"Good ol' shoe" rides again - 2016

"Motss decides to invent a hero who was left behind enemy lines, and inspired by the idea that he was "discarded like an old shoe" has the Pentagon provide him with a soldier named Schumann (Harrelson) around whom he constructs a further narrative including T-shirts, additional patriotic songs, and faux-grassroots demonstrations of patriotism. At each stage of the plan, Motss continually dismisses setbacks as "nothing" and compares them to past movie-making catastrophes he averted.

When the team goes to retrieve Schumann, they discover he is in fact a criminally insane Army prison convict before their plane crashes en route to Andrews Air Force Base. The team survives and is rescued by a farmer, but Schumann attempts to rape the farmer's daughter and the farmer kills him. Motss then stages an elaborate military funeral, claiming that Schumann died from wounds sustained during his rescue."'  wiki on WTD

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There is just so much BS out there this year.  The meme attack team at Ft. Brooklyn is working over-time to produce an unfavorable meme per day on Trump.

The latest stupid thing is the falsehood that claims Trump said the US military is WEAK psychologically.  He did not say that.  He said that SOME people exposed to combat stress are not strong enough to bear the pressure.  I know that psychiatrists are busy selling the self serving idea that returned soldiers or evidently also those who have never been exposed to combat stress are wounded children.  A lot of moms like that idea, but those who have fought know that what he said is profoundly true.  Some people are unaffected by combat stress and others crumble at the thought.  Others soldier on however much they quake inside.  A woman up in Ottawa asked me once if I were one of the crazy brave or the phony tough.  I should have asked if she had more options.   

"Good ol' Shoe" rides again.  pl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYT39lMdmbM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v4ZLwevXAI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjerGldHsD8

Comments

[turcopolier]

Michael Brenner

This is a fool's argument. My mother made the same argument to me in 1958 saying that he day of the soldier was ended because of technology. Are you not excusing your lack of service to the country? pl

[michael brenner]

You know noting of my life history as it relates to military service or otherwise.

[Brunswick]

Col.,

Max Blumenthal has Part 2 posted on Alternet.

http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/how-white-helmets-became-international-heroes-while-pushing-us-military

[turcopolier]

MB

OK. Tell us pl

[herb]

Trump's comments were awkward, vague and unartful, but not as bad as the attacks based on them. He was speaking off the cuff, so should be given the benefit of the doubt, but a response to his offhand comment is calculated and indefensible. I don't think this is at all an appropriate tit for tat subject for "my side". It's wrong.

I've never been in combat, but have been in many, many "life or death" situations (mountain-climbing, ocean sailing, etc.), and it is really tough to tell who will be frozen in fear when the shit hits the fan and who will keep their head. The former are a serious liability, to be blunt. I don't know if the latter group gets PTSD at the same rate, but there has to be a way to weed out people who can't take stress well? Which is not at all a value judgment against them as people, just need to keep them out of combat, for their sake and the safety of their comrades.

[different clue]

Edward Amame,

Ordinary people? Or Clinton's legions of winged flying brockmonkeys?

[different clue]

Castellio,

If the guard and off-duty policemen did anything that could be sued-for, one hopes that Messrs. Rothe-Kushel and Woolfolk work with the most serious lawyers possible and take their time preparing the most plausibly winning and devastating lawsuit possible. If crimes could be plausibly alleged, one wonders how the two targeted gentlemen could either get the people who did this arrested, or begin building a case for various kinds of illegal non-performance of duty on the part of law-enforcement officials higher up the enforcement chain. I don't know if such things can be done, or how they can be done, but if they can be then they should be.

If indeed this happened as described then this could be an example of what I once told David Habakkuk that Paul Findley described in his book They Dare To Speak Out. This would appear to be another case where a Likud-based ideologically-motivated bunchload of people have engineered total power for themselves and their agenda withIN the Jewish Community Organizations, and use that power to stamp-out-on-sight any questioning of this agenda by Jews who have questions. It would be an example of why so few "Jews against Likudery" are visible. They are stamped out and shut down fast and hard as soon as they appear. At least that's what this looks like a case of to me.

