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Thread: The Era of Living Dangerously

  1. #121
    Council Member Pete's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
    After WW I, when the US Troops arrived in Russia one mission was to aid the Czech Legion in getting to Vladivostok.
    When my Dad arrived at his U.S. Army reception station at the Presidio of Monterey, California in 1943 the recruits asked an older master sergeant there what his ribbons stood for. The sergeant obliged and named them one by one, saving the best for last, the one he was proudest of -- " ... and this one gentlemen is for the Siberian Expeditionary Force!"

  2. #122
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    Default I Just Explain Badly

    Quote Originally Posted by Kiwigrunt View Post
    Nah, more than happy to observe.

    Not much to do with small wars (yet), but a very interesting thread never the less.
    It really does because it goes to R.C.Jones concept of good government,he is right on the broad concept I have some disagreement on his details. A government to be a government has to have 4 major things. A Currency,An Army and National borders and a Post Office. It needs 4 departments.
    1-Deperatment of the Treasury
    2-Department of the Army
    3-Department of Civil Engineering
    4-A Postal service! this is a bigger but most folks don't talk about it.
    If get those right the rest will follow.




    Small wars are operations undertaken under executive authority, wherein military force is combined with diplomatic pressure in the internal or external affairs of another state whose government is unstable, inadequate, or unsatisfactory for the preservation of life and of such interests as are determined by the foreign policy of our Nation.

    -- Small Wars Manual, 1940


    Copied from the SWJ Journal cover page, that got it from the Small Wars Manual...Boldness is mine
    Last edited by slapout9; 08-30-2011 at 04:31 PM. Reason: stuff

  3. #123
    Council Member Ken White's Avatar
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    Default Slap explains okay, I do not...

    Quote Originally Posted by Kiwigrunt View Post
    Not much to do with small wars (yet), but a very interesting thread never the less.
    From way back in Post 80 on the thread, wherein I writ:

    ""I probably should disclose that my views on all this are indeed involved with dangerous eras. This one is not but they do occur. In order to be prepared for the unexpected onset of such an era, that Congressional / Political malfeasance concerns me because in funding efforts and in the societal changes induced it adversely affects the Armed Forces of the US. The societal bit affects serving persons, our risk aversion problem is largely societally induced.""

    Linkage, no matter how tenousity...

  4. #124
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    I'll say one more thing about social programs: in 80 years, I don't think we've given them a fair shake. They've been shackled by Jim Crow laws, and they've been counteracted by an increasing investment in capital markets to the direct detriment of wages.

    Ken, thanks very much for the interesting, intelligent, and exhausting discussion. If there were more non-liberals like you, I'd be much less liberal myself.

  5. #125
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by motorfirebox View Post
    I'll say one more thing about social programs: in 80 years, I don't think we've given them a fair shake. They've been shackled by Jim Crow laws, and they've been counteracted by an increasing investment in capital markets to the direct detriment of wages.
    The Job Corps as it was originally conceived was a big success, don't how well it is doing by todays standards. This was a very interesting program as it was conceived and if you can find some old stuff about the actual process they used it is pretty interesting stuff.

  6. #126
    Council Member Ken White's Avatar
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    Default I think you both hit my problem with such 'programs.'

    The human factor. All of the programs started off well and probably did considerable good under their original steers persons. then the Second string took over. Then the third.

    Many today would be barely recognizable to their originators. I think FDR would be upset with what's been done to Social Security for just one example.

    The programs are good and undeniably well intentioned -- the way they are modified by some (including Congress. Especially including Congress...) for their own understanding / misunderstandings of intent and their own purposes (all too often...) -- is not so good. It's not the programs, it's the people and /or system that run them -- or fails to do so...

    I think that can be corrected but it will take a massive message to the Congress to make that happen. That may or may not occur. We'll see what 2012 brings...

    Thank, you, motorfirebox for the civil and intelligent discussion. Intelligent on your side anyway, Slap'll tell you I ain't none too bright, too many HAH landings...

