tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25864093485843315112024-03-13T06:22:48.814-04:00mile 181North Carolina local, county and state affairs; national strategy; international affairs; national and international economics; philosophy of public affairs.
Advocate for homo reciprocans.David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.comBlogger1713125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-67184533659278328422021-01-20T16:16:00.002-05:002021-01-20T16:16:54.368-05:00<p> It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.</p><p>In fact, from August 1972 for about three years, the Capitol Hill area of Washington, D.C. was our neighborhood. We lived about ten blocks east of the Capitol. I worked in the Pentagon.</p><p>Watching today's inauguration ceremonies, largely coordinated by Senator Amy Klobuchar, I was reminded that Senator Klobuchar of Minnesota had a strong connection to North Carolina - a strong friendship with the late Senator Kay Hagan. </p>David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-69102255641525939432021-01-20T07:36:00.003-05:002021-01-20T07:36:56.374-05:00<p> I have been really annoyed at those (mostly republicans) whining about being asked to wear masks to protect their fellow Americans from covid. It interferes (they say) with their freedoms. Had that been the attitude after Pearl Harbor, we might not have won that struggle. I still have my ration cards that were issued in 1943.</p><p>Talk about freedom! Each year from 1942 to 1945 my mother had to save enough sugar ration cards for a birthday cake for me and my two siblings. But it wasn't all about us. We collected ten cans and other scrap metal, scrap paper and other items for the war effort. We grew our own food and sent our bst food to our troops and our allies. We genuinely worried about the starving children in China.</p><p>We didn't believe that greed was good.</p>David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-29489154756554408052021-01-14T16:52:00.000-05:002021-01-14T16:52:22.237-05:00<p> Two decades ago I knew nothing about Donald J. Trump. Then my wife and I sailed in to Atlantic City New Jersey. The biggest buildings were labeled "Trump". They were boarded up. So years later when I heard people extolling the fact that the government would be run by a "successful businessman", I knew better. Trump was never a successful businessman.</p><p>I did remember that the last previous "successful businessman" to be president was Herbert Hoover, who had been a mining engineer. Not a promising example of successful governing.</p>David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-21889894528994851042021-01-13T08:15:00.001-05:002021-01-13T08:15:12.836-05:00<p> Something there is that doesn't love a wall.</p><p>At least Robert Frost got it.</p><p>Trump just had to go down to our southern border and admire his wall.</p><p>I have seen some of the world's most notorious walls. I have been through Check Point Charlie. My conclusion is that walls don't work. They never did. They didn't protect China. They didn't protect Berlin. They didn't protect Hadrian.</p><p>Offhand, I can't think of a place or an entity they did protect.</p><p>Tear down walls. Build bridges.</p>David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-29881745777333788752021-01-12T16:20:00.002-05:002021-01-12T16:20:38.084-05:00<p> Let's be clear. Donald J. Trump wants to destroy the U.S. Government. He is not a loyal American. He has never been a loyal American in his entire adult life. His spurious claim of bone spurs to get out of military service was the original signal of disloyalty.</p>David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-40455749456268820242021-01-11T21:25:00.002-05:002021-01-11T21:25:24.516-05:00<p> Let's be clear. What Donald J Trump did last Wednesday was Treason. It was, to be clear, levying war on the United States.</p><p>Levying war includes actual use of force by multiple people with the common purpose of keeping some public law from being enforced. In this case the public law being impeded was the certification of a valid presidential election. </p><p>I'm an old white guy from Mississippi. I have lived through a third of our country's history. Most of that time I was paying attention. I know a thing or two because I've seen a thing or two. </p><p>I have also worn my country's uniform in defense of our nation's defense since 1954. </p><p>For the first time in all those years, I am ashamed of my country.</p><p>It will take a long time to erase the shame of this presidency.</p>David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-4070620005913221922021-01-04T07:41:00.001-05:002021-01-04T07:41:30.533-05:00<p> Where were you on the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor? I ask, because there is a big difference in attitude between those who remember that day and those who have merely read about it. Even historians get the story muddled. </p><p>The attack was a surprise. But the war was not. We saw it coming. We were getting ready for war with authoritarian dictatorships.</p><p>The biggest concern in 1939-1940 was, how would western democracies be able to stand up to despots. We never imagined it would be a good idea to become a despotism ourselves.</p><p>The morning of the attack, we were living in Tallahassee. My dad had been away at the Louisiana Maneuvers and had just returned two days earlier from the Carolina Maneuvers. </p><p>About noon, our landlord knocked on the door.</p><p>"The Japs have bombed Pearl Harbor, he announced."</p><p>My dad grabbed his B-4 bag and rushed off to the base. We didn't see him for a couple of days, when he came back to pack his foot locker. </p>David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-15638323659863788942019-06-12T09:35:00.000-04:002019-06-12T09:38:21.675-04:00African Americans At Normandy (D-Day): Medgar EversLast week, The Raleigh News and Observer printed an article about African Americans at D-Day.<br />
