Before I get into what I am blogging about, first off the spousal unit got me a small "portable" computer. I have until recently used my work tablet that my employer used for both work and play. It was a HP elitepad pro and I used it to look at IPC references(Illustrated Parts catalog) to order parts while I was working along with Aircraft maintenance references. I also used the tablet for other things that were work related, I also had my kindle on it and used that to read books. Well they decided a month ago to have all the mechanics return the tablets because HP wasn't supporting them anymore. I had inquired about buying it because they had Windows 10 and Microsoft was supporting the operating system. Well that went nowhere. Oh Well.
I ordered a protective case for the computer, I know me and I am clumsy.
On a different note, I will talk about SWATTING, it is a technique whereas someone contacts the authorities and makes a call usually involving people shot and hostages to provoke an overreaction by the authorities. The calls are false but the Police don't know that and they roll in expecting the worst.
Well it did happen Wichita Kansas and one of the gamers tried to SWAT his opponent. The full article is HERE
Here is a couple of screenshots of the twitter users
This one was made by the person that did the SWATTING
As was this one.
I have blogged about SWATTING in the past and we in Georgia had an incident where a man that was carrying whom happened to be black had someone make a call on him. The local police dept didn't go in guns blazing and just had in interview with the CCW holder. This ended well. Many people of the antigun community have told others through twitter that they go out of the way to call the PoPo on people either open carrying or CCW hoping to provoke an overreaction to the call so the CCW or the open carry person gets shot. This is a despicable tactic totally devoid of honor.
I have had family from out of town here and I have spent time with them rather than blogging.
I got several goodies for Christmas and here is a couple..
I got a Safariland pro-fit holster for my S&W Shield. This is my 3rd holster from Safariland. The first one was for a Springfield XD, and the second one had no retention system. I sent both back to Amazon and bought one from Academy Sports. I am pleased with the holster, I wanted an active retention system on the Holster to secure the pistol. I also picked up an extra magazine. Now I have to look at a separate magazine pouch.
I also can say that I have seen it all....
Yes ...it is an actual comic.....
And finally I saw the latest Star War offering...
All I can say was......"Meh"
I was glad to see the old gang together again, but how overall they treated Luke with the exception of the very end was poorly. The movie was dripping with SJW symbolism from the "gambling planet and the rich. Also that the rebellion was "progressively Diverse" and the New Order was all white dudes....although they spoke with a British accent.
What happened? Star Wars was Good Vs Evil....now it is neither and us Star Wars fans from the beginning feel lost in this new world.
I give Christmas Greetings to all my friends all over the world, May the joy of the season bring hope to your heart and a kindness to your soul for this is the reason for the season. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Well I figured I would run out a Christmas song for Monday Music and I
always liked "little Drummer Boy with David Bowie and Bing Crosby. To
me this song plays well with their own music strength and is one of the
best known and unusual duets in Music history...Think about it Bing
Crosby, the classic crooner and Ziggie Stardust. Whodda thunk it?
But they played well together and created in instant classic. This
song and one other are my favorite Christmas Songs.
"Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" (sometimes titled "The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth") is a Christmas song with an added counterpoint performed by David Bowie and Bing Crosby. "Little Drummer Boy" is a Christmas song written in 1941, while the "Peace on Earth" tune and lyrics, written by Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, and Alan Kohan, were added to the song specially for Bowie and Crosby's recording.
The track was recorded on September 11, 1977 for Crosby's then-upcoming television special, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas. The pair exchanged scripted dialogue about what they each do for their family Christmases, before singing "Little Drummer Boy" with a new counterpoint with original lyrics written for the special, "Peace on Earth".
Bowie's appearance has been described as a "surreal" event,
undertaken at a time that he was "actively trying to normalise his
career" He has since recalled that he only appeared on the show because "I just knew my mother liked him"Buz Kohan
was not sure that Crosby knew who Bowie was, but Ian Fraser claimed,
"I'm pretty sure he did. Bing was no idiot. If he didn't, his kids sure
did."
According to co-writer Ian Fraser, Bowie balked at singing "Little
Drummer Boy": "I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?",
Fraser recalls Bowie telling him. Fraser, along with songwriter Larry Grossman and the special's scriptwriter, Buz Kohan,
then wrote "Peace on Earth" as a counterpoint to "Little Drummer Boy".
Crosby performed "Little Drummer Boy", while Bowie sang the new tune
"Peace on Earth", which they reportedly performed after less than an
hour of rehearsal.
Crosby died on October 14, nearly five weeks after recording the special at Elstree Studios near London; in the U.S., the show aired just over a month later, on November 30, 1977, on CBS. In the United Kingdom, the special first aired on December 24, 1977 on ITV.
The song was available for some years as a bootleg single backed with "Heroes", which Bowie had also performed on the TV special. In 1982, RCA issued the recording as an official single, complete with the dialogue, arbitrarily placing "Fantastic Voyage" from the Lodger
album on the B-side. Bowie was unhappy with this move, which further
soured his already strained relationship with RCA, and he left the label
soon after.