  7. #127
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
    ... too many HAH landings...
    Now that's a quote for year 2011
    If you want to blend in, take the bus

  8. #128
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
    Thank, you, motorfirebox for the civil and intelligent discussion. Intelligent on your side anyway, Slap'll tell you I ain't none too bright, too many HAH landings...
    Slap would tell you that if it hadn't been for senior NCO's and a few Officers like Ken White Slap would probably be in Leavenworth making little rocks out of big rocks. I was just a little over 18 years old when I told the E-5 promotion board I had figured out how whoop Karl Marx A@@ anytime anyplace.


    All you need is a PUBLIC BANK. This is a clip for the public state bank of California initiative. At the national Level America needs the Abraham Lincoln National Bank.....not the Federal Reserve. Honest Abe freed us from the concept of human slavery and bank slavery by telling folks the truth. We don't have to have slaves and we don't have to borrow a single dollar from the Tali-Banksters.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8vJR...ature=youtu.be



    Let Freedom Ring!

  9. #129
    Council Member Surferbeetle's Avatar
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    Default Commanding Heights

    All,

    This video (Slapout inspired no doubt ) is about the evolution of the world economy (1914 to 'today'), it is watchable from your computer, and has closed captioning for those of us whose hearing has had a workout over the years.

    Episode I - The Battle of Ideas

    A global economy, energized by technological change and unprecedented flows of people and money, collapses in the wake of a terrorist attack .... The year is 1914.
    Episode II - The Agony of Reform

    As the 1980s begin and the Cold War grinds on, the existing world order appears firmly in place. Yet beneath the surface powerful currents are carving away at the economic foundations.
    Episode III - The New Rules of the Game

    With communism discredited, more and more nations harness their fortunes to the global free-market. China, Southeast Asia, India, Eastern Europe and Latin America all compete to attract the developed world's investment capital, and tariff barriers fall. In the United States Republican and Democratic administrations both embrace unfettered globalization over the objections of organized labor.
    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/
    Sapere Aude

  10. #130
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Surferbeetle View Post
    All,

    This video (Slapout inspired no doubt ) is about the evolution of the world economy (1914 to 'today'), it is watchable from your computer, and has closed captioning for those of us whose hearing has had a workout over the years.
    They forgto to call me, they got a couple of things wrong or at least don't understand them that well. But don't worry I'LL fix it
    Thanks for posting the link, I'll get back when I finish watching them all, but so far some really good stuff in there.

  11. #131
    Council Member Pete's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by slapout9 View Post
    ... if it hadn't been for senior NCO's and a few Officers like Ken White Slap would probably be in Leavenworth making little rocks out of big rocks.
    In those days senior U.S. Army NCOs knew how to handle members of the various ethnic groups from the American South. They knew that their periods of industriousness and dedication would occasionally be followed by episodes of indolence and foot-dragging. Now and then they'd overindulge themselves or wind up landing themselves in trouble.

    Other than that, we're just good ole' County Boys.

    Were it not for the professionalism of the U.S. Army NCO Corps back then we would not have the mulicultural nation and service that we do today.

  12. #132
    Council Member Surferbeetle's Avatar
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    Default Think globally, act locally?

    Slap,

    Glad you enjoy the series as much as I do. Your links are always interesting, the Walt Disney Airpower series way back when blew my mind.

    All,

    One can argue that an education enables one to connect the global flow of information and commerce. This connection has the potential to strengthen the connected, strengthen communities, and place positive pressure upon various elites (political, economic, military, etc.) to act in a responsible manner which benefits the whole.

    With respect to outcomes, actions speak louder than rhetoric. We can observe that various organizations & individuals, state sponsored and transnational, consistently allocate capital (land, labor, entrepreneurship, organization, management, etc) across the globe in order to provide education to various demographics - (The spectrum includes local schools & universities, Catholic Schools, Madrassas, NGO's, IO's, SF Trainers, CA-Bubba's, etc). Some efforts are more efficient than others. Irrespective of efficiencies, all recognize the 'empowering' value of an education.

    Visible points of measurement of educational effectiveness include International Trade, Capital Flows, and Jobs.

    Business models for education are evolving. You, I, our relatives, and global inhabitants are no longer educationally circumscribed by various actors. An education enables one to connect the global flow of information and commerce.