<br />
The article did not mention it, but one of the African Americans fighting for the allies at D-Day was the late Medgar Wiley Evers, a civil rights activist in Mississippi who was assassinated on June 12, 1963 by Byron De La Beckwith of Greenwood.<br />
<br />
After World War II, Evers received a degree from Alcorn State College near Jackson, and became the state's first NAACP field secretary.<br />
<br />
Beckwith was also a World War II veteran, having served on Guadalcanal. He belonged to both the Klan and the White Citizen's Council.<br />
<br />
After three trials, Beckwith was finally convicted of Medgar Evers' murder in a state trial in 1994. He died in prison.David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-70059364667635092212019-04-19T00:18:00.000-04:002019-04-19T00:18:53.604-04:00Donald J Trump Is A Disloyal AmericanThe release today of the Mueller Report makes it clear that Donald J Trump is disloyal. He is also a crook.<br />
<br />
But we already knew that.<br />
<br />
We also already knew that the only way he was elected to the presidency is with the help of Putin and his Russian collaborators.<br />
<br />
In this country, about three million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than voted for Trump.<br />
<br />
Trump is a loser.<br />
<br />
<br />David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-49519183354144290002019-03-31T11:33:00.001-04:002019-03-31T11:33:06.547-04:00Back On LineI've been away for awhile. Getting back on line. In the meantime, had a hurricane (Florence) and some not very bad medical issues. Worse than that, we have had a sustained, prolonged attack (by our president and the NC state legislature) on American democracy.<br />
<br />
Only we can save ourselves.David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-65783814671506299682019-01-04T07:46:00.001-05:002019-01-04T07:46:47.224-05:00Seventh Century Solution To A Twenty-First Century Problem?At least, that's what some observers say.<br />
<br />
Actually, it is a seventh-century B.C. solution. At least, that's when the Great Wall of China was first begun.<br />
<br />
It didn't keep the Mongols and other nomads from entering China.<br />
<br />
Nearly three millennia later (in 1981), my wife and I passed through Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin. That wall didn't keep us out, and it didn't keep all of the Berliners in. It survived all the way from 1961 to 1992.<br />
<br />
It didn't do much good.<br />
<br />
So what is the problem Donald J. Trump is actually trying to solve?<br />
<br />
Best to know that before spending a lot of money.<br />
<br />
We seem to have pretty well solved the problem of illegal immigration from Mexico.<br />
<br />
NAFTA did that.<br />
<br />
More cruelty and inhumanity and refusal to carry out our international obligations toward refugees and asylum seekers won't make that better.David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-52790612943945721432019-01-02T10:39:00.001-05:002019-01-03T21:57:24.936-05:00Ozymandius<h1 style="background-color: #f4f3db; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 20px 0px 10px;">
Ozymandias</h1>
<div style="background-color: #f4f3db; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
I met a traveller from an antique land<br />
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone<br />
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,<br />
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown<br />
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command<br />
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read<br />
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,<br />
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.<br />
And on the pedestal these words appear:<br />
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:<br />
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'<br />
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay<br />
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,<br />
The lone and level sands stretch far away". </div>
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David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-4704958245070052012018-12-24T16:02:00.001-05:002018-12-24T16:05:04.681-05:00When Did America Become Great?There are many possible answers to that question.<br />
<br />
