Things Are Messed Up

Posted on March 26, 2024 by Holmes Oliver

A couple of news items drag me in today. One is the cargo ship hitting Key Bridge in Baltimore.  Not all details in yet, but already easy to compare to the Ukrainians (with our help I assume) trying time after time to knock out the Russian’s Crimea Bridge with only limited success. Here comes what looks like an accident or maybe a negligence of some sort — and whammy, one of our most valuable pieces of infrastructure does down in seconds.  Kind of makes you wonder at how easily our systems can be compromised. The other news item is also still fact-sketchy, but it looks like our Special Forces trained a Palestinian Authority dude in sniping. Said Palestinian Authority dude was a good student who has followed up his training by killing a handful of Israelis. What in blazes were we thinking? Why in the world would be providing military training to any Palestinians? Who else would they shoot? Something is very wrong.

Posted in Culture, Strategy, The War for America, Uncategorized, Worldview | 1 Comment

Journalist Schmernalist

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Holmes Oliver

The Epoch Times has an article about Steve Baker, journalist arrested for some trumped up somethingorother related to the Jan 6 not-an-insurrection. Steve Baker, on the Jan. 6 Front Lines and in the DOJ’s Crosshairs | The Epoch Times

Worth a read, but here I don’t want to go deep into Mr. Baker’s case or why he was arrested.  None of that. It is all too disturbingly tyrannical an abuse of process. Not much to be said, really. The whole thing is un-American, evil, shameful and what else? There is, however, one point from the article I want to key in on. What is the definition of ‘journalist?’  This to me is a big deal, a big red herring, and all of us should get that linguistic nonsense straight in our collective American mind. The Constitution is pretty clear.  One of the enumerated freedoms is freedom of the press.  But the ‘press’ is a machine, a technology, in the same manner as the ‘arms’ to which we have an enumerated right to bear.  The freedom wasn’t assigned to any group or category of people. It is a freedom all of us have. There should be absolutely no category of people with some enhanced right to observe, record or report on the activities of our government. Here and there the practicalities of space and time might excuse a limitation on access. We can understand some reasonable management of access to certain events and people.  But not because the individuals seeking the access are more or less ‘journalists.’  There is no such constitutional category.  We should consider ‘journalist’ a legal non-thing.  We are all journalists, constitutionally-speaking. The abuse of Mr. Baker should not revolve around some false category of rights-holder. He had a right to be where he was, or to any extent he didn’t, it was the most minor of access infractions. The contemptibles at the DOJ didn’t arrest him for that, did they? They arrested him because he exercised the freedom of opinion, broadcast and publication that we all have. They abuse all of us along with Mr. Baker. We need to find out and not forget the specific names of the individuals who ordered his arrest. When it becomes physically possible, those individuals need to be investigated and prosecuted for abuse of process and violation of rights.

Posted in Culture, Jurisprudence, Lawfare, Strategy, The 2024 Elections, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Help Us Grade Team Names

Posted on March 23, 2024 by Holmes Oliver

OK, let’s take a minute to talk about team names.  This is fully on-topic if the topic is the War for America and if culture war is part of that. Control of grammar and vocabulary is a basic element of competent strategy-making in any war.  So…team naming.  Nothing says it can’t be both strategic and fun.  Should be, actually. Join in. Pile on.

The Kraken —   A+   I’m not a big fan of the team or the city, but calling the hockey team The Kraken was brilliant.  Great fan hats.  Great logo.  Dangerous sea predator; just enough silly.

The Jayhawks —   A+   I am a fan.  In fact, I’m a Jayhawk. Not why I give it an A+ though.  The Jayhawk is a colorful, fanciful creature historically rooted in the area’s actual history from the border wars of the mid-19th century and the Civil War. It’s an angry, dangerous little bird that still likes to have fun, especially while devouring Bushwhackers. Confident enough to wear buckles on yellow shoes! Make sumthin’ of it, punk.  Logo makes for a great sweatshirt or hat.

Fighting Hawks —   D-   The reason I don’t give this a full ‘F’ is because a hawk is a fine, fast, powerful athletic predator and there are plenty of good, straight-up hawk-named teams. Pretty sure the Jayhawk is a hawk.  ‘Fighting Hawks’ gets a low-end D-, at least in its North Dakota version. They should change their name back at the first opportunity they have to un-woke themselves. What were they thinking? Sioux tribes whumped up on Colonel Custer, massacred the cavalry in the Fetterman fight and generally frustrated the bluecoats. They forced one of the few treaties with the US in which the US conceded. The University had not chosen the previous name ‘Fighting Sioux’ so as to be hostile or abusive to the Sioux. The naming honored that tribe – quite openly and obviously in the manner that all warriors everywhere honor worthy adversaries. Why did the NCAA and the university do such a stupid thing as to erase the name of that great tribal group?  Because soft-minded, no-honor twits at the NCAA were being dumbass progressive democrats and bullying power-grabbers. At best it is a tale of NCAA pandermonkeying and spineless university admin puke weaksaucery. Ah, there it is — that’s we should start calling the U. of North Dakota teams until they decide to pull their progressive asses out of their democrat butts – the University of North Dakota Weaksause Pandermonkies. The UNDWP.  The UNDWP until they decide to re-dedicate and honor the warrior heritage of their geography.

