Recruitment Issue

 Yesterday, I spent some time reading over an article at Epoch Times....discussing the approaching crisis with the Pentagon....recruiting volunteers for the US military is reaching a massive problem.

To simplify this....the recruitment folks are doing their best to sell the current military, and noting that kids around the time to graduate high school....have virtually no interest.  Why?

This goes to three problems. First, the woke and pronoun stuff isn't selling well.  Second, there is apparently a lot of push for kids to go off to trade schools, community colleges or universities.  Third, the patriotism angle business is at all-time low.

Frankly, if I were 18 today...the last thing on Earth that I'd go and consider....is four years in the military.  You'd have to watch every comment...every criticism...that you made in front of woke/transgender folks.  It's just not worth the hassle.

So this brings me to the beef of this talk....I suspect that a major crisis will exist by the summer of 2024 with the Pentagon.  You could be talking about missing over half the recruitment numbers, and some units unable to filed an operational unit for deployment.  

How can you un-do the woke/pronoun thing? I don't think it's possible.  So I'm suggesting by 2030 (with the trend continuing)....the US military will be half the size of today (1.4-million today), meaning they will be around 700,000.  There will be no reason to maintain the number of bases/stations around the globe.  

I also think daily efforts will center around disgruntled people threatening to sue in some public court over insults, and leadership chaos being a normal thing.

I looked at the US Army bonus program.  Basically, it's a package that centers around 3, 4, 5 or 6 years, and a max of $50,000 depending on what profession you enter as.  My gut feeling is that it will be revamped in 2023 to $75,000.....with another revamp by 2025 to $100,000.  For some folks, the money offering won't matter.

In some way, it's funny how this problem developed, and how it cannot be resolved.

Q-and-A

 1.  Worst question to ask President Biden?

When were you briefed that there was missing nuclear material from the White House?  He'll pause there and realize that if he says only AFTER the warrant was served on Trump...it's a big problem.  If he says from March of 2021.....that's a big problem.

2.  If the bulk of the documents taken by the FBI on Trump's compound....were attorney-client privilege documents....are they of any value?

No.  It renders the DoJ case in using any of the info for any case....as useless.  Course, I think they know that already.

3.  Did Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton lose nuke codes?

Well....yeah, but lets not bring up that subject.

Three Things

 1.  You hear the term tyranny these days.  I think if you had ten people to sit down and ask them to define the word....nine of them would draw a blank.  But they seem to have read the script a good bit.

2.  If you told people that the Revolutionary War was mostly an insurrection....they'd be utterly shocked.

3.  With that one single bombing effort on the Crimea last week by the Ukrainians.....traffic is still more than 90 hours later....on the outflow to leave out of the one-and-only bridge from the island heading east.  Some say the traffic jam is more 20 miles long to leave.  All pro-Russian folks in fear.

How I Think The Trump 'Game' Will Play Out

 Charges will occur over handling classified.  Court appearances for this won't occur until probably first quarter of 2023.  

One charge will be used and eventually stick with some type of conviction....with no jail-time.  Term of felony conviction will be used.

So by the end of 2023, as Trump would start to prepare for the primary period of 2024....at least eight states will have legislation that a convicted felony guy can't run (figure both California and NY state into the group of eight).

A group of at least twenty states will then come to say that if you decline Trump on the ballot, then there is no election for President possible, and offer the idea of no Presidential ballot period (meaning not Trump or the Democratic contender).

From the remaining twenty-odd states, this becomes a crisis period as they openly discuss the matter of invalidating the Presidential election.  

Under my scenario....the Electoral College situation falls apart, and the states send their delegations to January of 2025.....to vote state by state....where Trump wins.  

At least five states then contend that it's time to part ways as a nation, and the conflict just intensifies.  

The Next Trump 'Trap'

 Between now and the mid-term election....I expect the FBI to show up and arrest Donald Trump.  

The questions then become....just how much suffering can the FBI handle.....will the Secret Service then isolate their people in the jail to protect him....and how Biden can share his non-involvement when no one believes him?

A stupid mistake?  On a scale of one to ten....I'd say a '15'.

Why all this necessity?  I think that the Democratic National Committee has evaluated the potential for 2024, and realize that they have no one who can compete at Trump's level, and if there was any gimmicks used in 2020's election....they'd be hard-pressed to repeat the gimmicks in 2024.  Removing Trump as a player....is the only option.

The bigger problem?  If you were a Republican but a never-Trumper.....you are pressed into a hard position for your election chances for 2022's mid-term.  