[Imagine]

1) Military academies teach soldiering frozen in time c. 1775, when being tough meant standing stiff & strong marching in rows while cannons took out those to left and right. Trump applies same strategy metaphorically to China, enemies: "they don't respect us 'cause we're not tough enough". Thinks a "tough" army will get more respect. Feist-dog against bear, no fear. Thus he sounds like a fox terrier.

Others w/ more experience can explain why being fearless, tough, and marching in rows is not enough to win wars.

2) Trump evidently does not fear shame (nor probably guilt). This is slightly different from being a sociopath, but still seems dangerous in the long run. He does seem like a classic strongman. What happens when one converts embarrassment into energy:
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/150449295541/when-reality-turned-inside-out

[Babak Makkinejad]

"The Madness of Heroes in the very Logic of Life." so the poet wrote...

[Babak Makkinejad]

Ants fight wars.

So do the chimpanzee troops.

[Balint Somkuti]

This whole 'waggin' the dog' story reminds me of the architectural fashion called facadism.

From a nice old building nothing remains, but the facade. Behind there is a completely new buidling bot from the fron or sometimes from the side it looks the same. I think this characterizes well the current state of democracy.

[Imagine]

EMERCOM of Russia: Large-scale All-Russian civil defense drill to take place from 4 to 7 October; "More than 40 million people, 200,000 specialists of emergency rescue divisions and about 50,000 units of equipment are going to be involved in the drill."
http://en.mchs.ru/mass_media/news/item/32915549/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1907902/russia-holds-massive-nuclear-war-exercise-involving-40million-people-as-military-tensions-rise-with-us/
http://en.mchs.ru/mass_media/news/item/32916958/
http://www.pravdareport.com/russia/politics/30-09-2016/135749-moscow_nuclear_war-0/
but no mention in RT, Sputnik, America. 40M is huge number. How extensive is this actually? It sends a most worrisome signal as to Russian appraisals of U.S. sanity.

[JohnsonR]

"We should bear in mind that homo sapiens are the only species that fights wars. Other mammals, even primates, don't have the capacity to organize or to abstract meanings and objectives that are required for war."

This is, famously, not the case:

Gombe Chimpanzee War

Nature of war: Chimps inherently violent; Study disproves theory that 'chimpanzee wars' are sparked by human influence

I see no particular reason to suppose that other social species won't ultimately be found to wage wars, as well.

[ked]

no. wiki has a good overview.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology
like the popularity of social eugenics in the early 20th century, phrenology was an example of how a little bit of newly realized information was "repurposed" as proof to support a range of policies without basis in medical science. think of it as unsupported theory run amuck - analogous to your consternation w/ unproven policies derived from academic research in the social sciences - upon reflection, a number of popularized concepts become embarrassments to the field from which they issue. they can also drive big industry (Pharma, always telling us how the latest pain-killer is not addictive, so they can sell it until contrary evidence is clearly manifested), or destructive popular movements like the anti-vaxxers.
decent quality-control & corrective feedback loops have always been a challenge, moreso these days w/ the pace & broad distribution of information often becoming the enemy of rigorous, dispassionate evaluation.

[ked]

I suppose I could've bern more succinct. A correlation is not causation. Do not base clinical practice upon an appearance of correlation. Do more research until causation can be established with a high degree of certainty. And even then, be very careful about remedies - one must be sensitive to 2nd & 3rd order effects & even their interaction's outcomes. We live in a time where the assertion of possible causation seems to drive new & improved ... & often dubious ... policy / practice overnight.

