. Last retrieved 13 February 2024 from <a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/jela/lost_riverfront/Part_1.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/jela/lost_riverfront/Part_1.pdf</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. (n.d.) Troop movement map, New Orleans Campaign, 1814-1815: Engagement of January 8, 1815. United States Department of the Interior / National Park Service.
Last retrieved 14 February 2024 from <a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/jela/images/map7.jpg" target="_blank">https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/jela/images/map7.jpg</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Roosevelt, T. (1882). The Naval War of 1812, or the history of the United States Navy during the last war with Great Britain, to which is appended an account of the Battle of New Orleans. G.P. Putnam's Sons.</p>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-81718305044178491532024-01-28T23:45:00.007-05:002024-03-09T06:08:34.309-05:00American Mission Command vs German Auftragstaktik<p>When considering the role that command philorophies played in the Battle of France, one must ask if our current concept of mission command matches Germany’s Auftragstaktik?</p>
<p>Taken at face value (commanders specify objective while leaving means up to individuals), mission command is brilliant for skirmishes as performed by the French Maquis and other insurgency forces. The mission goal and timeframe are set by de Gaulle or other distant allied commanders, the maquisards kill the bad guys and break their stuff, while semi-politicians like Jean Moulin endeavored to hold together the non-rural factions (the French Resistance, not the Maquis who operated primarily in rural areas). Given the perhaps romanticized psychology of the Maquis, as well as the necessity for decentralized organization and the faster OODA looping that comes from local control, mission command is a perfect match for them.</p>
<p>Vandergriff (2018) gives a more comprehensive description of Auftragstaktik – instead of focusing on command and control, he describes it primarily as a form of professionalism and cultural philosophy expected of all members of the German Army: “subordinates could be trusted to take the action he thought appropriate, rather than stopping and waiting until contact could be re-established. This aggressive attitude allowed units to take advantage of fleeting opportunities and local successes.”</p>
<p>Vandergriff (2018) goes on to identify three virtues that German officers required: “knowledge, independence, and the joy of taking responsibility.” These virtues are expressed in Innere Führung, which the German Major General Werner Widder (2002) describes as leadership and civic education and is the foundation of the relationship between the individual soldier and society.</p>
<p>Thus, Vandergriff’s virtues not only describe the character of German officers but makes Auftragstaktik a natural corollary instead of a forced doctrine: German professionalism implies mission command, but not necessarily the reverse.</p>
<p>It is interesting to note that while command and control has been official doctrine in the U.S. Army from 1980 (Kiser 2015), a set of corresponding virtues wasn’t released until 2023 in the Air Force’s doctrine on mission command. These virtues - character, competence, capability, cohesion, and capacity (U.S. Air Force, 2023) - show a maturation of U.S. doctrine to something closer to a complete version of Germany’s Auftragstaktik.</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Kiser, A. J. (May 2015) “Mission command: The historical roots of mission
command in the US Army.” Defense Technical Information Center. Last retrieved on 28 January 2024 from <a href="https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1001514.pdf" target="_blank">https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1001514.pdf</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">U.S. Air Force. (14 August 2023). “Air Force doctrine publication 1-1: Mission Command” Retrieved on 28 January 2024 from <a href="https://www.doctrine.af.mil/Portals/61/documents/AFDP_1-1/AFDP%201-1%20Mission%20Command.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.doctrine.af.mil/Portals/61/documents/AFDP_1-1/AFDP%201-1%20Mission%20Command.pdf</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Vandergriff, D. E. (21 June 2018). “How the Germans defined Auftragstaktik: What mission command is – and – is not” Small Wars Journal. Retrieved 28 January 2024 from <a href="https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/how-germans-defined-auftragstaktik-what-mission-command-and-not" target="_blank">https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/how-germans-defined-auftragstaktik-what-mission-command-and-not</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Widder, W. (2002). “Auftragstaktik and Innere Führung: Trademarks of German leadership” Military Review, September-October 2002. Retrieved on 28 January 2024 from <a href="https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/Hot-Spots/docs/MC/MR-Sep-Oct-2002-Widder.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/Hot-Spots/docs/MC/MR-Sep-Oct-2002-Widder.pdf</a></p>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-91222879007899450312024-01-28T23:10:00.001-05:002024-01-28T23:52:06.880-05:00Explaining Gamelin's Defeat at the Battle of France<p>General Maurice Gamelin’s hubris and self-delusion certainly played a role in France's defeat, but were those the only reasons for that defeat?</p>
<p>The willful ignorance of the geography and history surrounding the Ardennes Forest wasn’t limited to just a few military leaders but seemed to be widespread throughout the top levels of the French military. How did this institutional rot become so widespread? Here are two theories that may explain this:
<ol>
<li>The “blinded by science” theory: the French saw Germany’s use of blitzkrieg in the invasion of Poland in 1939, and they failed to grasp the significance of it. This is akin to when one chess player doesn’t understand his opponent’s strategy mid-game. The world was seeing a revolution in heavy mechanized warfare, and the French didn’t understand the scope of its applicability.</li>
<li>The “historical materialism theory”: during the interwar years, France was a hotbed of Marxist-influenced thought, and Marxists are extremely comfortable with revising history to fit their narrative. The result is that history becomes detached from reality and is instead grounded in wishful thinking and the eternal Year Zero. This may be why Gamelin discounted the results of the 1939 summer exercises – the historical materialist would say that what happened last year has no bearing on the present beyond the repositioning of economic classes, followed by even more word salad.</li>
</ol>
</p>
<p>Both theories may be grasping at straws, and it would be very difficult to either prove or disprove them. A little scrap of information supporting the second theory comes from Pétain, who attributed the French defeat to “the work of 30 years of Marxism,” (Langer, 2013) but this can be his attempt to shift the blame. Another quote of his (Giannelia, 1941) is that “France will become again what she should never have ceased to be, an essentially agricultural nation. Like the giant of mythology, she will recover all her strength by contact with the soil,” thoughts that would be echoed by Pol Pot 30 years later.</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Giannelia, P. (1941). “France returns to the soil”. Land and Freedom. Retrieved 28 Jan 2024 from <a href="https://cooperative-individualism.org/giannelia-pavlos_france-returns-to-the-soil-1941-jan-feb.htm" target="_blank">https://cooperative-individualism.org/giannelia-pavlos_france-returns-to-the-soil-1941-jan-feb.htm</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Langer, H. J. (2013). World War II: An encyclopedia of quotations. Greenwood Publishing Group.</p>Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-37512435988507431042024-01-25T17:44:00.002-05:002024-01-28T23:52:45.746-05:00Military Geography of Operation Sickle Cut<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>Germany’s invasion of France in May and June of 1940 could cross the border at three locations: the Maginot Line, the Ardennes Forest, and the Plain of Flanders. The French considered the Maginot Line to be secure. They believed that Ardennes was impassible by German Panzers, and so they defended it with minimal forces. French General Maurice Gamelin thus designed his Dyle-Breda Plan to defend Flanders by amassing troops along the Franco-Belgian border.</p>
<p>Germany instead believed that Ardennes was a viable invasion route and so amassed Army Group A at the least-defended part of the border: the Ardennes Forest, while placing the smaller Army Group B at the Belgian border. This was the starting arrangement of the German forces according to General Erich von Manstein’s Case Yellow, also called Unternehmen Sichelschnitt – Operation Sickle Cut.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh22B7PkytERAusbAYljNYZAOkPnVwiE3YthCW0abSOuFXEsV-FNgCodxzeV09pO0tivvdU0e3iE-wT-4r78QY3h5hsKDpGWXu9lE5OZtbp8SXmfKZ4MmzEyQIRI47JVw-qX3crrAvpTUSqiGC3vt3L8mmx1pVoH4kbLqGLVus1fw665qGqVbcwtMZ_8FcP/s750/Start%20of%20the%20Battle%20of%20France.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="681" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh22B7PkytERAusbAYljNYZAOkPnVwiE3YthCW0abSOuFXEsV-FNgCodxzeV09pO0tivvdU0e3iE-wT-4r78QY3h5hsKDpGWXu9lE5OZtbp8SXmfKZ4MmzEyQIRI47JVw-qX3crrAvpTUSqiGC3vt3L8mmx1pVoH4kbLqGLVus1fw665qGqVbcwtMZ_8FcP/s400/Start%20of%20the%20Battle%20of%20France.png"/></a></div>
<div align="center">French and German War Plans at the Start of the Battle of France<br />From Galgano (2009)</div>
<p>Germany indeed attacked through Belgium, and the Allies responded by sending their forces into Flanders to repel Army Group B. Germany’s incursion into Belgium was feigning maneuver, however.</p>
<p>Almost simultaneously, Army Group A with its seven Panzer divisions entered the Ardennes Forest on 10 May, crossing it in only three days. Once on French soil, the Germans turned north and reached the English Channel by 21 May. This encircled the Allied forces at Flanders, trapping them against the English Channel. This also separated the Allied forces at Flanders from those assigned to defend central France, including Paris. A little over a month later, almost half of France was occupied, and the armistice and cease fire between France and Germany went into effect on 25 June.</p>
<h2>Geographic Analysis: Physical Component</h2>
<p>Galgano (2009) argues convincingly that the Ardennes Forest was the most pivotal geographic element at the start of the Battle of France. The Ardennes, with its dense forest, rugged hills, and deep gorges, made the forest difficult to cross, restricting travel mostly to roads running along river valleys. There is one part of Ardennes, however, through which heavy armor could pass: the Losheim Gap (Winters, Galloway & Reynolds, 2001, p. 49). The Germans used this gap at the start of the sickle cut, sending seven Panzer divisions into France on 10 May 1940.</p>
<p>A physical component that played a role at the <i>end</i> of the sickle cut is the English Channel, which worked as a barrier against which the Germans pinned the French, British, and Belgian forces. Besides forcing the Allies to evacuate their troops, the English Channel also served as the German's right flank as they continued their march westward through France.</p>
<h2>Geographic Analysis: Cultural Component</h2>
<p>The most important cultural component was the French General Staff’s attitude that the Ardennes was impossible to cross using heavy armor. The analysis of prior commanders lent credence to this: the WWI French General Charles Lanrezac is quoted as saying that "if you go into that deathtrap of the Ardennes, you will never come out" (Winters, Galloway & Reynolds, 2001, p. 48), and Marshal Pétain in 1934 called the Ardennes "impenetrable," but amended this by stating that "if any enemy attacked he would be pincered as he left the forest. This is not a dangerous sector," adding "as long as we make special provisions" (Jackson, 2004, p. 32) - those provisions presumably being support from the Belgian Army as well as the use of French troops trained at slowing or halting an advancing force. This latter option was viable, for "the terrain also decentralized offensive command and control while favoring small-unit defensive operations" (Winters, Galloway & Reynolds, 2001, p. 49).</p>
<p>The belief that the Ardennes was impenetrable by heavy armor had solidified before the start of WWII, as the French halted construction of the most fortified part of the Maginot Line south of Ardennes (Galgano, 2009). Even the French 1938 summer exercises in which a notional German force defeated French forces in Ardennes (Galgano, 2009) was not enough to challenge this dogma, as General Gamelin attributed this loss to a lack of adequate reserves. Galgano (2009) attributed Gamelin’s self-delusion to “an unconscionable sense of intellectual lethargy.”</p>
<p>The assumption that Ardennes was impassible was held by French commanders right up to the start of the Battle of France. Even when it was clear that Germany would attempt an invasion, the French side of the Ardennes Forest was guarded by a force used in an inappropriate manner by the commanders who placed them there, which Galgano (2009) dismisses as "second-rate" and the "worst divisions in the French Army." Further, the French apparently did not perform reconnaissance (either aerial or even basic ground patrols) to monitor activity on the German side of the Forest.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Would these military geographic components still be considered important today? The physical components that made the Ardennes difficult to penetrate are still there (except maybe for deforestation and modernized roadways), but physical impediments are made less important due to improvements in heavy armor technology and the ability to deliver such armor through means other than over-land. The English Channel is still of value for its ports and the proximity of the Lille industrial district. To any enemy of France, those ports and the Lille district continue to be assets worth controlling. The fact that the English Channel is a body of water will forever constrain the movement of ground forces. (Galgano & Palka, 2010, pp. 50) </p>
<p>It is not clear whether the cultural components would still be in place: WWI ended more than a century ago, and the military commanders that saw the Battles of Flanders (and desired not to see it repeated) are long gone, as were the commander who wanted to refight the previous war. The institutional dogma about the impenetrability of the Ardennes Forest by heavy armor may still be in place as a form of command inertia, either ignoring the history and geography of the Battle for France or by ignoring basic infantry skills in favor of "high tech" approaches to area denial.</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Galgano, F. A. (2009). " Sichelschnitt ": A geographical analysis of a decisive campaign, France, May 1940. In P. Nathanail, B. Abrahart and R. Bradshaw (Eds.), <i>The History and Technology of Military Geology and Geography</i>, Nottingham, United Kingdom: Total Graphics, Ltd.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Galgano, F. & Palka, E.J. (2010). (Eds.). <i>Modern military geography</i> (1st ed.). Routledge.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Jackson, J. (2004). <i>The fall of France: The Nazi invasion of 1940</i>. OUP Oxford.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Winters, H.A., Galloway, G.A., & Reynolds, W.J. (2001). <i>Battling the elements: Weather and terrain in the conduct of war</i>. John Hopkins University Press.</p>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-86113848038646172142024-01-20T01:34:00.001-05:002024-01-22T18:53:52.607-05:00The Value of Military Geography<p>Geographical information is extremely applicable to military operations, for "[i]n combat an environmental advantage for one side always means some degree of misfortune for the other" (Winters, Galloway & Reynolds, 2001, p. 1). The wise commander understands this and uses geography to his advantage when defending against an enemy, engaging with the enemy, or breaking contact when appropriate.</p>
<p>From an applied perspective, in the context of wartime, at the smallest tactical scale, and using a topical approach (Galgano & Palka, 2010, pp. 15-16), knowledge of the geography of the area of operations (AO) will allow the fireteam or squad commander to set up defensive positions for his unit and determine likely avenues of enemy approach. It also allows him to locate linear and open danger areas, which in turn will aid in determining patrol routes and positioning ambushes.</p>
<p>Further, knowledge of the terrain and intelligence on enemy locations will determine the safest routes for convoys as they move through the AO, and the safest times to use those routes. This allows a commander to assign forces to surveil and defend those routes.</p>
<p>Geography is useful in planning aggressive actions as well. The commander will use geographic information to control the enemy's movements, using terrain features as natural barriers to channel the enemy to where the commander wishes them to go. Geographic information can be used with communication systems to enable synchronized movements between two or more fireteams and squads, to execute hammer and anvil tactics, for example.</p>
<p>Geographic information must be as current as possible so that patrol leaders are aware of changes such as variations in the flow of rivers or the appearance/disappearance of intermittent lakes. Seasonal variations in foliage will alter locations of concealment and will determine the ways in which an enemy can be observed.</p>
<p>These applications of geography also work in reverse, in a sense: they allow a commander to predict where the enemy would set-up ambushes, or to predict which convoy routes will most likely be sabotaged by the enemy, and so on.</p>
<p>At an operational scale, small units can infiltrate behind enemy lines in a coordinated manner (Galgano & Palka, 2010, pp. 30-31), and the points where they cross the enemy’s defensive belt is determined by three pieces of geographic information: the location of gaps in the line of defense, the location of targets (such as enemy supply routes and logistic bases), and the terrain that the penetrating units must traverse to reach those targets.</p>
<p>Geographic information is also used in the penetration attack (Galgano & Palka, 2010, pp. 30-31). In this maneuver, a large force is applied to a narrow section of the front in order to break through the front and attack objectives deep behind enemy lines. Thus, penetration is similar to infiltration, but instead of having numerous small units infiltrate behind enemy lines, a single large force is used. The three pieces of geographic information used in infiltration – location of defensive gap, location of targets, and the terrain between them – are also used in penetration attacks. Penetration attacks can be used (Galgano & Palka, 2010, p. 30) when the enemy’s flanks are not vulnerable, and one way that the enemy commander can ensure this is by exploiting terrain features such as mountains and swamps, as was done at the Battles of Thermopylae and New Orleans, respectively.</p>
<p>By intelligently exploiting geographic information, military commanders can plan and successfully execute tasks relevant to capturing and holding an area as well as eliminating the enemy. The only limits are the commander’s knowledge of geography and his own imagination.</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Galgano, F. & Palka, E.J. (2010). (Eds.). <i>Modern military geography</i> (1st ed.). Routledge.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Winters, H.A., Galloway, G.A., & Reynolds, W.J. (2001). <i>Battling the elements: Weather and terrain in the conduct of war</i>. John Hopkins University Press.</p>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-81132008769743490672024-01-20T01:29:00.003-05:002024-01-20T19:32:19.214-05:00Comparing Military Logistics vs Commercial LogisticsComparing Military Logistics vs Commercial Logistics
<p>
Similarities
<ul>
<li>Requires various supplies in order to proceed</li>
<li>Consumes supplies as operations continue - and operations halt when supply is exhausted</li>
<li>Both have various supply classes</li>
<li>Impracticality of carrying and maintaining all the supplies needed for an extended period of time</li>
<li>Both use networks of supply bases and have transportation routes</li>
<li>Predictable usage cycles (fighting seasons in military, Christmas season for commercial)</li>
<li>Unpredictable demand spikes (unforeseen offensives in military, commercial products "go viral")</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
Differences
<ul>
<li>Military has virtually unlimited funding; commercial activities must operate within budget</li>
<li>Military supplies are subject to physical attack from an enemy, commercial supplies are not - usually</li>
<li>Military logistic networks are organized into trees; commercial networks aren't</li>
<li>Commercial activities can rapidly reorganize supply chains; military has "friction"</li>
<li>Raiding is acceptable in military context, but isn't in commercial context.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>A large number of Union Pacific trains were raided in LA in Jan 2022. UP has their own police department, but they did nothing to prevent the looting. Their failure lets me know there's a gray zone between military and commercial logistics, and that is a zone that should be occupied. Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-68832702409797318832024-01-08T22:59:00.002-05:002024-01-08T22:59:31.822-05:00Fusion Centers: How They Started, How They're Going<h2>Precursors to Fusion Centers</h2>
<p>Prior to 9/11, the law enforcement agencies of many major urban areas had departments dedicated to gathering and analyzing intelligence related to very specific types of crime, such as gangs, white collar crimes, narcotics crimes, and organized crime. There was relatively little coordination among these departments or with state, tribal, or federal agencies, except through specialized networks such as the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program.</p>
<p>Very few of these agencies specialized in counter-terrorism intelligence. One exception (Sullivan & Bauer, 2008) was the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department: their Terrorism Early Warning Group, formed in 1996, was designed to coordinate first responders (law enforcement and fire services) with LA County Health Services to gather, analyze, and share information related to domestic and international terrorism. The TEWG grew to include data sharing with state and federal agencies. Still, there were few formal relationships for sharing information between other TEW Groups.</p>
<h2>Effects of the 9/11 Terror Attacks</h2>
<p>This lack of specialized municipal counter-terrorist intelligence agencies changed after 9/11, when the Bush Administration called for the creation of "fusion centers" by state, tribal, and local governments. Modeled on TEW Groups, fusion centers would coordinate with and exchange data with each other as well as federal agencies such as the FBI, DHS, and the DOJ.</p>
<p>The document establishing fusion centers (NSC, n.d. 2007?) can be used as an operational baseline. The scope of information trafficked by fusion centers is delineated as: "<i>all crimes</i> with national security implications, and <i>all hazards</i> information (e.g., criminal investigations, terrorism, public health and safety, and emergency response) which often involves identifying criminal activity and other information that <i>might</i> be a precursor to a terrorist plot." [Emphasis added]</p>
<p>Although the type of information to be gathered by fusion centers was meant to be terrorism-related, note that criminal activity that <i>might</i> be a precursor to terrorism can be surveilled. Further, the guidelines for disseminating Federal information included sending information from federal down to state, local, and tribal levels.</p>
<h2>From 2001 to 2010</h2>
<p>Davis, et. al. (2010) describe how fusion centers evolved since their founding up to the year 2010. By 2010, fusion centers adopted formal agreements for data sharing between other fusion centers as well as with federal agencies. Local, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies became serious collaborators with these federal agencies.
<p>Also, by 2010, most fusion centers experienced enormous mission creep, moving from a counterterrorism and homeland security focus to an "all-crimes, all-hazards" focus. Agencies besides law enforcement and fire services, such as schools and public health departments, were encouraged to work with fusion centers.
<p>Thus the "might be a precursor to a terrorist plot" loophole mentioned above was exploited.
<p>Individual fusion centers' AO/AI expanded during this period as well, with some municipal centers covering the law enforcement agencies in multiple counties.
<p>So intertwined are the agencies that it is possible for multiple law enforcement departments to pursue the same criminals at the same time, and resolving such situations is described as "deconfliction."
<p>Fusion centers are owned and operated by state, tribal, and local governments, but receive federal support through training, personnel, technology, and funding through the Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP). Davis, et. al. (2010) are concerned about the continuation of fusion centers after the current year's HSGP expires. The HSGP has been renewed annually since the report was published.</p>
<h2>From 2010 to the Present</h2>
<p>To see how fusion centers have evolved since (Davis, et. al., 2010), a snapshot of fusion center operation and scope can be gleaned from the NSISS, the National Strategy for Information Sharing and Safeguarding (DNS, 2012). Some changes include:
<ol>
<li>The NSISS does not define particular categories or types of information that must be shared.</li>
<li>More types of agencies are to supply information to fusion centers: "This information sharing mandate requires sustained and responsible collaboration between Federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, private sector, and foreign partners."</li>
<li>Information is treated as a national asset, and departments and agencies have an obligation to share that information.</li>
</ol>
</p>
<p>An interesting sentence in (DNS, 2012) is this: "In order to build and sustain the trust required to share with one another, we must work together to identify and collectively reduce risk, rather than avoiding information loss by not sharing at all."</p>
<p>Translating Fed-Speak to English, that comment roughly means that management wants workers to share information instead of hoarding it, as federal employees are wont to do so as to acquire personal power. For example, if the FBI and CIA had been more cooperative, 9/11 may have been averted. This gives considerable insight into the people working at fusion centers.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Mission creep and the desire by employees to accumulate power, combined with the lack of a clear definition of terrorism, has led to abuses of power. Examples of this are the types of people classified as terrorists in fusion center reports (Rittgers, 2011):
<blockquote>"The North Texas Fusion System labeled Muslim lobbyists as a potential threat; a DHS analyst in Wisconsin thought both pro- and anti-abortion activists were worrisome; a Pennsylvania homeland security contractor watched environmental activists, Tea Party groups, and a Second Amendment rally; the Maryland State Police put anti-death penalty and anti-war activists in a federal terrorism database; a fusion center in Missouri thought that all third-party voters and Ron Paul supporters were a threat; and the Department of Homeland Security described half of the American political spectrum as “right wing extremists.”"</blockquote>
Missing both from (NSC, n.d. 2007?) and (DNS, 2012) are criteria for success for fusion centers, so it is not clear whether fusion centers are fulfilling their intended purpose.</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Davis, L. M., Pollard, M., Ward, K., Wilson, J. M., Varda, D. M., Hansell, L., & Steinberg, P. (2010). Long-Term Effects of Law Enforcement’s Post-9/11 Focus on Counterterrorism and Homeland Security. RAND Corporation. <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/mg1031nij" target="_blank">http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/mg1031nij</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">DHS, (2012, December). National Strategy for Information Sharing and Safeguarding. <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/15_1026_NSI_National-Strategy-Information-Sharing-Safeguarding.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/15_1026_NSI_National-Strategy-Information-Sharing-Safeguarding.pdf</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">NSC. (n.d. 2007?). "Appendix 1 - Establishing a national integrated network of state and major urban area fusion centers".