Posted in Culture, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Capacity to Fight

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Geoff Demarest

When making strategy, the capacity to fight (One’s own capacity as well as that of opponents) is a basic, natural consideration. To formalize that consideration a bit — to audit it, practice it, organize it or perhaps to have a handy checklist for review of said consideration, I offer the following, soft deconstruction.

Divide capacity to fight into four principal categories, as follows (the order is of little consequence):

  1. To move influential mass
  2. To build influential mass
  3. To move influential ideas
  4. To create influential ideas

Move influential mass. This includes water, fighters, bullets, bombs, aircraft, food – anything with actual weight that can help influence an opponent. And by ‘move’ that generally means move it to where it can have the desired influence. Boats, tunnels, ports – they all help move stuff. Nothing attains its competitive value except to the extent it can be moved.

Build influential mass. Before moving a thing — soldier, tank, drone, whatever — it has to exist. Some people, organizations, countries can make things while others have little capacity to do so. Owning a gun factory might be nice.

Move influential ideas. This means getting ideas to the audience one wants to influence, which on most fruitful occasion includes the opponent and his minions. We can have great ideas, but if we cannot deliver them, they fall silent in the forest.

Create influential ideas. Not everyone imagines influentially useful ideas. “Golly, gee, I think we can spit the atom” was a heck of a potentially influential idea. The categories do overlap some.

There are maybe two more categories to keep in mind as you are doing your essential strategy-making considerations bit. The first is resolve. Not exactly a capacity in that resolve, or willpower, is what keeps a competitor orchestrating and applying the capacities to a competitive end, but in a sense, it is also a capacity. A possible sixth capacity has to do with spying and secrecy. That, too, involves the other capacities even to include resolve. Having the capacity to find out the other competitors’ capacities and to simultaneously not let them know one’s own capacities is, I figure, itself a capacity. So… if in your capacity-considering you prefer to use five or six or even seven capacity categories instead of four, what’s it to me? Math is hard.

Anyhow, let’s think as an example for a moment about the relative capacities of the Russians to fight against the Ukrainians and vice-versa. Not really my geographical area of expertise, if I even have one. Nevertheless, it’s easy and was easy to see that the Ukrainians have advantage in none of the basic four or five or six categories of capacity. No, not even close. Whoever thought it a good bet for the Ukrainians to get into a long, hot war with the Russians did not calculate capacities at all well. Or maybe she did but was simply unconcerned about the deaths of Ukrainians or of Ukraine. Such ‘strategists’ are either not competent or not ethical. Probably neither competent nor ethical. We should prefer our strategists to be competent and ethical.

Posted in Clausewitz Sucks, Conflict Geography, Conflict Geography, Strategy, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Politics is the Killing Machine

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Ivan Welch
At this moment, while you scroll your Devil Brick, or peruse your PC, who can end your life legally? Or at least end your life with impunity.

Certainly your doctor who can prescribe life altering drugs that have lethal outcome or side effects. Oops.

Police may kill you given the acceptable circumstance. City cops, County Sheriffs, highway patrols, state troopers, and of course any number of Federal armed agents.

How about the food processing industry that has come a long way in the production of calories built upon deleterious ingredients that add to chronic health issues. It certainly can kill over time.

Think about it, who can end your life with impunity.
Posted in Conflict Geography, Culture, Jurisprudence, Strategy, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Foreign Forces

Posted on March 16, 2024 by Carlos Arenas

Todd Bensman (Center for Immigration Studies, Center for Immigration Studies (cis.org)  has an article out in Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College with which many of you are positively familiar. The title of Bensman’s article is “An Immigration Crisis Beyond Imagining.”  Imprimis_Jan_6pg_1-24web.pdf (hillsdale.edu)  It’s a neat summary of the immigration threat, not a long read and worth your time. I want to pile on the article’s doom. Ten million is a reasonable estimate for how many ‘newcomers’ our country will have received illegally before the current administration is out of office (provided it gets kicked out in November). Ten million is a convenient figure for us, the innumerate. If we allow as how only one percent of that number are members of or fatally beholden to a foreign criminal organization or paramilitary force – that’s a hundred thousand. I’m guessing the number is closer to ten percent. Twenty percent is not out of the question. Do the math. We need to effect mass deportation ASAP. Some well-meaning folk will float the pretty argument that most migrants just want a better life. So do we all, but ‘most’ is 50% plus one. Even ‘vast majority’ of 90% still leaves a million. The presence of ‘most’ or even ‘vast majority’ will not help us defeat this newcome enemy. Anyway, if the Democrats retain executive power, America may be doomed.