The single debuted on the UK singles chart in November 1982, and
climbed to position number three on the chart, boosted by a 12" picture
disc release. It has since become a perennial on British Christmas
compilation albums, with the TV sequence also a regular on UK nostalgia
shows.
In the United States, "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" became a staple on radio stations during the Christmas season.
On November 9, 2010, Collector's Choice Music released a 7-inch vinyl edition of "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" on red-colored vinyl in the United States. The flip-side of the single contained a Bing Crosby/Ella Fitzgerald duet of the song "White Christmas", recorded in 1953. The single was limited to 2,000 copies.
And my other favorite Christmas song is "Do they know it is Christmas"
I decided to go with one of my favorite songs for Christmas for my
Monday Music posting. I decided to go with "Band-Aid" Do they know it
is Christmas?. I remembered doing an posting last year on this so it is
a duplicate post. I don't normally do a music repeat except for this
song and the Little Drummer boy. I was in High School in my senior year and this was all over MTV
and the news back then. It was a totally new idea to do a charity this
way. I believe in giving...as long as it is people doing it...It is
proper..and a Christian thing to do. Not government which I consider
it wealth transference and it is wrong. for the force of government is
used to take money by force from people to give to other people in the
name of "giving". I call it "legal theft". Giving is supposed to be
voluntary, that is the nature and the magic of it.
The original 1984 Feed the world logo was designed by Phil Smee of
Waldo's Design, who designed all the Ads prior to the event being
announced. Geldof was so moved by the plight of starving children that
he decided to try to raise money using his contacts in pop music. Geldof enlisted the help of Midge Ure, from the group Ultravox, to help produce a charity record. Ure took Geldof's lyrics, and created the melody and backing track for the record. Geldof called many of the most popular British and Irish performers of the time (Kool & The Gang and Jody Watley
were the only Americans present at the original recording), persuading
them to give their time free. His one criterion for selection was how
famous they were, in order to maximise sales of the record. He then kept
an appointment to appear on a show on BBC Radio 1, with Richard Skinner, but instead of promoting the new Boomtown Rats
material as planned, he announced the plan for Band Aid. The recording
studio gave Band Aid no more than 24 free hours to record and mix the
record, on 25 November 1984. The recording took place at SARM Studios in Notting Hill between 11am and 7pm, and was filmed by director Nigel Dick to be released as the pop video
though some basic tracks had been recorded the day before at Midge
Ure's home studio. The first tracks to be recorded were the group /
choir choruses which were filmed by the international press. The footage
was rushed to newsrooms where it aired while the remainder of the
recording process continued. Later, drums by Phil Collins were recorded. The introduction of the song features a slowed down sample from a Tears for Fears' track called "The Hurting", released in 1983. Tony Hadley, of Spandau Ballet, was the first to record his vocal, while a section sung by Status Quo was deemed unusable, and replaced with section comprising Paul Weller, Sting, and Glenn Gregory, from Heaven 17. Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran sang between contributions from George Michael and Sting. Paul Young has since admitted, in a documentary, that he knew his opening lines were written for David Bowie,
who was not able to make the recording but made a contribution to the
B-side (Bowie performed his lines at the Live Aid concert the following
year). Boy George arrived last at 6pm, after Geldof woke him up by 'phone to have him flown over from New York on Concorde to record his solo part. (At the time, Culture Club was in the middle of a US tour.)
Feed The World logo designed by Markus Newman
The following morning, Geldof appeared on the Radio 1 breakfast show with Mike Read, to promote the record further and promise that every penny would go to the cause. This led to a stand-off with the British Government, who refused to waive the VAT on the sales of the single. Geldof made the headlines by publicly standing up to Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher and, sensing the strength of public feeling, the government backed down and donated the tax back to the charity.
The record was released on November 29, 1984, and went straight to No. 1 in the UK singles chart,
outselling all the other records in the chart put together. It became
the fastest- selling single of all time in the UK, selling a million
copies in the first week alone. It stayed at No. 1 for five weeks,
selling over three million copies and becoming easily the
biggest-selling single of all time in the UK, thus beating the
seven-year record held by Mull of Kintyre. It has since been surpassed by Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997" (his tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales) but it is likely to keep selling in different versions for many years to come. In 1986 the original music video from "Do They Know It's Christmas?" received Band Aid a Grammy Award nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form.
After Live Aid,
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was re-released in late 1985 in a set
that included a special-edition 'picture disc' version, modelled after
the Live Aid logo with 'Band' in place of 'Live'. An added bonus, "One
Year On" (a statement from Geldof and Ure on the telephone) was
available as a b-side.
"One Year On" can also be found in transcript form in a booklet which
was included in the DVD set of Live Aid, the first disc of which
features the BBC news report, as well as the Band Aid video.
Participants
The original Band Aid ensemble consisted of (in sleeve order):
I had originally published this in 2014, but I figured it was worth "dusting off and reusing".
