Webster

The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." --American Statesman Daniel Webster (1782-1852)


Sunday, December 31, 2017

Happy New Year!!

I am wishing Happy New Year to all my fellow bloggers and readers!!


May 2018 bring all the blessing that you deserve.

Friday, December 29, 2017

My New computer and "Swatting"

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.  

 

And here is another
  People can die by this tactic.  



Thursday, December 28, 2017

Hectic times at Casa De Garabaldi



   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.

Monday, December 25, 2017

Merry Christmas And Monday Music

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 Minister Margaret 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):
Also including:

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Little Known facts of Christmas


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.

Little Known facts about Christmas



    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.....



Christmas Eve and some doings on on my blog..

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!
ReplyDelete

Replies


  1. Good Morning;

    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.

        I also got another one from the same guy...

    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!
    ReplyDelete

    Replies


    1. Good morning;

      You kiss your mother with that mouth?

          

      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.

          


Friday, December 22, 2017

Network troubles....

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*.

Thursday, December 21, 2017

The Last Jedi "A Leadership Vacuum" and spoilers


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.
poe-dameron-star-wars-the-last-jedi-arc-progress
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.
gallery-1502392706-laura-dern
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.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Range time with the Shield and the Twitter Purge

 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.


Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Fragging Some officers feared their men more than the enemy/

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 Vietnam
There 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 3.0
George 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.