<a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/nsc/infosharing/sectionIX.html" target="_blank">https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/nsc/infosharing/sectionIX.html</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Rittgers, D. (2011, February 2). "We're all terrorists now". Cato Institute. <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/were-all-terrorists-now" target="_blank">https://www.cato.org/blog/were-all-terrorists-now</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Sullivan, J. & Bauer, A. (2008). "Terrorism early warning: 10 years of achievement in fighting terrorism and crime". Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. <a href="http://shq.lasdnews.net/Content/uoa/SHB/publications/TerrorismEarlyWarning.pdf" target="_blank">http://shq.lasdnews.net/Content/uoa/SHB/publications/TerrorismEarlyWarning.pdf</a></p>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-12470535794730511132024-01-08T22:10:00.003-05:002024-01-08T23:04:41.081-05:00Two Domestic Bioterror Attacks<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>This paper compares two domestic bioterror attacks, one prior to and the other after 9/11. The attacks, the perpetrators and their motives are described, and the responses by state and federal agencies are compared. Finally, a list of practices and procedures implemented by federal agencies to prevent future attacks is enumerated.</p>
<h2>Pre-9/11 Terrorist Event: 1984 Rajneeshee Bioterror Attack</h2>
<p>Followers of the Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (1931–1990) formed a commune in Oregon in 1981. In 1984 the Rajneeshees had gained political control of the town of Antelope, Oregon, which was 18 miles from their commune.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5A0-NHDFTrkzZsiQUxglBmYtc0VtSOJQ_z5Az46VfwrCoaXfV6R2IsJSaKgHNr71zM8m1s3CEjcU1QLab6A9oO3RvuP705zpmiBeXk53rUogOl39KNCFLSUDcSHYhiZG5rk2AU1dIyKDcmH6-eIebjGJ2TA8Wh1rLCp3NqOOyJ8PZkdyqTWi2ASa3utmV/s840/Rajneesh.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="840" data-original-width="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5A0-NHDFTrkzZsiQUxglBmYtc0VtSOJQ_z5Az46VfwrCoaXfV6R2IsJSaKgHNr71zM8m1s3CEjcU1QLab6A9oO3RvuP705zpmiBeXk53rUogOl39KNCFLSUDcSHYhiZG5rk2AU1dIyKDcmH6-eIebjGJ2TA8Wh1rLCp3NqOOyJ8PZkdyqTWi2ASa3utmV/s320/Rajneesh.jpg"/></a></div>
<p>Having won in Antelope - and renaming it Rajneeshpuram - the Rajneeshees ran candidates for two seats in the Wasco County, OR, Circuit Court as well as for the sheriff's office in the November 1984 election. They knew that they couldn't win the elections without... shenanigans.</p>
<p>The majority of the Rajneeshees couldn't vote as they were not U.S. citizens. To compensate, they transported thousands of homeless people into Rajneeshpuram and attempted to register them to vote in the upcoming election. The Wasco County clerk denied their registrations (Zaitz, 2011, Part 3).</p>
<p>Fearing that they wouldn't get enough votes, the Rajneeshees decided to poison the voters in The Dalles, which is the largest city in Wasco County. They purchased Salmonella from a medical supply company, then cultivated it in a lab in Rajneeshpuram (Zaitz, 2011, Part 2).</p>
<p>As a trial run, they gave two Wasco County commissioners Salmonella-contaminated water in late August 1984. Both fell ill and one required hospitalization (Zaitz, 2011, Part 3). After other attempts of contamination failed, they then tried to spread Salmonella at a local grocery store. That attempt failed, too (Zaitz, 2011, Part 2). Finally, they delivered Salmonella into the salad bars of ten restaurants, either by spreading it over the food or by mixing it into salad dressings, in September and October 1984. They were able to infect a total of 751 people, including an infant and an 87-year-old. Forty-five required hospitalization, and all survived. (Flaccus, 2001)</p>
<p>Local residents suspected that the Rajneeshees were the poisoners, and turned-out in droves on election day. None of the Rajneeshee candidates won.</p>
<p>The Oregon State Public Health Laboratory investigated the matter and concluded that the salmonellosis was caused by the poor personal hygiene of food handlers (Zaitz, 2011, Part 3). Oregon Congressman James Weaver didn't believe this theory and contacted the CDC but was met with skepticism.</p>
<p>Rajneesh held several press conferences starting in September 1985, where he made public his suspicions that those involved in palace intrigue were responsible for the Salmonella outbreak (Zaitz, 2011, Part 4). The twenty people involved in the intrigue had fled to Europe the weekend before. He invited state and federal law enforcement agencies to investigate.</p>
<p>The investigation by the Oregon State Police, the FBI, and the INS found receipts for the Salmonella from the medical supply company, signs of a wiretapping operation (Zaitz, 2011, Part 1), and plans to murder several people including an Oregon Times reporter who wrote an expose on the Rajneeshees (Grossman, 2001).</p>
<p>They also found vials of Salmonella which the Atlanta CDC confirmed was a match for the salad bar poisonings.</p>
<p>Rajneesh was charged with 35 violations of immigration laws, and given a 10-year suspended sentence, a $400,000 fine, and was deported. He was never prosecuted directly for crimes related to the Salmonella attack (Zaitz, 2011, Part 5).</p>
<p>Two of Rajneesh's lieutenants were arrested in West Germany and extradited to the U.S. in October 1985. They were charged for the poisoning cases, multiple attempted murder charges, wiretapping, and immigration offenses. They were released on parole early for good behavior after serving only 29 months (Zaitz, 2011, Part 5).</p>
<p>Besides the 751 cases of salmonellosis, the Rajneeshees bioterror attack spread fear and drained the economy of Wasco County. As of 2003, all but one of the contaminated restaurants went out of business (Nestle, 2003).</p>
<h2>Post-9/11 Terrorist Event: 2001 Anthrax Attacks</h2>
<p>In September and October 2001, following the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, letters containing Anthrax were sent to news media offices in New York City and Boca Raton, Florida, as well as to the offices of Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. Twenty-two people were infected, 11 of whom developed severe infections, and five died.</p>
<p>During the investigation, these attacks were called “Amerithrax,” and this name has become part of the final DOJ documents describing the history and outcomes of these attacks.</p>
<p>The Task Force investigating these attacks included at least 27 agents and inspectors from the FBI and the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) (DOJ, 2011), and they used a two-prong approach to identify the perpetrator.</p>
<p>The first approach was a traditional investigation, including examination of the envelopes looking for microscopic print defects, paper fiber composition, as well as the shipping records of the envelope manufacturers. They further investigated companies and whole industries that could be connected in any way (DOJ, 2010, p. 21). This included inspecting:
<ul>
<li>any company that could have profited by mailing Anthrax</li>
<li>Michigan Biologics Products Institute, the sole provider of the Anthrax vaccine to the DOD (U.S. Congress, 2000)</li>
<li>laboratory equipment manufacturers</li>
<li>the agriculture veterinary industry</li>
<li>the bio-pharmaceutical industry to see if their production processes could be used to manufacture the spore powder</li>
<li>and the bio-pesticide industry</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>The return address on the envelopes was an elementary school in New Jersey. The investigators “reviewed student records dating back several decades” but they found no match to people already in the Amerithrax databases.</p>
<p>They reviewed the correspondence to the senators to look for any similarities with the notes included in the Anthrax letters.</p>
<p>They also collected Internet traffic logs and searches for contacts and mailing addresses for the recipients but were unable to locate any commonalities.</p>
<p>Finally, the Task Force looked for suspicious deaths following the mailings, the idea being that the person who sent the anthrax-containing letters had himself died from the anthrax.</p>
<p>All these traditional investigative methods lead nowhere.</p>
<p>The second investigative approach used by the Task Force involved genetic analysis of the Anthrax spores. Using “microbial forensics” (DOJ, 2011) scientists were able to determine the specific strain of Anthrax used in the attacks. This allowed the FBI to trace the source of the Anthrax to Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. One scientist in particular, Bruce Ivins, was strongly suspected. He committed suicide on July 29, 2008.</p>
<p>Dr. Ivins’ motive for the attacks was determined to be career advancement (DOJ, 2010, p.8):
<blockquote>According to his e-mails and statements to friends, in the months leading up to the anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, Dr. Ivins was under intense personal and
professional pressure. The anthrax vaccine program to which he had devoted his entire career of more than 20 years was failing. The anthrax vaccines were receiving criticism in several scientific circles, because of both potency problems and allegations that the anthrax vaccine contributed to Gulf War Syndrome. Short of some major breakthrough or intervention, he feared that the vaccine research program was going to be discontinued. Following the anthrax attacks, however, his program was suddenly rejuvenated.</blockquote>
</p>
<p>By infecting people with Anthrax, “he creates a situation, a scenario, where people all of a sudden realize the need to have this vaccine.” (DOJ, 2008)</p>
<p>Not only was Ivins’ program rejuvenated, but the bio-pharmaceutical company manufacturing the vaccine for the DOD received FDA approval following the Anthrax mailings.</p>
<h2>Comparison of the Attacks</h2>
<p>Dr. Ivins and the Rajneeshees both used bioweapons to achieve their goals. The similarities end there:
<ul>
<li>The Rajneeshee attacks were intended to sway an election, Amerithrax was intended to continue and increase funding for Anthrax vaccine research</li>
<li>The Rajneeshees’ targets were (for the most part) indiscriminate, besides being in a specific geographic area</li>
<li>Amerithrax targeted politicians and news media outlets, which would presumably gather increased attention for the attacks</li>
<li>Neither attack sought to bring attention to the attackers</li>
</ul>
</p>
<h2>Changes in Federal Agencies to Prevent Future Mail-Borne Attacks</h2>
<p>To kill any Anthrax spores still in the mail system at the time of the attack, the USPS worked with companies to irradiate all mail sent to congressional and governmental offices in the Washington, D.C., ZIP codes 20200 to 20599. (Marsh, 2021).</p>
<p>The USPS then developed a Biohazard Detection system in response to the Anthrax letters. This eventually led to the USPS scanning and photographing every piece of mail being processed using the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking (MICT) system. These scans allow retroactive tracking of mail at the request of law enforcement agencies. The existence of the MICT was kept secret until it was revealed in 2013 by the FBI in the investigation of the Ricin attacks of that year. (Magalski, 2013).</p>
<h2>Summary and Conclusions</h2>
<p>The 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attacks and the 2001 Amerithrax attacks were both examples of domestic terrorist attacks that employed bioweapons as the vectors of attack. The Anthrax attacks were more sophisticated than the Rajneeshee attacks in that Anthrax is more difficult to cultivate than is Salmonella, presumably, but this can’t be taken as proof that the bioterrorists themselves have become more sophisticated in their craft.</p>
<p>The investigative techniques used show clear signs of improvement in the 17 years between these two terrorist events, however. In the case of the Rajneeshee attacks investigators were only able to verify that the Salmonella in the restaurants was the same as in the commune. In the Amerithrax case, they were able to pinpoint Dr. Ivins as the suspect without him coming forward and admitting guilt.</p>
<p>One comparison that must be made is the extent to which the relevant government agencies investigated these two attacks:
<ul>
<li>With the Rajneeshee attacks, the CDC dismissed the Salmonella attacks as paranoid and “Rajneeshee bashing.”</li>
<li>With Amerithrax, multiple agencies were involved and there was no dismissing the attacks.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>One must wonder why there was this difference. Some theories include:
<ol>
<li>Amerithrax shortly followed the 9/11 attacks, when all investigative agencies were on heightened alert</li>
<li>Microbial forensics as a field of research had started to blossom between the two events</li>
<li>The Rajneeshee bioterror attack was confined to one state whereas Amerithrax attacks involved five states and Washington D.C.</li>
<li>The Salmonella was delivered in person whereas the Anthrax was delivered using the USPS, a federal agency</li>
<li>There is also a difference in the targets: Ivins’ targets were media outlets and politicians, whereas Rajneeshees’ targets were “average Joes”</li>
</ol>
</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">DOJ. 6 August 2008. Transcript of Amerithrax Investigation Press Conference. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180414173904/https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2008/August/08-opa-697.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20180414173904/https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2008/August/08-opa-697.html</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">DOJ. 19 February 2010. Amerithrax investigative summary. <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archive/amerithrax/docs/amx-investigative-summary.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.justice.gov/archive/amerithrax/docs/amx-investigative-summary.pdf</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">DOJ. February 15, 2011. FBI and Justice Department Response to NAS Review of Scientific Approaches Used During the Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters. <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/fbi-and-justice-department-response-nas-review-scientific-approaches-used-during" target="_blank">https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/fbi-and-justice-department-response-nas-review-scientific-approaches-used-during</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Flaccus, Gillian. October 19, 2001. Ore. town never recovered from scare. Associated Press.
<a href="https://culteducation.com/group/1108-osho-rajneesh/17627-ore-town-never-recovered-from-scare-.html" target="_blank">https://culteducation.com/group/1108-osho-rajneesh/17627-ore-town-never-recovered-from-scare-.html</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Grossman, Lawrence. January/February 2001. The story of a truly contaminated election. Columbia Journalism Review. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081119154050/http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/01/1/grossman.asp" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20081119154050/http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/01/1/grossman.asp</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Magalski, Michael. December 3, 2013. Management Alert – Mail Isolation, Control, and Tracking (Report Number HR-MA-14-002). <a href="https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ig/HR-MA-14-002.pdf" target="_blank">https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ig/HR-MA-14-002.pdf</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Marsh, Allison. 29 Sep 2021. Irradiating the mail: The anthrax attacks of 2001. IEEE Spectrum. <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/irradiating-the-mail-the-anthrax-attacks-of-2001" target="_blank">https://spectrum.ieee.org/irradiating-the-mail-the-anthrax-attacks-of-2001</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Nestle, Marion. 2003. Safe food: bacteria, biotechnology, and bioterrorism. University of California Press.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">U.S. Congress. April 3, 2000. House Report 106-556 The Department of Defense Anthrax
Vaccine Immunization Program: Unproven Force Protection. <a href="https://www.congress.gov/106/crpt/hrpt556/CRPT-106hrpt556.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.congress.gov/106/crpt/hrpt556/CRPT-106hrpt556.pdf</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Zaitz, Les. April 14, 2011. 25 years after Rajneeshee commune collapsed, truth spills out -- Part 1 of 5. The Oregonain/OregonLive. <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/2011/04/part_one_it_was_worse_than_we.html" target="_blank">https://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/2011/04/part_one_it_was_worse_than_we.html</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Zaitz, Les. April 14, 2011. Thwarted Rajneeshee leaders attack enemies, neighbors with poison -- Part 2 of 5. The Oregonain/OregonLive. <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/2011/04/part_two_thwarted_commune_goes.html" target="_blank">https://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/2011/04/part_two_thwarted_commune_goes.html</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Zaitz, Les. April 14, 2011. Rajneeshee leaders take revenge on The Dalles' with poison, homeless -- Part 3 of 5. The Oregonain/OregonLive. <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/2011/04/part_three_mystery_sickness_su.html" target="_blank">https://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/2011/04/part_three_mystery_sickness_su.html</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Zaitz, Les. April 14, 2011. Rajneeshee leaders see enemies everywhere as questions compound -- Part 4 of 5. The Oregonain/OregonLive. <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/2011/04/part_four_paranoia_takes_hold.html" target="_blank">https://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/2011/04/part_four_paranoia_takes_hold.html</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Zaitz, Les. April 14, 2011. Rajneeshees’ Utopian dreams collapse as talks turn to murder -- Part 5 of 5. The Oregonain/OregonLive. <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/2011/04/part_five_utopian_dreams_die_i.html" target="_blank">https://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/2011/04/part_five_utopian_dreams_die_i.html</a></p>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-24630987384456185082023-11-20T22:22:00.000-05:002023-11-20T22:22:19.501-05:00Recent Technological Developments Relevant to Espionage and Information Warfare<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>In Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui’s “Unrestricted Warfare,” written in 1995, they describe how militarily and politically weak Communist China can triumph over a stronger power such as the United States. They do this by using an extremely broad concept of weaponry, to wit: "Everything that can benefit mankind can also harm him. This is to say that there is nothing in this world that cannot become a weapon.” They go on to give examples of these new types of weapons: stock-market crashes, computer viruses, and rumors or scandals on the Internet. They argue that four fundamental elements of war - soldiers, weapons, battlefield, and purpose – “have changed so that it is impossible to get a firm grip on them. When that day comes, is the war god’s face still distinct?” (Liang, Q. & Xiangsui, 2015).</p>
<p>This paper examines two examples of this expanded type of weapon: a Russian troll farm called the Internet Research Agency used to create dissent and conflict within the United States, and social network analysis and graph databases that could be used to track employees and recruit assets from inside Iran’s Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>The Internet Research Agency</h2>
<p>The Internet Research Agency was a Russian company operating from July 2013 to July 2023 that maintained social media accounts for the purpose of spreading propaganda, altering public opinion, and sowing dissent. It was owned and financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin of Wagner Company fame (Volchek, 2021) and was used to influence European public opinion of Ukraine and the upcoming invasions. In the United States, the IRA’s purpose was to influence social media with the goal of eroding trust in American media organizations, spreading distrust in American politicians and political parties, and generally to inflame tensions.</p>
<p>The IRA created user accounts and various Facebook groups with titles such as "Heart of Texas," "United Muslims of America," "Being Patriotic," "LGBT United," "Don't Shoot," "Blacktivist," "BlackMattersUS," and "SecuredBorders", among others. The IRA then used these groups to organize protests or even dueling protests/counterprotests including:
<ul>
<li>A Black Lives Matter protest (not organized by IRA) and a Blue Lives Matter counterprotest (that was organized using the "Heart of Texas" group) held in Dallas, Texas, on 10 July 2016.</li>
<li>A "Safe Space for Muslim Neighborhood" rally in Washington, D.C., on 3 September 2016 was organized using the "United Muslims of America" group.</li>
<li>As mentioned in Zegart (2022), the "Heart of Texas" and "United Muslims of America" Facebook groups were used to organize dueling protests on 21 May 2016 in Houston, Texas.</li>
<li>"BlackMattersUS" and "United Muslims of America" groups were used to organize anti-Trump protests.</li>
<li>The "Being Patriotic" group was used to organize multiple pro-Trump rallies throughout Florida.</li>
<li>"United Muslims of America" was used to organize the "Support Hillary, Save American Muslims" rally.</li>
<li>A vigil for the Pulse nightclub shooting victims was organized using the "LGBT United" group.</li>
<li>Etc.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>The supposed ultimate goal of the IRA in the United States was to influence the 2016 election. While this may be true, supporters of this supposition make several assumptions that must be explicitly stated:
<ul>
<li>Social media platforms allow anyone to create groups and use them to organize meetings and protests.</li>
<li>For each group IRA created, numerous non-IRA groups with the same concerns existed.</li>
<li>It is likely that the IRA groups were used by Americans for our own purposes, e.g. to schedule our own rallies.</li>
<li>The influence of the IRA was small in comparison to the biases enforced by various social media companies.</li>
<li>The various problems the IRA supposedly tried to inflame were already concerns for multiple decades, including:
<ul>
<li>The growing influence of Islam and other foreign cultures.</li>
<li>Illegal immigration.</li>
<li>Fear of government overreach and doubts of its legitimacy.</li>
<li>Contempt of elected officials and other government employees.</li>
<li>Contempt that elected officials and other government employees have of their constituents.</li>
<li>Doubts about the intentions of US intelligence agencies.</li>
<li>Distrust of traditional and social media outlets.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>For people concerned about those problems, the IRA was doing nothing but "preaching to the choir."</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>For those of us who already distrust mainstream media, it is not clear if the IRA had any influence on us, since we rely on other methods for gathering information and arriving at conclusions (multiple alternative news sources, discourse and debate, historical reference, plausibility, consistency, evidence of the senses, correspondence with reality). Further, the ultimate responsibility for an individual's beliefs and actions lies with himself, despite the "NPC" (non-player character) description that is often applied to those that continue to trust media and government.</p>
<p>This does not mean that the IRA did not have an impact: the Mueller Investigation lasted from May 2017 to March 2019, and though the final report of the Investigation "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities" (Mueller, 2019), the pretext for the investigation was used by various politicians, government employees, and media outlets to foment dissent on their own. This wasn't obviously a part of the IRA's plan, but it was certainly an example of how certain politicians and news agencies are willing to create a tragedy so as not to let it go to waste. Was it an unintended consequence?</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>An Emerging Technology Useful for Espionage</h2>
<p>An emerging technology that is useful for espionage is the field of social network analysis with the support of graph database technology.</p>
<p>Traditional relational databases store data in one or more tables, and each table consists of rows (records) and columns (fields). Graph databases store data in nodes (also called vertices) and edges (lines or arrows connecting nodes). (Robinson, et. al., 2015) This organization is perfect for storing data about social networks.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiASQpCVJ3Xf79Hr-mZ67NDt5X0l-OcZoq8ExWEitARVA55HDx1a4-2tiQpRS402PiwsnAc8JDvDhLHRZOwVfx8lB47vgU0slDORvRnpspz4KmQ61nRc5a_Br4ehTc9gUu7gSHGvNcyw3gu262ipSR6nBXJLQbXRSCTHG0GbSjgixbXx2Ze1YhOpW2oyOPg/s583/comparing-relational-vs-graph-databases.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiASQpCVJ3Xf79Hr-mZ67NDt5X0l-OcZoq8ExWEitARVA55HDx1a4-2tiQpRS402PiwsnAc8JDvDhLHRZOwVfx8lB47vgU0slDORvRnpspz4KmQ61nRc5a_Br4ehTc9gUu7gSHGvNcyw3gu262ipSR6nBXJLQbXRSCTHG0GbSjgixbXx2Ze1YhOpW2oyOPg/s320/comparing-relational-vs-graph-databases.png"/></a></div>
<p align="center">[Illustration comparing data organization in relational vs graph databases]</p>
<p>What the nodes and edges in a graph DB represent depend on the application. For example:
<ul>
<li>For navigation, the nodes can be cities and the edges can be roads.</li>
<li>For an e-commerce recommendation engine, the nodes can represent products and two products are connected by a directed edge if a customer who purchases one product is likely to purchase the other.</li>
<li>The nodes can be people and the edges can be various types of relationships (familial, coworker, etc.)</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>Nodes do not need to be all the same type: one type of node can represent people, and a second type can represent organizations, and an edge connects a person-node to an organization-node when that person is a member of that organization. Similarly, there can be different kinds of edges: besides the membership-edge, there can also be familial-relationship edges linking two people who are of the same family.</p>
<p>By itself, a graph database is useless without a source of data. For social network analysis, populating a graph DB usually involves manually entering specifically chosen people or organizations to seed the graph DB, then augmenting that with data pulled from social media sites.</p>
<p>The investigative applications include:
<ul>
<li>The process of “doxxing” was studied using graph DBs in (Lee, 2022).</li>
<li>Relationships between Antifa, journalists, and university professors were investigated in (Lenihan, 2022).</li>
</ul>
If Antifa were to be designated a criminal organization, graph databases would be immensely useful for investigating that organization. (Jaccourd, et. al., 2023).</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>The Definition of "Importance" in Graph Databases</h2>
<p>For sake of discussion, suppose we are investigating terrorism, and the nodes in our graph DB represent individual terrorists or terrorist organizations, and edges between those two types of nodes represents membership. We also assume that terrorists can be linked with an edge if they are of the same family.</p>
<p>Once our database is populated with terrorists, organizations, and the relationships between them, how do we extract information from all that data? The most obvious approach is to pick a target (a known terrorist), and then investigate all the people related to that target and all the groups (terrorist organizations) to which that target belongs. There are situations where this approach is applicable (like should a terrorist be captured), but in general this approach begs the question: how is a target of interest chosen? This is not a trivial question since there may be tens of thousands of terrorists in our graph database.</p>
<p>This problem - determining which nodes (terrorists or organizations) are most important or influential - is solved in various ways through what are called "measures of centrality." There are numerous measures of centrality, the most basic one being "degree centrality" - the nodes with the most edges are most important, i.e. the terrorists with the most connections to other terrorists or terrorist organizations are most influential.</p>
<p>A different measure that is perhaps more useful is "betweenness centrality". This involves finding the shortest path between all distinct pairs of nodes and counting the number of these shortest paths that pass-through a given node. The nodes with the highest betweenness centrality can be thought as the ones through which the most information passes.</p>
<p>In terms of espionage, it would then make sense to prioritize intelligence-gathering on terrorists with the highest betweenness centrality, since the most information would pass through those terrorists. In terms of counterterrorism, eliminating a terrorist with a high betweenness centrality would cause the most disruption in information flow.</p>
<p>An example of this kind of social network analysis was performed independently by Kieran Healy (Healy, 2013) and Shin-Kap Han (Han, 2009) using data found in David Hackett Fischer's "Paul Revere's Ride" (Fischer, 1995). Fischer includes data on 254 individuals involved in the American Revolution (among them John Adams, Samuel Adams, and Paul Revere) and their memberships in seven Whig groups, including the Tea Party and the London Enemies. Using only this data, it is possible to determine:
<ul>
<li>the number of groups to which any pair of people both belonged (for example, John Adams and Sam Adams both belonged to two groups)</li>
<li>the number of people any pair of organizations have in common (the Tea Party and the London Enemies had 10 people in common).</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>Notice that the starting data (membership lists for the organizations) did not include data about which individuals knew each other, but a social network can be derived from the membership lists - two individuals are related if they share membership in an organization. (Breiger, 1974).</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpTVkY1rWepLRhaa7nFsA1tsmVR2WMpCGG5n923drj1TmmzzUufSzK2xfKCY5D95ce0I1f2ADjOmo4D0AXbeqrYXpO3MrxC-JVvrUx2imyOukKdD41BKOL9y5saasbEZJXEvimuUzTviWWPt-G7mrXT_gS9ihjI3zCGzVesmvC5KMN96_TsqT8GhzIQFkv/s1472/revere-network-reduced.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="1385" data-original-width="1472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpTVkY1rWepLRhaa7nFsA1tsmVR2WMpCGG5n923drj1TmmzzUufSzK2xfKCY5D95ce0I1f2ADjOmo4D0AXbeqrYXpO3MrxC-JVvrUx2imyOukKdD41BKOL9y5saasbEZJXEvimuUzTviWWPt-G7mrXT_gS9ihjI3zCGzVesmvC5KMN96_TsqT8GhzIQFkv/s320/revere-network-reduced.png"/></a></div>
<p align="center">[Illustration from (Healy, 2013)]</p>
<p>Centrality measures can then be calculated on that social network. Healy and Shin-Kap Han found that Paul Revere has the highest betweenness centrality of the 254 individuals and ranks high in several other centrality measures. Shin-Kap Han describes Revere's role as a "broker" between not only the people in Fischer's analysis but also between the various classes - artisans and gentlemen, patricians and plebeians, and to make the American Revolution a success, for those people,
<blockquote>
"both the identities and interests needed to be articulated and organized as in any effort at extensive, robust, and sustained mobilization. For that, the movement needed men whose socioeconomic status and cultural outlook allowed them to move among the various ranks of society. As a man whose contacts reached deep and wide into the social and political networks, Revere was one of the few who were comfortable in all of these places, each of which became an important part of Boston’s revolutionary movement." (Han, 2009).