I will post a Christmas greeting and my Standard Monday Music and yes Virginia, it will be a Christmas song to go along with the spirit of the season. It will be one of my favorite Christmas songs.
Here are some facts I picked up here and there, information you can
use to impress or annoy your friends, family, guest, coworkers,
ete,ete...the list is endless....Just call it a Public Service
announcement from my little corner of the internet.
-Each year there are approximately 20,000
"rent-a-Santa's" across the United States. These Santa's usually
undergo seasonal training on how to maintain a jolly attitude under
pressure from the public. They also receive practical advice, such as
not accepting money from parents while children are looking and
avoiding garlic, onions, or beans for lunch.
-Norwegian scientists have hypothesized that
Rudolph's red nose is probably the result of a parasitic infection of
his respiratory system.
-Silent Night was first sung
as part of a church service in Austria. A guitar was used because the
church organ was so badly rusted it couldn't be played.
-Before Christians decided on December 25 to
celebrate the birth of Jesus, several dates were proposed: January 2,
March 21, March 25, April 18, April 19, May 20, May 28, and November
20.
-Japanese people
traditionally eat at KFC for Christmas dinner, thanks to a successful
marketing campaign 40 years ago. KFC is so popular that customers must
place their Christmas orders 2 months in advance.
-The Germans made the first artificial Christmas trees out of dyed goose feathers.
-In Germany and some other
western European countries, St. Nicholas, or Nikolaus comes on the
night from the 5th to the 6th of December, where children have their
boots all shined and clean in front of a door or window. He will leave
toys, nuts oranges, apples and chocolate for the good children. The bad
child gets a branch to be used by the parents to beat the offending
child.
-Santa Claus has different names in different
countries: Sheng Dan Lao Ren in China, Father Christmas in England,
Papa Noel in Brazil and Peru and Pere Noel in France.
-An artificial Christmas
tree would have to be reused for more than 20 years to be "greener"
than buying a fresh-cut tree annually.
-Each year more than 3 billion Christmas cards are sent in the U.S. alone.
-The "true love" mentioned
in the song "Twelve Days of Christmas" does not refer to a romantic
couple, but the Catholic Church's code for God. The person who receives
the gifts represents someone who has accepted that code. For example,
the "partridge in a pear tree" represents Christ. The "two turtledoves"
represent the Old and New Testaments.
-Guatemalan adults do not exchange Christmas gifts
until New Year's Day. Children get theirs on Christmas morning.
-The two biggest selling Christmas songs are "White Christmas" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".
-The Nazi party tried to turn Christmas into a
nonreligious holiday celebrating the coming of Hitler, with Saint
Nicholas replaced by Odin the "Solstice Man" and swastikas on top of
Christmas trees.
-The US playing card company
'Bicycle' had manufactured a playing card in WW2. That, when the card
was soaked, it would reveal an escape route for POWs. These cards were
Christmas presents for all POWs in Germany. The Nazis were none the
wiser!
-Most of Santa's reindeer have male-sounding names,
such as Blitzen, Comet, and Cupid. However, male reindeers shed their
antlers around Christmas, so the reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh are
likely not male, but female or castrati.
-In North America, children put stockings out at Christmas time. Their Dutch counterparts use shoes.
-The smallest Christmas card was made by scientists
at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom in 2010. At only 200
x 290 micrometres in size, 8,276 of these cards would fit in one
postage stamp.
-The people of Oslo, Norway
donate the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree every year in gratitude to
the people of London for their assistance during WWII.
-According to the Guinness world records, the
tallest Christmas tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was
displayed in 1950 at the Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle.
-The traditional three
colours of Christmas are green, red, and gold. Green has long been a
symbol of life and rebirth; red symbolises the blood of Christ, and
gold represents light as well as wealth and royalty.
-When visiting Finland, Santa leaves his sleigh
behind and rides on a goat named Ukko. Finnish folklore has it that
Ukko is made of straw, but is strong enough to carry Santa Claus
anyway.
-The most expensively dressed Christmas tree was valued at $11,026,900 and was displayed by the Emirates Palace in the UAE.
-During the Christmas of 2010, the Colombian
government covered jungle trees with lights. When FARC guerrillas
(terrorists) walked by, the trees lit up and banners asking them to lay
down their arms became visible. 331 guerrillas re-entered society and
the campaign won an award for strategic marketing excellence.
-According to data analysed
from Facebook posts, two weeks before Christmas is one of the two most
popular times for couples to break up. Christmas Day is the least
favourite day for breakups.
-When distributing gifts in Holland, St. Nicholas is
accompanied his servant, Black, who is responsible for actually
dropping the presents down their recipients' chimneys. He also punishes
bad children by putting them in a bag and carrying them away to Spain.
-The largest artificial Christmas tree measures 170.6 feet and can be found in Brazil.
-Nearly all of the most popular Christmas songs
including 'Winter Wonderland', 'Chestnuts roasting', and 'I'm Dreaming
of a white Christmas' were written by Jews.
-Contrary to popular belief, suicide rates during the Christmas holiday are low. The highest rates are during spring.