I offer August 14, 1941 as the candidate for when we became great. That was the day President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met to sign the Atlantic Charter. The Atlantic Charter laid the firmest foundation for our system of alliances that won World War II. We built our structure of international security and prosperity on that foundation.<br />
<br />
President Trump is demolishing that foundation.<br />
<br />
<br />David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-14416883566452663472018-12-04T14:13:00.000-05:002018-12-04T14:24:29.635-05:00Eternal Father, Strong To Save, Whose Arm Hath Bound The Restless WaveThe last few days, I have been thinking about the late George Herbert Walker Bush, an honorable man who served his country well.<br />
<br />
He was a navy man. He had just turned eighteen when he enlisted.<br />
<br />
He went into harm's way.<br />
<br />
He flew aircraft off of aircraft carriers, and was nineteen years old when he was shot down over Chichi Jima in Japan's Bonin Islands.<br />
<br />
He could have perished in the sea near Chichi Jima at the age of nineteen. But he survived to serve his country in many capacities until his death at the age of ninety-four.<br />
<br />
He exhibited the modesty so characteristic of his generation.<br />
<br />
He did not boast. He did not brag. He was not a bully.<br />
<br />
A good model to follow.<br />
<br />
Many commentators marvel at George Bush's youth at the time he enlisted. As I think back to that time in my own life, I realize I had turned seventeen four months before I entered the navy. So I don't see Bush as having been all that young.<br />
<br />
It was a different time.<br />
<br />David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-31257619958041137902018-11-28T00:04:00.001-05:002018-11-28T00:09:55.746-05:00I was sorry that Mike Espy lost the Mississippi runoff election for US senate, but not surprised. He got more votes than either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton did, so I suppose we should celebrate that.<br />
<br />
Even so, I wos hoping he would do even better.<br />
<br />
I was disappointed at some of the commentary, which I thought was inaccurate.<br />
<br />
I am an old white guy from Mississippi. I would like to set a few things straight about the state.<br />
<br />
On a personal note, Espy is from Yazoo City, a place I know well. My paternal grandparents, my father and my brother were all born there. Many family members are buried in the cemetery.<br />
<br />
I will work on trying to clear the record. It may take a while.David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-76052500666855559062018-09-28T06:53:00.001-04:002018-09-28T06:53:24.596-04:00Brett Kavenaugh - Not Suitable For The Supreme Or Any Other CourtI watched yesterday's confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavenaugh, who already serves on the DC Court of Appeals - the next highest federal court to the Supreme Court.<br />
<br />
I conclude from his angry tirade delivered during the hearing that he lacks a judicial temperament. He should not be confirmed.<br />
<br />
The hearing was held to address credible charges by a serious accusation by Doctor Christine Blasey Ford that in 1982 when she was 15 years old and Kavenaugh was 17 he attempted to rape her. She told a moving and convincing story.<br />
<br />
At the time of the incident, Kavenaugh was a student at an elite Jesuit prep school in the DC area. I have a strong bias against these institutions, especially regarding a pervasive attitude of misogyny regarding women.<br />
<br />
I attended public coeducational schools. I first encountered the prep school phenomenon when I went on summer training cruises with Naval Academy midshipmen. Many of these midshipmen had graduated from Catholic boys schools. I thought some if not most of the young men from that background thought rather too much of themselves and had an immature attitude toward girls.<br />
<br />
Doctor Ford was the only accuser allowed to speak, but other accusers told even more harrowing tales of the sort of thing Kavenaugh and his colleagues did. These tales reminded me of exploits that prep-school types of Naval Academy midshipmen bragged about. They claimed to have arranged to have a young women in a bedroom with young men outside the bedroom door standing in line to take turns having sex with them. That was in 1955.<br />
<br />
I never personally witnessed any of these claimed exploits and I thought it possible they didn't actually happen. Empty bragging is not unknown among 19 year olds. But whether true or not, what they bragged about was pretty disgusting. Especially among people aspiring to lead our armed forces.<br />
<br />
I encountered many of these prep school types later in my naval career who never matured.<br />
<br />
On the evidence of what I saw during the hearing, Brett Kavenaugh is one of those. His misogyny was strongly evident in his responses to questions from women senators. I know they are used to this, but we citizens should not put up with it.<br />
<br />