</blockquote>
</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Past, Present, and Emerging Technologies for Espionage</h2>
<p>Past and current espionage-related methodologies and technologies could be used to recruit individuals working inside Iran's Natanz nuclear facility. For example, wiretapping could have been used to monitor the telephone calls of employees of that facility, and from the conversations, potential assets could be chosen. This would have worked before calls were encrypted.
Combining satellite photographs with on-the-ground presence, individuals working in the facility can be identified, traced, appraised, and recruited. Realtime satellite imaging may not be needed, but considerable collaboration between satellite reconnaissance teams and in-person reconnaissance would be necessary.</p>
<p>Another current technology that is applicable are mobile applications such as TikTok, Facebook/Meta, etc. These applications track the user's location, the people the user interacts with, and can be used to build a psychological profile of the user. Further, by manipulating the popular trends displayed by those apps, the companies owning these applications can attempt to influence user opinions.</p>
<p>Can social network analysis be used to recruit an individual working inside a highly secure location, like the Natanz facility? Natanz employees may not be allowed to have applications such as TicTok on their phones. All hope is not lost, however...
As described above, Kieran Healy and Shin-Kap Han were able to build a social network using only a list of names and membership lists for organizations – they built a social network using data that predated social network analysis by centuries! The same can be done today, and examples of the organizations that would be helpful in the case of the Natanz facility include:
<ul>
<li>Universities, for their graduation lists and list of faculty members</li>
<li>Mosques</li>
<li>Fraternal organizations</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>Additional sources of information include marriage announcements, graduation announcements, flight logs, and so on.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>These two examples of contemporary espionage technology – troll farms and social network analysis – represent two examples of the new types of weapons envisioned by Liang and Xiangsui. The Internet Research Agency was effective (in some way) in spreading dissent in the U.S., though they were dwarfed by the attempts at manipulation and “nudging” used by social media companies. Social network analysis would certainly be useful for investigating the operations of criminal organizations and should also be relevant for identifying intelligence assets and evaluating the importance of individuals in facilities like the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Breiger, R. (1974). The duality of persons and groups. Social Forces 53(2)<br />
Retrieved from: <a href="https://pdodds.w3.uvm.edu/research/papers/others/1974/breiger1974a.pdf" target="_blank">https://pdodds.w3.uvm.edu/research/papers/others/1974/breiger1974a.pdf</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Fischer, D. H. (1995). Paul Revere’s ride. Oxford University Press.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Han, S-K. (2009). The other ride of Paul Revere: The brokerage role in the making of the American Revolution. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 14(2): 143-162<br />
Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/chwe/ps269/han.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/chwe/ps269/han.pdf</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Healy, K. (2013). Using metadada to find Paul Revere.<br />
Retrieved from: <a href="https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2013/06/09/using-metadata-to-find-paul-revere" target="_blank">https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2013/06/09/using-metadata-to-find-paul-revere/</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Jaccourd, L., Molnar, L., & Abei, M. (2023) Antifa's political violence on Twitter: A grounded theory approach. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research. 29, 495-513 (2023)<br />
Retrieved from: <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10610-023-09558-6" target="_blank">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10610-023-09558-6</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Lee, Carmen. (2022). Doxxing as discursive action in a social movement. Critical Discourse Studies, 19:3, 326-344, DOI: 10.1080/17405904.2020.1852093</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Lenihan, E. (2022). A classification of Antifa Twitter accounts based on social network mapping and linguistic analysis. Social Network Analysis and Mining (2022) 12:12 <br />
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-021-00847-8<br />
Retrieved from: <a href="https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s13278-021-00847-8" target="_blank">https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s13278-021-00847-8</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Liang, Q., Xiangsui, W. (tr. 2015). Unrestricted warfare. Echo Point Books & Media.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Mueller, R. S. (2019) Report on the investigation into Russian interference in the
2016 Presidential Election. U.S. Department of Justice.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Robinson, I., Webber, J., Eifrem, E. (2015). Graph databases: New opportunities for connected data. 2nd Edition. O'Reilly Media.<br />
Retrieved from: <a href="https://web4.ensiie.fr/~stefania.dumbrava/OReilly_Graph_Databases.pdf" target="_blank">https://web4.ensiie.fr/~stefania.dumbrava/OReilly_Graph_Databases.pdf</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Volchek, D. (2021). Inside the ‘propaganda kitchen’ – A former Russian ‘troll factory’ employee speaks out. Radio Free Europe/RadioLiberty.<br />
Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-troll-factory-hacking/31076160.html" target="_blank">https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-troll-factory-hacking/31076160.html</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Zegart, A. (2022). Spies, lies, and algorithms: The history and future of American Intelligence. Princeton University Press.</p>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-28705872311610327832023-11-08T21:18:00.002-05:002023-11-23T00:26:03.369-05:00Young Faucistein <p>Dr. Anthony Faucistein’s area of research was… strange. Some of his fellow researchers considered him to be a mad genius, but most thought he was just mad. He only just received his doctorate last year, late in 1993, and he was eager to blind, or stop, the world with his intellect.</p>
<p>His research focused on answering the following question: “can a person’s sexual orientation be changed by grafting-on a body part?”</p>
<p>“We’ll need a recently deceased gay man, and a straight man who has been dismembered,” his new assistant said. “But what idiots would fund it?”</p>
<p>“The idiots at the NIH, that’s who. We’ve been funded for 5 years!” Faucistein gushed in his thick Boston accent. His large glasses fogged over for a moment.</p>
<p>“How did you spin it, doc?”</p>
<p>“I had them classify it as ‘gain of function’ research! They really are idiots!”</p>
<p>“Gain of… function?”</p>
<p>“Yes - we’ll be taking a straight man and turning him bi, or maybe even gay. See? Gain of function!” The doctor and his assistant high-fived each other. Dr. Faucistein raised his noodle-thin arms triumphantly and shouted “I… AM… THE… SCIENCE™!!” pronouncing “science” as “SOYence.”</p>
<p>They didn’t have to wait long for the “source material.” A gay mass-murderer named Jeffrey Dahmer, while serving 16 terms of life imprisonment, was killed by his cell mate. “The body is being flown in from Wisconsin”, the doc told his assistant, pronouncing it “WisCONNsin.”</p>
<p>On almost the same day, a young bon vivant named Jay Gatsby lost his hand in a car accident. He was driving his dad’s DeLorean on the freeway when he crashed into the berm. The prostitute he had in the car was providing “personal service.” If it wasn’t for that prostitute - or more specifically that prostitute’s head - the steering column would have gone through his abdomen. Instead, the column took off his right hand, the hand he was using to keep the prostitute’s head in position.</p>
<p>“Perfect!” Dr Faucistein exclaimed on learning this. He quickly scheduled an operating theater. Dr. Faucistein loves theater.</p>
<hr />
<p>In the operating room, Gatsby was under general anesthesia. All the doctors and technicians were wearing masks. Except for Dr. Faucistein, who wore two.</p>
<p>The assistant carried a large flask containing Dahmer’s right hand into the operating room.</p>
<p>“Are you sure you got the correct donor?” Faucistein asked.</p>
<p>“No, the hand came from somebody named ‘Abbey Normal.’” Faucistein rolled his eyes.</p>
<p>The operation went smooth. After it was finished, Faucistein and his assistant looked at the patient, still unconscious.</p>
<p>“He’s so light and thin, you’d think he would be gay if you didn’t know him,” Faucistein said.</p>
<p>“You’d think he’s gay even if you did know him!”</p>
<p>The anesthesia was wearing off, and Gatsby started to stir. Faucistein rushed from the patient’s room, and his assistant followed. “Don’t you want to talk to him?”</p>
<p>“Listen,” Faucistein told his assistant, “I must observe Mr. Gatsby to see how our experiment is proceeding, so he must never know I performed the operation. Check in with him on a weekly basis. Ask him about his overall health as well as any unusual dreams or urges he’s had.”</p>
<p>Following his release, Gatsby spent the next several weeks recuperating at his parents’ home, mostly lying in bed, mostly watching TV, or reading the newspaper.</p>
<p>Every few days, Gatsby would read a headline titled something like “Rent Boy Strangled” or “Gay Man Killed” or “Another Hate Crime”. Gatsby read the stories, mostly out of boredom. In each case, the victim’s own semen was found on his clothes. And in each story, the coroner was quoted as saying “he was strangled, but he died with a smile on his face.”</p>
<hr />
<p>During one of the first calls, Gatsby told the assistant, “I decided to redecorate my house - the upholsterers will be here next Monday.”</p>
<p>In a later call, the assistant inquired if Gatsby was having any dreams.</p>
<p>Gatsby was quick to respond: “I had the most horrible nightmare - I dreamt that my new hand detached itself!”</p>
<p>“Dismemberment nightmares are common with patients who have lost a limb. I don’t think the dreams will ever go away, at least in your case, but you’ll find them less intrusive as time goes on.”</p>
<p>The following week, the assistant asked, “have you had any more of those dismemberment dreams?”</p>
<p>“Yes, almost every night. And you’re right, they’re not stressful anymore. In fact, I can even see my right hand crawling behind seedy restaurants. But that’s impossible!”</p>
<p>The evening news lead with a story about a gay man whose body was found behind a diner, strangled. According to the police report, the victim’s pants were covered with his own semen. The reporter concluded by looking solemnly at the camera and saying, “at least he died with a smile on his face.”</p>
<hr />
<p>It was Friday afternoon at 4:30 PM. The phone next to his bed rang, just as it always did on that day and time. Gatsby answered it, knowing it would be the assistant.</p>
<p>“How are you feeling, Mr. Gatsby?”</p>
<p>“Well, I have this strange desire to go to the gym. I’ve never been to the gym in my life, but for some reason I think I’ll have a religious experience there! Isn’t that weird?”</p>
<p>“Not at all - many people think that the gym is the one true God. But why don’t you try something relaxing, like going to a bar? A new one just opened down the street from you, called ‘The White Swallow.’”</p>
<p>“Oh yea, it’s right between ‘Fudge Packers’ and ‘The Sausage Factory!’ I think I’ll do that!” Gatsby hung up the phone and examined his wardrobe - he knew he had too many sweaters, but where did all those leather jackets come from?</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the assistant called Dr. Faucistein and relayed Gatsby’s evening plans.</p>
<p>Gatsby arrived at The White Swallow at 8 PM. The bar was crowded, and he noticed that the patrons and bartenders were all men. He noticed, but he didn’t care. “How could it be any other way?” he thought.</p>
<p>Against one wall stood a water cooler filled with what looked like blue mouth wash. Gatsby was slightly confused by it, then he just shrugged.</p>
<p>Gatsby saw a short thin man sitting alone at the bar. He wore rather large glasses and was dressed in a lab coat. He was also wearing two blue paper masks. Gatsby noticed that Dr. Dress-Up was watching him, and when Faucistein realized he was caught, he switched all his attention to the open notebook and half-empty martini glass in front of him.</p>
<p>Gatsby didn’t have a medical fetish, but he realized that way too many people would tolerate or even enjoy being dominated by that little creep.</p>
<p>Gatsby continued to scan the crowd, and locked eyes with a pair of dark-haired muscular men. Both had identical handlebar mustaches and were wearing identical leather hats, leather harnesses, jock straps, and nothing else. All their leather was decorated with metal studs.</p>
<p>Gatsby approached them and introduced himself: “Hello, I’m Jay.”</p>
<p>“Hey, I’m Tom”. Tom looked Gatsby up and down.</p>
<p>“Hey, I’m Seth” Seth also looked Gatsby up and down.</p>
<p>“Are you two twins?”</p>
<p>“Na, why’d you ask” Tom replied.</p>
<p>“No reason.”</p>
<p>“Hey,” Seth said, “Tom and I are going to the bathroom. Want to join us?”</p>
<p>Tom explained: “there’s twelve open stalls. It’s hot.”</p>
<p>“It’s very hot,” Seth added.</p>
<p>“I’ve never done anything like that before!” Gatsby said, his voice breaking.</p>
<p>A waiter was walking close by, and Tom asked him for something. The waiter removed three small plastic vials from his waist apron pocket. “Don’t be a buzzkill. Here’s some poppers.” Tom passed out the vials. They all inhaled deeply and the three of them went into the men’s room.</p>
<p>Gatsby perceived the whole experience as if he were looking through a thick fog. In fact, he didn’t feel like he was all… together.</p>
<p>After leaving the bathroom, Gatsby understood the purpose of the mouth wash water cooler, and he used it.</p>
<p>Later that evening the police had to be called - a man was found dead in one of those stalls. He had red marks across his neck, a crusty white stain on his pants, and a big smile on his face.</p>
<hr />
<p>The next weekend, Gatsby went back to the White Swallow, and decided to explore the basement, poppers in hand.</p>
<p>After spending some time there, Gatsby began to panic. He didn’t want to be a buzzkill, but it was all too much. He ran up the stairs, almost tripping over the mouth wash water cooler. He suppressed the urge to vomit, and pulled the oil covered, brown stained latex glove off his right hand, tossed it to the floor, and shuttered.</p>
<p>Gatsby looked at his right hand, aghast, and shouted: “How could you do that? I didn’t know a fist could go inside such a small hole?” He expected his right hand to answer him, but the hand was… just a hand. He unconsciously walked onto the dance floor and continued staring at his right hand.</p>
<p>Tom and Seth watched him. They were both wearing blue jeans, black leather jackets, with no shirts underneath.</p>
<p>Of course, Dr. Dress-Up was there, sitting at the bar, wearing his large glasses, his usual lab coat and two paper masks. This time, Faucistein made no effort to conceal the fact that he was closely observing Gatsby. He opened his notebook and began to quickly jot notes.</p>
<p>Gatsby continued to shout at his right hand: “We’re going to the hospital tomorrow, and I’m going to have you removed! I don’t need a right hand that bad!”</p>
<p>Gatsby suddenly lost control of his right arm, and his right hand grabbed his own throat and started squeezing, hard. He tried using his other hand to dislodge the mutinous appendage, but to no avail. He started gasping and was soon on his knees.</p>
<p>The dance music stopped, and the crowd stared at the choking man, standing 6 feet back.</p>
<p>Observing this, Tom said “autoerotic asphyxiation, that’s hot.”</p>
<p>Seth added, “that’s very hot.”</p>
<p>Gatsby soon collapsed on his side, dead.</p>
<p>His right hand casually detached itself from his arm and crawled in front of his face. The hand gave him the middle finger, then flicked Gatsby’s forehead with its index finger.</p>
<p>The hand then crawled across the dance floor and exited the building. It was almost as if the hand was strutting.</p>
<p>The patrons in The White Swallow watched all this in silence, slack jawed. After an awkward moment, the crowd gave a mighty “woo hoo!” Tom and Seth chest bumped like two drunk frat boys, and the loud dance music resumed.</p>
<p>Beneath his masks, Dr. Faucistein smiled. He neatly closed his notebook and put his pen in the lab coat’s breast pocket. He left the bar, wondering what other gain of function grants he could get.</p>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-26311450050329406342023-10-20T22:20:00.002-04:002023-11-11T10:00:49.151-05:00Comparing Revolutionary War and WWI Soldiers' Experiences<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>Since America’s beginning, we have been defended by both militia forces as well as regular military, but the sharpest contrast between fighters of the Revolutionary War and those of the First World War is made by comparing the militiamen of the War of Independence with the soldiers of World War I. This paper compares the experiences of those two types of warriors, examines the reasons for entering WWI, and how the history of that war and its veterans were erased.</p>
<h2>The Militia Experience</h2>
<p>The militia predates the independence of the United Stated by more than a century. It was a tradition that came along as part of being colonies of the British Empire, but the militias of the New World rapidly evolved into a distinct, uniquely American, institution.
The primary opponent of the militias were the Indians, who conducted raids and ambushes by operating in small, mobile war parties. From Millet, et. al. (2012):
<blockquote>“Warriors would move stealthily, spread out over a considerable distance to avoid being ambushed themselves, and rapidly concentrate for a whirling attack—often at night, during storms, or in dense fog so as to catch their adversaries off guard and confuse them. Then the Indians would vanish into the wilderness.”</blockquote>
The militias, meanwhile, were still practicing European-style battlefield tactics such as close-order formations, loading their muskets using a fifty-six step process, then firing those muskets in unaimed mass volleys. The Indians easily defeated them, as “it was as easy to hit them as to hit a house.” (Millet, et. al, p.34).