-In Syria, Christmas gifts are distributed by one of
the Wise Men's camels. The gift-giving camel is said to have been the
smallest one in the Wise Men's caravan.
-The largest Christmas star ornament measures 103 feet and eight inches tall and can be found in India.
-All letters addressed to Santa in the United States go to Santa Claus, Indiana.
-The world's largest Christmas stocking measured 106
feet and 9 inches (32.56 m) long and 49 feet and 1 inch (14.97 m)
wide. It weighed as much as five reindeer and held almost 1,000
presents. It was made by the Children's Society in London on December
14, 2007.
-One town in Indiana is called Santa Claus. There is also a Santa, Idaho.
-The most lights lit on simultaneously on a
Christmas tree is 194,672 and was achieved in Belgium last year.
-During the Christmas of
1914 (WWI), a truce was held between Germany and the UK. They decorated
their shelters, exchanged gifts across no man's land and played a game
of football between themselves.
-Christmas trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold.
-The popular Christmas song
"Jingle Bells" was actually written for Thanksgiving. The song was
composed in 1857 by James Pierpont, and was originally called "One
Horse Open Sleigh".
-Although now mostly vegetarian, in Victorian times, mince pies were made with beef and spices.
-In 1867, a Boston
industrialist heard Charles Dickens read A Christmas Carol and was so
moved he closed his factory on Christmas Day and gave every one of his
employees a turkey.
-In Poland, spiders or spider webs are common
Christmas trees decorations because according to legend, a spider wove a
blanket for Baby Jesus. In fact, Polish people consider spiders to be
symbols of goodness and prosperity at Christmas.
-Despite the tale of three
wise men paying homage to baby Jesus, the Bible never gives a number.
It refers to merely "wise men".
-There are 364 gifts mentioned in "The Twelve Days of Christmas".
-Ancient peoples, such as
the Druids, considered mistletoe sacred because it remains green and
bears fruit during the winter when all other plants appear to die.
Druids would cut the plant with golden sickles and never let it touch
the ground. They thought it had the power to cure infertility and
nervous diseases and to ward off evil.
-Carols began as an old English custom called wassailing, toasting neighbours to a long life.
-The Boxing Day holiday was
originally celebrated in England for the servants to the rich people.
After Christmas the servants "boxed up" all the left-overs from the
rich people and took them home.
-The Beatles hold the record for most Xmas number 1 singles, topping the charts in 1963, 65 and 67.
I will post another batch of Christmas trivia on Tuesday......You
know that Monday is my "Monday Music"...Can't break tradition.. And I
will find some cool Christmas Video, Last Year I believe I used "Little
Drummer Boy from Bing Crosby and David Bowie...So I gotta find another
one....and one more thing.....
Here is some Christmas Humor I ran across, actually my son found this and showed it to me and I liked it.
They are hilarious and worth the look.
I also have hit the big time as far as blogs goes, I finally got my first piece of hate email and the person that wrote it was creative. I was flattered and as I told a friend "It brought a tear to my eye".
I wrote one post in 2014 and the other post in 2016.
This is what the person wrote:
I'm
going to report your nasty blog for Islamophobia. I clean my ass with
the flag of the United States! Fuck you ignorant peasant! Fuck you
conspiranoic white trash!
The joys of being in the United States is the ability to speak or
say what you will without being sent to a work camp, or a gulag or have a
tire wrapped around you and set on fire. One day when your country has
the freedom of speech where you can say what you wish without fear of
repercussion or reprisals than you will understand the meanings of the
word "Freedom". Where you can expand your mind and live your dreams to
the best of your ability. That is the magic of a free mind.
Your
prostitute mother is hermaphrodite and zombie, not the antifascist
movement. I clean my ass with your country, I clean my ass with your
race, I clean my ass with your mother! Fuck you white trash! Fuck you
conspiranoic bastard! Fuck you fascist scum! fuck you piece of shit! you
are the perfect example of ignorant white trash. fuck you redneck!fuck
you son of a bitch and fuck the usa!
Now some suppositions, or informed guesses of the guy, again I am making a guess that the person is a guy, girls don't get that spun up. Since the guy made all sorts of suppositions on who I am, I will return the favor.
From the sentence structure, English is not his first language. I will continue and state that this person probably is 15 to 17 years old, and lives in the southern Hemisphere either in South America or North Africa.
Now if someone disagrees with me, I am all about having a debate on a different point of view, that is how one learns. But this is just vulgar and accomplishes little.
I am having network difficulties, I keep getting issues and until today when I waved my mouse over my network I saw "F.B.I Surveillance Van", which is the name of my network. I was for the past few days getting "Unidentified Network access" and when I clicked on the icon, I saw the name of my network but I am unable to access certain websites like DaddyBear's website along with a few others. I ran a quick check and got "IP Issues" and I am thinking..."Great..." I am on the heavy time of my workload so I don't have time to dig into it until next week and find out what is going on. I am thinking I may have to reset my router to default and set things up again......*sheesh*.