So, my humble view....within 75-odd days....Trump will be arrested by the FBI.  

My 'Secret' Adventure (Exercise)

 In the 1987 timeframe, I was sent off to a exercise to be held in Honduras.  Note, I was not a volunteer, and the office was forced to send one guy.  This was some kind of headquarters element, of which intelligence was just one component of seven  groups.

So to get the orientation....I had to fly from my Panama base....to some Air Force installation in central Florida.  On a Sunday afternoon, we flew in and faced some storm that kept us in the air for an additional forty minutes (flying circles).  

Monday morning at the base, we all (probably 700 individuals total) walked over to the base theater for the initial briefing.  It was rather simple....sign a log and hand a copy of our orders over.  

General so-and-so got up and gave a six minute speech....mostly blah-blah-blah stuff.

Then the major got up to talk about living conditions....these were Vietnam War-era canvas tents.....no AC....snake issues existed, and chow was mostly a 2-star situation.  Luckily, we'd only be there six days total.

Then the intel guy stood up and gave some presentation to explain why we were there.  Out of a 20-minute presentation.....there was marginally two slides which had some identification of 'secret' stuff.  My own opinion was that it was marginally secret, and it could have been worded differently to just avoid any secret stuff.  (note, I'd been in the intel field for 7 years at that point).

Then came the pause, and a break.  To which, we discovered.....other than an empty Coke-machine in the theater lobby.....there was no liquid refreshment.  

As we assemble and sit for the next part....there's a problem.  The security guy got all hyped up.  Basically, he could not vouch for anyone's clearance, and the whole presentation done by the intel guy was a problem.

They then led all us out.....spent 30 minutes trying to get a print-out of our clearances, and then spend about 75 minutes trying to get all us cleared, and given some kind of badges.  At this point, it was lunch, and they released us.

More or less.....two hours of the morning wasted.

We wasted Tuesday in the same fashion, and on Wednesday morning....did some kind of deployment line inspection before hoping on some cargo plane to fly into Honduras.  

Among my group of forty-odd intel guys (shift A/B)....we had these two Army guys.  I referred to them as 'Frank' and 'Marty'.  Neither one were intel, and on a IQ test level...neither would have scored above a 90.  Not to say they were stupid....but they just weren't that bright.

Their purpose in life?  At the end of each shift.....they'd take classified waste out to some barrel and burn it.  

Yes....a whole eleven hours around, and other than that last hour at the burn-barrel.....they just sat around.

The final day of the exercise....it ended in a abrupt fashion.....probably half-a-day early.  Frank and Marty stayed behind to burn everything left.  

Exercises for the most part of my career.....were just wasted time, but it gave some satisfaction to the generals that they were capable of conducting a war.  In some ways, I view the Russian business in the Ukraine in the way that they were marginally having exercises for decades, and it was all built around some WW II experience. 

I Took A Covid Compliance Test

 Results?

1.  Gotten a Covid test?  PCR test.....zero.  The cheapo mini-test?  Probably over forty occasions...none ever positive.

2.  Worn a mask?  OH YEAH.  The Germans hyped this to the max.

3.  Been vaxed?  Yes.

4.  Been vaxed twice?  Yes.

5.  Never walked opposite the Covid arrows in the store?  To be honest, never paid attention to them....I probably walked the wrong path over 300 times.

6.  Kept family away?  No.

7.  Been upset at unmasked people?  No, not really.  I might have spent 8 seconds praying for them.

8.  Driven with a mask on in the car?  NO. 

9.  Waited in a three-hour line?  HELL NO.  Even when Covid did not exist....I refused to wait for anything longer than 30 minutes.  I just don't have patience like that.

10.  Cancelled an event?  No.

11.  Stayed indoors for a week?  My max is maybe 48 hours of indoor activity (mostly because of weather).  

12.  Sprayed groceries or wiped them?  NO.

13.  Posted some social media about a positive test?  NO.

14.  Believed what I was told by the authorities or media?  Well....in the first 30 days...100-percent belief.  By day 90, I'd say my skepticism level was maxing at a '5' (scale of 1-to-10). By day 200, my skepticism level was maxing near a '8'.  

15.  Wearing the same mask more than 40 hours?  I kept one mask in my jacket pocket for all of 2021, using the same one for probably 160 hours (when in stores or riding the bus).  Effective nature?  Probably near zero by the half-way point.  I'm pretty sure that 20-percent of all men did the same thing.