Posted in Conflict Geography, Conflict Geography, Iberoamerica, The 2024 Elections, The War for America, Uncategorized, Worldview | 1 Comment

Tyrant Jewelry

Posted on March 13, 2024 by Holmes Oliver

My wife and I just finished binge-watching all of the miniseries The Man in the High Castle. We thought it entertaining and oddly relevant to the current political condition. I have thoughts. One is that I was irritated to see a person leave keys in the trunk lock of a car, jump in, and drive the car away without retrieving the keys. Just the kind of problem I bring to the movies! Completely willing to suspend disbelief about traveling to other worlds, but blooper the car keys? Nah. Another issue of equal perturbance was John Smith not defending himself in front of the Fuhrer and other top party members. He was confronted when Herbert Hoover played tapes of Smith’s family exchanging un-Nazi thoughts. John should have said, “C’mon, we all know Hitler’s mom was a Jew, Goebbels is a cripple, Goering’s a drug addict. The main perquisite of being a party leader — impunity — is also required jewelry. Our hypocrisy is but the bold expression of our impunity. You all enjoy it, but remember, it has a purpose. The flaunting shouldn’t be overdone, but it is good to let the masses know that we enjoy as we please. What is important is not that we lead exemplary Aryan lives, Gentlemen, but that we remind the people we have power and they do not.”  Why did Jill’s crack smokin’, whore bangin’ kid make money from fake Chinese deals? Because of course he did. There is nothing you can do about it. Shut up.

Posted in Clausewitz Sucks, The 2024 Elections, The War for America, Uncategorized, Worldview | 2 Comments

Nulandism

Posted on March 12, 2024 by Carlos Arenas

There was never any intellectual resistance among progressives to adopting the magical-realism style in fictional literature to political propaganda. The unstable but effective competitive advantage of narrative over accurate depiction invites progressives to favor even the most improbable untruths. That attitude is dangerous to our national political life. It is also costly when the same preference for narrative leaps to military planning and operations. I’m not informed by anything or anyone from the inside of our military, foreign policy or spy establishments, but I have a hunch. For fun I’m going to call what’s going on an effect of Nulandism – – when magical realism invades military strategy-making. It looks as though the Ukrainians have recently mounted some attacks into Russian territory. Don’t know whose idea that was – could have been the Euros, deep staters, corruptocrats, Ukrainian bosses, actual generals or some Kamala-like Venn Diagram of these. Whoever it was, there is no way they studied the map algebra and found a formula for taking Russian territory and holding it for any militarily sustainable purpose. They must have had a short-term narrative in mind. Was it upcoming elections in Ukraine? Was it a diversion for the withdrawal of units from the eastern front? Could it be that the overall strategy of the regime is simply to save Odessa for whatever is left of after the capitulation, and invasion of Russia seemed like a nice diversion to help that?  Hard to say.  It is going to destroy more things and probably cause the Russians to take more. Who is taken in by this narrative? Not the bear.

Posted in Strategy, The War for America, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Apologize to Criminals?

Posted on March 10, 2024 by Holmes Oliver

Hard to watch a president do that. (Biden apologized for having referred to the man accused of murdering Laken Riley as an illegal alien. José Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan national, is innocent until proven guilty — of murder — but not of being here illegally. The vocabulary we’re fighting over is indeed awkward though. Can a person be illegal? Even a convicted murderer is not himself illegal, is he? Maybe we need to move toward something like “criminal fugitive.” In any case, we’ve heard some attractive campaign rhetoric promising mass deportations. I think we have to hold all our candidates’ feet to the fire on that. Everyone illegally moved or having moved into the United States during the last four years should be removed, including by force. It’s not an easy ask, but it is the right thing to do. Meanwhile, we need to streamline, speed and increase legal migration, and do so on the basis of merit, national need, and indicated desire to be an American.  Also a wall. A big, beautiful wall would help a lot. Make progressives pay for it.

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What Geography is to Strategy

Posted on March 10, 2024 by Geoff Demarest

Geography provides us the best vocabulary and theory set for competent strategy making. Geography focuses on where and how far. Geography is the natural home of cartography and GIS. I mention this because too many of our military leaders are steeped not in Geography, but in Political Science or one of its offspring, like International Relations or International Studies. Even those leaders with academic preparation in History seem to have missed the fundamentals that nothing happens nowhere and that everything moves at a cost. We’re going to help fix that. Yes, yes we are.

Posted in Conflict Geography, Geography, Uncategorized | Leave a comment