Catching Up on the Alice in Wonderland World of Politics

“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”

That quote, of course, is from Lewis Carrol's Through the Looking Glass, not Alice in Wonderland.

But, its application to much of the GoodThink that is appearing in the Official Media is beginning to catch the attention of even the average people. 

Not only WILL they express the correct thinking of the Elite, but - should they not be solidly aligned with them in every situation, those words now amount to BadThink.

At the link is a concept called the Celebration Parallax - which explains something I've previously considered hypocritical action, but now see as a twisted way of seeing the world. It's a mindset that is unique to the Left, and diametrically opposed to rational discussion, as the meaning of the actions/speech change, depending on the political/cultural positions of the person involved.

Following the Bon Homme Richard Fire Investigation

The fire caught my attention - my son had served on the ship, in the late 90s and early 2000s. He was in the part of the ship that was air-conditioned and comfortable - his crew handled the wiring/hardware for the fire control mechanisms that made the big guns go "boom". They worked in conjunction with the software/networking guys to keep them working.

He enjoyed his time in the service (not enough, however, to commit to another long hitch - he's basically a homebody, and was anxious to get home to Cleveland). He told us that either he was working around the clock, or his job was light duty, and he had time to perfect his video gaming.

That fits his style of functioning. He likes to kick back and take his time on the job. But, he also has a turbo mode, when he becomes hyper-focused and able to handle a rapidly changing environment with murky information. The kind of guy who thrives in combat.

But, that wasn't the path he took. When he left the service, he puttered around for a while, and ended up in a job utilizing his electronic skills. He is now the main guy at his company (don't know if he has a title, but he handles it all - production, inventory, shipping - with the aid of a small staff).

But, the BHR - I asked him about the fire when it first happened, and questioned whether it was a deliberate act of sabotage. He doubted it, and thought it likelier to be a case of accident, coupled with some errors in handling the weaponry/ammo. He explained that accidents were not unusual (although the consequences were seldom this bad). It's a big ship, and moves a lot of men and equipment throughout the world. In an environment where people cut corners, things will happen.

All of which argues for the old time culture of running a tight ship. Both the officers and the crew need to seriously fear the consequences of falling down on the job. In a complex system, the outcome of not following procedures to the letter could be deadly.

So. More than likely, not an intentional act. A small incident, followed by lax oversight or insufficiently trained crew (or, as it was being repaired, outside contractors not knowing proper procedure). And, the result was massively expensive damage, injuries, and lost lives.

It should be taken for what it is - a powerful argument for a massive overhaul of Navy personnel, training, and a weeding out of the officers that can't cut it. Not focus on 'DIE' - diversity, inclusion, and equity.

Competence. And the courage to put the finger on those not performing, even if they are one or more of the protected classes.

Start with the flag officers - move out those who are more given to bitchin' and moanin', and less concerned about instilling a battle-ready culture. Those who don't/won't measure up, DE-mote them, and put their careers in stall mode.

Next level down - with the deadweight gone, have their section supervisors meet with the junior officers, and put the fear of God in them, should they fail to measure up.

Every working section - fire control, mess, inventory, ordnance, etc. (don't know if I'd got the lingo right, but you know what I mean) - ALL need to focus on training, practice, and performance. Those that form the "complaint crew" and will not get on board with the new culture, will be written up, warned, and - should they not change - discharged with a General classification. Nothing Honorable about not trying.

Those that were just put in positions they were not competent to fill will be given the option of a transfer to a more appropriate job (with reduction in grade if necessary), or an Honorable Discharge. Either way, get them out of a job they are not competent to fill.

And, flat-out eliminate those make-work touchy-feely jobs - DIE type. Reward/promote those who have been carrying the load.

Reconsidering Richard the Lionhearted

The picture of England's King Richard that modern audiences are familiar with is an absent king, content to meander around the Middle East, while leaving his brother to control his home country through underhanded means.