<p>The militias were slow to adapt, but adapt they did, for natural selection is a hard teacher. Commanders such as Benjamin Church (c. 1639 – 1718) began incorporating Indians into the ranks, learning from them, emulating them, and soon it was the militias that were using cover and concealment, attacking the enemy’s weakest spots, targeting and firing at individual enemies, conducting hit-and-run raids and ambushes, and avoiding tight formations. In general, the militias were practicing what would later be called the DOCA loop – disperse, orient, concentrate, act – as described by William S. Lind (Lind & Thiele, 2015, p.73).</p>
<p>It wasn’t just the fighting tactics that made the Colonial and Revolutionary War militias unique – the militia was a local institution, organized for local defense, and at least partially self-funded. It evolved naturally from a light infantry (not line infantry) institution to include cavalry and (later) naval components as needs and opportunities presented themselves.</p>
<p>The psychology of militiamen can be inferred from this quote (Millet, et. al., p.30):
<blockquote>“From whatever social class they came, once enlisted for an expedition the men who filled the ranks believed they had a legal contract with the provincial government that could not be breached without the mutual consent of both parties… Once authorities broke the contract, the troops felt no compunction against staging a mutiny or deserting in mass, even in the midst of a campaign. To the colonial soldiers these actions were legal and sensible, but to British regulars serving alongside the provincials during the colonial wars, such violations of military discipline were intolerable.”</blockquote>
Indeed, the attitude of the British regulars was exemplified by British Major General James Abercrombie who described the militiamen as the “rif-raf of the continent” (Millet, et. al., p.30), and to this imperious attitude and sense of entitlement one can only expect the average militiaman to respond, “rif-raf and proud!” Abercrombie’s point is salient, however, and this is one of the reasons the regular Army existed.</p>
<p>Cooperation between regular Army forces and the militia continued past the War of Independence. For example, at the Battle of New Orleans at the conclusion of the War of 1812, the Americans were commanded by a militiaman (Andrew Jackson was a major general in the Tennessee militia) and the American forces were a combination of the Army, Marines, and militias from several states. During the Civil War, militia-like (partisan) warfare was used by both sides, and John Mosby’s Raiders coordinated attacks and performed reconnaissance with the needs of local Army commanders in mind.</p>
<h2>Reasons for America’s Entry into World War I</h2>
<p>In the run-up to the war, Americans attempted to separate German culture from Prussian militarism, but we also felt kindred for the Allied nations (Neiberg, 2014). German actions soon forced us into the camp of Entente Powers.</p>
<p>First, American banks and businesses made massive loans to the Allied nations. If they didn’t win the war, those loans would not be repaid.</p>
<p>Germany invaded Belgium in 1914, and rumors of German atrocities against civilians began to circulate. This atrocity propaganda swept the U.S. leading to anti-German sentiment.</p>
<p>In 1915, Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic Ocean, and one of the vessels the U-boats sank was the <i>Lusitania</i>, which caused the death of over one thousand people including 123 Americans. Several American cargo vessels were sunk in 1917.</p>
<p>In January 1917, the British intercepted a telegram sent from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman to the German diplomat to Mexico. In this telegram, Zimmerman proposed an alliance between Germany and Mexico, and if Germany were to win, Mexico would be able to annex Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. The British passed the telegram to the Americans, and it was publicized by the press on March 1st. The United States declared war on Germany on April 6th.</p>
<h2>Comparing Wartime Experiences</h2>
<p>The most obvious difference between the Revolutionary War and WWI were the weapons and fighting techniques. There was no Revolutionary War equivalent to mustard gas and trench warfare.</p>
<p>The militiamen and WWI soldiers had different views of their respective enemies. For militiamen, the enemy Indians could be depersonalized by race and culture, and the Redcoats could be depersonalized by political philosophy. The enemy of American WWI soldiers was different in language but were of the same race and similar culture. This explains why the American people attempted to separate German education, culture, and industry from the “imperial and military” Prussian state in the American run-up to entry in WWI (Neiberg, 2014).</p>
<p>The circumstances and reasons for hostilities during the colonial era and the Revolutionary War were completely different from those during WWI. For the militiamen, the stakes in the conflict were extremely personal and local, and they were vested in the outcome as the stakes were the militiaman’s home and family. The same cannot be said for the WWI soldiers – the war was distant and the causes were partially economic. Further, America entered the war with little national self-interest, which means the individual soldiers needn’t have any rational value for participating, and the same can be said for individual soldiers of other countries. Although America didn’t participate in them, this explains the Christmas frontline truces on the Western Front during Christmas 1914 as recounted by Wilfred Ewart (Ewart, 1920). These kinds of truces would never have occurred during the colonial era or the Revolutionary War.</p>
<p>There is the level of freedom of militiamen compared to WWI soldiers. The militiamen operated under well-circumscribed contracts, whereas the men under the military were under obligation for “the duration.” There was less local service and more service overseas. There was less local control (or even no local control) and more federal control.</p>
<p>Further, federal control included control over industries and manufacturing, with businesses and factories being nationalized. The economic subtext of the war was not lost on the populace, as American banks and businesses made huge loans to the Allies and thus they had financial interest in victory.</p>
<p>There was also resistance to America’s participation in WWI. To tramp down those protesting involvement, the Wilson administration resorted to propaganda - creating the Committee on Public Information (CPI) and the Creel Committee to fill all communication channels with pro-war and anti-German agitprop. The committee's output was targeted not at the enemy but rather against Americans, and when this propaganda wasn't sufficient, the 1918 Sedition Act was “[e]nforced enthusiastically by Justice Department agents” and “the Sedition Act gave the 1918 mobilization a vicious edge.” (Millet, et. al, p.410). </p>
<p>Operating in the background was the rise of Progressivism and Taylorism which minimized the importance of the individual in everything they touched. From the standpoint of a fighter during the Revolutionary War, this would be completely alien and anathema to the American spirit and tradition of freedom. Militiamen were the machine; WWI soldiers were cogs in the machine.</p>
<p>Most important, perhaps, is the sense of completion in their respective battles. If a militiaman survived a battle, he was sure to see not only the end of it but also the end of the campaign and the war as a whole. The same cannot be said for the American soldier in WWI, due in part to our late entry.</p>
<h2>The Lost Generation</h2>
<p>Gertrude Stein referred to American expatriate writers living in Paris as “a lost generation,” but the term soon expanded to refer to the entire generation of people that came of age during the First World War. The phrase was memorialized at the start of Ernest Hemingway's <i>The Sun Also Rises</i>, and the literature of that era projected hedonism, a disconnection from the previous generation’s values, and a recognition of the inflation that the price of achieving the American Dream was undergoing.</p>
<p>Three of the major authors of that period – Ernest Hemingway, E. E. Cummings, and John Dos Passos – were ambulance drivers during the war, and their works describe not only their wartime experiences (almost to the point of being autobiographical) but also include strong anti-war sentiments. An excellent example of this is found in Hemingway’s <i>A Farewell to Arms</i>.</p>
<p>Given the parallels between Hemingway's life (serious drinker, American ambulance driver in the Italian army during WWI, met the love of his life after being injured) and the life of the narrator of <i>A Farewell to Arms</i> (serious drinker, American ambulance driver in the Italian army during WWI, met the love of his life after being injured), we must interpret the following quote from that novel as representing Hemingway's true outlook on the war:
<blockquote>“I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters over other proclamations, now for a long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it. There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity. Certain numbers were the same way and certain dates and these with the names of the places were all you could say and have them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honour, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.” (Hemingway, 1929)</blockquote>
The novel included several harrowing descriptions of what ambulance drivers must have experienced but notice that this quote is a rejection of not only the mechanics of warfare, but of the jingoism that surrounds the war-making process. This anti-war sentiment extended beyond ambulance drivers to the writings of American combat veterans (e.g., William March’s <i>Company K</i>) and to writers from other countries (such as the German Erich Maria Remarque in his <i>All Quiet on the Western Front</i>).</p>
<h2>Erasing the Lost Generation</h2>
<p>In the time between the end of the First World War and now, the history of the war was belatedly recognized, or the soldier's trust was betrayed, or its history has been outright erased and diluted. For example, no WWI memorial appeared in Washington D.C. until 1931, and that memorial was small in comparison to the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, built in 1926, which commemorated the same war. An elaborate upgrade is planned to the D.C. memorial for 2024. </p>
<p>Something that must have soured veterans of the Great War was the conclusion of the 1932 Bonus March. The Bonus March was a protest on Washington, D.C., in which thousands of WWI veterans and their families demanded early payment for the bonus certificates that were issued to them in 1924 but could not be redeemed until 1945. President Herbert Hoover ordered the U.S. Army to clear the protesters’ campsites, and the list of participants in this operation reads like a who’s who of World War II leadership. Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur had George S. Patton’s 3rd Cavalry advance on the protesters. The Bonus Marchers cheered the troops, believing that they were marching in their honor. The troops turned on their brothers-in-arms and responded with tanks, bayonets, and tear gas. The Bonus Marchers were thus evicted, their camps burned. The official Army incident report was authored by Dwight Eisenhower, then a military aide to MacArthur, and that report endorsed the whole affair. (Dickson & Allen, 2020)</p>
<p>An example of the erasure of WWI history is the story of how Armistice Day became Memorial Day in 1954, as recounted and analyzed by Kurt Vonnegut:
<blockquote>“When I was a boy... all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.<br /><br />
“It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.<br /><br />
“Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not.” (Vonnegut, 1973)</blockquote>
<p>Erected in 1921 and completed in 1931, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington National Cemetery was to be the final resting place for the remains of an unidentified WWI service member, and so in a sense it was a WWI memorial. The purpose of this memorial has been diluted since that time, however.</p>
<p>In 1956, President Eisenhower (of Bonus March fame) approved the addition of the remains of two additional unknown soldiers to the Tomb, and in 1958 the unknown WWI soldier was joined by the remains of unknown soldiers from World War II and the Korean War. (Arlington National Cemetery, n.d.)
The Arlington National Cemetery began plans to recognize a Vietnam War unknown even before the end of that war, but by 1984 only one set of American remains from Vietnam had not been identified. President Reagan presided over the internment ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but the remains were exhumed in 1998 and DNA testing was used to provide a positive identification. To this day, the crypt dedicated to the Vietnam War Unknown is empty, and in 1999 it was rededicated to honor all missing service members from that war. (Arlington National Cemetery, n.d.)</p>
<p>In the span of under 80 years, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier changed from being the resting place of one unknown WWI service member to the resting place of a total of three unknown service members as well as missing service members from the Vietnam War. Its focus has changed to be a “distinctive, multigenerational shrine.” (Arlington National Cemetery History Office, p.207)</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>The militiamen of the Revolutionary War and the soldiers of World War I were different in fighting techniques, spirit, and relation to the government as a whole. One way they were similar was that both the WWI soldiers and the militiamen had their histories erased. This was described above for WWI soldiers. For the militia, it was the Dick Act of 1903: the Act created the National Guard which assimilated the militia’s symbolism (such as American Revolution Statuary) and the date of formation (according to their website, the National Guard’s official birth date isn’t 1903 but instead is December 13, 1636, when the Massachusetts colonial legislature organized militia regiments). The National Guard didn’t adopt the militia’s maneuver warfare or self-funding model, and most importantly the militia’s independent ethos was completely rejected.</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Arlington National Cemetery. (n.d.). Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Monuments-and-Memorials/Tomb-of-the-Unknown-Soldier" target="_blank">https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Monuments-and-Memorials/Tomb-of-the-Unknown-Soldier</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Arlington National Cemetery History Office. (n.d.). A Century of Honor: A Commemorative Guide to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Retrieved from:
<a href="https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Portals/0/TUS%20Commemorative%20Guide%2020210924.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Portals/0/TUS%20Commemorative%20Guide%2020210924.pdf</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Dickson, P. & Allen, T. (2020). The Bonus army: An American Epic. Dover Publications.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Ewart, W. (1920). Two Christmas Mornings of the Great War: Personal Accounts of the Christmas Frontline Truces. Harper’s Magazine. Retrieved from:
<a href="https://harpers.org/archive/1920/12/two-christmas-mornings-of-the-great-war/" target="_blank">https://harpers.org/archive/1920/12/two-christmas-mornings-of-the-great-war/</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Hemingway, E. (1929). A Farewell to Arms. Scribner.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Lind, W. S. & Thiele, G. A. (2015). 4th Generation Warfare Handbook. Castalia House.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Millett, A. R., Maslowski, P., & Feis, W. B. (2012). For the Common Defense: A Military History of the Unites States from 1607 to 2012 (3rd ed.). Free Press.</p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Neiberg, M. (2014). Blinking Eyes Began to Open: Legacies from America's Road to the Great War, 1914-1917. Diplomatic History, 38(4). Retrieved from: <a href="https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=31h&AN=98052986&site=ehost-live&scope=site" target="_blank">https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=31h&AN=98052986&site=ehost-live&scope=site</a></p>
<p style="padding-left:22px; text-indent:-22px;">Vonnegut, K. (1973). Breakfast of Champions: A Novel. Dial Press.</p>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-61775726864937014422023-10-20T21:11:00.002-04:002023-10-22T11:58:28.017-04:00Civil War Revenge Porn<p>In August of this year, I was taking a class in American Military History. One of the assignments was to write about Sherman's March to the Sea, in which William Tecumseh Sherman led his troops from Atlanta to Savannah in November and December 1864, pillaging and plundering, destroying military and civilian properties indiscriminately in a way not seen again until the George Floyd riots fiery but mostly peaceful protests. I originally thought the assignment was to cover how the Union justified Sherman’s March, so I wrote about revisions to the Union Army’s rules of conduct.
<p>Upon rereading the assignment, what was required was a fictional account, from the point of view of a soldier in the Sherman’s Army of Tennessee. Thus, I wrote some <a href="#Fiction">fiction</a>. Here are both parts of my submission.
<h2>Fact</h2>
<p>The atrocities committed by the Union throughout the Civil War in general, and Sherman's March to the Sea in particular, were not the unsanctioned actions of individual soldiers but "came from above" through national policy.</p>
<p>Possible justifications for unleashing total war (war against both an enemy's military <i>and</i> civilians) include:
<ul>
<li>Collapse of the distinction between military and civilians</li>
<li>Use of total war to quickly end the war.</li>
</ul></p>
<p>Both justifications were used by the Union, even early in the Civil War.</p>
<p>General Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan from the start of the war involved a general blockade of Confederate ports and disruption of commerce along the Mississippi River. The Confederacy was to be deprived not only military supplies (weapons and munitions) but also supplies used by the general population, like food and medicines. The Anaconda Plan was abandoned because it was not producing quick results.</p>
<p>Grant, in an 1862 letter to Sherman, explicitly equivocates civilians with military personnel when he states that "we are not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people and we must make old and young, rich and poor feel the hard hand of war."</p>
<p>Subsequently, new rules for the Union Army's conduct were codified in 1863 in the <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lieber.asp" target="_blank">Lieber Code</a>. This military law replaced time-tested laws of war coming from Emer de Vattel and Hugo Grotius. Among the articles of the Lieber Code was Article 21: "The citizen or native of a hostile country is thus an enemy, as one of the constituents of the hostile state or nation, and as such is subjected to the hardships of the war."</p>
<p>Article 15 reads in part "Military necessity... allows of all destruction of property, and obstruction of the ways and channels of traffic, travel, or communication, and of all withholding of sustenance or means of life from the enemy." Raiding of Confederate farms is also covered in that same article which continues "the appropriation of whatever an enemy's country affords necessary for the subsistence and safety of the army."</p>
<p>The use of total war tactics to quickly end a war is explicitly permitted in the Lieber Code under Article 29: "...The more vigorously wars are pursued, the better it is for humanity. Sharp wars are brief."</p>
<p>While total war was advocated from above, implementation during the March to the Sea was carried out by Sherman's soldiers, earning those who looted, vandalized, and destroyed Southern civilian infrastructure the moniker "Sherman's Bummers."</p>
<p>The Indemnity Act of 1863 (amended in 1866) shielded Union officials against charges of violating habeas corpus, which is the legal recourse victims would use to seek restitution. This proves that the concept of "CYA" existed even during the Civil War.</p>
<p>For all the destruction that the March to the Sea caused in Georgia (the South's breadbasket), Sherman felt that it was justified, writing that for the South "to whine and complain of the natural and necessary results is beneath contempt."</p>
<h2><a id="Fiction">Fiction</a></h2>
<p>Since the start of this accursed war, my brother and I have argued over its causes and how Lincoln gathered and wielded power supposedly forbidden to him by the Constitution. We’re both hunters, and we’ve defended our homes against Indian raiders, and we have no problem fighting for what is right. He once told me that “fighting does not merely sate bloodlust, but rather it enriches the soul, for conflict brings out the very best of us - courage, valor, and honor” and I must agree with that. Where we disagree is when he says that “conscription has no place in the land of the free.” I disagree even more when he says that “if Lincoln’s cause be wrong, our obedience to him does not wipe the crime of it out of us.”</p>
<p>When conscription came to central Pennsylvania, we took different paths. I joined and then later transferred south to serve under General Grant. My brother resisted actively, not like Mark Twain, and was in the gunfight at <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Knox" target="_blank">Bloody Knox in Graham County</a>, the skirmish where Tom Adams was killed. One thing my brother doesn’t believe in is proportionate response, and while no one ever said that he took the scalps of the enforcement officers, no one ever said that he didn’t. Last I heard, he was working with draft resisters in Texas, fighting with the unholy terror of a man who wishes only to be left alone, certainly adding to his scalp collection.</p>
<p>I believed in Mr. Lincoln’s war, but when I saw what Sherman’s Bummers did, my convictions were rattled. When Confederate Lieutenant General Wade Hampton complained to Sherman about his Bummers, Sherman replied that he was keeping 1000 Confederate prisoners of war specifically to “dispose of” when the Grays defended themselves against the Bummers. But that Confederate general <a href="http://www.wadehamptoncamp.org/hist-hvs.html" target="_blank">was correct</a>, that while the wartime right to forage upon the enemy is as old as history, “there is a right older, even, than this, and one more inalienable--the right that every man has to defend his home and to protect those who are dependent on him; and from my heart I wish that every old man and boy in my country who can fire a gun would shoot down, as he would a wild beast, the men who are desolating their land, burning their homes, and insulting their women.”</p>
<p>The Bummers are like the Vikings of yore, defiling and eviscerating their victims, and not necessarily in that order. Considering that they and I are both of the same army, and that they act with impunity, I knew that I was on the wrong side, and my continued participation would be a crime that can never be erased from my soul.</p>
<p>Last night, I freed three of Sherman’s prisoners (hostages) and saw to it that they escaped from camp. Today, I caught my first two Bummers, looting the farmhouse of an aged couple. After they looted it, they set it ablaze. Too late for the farmhouse, I “disposed of” those Bummers, and acquired my first two scalps.</p>
<p>I thought desertion was an action taken only by cowards and would be a difficult thing, but it wasn’t after seeing that Sherman not only permitted his men to act as vandals, but that he encouraged such shameful behavior. All that hunting my brother and I did allows me to live off the land and not to raid civilians’ homes and businesses. If I need something that can’t be hunted, I will deal honorably with the civilians, either purchasing what I need or trading my services.</p>
<p>My brother and I started out with opposing views, but now are on the same side - we are now the left and right hands of Vengeance. When this war is over, I will meet my brother in Pennsylvania, and we will compare stories and our collection of scalps. Who will have the larger collection? I don’t know, but he has an early start, and I must make up for lost time.</p>
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Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-16235857000943371022023-05-18T21:58:00.000-04:002023-05-18T21:58:01.964-04:00Christopher Floyd Smith18 May 1946 - 4 May 2023<div style="background-color: #FF9933; padding: 0.5em">Note: this is the eulogy I delivered this afternoon for Chris Smith, my ex. There were children in the audience, so it was best to redact some *spicy* comments. I also restored several sentences that I accidently omitted. Chris passed on the 4th, but his birthday would have been today, the 18th of May, that’s why the next of kin delayed it. I’ve been fielding a lot of questions about Vietnam over the past few days, that’s why the history parts are in there.</div>
<p>
Before I start, I want to make three observations:<br />
1. Embalmers and funeral directors sometimes do too good a job.<br />
2. Some people die too young, some die too old, but no one ever dies at the right time.<br />
3. When people as old as Chris pass, sometimes no one attends the services. They’re all alone. Maybe they were abandoned in an old age home, or maybe there were no surviving family members. But look how many people came yesterday and today! That is a testament to the quality of family and friends he chose.
</p>
<p>
People tell each other stories in order to become friends, and I want to tell you a few stories about Chris’ life and how we became friends.
</p>
<p>
Chris, like many soldiers, rarely talked of his combat experience, and we were all surprised when we found that he earned all sorts of awards and medals, including a Silver Star and several Bronze Stars during his time in Vietnam. We have documents showing that he indeed earned those awards, but the stories behind them are currently missing.
</p>
<p>
Chris mentioned that he was present in Vietnam in 1968 during all three phases of the <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive" target="_blank">Tet Offensive</a>, which were <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/tet" target="_blank">coordinated attacks</a> by the <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viet_Cong" target="_blank">Viet Cong</a> and North Vietnam People’s Army against South Vietnamese civilians and the forces of the US, South Vietnam, and their allies. Tens of thousands of people were killed or wounded and 83% of the civilian population was left homeless. We don’t yet know the particulars of his role in the Offensive.
</p>
<p>
Something Chris did not mention was that in July 1969 he participated in capturing and holding Hill 4-11, in order to build a <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_support_base" target="_blank">Fire Support Base</a> there. The hill was located in a Viet Cong stronghold, guarded by enemy booby traps and snipers. We’re still researching that bit of history as well.
</p>
<p>
After the Tet Offensive and Hill 4-11, Chris returned to the US where he “lived in a commune on the side of a hill” for a time. That was to recharge himself before returning to the military.
</p>
<p>
It is appealing to describe Chris as “humble” for not telling us about all those medals. Yet he was anything but a humble man! Rather, this was his way of “firewalling” the experiences that earned him those medals from the sane world, thereby preserving his sanity.
</p>
<p>
While he didn’t share many stories of combat, he did explain what it was like to be a gay soldier of that era.
</p>
<p>
One time he was on leave in Saigon, and he went with one of his (straight) friends down to where the French Embassy was located. There was a gay bar there, and a line of soldiers were waiting to get in.
</p>
<p>
His friend started counting them: “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. I didn’t know they let people like that into the Army.”
</p>
<p>
Chris said “13!” then got into that line.
</p>
<p>
He did say that he was out to some of his fellow soldiers in Vietnam (and so maybe all of them knew?) but he was mostly reserved. They still trusted each other - so much for unit cohesion being lost because of the gays!
</p>
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<tr style="padding:0px; spacing:0px">
<td colspan="3" style="padding:0px; spacing:0px; margin:0px; border:1px, solid" align="center"><i>Photos from the 2/61<sup>st</sup> Air Defense Artillery yearbook, 1974</i></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>
Later, someone found love letters in his foot locker. His “superiors” gave him a choice: either leave the Army or transfer to the Army Reserves. He chose the latter, and I believe they gave him this choice because his career was so spectacular.
</p>
<p>
Even after this he still loved the Army, and indeed he loved it for the rest of his life, sometimes begrudgingly but most times passionately, and he said his only regret over the whole affair was that he would never make it to the rank of master sergeant.
</p>
<p>
Chris’ mixture of optimism and pragmatism on gays in the military is shown by those stories. He wasn’t out to change the military into a politically correct organization, he just wanted to do his job. He understood that gays are in the minority and that the world does not and must not revolve around us. He knew that the military’s purpose is to defend our country, not to act as an agent of societal change, and gays’ presence must be evaluated with that purpose as the standard.
</p>
<p>
Chris continued in the Army Reserves, helping to establish addiction support services for his fellow soldiers.
</p>
<p>
He returned full-time and deployed to Kuwait during the Iraq War. The sand in Kuwait is like powder, and it got into his lungs. He collapsed from this and was evacuated to a hospital in Germany, then sent to Walter Reed Hospital, and finally to Fort Knox.
