Archive for August, 2023

But nobody was fired…

Posted: August 26, 2023 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Uncomfortable Truths, war
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If you’re not already familiar with it, the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship is…a floating pile of garbage.

Not literally…or maybe, littorally? The Littoral Combat Ship was seen as a new, sleek, fast ship to replace the old minesweepers and patrol crafts. It could drive super fast and would be able to change out mission modules, meaning one day it could be oriented towards minesweeping, and the next day it could hunt down submarines. Even better, it would have a small crew, so the Navy would save on manpower.

If that all sounds too good to be true…it was. Many people pointed this out at the time, but were called naysayers for doing so. Yet here we are today watching the Navy retire a Littoral Combat Ship after only five years of service (compared to the 20+ years we get from Destroyers, Cruisers, and basically any other ship).

USS SIOUX CITY, decommissioned after only 5 years.

Crying about this fact gets us nowhere. What I want to do is point out the hypocrisy in the Navy in how it treats it’s flag officers. With the LCS as a raging dumpster fire, at least one of the manufacturers, Austal USA, had the good sense to make its CEO resign. Would the Navy do this? Let’s look at some of the LCS programs past leadership:

  • Rear Admiral John Neagley took over the program around 2016. He apparently wrote many of the requirements for LCS back in the day, so you’d think he could turn it around. Nope! He wasn’t fired either, instead, he retired and now works at ICI Services.
  • In 2012, Rear Admiral John Murdoch said “I am not concerned at all about any of the deficiencies…in terms of my ability to correct them before the ship leaves the Great Lakes,” concerning serious problems onboard USS FORT WORTH while it was in Lake Michigan. The FORT WORTH commissioned in 2012 and was retired in 2022 after only 10 years in service. John Murdoch retired without issue and now works at Lockheed Martin.
  • Rear Admiral Robert Nowakowski took over in 2020, and after two years…the Navy cancelled the anti-submarine mission package on LCS due to overspending. Rear Admiral Nowakowski is still in the Navy and hasn’t had anything negative happen to his career.

So the Navy has a massively failing program that wastes millions of taxpayer dollars on ships that cannot fight or even stay afloat after only a few years. Its leadership gets punished…nope. It’s leaders, because they wear stars on their shoulders, get to retire to fat pensions with no repercussions whatsoever.

None. Zip. Zilch.

Meanwhile, Sailors work themselves to death trying to maintain vessels they can’t get training on and aren’t properly sourced.

These Admirals should be ashamed of themselves and the pain they caused these Sailors, their families and the impact to our Naval Power.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency, because those agencies want you to keep thinking that everything is fine and you should just keep handing over your tax dollars like the good little sheep you are without asking hard questions.

A Reminder to the A-Bomb breast beaters and China

Posted: August 26, 2023 by datechguy in war
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This week I watched 30 Seconds Over Tokyo (1943) and I was reminded of a very important reality.

The same people who cry “genocide” over the A-Bomb never seem to remember that in the aftermath of the Doolittle raid which did very little actual damage, the Japanese decided to teach Chinese civilians a rather nasty lesson. (via Encyclopedia Britannica):

In early June 1942 the Japanese launched an offensive into Chekiang and Kiangsi (Jiangxi), and the brutality directed at the civilian population drew comparisons to the Nanjing Massacre. Trinkets and souvenirs left by grateful Americans—parachutes, cigarettes, pieces of military kit—doomed entire villages, as the Japanese would judge all the residents as having been complicit. Japanese bombers devastated Chuchow, and Kiangsi’s provincial capital of Nancheng (Nanchang) was razed, its population annihilated. It was estimated that some 250,000 civilians were killed during the three-month reprisal campaign.

250,000 civilians killed and whole villages slaughtered. That’s pretty bad but it didn’t stop there:

As the Japanese army prepared to withdraw from Chekiang and Kiangsi, members of its infamous germ warfare program, Unit 731, moved in. They seeded the area with dysentery, typhoid, and cholera, and disease ravaged those who had survived the initial Japanese attacks.

Yes you read that right, chemical warfare left to take care of any civilians who were spared the tender mercies of the Japanese army.

Somehow this just doesn’t seem to spark the outrage among the self righteous.

But there is one more thing that needs to be remembered, not only by the self righteous left who have forgotten the slaughter in china but by the Chinese who haven’t.

The only reason why the Japanese today are not the same people who did these things is because there have been American soldiers by the tens of thousands sitting on that Island for over 75 years.

China should ask itself what would happen if the US decided that 75 or 80 years are enough and that it’s time for Japan to defend Japan and leave.

Well I can’t say that the Japanese culture would return to the bad old days but I can tell you this. As one of the most if not THE most technologically advanced countries in the world Japan could have the bomb if they wanted it in a week and in six months they could have a whole lot more.

With what happened in all those cities still in living memory I’m sure China would just be tickled pink to think about a rearmed Japan just sitting there and believe me Japan would be rearmed fast because they know China hasn’t forgotten and despite 3/4 of a century passing since what happened they’d love the chance to return the favor.

Oh an anyone who thinks that Japan or Germany for that matter might not harken back to the days of yore once American troops are gone take a look at just how fast things have changed here in the us only three years.