I got this from "Angry Staff Officer", this guy uses Star War references as a teachable teaching tool for new Military officers. Again, there are spoilers on this and if so, please stop reading if you haven't seen the movie yet. I don't want to get fussed out for dropping some spoilers on the movie.
Thus is from. "Angry staff Officer, I got turned to him by Mack, so blame him, lol. Angry Staff Officer uses star war references to make a point. people will pay better attention if it is from the popular culture.
Most determine the great struggle in Star Wars to be that
between the Light and Dark sides of the Force. But from a military
perspective it has always been between a highly regimented Empire and a
loosely organized Rebel force. And even within these communities there
have been contentions as to how best lead, direct, and motivate the
forces under their control. And nowhere is this seen more starkly as
with the First Order and the Resistance in The Last Jedi.
So the film starts out in a nearly perfect demonstration of the
dichotomy in the leadership that divides the First Order from the
Resistance. The First Order appears out of hyperspace as the Resistance
is in the middle of evacuating their planetary base. Multiple star
destroyers pop into view surrounding the incredibly vulnerable
Resistance frigate that is being loaded with transports. Hoth it is not,
as the Resistance doesn’t even have any planetary weapons such as an
ion cannon to protect themselves. They are hopelessly outgunned and
surrounded.
So one would think this is the end of the Resistance for once and for all, but yet…
If there’s one thing that the Empire/First Order is good at doing it
is at getting in its own way through an overly regimented chain of
command. Rather than use his star destroyers to pummel the frigate or to
hit the base with orbital bombardment, the First Order’s fanatical
military commander General Armitage Hux gives orders for his ships to
standby as he brings up a new type of frigate: a dreadnought. Yeah,
rather than use his already incredibly useful star destroyers, Hux is
intent on dragging out yet another piece of tech – begging the question:
where does he get the money for this stuff?
Literally, the whole Imperial fleet just sits there with no movement.
Ship commanders can take zero initiative without the explicit direction
of General Hux. It is a massive amount of firepower, curtailed and
nullified by one man – and a thirty year tradition of micromanagement
and toxic leadership.
On the opposite side of the house, the Resistance has fighter pilot
Commander Poe Dameron who takes gamble after gamble to try to gain a
tactical edge on the First Order. Emphasis on the tactical,
because Poe does not have a mind for the strategic. Poe goes so far as
to disobey a direct order from General Leia Organa to stop a bombing run
against the dreadnought and goes full “LEEEROYYYY JENKINNNNNSSS”
against the dreadnought. They do destroy the enemy ship, but at the cost
of the last two bomber squadrons in the entire Resistance. Which
perhaps explains where the rest of the Resistance fleet went if that’s
the way that Poe handles resource allocation.
Out of all of this, the First Order loses a dreadnought and the
Resistance loses their bombing fleet but is able to make the jump to
lightspeed. Of course, the First Order can easily afford the loss of a
capital ship while the Resistance is scraping the bottom of the barrel
for ships and pilots.
First Order leadership remains static the entire time, only
scrambling fighters when it’s nearly too late – as one of the First
Order’s bridge officers grumbles under his breath. And this motif
remains in place for the rest of the film: rigid leadership with no
flexibility. On the Resistance side, Leia finally loses patience with
Poe’s insubordination and busts him from commander to captain –
something that honestly should have been done a long time ago. Poe is a
tactical genius, yes, but has very little capacity for strategy. But
since he can pilot an X-wing like no one else, the Resistance can ill
afford to treat him badly and so continue giving him leadership roles.
Commander
Poe Dameron, a tactical wizard who has no comprehension of anything
above his own level and whose failure to think at the strategic level
has cost the Resistance most of its forces. (Lucasfilm Ltd)
But really, both sides have leadership issues going all the way to
the top. These problems influence the conduct of personnel up and down
the chain of command.
There’s this concept in the U.S. military called “mission command.”
It comes from the Prussian principle called “Auftragstaktik,” pioneered
by Helmuth von Moltke in the late 19th century and it boils down to
exercising disciplined initiative. That is, giving junior commanders the
ability to seize opportunities as they arise without jeopardizing the
entire force or operation. The German army used it to great effect in
World War I where their units were able to be more flexible and fluid
than those of their opponents. It is a concept that is markedly absent
from the Star Wars franchise. The Empire and the First Order operate
through the use of rigid command structures, with orders coming from the
top down. If those orders are not executed to the letter, subordinate
officers are in grave danger of being force-choked into submission. This
breeds a command culture of absolute and total dedication to orders,
which dooms them to fighting an unimaginative war. This is why Imperial
and First Order fleets rarely display the levels of ingenuity in war
that the Rebels and Resistance do.
And further, there is still the battle between the Sith and the
military establishment for control of their military force. The Sith
are focused on destroying the Jedi while the military leaders are driven
by the ultimate goal of crushing the rebellion. This plays out in Last Jedi,
as Kylo Ren and General Hux battle for control of the First Order –
sometimes almost openly. With no unity of command – and Kylo Ren
becoming increasingly controlled by his emotions – the First Order can
only plod along and miss opportunity after opportunity to destroy the
Resistance.