    Each of us can positively change the world at some level if we choose. Khan Academy pass it on...
    Sapere Aude

  13. #133
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    Hi Beetle,
    How about this? Land,Labor,Capitol,etc. the old factors of production may or may not have been OK for local production but Globalization is Long Range production. So the new factors are Time,Distance,and Energy. Don't think that is a sustainable model no matter what viewpoint you have Capitalism,Communism, or any other ism out there.

    We need a new ism....Civil Engieeringism

  14. #134
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    Quote Originally Posted by slapout9 View Post
    Hi Beetle,
    How about this? Land,Labor,Capitol,etc. the old factors of production may or may not have been OK for local production but Globalization is Long Range production. So the new factors are Time,Distance,and Energy. Don't think that is a sustainable model no matter what viewpoint you have Capitalism,Communism, or any other ism out there.

    We need a new ism....Civil Engieeringism
    I can't picture exactly what Civil Engineeringism would entail, but I'd sign up for the newsletter.

  15. #135
    Council Member Surferbeetle's Avatar
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    Slapout,

    Police work provides quite the vantage point and learning laboratory. MOM – Motive, opportunity, method and other heuristics learned here have come in handy over the years. Fortunately, one of my teams included a lawyer and policeman when we stumbled across that stolen vehicle bazaar….

    Your observations about the importance of time, distance, and energy in the context of globalization echo some of the things I have experienced and learned about. With changing conditions as a constant backdrop, business models for the creation of value must change. Perhaps it is true that Globalization tilts the balance of power in favor of markets instead of nation states. It is also described as speeding up, concentrating, and yet at the same time, expanding global relations. Globalization certainly appears to facilitate the global movement of goods, capital, and jobs. These observations are congruent with the idea that nations/societies/people are generally not containers with rigid and impermeable walls which serve to permanently separate/isolate them from the rest of the world.

    Time – Global economic timelines are said to be compressed by Globalization. Tulipmania of 1637, The Post Napoleonic Depression of 1815, The Long Depression of 1873, and the Great Depression of 1929 may be seen as early examples of global economic integration. The Commanding Heights video walks us through other examples and timelines of global economic integration. Fibonacci had some interesting ideas about quantifying cycles. Attempts to quantify business cycles, both local and global, may be of interest and The Kiel Institute for World Economics may be of interest as well.

    Distance – Geographic and conceptual distances are compressed by Globalization. Today, in North America, we are able to wander down to Walmart and purchase cut flowers which a few hours earlier were growing in South America. In the space of time it takes to clear the register and get those babies back home we have managed to make the wife happy while simultaneously participating in a global value chain which funds alternatives to nacrobusiness, enables cutting edge aircraft design, regulates aircraft maintenance, standardizes air transportation networks, and keeps civil engineers employed building cool airports We can contrast this modern transportation infrastructure network with our history at Lexington and Concord on April 19th, 1775. News of the battle made it to Williamsburg Virginia on April 28th and back to the Cabinet in England on May 28th via a special courier. It wasn’t until that 1817 Jeremiah Thompson, later channeled by FedEx, was able to establish regularly scheduled transatlantic service with his Black Ball Line of sailing ships.

    Energy – Globalization also impacts energy. Energy Value Chains have taken a number of centuries to build and span the globe. Within this context it is interesting to consider the Energy Density of different types of fuel:
    45,000 kg of wood=22,000 kg of coal=15,000 kg of gasoline=12,000 kg of diesel =1kg of uranium.

    Slapout and Motorfirebox,

    You might also be interested in the American Society of Civil Engineers Website. Cool stuff
    Sapere Aude

  16. #136
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    Thumbs up Henry Clay

    Motorfire and Beetle, I was thinking more along these lines. We actually have/had our own System of Economics.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...(economic_plan)


    I have been a long time reader at the American Society of Civil Engineers their paper on Critical Infrastructure for the 21st Century that is sustainable is outstanding. Write the Work Order and Print US Dollars and go do it, the Country needs it and there will be millions of jobs created



    Notice how Henry Clay wanted to issue Soverign Credit as Opposed to Soverign Debt!!!!
    Last edited by slapout9; 09-04-2011 at 04:43 AM. Reason: stuff

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