And, in fact, Richard DID put his brother in charge of the country in his absence to fight the Moors. That absence, however, wasn't a vain search for glory, but a defense of the very center of the Christian religion. At the time he battled Saladin, the Muslims had captured most of the area called Jerusalem, and were quite cruel to the native Christians.

Much of the history of that time is heavily colored by the competing historical sides. Anti-French sentiment colors some of English history of the time; the close ties of the English monarchs to the throne of France is something that many British people would prefer to forget.

This account of the Battle of Jaffa puts some of the fashionably popular history in doubt. The book linked to in the article is one that is on my TBR list. It may be a year or more before I tackle it.

Bye-Bye, Chief Wahoo!

I'm going to miss you.
This all happened when I was out of town. Many people grumbled, but there were no open protests - probably because it was too freakin' hot (not like Cleveland, which is usually a mild climate - in the summer).
But the sun was causing unusually high temps, brought down by intermittent rain, then climbing again, shortly after. No, NOT 'Climate Change' - just normal variation in the weather.
So, the Climate Change we were all concerned with was the long-anticipated Demise of Chief Wahoo, and the Horrible, Racist, Very-Bad Name of the Cleveland Baseball Team.
I WISH the team could use the logo at the link - that would be wonderful. But, no, they had to *$^k around with THIS:

Bland, boring, and an echo of other teams (see the many logos at the link).

Ridiculous, as we have an awesome link to a great graphic:

It would be easy to come up with a logo incorporating that grim, determined visage.

But, no, they had to Go Bland. Probably did this even more bland, trying to make up for the "HORROR OF OFFENSIVENESS" that Chief Wahoo represented to the Perpetually Offended.

Here he is for the last time:

FWIW, I've known guys that didn't look that much different - some descended from tribal peoples, others not.

I'll still watch the games. I'll likely still wear the offending logo.

Deal with it.

Stealth Communications for the Future

I just started The Split, by Schlichter - it seems to be coming out at a good time for the country, although lousy for me personally. I'm in the midst of buying a new house, and all the other detritus of life are also converging on my time.
But, first things first - and, getting my Kelly Turnbull time in is paramount.
I wanted to get back to a favorite subject for me - comms after a shutdown, and how you can avoid being in the dark.
I assume that everyone reading this finally understands the extent to which the Left has subsumed the embedded communications structure in the USA:
- The Official Media - Their message is directed by the controlling administrative structure, which is heavily Leftist. Even the desire to make a profit is subordinate to the Woke message.
- TV, Cable, and FM stations - The are funded by advertising, but the companies that advertise have been brought into the Leftist orbit, or threatened with boycotts, smearing their reputation, and/or tying up their ability to function with attacks by government functionaries.
- Telephone/mobile phone structure - It just takes a switch to shut them down. Individual users can be silenced even more easily - they haven't done so, so far, but the capability is there. Expect that a first strike will be on the services that can easily be identified with a specific user. The second strike will be on the 'throwaway' phones. Yes, the government/Deep State have been tracking their use (that's what the metadata searches were for), and they are just waiting until the time is right to use the evidence gathered for prosecution, and the tracking ability for identifying the location of the perps. Oh, not REAL perps - no thugs will be harmed in this sweep - but the Political Perps (PP).
So, what's the answer?
Smoke signals?
No. The highly mobile communication systems of amateur radio.
Now, many have avoided joining up with the official ham radio community - haven't taken advantage of the many resources of the ARRL, nor, for that matter, even gotten licensed.
In going stealth, you are missing some of the benefits from association with experienced hams, including the opportunities to learn from people who have practical experience with the craft.
There are a LOT of us with licenses - according to ARRL, about 700,000. And, that's a substantial part of the 3 million worldwide. Additionally, there are many who use some variant - CBs, GMRS, and FRS. Not all those who used radio technology in the military, or in the various emergency services, are licensed.
Your choice. What you might gain in staying under the radar, you probably lose in working with other hams to improve your understanding and practices.
Totally separate from this topic is my Personal Peeve of the Day - the baseball team, The Cleveland Indians, is no more.
They are now The Cleveland Guardians. I'm not that excited about it, and will DEFINITELY not burn my voluminous Indians gear. But, I won't be racing out to buy the stuff with the new logo.