</p>
<p>
Thus after 30 years in the Army or Army Reserves, he retired.
</p>
<hr />
<p>
I met Chris early in the 1990s when I was working at a fast food restaurant across from OSU. He came in one evening and ordered two hard tacos and a medium fountain drink. We kept running into each other - at a convenience store close to where we lived, then at a 24 hour donut shop.
</p>
<p>
That meeting in the donut shop was the start of a lifelong friendship, but also the start of a strange romance!
</p>
<p>
For our first date he wanted to see a foreign film at Studio 35. He thought I would like it, but afterwards we realized we both hated it, and that we had similar “pedestrian” tastes in movies.
</p>
<p>
For our second date we went to the Indian Burial Mounds in Chillicothe, Ohio.
</p>
<p>
Our third date was in my apartment. I played “Kind of Blue,” an album by Miles Davis, for him. The last song on that album has an eerie quality to it, but I couldn’t identify what made it so enchanting. Well, we danced to that song, and the meaning came to me as a thunderclap: the song is slow, but emotionally it feels as though time has stopped, that the moment would go on forever.
</p>
<p>
For our fourth date Chris played the first album that Flatt and Scruggs did together, “Foggy Mountain Jamboree.” I still listen to that album, and also to far more bluegrass than if he hadn’t introduced me to it. Anyone who knew him knew that this was Chris’ music!
</p>
<p>
Our relationship really took off when he brought me into his circle of friends!
</p>
<p>
Chris was 17 years older than me, and when he introduced me to his friends one of them said: “Chris, you robbed the cradle”. My retort was: “yea, and I robbed the grave.”
</p>
<p>
Chris’ sense of humor was like mine: dark and spicy.
</p>
<p>
Chris was a member of NA and AA, but he was clean and sober for at least 10 or 15 years by the time we met. While he was indeed clean and sober, he was not confident at all that he would remain so. Everybody was certain that he would stay that way except him - that confidence would only come later in his life.
</p>
<p>
We spent our first Thanksgiving dinner together with some of his friends, most of whom were also in AA and NA. I’ve never met anybody like that before! One of them told me the strangest story - she said she used to grow her pinkie fingernail really long to act as a cocaine scoop, and she followed this by demonstrating the motion. There were many other stories that evening all with the same theme.
</p>
<p>
After dinner, we were walking out to the car, and I had a flash! “Hey Chris, how many AA or NA members does it take to change a lightbulb?”
</p>
<p>
He was getting pissed at me, but he took the bait: “I don’t know, how many?”
</p>
<p>
“Five: one to put in the new bulb and four to reminisce about how good the old bulb was.”
</p>
<p>
I was in the dog house for two weeks for that!
</p>
<p>
But we kept on, through countless nights playing board games, and through some Mensa conventions, and through a few arguments, but only a few.
</p>
<table align="center"><tr><td>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEPUyepn6fy1GNrdeeiGasWBfCu9AGpdo5WcBZp-5qeYsM6bNXKNsLIuuzJxPq_C8KuoezME4nx7oPBTJn7Bblv5LXyjMPEqpih-skAlyMcvtziv86_oc4QyvwbL0rId6PsAVwGJ5gQhJ4-_xOy8AB6A2A-uiKGqjQqWfHhtFMvt6h3wn6sIWwQr0vUA/s3157/IMG_5505.jpeg" style="display: block;; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="2319" data-original-width="3157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEPUyepn6fy1GNrdeeiGasWBfCu9AGpdo5WcBZp-5qeYsM6bNXKNsLIuuzJxPq_C8KuoezME4nx7oPBTJn7Bblv5LXyjMPEqpih-skAlyMcvtziv86_oc4QyvwbL0rId6PsAVwGJ5gQhJ4-_xOy8AB6A2A-uiKGqjQqWfHhtFMvt6h3wn6sIWwQr0vUA/s320/IMG_5505.jpeg"/></a>
</td></tr>
<tr><td align="center"><i>Fencing with Chrismas Wrapping Paper Rolls</i></td></tr></table>
<p>
Years later, our romance cooled, and it made sense for me to move to Maryland for my job.
</p>
<p>
I knew that Chris would be there at my apartment in Frederick, MD, so when I packed the boxes, I labeled them like “Books and Sex Toys” or “Silverware and Double Headed Dildoes.” The movers got a kick out of that, but Chris was not amused!
</p>
<p>
Chris got the last laugh, though! He helped me pack when I moved from Frederick over to Pennsylvania, and when I arrived, half the boxes were marked as “Stuff” or “More Stuff!”
</p>
<p>
This type of banter was certainly part of our chemistry, but it wasn’t the only part. Here’s something more typical:
</p>
<p>
Chris and I always used to drive at least an hour to some small random town just to have pizza for dinner. The particular town or restaurant didn’t matter. What did matter is that we did this together and that we enjoyed it. It was such a simple thing, and neither of us realized at the time how important those weekly outings were. For this reason I cannot tell you the name of the town or pizza restaurant we first ate at. I thought these short road trips would go on forever, and for that reason I do not remember the name of the last restaurant we ate at. All I know is that there was a first town and restaurant and a last town and restaurant, and that there will be no more such road trips.
</p>
<p>
Chris wanted to get back together with me in Pennsylvania, and we tried it, but he missed his family and friends in Columbus terribly.
</p>
<table align="center"><tr>
<td><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoejJSv50m8Pb9vGTHBNw5XI438FhaaekW6sQ-kOhot8blgWwTRyAmV0ZCbCNi02Ve8SGJmGg7pCwJeMtotgD3oIjK2XruxorZKUzrDFQ5AI1OJFsa33e9JWvmgMUwgjg5G4BNaiAHOuCJJ9CQlqkV4-8lFCws0JGJEfiXSTe_vPqhiJ2QO4nuSKNZQw/s3264/IMG_5418.jpeg" style="display: block; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="200" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoejJSv50m8Pb9vGTHBNw5XI438FhaaekW6sQ-kOhot8blgWwTRyAmV0ZCbCNi02Ve8SGJmGg7pCwJeMtotgD3oIjK2XruxorZKUzrDFQ5AI1OJFsa33e9JWvmgMUwgjg5G4BNaiAHOuCJJ9CQlqkV4-8lFCws0JGJEfiXSTe_vPqhiJ2QO4nuSKNZQw/s200/IMG_5418.jpeg"/></a></div></td>
</tr>
<tr><td align="center"><i>Sending Our Best from the Hospital, September 2017</i></td></tr>
</table>
<p>
Thus our strange romance ended, but the friendship endured. My last joke to him was only a few days before he passed, and was like a bookend to the “rob the grave” joke, but it was too dark and too spicy to repeat here!
</p>
<p>
The lung problems that started in Kuwait only escalated as time went on. Sam and Janos promised to take care of Chris until his last minute, and they did so, admirably.
</p>
<hr />
<p>
I’ve been trying to summarize the feelings I have for Chris, taking all these stories into account. Here’s the best I can do.
</p>
<p>
You know how people say they want somebody to “complete them?” Chris and I didn’t do that for each other. Instead, he extended me. When I was with him, I felt incredibly free, incredibly passionate, incredibly powerful, and I understood just how intense life can be and ought to be. With Chris I knew that there is a whole world of things to choose from, and if something is missing, then I can make it myself.
</p>
<p>
Besides this spirit, the most important thing Chris did for me was to invite me into his family. Sam, Janos, Bela, cousin Mary, Catrina, and John mean the world to me, as do his friends Shelly and Lisa.
</p>
<p>
It may be tempting to disengage or distance yourself at times like this, but that would be unworthy of Chris, because it would be denial masquerading as stoicism. Isolation from the memories and feelings we have for him separates yourself from the best part of yourself - your creativity, your ability to be genuine, your potential to be the best you can be. He would insist that we always strive, that we directly challenge the obstacles in life and overcome them, for if we disengage then we wither away.
</p>
<p>
As mentioned earlier, people tell each other stories in order to become friends. But what happens when one of those friends is gone? I don’t know, but maybe those stories help us reach catharsis.
</p>
<p>
I hope these stories are indeed cathartic, but also that they help us to remember Chris, for if he exists now only in our memories, then we must never forget him.
</p>
<p>Chris, I love you dearly. Until Valhalla.</p>Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-54192777384507659102021-09-15T20:30:00.008-04:002021-09-15T21:16:32.080-04:00Treason, Up Close and Personal<p>According to a forthcoming book, "Peril" by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made two secret phone calls to the Chinese military stating that he would give the People's Liberation Army, and hence the Chinese Communist Party, advance warning of any US attack against them.</p>
<p>These calls were made during the end of Trump's time in office, when Milley believed that "the president had suffered a mental decline after the election" and that Trump would use nuclear weapons against them.</p>
<p>During the first call, on October 30, 2020 - before Trump's supposed decline, Milley is quoted as telling his Chinese counterpart:
<blockquote>"I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay... We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise."</blockquote></p>
<p>Parts of this book were <a href="https://archive.fo/R047A" target="_blank">released by the Washington Post</a>, which states:
<blockquote>
"[Milley] called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing the military exercises, according to the book. The admiral complied."
</blockquote>
It gets worse:
<blockquote>
"Milley also summoned senior officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, saying the president alone could give the order — but, crucially, that he, Milley, also had to be involved. Looking each in the eye, Milley asked the officers to affirm that they had understood, the authors write, in what he considered an “oath.”"
</blockquote></p>
<p>The second call was made on January 8th - two days after the protest on the Capitol - when China doubted US stability. Milley calmed them down, stating
<blockquote>"We are 100 percent steady. Everything's fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes."</blockquote></p>
<p>None of this was communicated to Trump, but Milley did <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/pelosi-trump-nuclear-codes/2021/01/08/032d95ac-51e0-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html" target="_blank">discuss this with Nancy Pelosi</a>.</p>
<p>Woodward and Costa used only unnamed sources, according to the WaPo, but Milley has <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-09-15/gen-milley-defends-calls-to-chinese-in-effort-to-avoid-conflict" target="_blank">just released a statement</a> affirming that he did indeed make those calls.</a></p>
<p>When asked about Milley's actions, <a href="https://www.oann.com/biden-backs-top-general-milley-after-reported-secret-calls-with-china/" target="_blank">Biden said</a>, "I have great confidence in Gen. Milley." The cycle of incompetence thus continues with this ringing endorsement.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Excusing the Inexcusable</h3>
<p>Defenders of Milley's actions would say that Trump was "squirrelly", and that this somehow necessitated communication between Milley and the CCP. But what evidence is used to justify claims of squirrellyness? That Trump required NATO members to pay their dues? That he called mass illegal immigration for what it is - an invasion? That he put terrorists on notice that there would be swift retribution for their attacks? That he pissed off the left-wing media?</p>
<p>Well, Trump did indeed piss off the left-wing media. Milley saw this, stuck his finger in the air to determine which way the wind was blowing, and acted accordingly. He started by <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/i-should-not-have-been-there-milley-apologizes-role-trump-n1229876" target="_blank">apologizing for inspecting the damage done by Antifa and BLM rioters while standing next to Trump</a>. Then came his House Armed Services Committee testimony in which he was offended that people would call the military "woke" while simultaneously stating that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y0PfiS0jxY" target="_blank">he wants to understand critical race theory and the roots of "white rage"</a>:</p>
<blockquote>"I want to understand white rage, and I’m white, and I want to understand it. What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? I want to find that out."</blockquote>
<p>Now, we find that he has been working with at least one enemy. His actions were based on political expediency and nothing more.</p>
<p>Imagine that the United States did indeed choose to attack China - how would the Chinese use the information that Milley would provide? Further, did Milley actually believe that his tango with the Chinese would end with Trump being out of office? His naiveté is staggering.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>The Context</h3>
<p>Milley was not acting in a vacuum.</p>
<p>Even before the disastrous exit from Afghanistan, you had a <a href="https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/06/19/commie-cadet-sends-vulgar-message-on-his-way-out-of-the-army/" target="_blank">West Point cadet advocating for communism</a>, former high ranking officials making disparaging remarks about their Commander-in-Chief like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-general-mattis-jabs-trump-he-got-his-spurs-in-a-letter-i-got-mine-on-the-battlefield" target="_blank"><b>Mister</b> James Mattis and his inexcusable "bone spurs" comment</a>, and the National Guard being used to protect the Capitol against "insurrectionists and violent extremists" - while not providing them with any ammunition.</p>
<p>And of course there's the <a href="https://americandefensenews.com/2021/05/21/backlash-to-woke-army-recruitment-video-ad-so-severe-comments-blocked-by-army/" target="_blank">woke Army recruiting video</a>.</p>
<p>Then during and immediately after the loss of the Kabul airport you have <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/08/31/pentagon-estimates-several-hundred-americans-still-in-afghanistan/" target="_blank">Defense Department spokesman John Kirby admitting that he doesn't know how many Americans are still in Afghanistan</a>, and General Kenneth McKenzie Jr. stating that he <a href="https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/2759183/pentagon-press-secretary-john-f-kirby-and-general-kenneth-f-mckenzie-jr-hold-a/" target="_blank">was sharing information with and relying on the Taliban to provide security</a>.</p>
<p>At the highest level there is Joe Biden. He admitted that lists of Americans and American sympathizers were given to the Taliban so that they can expedite their exit (presumably from Afghanistan, not from this mortal coil). Biden stated that he accepts responsibility for the exit, then immediately lays blame for the Taliban takeover on the Afghan National Army and on the left's perpetual whipping-boy, Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Between the exit from Afghanistan and the woke military, the latter is the most damaging to us, for it indicates the criteria used to measure the worthiness of any military action. Potential actions will not be judged upon whether they further America's safety and security, or on the possibility of success. No. Instead, actions will be judged on whether they act against the cis-normative hegemony and deliver a blow against the patriarchy, all while being culturally sensitive and minimizing our carbon footprint. To quote Trump, <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/08/21/trump_everything_woke_turns_to_shit.html" target="_blank">"everything woke turns to shit."</a> You, gentle reader, can complete the syllogism.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Signs of Hope</h3>
<p>All is not lost, however, for there are dissenting voices. One of them belongs to USMC Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller who, following the Kabul airport terrorist attack that killed 13 service members including 11 Marines, released a video in which he absolutely excoriated the higher-ups for their shortage of accountability over the events in Afghanistan:</p>
<blockquote>"I’m not saying we’ve got to be in Afghanistan forever, but I am saying: Did any of you throw your rank on the table and say ‘hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone. Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say 'we completely messed this up.'</blockquote>
<p>That one man with his one video has proven that there are some men with a spine left in the US military. Hence the importance of dissent - it allows us to separate the institution from some very rotten apples.</p>
<p>And Scheller's not alone: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW_kdbWfTYc" target="_blank">others</a> have <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoxghlU2VNY" target="_blank">come out</a> against the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT2mRfWszLo" target="_blank">leadership vacuum</a>.</p>
<p>And <i>they're</i> not alone, either: those of us with friends who are either active duty or retired military cannot help but see the courage and patriotism in their eyes.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>The Fallout</h3>
<p>Both Milley and Scheller should be concerned for their future (as should we all), but notice the difference between them: Milley, in his "desire to understand white rage" comments, expressed his opinion without concern for personal repercussions. This could mean that either politicians would accept those comments as obsequious bromides, or more likely that the expression of those sentiments was the goal itself, consequences be damned. That's called virtue signaling, the sine qua non of wokeness.</p>
<p>Scheller explicitly acknowledges the personal consequences that would befall him after his video goes public. There is nothing wrong with doing so. It does not prove that he has a martyr complex; rather it shows a man who is fully aware that opinions and actions have consequences, the opposite of wokeness.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2021/08/30/marine-relieved-for-viral-video-now-says-hes-resigning-his-commission/" target="_blank">Shortly after the release of that video</a>, Scheller announced that "I have been relieved for cause based on a lack of trust and confidence." Whose trust? Whose confidence? No one of any merit.</p>
<p>Popular opinion holds that only tragedy awaits those with principle. This is incorrect - those with principle are resilient, and that resiliency comes from having a spine. Those with principle understand that an individual must stand up one more time than he is knocked down. Men with principle can move the world; those without merely stand with their fingers in the air, waiting for the winds to change.</p>
<p>Scheller is a man of principle, hence he will land on his feet.</p>
<p>For Milley, the wind is shifting against him. Christopher Miller, the Secretary of Defense during the time Milley made at least one of his calls with the Chinese military, stated that <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-acting-defense-sec-miller-says-he-did-not-authorize-milley-china-calls-says-he-should-resign" target="_blank">he did not and would never authorize such calls</a>. Supposedly, several Pentagon officers present in Milley’s secret meeting are <a href="https://propatriotnews.com/report-several-pentagon-officers-willing-to-testify-against-gen-milley-under-oath/" target="_blank">willing to testify against him under oath</a>. He even <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/alexander-vindman-says-milley-must-215200991.html" target="_blank">lost the support of never-Trumper Alexander Vindman</a>.</p>
<p>So, what of Milley? Biden, in his quest to accept responsibility, is looking for a new whipping boy, and Milley just moved to the front of the line.</p>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-72181457670795482122021-01-15T05:13:00.032-05:002024-03-09T07:15:20.377-05:00Muh Private Company<p>Over the past two weeks we have witnessed big tech flexing their muscles against President Trump and against a social media site.</p>
<p>After a month of labelling Trump's election-fraud-related tweets as falsehoods and making those tweets either more difficult or impossible to share, Twitter has completely banned him from their platform. Facebook, YouTube, and other social media platforms then piled on top. Further, Shopify has taken down two of his online stores, and Stripe will no longer process payments.</p>
<p>Twitter did this over the incorrect claim that Trump incited violence at the Capitol last week. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/twitter-chinese-governments-tweets-forced-labor-rules" target="_blank">Twitter says that China’s tweets stating that Uyghur forced labor camps don't exist are acceptable</a>, despite the fact that such camps do indeed exist. Twitter is OK with censorship on US soil but is <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/01/12/twitter-strongly-condemns-internet-shutdowns-in-uganda/" target="_blank">opposed to Uganda’s internet shutdown, since Uganda is violating basic human rights by doing so</a>.</p>
<p>Twitter didn't stop with Trump – <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/08/twitter-qanon-sidney-powell-michael-flynn-ron-watkins/" target="_blank">General Michael Flynn was blocked, as was Sidney Powell, and supporters of QAnon</a>, along with many, many conservatives, myself included.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.projectveritas.com/news/exclusive-twitter-insider-records-ceo-jack-dorsey-laying-out-roadmap-for/" target="_blank">Project Veritas video recorded by a Twitter whistleblower</a>, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stated:
<blockquote>"We are focused on one account [@realDonaldTrump] right now but this is going to be much bigger than just one account and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, and the next few weeks, and go on beyond the inauguration."
</blockquote></p>
<p>In brief, they're just getting started.</p>
<p>Big tech effectively muzzled the most powerful man on Earth, and that fact should terrify everybody regardless of political persuasion. If they can do it to Trump without consequences, then they can do it to anybody else.</p>
<p>The reaction by some people supposedly on the Right has been along the lines of "Twitter is a private company, they can do what they want. Just let the free market work. You can always build your own platform." This, by the way, is the same rationale given by people who support private businesses enforcing the social-distancing and mask edicts that certain state governors enacted in response to the China Flu.</p>
<p>Some on the Right did exactly that - they built their own platforms, one of which is called Parler. </p>
<p>Within the past few days:
<ul>
<li>Apple and Google removed the Parler app from their respective app stores</li>
<li>Twilio and Okta, which are authentication services, ended their relationship with Parler</li>
<li>The database that Parler contracted, ScyllaDB, also terminated their services</li>
<li>The cloud hosting platform on which Parler was built, Amazon Web Services, suspended their hosting service</li>
<li>Finally, their lawyers stopped representing them.</li>
</ul></p>
<p>So much for building your own platform.</p>
<p>If this isn't enough to dissuade the limousine libertarians from their position, let's apply their line of <strike>bullshit</strike> rhetoric to the Jim Crow laws. These were state and local laws that enforced segregation and were passed by Democrats to roll back the advancements made by blacks following the Civil War.
<ul>
<li>Under Jim Crow, blacks and whites had to travel in separate rail cars, cars that while being separate were certainly not equal. According to the limousine libertarians, blacks should build their own railway system and quit their complaining.
<li>Blacks had to sit in the back of busses in Alabama until Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. Instead of protesting, she should have started her own busing company.
<li>After Jim Crow laws were overturned by Brown v. Board of Education, some companies continued enforcing segregation. For example, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/lessons-worth-learning-moment-greensboro-four-sat-down-lunch-counter-180974087/" target="_blank">black people couldn't eat at the same Woolworth lunch counters as whites</a>. Maybe blacks should build their own lunch counters and let the free market work.
