Category: Leadership

Random Musings 8.2.20

Once again it is time for some Twitter (for those with a litigious bent there is a trademark symbol just after the “r” in the previous word) like random musings from the mind of a quiet, unassuming, at least in my own opinion, person observing the ramblings, rumblings and revelations in the media. Additionally, it appears that Twitter would most likely censor what I have to say any way and Facebook certainly would censor what I have to say.

If you read a post I made several weeks ago I mentioned that I wrote my state representative and state senator regarding my misgivings and a request that the legislative branch of my state government restrict what I believe to be a gross overreach of executive power with the COVID crisis. I mentioned that I would give them some time to get back understanding that they have no staff to my knowledge. Both these gentlemen are Republicans and as of today I have heard nothing back from them and it has now been more than a month.

Now, in the last week my states chapter of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) canceled its annual fund raiser due to restrictions placed on it by my state’s governor. Of course, the chapter asked for ticket holders to consider donating our tickets which I did. However, I did send a note to the organization again expressing my discomfort with the overreach of the state’s executive asking if they or if the organization new of anyone who was challenging this overreach? I just sent this yesterday and to no surprise I have heard nothing. I will give them a couple of weeks as well to respond. However, maybe I will need to give them a couple of months if they are anything like the state legislators who represent the district in which I reside.

Violence continues to rage in many of the nation’s largest cities. I just watched Netflix’s Fear City which chronicled New York City during the 70’s and 80’s in which the Cosa Nostra reigned supreme and the FBI and Justice Department’s subsequent application of the RICO Statutes to significantly reign in The Mob’s power and influence. I could not help listening to and observing the scenes of violence, fear and influence of the mob in all facets of New York life and not draw a parallel to what is happening today in New York and many of the nation’s other large cities. The parallels being the cities having democratically run administrations, the police being hamstrung by the city administrations, and violence a daily if not hourly occurrence to name a few. On top of that small few shadowy individuals seem to organize and pull the strings of much of the cities industries, government, and institutions. The FBI was able to use the RICO Statutes to bring this thugs and criminals down. A difference this time is I wonder how high the RICO Statutes could be exercised in the current nationwide crises? I wonder if the lawlessness and violence could be organized at high levels in the government and corporate leadership? Could this be applied even into the billionaire’s club in tech and hedge fund management?

Speaking of hedge fund managers and tech billionaires. I shake my head that the individuals who made billions in the free markets of the west actively support the progressives in the United States. Like the Robber Barons of the late nineteenth century they seem to want to use the government to change the rules. They seem to want a somewhat if not outright fascistic government that they control to change the rules in order to squash and suppress any competition that could rise up against them. My opinion is these leaders are really nothing more than petty dictators who believe in arbitrarily changing the rules of governance in order to support their dominance in their industries of dominance. I believe they are selfish, self-serving despots intent on doing whatever it takes to quash and keep us serfs in line.

I would hope that Senator Lee and others in Congress would take a good hard look at the FANGS. I ask why they are getting special considerations when the FANGS really are abusing the privilege. They really are not supportive of nor willing to compete in the free and open marketplaces of products and ideas. Equal application of the law please. Interesting that Shepard Smith is now working for CNBC overtly. I laugh because I remember his outright indignation and surprise when President Trump won the 2016 election. At least now he is where he should be which is in a place full of progressive propagandists. I wonder how long it will take before Chris Wallace joins him?