Mass Number of Women at Work - What Happens?

I just noticed something about the TX Democrats that fled the state rather than do their job. They are overwhelmingly female.

Now, for many people in different places of work, the response would be: So What? But, I'm not most people. For me, this is unusual.
I'm an outlier.
Formerly, I worked in IT, installation and repair, programming, network management, and database creation and management. From there, I moved on to teach in science departments (the physical sciences, which is even more heavily skewed towards males than the biological).
And, now retired, my hobbies are computers (multi-platform, including Linux and Raspberry Pi), blogging about politics and culture, writing suspense and thrillers, and operating a ham radio.
In every one of those avocations, males outnumber - sometimes heavily - the women in those hobbies. The average woman works in departments/fields where the skew is the opposite.
So, most women at work are experiencing an environment in which the associations, and the feedback, represent the female point of view.
Women in groups operate in a well-known manner; when a woman complains about a situation - whether personal and private, or somehow related to her job, the goal of other women is to validate that experience, and compete to offer reassurance for her feelings. Failure to do so will result in your banishment to the edges of that group, and, if continued, complete isolation.
The price of isolation is not one that most women will endure without cracking and capitulating.
In short, women work hard - Olympic-level competition - to out-empathize each other. It quickly descends into an orgy of man-bashing, competitive revenge fantasies (similar to Waiting to Exhale), and verbal support of plans to retaliate on the 'offenders' who have injured the amor-propre of the involved woman.
Hence, the TX legislators who fled the state are acting in concert with fellow women. They talked themselves into that joint act, and will spend their time on the road providing verbal support, justifying their rash action, and growing even more united in this misguided, and quite possibly illegal, act.
They would need a greater mass of men to this female-centric process. Although there are men pictured on some of the photos of their madcap escape, I think it's obvious that those are men who managed to insert themselves into the gyno-group, and who are content to go along with the crowd.
Now, what does this mean?
Maybe not that much. But, take a careful look at many of the groups that exhibit the most extreme political orientation (and the willingness to act).
They are, almost always, female-centric - HR and other support staff, education, fashion, media, NGOs, and state/local legislative bodies - these are well-known examples of the composition of these cohesive groups. They are female-led, with well-defined pecking orders that are populated with associations designed to provide emotional support for the group, particularly the leadership. Forget Yes-Men. Yes-Women are more common - and even more fervent in their willingness to abandon principal to gain closeness to the decision-makers.
Unlike male-dominated groups, or even less-one-gender groups, these alliances will fight the open challenges and temporary discord that accompanies brain-storming, solution-finding, or other activities that are designed to bring out minority ideas and viewpoints.
No, for female groups, consensus is the key. And, that consensus is likely driven by desire to emulate the leadership in their biases and even their most extreme plans. No nasty divergent thinking for these groups!
Now, do the otherwise inexplicable outbreaks of nuclear-level Leftist/Woke activism make more sense?
It's not about the outrage; it's about the players, and the feedback on their outrage from their peer group.

Just Walk a Few Blocks with Them...

...before off-handedly judging them. The average people of the Midwest are NOT the incipient Fascists the Sheltered and Smug Elite might suppose. I come from these people. I can see their viewpoint, even though I don't always agree with it. Before snidely judging them, the Sheltered and Smug Elite really should spend some time LISTENING to them. Stop TELLING them what they SHOULD think and believe, and spend your time listening to their stories. Stop correcting their non-PC use of words, and listen to the pain that lies under that use of pejorative terms - you might find that they have reason (as have many Black people do) to be cautious and suspicious of Strangers in the Neighborhood, as well as the Official People in Charge - including the police, courts, and other government entities. These are people whose victimization - by criminals, by the institutions that ignore their complaints, by the casual insults of "their betters" - is not unlike other minorities. And, yet, because of an accident of birth, they are classified as Privileged. Some privilege.