</ul></p>
<p>"This is horrible!" the limousine libertarians would say between sips of their caramel lattes while wondering if they need glasses for their myopia.</p>
<p>Yes, it is indeed horrible, but if they are consistent, they must condone this.</p>
<p>"But they're private businesses, they can do what they want!" the limousine libertarians bleat.</p>
<p>No, they can't do what they want. Being a business owner doesn't absolve him of the obligation to do what is right.</p>
<p>Further, in what sense are they "private" businesses? They lost that status when they became proxy law or edict enforcers - like with the enforcement of Jim Crow laws, or with tax laws, or with the companies that currently enforce China Flu restrictions. They lost it when corporations harvested and sold customer data without consent. Big tech companies certainly lost their status as private businesses when they interfered with and invalidated our elections.</p>
<p>The problem with limousine libertarians (they may be chauffeured in limousines, but they're usually the chauffeurs) is that they are silent in the face of oligarchy. Their "build you own" mantra is just a stale bromide used to cover their cowardliness while allowing them to feign enlightenment.</p>
<h3>Bootlickers, Ahoy</h3>
<p>Republicans knew this would happen, that big tech would flex their muscles. Trump vetoed the NDAA in part because it retained the Section 230 blanket protections for big tech. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/8/9/20798463/team-mitch-mcconnell-twitter-account-blocked-video" target="_blank">who was himself briefly banned from Twitter in 2019</a>, voted to override Trump's veto. Given the Republicans' refusal to investigate election fraud, this turncoat behavior is to be expected from them.</p>
<p>Politicians weren't the only quislings...</p>
<p>The extent to which a few patriot commentators are willing to accept all this is nauseating. A few days ago the host of one online video show stated that this is not a free speech issue since you, gentle social media user, agreed to their terms of service agreements.</p>
<p>You'd think such commentators never heard about individual rights: such rights, be they God-given or follow from our nature as rational animals, are not gifts from the state. Individual rights, including the freedom of speech, are inalienable, which means they cannot be transferred or signed away. So much for terms of service agreements.</p>
<p>This same commentator was excoriating Trump supporters for doing nothing but flying their American flags, having fun at Trump rallies, engaging in online arguments with Leftists - in other words, for enjoying the relative freedom that we had under Trump.</p>
<p>What should we do instead? One would hope that this commentator would implore us to be wolves instead of sheep. He didn't, he was too busy either wallowing in guilt or insisting that we wallow in guilt. No one told him that masochism has no place outside the bedroom.</p>
<h3>The Politics of the Future</h3>
<p>Conservative Twitter users are cutting their losses and heading to greener pastures. This loss of users won't just impact Twitter's customer count, but also the quality of the platform: Twitter thrives on conflict, and without conservatives Twitter will just be an echo chamber where liberals boast about their intersectionist brownie points.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Trump seems to be experiencing an increase in popularity - we are seeing the Streisand Effect in action!</p>
<p>No reporter has investigated how the actual process by which the deplatforming of Trump and the attack on Parler were orchestrated - which is not surprising. Did we witness a series of independent actions, or were they coordinated? Are the CEOs acting on their own wokeness, or are they responding to a woke mob in order to appease them?</p>
<p>In Twitter's case, Jack Dorsey took the initiative, at least based on the Project Veritas video. <a href="https://www.projectveritas.com/news/insider-blows-whistle-exec-reveals-google-plan-to-prevent-trump-situation-in-2020-on-hidden-cam/" target="_blank">Similar videos from inside Google show the same thing</a>. This may or may not hold for other tech giants and doesn't address whether there is collusion among them.</p>
<p>Again, in this conservative cleansing, are the companies taking the initiative, or are they reacting?</p>
<p>In one sense, it doesn't matter - the companies are the ones doing the deplatforming and the election-rigging, and they richly deserve retribution for their actions.</p>
<p>It <i>does</i> matter in another sense, because we must know who is in the driver's seat, the CEOs or the social justice warriors. If the CEOs are in charge, then they will influence the woke mob to do their bidding. If the SWJs are in charge, then the CEOs will be constantly blown about, constantly adjusting their company's terms of service to address the latest outrage <i>du jour</i>.</p>
<p>CEOs can make the claim that they actually built their companies, even though they have wet noodles for spines. The SJWs' only hold on the world are other people's tolerance for their shrillness and arrogance. These pink-haired, skinny-jean wearing, dildo waving hipsters only claim to importance is that they are woke. They are actually less intelligent after getting their gender studies degrees than before they entered college. They truly expect the federal government to pay off their useless degrees that rendered them not only unemployed but unemployable, and they see nothing wrong with shitting in their own mess kit.</p>
<p>In essence, tech CEOs and woke hipsters are equally unqualified to mettle in the affairs of others, and their sense of entitlement over the affairs of others must be resisted at all costs.</p>
<p>If the CEOs are acting on their own initiative, then they are on the treadmill of politics, not technology and not business. Perhaps they will realize that this wasn't the reason they got into the IT business in the first place, but that's doubtful.</p>
<p>If they are reacting to the petulant demands of the woke mob, then the CEOs are blind cowards who evade the fact that mobs are never satisfied by appeasement or capitulation. In reference to countries that were neutral at the start of World War 2, Winston Churchill said:
<blockquote>"Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear greatly that the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar ever more loudly, ever more widely."</blockquote></p>
<p>This applies to corporations as well.</p>
<p>The answer to who is in the driver's seat ultimately answers another question: is America now an oligarchy or a mobocracy, the pure democracy that the Left wants? It is too early to tell, but something we know now is that businesses will be the enforcers of either alternative, and that their terms of service are more important than our Bill of Rights.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaGIAD2M4i80k6fLMI4quUe8FyH-lNW_h2ofj-Scgcv-wKv_TC1PsOA4h-onNOPl_nS9tIxRhMhkWzCEJ4nUSY1drilfMBjMgxJPkS8mfSXYjg0TSQCv-H6DxeCe3E7gb_a2fv_c1yGsCV/s1000/right-wing-censorship-comic1.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaGIAD2M4i80k6fLMI4quUe8FyH-lNW_h2ofj-Scgcv-wKv_TC1PsOA4h-onNOPl_nS9tIxRhMhkWzCEJ4nUSY1drilfMBjMgxJPkS8mfSXYjg0TSQCv-H6DxeCe3E7gb_a2fv_c1yGsCV/s320/right-wing-censorship-comic1.png"/></a>
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://stonetoss.com/comic/build-big/" target="_blank">(From Stonetoss Comics)</a>
</div>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-38132228431804089422021-01-14T13:16:00.004-05:002024-03-09T07:17:50.868-05:00Funny Mask Story<p>This happened back before Christmas...
<p>I was on a phone call with Chris L., one of the founders of the militia in which I serve. Had him on headphones while I was picking up groceries. Probably not the sort of thing I should be doing with him, but... eh.</p>
<p>I was almost done shopping when a grocery clerk approaches me and asks: "do you have a mask?" I tell him I didn't. He scurries off (I assume to talk to his manager); when he returns he asks if I want one. I said "no". He scurries off again.</p>
<p>Then his manager comes up to me and says: "sir, you need to wear a mask in here." And I replied that we don't have to do anything but die, and even that is subject to medical advances.</p>
<p>He then says: "if you don't wear a mask then you'll have to leave." I replied: "OK, call the police." He scurries off.</p>
<p>So I finish shopping and go to the self-checkout scanner when he approaches me again.</p>
<p>"Sir, it is the law that you wear a mask."</p>
<p>"Laws must be approved by the legislature, and they have passed nothing. The only thing you're going on is the governor's decrees."</p>
<p>"But Governor Wolf [Pennsylvania's governor] says you have to wear a mask!"</p>
<p>I replied: "Fuck Governor Wolf."</p>
<p>If I thought of it at the time, I would have asked him if he's the governor's boyfriend.</p>
<p>I paid for my groceries and left the store. The police never came.</p>
<p>Then I remembered that Chris L was listening in on this and he was laughing his ass off!</p>
<p> </p>
<iframe width="577" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a8SAYIGZA3g" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-38177282860620560232021-01-09T00:39:00.017-05:002021-03-31T18:53:21.385-04:00Letter from an FBI Fanboi<p>Dear FBI,</p>
<p>Any agency once ran by a cross-dresser who used his position to give facials to the bigwigs in DC can't be all that bad! I'm a big fan of your organization for that reason! In fact I've often fantasized about giving facials to those very same politicians, judges, and bureaucrats - or even better, white-washing their tonsils! Cross-dressing like J Edna Hoover would be a real turn-off for me, however.</p>
<p>According to the news, you are looking for photos from the Capitol Building occupation on Wednesday, and I want to help! Here's what's on my camera roll...</p>
<p>We found this guy asleep with a crack pipe in his mouth. His first name is Hunter, and that's all I know about him.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrz9V2wZwxGErSBKetv0_tdpKIMCBP8ASn4GO0_UshoE0FKbEUimdUzgKIs0gTSpWzgwes2dbJu-yeBEFpMh_hNSxcsjQLfmD5WhAoOl1hxxc8J2dEz38AzTL4jLPq9PSgV1LODXIYBX9K/s1025/Hunter+Biden+With+Crack+Pipe.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1025" data-original-width="768" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrz9V2wZwxGErSBKetv0_tdpKIMCBP8ASn4GO0_UshoE0FKbEUimdUzgKIs0gTSpWzgwes2dbJu-yeBEFpMh_hNSxcsjQLfmD5WhAoOl1hxxc8J2dEz38AzTL4jLPq9PSgV1LODXIYBX9K/s320/Hunter+Biden+With+Crack+Pipe.jpeg"/></a></div></p>
<p>Then there's this video - it shows a man of some importance bragging about how he withheld aid to Ukraine unless the prosecutor investigating his son's business was fired. I think he's the father of the guy in the first picture. Mr. Sleepy Head Crack Pipe and his dad used an entire country to launder money just like a petty criminal uses a laundromat! Surely you must be interested in him!</p>
<div style="text-align:center">
<iframe width="550" height="309" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oesl2RXpfPQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p>Here are some photos from earlier this week in DC. You can tell the rioters in the first photo are MAGA supporters because they're carrying a US flag.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi48rOi0_1rb4Agls3WUiGGC_2HMd-3xBvXeH8sPlv2e3pqcyEs2FZ8y1evSFFtqf4p1Vs8onpGWRzXlwNjI3DmXKE3tT7hsgoK9Px_sC0wlwxt7NZauFjRspOl5gNvABXPnZQ1EELO43u1/s640/March-2020-White-House-Riot-2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi48rOi0_1rb4Agls3WUiGGC_2HMd-3xBvXeH8sPlv2e3pqcyEs2FZ8y1evSFFtqf4p1Vs8onpGWRzXlwNjI3DmXKE3tT7hsgoK9Px_sC0wlwxt7NZauFjRspOl5gNvABXPnZQ1EELO43u1/s320/March-2020-White-House-Riot-2.jpg"/></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEPu__sh4jcaqMsIYizXWAGdepkPmx70UCm02MCvpLrNDkkTu_OmtHn1bWMXeMeMyZxQQR5v6VsGZodF5K9oiaTqUkMhe57l-qabCW9BpaunP12w26gJuaxEy6XbvTz51kjM9L4iK0eLOL/s640/White-House-Riots.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEPu__sh4jcaqMsIYizXWAGdepkPmx70UCm02MCvpLrNDkkTu_OmtHn1bWMXeMeMyZxQQR5v6VsGZodF5K9oiaTqUkMhe57l-qabCW9BpaunP12w26gJuaxEy6XbvTz51kjM9L4iK0eLOL/s320/White-House-Riots.jpg"/></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLeLZdBZk58N3Um1hG8IzD3BdtkJf3UqdC8mImoDobtd2ybK2ToJ8BEcxJvF2Wkf3EeKDxkBxpP7uDQkDpzUNW0GP06DoiYDFMwBaQ3IOFPCeghetU8XhRadjoW7uvDEf2QgWwYi1kq_l/s640/Washington-Monument.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLeLZdBZk58N3Um1hG8IzD3BdtkJf3UqdC8mImoDobtd2ybK2ToJ8BEcxJvF2Wkf3EeKDxkBxpP7uDQkDpzUNW0GP06DoiYDFMwBaQ3IOFPCeghetU8XhRadjoW7uvDEf2QgWwYi1kq_l/s320/Washington-Monument.jpeg"/></a></div>
<p>Oh wait, never mind, they were from the George Floyd riots back in June when <strike>riots</strike> mostly peaceful protests were acceptable.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if this man was in DC this week, but I do know he crossed from DC into Philadelphia where he and his friends attacked two Marines. This evil man was charged with "ethnic intimidation." He's <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/reports-dc-antifa-leader-arrested-in-the-philadelphia-attack-on-2-marines/65-de271a81-3314-4d24-90aa-11353b66d22b" target="_blank">white and he ethnically intimidates people</a>, so he must be a Trump supporter!</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0EIkXu5RDP81sYXqvnKfbXEhq_OR5DZoyWg3UOGlJ_cTMY2DGpOCjt519uxEETrIRpbomg29_NliPrIeOB3g5ezgcEE68x-RiEGNWgjUor5qy04MwCyuyX_BYykkrlRqUJpv5BigiGMGk/s1920/4fa94476-c15b-4799-8def-40eaab3a86cc_1920x1080.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0EIkXu5RDP81sYXqvnKfbXEhq_OR5DZoyWg3UOGlJ_cTMY2DGpOCjt519uxEETrIRpbomg29_NliPrIeOB3g5ezgcEE68x-RiEGNWgjUor5qy04MwCyuyX_BYykkrlRqUJpv5BigiGMGk/s320/4fa94476-c15b-4799-8def-40eaab3a86cc_1920x1080.jpg"/></a></div>
<p>Here's a victim of MAGA violence. He's an <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/06/29/journalist-andy-ngo-assaulted-by-antifa-protesters-in-portland/" target="_blank">investigative reporter who was attacked while in Portland</a>. He's gay, a journalist, and the child of immigrants, which makes him triply damned in the eyes of those evil Trumpsters!
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgf8mML_-xKNOCcxVtOhjcRHYIuSFHY56NWGxxir7uO34_3Tw2DGSKism09UCspY1SH-vagKd5RLKTWb61_Z54o9t4Vr4XQOrxDEXjpCLgm8gYSEMhF7nO717J1yAT4oS0fYA2-CVGOV0z/s1280/5374264_070119-kgo-andy-ngo-injuries-courtesy-img_Image_18-01-35%252C14.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgf8mML_-xKNOCcxVtOhjcRHYIuSFHY56NWGxxir7uO34_3Tw2DGSKism09UCspY1SH-vagKd5RLKTWb61_Z54o9t4Vr4XQOrxDEXjpCLgm8gYSEMhF7nO717J1yAT4oS0fYA2-CVGOV0z/s320/5374264_070119-kgo-andy-ngo-injuries-courtesy-img_Image_18-01-35%252C14.jpg"/></a></div>
</p>
<p>Last fall the House Oversight Committee held hearings about all the white nationalist violence. Those acts of violence were committed by those horrible, dastardly MAGA people! Here's two photos of those people when they were in DC!</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvs8b4OpY1o1q1MvQx_aQHGqLyzL-KMm01ov4ThKQgOpKwktHWkQR0YKIlB1EuvW4zTmHi5EGX2X-31C65VuJgapcdb2TcXqsNa_uZONfO2ZcR6bTFGpm-6c98TSQ1eNUPNXxAZY0ps1B/s640/George-Floyd-Riots-1.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvs8b4OpY1o1q1MvQx_aQHGqLyzL-KMm01ov4ThKQgOpKwktHWkQR0YKIlB1EuvW4zTmHi5EGX2X-31C65VuJgapcdb2TcXqsNa_uZONfO2ZcR6bTFGpm-6c98TSQ1eNUPNXxAZY0ps1B/s320/George-Floyd-Riots-1.jpg"/></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn0hWSMeoQYNPZlseP3PVkemSBglzPVVJuIvUPZjl_sJ_ZQtJxlPv9z9PDZuFqfGPR8DdArvofBHR_R2IiWAM8qHp82oey1UGpNtNLYSmVq1u0MpdEUF2QvGaXzJeXwO2P1dvUAdqdVv5p/s1280/George-Floyd-Riots-2.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn0hWSMeoQYNPZlseP3PVkemSBglzPVVJuIvUPZjl_sJ_ZQtJxlPv9z9PDZuFqfGPR8DdArvofBHR_R2IiWAM8qHp82oey1UGpNtNLYSmVq1u0MpdEUF2QvGaXzJeXwO2P1dvUAdqdVv5p/s320/George-Floyd-Riots-2.jpeg"/></a></div>
<p>Never mind, those photos were also from the George Floyd riots, but they clearly show white people behaving badly.</p>
<p>Here's a video of the people the House was really investigating. It shows them looting stores, and they didn't even wait for Black Friday! </p>
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<iframe width="577" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zpNx_xoh6Iw" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p>Back to the father of the guy with the crack pipe. Here's a video of him admitting to orchestrating voter fraud! He must be a Trump supporter to be that evil! He just gave a facial to each and every American citizen - J Edna would be proud! Instead of investigating him, maybe you should hire him!</p>
<div style="text-align:center">
<iframe width="550" height="309" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2jeSIVK3CWk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p>I've done some investigation on my own! Our governor here in Pennsylvania implemented mail-in voting without the consent of the state legislature. He closed all the small businesses over China Flu except for a business owned by his family. He also sent China Flu carriers to live in old-age homes. Did you know he has a Porn Hub account? Here's a screen shot! I first thought it was a photo of Governor Wolf along with J Edna Hoover, but it really shows Wolf along with his Secretary of Health, whose pronouns are he/she.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnUoUxl3Vx5a4JS8sb387ODDkDuNAN6Sr7sPkWfoZm-vZCr72xK0QHU8R12MGbPMoK94yTKnCYGElXqe3Tk2eU9ZSLuL9dNmNJSFMCj4_xAP8f8VTX3lnst-omsvIu-6enzo3TGV5pN9Kl/s509/PornHubWolf2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="509" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnUoUxl3Vx5a4JS8sb387ODDkDuNAN6Sr7sPkWfoZm-vZCr72xK0QHU8R12MGbPMoK94yTKnCYGElXqe3Tk2eU9ZSLuL9dNmNJSFMCj4_xAP8f8VTX3lnst-omsvIu-6enzo3TGV5pN9Kl/s320/PornHubWolf2.jpg"/></a></div></p>
<p>Here's the last photo. It shows one of those vicious pitbulls that Trump supporters like, and I'm getting PTSD just by looking at him! I don't wear pearls like J Edna wore, but if I did I would clutch them Hooverishly! Please, put the "bravery" into FBI and catch this accursed canine!