Twenty-seven years ago, just as Brett Kavenaugh was graduating from Yale (which he bragged about to Senator Amy Klobuchar as "the number one law school," clearly implying that this entitled him to a place on the Supreme Court). That same year, 1991, was the year of the navy's infamous Tail Hook scandal. Tail Hook was another example of misogyny by young leaders of America's elite.<br />
<br />
I see Brett Kavenaugh as strongly in the same tradition. In my view, his confirmation should be strongly opposed.David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-77355451560918144142018-09-17T14:18:00.001-04:002018-09-17T14:18:48.560-04:00Nominees And ExplanationsSome years ago, Oriental's retired Superior Court Judge, Jim Ragan, wrote an entertaining political musical centered on a scandal that emerged at the last minute. When the scandal became public, the campaign manager sang: "he didn't do it - but if he did, there's nothing to it."<br />
<br />
Judge Ragan has a good ear for political dialogue. If you don't believe it, just compare his song to that of Judge Kavanaugh and his supporters in the White House. Same lyrics.David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-42934435959914546412018-09-10T23:50:00.001-04:002018-09-10T23:53:16.529-04:00More Reflections On John McCainI never liked the generational analysis of American History. X Generation was this way. Y Generation was that way. The Generation that lived through the Great Depression and won World War II were "The Greatest Generation." Thanks, Tom Brokaw, but maybe they weren't greater than all the others.<br />
<br />
And yet.....<br />
<br />
Last week the presidential historian Jon Meacham had an interesting thought about John McCain.<br />
<br />
John McCain, he observed, was one of the last members of the World War II Generation.<br />
<br />
If that's so, it explains a lot. It also means that I am also of the World War II Generation. In fact, John McCain and I received our Navy commissions on the same day in May of 1958. He flew airplanes and I drove ships, but it was the same navy.<br />
<br />
John McCain was about eight months older than me. He was five years old when the Japanese attacked, I was four. Neither of us was surprised that war had started, because we had witnessed our fathers preparing for war.<br />
<br />
My father had just returned to Tallahassee from the Carolina Maneuvers on December 5th. Earlier in the year, he was away at the Louisiana Maneuvers, a massive trial and demonstration of new military tactics. I had seen with my own eyes the two-lane US highways across the South clogged with enormous military convoys.<br />
<br />
On that day of infamy in December of 1941, my dad grabbed his B-4 bag (always packed to go to war) and went to the air base. John McCain watched the staff car drive up to his house in New London and take his father away.He doesn't remember seeing his father again until after Japan surrendered.<br />
<br />
If John McCain was the last of the World War II Generation, then so am I.<br />
<br />
My head is filled with the sound track of World War II. Go into any cafe, and juke boxes were filled with tunes by Glen Miller, the Dorsey Brothers, Woodie Guthrie, Harry James and others. There were singles like "Praise the Lord and Pass The Ammunition," "Coming in On a Wing And a Prayer," nostalgic tunes like "I'll be Home For Christmas (if only in my dreams").<br />
<br />
The war had not yet started when we heard ominous warnings that Democracies were weak and would not be able to stand up to the authoritarian dictatorships taking over the countries of Europe and Asia.<br />
<br />
I didn't follow those discussions closely, but movie newsreels painted an ominous picture of the perilous state of affairs for the democracies.<br />
<br />
Then, without much fanfare, Great Britain and the United States on August 14, 1941 signed the Atlantic Charter. Looking back on that event, I think it is not an exaggeration to say that that piece of paper laid the foundation for victory.<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;">
The eight principal points of the Charter were:</div>
<ol style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-image: none; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 3.2em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">no territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">all people had a right to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Self-determination">self-determination</a>;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_barriers" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Trade barriers">trade barriers</a> were to be lowered;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">there was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">the participants would work for a world free of want and fear;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">the participants would work for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_seas" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Freedom of the seas">freedom of the seas</a>;</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">there was to be disarmament of aggressor nations, and a common disarmament after the war.</li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">The truth is, the Charter sounded much like Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points of 1917. It proved to be a powerful incentive for other nations to join in a grand and eventually victorious alliance. As in 1917, the goal was to make the world safe for democracy, but also safe for commerce and prosperity.</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">The World War II generation did not accept authoritarian dictatorships. We did not accept the idea of a "Master Race."</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">To be sure, many Americans believed in White Supremacy. But the World War II generation changed all that. It was our proudest accomplishment.</span></span></div>