The Vietnam Veteran: The Forgotten Generation of American Patriots (Originally Posted on Veteran’s Day 2018)

When I was young, I started out in the work force and considering I was born when the Vietnam War was in its heyday, I could not help but find myself working along many Vietnam War veterans. In the eighties at a time that the end of the Vietnam War was slightly over a decade in the past. I can remember a gentleman who hid a beer can inside a hallowed out seven up can and could not get through the day without a couple of beers. I learned later that he had gone out on a patrol and was the only survivor of his squad. Another gentleman picked up a stick and within two days carved out a k bar knife in excruciating detail. He had been a US Navy SEALS and did not talk too much about what he did, but he did share a couple of telling items. The first was a story was about being dropped off in Seattle after his enlistment. In the story he was in a bar and someone called him a baby killer. He said within seconds he had the person on the ground and was about to tear the guys throat out when someone pulled him off. In retrospect how grateful he did not kill that man. The other about how one of his teammates had gone completely off the grid somewhere in the Northern California woods and would only talk with his Vietnam team mates. Yet another gentleman that I worked with woke up at 4:00 every morning to take care of farm animals before coming into work for a long day of sometimes manual labor. His eyes would at times go far away and mist up. He had been in the US Army Special Forces and he did not talk about what he had done or saw.

Moving forward slightly over a half a decade later I worked with a gentleman who had served in Cambodia and Laos in the US Marine Corp. He too almost killed someone when he returned home because he had been spat on. This, of course, was in California. He credited the Marine Corp with getting him some psychological help that calmed him down. He made the comment that if he had not been on active duty at the time and had not received the treatment, he probably would have killed someone and ended up in prison.  Later in life, when I was preparing to go to Afghanistan, a gentleman that I had met as a professional insisted that he meet with me before my deployment. A person who I had known for more than ten years and had worked on several projects with confided in me that he had served as a young enlisted man in the US Marine Corp doing a tour in Vietnam. During the conversation he asked me to keep confidential that fact because the people in the industry that we were professionals in would have, in his opinion, not favored his service favorably. He too mentioned the shame that our country showed toward these returning veterans upon their return from Vietnam.

I have spoken with many Vietnam Veterans and they all seem to have had some variation of the same story.  This was the shame that was heaped upon them when they returned home. Fortunately for me many lessons were learned and upon my return from war it has been so much easier to talk about PTSD and the lingering effects of being in a war zone and etc. I thank heaven this is the case because it is not easy and it is real, speaking from personal experience, and I now have a small glimpse about what they went through upon their return and what they probably still experience. I say this because being a uniformed member of the armed services in a war zone has changed me in ways that I would have never expected.

Yesterday I went to my first Veteran’s Day parade and I must admit I was nervous about attending. For many reasons I was fearful about what my emotional response would be. I experienced a spectrum of emotions including, as previously mentioned, fear, stoic tension, anger, laughter, and relief. I will not go into details, but I am glad that I went. Next year I may even try to cajole my family along since after all they are a veteran family.

What struck me is the overwhelming majority of Vietnam Veterans in the parade. I am pumped up that some many of them are stepping up to keep the tradition alive considering what they went through upon their return and in the years afterwards. What I believe is somewhat of a lost generation of men in this country is and has found its way back into society. It saddens me that essentially some of the best years of their lives were wasted thanks to Hollywood figures such as Jane Fonda and the leftist antiwar movement demonizing the everyday soldier. However, thanks to their sacrifice I and others of my generation did not experience that. I was heartened to see one banner that essentially said though the Vietnam Veterans are the lost generation we will never leave behind another generations. They truly are living up to that and I thank them for that. Happy Veterans Day to all the veterans and their families and thanks to all for their service.

Random Musings 7.14.20

Once again it is time for some Twitter (for those with a litigious bent there is a trademark symbol just after the “r” in the previous word) like random musings from the mind of a quiet, unassuming, at least in my own opinion, person observing the ramblings, rumblings and revelations in the media. Additionally, it appears that Twitter would most likely censor what I have to say any way and Facebook certainly would censor what I have to say.