The Resistance – much like the Rebellion – seems to be slowly moving
away from “command by consensus” which so hampered their abilities in
the past. With command power for all tactical and strategic decisions
now held by General Organa, the Resistance stands on the cusp of
actually having unity of command. However, because the Resistance prides
individuality almost too much, they have lost a significant number of
their ships to action with the First Order and so have little to no
force left to command. Audacity is usually an asset for military
leaders, but it can be taken to the level of foolishness. And in this
case, the Resistance has gambled its force so many times that they are
left with only a handful of pilots and fighters left at the end of the
film.
The First Order is not the only force riven by dissension. When Leia
is wounded and Admiral Ackbar is killed (we barely have had a chance to
mourn him), Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo takes command. A skilled
strategist, Vice Admiral Holdo does have one key problem: she does not
know how to communicate her plans to subordinates in order to build
trust across the chain of command. When Poe and Finn doubt that she even
has a plan to save the Resistance, they launch a harebrained scheme of
their own that ultimately leads in the destruction of what is left of
the Resistance fleet and force.
Vice
Admiral Holdo was able to comprehend the real Resistance strategy:
survival. But her inability to communicate her leadership vision
completely undercut her integrity and led to total mission failure.
(Lucasfilm Ltd)
At this juncture, one has to ask: are there any competent leaders
anymore on either side? The First Order is hampered by its rigidity so
much that nearly removes their tactical edge, while the Resistance takes
so many risks that it is almost decimated. Both sides are left with
gaping holes in their top-tier levels of command at the end of the film
which will surely make the sequel to The Last Jedi more interesting than ever.
Over the course of the Star Wars
franchise, we’ve been treated to some epic battles: dogfights between
X-Wings and TIE fighters at Yavin-4, AT-ATs on the frozen wastes of
Hoth, jungle warfare on Endor, and Rogue One’s epic battles on the beaches of Scarif. The Last Jedi
offers no shortage of skirmishes, either. Except this time, the
Resistance’s consistently bad military tactics finally catch up with it.
From
a military perspective, one thing has always stood out: The Empire, and
now the First Order, have nearly limitless ships, equipment, and
manpower, while the Rebels/Resistance have scant resources. With every
engagement, this band of rebel fighters grows ever smaller while there
seems to be no lack of available Stormtroopers. At least previously,
though, those engagements ended with the destruction of Death Stars and a
Starkiller Base, even if unsound Rebel strategic thinking got them
there. Now, those bad choices are playing out more realistically—and
tragically—than ever.
Spoilers ahead.
While The Last Jedi
mainly focuses on the Jedi order and its fate, perhaps the most
striking feature of the film is that the Resistance has finally played
its last card. The Resistance—and the Rebels before them—sought the
decisive battle, that one moment that would destroy the enemy’s will to
fight, and bring about peace in the Galaxy. That seemed to be the case
after Return of the Jedi, and yet somehow in the intervening 30 years, the Republic squandered away all that they had won.
But
history shows that decisive battles do little to further a rebel cause.
During the American Civil War, Confederate General Robert E. Lee spent
years pursuing a decisive battle versus the United States Army. Yet,
even after one-sided Confederate successes such as Fredericksburg in
1862 and Chancellorsville in 1863, the US Army of the Potomac remained
in the field, inflicting losses that the Confederates could not afford.
Lee's search for decisive battle led to his force being winnowed away to
nearly nothing. The truly great generals throughout history have
realized that seeking a decisive battle only puts one's force in more
peril than the risk is worth.
In The Last Jedi, the
Resistance lacks truly great generals. Commander Poe Dameron is a
skilled fighter pilot, but hardly a strategic thinker; he's a hammer who
sees a world full of nails. He gambles the Resistance bomber fleet on a
shot to take out a First Order dreadnought-class star destroyer. Not
only that, but he does so in violation of a direct order from General
Leia Organa. The mission succeeds in knocking out the enemy ship, but at
the cost of the entire Resistance bomber fleet, for which Poe is
reduced in rank.
Seeking that decisive battle with the First Order
only resulted in dead pilots and lost resources. It solved nothing in
the long term. And as the rest of The Last Jedi makes clear,
for every enemy star destroyer or frigate the Resistance accounts for,
the First Order can replace it without blinking an eye.
Rather
than making massive sacrifices to blow up one big ship, the real
strength of the Resistance rests in its ability to survive. The presumed
heroics of individuals like Poe and Finn make it hard for them to do
even that.
In many ways, the Resistance shares that trait with
real-world rebellions throughout history. Most are worn down through the
sheer lack of resources and through attrition; a decisive battle
becomes their best way to make a grand statement.
In The Last Jedi, the Resistance lacks truly great generals.
The
successful counterexample, and a model the Resistance would have been
better served following, is the American Revolution. George Washington’s
genius lay less in his ability to take the fight to the
British—although he excelled at that—and more in the way that he
prioritized preservation of troops over seeking out a singular moment of
triumph. His ability to exfiltrate units from near-disaster mattered
just as much as his offensive strategies.