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</p>
<p>I hope all this helps you apprehend those deplorable MAGA people! I'm sure they'd be treated the same as those mostly peaceful protesters in Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, and DC.</p>
<p>If this does help, please consider offering me a job! I'm keen on giving facials to people in high places, but I'd be a totally incompetent agent. I hope that doesn't disqualify me, I think I'd fit right in!</p>
<p>Thanks,<br />
Your Biggest Fanboi and BFF!!!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>PS:</p>
<p>This isn't Capitol-related but I just had an idea...</p>
<p>During the riots last year, palettes of bricks were deposited close to the riot locations. Cities have lots of security cams - do you think you can use them to figure out who did this?</p>
<p>It's kind of complicated, but here's what I mean:</p>
<p>Online investigators started with a video showing people removing signs and shields from a U-Haul truck for use in an upcoming BLM riot in Louisville. The investigators used <b>guile</b> to get the name the person who rented the truck. They then employed something called "Google" to research that person and learned that <a href="https://bailproject.org/team/holly-zoller/" target="_blank">she works as a "bail disruptor"</a> for an organization called the <a href="https://bailproject.org/" target="_blank">Bail Project</a>.</p>
<p>By using their employee list, investigators then found that at least <a href="https://bailproject.org/team/dolores-canales/" target="_blank">one person there</a> is a former <a href="https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants/soros-justice-fellowships" target="_blank">Soros Justice Fellow</a>, which is a fellowship funded the <a href="https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/" target="_blank">Open Society Foundations</a>.</p>
<p>Lots of celebrities and tech moguls donate to the Bail Project. Even <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/clara-lionel-foundation-dorsey-commit-11-million-for-racial-equity" target="_blank">Twitter's Jack Dorsey donated to them</a>!</p>
<p>These online investigators did something called "clicking on links" to work this all out. Sneaky!</p>
<p>By the way, did you know that in 2019 <a href="https://www.kmov.com/news/st-louis-man-accused-of-fatally-beating-wife-hours-after-being-bailed-out-of-jail/article_259cc28e-5f89-11e9-8071-b3c6fc0d5b8c.html" target="_blank">the Bail Project bailed-out a guy who was being held for domestic violence, and then he went home and beat his wife to death</a>? Something completely different happened later that year when <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/investigations/ct-charities-bail-reform-cook-county-coronavirus-20200429-wgofyh4pnrdixgps76c7ck7bhu-story.html" target="_blank">they bailed out a man who threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend - he didn't kill her upon release but he did set her apartment on fire</a>.</p>
<p>Those two tragic events are completely different, really! But there is that old adage: fool me once, shame on you; fool me 25 times, shame on me.</p>
<p>Anyway, the online sleuths who figured this out took maybe three hours to do all this - imagine how quickly the FBI could do it! This is the type of out-of-the-box thinking I would bring to your agency!</p>Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-1206469947522679302021-01-08T00:52:00.013-05:002021-01-26T21:06:41.216-05:00Bastille 2021<p>The morning started out just like any other Trump rally: beach balls being tossed around, complete strangers talking, venders selling their wares, and people dancing. Not a formal dance, or even a rave, but rather the type of movements one does when listening to the Village People, Elton John, and Michael Jackson, while the temperature is in the mid 30s and the wind is blowing.</p>
<p>It was a good time, yesterday morning and early afternoon, with the crowd filling the space from the White House Ellipse to past the Washington Monument. The crowd was eagerly anticipating the speakers, especially Donald Trump, Jr, Rudolph Giuliani, and finally the Orange One himself.</p>
<p>Trump laid out in detail, state by state, the voter irregularities - both statistical evidence as well as the direct evidence of fraud. These irregularities are more than large enough to contest the results in the swing states, and therefore warrant investigation. But asking journalists or law makers to do their job is like asking the FBI to do theirs. These irregularities have been completely ignored by mainstream media and the suppression of this information is more proof that the product of those news outlets is only "news" in the Tokyo Rose sense of the word. Trump did a very good job presenting this information, though he did cut his remarks short because it was just so cold.</p>
<p>He stated several times that the rally wasn't about him, it was about election integrity - that if these irregularities were not addressed and the perpetrators punished, then we will never trust the outcome of an American election again. He's right, and the politicians who accept the Electoral College results are betraying the American voter and not just Trump.</p>
<p>Trump further stated that some of his advisors asked him to concede and try again in four years. He rejected this advice because the present fraud must be addressed. He's right about that, too. Each delay is just time for those who perpetrated or benefitted from this fraud to cover their tracks and consolidate power.</p>
<p>At no point did either Trump or Giuliani encourage violence. Anything to the contrary is a bald lie supported only by intentional fabrication as pablum for those who would rather trust the media instead of their own lying eyes.</p>
<p>At the conclusion of Trump's remarks, we proceeded to the Capitol Building. The crowd was so large that both Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues were filled.</p>
<p>No one was expecting trouble. Trump rallies, despite the propaganda, are extremely peaceful affairs. People of all races and all religions attend Trump rallies, particularly at yesterday's rally - in contrast to BLM rallies, which are attended mostly by guilty white liberals. Even people who hate crowds are comfortable there. Our rallies are permeated by a sense of good will and mutual respect, and attendees routinely bring along their young children and dogs. There were representatives of several militias present, and none of us were prepared for subsequent events.</p>
<p>There were some who carried and later wore gas masks, however...</p>
<p>By the time I reached the Capitol Building, people were already at the uppermost level, where the dome meets the roof. In preparation for (somebody's) inauguration, bleachers were being erected on both the left and right of the building, and people were scaling those. The steps in front were filled with people.</p>
<p>We didn't know it at the time but a 6 PM curfew was declared. The curfew was never once announced over loudspeakers by the police, nor was the death of at least one of the people who penetrated the building. Phone service was interrupted and Internet connection was spotty, and we had only rumor and hearsay, not actual information. We certainly didn't learn of Pence's decision to ignore the voter fraud, which was probably a good thing given the mood of the crowd.</p>
<p>The police action occurred as follows:</p>
<p>At least four sharp shooters and spotters were positioned in at least two locations on top of the Capitol. They were acting as overwatch.</p>
<p>The police made their appearance at the highest part of the building and began lobbing either tear gas or CS gas at us, purely as a "softening up" move. They then cleared out the highest part that the occupiers gained, using gas to disperse the majority of the people and arresting the remainders.</p>
<p>They then lobbed CS at the bleachers on the left in order to clear them. They arrested at least one person. They repeated this with the bleachers on the right. This was done in an extremely methodical fashion.</p>
<p>Finally, they got to the lowest level, the part with the Capitol steps. They repeated the same process there to clear us out.</p>
<p>In typical Trump-supporter humor/irony, we began chanting "hands up don't shoot" and "I can't breathe."</p>
<p>I absorbed what I assume was CS on three occasions. The first was when I was trying to help a man who absorbed quite a bit more of the gas. I told him not to rub his eyes. He insisted on using water to wash the chemicals out of his eyes, even though that prolongs the burning. I got caught when the wind shifted direction.</p>
<p>The second time (the worst of the three) was when I was helping a man who was blinded from the gas. What alerted me to his plight was that while everybody was either walking or running to get away from the gas, he was still, just standing still, facing away from the Capitol. He wasn't completely frozen, but he was mostly standing in place. When he did move it was towards a step over which he would fall. I walked him away from that step and had him sit on one of the low walls found throughout the Capitol. He later told me that he was a USMC veteran, and I have never seen a more disappointed man.</p>
<p>The third time happened just because I wasn't upwind from the gas.</p>
<p>While CS may not go well with whiskey, it should be a good mix with vodka. It is certainly good for the sinuses.</p>
<p>The crowd was indignant over the police officers' actions, mostly over our removal from the Capitol steps. After all, it was us who supported them while Antifa and BLM burned and looted cities. It was us who supported them when Antifa and BLM attacked them and firebombed their cruisers. It was us who opposed all attempts at defunding or disbanding them.</p>
<p>We demanded that they uphold their oaths and reminded them that refusal to do so makes them traitors. This fell on death ears, ears which were hidden under black helmets with face shields attached.</p>
<p>As I was leaving, one person with a megaphone was imploring us not to hate the police for all this. He said that we can't hate them for just doing their job, and that we would be as bad as Antifa and BLM if we did criticize them.</p>
<p>I confronted this man, and said two things to him:</p>
<p>First, the "just doing my job" excuse may sometimes be appropriate for pre-adolescent burger flippers or gas station attendants, but is never fitting for a law enforcement officer, whose salary is publicly funded, and who must be held to far higher standards. Decisions of conscience are never above anyone's pay grade.</p>
<p>Second: both sides in any conflict take actions designed to do harm to the other. What makes one side good and one side bad is determined mostly by what they're fighting for. Antifa and BLM are fighting for the servitude of socialism, for permanent revolution, and for the termination of the American culture. They pine for a Looking Glass world where black is white, where men can get pregnant, and the ones who can't and are of a certain skin color are by nature evil. They're not afraid of doing dirty work, but they are also not above getting others to do their dirty work.</p>
<p>We're fighting for freedom and the American way of life, and we do the work ourselves.</p>
<p>Antifa chants "death to America" while they loot and burn innocent businesses. Yesterday at the Capitol we were reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, singing "the Star-Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America."</p>
<p>For anyone who believes that all political movements are equivalent, consider this: there were plenty of opportunities for us to set the Capitol Building on fire - the bleachers were partially covered with cloth and canvas, they had wooden decks, and there were numerous small wooden construction projects underway. Each of those could have easily been set ablaze. But we did not set them on fire. Why didn't we? Because we are intelligent enough to separate the founding ideals of our country from the politicians and bureaucrats who claim they are managing it but are really plundering it.</p>
<p>I exited when the police officers were about five feet from me. The reason I left was this: when facing an opponent with a tactical advantage, there is nothing wrong with breaking contact... so long as this is followed by consideration of lessons learned, and the willingness and intention to use those lessons in subsequent engagements.</p>
<p> </p>
<b>The Context</b>
<p>Yesterday's events didn't occur in a vacuum.</p>
<p>We have been called racists, Nazis, sexists, homophobes, transphobes, Islamophobes, and deplorables for the last 12 years. All of these claims are made with zero evidence against the vast majority of patriots. Being called a Nazi or a racist used to be grounds for a fist fight. Now it has become not only acceptable but common. It became that way thanks to the anonymity of the Internet, through the intellectual sugaring-over implied by the term "microaggression", and, honestly, due to the politeness of those on the Right. It is espoused repeatedly by Barack Hussein Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and numerous athletes, all of whom are the epitome of poor and oppressed people.</p>
<p>Add to this the China Flu lockdowns, arbitrary business closures, and pointless mask regulations dictated by certain governors with zero legislative approval.</p>
<p>Add to this the way that tech companies have been allowed to censor conservatives, deplatform them, and fire their conservative employees, all without consequence and all with the protections granted by Section 230.</p>
<p>Add to this the way that the "justice" system turns a blind eye to the actions of Antifa and BLM, not only last summer but going all the way back to January 2017 when rioters destroyed DC buildings as well as a limousine driven by a Pakistani immigrant.</p>
<p>Add to this the Republicans' move to deny giving Americans $2000 in China Flu relief and instead giving us $600 while funding numerous pork projects - all while sending money to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Curacao, and Trinidad and Tobago, exactly none of which are American states.</p>
<p>The cherry on top of this shit sundae is the fraudulent election, and the way all the people who could and should do something are refusing to act. They refuse to act purely for political opportunity, not realizing that the outcome of all future elections will be determined not by the American people but rather by Dominion Voting Systems and similar companies.</p>
<p>These events impact all Americans, not just those on the Right. Those on the Left or in the middle mostly have yet to experience this, but their time is coming.</p>
<p>This modern-day Bill of Particulars is the context of yesterday's occupation of the Capitol Building, and it will determine our foreseeable future.</p>
<p> </p>
<b>The Consequences</b>
<p>One outcome from this is that patriots must reevaluate our relationship with the police. Almost all of us generally favor the police, have some type of "Blue Lives Matter" sticker, or a "Support our Police" yard sign, or even a US flag with one of the stripes painted blue. We continued to support them even when they allowed Milo Yiannopoulos to be chased by rioters from the campus of UC Berkeley, the home of the Free Speech Movement. This support continued through the riots they allowed to happen in Portland, Seattle, and other major cities. The police have been given the moral equivalent of a blank check, and they cashed it.</p>
<p>Another consequence is that the Republican Party has been given a well-deserved black eye. Between the stimulus bill debacle, their willingness to throw President Trump under the bus, and their unwillingness to investigate this fraudulent election, they have failed everybody in this country.</p>
<p>Speaking of Cuckservatives, Vice President Mike Pence, the largest cuck of them all, could have stopped all this. There is more than sufficient evidence indicating that the 2020 election was massively fraudulent, and what Pence needed to do was state that fact and initiate a thorough audit of the votes, a review of the voting equipment, and a review of the governors that implemented mail-in voting without the required legislative approval.</p>
<p>Instead, that coward caved. He was working under the mistaken assumption that he has a future in politics. He doesn't, but he surely arranged to have a golden parachute.</p>
<p>One must ask whether agents provocateurs were involved and patriots must now be on guard for this possibility. If patriots were acting alone, would we have occupied the steps of the Capitol? Yes, and proudly so. Would we have scaled the bleachers? Maybe so, maybe not. Would we have broken into the rotunda? Absolutely not.</p>
<p>A good friend of mine compared yesterday's events to the Storming of the Bastille. If agents provocateurs were involved, then the proper parallel would be the false flag operation at Gleiwitz. Either way, the establishment response will parallel the German's reaction to the Reichstag fire or the American response to 9-11.</p>
<p>Ultimately, yesterday's events supplied direct proof that the Right is willing to fight for what we believe. We have been in a war in this country with Leftist ideologies for a long time, yet only one side was fighting. Very much of what the Right does is merely posturing and bravado, unfortunately.</p>
<p>This allowed journalists and media personalities to slander, and businesses to commit the fraud that is deplatforming. It allowed district attorneys, judges, and politicians to commit fraud and treason. This is all because they are all cowards who are afraid of implied or actual intimidation from the woke mob. They knew that the Right would only verbally defend them, and that the Justice Department wears rose-colored blindfolds.</p>
<p>Yesterday's events (regardless of involvement by any agents provocateurs) prove that we can indeed fight. We put all of the establishment on alert - they can no longer act with impunity. We eliminated the safe space afforded by the middle ground, and that their time is up.</p>
<p> </p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjngdISvMujn3ITqOl4Z5QnDdAJoXTDZdlDBFXIYoVu0gizYVFOMYtd8XhaTDfsph5ZSNNhLSAguBLmGo_owslKSvs5GmRat7i9wjBhH9QMlyCgVd9xBHnFSJ86K6z2OLPFVNSyDOJFBhx3/s960/U.S._Capitol_Building_%25402x.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="200" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjngdISvMujn3ITqOl4Z5QnDdAJoXTDZdlDBFXIYoVu0gizYVFOMYtd8XhaTDfsph5ZSNNhLSAguBLmGo_owslKSvs5GmRat7i9wjBhH9QMlyCgVd9xBHnFSJ86K6z2OLPFVNSyDOJFBhx3/s200/U.S._Capitol_Building_%25402x.jpg"/></a></div>
<div align="center">(Photo from <a href="https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/buildings-grounds/capitol-building" target="_blank">The Architect of the Capitol</a>)</div>
Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-45635962907530911472020-07-05T04:18:00.003-04:002020-07-13T10:57:12.007-04:00The Last Fourth<p>We remember important first events - the first time you met the person who will become your significant other, the first words and first steps of your growing child. We also remember important last events - the last time you visited your alma mater, the last time you spoke with a dying parent.</p>
<p>Some events, though, are taken for granted - we didn't correctly identify the importance of an event until after it happened - so we remember neither the first nor the last time they occurred.</p>
<p>For example, my ex significant other and I always used to drive at least an hour to some random small town just to have pizza for dinner. The particular town or restaurant didn't matter - all small towns have good local Italian restaurants. What mattered is that we did this together, and that we enjoyed it. It was such a simple thing, and neither of us at the time realized how important those weekly outings were. For that reason, I cannot tell you the name of the town or restaurant we first ate at. I thought these road trips would go on forever, and now that he and I are separated, I can't remember the last place we went to. All I know is that there was a first town and restaurant and a last town and restaurant, and that there will be no more such road trips.</p>
<p>The same goes with holidays, Independence Day in particular. I have a childhood memory of my first fireworks show: the symmetry of the explosions, the three-dimensionality of the trails of sparks, how the bursts looked like flowers, only loud! At the time I didn't know why there were fireworks on that day, the Fourth of July, but I knew that that day must be important.</p>
<p>Years and years later, I also recall the last fireworks show I attended, which was in 2010. In the time between the first fireworks show and that last one, I became extremely averse to their sounds as well as to crowds. This may sound stupid, but there it is.</p>
<p>In an attempt to cure myself of this, I attended the 2010 Fourth of July celebration at a beach town in Maryland. I arrived very early, found a place on the beach as close as possible to the fireworks launcher, laid back on my towel, stretched my arms out, and watched. By the end, I was tired from the conscious effort needed not to move, and my hands were sore from grabbing the sand and towel for dear life! As I returned to my car, several strangers on the boardwalk asked if I was OK. I wasn't, but it didn't matter, for I made it through the whole thing.</p>
<p>This brings us to the Fourth of July 2020. Most large fireworks displays were cancelled because of the China Flu. Even if they weren't canceled, the meaning of Independence Day has changed for some Americans. Instead of being a time to celebrate our freedom, for them it has become an occasion to disparage our country.</p>
<p>There are three groups of people doing this.</p>
<p>First, there are the gay rights activists. They claim that homophobia exists, but to justify this they must add letters to what used to be only LGB. By doing so, they drop the idea that what makes a gay person gay is who he or she is attracted to, and replace it with an "assigned gender preference." They elevate fetishes to the status of sexual orientation. They also make a lack of self-awareness into an orientation, calling such people "transgender," "non-binary," "questioning," "pansexual," or "gender fluid". Further, some of them are attempting to normalize pedophilia, saying that the adult participants in this are "minor-attracted people" and trying to add a second "P" to the ever-growing initialism of non-cis-heterosexual "orientations".</p>
<p>Instead of "LGBTTQQIAAP," activists should save time and letters just by using "ABS" - anybody but straight.</p>
<p>With each letter added to "LGB" and each color added to the rainbow flag, someone claims a victory. But victories are meaningless when the opposition is negligible and the cost of losing is nonexistent.</p>
<p>If they want a true victory, these so-called activists should attempt to end the lawful execution of gays in Muslim countries. But they won't even try, since they are convinced that all cultures must be respected.</p>
<p>Then there is the Black Lives Matter movement, which is composed either of guilty white liberals or people looking for any opportunity to loot and burn. Black lives matter to them as long as it is a black man who was killed by a white cop, or if the black in question votes for the Democrats.</p>
<p>Of course there was slavery, but we fought a war to end it. The people who claim racism still exists are the same ones rewriting the history of the Civil War and destroying monuments describing that war. BLM continues to fight a war that ended in 1865 while completely ignoring the fact that slavery is still common in Africa and that there is an active slave trade in the Arab world.</p>
<p>Finally, there are the socialists calling themselves Antifa. They despise capitalism while living off their parents' trust funds and organizing their permanent revolution by using capitalist-made computers, all while enjoying overpriced coffee at Starbucks.</p>
<p>These modern-day Trotskyites operate in a logical and historical vacuum, ignoring the mass genocides that occurred in the countries governed by the very leaders that Antifa idolizes, <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/8/mara-liasson-journalists-compares-antifa-d-day-tro/" target="_blank">all while favorably comparing themselves to American D-Day troops</a>.</p>
<p>The commonality to these groups is that their members don't know how good they have it, and they have to invent nonexistent enemies to aggrandize their otherwise unremarkable lives. They are fueled by a vacuous education system, encouraged by their over-indulgent parents, enabled by left-wing politicians and judges, and operate unopposed by spineless cuckservastives.</p>
<p>The people doing this denigration are either ignorant of our history or were taught a straw-man version of history. We're the country that built the Transcontinental Railroad in only six years. We conquered the Axis Powers in under six years. We landed men on the Moon nine years after Kennedy set the direction. We've cured diseases, invented technologies, raised the standard of living for everybody. We're the ones who coined the term "self-made man," and many of us live that American dream.</p>
<p>These same people who deprecate this country have the whole world in their pockets, literally, either in iPhone or Android format. Yet the best they can do is defecate in their own kitchens.</p>
<p>Given all this, one must wonder if the July Fourth that ended a few hours ago is indeed the last Independence Day we'll see that hasn't been eviscerated of content and celebrated only out of habit.</p>
<p>While all the local fireworks shows were cancelled, some individuals at nearby apartment complexes decided to have their own shows. This is America at its best - private individuals taking up the slack left by our spineless representatives. I went to one of these apartment complex shows; while the crowds weren't very big, the noises were still nerve wracking. For if this is to be the last real Fourth of July, I want to experience it, and I want it to hurt.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztfLml-Ds-z1pt2YipJMLciGp1lgqq4ecdOgtkyYSciNdHrioHrPYx3LrvQazW78trhvzOA0HcbK-ocKt1g6-QArVN6A1qLElF68hXQDU9l30frohfvi3RKuNYshYoVuka8IOdMpuiXFV/s1600/FourthOfJuly2020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztfLml-Ds-z1pt2YipJMLciGp1lgqq4ecdOgtkyYSciNdHrioHrPYx3LrvQazW78trhvzOA0HcbK-ocKt1g6-QArVN6A1qLElF68hXQDU9l30frohfvi3RKuNYshYoVuka8IOdMpuiXFV/s400/FourthOfJuly2020.JPG" width="400" height="253" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1011" /></a></div>Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-46972857262569419972020-07-03T13:28:00.002-04:002020-07-13T10:21:10.799-04:00No Burka, No Hijab, No Service<p>The recent pandemic and rioting has lead me to frequently ask the following question: "Is there no shit you will not eat?" It is sort of <a href="https://poets.org/poem/i-sing-olaf-glad-and-big" target="_blank">a line out of an e e cummings' poem</a>, and I'm not the only one asking this.<br /> </p>
<h3>Rise of the Karens</h3>
<p>State and local governments’ responses to the China Flu have led to the rise of the “Karens.” These are people who have gorged mightily the propaganda coming from media, politicians, and supposedly credible medical organizations, and who aren’t afraid to impose their will on those of us who realize that the China Flu is nothing but a sham pandemic – a shamdemic.</p>
<p>These Karens are to be derided not only for their uncritical acceptance of the details and timing of the shamdemic but also their unwillingness to let others act according to their own best judgement.</p>
<p>Karens are nothing new. In previous times they were called by the more accurate term: collaborators. But we are living in an age where honesty is seen as aggression, and truth must be sugared over or else be rejected as hate speech.<br /> </p>
<h3>Narrative Collapse</h3>
<p>What fuels the Karens' control freak binge is not only the relentless social programming coming from the media and left-wing politicians, but also the gaping holes in the stories. Inconsistencies and absurdities became clear very early in the shamdemic - and these weren't just the usual "fog of war" uncertainties but ongoing narrative revisions and obvious political jockeying made by people wishing to frighten a nation and who assume Americans have no memory beyond the immediate now. Not only history being rewritten, but current events are being reworked in a feverish quest to find something that sticks.</p>
<p>Examples of the inconsistencies include:
<ul>
<li>Early overestimations of the virulence and fatality of the Bat Soup Flu based on models formulated without the input of empirical evidence</li>
<li>Requiring masks, even if the masks are useless at best and harmful at worst</li>
<li><a href="https://nypost.com/2020/06/23/oregon-county-issues-face-mask-order-exempting-non-white-people/" target="_blank">Requiring masks, but only for certain races</a></li>
<li>Allowing certain businesses to provide curbside service whereas others must be completely closed</li>
<li><a href="https://www.insidesources.com/are-hospitals-over-reporting-covid-19-cases-because-of-financial-incentive/" target="_blank">Hospitals inflating the number of Covid-19 cases</a> in order to <a href="https://orthospinenews.com/2020/05/04/hospitals-are-paid-more-for-medicare-patients-confirmed-or-presumed-to-have-coronavirus/" target="_blank">get increased government funding</a>. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/04/30/navy-hospital-ships-once-thought-critical-see-few-patients/" target="_blank">the Navy hospital ships sent to New York City and Los Angeles were mainly unoccupied</a>, as were <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/05/07/851712311/u-s-field-hospitals-stand-down-most-without-treating-any-covid-19-patients" target="_blank">field hospitals</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/media-watchdog-says-michigan-clinic-staged-the-crowding-at-virus-test-drive-through" target="_blank">Drive-through clinics were even caught on video inflating the number of clients.</a></li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>The public policies based on these inconsistencies and ordained by our representatives have done nothing but reveal their incompetency and expose their contempt and malevolence towards those that elected them.</p>
<p>Prisoners were released under the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/here-is-how-many-prisoners-have-been-released-covid-19" target="_blank">excuse that keeping them confined would increase their risk of becoming infected</a>. Masks apparently don't work inside prisons. As can be expected, <a href="https://www.acton.org/publications/transatlantic/2020/05/05/many-prisoners-released-over-covid-19-have-reoffended-here" target="_blank">many of these released prisoners immediately repeated the kinds offenses for which they were originally being held</a>.</p>
<p>Companies that were deemed "inessential" were ordered closed, unless, say, <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2020/03/30/Gov-Tom-Wolf-s-former-business-keeps-operating-during-coronavirus-shutdown-despite-losing-state-waiver/stories/202003300076" target="_blank">a governor had a personal stake in the business</a>, for example a <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/coronavirus/2020/03/gov-wolfs-ex-business-says-its-life-sustaining-and-doesnt-need-waiver-to-stay-open-during-coronavirus-shutdown.html" target="_blank">"life-sustaining" cabinet supply company</a>.</p>
<p>Most damning of all was the decision by several states to move patients with China Flu into nursing homes, senior care centers, and similar facilities. One nurse at a nursing home in Illinois said, "<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/05/01/coronavirus-nursing-homes-more-states-pressured-name-facilities/3062537001/" target="_blank">our patients are dropping like flies</a>." New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo understood the danger, stating that illness would go through elderly patients like "fire through dry glass." <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/fire-through-dry-grass-andrew-cuomo-saw-covid-19-threat-to-nursing-homes-then-he-risked-adding-to-it" target="_blank">He ordered nursing homes to accept China Flu patients anyway</a>.