[turcopolier]

Imagine

You don't understand the function of leadership in war. The modalities of tactics in the 18th and 19th centuries are not important to the subject. The application of force still requires a steady hand and a firm heart whether muskets and muzzle loading artillery are involved or Abrams tanks and fighter aircraft. Officers and NCOs are present on the battlefield to provide an example of devotion to duty. Old Army saying - "Officers have no morale. They are always the same." That is the standard to which one is held. If you do not meet that standard you should be removed. pl

[Ishmael Zechariah]

JohnsonR,
IMO you are right. However, your supposition is contrary to the general "received wisdom". One could first read Robert Ardrey's "African genesis", which classifies humans as killer apes, and then "The Seville Statement on Violence" of 1986, which rejects violence and in particular warfare as genetically determined, to see the correct party line. The genus Homo Sapiens is probably flattering itself as being sapient.
Ishmael Zechariah

[shepherd]

Liza,

Journalists tend to overstate findings of neurological studies. With research like this, you typically have a narrow finding. In this case that current sufferers of PTSD have a smaller hippocampus, while those who have recovered do not. Then there is a section of the study where the researcher hypothesizes what it might mean. The paper in this case offers two possible explanations, neither of which it proves. One is that a smaller hippocampus is a risk factor for PTSD, the other is that PTSD shrinks the hippocampus. In other words, it raises the question of whether the findings demonstrate a innate trait or an effect of combat stress. Those are quite different possibilities, but again, neither was investigated nor confirmed by the study.

[ex-PFC Chuck]

Much to Jane Goodall's shock, two bands of Chimpanzees she had been studying since 1960 went to war. Intermittent hostilities took place over a period of four years in a national park in Tanzania in the 1970s. They had been one band when Goodall began studying it in 1960 but began splitting in the early 70s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombe_Chimpanzee_War

[Babak Makkinejad]

تَزُولُ اَلْجِبَالُ وَ لاَ تَزُلْ

http://www.haydarya.com/maktaba_moktasah/07/book_01/kh0039.htm

[hemeantwell]

"Trump evidently does not fear shame (nor probably guilt"

Wrong, and you've fallen for his pretense. The reason that he is so oriented to shaming people is that he's very sensitive to it. He wants to come across as a thick-skinned narcissist, as though nothing can touch him. But his constant shaming, leading him into utterly foolish early morning Twitter attacks on (attractive!) women for being fat, indicates the opposite. He lives in a shame/contempt economy, and he can't get out of it.

[Norbert M Salamon]

Colonel, this is not a refutation of your above comment, but a note to inform you of recent development re PTSD. Recently either in New Scientist {UK] or the Scientific American they had an exposition on PTSD, indicating that it is prevalent in approx. 10% of population [if memory serves right] for various causes.

I will look up the article and give the exact citation tomorrow morn.

[LondonBob]

Running for President with the positions he holds ranks as a pretty brave act in my book. A point alluded to by a former member of JFK's and RFK's staff when he said he would be voting Trump.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/rfk-trump-2016-democratic-party-speechwriter-214270

As I am sure Mr Trump knows, a lot of lone nuts, and not so lone nuts out there. Would have been easy to have played a lot of golf and focused on his family (and wife).

[Imagine]

These numbers can't be right, it sounds like a N. Korean news-piece. Perhaps someone translated thousands and millions wrong? Or simply sending emails to 40M people?

Far East, second day: "The practical rehearsal involved more than 43.5 thousand people and almost 6.5 thousand pieces of equipment, including 6,021 people and 667 pieces of equipment provided be the Russian Emergency Ministry."[sic]
http://en.mchs.ru/mass_media/news/item/32918410/

[Imagine]

My apologies. I have no beef with the highly difficult and brave job of officer/NCO military leaders who get stuff done when SHTF. My beef is with the political leaders and policy analysts who put people in the situation in the first place...when done needlessly.

"Winning 100 battles is not the ultimate. The ultimate is to have your opponent cooperate with you without having to war in the first place." or sunthink like that.

may whoever wins the election embody this principle.