But
just as General Organa finally recognizes the importance of preserving
her force—too late, one could argue—she enters a coma after the First
Order begins its bombardment of the last Resistance Frigate. (RIP
Admiral Ackbar.) Command devolves to Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, who
recognizes the strategic need to protect their force, but has what
proves to be a fatal flaw: She fails to communicate well.
Holdo
knows that she can jettison the escape transports and they will be
cloaked from the First Order, but doesn’t share the plan with Poe. She
instead belittles him, and leaves him eager to take action. Left out of
the loop, Poe and Finn concoct a hare-brained scheme to save the last
three Resistance ships from First Order bombardment, another
all-or-nothing gambit that not only fails, but gets the majority of
transports destroyed in the process.
When
what remains of the Resistance lands on Crait, a planet that houses an
musty old Rebel Alliance outpost, they yet again seek a decisive
engagement, this time with only a handful of fighters and some infantry
left. Crait is a terrible spot for a last stand. The rebellion stuffs
itself into a cave, with only one entry and egress point, and little in
the way of protection.
They're shielded from planetary
bombardment, so the First Order lands a ground force. Now you've got
massive new AT-M6 walkers facing off against the serried trenches and
rusting turret guns of the Resistance.
Sound familiar? Yes, it's looking like we're about to get a repeat of The Empire Strikes Back's battle of Hoth, where resistance fighters just barely manage to escape after suffering grave losses.
Back
then, Imperial armor cut through the Rebels’ linear defenses, brushed
past Luke Skywalker's head-on air attack with snow speeders, and blasted
apart the shield generator. However, the plucky Rebel troopers had
managed to buy enough time for the main force to escape off planet,
under the protective fire of the ion cannon.
Fast-forward 30 years to Crait. The Resistance, clearly, has learned
nothing in the interim. Their dismounted troopers charge into World War
I-like trenches, gamely looking down blaster scopes at armored vehicles
they can't even hope to touch. Poe Dameron, while a wizard in the air,
can't muster two tactical brain cells as he flies his sortie of
incredibly ancient craft directly into the guns of the First Order’s
armor.
Much like Luke Skywalker in Empire,
Poe doesn't seem to realize that the AT-series has no firepower on its
sides or rear. Nope, it's straight up the middle for Poe, with
predictable carnage for the last handful of Resistance pilots that
remain. At least Poe, unlike Luke, eventually realizes it's a suicide
mission, and pulls back after taking losses.
Of course, they’re
not much better off back in the cave. Only the arrival of Luke Skywalker
in full Jedi power mode saves the Resistance from being snuffed out in
entirety. But only just barely; all that’s left can fit inside the
Millennium Falcon.
By consistently refusing to learn the rules of
unity of command, communication across the chain of command, and the
necessity of preserving their force, the Resistance has fought itself
nearly out of existence. If rebellions are built on hope, then they
survive through skilled withdrawals—which almost never happens in the
Star Wars saga. And in The Last Jedi, that failure has brought what was
once a promising rebellion to the brink.
I have heard of the purge on Twitter of those that are of a conservative/libertarian bent. I had signed up with Gabi when the platform first opened up. You can look for "MrGarabaldi" . I just have to find out a way to link it to my blog.
I took my new shield to the range to see how the new pistol ran
The shield is a lot smaller than the S&W Sigma that I have had since the 90's.
I had bought some federal generic ammo, nothing fancy along with some hydroshok and some Sig Sauer High Performance hollow point ammo per Mack's recommendation,
My first shot was a "flier", The trigger is a lot different than any other pistol I have fired. I then started shooting the target. I then switched to the Sigma
Here you can see the "Brady Bill" legal magazines that at the time limited capacity to 10 rounds and S&W had the magazines made with a "dimple" to prevent more rounds being loaded..The Sigma is a first generation polymer pistol that Smith made to mimic Glock and as I understand it, they did too good of a job and got sued by Glock. My Smith ain't fancy but it runs all kinds of ammo with out a hiccup so I can't complain.
The Shield shot well but I preferred the hydroshok purely for the reduced recoil, the Shield is a small pistol shooting a large caliber and there is a recoil, but with the hydroshok, the recoil is reduced. I was using the standard 21 foot rule and I would point and shoot, using the front sights The first series I shot with the shield were the string running in the abdomen and I was using the Sigma to shoot the chest. I then reloaded my magazines and continued firing. until all my ammo was gone..
I looked at the floor as I was leaving and there was a lot of brass on the floor, the range is busy, there were a lot of shooters there, I am not sure if it was just because of the holidays or because of the present climate.
I had Posted about "fragging"or the act of throwing a Frag or a fragmentation grenade at a superior officer. I remember reading several books from Colin Powell to Norman Schwartzkopf having issues with the GI's toward the end of Vietnam when the discipline was breaking down in the American Army, I only remember one recent case in 2003 when an NCO threw a grenade unto the tent where his commanding officer and staff were meeting and this was religious based, the NCO was muslim and we were fixing to invade Iraq.