<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/05/01/coronavirus-nursing-homes-more-states-pressured-name-facilities/3062537001/" target="_blank">Nationally, the number of nursing home deaths has been reported to be 16,000</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, putting China Flu patients into nursing homes is acceptable for us commoners but not for the ruling class - Pennsylvania's secretary of health Rachel Levine (formerly Richard)
<a href="https://nypost.com/2020/05/13/pennsylvania-health-official-moved-mother-from-nursing-home/" target="_blank">moved his mother from a nursing home into a hotel as the death toll rose</a>. Richard was the one that <a href="https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/news/20200501/states-ordered-nursing-homes-to-take-covid-19-residents-thousands-died-how-it-happened" target="_blank">allowed nursing homes to accept China Flu patients in the first place</a>. Stunning and brave, Richard, stunning and brave.</p>
<p>These acts are criminal, and hopefully the governors and secretaries of health who implemented all this will receive the swift and severe retribution that they are due.<br /> </p>
<h3>The Magical Virus</h3>
<p>Meanwhile the magical powers of the virus causing Szechuan Sickness continue to expand!</p>
<p>The virus is attracted to small businesses, churches, weddings, and funerals... unless the deceased was a black man killed by a white police officer. Then multiple nationally televised funerals with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9AQ-Y0svNA" target="_blank">dancing pallbearers</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWIVOgNgc0k" target="_blank">horse-drawn carriages</a> are safe, because the church doors are marked with the blood of a <a href="" target="_blank">fentanyl user who also tested positive for the Mandarin Malady</a>.</p>
<p>The virus knows not to infect people who "social distance" (what an oxymoron!) by standing 6 feet apart (not 5'11"), except at certain types of protests. The Asian Affliction is attracted to shutdown protests and Trump rallies, and it is able to be detected without waiting for the usual 14-day incubation period to elapse. BLM and Antifa riots, however, have the Cantonese Contagion's approval, as well as the approval of least <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/05/health/health-care-open-letter-protests-coronavirus-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">1000 health professionals</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, BLM protests actually <a href="https://coloradosun.com/2020/06/30/police-protests-coronavirus-spread" target="_blank">may have slowed the overall spread of the virus</a>. All hail the woke virus!<br /> </p>
<h3>The Timing</h3>
<p>Then there is the timing. The governors and mayors who are most adamant about keeping their states in lockdown or who devise the most circuitous staged reopening plans are Democrats. Amazing, isn’t it, that the China Flu began getting press almost immediately after the impeachment proceedings against President Trump fizzled. Then the George Floyd riots began just as the <a href="https://www.fiercepharma.com/marketing/as-covid-19-social-media-fatigue-sets-pharma-begins-to-restart-other-health-conversations" target="_blank">press realized that people were experiencing Covid-19 “burn out.”</a> Now that the riots have mostly stopped, Covid-19 coverage has increased, with a focus on squaring away the importance of “social distancing” with the proximity of the rioters to each other.<br /> </p>
<h3>But Back to the Karens</h3>
<p>All of this – the narrative inconsistencies, the stupid policy decisions, the timings, as well as the fact that not many people directly know anyone who has had the China Flu – should give people reason to be just a little skeptical, and everybody should be outraged at the nursing home deaths. The Karens aren’t, for Karens don’t have time for suspicions, common sense, logic, the evidence of the senses, or for outrage beyond their own indignation – they’ve got religion, and they are oftentimes the same people who believe in global <strike>warming</strike> <strike>cooling</strike> climate change, a theory that has not produced one accurate prediction over all the decades it has been in existence.</p>
<p>For everybody else, all of this is a bill of particulars.</p>
<p>Some people would excuse the Karens by claiming that they are just exercising their freedom of speech. Notice that these apologists only allow Karens to use their First Amendment rights, and when the Karens do so, it frequently is in the form of either muttered insults or explicit threats directed at the no-mask wearing people and their families.</p>
<p>Unmentioned by the apologists is the harm that Karens do: some states maintain "snitch" websites that allows Karens to <a href="https://www.silive.com/news/2020/04/hey-comrades-be-a-good-coronavirus-snitch-and-rat-out-your-fellow-new-yorkers-opinion.html" target="_blank">report individuals and businesses to state authorities</a> for <a href="https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/pa-draws-fire-for-snitch-portal-that-allows-workers-to-report-covid-19-violations-online/article_31f9a860-8663-11ea-bbb1-cfc7646c005e.html" target="_blank">violating the dictates</a>, or for <a href="https://prospect.org/coronavirus/state-websites-employers-snitch-unemployment/" target="_blank">companies to report employees for unemployment fraud</a>. The state authorities can then take action, especially against small businesses.</p>
<p>On <a href="https://www.king5.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/snitch-list-exposes-names-reporting-stay-at-home-order-violations/281-b19bfcb6-298b-4b8f-9121-45488415f3cb" target="_blank">several</a> <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-exposes-british-snitches-police-tyrants/" target="_blank">occasions</a> the snitch lists have been published. The Karens were incensed - how dare the businesses and individuals they reported have the right to face their accusers!</p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8282475/Missourians-tipped-county-lockdown-rule-breakers-fear-retaliation-release.html" target="_blank">she was exposed for using Missouri's snitch website</a>, one sniveled "<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8282475/Missourians-tipped-county-lockdown-rule-breakers-fear-retaliation-release.html" target="_blank">I'm not only worried about COVID, I'm worried about someone showing up at my door, showing up at my workplace or me getting fired for doing what is right</a>." Welcome to the club, Karen. One would hope that the level of fear implied by that individual would lead to just a little character improvement. It won't, for when Karens get called on their bullshit, they turn all Manga eyed like that one did, and if you turn your back on them for one minute, they will revert to their old informant ways.</p>
<p>Never asked about these informants is whether they have ulterior motives: it is easy to foresee situations where one business owner may snitch on another, thereby using the power of the state to gain a competitive advantage that the informant's ability and determination never will provide.<br /> </p>
<h3>Corporate Karens and the Problem with Masks</h3>
<p>Karens aren't limited to being individuals - there are corporate Karens, too. These are businesses that not only meekly cooperate with the dictates coming from local and state governments, but are enforcing them on their customers and employees as well. And the companies insist of calling these dictates "laws" instead of what they are: orders.</p>
<p>This happens in particular with the mask orders.</p>
<p>The most common defense of businesses that require their customers and employees to wear masks is this: "No shirt, no shoes, no service wasn't affecting your rights. Neither does no mask, no service." When you call these apologists on their bullshit, the response is always "well that's very progressive of you, it is their private property after all." They no doubt say this while sipping the Libertarian equivalent of a Starbucks Vanilla Bean Mocha Frappuccino.</p>
<p>This is not only the most common defense, it is also the most disappointing, for they might as well be saying "no burka, no hijab, no service." Companies wield powerful economic and social forces and are in some ways and some situations as powerful as armies. To insist that we wear rose-colored blindfolds to this fact is criminal, and it is a gateway to innumerable abuses.</p>
<p>One has to wonder how far these apologists would go with this excuse: should government or semi-government offices have the same right to refuse you service? What if all private businesses of a certain type all decide to deny service? Are your rights still not being infringed?</p>
<p>And there's this: some cities and states, like <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_5202f098-8f01-11ea-9f00-9bb0137f8acf.html" target="_blank">New Orleans</a>, are requiring companies to have their customers and employees participate in <a href="https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Contact-Tracing.aspx" target="_blank">contact tracing</a>. Logically, the apologists must still excuse this by saying "they're private companies, they aren't infringing your rights."
<p>Again I ask: is there no shit you will not eat?</p>
<p>Perhaps these apologists may have good (though not well reasoned) intentions, or they may be "going along to get along," or they may just be cowards. Regardless, the result is inaction on their part and criticism of those who refuse to be inactive.</p>
<p>Let's analyze the "private companies get a pass" remark: the ownership of a particular business is not in question. What is in question is the propriety and overall wisdom of their enforcement of Peking Plague ordinance.</p>
<p>It is not a company's job to enforce dictates on their customers or employees - a business doesn't come with a badge. Law enforcement is and must solely be the responsibility of the police, and the China Flu dictates are orders, not laws.</p>
<p>"But, but, but... does that mean Christians should be forced into baking wedding cakes for gays?" Nope, for they (the Christian bakers) aren't acting as collaborators or dictate enforcers.<br /> </p>
<h3>What to Do?</h3>
<p>What responses are warranted by those denied entrance or service for not wearing a mask, not maintaining "social distance," etc.? Are we to simply fold like one of Ron Paul's cheap suits?</p>
<p>One proper reaction is to use "the power of the purse," but it must be done in an effective manner, not merely as lip service.</p>
<p>Do not simply go to another store. Make sure that the store denying you entrance or service knows that you are not going to be purchasing from them because they are in bed with fools. If you make it to the cash register and are denied service, make them understand that it is they who will be the ones returning the stock to the shelves, and why they will be doing so.</p>
<p>This is the real power of the purse: you have to make sure the business not only knows they are losing money, but why they are losing money. Otherwise all they see is a small downtick in revenue when they do their books, and they can easily explain it away as random.</p>
<p>Another approach is to protest outside the homes of health officials, or to dox them. According to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/alarm-as-vaccine-foes-anti-mask-activists-target-public-health-officials" target="_blank">one report</a>, these actions have caused some officials to resign their posts out of fear for their safety. Good.</p>
<p>Coordinated actions are possible too: go mask-less shopping with friends, participate in boycotts and class-action lawsuits, etc. Coordinated actions can fail, but individual actions will always result in at least a small victory.</p>
<p>Whatever the approach, make it expensive for them not to accept your money. Make those businesses understand in concrete terms that your patronage is not a given, and that their actions will come at a cost.<br /> </p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>The immediate goal of the scamdemic is to cause division.</p>
<p>In day-to-day terms, ask yourself how many calm and rational in-person debates have you had with people who hold the opposite views on the China Flu? Before the shutdowns and the masks, it was an almost daily thing with me. The last one I had was with a dental technician whose office was shut down and who now works at a convenience store. With the coming of the masks, every interaction - if interaction was even possible - has become either an enforcement act or a shouting match instead of a healthy debate.</p>
<p>How much of the unemployment, the business closures, the economic suffering, and most importantly the level of political animosity and vitriol would we have now if companies didn't blindly follow these orders? Animosity and vitriol are the thing we should be most concerned about because we are now much closer to mass civil disorder or even civil war than we ever were over the last 12 years. Masks are just one more wedge issue used to divide and conquer us.</p>
<p>A second goal is to swing the 2020 election. The one accomplishment that even leftists cannot deny is the incredible economic prosperity that resulted when Trump began to roll-back policies of the previous several administrations. The shutdowns have thrown millions of people out of work (the "inessentials") and have forced the shuttering of thousands of small businesses - some forever, thus ending this prosperity.</p>
<p>The ultimate goal of the masks, the shutdowns, and all the rest is to normalize fear and instill control. The concrete symbol of the control is the mask, and it signifies submission. The enforcers of the control are collaborating companies, their employees, and the Karens. </p>
<p>That is to be the new normal, something that must be resisted at all costs.</p>
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Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-50171587778904450932020-05-31T01:08:00.002-04:002020-05-31T20:40:05.543-04:00Or What?<p>The mainstream media's coverage of the large riots occurring in cities has been very superficial and "safely reported," meaning that reporters are behind or within sight of the police, or reporting from news helicopters. The TV news crews show burning vehicles and stores being looted, and they describe the local police as being "busy" or "occupied with protecting buildings, people, or themselves."</p>
<p>The words “busy” and “occupied” are incorrect. The right word to use here is "overwhelmed".</p>
<p>In Minneapolis, police are overwhelmed to the point that on Thursday the rioters took over the 3rd Precinct station, looted it, and set it ablaze. Afterwards, the rioters set-off celebratory fireworks and participated in self-congratulatory fellatio, all while taking selfies in front of the burning building. This is not what mainstream media would show, but you can <a href="https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1266206034260975616" target="_blank">see the events live-streamed by sympathizers or participants</a>.</p>
<p>Minneapolis is not alone. Police in LA, Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, New York City, Philadelphia, etc., are also overwhelmed.</p>
<p>The media downplays these events. For example, the <a href="https://www.startribune.com/walz-bolsters-guard-troops-after-4th-destructive-night/570882282/" target="_blank">Minneapolis Star Tribune</a> has only today just started <a href="https://www.startribune.com/walz-bolsters-guard-troops-after-4th-destructive-night/570882282/" target="_blank">describing the events in Minneapolis as riots, after four days of rioting</a>. A MSNBC reporter described the riot as "<a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/05/28/msnbcs_ali_velshi_downplays_riot_in_front_of_burning_building_mostly_a_protest_not_generally_speaking_unruly.html" target="_blank">mostly a protest</a>" while standing in front of a burning building.</p>
<p>And then there's CNN, the apologist for all things left of Jane Fonda. Their building in Atlanta had windows smashed and their logo defaced. Why? At <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/furious-demonstrators-swarm-cnn-center-in-atlanta-during-protest-of-george-floyds-death" target="_blank">a press conference</a> with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, rapper Killer Mike explained it like this:
<blockquote>"I love CNN. I love Cartoon Network. But I'd like to say to CNN right now: karma is a mother. Stop feeding fear and anger every day. Stop making people so fearful, give them hope."</blockquote>
<p>The media as well as the rioters themselves are quick to mention that the riots are over the death of George Floyd. The problem is, the officer involved in his death was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter and has been arrested, thus removing the rioters' casus belli. Yet the rioting continues. Maybe they think that if they keep looting and burning, the charges will be increased to first degree murder?</p>
<p>In response to all the destruction and mayhem, the mayors and governors of these Democrat-run cities and states do two things: they shift the blame, and they tell people to go home.</p>
<p>Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (also known as Mayor Groot) <a href="
https://dailycaller.com/2020/05/29/chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-trump-george-floyd/" target="_blank">tried to lay blame on President Trump</a>, saying:
<blockquote>"he wants to show failures on the part of Democratic local leaders, to throw red meat to his base. His goal is to polarize, to destabilize local government and inflame racist urges. We can absolutely not let him prevail. And I will code what I really want to say to Donald Trump. It’s two words. It begins with F and it ends with U."</blockquote></p>
<p>Minnesota Governor Tim Walz implied in <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/george-floyd-death-minneapolis-protests-live-updates-n1217886/ncrd1219396#blogHeader" target="_blank">one press briefing</a> that white supremacists and drug cartels "are trying to take advantage of the chaos." Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey made similar claims.</p>
<p>In another press conference, Walz goes on to describe the geographic origin of the rioters: "I think our best estimate right now that I heard is about 20% is what we think are Minnesotans and about 80% are outside." How did he determine that percentage? No reporter asked him that question.</p>
<p>St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter stated that 100% of the rioters arrested in his city were from out of state, but he then retracted that claim when presented with <a href="https://www.kare11.com/article/news/investigations/kare-11-investigates-records-show-arrests-mostly-minnesotans-as-george-floyd-protests-riots-continue-minneapolis-st-paul/89-73f3e0e8-0664-41d5-8d3e-4467d04da7cb" target="_blank">jail records that showed otherwise</a>. Walz has not yet issued a statement.</p>
<p>External actors are no doubt involved, but no mention is made of the obvious agents provocateurs: Antifa and other left-wing groups.</p>
<p>Regardless, the media has caught on to this, and it has been echoed by clergy and various mayors, such as Philadelphia's mayor.</p>
<p>What do the governors and mayors advise? Governor Walz says "<a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/gov-tim-walz-mayor-jacob-frey-press-conference-on-4th-night-of-protests" target="_blank">We want them [the rioters] to do nothing more than to go home. We don't want them arrested.</a>"</p>
<p>He doesn't want them arrested. He wants them to go home.</p>
<p>What if the rioters don't go home?</p>
<p>The mayors announce curfews.</p>
<p>"Or what?" say the rioters as they continue to riot past the curfew.</p>
<p>The police then threaten to use teargas if they don't disperse.</p>
<p>"Or what?" say the rioters, as the teargas causes them to disperse from one location and reconvene their riot somewhere else.</p>
<p>And on and on and on.</p>
<p>Democrat mayors and governors propose that people go home - the conciliatory tone signals their "concern" for people, people who have for months been staying at home and "social distancing" over the China Flu. The politicians believe that these soothing words provide (aid and) comforting warm fuzzies to everybody. The mayors and governors want reconciliation at all costs, even if it requires compromising with evil.</p>
<p>Those words offer no comfort, for the rioters will always say: "or what?"</p>
<p>Further, they undercut their own desire to maintain peace. For example, at a <a href="https://www.fox29.com/video/689740" target="_blank">news briefing</a> with Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, the police commissioner (<a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/danielle-outlaw-philadelphia-police-commissioner-first-week-20200212.html" target="_blank">and her fingernails</a>), and various clergy held earlier today, the overall tone was this: "we don't want people destroying the city, BUT Philly has a track record of racism and bad police practices."</p>
<p>Someone needs to tell them that the word "but" negates what came before. In other words, they want their city destroyed.</p>
<p>To tell people - the people who are actually protesting the death of George Floyd - to "go home" is to tell them to surrender.</p>
<p>The mayors and governors call for inaction and appeasement when what is really required is decisive action.</p>
<p>Instead, tell the residents NOT to go home. Tell the legitimate protesters that they need to stop the rioters. If the residents care about their city, then they must defend it. They must defend themselves, their family, their own property, their own businesses, and those of their neighbors - remember, the police are overwhelmed.</p>
<p>Most importantly, they must ensure that the agents provocateurs are stopped, at whatever cost.</p>
<p>The best defense is self-defense. Or as one armed counter-protester said: “<a href="https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1265839536661237766" target="_blank">Before there were cops, there were just Americans. So, here we are.</a>”</p>
<p>Of course, this counsel would cause the media and the liberals to hyperventilate. "<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8367065/Armed-rednecks-George-Floyd-protest-say-protecting-storeowners-violent-looters.html" target="_blank">The people are taking the law into their own hands</a>," they would whine and complain. But, how is this whining any different from what they do every other day?</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit6SyeF5qHMys-ic-9kiMSmJ4w9iBi9A3yyNzp4nntEYGbeaJ0nAJgmGm-fOcDnhvomO_896mj2Sl3En1sYsNWUUkbkhXcQRQ-t1wLa7GnVenbNA7IjyUjTULeCArMDTltpYHZlVy_qvaF/s1600/101452444_10222090021737503_3371415998690230272_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit6SyeF5qHMys-ic-9kiMSmJ4w9iBi9A3yyNzp4nntEYGbeaJ0nAJgmGm-fOcDnhvomO_896mj2Sl3En1sYsNWUUkbkhXcQRQ-t1wLa7GnVenbNA7IjyUjTULeCArMDTltpYHZlVy_qvaF/s320/101452444_10222090021737503_3371415998690230272_n.jpg" width="320" height="214" data-original-width="680" data-original-height="454" /></a></div>Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8602841519204417832.post-20625621122789655772019-11-19T22:16:00.004-05:002023-11-08T21:37:47.546-05:00Adam Schiff and the Drag Queen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjJucYQsCmOOJO39W3da2iLQ2ULrH1cCjfLjx0VTTKs_CxaeGH-HixCJHJGjuhFan8Xd2DF1hf0ZxIBtsp9tq18_uWyuHKoOvIItrWJv8R1u8pxfgjWFEmFQn1SFXnhtCMAFGjgkr08X7g/s1600/MissTrial.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjJucYQsCmOOJO39W3da2iLQ2ULrH1cCjfLjx0VTTKs_CxaeGH-HixCJHJGjuhFan8Xd2DF1hf0ZxIBtsp9tq18_uWyuHKoOvIItrWJv8R1u8pxfgjWFEmFQn1SFXnhtCMAFGjgkr08X7g/s200/MissTrial.png" width="150" /></a></div>
<p>Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell were in the private committee chamber, preparing for the start of the Thursday's hearings.</p>
<p>"Jeff Zucker is about to have my ass!" Schiff exclaimed.</p>
<p>"Didn't he already have your ass?"</p>
<p>"Not like that. He says we need more sex and sizzle!"</p>
<p>Swalwell sat perplexed, "Sex and... sizzle?"</p>
<p>"Yes, yesterday's hearings tanked in the ratings, and we have two more days scheduled this week. Plus next week!" Schiff’s voice grew in volume and pitch. "Zucker is panicking!"</p>
<p>"I told you we shouldn't do this in open session."</p>
<p>Schiff leaned over this desk and said "here's what we're going to do..."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The chamber began to fill with politicians, lawyers, and journalists. They were joined by a drummer, who set up his kit in the back of the room.</p>
<p>Just as Chairman Schiff called the hearing to order, a person wearing a bright blond wig and hot red dress sashayed onto the floor while the drummer played a seductive vamp. All eyes were upon Miss Trial, especially the protruding orbs of the committee chair, Adam Schiff.</p>
<p>She leaned against his table, placed one of her thick legs atop it, hiked up her already short dress, and said "I'd like to go next," her voice gravelly and deep, almost a baritone. Miss Trial pulled Schiff's tie out from his jacket.</p>
<p>"I usually don't do women," Schiff stuttered nervously, beads of perspiration forming on his brow.</p>
<p>"Don't worry, neither do I," she said in her husky voice. The drummer did a rim shot.</p>
<p>Schiff immediately noticed how the top of her dress came far up her neckline, no doubt to cover her Adam's apple. A smile crossed his thin lips. "The chair calls Miss Trial!"</p>
<p>"That's what we've been saying since yesterday morning!" Rep. Jim Jordan exclaimed.</p>
<p>"No, the chair calls Misses Trial to the witness stand."</p>
<p>"That's 'MISS' Trial. And give me an introduction that's proper for a lady of my class and breeding, honey."</p>
<p>Schiff took a moment, then spoke into his microphone: "Straight off her nationwide Drag Queen Story Hour tour, and most recently appearing at the Illusions Night Club here in DC, I present... Miss! Trial!"</p>
<p>Thumping dance music filled the chamber, and half of the chamber exploded in applause as she walked to the table reserved for witnesses, their cheers of "stunning" and "brave" almost drowning out the music. Miss Trial gave a queen wave as she walked behind the table reserved for witnesses. She waited for Ambassador Taylor to pull out the chair, then she sat slowly, adjusting her seat by wiggling her bottom.</p>
<p>"If there's any doubt about this being a circus, well, the bearded lady just arrived," Devin Nunes said to one of his aids.</p>
<p>Miss Trial heard this and said: "honey, I shaved this morning. Twice." Rim shot.</p>
<p>"Chairman Schiff, what does all THIS," Jim Jordan pointed to the person behind the witness desk, "have to do with Ukraine?"</p>
<p>"My dress maker visited Ukraine once" Miss Trial answered.</p>
<p>"And?"</p>
<p>"And what? He's obviously a good dress maker!" Miss Trial raised from her seat, did a pirouette, and stopped at just the right angle so that the chamber's floor lights maximized her cheekbones and minimized her linebacker build. She held the pose for a moment, then returned to her seat to more wild applause.</p>
<p>Schiff smiled. "See, Rep. Jordan, this will be valuable testimony from a relevant witness! Miss Trial, what do you know about the phone call between Mr. Trump and President Zelensky?"</p>
<p>"President who?"</p>
<p>"Volodymyr Zelensky? The president of Ukraine?" Schiff said this without even one note of exasperation in his voice.</p>
<p>"Oh that. Well, Sergei, my dress maker, said that his friend's brother's housekeeper has an acquaintance in the Ukraine office who heard that President Trump and President Z. had a phone call."</p>
<p>"Umm…,” Rep. Jordan interjected, “your dress maker's friend's housekeeper?"</p>
<p>"No. My dress maker's friend's brother's housekeeper's acquaintance. Easy. Could someone fetch me a martini?"</p>
<p>"Miss Trial, alcoholic beverages are not permitted on the floor," Jordan scolded.</p>
<p>"Tell that to Nancy," she replied. Rim shot.</p>
<p>"Chairman Schiff, this is nothing but fourth- or fifth-hand rumors!" Jim Jordan pointed out.</p>
<p>"Sometimes hearsay is much better than direct evidence," Representative Mike Quigley quickly interjected.</p>
<p>"Misanthrope..." Jordan started saying.</p>
<p>"That's Miss TRIAL, not Miss Anthrope, honey!"</p>
<p>"No, I was calling Representative Quigley a misanthrope. Miss Trial, have you ever even been to the Ukraine?"</p>
<p>"No, but like I said, my dress maker has."</p>
<p>"When was he last there?"</p>
<p>"In 2015. Sergei visited Crimea. He said the Russians left it a real shithole, but he also said he was able to get good blow from somebody named Hunter."</p>
<p>Jim Jordan sat, blinking. "Do you know Hunter's full name?"</p>
<p>"The chair calls for a fifteen-minute recess!!" Schiff didn't even bother to try to keep the panic out of his voice.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Back in private chambers, Swalwell and Schiff were pacing, figuring out how to spin this.</p>
<p>Swalwell: "What are we going to do? This whole thing was a mistake!"</p>
<p>From the other side of the door, Schiff and Swalwell could hear a gravely baritone voice exclaim: "That's Miss TRIAL!"</p>
<p>Schiff eyes were protruding more than usual: "We need a <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/13/therapy-dogs-visit-stressed-congressional-staffers-at-impeachment-hearings/" target="_blank">therapy dog</a>... and a distraction!"</p>
<p>"Not the whole mass shooting thing again," Swalwell sighed. "How long will people fall for it?"</p>
<p>"We'll maintain the appearance of having the moral high ground. It will work." Schiff opened his phone, dialed a number, and arranged for some sex and sizzle.</p>Mike Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07827036668704774858noreply@blogger.com0