I have thought some more about a tack that Republicans could take everywhere in this coming election. I stated this train of thought thinking about my state’s legislative races that will be occurring in the fall. To me there is plenty of reason that there currently is no legislative check upon our Democratic governor who continually opens and shuts businesses down based on what is increasing faulty data regarding the coronavirus, increased taxes, more onerous gun regulations and etc. But that seems too complicated and perhaps the simplest question to ask or advertise from now until the elections is something to the effect of, “A vote for any Democrat this election is a vote to allow our (insert one or more of the following) city, country, state, country to become like San Francisco, Seattle, New York, or Chicago.” It is simple and can be backed up with facts and video. President Trump has already started this campaign, but I question if my local Republican politicians will have the brass to do the same. Again, it is simple, A vote for any Democrat is a vote for San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, and etc. My goodness there is so much fodder for the Republicans it just amazes me that they are not using it. Where are the leaders?!?!?

I will say that I recently read an op-ed written by former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt to a local newspaper in Nevada. It, to me, was a well written and very public opinion supporting the Constitution and American Values. I say to Mr. Laxalt thank you for using your clout to express a truly conservative opinion. Now, I ask, where is the rest of the Republican leadership?

Speaking of which I wrote a letter to the two members of my state’s legislature over a week ago who are both Republican. I have to say I am a bit disappointed as I have heard back from neither one of them. When I wrote my Governor, who happens to be Democrat, I heard back within two days. Perhaps the Governor has a larger staff which is for at least another week I will give the legislators the benefit of the doubt.

Speaking of my state governor. This person is rolling back the coronavirus restrictions because of the upsurge in cases. However, I still fail to see the data to support it. Sure, the number of cases is increasing but the percentage of hospitalizations to number of new cases is falling. I truly believe this is political maneuvering now. Shut the bars down so people will not talk, shut the schools down so mothers will not talk, shut large venues down so the President and others cannot hold rallies and the list goes on. Oh well, I think I am going to brush up on my self defense skills. Something tells me these maybe coming in handy in the near future.

Middle Class Fear?

I was reminded the other day about a couple of scenes from the WWII series “Band of Brothers” and movie “Saving Private Ryan”. Specifically, there are scenes in each in which the US Army Captain is urging on his troops who are cowering scared while under fire. In each of these portrayals it takes the leadership of each Captain to break the spell of fear that grips his troops. Each Captain has to be willing to go out in the open in order to pull, kick, cajole and inspire his troopers to move on and take their objective or move on in pursuit of their objective. In the “Band of Brothers” we see portrayed actual real life events and so we can say that this is not merely a fiction of Hollywood.

I write this to draw a parallel to the events we see today and I have ask where are our conservative leaders and also to highlight that many, I believe, of the sane people who see what are frozen much as the troopers were frozen. The average everyday American has been bombarded with news attacking their way of life since President Trump was elected by grassroots America. The rhythmic beat of the opposition has increased in tenor and pace over time since the day he was elected. First with protests on his inauguration day, followed by independent council proceedings, and then increasingly in pace and volume with each event an impeachment, a “pandemic”, pandemic caused economic crisis and now out and out riots and violence. I believe that the average American has been overwhelmed and really has no idea how to react.

 Much as troopers who understand they are in a war time environment suddenly face withering fire and instantaneously freeze I believe that majority of middle class and other sane Americans have frozen. However, unlike a highly trained military with trained officers as in the case of CAPT Winters in the Band of Brothers who step up and motivate their troops to rally and take the objective the majority of Americans do not know what to do. Why should they? They are not trained to face an organized internationally funded insurgency whose designs are to overthrow their way of life. What further complicates the matter is the dearth of leadership to counter this insurgency and this is the point that I am slowly coming to formulate and put into words. Now that I have been able to vocalize and express my uneasiness, I now have to ask myself where are the leaders? Evidently, most of the Republican in offices of power are frozen as well because they have been silent. Our so called “leaders” seem to be cowering in fear of what I do not know. Is it fear of the China Virus, not being reelected, being exposed for corruption, or what I know not. What is painfully obvious, however, is that they are not being leaders and the only so called opposition I see seems to be in the few media outlets and some think tanks. Otherwise, we seem to remain cowering in fear of what I do not know. I for one have started a letter writing campaign to my state representatives.