Recently, the concept of “fragging” made the news again. It was
revealed that Roy Moore, who recently lost his campaign for the US
Senate seat in Alabama, was in danger of being murdered by his own men
during his service in Vietnam. “Fragging” is the act of soldiers killing
their own officers and sergeants.
Moore is a 1969 graduate of West Point who served in Germany before being put in charge of the 188th
Military Police Company in Vietnam. He was assigned to this position in
1971, near the end of the war when the US Army and Marines were having
discipline issues due to the high number of soldiers with drug
addictions or mental imbalances which made them dangerous.
Moore
commanded a company in Vietnam. In his autobiography, he wrote that the
use of drugs was so prevalent, he issued many disciplinary charges
against his men with an emphasis on targeting drug abusers. This earned
him fragging threats. Moore was not intimidated and he continued his
disciplinary tactics. He did take precautionary measures, though, by
placing sandbags under his cot and in the walls of his sleeping quarters.
One of his men who was known to be a drug user did shoot a first
sergeant and threatened to come after Moore. The soldier was quickly
apprehended and court-martialed. The first sergeant survived the
shooting.
According to Colonel Robert D. Heinl, who wrote in the
Armed Forces Journal, the army was in a near state of collapse due to
the lack of discipline among the troops.When these troops found
themselves serving under an incompetent leader, a harsh disciplinarian,
or a vain, glory-seeking leader who risked his troops’ lives in order to
further his own career, they would sometimes seek to have that leader
killed. This was often accomplished by rolling a fragmentation grenade
into his tent while he was sleeping. The grenade would leave no
fingerprints after the explosion, so there was no evidence of who
committed the deed. The term “fragging” comes from this common method.
US troops in the field in VietnamThere
were thousands of fragging threats during the Vietnam War, most of
which were never acted on. There are at least 800 confirmed attempts in
the Army and Marines. 86 of the officers and sergeants were killed and
approximately 700 were injured. This is only the documented cases. The
true number of fraggings may never be known.
Many officers in
Vietnam were afraid for their lives simply because they were authority
figures. General Colin Powell (a major at the time he served in Vietnam)
remarked that he moved his cot every night because he was not only
afraid a Viet Cong informant might come after him in the night but also
because of his fear that his own men would kill him in his sleep.
Captain
Thomas Cecil claimed that he spent his last month in Vietnam (in 1971)
sleeping in the military intelligence bunker. Only his battalion
commander was aware of where the captain was at night.
Gazing at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. Hu Totya – CC-BY SA 3.0George
Lepre investigated hundreds of fraggings for his report, “Fragging: Why
US Soldiers Assaulted Their Officers in Vietnam.” He learned that the
majority of fraggings occurred in the Army and Marines and that they
were rare in the Air Force and Navy. Sometimes bystanders were the
unintended victims of the attacks. Families were not typically made
aware of the true nature of their loved one’s death.
While
fragmentation grenades were the common method inside the camp, soldiers
found another method while away from camp. Frequently, an undesirable
officer would find himself in the line of fire during a firefight and
would “accidentally” be struck by friendly fire.
May 2018 bring all the blessing that you deserve.
I ordered a protective case for the computer, I know me and I am clumsy. 
Feed The World logo designed by Markus Newman
The following morning, Geldof appeared on the Radio 1 breakfast show with Mike Read, to promote the record further and promise that every penny would go to the cause. This led to a stand-off with the British Government, who refused to waive the VAT on the sales of the single. Geldof made the headlines by publicly standing up to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and, sensing the strength of public feeling, the government backed down and donated the tax back to the charity.
The shield is a lot smaller than the S&W Sigma that I have had since the 90's.
I had bought some federal generic ammo, nothing fancy along with some hydroshok and some Sig Sauer High Performance hollow point ammo per Mack's recommendation,
My first shot was a "flier", The trigger is a lot different than any other pistol I have fired. I then started shooting the target. I then switched to the Sigma
Here you can see the "Brady Bill" legal magazines that at the time limited capacity to 10 rounds and S&W had the magazines made with a "dimple" to prevent more rounds being loaded..The Sigma is a first generation polymer pistol that Smith made to mimic Glock and as I understand it, they did too good of a job and got sued by Glock. My Smith ain't fancy but it runs all kinds of ammo with out a hiccup so I can't complain.
The Shield shot well but I preferred the hydroshok purely for the reduced recoil, the Shield is a small pistol shooting a large caliber and there is a recoil, but with the hydroshok, the recoil is reduced. I was using the standard 21 foot rule and I would point and shoot, using the front sights The first series I shot with the shield were the string running in the abdomen and I was using the Sigma to shoot the chest. I then reloaded my magazines and continued firing. until all my ammo was gone..
I looked at the floor as I was leaving and there was a lot of brass on the floor, the range is busy, there were a lot of shooters there, I am not sure if it was just because of the holidays or because of the present climate.