<br />
<br />David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-50747177585824380902018-08-26T17:17:00.000-04:002018-08-26T17:18:27.321-04:00John S. McCain - The Last Republican Patriot?John McCain was a genuine American Patriot. He will be sorely missed.<br />
<br />
His life was a testament to what is meant by patriotism. It was also a testament to what it means to be a naval officer.<br />
<br />
To some extent, the virtues John McCain displayed in his own life were not just his personal virtues, but the virtues of his chosen profession.<br />
<br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worth while, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: "I served in the <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_States_Navy" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="United States Navy">United States Navy</a>."</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22 width=%225%22 height=%2213%22%3E %3Ccircle cx=%222.5%22 cy=%229.5%22 r=%222.5%22 fill=%22%2300528c%22/%3E %3C/svg%3E"); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Remarks at the U.S. Naval Academy (1 August 1963), <i>Public Papers of the Presidents</i> 321, p. 620</li>
</ul>
David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-89429544295754945772018-08-16T06:50:00.002-04:002018-08-16T06:50:36.996-04:00John Brennan - American PatriotToday Donald J. Trump announced he was revoking the security clearance of John Brennan, former Director of the CIA, who tracked Osama Bin Laden down and directed his elimination.<br />
<br />
The reason? Brennan publicly criticized Trump.<br />
<br />
John Brennan is a private citizen and had every right to speak his mind. A right protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.<br />
<br />
Some thoughts: <br />
1. This is not the act of a strong leader;<br />
<br />
2. In fact, it is the act of a craven coward; an insecure bully; a weak leader;<br />
<br />
3. The action weakens America;<br />
<br />
4. The thought keeps crossing my mind - is there such a thing as a Republican Patriot?<br />
<br />
There is at least one. His name is John McCain.<br />
<br />
Recently the Congress passed a defense bill named in honor of John McCain. President Trump signed the bill at a ceremony without mentioning the name of the bill or mentioning John McCain.<br />
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No class.David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-14861636606667980262018-08-12T07:59:00.000-04:002018-08-12T08:02:32.256-04:00Wild Fires, Drought, Hurricanes, What Hath Fossil Fuels Wrought?Tom Brokaw called the generation that brought us through the Great Depression and World War II "The Greatest Generation."<br />
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I have often worried that they spawned the worst generation. Let's hope their great grandchildren don't become the last generation.<br />
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That sounds a bit apocalyptic until you read the New York Times account of how close we came to gaining control over the looming disaster of cataclysmic climate change: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news">https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news</a><br />
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The generation that failed to act was arguably my generation.<br />
<br />David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-71373715806903845102018-07-29T16:10:00.000-04:002018-07-29T16:10:20.429-04:00Take Their Clearance Away!Donald J. Trump is annoyed that half a dozen of our best and brightest experts in intelligence and national security take issue with his statements. His solution: Take away their security clearances.<br />
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Dumb!<br />
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The reason that former officials sometimes retain clearances to access classified information is for the convenience of the government (so they can be consulted), not for the profit of the former official. This is another case of psychological transference - that is, when a person of limited imagination attributes a motive to someone else because "that is what I would want to do."<br />
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John Brennan, James Clapper, Susan Rice, James Comey, Michael Hayden and Andrew McCabe committed the offense of speaking the truth as they see it.<br />
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I have news for the president: there is no clearance for facts.<br />