Five Quick Tucker Carlson Donald Trump Interview Thoughts Under the Fedora: TV Guru, Tucker Comfort, Two great lines, Biden the case against and Covid? Fauci? Never heard of ’em

Posted: August 24, 2023 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, elections, entertainment, politics, primaries, special events, under the fedora
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Yesterday I watched the GOP debate till 3 am (my rundown here) and after getting my 1999 LeSabre inspected by a kid younger than the car and having lunch with DaWife got home with just enough time to watch the Tucker Carlson interview with Trump. Here are my thoughts:

The opening question concerning skipping the debate was a tad obvious but what was less obvious and less expected was his question about the decline of TV in general. This is a subject that has large cultural significance and it reminds one that Trump was very popular on TV for many years and is a expert on the subject. His commentary there had little to do with the election 2024 but was very fascinating concerning how the medium works.

It didn’t take long for me to conclude that Trump was exactly right strategically in skipping the debate and doing this interview instead. Not only for the sake of avoiding questions and attacks that he might not want to deal with but because of how comfortable he was in the format. I thought it was much better than a rally speech in the sense that he was in the position to expand on some subject and give some excellent insights on several subjects. It’s an appealing side of Trump that he would be wise to use more often.

I think the single biggest moment from the interview was Trump explaining to Tucker why the the indictments have not hurt and in fact have helped his poll ratings, noting that “The American people get it”. One does not have to have Trump as their first choice for the nomination to notice that the prosecutions of him are prosecution, particularly compared to how the Biden’s are treated.

A close second was his line about the Biden admin going after gas stoves etc etc. The “Let people buy everything.” should be adopted by every GOP candidate running for any national office there is. It’s a landslide maker that perfectly encapsulates the frustration folks have with the appliance Nazis out there

If I had to name the single biggest contrast between this interview and the debate it’s that Tucker gave Trump had a chance to hit Biden in detail while the Fox team seemed to do their best to shield him. Trump went in heavy on the corruption of the Biden while the GOP candidates strained to get in a few words on a subject ignored by the hosts.

His case against Biden and his noting of little things that give the game away were very significant and that’s why I suspect there is no way Joe Biden will debate him or any GOP candidate in a general election race.

All in all I think it was a good exercise for Trump but about 5 minutes after it was done something hit me square in the face. Tucker Carlson gave him time to answer and the conversation was good but there were two words that I didn’t recall hearing in those 45 minutes:

“COVID” and “FAUCI”

It would seem inconceivable to me that a subject that took up a full quarter of his term as president was ignored by Tucker Carlson and didn’t rate a question. I suspect this was not an accident and might have even been a condition of the him getting the interview.

I found the omission glaring because sooner or later he’s going to have to answer questions on that subject and I also suspect it’s one of the reasons why the administration would prefer to run against Trump because neither COVID nor Fauci are subjects that the left in general and Joe Biden in particular want to talk about and as long as Trump is the guy he’s running against he won’t have to .

Update: Played the interview again for DaWife and she says she heard Trump say the word COVID in reference to Biden having an excuse to stay in the basement so I stand corrected but again there was no conversation about the COVID response of the Trump administration

All in all I’d still say it was a good job by and for Trump and a smart move, but I think in the end he ends up in a GOP debate, perhaps not the next one or the one after that but when there are only two or three opponents left I don’t think the “duck and cover” will work in the long term for him, but we will see.

The American Medical System makes it difficult to get help

Posted: August 24, 2023 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Over the past two months I’ve been struggling with a couple of medical issues.  Neither issue is serious.   These are issues that in the past were resolved quickly.  Not anymore.  It took weeks to figure what the cause was of one of my issues, and I had to do that myself.

I remember in the good old days, if you had issues that were at the level of issues I was experiencing they would check you into the hospital for a couple of days.  There they would run a lot of tests and consult specialists.  A diagnosis usually came quick along with the treatments.

Today it is much harder to get admitted to the hospital.  At the Emergency Room they run you through a standard battery of tests.  If the results are not life threatening they send you home, even if you are in bad shape. 

Instead of a quick diagnosis and treatment you are given referrals to specialists on an outpatient basis.  The waiting time to get to see a specialist for the first time is usually several weeks.  It usually takes a couple of visits with a specialist to get a diagnosis and treatment pinned down.  If you are suffering like I was, that delay can seem like an eternity. 

One condition I am suffering from is painful.  In the good old days, they prescribed a pain medication that actually worked.  Thanks to war on opiates, the vast majority of pain medications they prescribe now don’t really work and have a long list of side effects.  I have been informed by more than one doctor that the reason they no longer prescribe opiate pain medications to patients that need them is because if they did, they would be arrested. 

The opiate crisis was not caused by patients that really needed opiate pain medication.  It was caused by open borders and an abundant supply of illegal narcotics.  Politicians panicked.  They stepped in between doctors and patients.  Now patients are suffering,

Thankfully I am on the mend.  The pain I’m suffering with now can be treated with over-the-counter pain medications.  I feal sorry for all of the countless individuals that are suffering and cannot get the pain medication they need.   

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