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For many years I read Pravda and Izvestia to see what the Soviets were telling each other. Some of what they were saying were facts. Some weren't. I got to be pretty good at telling the difference. I can still tell the difference, and so can the targeted officials.<br />
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Even without a security clearance.<br />
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<br />David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-71015834630867885432018-07-29T11:35:00.002-04:002018-07-29T11:35:32.318-04:00The Brilliance Of John BoltonThe Republican cognoscenti insist that John Bolton, the president's national security adviser, is "brilliant."<br />
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I have been unable to confirm that.<br />
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Long believed to be an anti-Russia hawk, more recently he has been friendly to Putin. Why this is so, I cannot tell.<br />
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When I saw a video clip of John Bolton giving a gun-rights speech to Russians, I laughed out loud.<br />
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Can Bolton be so ignorant or so gullible that he does not understand that there is no gun rights movement in Russia? His speech was a farce.<br />
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But it was of a piece with the insertion of Maria Butina into NRA activities to mobilize the gun rights movement on behalf of Russian goals. Maria Butina is clearly a spy.<br />
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The NRA has become a "fifth column" acting to further the objectives of a foreign government.<br />
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How do I know this?<br />
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I know a lot about foreign affairs and national security policy, especially about Russia. I have been following such matters closely since about 1956.<br />
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John Bolton knows little or nothing about it.David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-72570705530428755722018-07-25T00:19:00.001-04:002018-07-26T07:26:30.794-04:00OccupiedWhatever else you watch on cable TV, make sure you see the drama "Occupied" on Netflix.<br />
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It takes place in the near future in Norway, and depicts the scenario of a ruthless takeover of Norway by Russia.<br />
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Be alert and pay attention to details.<br />
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There are brief scenes reminding us of Quisling.<br />
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Some scenes remind us of what must have happened in Norway during the occupation of 1942-1945.<br />
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There were degrees of resistance and degrees of courage.<br />
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The circumstances are worth thinking about.<br />
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What can patriots do when their country's leaders are loyal to another country?David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586409348584331511.post-51565663590244562432018-07-24T00:29:00.000-04:002018-07-24T07:10:00.958-04:00House Of CardsA year or two ago in the TV program House of Cards, one of the characters observed that "the President Is the people around him."<br />
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I thought that was pretty prescient.<br />
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Most of the time, we know who the people are who surround the president. In the case of Hillary Clinton, you could find out by looking up her web site. But none of us knew the people around Trump. Furthermore, they seemed to have no experience or interest in actually governing, but were skilled at plunder. And at showmanship.<br />
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I knew many of the skilled people around Hillary personally, and most of them at least by reputation.<br />
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Not only was Secretary Clinton herself better qualified and prepared than most of those she surrounded herself with, they themselves were among the most talented and well-prepared of her generation and of the generation before her. It was tragic that these leaders did not get to lead.<br />
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Governing is hard. It is complicated. It is not best done by amateurs.<br />
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I don't understand what happened, but the last time our national leaders were this incompetent was after World War I, otherwise known as The Great War. It was Harry Truman who observed that in a democracy, countries get the government they deserve. I think that's a bit harsh. We deserve better than what we have.<br />
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I will have some thoughts about that.David Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.com0